Inside Israel

 

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 …

Greetings in The Precious Name of Yeshua h’Meshiach, Jesus The Messiah, The Christ, The risen Son, King of kings and Lord of lords…may He ALONE be glorified and may you be blessed and edified.

I do greet you lovingly with shalom that comes from Him alone.  Surely there is no peace in the world. How sad it is to see so many lost without Him and His peace.

My cousin is here visiting us from New York City.  She knows that I’m a believer because I have shared my story with her.  She had planned on coming with me to fellowship on Shabat, but is now waffling.  Just before coming here, she met an old friend whom she hadn’t seen in 30 years.  Her friend is a Gentile believer who lives in Jerusalem and apparently shared very forcefully with Paula about Jesus. Thus far, it has had the opposite effect, so I am praying.

Our foster daughter, Yvonne, is scheduled to arrive this coming Monday. Then the day before she leaves on 1 March, my husband’s brother has tickets to arrive and to be here until two other very old friends from NYC arrive.  Phew! Here goes!

In the midst of this, I doubt that any of you could be unaware of the intense worldwide mockery and opposition against our Prime Minister’s upcoming speech before the US Congress.  I cannot imagine such pressure against a single man.  I do appreciate your prayers for him.

I am personally convinced that there is no political motivation involved but that he truly is a voice crying in the wilderness about the Iranian threat.  You might remember the dream that I had back in 1988 about Iran and the bomb.  That dream took place totally out of any context in my life at the time. It is one of the only two dreams that I ever had, which I felt was prophetic.  Up until recently it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for it to come to pass, but the days are running and are even here.

I believe that we are witnessing huge events, and that just as the worldwide weather patterns have changed into extreme patterns that populations are not prepared to deal with, it now seems to be in every area of life.  I feel that the life I have known is rapidly becoming extinct.  I don’t mean to be so dramatic, but from this vantage point, that is how I see it. I still wonder at how The Lord took me from living at the ends of the earth, a quiet life, uncaring about “current events” and what the world was doing, and for reasons of His own, placed me in the center of the earth and said: “What do you see?  Write it down.  You are a witness.”

In the past I have shared much about our fellowship (kehila) and many of you have prayed for different ones here.  Over the years that stopped for some reason, but it was in my heart to share some things with you about our fellowship today.  It’s great!

We are blessed with a Pastor who seeks Him and brings His Word faithfully without diluting it or removing from us the burden of responding to it.  It is a challenge to never coast, and also a most valuable gift.  There are many members of the kehila going through much fire right now. And I wonder if some of you might take one or more to pray for them. I know with me, that is how it works.

The Holy Spirit can put on your heart one person to battle for, so with that in mind I want to share a couple of needs:  Luba is a 67 year old sister who made aliyah from Russia 19 years ago.  She was already a widow back them and has one daughter who lives in the Tel Aviv area. But the daughter has her own burden and is pregnant with her 10^th child. There’s no way for her to travel to help her mother.  One or more of the children are always ill with a cold or something, which also means that she can’t be with her Mom because Luba has a very rare and deadly cancer.  She has gone through chemo and radiation and needs a miracle.  We are all trying to care for her, but really, she is alone too often and is very weak.  Perhaps someone might pray for her.

Another is Keren.  She is still in a wheel chair after some 9 years already and it is hard on her, Tsaki (her husband) and the two girls.  She became paralyzed after she had an epidural (spinal) during the birth of their second daughter.  This godly young family needs their hands lifted up.

Carmen (with 5 godly children) and Hanna have recently had their backslidden husbands leave them. They also need encouragement.

Another sister, Elana needs prayer. I share these names just now because I felt an urging to in my spirit.  If one person is picked up by just one it is worth it.  The body is an amazing organism.

 

Once again I notice how MUCH this tiny country has changed in tangible ways, just since we arrived twenty years ago.  I was looking around our super market and remembering how it was when we came. Birds flew through the stores and perched on the shelves.  There was no English to be seen on any label, and our food experiments were often humorous. We could have delicious yogurt, especially when you couldn’t read that it was 28% fat sour cream. And who knew back then, that the nut butters were mixed with chocolate or that the zucchini was pale and not dark green.

There was much to learn by trial and error, plenty of erros. And NOW, there is much written in English, both on labels and signs.  And speaking of signs, I loved the fact that there were no billboard signs, no graffiti, no advertising anywhere to be seen when we came.  That too has changed and signs are displayed on every available space now, including buses and trucks.

I didn’t particularly like the fact that sales were a totally foreign idea in Israel back then.  If a food was outdated and you asked to pay a lower price, the merchant would look at you as if you were crazy and ask, “Why?”  Products would go from full price to the garbage. There was no in-between.  Now we have sales.

When we came the country was still naïve.  There was much more hope in the air.  In so many ways, the country has caught up with the West and lost its naiveté.

Thankfully I still think it has it’s flavor – the underlying heartbeat that exclaims, “The Lord has claimed us. Oh Abba Father, where are You and where are we?”

His hunt for the heart of this people will be won. He WILL be displayed and glorified in a people still lost.  His Word IS faithful, as is His Spirit.  How do you explain Israel?  How do you mark her towers and chart her path?  ONLY through His Word.  From Genesis through Revelation there it all is laid out for us to wonder at and walk and BELIEVE.

There is a new exhibit that has just opened at the museum called “By the rivers of Babylon.”  On display are ancient stone tablets with writings recording the Babylonian captivity and confirming the words of the prophets.  These were just found.

Will we hear them louder now?  It’s all knee work, isn’t it?  It’s all so simple; going to the cross, dying to self, following faithfully. Come, hear, obey, and LOVE.  Don’t I wish it were as simple to keep my feet in the center of that path?

God bless you and keep you.

Lovingly,

your sis J