74 :: Founded in Truth

Today we worshiped at Founded in Truth, a congregation in South Carolina. This church is grounded in a Messianic Jewish tradition, making it yet another interesting experience. This theological bent also explains why we were worshiping on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

When we entered the church, we were greeted with "Shabbat Shalom," the universal greeting for the Jewish Sabbath. As I learned years ago, the Jewish day begins at sundown. This means that the Jewish Sabbath (our Saturday) begins every Friday at sundown. This results in the fact that Saturday church is Shabbat church.

"Shabbat Shalom."

I first heard the phrase in 2017 when I arrived in Jerusalem a bit before sundown on a Friday. I also heard this phase at Hope of Israel (post #61 on this blog). And today I heard this same phrase at Founded in Truth.

Once I heard this phrase, I knew that the rest of the service would be contextually different. Jesus would be Yeshua, one example of that difference. There were also shofar being blown, as well as many of the men wearing talitot. A group of children performed traditional Hebraic dances in the corner of the sanctuary. This was a Christian church service infused with the Jewish roots of our faith.

So good.

You can see Mariel Charlotte holding a shofar, as well as taking part in the Hebraic dancing.

The band was really quite good. They did one of the best renditions of Rest On Us that we have heard. The percussion was a djembe, a West African type of drum. It was a very unique set up and they sounded great.

There was then a Torah Portion reading, a traditional part of Jewish worship. The reading was done by a guy who gave a personal talk on the importance of Remembering. His talk was interlaced with stories about how he tells his kids about the miracles that have happened in his own life. It was both touching and well done. 

The guy had an elaborate tattoo on his left arm that had frightening images on the bottom of his arm and angelic images on the top of his arm - these two realms were separated by the word YESHUA.

Amen, brother.

After the Torah Portion reading, the children were brought up front and blessed by the community. The men of the church put a makeshift tabernacle above the children. Then the children were allowed to go to their classes for the remainder of the Shabbat service. 

This was in a congregation that was absolutely packed with children, such a beautiful sight!

The sermon was given by Joshua Ensley, a new associate pastor with Founded in Truth. He and his family moved to Charlotte from Georgia six weeks ago. It was outstanding. It was an exploration of the phenomenon of unbelief. The sermon dissected unbelief into three parts - What is Unbelief? How Does Unbelief Operate? and How Do We Overcome Unbelief?

Joshua made a point during the sermon that illustrated the true character of unbelief. After Yeshua was resurrected, He walked through a wall and then proceeded to eat a fish... yet people still didn't believe in Him. The list of people who didn't believe included some of His disciples! They actually thought He was a ghost.

They had seen the fullness of truth, yet still insisted maintaining their unbelief.

Such a theme is also found in Exodus. 

The Israelites were wandering through the Desert of Sin under the guidance of a fiery cloud that was filled with the Spirit of God. These people were seeing Adonai first hand both day and night - yet they still devolved into worshipping a statue of a cow. They had seen God with their own eyes and yet focused their devotion on a mere statue.

These examples reiterate the same point - evidence alone is insufficient to move a person from unbelief to belief if their heart is hardened. Unbelief is not a problem of the intellect, it is a problem of the heart.

Joshua also made a great point about the intellectual commitment that must follow belief. 

To embrace Christianity, one's heart must encompass two equally valid yet deeply disparate realities. These are the darkest pessimism and the brightest optimism that come with our faith. 

The dark pessimism is that we are all broken and incapable of achieving peace on our own. There is no hope for us when we insist on having autonomy. As it says in Isaiah 64:6, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

The bright optimism is that God is close to all of us, ready to fully redeem us into joy when we simply make the decision to turn to Him. As it says Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

That is the beauty of the Gospel - it verifies our darkest desperation and offers to replace it with our brightest (and only) hope.

I'll finish this post by saying that this is a prolific congregation that is having big families. This is a wonderful thing to see in our society. Additionally, these were an exceedingly kind group of people. They made us feel welcome. Founded in Truth definitely typifies the best in Southern Hospitality. 

Again, all so good.

Thanks to FIT for an absolutely great visit to their deeply interesting church.