Category: Opinion

Scripture tells us that man is God’s temple (see 1 Cor. 3:16). In order to fully understand this analogy, we must recall the division of the Jewish temple into three parts.

There was its exterior, seen by all men, with the outer court, into which every Israelite might enter, and where all the external religious service was performed. There was the holy place, into which alone the priests might enter, to present to God the blood or the incense, the bread or the oil that they had brought from without.

The
genocide staged by Sudan’s Islamist regime keeps topping
the lists of contemporary disasters. Some 3.5 million South Sudanese Christians
and animists have been killed in a brutal “conversion” campaign that has lasted
more than 25 years. Millions have fled their homes, seeking shelter from
starvation, slavery and violent death.

But among the desert mountains across which Moses fled with another persecuted
people long ago some of these Sudanese believers have found refuge in a place
aptly named The Shelter.

We used to lead a “Lamp Lighters” group when my husband was in the army. The children in this group were junior high age, and I loved hearing them sing, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning till the break of day.”

This story of the ten virgins is about being ready for the Lord’s return. One has to understand the Jewish betrothal customs to receive the full impact of what is being conveyed in this passage.

An oil exploration company has announced that it has found “significant quantities” of oil in Israel, buoying hopes that natural resources are prevalent in the Holy Land and could enable Israel to become energy independent.

An Israeli company, the Givot Olam Oil Exploration Limited Partnership, announced in December that it found oil at its drill site in Rosh Ha’Ayin, about 10 miles inland from the Tel Aviv coastline. Gas was also found during the drill.

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.

Both houses of Congress have finally acted to employ the toughest economic sanctions at our disposal to stop Iran from going nuclear.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, which combines Christians United for Israel’s two top legislative priorities into one bill.

As we walked past the Egyptian exhibit in the Museum of Art History in Vienna, I noted the great importance placed upon memorials for the dead. The wealthy took great pains to prepare proper tombs and memorials. Embalming to preserve the body was of prime importance. Why did the Egyptians do this? 

It was a way of declaring significance in the face of death. Human beings want to believe they are significant in the scheme of things.

During my tour last year of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, I was haunted by what I saw. Old movie clips and photos of Jews being herded off to concentration camps tore at my emotions. I could barely contain myself.

In a Gentile or non-Jewish society, businessmen speak of contracts and agreements. However, the word covenant was used in ancient times and was more than just a binding agreement signed on a parchment or sealed with a wax impression from a signet ring.

While flying to Israel for the first time last year, I wondered what the country was really like. My daily dose of cable and network news made me think I was about to encounter some unfriendly people. But nothing could have been further from the truth. What the church needs to know about Israel can’t be found in a nightly newscast; it can be found in the Words of the Person who created it. Let’s open our Bibles and get to reading. Watch the video below.

Missiles are fired from Gaza into southern Israel. Iran is steadily marching toward the production of nuclear weapons. And Hezbollah and Hamas are smuggling and stockpiling arms. Welcome to 2010. This may be a new year, but Israel’s problems remain largely the same as last year’s, and the year before.

The persistence of Israel’s problems can tempt us toward two equally troubling reactions. The first reaction is to grow weary. There are no quick fixes in Israel. No easy answers. Who knew that standing with Israel would be so hard and take so long?

When I was in a concentration camp during World War II,
we had to stand every day for two or three hours for roll call, often
in the icy-cold wind. Once a woman guard used these hours to
demonstrate her cruelty. I could hardly bear to see and hear what
happened in front of me.

Suddenly a skylark started to sing high in the sky. We
all looked up, and when I looked to the sky and listened to its song, I
looked still higher and thought of Psalm 103:11: “For as the heavens
are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those
who fear Him” (RSV).

In the early 1970s, a significant number of Jews committed their lives to Yeshua and came to the conviction that they should call themselves Messianic Jews rather than Christians. There were several reasons for this. One was the history of institutional Christianity and its impact on the Jewish people.

From a Jewish perspective, Christianity was a movement of semi-paganism, oppression and anti-Semitism. We wanted to project ourselves in such a way that the Jewish people would take another look at Yeshua without the barriers of their pre-formed perceptions of Christianity.

We have led many tours to Israel, and sometimes people are hesitant to go because they are fearful of terrorists and possible war in Israel. When they express those fears, Tom and I always share that we feel safer walking the streets of Jerusalem than we do walking the streets of Atlanta. There is a sense of God’s peace and presence in Israel that supersedes the threat of war and terrorism.