Monthly Archives: July 2013

July 28, 2013 · 6:12 am

Inside Israel

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Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua.  Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …

Answered prayer is always for His glory and I want to update you on how our younger daughter is doing, as so many of you have been praying for the situation and it has indeed stabilized.  Thank you SO very much.

I told you she was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum.  She is now in a ‘home care’ situation with a nurse visiting every other day.  The nurse first arrived with boxes of medical supplies, an I.V. (intravenous hydration bag with the water solution balanced with electrolytes to keep people hydrated, like those given in hospitals), an IV pole, boxes of IV saline solution bags, syringes, and anti nausea meds to insert into the IV 6 times daily. Plus a course to teach her how to administer the IV with the meds by herself, etc.

This was the most ‘exciting’ part to her because from the time that she was a tiny child she wanted to be a doctor.  Finding out that she was profoundly dyslexic dashed that dream for her and now, here she is, being given a real hospital to play with at home.  That was her response when she FINALLY skyped us the other night.

She was weak and puffy but felt encouraged, and even happy.  There are standing orders at the hospital to admit her immediately if she comes to the emergency room.  She has seen a doctor, dietician, and psychiatrist and heard the Baby’s heartbeat.  She is not fearful anymore and is convinced the Baby is healthy and that this will all pass, at least by the end of 9 months. She has even felt the Baby move.

I located an organization dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum and have learned a great deal for myself.  They were very supportive and sent a local volunteer to encourage her and loan her a baby heart monitor. They gave her a $100 gift certificate for Baby needs.  Wow!  The head of the organization explained that they do this because women are so ill they often opt to kill their babies. They need to meet others who have endured and let them know it is truly worth it and that it does eventually end with the joy of having a child.  I am impressed and thankful and know this is TRULY an answer to your prayers.  I even believe that she will NOT be this ill for the full 9 months.

ON TOP OF ALL OF THIS, several of you have contacted me to tell me that either you live in the area or know someone who does  and who would be willing to go and encourage her and or do some meal preparation.  This was my main prayer − outreach ministry through believers.

Our daughter truly has known The Lord and loved Him.  Her husband has not yet known Him as I explained. He was brought up in a Jewish ultra-orthodox (Haradi) family (the oldest of 15 children).  They are both backslidden, but both from different places. Both are really tender ‘Truth seekers’ so I believe with all of my heart that The Truth, The Face of Yeshua, will and IS pursuing them.  Our daughter knows who my friends are. Yet she was so happy when I offered for each one to contact her and to come and visit.  (She is alone in bed everyday.)  THANK YOU DEAREST BODY OF MESSIAH.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND WALK.

A brief update from our ever volatile front row center seat is called for right now:

Unless you have been enjoying a wonderful remote vacation, you likely know by now the Americans have succeeded in announcing the re-start (yet again) of ‘peace, peace, where there is no peace’ talks.  The talks are scheduled to begin next week and already the rhetoric is heating up.  Here are two quotes:

“The collapse of the upcoming round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians may lead to the eruption of another intifada,” Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) warned on Monday.  Tibi, who served as an advisor to deceased Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat and remains close to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, said he has sensed the “bottled-up rage on the Palestinian street over the occupation and the missing of the opportunity.”  (Please understand: Ahmad Tibi is a member of our Israeli Knesset (Parliament).  He is not part of ‘Palestine,’ part of the ‘other side,’ he is Israeli.)

While Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas said: “While Netanyahu declares any agreement will be brought to referendum, Jordanian paper releases interview with PA chairman conducted immediately after renewed talks statement. Abbas says ‘any solution must remove Israel permanently from Palestinian land’

When we arrived in 1994, the first ‘peace agreement’ had just been signed on the White House lawn by Arafat and Rabin.  It was signed amidst pools of blood and further negotiations continued as the pools widened and deepened.  Oh, that is Israeli blood that I am talking about.  There were bombings, terror attacks, kidnappings.  Through it all, the world kept telling us ‘Israel, be patient!  It is ‘only’ a few frustrated extremists trying to kill the fragile peace.’  ‘Peace’ became a holy word- a god – where human blood became a sacrifice upon the alter to the god of peace.

As a front row viewer, I believe that I am being honest when I say that there is NO ONE IN THE WORLD who longs for peace more then the Israeli people, but it is NOT peace at any price.  We know this land is not ours and it has been taken away from us before by The Owner because of our disobedience.  It is not ours to give away, that would be stealing what is His and despising our birthright.

Speaking the Hebrew language has opened up an honest window to see into the Israeli heart.  As I listen to the songs on the buses and even in the liturgy, ‘peace’ is possibly the main longing of the soul and subject of the songs.

I have been so very grateful for the MANY opportunities I have to ‘make peace’ one on one with Palestinians, to sit and talk and open hearts and allow them to see into mine.  That one on one honesty opens REAL doors of peace.  But even that is not the Real Peace which ONLY comes clothed in Yeshua h’Meshiach, Jesus the Messiah, the Christ.  Aside from Him there just IS no peace.

My prayer is that He will anoint me and all of my beloved sisters and brothers here to EFFECTIVELY share Him – to freely give as we have received, to plant into fertile ground that which will produce kingdom FRUIT, 100 fold and make way for The Prince of Peace again. This time I pray He is recognized and embraced by all.

As I close, I would like to ask prayer for a 41 year old Mother of 4 (?) who is in home hospice care, dealing with great pain in the last stages of breast cancer which has overtaken most of her body.  She had initially refused treatment for the cancer until it was too late.  Her name is Ayella Weitzman.  I have loved this dear woman.  I told her husband, Daniel, I would be praying for them.  Thank you.

May His Peace rule in your hearts (and mine) through the knowledge of Him and as we gaze at Him face to Face.

Lovingly,

your sis J in Jerusalem

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July 27, 2013 · 6:07 am

Summer Sabbatical

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I have two long vacations planned during the next thirty days and a new writing project which will take a lot of my time. So, I am cutting back on blogging and following other blogs for the next 45 days or so.

I will still host Inside Israel and write an article for Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope each week. These are commitments I feel I need to stand behind. As far as the series on Prayer: So Easy To Talk About, Yet So Hard To Do, this series will probably continue for months or maybe even years. We always need to be encouraged to pray. The series, Racism: Who’s in the Right? And Who’s in the Wrong, I will finish because the research is already done for it.

If you don’t see my comments on your blog for a while, just know I appreciate your efforts. You can always send an email if you need to get in touch and if you are coming to California, give me a heads-up.

God bless everyone.

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July 26, 2013 · 12:27 pm

Desperately Searching for Survival

“You’ve got to do something!” the parents of the village begged. They lived in deep poverty, rejected by society and ignored by the government. Their only source of water was a hole in the ground a half mile away containing polluted, bacteria-infected water. Because of waterborne illnesses, 18 of their beloved children died in one year’s time. The villages total population was only 300 people.

Praise the Lord for Pastor Hoob who shared Christ’s love with them in practical ways. Along with a Jesus Well that supplied life-giving water for the village, a Bridge of Hope center was also opened in the area. Now the children are learning and growing in Jesus and excelling academically at the same time.

The Bridge of Hope centers provide school supplies, a daily meal, medical checkups and more. With your help, we can reach many more villages like this one with the hope found in Christ. And this is only the beginning!

God is using Jesus Wells and Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope to turn these dire situations around for good.

Give hope to child in Asia today. Sponsor a child.

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July 23, 2013 · 11:01 am

Prayer: So Easy To Talk About, Yet So Hard To Do (Part 8)

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When my son played basketball in high school, I was a member of the school’s sports booster club. We sold drinks, hot dogs, popcorn, candy, and other treats at sporting events to raise money for athletic needs. Another fund raising activity was the annual 9th and 10th grade basketball tournament held each March.

One year, I coached our 9th grade’s third string basketball team. The youths were energetic and great, but they lacked talent, height, and speed. Most coaches would have considered them cannon fodder, but that’s not how I play or coach.

At our one practice before the game, I told them, “I’m coaching to win the game and expecting you to play to win. We’ll have fun together.” They gave high-fives and loud cheers.

With 30 seconds to go in the fourth quarter of the game, I called time-out. The kids all gathered in a huddle around me. “Coach, do you have a play for us?” said a blond-headed guard.

“Yes,” I said, pointing at one player. “I want Joe to take a long shot and the rest of you to block everyone out.”

We stuck our hands in the middle and shouted, “Let’s go.”

The play worked to perfection with Joe hitting a long shot. The final score: 86 – 14. We lost.

Yet, if you would have seen the two teams on the court at the buzzer, you would have guessed my team had won. They hugged each other and me. Yes, we lost the game, but we were winners when we walked off the court because we did the best we could and had winning attitudes.

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you. (Mark 11:24)

The Greek word pas is translated into the English words all things in Mark 11:24. The Greek actually means each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, and everything. So, there’s no wiggle room in this verse. All means all!

Like the basketball team, our job as believers is to pray in faith, trusting and believing God will move on our behalf every time we pray. If we do our part, God will do His part. Sometimes, we’ll see unbelievable miracles and sometimes, He’ll collect our prayers in a censer to be used later. The choice is His, not ours.

Now, the worst thing we can do is pray without faith, using careless, idle words because we will eventually give an accounting to the Judge for these prayers.

(Continued in Part 9)

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July 21, 2013 · 1:12 pm

Inside Israel

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Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua.  Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.  (Matthew 6:16-18)

Blessings to you from quiet, subdued Jerusalem.  May The Lord give us His Light into all that will glorify Him.

We had incurred some ‘city hall’ issues that needed to be attended to, and being my day off I needed to go down to city hall to see if they were open during their usual hours or if they were closed for the tisha b’av fast.

Things like that change every year. One year it will be open, and another close. One year everyone will seem to be fasting, and another not. One year I will hear weeping and prayer through the night and another not.  This year, our city hall was closed and, interestingly, so were most of the shops on Jaffa Road.

The law states that restaurants and places of entertainment should be closed but other stores do as they wish, so in the past I had only seen restaurants or stores with religious owners closed.  Being that so many were closed, I did not have to maneuver the crowds and had ample opportunity to observe.  It surprised me how many cafes were open. I understand that there must be service for tourists, but this year I did not see many closed.  Many tourists were, in fact, on the streets and some of them were obviously wondering what had happened.

Grocery stores, the shuk, public transportation, and so forth all function as normal on tisha b’av and it has been an individual choice for the 19 years that we have been here: to work or not to work.  The train was blissfully, well, not ‘empty’, but there were some seats at times and no pushing.  So it struck my funny bone to watch a family of tourists from Europe, armed with maps and plenty of food, having succeeded (with the help of passerby) at buying tickets in the automated booth, observe the bright yellow ‘IN-OUT ‘arrows painted on the sidewalks.  I told you about our unsuccessful campaign to teach locals to ‘let the crowds off of the train BEFORE you rush on’.

I was reminded just how different life is here as I watched the dad of the visiting family observe the arrows, instruct his family where to stand, push one of the teenagers further back on the arrow, and wait for the train.  It was so, well, ‘neat, orderly, and EASY’.  Why can’t we do that?  Cultural differences can be glaring and humerous and I have found that my response is a test of my walk with The Lord, one I don’t always pass. Yet, He is patient to help me learn.

There are other interesting things.  Since it is also Ramadan, Moslems are also fasting during the day hours, and Jaffa Road was full of Moslem Arabs, as well as Jews, strolling along the street.  The religious or observant men who are fasting today are obvious.  The tradition is not to cut your hair or shave from Shavuot (Pentecost, the feast of weeks) to lag b’omer (the ‘bon fire’ night) when you can cut your hair and shave for one day. Then it begins again until tisha b’av, so, by now the fasting men are obvious not only because they look quite ‘holy’, serious, hungry and sad, but because they are also very shaggy.

It started me thinking even more about fasting and what it is for and WHO it is for.

Probably many of you have read the old book,  God’s Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis, but even if you haven’t, or if you have read others, my favorite text simply came from the scripture mentioned above in Matthew 6, which I interpreted this way:

‘Fast unto ME…secretly…tell only ME…and I will search your heart’s motives and either set them straight (my heart’s motives) or change them.  Do NOT appear unto men to fast.’

To me, that seemed simple enough.  So in my life, and maybe yours, there have been ‘seasons of fasting’ and ‘choices to fast’, times of regularly scheduled fasting and other times when it seems woefully impossible to fast and even failed attempts.  Among the faces that I see around me today there are some whom I am sure are really seeking God.  I heard that there were many many thousands at the western wall last night for prayer and reading of the book of Lamentations as well as full synagogues all over the city.

During the news broadcasts there is time given to a rabbi to share a devotional explaining tisha b’av, and since I listen to the news in English I can only hope that what is shared on the Hebrew news is deeper, somehow more meaningful.  In my readings of the prophets the reason for the fast rings loud and clear. It is NOT to mourn the destruction of the temples and the dispersion, NOR hatred between brothers, but to REPENT FOR THE SIN that turns our faces away from our God toward other things and other gods and causes our hearts to harden and REQUIRES punishment.  The fast itself accomplishes nothing without the heart, eh?  And I’m thankful that God can turn our hearts and open the eyes of every hungry heart. I am praying that He will appear to hungry hearts today.

But the grave events that have historically impacted the Jewish people on tisha b’av did not stop today.  We were shocked to receive today’s news (article below is part of an article from ynet just now):

EU bans contracts between member states, settlements

New decree restricts any Israeli entity beyond 1967 lines from EU funding, prizes, grants. Housing Minister Ariel: Decision reminiscent of Holocaust

The European Union has decreed that contracts between EU member states and Israel must include a clause stating that east Jerusalem and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) are not part of the State of Israel and therefore not part of the contract, it was reported on Tuesday.  (*Please note that they also included the Golan Heights)

The decree, which will go into effect Friday, will forbid any cooperation, awarding of grants, prizes and funding for any Israeli entity in the specified areas.

The EU’s funding, direct and indirect, of Israel bodies which operate in the settlements has long drawn fire from various organizations within the Union. The EU is severely opposed to Israeli construction beyond the 1967 lines and has acted repeatedly to draw a clear line between Israel and its settlements in the West Bank.

The latest decree resulted from the EU Foreign Affairs Council’s directives of December 2012, which stated that “all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.”

However, the directive will not harm funding for research institutes, such as the Hebrew University, which employs settlers in their staff. Government ministries, which have offices in east Jerusalem, such as the Justice Ministry, will still enjoy the EU’s cooperation as well.

An EU official said on Tuesday that Israel should not be surprised with the directive, as the issue has been repeatedly addressed and forewarned by EU officials.

The new directive, said the official, is in line with opinions in the EU which have been prevalent for several years.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office MK Ofir Akunis said in response: “It’s a wrong and regrettable decision. Such steps – even before the Palestinians announced they are even ready to return to the negotiation table – are pushing the peace talks away, not drawing them closer.”

“Let them know even in Europe – Judea and Samaria are not ‘occupied,’ they’re the homeland of the Jewish nation.”

Housing Minister Uri Ariel said in response to the decree: “This decision is tainted by racism and discrimination against the Jewish people which is reminiscent of the bans against Jews in Europe over 66 years ago,”

Minister Ariel added, “The Israeli government must not, under any condition, be a part of any future agreement which includes a clause that Judea and Samaria are not a part of the sovereign State of Israel.”

The Yesha Council stated that “To our regret, in Tisha B’av Europe has returned to a policy of boycott and segregation against the State of Israel. Europe’s unrestrained support of the Palestinian Authority has turned it into a non-neutral element.

“The Israeli government must instruct the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry to immediately halt all European projects in Judea and Samaria until this unilateral decision is aborted.”

So, the day is drawing toward a close and our landlord just came and told us that she is looking into selling the apartment that we live in and asked if we want to buy it.  Thankfully, she told us that we would be able to sign another one-year lease so I have another ‘issue’ to help learn the stance of faith vs. doubt (fear, worry, sin) Again I have not heard more from our younger daughter but I have been overwhelmed with the loving prayerful response on her behalf.  God bless you!

I must go so will sign off quickly.

Loving blessings,

your sis J

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July 19, 2013 · 1:28 pm

Larry the Lizard Slayer

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I had no intention of causing the little lizard problems, but it’s hard to convince him now because he’s dead.

It all began with me looking out the window and seeing a six-inch fence lizard resting on the patio. I opened the door and watched him scamper toward the BBQ grill. I followed him with my finger poised on the camera button of my i-Phone.  He dove into a hole in the butane tank which proved to be his downfall.

Although his head and front legs fit through the hole, his larger back legs could not. He was stuck. I tried helping, but his fear proved too great. I walked away and prayed, asking the Lord to free him.

The next day, I checked again. He was still stuck.

On my walk around the neighborhood, I decided the lizard was in desperate straits and needed help now. I prayed and asked the Lord to relax the lizard, maybe even put him into a deep sleep.

I softly crept up behind the lizard. I reached down and gave him a quick jerk, hoping to surprise him and free him at the same time.

Let’s just say, it did not work out quite like I planned. He died in my hand.

I felt terrible and asked forgiveness of the Lord for killing the lizard. An empty feeling hung on me for hours like a funeral shroud. If only I wouldn’t have bothered the lizard, he’d still be alive.

Now think about it, okay?

There are probably 500, 000 of these fence lizards in my neighborhood alone, ranging in size from itsy-bitsy to six inches, measuring from head to tail. Cars, lawn mowers, cats, birds, snakes, and dogs remove thousands of them every week from my area. So, what’s the big deal, right?

He lived in my yard, under my care. I let him die for no good reason at all.

Do you know what made me feel better?

I received a letter in the mail from a child we sponsor in India. Her words warmed my heart, knowing she thinks I’m someone special, but in reality, I’m not. She’s the special one who God laid on our hearts to love and help.

If you’re interested in knowing how to sponsor a child in Gospel For Asia’s Bridge of Hope program, click here.

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July 15, 2013 · 3:53 pm

Prayer: So Easy To Talk About, Yet So Hard To Do (Part 7)

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When J. Hudson Taylor was born in 1832, his mother and father prayed, “Lord, grant that he may work in China.”

The parents saw little evidence their prayer had any effect on their son’s life as he grew up in Yorkshire, England. In fact, he became a skeptic and wandered far from his Methodist upbringing. But when Taylor reached his teenage years, God grabbed his heart while he read a Christian tract in his father’s apothecary shop. A short time later, Taylor felt God had called him to be a missionary to China.

Then, Hudson Taylor’s training began in earnest.

Taylor read George Mueller’s newsletter and believed he needed strong faith and a prayer life like Mueller’s to succeed in China. To accomplish this, Taylor moved miles away from home to live in a poor area. He vowed to never ask people for help, but instead, like Mueller, he prayed, asking God to meet his needs. An absent-minded employer and sickness brought him close to starvation and death, yet God proved Himself faithful, delivering and healing him.

In 1853, Taylor sailed as a missionary for a new missionary society to Shanghai, China. The society seldom sent funds and Taylor refused to ask for help. “Depend upon it. God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack for supplies,” he proclaimed.

After seven years of hard work, he built a church of only 21 believers in an inland city. But because of illness, he and his wife returned to England. It was during his stay in England, when he felt defeated and depressed, that God gave him a vision for a new missionary society for China. Struggling with the vision and his lack of faith for it,  Hudson Taylor eventually told God: “All responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with You. I am Your servant and I will obey and follow You.”

From this point forward, Hudson Taylor began praying for missionaries to join his missionary society: China Inland Mission. By 1895, 641 missionaries and 462 Chinese helpers at 260 missionary stations were the results of his prayers, more than half of all Protestant missionaries in the nation.

Missiologists and historians refer to Taylor as ‘one of the profoundest Christian thinkers of all time’, ‘a visionary pioneer’ and ‘one of the four or five most influential foreigners in 19th century China’.

Taylor’s own assessment was somewhat different: ‘I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for Him to use, and that He found me.’

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July 14, 2013 · 9:46 am

Inside Israel

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Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua.  Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …

What are your thoughts occupied with as we heard toward tisha b’av next Monday night and Tuesday? I’ve been thinking about those little mistakes in communication that snowball into huge conflicts between people and communities. The children that grow up estranged because their parents were too busy to say “I love you.” The couples that stopped listening to each other because they didn’t understand each other. The religious sectors that split apart because they never took the opportunity to learn to value each other.

When we talk about Sinat Chinam (baseless hatred) in Israel, it’s important to realize that so many of our fights can be avoided if we take the time to maintain the relationships we have, and fill them with love and beauty instead of jealousy and suspicion. If we can do that as a nation, we’ll never have to fast on tisha b’av again.

Wishing you an easy and meaningful fast.”   (from the local ‘janglo’ weekly letter)

Greetings and Blessings, dear sisters and brothers, May The Lord be glorified, blessed, worshipped… may you be blessed!

As ramadan is being observed by the world’s Moslems, the tisha b’av fast appears on the horizon.  Tisha b’av (or 9th day of the month of Av on the Hebrew calendar) is observed this year beginning Monday night the 8th through Tues sundown the 9th.  Aside from the fast day of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, this is the most solemn fast day of the Jewish year.  It is not observed as widely as Yom Kippur (which is commanded in scripture and actively observed by a large majority of Jews) but it IS observed by a surprising number of even secular or nominally observant Jews as well as the religious.

As I have told you recently, I have been going through this interesting season of having my morning devotional reading ‘disrupted by The Lord’ after 37 years of following His initial directions to me, and have been having an intense time reading and re-reading the major prophets again and again (along with other portions in New Covenant and Psalms), so this day is making a very present and living impression on me this year, even more so then in past years.

The 9th of Av commemorates the actual date of the destruction of BOTH the first and second temples and the punishment of the surviving remnant being sent out of the promised land of Israel into the diaspora.  You can read Jeremiah’s account of the date in Jeremiah 52:6-7 –

6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

7 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the plain.

I have also shared many times over the past years lists of the unusual number of cataclysmic events that have taken place among the Jews through out modern history on this same date.

People prepare for this time of often very real repentance and heart searching in many ways.  The very religious men do not shave or cut their hair from Shavuot until tisha b’av, so there are many fully bearded men around right now.  There is also a general feeling of mourning in the air and I have heard many greetings which include a blessing for Jerusalem.  The teaching is that the judgment of God comes upon the people of Israel mainly for ‘brother hating brother’ (sinat chinam, in Hebrew).  Of course this is partly true according to the scriptures as hatred, or lack of love, produces selfishness, oppressing, cheating, theft and the like.  But the Scriptures make it clear that there are other reasons for the judgment of God upon the children of Israel: (I have been writing them down during these 6 months of reading through the major prophets).  Some of them are:

Forsaking Him (our first love); serving other Gods (like material goods, the flesh, new age ideas…?), worshipping the work of our own hands, giving heed to seducing spirits (counterfeit works of a spirit other then HIS); defiling His land; rebellion; pride; not finding delight in The Word of The Lord; covetousness; dealing falsely; will not hear correction; following the dictates of our own heart; forsaking Shabat; following Eastern ways; arrogant tongue; despising this inherited land; lack of mercy…oh my, the list goes on.

At the top of this letter I copied a small paragraph that opened a local weekly email information site, and similar exhortations and encouragements are appearing in newspapers, in short messages on radio and tv and on billboards (at least in the Jerusalem area).  ‘Prepare your heart to seek The Lord…do not let Jerusalem go again…’

I was in the Old City on Tuesday and many large groups of youngsters, soldiers and older folks as well, were on ‘learning tours’, reviewing the history surrounding the destructions of the temples.  They stop to read scripture and pray. On tisha b’av itself, the book of Lamentations is prayed/read during the fast and many people stay up all night weeping and even dressing in sackcloth and ashes.  We can scoff at what is ‘religious show’, but I, for one, know that God hears hungry hearts and my prayer is that this will NOT be a religious tradition, but that there will be breakthroughs in hearts; that The Holy Spirit will convict, and draw the hungry to Yeshua, Whom He is well able to reveal!  AND… that He will indeed, CREATE hunger in the hearts of those who may be crying out of tradition only.  He is able.

I have not been well, so will close and go to bed now.  What a season we live in, eh?  His ways are so above our ways and His thoughts so above our…and I am thankful for that!  I send you much love.  God bless you and keep you and make HIS FACE to shine upon you…and give you (HIS) Shalom.

Lovingly,

your sis  J

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July 12, 2013 · 1:06 pm

What Would You Do If You Saw This Scene?

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(Click to enlarge)

The young girl is a member of the 300 million people-group in India known as the “Untouchables” or Dalits. This people-group is considered subhuman, impure from birth, and worthy of nothing but contempt. Anything a Dalit touches is then considered impure and contaminated, and must be thrown away.

Dalits work at the most degrading and menial jobs in India. They clean out the open-air toilets, latrines, and sewer lines with their bare hands. They work back-breaking twelve-hour days as laborers on farms or carry firewood from the forests. All for only pennies per hour in wages. Crimes against Dalits, such as rape or kidnapping as slaves, are seldom reported because the police turn a blind eye when they hear the whole story.

The Dalits are the least of the least and the poorest of the poor.

So, you can understand why it’s acceptable for the young girl to dig through garbage. She is, after all, already contaminated and who knows? Maybe she’ll eke out a few pennies to help feed her family that day.

Let’s say you were walking down the street and happened on the scene shown in the photo. What would you do?

If you don’t have a good answer, check out Gospel For Asia’s Bridge of Hope Ministry.

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July 8, 2013 · 3:51 pm

Prayer: So Easy To Talk About, Yet So Hard To Do (Part 6)

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One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty.  There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy food.  The thirty children were standing, waiting for their morning meal, when George Mueller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.”

Lifting his hand he said, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”

There was a knock on the door.  The baker stood there, and said, “Mr. Mueller, I couldn’t sleep last night.  Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some.  So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it.”

Mueller thanked the man.

No sooner had this transpired than there was a second knock at the door.  It was the milkman.  He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.

(Life and Ministry of George Mueller by Ed Reese, Reese Publictions, Christian Hall of Fame Series)

George Mueller (1805 – 1898) pastored the same Baptist church in Bristol, England, for over sixty-six years. Yet, he is best known for his orphan ministry, with stories like the above being common in his life. His orphanages cared for over 10,000 orphans at a time when destitute children were locked up in prisons to keep them off the streets.

Armed only with prayer and faith, he went through daily spiritual battles to provide for the increasing number of orphans under his care. He admitted his faith was nothing special and any believer could do it. What he did was simple enough in that he meditated in scriptures and then prayed the promises before God’s throne. He continued praying until He had peace about his prayers being answered by God.

God never failed him.

Near the end of his life, Mueller stated he had received over 50,000 answers to specific prayers from God. The amazing thing is that George Mueller never once asked people for money. Never once. Every prayer request was made alone before God.

Thousands of believers have been encouraged by the many books on George Mueller’s life. We’ll talk about one of them next time.

(Continued in Part 7)

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