Tag Archives: Church

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 —

Oh LOVING GREETINGS DEAREST sisters and brothers – beloved – chosen to follow The Lamb and then choosing to follow Him,

May you be encouraged toward Him, blessed and edified and may The Lord, The Light of the world, The only begotten Son of The Father, The Lamb, MESSIAH, The Word made flesh, THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, THE GREAT I AM, MAY HE ALONE BE GLORIFIED, blessed and comforted in His children today.

Greetings! As the year draws toward a close.  Greetings as we choose, TODAY, HIS LIGHT.

The eight candles and the shamas, the middle, lifted up servant candles, are freshly lined up in our Chanukiah, waiting for my husband to come home from work. It is the last light of the 8 day celebration tonight.

Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. (John 10:22-23)

The Light of the world, walking in His Temple during the feast of the dedication…the feast that celebrates re-dedication of the temple after its desecration by the Greeks who (among other atrocities) sacrificed un-kosher pigs (Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses. Deut 14:8 and Levit 11:7 for just two examples) on the holy altar of God.  Modern Chanukah celebrated the triumph of the Maccabees over the Greeks, but the most important part to mea nd the part that I grew up hearing about most and wondering at was that when the filth was cleaned out of the temple and the Priest went to light the menorah – the eternal lamp – there was only one sealed flask of the prescribed oil.  Enough for just one night!

The oil took a week to prepare. So by faith he lit the one lamp BUT GOD!  WHO WAS RICH IN MERCY THEN AS NOW, MULTIPLIED THE OIL NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. FOR 8 NIGHTS THE LAMP BURNED UNTIL THE FRESH OIL HAD BEEN PREPARED ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTIONS THAT MOSES HAD BEEN GIVEN BY GOD AND DELIVERED TO THE PEOPLE.  Chanukah!  The festival of Light, of multiplied Light!  And THE LIVING LIGHT WALKED IN THE TEMPLE.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me… (John 10:27) 

He said during Chanukah in the temple,  the temple that was His.  What a picture!

But He is STILL walking here and where you are as well and STILL reasoning with those who will listen and still speaking to all who will hear.  I think about that in the hustle and bustle of the packed train and bus.  At least I TRY to think about that, to remember that for THIS cause He came, NOT because we were righteous, but because we are filled with sin and darkness. Yet Abba created us for Himself and He still reaches out and loves us.

I looked around at the faces today on the packed train. When I left for work at 6 this morning I was surprised to see the train full.  Usually on my way to work it is reasonably empty but today it was jammed and I wondered what was going on.  Perhaps they were all going for their flu shots?  Influenza is particularly virulent this year.

I didn’t have much time to wonder because once at work I was surrounded by throngs of sick people who had NOT gone for their flu shot and were now at the doctors with influenza.  It was a BUSY day!  Coming home, traffic was at a standstill.  It took me 45 minutes to get to the train by bus.  So many big families, baby carriages and twin strollers crowded the aisles of the train as little ones peered out of the windows with small happy faces.

This year, it didn’t seem as if as many locals were stuffing themselves with sofganiyot (the traditional oily jelly donut),  latkas ( a sort of potato pancake) bunuelos or sfenj (sort of like sofganiyot, a more middle eastern traditional fried sweet dough). None- the-less, the tasty fares were everywhere as Jerusalem hosted a record-breaking number of tourists this year and they wanted to taste it ALL. So our bakeries weren’t TOO impacted by the health concerns of the locals.

Large electric Chanukiahs dot the city neighborhoods and at sundown people gather around them as they are lit and sing traditional songs.  It is a festive time.  We used to have one of these large public Chanukiahs across from our apartment but there was none this year.  When we first made aliyah, they were gas lights.  I loved watching them and their flames flickering in the wind.  Now they are electric bulbs. Times are rougher now. People are rougher. And times change all things.

A friend drew my attention to comments made by Israel’s IDF (military) Chief, Aviv Kochavi this week as he spoke before the conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Hertzliya.  They were sobering.  He spoke of our now open and undercover operations in Syria and around the area against Iran, which have been far more frequent and brazen,”even at the risk of war.”

He warned Israeli civilians to “mentally prepare,  for heavy fire will be directed against our home front….I’m looking people in the eye, and saying, there will be heavy fire.  We have to recognize this and we have to prepare for this…We have to prepare for this militarily… the civil hierarchies have to prepare for this… and we have to prepare for this mentally.”

Yes Lord.  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me…”

We trust You Lord, through whatever fire we must pass that You will lead us and that Your rod and Your staff and Your Voice WILL lead and comfort us and enable us to walk in a manner that will glorify You.

My mind turns to another local news article that I saw: “11 Christian men executed in Nigeria by Isis as retribution for the death of their leader…’

I thought about those 11 Christian men who were chosen because they were Christian, and went with Him into the fire, and came out the other side into His Presence.  ‘Prepare us mentally, Lord, to be part of Your solution and not part of the problem!’. 

 

And time has run swiftly and now it is the eve of 2020!

When we made aliyah, this was definitely a day NOT mentioned.  It was a distinction made on the Western calendar – observed in the west – and NOT on the Hebrew calendar. NOT observed here!  If someone said, “Happy New Year,” everyone around him frowned in obvious disapproval.  We made aliyah during the days of the Russian aliyah, and the secular Russians celebrated New Year (Sylvester) the way that secular westerners celebrate Christmas. Yes, it was frowned upon.

Times change.

It seems to me that the major foreign languages that I hear today on the trains and buses are French and English.  The Hebrew and Arabic/Russian signs have been replaced for the most part by Hebrew and Arabic /French / English.  Is it the dramatic rise in anti-semitism in the west?  Perhaps.

With the rise of western immigration, the New Year according to the western calendar has pressed through.  I hear of and see signs announcing restaurants celebrating, balloons appear with 2020 written on them. Among the western young people on the train I see a party excitement and listen to their plans, somewhat in  dismay. Is it my age?  I think about how He had come into my life just before I was 30 and am thankful that He gave me direction that these poor sheep do not have yet.

And so I pray.

And I pray to pray because I don’t pray enough and can get weary in well doing.

But my people stand at the door of what?  Eternity for sure! And how can I but pray??

Lovingly, your sister,

J

 

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Filed under Christianity, Church, End-Times, Israel, Jerusalem, Prophecy

Forty-Seven Years of Legally Murdering Babies (Part 3)

Somehow, we American Christians believe God owes us a revival of sorts. You know, a wind of the Holy Spirit to cleanse our hearts and remove  our spiritual lethargy and apathy.

My answer to that is where was China’s revival before Mao laid siege to the mainland of China and murdered over 60 million people? A huge percentage of these deaths were Christians.

And where was Jerusalem’s revival before General Titus and his Roman Army surrounded the city and killed a million Jews?

You would think the fear of the Lord about what God plans on doing to punish America for the blood of 61 million defenseless babies crying out to Him would be enough to stir us to fast and pray in repentance before Him, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

After forty-seven years of abortion, what do we think?

That maybe God has given us a pass because we have built big churches, sing new songs and have bumper stickers on our autos proclaiming our faith. Is this it?

Oh dear!

It’s my belief that God hit the pause button on His judgment clock for America when Donald Trump became president. How long will this pause last? One more year or five more years? That depends on God’s grace.

What should we do in this pause period?

…The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.
    Who can possibly survive?

That is why the Lord says,
    “Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
    Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
    but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
    He is eager to relent and not punish.

Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,
sending you a blessing instead of this curse… (Joel 2:11-14 NLT)

(Conclusion)

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Filed under Abortion, America, Christianity, Falling Away, Fear of the Lord, Murder, Prayer, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Prophecy

Forty-Seven Years of Legally Murdering Babies (Part 2)

 

This article appeared last January on this website:

Yesterday, I wrote about King David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba. In the article, I gave my belief that if  there had been a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Jerusalem, David would have most likely sent Bathsheba there to have an abortion.

My reasoning was that if King David was willing to murder Uriah, a man he knew and respected, to hide his sin, wouldn’t he have more easily murdered a baby that he did not know?

Let’s keep in mind that adultery was an abomination to God and its punishment according to the Law was death to both participants. Murder, whether the victim was an adult or a baby, was also an abomination with the punishment being death.

So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

Although King David was guilty of adultery and murder, God forgave him because he asked for forgiveness. This is good news, but what’s even more remarkable is what the Lord said about King David a thousand years later –

For after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors (Acts 13:36 NLT)

How could God look at King David’s life, which was filled with mistakes, including murder and adultery, and then declare that David had done God’s will for his life?

It seems that God looks at each individual’s life through a lens of grace. If a person sincerely repents of his sin, asks for forgiveness and then does his best not to commit that sin again, God will blot that sin out of the record books. It will be as if that person had never sinned at all.

What an amazing editing process God has for our life’s story if we humble ourselves before Him!

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor (hate, detest, shudder with horror) what is evil. Cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9 AMP)

There will be those Christians who believe it’s okay to call oneself pro-choice in regards to abortion, but I totally disagree with them. I believe we as Christians are called to abhor, hate, detest, shudder with horror at the sin of murdering babies. I see no neutral position, which would allow us to hide behind a politically correct label, just to save face with our friends.

Thus, if Christians are pro-choice, then they are really pro-abortion. Period.

Okay, what if believers have called themselves pro-choice or have had an abortion, what can they do? They can do the same thing King David did: sincerely repent, ask for forgiveness and do their best not to commit that sin again.

But what if believers refuse to repent of calling themselves pro-choice or having an abortion?

They will have a conversation with Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ and they will suffer loss, but will still hold onto their salvation.

 Pastor Mike Bickle tells of the vision he had about standing before Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ. In it, the Lord looked at Bickle and said, “You are saved, but your life was wasted.”

Bickle said he broke down weeping and travailing in tears before the Lord who said nothing else to him. When Bickle finally awakened from the vision, his t-shirt was soaking wet from his tears.

Eventually, the Holy Spirit spoke to Bickle’s heart: “This is a conversation you never want to have with the Lord.”

(Continued in Part 3)

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Prayers for American Churches (7/25/2019)

Christ Church Stellarton

Photograph of Christ Anglican Church, Stellarton, NS. Taken the morning of October 28, 2005

How does the Kingdom of God fit together with the church?

Most who have taught on the kingdom of God over the last fifty years have made a dramatic separation between the church and kingdom of God. In other words, they’ve said the kingdom is totally different from the church. That statement is true and also false.

It’s true if you define church as a Sunday morning service or you define church as a building or you define the church as all of the believers in the world. Then the church is not the kingdom and the kingdom is not the church. Those two things are completely separate.

BUT if you define the word “church” as it appears in the English New Testament as ecclesia, which is the Greek word for it. And ecclesia meant a local body of believers that lived in face-to-face community that had a shared life together and took care of each other and loved one another and knew each other in the sense that they saw themselves as family despite racial divisions, despite economic divisions, and despite sexual divisions (meaning men and women). It you see it as that – a living, breathing, close-knit extended family – all of whom were living by the life of Jesus Christ.  Then that was the kingdom of God on this earth.

You see, a kingdom refers to the king, his domain and the people ruled by the king.

In 30 AD, if you wanted to see the kingdom, you needed to find Jesus. He embodied the kingdom. After Jesus ascended, the corporate followers became Christ on the earth – His kingdom.

So, if you want to see the Kingdom of God now, we need to find a group who expresses Christ living in and through them. (Frank Viola, Insurgence Podcast)

My prayer today:

Lord, You promised that You would build Your church on a rock so that the gates of Hell would never prevail against it. So, we desperately ask that You build Your church in America now. (Based on Matthew 16:18)

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America’s churches.

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Prayers for American Church System (7/18/2019)

Christ Church Stellarton

Photograph of Christ Anglican Church, Stellarton, NS. Taken the morning of October 28, 2005

We can learn much about the Kingdom of God and also the Church by looking at God’s first kingdom venture on earth (after the fall): Israel.

God’s desire for Israel was that the nation would have no king and no standing army. God would be the Israelites’ King and their defense. Israel was divided up into twelve parcels, one for each tribe. The leaders for each tribe would be elders, heads of families and families. Israel was set up to be a loosely governed confederation of tribes and families, unlike any other nation at the time.

In approximately 1043 BC, the elders came to Samuel the prophet and said, “Samuel, you are old. Now make for us a king to rule over us like all of the other nations.”

Samuel felt bad, but God told him, “Listen to the people. They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should no longer reign over them.”

God warned Israel, telling them all that the kings would do to abuse their authority over Israel. Yet, the people of Israel still said, “We want a king so we are like the other nations.”

From 1043 BC with King Saul until the fall of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah in 586 BC, Israel and Judah had a government headed by a king. They were like the other nations with a hierarchal governmental system. It was a total failure.

Why?

God said it would fail and it did.

Okay, now let’s look at the American Church system.

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

Thousands of American believers are praying for revival, which they hope will bring a move of the Spirit to America’s churches and change our nation. Hey, if it happens, I will join my brothers and sisters in celebration.

But…I don’t believe it will happen.

Most of America’s churches resemble Israel with a hierarchal government reigning over them. The New Testament name – pastor – sounds better than king, but make no doubt about it, the American pastor is generally an overlord in charge of the membership. He’s the CEO! This type of church system has been in place since Martin Luther reformed the church in 1517. Five hundred years!

Now, many will say that God has often revived the Church in times past. And yes, He has, but He also sent some good kings to Israel and Judah until He didn’t send them anymore. Maybe the American church system is in the same season that Israel was when its hierarchal government failed.

So don’t stay with the same-o same-o attitude about traditional churches just because God has not reformed the wineskin in times past. Seek the Lord.

I believe God will totally reform the church, preparing it for the End Times.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us American believers not to be conformed to this age and its traditions, but to be transformed and changed by the entire renewal of our minds and attitudes so that we may know what is Your good and perfect will for Your Church. (Based on Romans 12:2)

Join with me to fast and pray for America’s churches.

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Prayers for Unity (4/11/2019)

Two major titans came out of the First Great Awakening which swept across Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America during the 1720s – 1750s. These two men worked well together early on, but the differences in their doctrine caused them to quit fellowshipping and talking to each other after a while.

Once, while one man was in England and the other in America, they decided to send letters to each other. Their mail ships even passed each other in the Atlantic Ocean. The opening line in both letters were similar: “The Lord has shown me that I’m right and you’re wrong!”

The two men finally reconciled after a few years. They agreed to differ on certain issues but to love each other as brothers in Christ.

The two men: John Wesley and George Whitefield.

John Wesley held Arminian beliefs and George Whitefield was a moderate Calvinist. The big snags for them was the issue of grace and eternal security.

John Wesley preached at George Whitefield’s funeral. A woman asked him afterward, “Dear Mr. Wesley, do you expect to see dear Mr. Whitefield in heaven?”

A lengthy pause followed, after which Wesley replied with great seriousness, “No, madam.”

The lady at once exclaimed, “Ah, I was afraid you would say so.”

“Do not misunderstand me, madam. George Whitefield was so bright a star in the firmament of God’s glory, and will stand so near the throne, that one like me, who am less than the least, will never catch a glimpse of him,” replied John Wesley.

38 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using Your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” 39 “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in My name will soon be able to speak evil of Me. 40 Anyone who is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:38-40)

My prayer today:

Lord, help us Christians to make every effort to keep ourselves united in the Spirit with one another and also give us the understanding that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope for the future, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through us all. (Based on Ephesians 4:3-6)

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for the Body of Christ in America.

 

 

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With 60 Million Aborted Babies, Why Hasn’t God Removed America Yet? (Part 7)

We have this misguided thought that prophetic voices all work off the same page when they prophesy, but this isn’t true. The Lord reveals to each of His prophetic voices the individual insights He wants each to have so each can bring the specific word of the Lord for his generation.

For instance, Habakkuk and Zephaniah were contemporaries of Jeremiah, but only Jeremiah received the following insight:

Therefore do not pray for this people [Judah], nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. (Jeremiah 7:16)

This should make all of us shake our heads in amazement that God would ask His mouthpiece – and also a chosen intercessor – not to pray for a nation, heading toward judgment.

And just to make sure that Jeremiah heard Him, God repeated Himself a few days later:

Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble. (Jeremiah 11:14)

Let’s put this in context, okay? The Lord is speaking about a specific nation – Judah – in these verses, not individuals. Nations have specific seasons when they must repent and change while individuals can repent right up to their dying breaths.

But what if Habakuk and Zephaniah truly believed Judah might repent and thus stave off God’s judgment? Wouldn’t these two prophets have spent much of their time praying and fasting for Judah? Of course, they would have.

So, on the one hand, there were probably two of God’s prophets praying and fasting for Judah to repent and change, but on the other hand, there was Jeremiah who had been told not to pray because God was going to judge and carry off Judah to Babylon.

Was God confused?

No, absolutely not.

God uses His prophetic voices to draw people to Him, to give them hope and to prepare them for the days lying ahead. But we have to remember that not all people walk at the same spiritual level. So, God sends prophetic voices to encourage believers to move to higher spiritual levels without overwhelming them ahead of time.

I like to think of God’s prophetic voices being like the grains in a 12 Hour Contac Cold Capsule. Each grain of cold medicine is a different size from the others. Some are really minute while others are really large. It takes different amounts of time for the stomach to break down each grain size. In this manner, the cold capsule combats cold symptoms for each of the twelve hours.

Hopefully, this helps to explain why sometimes prophetic voices seemingly contradict one another when they talk about a nation. Some may be talking about revival while others may be talking about God’s wrath.

(Continued in Part 7but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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Radical Democrats, Leftists and Socialists are our Thorns in the Flesh

Democratic National Convention

Have you ever wondered what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?

There have been many suggestions, but my best guess is that it was the Jews, who constantly hunted him down and tried to kill him. The Jews certainly fit the description of a messenger of Satan who buffeted or treated him with violence.

Yet, look what the Apostle Paul wrote a year or so after he wrote his letter to the Corinthians:

For my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters, I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. (Romans 9:3)

Even though the Jews may have been Paul’s thorn in the flesh, he loved them, felt they were his missionary field and was willing to die for them.

So, I believe we Christians need to look with Paul’s eyes at radical Democrats, leftists, socialists and others, who are trying to destroy the Christian heritage of our nation. We need to view them as our missionary field and be willing to die for them.

That is — if we want to love like Paul did, which if you think about it, is how much Jesus loved each of us when He took our places on the cross.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. I am taking the holiday season off. See you in January. 

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Is the Upcoming Civil War our Prep for the End-times? (Part 9)

During the American Civil War, there were denominational church splits for Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists and others. Today’s Southern Baptists are carryovers from the Baptist church splits of that era.

These denominational splits were the results of slavery. The northern parts of the denominations were against slavery while the southern ones were deeply embedded in the slave-owning society.

The main holdouts were the Quakers.

Although many American Quakers once owned slaves, they realized that slavery was a sin by the early 1800s and refused to have anything to do with it again. Not only were the Quakers anti-slavery, but they were also pacifists. These attitudes caused the Southern Quakers heavy persecution during the Civil War. Their land was stolen, their livestock taken, many were thrown in jail, and on and on, their troubles continued.

In the midst of the Quakers’ darkest days of persecution, Southerners joined the denomination and became known as War Quakers. Think about this for a moment: people joined the Quakers so they could share in the persecution. Only God could make something like that happen!

It’s my belief that the Lord used the Quakers as lights to the Southerners during the Civil War. Like the church of Smyrna in the Book of Revelation, the Quakers were tested for their beliefs, but they had spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit was saying to their churches at that time in American history.

Could this happen in today’s upcoming American civil war? Could God raise up groups that would go against the grain on one side or the other?

If we view the political landscape right now, a majority of Evangelical Christians lean toward the Republican Party. But most black American Christians have joined the remaining Evangelical Christians in the Democratic Party.

Depending on how the civil war might break out, we could easily end up having Christians fighting Christians, with each feeling they are obeying God at the same time.

It’s my belief the Lord is raising up believers right now who are waiting for the Lord to send them to LA, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and other cities to raise up a standard for God in these places. Their loyalties will not be to political parties, denominations or sides in the civil war, but to the King of kings.

These groups of believers will suffer extreme persecution, but they will stand firm and force many to make a choice between God’s ways and man’s ways. But even so, this is according to scripture.

All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:8

(Conclusion…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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Prayers for America (11/15/2018)

Everyone needs to make up his or her own mind about today’s America. It’s either the worst of times or the best of times for us Christians. Our decisions on this question will determine our attitudes and actions in the days ahead.

For me, Marine Lt. General Chesty Puller’s statement during the bloody battle of Peleliu summarizes my attitude:

“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time.”

My prayer today:

Lord, open the eyes of Christians to show them that they have been chosen by You for such a time as this to win great victories for Your kingdom. (Based on Esther 4:14)

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

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

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