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?

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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.

A Week in the Lord

Life in the Lord is never boring. Or at least it shouldn’t be. If nothing is going on, we can always pray into something more exciting than what’s presently happening in our own lives and become a part of what God is doing somewhere else. Some weeks, though, are admittedly more fruitful than others. I’ve had two opportunities to share the Lord and what is undoubtedly one angelic encounter this week. Here’s my week (so far. It’s only Friday morning. More could happen.)

First, the angelic encounter: My Mom and I (see photo)were in the car, breezing along at about 45 miles per hour when suddenly the car in front of me stopped. I’m really not sure what took place as it all happened in a flash. Maybe the light suddenly changed. I’m not sure. Mom yelled out and all I remember is seeing the white car in front of me and thinking how my hood will in a moment be parked in its trunk. No way I can avoid hitting it. I tried to swerve around it, wheels screeching, and waited for the impact. Somehow the steering wheel in my hands felt like it was turning for me. Now I surely can’t prove this, but it almost seemed to me as if my car actually bent away from the white car just enough to slide a feather’s width past it and the next thing I knew I was on the other side of the intersection. We were stunned, breathless, and exceedingly grateful to God for His protection. Now if that’s not an angelic rescue, I’m not sure what is. Needless to say, Mom and I broke out in a chorus of praises and thank you’s to God. Today could have been a much different experience for us than me sitting comfortably at my computer, painlessly writing. Or there could have not been a today for Mom or me. Praise the Lord for His protection.

It so happens, that morning I was reading Psalms of David’s protection by God. I felt to read them out loud and pray through them, with a little declaring the same words for myself in my paraphrased version. I tailored them a little for my own spiritual warfare since, to my knowledge, I don’t have any earthly enemies that I’m aware of. Only the devil. Here’s what I prayed:

“Rescue me, O LORD, from evil; Preserve me from violence (and demons) who devise evil things in their hearts. They continually stir up wars (troubles). They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips. Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from violent ones who have purposed to trip up my feet. The proud one has hidden a trap for me, and cords; he has spread a net by the wayside; he has set snares for me.. I said to the LORD, "You are my God; Give ear, O LORD, to the voice of my supplications. O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked one” Psalm (140:1-8).

Was that God’s way of setting the stage for His intervention on my behalf, though I had no sense of danger when I prayed it? I’m thinking, Yes! So if you’re inclined to pray through some Scriptures at any time like that on your own, or someone else’s behalf, could be you’re putting a guardian angel on alert.

Two days later a visiting nurse came to the house to attend to Mom who at 91 is periodically in need of a tune-up. Now nurses generally conjure up images that are not what this person turned out to be. True, I had a stereo-type of a nurse in my mind. Bill was not it. He’s a military medic turned visiting nurse. A big muscular guy with a few tattoos who is into martial arts and Taoism and the like. I wasn’t sure I wanted him touching Mom. We had to fill out paper work first and so we got to talking. Not even sure how we got into it, but inevitably we got to talking – about God. Then again, most of my conversations wind up talking about God.

This was not one of those quickie “Has anyone ever told you God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?” kinds of witnessing for the Lord. That wasn’t going to work here. He is sure God loves him, though he didn’t see that we sin. “It,” the energy of the earth, is about love for us all, because we all are of one spirit, he tells me, a cosmic consciousness kind of thing, as in we’re all linked in one great togetherness. Seems to me like the devil’s attempt to turn worship from God as the only unique and holy “I am” into the worship of man for what “we are.” I suggest to him that God is not the least like we are. He’s holy. I can see that doesn’t compute. Bill is sure when and if he meets God it will be eye to eye as equals. I don’t think so.

I’ve had an experience of being in heaven, I tell him. I share a little of the vision God gave to me a number of years ago. Of how people are indeed one, but it is because they are free of sin and God has made us one “in Him.” This is the privilege of those who have accepted God’s provision to free us from the sin that separates us from Himself – Yeshua’s death on our behalf. I tell him of the joy that is heaven that is entirely God’s joy and so far beyond anything we can endure in our earthly bodies or imagine. I’ve experienced it, I tell him, but for less than a minute or I would have exploded or died. God is SOOOOO much bigger than what we perceive of Him!

He tells me his own near death experiences, two of them, and being supernaturally protected. He knows it had to be an angel. I ask him if he thanked God. He says he did, many times. This is good. Then he tells me of something he heard Joyce Meyer say on a TV show. He’s watching Christian TV! What do you know. He tells me stories of drawing pain out of people, a healing gift. And of the wisdom of his martial arts master whom he knows personally. What a lead in. I lean across the table where we’re sitting and whisper, “How about having the wisdom of The Master of the Universe whom we can know personally!” He nods up and down ever so slightly. I can see he’s listening.

"We go back and forth for a while and then I realize this is not someone I'm trying to share the Lord with, but someone the Lord Himself is after."

We all are the voice of God to one another, he tells me further into our conversation. To this I share briefly with Him my experience of hearing God’s audible voice and of the unchallengeable authority that is conveyed in His voice which leaves no room for us humans to think we are in any way at all equal with Him, although by His grace we are welcome into loving fellowship with Him, on His terms. We go back and forth for a while and then I realize this is not someone I’m trying to share the Lord with, but someone the Lord Himself is after. That’s why he’s here!

“I see in you a man who wants to know the truth. God sees your heart. Could be that’s why we’re having this chat. This isn’t a coincidence,” I tell him, meaning it. He nods again. Pensive. Although he comes back with answers because he’s given much of his life to know what he knows – I can see that look in his eyes that happens when the Holy Spirit is putting a hook in someone’s heart and tugging ever so slightly, but sovereignly, to bring them to Himself.

In the end he agreed to take my book home and read it. It’s the testimonies of 5 Jewish people and what issues they had to deal with in coming to the Lord, each one different. Each, by the way, in my family, including my own testimony. I figure my brother’s story, the one about following the guru to India, might be one he could relate to. We’ll get to talk again. He has to come back. He is scheduled for six more sessions with Mom.

To read the rest of this article and what happened the rest of the week, go to "Articles" at www.sidroth.org.

Ponderings and Wanderings of Lonnie Lane: God Is In The Visuals

Ponderings and Wanderings of Lonnie Lane: God Is In The Visuals

God Is In The Visuals

A friend and I were having an e-chat about how we each “see” God. I asked her how she imagined or pictured the Lord. I’m a pretty visual person. I have to kind of picture things to process them. God is in the visuals for me, though not exclusively of course. I do see God all around me. His fingerprints are everywhere. He’s in the harmonies of colors and the way shapes fit together. He’s in the ripples and the reflections in a pond or a puddle as they shine back the heavens above them. He’s in the flight of the herons that frequent our pond lifting undulating wings majestically while flying down stream. At times they seem to reveal God's smile at all the beauty He's created.

He’s in the pebbles on the path, each little one -- How did it get there? What made it that shape? Did God design each one specifically to His liking? I see the Hand of the Sculptor in them. I see the twist of several kinds of vines wrapping themselves around each other, reminding me of the way our lives weave in and out of each others’, and the reaching out of the tendrils to grasp hold of something other than itself for support. My eyes go to the grey-green-brown varied textures in each tree bark reminding me of the varied textures of experiences in our lives that serve to enable us to stand upright and strong as we grow in the Lord.

And that’s just what happens three times a day while walking my dog, Lizzie, in whose little face, when she looks into my eyes with her faithful devotion and unconditional love, is as the affection of God to me. What wonder. Part of my gratefulness to God continually is for eyes that see.

But I also picture Yeshua (Jesus). All the time. In my imagination. The stories about Him in the Bible are real life experiences to me. I go with Him in them. I figure God gave us imagination and then tells us stories for the very purpose of having us picture what took place in them and who was involved so we can project ourselves into the stories and respond to them, even internalize them. Not all, but many. Yesterday I read, “Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone” (John 6:15). “Lord,” I said, “Take me with You.” I want to go and be with Him, I want to see Him when He’s alone with His Father, when no one else is around, to know Him that way too.

I can’t tell you I was granted a visual of this, at least not yet, but I did ask Him, “Lord, were you transfigured when you were alone with your Father so that you were in touch with Your glory? Did that only happen once or did it happen often? Or were you confined to Your humanity, humble before Abba, even stretched out and face down?”

As I ask these questions, I can “see” Him, humbling Himself before Abba, prostrate before Him. Even envisioning this again now humbles me. Makes me be still inside as if I’m in the presence of holiness. Then, as much as I am able, I try to picture Him glorified: “And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light” (Matthew 17:2). But I realize I’m incapable of seeing Him this way, with His Face as bright as the sun which we cannot endure looking at directly. His whole being emanating pure light! I cannot see this as it must have been, but I can surely feel the Holy Spirit within me responding to my even wanting to, as silent worship wells up within me.

(To read the rest of this article, go to: www.sidroth.org and click on Articles: Learn More.

Guarding "Our" Freedom

I've just spent four days with a human rights activist. Life cannot be quite the same after spending considerable time with a human rights activist. This is a man who risks his own life by defending persecuted Christians in Muslim countries. How did he come to this? By being persecuted himself in his own Muslim country. When I say persecuted, I don't mean people said nasty things about him or threw rocks through his window. I'm talking about physical torture, including to the point of being crucified, tied to a cross for 2 1/2 days. In the dark. Alone. His greatest fear was that he would give in and tell them the info they wanted - the names of his fellow believers. By the grace of God he never told them, and by an even greater measure of God's grace he survived and was able to escape to Israel, the one country he had always been told were his enemies. He found them to be his greatest friends and protectors.

As he shared many stories of how Christians are being persecuted, and in some rare cases Messianic Jews whom He also has defended, one begins to see freedom as a great treasure, one we may have taken for granted. We do not fear for our lives when we go to church or synagogue, or meet with others to pray. We are not concerned we are being monitored constantly because of our faith. We in North America in particular are so enormously blessed to be free to worship openly and as we choose. However, that privilege may be slipping away from us. Without going into why, its enough to say that we would do well to pray that our freedom is not lost and that persecution of Christians and Jews is not tolerated in our countries.

I had another experience as a result of being with my human rights activist friend. We were worshiping in church, singing the same songs many of us are familiar with. I came into the church having absorbed some of my friend's deep concern for two Iranian girls who had been arrested and were now in a prison where others have been tortured and died a bloody death. His cell phone rings continually with the persecution issues his organization is dealing with. He had received a call about these two girls as we were riding to the church. He carries these people in his heart with great heaviness. I admit the burden is somewhat contagious and I too was praying for them as we worshiped.

But something was different for me. Maybe I was different. Suddenly, singing about how the Lord had saved me, blessed me, healed me, watches over me... seemed very self-absorbed. True, worship is between each of us and God, but it can also be about "us" and "we" rather than just "me." When Yeshua (Jesus) addressed the congregations in the Book of The Revelation, He addressed them corporately, not individually. Most of Paul's letters are written to entire congregations. When God dealt with Israel, it was always corporately, not individually.

Yes, we all must respond to God ourselves, individually, but the mindset, the paradigm, that God seems to want us to have is that of being a part of others, of being one among sisters and brothers, to be aware that we exist in a "Body" comprised of other persons. Our Western perspective is very individualistic. But the Kingdom of God is that "we" are to be as "one" and with love and concern for others with the same love and concern we have for ourselves. If we say we love God, then as the "Great Commandment" says,we will love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It doesn't say how far that neighborhood extends!

Paul set a priority when he said, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men". He didn't seem to think that "first of all" we should be praying for ourselves, for our own well-being, or even for those closest to us, but for "all." He further said to pray, "for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity" (1 Timothy 2:1-3). It would seem that the tranquility of our nation, which would certainly include our freedom, is directly related to our prayers for our leaders. Do you pray for our President and his cabinet, and that all levels of government would be protectors of our freedom and justice?

My friend, in encouraging people to be praying for the persecuted Believers around the world asks, How many of you take a few minutes to drink a cup of coffee or tea (or whatever) each day? Would you take 2 of the 5 minutes of your coffee time to pray for the persecuted church? Would you who are reading this do that too? Would you also pray for the protection of those like my friend who risk their lives for the lives and freedom of other? And would you add another minute to pray for our presidents or prime ministers (as in Israel) and for their governments for wisdom and justice to maintain? Would you do that? And lets pray for each other that God's great grace will keep us faithful, no matter what comes. "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God."

And may the blessings, protection and grace of God be mightily upon you too.