Rabbi Schneider - Lessons From My First Church
I got married on a cold January Saturday in 1983 to my beautiful bride, Cynthia. On Monday, two days after our wedding, I was in Toccoa Falls, Georgia. I was starting Bible school. We drove from Cleveland to Georgia right after we got married, no honeymoon, to start Bible school that Monday. So that was a special time. Fond memories. What an adventure. Graduated from Bible school. I began to pastor churches. The first church that I pastored was in rural western Pennsylvania. and it was a real awakening. I mean, I was in such a different culture. Here I was as a Jewish boy in the middle of a very, very rural culture.
I remember when the superintendent of this area sent me there to preach. Before I accepted the role of pastor there, I preached just to kind of get familiar with it. And he called me afterwards. He said, you know, «What do you think»? I said, you know, I said to him, «Don’t you have anything a little bit more suburban»? And he said to me, «listen,» he said, «this is like classical music. If you can learn how to play classical music, you’ll be able to play any kind of music». So he talked me into going and pastoring this church that was a real stretch for me because of the culture that I came out of. And I met so many different types of people there. And I remember a story that I heard during those years of pastoring in rural western Pennsylvania that really stuck with me.
And here was the story. There was a guy and the guy said, «If I won a million dollars, I’d give the Lord $100,000». And the guy that said that to him said, «Well, what would you do if you had $100,000»? The guy said, «If I had $100,000, I’d give God $10,000». And then the guy said to him, «What would you do if you had $35,000»? And the guy said, «Oh, well, I’ve got $35,000». In other words, he was willing to theoretically agree with the principle of tithing. He said if he had a million dollars, he’d give God a hundred thousand. And if he had a hundred thousand he’d give God ten thousand. But when it got down to the nitty gritty of his pocketbook, how much he actually had in his wallet, he wasn’t able to part with the 10%.
And I think that’s true for a lot of us that call ourselves God’s people We have a faith that we esoterically agree with. We believe in the principle of putting God first. We believe in the principle of tithing. But when it gets down to taking a pen and writing a check to the Kingdom of God, we shrink back. We shy away. We’re adverse to it. But I want to read you from the Hebrew Bible an Old Testament law that really spoke to me. I’m writing a book right now. I just actually finished it. It’s going to come out in a year from now. It’s called Decoding the Torah. The Torah Decoded. And I’m going through 100 laws in the Torah and giving application for our lives today.
So one of the laws in the Torah comes from the Book of Exodus The Lord is saying here through Moses, speaking to Israel, «You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage; the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me». And what I really focused on in that law was not to delay giving to the Lord an offering. «You shall not delay the offering from your harvest». And that’s true for us, oftentimes, because we’re not willing to part with our substance, with our possessions, because it puts us in fear. We feel like we’re losing something and we don’t trust God. We don’t trust in the principle of giving where Yeshua said «give and it will be given back to you, pressed down, good measure, and running over into your lap».
You know, years ago I had an experience in the night where I literally heard heavenly music in my sleep. I don’t say that lightly. I’m telling you, point blank, I’m looking at you right now through the camera. I literally heard heavenly music in my sleep. And I’d heard heavenly music in my sleep only a few times. Not even a handful of times before that. But there were several occasions where I did hear heavenly music in my sleep. You might say, Well, how do you know it was heavenly? It was so beautiful, it was so full, it was so otherworldly. I just knew it was heavenly music. But only once in my life have I ever heard heavenly music that was mixed with the lyrics.
And the other times that I had heard heavenly music, I had heard the beautiful instruments, but there were no words. But on one occasion I was actually in Zambia when it happened. I heard the heavenly music and I heard words. And basically there were two words that were spoken to me as I was hearing the heavenly music. In other words, it was the chorus of the music. There was it was singing with the music and literal words. And the two phrases were number one, take out the decimal point, and the other one was Take the detail out of the detail. I’m not going to focus on take the detail out of the detail today. That’s for another time. But the first thing that the Lord said to me as I heard the music was take out the decimal point.
And as the Spirit communicated that into my heart, I intuitively knew that he was telling me «Live big, love big, give big». Take out the decimal point, don’t live a restricted life. Don’t live in the natural. Live big, love big, give big. I just want to encourage you to live big, love big, give big. So big, beloved. Be generous in sowing finances into the Kingdom of God where moth and rust do not destroy. And whatever we sow into the kingdom is going to come back to us, according to the words of Jesus himself, pressed down, good measure and running over into our lap. Because wherever our treasure is, that’s where our heart’s going to be.
I want to encourage you today. If God’s using Discovering The Jewish Jesus in your life to be a blessing to you, if you just feel that, you know, this is an authentic ministry, would you make a financial offering to the Lord today? Right now, through Discovering The Jewish Jesus, beloved. It will help us complete the work that Messiah Jesus has given us to do, and you will be blessed in return for sowing into the kingdom and being a giver. This is Rabbi Schneider saying thank you in advance. I love you. God bless you and shalom.