Jaronhaney

Romans 1:16 states: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Messiah): for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
This is where the Holy Hip-Hop group 116 (one sixteen) Clique derived it's name. The video itself is a mix of three songs. The beats were nice and I found the lyrics to be uplifting. The songs are evangelistic, which is a good thing! The Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection- to pay for our sins and reconcile us with God is an important thing to share with all!

A sweet song about the sweetness of God's love. A good song to listen to when you feel burdened and weighed down. I felt God release me from some old pains as I meditated on this song and God encouraged me to give Him something that has been a weight for many years. God is good. I'm so thankful for Yeshua being in my life!

I must apologize for not contacting y'all for quite some time. I haven't really posted that much either. I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things soon! I've been sick with cold like symptoms for quite some time (not swine flu and nothing incredibly serious). I've also had some problems with pain in my hands at times. (In fact even as I'm typing I have some fingers on my left hand that I recently got pinched in a big truck door! The fun keeps on coming! LOL) Since I've been feeling kinda blah, I haven't kept up with people as I've should. (Even on the phone! Even with family at times.) Although I love writing and I believe it is a God-given gift, it still usually takes me a lot of time. May it be putting my thoughts together; may it be having so much to share after a long time of not communicating; may it be research (such as fact checking and Scripture study); or other things. I've found myself in more of a kick-back-and-watch-TV- (especially now I have an HDTV!) or-listen-to-programs-and-such mode. To those who have sent me websites to check out. I thank you for your faithfulness! I'm glad I have such faithful friends even in a time when I haven't appeared as friendly (in the sense it's been so long since we talked). I feel a bit overwhelmed because I let myself get quite a bit back logged. I will be checking out the sites (I'm sure they are encouraging and informative), but it might be a piece by piece type of thing. Don't be surprised to see a response from something you might have sent me months ago. I also have to catch up with my inbox. Again, you might get a delayed response.
I missed posting something special for a lot of Holidays and Holy Days for that matter! lol Well, I don't want to miss this one.
Happy Mother's Day
I'm not sure how many mothers (single or married) read my blog. Well, the cool thing is that years down the road someone who I might never meet might just happen to StumbleUpon this blog! (Pun intended.) So, I sense the best thing I can do for Mother's Day (which will be observed tomorrow here in the United States) is post a prayer for y'all.
Not that I feel I have all kinds of piety or power in the idea of status. It's just that I know God is a very good Listener and through Yeshua's atoning Blood on the Cross- I can ask and know it will be given me! (Matthew 7:7-11/Luke 11:5-10)
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Thank you Father for all the mothers who are reading this blog. May they feel the value You have placed on them. May they be fully aware of the importance of their task as mothers. May they also feel Your deep understanding and compassion for their situations whatever they are. Yeshua [Jesus], You know what it is like to have to carry a heavy load; You carried the Cross, our sin, and our pains. You know what it's like to be tired. You can identify with all that we go through with such deep understanding and compassion! I thank You for Your immense mercy. You know every single need of every single person including mothers. You know their every thought, their every concern, their every hope, their every need! O God, answer in full according to Your good and perfect will which is out of Your pure heart!
Cover them with Your love, comfort, wisdom, strength, guidance, healing, and joy! May they also have an intimate relationship with You and pass it on to their children.
To those who know You, Yeshua, take comfort from these words in Your Word:
"As for Me, this is My covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit who is on you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your children's children, from now on and forever," says the LORD.
(Isaiah 59:21 Holman Christian Standard Bible)
In Jesus' Name! Amen!
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God bless y'all and I look forward to getting back in the swing of things -and- getting back in touch with y'all

Just wanted to catch up with you before I go out of town today and say:
Happy Chanukah
and
Merry Christmas to All
and to all a good sight!What do I mean by this, you might ask!

Well both Holy days refer to the miracles of God in preservation and deliverance.
May these days not just blow right past us! May they not be like Chanukah candles which increase in light, but eventually extinguish because their is nothing more to carry its flame!

God, please show us what You want to show us during these Holy days! May it stick with us through out our years!

In Yeshua's Mighty Name,

Jaron

(My Testimony Part 1)

This is my first time blogging (occasionally I'll be bumping this up to the front page) so what better way to start than with my testimony of how I was rescued for eternity by my Eternally Best Friend, Lord, Shepherd, and Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). May this be a blessing to whoever reads it!

A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON MYSELF:

I was born in Washington D.C. My mom and my dad had two children--my sister who is 2 ½ years older than I am and myself.
My mom and my dad divorced when I was three. When I was about four years old, a new man started living with us. He and my mom got married when I was about 12 and he adopted my sister and me. I felt there was something wrong with him when he first started living with us. Things got worse over the years, for he would hit me and yell at me. He was abusive towards my mom and my sister, also. I found out later that it was because he was an alcoholic. For some reason, I had a feeling in my heart that things would be alright.

ABOUT ME AS A JEW:

I was a reformed Jew. My family had quit attending synagogue when I was a baby because it was too expensive. In fact, I only remember being in a synagogue twice growing up-- once when my cousin was having a bar mitzvah (a service proclaiming his passing from childhood to adulthood; it literally means "son of [the] commandment") and another time for a carnival at my friend's synagogue. We celebrated some of the Jewish Holidays despite my step-dad being Catholic (at least in name). We still celebrated Passover; we still fasted on Yom Kippur; we still did Chanukah; and we recognized Rosh Hashanah as our New Year. As money got tight we stopped celebrating the Holidays. This scared me, because on Passover we always had the cup of wine set at the table for the prophet Elijah and waited for him to come and announce the coming of Messiah as was traditional for my people. With each passing year that I did not celebrate Passover, I worried that I might have missed the Messiah's coming.
(to be continued)

(My Testimony Part 2)

ABOUT MY LIFE:

When I was 12 years old, I was fighting inside my house and outside of my house. At school, people were setting me up in fights, just so they could see a good show. I had gotten to a point of wanting to escape; wanting to get out some way. I tried running away; my sister found me; and brought me back home. I even tried committing suicide, but that didn't work obviously!

I had only one choice- to pray. There never was a point in my life that I didn't believe in God. I knew He existed because I existed. I can't remember a time that I was not searching to find out Who God was. My mom had told me when I asked how to pray that I could pray anywhere I wanted to; anyhow I wanted to. Remembering what my mom had said, I got into my room and was just about to pray for myself, but realized that my mom and my sister also needed God's help.
I looked up and said, "God, I don't want to be greedy. Please get my mom and my sister and I out of here."

I heard a voice on the inside of me, like a thought, say:
If this is the Lord, know this: You and your sister and your mother will get out of here and get out of here soon and your mother has already made plans.

It happened exactly as I heard. Shortly after God had said those words, I was with my sister outside on the sidewalk and Mom came up to us and asked us if we wanted to leave our step dad. Of course we said yes! Mom explained how she had already got a townhouse and we were just waiting for it to finish being built. How awesome! God helped me and my family move away from my step dad safely. It happened just as God said it would! Right then I realized that if God was talking with me, I should follow Him. I still stumbled into things that hurt God's heart; I still sinned; and my heart wasn't truly made new until I was 22.

God still was definitely a Father to me. When I tried alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs; it was the same thing. He would ask me if it was doing anything for me; I would say no; and I would drop it. He kept me from becoming a gambler, from becoming a shoplifter, and many other things. I still was a sinner, and if I had died then and there, I would have gone to Hell. It isn't because God is mean; but none of us can measure up to the Glory of God and only by the final sacrifice of His very Own Son can we have true righteousness. Honestly, I was still a murderer, since I had hatred in my heart and I was suicidal. I was still an adulterer because I had a serious problem with lusting after women and fantasizing about them. There were so many times I tried committing suicide and looked up at God saying "Here I come!" not knowing that if He had let me die, I would have gone straight to Hell.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THOSE TEN YEARS:

God was making me more and more hungry for Himself. He was also making me hungrier and hungrier to find the Messiah. I was still suicidal. I was still manic-depressive until I was about 20 or so.
(To be continued)

(My Testimony Part 3)

What happened?

I was living on my own and reading the Tanakh (a.k.a. Old Testament, it's named the Tanakh as an acronym for Torah [Teaching; The Five Books of Moses; commonly translated as Law], Nevi'im [The Prophets], and Ketuvim [Writings] which are the three divisions the Jewish people have of the Holy Scriptures). God taught me to ask Him questions as I read and I found that the Words were just leaping out of the pages. I got so excited about God's Word that I ended up watching TV far less and the Bible was taking its place!

In the middle of finding out about my God, my landlord Vivian (who blew my circuits because she was a Christian who was interested in Jewish things) told me that Jesus was Jewish. This totally took me by surprise! My people knew about great Jewish men like Einstein and Freud, but for some reason we knew so little about Jesus- A Jewish man who all these Gentiles were following. I needed to know why this man was being kept away from me!

She told me that His first followers were Jewish. This I found was true when I read a Jewish history book written by a nonMessianic Jew. She also told me that Jesus was in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Isaiah. I thought that Isaiah and Jesus were best friends and that Isaiah wrote about His good friend Jesus.

I was on a quest. I told God that I was ready to read anything that said it was about God, because I thought all religions held a piece of the key to knowing God. I was going to start with the books I knew were Jewish: the Tanakh, Talmud (a collection of Rabbinical interpretations of the Torah, considered to have the Torah commandments Moses did not write down [which is deception- Deuteronomy 4:2; 17:14-20; 27:1-8]), the Mishnah (more rabbinic interpretations of God's commandments), Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical book containing numerology and several other cultic aspects- not good!), and the Zohar (another mystical book in Judaism-also not good!). Then, I was going to read the New Testament, the Koran, and other books. Thank God He told me to read the Tanakh in order first. When I got to the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, I had found the Messiah!

I wanted so badly to see if Jesus was there in the Tanakh that I prayed that God wouldn't let me miss Him if it were true. When I read passages like Isaiah 9, 11, 53, and 59; God said, "It could be Him."

I REJECTED GOD'S KNOCKING AT MY HEART TWICE

One time was when I was on a bus thinking about the passage I had read about Elijah in the Scriptures. I was just taken over by how much faith he had and how he handled God's enemies. Since I was thinking about Elijah, I was also thinking about Messiah. What He might be like. I dosed off and woke up hearing this soft voice saying, "How can I reveal to you all these things unless I come back a second time." (Jews who don't know that Yeshua [Jesus] is the Messiah believe the Messiah only will come once.) I felt a tugging on my heart and told God, "I don't know if what I heard was Jesus or Elijah, but I need more time. I want to make sure whatever I find out [pertaining to whether Jesus was the Messiah or not] sticks with me."
God let me know that He honored it.
I had also prayed to God around that time that whatever the answer was to the question "Is Jesus the Messiah?" would be answered in such a way I could not deny it, for I knew whatever the answer was, someone would tell me something different. I really did not want anything but the truth and I wanted to stick with it.

(To Be Continued)

(My Testimony Part 4)

The other time I rejected God's knocking on my heart was when I read this passage of Scripture in Isaiah 59 (Isaiah 59 is Romans 3:23 amplified, for we see the falleness of man and God's Arm as man's only hope of redemption.) The passage states this:
15c The Lord saw and was displeased
That there was no redress.
16 He saw that there was no man,
He gazed long, but no one intervened.
Then His own arm won Him triumph,
His victorious right hand supported Him.
17 He donned victory like a coat of mail,
With a helmet of triumph on His head;
He clothed Himself with garments of retribution,
Wrapped Himself in zeal as in a robe.
18 According to their deserts,
So shall He repay fury for His foes;
He shall make requital to His enemies,
Requital to the distant lands.
19 From the west, they shall revere the name of the Lord,
And from the east, His Presence.
For He shall come like a hemmed-in stream
Which the wind of the Lord drives on;
20 He shall come as redeemer to Zion,
To those in Jacob who turn back from sin
--declares the Lord.
(Isaiah 59:15c-20 Jewish Publications Society 1985)
Right before I had read this Scripture, a woman who I was building a relationship with had told me that Jesus was God in human flesh. When I read, "He clothed Himself with garments of retribution, / Wrapped Himself in zeal as in a robe" I thought, "Could this be the human flesh?"

I felt a tugging at my heart and I felt like the Lord said, "This could be Him."

(To Be Continued)