How the Holy Spirit Is Encountering Syrian Refugees 2016  Israel, Islam & End Times

“It’s amazing what God has done in the last years,” Sharon said. “Before, we were not hearing much of people coming to faith. Now Syrian [Muslims] are getting baptised!”

Sharon* moved to the Near East nine years ago and now leads an outreach team that helps meet the spiritual and physical needs of Syrian refugees. Her team members provide aid and relief, share the gospel, lead Discovery Bible Groups, mentor individuals and start local fellowships of new believers. Amid the poverty and brokenness around her, Sharon also sees God’s grace at work.

“God is pursuing people,” Sharon said. “He is calling people to be disciples: to ‘come follow me’ and ‘make disciples’, [especially] among the Syrians.”

Each week Sharon teaches English. She is often invited to visit her students’ families, which enables relationships to deepen and opens up conversations about faith.

Sharon met Tara*, the aunt of one of her students, when she visited their home two years ago. A total of 28 relatives lived on a rooftop, including Tara, her husband, Ahmed*, and their four children. Sharon shared the gospel with them and, soon after, two other believers also came to share their faith with the same family.

Tara decided to follow Jesus and attended a Discovery Bible Group. Additionally, she started studying God’s Word with Sharon, while Ahmed studied the Bible with another member of the team. The couple joined a local church and, in July this year, they were baptised.

“It’s amazing what God has done in the last years,” Sharon said. “Before, we were not hearing much of people coming to faith. Now Syrian [Muslims] are getting baptised!”

In the past two years Tara, Ahmed and their children moved nine times, including temporarily living in a one-room apartment with no windows. Despite struggles of currently living with no regular income, as Ahmed cannot find work, Tara is keen to share the hope she has found in Christ Jesus.

Tara, a Syrian Kurd, wants to lead a Discovery Bible Group in the Kurdish language for her friends and neighbours.

Each week Sharon goes to Tara’s apartment to mentor and equip her to lead a group on her own. Together, they discuss Bible stories in Arabic until Tara knows them well and can retell the stories in Kurdish. They are praying for neighbours with whom she would like to start a Bible study.

“When I came, I expected two or three people to come to faith,” Sharon said. “It has changed my expectations to see so many people come to faith and tell their neighbours. God has done it, and He can do it again.”

Increased numbers of individuals coming to faith is evidence of the Lord’s grace at work.

“People are praying for Syria,” Sharon emphasised. “God’s Spirit is moving. God is doing something among the Syrians.”

While acknowledging challenges ahead, Sharon exudes excitement at an opportunity to be part of a movement of God in the Near East.

“The harvest is white. We need labourers. If it’s not you, ask someone else to come,” Sharon shared. “We are only going to reach unreached areas through the people we disciple.”

God is transforming lives and communities, as believers respond to God’s call to share their story of His grace in their lives and make disciples.

Please pray for God to raise up more Syrian believers to serve their communities and make disciples. Pray for OM Near East Field workers to live out the gospel in neighbourhoods in the Near East.

*Name changed.

Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity - Israel, Islam & End Times

Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity - Dec. 20, 2015   Israel, Islam & End Times 

A GROUP of Jewish leaders issued a historic public statement affirming their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”

Agroup of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is “the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations” and urging Jews and Christians to “work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era.”

“Jesus brought a double goodness to the world,” the statement reads. “On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically” and on the other hand “he removed idols from the nations,” instilling them “firmly with moral traits.”


This year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the declaration issued in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, which marked a watershed in Jewish-Christian relations.

In language unusual for its day, Nostra Aetate stated that “God holds the Jews most dear,” stressed the great “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,” and condemned “hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

Now, a group of Jewish leaders has responded in kind, expressing their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”

“Christians are congregations that work for the sake of heaven who are destined to endure, whose intent is for the sake of heaven and whose reward will not denied,” the text reads.

The statement bears the title, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians,” and is signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis, who invite fellow Orthodox rabbis to join in signing the statement.

“Now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal Covenant between G-d and Israel, we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes,” it says.

Echoing recent words by Pope Francis, the document states: “We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity.”

“Neither of us can achieve G-d’s mission in this world alone,” it says.

According to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, the “real importance of this Orthodox statement is that it calls for fraternal partnership between Jewish and Christian religious leaders, while also acknowledging the positive theological status of the Christian faith.”

“This proclamation’s breakthrough is that influential Orthodox rabbis across all centers of Jewish life have finally acknowledged that Christianity and Judaism are no longer engaged in a theological duel to the death and that Christianity and Judaism have much in common spiritually and practically. Given our toxic history, this is unprecedented in Orthodoxy.” said Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, Academic Director of CJCUC.

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Prince Charles Warns Christianity May Be Erased From Middle East Within 5 Years - Israel, Islam & End Times

Dec. 20, 2015

BRITAIN’S Prince Charles has warned that Christianity might be entirely erased from the land of its birth in the Middle East within five years.

“Their suffering is symptomatic of a very real crisis which threatens the very existence of Christianity in the land of its birth,” Charles said at the Archbishop House in central London, reported the Express on Thursday.

“In fact according to Aid to the Church in Need, which is a truly remarkable organization, Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq within five years unless emergency help is provided on a greatly increased scale at an international level,” the Prince of Wales said.

“This affects us all, consequently the greatest challenge we face is how to ensure the spiritual and cultural heritage of Christianity in the Middle East is preserved for future generations.”

Christians have been heavily targeted by the Islamic State terror group across Iraq and Syria in the past two years, and have seen their numbers drop significantly.

The militants have beheaded Christians in several propaganda videos, and have warned Christian populations in towns they have captured that they must either convert to their version of Islam, face death, or be driven out.

Prince Charles’ dire warning has been proclaimed by Iraqi and Syrian church leaders as well, with Metropolitan Jean-Clément Jeanbart of the Melkite Archdiocese of Aleppo declaring in October that the exodus of Christians from the Middle East is both “apocalyptic and fatal.”

Jeanbart said that the “exodus of Christians” is as “a form of deportation, condemning our faithful to a humiliating exile and our 2,000-year-old Church to a deadly drying up.” The church leader also accused Western governments of appearing “either indifferent or unjust” to the plight of the refugees.

Prince Charles has also spoken out on the persecution of Christians throughout the Middle East on a number of other occasions, including back in December 2013 when he said that the situation has reached a “crisis” point.

“It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are, increasingly, being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants. Christianity was, literally, born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said at the time.

Demand for the Bible has Exploded in Iran, You Won’t Guess Where From - Israel, Islam & End Times

Demand for the Bible has Exploded in Iran, You Won’t Guess Where From - Israel, Islam & End Times  Dec. 13, 2015

THOUSANDS of Iranians are risking their lives to gain access to one of the countries most contraband items—the Bible; and they’re getting it from an unexpected source.

The monumentally popular YouVersion Bible app has officially topped 200 million installs across the globe, with developers announcing that the most popular verse in the app’s history is Romans 12:2.

That scripture, which is both the most read and shared, reads as follows: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Produced by Life.Church, an Oklahoma-based megachurch that has made a name for itself by streaming its services throughout the world, founders say that the tool is transforming lives, with increases of up to 1,886 percent in usage in places like Iran over the past two years.

“What God is doing through YouVersion is incredible — changing mobile devices into Bibles that people carry with them everywhere they go,” app creator and Life.Church pastor Bobby Gruenewald said in a statement. “As we see the magnitude of 200 million installs, what we’re really celebrating is what that number represents: countless moments of individuals transformed by their time in the Bible.”

The YouVersion Bible app has been downloaded over 200 million times.

Perhaps the most notable development is the locations in which use of the digital Bible is continuously thriving, with the most prevalent searches among users overall involving “marriage, love, faith, prayer and fasting.”

The exciting aspirations of Life.Church in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The YouVersion Bible app, which allows people to read the Bible and connect with like-minded believers, has been installed among individuals in every nation on Earth, reported “triple-digit growth and beyond” in places like Cameroon, Iran, Suriname, Bulgaria and other locations, since hitting a 100 million download benchmark in July 2013, according to a press release.

The app downloaded by Iranians has gone up a staggering 1886%!!

The remarkable growth has expanded the initial offering of 12 Bible versions in two languages to 1,237 versions in 900 languages. Find out more about the YouVersion Bible app here.

Trump: ‘Obama Hates Israel, Jewish State Safe With Me’ - II&ET Nov. 1, 2015

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate attacks deal with Iran, which he says leaves Israel in ‘so much trouble’ “So many friends in Israel, they don’t know what happened,” “They actually think Obama hates Israel. I think he does.”

R

epublican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes US President Barack Obama hates Israel, citing the recent nuclear deal with Iran which he said was “so bad” for the Jewish state.

“So many friends in Israel, they don’t know what happened,” he said of the agreement between Tehran and the US, along with other world powers. “They actually think Obama hates Israel. I think he does.”

Speaking during a campaign speech in Reno, Nevada on, the business magnate added: “Honestly, I think Israel is in such a massive amount of trouble because of the agreement.”

Trump vowed to defend Israel if elected president. “Israel is safe with this one,” he said, pointing to himself. “Nothing bad is going to happen to Israel.”

Trump, a brash billionaire businessman, dominated the Republican field for months. Recently he has been losing ground to neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Neither Trump nor Carson are career politicians but both have capitalized on anti-Washington, anti-establishment feeling among many conservatives.

Israeli leadership has sharply criticized the Iran deal, and the issue had served to further fracture relations between Jerusalem and Washington. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have enraged Obama by trying to turn Congress against the deal behind the president’s back. Meanwhile the US’s handling of the nuclear negotiations, the Palestinian conflict and other regional challenges have greatly diminished Israelis’ trust in the American leader, with many seeing him as weak, naive, or both.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon this week declared the dispute over the accord over. “The Iran deal is a given,” he said in Washington while meeting with his US counterpart Ashton Carter. “Our disputes are over. And now we have to look to the future.”

Netanyahu is to be hosted by Obama at the White House on November 9 — their first face-to-face talks in over a year.

Though generally unpopular in Israel, some security experts — including former heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad — have said it has its good aspects. Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz has said he sees the benefits of the accord, which he has acknowledged will probably put off a nuclear-armed Iran for at least 10-15 years. The diplomatic effort, he said, probably prevented war from breaking out.

The Republican nominee will most likely face Hillary Rodham Clinton, former first lady and secretary of state in the 2016 presidential race. The overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination, her campaign received a boost from a strong debate performance two weeks ago.