Tuesday, December 29, 2015

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PART?

What matters most to you? Or better yet, who matters most to you? Maybe the two questions go together. They did for me this past week. I just returned from our second family vacation together in a few weeks. I'm talking 16 of us, all together, in relatively small places. OK, the last wasn't really small. We were on a cruise ship, The Independence of the Seas,which is three times the size of the Titanic. Big!

The reasons for the vacations is that this may be the last time ALL of us are together. (You could skip this paragraph and still not miss the meaning of this article, but if you're interested....) Four of my grandchildren just graduated from college, which means 2 are making Aliyah, which means moving to and becoming citizens of Israel; another is moving to NYC for her new job (1000+ miles away); and another is moving, at least for a while, to Paris to attend a cooking school - she's an aspiring chef. Another already lives 5+ hours drive away with her soon to be second baby and hubby. One other is applying to grad school, and who knows where he'll wind up. That leaves us basically with one granddaughter and her hubby and adorable so-smart almost 4 year old still living in close proximity in our fair city, along with one nephew, and one still away at college who does come home on school holidays (at least for now). In case you weren't counting that was 10 grandkids, plus 2 soon to be 3, great grands --- and they are "grand" indeed, though "lovey" might be a better term. 

So in anticipation of an extended-family empty-nest experience, we've spent as much time together as we could recently, including the cruise this past week. We weren't always all 16 of us together but we always came together for meals in the ship's dining room. Or somehow we managed to find each other to share in the various goings-on of the ship's activities. When at the end, eating again on the 5 hour drive home, I asked what everyone's favorite part was, they unanimously said eating together, being together.  

It wasn't the opulence of the ship or the activities which were entertaining, or fun, or the off-ship trip to Mexico where we docked for a day, or....whatever. It was each other. Being together. I agree, my favorite part as well.  In contrast, this brings to mind how we got separated during the lonnnngg lines out of the boat when 4,500 people were disembarking and going through Customs at the same time. What a relief it was to find 'us' congregating outside somewhere, waiting for my daughter Ellen and I who seemed to be the tail end of that excursion back to land. 

Being Together takes on an even greater meaning for me, the only grandparent in the group, to see how much love there is through 4 generations and the sense of "us," of belonging to one another. I pray it remains despite the distance and years ahead of us. But one other reality impacted me.

While onboard I watched a movie in my stateroom, a Steven Spielberg documentary on the Holocaust, with some live film clips and the stories of some of the survivors. I now understand that some of the most terrifying initial experiences for them had to have been being forcibly separated away from their family members, from those they belonged  to. As we worked our way off the ship yesterday, my one sense of urgency was not to loose sight of Ellen who was just ahead of me in the crowd. Last year I fell and broke my hip. It still hurts and keeps me from walking quickly. When the crowd moved faster, I had to choose between increased pain or lagging behind enough to possibly loose her in the crowd. I know that sounds melodramatic, but I thought of the Jews trying not to loose one another as they were separated away from loved ones. The emotional pain, and the fear of being left alone in all that, had to be greater than any physical pain. There in that line a swell of compassion arose in me for how many such situations people may find themselves in, with far worse situations (refugees, for instance) and ends to their stories than mine, as I found my family all waiting for us and even with a wheelchair my daughter Jenny managed to find somewhere as she anticipated my pain due to standing for so long while also having to carry some luggage.

I hope what I'm trying to express comes across: Appreciate your loved ones. Take opportunities to help one another and meet some of their needs. Don't take them for granted. Don't allow petty issues to divide you. God has made us to belong to one another. Families are His idea of learning to love each one as He loves each of us - unconditionally. I read a startling statement recently that has wide implications that would allow such unconditional love. Yeshua's entire life (and death) message was FORSAKE BLAME!  I can see how that would preserve our love for and commitment to one another, can't you? Those two words are worthy of considerable pondering. 

As a final word, if your family isn't as intact, or maybe doesn't even exist, as ours does, there are likely others around you who also might long for family. It doesn't have to be biological family. Friends can often make the best families too. Ask God to help you find them. 

If someone comes to mind while reading this, please pass it on to them.  Blessings, everyone.

Lonnie

Lonnielane.com  



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

CHRISTMAS IS NOT A GOOD JEWISH MESSAGE

I was invited to speak in a church the Sunday before Christmas. "Bring us a good Jewish Christmas message," Bishop Allen had asked of me. My first thought was that maybe I should come in January instead because there is no such thing as a Jewish Christmas message, good or otherwise, despite Messiah being Jewish. But I went and having spoken there once before I looked forward to being with those warm and welcoming folks. I had done my homework and prepared a message but what took place was clearly God's Plan A and mine had been at best Plan B. Sometimes you get to hear the message you're delivering as you speak it. Here's some of what became the message.

We do know that Jesus wasn't born on Christmas day, right? His birth wasn't connected to that date until the 4th century when it was attached to a Roman holiday. The bible doesn't give us any clue as to when He was born, except that whatever happened of significance in His life was always connected to or fulfilled a biblical holiday, and December 25th surely wasn't one of them. 

It is unlikely that His birth was celebrated at all by Yeshua's Jewish followers. When Jews celebrated the holy days (holidays) they were God's idea and it was God Himself they celebrated. When He gave them a harvest and called for a Feast, for instance of the harvest, it was a time to rejoice in God's goodness and provision to them, of His faithfulness upon which they relied. Or of the Exodus and the great deliverance He brought to them. Except for the shepherds gleeful response to the angelic announcement and came to find Him, Yeshua as a baby was unlikely to have been cause for celebration, especially considering the significance of all that transpired at the end of His earthly life. 

Nevertheless God made it a point to tell us of the various dynamics of the event for a purpose, as everything God does carries with it a message to us. My thoughs went to Miryam/Mary and her deep humility before God in contrast to what appears to be so many self-righteous and outwardly religious folks (though not all) fulfilling one assignment or another related to or in the temple. But God did through Miryam what was entirely unlike anything that anyone with any sense of what was expected of God would have thought of!
 
Certainly there were expectations in Israel at that time that one day, and hopefully soon, Messiah would come and He would change everything. Their expectations were all based on Scripture, even though there were conflicting expectations of how it would all take place. What was agreed upon was that Messiah would do away with sin and sinners as God's wrath poured out upon them. He would surely free Israel from the oppression of her enemies, which to most Jews surely meant the Romans. To some He would take His place as Messiah King and like David, free Israel entirely to once again be a sovereign nation. Some expected immediate peace, while others were geared up for war like Peter with his dagger, Zealots who were ready to fight alongside  Messiah when He revealed Himself at King.Does that give you some insight into some of what Peter did or said?  

Others thought of when Messiah would bring peace to the entire earth and all would come to worship in Jerusalem where He would set up His throne and rule the world from there - where, some thought, we know from requests of His own disciples, they would be beside Him  

Expectations ran high. They extended to the ways many of the thousands of priests and the 70 men of the Sanhedrin and other religious folk exhibited their holiness by how they dressed, often in elaborate prayer shawls and phylacteries, how scrupulously they washed their hands, even the way they walked, and the many ways they had added to Torah. Add to that their involvement in whatever was going on in the temple that was meant to catch Messiah's attention when He would come. Surely He would take note of all their (outward) religious goings-on in the magnificent temple of which they were so proud when He arrived.  

It would not be the am ha eretz, the people of the earth, who were too busy with the mundane things of providing for themselves, often with dirty hands, who never had time or perhaps interest in studying the holy books as they did. Surely Messiah would know who the righteous were and who weren't when He came, when sinners would be done away with when God exhibited His wrath against all unrighteousness. 

Can you see then why his hob-nobbing with sinners was so contrary to their religious idea of Messiah? Why when they saw Him tenderly treating lepers and prostitutes as if He was their loving shepherd instead of bringing wrath upon them, that they couldn't understand how He could possibly be the Messiah?

Well, God entirely ignored all of that religious activity and their expectations.  He would not entrust His Son to the High Priest, or any priest for that matter. He entrusted His Son instead to a humble young woman of the am ha eretz, to someone who apparently had more understanding of what God honored than most of the temple priesthood did. She seemed to know her God and what He valued far beyond that of the temple officiaries. And God knew it. He knew her heart and she won God's favor and trust to bring His Son to her rather then to any of them. Hear some of her words:

"My very being magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced on account of God my savior." God is already her Savior, she understands, which had to have been by the Spirit, how it is that God is her Savior. Yeshua becomes our Savior because His Father is first and foremost our Savior; He is revealing the Father in all He does. 

"Because He looked upon the humble station of His servant...." She evidently knew what it was to be humble before God. She had evidently, judging from the rest of her words, seen enough of religiosity that she took a position of her need of and dependence upon God, offering Him herself in whatever way He required of her.  When she says to the angel when he comes to tell her of the baby, "Behold the servant of the Lord, may it be unto me according to your word," we get the sense that she has some kind of relationship with God already, that she has humbled herself before Him before, perhaps praying for His will in her life, offering Him only her willing love to do as pleases Him with her life.  

She goes on to say things which reveal that she has given much thought to God's mercy - what it really is and how it is manifested: "His mercy is for generation to generation to those who fear (revere) Him...He scatters the proud (according to) the understanding (of their prideful) hearts." She goes on to speak of what will come as if it's already happened. "He pulled down rulers from thrones and He raised up the lowly." She knows that God does not despise the lowly, the am ha eretz, as others do. 

There is much more in what she is saying here, but she ends it with, "He helped His child Israel, by remembering His mercy just as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever." To Miryam, she knows what God's calling has been since Abraham upon her people, and quite possibly she has taken that as even being her own calling.  She, like Abram, believed God, and apparently God counted it to her  as righteousness as He did to Abram's faith and obedience.*

What about you? What are you believing God for in your life?  Give yourself a gift in this season and take some time to read this whole Luke 1 passage and consider the character and godliness of this young woman. God had entrusted His most precious Son to her, confident that she would raise Him in a way that would not mar or damage His sensitive and tender soul but that she would bring Him up in an atmosphere of reverential fear and loving obedience to God. The books   of two of her other sons, James (Ya'acov/Jacob) and Jude (Yehudah/Judah) fill the pages of the New Testament where you will see what kind of boys she raised besides Yeshua. Judging from the fruit of her labors, God knew well her heart and entrusted her with more than just Yeshua. I can't help but wonder if their passion for truth and for God didn't come from their mother as well as their big Brother. 

I want God to entrust me with knowing Him and with an understanding of God's ways so that I am "carrying" His Son within me and I am able to "birth" Him into the lives of others. The first step is in coming to know Him more and more as we spend time with Him. 

Thinking about this message has given me cause to rethink where I might be more outwardly religious than inwardly reverential. I so want to be humble before the Lord in the secret places of my life where no one else sees but Him. That's where He works in our hearts and souls to make us more like Yeshua. I suspect,He sees what He can entrust us with, level upon level, as we grow in faith in Him. And happily, it is also the place where He will meet us to reveal more of Himself to us, and to grant us more of the gift of His Son - Yeshua, the gift that keeps on giving!  


* All Scriptures from Luke 1:46-55 One New Man Bible, my additions added.  

Monday, October 5, 2015

With Eyes of Love

I was introduced to a young man at church yesterday by the pastor.  We began to talk and it turned into a significant conversation. He has been part of YWAM excursions into other nations and has received some training by significant names such as Reinhardt Bonke on evangelism crusades and other large meetings. But now his heart is for individual persons and to be functioning as an evangelist to bring people to the Lord personally. He told me of his experiences of him and another man going into economically depressed areas of the city. I sensed how much he really cared for those people and longed for them to know how Jesus can change their lives for the better. 

But despite what looked like a good beginning with about five men they met on the streets, it never went anywhere. The men they spoke with initially didn’t all come the next time they had arranged to meet. My new friend was somewhat discouraged but ready to find out how to make it work next time.  And so we migrated over to two big comfy leather chairs in the lobby set up for folks wanting to chat and we talked until just about everyone had left the church and then we stood in the parking lot for a while more.  There is so much to talk about in the Lord!

He had mentioned being an introvert, which tells me he would be more comfortable on a one-to-one situation or a few persons than in a crusade. This led to talking about how some of the people he’s wanting to minister the Lord to might also feel. How can he make them comfortable with what he might want to share with them, especially if what he’s saying is new to them? What would cause them to begin to trust him to even begin a friendship?  In the case of the few he met who didn’t show up for the next meeting, he had told them, “Let’s get together again for a bible study.”  Now mind you, we’re talking about a really poor section of town. What was a “bible study” likely to mean to those folks?

Consider what ‘study’ anything would mean to them:  School, right? Good chance most of them dropped out of school having failed or were totally disinterested in what they considered boring teachers had to say.  Possibly in some cases, they can’t even read very well. I know I’m stereotyping here, but we’re talking about severely economically challenged inner city folks.  Saying something like “Let’s get together for a bible study” would just seem like what they would have zero interest in. They are using up a lot of energy just dealing with daily issues and a bible study is just another thing that they anticipate failing at, something to give them more rules they can’t keep. That’s most people’s idea of Bible study until they get to know who Father God really is through Jesus. They're likely thinking of do’s and don’ts from a God whose standards they know they can’t meet.  

Someone doesn’t have to be in a poor inner-city situation though to relate to feeling this way about God. I’m speaking in extremes here but how many people are actually interested in a good intellectual discussion on the bible when they’re really hungry for food, or strung out on drugs, or they are in the middle of a divorce or just lost their only source of income, or their kids are in trouble and they don’t know what to do? Or for that matter, there just is no one who cares enough to look them in their eyes with eyes of love that say they care, or who will give them a hug, no matter what they may look or smell like. These things could apply anywhere, not just the inner-city. 

What people need is to experience the love of God.  We all need that!  We may have a quest to get people saved, to bring them to salvation because we ourselves know how good and safe and wonderful it is to belong to the Lord, but Jesus wants us to make love our quest first. It's not a matter of our performance, it's a matter of being like Him! I suggest doing so will result in the rest falling into place. The Lord will then lead us to be doing what He’s put in each of our your hearts to do, what He’s created each of us for.  It starts with getting in touch at a deep level with Jesus’ love for people, for individual persons, not just people in general - including His love for you personally. May I suggest taking a read through 1 Corinthians 12:1-8a, the love chapter, and thank the Lord as you make your way down that love-list.  By thanking Him, I don’t mean a perfunctory saying of the words “Thank you, Lord.”  I mean really relating to Him yourself and letting Him respond to you as you express a thankful heart to Him.  And I’m not talking about doing a “bible study” with yourself, I’m talking about getting in touch deep inside yourself with the Jesus who brings the Father’s love to you this way. 

We’ve all experienced God's love for us personally on different levels if we’re His. But there's always so much more. How about His faithfulness to be there for you, no matter what? He has known your innermost secrets and yet never once spoken or conveyed words of judgement or condemnation to you, there's only acceptance and tender-hearted love, even if He disciplined you for a while. Are you aware that once you repent of something He never brings it up to you again, because He doesn’t keep an account of your wrong doings? How long suffering is He with us always. If you ever feel condemned by God, that you’ve hopelessly failed Him, that’s not the voice of the Father you’re hearing; it’s the voice of the Accuser, the devil. Don’t listen to him. Turn to the Lord, repent where you need to, and fall into the loving arms of Jesus who always forgives.  Love isn’t so much a feeling as it is coming to know the faithfulness and kindness of our God. Sometimes it’s also about new revelations of His majesty. 

Yesterday during worship in church I experienced something not new to me but “new” in the sense of awesome in the fresh revelation it always brings. Jesus lives inside of us, right? Get in touch with Him within you and worship as if from Him. By that I mean, worship as if you are one with Him, not just you yourself worshipping – worship as if you are Jesus as He would have worshipped His Father while on earth and the Holy Spirit is likely to share with you some very precious insights between the Father and the Son.  But this time for me it was more than that.  I don’t recall the song we were even singing exactly but the worship leader began to speak about the Father, the very thing I was experiencing. Through the words and the worship what opened up to me was the unfathomable love Jesus had for His Father, His absolute trust in His goodness.  And here's the "more" part: I had the sense of the profound unity and satisfaction, the great sense of accomplishment of Jesus with Abba the rescue of the world and how They had done it together!
Words are always so inadequate when trying to explain things of the Spirit. But being in touch with Yeshua’s worship of the Father from within yourself will open up to you perhaps a deeper worship – Jesus’ worship and oneness with His Father. Yesterday’s revelation was that I suddenly had an awareness at a level I hadn’t known before of that the love of Jesus was entirely for His Father and all the rest came out of that love relationship between Jesus and His Abba.

I was briefly with an old friend when I was in Israel recently. He has been in an evangelistic ministry on the streets of Israel for over thirty years. I hadn’t seen him in a number of years but I was struck with the love that poured out of his eyes when we met again.  Joy flooded his face and permeated his smile, at me and others as I watched him, even when he was interrupted by someone who was sure he only wanted to hear what they had to say. He wasn’t annoyed. Instead love just oozed out of this man. He’s taken a lot of persecution while preaching the gospel on the streets of Tel Aviv over the years, but all he’s got to give is love. His words were so surrendered to the God he loves I wanted to climb inside of his heart and know Him the way He does. 

What drew people to Jesus wasn’t just the miracles, or the loaves and fishes, but what He said that made sense to them. He spoke to them in ways they could relate to: seed planting, sheep tending, losing and finding coins…. He talked to them in their language, even though He could no doubt have discoursed on doctrinal issues way beyond what any learned Pharisee could have. He related to them where they were. His love was seen and heard and brought acceptance to them in the familiar circumstances of their lives. But some of our ways of attempting to bring people to Him don't seem to match up to His ways, as I see it. 

And while I'm on the subject, mind if I share a few concerns on evangelism?  I’m not inclined to think the Lord meant for us to feel satisfied that we’ve done our job if people just recite a prayer after us after we've given them the "God has a wonderful plan for your life" abbreviated evangelism spiel. With little coming from them in spontaneous heart-felt response to God, what does that tell them about how they are to relate to Him? That's not to say that some actually do get no-kidding really saved this way, but on the whole, if they are introduced to Him with a ‘canned’ speech, how does that teach them that they can talk to God naturally? Its not a good intro to Him as I see it. Another thing that troubles me, while I’m sharing all this. Do we tell people they’re going to heaven because of the repeating of a few sentence as do some gospel presentations without any introduction to the requirement to walk holy before the Lord?  But even then, holiness is not something taught, it’s caught. It’ll be rules and have-to’s if they don’t see it modeled in love, first for the Lord, and then toward others because we largely live out our love for God through our relationships. 

If hearts aren’t touched somehow, then the words of our presentation may sound promising while we’re talking to them, but do they stick? Jesus taught His men how to reach others through discipleship. And discipleship should be about relationship. The early church met house to house in relationships that undoubtedly functioned as a form of discipleship by those who had walked with Jesus or the sharing and the caring for one another that took place wouldn’t have happened as it did. Did you ever think of how He turned one of the Sons of Thunder and into the apostle of His love? 

Real discipleship isn’t a weekly class for an hour or two.  It’s what my brother and I once learned from a man who gave us his time and his heart as we followed him around for a while. He simply said, “Welcome to my life” and we spent a short season of our lives with him but it was a game-changer for us and I’ve never forgotten the difference that experience and he made in our lives. 

What if each one of us welcomed into our lives one other person. And then a while later your disciple learned from you and did the same thing. Multiplication in Kingdom math would exceed what 1+1 does naturally. Here’s how it works:  You’re the 1. Let’s say you disciple two other people in a given period of time.  That’s 1+2 =3.   In time you and your two disciples are each discipling two other folks; that’s the 3 of you now discipling six others. That’s 3+6=9.  Then the 9 of you are each discipling another set of two folks: 9+18=27, and on it goes. What if most people in your fellowship did that? If you all had someone into whose life you are imparting what you know of the Lord including just being their friend?  Let’s say 30 people are discipling two people a year who then go on to disciple two others, etc.  I’m terrible at math and maybe I wouldn’t get the numbers right, but I figure that’s 810 people being led into maturity in the Lord. That’s maximum church growth not just in numbers but in solid relationship and commitment.  Such discipleship relationships generally continue throughout life as friendships in the Lord, which is how the Lord intended them to be.  I don’t know about you, but that gets me pretty excited:  Doing the stuff of the Kingdom!  Yeah!! 

I will also say that such relationships will also cause you to be sure you’re right with God, and with men, lest you misrepresent the Lord to your disciples.  God set it up that way so that we are always aware of how our walk with the Lord affects others. That’s not a burden, that’s a security built into the ways of the Kingdom; we love others and want only good for them so we live accordingly. Discipleship works both ways, for the disciplee and the discipiler to the benefit of both. Befriend someone this way and your life will be all the richer for it.  We can all invest in the lives of someone else with whom we can share how we live our lives in the Lord.  If you don’t feel ready, ask the Lord to make you ready. Clean up your life – for the sake of someone else. It’ll bring you more joy than you can imagine.

Jesus said to His disciples early on in their relationship, “Follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of men.”  I have often wondered, if we aren’t fishing, are we really following?  The young man that I met yesterday is surely fishing, but he wasn’t using the right bait.  Love is the bait, not bible studies, not first off anyway. Relationship building comes first if we want to see changed lives. The words of the gospel without somehow conveying the love of the gospel isn’t really the gospel. Just saying “Jesus loves you,” or “God loves you” is so abstract to someone who doesn’t know what real love which they can trust means. And that applies to all levels of society.  It takes loving people to convey His love to others. Jesus said to “pursue love” (1 Cor. 14:1).  It’s a good place to start – for yourself, and those whose lives you will touch for Him and for eternity. 

Saturday, September 5, 2015

A HEARTFELT RECONCILIATION WITH ISRAEL

Hello folks, It is with a humble heart that I answered the invitation to speak at a conference in Jerusalem on September 16-18, 2015 entitled "Reconciliation With Israel." An Orthodox rabbi who is also the publisher of Breaking News Israel (with a Jewish and Christian readership of 100,000 daily) will be covering the conference. He has asked for articles from any of the speakers before the event relating to why we are participating.  Below is my article which reveals much of what motivates me altogether and which I felt to share with you, dear readers, as I know many of you share my thoughts and feelings.

The conference will be streamed live and will be available after the conference as well.  Go to: www.reconciliationwithisrael.com to register for watching the conference or to see the line up of speakers.

Here's my article: 

A Heartfelt Reconciliation With Israel

YHVH told Avraham that He would bless the world through his descendents.  And so He has. Much of the world would not be what it is today if it were not for Israel’s technological advancements in science, agriculture, geology, aeronautics, archaeology, communication or medicine.  But the “blessings” came from Jewish people long before Israel was restored to Statehood. To name just one specific instance of medical advancement, in the mid-1800’s  a Jewish doctor by the name of Ignaz Semmelweiss recognized that germs or microbes were the cause of death of both mothers and babies in an obstetric hospital in Vienna.  The number of lives that have since been saved through germ prevention is incalculable beginning with his three words: Wash your hands. Stories like this abound. God has surely advantaged the world through the wisdom and expertise He has given to the descendents of Avraham, Itzaac and Yaacov.

But not every person or every nation in the world, although they may be advantaged by Israel’s discoveries, recognizes the extent to which Jewish people have influenced their lives.  To the contrary, it appears today that Israel stands alone with the exception of very few friends. Among those friends around the world are those Christians who recognize Israel’s place in YHVH’s heart.  A group of those Christians have come to Israel to extend their hands of friendship with the intent of letting Israel know that they are not alone, that they recognize God’s specific call upon the nation and to let Israel know of their love for them as a nation and as a people.

They will be speaking at the up-coming Reconciliation With Israel conference that is taking place on September 16-18th at the Cinematique in Jerusalem.  Speaking as well will be several Israeli Jews whose life’s work for Israel brings them in contact with literally millions of Christians who are supportive of Israel, not only verbally but financially  – as the expression goes, “putting their money where their mouths speak.” 

The conference speakers, as well as the organizer and inspiration for the conference Kellen Davison, are here in Israel to show Israel that there are believers in Yeshua who are not their enemies as the “church” has too often been in times throughout history, but who recognize that YHVH gave the land to Israel so that they are supportive of Zionism, and that they stand against anti-Semitism that may exist today.  These Christian speakers are people who have largely incorporated the values of Torah in their lives to revere YHVH and to “love others as you love yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).  Most of them observe the Feasts of the Lord which God gave to Israel and who, through their love for Yeshua whom they recognize as the Jewish Messiah, have a deep love and reverence for YHVH in the way that Yeshua Himself did as the Brit Hadashah (the New Testament) reveals.

As early as the 2nd century, pagan practices and beliefs began to enter the church when the Jewish believers were well outnumbered and basically no longer there to bring correction to the errors.  Ironically, men who are known as “the church fathers” beginning from that time, stripped Yeshua of His Jewishness making Him seem like their gentile God. The 1st century real fathers of the faith were in fact Jews who lived entirely Torah-consistent lives by faith and the grace of God. The goal of the Christian conference is to help set right what has been wrong for too long. Their hope is that they can put to rest some of the gross misunderstandings of the Jewish people that the church has historically and erroneously believed which have resulted in immeasurable  sufferings and losses to the Jewish people. True Christians are as horrified as any Jewish person at the atrocities that were perpetrated against the Jews through those misunderstandings. 

Notice we use the term true Christian.  The terms “Christian” or “Christianity” did not come about until the second century and were never used by the original Jewish believers in Yeshua.  A true believer in Messiah Yeshua was someone whose faith included living by the unction of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) who would never have led them to distort or misappropriate the teachings of the God-given Torah, nor would the Ruach HaKodesh ever have motivated men to act in such ungodly ways against His people.  It has been quite possible, therefore, for men to call themselves “Christians” but to believe and act in opposition to what God (or Yeshua) would want.  Accordingly, there is a justifiable distinction between the politically motivated “church”  or the distorted ideas of man who thought they were acting for God but clearly were not, and those true believers who were usually a minority and were often persecuted themselves for living as they believed the first Jewish believers in Yeshua would have.

The conference belief is that to misunderstand the place of the Jews in their relationship with God is to misunderstand God Himself.  As the conference will be streamed live around the world and continue to be available online, the messages are largely to set erroneous facts straight on both sides:  To set aright the distrust that Israel and the Jewish people world-wide justifiably have for the church at large, letting them know that there are Christians who genuinely love the Jewish people and who love Israel and are standing with and for her, and to help the true church to understand the place of Israel in YHVH’s plan of tikkun olam (restoration of the world).

 

 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

    
One cow out of the herd of many.
Hello from the Heart of Texas.  Life here is not life in Jacksonville, FL, that's for sure.  Aside from the wonderful people I have come to love and the meetings where I spoke (the reason I'm in Texas), the high points for me were being out on the ranch with the cows - lots of cows, including the babies, and later a visit with the goats in the 'backyard'.  A number of calves just born trotted along with their mama's. My host, John, loves his cows - a good size herd. We pulled into the pasture waaaay out on the ranch which I was told would be an 18 mile drive to go around the perimeter of the ranch. This is where John grew up.  He and his brother and father 'worked' the cows on horseback -- we're talkin' genuine no-kidding cowboys. They are still alive and well in Texas. John whooeeey'd for his cows and here they came, over the hill and through the woods in response to his call.  Each cow weighs about 1200 pounds, pushing and shoving one another to get closer. Their loud moos are more like mmmaaah's and a lot of them at once is sure loud.  They have sweet faces though and for all the noise and pushing to get really close by the braver ones they are docile and not scary at all. I loved being out there with them.
         We then went to the hunting lodge on the property where John and Elaine, his wife and my hostess and now dear friend, lived until they built their beautiful house in town.  We sat on the veranda overlooking grassy plains and listened to the quiet and just talked. It made me long for simpler times when life moved along at a different pace than we do in the cities of today.  Despite the relative isolation, Elaine told me how she loved living out there and would welcome it again.  Can you just imagine being where there is not one sound of modern civilization, only nature: bird calls, the breeze rustling the grasses....   I'm thinking that is how it's supposed to be. Makes me yearn for that kind of quiet. 
         I had the chance to visit folks on another ranch for a dinner with John and Elaine who are elders in a local church, with another couple, Joe and Mackye, also church elders at their home (also on a ranch), and the pastor and his wife as well as Elaine Reinhardt Lang, who along with her husband Ray, has brought me to Texas and in whose home I am now as I write.  What a fun group, telling so many stories, all Texan-life style stories, things that don't happen in my hometown of Jacksonville.        For instance. one night Joe heard a critter, some animal outside in the back of the
house. He got up and put on his boots and in his underwear (picture this) out he went holding the rifle in one hand and the flashlight in the other hand. He fired at the what-ever-it-was animal but he somehow missed the animal and hit a Laurel tree which his wife, Mackye, was rather fond of. The shot split the tree in half. What to do?  He wrapped the tree in duck tape to hold it together.  But "the graft didn't take," Joe said and a year or so later the left half fell over dead and the right side followed some time later.  This may not read as funny but there are some folks who are just funny whatever they say. Mackye telling this story and the others telling theirs made for a very laughter-filled evening. If anyone thinks that elders and pastors are stodgy and 'religious' such is not the case here. 
           
The goats are in John and Elaine's backyard (far from the house, ranch style) and were fed the left over watermelon, one goat in particular (pictured) enjoyed it till she flipped it over and couldn't get through the rind to the good stuff. Compared to the cows, they are so quiet. Except for two bucks butting heads in typical goat fashion, they were just sweet. 
             Aside from the temperature which ranged from 96 - 105 degrees with a humidity in the 40%, it has been very pleasant. There is always a breeze, even to a howling wind, I'm told. The ground and the grasses are quite dry however and rain is a constant prayer request and concern lest there be fires.  In my home town of Jacksonville, we are surfeited with rain; here, the projection is for no rain until into September.  Crazy.
              I attended a prayer meeting with about 12 women who pray weekly for America and Israel. I felt so 'one' with them. It seem the Holy Spirit has His Spirit-filled church pretty much on the same page with regard to the importance of Israel and what to pray for our nation. It's a wonderful thing to be so in sync with others in the body of Messiah and feel so united with them in prayer even though in some other ways our life styles are somewhat different.  I was told they aren't aware of any Jews living near by, yet their hearts were for Israel - a work of the Holy Spirit who puts what He loves in the hearts of His people.   
             Aside from being mega allergic to something here in Texas causing my voice to threaten to disappear so that preaching was a challenge to be heard (thank God for microphones), I love Texas. I have one more preaching 'gig' on Sunday morning in a local country church I'm looking forward to. For now, I'm just enjoying just Being in the country. It's a reminder of how pleasant simple life can (or should) be. 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

GIVING HONOR WHERE HONER IS DUE

I'm in the Atlanta airport awaiting a flight to Austen, TX which I will tell you about in later posts. I'll be speaking in TX and then on to Israel mid-September so I'll be taking you along on my journeys if you'll be reading these blogs. 

I had quite a meaningful initial start to my journey today.  Seated next to me was a Navy officer in a sparkling white uniform. We said hello and I couldn't help but ask him how he managed to keep his uniform so perfectly clean. He chuckled and said by the time he gets to TX, his destination also, something will happen. It seemed to be a rather constant vigil to keep the whites white! Little did I expect that before we landed I would be the cause of sprinkling my black coffee on his leg and sleeve when the stirrer to my coffee cup flipped out while reaching for the stewardess.  Needless to say I felt horrible.  A napkin and some water lessened the damage but not altogether.  But that's not why it was meaningful.

The first announcement from the pilot was that aboard were two Seaman officers who were escorting the body of a "fallen warrior" back to his family.  He said the names of the officers and I asked my seat mate if he was one of them. "Yes ma'am," he said. He seemed quiet, even sad.  I asked if he knew the man personally. He did. He was one of his men. I asked if he died in action. "No, ma'am," he said, shaking his head slightly. As we talked He shared how this young man died. Men see action in Iraq or somewhere in the Middle East, but then come home and something useless happens. This was one of those times.  This young man of 21 had car trouble. He pulled over to the side of the road and walked around his car and a tractor trailer hit him. Now Seaman Rodney (I don't know his last name) was escorting the body of this young man back to his parents, a task Rodney had never done before but volunteered for as he had evidently been fond of the young man.

As we spoke briefly off and on, I told Rodney that I had written a book about people who had died and had gone to heaven but Jesus sent them back to tell people of what heaven - and He - are really like.  I could see by his response that he knew the Lord, which he confirmed. He also believed that the young man did too (I asked this first or wouldn't have told him the rest). As I shared a little of the unhindered joy in heaven and how there is no sadness there whatsoever, the one in heaven would surely not want those they loved on earth to be in sorrow when they are in such joy, peace and love in the presence of the Lord.  I shared this, I told him, so that perhaps it would help him in his own grief but perhaps he could share some of this with his family. I told him I would probably blog this story and gave him my name. Since you're reading this, please say a prayer for this young man's family, and for Brother Rodney and his co-officers - and for any who have to bring home someone's loved one this way, a task few of us reading this would experience.

Rodney has been in the Navy for 18 years. I asked him if he had noticed any difference in the last few years in the Service.  He shook his head back and forth just slightly enough to let me know things are not what they were.  He told me of how this generation of young men and women do not have the idealism or the discipline of his generation. He seemed somewhat sad about this too.

As we approached the Atlanta terminal the pilot asked everyone to remain seated until the Navy Officers deplaned first in order to escort the body which was unloaded before the luggage. I once saw such an event in the Philadelphia airport and it was quite moving, a flag draped across the casket. I shook Rodney's hand and said a quick prayer that God would be with him in all he was called to do. As he and his fellow officers walked down the aisle toward the front of the plane to exit it, a crescendo of applause began for these men who serve to guard our nation.  Though only I and the officers knew the uselessness of his death, others on the plane likely imagined he died in military action overseas.  But what difference does it make. We are all in this life and death thing together. We all can have sympathy for a family who lost their loved one. We all can have respect for men like Rodney who seemed to me a man who reflected the dignity of the Navy I had known when young men my age then had in the service years ago. 

Now boarding for Austen.  Later. 

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Giant Slaying & Angel Trusting

Old nature or new? Which direction?
 
A few weeks ago the Holy Spirit said to me out of the clear blue sky, "Run toward your giants." I knew I had heard Him because it made me come to an abrupt halt. Giants, Lord?  Do I have any giants in my life, I asked.  The only giant I knew of was Goliath, who had totally intimidated the entire Israeli army.  Do I have any giants of intimidation, Lord, I asked, not thinking at that moment that I did.  Oh boy, was I in for a surprise. As I began to think about it, I began to see areas I could call intimidation.  Stop and think for a moment, do you have any places of intimidation? Are any of them giants to you that keep you stuck and unable to move forward, especially forward for the Lord?   

When we're intimidated, it can seem like we're facing a giant who is definitely not on our side.  Running toward them would mean moving forward to accomplish the very thing that  had you, or someone else, paralyzed (a relative term, of course), the way David ran toward Goliath and got Israel's army unstuck. He did so with complete confidence that God would enable him to take down this "uncircumcised Philistine who taunted the armies of God."  Sometimes it takes one person who refused the intimidation to get others unstuck. David's actions resulted in the whole army pursuing the Philistines and overtaking them. Yay!!   

By definition, intimidation means to make someone afraid or fearful, or shy;  to intentionally cause someone to be 'cowed' by wealth, power, authority, intelligence, ability, etc.; that which make a person feel inferior, or causes them to do what they don't want to do, to which I would add, or to cause them to NOT do what they would or should do if they weren't intimidated. I would also add bullying to that list also. Goliath was definitely a bully. 

The definition implies that there is some nasty person intent on doing this to someone else and the intimidated one is buying into it.  In our case, the 'other' is surely the devil who is also the accuser, the liar and our enemy.  So why do we agree with him? Well, for one thing, we aren't always aware that he's the motivating force behind our fears, trepidations or intimidations.  But no more. He's been exposed, and now we are aware that the Lord of the universe who is also known as The Almighty is entirely on our side. Or more importantly, we're on His side. Just how mighty is all-mighty?  How inclusive is "all"?  Selah.

If we are truly going to be the "end time" people of God - or even if we're not - we should be the people, according to the prophet Daniel, who "know their God and do exploits" in His name. To "know" Him as He truly is, is to be as Yeshua was, to have no fear of the devil, but to have God's authority that intimidates the devil instead.

I read an 'angel report' this week from a pastor whose been seeing and interacting with angels for many years. I have come to fully trust this pastor. The usual angel who visits him is about his same height, dressed in white. Recently a particular angel whom he had met years before came to visit him. This angel is 60 feet tall and clothed with blazing colors. His name in Angel David. He was the angel God sent to help King David when the fledgling nation needed help, perhaps against the Philistines. Angel David had a friend with him of similar height. His name is Angel Sampson.  Evidently Angels are often named in accordance with those for whom they have been much help.  Apparently the Holy Spirit has sent these two angelic beings to America with a message from the Holy Spirit: "If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and heal their land."  (2 Chron 7:14). I doubt they are just messengers. They're warrior angels, it would appear. Their presence says there is hope. We are in a spiritual war; you already knew that. It is a war of faith and hope and prophetic belief in the word of God.

If  God has sent these two warrior angels to America, there is the power and anointing to believe God for revival in America. And if He has sent in these huge angels, I must believe they have come with angelic forces that will be of assistance to each of us as we take our stand for our nation and for Israel.  I am also assuming that they will help us with our individual personal issues, those that will keep us fit for staying strong in faith, quick to forgive, and generous to give as the need arises.  There are lots of Scriptures to back up those as priorities.  

Keep in mind that our fears and intimidations are coming from our "old" nature, the one that is like Adam and there is no resurrection power in Adam. He needs to bow to our "new" nature that is like Yeshua (Jesus) and His is the resurrection power of God on our behalf. Don't try not to be afraid. Trying is what we do instead of doing it. Don't try with the energy of your old nature to act like you think a believer should act. We've all had years of that kind of frustration. Adam is doomed to fail. The best thing we can do is surrender our lives to God so we can get in touch with the Holy Spirit of God.  In doing so, He will enter into our lives and our very beings and we will find we have a new nature as things begin to take on different importance's by God's spirit. Then we can begin to act out of His power.  Find places in the bible He leads you to that speak to your own heart and situations and allow them to become real to you till your faith assures you it will come to pass.  If this is new to you and it sounds hokey, give the Lord a chance for a few weeks. I mean really, not skeptically.

So when it comes to giants of intimidation, they are small stuff compared to God's angels. Though not all angels are 60 feet tall, their very presence here indicates that there are a host of God's ministering angels that are operating on behalf of His people.  So when you find yourself being intimidated about anything, especially something you think the Lord is asking you to do, put your trust in God and declare to the Spirit world that the only effective giant in your life that you are allowing is acting on your behalf  to help you do God's will.  To this last sentence I want to add...."exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can think of or ask for."  Amen.   


Thursday, May 7, 2015

BEING LOVED THE WAY GOD LOVES

I recently began a new Bible study group. When I asked the Lord what He wanted to teach the group, it seemed He wanted me to teach on the Hebrew meanings for three Hebrew words for love, one at each of the first 3 meetings. The goal was not just to know about love, but to know about HIS love for each of us. I began with Ahava - the love God has for His chosen ones.
 
Our English translation of, for instance, "lovingkindness" has about the depth of saying "God is nice." That is just not enough to wrap itself around your heart and make you feel all lovey and secure in God, is it?  Beginning with the first meeting, just learning of what Ahava means in Hebrew, and specifically God's Ahavah, turned out to be (no kidding) nothing short of life changing for some. 

I was amazed at its impact as it proved to be more effective than just interesting but changed a few people's relationships with the Lord. It brought to my mind Paul's words that when the Jewish people come to the Lord it would be "life from the dead" (Romans 11:15). I believe it largely has to do with the resurrection of the Hebrew language so that we can more fully understand the Scriptures, and therefore know God more clearly, as a part of that "life."  I saw it happen in my living room while teaching these few words.

If we're talking about love in a Hebrew context, of course, we're first and foremost talking about God's love, the way God loves, and the way "God IS love" (1 John 4:8). His love can be seen in the beauty of creation, even in the affection of animals. No one is too high or too lofty to be without the need to love or be loved. Maybe God made giraffes to remind us. The way God loves is wholly demonstrated in His love for Israel. That may not have been the prevailing thought throughout history, including church history, but Israel's survival as the Jewish people alone, is evidence of His watchful eye upon them to keep His promises to them. 

And may I add, for His name's sake, to prove His Ahava, that we may know Him as He truly is "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). God's love has been greatly misunderstood due to misunderstanding His enduring love for Israel and the Jewish people. As this is being corrected so also, as we are seeing, is a more correct understanding of His love in its many aspects.

Let's take a look at the meaning of the first word (the others will follow in subsequent blogs) and maybe there might be some life changes among some of you reading this - or those you might share these meanings with.  It's all free for the taking. Pass it along. 
 
Ahavah is God’s choosing love, His election love.  He chose Israel to be His own people. We are all aware that the Jewish people are known as "the chosen people."  And anyone who comes to Israel's God is likewise chosen. He chooses everyone who comes to know Him personally. No one sneaks in the back door of the Kingdom without Him knowing it. There are no mistaken entrances to being His. 

Whether you came to Him easily or with great internal struggle, He has been at work in your life all along to bring you to the security of opening your heart to Him. The reason you have survived some of what life has wrought from you is because He's been there all along on your behalf, despite some of the choices we've made in the license of our free will.  He knows that we've all been victimized by sin - that's where His rachamim, His mercy comes in. 

But God's Ahavah, His loving choice of you has been actually eternal "for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world...." (Ephesians 1:4).  God does dwell outside of time so that can make sense. Now if He is all knowing (omniscient), could there possibly be anything about you He didn't know about that might disqualify you from His love or acceptance? Is there any chance He would look down on you and say to Himself, "Oh dear, I wasn't aware of that!" 

There are people who have been His for years, all their lives even, and yet have not come into the security of His love, because there always seemed to be something that they should be doing or not doing, or should not have done, to be really okay with God.  But we are His because of His doing, not because of ours. All we can really do is respond to His reaching out to us in our lives, whether as a child or as a sinner later on. 

  No one comes to the Lord unless the Father draws them.”  (Deut 10:15; 23:5;   Jeremiah 31:3).  It's His doing. But even so, His love always allows for our free will. He never violates our freedom.

You can choose NOT to be chosen, or you can deliberately choose to walk away from Him also.  There is no compulsion in God. Love always freely loves and allows the loved one to freely love them back or choose not to love them. That also means God takes the risk of having us not love Him in return. We see that with Israel over and over as they strayed from Him. But He keeps on loving them with determination to be their Lover.
There is also an exclusiveness to being the recipient of God’s love.   Israel is clearly the chosen people of God.  They were set apart from among all the people of the earth for God’s specific attention to them.  To anyone who has also come to Israel’s God, they receive the same attention from God.  Followers of Yeshua are not like the world, are we?  This is all God’s doing; He works within us to bring us to the freedom in Him that He wanted for all humankind when He created the first persons. That does not mean being without challenges in this life, but it does mean that whatever we go through, God is there with us, and He can bring us His kind of peace in the midst of any trial.
What better sense of security than having the Almighty as your bff (best friend forever - literally). We who live our lives in relationship with the one true God are becoming more and more loving, wiser, freer, less affected by the ways the world goes and more influenced by the Spirit of God who is holy.

What does holy mean?  Holiness is largely about love. Holiness,  absolute purity, is harmless to those who love, but dangerous to those who defy love in favor of Self. It takes a great deal of sinning to set off God's wrath. A read through the Old Testament history will show you that. But when it does occur, it is always because of accumulated violation of love in extreme, against other people, or against God. No one who hates is blessed, to put it simply.  The Good News, thought, is that tsYeshua came to set us free from what is unloving, in what we have done and what has been done to us. Our sins, our unloving acts and attitudes, can be fully forgiven when we accept His atoning love for us personally.  It's part of the mystery of God, but it's as real as life itself.

If you recall, in the beginning, “God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27 CJB).  When their sin interrupted the perfection in which they were created, it didn’t change God’s intention or His love.  I once had a mini-vision in which I saw God’s sheer delight in Adam and how much God loved him. Then I saw as God was sending him out of the garden (Eve was not in the vision) after Adam had sinned. But God's love for Adam was in no way diminished. Even when God disciplines us it is out of His love for us, to make us better people, even more conformed to His loving likeness.

He continues with us what He began - He is RE-CONFORMING US TO HIS LIKENESS.  An image is like what we see in a mirror but in this case, it’s spiritual, not physical.  He is sovereignly reforming those who are His to be, to live, to think, and to love as He does.  He is doing it through His chosen ones as we live out our lives with Him and HIs goodness. What a privilege.

Chosenness, that is to say, election, is not the same as exclusivity or elitism so that you look down on anyone who isn’t like you.  That is about Self, not about God’s unSELFish love.  (Wasn't the cross of Yeshua that single most unselfish act of any  person ever? ) God’s love always seeks for the good of others, and to include others.  Israel was always to receive, to welcome strangers, sojourners, or aliens and to care for others as they cared for themselves.  As you are reading through the OT, be aware of how often God tells Israel to be just and fair to those who are different, or have less than themselves.   There is always room in God’s heart, and so was it to be so in God’s people’s hearts, for even the lowest – the orphans and the widows, who in ancient Israel would have been the destitute, or at least the marginalized.

Just as one of the many places where we are somewhat familiar with this word for love, we see in Zephaniah 3:17 the word Ahava, the love for those He chooses, those whom He saves.  The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in His Ahavah. He will rejoice over thee with singing. “ Now there's a picture of God don't usually have, but He gave that to Zephaniah as a revelation of Himself. He wants to be known by His people, and He wants us to know how much He delights in us in His love. So what do we see in Ahavah.  We see the full intention of God to raise up those whom He brings to Himself to the highest expression of love and humanity as He intended us to be – LIKE HIM!!  Free to love and be loved.  SELF not only keeps us in self-protectiveness, it isolates us and puts up a barrier between us and others.   Love, God’s kind of love, takes the barriers down to be able to enjoy others as He enjoys us all.

Yeshua took down the middle wall of partition that Self would exalt and separate.  In Yeshua there is no more separation or alienation based on:  color, race, nationality, ethnicity, finances, intelligence, education, social status, physical abilities or perfection.  Diseases nor deformities do not keep one outside of God’s ahava. Once Yeshua had paid the price to break down the separation between God and mankind, the barriers between humans were now obsolete because now we all could relate to one another through God’s love which is all inclusive. There are no “others” in the Kingdom of God.  All are loved equally. That includes each of us. You too.

There is no greater privilege in all of creation than to be among those whom God has chosen.  And though we may be one of millions, God is not limited by time or space or numbers.  He is exquisitely intimately involved with each one of us in His love for each of us.  He is committed to bringing us to the fullness of the Freedom of His  Being.  All of our human desire to be loved, that we are emotional and social beings who need as much to love as to be loved, is all a part of being created in God’s image. He is like that. We are all that people innately are, because we are like God. We desire to be known and loved because God is letting us know that He desires to be known and loved. Not out of any kind of neediness on God's part, but in the sense of entire wholeness. We like to be thanked or appreciated, so does God.  Want to have a good time today? Tell God all you are thankful for and thank Him for it. You'll find it unlocks a good bit of joy in your heart. That's His way of loving you back. 

Tune in next week for Part II of God's love.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

THE CENTER OF THE WORLD IS......?

Needless to say, we are most likely living in what may be the most critical times in world history. I was inclined to say since the Flood, but that may admittedly be overstating it.  What is not an overstatement is that all that's going on will ultimately revolve around Israel. It's God who has made Israel central.  Did you know that ancient maps were drawn somewhat differently than ours because we see the world as round but waaaay back when flat maps only were drawn, guess what seemed to be the center of the world?  You guessed it, the area where little Israel is.  Even maps drawn even earlier than the Renaissance period were greatly distorted in their perception of the world, but Israel was often portrayed as being the center of the known world.

I bought a small globe recently after seeing it in a decorator kind of store. It just seemed to want to come home with me.  I did check it out first to make sure Israel was on there.  Be careful when you buy maps or globes, should any of you plan to do so, because with Islamic influences here and there, where Israel should be it may say Palestine. Most of you know that Rome gave the Jews the name Palestine based on the name of the Phoenicians to ridicule them, but it wasn't until Arafat got the idea to co-opt the name that they began a campaign to convince the world that Palestine was Arab. They've done a pretty good job. Most of the world thinks its legitimate.  It's not.

As the saleslady handed me my little globe in a bag, I felt the unction to take it out of the bag and show to her.  Not knowing if she is a believer or would even be remotely interested, I showed her how Australia and Indonesia could move right up into the ocean space of India and China.  And how South America could snuggle right up to the west coast of Africa with the western most part of Africa looking like it could tuck right into where Mexico is. And North America could just move right on over and wrap itself around the where Spain and England are.  This is, of course, not an exact fit but time has eroded some surfaces, and remember that there are tectonic plates under each land mass that extend out beyond what we see on the surface.  When an earthquake happens, it's the tectonic plates that are moving and what happens on the surface is the result. 

So what am I saying here?  If you look at the map or the globe this way, you can see what could very well have been one huge land mass with everything connected at one point. Speaking of the flood, however, it would seem that the Flood would be the cause of sufficient upheaval to thrust huge land masses to be displaced by the force of enormous quantities of water.  We cannot really fathom (pun intended) the depth of the waters or what force would be released as "the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth.... and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth.... and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and the high hills that were under the whole heaven... and the mountains were covered" (Genesis 7:11, 12, 19, 20).

Can we even imagine the force of the rushing water as those that covered the mountains raced upon the face of the earth as "the deep" caused great upheavals and then caverns opened up, resulting in great depths of water to surge across the surface of the earth. It is quite possible that what God had once created as one giant land mass was then separated into the continents that we know today. If we look for it, we can see the way the land masses may have all can fit together.  And if  you are able to see that, making some allowanced for the tectonic plates so it may appear that the land masses aren't exact, if you take your fingers to two outside edges and bring them to the middle, guess where you will be? Yes, you got it, Israel. 

I shared an abbreviated version of all this with the saleslady who was going to share it with her Sunday School class.  You just never know where God will give you an open door to share something of interest related to Him with someone.

So considering the "place" God gave to Israel as the center of the world in this sense, assuming I have my geography right, and considering the "place" God gave to Israel in His book, the Bible, and His whole plan of redemption for the world, doesn't it seem that we can assume that Israel, being the one "place" that He declared to be His own, and Israel's people through whom He said He would prove to the world that He is the one and only God.... shouldn't we expect that God will vindicate Himself and His word?

The verses which speak of what God will do to those who come against His people Israel would be terrifying to any who would read it and take it seriously.  Evidently millions of Muslims have turned to the Lord and His goodness and away from the evil intent to destroy Israel.  I spoke with a man who has a ministry to Iran and is seeing thousands saved almost monthly through what they broadcast into Iran via satellite. He told me that when these Muslim people turn to God and are filled with the Holy Spirit, they immediately drop their hatred for Israel and God replaces it with a love for Israel and a burden to pray for her safety and salvation. Now that has to be a work of the Holy Spirit!!  And it's not something you're likely to hear on CNN. 

If you have any interest in reading incredible stories of Muslims who have come to the Lord, from a 7 year old boy whom Arafat made his own example of what a terrorist youth should be, to a man who came to America to infiltrate it culturally, to a scholar who examined the Koran against the Bible and fell in love with Jesus and then had to deal with the consequences....and many more incredible stories. get a copy of Ten Amazing Muslims Touched by God by Faisal Malick.  The most fascinating part of the book is the way Yeshua/Jesus shows up in these people's lives in such incredibly supernatural ways, often in powerful and holy manifestations as He reveals Himself as Lord.  I mean really as LORD!  The Jesus part of the book is worth the read.

Anyway, I really didn't start out to write a blog tonight. I wanted to apologize for any confusion about the Israel entry. And while I was here, I just followed what I hope is the Holy Spirit's lead and shared what is so on my heart, for people to realize that Israel is not ultimately about us, or about the Jewish people though to separate them is erroneous, it's really about God. God's Word, God's plan, God's land, God's people, God's integrity to keep His promises, God's sovereignty to fulfill His intention in the earth, and it's about God's lordship.....  on and on. There is so much false information out there being put forth as truth, but much of it, when it's against Israel in some way as what is going on right now, motivates me to try and let people be aware that Israel is the center of God's whole redemptive plan for the world. Even many Muslims are realizing it and aligning themselves with the Lord and His people. I pray Americans will also know the truth in this if/when Islamic influence increases (selah).  This is surely not the best article I've ever written, but if somehow the information in it, or just the motive in it, will inspire you to share the truth of God revealing Himself through Israel and how she is central to much of what God is doing in the earth today, you may pull some from the fires of the consequences of being politically correct with men, but in opposition to God.