Times the Prophets Longed to See

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Friday, August 14, 2015

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Biblical historians say Luke is one of the few non-Jewish authors of the Bible, with both the Old and New Testaments almost exclusively written by Jews.

In his Gospel, Luke writes about the life of Yeshua (Jesus), and in the Book of Acts, we learn how his disciples fared after His ascension.

When God chooses Jeremiah, He tells him He’s watching over His Word to perform it (Jer. 1:12).

It certainly appears His plan is moving right along.

To better understand today’s headlines, the biblical prophets are a good place to start. After all Jeremiah lived in politically turbulent times, especially for the Jews.

Today, the Jewish people are returning to their biblical homeland. Since the late 1800s, there’s been a steady stream of returnees. On May 14, 1948, Israel officially became the modern nation-state of the Jewish people.

Aliyah -- immigration to Israel -- is increasing again, partly because of rising anti-Semitism, but also because Diaspora Jews are beginning to realize if they’re not in Israel, they’re in exile. They are returning to the place where a lot of promises to them as a people will be fulfilled. And they’re wonderful promises!

For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, there’s an indigenous Israeli Body.

Estimated at about 15,000 and growing, it’s part of this regathering. And its diversity reflects Israeli society as a whole.

Set in a Jewish Context

While Luke may not have been a Hebrew, his writings mirror the Jewish context of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind. Yeshua was born, lived and died a Jew.

You can’t separate Israel’s Messiah from Israel. Edith Schaffer was right. Christianity is Jewish.

Yeshua said, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22)

So here’s some very good news.

God is raising up an indigenous Body in Israel. These young believers have grown up in a tough little country. They’ve served in the IDF, they’re pursuing their education and careers, meeting their mates, getting married and starting families. These young people are PRAYers and DOers. Corporately and individually they’re products of prayer. In short, they make our hearts smile.

Those with the gift of evangelism are sharing the Good News with Israelis who for the most part never heard it or heard it in a cultural context they couldn’t relate to. The biblical comparison is Joseph’s brothers not recognizing him because he looked like an Egyptian. In the end they find out he’s their brother. So it will be when the Jewish people come to know their Jewish Messiah.

Click here to see “The Forbidden Chapter in the Tenach.”

As latent anti-Semitism raises its ugly head yet again, God is raising up a generation of Israelis equipped to share the Good News with the Jewish people.

Prayer and More Prayer

Now is the time to undergird the Israeli Body in prayer. God is moving in Israel. It’s very exciting and at the same time challenging to be here at this point in time.

The prophet Zechariah foretells that God will pour out a spirit of grace and supplication on Israel and simultaneously remove the veil that has prevented His covenant people from seeing the One they’re awaiting for thousands of years.

Jews will see they are not outside God’s plan of salvation. In fact, the Bible states in more than one place, “to the Jew first and then the Greek.” Israel as a nation will understand and it will bring us to national repentance and salvation. We will be saved as a people, as it is written, “all Israel will be saved.”

And the world can hardly stand it. God’s enemy, the prince of the power of the air, the one who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, whose only interest is to steal, kill and destroy, is more intent than ever to wipe out the Jewish people.

Iranian Nuclear Deal

The US-brokered Iranian nuclear deal is a prime example. Sadly, the Obama administration has been a tool in the enemy’s hand to stir up anti-Semitism wherever it may be found. His vendetta against Israel and its prime minister is palpable. Many of the world’s largest news agencies are simply pawns in the hands of “the prince of the power of the air.”

There is nothing Elohei Yisrael, the God of Israel, doesn’t know about. He is omniscient, omnipotent and allows what He allows for His purposes.

So while Israel and the Jewish people face increasingly difficult times, God is moving. Along with praying for the peace of Jerusalem, ask God to pour out His spirit on His people (Zech. 12:10).

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

End of End Days

It’s coming. It’s closer and closer. When all the nations of the world come up against Jerusalem, Yeshua himself will save us.

It’s time to dig into the Word of God more than ever. Ask God to open it up to you. Ask for your marching orders. Listen and obey.

These are exciting times, ones the prophets would like to have seen.

He is coming in the clouds! Two millennia ago Yeshua said he was coming quickly. A day is as a thousand years. It won’t be long now.

He will save us! To him be glory and dominion and power forever and ever! Amen.

10 Well-Known Christians Who Met the Lord in 2013 - J. Lee Grady, CharismaNews

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10 Well-Known Christians Who Met the Lord in 2013

12/31/2013 J. LEE GRADY

 

444

 

9

 

1

 

149

 

From left, clockwise: Richard Twiss, Edith Schaffer, Charles Lamb, Pat Summerall

Media outlets have published lists this week of celebrities who died in 2013—lists that include Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, novelist Tom Clancy and actors Peter O’Toole, Jean Stapleton and Paul Walker of Fast and Furiousfame.

But religious leaders often don’t make these lists, mostly because the work of the Spirit is rarely celebrated on this side of eternity. As this year comes to a close, I decided to look back at 2013 and honor the memory of church leaders who died this year. They include:

1. Samuel Lamb. This brave Chinese pastor died in August at age 88. He spent 20 years in prison for his faith because he refused to bow to his communist oppressors. He taught his flock: “The laws of God are more important that the laws of men.” Today the illegal church he planted in the city of Guangzhou has grown to 4,000 members.

2. George Beverly Shea. Perhaps the best-known gospel singer of all time, Shea performed at Billy Graham’s crusades for decades and recorded more than 70 albums. A Canadian known for his booming bass-baritone voice, he teamed up with Graham in 1947. Ever willing to stand in the shadow of the more famous evangelist, Shea prepared audiences for Graham’s message by singing trademark songs such as “I’d Rather Have Jesus” and “How Great Thou Art.” He died in April at age 104.

3. Edith Schaffer. She and her husband, Francis, both Presbyterian missionaries, established L’Abri Fellowship, a retreat center in Switzerland that became a think tank for Christian theologians and activists. Some believe Edith and her husband—through their many books and lectures—galvanized the Christian Right in the 1980s by encouraging believers to challenge culture rather than hide from it. She was 98.

4. C. Everett Koop. Hated by some members of Congress because of his personal opposition to abortion, this distinguished pediatric surgeon was tapped by President Reagan to serve as U.S. Surgeon General. When Dr. Koop took office in 1981, 33 percent of Americans smoked; when he left in 1989, the percentage had dropped to 26 percent because of his strident campaign against tobacco use. A devoted Presbyterian who wrote a book about his faith journey, Sometimes Mountains Move, he also defended the rights of the elderly and children with birth defects. He was 96.

5. Richard Twiss. Once a monthly columnist for Charisma, Twiss was a rare breed: An outspoken charismatic Christian from a Native American background. His ministry, Wiconi International, focused on promoting reconciliation between whites and Native people. Born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, Twiss wrote the popular book One Church, Many Tribes, and used his pulpit to reach Native people for Christ. He was only 58.

6. Pat Summerall. Perhaps the best known sportscaster in the U.S., he was fondly referred to as “the voice of the NFL” because his career spanned more than 40 years—and 16 Super Bowls. But what many TV viewers did not know was that the man with the famous voice experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ in 1992 after battling alcoholism. He wrote in his autobiography: “My thirst for alcohol was being replaced by a thirst for knowledge about faith and God. … I felt ecstatic, invigorated, happier, and freer. It felt as though my soul had been washed clean.” Summerall became a Southern Baptist before he died at age 82.

7. Paul Crouch. Raised in the Assemblies of God and driven by a desire to spread the gospel through television, Crouch built his Trinity Broadcasting Network from scratch, starting in 1973 with a station in Tustin, California, using $20,000 of his own money. When Crouch died in November at age 79, TBN had more than 18,000 network affiliates. His fund-raising tactics and spending habits made him plenty of enemies, but millions of donors looked beyond his flaws to help him build the largest Christian TV ministry in the world.

8. Dallas Willard. Considered a leading authority on spiritual formation, Willard was a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California whose books included The Spirit of the Disciplines, The Divine Conspiracy, Renovation of the Heart and Hearing God. He was a passionate proponent for rigorous discipleship, and he chided the American church for thinking we can be Christians without being disciples. He wrote: “The spiritual life is a life of interaction with a personal God, and it is pure delusion to suppose that it can be carried on sloppily.” He was 77.

9. Matthew Warren. He was not famous, nor a church leader. But because Matthew was the son of California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, he did not live far from the media spotlight. He killed himself in April after a long struggle with depression—and the tragedy caused churches around the world to take a more compassionate attitude toward mental illness. Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, spoke candidly about their son’s dilemma in a September interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan in which they said their congregation, Saddleback Community Church, has been fully supportive of them during their painful grieving period. Matthew was only 27.

10. Faye Pama Mysa. Few Americans have ever heard of this 47-year-old Pentecostal pastor who served as secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria. But he died a martyr’s death in May when Islamic militants burst into his home in Borno state and shot him. He is only one of hundreds of Christians who have died in Nigeria in recent years, victims of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Organizations that monitor the persecution of Christians say the numbers of martyrs increased in 2013, especially in Nigeria, Egypt and Pakistan. In September in Pashawar, Pakistan, 78 worshipers were killed in a bomb attack at a church. In May, officials at the Vatican announced they believe 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith.

I can’t list all their names here. But I pray our hearts will be filled with the courage of a martyr as we head into 2014.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project (themordecaiproject.org). You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of Fearless Daughters of the Bible and other books.

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