Category Archives: Jerusalem

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 —

Dear brothers and sisters,

May The Lord be glorified and blessed and may you be encouraged and blessed because of Him.

As I was walking to work in the early morning on the day following the US elections, I found myself praying with great fear about the use of words − my use of words in particular.

My prayers were interposed with some of the MANY scriptures about THE WORD:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” “In the beginning was The Word and The Word was GOD and The Word was with GOD…””For The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper then any two edged sword…” the engrafted Word which is able to save your soul …receive The Word…keep The Word…abide in The Word…The Word was choked…The Word fell by the wayside…The Word bore fruit…”

They just kept coming.

Think how many WORDS we are hearing all the time.  Some words are used so skillfully − strung together to give comfort and press people higher. Some are harsh and cruel and instigate anger. Some are Truthful and some are lying and it is just all so confusing.  Words, flung around, influencing hearts, minds, actions.  What happens when we believe a lie?  What happens when we reject a Truth?  AND worst of all − the way that we use words can INFLUENCE someone who believes a lie or rejects the Truth!

All of this was pouring into my mind and out of my mouth in prayer, a cry of sorts. I thought of people who have written to me and told me that I write well and should consider writing a book. And I thought back to how this writing of mine began and has proceeded forth in the world of words.

It seems to me that I have loved words since I was very young. That in one form or other I was always looking for Truth.  It took a LONG time to find Him!

When I was in high school, I would spend my lunch break in the school library reading through the unabridged dictionary (no…I never got to the end). I remember well coming up to the word “ergo” which meant “therefore or hence.” Armed with this new word, I proceeded to use it in class after lunch and was laughed out of class.

But I loved words and listened as people argued and so often I wondered if they were from different planets and why no one really LISTENED or could understand the other.

Things became MORE interesting as my husband is profoundly dyslexic.  Words mean less than nothing to him.  Our second daughter came along and I watched how profound audio dyslexia affects communication and I became even MORE impressed by the power of words.

I will not go further in this description but my despair at the thought of the world ever communicating one to another made the impact of The Living God also being The Living Word… oh so much more important to me!

It also holds over my head a genuine fear of misusing what some have graciously called “my gift with words.”

When a person uses words well, he can very easily mislead people, particularly if he speaks with authority.  We have an easy prime example (because history has already judged him, I feel free to use his name) in Hitler.  His speeches, I am told, were hypnotically persuasive.

But we have a BETTER Word.

I was deeply blessed by hearing the same confession by each of my early Pastors.  NONE of them felt that they had any gift of speech or natural ability with words, and they approached their calling with fear and trembling and relied with full dependence upon The Holy Spirit to anoint them and speak through them.  They were the greatest examples that I could have had, and The Lord has continued to bless and challenge me by gifting me with such men of God. I am still convinced that my Pastors have been His very best.

So, Lord, what do I do with the gift of words that You gave to me?

 

After the US elections, I did listen to many of the speeches.  Before the elections I did not hear locals speaking much about them. Here they were viewed as so aggressive and arrogant on all sides, and I chose not to focus on them as well.  But AFTER the elections the talk was passionate on all sides.  So I thought about the use of words as I listened to each one.

No doubt about it, Obama is a good speaker.  PLEASE!  I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT CONTENT, TRUTH ETC…SIMPLY HIS USE OF WORDS…excellent.  If I were a young idealistic academic, there would be no question. I would be persuaded.

Words!

With smooth words:

Jeremiah 12 says “Do not believe them, Even though they speak smooth words to you.”

Psalm 55 says …”The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.”

In Romans 16 we read “…and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.”

Words can be a stumbling block for me, too. So I turn quickly back to my prayer” “Oh Lord!  I don’t KNOW my own heart!  Please guard me from using persuasive, smooth words to deceive, manipulate, distort in any way or to convince someone to see something my way.  PLEASE TAKE THESE WORDS AND USE THEM FOR YOUR GLORY ONLY! YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE! ‘

And I mean it.

The Lord told me, “What you see, write.  What I show you, write. Be a faithful witness.”

I WANT to be, but am I?  Examine my heart Lord and lead me in Your path!

 

During the bloody awful second intifada, when the buses were blowing up daily, the Clintons came to Jerusalem.  Bill Clinton spoke to the public at the Convention Center and I watched the proceedings on TV. His wife, Hillary, had gone to Gaza and Ramallah that day to meet with Suha Arafat (Arafat’s wife).  Hillary Clinton stood with Suha Arafat  in a nursery school.  Her eyes were full of love and pity and she nodded in agreement as Suha told her (and the international cameras) that Israel was poisoning their water and giving them aids.  Later she appeared with Bill at the convention center.  He appeared very warm toward us there and he asked for anyone who was close to someone personally or related to someone who had been killed in the current intifada to please stand up.  There was a moment of silence and then the entire huge crowd stood as one body and he was visibly shaken and brought to tears.  I will never forget how his wife stood beside him, uncomfortable, like a stone filled with hate, NOT toward them, but obviously toward us.  It was a shocker to see and I never forgot it.

At work following the elections, as I said, people started to react, really quite emotionally.  Many more were relieved then I expected, but we have a number of patients who are professors and they are generally quite liberal.  As we spoke, I reminded these professors of that visit during the intifada.  One said that he didn’t have any memory of their visit, but another stopped and lowered his head and said “Yes, now I remember. Thank you for reminding me. I had forgotten that.”

Each of them stopped and thought about it and thanked me for reminding them.

The power of words. What a responsibility!

Perhaps the current situation will cause American Jews to finally make aliyah. May my family be among them. God can use anything to bring about His purposes.

And as we pray for the situations both near and far in our own nations and others, thank you for praying for this nation and people.  May we pray His Heart for His glory and look away to Him, not fixing our eyes on the situations that shake all around us and seem to demand our attention.

He said to Martha: “Only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that better part.” Looking unto Yeshua, sitting at His feet.

May you each be encouraged and blessed.

Lovingly,

your sister J

It was HOT.  Very hot and sunny.  We live in a desert, although it has bloomed and blossomed in a joyful display of His fulfillment of His promises. Yet it is still hot during the long dry summers.  But when summer ends it − ENDS SUDDENLY!  Wind, a clap of thunder, a cloud and the winter rainy season has begun.

I was blessed to be preparing my morning coffee beside an open window as the wind picked up and suddenly I heard the sound of rain.  The fresh smell of a summer’s worth of dust being washed away filled my senses with joy.  ANOTHER example of the great faithfulness of The Lord. Perhaps the most basic one which has been set before our eyes: the seasons and the morning and the night. I too often take it for granted as they shout His Name before the eyes of every living creature.  They speak so openly of His TIMES and of HIS order. Surely the time is shorter then when we first believed.  As winter FELL suddenly and summer was no longer here at 4:30am the other morning. So the TIMES will roll away suddenly.  SUDDENLY IT WILL ALL BE CHANGED…

But He’s left us “the map” and it is accurate, even in THIS season that we live in now.

 

I don’t get many emails (and I’m not so great at answering them in a timely manner lately for which I apologize) but I DO get them from diverse people and places, and judging by what I hear, this is surely a time of perplexity and desperation in many places.  We can say all sorts of things, but none of us have known a world in which America was not a wealthy and relatively secure power to reckon with and one way or another it has effectively acted as a buffer against much of the world’s evils, even though her hands were not always pure.  We all know that it is ONLY in God we can trust, hide, believe, and that all breath is from and through Him, but being confronted by the thought of the actual demise of America as we know it − no matter WHO is elected − is a sobering thought to think through.

It seems to me that the U.S. is already painfully divided in much the same way that Israel and Judea were divided (see 2 Chronicles 11) as God’s Hand of judgment began to be displayed.  I read a comment recently that this U.S. election is really, at its heart, all about Israel and at first I pooh-poohed it, but the more I thought about it I wondered. Because I DO see that truly as the times wind down, yes Israel IS at the center with Jerusalem. And yes, we need to understand God’s Heart toward this nation and people if we will stand in these days, as arrogant as that may sound. It is scriptural.

Many years ago, some 40, I heard Campbell McAlpine teach on “God’s ways in judgment.” Although at the time it was most assuredly “days of God’s outpouring and refreshing.” The Holy Spirit checked my heart to HEAR and LISTEN and TAKE IT TO HEART.   I did. So as I have read my scriptures throughout the years since then, I have asked Him to teach me and, well, it just all became so evident because it all is so clearly laid out in His Word.

From beginning to end we see His blessing and His judgment − both on His enemies and His elect. Surely in all of the prophetic books highlighted by the Revelation of John, we learn of the strait and narrow path through, which is the ONLY way.  I find the word strait fascinating.  In English, it sounds just like “straight” but it doesn’t mean the same thing at all.  If a path is straight, like a line, it is easy to follow – everything in the same direction – a lot like the Law really.  But the Bible says “STRAIT is the way and narrow is the path.”

VERY interestingly, some of the modern versions have actually changed the word there to straight. But “strait” means difficult, troubled, the word “constraint” is derived from it and the word “strait jacket” − a jacket that restricts, restrains a person and is a place of great stress and difficulty.  In waterways, the straits are narrow but turbulent and dangerous…and yet the only way through.

That is what the very sudden falling of winter upon us reminded me of.  “Keep to the center of the strait and narrow path and major in HIS majors ONLY.” 

And so, as tempting as it is to fix my eyes on the U.S. elections, our local upheavals and other events in the world that are dramatic and my flesh would just LOVE to express my opinion on these, HE has been clearly telling me to fix my eyes on HIM alone because only HE can lead me through if I keep my eyes on Him.  So rather than “the prophetic time table,” He is telling me to major in loving my brother and neighbor and obeying in faith and trusting Him for everything no matter what, praying without ceasing preferring my brother above myself and waiting for HIM to say, “Go” or “Stay.”  Yep!  I still have NOT attained to these most foundational fruits of His Spirit.

 

Perhaps you are like me?  Or perhaps your fruit is ripe and good.  But in these letters He told me to “record what I see… and tell them.”

And so I was on the train on Friday and did see a most interesting sight.  Across from me sat a couple with their son, a family that looked as if they were perhaps royalty in Saudi Arabia.  The man and his son were dressed in long white robes and wore ornate turbans on their heads.  The woman was dressed in a full black burka or niqab (a niqab is the veil where there is a slit for the eyes to show and her eyes were beautiful)  An Israeli Arab sat beside me, also across from them, and gave the little boy candy and toys to the embarrassment of his very modest parents.

When I saw that they did not speak Arabic as it is spoken here (the Israeli Arab had to speak to them in English), I wondered what country they were from and how they decided to be touring in Jewish Israel. Indeed it was an unusual sight.  I noted that their faces were peaceful and relaxed, light hearted, not at all like the faces of Arabs that I am used to seeing nor was it the look of “counterfeit peace” that was always seen on the face of Osama bin Laden and so forth.  It seemed as if the entire train was watching them with open curiosity.

The same day, one of our patients came to the office.  I have a strange relationship with this woman.  She is an extreme radical liberal, originally from Switzerland many years ago.  She hates Israel and being Jewish and says that God is a myth.  Nonetheless, she likes me.  She wonders what makes me tick and since it is Him, we continue this interesting relationship.  “Shalom Nora, you have been away a long while,” I greeted her.

“There IS no shalom, not here anyway,” she shook her head in disdain but continued, “Yes, I have had a most INTERESTING and REFRESHING trip.  I have just spent 3 weeks in Iran.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “Iran?  How in the world…”

She cut me off. “Well, you know I also have a Swiss passport.  Everything that you hear about Iran is lies.  It is WONDERFUL there!  It is a marvelous country and all that we hear is lies.”

I WANTED to ask her if they hear the “Truth” about Israel, but I held my tongue. I DID pray silently for HIS response and His purposes.  So we went on small talking and I wondered where it will all go.

 

The recent UN ruling that Israel has no historic connection to Jerusalem has depressed the country.  What IS a lying spirit exactly and how does it wield so much power?  It really doesn’t matter because Heb 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. “

So I believe that STANDING in THE TRUTH of The Lord − no matter WHAT the world is saying − is the way to fight the power of all lying spirits, even those from Iran (Persia) and from humanism and from Islam and from every other direction.

With the holidays over, our streets are back to normal.  I no longer know what normal is, however our apartment building is shockingly peaceful and clean since our upstairs neighbor, Valarie, has moved.  Sleep is oh so sweet and the lack of oppression brings to light the reality of the impact of the two and a half years of harassment that we suffered through her. SIX TIMES she called the police on us at night.  My heart still pounds when someone knocks on the door!  I am only sorry that she did not receive deliverance in Him.

I had a dream about her recently, that she came to my door and hugged me and told me that she was free in Him and we wept together.  I continue to pray for her.  Meanwhile 2 sisters, students at the local music academy, have moved in and they seem lovely.   It is hard to believe but apparently all of that noise and filth was her doing, for it is no longer here.  Thank You Lord for Your purposes and Your victory in that battle.

 

Thank you for baring with me – and such a long winded letter.  My heart just gets too full and bursts out on paper.  May it only be for HIS glory!  I must admit to missing you all.  Lovingly, your sister here.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Shalom.

I greet you with deep love, because of Yeshua Who planted His Love in us and continues to teach us what Love is and how to give it and receive it.  I will share further down why this became so clear to me this week. And why you, the body – the miracle of His creation – encourages me so much.

May HE ALONE be glorified and blessed and may you be blessed and edified!

 

It is THAT TIME’ of year again.  I wondered why the train, the bus, and the STREETS were SO CROWDED that I could hardly move.  But it wasn’t just crowds.  It was FAMILIES.  Big families and small, secular and religious, a father with three kids, Grandparents with several, a young family with ten – all together.  “LOOK! RUN OVER HERE! HERE IS THE BRIDGE!” a father shouted to his 3 short people, who looked very confused.

“WHERE??” they asked.

“Oh well, you missed it.  Let’s go look at the driver.”

They made their way to the front of the train and I chuckled thinking that people who don’t ride the train never realize how SHORT that bridge really is.

This is IT. The two weeks before school begins when the kaytinot – or ever present year around Israeli camps and clubs and activities come to a screeching halt and there are two intense weeks of FAMILY TIME.  Kaytina is not quite like anything I have seen in any other country. It is not really optional because it is what EVERYONE does.  It is enriching. Maybe science, music, swimming, sport, reading – there are endless options. It is often subsidized (in other words, NO one gets left out because they can’t afford it). It is fun and safe and besides all of the parents are working.

I watched two Grandparents in their upper 70s at least, trying to maneuver the bus passes for their 4 small Grandchildren, who were SO excited to be going to the zoo with Saba and Savta (Grandpa and Grandma).  Saba and Savta looked EXHAUSTED already and they were just beginning the journey.  Another woman said, “Ah, Mil-oo-eem.”

I burst out laughing.  I had never thought of Grandparent duty in Israel as mil-oo-eem but it surely is.  Milooeem is our armed services reserve duty.  It’s the older soldiers who have a regular job most of the year, but they get called once a year or during a war or crisis for a few weeks to don those uniforms and dust off their skills, to help defend the country until around the age of 50.

Yep!  Grandparents are definitely milooeemniks.  Some parents can take off from work for all or part of these two weeks, but not all.

When it comes to the train, I must admit to enjoying the training that goes on in religious families.  They are known for having VERY large families and of course, a train ride is too expensive to take often with a full tribe, but it does make for a wonderful special outing.  Now that I’m older, I see their young ones snap to attention and jump out of their seat to give it to the older person.  There is a sign (only in Hebrew) on the buses that quotes from Leviticus 19:32 “You shall rise up before the gray headed, and honor the face of the old man…”

It is not just the religious but many who are just plain helpful.  Last night I was squished on the train and getting a bit bruised up.  I had a shopping cart with me but was wedged in by a double baby stroller alongside of a single baby carriage.  A young woman got up and said, “Come here.”

But I told her that I had my cart and couldn’t get through.  Immediately some young soldiers lifted my cart above everything and the sea parted again. I was sitting safely in a seat, thanking God and asking Him to give me eyes to see always these kindnesses and then to pass them on.

Eyes to see are a blessing in the physical as well as the spiritual.  A blind lady was also at this busy stop when I got on.  An older lady and a young girl both eyed her to see how best to help her maneuver the crowd.  While we watched, her smartphone informed her the train would come in another 3 minutes. She made a phone call to a service of some kind and told them where she was and which car she was going to be in and when the train would come.  “Could someone please meet me at the stop and bring me there?” she asked.

I was again touched that such things were available so that she could be free to move about.  The two strangers, one young and one older on either side guided her on to the train where she immediately was given a seat, one of her angles at her side where they chatted easily.  Coming from America, it always strikes me here that handicaps elicit no embarrassment at all, either from strangers nearby who may need to lend a hand, nor by the one who might need help. Life is life and this is just how it is.  There is a pronounced lack of self-consciousness, which I find delightful.

It’s not only the children who are on tee-oo-leem (tours) during these last summer days.  I was at the shuk this afternoon and our new soldiers were there.  Young and strong and full of energy in their new uniforms. A major part of their training is to totally tour the country, north, south, east and west.  They get to fully know the history, both recent and ancient, the geography, the different populations including cultures and religions and the sensitivities of each group.  There must have been a hundred of these handsome, lean, tanned faces as old men and ladies stopped to bless them and young children looked on admiringly. They toured the shuk, a place that has known more than its share of attacks and is unique for its wonderful mixture of populations, Arab and Jew,  working side by side and shopping side by side.

This is what a summer’s day in Jerusalem looks like as summer draws to a close.  I made my way to a doctor’s appointment and saw a most unusual sight. On a main, narrow two-lane street, one lane was blocked by a line of BUSES.  This was a TWO way street, mind you. Perhaps 10 or 15 city buses were simply parked and empty.  Shivta’? (strike) I asked a bus driver, lounging near the bus.  He smiled, “Nope.  They needed buses to take the kids so we volunteered.”

What a line of buses had volunteered!  They were parked in front of a religious school. I wasn’t sure exactly what he had said they were going to do, but it had a happy feeling to it.  When I got to the end of the road, I saw that the police had actually volunteered the buses by pulling them over and asking them to join.

Immediately I remembered going down town to check our mail in our tiny remote village in NW Alaska when a policeman called me over and said, “We need a jury.  You are number 9.  Head over to City Hall.” And that was that.

 

This is a light letter although the things that are swirling around me are not light.  I think that is how life really is. Even in times of war, the sun rises and sets and believe it or not, flowers bloom and birds fly.  Daily life goes on as we stand beside graves that we did not expect and carry grief that we could not fathom.

In my own life right now, my husband left for the village that he is from in Alaska on Wednesday. Since I haven’t heard otherwise, I assume he is having a wonderful time.  He was joined by our grandson and son-in-law yesterday, I believe.  I am praying for them all to have a life changing exchange with The Lord and that this trip will impact them for HIS GLORY AND PURPOSES.

Our younger daughter is TRYING to sort through things somehow and be able to move out of their house within a week and into her sister’s home. They plan to return to Israel after 4 years with 3 suitcases each, period. She (who is more than 6 months pregnant) is really struggling to know what to bring.  They plan to arrive here on the 7th of Sept and move in with us until they are able to get an apartment.

My husband arrives home the night of the 3rd and I am trying to baby-proof and rearrange the apartment to allow them to be at home here.  I am not naturally great at these logistics anymore, and with my neighbor upstairs, I have to be very careful about making noise.  These are all small things, but I personally believe that how I am steward of the time and strength and resources He provides for me, all play a role in how I stand before Him. And after 40 years plus, I am still standing on behalf of my family before His throne, as well as this nation and people. Just like you, the myriad of things He entrusts us to pray for. So I am concerned that I am found to be a faithful steward.

As I said before, this is a rather light letter, a picture that I hope you can enjoy.  But our purpose is so completely to enjoy HIM and build the Body, sustaining one another through prayer and edification and building up the body and worshipping HIM, FOR HE ALONE IS LORD.

God bless you and encourage each of you.

Lovingly,

your sister J

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 from a finally quiet Jerusalem. May you be blessed and edified and may THE LORD be glorified and blessed and adored.

Today is TISHA B’AV or THE 9TH OF THE MONTH OF AV, known by Jews as the day of great grief. A day of fasting, set aside for mourning the destruction of both the first and second temples in Jerusalem by judgments of God and numerous other calamities that have befallen the people on this date since called by God to follow Him thousands of years ago.

 From a simple online dictionary:  LAMENTATION  –  “groan, howl, keen, lament, moan, plaint, wail“

“an expression of great sorrow. Mourners uttered lamentations.” 

The book of LAMENTATIONS (AEKAH in Hebrew  ‫איכה) left for us an agonizing witness by the prophet Jeremiah, is read today, prayed through, and wept over. It’s often done at the western wall of the second Temple – the remnant left standing in the Old City where Jews go to worship and pray.  Others meet in homes or out in the open to read, study, pray, search hearts.  Study groups form everywhere and some stay all night in front of the western wall expressing grief.  The evolving traditions are varied and many.

But on my heart this year is a different sort of cry.  I have held it before The Lord as a question for years now:  What is in YOUR EYES, LORD?  Not just tisha b’av, but how YOU see it all. YOUR purposes. YOUR plan. YOUR grief. YOUR heart for this people, this land and beyond.

One thing that I see so clearly this year is that THE LORD makes plain those things that are an abomination to HIM and where our sins lie, and yet we so often choose to call it something else, and not agree with Him.  The Lord stated CLEARLY why Jerusalem was judged and why the people were scattered and cast out into the nations, not once, but twice cast.  There was the horror of idolatry, the grievous half hearted or feigned hypocritical worship, and the disobedience of all that was written in Your word.  Yet the rabbis have stuck to their decision that the reason for judgment is “sinat chinam” or hatred for no reason.  Thankfully they have enlarged on that idea and as I read 1 Corinthians 13 this morning and thought about God’s Love yes, this is such a part of His Heart.  BUT once again it skirts the issue and avoids what God was focusing on.  We did not TRUST AND BELIEVE.  We did not OBEY.  Do we today?  Perhaps these questions are too big to look at.  Thankfully some do.

BUT WHAT ABOUT US?

As the body, how do we pray for this nation, this people, several of you have asked, What is HIS HEART, HIS CRY, HIS PURPOSE?

 

FRIDAY NIGHT: 

I have told you before that we live on a terribly noisy, busy corner.  Shabat is a blessing as the train and traffic grind to a halt and the stores close. People go home to their families and shabat comes in with its quiet rest.  It should.  But this Friday night I was awakened by screams, and hoots, and motorcycles.  It was about 2 a.m.  I guess that the “hidden bars” had closed.  Something about a day set apart for repentance seems to stir up demonic activity, eh?  I’m sure that you have all noticed that.  It was true here.

From 2 a.m. until around 5 a.m. the voices of alcohol and drugs, rebellion and bondage screamed loudly under my window and I struggled to pray.  “Lord!  What do You want me to pray?” I cried.

It took me until 5 a.m. to finally have my ears and heart unstopped and I was able to pray that The Fear of The Lord would be established on THIS CORNER of Jerusalem.  “That’s IT Lord?  Nothing more?”

Sometimes it is only one corner. One corner at a time.  Stand where He has placed you and having done all – stand.  Meanwhile, there was anger in my heart.  I was tired.  I wanted to sleep.  There was hatred and not love.  I did not love the partying howlers outside of my apartment.  Natural?  Yes!

But NOT the response of The Holy Spirit, Who kept reminding me of my own days of rebellion before I met His mercy face to Face with my sin.  Yes, I hooted outside of others windows and disrupted many a resting person.

HIS HEART.  HIS PRAYER.  HIS FOCUS.  LORD!  AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS: TEACH ME TO PRAY.

I am tired of “beating the air” and not seeing an answered prayer.  Oh, it is NOT “super me answered prayer” that I’m looking for. It is PRAYING HIS HEART.  Why don’t I HEAR CLEARLY?  Why are MY ears plugged?  Come, hear and obey.  Do I hear SOMETIMES?  Yes.  But I for one am convinced that we all have an open door to ABIDE IN HIM ALL THE TIME.

Is there a price?  Yes.  It is already paid in full, but we still need to make that painful exchange and die to self COMPLETELY.  Is it easy?  Only once we have done it.  WHERE IS THE DOOR LORD?  Lead me there. Give ME a willing heart AGAIN.  Take the blinders off of MY EYES, AGAIN.  And once again, plow up the fallow ground of MY heart.

 

IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HELP YOU PRAY FOR THE NEEDS IN ISRAEL, JERUSALEM AND OUR PEOPLE…AND THE NEEDS OF THE WORLD?  Well, actually maybe it does.  I’ve been writing this for an hour now, struggling with the words, the direction, but perhaps until we are praying HIS HEART, the rest doesn’t really matter. DARE I say such a thing?  WHERE IS THE BODY?  We are praying here in this city today about the judgment and destruction of the temples and WE ARE THE TEMPLE.

I get letters from people who want to know about the rebuilding of the third temple.  More than 20 years ago now I was here praying for the rebuilding of the third temple and understanding from His perspective about Temple Mount when He spoke clearly to me and startled me to my core.  It seems so OBVIOUS to me now, but until that moment it wasn’t at all.  He said, “I AM building The Last Temple right now and you are to be a lively stone in it, being built without the sound of hammer on stone, outside of the camp, a Temple for Me to dwell in. The Body is now in Jerusalem being built up!”

It was such a shock to me at the time and such a new thing when my focus was on rebuilding a physical Temple here.  I went to the scriptures and searched them if this indeed could be true. “Confirm it Lord, in Your Word.”  Well, THAT was EASY!  As I searched I wondered how I could have ever MISSED it and had my eyes so fuzzy.

SO I KNEW THAT IT WAS HIS PURPOSE AND HIS HEART TO PRAY FOR THE BODY BEING BUILT HERE IN THE LAND. THE INDIGENOUS BODY. THE ONE THAT SAYS, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD”…AND FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF THAT BODY TO BE SHARP ARROWS WITH NO MIXTURE OR PRIDE OR ULTERIOR MOTIVES.  FOR TRUE REVIVAL AND FOR A TRUE ON-FIRE BODY THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO REAP A HARVEST IN HIS SEASON.

It is equally important to pray for the body in your nation to see clearly HIS PLAN for Israel and its people at this point in history because it IS a focus of HIS purposes in the last days.

It makes me shiver that I am stating these things as if I had authority. Oh may I not be offending ONE SHEEP.  But I am convinced that this is Him.  So much I question and say, “Is this You Lord?” But these things are settled in my heart.  HIS WAY IS PURE, HOLY, SETTLED, NEVER CHANGING, FAITHFUL – AS HIS NAME  – SO IS HE.  ALL THAT HE IS CALLED, HE IS.  AND IT IS ALL THERE IN HIS WORD. SO DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT – ONLY HIS ALONE.

You all know by heart as He tells us in Mat 11:28 ” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.“

As some of you are praying for my people today, this scripture has brought so many of us to His rest. It still applies for us believers and for the people here who don’t yet know Him.

I pray that something in this rambling makes some sense to you.  For those of you interested in the traditions of tisha b’av and don’t remember my past letters going into that, please google tisha b’av.

May The Lord be glorified in our lives and may He be pleased to dwell in His Temple in all of His fullness.  Even so, come Lord Yeshua.

Lovingly,

Sister J in Jerusalem

P.S. I have just returned from running some errands, and, as usual, there were things to observe.  I wanted to include them as a very short addendum.

The streets were very empty downtown.  Many shops were closed as well, in spite of the fact that this is not a non-working day.  On the train, I sat beside a woman who was on the phone, loudly sharing in English with a friend how she had participated in last night’s march around the Old City walls and went to the Western Wall and listened to the reading of Lamentations. “It was such great exercise, a wonderful work out.”

There I sat beside her in my full judging garment of superiority until He smote my heart. Who did I think I was anyway! And I repented.  As I lifted my eyes I noticed another woman sitting on the floor (yes, of the train) reading Lamentations.  She was neither a crazy nor did she appear to be trying to draw attention to herself. But sitting on the floor is the traditional Jewish position of mourning.  Another woman (not on the floor) sat across from me reading Lamentations.  I thought about the physical position that I like to pray in and wondered: “where is the line between tradition, drawing attention to one’s self, being self righteous OR self critical, judging other people and just LETTING GO AND LETTING GOD TAKE US INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES.

And with that thought I will close, again.

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 —

Beloved, friends, sisters and brothers, greetings in The Name of our Lord Yeshua, Jesus.  May He be glorified and blessed and may you be edified and blessed…Only The Lord can take small portions of bread and fish and make them enough.

As I write to you, it looks as if Jerusalem is in a lock down and maybe under siege.  It is definitely a great grief. An outbreak of the cancer in the world today spreading everywhere in all of its various forms − be it this sin or that and this crime or that and this war or that − the source is the same.  It’s taking the form at this moment of the gay pride parade, which insists that they must march through JERUSALEM too.  THANKFULLY, this is NOT too big for The Lord Who hears our sighs and grief-filled cries for His city to become a PRAISE unto HIM in all the earth.

One year ago today at the parade, a young girl was stabbed to death by a religious Jew stirring great sympathy in the general public, many of whom are there today to support the parents and to stand against such hate.  It is a VERY deep rift as being a people under the first Covenant and the fullness of the Law. Those who are particularly zealous for the Law do look to emulate Phinehas, who, if you remember the account in Numbers 25, was greatly esteemed for killing the couple caught in gross sin in the camp as God’s judgment fell.  His act stayed the judgment of God.

I will only say that both the spirit and the emotions in the city right now are volatile. I search for The Holy Spirit’s Heart in the midst.  What a time we live in!  WHAT A RESPONSIBILITY TO PRAY!

 

This morning Ahuva died and she is being buried as I write.  I asked for prayer for her such a short time ago and this morning as my boss read to me the day’s notices concerning our patients that we receive on the computer, he said, “Ahuva is in hospital again…and…she died this morning!”

He was in as much shock as I was as the words spilled out of his mouth surprising him.  I gasped, ‘No!’

She was 61 and her daughters, Bat El (daughter of God) and Ma’ayan Nissim (a deep clean spring of water or miracle) are just 33 and 31.  The 3 lived together as the girls are both still single.  I had seen her last on the 11th when her lung was bothering her.  She pulled toward me and I said, “Oh Ahuva, I want to hug you but I am sick and I don’t want to infect you.” So I didn’t.

And sick I was!  For the first time in 20 years I was really sick with a plain old germ − sort of strep throat and bronchitis together. So I stayed home in bed for the next week and didn’t call her in the hospital where my boss sent her, suspecting a blood clot following the cancer surgery on her kidney.  I prayed for her, but the cancer moved so quickly. She had just been diagnosed but it had spread to her lungs.  She had been so scared and I said to her, “We each have just today.  Please don’t waste it being afraid.  Go out and look at the beauty…” And she did.

But I did not get to the hospital to share Yeshua. The One Who is our Peace, with her and I can only lay it before Him and leave it there.

What a gift this life. How precious. A reflection of His Love for us. He takes us on a journey, NOT to find ourselves but to LOSE ourselves and be found in Him.

 

Ok…enough!  I will get on…the train with you.

After a week in bed, reality hit me between the eyes as soon as I got downstairs to the train station in front of my apartment door. “Train delay due to security reasons.  There will be delays. 18 minute wait.” It is what the moving electric sign said in 3 languages.

No doubt about it, the train would be crowded and it was.  This was Sunday morning when the soldiers who have been home for Shabat travel back to their bases with their huge backpacks full of a week’s worth of freshly washed clothes and inevitable snacks and homemade goodies.  Thankfully, a young person got up to give me their seat. Yes, this is the way it is done here.  There are even signs saying: “rise before the elderly” on buses.

“H’Shem tishmor aleyhka hi’al!’ (The Lord watch over you, soldier!)The woman beside me said to the group of soldiers standing in front of us.

Everyone nodded.  They thanked her shyly, appreciating the prayers and sloppy love of the nation; their parents and siblings and children.  I still love watching fathers traveling with their sons on the train or bus to the central bus station and giving them a big hug and kiss and their big strong boy/man for the week.

I needed to stock up on whole oats so went to the grain vendor and dipped the scoop into the sack.  As I did I heard him describing an event.  I looked up and caught his eye. “What happened?” I asked.

“On the corner of King George and Yaffo, a te**orist  (sorry, it’s a catch-word on internet) with a belt was caught trying to get on the train!”

That’s 2 blocks away from the shuk and that is why the train was stopped.  He went on. “They blew up the e*plosi*es and it was a huge boom!” His adrenalin was flowing.

“Thank You Lord!”  we both agreed.

I’m sure that you know that we are not known for being politically correct (incredibly liberal, yes, but politically correct − not!) here in too many ways.  All of our security people and actually, all of our population, are well trained in reading body language and noticing suspicious actions.  This young man had been unusually nervous and several people had alerted the security guards. It was a Druze (like Bedouin, related to Arab) police officer that approached him and became the hero of the hour.

Going for my weekly blood test, I greeted all of the lab technicians. “Ma nish ma?  Ma shlom hem?” (‘what’s new?  how are you – or more accurately translated, “how is your peace?”)

There is a lovely display of the traditional mixture in Israel working together there. Very secular Russian immigrants, very religious middle eastern Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druzim, immigrants from France, all working in harmony as is so well displayed in all of the medical profession here.  It never ceases to bless me.  I was greeted by Oria (Light of God). “Hi!  My daughter had twins,” she beamed.

“Brachot rah’bot,” I answered (many blessings).

We spoke about the blessing of the thwarted attack and the abundant shifts going on all around us, the sad events in France, the boldness of Brexit, our political events, the extreme moves in Turkey and the upheaval all around us. It is amazing how much you can talk about in the short time that a blood test takes.  But thankfully it ALWAYS ends with uplifting joy. “What a blessing to know that Elohim takes care of us all and is watching over us.  He is just so good.” 

I must admit that I ENJOY going to our lab.

It had touched me that the Arab beggar who has come to me for nearly 20 years now, said the very same thing.  I found myself concerned about him and praying for him in the extreme heat spell awhile back.  He and I are the same age and I know that he isn’t feeling very well.  I hadn’t seen him for a week and when he finally came in I asked him how he was and told him that I had been concerned for them.  He also said, “h’Shem tshmor alenu.” (God watches over us) and I thought about that:  Yes, He DOES care for those who can’t care for themselves, the simple, the broken, the sparrow, the Arab and the Jew.

As I returned home from my first outing on my still unsteady legs, with some hot pita and some basic fruit and vegetables everyone on the train was saying, “God bless those Druzim police.  That could have been awful, but God watched over us.”

May The Lord add His touch to this offering out of physical weakness.  I miss you all…your fellowship is sweet.  May we be a blessing together to Him Who is the All in All.

Lovingly,

your sis J

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 —

I greet you dear sisters and brothers in The Name above all names, Yeshua h’Meshiach, Jesus Christ.  He IS Lord.  May He be glorified and blessed and may you be blessed and encouraged; HE IS HOLY.

“There are just too many people, Lord…I can’t love them all…or even a few…How do YOU love this many people?…Lord?…I NEED a baptism into Your Love to be filled with YOUR love for others.  I don’t have it! Fill me with Your Spirit. I am lacking and in need. ”

This was my desperate conversation with The Lord on the crowded train earlier this week, BEFORE  13 year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was murdered in her bed by a 17 year old knife wielding terrorist. And then 48 year old Miki Mark, father of 10 was gunned down in his car, his wife and 2 of his teen children badly wounded.

Yet I think that it was AFTER the British vote to leave the European Union, which I and most of the Israelis felt was VERY brave. A moral decision in the face of each one knowing that it was going to hurt them financially.  In spite of losing MONEY, standing, face and free travel and trade, they did it ANYWAY!  BRAVO! We applaud you for taking a difficult moral high ground in the face of the immoral decisions being made by the EU.  We read that it was a vote for hatred and against immigration, but we KNOW how the press works. I pray that God will honor this move and send revival! Israel is (generally) impressed!

Moving on: I think it was also just AFTER our agreement with Turkey and then the horrific bombing in Istanbul airport, the running of critical events one into another. And in the midst of all of the oppressive heat wave here and floods around the world, a world at the door of judgment eh?  Upside down and tumbling over, but WE HAVE AN ANCHOR!!

Yes, it was in the midst of all of this that I was on the train.  It was HOT.  It was CROWDED.  I was TIRED!  Again I looked at the assortment of objects vying for space with people around the train car.  Aside from all of the back packs, the shopping carts in all sizes, shapes and colors, there was a bicycle, a seeing eye dog, baby carriages and in came three boys juggling a super sized cage for raising canaries.

There is a unique type of baby transporter that was widely used on the kibbutzim.  It is actually a large playpen on wheels with a handle for pushing and can easily transport 6 two year olds.  They take up a LOT of room,but are VERY handy.  Thankfully there was none on the train THAT day, but that was when I looked around and said, “I do NOT love all of these people, Lord, but You do!  HELP!”

I began to think back to when I first became His disciple.  Did I love then?

It was MUCH easier to love the neighbor down the dirt road and the people in the feed store.  There just were NOT so many’ of them.  One at a time, I could pray.  One at a time I could love.

I remembered a time when I sat outside a mall with my Baby waiting for some people shopping inside.  I sat there for a long time and began to pray for all of the people coming in and out and wonder if that was really praying when suddenly I felt The Holy Spirit say to me, “That one is Mine!” And I looked and sure enough, He was hearing my prayers and assured me that He DID know the hearts of each one.

But now?  “THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY LORD!  WHERE IS YOUR LOVE IN ME?”

Revival!  That is what I have prayed about for YEARS!  And perhaps I more than anyone need it now in MY heart. A fresh outpouring and infilling of His Spirit.  I met Him during real Revival. Indeed I am a product of the prayers of that time…and the … well… I really feel it was (is) too Holy to taint with my words of description.  Because I had no experience BEFORE that time, I thought that was the normal state that every disciple walked in all of the time. Praying 24/7, filled constantly with His Words, moving from leading one to Him and then another. Meetings full of those falling on their faces before His holiness. I did not know that this wasn’t “normal Christianity.”

But even when I was removed from that wondrous season, I had seen and tasted enough to know that there was no other place for me than by His heart.   HOWEVER, there is nothing we can do or work up or pray up imitate.  It is only something that we can hunger for and cry out for until He opens the heavens and pours Himself down upon us!

“LOVE, Lord!  Do I even REALLY love my BROTHER, which you command that I must?”

I have found myself waking in the night praying for Him to pour out His Spirit and send Revival.  Oh, I know I’m NOT alone.  I’m sure that there are many of you praying the same thing also for years.  But if not now, when?  The times are surely desperate and changing so quickly.

It makes me wonder how long I will be able to continue these letters?  So few even read email anymore, with social media being so popular.  Snail mail has become almost unheard of and cell phones have replaced landlines.  Will this all collapse with the door closed?

So, while I can be, I am happy to be your “street walker and train rider here,” offering my eyes and ears AND my heart, although in poverty of love, still seeking His love.

 

My work place has become more intense lately.  I guess since my boss has had his practice for about 35 years now. His patients [as well as all of us workers] are aging as I have been there nearly 18 years. Death and impending death open up many opportunities to point toward the door of LIFE and I seem to have more and more opportunities like that lately.

I am shocked at how bold I have become at addressing death and HIM with those who suddenly find themselves approaching it.  Surely those of you who are health professionals in your countries find yourselves in such positions.  The main challenges that I find are:

1) language (although I can now function well in Hebrew I am not fluent with a depth that is needed to touch on deep things and 2) His Name to my people.  Still a wall, a veil, blinders, and an offence.

Ahuva (pronounced Ah’hoo’vah, which means God’s love) was the last patient in the office on Friday before we closed for Shabat.  Thankfully the office was now empty and when she came in I instinctively got up and put my arms around her and went and sat down with her.  She began to weep.  The single mother of two unmarried daughters in their early 20s, she finds herself with a new and advanced cancer.  She just got the diagnosis.  She begins to speak through tears: “I’m scared.  I find I am suddenly scared of everything.  I have never been like this but I am scared and without hope.”

I prayed silently.  Words began to come about how we have been through the doors once already when we are born and we know that our time here is finite.  She relaxes in my arms.

“But it is so dark,” she said gazing into my eyes.

I begin to tell her about my life BEFORE I met Him and how I had no hope, while praying how to share.  I said, “Then, I had an experience with God. Whom I hadn’t believed in up to that point, which changed my life. I could look AWAY from the fearsome pits and at the things in front of me NOW and suddenly see the beauty in birds and flowers again.”

As I spoke it came to me, how to begin to share with her.  “Ahuva, it is so much bigger than us. We are just for a moment, only God is forever and He really knows.  Talk to Him.  He is the source of our lives. Turn your face toward Him and ask Him to show Himself to you…”

I couldn’t believe that I was saying such things at work to this woman, but she was being truly comforted, so it MUST have been HIS Words and NOT mine.

Please pray for her and for an opportunity to share HIS Name with her OR THAT HE WILL HIMSELF.

Then there is Danbi.  She is exactly 6 weeks older than I am and the picture of health until she got a stomachache and was diagnosed with an incurable fast moving cancer this past week.  Talk about a shock!  I called her to see how she was doing and she said, “Please pray for me.”

She does not know that I am a disciple.  “Of course,” I said, and I have been.

There are many others.

But there was yet another- a different kind of interesting encounter when I went for my weekly lab test as I still have not yet been healed from my blood disorder.  I am friendly with the lab technicians.  Most are either religious Jews (dati) or Arabs.  I get a hug from each of them.

Last week I saw Rivka.  We got to talking about being thankful.  I enjoy her.  She has a big heart for God and seems to truly trust and love Him.  I do not know yet how to share His Name, but we speak much.  “I have a tool for praising Him while I’m on the bus,” she said.  She held up her hand with her fingers spread.  “One, two, three, four, five.  I take five words.”

“How do you do this?” I asked.

‘Well,” she said holding up finger number one, “this is my independence.  I was very sick and could do nothing for myself when I was a child, but God healed me and now I can walk and take care of myself and my family. I am not dependent upon others for my daily life, and I am so thankful, so I thank Him for all of the things I can do.”

I had never thought of that before.  “What is the next?” I asked.

“Two is for my body and the wonder that it is.  I thank Him for my eyes, I can see, hear, speak, move, and that it knows how to heal itself…it is wonderful!”  She went on, “Three is my family.  I am so thankful for my family and I thank Him (ha Shem…which means “The Name”) for each of them and bless them. Four is for provision.  I have a roof over my head, enough to eat, a job, all of these blessings are from “ha Shem. And FINALLY Five is Faith.  That too is a gift from ha Shem and I am so thankful for the gift of faith as so many do not have this. It is the most important.”

I could only agree with her and we hugged and smiled broadly at one another.  I thanked her and wrote her 5 points down.  What a wonderful way to keep a tender heart while on the bus and train.

Perhaps titling this letter as a “street walker” in the midst isn’t quite appropriate, but as I walk these streets, the streets of earthly Jerusalem praying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, even in the earthly Jerusalem as in the heavenly,” I truly think of you and try to record what to stash in my memory so that I might share it.  You help me to look for His perspective as I sometimes feel a little like a beaten up Ping-Pong ball.

I told you awhile back how He had exercised me in reading the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel along with Revelation), straight through over and over again for about a year. THANKFULLY I was also reading through New Covenant and Psalms at the same time or I surely would have lost my balance.  However now, looking at world events, I find I am almost not concerned. HE REALLY DOES HAVE IT ALL UNDER CONTROL!

I feel that even though, yes, we are important to Him, our little lives are so small in the hugeness of His plans and purposes.  Oh, I pray into the events, and roles of countries and leaders, but I remember clearly the words of Campbell McAlpine, a wonderful man of God, who said “Never be moved by circumstances.  Only be moved by God!”

How incredibly important that is as we watch it all sigh and heave and tremble, to keep our eyes fixed on Him.   I think how Elijah sent his servant to search the sky while he himself put his head between his knees, toward the ground, and prayed for rain. Finally a small cloud the size of a man’s fist appeared, but he didn’t have to look at it. He was looking at The One Who sent it.

May we be found of Him at PEACE, which is so elusive to the world and so longed for by men. It comes freely through the Precious Blood and we have the great privilege of being  “contagious carriers” of that Peace, reflecting it, in a lost and dying world.  Lord, shine on us so that we would reflect YOU Alone.

The Lord bless you and keep you and encourage you (and me) closer to Him.

Lovingly,

Your sister J