Category: Standing With Israel

What a blessing it is to be grandparents. Psalm 128: 1-6 promises the children of Israel that they will see their children’s children. “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table” (v. 3, KJV). “Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel” (v. 6, KJV).

We are so grateful for the fruitfulness of God in our lives. We are going to have to expand our dining table because the olive plants are already crowding the table. The Father loves to be surrounded by many children.

You’ve seen her—the veiled, dark-robed woman in the checkout line at Wal-Mart or Target. She’s Muslim, you think to yourself, probably from the Middle East or Asia.

But on closer inspection, you discover that she has blue eyes. A few strands of sandy blond hair peek out from her head veil. Or perhaps she’s black and speaks with a distinctly American accent.

She’s not from the Middle East, you realize, but from your own backyard! In fact, she could be someone you went to high school with.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday Israel and its Western backers “cannot do a … thing to stop Iran’s nuclear work.”

In a televised speech at an Iranian uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, Ahmadinejad rejected the “illegal” censure of his nation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He said the agency was “under pressure from a few superficially powerful countries.”

Christians have long made pilgrimages to the ancient Village of Cana where Jesus performed His first miracle. More recently, couples have begun visiting the Franciscan Wedding Church to get married or renew their marriage vows.

Jesus performed His first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding, thereby validating and blessing the covenant of marriage.

Father Garret Edmunds, a pilgrimage leader to the Holy Land, points out that Jesus’ primary reason for being there was for the wedding.

In Hebrew, the sacred, divine name of God is spelled with four Hebrew letters: yod, hei, vav, and hei, or, in English, YHVH. This four-lettered name is called the tetragrammaton, which means “four letters.”

This name, YHVH, is found 6,823 times in the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew scholars and rabbis all agree that the exact pronunciation of these four letters has been lost throughout the centuries. Some suggest the name is pronounced Yehovah or Yahweh, while westerners say Jehovah, replacing the first letter Y (yud in Hebrew) with the English letter J, which does not exist in the Hebrew alphabet.

Most news we hear from Israel involves suicide bombings, military skirmishes and ethnic tensions. In the time since the Jewish state was created 61 years ago, it seems its history has been written in blood as Israeli leaders have fought to defend the land that was given to them by God thousands of years ago.

Yet this place we call the Holy Land cannot be defined by religious conflicts and territorial disputes. Pilgrims who have traveled there from around the world have discovered that Israel defies the stereotypes and the political clichés: They have discovered a land rich with history and a diverse people who want peace more than war.

The Bible says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19). The “acceptable year of the Lord”—the Year of Jubilee—was the last in a 50-year period.

During the first 49 years, the Israelites could own slaves, sow their fields, prune their vineyards, and gather the harvest; but each seventh year was set apart as a Sabbath for the land. At the beginning of the fiftieth year, the trumpet sounded, proclaiming the Year of Jubilee. This was a year when the ground wasn’t worked, slaves were set free, and debts were erased. It was a year of rest for the entire land.

The great theme of faith continues as we study the book of Hebrews. We have learned that faith sees the unseen, and we endure in faith and hope when we keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Now we turn our eyes heavenward to look into realms of glory in heaven.

I have often wondered why some great men and women of faith die young. Recently a great servant of the Lord named Ruth Heflin died. I personally felt she had many more years of service to offer the Lord here on earth. She wrote a book called Glory.

Officials in Israel last week indicted the man accused of sending a bomb to the home of a Messianic minister in March 2008 that nearly killed the pastor’s teenage son.

Jack Teitel, 37, was indicted for attempted murder, among other charges, for allegedly sending a bomb hidden in a gift basket to the home of David Ortiz, pastor of a Messianic congregation in Ariel, Israel.

(Photo of Ami Ortiz, Compass Direct News)

Your personal Bible may have a black, brown, blue, or red leather or imitation leather cover. The words may be a fine-print, red-letter edition distinguishing Christ’s words. Your translation may be the popular 1611 King James Version, New King James Version, Amplified, or New American Standard. It may have a red ribbon inserted to mark selective passages. Your Bible might be a translation from a language other than English. In the Jewish synagogue, the Torah is in the form of a scroll and not a leather-bound book.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said President Barack Obama must choose between Israel and Iran. The comment was made Tuesday in Istanbul during an economic address before the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference.

“The support of both Israel and Iran can’t go hand in hand. No change is made unless great choices are made,” said Ahmadinejad. “We will clasp any hand that is extended sincerely toward us, but changes should be made in practice.”

As I showered in preparation for our last day of sightseeing, I reflected on many of the places we’ve visited. A list with a one- or two-sentence description would fill the rest of this blog. While each now holds a special place in my heart, and many brought the Bible to life and me to tears, one common thing connects them—fear. Rather, the lack of it.

I’ve realized how much we live in fear in the United States. With crime, murder and rape rates at mindboggling levels, we’re forced to bolt our doors at home, keep our cars locked while in the driveway, and be always mindful of our surroundings. Despite these safety precautions, robbery, theft, murder and rape dominate the nightly news.

Believers are often confronted by skeptics who bark out their opposition to our present translation of Scriptures, charging that the translation is not the same as the original Word God gave to Moses, the prophets, and the apostles.

However, an event in 1948 helped settle the controversy of the authenticity of the 1611 translation of the English Scriptures as it relates to the Old Testament.

Israel. The mere mention of the word conjures up a favorite memory for those who’ve been, and a longing for those who haven’t. After being here three days, it’s difficult to pinpoint that one “a-ha” moment. It might be because those enlightening moments have been nearly nonstop since stepping off the plane in Tel Aviv.

Our group of seven has stood in the river bed where David picked his stones to slay Goliath, spent time in the Dead Sea, climbed the hills where David hid from Saul, explored the ruins of Masada (Herrod’s palaces) and had a special military escort take us to the Jordan River where we baptized each other at the spot where it is believed John baptized Jesus.

Perhaps there is no other portion of the Torah so filled with vital stories than the section in Genesis 18:1-22, 24. Called Vayera, it includes the stories of three men who visited Abraham; of God’s promising to give him and his wife, Sarah, a son; and of angels visiting Lot and urging him to leave Sodom—fast—since judgment was coming.

Unlike some characters we read about in Scripture, Abraham was a good man. He cared about his nephew. According to the Torah, the future patriarch of the Jews talked with God about His decision to destroy Sodom, pleading with Him to spare the city for the sake of the righteous.

Richard Land, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics & Religion Liberty Commission, has joined with Jewish and Evangelical leaders in calling for immediate economic sanctions against Iran.

Land issued a statement Nov. 2 with Paul de Vries, president of the New York Divinity School and Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. The men called for economic sanctions that would specifically target banks working even indirectly with Iranian financial institutions, firms and governments that export refined petroleum to Iran.

There was a song in the late fifties called “Hearts Made of Stone.” I’m sure the writer of this song had no idea he was quoting Scripture. The promise to Israel in Ezekiel 11:19 is, “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.”

When we were in Israel we walked along the shore in Natanya. As we were walking on the beach we noticed hundreds of smooth pebbles shaped like hearts. We collected as many as we could carry back with us to the States. Many in our tour put these hearts in baskets, and as they prayed for the peace of Jerusalem daily, they lifted up the basket to the Lord and proclaimed this Scripture promise: “I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh.”