Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news, and messages by Steve Martin.
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My heart yearns for the glory of the Lord Jesus to be revealed in the earth, touching the hearts and souls of men, women and children in each and every nation. As we see the days become darker, we believe that the Lord God of Israel will show Himself strong, and prove that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, as He says He is.
I wrote this book for you who also long to walk in strong faith, courage and commitment to the end, for whatever the Lord has planned and purposed for you and I. Together, as the Body of Christ, and the glorious Bride that we will become, we will one day see His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The Gospel, the Good News of salvation, will be declared, and that which is just and good will for all eternity overcome the evil one. I sincerely believe we are living in the end of days, as prophetic words have been rapidly fulfilled since the re-birth of Israel in 1948. Jesus Himself had said that when we see the fig tree budding, we know that the time is near.
This book, my 10th published in the last three years (all between 2013-2015) and before my 61st birthday, is very special to me. I sense it is something the Lord put on my heart to do several months ago, giving it that “urgency of getting it done and out there” feel as I wrote.
Originally these chapters were Now Think On This messages. It was amazing to me how many were done in September and October of 2015 alone, as the Holy Spirit would speak a word or sentence to me, and I would write soon after. I am truly grateful for His impartation, and acknowledge Jesus (Yeshua), my Lord and Savior, above all.
The photos I have included in the book are primarily ones I took (exceptions noted), both to document history and to share another way the Lord also speaks to His Body. Capturing moments of the Holy Spirit action, especially in the two “fire” photos, were exciting. In both cases I wasn’t even aware of it until they were “developed”.
I trust this book will both encourage you and cause you to re-commit yourself - to know the Lord’s will for your life, do all you can to allow Him to direct your steps, and be the light in these dark days we desperately need and have been called upon by the Lord to be. I am with you, arm in arm! Ahava (love in Hebrew) and shalom (peace),
Steve Martin
Founder, President
Love For His People, Inc.
And to go along with all this, check out my new book END OF DAYS - available in paperback and Kindle. Buy here: Amazon
The speaker was Gabriel Naddaf (center of photo), a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and spiritual leader of the Nazareth-based movement encouraging young Arabic-speaking Christians to join the Israel Defense Forces.
Naddaf was standing before the European Parliament for an emergency session on the recent limitations being imposed on Israeli produce in European markets.
In his speech, Father Naddaf said that the decision to exclusively mark Israeli products in Europe is racist and anti-Semitic, whether this is being done openly or quietly on the side. “This is anti-Semitism at it’s worse,” Naddaf exclaimed, noting that singling out products made in Israel will hurt all the citizens of Israel, Arab and Jew alike. But most of all it will damage the Palestinians, as tens of thousands of Palestinian families earn their living from the very factories being boycotted by the Europeans.
“Singling out Israeli products betrays the very core of Europe’s Christian heritage, and is yet another sign of the weakening Christian values in Europe,” Naddaf told the parliamentarians.
The priest added:
“While Europe is busy specially marking Israeli products, the lands throughout the Middle East and Africa are being drenched daily with the blood of Christians. In the Middle East there is only one country, just one where Christians can live in security, where they can prosper, and where there have freedom of religious expression. Here Christians are able to practice their religious traditions, can be elected to parliament and where they have full democratic rights. It is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing and prospers.
"This is the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel – and we, the Christians, must protect her, and protect the freedoms we Christians have here in Israel. We Christians should be protecting this holy land, which is the source of the Christian faith.”
In closing, Naddaf stated that he will continue to fight against any and all attempts to harm or weaken Israel in any way. He promised to also continue the fight against any attempt by anyone to damage the Israeli economy, or to sour relationships between Christians and Jews in Israel.
Father Naddaf supports the full integration of Arabic-speaking Christians in all of Israel’s institutions, including the army and national service. As a result of that, he has received threats by other Israeli Arabs, even politicians. His oldest son, Jubran, was physically attacked on December 2013 for the activities of his father. On the other hand, Naddaf has received the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, members of the Knesset and other Israeli officials.
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President Obama gave his weekly address on Saturday. Shockingly he presented the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terror attacks as victims and said that we need to do more to prevent others from falling prey. He presents ‘radicalization’ as something that can be caught, like a virus. We address this in our latest video. We must be in prayer for America and plead for revival in the Middle East!
Thank you Ron Cantor! we appreciate and support your work!
A group of Orthodox rabbis have issued a public statement calling Christianity a gift to the world.
"We acknowledge that Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations," read the statement published by the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Israel.
This comes after nearly two millennia of mutual hostility and alienation between Jews and Christians.
The statement, titled "To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians," has been signed by more than two dozen Orthodox rabbis so far, including those from the U.S. and the chief rabbis of two European countries.
It calls for cooperation between Jews and Christians to address the moral and religious challenges of our times.
"We seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters. Jews and Christians must work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era," the statement read.
While the group wants Jews and Christians to work together, it acknowledged the differences between the faiths.
"Our partnership in no way minimizes the ongoing differences between the two communities and two religions," the rabbis said. "We believe that G-d employs many messengers to reveal His truth, while we affirm the fundamental ethical obligations that all people have before G-d that Judaism has always taught through the universal Noahide covenant."
Jonathan Cahn Reveals the Shocking Biblical Roots of ISIS
As the Islamic State threatens the world with unthinkable acts of violence, it troubles many to consider what the future may hold.
But to understand their power and perhaps even their evil, one must first look into the depths of history.
According to the BBC, the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore his allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida in Iraq in 2004. After his death in 2006, al-Qaida created the Islamic State, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became its driving force.
However, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says ISIS roots go back much further—to the Bible.
"ISIS you almost could say ... is the remanifestation of the ancient Assyrians, I mean, down to the land," Cahn says. "Most likely, even more than al-Qaida, they literally most likely even more strongly have the blood of the Assyrians in them."
Assyrians specialized in mutilation, Cahn says, and they would display the bodies to make people surrender.
"That's exactly what ISIS does."
And there are more connections between the ancient Assyrians and today's terrorists.
"These are literally, it's a stronger thing going on and it's more evil," Cahn says. "A year ago, they took over the city of Mosul," which was the biblical site of the city of Nineveh.
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I remember years ago watching the popular 1970’s rapture movie, “Thief in the Night,” with my two oldest children. A week later they came home early from school and their mother and I were not there. They told us later how frightened they became thinking we’d been raptured and left them behind.
That’s when I realized something wasn’t kosher about a teaching that could create such fear in children. Especially when you add in all the chaos that would ensue when pilots and bus drivers suddenly disappear.
As most know, this Rapture teaching was popularized by John Nelson Darby in the early eighteen hundreds. To his credit he departed from Replacement Theology after seeing the prophets had promised a future restoration of Israel. But he stumbled in believing the Church and Israel would remain two separate people of God with different inheritances. He believed Christians would go to Heaven and the Jews would inherit the Promised Land.
To fulfill his understanding he taught Jesus would come secretly like a “thief in the night” to snatch away all Christians before the Tribulation, no matter how worldly, and bring us to Heaven. The Jews, after being brought to repentance as a result of the Tribulation, would set up their Davidic kingdom in Israel to rule the world for the Millennium.
But Darby’s theology was fundamentally flawed because it divided the body of Messiah in half based on ethnicity. For we know “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua” (Gal 3:28). He did not see God had only one kingdom, one people, and that all who were chosen in Messiah will reign with him here on earth!
As for Yeshua coming suddenly upon us as a thief at night, that is the last thing a believer would want to experience. Paul’s warning couldn’t be clearer: “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night… but you brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief...so then, LET US NOT SLEEP AS THE OTHERS DO, but let us be alert and sober” (1Thess. 5:2-4,6).
It is the inattentive, unprepared believer deceived by a world system with its strong religious component, along with the unbelievers, who will be caught napping. Yeshua likened that believer to the head of the house, who, if he had stayed awake, “would not have allowed his house to be broken into” (Matt: 24:42-44). The same warning was given to the dozing saints at Sardis: “If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Rev. 3:3-5).
The one thing we know for sure about the Lord’s coming is we won’t know for sure when he is coming. Even he didn’t know when he’d be back! Pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib? Who knows? Only the Father. That’s why we are “to be dressed in readiness and keeps our lamps lit” (Luke 12:35) – listening daily to His voice, and walking in love, faith and obedience.
Although we won’t know the day or hour, multiple signs will alert us “that he is near, even right at the door” (Matt 24:33). Yes, the worldly ones will be taken by surprise “as in the days of Noah,” but Noah and his family were literally on board with it all before God shut the door. In the same way, Peter tells us to expect a salvation “ready to be revealed in the last time… and to fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:5,13).
Darby was right that the Lord will come for his own before he returns to visit fiery judgment upon the nations and sets up his kingdom. But this salvation will not beam us up to Heaven. Nor will it be for carnal Christians. Nor will it be in secret. It will be for those who are ready, and will take place in front of the whole world as a witness to the truth about Yeshua. “The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:10).
I believe it will be seen as nothing less than the long-awaited restoration of Ephraim with Judah in Messiah. “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand, the remnant of His people who will remain” (Isa. 11:11)
But nobody is going anywhere until “the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed” (2 Thess. 2:4).
Make no mistake: Hanukkah and Christmas are connected through Yeshua.
Israel: All the Feasts Tie Into the Gospel
Hanukkah is the final feast in the Jewish calendar and tells a remarkable story of the deliverance of Israel from the control of the Ancient Greeks in 164 B.C. The Seleucid Dynasty had assumed rule of the area through a political and military struggle after Alexander the Great had died.
In their wake, they sought to assimilate the people into their Hellenistic culture (ancient Greek culture or ideals) and way of life with no exceptions, dealing ruthlessly with anyone who would oppose them. Had they been completely successful, they could have threatened the very environment that brought Messiah into the world.
Not only did they ransack the holy temple of God, desecrating all of its contents, but they actually sacrificed a pig to their Greek god Zeus on the temple altar, which naturally repulsed all of the Jews, owing to their strict dietary laws, where the pig was considered most unclean.
The Jews were outraged, and a priest named Mattathias and his five sons took up against several of their soldiers and killed them, which sparked a revolt. Being completely outnumbered, they utilized guerilla-style warfare tactics, first in the hill country and then throughout the land, which took some time. They met with surprising success, and their faith in the God of Israel inspired the nation to take back their own country, despite the odds that were against them.
In the month of Kislev (December), they reached Jerusalem and took back the temple. In restoring the menorah, which symbolized the light of God, they only had enough oil to last for one day, as it took eight days to prepare new oil. However, the oil miraculously lasted for eight days. This event demonstrated two miracles of God: the first to deliver His people and the second to lighten His temple.
The temple was restored and rededicated to God, and a new holiday was established called Hanukkah (Hebrew for dedication) to remind Israel of these miracles, the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah was not one of the original Jewish feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23, as it had not happened yet. However in light of its significance, its prophetic picture through Daniel, as well as God's intervention, it became part of the Jewish calendar and has been celebrated ever since by Jews and some Christians all over the world.
Yeshua/Jesus Is Our Hanukkah
Isn't it fascinating that the very last miracle recorded in the Jewish calendar is a miracle of light to foreshadow and tell us of the great Light that was to come into the world? In fact Yeshua/Jesus celebrated Hanukkah and forever connected its significance by reflecting His own Messiahship through this celebration (John 10:22-39). Isn't it interesting that in all the feasts, we can see the character of God's love and light for mankind? What a connection for us as believers and especially toward our Jewish friends and neighbors in our witness and love towards them.
Nowhere is this clearer than through the Hanukkah celebration that we see the light of the world. Scripture tells us that God knows the beginning from the end, so don't you think He knew that the nations would also celebrate His birth and coming during this same season? So that the festival of Hanukkah, like many of the other feasts is actually a prophetic foreshadow of Yeshua/Jesus Himself and the Christmas season that celebrates His birth.
As a result, the two holidays work beautifully together in tandem to lift up God's Son upon the earth and are intricately linked, from the old to the new. And Christians everywhere, like the Jews, can enjoy this wonderful holiday.
Let's investigate this a little further and take a careful look at the three chapters in John's Gospel that surround the Hanukkah Feast. In John chapter 9, Yeshua/Jesus gives sight to a blind man that should in itself be enough testimony for the Jewish leadership to acknowledge His sovereignty. But before the miracle has even taken place see what He says, "I am the Light of the World" and here He makes a prophetic proclamation of who He is(John 9:5).
On Hanukkah in John Chapter 10, Yeshua/Jesus went into the temple area giving perhaps one of the only teachings where He actually refers to Himself as the Messiah,"I and the Father are one" (verse 30). Here He asks the Pharisees to review His credentials by acknowledging the miracles He had performed to provide authenticity as to who He said and claimed to be in the flesh.
Then in the very next chapter (11), Yeshua performs perhaps His greatest of all miracles by raising Lazarus from the dead, which also acts a prophetic picture of what He was about to do with His own life through His resurrection. "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. To the Jew first and then to the Gentile — Do you believe this?" Yeshua asked(John 11:25).
There is no greater miracle in this world than the gift of God's one and only Son, and so there is also a beautiful connection that exists between Hanukkah and Christmas, as Hanukkah truly foretells of the great Light that was to come into the world and Christmas celebrates that Light. To both Jew and Gentile alike, as believers in Yeshua/Jesus, we have liberty to celebrate these holidays that remind us of God's faithfulness and deliverance to His people.
For Jewish believers to enjoy fellowship with their Gentile family during the Christmas season and for Gentile believers to have fellowship with their Jewish family lighting the Hanukkah candles. What matters most is that Yeshua/Jesus would be lifted up that He would draw all men and women to Himself, Amen.
How To Observe Hanukkah
Hanukkah is observed using a menorah, which is a candlestick that holds nine candles. One for each day of the miracle and the ninth, called the Shamash, which actually means attendant or servant and of course, who is the great servant, but Yeshua/Jesus Himself, who gives light to all of us.
On each of the days, the Shamash candle is lit and used to light the other candles, increasing one each day until the last day, when they are all lit. Gifts are given on each night and chocolate money is given to the children, known as Hanukkah Gelt. Special foods are eaten, usually those cooked in oil to commemorate the miracle, such as Latkes (potato pancakes), and doughnuts and a traditional game is played with a dreidel, a four sided spinning toy.
May His great light and His servant's heart lighten us and cause us to show His presence and His glory to the world that these generations would know the truth about God and that it would set them free to follow Him.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, everyone!
Grant Berry is a Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus and author of The New Covenant Prophecy and The Ezekiel Generation. He has founded Reconnecting Ministries with the specific focus to help the church reconnect spiritually to Israel and considers it vital to the kingdom of God in the last days. His website is reconnectingministries.org.
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