Category Archives: Prayer

Lord, Help me Love Democrats (Part 11)

dolly 6

 

In the movie, Dave, a man named Dave (Kevin Kline) bears an uncanny resemblance to the President of the United States. Two political advisors convince Dave it’s best for America if he would take the President’s place while the Chief Executive is in a coma. Dave, of course, has problems posing as the President, but in one scene he asks a Secret Service Agent named Duane (Ving Rhames), who knows he’s a replacement, a few questions:

Dave: “You know, I’ve always wondered about you guys. You know, about how you’re trained to take a bullet for the president?”

Duane: “What about it?”

Dave: “Is that really true? I mean, would you let yourself be killed to save his life?”

Duane: “Certainly.”

Dave: “So, now that means you’d get killed for me too, right?”

(The whole scene can be seen on a Youtube video here.)

The Secret Service Agent stared straight ahead and never answered Dave. His face revealed his conflicted thoughts about where his loyalties began and ended in a situation like this.

I completely understand the Secret Service Agent’s problem.

You see, for a little over eight years, I had conflicting thoughts toward Christians who backed the Democratic Party.

Why?

I hate abortion and believe it’s murder. The Democratic Party endorses abortion as a plank on its party platform. Therefore, I judged all Christians who voted as a Democrat to be a supporter of baby murder.

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to a brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Ouch! The lessons I have learned always seem to be painful, especially in time and money.

(Continued in Part 12)

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, jesus, Kingdom of God, Politics, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Inside Israel

IMG_0568

 

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 …

Blessings, dear sisters and brothers.  May you be blessed and may The Lord Yeshua h’Meshiach be glorified and blessed.

Would you believe…PASSOVER ALREADY?

It happens very suddenly every year.  One morning everyone is cleaning.  The stores are getting a good scrubbing down.  Buckets and a huge assortment of cleaning items take front and center stage in the shops on the sale aisles.  Lines are longer and everyone’s shopping basket seems full of soaps and scrubbing items in all shapes and sizes.

I look at my calendar, still more then 2 and a half weeks away. None the less, as I look for my husband’s cereal, I see that it has already been quarantined and assigned to the “hometz zone” (leaven, not kosher for Pesach – Passover).  It sits forlorn in a  back aisle, joined by all sorts of other items that you might suspect had leprosy.  They are not freshly dusted like every other item in the store.  Taking their places, all shiny and dusted are rows of matzo, matzo meal, “kosher for Passover” cookies, cakes, candies, gefilte fish, horse radish, and on and on the rows spread.

The price wars begin.  Chicken on sale for 4.90 shekels a kilo (usually 30), but tomatoes (a local staple) jump from shekel and a half a kilo to 9.80. I keep walking.  The aisle is full of men and women like me who are wondering, “So what is kosher for Passover THIS year?”  Yes, it does change from year to year according to what the rabbis decide.

And little wonder.

When I arrived at work on Thursday, I asked my boss how the lecture that he attended the previous night at the synagogue went.  “Oh, it was VERY interesting,” he told me enthusiastically.  “We discussed the nature of hometz.”

Now, according to MY (perhaps unlearned) reading of the Bible, “hometz” is leaven…period.  Being a simple housewife, it seems to me that leaven is something that you ADD to a food to MAKE IT RISE.  That is not the definition according to different streams of Judaism.  Many people define ANYTHING that can be MADE to rise as “hometz,” which then includes  rice, corn, flour, beans, etc.  The list grows l-o-n-g and gives way to much philosophical discussion.

My boss continued, “So, if water added to flour causes it to rise, WHAT IF someone drops some flour into the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee – our main drinking water reservoir in the country), does the Kinneret become “hometz” and we can not drink the water?”

I stared at him.  Not biting my tongue soon enough I said, “When a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise? This kind of philosophical questions drove me crazy when I was a kid!” NOT a constructive thing to say to a man who considered this a serious question of religion.

I thought of Yeshua’s statement that “they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel,” remembering that these same wise men have deemed baking soda as kosher for Passover. How THAT works I will never understand!  I am NOT saying that I know more then the rabbis.  Many pearls of wisdom have been shared by these often very learned men.  But standing with Yeshua we ask to see through HIS Eyes and to let this mind be in us which is in Him. I often grieve at how the traditions of men and the reasoning of men can divert from the beauty of His Way.

AT ANY RATE, tradition aside for a moment, Passover IS the most important date on our calendar.  The more that I read through the Bible, the more I am struck with the fact that the Passover appears to be the pivotal event from Genesis through Revelation.  I say Genesis because the SEED of the Exodus was already planted in the days of Joseph or even Abraham. I say Revelation because it IS the full revelation of Yeshua and His ultimate reign in all of the heavens and earth, that is the goal.  Christ, our Passover, Messiah, The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. The Blood of the spotless Lamb that liberates ALL slaves and sets the captives free and delivers us from the angel of death himself.

And from Genesis to Revelation we are commanded to REMEMBER.

It has really taken me all of these years to begin to see the beautiful golden thread that weaves together command after command to REMEMBER The Hand that brought us OUT to bring us IN.  I am just beginning to see it and yet even in this small beginning, it has become too BIG to describe and I find myself wordless.

If you have never done a word study of Passover, I encourage you to grab a concordance or a computer concordance and simply read ALL of the verses, praying first for The Holy Spirit to begin to open to you the magnitude of what The Lord did, is doing and will do. He uses this one event as a lesson and an example of Who He is and His plan for each of us on both the personal level and all the way to His world plan.

I have been asking Him to open my understanding so that when I sit down at the seder table, some of the awe of what He is telling us to re-tell and re-member will  overwhelm me and help me be re-newed in my first love.

One of the things that I have been thinking about this week is how Passover is replete with separation.  Separation by Blood, by Cloud and Pillar of Fire, by leaven, and by law.  Separated “from” and separated “to.”

Ok.  This is “portion 1” and may it make you hungry to dig.  I am hoping to share more of the traditions as they are carried out here in Jerusalem: what I observe; see with my eyes and hear with my ears and WISH you could smell with your noses, but I must stop for now.

In the midst of all of this, have you heard what is going on with the peace process here? It is for me a crucial area of prayer: Lord help us!  May He overrule the plans of men.  May He LAUGH at them.

Thank you for letting me share a glimpse into a way of life that has remained much unchanged for 3,000 years or more.  I must go, but send you MUCH love,

Your sis, J

4 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Israel, Jerusalem, jesus, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Friday’s Prayers for Prisoners (4/4/2014)

unnamed-2

 

The above photo shows the bulletin board above my desk.

As you can see, most of the space is taken up by the pictures of the six children we sponsor in India through Gospel For Asia. The six range in age from six years to twelve years old and live in places like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.

The six children are Dalits, who are considered subhuman, impure from birth, and untouchable by those born into higher castes. The population of Dalits in India is almost equal to the total population of America or 300 million people.

Our little effort to sponsor six Dalit children through GFA’s Bridge of Hope program came about because the Lord crushed my heart one day while I was praying. We signed up that same day.

Okay, now let me tell you something: we have never been able to afford the children. That’s right! My wife and I are not wealthy and live paycheck to paycheck. Yet, the Lord always provides for us. Why?

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay Him for his deed. (Proverbs 19:17)

And:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

God’s word works for us.

My prayer for prisoners today:

Lord, I pray that we American believers who are blessed with the world’s goods would open our hearts to help people in need so that we actually love with our deeds and truth, and not just with our words and talk. (Based on 1 John 3:17-18)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you?

Join with me on Fridays to fast and pray for prisoners, according to Hebrews 13:3.

4 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Gospel For Asia, India, jesus, Kingdom of God, Poverty, Prayer, spiritual warfare

Tuesday’s Prayers for America (4/1/2014)

IMG_2413

 

Sanctuary: a place of refuge or safety.

Refuge: a shelter or protection from danger.

There are 31 American cities who designate themselves as “sanctuary cities.” These cities protect illegal immigrants and refuse to enforce federal immigration laws. They include: Los Angeles, Santa Ana, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, New York City, Washington, D. C.,  and eighteen others.

Sanctuary cities are set up by politicians for reasons the politicians deem are beneficial to themselves and to their constituents. If the political winds change directions, sanctuary cities could just as easily reverse their municipal minds overnight.

So much for the vagaries of man-made sanctuaries.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them. (Joshua 20:1-4)

I believe the Lord is now in the process of choosing places to be cities of refuge for innocent people who will be fleeing from earthquakes, other natural disasters, and terrorists’ attacks. The citizens of these cities will house refugees and care for them until the refugees are able to return to their homes or move on with their lives.

These cities of refuge will be blessed by the Lord and receive a special grace for their acts of hospitality.

Today, I prayed:

Lord, I pray that we American believers deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow You so that Your divine plans of mercy will come forth in Your chosen cities of refuge and that You will be glorified. (Based on Mark 8:34)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for America.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Friday’s Prayers for Prisoners (3/28/2014)

VoT-fb-watchtrailer

 

Movie Review by the Dove Foundation:

Limited Theatrical Release – This gripping new documentary film tells the untold story of millions of women in Asia who are culturally persecuted for no other reason than the fact that they are women. From birth until death, their life is a vicious cycle of poverty and oppression; from the mass epidemic of female suicides, dowry deaths, forced abortion to the high rate of illiteracy among the women and even how more than 46 MILLION widows are being cast aside and ostracized by society simply because their husband died.

However, despite more than a millennia of hardships, the Gospel is being spread into the remote villages as Christian women are now rising up across the entire nation of India; bringing cultural change in every area of life through the hope of Jesus Christ.

These are the faces of true survivors. Those who have withstood a lifetime of adversity in the face of a culture stacked against them. Take a heartfelt journey through the eyes of these women, and others… (Full Movie Review can be seen here.)

What Others Are Saying About Veil of Tears:

“When I saw it, I knew I would never—could never—be the same. ‘Veil of Tears’ has taught me how to pray, to give, and to make a difference for Christ.”
– Joni Eareckson Tada

 
“‘Veil of Tears’ was so moving and informative. I want everyone to watch it and join us in making a difference in the lives of these women.”
– Francis Chan

 
“A well-produced, powerful and shocking exposé. ‘Veil of Tears’ will have you in tears.”
– Ray Comfort, Living Waters

 
“‘Veil of Tears’ asks the question, ‘Do we care?’ Now it’s up to us to answer.”
– John Schlitt, PETRA (Lead Vocalist)

 
“This factual account of the oppression of millions of women in Asia must be told. Though the story begins with tears, the Good News is that help is on the way through the ministry of compassion seen here.”
– Robert Coleman

 

Check the listing of theaters here or free simulcast here.

I prayed today:

Lord, I pray that the Spirit of the Lord rests on Veil of Tears so that liberty may be proclaimed to female captives in India, our blind American eyes may be opened, and oppressed women may be set free. (Based on Luke 4:18)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you?

Join with me on Fridays to fast and pray for prisoners, according to Hebrews 13:3.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gospel For Asia, India, Kingdom of God, Poverty, Prayer, Prophecy

Got 99¢

Where's the 23008

 

Beginning today and ending on April 1, my book, Where’s the Kingdom of God?, is on sale at Amazon for $.99. You can download it onto your Kindle or any iPad, PC, Mac, iPhone, and other smartphones with Kindle apps.

Amazon book description:

What was the message Jesus commanded His disciples to preach?

If your answer is the “gospel,” then you are almost correct, but you have omitted three important words.

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

Jesus spoke about being “born again” one time. He barely mentioned the “church,” said nothing about the “Bride of Christ,” and talked little about “saving sinners.” His primary message was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God.

Yet, most of us understand little about the kingdom of God or its benefits for each of us.

Where’s the Kingdom of God? is written in an easy to read style, which will give you an understanding of the most important kingdom in the world. The seventy-two footnotes will encourage you to dig deeper in your own study time.

So, if you are like me and are dissatisfied with our governments and social systems, then you need to read this book. It will offer hope in the one government and kingdom which will never let us down: the Kingdom of God.

53 Pages     Reg. Price $2.99     Author: Larry Nevenhoven

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle Apps.

2 Comments

Filed under Books, Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kindle, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, Reading, spiritual warfare

Lord, Help me Love Democrats (Part 9)

dolly 6

 

Is abortion America’s Ai, a battle we can’t win because we have a national sin?

If so, what is our national sin(s)?

I have written and published an eBook entitled, New Wind Blowing. The fifty-four page book declares an alternative solution to the abortion problem and three other major issues:

I believe that one of America’s sins, which has opened the doors for God’s judgments of first, abortion, and then, illegal aliens, national debt, and Islamic terrorists to fall upon our nation was our government’s treacherous handling of the Vietnam War, especially in dealing with South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Our broken promises and lies have resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent people whose blood has cried out to a just God. (New Wind Blowing by Larry Nevenhoven, Amazon eBook, 2013)

New Wind Blowing is a prophetic book, which means I believe the content came from the Holy Spirit. Could I be wrong? Yes, of course, I could be totally off the mark.

But yet, all of my premises in the book are backed up with numerous scriptures and historical points.

Okay, how many scriptures back up our dependence on putting faith in America’s political system to rid our nation of a sin, such as abortion? Can you name one? Probably not.

And yet, we American Christians continue to walk down the same path the Moral Majority laid out for us almost forty years ago.

What have we Christians got to lose by being open to new ideas? Or are we just so determined to keep beating the same dead horse forever with the same results at the end of the day?

(Continued in Part 10)

2 Comments

Filed under Abortion, Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Inside Israel

IMG_0568

 

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 …

Blessings from quiet Jerusalem on a beautiful shabat in springtime.  May The Lord Yeshua be blessed and glorified and may you be blessed and edified.  Together may we be encouraged deeper, deeper into Him.

A couple of weeks ago, as my husband and I were out for our Shabat walk in the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, we had to laugh with joy at the wonder of the spring carpet of nearly microscopic flowers.  This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen them, nor is it the first place.  The first time I saw them was back in 1975 in California in the large horse pasture in front of our so-called cabin.  I was so knew in knowing Him, but His tender voice called me to join Him outside for a walk.

As we walked that very early spring morning, I felt Him tell me to look down. So I did.  I could barely discern the tiny white flowers.  I got down on my knees to look, and there before me was a literal carpet of these itty bitty white flowers stretching as far as my eye could see.  When I stood up, it all looked green again, but now I was aware of the flowers so that my eyes could pick them out. I worshipped Him for His beauty.

Later that evening, around sunset, He seemed to call me outside again and repeat the walk, so I went.  Again I felt Him tell me to look down.  As I did this time I saw a different carpet, for the evening, there were tiny diamonds of purple in the grass.  They looked the same and they were just as abundant, but as different as, well, sunrise and sunset.  As I worshipped Him for such beauty and thought about how billions of flowers are hidden from human eyes, blooming in remote corners of the earth for a day or an hour or even a minute, I felt that I heard His Voice speaking to me. He said, “You are on your path and someday you will meet The Artist Who created all of this.”

I’m sorry that I can’t capture for you the true wonder of the moment, but such a shiver of anticipation and longing went through me. I recall that day whenever I see again the tiny hidden joyful wonders.

This past Monday I stood outside of work waiting for someone.  I looked up.  My mouth dropped open and my heart leapt for flying over my head were the migrating storks coming from Africa.  Now, if you haven’t seen them, these storks are BIG.  They darkened the sky as they flew over.  I’ve had the great privilege of living near and often seeing great flights of the California Condor, bald eagles in huge number, the migration of the trumpeter swans, snow geese, and others, but you can only see them when you look up.

I called to a young woman passing by, telling her excitedly, “Look,  look up,” but she had her iPhone stuck in her ears and couldn’t hear me. She missed it.

And that got me praying and thinking as I stood there waiting, about how we have to have eyes to see and ears to hear or we miss it in the Spirit as well as the flesh.  I thought, “There He is when I look down, and there He is when I look up.”  I began to meditate on His ABSOLUTE FAITHFULNESS when I look at WHO is behind it all.  All around me are His Fingerprints and my faith received the boost that I had been praying for. But OF COURSE He already is in the future, which my brain knows, but perhaps it is only me who finds themselves of little faith.

Israel is one of the world’s centers for bird watching, by the way.  Situated in the fertile crescent, at the corner of Africa, Europe and the Orient, the bird migrations are wonderful. The country has cultivated areas to make it both safe and inviting to God’s creatures as they carry out their mysterious pattern.  There is just so much of His character illustrated in the creatures, but I guess, in all creation and particularly in man, all are created in His Image.

Now, THAT is the lesson that I have found so hard to learn.

When I left NYC in my late teens, early twenties, it was because I never LIKED people, and NYC was FULL of them. Noisy,   demanding PEOPLE.  They didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand them and that was that.  I am pretty sure that I told you that very shortly after I was saved, while living in the same house with the horse pasture I mentioned above, a difficult thing had happened. I went running up the mountain behind my house and pressed into Him until I was worshipping Him and enjoying the stillness of the trees and the beauty that seemed to worship all around me.  I said to Him, “Oh it is so wonderful.  I will just stay in the woods and worship You with all of nature.”

He answered me with a sad tinge in His Voice, calling me by name, “I did not die for the trees.”

And I knew that He was not going to allow me to live in remote areas forever and it scared me.  However in His mercy, He allowed me so many years of learning in those hot houses that He has, undisturbed by noise and the demands of hustle and bustle.

In this new apartment I am finding that I have to finally face this battle with my flesh once and for all.

I think that is why that above faith lesson was so critical for me just now.  My CONFESSION can be right on and I DO believe what I confess, but my EMOTIONS have been in utter rebellion.  I grump to The Lord that I want the leeks and garlic of Egypt . It gives me the shivers just to think of it that way.

I ride the noisy uncomfortable train, the bus, work in a high demand noisy doctor’s office, ride the noisy bus and train again and then come home. And at home, there is MORE noise and people shouting in front of my apartment and yet you are telling me to PRAY for them and, even worse, to LOVE them and I DON’T.

Oh I can love and pray for people in nice small portions, bouquets’ of people, but ALL OF THESE?  HELP!

And He is.  Slowly slowly I am going out on to our “merepesset” (balcony) and praying for all of the people below me.  I WANT to love them as He loves them and see each one as an individual.  I WANT to care about their eternity.  And I WANT to pray for them in earnest and with His passion.  He IS faithful.

So, those are my observations for today. ..and some confessions.  God bless and keep you close to Him for His glory and the furtherance of His kingdom.

Lovingly,

your sis in Jerusalem J

5 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, grace, Israel, Jerusalem, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

How High’s the Water, Mama?

display-thumbnail-gospel-for-asia-RT09-03364_1

 

We Americans generally take good water for granted because all we have to do is turn on a faucet. Then, almost immediately, clean water flows out into our glasses, pots, sinks, showers, or wherever.

This is not true for the rest of the world.

Each day, women in foreign nations spend 200 million hours carrying water for their families, livestock, and crops. Many travel miles to collect water from filthy ponds or lakes which may be contaminated with waterborne disease. They may have no other options.

Did you know 3.4 million people die each year from water related diseases? This number is larger than all the people killed each year by war and violence. Did you also know one in nine in the world do not have access to clean water? A great majority of these live in South Asia.

Today is World Water Day.

I am a blogger for Gospel For Asia because I believe in their ministry. Preaching the gospel to unreached people is their number one goal which they achieve by sponsoring native missionaries, helping children, radio, and countless other ways.

But they also dig Jesus Wells and provide clean water for whole villages. The water is offered to all and many choose to follow Jesus because of these wells.

Gospel For Asia is praying and believing God to provide the finances for 5,000 Jesus Wells this year. Each one costs $1,000.

So, if you want to know how you can help Gospel For Asia reach their goal, please click here.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gospel For Asia, India, Kingdom of God, Poverty, Prayer

Friday’s Prayers for Prisoners (3/21/2014)

display-thumbnail-gospel-for_asia-RT09-03703

In the vision, I was walking through the countryside on a beautiful sunny day. The grass was a silky green and the sky was a perfect blue with no clouds in sight. Then, I heard someone say, “Come to our church. We are free in the Spirit.”

I turned toward the voice and what I saw shocked me. It was a dark cave with bars stretching across its opening. A church steeple sat atop the cave. The people stood behind the bars and beckoned me with their hands through the openings between the bars. They repeated over and over, “Come to our church. We are free in the Spirit.” (As told by Roberts Liardon, in the 1990’s)

How could fellow believers be imprisoned and still think they are free in the Spirit?

ANSWER: A large majority of believers accept what preachers, teachers, and others tell them about what the Bible says without ever searching their own Bibles to see if the people are correct. Thus, they are prone to swallow lies and, even outrageous whoppers.

“The greatest hindrance to Christianity is not the opponents of the Bible, but rather, its proponents.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)

Today, I prayed for American prisoners:

Lord, I pray we American believers study and understand the Bible so that we are not ashamed before God and are set free by its truth. (Based on 2 Timothy 2:15 and John 8:32)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you?

Join with me on Fridays to fast and pray for prisoners, according to Hebrews 13:3

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, jesus, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare