"Friend" - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“Friend”

“Some “friends” pretend to be friends, but a true friend sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 18:24, Complete Jewish Bible

When I heard someone say recently, “He has no friends”, my heart immediately felt the pain and loneliness that that one must feel at times. I know. I have been there. So have you.

Each of us can recall during our childhood years those times when it seemed like no one liked us when the “kid down the street” had all the friends to laugh and play with, while you sat on your front steps just silently crying to yourself for just one friend.

You too wanted to be a part of the sports team. You too wanted to be invited to the birthday party that most kids in your class were going to. You too just wanted someone to talk with, be around, experience more than being by yourself.

And as we went through middle school and high school the pain of loneliness, even while sitting or walking in the midst of the hundreds of other kids around you, only increased. Why didn’t your clothes, or hair, or skin complexion be as good as they had it?

Even with several people in the company office, or on the highway road crew, or in the congregation gatherings every weekend - it still seems hard to really have a friend to share your joys, your sorrows, those longings you want to share with at least one other person who relates and enjoys what you do. We all want that.

Without a friend, it can really be lonely.

The NASU version of Proverbs 18:24 reads as this, “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Even the rich and famous don’t really have it all. Ever see a man or woman once rich in money, fame, and attraction for a period, and then after they no longer have none of these, what then? Not a pretty picture. For these things, temporal items, once no longer around, do not keep friends after they are no longer available to seemingly once, and now long gone, “friends”.

I remember as a kid many times, especially during the summer months, of being lonely, without a neighborhood kid nearby who could come out and play (no video games then). Nor the friend I had in school, who lived too far away to even ride my Schwinn bike, the one complete with the cool banana seat and the high handlebars which looked like they were fashioned after the Texas steer.

Heh, don’t laugh. You probably had one too!

But during those times I am glad that I knew the Lord, even beginning at the age of 10 and onward. I can still remember on a few occasions when His Holy Spirit would somehow speak to me, though I can’t say I really knew Who it was at times. I just felt comfort in my soul, a sense that I was not really alone.

I had a friend. He was my friend.

With all the rushing madness, and this no stop turning of the planet we live on, it can be pretty easy to not experience the real friendship that we all long for.

But we do have a Friend. We do have Someone that knows the longing in our heart. He is actually the One who put it there, so we would draw near to Him. And not just to draw near, but also to know and love Him, and others, as He knows and loves us.

You may be lonely at times. You may say to yourself, “I don’t have a friend.”

But you do. His name is Jesus. His name is Yeshua.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8, NKJV

Your true Friend is waiting to show Himself to you, to be with you, to let you know He is ever-present, never far off, always wanting you to get to know Him even more.

Give Him that time today. You will be glad you did and will come to know, even more so if you already do, that you have a friend in Jesus.

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

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On Friday night, Aug. 2, 2019, at 7 pm, Strength For Israel will be having our monthly meeting, the 2^nd one to be held in the main auditorium of The Barn, at Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC. Come and celebrate the goodness of our God! Look here: Strength For Israel

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Now Think On This #439 - in the year of our Lord 07.19.19 – “Friend” – Friday, 5:30 am

WATCH: In the Orlando Skies, a Message of Support from Israel By Tazpit Press Service - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

WATCH: In the Orlando Skies, a Message of Support from Israel

By Tazpit Press Service June 20, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“There are friends that one hath to his own hurt; but there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 (The Israel Bible™)

Israeli-American Joseph Zevuloni Shows Israeli Solidarity in Wake of Orlando Massacre. 19.06.2016. (Photo: Erez Kashi/TPS)

By: Joshua Dermer/TPS

An Israeli-American took to the sky over Orlando last Wednesday, just a few days after the massacre at a local gay club by a self-declared ISIS sympathizer, to fly an airplane banner reading: “America! Israel Feels Your Pain.”

After hearing of the massacre that claimed the lives of 49 at the Pulse gay club in Orlando on June 12, south Florida resident Joseph Zevuloni, originally from Jerusalem, sought to “convey a message of solidarity, unity and friendship between the two countries,” Zevuloni said in an interview with Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

“We (Israelis) go through terrorist attacks constantly and we know how it feels,” Zevuloni, who came to America as a teenager, expressed. “Like everybody else I was devastated to learn of the attack. I do a lot of marketing in my business world, so I came up with the idea to put a banner that would circle around those vigils and people visiting all the different sites in Orlando.”

The message was warmly received, with Florida State Senator Darren Soto personally calling to commend Zevuloni for his sentiments.

“The response was overwhelming and beautiful,” he said. “I got hugs, ‘thank you’s and many comments like, ‘This is why we stand with Israel.’ You can see how much love and support the American people have for Israel.”

“We wanted to make our presence known in a very big way and I’m very glad our message resonated that way. I wanted to show the American people that we don’t just sympathize with them, we empathize,” Zevuloni told TPS.

“I wanted to show the American people that they have a best friend and best friends are there when they need help – when they need a shoulder to cry on.”

Naomi Altchouler contributed to this report.

Father Gabriel Naddaf: Christians Should Defend Israel Alongside Jews in IDF by JNS - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Father Gabriel Naddaf: Christians Should Defend Israel Alongside Jews in IDF

By JNS April 3, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“There are friends that one hath to his own hurt; but there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 (The Israel Bible™)

Father Gabriel Naddaf addresses the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Texas Region gala on March 28 in Houston. (Photo: Alan Ross/JNS.org)

Father Gabriel Naddaf, who visited Houston to address the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Texas Region gala on March 28, is best known for his efforts to bolster Arab Christians’ integration into Israeli society through their voluntary enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). For Israeli Jews, by contrast, national service through the IDF or other avenues is mandatory.

Naddaf’s pro-IDF stance is often accosted by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, so much so that the pastor’s son was physically assaulted for that reason in December 2013. Yet Father Naddaf has pushed on with his IDF recruitment efforts, and upon meeting him in person, it’s clear that he exudes Israeli pride. What language other than Hebrew, then, would have been appropriate for this interview?

When Naddaf co-founded the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum in 2012, the average number of Arab Christians enlisting in the IDF was 35 per year. That number skyrocketed to 150 in 2013 and continues to increase annually, albeit at a slower pace year to year, Naddaf says.

“It’s still not that a high a number, but the numbers are rising slowly every year,” he says. “You have to understand that there is a lot of pressure against [IDF enlistment] inside of Arab society, from Muslims and also from Christians who were taught for years that they should stand with the Muslims, with the Arabs, and not with the State of Israel. It’s a long process, but it’s changing. More and more Christians are joining this historic movement. I tell the Christians, ‘At this time, you see what is happening in the Middle East. It is very important to stand with the State of Israel.’ This is the Christians’ home. The Christians should defend, along with the Jews and with the Druze and with the Bedouin, the State of Israel and the Holy Land. Their roots are from the Holy Land, so they have to be on [Israel’s] side.”

FIDF’s Houston gala – during which Naddaf spoke in English – raised more than $500,000 to support the wellbeing of Israeli soldiers. Naddaf’s FIDF-organized United States trip also included a stop in New York City.

Pictured at the March 28 Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Texas Region gala: (back, from left) IDF Brig. Gen. Muni Katz; IDF Lt. Col. David Sonego; FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir; Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gila Klifi-Amir; Father Gabriel Naddaf; and IDF Capt. Gil Aginsky; (front, from left) FIDF Texas Region Gala Dinner chairs Bennet and Robin Greenspan as well as Susan and Max Reichenthal; and FIDF Texas Region Executive Director Scott Kammerman. (Alan Ross)

“I’m coming [to America] and I’m meeting my brothers,” Naddaf tells JNS. “Both of them, the Jews and the Christians, they are my brothers and I hope that I will keep meeting my brothers.”

Scott Kammerman, the executive director of FIDF’s Texas Chapter, says he first met Naddaf – and was inspired to bring him to Houston – at a Christians United for Israel (CUFI) “Night to Honor Israel” program.

“I noticed this Greek Orthodox priest was getting up there, and when [CUFI founder] Pastor [John] Hagee was explaining [Naddaf’s] mission, how he encourages Arabic-speaking Christians to join the IDF, the entire congregation of Pentecostals and evangelicals, completely different Christian denominations, stood up and applauded,” Kammerman tells JNS.org. “I thought to myself, ‘This is so important.’ His mission, and not just his mission, but the mission of all pro-Israel Christians…as Jews, we need to embrace and thank those Christians who are standing side by side with us, yad b’yad (hand in hand).”

Naddaf describes the current state of global terrorism as a case of history repeating itself through a new cast of characters.

“Today’s terror has a cultural and religious background…it’s not a political conflict,” he told JNS. “It’s a religious conflict. For religion, people do believe that it’s worth it for them to die because they’ll receive good things in the world to come…and it’s not just me saying this. The killers are also saying this, that they’re going to kill ‘non-believers,’ so they’re talking about religion and culture.”

Despite the ongoing internal terrorism and regional terror threats Israel faces, the Jewish state is witnessing the parallel development of increasingly positive relations with Arab neighbors like Egypt, which in January stationed an ambassador in Israel for the first time in three years and shares Israel’s goal of defeating Islamist terrorism in Gaza as well as the Sinai Peninsula.

What does an Israeli-Arab Christian leader like Naddaf think about Israel’s ties with Arab states?

“It’s very important for Israel to have relationships with strong Arab leaders, like [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] El-Sisi, who is behaving much better towards the Christians [than his predecessor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi],” Naddaf says. “I am also hearing voices from other leaders in the Middle East who are looking to have better relations with Israel. It’s positive and important, but we have to understand that in the Middle East, there are always ups and downs—including downs when the extremists are taking the lead, like what’s happened with Iran. But every time there is a good leader and a strong leader that looks to cooperate with Israel, it’s very good. It’s also easier if those [Arab] states will become more democratic.”

Given the Islamic State terror group’s conquering of large swaths of Iraq and Syria, JNS asked Naddaf what he thinks Israel can do to help persecuted Mideast Christians. He responds that Israel “can help keep and save Christians in the Middle East in their own home and place.”

“It’s not good to take people out of their homes because of any situation,” he says. “[Christians] should stay in their homeland, and that’s where Israel can help. A Middle East without Christians will be less stable. Without Israel, Christianity around the world would be nothing, because the Christians in the Middle East and Israel are the source of Christianity. Israel and the Middle East, it is where Christianity began. If there are no Christians in the Middle East, then what’s the significance, for example, of Christians in China? It is like if there would be Jews in Germany and France, but not in Israel. Something would be missing.”

As Putin Becomes One of World’s Most Powerful Players, His Surprising Jewish Connection is Revealed - BIN

Vladimir Putin (Photo: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office – Kremlin.ru)

As Putin Becomes One of World’s Most Powerful Players, His Surprising Jewish Connection is Revealed

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz December 2, 2015

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

In the long history of Jews in Russia, the government has rarely been an ally, and often been the source of persecution. Current Russian president Vladimir Putin, however, is a powerful exception, with Jews playing a significant role in his personal history and his inner circle.  With the Russian army a major player in the potentially explosive multi-national puzzle unfolding in Syria, this personal element could become an important, perhaps decisive, factor in how the conflict unfolds.

At the International Assembly of Chabad Representatives in 2007, Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar, often referred to as “Putin’s Rabbi”, told a remarkable story about the Russian leader, which he heard from Putin himself.

“When he was a young child, he grew up in a very poor family. His parents were always out at work. He was fortunate that the next door neighbor was a Hasidic Jewish family, and they always made sure to invite him over,” Lazar explained. “They were extremely kind to him, and he realized that not only were they kind to a child that wasn’t theirs, not only were they kind to a child that wasn’t Jewish, but they were kind to a child in a time and place when it was dangerous to do that.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar lights a menorah during the Jewish Hanukkah holiday. (Photo: Kremlin.ru/ Wiki Commons)

“Thirty years later, because of the gratitude he felt for that family, and for the respect he felt for the Jewish people as a whole, as deputy mayor of the city of Leningrad, he granted official permission to open the first Jewish school in the city.”

The family in Lazar’s story was that of Anatoly Rakhlin, Putin’s high-school wrestling coach, a man he considered to be a father-figure and at whose funeral he cried. Putin described the family in his autobiography, First Person.

“(They were) observant Jews who did not work on Saturdays, and the man would study the Bible and Talmud all day long,” he wrote. “Once I even asked him what he was muttering. He explained to me what this book was and I was immediately interested.”

Putin’s Jewish connection was not an anomaly limited to his childhood memories. In 2005, when Putin made an official visit to Israel, he visited his high-school teacher, Mina Yuditskaya Berliner, who lived in Tel Aviv. He even bought her an apartment in the city when he heard she was living in poor conditions.

Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg were his judo sparring partners under Coach Rakhlin, and remain his close friends to this day. The Rotenberg’s are billionaire contractors, and the relationship is mutually beneficial, with the Rotenberg brothers getting government contracts worth many billions of dollars.

In fact, Putin has surrounded himself with rich and successful Jews, such as Moshe Kantor (net worth $2.3 billion), Lev Leviev (net worth $1.5 billion), Roman Abramovich (net worth $9.1 billion) and Victor Vekselberg (net worth $13.6 billion). They are all close friends and confidantes of the Russian president, and they are all quite openly Jewish.

On the Jewish New Year, celebrated in September, Putin sent a holiday greeting to Rabbi Lazar, wishing the Russian Jewish community a “sweet and happy New Year.”

“For centuries, Jewish values inspired lofty ideals,” Putin wrote. He said that these values enhanced “relations among different peoples…through charity and education, all in the interest of the public good.” In a direct manner, he pledged “fierce opposition to any manifestation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”

Putin puts his money where his mouth is and donated a month of his salary as president to the Jewish Museum in Moscow. His name is proudly listed on the museum wall as a donor.

Perhaps due to his connection with Jews on a personal level, Putin can be said to view Russian Jews as first and foremost good Russian citizens. This has already had international repercussions. When Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September to discuss the developing situation in Syria, the meeting produced positive results, with Putin expressing his strong connection with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) holds a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) at Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on June 25, 2012. (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash90)

“We never forget that in the State of Israel reside many former Soviet citizens, and that has a special implication on the relationship between our two states,” Putin stated. “Every Russian action in the area has always been very responsible. We are aware of the artillery against Israel and we condemn it. “

In 2011, at the  Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in Moscow, Putin said, “Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically a Russian-speaking country. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It’s apparent that more than half of the population speaks Russian.”

In 2014, Putin was one of the few political leaders who supported Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, saying at a meeting with representatives of the Rabbinical Center of Europe to fight anti-Semitism and xenophobia, “I support Israel’s battle that is intended to keep its citizens protected.”

Putin is a powerful player in the explosive situation in the Middle East. There are clearly political and military considerations that cause him to look upon Israel as an ally, but it might be the personal connection he has with Jews that has led him to be the most pro-Israel Russian leader the world has seen in a long time.

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Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/55179/how-russian-jews-helped-shape-life-worlds-most-powerful-leaders-jewish-world/#stxVAzfr7HayGS6d.99