Breaking News. Spiritual Perspective.
In an effort to help Christians understand the spiritual, historical and prophetic significance of Israel, pastor Jack Hayford will teach a biblical online course about the Holy Land.
Israel: His Land, His Word is a six-week course that will run May 3 – June 13 at HisLandHisWord.com. Hayford says he wants to help others recognize the relationship between Israel and the Bible.
A hot topic in Israel today is evangelism, also known as proselytizing or missionary activity.
Here in Israel, it is not uncommon to take new believers to the Jordan River when they leave their religion of birth and choose Christianity. This decision is much more common among the Muslim people who are disappointed and without hope from following the god of Islam.
Attaining peace through sports is the goal of an upcoming weeklong sports pilgrimage, which includes a 10-kilometer, noncompetitive race that passes Israel’s security wall.
Pilgrims of Peace or JPII Games 2010, will take place in the Holy Land April 21-28, and is the seventh marathon-pilgrimage named after John Paul II, who himself promoted sports as a means to peace.
[Photo courtesy of Travelujah.com]
Bob Segal learned early on from his father what it meant to be Jewish. But the elder Segal believed Judaism was a heritage, not a religion, and he passed down his beliefs to his son. Bob was taught that there is no God and that the Bible, even the Old Testament, is a bunch of fairytales. So years later, when Jews for Jesus showed up on Bob’s college campus sharing the message of Christ, he says he was infuriated. But what happened next altered the course of his life, and today, Bob has a testimony. To hear his story, watch the video below.
Years ago, I took a group of worshipers and intercessors to a large park in Tel Aviv, Israel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was a holiday and the area was flooded with hundreds of families having picnics.
We sat down as a group and began to worship. We really felt the presence of the Lord in a strong way, and one of the ladies in our group who had brought several praise flags with her took one out and began waving it to the Lord.
There was a song in the musical Fiddler on the Roof called “Tradition.” As this Jewish father sang this song, this message was immediately conveyed: Life is full of traditions.
Traditions can be meaningful, but sometimes they get in the way of the effectiveness of God’s Word in our lives, and they can become very burdensome. As you listen to the song “Tradition” in the film, you can hear the frustration and weariness in the voice of the father. He too had worn himself out trying to keep all the traditions. Keeping traditions can also sometimes prevent us from seeing the newness and freshness of life.
Torah-adherent Jewish parents take time to teach their children prayers, study the Torah and the Talmud, and speak blessings for their future. As a Bible believer, you can follow the same biblical examples and customs of our Jewish counterparts by making operational seven important life truths for your children.
Daniel Juster is a Jewish believer in Jesus and the founder of Tikkun Ministries International. He was the senior pastor of Beth Messiah Congregation in Gaithersburg, Md., for 22 years but now lives in Israel. The author of several books including Growing to Maturity, Jewish Roots, The Dynamics of Spiritual Deception and Jewishness and Jesus, Juster says revival in Israel could have a major impact on the church worldwide. To hear more about the future of the church from Daniel Juster, listen to the podcast below.
When American missionary Karen Dunham gave her life to Christ years ago, she had no thoughts of traveling to Jericho, West Bank, to minister. Not even after God told her several years later to go to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall did she consider such an undertaking. Like most Americans, she saw the Palestinians as enemies and had no love for them whatsoever.
In Genesis 12:3, God makes a promise to Abraham: ‘”I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'”
In my own life I have seen proof of this promise; when I have blessed Israel and the Jewish people, God has showered His blessings on me. That is why we have set up the “Bless Israel” fund through Christian Life Missions.
When we were in St. Petersburg, Russia, for an evangelical music festival designed to reach Jewish people, one of the musicians sang a song that I’ll never forget. The phrase “He is my defense” was repeated over and over again in the song. That phrase still resounds in my spiritual ears.
Amir was in a Palestinian prison because he was accused of giving information to Israel concerning attacks on the Jewish people. That information saved the lives of Israelis, but in the eyes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) it was a betrayal.
Men and women who give information to Israel are considered traitors to the Palestinian people. When caught, these so-called “collaborators” are arrested, tortured and many times killed. He was set free by Israeli troops and given permission to reside in Israel proper.
Passover is one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar because it marks a significant event in history. God protected His people from the death angel during the last of the 10 plagues. Exodus 12:3 says, “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” To discover why Yeshua shed His blood for us, watch the video below.
While Easter service for Catholics and some Christians take place at the Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem, services for Protestants are held at the Garden Tomb, the place revered by many as the site where Jesus died and rose from the dead.
The layout of the Garden Tomb allows visitors to sit and pray quietly while viewing what is believed to be Skull Hill, Golgotha, and the tomb where Jesus was reportedly buried. Easter sunrise services are held in English, French and Scandinavian languages.
Tens of thousands of churches, and literally tens of millions of Christians in the U.S., have a committed belief in the importance of standing with Israel and blessing the Jewish people. The verse most often referred to as their biblical mandate is Genesis 12:3 in which God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The Jewish people say this phrase, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord,” whenever they are gathered together at a temple or synagogue. Jewish people and Christians do have much in common. Both are sons of Abraham, both are believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and both are chosen by God to be a special people.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy is now clear.
After the worst week in U.S.-Israel relations in 35 years, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington Monday and gave a powerful and effective speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gala dinner at the Washington Convention Center, warning the world to stop Iran—or Israel will—and respectfully but directly challenging the Obama administration on Jerusalem and the peace process.
He was like anyone else looking to express himself through the things he loved such as, graphic design and art. Yet Avner Valer lived a life of “darkness” and sin. But when he came to faith in Yeshua, he started using his gifts and skills to further the gospel in Israel. Scripture says every “good and perfect gift” comes from God. What are you doing to spread the Word? Watch the video below.
One morning I was waking from a night’s sleep, and I heard the name “Jochebed” in my spirit. I knew it was the Lord calling me Jochebed. I got up and looked up the name in the Strong’s Concordance and found that Jochebed was the mother of two sons and a daughter.
Both of her sons were priests. She was the mother of Moses, Aaron and Miriam. The name Jochebed in Hebrew means “the Lord glorified.”
The Hurva Synagogue reopened Monday to the public after an extensive four-year construction project in the Old City of Jerusalem. Built in 1864 atop ruins of an earlier synagogue, the Hurva Synagogue was the largest and considered the most important synagogue in Jerusalem.
It was destroyed in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence. After the city was reunified in 1967, a 52-foot arch was erected on the site to commemorate the giant dome of the destroyed building, and this arch has been incorporated into the dome that is the centerpiece of the new building.
It was another one of those 13-hour days, lots of hard, but good work. By the end of the day we had brought 1,500 bars of olive oil soap from the West Bank to the apartment of my friend. Mahmoud is an ex-Palestinian Muslim who lives in Israel with permission from the Israeli government. In 2000 he was tortured and imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for two years because he left Islam and became a Christian.
