Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains

Friday, June 02, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

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Topics:

Israel , Christians

As I shared in the two previous articles, I see this “parable” unfolding right before our eyes today. I said the Scriptures revealed that God’s ultimate plan was to unite passengers from the two trains, the Jewish Train and the Gospel Train, when both pulled into the Jerusalem station after their centuries-long journey. Which I believe they have. And that Yeshua was about to get off here and we are to follow.

Sadly, Scripture also reveals that many on the Gospel Train won’t get off. They will remain seated and then suddenly find themselves heading off into the outer darkness… where “there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:5). Which will show they never were his followers to begin with. Or if they were, they have been deceived.

How could this happen?

Over the centuries, conductors had arisen on the Gospel Train who began to spiritualize the train’s purpose. The passengers were not told of the Jewish roots of their faith. Nor encouraged to believe “they were Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Nor told of the glorious reunion in the promised land at journey’s end. But instead were taught the train ride itself was a new religion for Gentile believers, and that our final destination was Heaven. Even the gospel message was altered. And soon many were allowed to board the train who did not even know Yeshua.

Yet God’s spirit was still drawing those who were His to Messiah in every generation. And the train traveled on.

Things on the Jewish Train, however, were quite different. Those passengers never lost sight of their identity or their train’s ultimate destination. They never stopped hoping that “next year” it would arrive again in their beloved Jerusalem. They just couldn’t see how it was possible. So when it miraculously arrived in 1948 they were as amazed as the rest of the world. But the idea they would one day merge with the passengers on the other train was inconceivable. They remembered all too well previous encounters with what had become called “the Christian Train.” And those memories were painful.

But this is a new day. God has been hard at work in the hearts of many of Yeshua’s true followers to love and support Israel. And to repent of the times we did not intercede to help those on the Jewish Train when we could have. As a result, this recent unsolicited outpouring of Christian love has caused many Jews to have a change of heart about the people on the Gospel Train. And a new foundation of trust and good will has been laid to prepare us all for the coming reunion.

Although many lovers of Zion on the Gospel Train are now ready to disembark, the doors haven’t officially opened. God is giving all his regathered sheep time to awaken and realize this is our last stop. And to “come out of her My people” (Rev. 18:4). So, until the doors open we must wait. When they do, I believe it will be a divinely orchestrated event (Isa. 52:10-12) that will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who Messiah is. And who Israel is.

But until then we are instructed to “take up the full armor of God, so that we will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). But above all, be ready!

The doors will open right on time.

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples

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Refreshment - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Refreshment

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes." (Jeremiah 31:25, NASU)

We strive very hard to get refreshed. After a long, hard day at work or in the home, or once we have completed a difficult task that we dreaded and fretted about for days or longer is done, we seek to get refreshed in mind, spirit and body. Be it by watching the latest movie blockbuster, our favorite weekly TV show on the DVR, or just sitting on the front porch during a cool, spring day, if the neighbor isn’t mowing his yard, we seek refreshment. It is something that is necessary.

A popular saying in church sermons the past few years has been “getting our batteries recharged.” Though that seems a little crude to me, I get it. Daily grinds wear us out – we may be giving more than receiving - and recovering from them is important. Without regular refreshings, we would get burned out fast.

I recall the many Scriptures telling the times when Jesus would get alone, pray, and tap into the strength His Father gave Him each time He did. With the multitudes pressing in on Him throughout His daily teaching and ministry, He knew the importance of that time, and I would be certain He most appreciated it when He took that time.

“After he had sent the crowds away, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night came on, and he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23, Complete Jewish Bible)

Our mind needs refreshing. Our body certainly needs refreshing. Most critical of all – our spirit needs refreshing. With the spiritual forces coming at us from all directions, seeking to “steal, kill and destroy”, we need to have our spirit given a daily boost with the grace and enthused power of the Holy Spirit.

For myself, morning prayer allows the Lord the time to prepare me for the day ahead. Praying in the spirit builds up and replenishes the weary soul. Throughout the day, maybe at a lunch break, I will quietly pray in tongues, particularly as I sense a burden needing attention.

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” (Jude 20-21, NASU)

However you get refreshed, I urge you to have the quiet time you’ve so often meant to experience, but kept putting it off. You will find that when you give that a priority, strength for the rest will be more known. You’ll be thankful you do.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 04.01.17 - #278 – “Refreshment” – Saturday 4.30 pm

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Why Satan's Attacks Against You Seem More Ferocious Than Ever - JOYCE TILNEY CHARISMA NEWS

Win the battle you stepped into when you became a Christian. (Brook Cagle)

Why Satan's Attacks Against You Seem More Ferocious Than Ever

 2/11/2017 JOYCE TILNEY  CHARISMA NEWS

I hear so many Christians say, "I'm under attack!" as though they were surprised. As a Christian, born again by the Spirit of God, you were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You entered a war zone! Yes, you live in a constant state of war between evil and good, God and Satan.

When the Lord delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and told them about the promised land, He told them He would not give them the land all at once. There were too many enemies in the land that they didn't know how to fight. They would be consumed by the enemy. He was protecting them. He said, "As you increase," I will drive out the enemies, and you will inherit the land (Ex. 23:29-30)

At the same time, He kept them in the wilderness. He directed their footsteps with a cloud and fire. He fed them with manna. He expects us to grow in wisdom and stature just as Jesus did when He lived in this earth.

There is nothing new under the sun! When we read and study the Bible, which was written for our learning, God is showing us how to fight. First, we must realize even though we are living in this world, it is a spiritual battle we are fighting. Satan is your enemy. It is not your husband, neighbor or co-workers. You have been given all the spiritual weapons you need to overcome in this world. First John 5:4 tells us, "For whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith." The battle has already been won. You just have to enforce it in your life!

I love to study the women in the Bible. God spoke to my heart while I lived in Scotland and said, "Teach women today from women of yesterday." He gave me Romans 15:4: "For whatever was previously written was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Why are you reading the Bible? A sense of Christian duty? To impress others? We are to read and study to show ourselves approved and to grow in wisdom to build our faith so that we can overcome every dart the enemy tries to shoot in our direction.

Every time you open your Bible, you are equipping yourself and strengthening yourself for the battle for your life, your family and your nation. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17)! The Word of God has to be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit to become alive and active in your life. When you speak the Word that is alive in you, you defeat Satan as Jesus did coming out of the wilderness (Luke 4:4).

When I study the life of Deborah, I see a wife, mother, intercessor and prophetess. At the time of Deborah, there was moral outrage, lawlessness and violence. This resulted in a society of destruction and chaos. A permissive lifestyle ran rampant in the land. Does this sound familiar?

I believe the Lord is extending an invitation to women of God today who are willing to stand up and use their God-given power and influence to change the world they live in.

Deborah did not try to overshadow Barak; she understood her call as a mother in Israel and men and women were drawn to her. Her prophetic anointing flowed through her to release divine strategies for the day. When we walk in our call as Deborah did with the heart of God for her family and nation, we will receive the same favor.

God needs Deborahs today to use their influence to change this nation. Too many women are suffering from rejection and pain from tradition and religious beliefs. They are walking wounded in their souls and need to be set free to follow their heart. God is raising up women in all walks of life to deliver His divine strategies and wisdom to discern the times and seasons. Are you willing? Believe me, embracing the call of God is not an easy lifestyle. If you are not ready for resistance, you are not ready to step out. We live in a war zone. God will not take us to the front lines until He knows we are equipped and ready. 

Joyce Tilney is the founder of Women of God Ministries, teaching women today from women of yesterday. She is an author and Bible teacher. Visit wogministries.com for more information. Her new book and workbook, Why Diets Don't Work – Food Is Not the Problem, share her testimony of how the Lord helped her lose 88 pounds. There is nothing impossible with Him. Visit the website: whydiets.com for information.

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What does the Bible really say about taking in Syrian Refugees? Herman Cain

Published by: Dan Calabrese on Monday January 30th, 2017

What does the Bible really say about taking in Syrian Refugees?
Herman Cain Jan. 30, 2017

Not what the left, the media and quite a few Christians would have you think.

It's always problematic when you look to the mainstream media and other left-wingers for an understanding of what Scripture says. To listen to them, you'd think Jesus was concerned with little more than sending checks to the poor, installing solar panels on roofs and surrendering to any and all foreign enemies.

That's why it's been easy for those who only crack a Bible when they're looking for something to justify an agenda to claim that "Christian compassion" demands we take in Syrian refugees without regard for the potential threat of ISIS terrorists who slip in among the crowd.

Is that what the Bible actually says? Of course not, and David French does a nice job of getting the conversation started over at National Review:

Indeed, Scripture draws a clear line between the responsibility of the individual and the role of the state. Individuals are to forswear vengeance, leaving justice to earthly rulers as God’s “agents of wrath” who bring “punishment on the wrongdoer.” The state has an affirmative responsibility to protect its citizens, even to the point of bringing a sense of “terror” to those “who do wrong.” There is no contradiction between personally welcoming the “strangers” among us while our leaders endeavor to protect us from a genocidal terrorist force that uses refugee status as a shield and disguise to perpetrate brutal attacks against innocent civilians.

This is not to say that Scripture creates a paradigm of compassionate individuals and heartless governments. Throughout the Bible, entire nations — not just individuals — are condemned for injustice, including unjust treatment of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. But to say that the only way to meet that standard is to open our doors to migrants when we know our enemy intends to plant terrorists within their ranks is once again to read far too much into Scripture.
 

French is quoting Romans 13, which lays out clear lines of responsibility for governments - particularly the imperative to protect the innocent from wrongdoers. Now that might seem to contradict Luke 10, in which Jesus teaches the importance of being a neighbor to someone in need, even if that someone comes from an enemy camp.

But there is actually no contradiction. As liberals often do, they take directives aimed at individuals in the Bible and try to make them the responsibility of the state. More than that, they insist that the only way the directive can be fulfilled is in the manner they prefer.

What was extraordinary about the actions of the Samaritan in Jesus' parable is that Samaritans and Jews typically would not associate with each other, yet in this case the Samaritan who found the Jew beaten alongside the road picked him up, tended to his wounds and brought him to an inn - where he instructed the innkeeper to look after him and even paid the bill. And yes, that is absolutely the sort of love and compassion to which we are called as Christians, even when we're talking about someone we typically regard as an enemy.

But it's important to recognize a couple of things. First, the Samaritan did not take the man into his own home. He paid the bill, but he did not in any way put himself at risk of harm from the man. Even more importantly, the Samaritan made a free choice of his own will to help the man.

What the left wants to do in the case of the Syrian refugees is use the power of the state to force an entire nation to welcome people into their midst without any effort to ensure that members of ISIS with evil intentions were filtered out. That's not compassion. That's national suicide. And if you think God wants nations to commit suicide, just skim through the Old Testament and consider the many instructions He gave to Israelite kings to attack foreign armies - even killing and plundering those they conquered. When it came to warfare, God instructed the kings of Israel to be pretty ruthless in dealing with their enemies.

The Syrian refugee situation is a tricky conundrum because there surely are many among the group who have no evil intentions and genuninely need help. America should want to help. But there are ways to do that without risking our own security. It would make more sense for them to be resettled in majority Muslim countries anyway, and we can do a lot of things to support that process.

But the responsibility of government is to protect its people from harm, and the government is well aware of the fact that previous terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by people who slipped in as refugees or asylum-seekers. Knowing full well that this one of the enemy's tactics, and doing absolutely nothing to prevent them from succeeding at it, is not "Christian compassion." It's a dereliction of duty.

We can help and we should. But not by putting ourselves in jeopardy. If individuals are called by the Lord to take a risk and help a potentially dangerous person, then those individuals should trust the Lord. But for the leaders of our nation to decide that we all have to take that risk is neither scriptural nor moral. It's just plain wrong.

Key events in the Middle East - ONE FOR ISRAEL

Dr Erez Soref President of  ONE FOR ISRAEL  Shalom! The world is focused on political events like the summit in Paris, making decisions about the future of the Middle East. The situation is complicated and painful on all sides, and it's an important time to be praying for the area. Yeshua cares more deeply for each Jew and Arab than any politician or activist ever could. Peace will only come through the Messiah, and it is God's plans that will ultimately succeed, as prophesied in the Scriptures.  Meanwhile, our friend Joel Rosenberg, a best-selling author, tells the big story which is not being broadcast on the news: God is powerfully at work in the Land! From Joel Rosenberg's Blog: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." - the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:16) With so much bad news in the U.S., Israel, Russia and around the world these days, I thought it might be good to kick off 2017 with some very good news. Here, then, is an update to a column I published on September 22, 2015 about "a big, untold story"... "Despite the stigma in the Jewish community against consider the claiming of Jesus - [evangelistic] videos have continued to go viral and are surging beyond anything I would have imagined." "For reasons I cannot fully explain, Jews are suddenly searching for answers to the deepest and most important questions concerning life and death and God and atonement and eternity, in numbers unprecedented in history." Continue reading... Yet another Israeli testimony - watch Dan explain how he, as a self-confessed science geek, found his Messiah!  ANCIENT MENORAH AND CROSS FOUND TOGETHER IN A CAVE Just over a week ago, some hikers were exploring a cave in Israel, and stumbled (as seems to be the case quite often around here) across an archaeological treasure! Ancient etchings of a cross and a menorah, right beside each other, thought to be thousands of years old. Ido Meroz, a member of the Israel Caving Club, explained, "Just before we were about to return we suddenly noticed an engraving that at first glance seemed to be a menorah. When we realized this is an ancient depiction of a menorah, we became very excited". Continue reading... A LITTLE WORD WITH A BIG MEANING Have you ever wondered where the alphabet comes from? The first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are "aleph" and "bet". But it is the first letter and the last letter that are used to denote the alphabet in shorthand... as we might write "ABC" for our alphabet, in Hebrew, "את" can be used: the first letter "aleph" (א) and the last letter, "tav" (ת). Together these two letters spell a little word, "et" (את), that cannot be translated into any language. It's basically a way to link verbs and specific nouns, in a way unique to Hebrew. But this tiny word has a special purpose. We can see in the very first sentence of the Bible how full of meaning it can be. Continue reading... FOLLOW US:

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