Somewhere Over the Hanukkah Rainbow

Hanukkah is early this year, making my inter-cultural holiday keeping somewhat complicated. For instance, I hold a monthly Shabbat service on the third Friday of each month in my congregation to teach the church about the Jewish roots of our faith. December would naturally be the time to share about Hanukkah. Three years ago I gathered a cast and we did the Hanukkah play that I had written and done with my grandchildren some years before. It now included Judah Maccabee wielding a Star Wars light saber to drive nasty Antiochus out of the Temple. Afterwards, we feasted on sufganiote which is Hebrew for jelly donuts which for some reason are traditional for Hanukkah. I think it has to do with the oil they are fried in. One year I flew to Israel during Hanukkah and the El Al ticket counter had a HUGE plate of sufganiote for all to share. Yum.

This year, Hanukkah being early, starts at sundown on December 1st and ends eight days later. Therefore, Hanukkah will be over by the third Friday of December when our Second Annual Hanukkah Talent Show will take place. Not to worry, the spirit is always there. And so will the jelly donuts.

Last year I had this idea to expand the play to whatever wonderful talents others have. It was a raving success and so we are now preparing for the Second Annual. The diversity of skits, songs and whatevers reveal the creativity among us. This year The Women's Bible Study Choir will be singing a rewritten rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" relating said place to heaven where troubles will have long since melted away like lemon drops, and a reading of The Night Before Hanukkah will, no doubt, enthrall the hearts of all. Plus we do have some beautiful voices who will surely move at least some of us to tears with the meaningful songs they will be singing. Whether silly or serious, the joy of the Lord will undoubtedly fill our hearts.

Hanukkah is the time to celebrate how God kept the light in the Temple menorah lit for eight days on only one day's worth of oil while they made more. Yeshua (Jesus) observed Hanukkah. John 10:22-39 records Him having been at the Temple for the winter occasion. Since He is the Light of the world, as I light my candles each night of Hanukkah, I light them in recognition that He is the Light of my own life and that in so many ways, life is a giant talent show for which He is the Supreme Director and Producer and it is His joy that floods it all. Happy Hanukkah to you, each and every one, Jewish or not. The Light of the World is available to everyone. May His light be your light always.

Saving A Marine on Veteran's Day

It's Veteran's Day. November 11, 2010. My neighbor, Patrick, called to tell me a very drunk Marine in full dress uniform was asleep on my doorstep. Patrick tried to get him up. Couldn’t. Tried to call our neighborhood Security. Couldn’t get through. He called me to tell me, suggesting I might want to call 911. I looked out the window and sure enough there was the Marine in full dress uniform. Now he was sitting in the rocking chair that I fished out of the trash a while back and painted blue, his uniform an almost matching color, his eyes closed, rocking ever so slightly.

Lord, what do you want me to do? No sense of alarm. Peace. I knew the Lord was in this. I stepped out the door and quietly said, "Soldier," not to frighten him. He managed to lift his eye lids and look at me briefly. It was obvious he was still pretty drunk. "Are you okay?" He answered very quietly and with some difficulty, "Yes ma'am." He did ask me not to call the police. I assured him I wasn't going to and said, "If God brought you to my doorstep it’s for a reason. He evidently is reaching out to you." He just licked his lips like he was dry and continued rocking, eyes staring blankly ahead. No he didn't want any water. And no he didn't want a cup of coffee. He had no idea where he was or, "worse yet," he said, he didn't know how he got there. Angels, I expect, had hand delivered him to me.

I managed to find out he had joined the Marines at 18 and was now 30 and had returned from Iraq recently. I asked him if anyone had ever told him that God loves him and has a plan for his life? "The Lord saved me when I was five," he said. So where are you with the Lord now? I asked. Well, when he joined the Marines, he somehow lost touch with Jesus, it appears. I asked him if he wanted to get right with Him now. It's obvious, I told him, that the Lord wants you to know that He has you on His radar screen and that He knows exactly where you are and He's protecting you, or He wouldn't have brought you to my doorstep.

"Is it bad if I don't want to pray out loud?" he asked me. No, it's not bad, I told him. If you want to pray inside yourself and talk to Him, it's Him you need to talk to, not me. You can just tell Him, "Jesus, forgive my sins. Here's my life." He sat staring for a few more minutes, and I could see a battle going on inside of him. Then he stopped rocking and closed his eyes and sat completely still for a few minutes. Then looked up at me briefly, and I knew he'd just given his heart back to Jesus. When I asked him if he had, as it was obvious it would have been hard for him to say it, he responded again with, "Yes, Ma'am." I said, "Welcome home, J., to the Lord." I offered him my hand and for the first time he looked right at me as he took my hand and held it for a few seconds and I saw the person he is, not just a lost and drunk Marine.

Then I said, I know you've been trained to not show emotions, but I see an awful lot going on in your eyes. What's happening, J? At this he managed to whisper, "I miss my grandpa." He had died recently, he told me. He had told his grandpa about Jesus when he was eleven years old, but he doesn't know if he recieved the Lord or not and he was scared. I assured him he would have to leave that in Jesus' hands, but the important thing today was that he had put his own life into Jesus' hands.

He had called a buddy to come and get him, handing me the phone to tell the buddy, David, where he was. When David arrived, J managed to stand up. I was surprised to see how tall he was. He further surprised me by turning to me and hugging me and saying, "Thank you, Ma'am." I walked him to the car and handed him over to David, as a new man, even if he was still a bit wobbly. Hopefully, this will be a Veteran's Day he will never forget. Nor will I.

Infinite Compassion

My mom went home to be with the Lord on August 26th, 2010. She was 92 and the sweetest Jewish lady you’d ever want to meet. OK, true, the photo was taken a few years earlier, but she was still beautiful, and yes, that's her own brown hair with hardly any grey hair. I can’t imagine anyone having anything but good things to say about her. She’s known the Lord since 1977, having come to the Lord in her sixties. A Jewish woman of that age with an orthodox Jewish upbringing coming to the Lord was not a usual occurrence at that time. (Still isn't.)

I share this with you about my Mom to let you know of the Lord's faithfulness in the last moments of our lives when we’re His. She went through three difficult days (death is still an enemy!) during which we watched her detach from this life, including saying goodbye to us, to a life that no longer had any meaning to her – only the people did, and even to Lizzie, our doggie, whispering to her, “You’ve been a very good puppy dog.”

Nothing was left to be said. We had said all the I love you’s, and thank you for being you’s. We had asked for forgiveness of each other years ago for any way we had hurt each other. After all, I was an unsaved teenager at one time – that’s cause to ask for forgiveness in itself. There was only love. It had been a privilege to be her caretaker, to honor my mother this way. I know that not every mother is as delightful and as easy to be with as mine, so she made caring for her easy. She was a role model of goodness, graciousness and generosity of heart to the end, even in the way she died.

That Saturday my daughters and their families, consisting of two sons-in-law, six grandchildren and three dogs went to the beach. Mom was always called "Gra," short for Grammom. The kids wrote her full name and "Gra" underneath in the sand. Libi whose name means "My heart" in Hebrew, wrote "We love you" under her name and drew a heart around the names in the sand upside down. "So she can read it from heaven either way if she's looking down," she said. We took a few moments to thank God for Gra and to remember things we loved about her. We were comforted in the Lord that she was in a much better place, but still, we deeply missed her as we left the beach, all of us together for the first time without her.

Two days later, to soothe our souls, my daughter Jenny and I went into the quaint little town she and her family live close to on the ocean here in Florida. We had lunch at a French restaurant, and dessert in a Belgian one. In the town is a synagogue which is over 100 years old, with beautiful stained glass windows and charming architecture. Jenny wanted to show it to me so we found an open door and went in. Three people were speaking together and turned to greet us with questioning looks on their faces as to who and why we were there as the service (It was Shabbat) was already over. Jenny had been there once before for a service and when she reminded them, they recognized her.

The older man, who turned out to be the 90 year old rabbi, greeted us warmly with an accent that sounded like my Grandmother's, a combination of English and a Russian Yiddish accent. Standing with them was a lady, also elderly, who was obviously in emotional pain. She had a handkerchief to her face and was crying, or trying not to.

Jenny asked the woman in a most tender voice why she was crying and she began to tell us, also in an accent, that a member of her family had died in Poland and she was unable to get to the funeral or be with her family. She was grieving terribly, not just for the family member she obviously loved, but also because she couldn’t be with her family so they could share their grief together. (Obviously, there was no Yeshua in her life or her deceased family member to take the sting out.) I asked her if she was the Rebbitzin (rabbi’s wife). Yes she was.

We then told her how we had just lost my Mom, so we now were sisters in grief. Jenny and I put our arms around her and cried with her. She had her head on Jenny’s shoulder while I put my arms around her too and just let the comfort of the Holy Spirit ooze into her as we silently prayed for His comfort to come to her. We just held her and let her hurt and cry and grieve while we loved on her.

That we too had just lost a loved one changed Mrs. Rabbi's sorrow from what was happening to her to sharing what three women were experiencing together. My thoughts went to something Paul once said which we were now experiencing: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua our Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Cor. 1:3,4). It is often in comforting others that we are comforted.

Coming To God's Defense

I’d like to come to God’s defense, not that He needs me to. I often hear it said, and even preached, that God gave Israel the commandments, all 613 of them, to teach mankind that we can’t keep them. As if that statement sums up the whole of the Law (Torah) and God’s entire motive for giving it to Israel. But was that how Yeshua (Jesus) saw the Law? The Law, Christians are often told, was to show how much we need Yeshua. Of course, we need Him. Entirely and completely. But let me ask you this? Would God as Yeshua revealed Him to us demand of His people what they would be incapable of? Would Abba God set it up so that anyone who longed to do His will would live in constant frustration, failure and fear of the consequences of displeasing Him? Is that what your heart tells you is true of the God you know and love?

But what if it was true? Let’s see, the Commandments were given to Moses, according to some estimates, approximately 1491 B.C. That would mean it would be about 1500 years till Yeshua’s resurrection and the Holy Spirit was given when His followers were counted by God as having kept Torah “in Him” because He fulfilled it completely. Let’s consider 40 years to be a generation; that would be 375 generations – millions of people – attempting to observe the commandments unsuccessfully. Why would people continue such a futile endeavor generation after generation? Perhaps a more important question is, what would such unrealistic requirements say about God and what kind of relationship He supposedly would be wanting with His people if it were true?

Perhaps some of you feel that God is always expecting of you what you seem to be unable to fulfill but should be able to. That would foster an awareness of something you need to do to somehow get right with God, yet you just never get there. That’s what it feels like to live under a demanding God whom you cannot satisfy. Does that kind of consciousness of failure make for a loving and trusting relationship in which you find rest in Him? Or does it leave you always somewhat stressed, continually conscious of how you’ve missed the mark He’s requiring of you? That is what it’s like to live under what we call legalism. But legalism is what comes from adding to God’s commandments, not from the commandments themselves. Unless, of course, God really did mean for Israel to live in continual exasperation until Messiah came. Their relationship then would be like demanding of a paralyzed man that he get up and walk on his own, knowing he is incapable of doing so. That’s irrational. Well, we certainly wouldn’t say that about Yeshua. He’s not irrational! But neither is His Father. If we somehow, even a little bit, envision the God of Israel as the irrationally demanding God of the Old Testament (Covenant), that is likely to bleed into our concept of what God expects of us under the New Covenant, despite how good we may see Yeshua. Could how some of us see God in relation to the Law be the cause for difficulty in entering into Messiah Yeshua’s rest?

To read the rest of this article, go to: www.sidroth.org/articles

Siding With The Lion of Judah

Shalom. As you may be aware, whenever America has taken a stand against Israel, or for that matter even so much as snubbed her Prime Minister in the past, we have suffered either a natural disaster or a significant stock market dip, numbering over sixty of them since the “Peace Process” began. [For more info, watch Sid Roth’s interviews with John McTernan on www.sidroth.org, Go to: TV shows and type McTernan into the Search browser]. God's name is upon Israel. To come against Israel is to stir the Lion of Judah to wrath!

Our president has taken steps to show disdain for Israel and to move toward severing our ties with her. How arrogant of America to think we can settle a dispute between brothers that has been going on for 3,000 years, not to mention that this isn’t a political battle anyway, it’s a spiritual battle. While his decisions affect Israel, your life is likely to be affected by them too. The night Obama won the election, as it was being announced, the Lord clearly said to me, “America has you have known it has just ceased to exist.” It’s appearing to be more and more true.

This year at Shavuot (Pentecost), I had the sense that next year at Shavuot our world may look much different. Now may be the time to put aside what may be less critical issues and be praying for the people of God to rise up and be all that Jesus intends for us to be. And to pray for Israel, and for the Jewish people world wide for they will be greatly affected if Israel is (further) discredited in the eyes of America and the world. This move will undoubtedly then affect the Christians – for it is God’s people whom satan hates. Islam boasts that they will destroy first the Saturday (Shabbath) people, then the Sunday (sabbath) people. But satan's boasts do not stand up against God's truth and sovereignty, nor His protection and blessings. And he cannot destroy what is eternal - souls that are the Lord's!

By the declaration of our president, America is no longer a (Judeo) Christian country. But he seems not to be aware of the Christian force for righteousness that is swelling in our country right now. In asking the Lord what I was to do with my frustration (read, anger) at those in authority who are making such unwise decisions in clear rebellion against the Word of God, which is to say, against the Lord Himself, His answer to me was: “It’s about savings souls, not saving the nation.” That does not mean we are not to be concerned with praying for the nation or taking a stand for righteousness, but not to let political or national concerns take priority over Kingdom concern for the saving of souls.

I also heard Him tell me yesterday during a time of worship at my church (Pentecost Sunday), that just as the first believers were blessed and enjoying God’s favor even to God adding to their numbers daily, they would have stayed in Jerusalem or at least Israel had He not allowed the Temple to be destroyed causing the Jews, which meant thousands of Believers, to be thrust out into the world. What I sensed God saying is that if we, the Believers in Messiah, do not “go and make disciples,” we may find ourselves thrust out of our comfortable congregational buildings where we remain out of touch of those in great need of the Gospel and God’s loving impact on their lives. We keep preaching the Gospel to each other without getting “out there” where the needy and lost souls are! How many people do we walk or drive past in a day, or a week, and never tell them about the treasure we carry within us? WWJD?

This is not a word of judgment, doom or cause for fear. “Fear not, neither let your heart be troubled.” We have just come through Pentecost. I believe God has released a new anointing of the Holy Spirit’s power and purity upon us that will begin to carry us over the waves of any difficulties, if we keep our eyes on Him and stay focused on the tasks of bringing others into the safe harbor of God’s love and His truth. The earliest followers of Yeshua didn’t try to be anointed, they just were! They didn’t “do” or “go” out of a sense of religious duty. They overflowed with Jesus. I believe the Lord is giving us opportunity to come closer to Him than we have before. When we come closest to Him, He will impart His heart to us and fill us with Himself.

Not only will we know His love for us at a deeper and life-penetrating level, but we will be able to throw off grave clothes that have kept us weighted down, and like the blind beggar who threw off his beggar’s cloak, we can rise up and come to Him for new eyes to see as He sees, with eyes of love and compassion, eyes of discernment and truth, of power and anointing. Kingdom eyes!

It could just be that our redemption does indeed “draweth nigh,” and that perhaps Yeshua (Jesus) could break through the clouds within the next several years or so and put an end to the devil’s ways in the earth. We may be the people whose eyes see Him come! We may experience the setting up of His Kingdom during our lifetime. It may be that He’s waiting until all those He intends to save (not the least of whom are the Jews), are saved. So we have some work to do as co-workers with Him; we have some overflowing to do. We must first get alone with Jesus and let Him fill us to overflowing with Himself! Then we can go in His power. Then we will experience His joy, and the angel’s joy, because He’ll share it with us when we bring others to Him.

There is a reason why God says to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Because when Jerusalem is at peace, the world will be at peace. Jerusalem is the city God says is His own. It’s the “city of the great King.” The King is Jesus! That’s why there’s such a battle for it, especially as we grow closer to the coming of the Lord. Jerusalem is the epicenter of the conflict between God and satan. It always has been. It is the type of the Kingdom of God. It is also the type of the whole earth. If the devil can take Jerusalem from Jacob and his descendents, then he will have made God a liar and rendered Him impotent and the earth will be his. He’s so deceived he keeps trying to make that happen. It can't and it won’t. No matter what it may look like at some given moment, God’s word, the Bible, will prevail. It will all come to pass. Yeshua (Jesus) is The Word of God and He alone is Lord over all.

In the meantime, we pray. Our prayers are effective in praying God’s word, in declaring it prophetically. Don’t just ask Him to fulfill His word, declare it! Prophesy it. Agree with Him that it’s the only reality. “If any two of you agree” gets even better when it’s God you’re agreeing with! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for Israel, and for Jews everywhere for their salvation and protection. Pray also for America to protect her Jews, for if we do not,we may arouse the Lion of Judah to wrath.

The hatred against Israel is spewing forth from the lies of Islam. But there are two sides to this situation. We would do well to pray for the millions of Muslims who have been caught in the strangling net of the Liar to believe the rebellion against the Word of God that they have been taught. Thousands of Muslims (I’ve been told millions) have been coming to the Lord in these past few years. When they do, their hatred for Israel turns to love for Israel and the Jews. Their lives are at risk for their faith in Jesus already, but also many of them are now praying for the peace of Israel having received God’s heart and His word for her. Pray for their protection and God's supernatural peace and protection for them as well.

During prayer at a recent Joel Richardson conference (See Sid Roth’s interviews with Joel [www.sidroth.org]about the intended Islamization of America & the world) the Lord imparted to me the heart of Abraham for both his sons, Jacob and Esau. I believe I was feeling God’s heart for both of Abraham's sons, the Jews and the Arabs (most of whom are Muslims). We must distinguish between the lie of terrorism and the souls of people. A verse reverberates through my mind: “Forgive them, Abba, for they know now what they do.”

We have a choice as to how to look at things that may happen. We who belong to Yeshua are seated above in heavenly places with Him. When we learn to come to the Lord there, we can see things as He sees them. The News media doesn’t often tell us much about what God is doing, nor can they see things from His perspective. (There are a few exceptions.) In actuality, the end is aleady written. He’s already won. We are already on the winning side when we’re on God's side. We fight not to win but because He has already won. We fight the good fight OF FAITH, expecting our Lord to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can imagine, and beyond all that has been done in His name thus far. This is a time for outrageous faith and confidence in God that He will make this time the church's strongest hour, to His glory. Amen.

God's Exceeding Abundant Interest in You!

During a difficult time in my life a Scripture verse kept my head above water, as I put my trust in "Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20). Quite frankly, I didn't feel any power in my life nor could I even think of what could possibly be "exceeding" or "abundant" except more pain and powerlessness. But I believed God, so I kept praying it and trusting that God would make this true in my life. And He has! Years later, I can say that what He continues to do in my life is more than I would have ever thought.

This came to mind in a conversation with a friend just the other day about God's goodness, and I decided that I would again begin to pray that for my daily life. Why not believe God DAILY for exceeding abundant manifestations of His goodness? Here's what's been happening since.

The next morning I was awakened with a friend on my heart and some concern for her. As I began to pray for her, the Lord gave me some insight into her life that I felt He wanted me to share with her. While in the shower at 7:20 a.m. I heard the phone ring. I dashed for it, concerned with who would call that early and it was my friend. She wanted to know if we could get together today as she felt she needed to talk with me about something troubling her. I told her what God had shown me about putting some balance in her life and she said, "That's it! You just gave me the answer to what I needed to know." Bingo. God to the rescue once again.

A few hours later I felt a nudge from the Lord: "Take your mother's blood pressure." Mom is 91 and lives with me. I am her care-taker. I thought I'd better obey that nudge and sure enough, her b.p. was 204/79. Not good. I immediately put in a call to the doctor and left a message. Then I heard the Lord say, "Check her meds." So I did and found that I had left out her b.p. meds in her daily pills so she had not had one for 5 days. Evidently those pills work. I put her back on the b.p. meds and all is well now. Is that awesome or what? God, Amightly God cares about my Mom's blood pressure. He not only cares about my little Mom (litterly, she's now 4'8"), but He made sure I heard Him. He's been teaching me to hear His voice for years and I'm so grateful that I can. I'm also grateful for a God who is relational and loving and involved in the details of our lives. Exceedingly abundantly so.

For the past week or two, as I'm involved in a writing project that presses me to a May 15th deadine, I've been thinking of what I'd like to do when that pressure is lifted off of me, not that I'm not enjoying the writing. But what I've felt I would love to do is ....sew! Just me and God, no deadlines. No interviews, No profound thinking and articulate expressions, just colors and patterns juxtaposed in harmonious profusion. A quilt. I've always wanted to make a quilt. I used to sew years ago and it was quite satisfying. Now the desire has resurfaced. It became a day dream when I wanted to rest my brain. Yesterday while in the supermarket, I spent 10 whole minutes browsing through two quilting magazines and actually bought one, not to put it to use, but just to vicariously enjoy other women's quilting. I had this urge to go to a fabric store and look and feel, to take a sensate mini-vacation. But how productive would that be? Surely I should use my time more Kingdom worthy, more productively than that. Never mind.

But yesterday yet another friend called me over to her house. She had a surprise for me, she said. I couldn't imagine what. First she gave me a friendship card which in itself was loving, but then, as we were standing in her own sewing room, she pushed a big box forward with her foot and said, "And this is for you," saying that she felt it was something the Lord wanted her to bless me with..... a brand new computerized sewing machine! I was speechless. Me, I'm rarely speechless. This time I was. I don't know that I've ever received such an extravagant gift, especially one that was also so much from the Lord.

I told her about my recent longing for sewing. This surely couldn't be a coincidence. I don't believe in coincidences. I know God too well for that. I know He weaves things in our lives together for His purposes. Evidently, all my longing for sewing was His doing, His wanting to balance out my own life with beauty, and colors and the joy of creating. Isn't that part of being in the image of the creator - creating? This gift is without a doubt exceedingly abundantly beyond all I would have thought I had the right to ask for. But my wonderful Lord Who is the God of all goodness is the ultimate Giver.

May I encourage you to ask God for His exceeding abundant 'beyondness' to be manifest in your life so you can be an instrument for Him to touch others. (But don't be surprised if He wants to do in your life what He may show you to pray for someone else, like balance, for instance.) Be on the lookout daily for how you can give His goodness to others, spread around your trust in God, encourage people in the Lord, and see what happens. Here's His own promise: "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” God is interested in blessing you. Let Him!! Believe Him to do so and watch how He shows you His love for you and through you.