My Call to Ministry - Seminary Statement
Mathew Enoch Mount
Master of Divinity Program ##
When my mother was a child, she underwent such incredible evil that I
would be best to not even write about it. My mother for example went
to various self-help groups when she was younger in order to try to
resolve some of her problems, and my mother was often asked never to
return because her testimony was often so incredible that others who
attended the same self-help groups would be terrified and unable to
cope with thinking about or listening to what my mother had to say.
When I was an early youth, my mother would often keep me awake until
about two o’clock in the morning even on school days while she would
talk about all the evil that she had undergone in her lifetime as my
mother felt that she had to tell someone about her disturbing
memories.
In fact when I was born my mother was so very mournful of all the evil
that she had undergone in her lifetime that she prayed over me
fervently that I would become a minister, and my mother had planned to
name me Jacob Aaron Mount but my father who would never compromise or
change his mind no matter how hard a person would try decided to name
me Mathew Enoch Mount. Both the visions of success that my father had
and the vision of success that my mother had strongly contrasted as my
father believed that manual labor was the most important venture to
engage in while my mother thought that a relationship with God was the
most important element of life. Overall, in later years my college
education brought great shame on my father while it brought joy to my
mother, and my father sort of saw professional ministers to be like
the lowest form of humanity and an overall burden to all of society
only to be equaled in shame to college instructors (sort of like the
tax collectors mentioned in the scripture).
The father of my father could not read or write during all the days of
his life because his family did not see reading as being productive
for him as his family lived on a farm. Since my grandfather Mount had
been completely without knowledge and availability to the
‘intellectual’ world thus he only believed in the things that had been
most immediate to his experience, and he thus employed all of his
children into manual labor from early youth as he operated a
landscaping business later in his life that benefited from the labor
of his children (he also got involved in factory labor). My
grandfather Mount’s wife he had met in his youth from being hired as a
farm hand on her farm, and my grandmother was German with very dark
skin (unlike most Germans) as her father also spoke fluent German.
Overall, my grandmother Mount thus did the reading and the writing for
the family as well as the managing of money, and she became the
intelligence behind the family but when her children got older then
they became the problem solvers for her because they managed to obtain
High School level education (one went to a two year college and
learned a simple trade).
My mother’s father lived in a orphanage because his mother had died,
and his father wanted to see him so badly that the orphanage agreed
that he could mow the lawn of the orphanage as this was his only way
of getting close enough to the orphanage window to look inside in
order to see some of his children namely my Grandfather East. My
grandfather East thus from early childhood learned to be very clever
in order to obtain the things that he wanted and once he had those
things he become very controlling over those things in order that they
may not slip away. My grandfather East thus learned the value of
education as be obtained a Master’s degree in Psychology and in later
education he became a parasitologist and operated two different
hospital laboratories as well as performed autopsies and research in
third world nations. My grandfather East married a woman whom
attempted to memorize the entire English dictionary as she was rather
successful in doing so, and her entire focus in life become the
birthing of children, rearing of children, and lexicography. Overall,
my grandfather East imprinted the critical value of education in all
eight of his children as he diligently taught the males to obtain as
much university and graduate education as possible, and my grandfather
East thus also taught his daughters the value of marrying a male that
had incredible education.
My mother and my father thus came from such incredible contrasting
value systems that a person could make the case easily that the two
just do not go together in any reasonable way. My parents both
married each other out of rebellion to everything that they had been
taught by their families as well as everything that their families
stood for. Overall, I thus was born into a family that is about as
diverse and clashing in efforts to find meaning and a place in the
world as what Jerusalem is today with its division between the Jews
and the Christians.
Jews look at the wailing wall as being the last remnant of the center
of worship for reclaiming two thousand years of bring apart from the
direct experiance of God. While at the same time, many Christians
view the destruction of the temple in 72 AD as being one of the
greatest acts of human history because they often believe that God
destroyed the temple because the animal sacrifices had been fulfilled
by Christ’s blood and sacrifice such that what is often believed is
that Jews that would continue to offer animal sacrifice at the temple
after Christ crucifixion remained in rebellion to their messiah.
Overall, the truth of the story is that both non believing Jews and
messianic Jews that believed in Jesus both offered sacrifice at the
temple together and worshipped God together in the temple, but the
focus of the Messianic Jew was often evangelism.
Today many people are Christians and firmly believe while worshipping
God and practicing their faith (so to speak), but what usually happens
is that denominations cause people to be taught about a set of
knowledge and a way of living that differs from others in such a way
that the believer becomes alienated from the other believers such that
evil rains through a divided kingdom. The early believers in Yashawa
did not have divisions among each other even with non Jews entered
into a belief in Yashawa without the knowledge of the law of Moses
that the Jewish believers had, and the reason why the early believers
in Yashawa did not have divisions is because they could recognize each
other based upon the power of God working in their lives and based
upon their testimony regarding how Yashawa was transforming their
lives. Overall, the organization was so evangelical that the early
believer would never separate themselves from worshipping at the
temple nor would they separate themselves from participating in the
world through disobeying the commands of the Romans, and thus the
early believer often hoped that the power of God would transform the
lives of even their enemies.
My ministry has involved understanding the differences between faith
groups, having some respect for those differences, and providing
service to such people that would otherwise be alienated from the rest
of the Christian world as this has helped many to understand a bigger
picture. I am not saying that we should put aside our differences in
our understanding of the scripture as many would claim while joining
together in a brotherly love that has no care for the scripture, but
what I am saying is that we should engage each other with our
differences in understanding of the scripture such that we grow
together and recognize each other for our differences. Obviously, a
unbelieving Jew is a unbelieving Jew and the same type of story is
true for Muslims, but when people do begin to believe in Yashawa they
need not and should not separate themselves from the rest of the world
because when they do they become alienated from others such that
service to others becomes impossible.
The early believer in Yashawa saw love for others and service to
others as being so important that instead of separating from the
temple and instead of separating from Roman society they offered their
love and service in such great quantity that the only way to get them
to stop is for the unbeliever to crucify them. Our spiritual act of
worship thus is to offer our service of evangelism to others until we
are crucified with Christ, and thus our spiritual act of worship is to
offer ourselves as living sacrifices. My ministry has within the last
year focused upon the charity of God in the shedding of the blood of
the lamb from the cross, and it has thus focused upon personal
intercession of the believer as a kingdom of priests to administer the
blood atonement of Jesus Christ as like an investment of his or her
special charity into others through the talents of the members of the
body of Christ being spent wisely (by God’s wisdom) for building the
kingdom of God.
My theological news group named Jesus on the Web has close to three
hundred ninety members from ministers from once local denominations
that I know as well as devout people that care about carefully
understanding the scripture along with many people who have joined
from the web at large. Many of us have refuted each other for five
years and we have often rebuked each other as well, but the fact that
we engage in each other in this way instead of keeping separate from
each other without engaging each other brings us love for each other
that we would not otherwise have. Overall, I have often thus found
that the people that do not engage each other in regards to the faith
really do not care about each other or often they really do not care
about what they believe in for the most part (perhaps I am wrong about
this).
During my time operating a congregational ministry prior to the
creation of my news group and at the beginning of the endeavor, I
found that people from other congregations would ask me for spiritual
advice in tough situations. For example one late middle aged woman
who attended a local mega church had a serious problem in her life
because the husband that she married as a teen killed himself just a
few days prior to her seeking spiritual guidance from me, and
situations like the one I am talking about make me hate mega church
ministry that often focuses upon giving people a few basic principals
on how to live during each meeting and then sends people on their
way. Overall, I have thus found that more and more ministry has
become nothing more than a show for an actor to perform among an
audience of rich people (I am in no way against people being wealthy
and I have known a few devout wealthy people myself).
The ministry that I am looking at starting with Larry Woodsmall would
not be focused in the teaching of one person, but instead it would
involve developing members in such a way as to bring about development
of the talents of each member in order to bring about the greatest
possible investment of those talents into the world such that each
member truly takes a position as a intercessor in their community as a
kingdom of priests collectively. Personal intercession would center
around how God administers his grace, and this administration of his
grace comes about through the shedding of the blood of the lamb from
the cross. We thus know that the body of Christ is the collection of
believers that all use their talents differently in order to function
together to make Christ known in the world and clearly seen, but it is
the blood of Christ that pumps through the entire body of Christ that
connects the many members of the body in communion.
Communion with God through the blood of the lamb thus brings a person
into the intercessory relationship to Christ personally, and I find
this communion to be very central to temple worship performed in the
New Jerusalem as described by the prophets and the book of
Revelation. The administration of God’s grace through blood atonement
as described in the law of Moses and the prophets shows how God
administers both mercy and justice as judge over the law who
gracefully judges. Like in the example of the servants who had all
been given talents prior to the master going away those servants that
held to the spirit of the master’s teaching, desires, and vision are
the ones that invested the talents wisely and gained much return, but
the servant that invested his talent without regard to the spirit of
the master’s teachings, desires, and vision obtained no growth of what
the master invested into him. The law of Moses brings us the
teachings of our master, his desires for us, and his vision as is
clarified by the prophets and is communicated later in scripture as
what is known of as the spirit of the law, so if we remain in that
spirit than we will understand how to invest our talents wisely and
receive God’s grace upon the return of the King but if we do not
continue on with the spirit of the law, then our talent gets hidden in
the ground and we thus receive the justice of the King upon his
return.
The servant with one talent could invest his one talent, but instead
he puts it into the ground and serves himself instead of his master.
Thus the servant manipulates the law of his master in order to trick
others and gain more for himself, and everyone around him soon entered
into his service because he becomes an expert of deception. Today
this very thing happens in many Jewish and Christen congregations as
ministers do their ministry just plainly for money and members give
their money and attend their congregations just plainly to believe
that they will be saved. Scripture makes clear however that we are to
be a kingdom of priests, and that is in fact the entire purpose of God
having nation Israel as a set apart nation. What good is any priest,
if the person is not making intercession for the people through the
use of their talents?
Today in the United States something like three quarters of the
citizens report themselves as being Christen. Yet in many private
sector work places if a member of management for example says anything
about Jesus or anything seemingly related to Jesus, then the person
will often be discouraged from doing so and if the person continues
than the business may find ways of removing that person out of
necessity to remain profitable for fear of future legal problems. Not
only that but also people proclaim their pride for their religious
freedom when in fact some cities ban even a nativity scene in a
person’s front lawn. Overall, when people depart from both the spirit
of the law of Moses and the letter of the law of Moses to knowingly,
willingly, and purposefully become a law in themselves, then the only
thing left for them is a spirit of lawlessness that makes war against
God’s covenant people that are trying to invest their talents.
In Germany the Natzi party had its success through capitalizing on
German philosophy that had been developed through several centuries of
drawing more and more apart from God’s law by becoming more
independent of any real central teachings of God, and as a result the
Natzi party was able to quickly and easily take philosophy that was
independent of God’s law and develop from it a new sort of value
system, ideology, and legal system that both opposed the letter of the
law of Moses and the spirit of the law of Moses. I have dealt with
church leaders that oppose Jews ever becoming believers unless they
totally renounce Judaism, become part of the incredible legalistic
system of the New Covenant, and join in opposition to a third temple
being built in Jerusalem on the historic site. Overall, the same
people thus see this New Covenant as being completely separate from
the Torah, Writings, and the Prophets that some ministers call the Old
Testament just a book of good moral advice without any need for
theology to be drawn from, and I do not disbelieve the fact that many
churches in Germany may have believed the very same way prior to
Hitler coming to power.
Unlike many church leaders, I would not be offended if Jews practice
the entire law of Moses in every detail and believe in the Messiah,
and in fact I would rejoice at this. I even may find a calling to
invest my talents into developing Messianic congregations if
circumstances suggested that a Messianic congregation would be of
greater service to God than what I currently have been working on
drawing together. Overall, I find myself thus compelled to apply for
admission to The King’s Seminary as I image myself gaining incredible
insight that could help me to serve others better through the
education that I would obtain.
I have a strong desire to study the Greek and Hebrew languages more in
detail as the field of linguistics has been one that I have a strong
aptitude for flourishing in, and I find that even the words of
scripture themselves act as like hollow things that the Spirit of
Truth can flow through to bring about greater revelation of God than
what a person would understand just from the surface of things. I
also have a desire to study the ancient sages in detail in order to
understand the ministry of Jesus Christ clearly. I would also like to
get involved in the reading of the ancient church fathers in greater
detail in order that I may understand the development of the church
more clearly as a response to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Overall,
lastly I desire to have a firm understanding of Hebrew from a Jewish
perspective.
My overall point in all of this is that I believe myself to be called
to become distinctly different from the rest of the Christen world
because I believe that much value exists in Messianic Jewish studies
that could be invested into me so that I may invest into others while
utilizing my creativity to do so. My hope thus is that I will be able
to use the education obtained from The King’s Seminary in order to
better equip me for doing the things that I am already doing to some
extent but only in better and more productive ways. Overall, I think
that if you evaluate my history in detail, my qualifications, and my
work already done then you will agree that I am a good match for your
school.
Anti-Semitism already interferes with people receiving my scholarship
and message, and thus I would be suffering for literally no real
purpose if I do not get more involved in Jewish studies. My study
with John Martin the Messianic Jewish leader was so very exciting that
I just could not wait every week for Saturday so that I could spend
another six hours or so with him deep in study of the Torah, and I
found that he felt so compelled to engage in his studies of the
scripture that he spent almost every waking hour of his time in
Rabbinical study. Unfortunately because he was so different from
everyone else that he did not fit at all with the anti-Semitism of
southern Illinois since he was both black and a Jew thus despite the
fact that he had a Master’s degree in a well respected subject he was
completely incapable of holding any kind of employment or having any
friends or associations at all, and when I found that the university
library had a renovation of more than fifty million dollars to make it
just a little bit bigger than what it already was with something like
five stories but yet the library only contained half of the Hebrew
Torah and none of the work of the ancient sages I thus wept thinking
about how uninformed that all the twenty thousand plus students must
be year after year for the one hundred and fifty years of operation
that the university enjoyed. Overall, with all of the Nazi party
literature that I was required to read in philosophy classes (such as
the work of Martin Heidegger) I find myself desperately wanting
something different than what the masses so enjoy, and I desire to
bring this ‘something’ that is much different to other people as
well.
ON EARTH Ministries
This touched my heart because it made me feel as if you have benefited as much from my teachings as I have from your, Bro.
“The ministry that I am looking at starting with Larry Woodsmall would
not be focused in the teaching of one person, but instead it would
involve developing members in such a way as to bring about development
of the talents of each member in order to bring about the greatest
possible investment of those talents into the world such that each
member truly takes a position as a intercessor in their community as a
kingdom of priests collectively. Personal intercession would center
around how God administers his grace, and this administration of his
grace comes about through the shedding of the blood of the lamb from
the cross. We thus know that the body of Christ is the collection of
believers that all use their talents differently in order to function
together to make Christ known in the world and clearly seen, but it is
the blood of Christ that pumps through the entire body of Christ that
connects the many members of the body in communion.”
You won me over with this statement too. Just to give you fair warning, I am going to try to stretch your boundaries out a little further. (smile)
“Unlike many church leaders, I would not be offended if Jews practice
the entire law of Moses in every detail and believe in the Messiah,
and in fact I would rejoice at this. I even may find a calling to
invest my talents into developing Messianic congregations if
circumstances suggested that a Messianic congregation would be of
greater service to God than what I currently have been working on
drawing together.”
And this is the kind of stuff that makes me get all teary!
“My overall point in all of this is that I believe myself to be called
to become distinctly different from the rest of the Christen world…”
and
This is definitely stuff for the NJH!
Bless you, Sweet Brother Mathew!
Peace, and All Good Things,
Brother Larry Roy Woodsmall
ON EARTH MINISTRIES
Mathew Enoch Mount
I just want to let you know Larry that I have submitted your name and
contact information as one of the main references in my Master of
Divinity application, so you may get a phone call about some of this
stuff. Graduate school will allow me to develop more, so that we can
work together more on the Iowa City congregation. If I am able to
attend Graduate School at Kings and if the Iowa City congregation that
we are working on fails to materialize, then the seminary school has
options for placement in Israel as a evangelical Rabbi that would work
for the salvation of Jewish people through belief in Yeshua.
Thank you,
Mathew Enoch Mount
mmo...@essex1.com
On Dec 30, 4:00 pm, ON EARTH Ministries