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Victory in the Vocal Chords! |
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Last month I was having a little trouble with my voice, and after several days of no improvement, I consented to see a doctor. My specialist discovered that I had a burst blood vessel on one of my vocal cords, and he recommended two weeks of complete voice rest. Only one problem: I was scheduled to speak no less than six times in the upcoming days. | |||||||
| On Saturdays I regularly speak at
Hope of Israel in Charlotte, NC, so Bill Mehrtens ‘pinch hit’ for me,
and he gave a great message. Saturday afternoon I was scheduled to fly out to New Jersey for a series of speaking engagements including the Association of Messianic Congregations Conference where I was to be the keynote speaker. Oy! So, after spending the morning in prayer I was convinced I should go ahead to NJ and trust the Lord one step at a time. As usual, God was faithful! Sunday morning I spoke at Beth Israel, a Messianic congregation in Garfield, NJ and one of the largest in the US. When I began speaking, Miriam would tell me later, for the first minute or so it sounded like I may have made a big mistake: my voice was unclear, breaking up, and sounding tortured! But then something happened. I wasn’t aware, but Miriam noticed that all of a sudden my voice just cleared up, and stayed strong for the rest of the 40 minute message. The message ministered to the congregation and several accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and Savior. One older Jewish man came up to me afterwards. I had spoken to him a year ago and he was quite closed to considering faith in Messiah. But this time he was in tears as he approached me, “Sam, your message spoke directly to me and changed my life forever!” Baruch Ha Shem! Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Messiah is able to use even the weakest of vessels for His glory! From there we went to the conference where we saw familiar faces who had come from HOI in Charlotte, as well as others from around the world. The Messianic leaders there were quite concerned for my throat and voice, and many prayed for me all day long. Amazingly, I was able to… Y give all of my messages & participate in several forums; Y confer with other leaders on strategic outreach within the movement with 2 hours of one-on-one training for a leader planting new congregation in Virginia; Y plan visits to other Messianic congregations to provide training; Y and I even got to help disciple/counsel a new Jewish believer from an orthodox background. Whew! That’s a lot of talking, even for me! The messages that I shared could be considered the Four Key Principles for Messianic Apologetics: 1. Why the Good News must be to the Jew first. 2. Why there must be Messianic congregations. 3. Why Gentile believers must be involved in Messianic congregations. 4. Why the Messianic movement must have a Jewish New Covenant orientation. The messages were considered by the participants to be very helpful and even necessary to the movement. Somehow, as I spoke hour after hour after hour, my voice actually grew stronger! It was really quite encouraging. My voice is not back to normal, and Miriam says no speaking at all until next Shabbat morning! Thanks for praying, and to Yeshua be all the glory! Y Sam's messages from the conference are available in a 5-CD set (click here). |
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