In the HARRY POTTER book series, the author has created a whole secret world that only wizards understand, and there are are some similarities for those of us who have been in JFJ: there is a whole world unknown to ordinary people that we endured and know about.
JFJ has the internal workings--which we needed to keep secret from the "muggles" (those outside our world), and the image that we presented to the outside world. Just like in Harry Potter, the "muggles" wouldn't understand "the way we do things."
The persons who supervised us were like dementors.
Here's a definition of a dementor:
"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself....soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life."
Once we leave JFJ, it takes awhile to feel like we are truly free of the control of the "dementors" that once controlled us.
JFJ taught us to "face our fears." However, those who leave JFJ seem to need to remain safely in the "Muggle world," but are always aware that the "Wizard world" is out there.
http://www.exjewsforjesus.org/
http://exjewsforjesus.blogspot.com/
3 comments:
In the Harry Potter world among wizards there is a distinction between "Purebloods" (people born to magical families) and "Mugglebloods" (who had parents who were not magical). In JFJ the distinction is between believers who are Jewish in ancestry, and gentiles. Gentiles are generally assigned to administrative tasks while missionary staff is almost entirely made up of "Jewish believers". There is a subset of "Purebloods", and that is Jewish believers from New York, who rank highest of all.
The Apostle Paul (one of the greatest Jews for Jesus ever and Israelite missionary extraordinaire) had plenty to say about that sort of thing. He was very good to Gentiles.
It must really frost the J4J gang that studies indicate that many, if not most Jewish believers come to faith in Jesus via the witness of Gentile Christians. I wonder how truly needed they are as a witness to the Jewish community. They seem to turn so many Jewish people off.
Gentiles were constantly reminded that they were not Jewish and did not have equal status in the JFJ hierarchy. Yes, gentiles and "Mug-bloods" have a lot in common!
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