Here is the most recent letter from our beloved sister in Israel:
“In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 (there IS no ‘Moslem world’…it is ALL GOD’S world!) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1(EVERY Word…not ‘parts’ of the Word…but all of it is Him…His Light, His Life, His Truth)
Greetings in The Name of The King of Life, Yeshua, Jesus, in Whom IS Life.I greet you from a somber moment in a somber nation.I stood on my merepesset overlooking the square and the train station when the siren sounded for its eternal minute at exactly 8pm.EVERYTHING came to an abrupt standstill…all vehicles stopped and the drivers popped out standing at attention, heads bowed.People lined the street below me and stood on merepessets all around me – only the flags blew in the wind as the siren wailed it’s steady mournful song.
Yom h’zikeron is here.
The day of memory…memorial day for the fallen soldiers and victims of terror.23,447 is the total given this year since the beginning of the modern state of Israel.At 68 on our birthday, Thursday, Independence day, that number represents multiplied many living, grieving family members…wives, husbands, mothers and fathers, grandparents and yes, the children.I see them all around.Yesterday already the music on the radio had changed key along with the looks on the faces.Slowly the tv stations went off the air and places of entertainment began to close.
What a strange mixture of emotions fly at this time of year…the flags crop up all over in great abundance.People stand in traffic, some selling them, and yes, some giving them away for free.This year I see far more flags then before as at the same time Iran announced the successful launching of a new long range missile and two elderly ladies were stabbed this morning.As words around us seek to crush us and mock us …trying to say ‘See? Your God could NOT take you out of Egypt!’, a new ‘agenda’ was ‘launched’ this week.I listened with joy as someone explained in a radio interview that since the emotions between Holocaust Memorial day (yom h’shoar) and Independence day (yom h’atz’maoot) are so deep and huge, we are going to call them ’10 Days of Thanksgiving‘.Chalk boards will be placed around the country for people to write what they are thankful for and will be encouraged to think on giving thanks.I loved it!Between Rosh h’Shana and Yom Kippur are the 10 days of awe when we are to repent…and these will be called the 10 days of thanksgiving.
I am thankful that it is ALL written in His Word so freely given to us…and we are given such an opportunity to agree with Him and His purposes rather than the world’s!
Tomorrow is a ‘heavy’ day of sharing stories about loved ones taken…of tragedies and of heroes… of orphans and of widows.The streets will be filled with tears as we weave our way toward yom h’atz’maoot , which will begin at sundown tomorrow.The flag that we just lowered will be once again raised and a HUGE birthday party will begin in that strange, fine line transition!It is not at all a ‘party without knowledge’ as everyone knows that we are in far more danger then we have been since WW2…but it is a ‘party’ that says ‘Be strong and of GOOD courage!Strengthen your hands … and I will help too!’
I will try to write more, but yes, we will be busy.I will try however.Below I copied two things that touched me.To read more as these two days progress, here is a link to Yisrael h’Yom online:http://www.israelhayom.com/site/today.php
ENJOY THESE:
“When my oldest was a few months of age I was holding him in my arms at a bus stop waiting to get on the bus when an old man said, “Let the soldier on first.”
I backed up to make way for the soldier when I realized he was referring to my baby!
I’ve carried that moment for over 40 years for that was when I knew for sure that whatever children I had, one day I would have to watch them don a uniform and carry a big rifle.
I also knew, that no matter what, I couldn’t cry until the elevator doors closed.
I am the wife of a soldier–a front line medic; the mother of three soldiers–a paratrooper, a girl attached to the police and a son in intelligence.
I am the aunt of, the neighbor of, the teacher of countless soldiers, and God help me one day the grandmother of.
Tonight there will be a siren–a flat line siren (up and down ones mean war and I’ve heard too many of those) where the entire country will stop, stand at attention, bow our heads and remember our fallen in battle and in terrorist attacks. Tomorrow morning there will be a further siren. I live in a tough neighborhood but the kids are watching over us Please God watch over them. Amen.”(Marallyn Ben Moshe.– a friend – not yet a sister)
“What can I say about Israel at age 68 that hasn’t been said yet? This is a land where every person you meet is a hero, where life is drenched with meaning and significance, where the Chosen People constantly wrestle with G-d …, where abandoned people and forgotten history are dragged against their will to shape the future. A land where to give is the norm, where old and wise is cool, where achievement is always preferred over comfort, and where it is forbidden to stop smiling.
Israel’s ancient history shapes our historic duty, but the modern State’s constant barrage of challenges and misadventures come to teach us what it really means to build a world in G-d’s image. It’s definitely not always easy being part of this tremendous project, and it may sometimes look like we are moving backwards, but nothing in the world is as fulfilling.
Happy Birthday Israel” a local columnist
I want to (no…NEED to) recommend to you Chris Mitchell’s newly released book Isis, Iran and Israel.(can be ordered at http://tinyurl.com/j8kuhzdor please ask your Christian book store to order it!)Chris is the Middle East correspondent for CBN broadcasting and a good friend.He is also one of the most humble people I have ever met, wise, gentle and full of His discernment.He speaks what he has seen and knows and ends the book with a clarion call to be walking with HIM!I encourage you to get this important book.
Thank you for listening…God be with you all and may we BE WITH HIM!I send much love, your sis here.
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve shared a letter from our sister in Christ, who is Inside Israel, but when I read the email she sent the other day, in remembrance of the 6,000,000 (yes, six million) Jews who were martyred, during World War II, for their race, culture and faith in the One True God, that we Christian Believers love and worship, I had to share it. As you read this email, let those of us who have been grafted in, always remember God’s love for His chosen people has never waned, and one day, they, the true branches will also proclaim the name of Jesus, bringing even greater blessings to us!
12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
Beloved readers, as you read this email from our beloved sister Inside Israel, let us also remember to pray for the peace of Israel, who is still very much hated by the rest of the world:
Shalom again to Holocaust Memorial and Remembrance Day…Yom h’Shoar…Welcome, Lord of all comfort and Truth into this day.Invade the hearts of those whose hearts have been so damaged by the unimaginable and yet still hope against hope that there is Truth, Hope and justice…May we who have seen The Face of Truth, Hope and Justice bring your Light into this darkening world.
Yes, it has been ‘Yom h’shoar’ (Day of Holocaust literally but called the Remembrance day for the martyrs of the Holocaust, or just Holocaust Memorial day) once again, with its full ‘shock’ of entry and time of deep reflection.
How does one begin to grieve or share the grief of 6,000,000,000…six million?
One at a time.
Our Knesset holds a ceremony ‘Unto every person there is a name’ .It goes like this: (a quote from the Jerusalem Post)
“Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel and her daughters lit a candle in her mother’s name, and in memory of her relatives killed in the Jado concentration camp in Libya, where 2,600 Jews were sent, 562 of whom died. Gamliel’s great-grandfather, Shia Bracha, was sent to the camp from Tripoli, and was killed while trying to escape, and her grandparents lost a daughter from malnutrition in Jado.
“Modern Israel owes part of its establishment to the heroes who underwent the hell of the Holocaust and rose from it to fight for Israel’s independence, thus ensuring the continuation of future generations in Israel,” Gamliel said. “The recognition in recent years of Holocaust survivors and victims of the Nazi regime in Arab countries is for me, as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Libya, is the closing of a circle and does justice to a large group in Israel that did not receive the recognition it deserves.”
Others who lit candles were Holocaust survivors Esther Meron, Avraham Ivanir, Fruma Galant, mother of Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant, and Svetlana Sorokin, mother of MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union), as well as Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets Director-General Dr. Yisrael Peleg.
Next, MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) read from Psalms, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yaakov Yosef said Kaddish and an IDF cantor chanted the El Maleh Rachamim prayer.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein began the name-reading by reading the names of children who perished in the Sharogorod Ghetto in Transnistria, where his grandparents and mother survived the Holocaust.
President Reuven Rivlin read the names of soldiers killed in the War of Independence who were the last surviving members of their families, as well as the names of their relatives who were murdered by the Nazis. His wife, Nechama Rivlin, read names of relatives, and had to stop in the middle to compose herself, as she was crying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept his annual tradition of reading a poem his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, wrote in 1941 in Israel, when he lost touch with his family in Europe and did not know what happened to them. They all perished in the Holocaust.
Supreme Court President Miriam Naor said she and her cousins did research to find out names and details about relatives who were killed in the Holocaust…” AND SO ON IT GOES.
‘Poignant’…’emotional’…’indescribable’…these are the words that come to me as I seek to, yes, describe the day that I have sought to describe for 21 years now.At 10:00am the eerie wail of the siren sounded throughout the country for two minutes while a nation stood silent and at attention, agreeing to share a mantle of grief far too heavy to be borne alone on the shoulders…fewer and fewer…of tattooed old people.For one day in the year they open the coffin of a closet where the dark memories lie hidden and share the unimaginable openly, in schools, on television and in ceremonies or homes, so that we can all carry it together with them.We listen to their stories…sit and have tea with them…weep with them…hug them.The stories are collected…written…dramatized…’They must never forget!’ they cry.‘The world must never never forget!’ they yell collectively…but their voices grow ever weaker.It has been 70 years now since the Holocaust.Many of them have lived this long because they have a burning passion to ‘Having survived…survive!’…but they are dying because they are, after all, just flesh and blood.
A new and hopeful thing has cropped up.It is called ‘Zikeron b’salon’ or literally ‘Memory in the livingroom’.I was listening to a report about it and they said that several years ago some young people were speaking of a need that they had to find further expression concerning the Holocaust.Children here learn about it in school from pre-school…and the studies continue through the army and university.During the last year in high school they participate in ‘The March of the Living’…a trip to Auschwitz death camp.Suddenly they are post army and university and it all comes to an end.A small group of young adults decided to ‘meet in the livingroom’, hear a testimony in person or on a tape, and to hold their own discussion and ceremony.It caught on with young people all over the country and this year there were hundreds of such meetings.
Yes, it is taken ‘personally’.Life from the dead…hope from ashes.
Last week one of our patients died.Ada Steinberg was 96 and lived with a ‘helper’.Originally from Russia, she had never married, made aliyah alone as a teenager, became a professor and had many friends…but she outlived them all!That was a chilling thought to me when she told me that her last friend died.She was now ‘all alone’…but she went on and became very close to her ‘helper’.She died quietly in her sleep last week and I asked my boss…who would ‘sit shiva’ for her (mourn her in the Jewish tradition).He stopped and said ‘I don’t know.’ That wasn’t like my boss.He knows ALL of these things!‘Was she in the shoah?’ I asked him.To my surprise, he didn’t know that either.It took me quite awhile searching online to find anything about her but finally, on the Yad V’Shem website, (take a look) www.yadvashem.org/amongst the recorded testimonies, I found hers.It is in Hebrew and so it will take me awhile to listen, but I intend to.She had a name.She was brave.
I was raised with the Holocaust.Today I found myself wondering how it had ‘colored’ my world.I guess I will never know really.I was very very small, perhaps two, when I first became ‘aware’ (yes, really) of the Holocaust.I had very thick curly dark hair and I was with my Mother.It was summer.I remember the dress that I was wearing.A woman stopped to talk to my mother and she reached out and put her fingers in my hair and began running them through lovingly, but even then at that young age I knew ‘something wasn’t right.’I remember her getting down on her knees and looking at me and saying over and over ‘I had a little girl like you once, yes, I had a little girl just like you…’.My Mother sheltered me behind herself and I was holding on to her knees (that is how I guess my age…knee high).But that was only my first encounter.Holocaust survivors began pouring into our neighborhood in NY, USA…and there was a ‘scary feeling’ about them…something of death held on to them and it haunted me.In our apartment there were books and photos of the newly liberated camps.I would lay on the floor and look at the pictures…and wonder.
My conclusion then was: ‘We must be such an awful people to be so deeply hated.’
HOW THANKFUL I AM THAT THE ONE WHO WAS DISPISED AND REJECTED PURSUED ME AND SAVED ME OUT OF THE HELL THAT I FOUND MYSELF TRAPPED IN!
So I stood outside of work at 10:00am this morning when the siren pierced the air and prayed for Kala Zeltzer, Yaakov and Ruth Lork and the other survivors that I know by name…for them to be comforted face to Face by The One Who is truly able to understand and bare even their grief…and lead them safely home.
It is late and this is nothing like I intended to share…but it just got too late.I couldn’t let the day slip by without baring witness to it…least we forget.
I hope to write more in a couple of days.God bless you all.Lovingly, your sister here.
Last night, I had two different dreams, yet both had the same theme. The dreams were what I call “God Dreams,” because both dreams were scripture filled, and they dealt with spiritual warfare. I wasn’t sure if the first dream really was from the Lord or not, because it dealt with a friend, and usually, when I have a “God Dream,” I KNOW it is from the Lord. Yet even though I didn’t know for sure if it was a “God Dream,” I felt a strong compulsion to share it with my friend in writing right away, before I forgot it. I felt very strongly in my spirit that my friend was in danger and needed to be warned of this danger.
In the second dream, Abraham, Isaac and Israel were there, as were many others, including me, and we were all joined in an angelic battle against evil. I felt the darkness all around me, as many, who I thought were friends, who were saved, turned out to be evil. I remember battling against the evil, and many good people were killed. Even some of the angelic beings, who loved and served the Lord were killed. Yet, even so, it was during these battles that I witnessed many miracles, as the dead were raised, and some who were wounded, were instantly healed.
One thing I remember during this dream, which, like all dreams, seemed so real at the time, even though there was evil and darkness all around, I had no fear. Now, you should know that I do not consider myself to be a brave or courageous person. I DON’T like pain, and though I love the Lord with all of my heart, I am in no hurry to die. Yet, I waged war against evil in that dream, and I was fearless. Were there times when I was afraid? Yes, the war that was taking place was very real, and there were times when my heart would pound a little harder, but the Spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I knew, and heard it said in my dream, over and over, “The battle is the Lord’s.”
I won’t share my other dream with you, because that wasn’t meant to be shared with anyone but her. However, suffice it to say that she, too, was in the midst of a spiritual battle.
I’ve thought of these dreams off and on all day, today, and I feel such an urgency within. Friends, I truly believe those dreams were meant to remind me, and now you, as I share this with you, that we are living in very dark times. We are living in a time and place that calls good evil, and evil good. We are living with those who call right wrong, and wrong right. We live among those who call the darkness light, and the light darkness, and there are too many, who call themselves children of the Lord, who don’t know the difference.
What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (Isaiah 5:20 NLT)
Beloved reader, heed my warning. The time is upon us, when there are false teachers, false prophets and even apostates teaching false doctrine, and many are falling for it, because they do not KNOW the Lord. Oh, many know of Him, but they do not truly KNOW Him, because they don’t want to know Him.
He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. (Psalm 103:7 NASB)
What about you? Do you know God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or do you simply know of Him? Do you know His ways? Or do you just know about the things that He’s done?
God calls Himself our husband. Jesus is the bridegroom, and we are the bride. I’ve been married for thirty-four years to the same man, and you know what? I KNOW him. I KNOW his ways. My husband doesn’t have to say a word to me, and with just one glance, I KNOW what he is thinking. We KNOW each other so well, that we finish one another’s sentences. I know what makes my husband smile, and I know what makes him angry. I know what makes my husband happy, and I know what hurts him. When my husband hurts, something within me hurts too, because I KNOW him so well, and I love him.
That’s the kind of relationship that God wants with each one of us. He wants to reveal His character, His intimate ways to us, not just His mighty acts. He wants us to feel His joy when a soul is saved, and He wants us to feel His pain, when someone is lost. He wants us to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. Yet, sadly, most people will never know Him that well.
Instead, most will settle for a “prophetic word” from someone who may be nothing more than a glorified fortune-teller, wrongly called a prophet in the church. People like those prophets who prophesy “entrepreneurship” or “money in your future.” They like when people tickle their ears, and they believe what they want to believe. What about you? Do my words offend you? Beloved, I don’t want any false prophets tickling my ears. I want to know God so well, that when someone lies, I know it deep within my being. I want the truth, not a lie that gives me false hope.
I want to hope for what is real, and I don’t need someone to prophesy over me, because I KNOW the Lord, and HE talks to me. Does He talk to you? Or are you so busy listening to what your pastor says, that you can’t hear God? Pastors are meant to help us draw closer to God, NOT to take His place.
Do you know what His word says? Or do you only know what you’ve been taught that the word says? Beloved, I urge you to talk with God, listen to God, and read His word, so that you can begin to know Him and His ways. Don’t simply read what I write, or what some other author writes, or what some evangelist or worse yet, some televangelist says. We are ALL human. We ALL sin and fall short of the glory of God. We ALL get it wrong sometimes. SOME get it wrong ALL of the time, and if you don’t know God, you won’t know the difference. Someone could be “ministering” to you now, and because you don’t really know God, he/she could be leading you straight to hell. And understand this, my friend, YOU will be held accountable if you don’t know God, because God has given every one of us ample opportunity to know Him.
For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. (2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT)
Beloved reader, the dreams I had last night are a warning. Let he who has an ear hear that warning. The days are getting darker and darker, and there is a war taking place in the spiritual realm that most don’t even know of. That war is being waged for your soul and your spirit, and if you don’t know God, you don’t stand a chance. Do I sound melodramatic? Yes! I know I do, because it is THAT serious. Therefore, I will close with the words Moses spoke to the children of Israel before he died. And I pray with all my heart, that you would heed these words and choose life!
15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods,18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20 NLT)
God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.
For every heart that has ever been broken, destroyed by abandonment, rejection and betrayal, and for those that have not, you have been loved with an everlasting love before there was time. These words the Lord spoke to Israel are for all who will call upon His name:
Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself.
Do you doubt that these words are meant for everyone who will call on His name? Not only did God love Israel with an everlasting love, He also loves ALL of mankind with a love so strong that He was willing to sacrifice His One and Only true Son for the sake of ALL of us.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
Those who have been broken, abandoned, rejected and betrayed all long for that one thing. Whether you are willing to admit it or not, there is an ache deep within your heart, a longing for love that cannot be quenched. And how do I know this? I know this because I am one of the broken, abandoned, rejected, and betrayed, and my first memories are of a little girl who had a hunger for Someone to love me no matter how bad, or how ugly, or how undesirable and unlovable I was.
When I was very young, my mother and father divorced. After they divorced, I can count on one hand the number of times I saw my birth father again. Now that I’m an adult, I understand that my father’s abandonment was not because I was bad, ugly, undesirable or unlovable. Instead, it was his problem, but as a child, I believed every single one of those things about myself.
When I was around two and a half, my mother married my stepfather, a man that I grew up thinking was my daddy until right before I entered the first grade, and I had to learn how to write my name. You see, up until that time, I thought my name was Cheryl Mitchell, and I already knew how to write that, but now I learned that my real name was Cheryl Payne, and I didn’t really belong to the man I called Daddy. I wondered why God had made someone like me. You see, even then, I knew there was a God, and though I didn’t yet know Him personally, He knew me, for He was the One who had knit me together in my mother’s womb, and He had a plan for my life.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
I was one of those children that trouble seems to follow, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I was the one following trouble. I hated school, from the first day I set foot there. It seemed like I was always in trouble once I was in school. When my parents went to parent/teacher conferences, they were told that I could do better if I would just apply myself. I always dreaded those parent/teacher conferences, which would lead to my parents’ cussing me and telling me how worthless and stupid and lazy I was, as they beat me over and over and over again. I was afraid to go to sleep at night, because they would come into my room over and over again throughout the night, until they went to bed, pulling me out of the bed and beating me yet again.
Cheryl – Grade 6
When I was in the sixth grade, I really did something stupid, You see, if I brought home a bad report card, I would receive several beatings, then be punished for the following nine weeks, until the next report cards were issued. My punishment consisted of being banished to my bedroom to study for those nine weeks. I was not permitted to go outside, receive phone calls, play or watch television during those long weeks. I was only allowed out of my room to use the bathroom, eat dinner, go to school and to go to church. I thank God for the church bus that would pick my sister and me up on Sunday mornings, because that was when I was able to laugh and sing and feel loved.
Anyway, when I was in the sixth grade, I received an “Inc.” (Incomplete) on my report card for not writing my fire prevention essay. Don’t ask me why I didn’t write it, because I honestly couldn’t tell you. I knew the incomplete was coming, but I didn’t worry about it until it was actually there, on my report card. When I saw that grade, I panicked, and then I got this “brilliant” idea. I had learned that if you licked the tip of an eraser, you could erase ink. As soon as I got home from school, before my parents came home, I did just that, and changed my grade from an “Inc.” to a “G” (the equivalent of an “A”). I actually got away with my ruse until nine weeks later, when report cards were once again issued.
In those days, we carried our report cards to each class and the teacher would call you forward and print your grade on the report card. My heart pounded all morning long, and through lunch, until it was time to go to my Language Arts class. By then, I was really worked up. I must have had millions of butterflies in my stomach – so many that I was beginning to feel ill. When my teacher called me, my whole body shook with fear, yet still, I walked forward to her desk. As soon as she took my report card out of the envelope, she looked at me and stated loudly, “You erased this!”
I looked behind me, hoping against hope that my classmates hadn’t heard her, but of course, all eyes were on me. I shook my head emphatically, as I looked her in the eye and whispered, “No I didn’t. You did. Don’t you remember? You accidentally put someone else’s grade on here, and you changed it,” but she wasn’t buying it.
“You erased this report card and I’m calling the principal.” With that said, she stood up and walked over to the intercom to call the principal. I was truly panicked by this time, and I didn’t care that my classmates were all staring at me as I cried and pleaded with her not to call the principal, but to no avail. She stood by the intercom and told the principal what I had done, and he hurried to our classroom, where I was weeping inconsolably, and pleading with her and then him not to call my parents.
At that point, I was such a wreck, that they sent me to the nurse’s office. The nurse tried to quiet me, and then she began prying into my business, asking why I was so afraid. She asked me if my parents beat me. Did they abuse me? As she questioned me, all of my fear now turned to anger and hatred, not against my parents, but against her. I was already in enough trouble, without her being nosy and trying to make things even worse for me. It wasn’t until nearly thirty years later, that I realized she wasn’t being nosy. She was trying to help me, but I was too blinded by fear and misplaced anger to realize it.
I thought about running away, but I didn’t know where to run to, and I was too afraid to do it. So, I just sat in my bedroom waiting until my mother came home at 6:00 that evening. By then, my fear had grown immensely, and with good reason. Soon, the bedroom door was opened, and there stood my mommy and my stepfather, whom I thought of as my daddy. My mother began shouting at me, and then my daddy began to speak, and the angrier she got, the louder she was, while the softer his voice got, the more I feared him. They told me how stupid and lazy I was. They said that I was worthless and nothing but trouble. And then, my daddy said the words that really crushed me, “I’m ashamed that anyone thinks you’re my daughter.”
Then they each took turns beating me, but as bad as the beatings were, the thing that still hurts, even now, at 53 years of age, were those words spoken by my “daddy,” the man I truly adored. I wasn’t angry at him or my mother, though, because they were right, I thought. I believed every single curse they spoke over me, and it took many years for the Lord to finally set me free from them. All night long, until she finally went to sleep, my mother would sit in the den smoking cigarettes and thinking about what I had done, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, again and again. Then, she would burst into my bedroom, snatch me out of bed and begin beating me again and again. I laid in the bed, shaking with fear, and crying, and it seemed like every time I would begin to doze off, my door would slam open, and I would be snatched from the bed and beaten again and again.
I was punished for the following nine weeks until the next report card was issued and my grades were good, but until then, I was berated over and over again. I wasn’t angry with my mommy and daddy though. I was angry with my teacher and myself. I hated her for many years, but I hated myself for many more.
On the church bus every Sunday, we would learn different scriptures, and one of the first ones I learned was John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now, I remember my thoughts when I first heard those words, “For God so loved the world…”
“Yeah,” I thought, “but He doesn’t love me. He knows how bad I am. He knows everything about me, and there’s no way He could ever love me.”
It wasn’t until many years later, on a Saturday as I prepared a Sunday School lesson for children who were the same age that I had been when I first heard those words, “For God so loved the world…”that He revealed to me that those words included me too. While preparing a lesson on Psalm 139, as I read, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Cheryl, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. It was I who knit you together in your mother’s womb, and I knew every single day of your life before you were born, and I loved you.”
Beloved reader, can you believe that? Those words are not just for me. They’re for you, too. And get this, the very same God who knit each and every man, woman and child in their mother’s womb, decided long before then that He would adopt those of us who wanted Him to be their Daddy.
God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.
Isn’t that wonderful? And do you know why He chose to adopt us? He didn’t do it because He pitied us, or because He felt like it was something He should do. No! He adopted us into His own family through Jesus because He wanted to do it! Not only that, it gave Him great pleasureto adopt us!!!
Beloved reader, has your heart ever been broken, abandoned, rejected and betrayed? Have you ever felt unloved and unlovable? Have you ever longed for a Daddy who would lavish His love on you, without feeling like you must earn His love? Do you have a hole in your heart that cries, just as mine did, “Please won’t Somebody love me, even though I don’t deserve it?”
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Beloved reader, my whole life, I felt like I was nothing but a burden to my family, who I loved deeply. But I now have a Daddy who loved me long before He formed the earth, and He chose me to be His adopted daughter, because I bring great pleasure to Him.
I shared all of this with you, not to make you pity me, but so you can rejoice with me. For you see, I was always loved, even when I felt like no one loved me, and I am no better or worse than you. God loves you, just as much as He loves me, and if you want to experience that love, call upon His name. The following prayer that Paul prayed many, many years ago is the prayer that I now pray for every person who reads this post:
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.16 I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit.17 Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him.Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.~ Ephesians 1:4 NLT ~
Are you as amazed as I am, at the lengths that God has gone to, in order to win our hearts and rescue us from sin? God looks at mankind, knowing that we are sinful from the time we are born. It’s our nature to sin, and God is fully aware of that…
The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. ~ Genesis 6:5 NLT ~
Still, the Lord saw something in us that He loved. Despite the sin that enslaved and controlled each and every one of us, God saw something worth dying for. Doesn’t that amaze you? It blows me away! I know myself pretty well, and when I examine my own heart, I can’t imagine why anyone would be willing to die for me, let alone the Creator of the Universe, whom I’ve hurt too many times to count…
But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.~ Romans 5:8 NLT ~
I feel like jumping up and down for joy as I write and share these words with you. How exciting! In order to comprehend just how wonderful this is, we need to understand that God, also known as Yahweh, Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our Strong Tower, and by many other wonderful names, is holy…
No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God. ~ 1 Samuel 2:2 NLT ~
Now what is the importance of God’s holiness, and what does it mean to you and me? Firstly, Ephesians 1:4, the scripture we’re studying, tells us that God chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault. Therefore, we must know and understand what holiness is, so that we can be the people God chose us to be, in Jesus’ name…
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Therefore, I have written the word and definition from the Hebrew translation. Obviously, holy in reference to the Lord, would be the definition Holy One, for He is the only God who is holy. Though other nations chose to worship other Gods, Yahweh alone was the only Holy One, and because of His holiness, He called His people to be holy like Him…
For I, the Lord, am the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy. ~ Leviticus 11:45 NLT ~
Now, the New Testament, unlike the Hebrew, was written in Greek, which was a common language, spoken by most nations at that time. Therefore, the Greek word for holyis hagios, which means:
most holy thing, a saint
Now, I know that some churches only refer to certain people as saints, after they have died, however, when we read God’s holy word in its proper context, it says that He chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. Sometimes, we miss out on what God is truly saying, because we listen to what “the church” tells us, without looking to see what God says in His word. According to Ephesians 1:4, God chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes… There was no gathering of apostles, priests, cardinals, bishops, priests, pastors or even the pope, who determined whether we were holy or saints. God alone chose us in Christ.
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. ~ Ephesians 1:4 NLT ~
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. ~ 1 Peter 2:9 NLT ~
Beloved readers, do you see what God has chosen us for in Christ? He has chosen us – not just people who receive a title from mankind, but you and me to be a holy nation of royal priests, so that we can show others the goodness of God. According to the Hebrew and Greek definitions of holy, we have been chosen to be sacred, set apart from the world, and saints who are holy.
So, what does this mean to us? Firstly, I can be none of the things God chose me to be unless I am in Christ, for apart from Him, we can do nothing…
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:5 NLT ~
It is also very important for us to remember that God in Christ chose us to be His royal priesthood of saints, not us, and not anyone else, be it a preacher, priest or anyone else…
You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name. ~ John 15:16 NLT ~
Beloved readers, it is clear from the scriptures that we have been chosen to be holy (set apart, sacred, a saint), so that we can show others the goodness of God. Sadly, many people who call themselves Christian are no different than everyone else. The King James version of the bible declares that we are a peculiar people, and yet, if we live and behave as everyone else, how are we peculiar?
It’s really sad that you can often tell, just by looking at them or speaking to them, when someone is Islamic, because they often dress differently than us, and they live differently as well. Yet, with a few exceptions, most people could not tell if someone is a born-again Christian or not, because so many continue to live and do as the world does (i.e. – telling little white lies, gossiping, cussing, hating people who are different than they are, fearful of saying “Jesus Christ,” except when they are taking His name in vain…), and so the list goes on and on.
Beloved reader, please join me today and let each one of us examine our hearts, and let us also ask God to do so as well. This is a wonderful prayer that David prayed, and if we ask God to do this, He will be faithful to help us…
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. ~ Psalm 139:23-24 NLT ~
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.~ Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT ~
Do you remember what it was like to play sports in school? I never did like gym class except for badminton and bowling. Running races was humiliating, because as tiny as I was at the time, I was equally slow. However, by far, the most degrading thing about gym class, was the team sports (i.e. – dodgeball, kickball, softball, basketball etc.), because that was when the gym teacher would choose team captains (always the most popular and athletic), who would, in turn, choose their teams. Of course, the team captains always chose the most athletic (because they wanted to win), and the most popular (because if the team captain wasn’t already one of the popular crowd, if he/she chose wisely, perhaps they would welcome him/her into their elite clan).
Now, I don’t know where you landed in the scheme of things, but I was neither popular, or very athletic. Therefore, I was usually one of the last ones chosen for a team sport. In fact, when the captains began choosing their teammates, I would often pray, “Lord, please let them pick me somewhere in the middle. Please don’t let them pick me last.”
Not only did I hate team sports, team projects were equally undesirable. You see, the brighter, more popular children would team up with one another. Those children who weren’t as intellectual also had their own cliques to work in, which still, left me the odd one out. I was just one of those children who don’t quite fit in anywhere, and even as an adult, I likewise, continue to struggle with feeling out of place.
That’s why I get so excited about this scripture…
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.~ Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT ~
Do you see it? Before He made the world, God loved me and chose me! Praise God – this is one instance in my life, where I was among those who were picked first! What’s more, if you are born again, believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, then you, too, can rest assured that as surely as God loved me and chose me before He made the earth, He loved you and chose you before He made the world. Isn’t that Good News?
Just think about it! When I was a child in school, it felt as though my whole world was broken all around me, every time I was rejected. Actually, even as an adult, it still sometimes feels that way, when someone rejects me…
And yet, if I put things in perspective, I gain a whole new insight that allows me to see things as they really are. Now, all of those soul crushing moments don’t seem as devastating, when I consider that the God and the Creator of the universe chose meto be His beloved daughter, long before He spoke all of creation into being. For you see, my present problems are nothing, when I fix m eyes on Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior…
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT ~
Now, when I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, and think of how God chose me before He created the earth, Jesus reminds me of this…
16 You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name.17 This is My command: Love each other.
Isn’t that wonderful news? Jesus chose His followers. Are you one of Christ’s followers? If so, that’s because He chose you. Do you doubt me? The fact is that we wouldn’t even love Him or anyone else, if not for one thing…
Do you need more convincing? Well, beloved reader, it just gets better!
But you are a chosen people,the King’s cohanim (priests), a holy nation, a people for God to possess! Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. ~ 1 Peter 2:9 CJB ~
Do you see the beauty of it? Long before we were born, indeed, long before the earth was even created, God thought of each one of the men, women and children who would love and follow Him, and He chose us. He called us by our name, and do you know what we were chosen for? We were chosen to be holy and without fault in God’s eyes. We were chosen to be God’s chosen people, and not only that. We were chosen to be a royal priesthood (the King’s priests), in order for us to declare the praises of Christ, who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. We were chosen by God, because He loves us and it gave Him great pleasure to bring us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and adopt us into His own family.
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.~ Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT ~
It’s been more than three weeks since I’ve written or posted anything. During that time, my pain medication has been elevated, due to a continued increase in the pain I suffer. The increased pain medication has made it nearly impossible for me to write, as I have been unable to stay awake long enough to read, write or think with any clarity. Then, when the pain meds wear off, the intense pain also renders me unable to write, as I struggle unsuccessfully, to get my mind off the pain and focus on something else.
Then, in the midst of this, my FaceBook account was hacked by someone pretending to be me. This imposter created a clone of my account, and began contacting some of my friends, trying to obtain personal financial information from them. Needless to say, I reported this to FaceBook, and I’ve closed my account for the time being…
Meanwhile, for the last nine days, my husband and I have been visiting our daughter and son-in-law, and three of our nine grandchildren. This precious time with my family has given me great joy, despite the pain I’m in, and last night, before bed, my granddaughters asked me to share a bible story with them. This completely blessed me, for there is nothing I’d rather do than share God’s word with people, and especially with my beloved grandchildren…
Therefore, I sharedDaniel 1with them last night, and I will continue sharing the story of Daniel and his friends each night for the rest of our visit… So, after beginning to tell Daniel’s story to my grandchildren and preparing to share the next chapter with them tonight, I felt a stirring within me to write. This urge to write has been missing for the last few weeks, but now, I found myself wanting to share Daniel’s story with you…
As you may already know, when King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army invaded Judea, the Lord allowed Nebuchadnezzar to make Judea’s King Jehoiakim his prisoner and take him back to Babylon. The Lord also allowed his army to rob His holy Temple, carrying some of its sacred vessels back to fill the treasury of Babylon’s false gods. Among those captured in the invasion, were members of Judah’s royal family, and several members of nobility. It was from these members of royalty and nobility, that Nebuchadnezzar chose the brightest young men who were also the most handsome, to be trained to serve in his royal court.
Among those chosen to be trained to serve in Nebuchadnezzar’s court were four young men named, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Then, possibly in an attempt to make them forget their roots, one of the first things Nebuchadnezzar did, was to change the names of his captives. Thus, Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah’s name was changed to Shadrach, Mishael’s name became Meshach and Azariah became Abed-nego.
To further enhance the change in the lives of Nebuchadnezzar’s captives, they were sent to live in his palace, where they would be trained in the Babylonian ways for three years. Daniel and his friends meekly went along with all of these changes, until they were presented with food from the king’s table. While these rations were very generous and were gratefully received by other prisoners, to be forced to partake of this food, would defile Daniel and his friends before the Lord, and they would rather die than be seen as unclean by their God.
Therefore, carefully choosing his words, Daniel spoke for himself and his friends to the king’s chief eunuch, asking that he and his friends be served nothing but vegetables, grains and water. Ashpenaz, the chief eunuch, refused, but Daniel was persistent, and quietly spoke to the guard that the chief eunuch assigned to him and his compatriots…
12 “Please, do us a favor. Put us, your servants, to the test for the next 10 days. Give us a vegetarian diet and water. 13 When the time is up, you can see for yourself our condition and compare it to the condition of the other young men who are eating from the king’s table. Then, after you have seen what has happened, do whatever you think is best with us, your servants.”
14 So the guard agreed to do as Daniel requested. He tested them on a diet of only vegetables, grains, and water for 10 days. 15 When the 10 days were up, he looked them over and noticed that Daniel and his friends were better off than all the young men eating from the king’s best foods. They looked healthy and well nourished, 16 so the guard continued to hold back their royal rations and replaced them with a strictly vegetarian diet. 17 Through all of this, God conferred upon these 4 young men superior abilities in literature, language, and wisdom. God had given Daniel an additional gift, too: the ability to interpret visions and dreams. 18 When the 3-year period of training and conditioning, as set by the king, was over, the king sent for the candidates; the chief of the royal eunuchs himself escorted them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king interviewed all of them and found that none of the candidates were any better than Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they were each assigned an important place in the king’s court.~ Daniel 1:12-19 VOICE ~
As I think about this story, and I ponder my own situation, which seems so hopeless and untenable, I’m struck by the presence of God in Daniel’s life. Think about it. Daniel was a God-fearing Jewish boy, whose desire was to serve God faithfully in Judea, in the midst of God’s chosen people. Yet, instead of having his dream fulfilled, Daniel and his friends were cruelly snatched from the arms of their loved ones and deposited into the midst of heathens. Also, rather than serving the country they loved, in Jerusalem, home of God’s holy Temple, they were now forced to serve a pagan king, who served pagan gods. Nothing had gone the way it should have, and Daniel’s dreams of ministering had been snatched away from him… Or had they?
As I think about my own situation, it all seems so hopeless. I’m in so much constant pain, that I’m unable to stand and minister like I once did. My dreams of ministering for the Lord seem to be beyond my grasp right now. I’m no longer able to preach and minister in the prisons like I once did, and my dance ministry has also fallen to the wayside, for how can you dance, when merely standing, sitting, walking or laying cause excruciating pain?
Still, as I read about Daniel, I’m struck by the knowledge that God not only knew about Daniel’s situation, it seems that He orchestrated it, for His glory…
2 The Lord gave Nebuchadnezzar the victory and allowed him to take King Jehoiakim of Judah as his prisoner. At the same time, He permitted the Babylonian king to rob God’s temple of some of its sacred vessels and carry them away to Babylonia (called Shinar), which was the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, to fill the treasury of his own gods, Marduk and Nebo.
3 After the king returned home, he commanded Ashpenaz, chief of the royal eunuchs, to bring some of the Israelites who had been taken captive to the palace. These included members of Judah’s royal family and the nobility.~ Daniel 1:2-3 VOICE ~
Now, if God orchestrated the events in Daniel’s life, and in the lives of His chosen people, doesn’t it seem plausible that He would also orchestrate the events in my life and yours? To be kidnapped and taken to a country far away, seems like a horrific experience, and yet, when you realize that God was behind it, this dreadful event is miraculously changed into a reason for hope and even joy.
Likewise, a life of constant chronic pain was not a part of the life I dreamed of having. I dreamed of preaching throughout the country, in prisons and churches and wherever else God sent me, but I now see that what I had once thought was God’s will for my life, was really only my own hopes and dreams for my life. They were my plans, not His. Furthermore, knowing that this chronic pain is not some tragic misfortune caused by the devil, unbeknownst to God, but rather, it is all a part of His plan for my life, makes my current circumstances worth rejoicing over…
28 We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautifulwhen we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.~ Romans 8:28 VOICE ~
Now, as I look at Daniel, who was snatched from his home, never to return again, I can see that God orchestrated everything in his life, changing it into something beautiful and good. So, if God orchestrated Daniel’s painful events into something good and beautiful, don’t you think it’s possible (even likely) that since I love Him, He has been orchestrating everything in my life to work toward something good and beautiful?
What about you, beloved reader? Have your circumstances been difficult? Be of good cheer. For as long as you love Him and are called according to His purpose, God will orchestrate everything in your life to work toward something good and beautiful.
In those days, a man continued to live at home, with his parents, until he married, unless the Lord called him to go elsewhere, and so it was with Samson. As they raised this son the Lord had blessed them with, Samson’s mother and father were very careful to follow YHWH’s instructions, and train him in the way that he should go. And as Samson reached manhood, while still living with his parents, the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.
Samson was a virile young man, full of vim and vigor, and though his parents loved him dearly, and considered themselves very blessed to have him, the fact is that raising him according to the instructions laid out by the Lord, had proven to be quite challenging. For Samson was very headstrong, and often very belligerent as well, when he didn’t get his own way. And now, though he was no longer a child, he still worried his parents, who knew that God had created Samson for greatness. For although he was older now, and though the Spirit of the Lord had begun to stir in him, Samson was still very rebellious.
The couple had just finished praying for their beloved son, when the door opened with a crash, and Samson entered, kissing first his father, and then his mother on the cheek, before grabbing a hand full of figs from the table. “You seem very cheerful,” his mother said with a smile, as Samson joined his parents at the table. “Where did you go today?”
Image Credit: photogallery.indiatimes.com
Grinning broadly, Samson responded, “I was in Timnah today, Imah, and I saw the most beautiful girl there.” Turning to his father, Samson continued, “She’s a Philistine, and I want to marry her, Abba. Go and make the arrangements for me to marry her, ok?”
“Son, surely you jest!” His mother exclaimed, while Manoah pounded his fist on the table and shouted.
“A Philistine?!? Samson, have you lost your mind? Isn’t there one woman in our tribe, or even among all of Israel, that you could marry?”
“No, Abba,” he replied. “I want her. Get her for me.”
“Son, must you go to the pagan Philistines for a bride?” both his father and mother pleaded. Neither of them realized that the Lord was at work, even in this.
Finally, seeing that they couldn’t change his mind about marrying the Philistine girl, Samson’s parents went with him to Timnah, where the girl lived. As his parents slowly trudged along, Samson walked much more briskly, exuberantly pulling ahead of his parents in his eagerness to get there as quickly as possible.
Image Credit: samsonthenazirite.wordpress.com
And so it was that as he was walking along, Samson heard the loud roar of a lion. His heart pounded loudly, as the lion lunged at him. Then, quickly, as the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him, without even thinking, Samson grabbed the open mouth of the lion before it closed on him, and ripped the beast in half. After killing the beast, he tossed the carcass into the vineyard by the roadside, and returned to hurry his parents along. Not wanting to trouble them, he kept the lion’s attack on him a secret.
When he saw the young Philistine woman again, Samson found her more desirable than ever, and so his father proceeded to arrange the marriage between his son and the Philistine. Finally, after nearly three months of negotiations, the marriage between the two was arranged. Samson was ecstatic, and when he was returning to Timnah for his wedding, he left the path and walked into the vineyard, where he had thrown the lion’s body. As he gazed at the dead animal’s body, he saw that a swarm of bees had made some honey within its cavity.
Image Credit: goodsalt.com
Grinning broadly, Samson scooped a handful of the honey, bringing its golden sweetness to his lips, tasting its syrupy goodness. After enjoying his fill of nature’s sweet nectarine, he carried some to his parents. “Oh Samson!” his mother exclaimed, “How wonderful! Where did you find it?”
Laughing joyfully, Samson ignored her question, instead urging his parents to hurry to Timnah, for his wedding. The Philistine girl was a beauty, and he was eager to make her his bride. Of course the truth is that he was looking forward to the party tonight, as well.
Once they got to town, while his father was making the final wedding arrangements, Samson threw a party for thirty young men, who were companions especially chosen for him by his bride’s parents. There was much fun and revelry at the party, as the young men all laughed and joked together. In the midst of all their merrymaking, Samson came up with a new game for his companions to play.
Image Credit: laymansbible.wordpress.com
“Friends, who wants to join me in a new game?” The young men looked at him expectantly, as he continued, “I have a riddle for you, and if any of you solve the riddle during these seven days of my marriage celebration, I’ll give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.” As the young men nodded eagerly, leaning closer to hear what he had to say, Samson lifted his right hand up to them, “But,” he said, “if no one can solve the riddle, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” the young men shouted eagerly. “Now tell us the riddle!”
“Very well then,” Samson replied. “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” After sharing his riddle with them, he burst out laughing. There was no way any of them would ever guess the answer to his riddle — not even if they had a million years to figure it out, for no one knew about the lion he had killed or the honey he had scooped up and eaten from it. He hadn’t even told his parents about it.
The men thought and thought about Samson’s riddle, only to become more and more frustrated with each wrong answer. As one day passed into another, and they were no closer to knowing the answer to the riddle, the young men began to get angry, and Samson’s laughter at their expense didn’t help their mood. For three days, they tried to guess the answer to Samson’s riddle with no luck, and finally, on the fourth day, they had enough.
While some of the young men distracted Samson, several others approached his wife, telling her, “You’d better coax your husband into telling you the answer to that stupid riddle for us. Otherwise, we’ll burn your father’s house down, with you in it! Did you all invite us to this party just to rob us and make us poor?”
With her life and the lives of her family at stake, Samson’s bride quickly approached him and tried to get him to tell her the answer to his riddle, but Samson laughingly brushed her aside, refusing to answer her, even when she burst into tears. “You don’t even love me, do you?” she cried. “You hate me, don’t you? How could you give my people a riddle and not even tell me the answer?” she desperately wept.
“Oh come on, honey,” Samson consoled her, as she lay in his arms later on that night, crying inconsolably. “I haven’t even told my parents the answer to my riddle, so why should I tell you?” At this answer, she just cried even harder.
During what should have been one of the most joyful occasions of their life, both Samson and the girl were miserable. She was despairing for fear that the men would murder her and her family, while Samson was tormented by her constant nagging and crying. Finally, on the seventh day of the celebration, unable to bear her weeping and whining any longer, Samson told her the answer to the riddle.
His young wife was both relieved and elated, and as soon as she was able to get away from Samson, she ran to explain the riddle’s answer to the young men. She knew that she was risking Samson’s wrath by doing so, but that seemed a minor thing in comparison to losing her life and the lives of her family members. The young men roared with raucous laughter when she told them. For now, the joke was on Samson, and not them.
They waited until just before sunset to approach Samson, bowing mockingly before him. Samson, certain that they couldn’t possibly know the answer to his riddle, looked down upon them, condescendingly saying, “So you think you can answer my riddle, do you?”
Then, altogether, as though they had rehearsed it, the thirty young men answered in unison, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”
At their response, Samson’s face turned beet red, as he realized that his wife had betrayed him after being married for less than a week. He was furious as he looked from one mocking face to another, and he bellowed, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!”
Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon the enraged bridegroom, and Samson went down to the town of Ashkelon and killed thirty men. Then, taking their clothing and their belongings, he then threw their clothing at the feet of the thirty young men. This was their payment for answering his riddle.
Afterward, still furious at his wife’s betrayal, Samson returned to his parents’ house.
A long, long time ago in Israel, before they had kings to rule over them, God was Israel’s King. For more than 300 years, after escaping from slavery in Egypt, under Moses’ leadership, and after wandering in the desert for 40 years, God appointed judges to rule and lead the children of Israel. Now, during the time of these judges, the children of Israel were sometimes very faithful to the Lord, while other times, (often when one of the judges would die, and before another took over), the Israelites would do what was evil in the Lord’s sight, choosing to do what was right in their own eyes, rather than walking in obedience to God. During this time, the nation of Israel did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and so He handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for 40 years.
Now, it was when the nation of Israel had chosen to go their own way, rather than walking in obedience to God, and were suffering under the oppression of the Philistines, that a woman received a very special visitor, who brought her good news. This woman was married to a man named Manoah, who was from the tribe of Dan, and though they had been married for many years, they had no children, for she was barren.
When she was younger, she suffered from deep depression, especially when her friends were having one baby after another, year after year, while she was unable to conceive even one. For many years, she had cried out to YHWH, the Creator of all life, pleading for Him to give her a child, but finally, she had accepted the fact that she would never know the joy of carrying a new life in her womb. Therefore, she made up her mind that she would make the best of the situation, and though she couldn’t give her husband a baby, she determined to be the best wife any man could want in every other way.
That’s not to say that she didn’t still have bad days, because sometimes, when she thought about what it would have been like to give Manoah the son they both longed for, it felt like her heart would be rent apart. On those days, it was hard to stop the tears from flowing, but she tried not to let her husband see her pain, because it broke his heart to see her so upset. He was a good man, who loved her deeply, and the only thing worse than her own pain was seeing pain in Manoah’s eyes.
And so this precious woman resolved that she would love and serve the Lord with all her heart, and place all of her trust in Him. For though He had given her no children, He had blessed her in other ways. After all, she had a wonderful husband who loved her dearly, despite the fact that she could give him no heirs. She also had a lovely home to live in, plenty of food, clothes on her back and so much more. How could she not love the Lord her Provider?
Yet, as deep as this woman’s love for the Lord was, His love for her was even deeper. You see, long before He laid the foundations of the earth, Elohim had given her a very special place in history, and though no one remembers her name, they do remember her story…
One day, while she was drawing water from the well, a Stranger appeared before her, saying, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
She was elated. So strong was her faith in God, that it never occurred to her to question or doubt the Stranger’s words. As soon as He finished speaking and left, she gathered the hem of her robe in hand and took off running, (Yes, running at her age!) to find Manoah as quickly as possible and share the good news with him.
“Manoah! Manoah!” she shouted. “A Man of God came to me; His face was fearsome, like that of the Angel of God. I didn’t ask Him where He came from, and He didn’t tell me His name. But He told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’”
Manoah was stunned as he gazed down into his wife’s glowing eyes. She was radiant with joy, reminding him of the girl she had once been, before the cares of life had doused her youthful luminescence. Manoah didn’t question his wife’s sanity, for he, too, was a man who loved the Lord, and like his wife, he had a deep and abiding faith in the Almighty One. Therefore, in response to her joyful announcement, he dropped to his knees, praying, “Lord, please let the Man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born.”
In answer to Manoah’s earnest prayer, the Angel of the Lord appeared once again to the woman of God, this time, while she was sitting in the field. Hurriedly, she ran to find her husband, telling him, “The Man who appeared to me the other day is here again!”
Quickly, Manoah ran back to the field with his wife to find the Angel of the Lord and question Him. “Are you the One who spoke to my wife the other day?” When the Angel of the Lord responded that He was indeed the one who had spoken to Manoah’s wife, he began to question Him about what rules should govern the child’s life. He repeated to Manoah what He had spoken to his wife a few days prior.
After listening to the Angel of the Lord’s instructions, Manoah invited Him to stay, while he and his wife prepared a goat for Him to eat. The Angel of the Lord agreed to stay, but informed them that He would not be eating the goat. Instead, He instructed them to offer the goat as a sacrifice to the Lord.
Manoah, still unaware that this was the Angel of the Lord, agreed to do so, asking Him for His name. “Why do you ask for My name?” He responded, “since it is Wonderful?”
Manoah then offered the goat and a grain offering as well, on a rock. Then, what happened next, caused both Manoah and his wife to fall to the ground on their faces in worship, as a flame of fire shot up from the altar toward heaven, and the angel of the Lord soared up to heaven in the flame. It was then, that Manoah realized that this was the Angel of the Lord. As he grabbed his wife’s hand, and the two stood, looking up to heaven, he whispered fearfully, “Now, we shall surely die, for we have seen God!”
Tenderly, this woman of great faith looked up into her husband’s eyes, taking his face into her hands, as she responded softly, “No Manoah. If the Lord was going to kill us, He wouldn’t have accepted our offering. And surely, He wouldn’t have appeared to us to give us such wonderful news and shown us such miraculous things!” Tears slid down both of their faces as they held one another in the field that day, and worshiped their Creator…
And so it was that before the year was over, the faithful woman truly did give birth to a son, as the Lord had promised, and she named him Samson, which means, “sun,” perhaps in homage to the brilliance of the Lord that flashed before her and her husband, the day they saw the Lord ascend into heaven in a flame…
4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.
Beloved readers, just as Israel was commanded many thousands of years ago to Listen! Hear! Understand and obey, so we too, are called to Listen! Hear! Understand and obey! Therefore, please join me as we venture into the Word of God, specifically into His Shema, so that we can learn to listen to Him and hear His voice through His word and His commands.
Shema! Listen to me… hear me and understand that YHWH (the Lord your God) is ONE… That means that besides Him, there is no other…
5 “I am Adonai; there is no other;
besides Me there is no God.
I am arming you, although you don’t know Me,
6 so that those from the east and those from the west
will know that there is none besides Me —
I am Adonai; there is no other.
7 I form light, I create darkness;
I make well-being, I create woe;
I, Adonai, do all these things.”
Hallelujah! There is only One God, and He is not Allah… He is not Buddah… He is not one of many ways… He says, “I am Adonai {the LORD}; there is no other; besides Me there is no God.” ~ Isaiah 45:5 — CJB ~ You see, beloved readers, there is only One God, and besides Him, there is no God…
This One God is the Creator of all things… He is the One by whom and through whom all things were created…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing made had being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not suppressed it.
15 He {Christ} is the visible image of the invisible God. He is supreme over all creation, 16 because in connection with Him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through Him and for Him. 17 He existed before all things, and He holds everything together.
When the Jews recite the Shema, they usually do so, while placing their hands over their eyes. This is done to symbolize that they are blocking any distractions from interfering with their listening, hearing, speaking and understanding the Shema…
4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.
Listen… hear… pay close attention… UNDERSTAND, Israel… believers from every tongue and tribe and nation… Christians… ADONAI (YHWH) is ONE… He is the ONLY One… Beside Him, there is no other God (or god).
Understand, my friends, my beloved readers, there is only ONE God, and His name is not Allah or Mohhamed. His name is not Buddah. His name is YHWH — the Self-existing One… His name is YHWH — “I AM that I AM…” He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit — three in ONE… He is the Alpha and the Omega — the beginning and the end… He is the First and the Last… His name is Jesus — Only Begotten Son of God…
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in Him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through Him, the world might be saved…”
42 Yeshua replied to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me; because I came out from God; and now I have arrived here. I did not come on My own; He sent Me. 43 Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you can’t bear to listen to My message. 44 You belong to your father, Satan, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. From the start he was a murderer, and he has never stood by the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is speaking in character; because he is a liar — indeed, the inventor of the lie! 45 But as for Me, because I tell the truth you don’t believe Me. 46 Which one of you can show Me where I’m wrong? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me? 47 Whoever belongs to God listens to what God says; the reason you don’t listen is that you don’t belong to God.”
54 Yeshua answered, “If I praise Myself, My praise counts for nothing. The One who is praising Me is My Father, the very One about whom you keep saying, ‘He is our God.’ 55 Now you have not known Him, but I do know Him; indeed, if I were to say that I don’t know Him, I would be a liar like you! But I do know Him, and I obey His word. 56 Avraham, your father, was glad that he would see My day; then he saw it and was overjoyed.”
57 “Why, you’re not yet fifty years old,” the Judeans replied, “and you have seen Avraham?” 58 Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! Before Avraham came into being, I AM!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Yeshua was hidden and left the Temple grounds.
6 Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 Because you have known Me, you will also know My Father; from now on, you do know Him — in fact, you have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” 9 Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with Me? What I am telling you, I am not saying on My own initiative; the Father living in Me is doing His own works.11 Trust Me, that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with Me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves.
Hear, O Israel… Hear all you nations of the earth… Understand what I am saying… Comprehend these statements… Ponder on them and meditate on them… The Lord {Adonai… YHWH… Father… Abba} our God is One God… Beside Him, there is no other God {god}…
I’ve only just barely scratched the surface in this, the second post about the Shema… In Part 3, we’ll talk about loving the Lord, but for now, let’s simply focus our gaze on this one thought… There is ONLY ONE GOD. There are not many gods — only ONE GOD…
This was shown to you, so that you would know that Adonai is God, and there is no other beside Him.
What better way can we begin the New Year, than by fixing our thoughts on Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith? Let us begin this New Year by remembering, prayiing, pondering and dwelling on this one thought… The Lord our God is One God…
Heavenly Father, as we begin this New Year of 2014, let us fix our thoughts on You — the ONLY God… Let us remember and ponder on thoughts of You, our Creator… God our Father, Maker of heaven and earth. Let us fix our sights on Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, through whom and for whom all things were created and are held together… Let us fix our hearts on Holy Spirit, who lives within the hearts of each believer, giving us wisdom and instruction, as He guides us in all truth. As we fix our hearts, our souls, our minds and our strength on remembering these things, I pray Lord, that You will show us Your glory. Teach us, and draw us ever closer to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.
This is one of the most powerful and important scripture passages in the bible. It is of such great import that all of Israel was commanded to keep these words on his heart. They were to meditate on these words, to teach them to their children, to talk about them at home and when they traveled, when they were in bed and when they got up…
6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, 9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.
In other words, the people of Israel were (and still are) to love the Lord with their whole heart. “Shema Yisra’el!” Moses told the people. “Listen to me! Hear me!” Whenever we have something important to share with someone, we often preface it with the words, “Listen to me or Hear me!” It is the same with the Lord, when He wants our attention, so He can share something with us. He tells us…
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Beloved, this word is not just for Israel. This word is for every man, woman and child that lives, that ever has lived and that ever will live. The word that I share with you today is life, so I entreat you, Shema! Listen to me! Hear me!
4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.
As a mother, when I told my children to listen, I didn’t just mean that I wanted them to hear me, because all too often, children hear what we’re saying, as the words go into one ear and out through the other. When I told my children, or when I tell my grandchildren, or when I am telling you to listen, I don’t just want you to hear my words. I want you to heed my words. I want you to take these words to heart and ponder them. I want you to act on these words.
Shema Beloved Reader! There is only One God, and you must love Him with all of your heart… So, what does it mean to love with our whole heart?
The Hebrew word for heart used here islebab (pronounced lā·väv’)…
I. inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding
A. inner part, midst
i. midst (of things) ii. heart (of man) iii. soul, heart (of man) iv. mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory v. inclination, resolution, determination (of will) vi. conscience vii. heart (of moral character) viii. as seat of appetites ix. as seat of emotions and passions x. as seat of courage
Shema Beloved Readers! There is only One God, and you must love the Him with all of your heart… your inner man… your mind… your will… your soul… your understanding… Shema! Hear me – this is not a half-hearted act on your part. You are commanded to love the Lord your God with ALL your heart.
Image Credit: inovizion.co.za
This means that you are to love Him with your entire inmost being. I love digging deeply into the word, so that I can understand more fully what it is that the Lord is commanding us to do. The Lord commands us to love Him with our full heart, in the midst of everything…
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to love God when everything is going your way? It’s really easy to love Him when you have plenty of food in your pantry, and plenty of money in the bank. It’s easy to love Him when your loved ones love you back. Loving God is easy when you and your loved ones have your health. It is good to love the Lord your God in these circumstances…
But how do you feel when all hell breaks loose around you? Do you continue to love God when you and your loved ones suffer all sorts of trauma and pain? Do you continue to love the Lord your God when you are despised, rejected and abused? Do you love the Lord your God when your children or your grandchildren have been misused and abused? Do you love Him with all of your inmost being, when someone you love suffers and dies, in spite of all your heartfelt prayers? Shema Beloved! This is the kind of love the Lord commands us to give Him.
Do you set your heart on Him, giving Him all of your love, even though you watch all that you hoped and dreamed for come crashing and burning at your feet? You see, this is what it means to love the Lord with your whole heart, and He will not settle for less. When you’re going through hell, and it seems that all is lost, while people advise you to just curse God and die, do you begin to reflect on the goodness of God? In the midst of your suffering, are you able to remember the many times when God showed Himself strong on your behalf? As the pain threatens to destroy you, do you determine in your will (heart) that you will still love Him… still worship Him… still serve Him… still praise Him, as the sons of Korah did?
My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise Him again
for being my Savior and God.
Shema Beloved Readers! Hear me! Do you love the Lord your God with all of your passion? For too long, the church has taught that love is a verb, an act of the will and nothing more. The fact is that love isa verb. It isan act of will… but it is so much more than that! You see, the church also taught that love is not a feeling, and that is a lie. Love isindeed a feeling, as well as an act of will. You see, my friends, I chooseto love the Lord my God with all my heart, no matter what my circumstances are, and no matter how bad the pain is.
I choose to love Him by remembering all that He is… He is the One who loved me when no one else did… He is the One who has never left me nor forsaken me… He is the One who died to pay for my sins… He is the One who loved me long before I ever loved Him… He is the One who chose me… He is the One who redeemed me and called me by name… He is the One who suffered for my sake… He is the One who saved me… delivered me… set me free… gives me hope…
You see, as I remember who He is and all that He’s done for me, my love for Elohim is no longer simply an act of will. With each remembrance, I feel a stirring within my soul, and my passion for my Maker is kindled. Shema Beloved Readers! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…
Do you love Him? Beloved Readers, meditate on this passage. There’s so much more to it, that we’ll continue another day, but for now, Shema Beloved Reader! Love the Lord your God with all your heart!
You may have noticed that I have not been writing very many posts lately, nor have I been reading very many of your posts. Believe me, I haven’t lost my love for writing and sharing God’s word. Nor have I lost my love for reading what my brothers and sisters are posting on their blogs. The fact is that life is constantly changing, and we just never know where our heavenly Father is leading us.
Just recently, I began attending a School of the Prophets, and if that wasn’t enough, I also started taking a course called The Prophetic Voice of Hebrew. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to learn the Hebrew language, and I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful and amazing it is. On top of that, I’ve been spending more time with my grandchildren, so between class, time with my husband and time with my grandchildren, I haven’t had much time for reading or writing blog posts.
Image Credit: jew-gentile.com
However, in my Hebrew class, I had a homework assignment that just stirred my spirit. We were asked if we are Spiritual Jews or Christians, what they are respectively, and why. I first approached this as any other homework assignment, and I began writing a very unmoving, intellectual report, which left me feeling very dissatisfied. Then, as I was looking through the scriptures, I turned to Romans 11, and my heart began to burn within me. This was what Holy Spirit was leading me to talk about.
Have you ever thought about whether you are a Spiritual Jew or a Christian, and what the difference (if any) is between the two? I pray that as you read this post, you’ll be just as blessed by it as I was when I studied and wrote it. I hope you don’t mind reading my homework assignment, but I was so excited about it, that I just had to share it with you too…
Are We Spiritual Jews or Christians?
The scripture passage that immediately leaps to my mind regarding this question is fromRomans 11. As I read this passage, it brought tears to my eyes, for in this passage, we get a glimpse of the great depths of God’s love for both His chosen people, Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל) and for us as well.
See what love the Father has lavished on us in letting us be called God’s children! For that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it has not known Him. ~ 1 John 3:1 – CJB ~
Are we Spiritual Jews or Christians? Is there a difference in the two? What does our heavenly Father call us to be?
What is a Spiritual Jew?
For it is we who are the Circumcised, we who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in the Messiah Yeshua! We do not put confidence in human qualifications… ~ Philippians 3:3 – CJB ~ (emphasis mine)
Image Credit: Messianic Jew by:Louise Hansen
According to the Apostle Paul, we, who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in Yeshua HaMashiach, are the Circumcised (Spiritual Jews). It is we, who do not put confidence in human qualifications, but instead trust in Yod Hey Vav Hey (יְהוָה) with all of our hearts, who are the Circumcised.
You see, according to scripture, the nation of Israel has turned its back on our heavenly Father, rejecting the very Messiah they so desperately longed and cried out for.
7 So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have – the ones God has chosen – but the hearts of the rest were hardened. 8 As the Scriptures say, “God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day He has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear.”
9 Likewise, David said, “Let their bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well. Let their blessings cause them to stumble, and let them get what they deserve. 10 Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see, and let their backs be bent forever.” ~ Romans 11:7-9 – NLT ~
So, what does this mean to us? Hallelujah! This means that because the children of Israel turned their back on Messiah, Elohim, our Creator and our Deliverer, in His mercy and grace, decided to reach out to the Gentiles – us!
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But He wanted His own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. ~ Romans 11:11 – NLT ~
Does this not bring tears to your eyes? Think of this – because His own people stumbled and were disobedient, God made salvation available to the Gentiles, just as He had promised Abraham thousands of years earlier…
18 “And by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed – because you obeyed My order.” ~ Genesis 22:18 – CJB ~
Beloved, do you see the great love our Father has for us? Do you see that He has called us to be His children? Do you see that a Spiritual Jew is the adopted child of Abba? He has grafted us into His family, so that we are no longer strangers or aliens.
What is a Christian?
Image Credit; wildjazz.wordpress.com
The word Christian is mentioned three times in the bible. The first time it is mentioned is in Acts 11, which talks about the believers being scattered after Stephen was martyred, and some of the believers who went to Antioch began sharing the gospel with Gentiles, and a large number of them turned to Christ. When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabus to check things out, and he was overjoyed when he saw what was happening and encouraged the believers to remain true to the Lord. Then, he went to find Paul.
26 When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.) ~ Acts 11:26 – NLT ~
According to this scripture passage, a Christian is a believer that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. The Complete Jewish Bible refers to believers as talmidim, which is:
A plural Hebrew noun meaning “disciples” in its truest sense: those who leave family to study and follow the ways of their teacher [rabbi]. They study not only to learn what their teacher knows but to become the type of man their teacher is. From the Hebrew root word “limmud” meaning “instructed”. Strong’s #8527. Pronounced talmeeDEEM.
Therefore, according to this, a Christian is one who not only studies to learn what his/her teacher (Yeshua) knows, but to also become like Yeshua.
The next mention of the word Christian is in Acts 26, when Paul is sharing his testimony and speaking in his own defense to King Agrippa. As Paul shared his testimony and reached the part where Messiah rose from the dead, he was interrupted by Festus, the governor of Caesarea, who accused him of being crazy…
25 But Paul replied, “I am not insane, Most Excellent Festus. What I am saying is the sober truth. 26 And King Agrippa knows about these things. I speak boldly, for I am sure these events are familiar to him, for they were not done in a corner! 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do –“
28 Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?”
29 Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.” ~ Acts 26:25-29 – NLT ~
According to the scripture above, the Apostle Paul, also a Jew and even a Pharisee at one time, identified himself with the Christians (see verses 28-29 above).
Further, the Apostle Peter also encourages Christians who suffer for Christ, and he makes no separation between himself, (a Jew) and Christians. Indeed, look at Peter’s beautiful description of a Christian…
14 So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?”
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you. ~ 1 Peter 4:14-19 – NLT ~
After praying and studying the Word of God, I have determined in my heart that a Spiritual Jew and a Christian are one and the same. Therefore, I am both a Spiritual Jew, grafted into the Jewish lineage by my beloved Father, who saw me, just as the prodigal son’s father saw him, when I was far, far away, and in His great love and mercy for me, He chose me and called me His beloved daughter. And though I was unclean, He beckoned me…
“Come now,” says Adonai, “let’s talk this over together. Even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; even if they are as red as crimson, they will be like wool.”
~ Isaiah 1:18 – CJB ~
Beloved reader, as one who grew up despised and rejected by her own family, this blesses me beyond measure, and I know that I’ve written more than two pages on this subject, so I will leave you with one final thought, from the Apostle Paul…
14 All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to bring you back again into fear; on the contrary, you received the Spirit, who makes us sons and by whose power we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!). 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our own spirits that we are children of God; 17 and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah – provided we are suffering with Him in order also to be glorified with Him. ~ Romans 8:14-17 – CJB ~
I love the Lord, and I love His word. In fact, I’m very passionate about Him, His word, and His people. His word is life, therefore, it is of utmost importance that we know His word and not twist it or alter it in any way. Otherwise, we run the risk of leading many people astray.
Teach me Your decrees, O Lord; I will keep them to the end.
This scripture is a promise to the Lord, that if He will teach me His decrees, I will keep them to the end. Now, it’s important that I share with you what keep means in this scripture, because it means much more than I ever realized until I studied it.
The Hebrew word for keepis natsar(pronouncednä-tsār’), which means:
I. to guard, watch, watch over, keep
A. to watch, guard, keep B. to preserve, guard from dangers C. to keep, observe, guard with fidelity D. to guard, keep secret E. to be kept close, be blockaded F. watchman (participle)
When I look at Psalm 119:33 in this context, I realize that I have made a commitment to my heavenly Father to not only keep His word by obeying it, but that I will also keep watch over His word and guard it with fidelity, to preserve it from those who would twist it and try to altar its true meaning. I don’t claim to be a great prophet or even a great woman of God, but when I see someone misusing the word of God, or claiming lies in His name, a fire burns within me, and I must speak out and warn the people who follow false doctrines or false teachers.
I don’t like writing negative things about other people, especially those who claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ, however, I feel that the Lord has called me to be a watchman on the wall. It isn’t a job I asked for, but ever since I read the following passage in Ezekiel, many years ago, I have felt compelled to warn people from sinning against the Lord, and from following false doctrine and false teachers.
16 After seven days the Lord gave me a message. He said, 17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 19 If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.
20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 21 But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”
Now I fully understand that these words were spoken to Ezekiel, commanding him to warn the people of Israel to repent, however, those words spoken to him by God also apply today. There are still people sinning and in danger of burning in hell for eternity, and if I know the truth, and fail to warn them, or if I fail to speak out against those who are leading others astray, doesn’t that make me as guilty as the false teachers are? Therefore, as distasteful as it may seem to some, I must speak out against false teachings and false teachers!
For this reason, I must cry out to you, my beloved readers, against Joyce Meyer and the false doctrines she teaches. Yes, I’m well aware that there are many of you who love her and admire her, and on the surface, it seems like her teachings are good for people. But don’t be fooled, my friends, because many of her teachings are unbiblical, and if you follow her teachings, they could lead you straight to hell.
I realize that I’ve made some pretty strong claims, therefore, please allow me to share some of the false doctrines that I know of, followed up with Scripture, so that you can make an informed decision about whether to continue to follow Joyce Meyer or not. Remember, my friends, to study the Word of God, for it is vital to your relationship with Him, and it will help you to discern the truth from lies…
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I’ll leave my concerns about money for another post. For this post, I’m just going to dive right in to expose several false doctrines taught by Joyce Meyer, and the best place to begin are right at the foundations of our faith… What follows is a soundbite of Joyce Meyer sharing some of the blasphemous heresy that she tries to pass as Christian doctrine…
Just to ensure that you indeed heard what you thought was said, I’ve included a written quote of what Joyce Meyer stated below…
“He could have helped Himself up until the point where He said I commend My spirit into Your hands, at that point He couldn’t do nothing for Himself anymore. He had become sin, He was no longer the Son of God. He was sin.”
Image Credit: samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com
Excuse me? How could she make such a preposterous claim that Jesus was no longer the Son of God? Jesus was the Son of God in the beginning. He was the Son of God when He walked on earth. He was the Son of God when He died. He is the Son of God today, more than 2000 years after He died on the cross and was resurrected, and He will always be the Son of God throughout all eternity… Indeed, according to Scripture, Jesus is God, and God always has been and always will be.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
1 Lord, through all the generations
You have been our home!
2 Before the mountains were born,
before You gave birth to the earth and the world,
from beginning to end, You are God.
Unfortunately, that is not the end to the heresy espoused by Joyce Meyer. Let’s see what other views of Jesus’ death on the cross she has… In her 1991 book entitled “The Most Important Decision You’ll Ever Make”, second printing, May 1993,Joyce Meyer made the following claim…
He became our sacrifice and died on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time he entered hell, where you and I deserve to go (legally) because of our sin. He paid the price there.
~ page 35 ~
Here’s the thing — if you don’t already know the whole truth, this sounds right. Jesus did become our sacrifice, and He did die on the cross. Jesus was in the grave for three days, and during that time, He did go to hell. And none of us could argue the fact that we all deserve to go to hell because of our sin. Sounds good so far, right?
There’s only one problem with what Joyce stated in her book, but it’s a major problem. In fact, this one statement she made is grounds for calling her a heretic. You see, Joyce Meyer claimed that Jesus paid the price for our sin in hell, and not on the cross! That is absolute heresy, and totally goes against scripture.
But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Do you understand this? Christ paid for your sins and my sins on the cross, NOT in hell! There are numerous scriptures that show that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, but the words of Jesus on the cross say it all.
After Yeshua had taken the wine, He said,“It is accomplished!”And, letting His head droop, He delivered up His spirit.
I realize that this version of this scripture may not be as familiar to people as the King James version, where Jesus said, “It is finished,”however, I love how the Complete Jewish Bible says,“It is accomplished!”
I think it’s important to understand exactly what Jesus meant when He said,“It is finished (accomplished).”Therefore, I would like to share the Greek word, teleō(pronounced te-le’-ō), for finished, that was used in this scripture.
I. to bring to a close, to finish, to end
A. passed, finished
II. to perform, execute, complete, fulfil, (so that the thing done corresponds to what has been said, the order, command etc.)
A. with special reference to the subject matter, to carry out the contents of a command
B. with reference also to the form, to do just as commanded, and generally involving the notion of time, to perform the last act which completes a process, to accomplish, fulfil
III. to pay
A. of tribute
Just look at the meaning of teleō, particularly number II. When Jesus said that it is finished, He was saying that He had completed and fulfilled the command that He had been given, and now it was accomplished. What Jesus accomplished on the cross was enough, and nothing more was required to save us. He was the Lamb without spot or blemish, who was sacrificed as the atonement for our sins. With His blood sacrifice on that cross, He completed His mission.
My friends, there is so much more that I want to share with you about this topic. There is more that you need to know about this heretic. For those who follow Joyce Meyer’s ministry, I urge you to pray about what I have shared with you, and please come back and read my next post about Joyce Meyer.
In the last post, we talked about the name of God, the one He gave to Moses… YHWH or Yud He Vav He, also spoken as Yud He Waw He. In this name, the Lord reveals so much about Himself to us… He reveals that He is the All-Sufficient God. He is everything we need and more… Now, I want to go a little deeper and share something else with you…
Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'”
The Lord did not actually say that His name was LORD, or Adonai, as the Jews have recorded. In fact, no one knows any longer what His name is, because the Lord’s name, the one that He said would be His name forever, and would be a memorial to all generations, has allegedly been stripped of its vowels, leaving only the consonants, YHWH (in English), or Yud He Vav He (in Hebrew). Therefore, whenever you read the word LORD in your bible with the letter “L” capitalized, and the remaining letters written in small caps, that means the Yud He Vav He’s name was actually spoken or written there originally.
Now, why would anyone try to hide the Lord’s name, when He specifically said that it was His name forever, and that it would be a memorial to allgenerations?
something designed to preserve the memory of a person, event, etc., as a monument or a holiday.
Image Credit: richardharrison.net
Many people suppose that the Jews do not write the Lord’s name, but instead, replace it with “Adonai” because they don’t want to break the third commandment…
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
However, this is not true. As a matter of fact, in this very commandment, YHWH’s name was used not only once, but twice. So, where does this tradition of hiding the name of God come from?
Apparently, this tradition of not writing YHWH’s name came about over time, as various rabbis after reading Deuteronomy 12, determined that another commandment was implied in this scripture passage…
1 Here are the laws and rulings you are to observe and obey in the land Adonai, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess as long as you live on earth. 2 You must destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under some leafy tree. 3 Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place.
4 “But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way. 5 Rather, you are to come to the place where Adonai your God will put His name. He will choose it from all your tribes; and you will seek out that place, which is where He will live, and go there.
No one really knows when, but somewhere along the way, rabbis, scribes and priests decided to stop writing the name of God and to write Adonai instead of His name. This way, they figured, no one would run the risk of accidentally erasing His name from the scriptures.
Image Credit: propheticverses.com
How sad. Think of it — Moses, the one God spoke His name to, was the first to write the Lord’s name. As a matter of fact, knowing that people would see His name and read His name, and hear His name, Moses still chose to write the Lord’s name so that all might see it.
Let’s take it a step further… God wrote His name on the stone tablets, when He wrote the 10 Commandments, for all to see, after Moses broke the original stone tablets, (when the Israelites sinned and worshiped the golden calf).
Moshe was there with ADONAI forty days and forty nights, during which time he neither ate food nor drank water. [ADONAI] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words.
If the Lord had not wanted His name written or spoken aloud, He never would have revealed it and told Moses to speak His name, not only to the Jews, but to Pharaoh as well. Indeed, nothing in the Torah prohibited speaking the name of the Lord, and the Jews in ancient times used greet one another in the name of the Lord regularly and call upon His name. As a matter of fact, people called on the name of the Lord long before Moses learned the Lord’s name…
And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.~ Genesis 4:26 ~
He left that place, went to the hill east of Beit-El and pitched his tent. With Beit-El to the west and ‘Ai to the east, he built an altar there and called on the name of ADONAI.~ Genesis 12:8 ~
For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as ADONAI our God is, whenever we call on him?~ Deuteronomy 4:7 ~
Shimshon called to ADONAI, “Adonai ELOHIM, just this once, please, think of me, and please, give me strength, so that I can take revenge on the P’lishtim for at least one of my two eyes.” ~ Judges 16:28 ~
“Then, you, call on the name of your god; and I will call on the name of ADONAI; and the God who answers with fire, let him be God!” All the people answered, “Good idea! Agreed!”~ 1 Kings 18:24
As you can see, people called on the Lord by name from the most ancient times, and the Lord heard their cries and answered them. In fact, the Lord Himself encouraged people to call upon His name…
2 “Thus says ADONAI the maker, ADONAI who formed [the universe]
so as to keep directing it — ADONAI is his name:
3 ‘Call out to me,
and I will answer you —
I will tell you great things,
hidden things of which you are unaware.’”
Knowing that the Lord Himself wants His people to call upon His name, makes what happened all the more difficult to understand. However, by the time of the Talmud, some rabbis proclaimed that it was sinful to write or even speak His name aloud, or else the person who did so would have no place in the World to Come. Is it any wonder the Lord Jesus spoke so harshly to the Pharisees?
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.~ Matthew 23:15 ~
Sadly, through the years, because the Jews stopped writing the name of the Lord, and because they were afraid to speak His name anymore, the Lord’s name was forgotten. Indeed, Jesus even had to teach His disciples the name of the Lord…
“I made Your name known to the people You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ~ John 17:6 ~
I made Your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known; so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I Myself may be united with them.~ John 17:26 ~
Hallelujah! Our heavenly Father wants His children to know His name and to call upon His name. Jesus knew that, and so He made Yud He Vav He’s name known to His disciples.
Although the pronunciation of our heavenly Father’s name has been lost, we can still pronounce the letters of His name that are left to us… YHWH (Yud He Vav He)…
The image above are the Hebrew letters, YHWH. It is read from right to left, and it is the name of the Lord. It is pronounced Yud Hey Vav (or Waw) Hey. Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to pray to Yud He Vav He and to call upon His holy name and see His response to your prayers. There is power in praying, crying and calling upon Yud He Vav He.
Would you like to know a little more about Yud He Vav He and the power of His name? The image above is the Lord’s name, using letters from the modern Hebrew alphabet. The image below shows the ancient Hebrew writing of the Lord’s name — the one used by Moses and the Old Testament writers, and it is here, in these ancient letters, that we truly get a glimpse of the power of God’s holy name…
Remember, that Hebrew is read from right to left, and so was ancient Hebrew. Therefore, if you look at the first letter, “Yud”, you see an image that looks like a hand attached to an arm. The next letter in the pictogram is the letter He (pronounced Hey), and this figure looks like someone is saying, “Hey!” or “Behold!” So what you see so far is “Hand — behold!” The next letter resembles a tent peg or a nail, followed by “Behold” again.
Therefore, when you put the letters all together, you see Hand — Behold! Nail — Behold! We see here in the Lord’s name, the name that we are to call upon, a picture of Christ’s hands with a nail in them. Is that not powerful? Just seeing this is evidence that Yud He Vav He, by His very name, had planned the crucifixion of Christ, from eternity. Such wisdom and love is far beyond our scope of knowledge.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I urge you and encourage you to call upon the name of Yud He Vav He in Yeshua’s name, Then watch and see how He will move on your behalf…
Yud He Vav He, thank You for the power and the revelation of Your Holy name. Thank You for entrusting Your name to Your children who love You. Thank You for the hope and the promise that is in Your name, Yud He Vav He, and we ask You to speak to the hearts of the men, women and children in our lives, in Yeshua’s name. Amen.
What’s in a name? Why and how do people choose names for their children, and what does it say about the one who names and the one who is named?
In New Testament times, the Jews gave their children family names, unless the Lord gave them a different name…
59 When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father.60 But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!”
61 “What?” they exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.” 62 So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. 63 He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.
In many cultures, the name given to the baby reflected their environment and the circumstances involved in the child’s birth. In still other cultures, the names reflect the parents’ hopes for their children, or something descriptive of the child.
Names are important. A good name can bless a person for life, while a bad name can ruin a person’s life. As important as a good name is to a man, long before man existed, there was One whose name embodies all that is good and all that ever will be good. In fact, Jesus, the One who was without sin, said this about Him…
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him.“Only God is truly good.”
The Lord God has many names, and each one describes His character. Today, I want to focus on one of God’s names — the name He gave to Moses (Moshe), when he asked who he should tell the people of Israel whom should he say sent him…
14 God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be],” and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh [I Am or I Will Be] has sent me to you.’” 15 God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after.
I chose to use the scripture above from the Complete Jewish Bible, because it is the closest translation to what the Lord actually spoke to Moshe (Moses). “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be].”There’s such power in this statement. In that short sentence, God is telling Moses…
“I am what I am… Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! Before Avraham came into being, I AM!” ~ John 8:58 ~
I will be what I will be… “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord God. “I am the One Who Is, Who Always Was, and Who Is Still to Come—the Almighty One.” ~ Revelation 1:8 ~
I am the All-Sufficient One… And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9 ~
I am Enough for you… But now this is what Adonai says, He who created you, Ya‘akov, He who formed you, Isra’el: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I am calling you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through water, I will be with you; when you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched — the flame will not burn you. ~ Isaiah 43:1-2 ~
I am All you will ever need… Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ~ Psalm 73:25-26 ~
I am your Everything… Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see — such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together. ~ Colossians 1:15-17 ~
I am Life to you… Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ~ John 11:25 ~
I am your Protector… In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. ~ Psalm 4:8 ~
I am your Deliverer… And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment. ~ 1 Thessalonians 1:10 ~
I am your Healer… And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ~ Acts 10:38 ~
I am your Reason for living… The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ~ Psalm 27:1 ~
I am your Hope… Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… ~ 1 Peter 1:3 ~
I am the Source of all you need… Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. ~ Jeremiah 33:3 ~
I am your Keeper… The Lord is your Keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. ~ Psalm 121:5 ~
Image Credit: Unknown
I am Almighty… God raised up the Lord, and He will raise us up too by His power. ~ 1 Corinthians 6:14 ~
I am All-Knowing… 1 O Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. ~ Psalm 139:1-4 ~
I am All-Seeing… Before God, nothing created is hidden, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. ~ Hebrews 4:13 ~
I am With you… Don’t you know that you people are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ~ 1 Corinthians 3:16 ~
I am your Peace… Now may the Lord of shalom Himself give you shalom always in all ways. The Lord be with all of you. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:16 ~
I am a Mighty Warrior… The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. ~ Zephaniah 3:17 ~
I am your Joy… Adonai is my strength and shield; in Him my heart trusted, and I have been helped. Therefore my heart is filled with joy, and I will sing praises to Him. ~ Psalm 28:7 ~
Image Credit; Artist Unknown
I am the Way… Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. ~ John 14:6 ~
I am your Rock… Adonai is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter, my shield, the power that saves me, my stronghold. ~ Psalm 18:2 ~
I am Holy… The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” ~ Revelation 4:8 ~
I am Righteous… For the goal at which theTorah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts. ~ Romans 10:4 ~
I am Merciful… Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. ~ Lamentations 3:22 ~
I am your Comfort… 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. ~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ~
I am Just… He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? ~ Micah 6:8 ~
I am Patient… The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. ~ 2 Peter 3:9 ~
I am Slow to Anger… ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’ ~ Numbers 14:18 ~
I am Forgiving… 37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” ~ Luke 6:37-38 ~
I am your Salvation…” 11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders whichhas become the cornerstone.12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!” ~ Acts 4:11-12 ~
1 Then this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: ‘What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? 3 You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. 5 So My sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. 6 They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.
7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Sovereign Lord, ‘you abandoned My flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. And though you were My shepherds, you didn’t search for My sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve.’ 9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I now consider these shepherds My enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to My flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, and I will stop them from feeding themselves. I will rescue My flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey.'”
Who feeds you? In Old Testament times, the Levitical Priesthood and the prophets nourished the people, teaching them the Law, and how to live by the Law. Sadly and all too often, the priests and the prophets walked their own way, instead of following after the Lord, and they sought their own prosperity, rather than tending the “sheep” the Lord had sent them to minister to. When this happened, the people, like sheep who had gone astray, would wander away… away from their faith in God… away from God’s law… away from doing what was right… And though the priests and the prophets were tasked to be the shepherds of God’s flocks, they couldn’t be bothered with chasing after His lost “sheep,” because they were too consumed with their own desires, as the scripture above describes.
Let’s fast forward to the New Testament, and we can see that sadly, things were much the same as during Old Testament times. During Jesus’ time, the Scribes and Pharisees deceived many with their false teachings, as outwardly, they appeared to be righteous, but inwardly, their hearts were filled with sin…
27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Beloved, even now, more than two thousand years after Jesus walked the earth as the Son of Man, there are false teachers in the church, who seek to devour the sheep, rather than feeding them…
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
My beloved readers, there are false teachers within the church today, some of whom are very popular among Christians, and even in the world, but they teach a false and unbiblical doctrine. Who is it that is feeding you, my friends?
1 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
Many of today’s false teachers say some really nice things, that sound really good to those who are ignorant of what scripture really says… Today, I will focus on one of those false teachers, and in the next few posts, I will deal with other false teachers and false prophets. Some of those who are false prophets may surprise you, but I urge you to keep this scripture, written by the Apostle Paul in mind as you read this post and the next few posts that follow…
13 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
The first false teacher that I would like to make you aware of is Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California. Rick Warren is also the renowned author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” and gave the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration. What follows are some examples of the false teachings espoused by Warren. Some of these examples may seem minor or even harmless. Indeed, they may even sound good, but as a teacher of the bible, we are responsible for teaching scriptures accurately, in the correct context. This is sound doctrine… Also, as teachers, we are held to a higher level of accountability than others are…
Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Firstly, on page 68 of “The Purpose Driven Life,” Warren used the following quote to prove his belief that good Christians should be open to new ideas…
The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them.
Now, while this is a direct quote from The Living Bible, it is important to understand that The Living Bible is not a translation of the Bible — it is a paraphrase, and when studying the Bible, one should use a BIble translation, not a paraphrase such as The Living Bible and The Message. In order for us to understand what this scripture truly says, let’s look at several translations of this scripture, to see if this is truly a correct paraphrase…
Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge.
As you can see from reading the different translations, the intelligent person is always ready to learn (acquire knowledge). It says nothing about being open to new ideas… In fact, Proverbs even instructs us on how to gain knowledge, and this instruction says nothing about being open to new ideas…
Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
From these scriptures, you can see that the mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, which has nothing to do with being open to new ideas. In fact, in order to gain true knowledge, one must fear the Lord. This is not a new idea, but one that has been spoken repeatedly, throughout scripture, and this most definitely goes against Mr. Warren’s teaching. Again, perhaps this seems like a small thing, but remember, it is the little foxes that spoil the vine…
On page 76 of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren cites The Living Bible again…
The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God.
In this instance, Warren presents only part of the truth, for the Lord does indeed look down from heaven on all mankind, but what he doesn’t include is the next verse, which completes the statement…
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
The problem with Rick Warren choosing not to include both verses in his teaching is that by not including both scriptures, he is taking the first verse out of context, as it leaves the complete thought unsaid. Not only is the complete message of this scripture left unsaid, but when Warren speaks of coming to Christ, he never mentions repentance. In fact, rather than proclaiming the gospel of faith, in direct opposition to New Testament teaching, Warren promotes a gospel of deeds…
“I’m looking for a second reformation. The first reformation of the church 500 years ago was about beliefs. This one is going to be about behavior. The first one was about creeds. This one is going to be about deeds. It is not going to be about what does the church believe, but about what is the church doing.”
~ Rick Warren in an interview with David Kuo
beliefnet.com — “Rick Warren’s Second Reformation” ~
Image Credit: Zachery Oliver
On the surface, that sounds good, it is important for us to live out our faith, and faith without works is dead, but Warren never really addresses the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, being born again, nor of salvation from sin…
Beloved readers, in response to mankind’s age old question, “What must we do to be saved?” we must be ever vigilant and careful to give them the correct answer in its entirety, as Peter did, when he addressed the people of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost…
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Friends, I feel that it’s really important to show you Rick Warren’s quote once again, in light of the scriptures, so that you can see the error in his teaching. As a matter of fact, as you read this again, I pray that you will see not only is his teaching wrong, but that you will also see that it directly contradicts scripture. Therefore, no matter how nice he appears, Rick Warren is a false teacher. Beware, my brothers and sisters.
“I’m looking for a second reformation. The first reformation of the church 500 years ago was about beliefs. This one is going to be about behavior. The first one was about creeds. This one is going to be about deeds. It is not going to be about what does the church believe, but about what is the church doing.”
~ Rick Warren in an interview with David Kuo
beliefnet.com — “Rick Warren’s Second Reformation” ~
My friends, Rick Warren’s doctrine is terribly flawed. Yes, it is important for the church to do good works and to do what is right, but more importantly, the church must have faith.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Beloved, it was impossible for Israel to live by the Law, and their good deeds could not save them. Now, if their good deeds could not save the Jews, what makes Rick Warren think anyone else’s good deeds can save them? And more importantly, why is he preaching a different doctrine than that which has been taught in the scriptures since the time of Christ?
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
My friends, just as Peter was instructed to feed Jesus’ sheep, so every minister of God is called to feed His sheep with love and sound doctrine. And if we see another person feeding Christ’s sheep the poison of another doctrine, we are called to expose the false doctrine, lest the poison of false doctrine harm or even kill the Lord’s sheep…
Therefore, my beloved readers, I must ask you, who is feeding you? If that person is Rick Warren, or a doctrine of works, turn away from that leader and beware of false teachers…
Please join me again, as I continue to examine some of the false teachers of today. I realize that this may not be a popular subject, and that perhaps some of the leaders you look up to may be exposed in this series, but it is necessary to address these issues for the sake of the Lord’s beloved people…
Forgive me, because it has been awhile since I’ve posted any letters from our sister in Israel. Unfortunately, due to my illness and my vacation, I’ve fallen way behind, and I will do my best to catch you up.
Meanwhile, there is an urgent need for prayer that just came today, for the nation of Israel, and our beloved sister in Israel has sent us a letter from her pastor. Please read this entire letter and begin to pray as the letter directs. It is vital, both for our friend and her pastor, and for the nation of Israel, and for us as well. I truly believe that this is a mandate from the Lord, calling for us to pray for Israel, and He is showing us exactly how to pray for Israel in these last days.
May the Lord bless you, my beloved readers, as you join with me in fervent and urgent, but not panicked prayer. One more thing for you to know, our sister has asked that her name not be revealed, for obvious reasons, and I’ve done the same for her pastor, changing his name to Pastor, where it was written before. And now the letter from our sister’s pastor… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Priority Alert
An American attack on Syria seems to be imminent. An American attack on Syria seems to be imminent, and Arab leaders warn of terrible consequences to Israel, if Syria is attacked.
Arab leaders spew bellicose threats Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is quoted as saying: “The intervention of America will be a disaster for the region. The region is like a gunpowder store, and the future cannot be predicted.”^1
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi warned that, “The basic repercussion would be a ball of fire that would burn not only Syria but the whole Middle East.”^1
In Israel Thousands of Jews and Arabs line up at gas mask distribution to get their gas masks in preparation for a possible counter attack from Syria and Lebanon (Hezbollah).
Patriot anti-missile batteries in Haifa are put on alert, Netanyahu convenes security cabinet, and IDF announces major drill on Golan Heights (meaning the IDF is moving troops to the Golan if it is ordered to attack Syria, or if Syria launches a ground attack into the Golan.
But don’t get rattled or excited in the flesh – it won’t help
In 2006, at the beginning of the Lebanon War, as I began to pray earnestly for our security situation and the war (which was not going well at the time), the Lord stopped me in the middle of my praying. He warned me, “Pastor, do not pray your opinions to me, pray what I show you!”
I took that to mean that I should not pray out of excitement, or be animated by my emotions or flesh, or even let my prayers be guided mostly by the newspaper headlines. So often, we are unaware that we are praying that way. Rather, He wanted to lead me by His Spirit, that I might pray what was strategic to Him.
But Abraham stood yet before the LORD… Abraham drew near…
When the Lord came to Abraham and revealed to him that He was on His way to judge Sodom, Abraham’s response to the news, is instructive.
“And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near…” Gen. 18:20-22
I take this to mean that Abraham turned His heart to God; he drew near to God rather than allow himself to let his emotions and flesh run wild with speculation and anticipation. Rather, he approached God with the full weight and impact of God’s Word and revelation of His nature and character. These were the only things guiding His intercession on behalf of Sodom! Who knows what prayers he would have prayed otherwise?
So, I urge you to actually turn to God, get a hold of His Word and ask Him to lead you in your prayers and intercession on behalf of Israel now.
You should remind yourself that God is sovereign, especially in all that pertains to Israel’s restoration and protection. How beautifully it is expressed in Isaiah 54.
“And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.”Is. 54:13-17
This is just one of hundreds of promises and declarations of God’s purpose in these days, to restore Israel to the Land and to Himself.
If you let His Word fill your heart, you will find faith arise in your heart –His Word is the fuel of our faith. His Word will inspire, lead, and guide your praying, and you will be taken into a realm of prayer and intercession that, you have not experienced before.
There, when you are in the Spirit, you will pray boldly and on subjects that you have not thought of, but that He wants you to pray. And when you pray His Will, you have the confidence that He will answer.
One example scripture that can inspire and guide your praying…
Vs. 1 – The Lord’s sovereignty as creator and giver of life to man – this is how this chapter opens – get a hold of it and it will keep you from panic praying.
Vs. 2-3 A warning to all the nations who take Israel and Jerusalem a their problem to solve or resist.
Vs 4, 9 God personally battles the nations who come against Israel (whether diplomatically or militarily).
Vs.5-6 What God does for the governors and leaders of Israel.
Vs. 7-8 What God does for and within the nation of Israel
Vs. 10-13:1 Spiritual restoration of Israel is part of all of this conflict!
If you take time with this chapter, praying through it, giving God glory for His sovereignty, worshipping Him as creator, you will be enabled to have faith for the rest of it, and that makes all the difference.
We will continue to keep you posted as the situation unfolds. The papers are saying that the American attack could come as early as tomorrow, but nothing is for sure.
“How does routine appear to you?” – The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …
We would love to see your vision. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Merriam Webster defines Routine as…
a regular course of procedure
habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure
Those who know me well know that I am scattered and disorganized (except on the computer). I’m impulsive and I love doing things on the spur of the moment. If someone says, “Let’s go,” I say, “How fast?” It doesn’t matter if there’s work to be done or dirty dishes or laundry, they’ll still be there when I get back, so I’m ready!
My husband, on the other hand, is a creature of habit. He lives each day maintaining a very strict routine. He awakens everyday at the same time, even on Sundays, when his alarm isn’t set. He then goes downstairs and makes his coffee, before heading into the bathroom to get his shower, so that the coffee will be ready when he exits the shower. He gets up an hour earlier than necessary so that he can go out to his man cave and listen to some music before work starts… His whole day is regimented like this.
Now I’ll admit that there’s been many times over the years when I’ve felt like pulling my hair out, because my husband is so set in his ways and in following his routines. There have been times when on the spur of the moment, I’ve wanted to go away for a couple of days, but we couldn’t, because my husband needed time to prepare for the trip, and make sure we have enough money.
Really! You see, I would have just gone, and if we didn’t have enough money to eat, we could just fast… Ok, so maybe having a routine is not such a bad thing. In fact, you could say that keeping a routine is a responsible thing to do…
As a matter of fact, scripture reveals that it is important to have a routine when raising children…
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
If a child is brought up in a home with no routines or discipline, he/she is likely to grow up knowing no boundaries. The child is also likely to grow up not knowing how to maintain self-control…
I once heard it said that if a person does not come to know the Lord as a child, they are less likely to come to Him as an adult. If you think about this in light of the scripture above, it makes sense. In most instances, the way a child is raised has a direct impact on the way he/she will live his/her life. If the only time the child hears the Lord’s name spoken routinely is as a curse word, then it is very likely that this is the only way that child will grow up to use the Lord’s name also.
4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The Lord knows that people need a routine in order to learn. That’s why Jewish children were taught about the Lord daily, from the time they got up in the morning, and throughout the day, until they went to bed at night. They saw and heard their parents praying daily, and they too learned to pray daily. Their parents routinely quoted the scriptures to them, so that the children memorized great portions of the Torah by an early age.
In the same ways, Christian believers must routinely demonstrate and teach their children how to know the Lord.
Therefore, even though I am an extremely impulsive and spontaneous person, I do believe that some routines are beneficial, such as the routine of praying and teaching your children to know God…
Below, you will find the letter from our sister in Jerusalem. Please continue to lift her and her family up in prayer. Except by faith, we have no way of knowing the impact our prayers have on those whom we pray for, this side of heaven, but wouldn’t it be awesome to discover their impact when we meet our heavenly Father one day? I pray that our prayers for our sister and the lives she touches leads to the salvation of many inside and outside of Israel, in Jesus’ name. Meanwhile, please enjoy this letter from our sister… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“What are your thoughts occupied with as we heard toward tisha b’av next Monday night and Tuesday? I’ve been thinking about those little mistakes in communication that snowball into huge conflicts between people and communities. The children that grow up estranged because their parents were too busy to say “I love you.” The couples that stopped listening to each other because they didn’t understand each other. The religious sectors that split apart because they never took the opportunity to learn to value each other.
When we talk about Sinat Chinam (baseless hatred) in Israel, it’s important to realize that so many of our fights can be avoided if we take the time to maintain the relationships we have, and fill them with love and beauty instead of jealousy and suspicion. If we can do that as a nation, we’ll never have to fast on tisha b’av again.
Wishing you an easy and meaningful fast.” (from the local “janglo” weekly letter)
Greetings and Blessings, dear sisters and brothers, May The Lord be glorified, blessed, worshipped… may you be blessed!
As ramadan is being observed by the world’s moslems, the tisha b’av fast appears on the horizon. Tisha b’av (or 9th day of the month of Av on the Hebrew calendar) is observed this year beginning Monday night the 8th through Tues sundown the 9th. Aside from the fast day of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, this is the most solemn fast day of the Jewish year. It is not observed as widely as Yom Kippur (which is commanded in scripture and actively observed by a large majority of Jews) but it IS observed by a surprising number of even secular or nominally observant Jews as well as the religious.
As I have told you recently, I have been going through this interesting season of having my morning devotional reading ‘disrupted by The Lord’ after 37 years of following His initial directions to me, and have been having an intense time reading and re-reading the major prophets again and again (along with other portions in New Covenant and Psalms), so this day is making a very present and living impression on me this year, even more so then in past years.
The 9th of Av commemorates the actual date of the destruction of BOTH the first and second temples and the punishment of the surviving remnant being sent out of the promised land of Israel into the diaspora. You can read Jeremiah’s account of the date in the full chapter of Jeremiah chapter 52. Verses 6 and 7 say:
6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
7 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the plain.
I have also shared many times over the past years lists of the unusual number of cataclysmic events that have taken place among the Jews through out modern history on this same date. (If any of you wish, I will send it to you again separately)
People prepare for this time of often very real repentance and heart searching in many ways. The very religious men do not shave or cut their hair from Shavuot until tisha b’av, so there are many fully bearded men around right now. There is also a general feeling of mourning in the air and I have heard many greetings which include a blessing for Jerusalem. The teaching is that the judgment of God comes upon the people of Israel mainly for ‘brother hating brother’ (sinat chinam, in Hebrew). Of course this is partly true according to the scriptures as hatred, or lack of love, produces selfishness, oppressing, cheating, theft and the like. But the Scriptures make it clear that there are other reasons for the judgment of God upon the children of Israel: (I have been writing them down during these 6 months of reading through the major prophets). Some of them are: Forsaking Him (our first love); serving other Gods (like material goods, the flesh, new age ideas…?), worshipping the work of our own hands, giving heed to seducing spirits (counterfeit works of a spirit other then HIS); defiling His land; rebellion; pride; not finding delight in The Word of The Lord; covetousness; dealing falsely; will not hear correction; following the dictates of our own heart; forsaking Shabat; following Eastern ways; arrogant tongue; despising this inherited land; lack of mercy…oh my, the list goes on (yes…I can provide you with the references if you ask).
At the top of this letter I copied a small paragraph that opened a local weekly email information site, and similar exhortations and encouragements are appearing all over in newspapers, in short messages on radio and tv and on billboards (at least in the Jerusalem area). ‘Prepare your heart to seek The Lord…do not let Jerusalem go again…’ I was in the Old City on Tuesday and many large groups of youngsters, soldiers and older folks as well, were on ‘learning tours’, reviewing the history surrounding the destructions of the temples. They stop to read scripture and pray. On tisha b’av itself, the book of Lamentations is prayed/read during the fast and many people stay up all night weeping and even dressing in sackcloth and ashes. We can scoff at what is ‘religious show’, but I, for one, know that God hears hungry hearts and my prayer is that this will NOT be a religious tradition, but that there will be breakthroughs in hearts; that The Holy Spirit will convict, and draw the hungry to Yeshua, Whom He is well able to reveal! AND… that He will indeed, CREATE hunger in the hearts of those who may be crying out of tradition only. He is able.
I have not been well, so will close and go to bed now. What a season we live in, eh? His ways are so above our ways and His thoughts so above our…and I am thankful for that! I send you much love. God bless you and keep you and make HIS FACE to shine upon you…and give you (HIS) Shalom.
I know that I usually try to post letters from our sister in Israel on Saturdays, however, I didn’t get this one until today, therefore, I am posting it a day later than usual. As always, I encourage you to pray for Israel and our sister who resides there while you read this letter, remembering that Jesus loved Jerusalem so much that He wept over her. And now, without further ado, here is the letter from our sister in Jerusalem… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shalom, dear Brothers and Sisters,
May He be glorified and blessed, and may you be blessed. Although I write that in almost every letter, I never write it lightly…I pray it!
Summer activity seems to overtake many of us suddenly and I know that some of you will not find time to read this. There is some personal news at the end of the letter though, particularly for those of you who know us. I am so glad that The Lord is the same, yesterday, today and forever and that HE isn’t suddenly ‘caught up’ in summer activity…OR in problems or illness for that matter. That’s so comforting!
As I went from the shuk to prayer meeting yesterday morning before going to work, my eyes suddenly ‘flashed back’ to earlier ‘first impressions’ and I was able to observe with ‘new eyes’ again and some of the wonders of life here that I saw at the beginning of this part of my path. Perhaps it is because we are about to celebrate our 19th year since making aliyah (immigrating). We became Israeli citizens on the 18th of July, but we left Alaska on 4th of July (the tickets were cheaper then as people tend not to fly on that day) which was sort of symbolic I guess. We were totally clueless as to the new life that lay ahead. I had never been here before, and my husband had come once on a short ‘tourist trip’. We didn’t know aleph from bet, (the Hebrew alpha bet) had no idea where we would live or what we would do. The map that I had looked at was the map in the back of my Bible (yes…before computers!) We literally sold and gave away everything that we owned, burned all of our bridges, and at the not-so-young age of 48+ left all that we knew for what we didn’t know because we believed (correctly thank God!) that it was HIM Who was telling us to do this. We were slightly acquainted with ONE person here and she found us temporary board in a room of someone’s apartment. That is how our walk here began. Shell shock!
So, 19 years later, my routines have become somewhat set, and it was a blessing to suddenly see again as if it were my first time. Friday morning, it is my ‘habit’ to go to Intercessors for Israel 6:30am prayer meetings for a half hour before going on to work. This week, memories flooded me. I remembered my ‘wonder’ at the buses, where the radio blared and the people talked and sang and ate. Since I take the 6am bus on Fridays I had been deeply moved by the fact that the state run radio stations began (they go off at midnight and on at 6am) with the words of ‘the smah’…the prayer most important in Judaism…the words from Deut 6:4-9
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
These words are to Judaism what The Lord’s prayer or sometimes the 23rd Psalm are to Christianity, so it would be as if your radio stations would begin each day with those Words in the morning reminding the country Who we look to first above all. It blessed me to listen and to pray as the sunrise was casting its first rays above the mountains round about Jerusalem. Sadly, about the time that the train started service, the broadcasting system put an end to this practice that had been in place since we first got radio here. None the less, the assortment on the 6am bus is almost always the same, so we greet one another as one reads the newspaper and another the book of Psalms and a third eats perhaps a yogurt or cucumber, tomato and pita…typical Israeli breakfasts on the run. On Friday I get off at the shuk to buy a challa (shabat bread) and some fruit and vegetables as everything in the city will close before sundown until after the shabat following sundown on Saturday. At 6am very few stands are open, but there are enough for me to get what I need and then run down Jaffa Road to prayer meeting. As I leave the shuk I watch the Friday morning ritual of the street sweepers. Do all cities still have street sweepers? Ours take their job very seriously and really do it well. I am always impressed by them as it is not what you would call the most desirable job and yet I never sense these people feeling sorry for themselves or angry or see them slacking at work. I pass the area from which they are ‘sent out’ with broom and equipment and enjoy listening to the ‘pep talk’ that they receive from their ‘commander’ who reminds them that they are cleaning the streets of Jerusalem and that they should do it proudly. They run off slapping each other on the back and ready to begin. Why does this catch my eye? As one who is ‘always cleaning house again and again and again’…I sometimes loose both my joy and energy in the midst of the task. My task is so small compared with what faces these sweepers who work in the shuk; it is non stop mess and garbage and they keep at it with an energy, encouraging one another, that really speaks to me. If they can do this monotonous job day after day, it challenges me to do mine for Yeshua with joy and for His glory. It is their level of obvious contentment that teaches me in this day ahead of me…it challenges me to plumb the depths of the command that The Lord gives me to ‘be content in ALL things’ as I read in so many verses (here are two but then there is Heb 13:5, and so very many others. You know them I’m sure:
Phil 4:11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
1 Tim 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certainwe can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
So…as I walk past the ‘challenge of the street sweepers’ I come again to the ifi morning prayer meeting as I have since this particular Fri. morning group began so many years back, to pray in small groups for particular situations in our country and surrounding ones. All too soon it was off to work for me, but my ‘fresh look’ at the street sweepers kept my eyes awake. I remembered my amusement at the lack of Western ‘political correctness’ and how everyone talks to strangers all of the time. That brought to my memory the reminder of the becoming aware that in this land of the Book and the Law…the laws are NOT ‘rigid’ as they are in the West…they are not black and white…they…hum…’float’ (for want of a better word. It took me awhile to understand this. Here is an example: In America if I took a letter to the post office, they would weigh it and tell me EXACTLY how much postage it needed. If they were wrong, I would get the letter back marked ‘insufficient postage’. Here, oh yes, there are charts, charges and regulations…but I might well walk up to the post office lady and she might say ‘9 shekels’ and I might say ‘Oh no! I only have 7.5’ and…depending upon who she is, she might say ‘zeh lo mishonay!’ (It doesn’t matter) and either put 7.5 postage on it or take the shekel and a half our of her change purse. We don’t HAVE ‘insufficient postage’ stamps here. Period. Then there is ‘making a scene’. Again, a man approaches a window at the post office (we do LOTS of transactions at our post offices: they are banks, we pay bills there, we submit forms there and various other tasks) and the teller says ‘You are missing a signature’. You can expect excitement! ‘WHAT?!? They TOLD me that THIS is what I need!! I CAN’T POSSIBLY come back! My kid needs this for school TODAY!’ Sometimes fights ensue…but SOMETIMES we hear things like ‘You can’t? He really needs it today? Ok.’ Stamp stamp stamp – and the customer walks away smiling. You can REASON with the clerks. You can also cry. I found that out the hard way. As a new immigrant I cried A LOT! Suddenly I became ‘they made somebody’s mother cry!’ and others in line would rush up with water or a chair – it must have been quite humorous to watch from afar (although it never felt funny at the time). So what is this: manipulation? Mercy? Sloppiness? Protexia? Probably a combination of all three to a different degree, but it was culturally different to me. It was no longer black and white, but there were many ‘grey’ areas and this was helpful to learn as I realize that I will never fully understand the ‘ways of the system’. (although I have been told that NO ONE really understands it)
It is fun to remember some of these early impressions and lessons, particularly as planes fly over. You all know that the situation here increases in intensity daily. The sudden eruption of Egypt again – our neighbor to the south- has led to great instability in the vast Sinai region and once again de-stabilized our border. To the North of us the Syrians continue to kill one another and our hospitals receive wounded for their border area nearly daily as word of mouth travels and families in the south bring their loved ones to the border asking for mercy. Again our ‘peace’ process is gaining momentum so there are (again) bomb scares daily as that seems to be the ‘natural fruit’ of the ‘peace process’ (and the foreign governments do not seem to see the irony of this). In other words, life continues as usual.
PERSONAL NEWS
I was deeply blessed by a dear sister last weekend. She works for a volunteer organization and they are blessed with an apartment right on the beach in Netanya that they allow their workers to use periodically for a time of retreat and refreshing. She had reserved it for last weekend and INVITED ME AND ANOTHER SISTER TO JOIN HER! Oh what joy to have a change of scenery and intensity and to share the sweetest of fellowship in Him! I have rarely received such a cup of cold water and I am happy to report that I have been so graciously refreshed and doused in Love! I had to come home early as I have had an infection and am allergic to just about all antibiotics, so needed to receive 5 days of slowly administered antibiotic by infusion, spending 2 hours daily in a nurses station after work. I was well prepared with His GRACE to go through this, for which I am so thankful.
Some have been asking how things are going with our Granddaughter. She is scheduled to arrive on 29th July and we are SOOOO excited! She is a tender 6 years old and has had her suitcase packed for 6 weeks already! I guess she takes after her ‘Savtalai’ (Grandmother) as I have been getting stuff for her ‘room’ for atleast that long! Thank you so much for your prayers!
But for those of you who know us…our situation…have followed our family, some of you for more then 35 years(!) we do have news; Our youngest daughter, who was married just a year ago, is expecting their first child! She was told (as I was) that she could never have children and they are THRILLED! Ofcourse, she has had MANY physical and emotional problems and they are still NOT (yet) walking with The Lord… they are poorer then church mice BUT happier then larks…and, yes, I ask for prayer for them! They live in Minnesota USA and the Baby is due in early Jan. No…they have no car…no insurance…she is high risk pregnancy and is NOT feeling well…BUT…She IS a child of promise and HE IS ON THE THRONE! So I will BLESS them and pray and I wanted to share our joy with you!
There are some of you whom I SHOULD have told personally and I do beg your forgiveness as my computer is acting up and trying to write has been a challenge.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU AND MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU FOR HIS GLORY! May we be discerning and sensitive to His direction for this most narrow of seasons in which we life.
Praise the Lord, I am now up to date with the letters from our sister in Jerusalem. As always, I want to encourage you to pray for Israel. It is so important for us to understand that even though the Lord has saved many of us and delivered us from sin, and adopting us as sons and daughters, His love for Israel is not diminished. Israel still remains His chosen people. Therefore, we must cry out for His people in these last days.
This week, as you read the letter from our sister in Israel, let the following scripture passage be your prayer for God’s chosen people…
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
And now, without further ado, I introduce to some of you, and present to those of you who follow our letters from our sister in Israel…
Although most of us picture doves as white, the doves of Jerusalem are that beautiful ‘doe’ color…like a deer. Perhaps you wonder why I write so much concerning nature. Today I believe I understood the reason (besides the fact that I have always loved nature).
When we first made arrived, we found that our new reality demanded that we find work as soon as possible. Not being able to handle my new language yet at all, (and NOT having many qualifying skills…AND being 49 years old at the time) I was happy to be offered a job with a rather well known international ministry here. Being in this intense area, there are probably more large, international ministries functioning here then anywhere else on earth, and not just ‘English speaking ones’ either. It is the same with news media outlets; there are more world news media groups stationed here then anywhere else on the earth (that is a fact). That should say something. Those of you who know Jerusalem know what a tiny city this is. When I was offered work with this ministry I asked them to pray with me as there were some doctrinal issues that they held that I could not stand in agreement with (not foundational ones of course). They prayed and assured me that I was the one for the job and it would be fine. I was so thankful for the work as the main part of my job was answering many of the letters that they received and I loved that. We began each day with Bible reading and prayer and I loved the fellowship, in spite of our differences. But the area that I was not in agreement with allowed them to embrace a false prophecy, which led them to the verge of bankruptcy and most of the staff had to be immediately dismissed, including me. It was then that I found out that they had not been paying into our form of ‘social security’ for me (as a citizen it was required for the boss to do that) and that left me, after a year and a half, without the ability to receive unemployment.
The Lord certainly works everything to the good and for His glory, for it was the beginning of an intensive course in learning to REALLY trust Him and walk by faith in a new dimension. I was without work for two years after that (my husband was not in the country at the time…another story that glorifies Him in the end) and I felt firmly that He was directing me to work in secular work immersed in my new ‘culture’ rather then to work again with a ministry and He surely has directed my path. But what in the world does this all have to do with ‘nature’ and ‘doves’?!?
Just this: Because we are such a small body here and so dispersed, I now have very little opportunity for fellowship outside of our weekly meeting, but today I realized just how much He speaks to me through His creation! I understood that I daily ‘fellowship’ with Him in this manner (as well, of course, in His Word and in prayer) and am edified! No, it does NOT take the place of ‘fellowship’ with the body (HIS perfect design) but He always provides when we want His will, and this is part of my current provision.
And now, back to our doe colored doves!
Jerusalem is literally covered with doves. I have learned that if they are near to me as I walk and I don’t look directly at them or speak to them (yes…I do that! :-[ I admit it) they will stay where they are, but if I look at them or speak they will fly away. Now we all know that The Holy Spirit came as a dove so as I learned this I have thought about how The Holy Spirit did not come to speak of Himself, but to point to Yeshua…to bring to remembrance everything that He said and to magnify Him…not to draw attention to Himself.
But yesterday my attention was drawn directly to a dove sitting on the ground next to a wooden fence along my path. He looked at me and I sensed that he was injured. I went toward him and he did not move, but kept watching me. I saw that his gentle breast had been harmed, most likely by a cat. I reached down to pick him up, but stopped: Where would I bring him? There was no place around that would make him to be less prey for another cat attack, nor could I bring him to work…he would be petrified. I know enough that if I were to touch him, he would carry my ‘scent’ and that might be worse…so…I stood and prayed simply that The Lord, Who cares for all creatures, would care for him mercifully, and went to walk on. A bit further I felt just bothered to leave him like that so I turned to go back and then I saw a most unusual sight. Another dove flew down and began to peck at him and flap his wings angrily. I felt so bad, thinking that he was being attacked…UNTIL…I saw him reluctantly move and then, after some more pecking and harassment move again, and suddenly, hesitantly, he took off in unsteady flight, but up into a tree. The second bird had come to rescue him and had likely been watching when I stooped down! Immediately I thought of so many of the painful and harsh things that seem to come into our lives when we feel most vulnerable and I wondered at the goodness of God to ‘afflict us in His faithfulness’ (as is repeated over and over in Psalm 119, that marvelous teaching Psalm!) for example 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.And verse 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted,That I may learn Your statutes.
Do my ‘parables’ drive you crazy? I hope not! I gather strength as mana to go through my days as He blesses me with these encouragements! I actually thought about it as I was faced with my daily train ride. Two days in a row I arrived halfway to my destination when the loud speaker announced a ‘hefetz ha’shood’ or an ‘unidentified object’ that the bomb squad was being called out to investigate. We are usually advised to ‘walk’ or ‘possibly wait up to half an hour’, but this week, the first time, we were told that we would all have to get off of the train as the driver was being told to turn around and go in the other direction. The lady-older-then-myself with some 20 kilos of cherries that she had just bought at the shuk began to grumble loudly, as did the very old man with a walker. Soon there was quite a rebellion taking place as it was noon and the sun was hot and the train was crowded with elderly people with packages or young mothers with babies. I decided to walk rather then listen to the rage. Thankfully today we were allowed to sit and wait. As we did I looked around and it hit me for the first time that our trains carry perhaps an pretty odd assortment. They are full of baby carriages and strollers, often twin strollers. There are lots of shopping carts (mine included) and then there are walkers, canes, crutches, wheel chairs, Seeing Eye dogs, shopping bags, suitcases and myriads of backpacks, not to mention weapons. More then occasionally there are also the ‘tools of the trade’; a mop and bucket, large tool box, computers or assorted furniture being brought home. Sitting next to me today was a woman with a portable oxygen tank attached to her nose. In front of us stood a young girl with BOTH a rocking horse and a plastic push ‘bike’. And then there are all of those pregnant women! No wonder the train is always so crowed!
As many of you realize (although it IS summer where you are as well as here, and I know that many of you are up to your ears in activities…God BLESS your summer with joy and blessing in Him!)(along with work and children home, more difficult for some then for others. MUCH GRACE to those of you who have difficulty!) things here are more volatile and tense then ever, if that is possible! I think back to the beginnings of the ‘revolution’ in Egypt that began very shortly after the US President visited there, and how ‘revolt’ has been sparked in almost the entire region. The nations on all of our borders are shaking and smoldering and the world is so foolishly trying to ‘solve the problems’ with embarrassing rhetoric and shallow human reasoning that knows almost nothing of the ancient roots of the problems…nor The Maker Who is watching over His Word. The latest moves to ‘arm the rebels’ in Syria while screaming and crying about all of the people dying is so pathetic but can not be seen as funny. More weapons will NOT stop the bloodshed. I look at my Bible and see so many circumstances for which there was NO HUMAN SOLUTION. Take, for example: the Sea in front and the Egyptians behind as the Israelites came out of Egypt. Perhaps it was thousands in the wilderness without food in both the ancient days during the 40 years in the wilderness and the nearer days when Yeshua said ‘How many loaves have you?…Bring it to Me!’ What about Legion howling in the tombs or the lame man waiting for the stirring of the waters? AND…how about Yeshua…dead in the tomb? Oh my, there is no end to examples….in fact the Bible is FULL of situations that there was NO human solution for. But we live in an age of ‘humanism’ and seem to actually have a foot in the door of the one world system that will carry the mark for buying and selling. I can see much more clearly how that could be possible now. When our value added tax went up 1% I somehow thought that my bills would also go up 1%, but (as I have admitted before) I have NO understanding of economics and basically bills (especially grocery bills) have shot up a whopping 25%! Since wages don’t increase, I think of how young families who are not prepared by The Word mixed with faith and the fear of God will withstand taking such a mark. From my vantage point the world appears to be spinning faster and faster out of the control of the nations and their leaders.
And there are those of you who pray for our nation (I am aware that there are many also who might read some of these letters who don’t find the time to pray. PLEASE don’t take ANY condemnation from me when I mention those who do! It is ALL unto The Lord and we ALL do what we can and believe we are called to do. Please be released from any condemnation over this.) I would like to ask for specific prayer for a 60 year old problem that I believe our nation is poised to impose a solution into that is perhaps unjust and I am very concerned. As you know we have a Bedouin population. The Bedouins are a fascinating people. They are nomads (I suspect that they are the people described in Jeremiah 35:1-12) and live mostly in the Negev where they move their goats and camels from place to place living in tent like structures with large extended families. (google Bedouin if you are unfamiliar with them) Over the years efforts have been made to settle them in villages and extend all the benefits to them of education, health care, sanitation etc. They are currently listed as the most rapidly growing population in the world. Their land claims are not written down. Israel is a small nation and wants to establish its borders. Legislation has just passed to establish the Bedouin in villages against their will and this strikes me a lot like ‘American Indian Reservations’. I have a long and personal history with Indian Reservations and my heart breaks at the thought that the same awful injury might be done here. Please pray that this legislation is somehow overturned and that some just solution is found. The Druze population in the North was also nomadic and they were peacefully settled into villages, but I have a very bad feeling about this Bedouin decision. Thank you for praying if The Holy Spirit brings it to mind.
But in the midst of all of the ‘distressing news’, you likely haven’t heard of the more then 30 wounded Syrians from both sides of the conflict that have been treated in Israeli hospitals as friends or family bring them to our borders. Also, a lovely ‘peace prize’ was just awarded to our fast response health motorcycle paramedic service which was founded by an ultra religious man and an Israeli Arab working together. They have no political agenda; they simply share a passion for saving lives and have formed a nationwide service that rushes to all emergencies. In this context, a Jewish man with a kippa (skull cap) has delivered a Moslem baby and a bearded Moslem man has delivered an orthodox Jewish baby. Lives are saved, and the result is trusting friendships…the same as I have found in my daily walk…’peace’ is made through kindness, one on one in the small ways that we can. He is our Peace…He HAS broken down every wall.
It is I who enjoy sharing, so I thank you for making time to read. Come and visit??? God bless and encourage you ever nearer to His Heart beat.
Thank you for continued prayer for our younger daughter at this time.
He is precious and to be glorified and blessed, and as His Blood bought body, how very precious are each of you!
“… for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…” (2 Corin 6:16)
I apologize for not posting the Inside Israel letter sooner, however, I was having computer issues, and since all of you have computers, I know you understand. Nonetheless, all is well now, and the letter from our sister in Jerusalem follows. As always, I ask that you keep our sister in your prayers, and that you also pray for the peace of Jerusalem according to scripture…
Pray for peace in Jerusalem.
May all who love this city prosper.
~ Psalm 122:6 — NLT ~
Before sharing our sister’s letter, I want to let you know that I will be posting another letter from our sister on Wednesday, to help us get back on track from when I got behind. And now, without further ado, I present to you the letter from our sister in Jerusalem… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Continue reading Inside Israel→
Greetings to you all in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, who forever remains, KING of kings and LORD of lords. May each one of you find peace in His presence, and may each one of you understand the boundless extent of God’s love for you. I pray that you will know, as all of God’s children should know, how long and how wide, how high and how deep His love for you really is, and may the roots of His love reach to the very depths of your soul and spirit! Continue reading Inside Israel – just to say shalom – 4 June 2013→
Please forgive me for not posting the Inside Israel letters for the last few weeks. I’m not up to talking about it yet, but I was recently hospitalized, and I haven’t been online very much lately. For those of you who have been praying for me, I truly appreciate your prayers, and I ask you to please continue praying for me, as I am in a dark place that I’ve never been in before, and without the help of the Lord, I could do nothing.
6 O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
they will pray day and night, continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. 7 Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work,
until He makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
I also ask you to please continue praying for our sister in Israel, who so kindly shares her life and the mighty works of the Lord with us, and for all of Israel and Jerusalem in Jesus’ name… I will post another Inside Israel letter on Wednesday, June, 19, to try to catch you up on our sister’s letters. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Continue reading Inside Israel – a bit of sharing on 5/29/2013→
Tami Benson, author of the blogLessons by Heart just gave me 7 Lovely Awards. Isn’t that sweet of her? Tami has a great blog, and her love for the Lord shines brightly in her blog, which is why I love to visit her blog, and why I would encourage others to visit her blog too.
Below you will find the most recent letter from our sister in Jerusalem. Please remember to pray for her and also to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, especially now, during these last and evil days… This is my main reason for sharing these letters, so that you and I may pray for Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as Scripture instructs us. For then, both we and they shall be blessed…
6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem.
May all who love this city prosper. 7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. 8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.” 9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.
And now, my beloved readers, without further ado, here is the letter from our sister in Jerusalem… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Continue reading Inside Israel→
Those of you who followed Deb Feller’s blog,SIMPLE POEMS, SIMPLE FAITH BY DEB FELLER, remember that almost every Sunday, she would bless us by sharing a letter from a sister in the Lord, who lives in Israel. I always looked forward to reading these letters, for it made the Lord’s command to pray for the peace of Jerusalem much easier for me, as I came to know this beloved sister through her letters.
Therefore, when Sis Deb decided to step away from blogging for a while, there was more than one void left. Firstly, there was a void left that no one else could ever fill, as Sis Deb was anointed to take the word of God, and write lovely, short poems, that cut through everything, as she brought the simplicity of God’s word to life. The other void that was left were the letters from Inside Israel, however, Sis Deb shared the email address of our sister in Israel with me, and I will now be receiving these letters from Inside Israel. Continue reading Inside Israel – Announcement→
Today, while I was thinking about the joy that I experienced this weekend, as my husband and I cared for five of our grandchildren, while their Mommy and Daddy were in the hospital giving birth to their baby brother, Holy Spirit began to show me examples of what He desires when we approach Him and worship Him, and I want to share those examples with you…
23 “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Saturday, as soon as I received a picture of my newly born grandson, Ian, I called his five siblings to come and look at his image on my cell phone. You should have seen them as they came running to me, squealing in delight, loud, raucous, unfettered and unrestrained joy emanating from each child, as they laid eyes on their baby brother for the first time. “Aw, he’s so cute!” one shouted, “I wub him,” another shouted, wanting her voice to be heard. “I can’t wait to touch him,” my oldest grandson said so sweetly, “’cause him’s skin is so soft.” Continue reading True Worshipers→
1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to You for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of Your wings
until the danger passes by. 2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who will fulfill His purpose for me. 3 He will send help from heaven to rescue me,
disgracing those who hound me. Interlude
My God will send forth His unfailing love and faithfulness
O Lord, You know the pain I’ve dealt with for so long now! You alone know my struggles and my deepest fears.
Only You know the torment I’ve suffered this year.
Father, I am weary, and weak and so broken. Continue reading My Psalm of Hope and Despair→
My beloved friends, ever since I first saw the following video on YouTube, it has ministered to me, and I’ve posted it several times on Facebook, whenever the Lord leads. Tonight, I was visiting a friend’s blog, and his message again put this video on my heart – so much so that when I responded to his blog, I was led to include the video in my comments… Then, after watching and listening to the video once again, I was compelled to post it on my own site…
The Inheritance Graham Cooke
Music by: Jonathan David Hesler
See what love the Father has lavished on us in letting us be called God’s children! For that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it has not known Him.
~ 1 John 3:1 CJB ~
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. 7 Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners.
~ Romans 5:6-8 CJB ~
31 What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare even His own Son, but gave Him up on behalf of us all – is it possible that, having given us His Son, He would not give us everything else too? 33 So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God – He is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! 34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and – more than that – has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf! 35 Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War? 36 As the Tanakh puts it, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the One who has loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, 39 neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.
~ Romans 8:31-39 CJB ~
Beloved, do you question your worth? Do you doubt God’s love for you? Have you ever, like me, thought, “I know God loves the world, but how can He love me?” If so, hear me today… God loves you. Jesus loves you. Holy Spirit loves you. He loves you just as you are, and He is calling out to you this day…
28 “Come to Me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
~ Matthew 11:28-30 CJB ~
The Lord urges you to throw all your cares on Him, because He cares for you! He knows all that you have done. He knows all that has been done to you. And He still loves you. This is what the Lord says to you, my beloved, and when He speaks to Israel, understand that He is speaking to you as well. Where you see Israel in this scripture, place your name…
1 But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine. 2 When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.
~ Isaiah 43:1-2 NLT ~
Beloved, please know, as you finish reading and listening to this post, that the Lord God loves you… Hear Him as He tells you, “I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with unfailing love, I have drawn you to Myself…”
Oh yes, please visit this blog, which inspired this post… Chief of the Least –This Drug Won’t Give You Amnesia (Or Any Other Bad Side Effect)
This post is for Caddo’s Seven Word Sundays! My seven words are in two parts this Sunday, because that’s what the Lord placed on my heart. 🙂
HeMadeKnownHisWaysToMoses
(Psalm 103:7a NKJV)
I love this portion of scripture, because it speaks volumes. He made known His ways to Moses… When you’re intimate with someone, you know their ways… You know what each glance means… You know what each smile means… You know the things that please the one you’re intimate with, and you know the things that displease him/her… You know what buttons to push, when you’re intimate with someone…
I’ve been married to my husband for more than 31 years. Because we’re intimate, I know how to put a smile on that man’s face, and I know how to irritate him. I know how to make him laugh, and I know the things that hurt him. Because we’re intimate, we know how to communicate with each other without even speaking. Because we are intimate, we even think alike on many issues…
This is the kind of relationship that God had with Moses. It’s the kind of relationship He wants with us… It’s the kind of relationship I want with Him…
HisActstoTheChildrenofIsrael (Psalm 103:7b NKJV)
The children of Israel weren’t intimate with God like Moses was. They knew the mighty acts He did… how He sent the plagues to Egypt… How He parted the Red Sea… How He led them through the wilderness with a pillar of fire and a cloud… How He sent manna from heaven… They knew all about those mighty acts of God, but they didn’t know Him intimately, nor did they want to. It was enough for them to just receive His gifts… It was all they wanted from Him…
So… what do you want? Do you want to know His ways, or is it enough to only know His acts?
How deeply the Lord loves His children! So many Christians never venture into the Old Testament, because they say it’s too difficult to understand, but I love the Old Testament. If we take the time to study the Old Testament, it will help us to understand the New Testament better. When we study the Old Testament, we see the character and the nature of God. Think of it this way:
The Old Testament is the prequel
The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament
The life we are living is part of the sequel.
Therefore, let’s take a look at this first chapter of Isaiah. We’re going to study this chapter a little at a time.
These visions concerning Judah and Jerusalem came to Isaiah son of Amoz during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah — all kings of Judah. (Isaiah 1:1 NLT)
The first verse is packed with information.
The first thing we learn is that a man named Isaiah, had visions concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
The next thing we learn is that Isaiah was the son of a man named Amoz.
The final thing we learn is that Isaiah had these visions over a long period of time (see Kings’ reigns below)…
King Uzziah (788–736 BC) Reigned 52 years
King Jotham (758–742 BC) Reigned 16 years
King Ahaz (742–726 BC) Reigned 16 years
King Hezekiah (726–697 BC) Reigned 29 years
2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! This is what the LORD says: “The children I raised and cared for have turned against Me. 3 Even the animals — the donkey and the ox — know their owner and appreciate his care, but not My people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still do not understand.” (Isaiah 1:2-3 NLT)
Right away, Isaiah calls the heavens and the earth to listen to what the Lord says. You see, although the children of Israel are God’s chosen people, His word is important for all to hear… those in the heavens… the angels… the cherubim… the seraphim… the devil and his demons… all who live on earth…
Do you notice in that verse that Isaiah is crying for the earth to listen? He didn’t say, “Listen, O Israel!” That means that this message is important for all who dwell on earth to hear. Do you see? This is a message that is not just for the Jewish people. God’s word is timeless. It’s not just for the people of long ago. It is for the people of today as well. Therefore, my friends, I cry out to you, “Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! Listen to what the Lord says!”
This is what the LORD says: “The children I raised and cared for have turned against Me. 3 Even the animals — the donkey and the ox — know their owner and appreciate his care, but not My people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still do not understand.”Can you hear the voice of the Lord as He cries out? Do you feel His sorrow?
If you’ve ever raised a child who turned against you, even if only for an instant, do you remember the pain you felt? Do you remember your grief, when your child rejected you? Did you try to reason it out in your mind? “This child I raised and cared for has turned against me.”
I remember how I felt when my children rebelled against me. It broke my heart. I remember thinking of the love that I had lavished on my children, only to arrive at that moment when they rebelled against me. And I can remember thinking and saying something very similar to what God says here. “Even the dog appreciates me, but not my child. After all I’ve done for them, they still don’t get it. No matter how much love I’ve given them… no matter how much I’ve sacrificed… they still don’t understand.”
For all of the men and women who are parents, I’m sure you can understand these feelings. It’s very likely that you’ve experienced them too. When you’ve gone through that experience with your children, did you ever stop to think of that time when you rebelled against your parents? Did it occur to you that, “Oh my goodness! This is how I made my parents feel”?
Has it occurred to you that this is how your heavenly Father feels when we rebel against Him? He spoke those words, because His heart’s desire is that you would understand. Do you have any idea how much God loves you… how much He has sacrificed for you?
He loves you so much that He poured His life out for you on the cross, and all He asks from any of us is that we would return His love and obey Him. Isn’t that all you’ve asked of your children?
Think about it… why does a good parent discipline his or her children? Isn’t it because we want them to grow up to be responsible adults, who are equipped to succeed in life? When you require obedience from your child, isn’t it because you know the dangers that could come to your child if he/she disobeys?
Is it possible that God calls us to obedience because He knows the dangers that we will encounter in this life, and He wants to protect us from them? Is it possible that as any good parent, He wants us to grow up to be the men and women He created us to be, so that we will succeed in life?
Hear, O heavens! And listen, O earth! The Lord says that He formed you in your mother’s womb. While you were hidden from view, God carefully knit you together in His image, and before you ever drew your first breath — indeed, before the foundations of the earth were laid, He knew you and had a plan for your life. His plan was for your good. He wanted to give you a wonderful future filled with hope. He wanted to adopt you and be your Daddy, and all that He’s ever wanted from you, is that you would be His baby and love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He said that if you love Him, you will obey Him. Therefore, I ask you, my beloved friend, Do you love Him?
Burning Fire Shut Up In My Bones 