As of this writing, I’m 61 years old. My ministry has been primarily a teaching ministry. I have had the joy of teaching the Bible from a Jewish perspective all over the world. In Psalm 90, Moses instructs Israel to number their days and I am doing so now that mine are passing. As of now, there are 3,227 days left before my seventieth birthday and only the Lord knows how many actual days I have left before seeing Him face to face. When they are completed, it has been my prayer since the beginning of Ariel Ministries that I will have been known as a faithful Bible teacher and that because of our ministry others will follow in “the Footsteps of the Messiah.” But how will I know if I have effectively completed my God ordained life’s work? And how will you know if you have run the race well?

In its purest form, disciple making is a one-on-one process. God frequently uses conferences, concerts, and other events to stimulate believers in Yeshua to become His followers. But becoming a disciple of Yeshua doesn’t occur during a Christian mega event or a 12-week course of study. Making disciples only occurs when God uses deep relationships developed over time by people. Making disciples is a relational process. Disciples are not mass-produced on an assembly line. Each disciple is crafted one-by-one with the loving hands of our Creator. The process involves two elements: Bible knowledge and the application of that knowledge. On the one hand, Bible knowledge alone can make one proud; on the other, one cannot apply what he does not know. Both elements must come together in the life of a disciple: knowledge and application.

The best disciple maker in all of history was Yeshua. But even Yeshua submitted to the disciple making process. Prophetically speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah 50:4 tells us: “The Lord has given Me the tongue of them that are taught (tongues of disciples), that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.” After thirty years of personal instruction from His Father, the God-Man began His ministry by limiting His intimate instructional time to twelve men. Within that privileged circle, only three joined Him on Mt. Hermon at His transfiguration.

Consider the example of Rabbi Sha’ul (the Apostle Paul) with his young talmid (disciple), Timothy. “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Paul was Timothy’s teacher, protector, and encourager. When Timothy was finally prepared after years of study and practice… his mentor sent him to duplicate the disciple making process in Ephesus.

Since 1977, Ariel Ministries has been committed to the disciple making process. From 1978 to 1981, I personally taught a small group of men how to read, study, interpret, and apply the Scriptures with an awareness of their Jewish origin. Many of these men have faithfully passed on what they worked hard to learn. In turn, their students have passed on to others what they first received sitting at the feet of their teachers. The concepts I taught my first disciples form the core of Ariel’s Systematic Theology. The Come and See Discipleship Training is an introduction to Ariel's Systematic Theology correspondence courses.

Ariel Ministries has a strategic plan to make disciples everywhere. Our first step is to identify those who have completed the Come and See Discipleship Training and whose lives have been changed by this systematic study of the Scriptures. Second, Ariel wants to partner with these “disciples in the making” to become obedient to Yeshua’s command to make disciples themselves. Finally, using our Systematic Theology course, Ariel Ministries wants to train these emerging disciple makers to reach out to others with Yeshua’s call to become disciples themselves.

Our prayer is that God will use Ariel Ministries; in partnership with other biblically sound Messianic ministries, to re-awaken the Church to her historical Jewish origins. It is our belief that that the absence of this historical foundation has contributed to the Church teaching many false doctrines throughout the ages. Only by returning to sound doctrine will the Church be empowered by the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) to have a renewed and powerful witness in the world, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). I would like to invite you to join Ariel Ministries and others around the world in the disciple making process.