Another significant reason why Christians should rejoice in Israel’s physical restoration and strongly support her continued existence in the Middle East is the prophesied future of her ancient and modern capital city, Jerusalem. Holy writ reveals that Zion is to be the very seat of the Messiah’s earthly reign. The nations on earth will come up to visit Jerusalem when Jesus rules from the holy city as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! This is revealed in several Scriptures:
“Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).
“Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, A tabernacle that will not be taken down; Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, Nor will any of its cords be broken.” (Isaiah 33:20)
“Thus says the Lord, ‘I will return to Zion, And will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the Lord of hosts, The Holy Mountain.’” (Zechariah 8:3)
“I will not give sleep to mine eyes, Or slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob…For Your servant David’s sake, Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed…For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place. ‘This is my resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it’” (Psalm 132:4-5, 10, 13-14).
“Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and MOVE NO MORE; nor shall the children of wickedness oppress them any more, as previously” (2 Samuel 7:10).
*****
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Israel
Israel. By all measures it’s a tiny country. With a population of less than 8 million and a land mass that is comparable to the state of New Jersey—the fifth smallest state in the U.S.—Israel’s role on the world stage should be relatively minor. Yet, hardly a day goes by when Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process do not dominate the international headlines.
Israel has always been surrounded by enemies. On the day after Israel was reborn as an independent nation on May 14, 1948, she was attacked by her much larger Arab neighbors, who supported the Palestinians. Only through the grace and protection of God was Israel able to survive. Again and again over the years this tiny island of freedom has suffered assaults and attacks from evil men dedicated to her destruction.
Today Israel is more isolated than ever before. Security is a constant struggle as all of Israel’s neighbors either actively oppose her or at least harbor those who do. Since the reuniting of the city of Jerusalem, there have been nearly 10,000 terrorist attacks in the Bible land. There have been more suicide bombings in the city of Jerusalem than in any city in the world.
As my good friend of more than 30 years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pointed out, the issue of contention is not about a Palestinian state, the division of Jerusalem, settlements, checkpoints, security fences, or borders. The issue is Israel’s very right to exist as a nation. Most of the Arab world still refuses to accept this simple proposition.
Not only do they think Israel has no right to exist as a state, but they think the Jewish people have no right to survive. The resistance of the Arab countries to Israel’s national aspirations has always been tied to the Muslim world’s ultimate resistance to the right of the Jewish people to exist at all. Peaceful co-existence has never been the goal of the Arabs, nor even having Jews living dispersed in other lands without a country. The real goal has been the abnegation, and in its worst and most absolute form, the very extermination, of the Jewish race itself.
*****
Join me and Carolyn for a wonderful time in the Land of Promise in 2012. We are eagerly looking forward to this trip and pray that God will do a great work in the hearts of all of those who are able to go. Click here for details
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I Confessed My Sins to My Father
The more I tried to impress God, the sicker and more
depressed I became. Weeping on the steps of our ministry offices, I got “low”
with Jesus. I kept saying, “Lord, I don’t understand why I am so
weak.” Everyone is weak. If we weren’t weak, we wouldn’t need Jesus! When
we have Christ, we are strong; but it’s His strength, not ours. When I pondered
this, I had the first glimmer of understanding about dying-to-the-flesh, and
allowing Christ to live though me. I was too tired to play “catch-up” with the
evangelical Joneses anymore. I was sick of being proud, arrogant and
manipulative in my flesh. I had to get low with Jesus again.
When I did, Jesus softly spoke to my heart, and told me to
do the last thing I would ever have dreamed. He said to go to my father and confess
my sins to him and have him pray for me. I could hardly believe it. Why
tell my sins to a cruel father who abused me all my life? I didn’t
want to tell him I was a liar, proud, and sinful, even though I was in
ministry. What would he think? He had little enough respect for
ministers as it was!
For years I had tried to lead my father to Christ. I
preached, prodded, and poked literature at him. I tried to get him into every
service I could. I fought for his attention, then came away defeated when he paid
none. It had become a source of embarrassment to me, that I could lead others
to Christ, but not my own father.
But I was desperate to get out of the depression I was in,
so I tucked my tail between my legs, died to my flesh, and obeyed Christ. Every
time I had done anything of any value for God, it was always following a state
of total desperation, and this was no different.
I went to my father and said, “God told me to confess my
sins to you and have you pray for me.” I told him my long litany of sins,
then, I ducked my head as he laid his hands on me to pray. I had never wanted
to feel those hands on me again. It was the hardest thing I could ever have
done—to humble myself before that man, allowing him to touch me, and even pray
for me.
What I didn’t know was that my father was” eaten up” with
his own flesh.
He was so full of his flesh, that it was easy to repel me when I came at him in
the same spirit – full of my flesh. But when I came to him with the opposite
spirit, not exalting, accommodating, or feeding my flesh, he had nothing with
which to resist the love of God. He prayed for me, and then cried for one of
the only times I’d seen him cry in my life.
“I can never be saved because of what I did to you,” he said
with his head bowed.
“Yes you can Dad,” I said. Right there, I led my father in
the sinner’s prayer and he was gloriously saved.
My father wasn’t going to get saved by my religiosity and
flesh, preaching at him with all my doctrines. I had actually just been
carrying out his heritage of fleshly living, but it was on a higher level of
“sanctification.” Even though I was a minister, I was still walking after the
flesh, just like him. Humility is the badge of courage held by all “God
wrestlers.”
*****
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