Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
A legendary Israeli storyteller describes three clergymen on a visit to Mount Zion in 1965. When they asked the Jewish curator why the Jews claim Jerusalem as their capital, he replied with a story. When Moses appointed Aaron as High Priest, a man named Korach objected. It was only once Aaron's staff blossomed that the people accepted him as the High Priest, as the blossoming rod symbolized life and vitality. The curator then pointed and said: “In the old Arab section of the city there is desolation, yet here in new Jerusalem, everywhere you look you see life, growth, and vitality. Jerusalem belongs to those who make it bud and blossom, to those who make it live and grow.” Summer heat has caused massive forest fires across Israel. Planting trees is more important than ever!
Join us in exploring Sarona Market Tel- Aviv, an indoor culinary center offering upscale cuisine, style, and architecture for tourists and locals alike.
Amidst scorching temperatures, forest fires have repeatedly ignited all the way from Israel’s most northern locations to her most southern cities, with no less than 55 forested areas burned.
Yesterday's photo featured the courtyard of the Temple Mount, in Hebrew 'ha-kha-tzayr'. On the pilgrimage festivals, hoards of people approached the Temple with their sacrificial offerings converging at this very location.
It’s great to hear from you and make new friends from all over the world. Please send mean email and let me know how you are enjoying Jerusalem365 (don’t forget to say where you are from!).
I recently signed up for your posts and enjoy reading them. Our church people all pray for Israel as we know bad times are ahead. I wish I could move to Israel to help but I am 80 years old so can't - but I pray for Israel! Ann Boulden, a listener in the "outback" of New Mexico
Posted: 03 Aug 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
If you were hungry enough, would you kill and eat zoo animals? To most of us such a notion sounds absolutely insane, but this is actually happening in Venezuela right now. This is a country where people are standing in lines for up to 12 hours hoping that there will be food to buy that day, and where rioting and looting have become commonplace. So even though the U.S. economy is in dreadful shape at this moment, we should be thankful for what we have, because at least we are not experiencing a full-blown economic collapse yet like Venezuela currently is. Black stallions can be some of the most beautiful horses on the entire planet, but things are so desperate down in Venezuela this summer that everything looks like food to some people at this point. What happened at the Caricuao Zoo on Sunday is so horrible that I actually debated whether or not to share it with you. Desperate people do desperate things, and when people get hungry enough they will do things such as this…
Venezuela’s worsening food shortages had tragic consequences for a rare show horse last weekend, when a group of intruders broke into the zoo, pulled the black stallion from its cage, then slaughtered it for meat. Prosecutors say the crime occurred in the small hours of Sunday morning at Caracas’ Caricuao Zoo, when “several people” sneaked into the state-run park under the cover of darkness and busted into the stallion’s pen. The horse, the only one of its kind in the zoo, was then led to a more secluded area and butchered on the spot. Only its head and ribs were left behind in a gruesome pile for zookeepers to find after sunrise.
Unfortunately, this precious animal was not even the first victim at that particular zoo. A few weeks ago, pigs and sheep were the targets…
Sadly, this horse wasn’t the first zoo animal to suffer the effects of Venezuela’s crippling food shortages. Some Vietnamese pigs and sheep were reportedly stolen from the same zoo earlier this month.
Dozens of other zoo animals are slowing starving to death because there is no food available to give to them. In fact, it is being reported that at least 50 animals have died from lack of food at one zoo alone…
At least 50 animals have died in the last six months at the Caricuao zoo in Caracas, Venezuela, due to widespread food shortages that are affecting both man and beast in the socialist nation. Marlene Sifontes, a union leader for employees of state parks agency Inparques which oversees zoos, told Reuters that the zoo lost Vietnamese pigs, tapirs, rabbits and birds after the animals went weeks without eating. Others animals at the zoo are in danger of severe malnutrition. Lions and tigers, which should be on a carnivorous diet, are being fed mango and pumpkin just to get something in their empty stomachs, while an elephant is being fed tropical fruit instead of its usual diet of hay, the union leader said. According to one report, the big cats are being fed slaughtered thoroughbred racehorses from a nearby race track.
If what you have just read hurts your heart, let us not forget that it is not just the animals that are suffering. There are millions of precious people down there that are living on the very edge of starvation as you read this article. Earlier this year, one mayor came forward and admitted to the world that some people are so hungry that they are actually hunting “cats, dogs and pigeons” for food…
Ramón Muchacho, Mayor of Chacao in Caracas, said the streets of the capital of Venezuela are filled with people killing animals for food. Through Twitter, Muchacho reported that in Venezuela, it is a “painful reality” that people “hunt cats, dogs and pigeons” to ease their hunger. People are also reportedly gathering vegetables from the ground and trash to eat as well. The crisis in Venezuela is worsening everyday due in part to shortages reaching 70 percent […] six Venezuelan military officials were arrested for stealing goats to ease their hunger, as there was no food at the Fort Manaure military base.
With each passing week, the situation in Venezuela keeps on getting worse. And even though the United States has made many of the exact same mistakes that Venezuela has made, most of us just assume that what is happening down there could never happen up here. After all, we have “the greatest economy in the world” and we are “the wealthiest nation on the entire planet”, right? Well, actually our economic infrastructure has been systematically gutted by free trade deals and we consume far more wealth than we produce. We have artificially pumped up our standard of living by adding more than 1.1 trillion dollars a year to the national debt since Barack Obama has been in the White House, and one recent poll discovered that 62 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 saved up. But don’t worry. Instead of turning out like Venezuela, the mainstream media insists that the best days for America are right around the corner. In fact, just today I came across a Business Insider article that insisted that soon our biggest economic problem will be that we won’t be able to find enough workers. And Barbra Streisand is so thrilled that Hillary Clinton is going to be our next president that she launched into a rousing rendition of “Happy Days Are Here Again” as she kicked off her farewell tour in Los Angeles. The following account comes from the Drudge Report…
So long sad times Go along bad times We are rid of you at last Howdy gay times Cloudy gray times You are now a thing of the past Happy days are here again The skies above are clear again So let’s sing a song of cheer again… Streisand suddenly interrupted the lyric, realizing a Democrat was currently in the White House! “By the way, I love Obama.” Altogether shout it now There’s no one Who can doubt it now So let’s tell the world about it now Happy days are here again
So what is the truth? Are we going to end up just like Venezuela, or are happy days here once more? Unfortunately, I have a feeling that we are not going to have to wait too long to find out…
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we looked at the Biblical definition of Israel (People, Nation, Remnant) and a few ways in which Christians have been connecting with Israel in our generation. We discovered that, according to Romans 11 and Ephesians 2 and 3, this relationship between Jew and Gentile, Israel and the nations, carries the promise of bringing fullness to God's plan for revival, restoration, and the Second Coming of Yeshua.
In Part 2, we also looked at a few ways of connecting that are good, but miss the fullness. So, how do we achieve this fullness? What can it look like in our generation?
First, if we are looking for a fullness of connection, a full "grafting in," then this should naturally be made with an "Israel" which satisfies all three Biblical parameters.
Thankfully, in our generation we can find such a group of Jews—the Israeli, Messianic Jewish remnant—those who are Jews (People), Israeli (Nation), and the born again, sealed by the Holy Spirit remnant within Israel (Remnant). According to Paul in Romans 11, it is this group of Jews who carry the full deposit of God's covenants and promises to Israel in their bodies and spirits (Rom. 11:1-15).
Three Strand Cord
In Ephesians, Paul describes the mystery of the reconciliation and unity of Jew and Gentile, together in Messiah, as the "One New Man," declaring that this "mystery of Christ" was not made known to previous generations of prophets as it was being revealed in his day (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:1-6). We can say something similar about our day, in which we see three things that bring this mystery into even sharper focus than it was in the 1st century:
1. A believing remnant of Christians among almost every tribe, tongue and nation on the earth.
2. A restored, independent Jewish nation (with Jerusalem as its capital!) after almost 2,000 years of exile.
3. The restoration of a Jesus-believing remnant in the nation of Israel.
The Scriptures promise that when the church from among the nations sees itself in the right, "grafted in" position vis-a-vis the Israeli remnant; and when the Israeli remnant sees that we are, together with the remnant from every nation, "co-heirs, one Body, and partakers of the same covenants/promises," then we will be positioned together for end times fullness—revival, restoration, and the Second Coming. (Rom 11:11-15; Eph. 3:6) Are we ready?
It's already happening, in the following ways:
1. Teaching: We need revelation about these things, and that comes from the Word and the Holy Spirit. We must heed Paul's warning and seek to not be "ignorant" of this mystery (Rom 11:25).
2. Relationship: We are seeing growing fellowship between leaders of the Israeli Messianic remnant and church leaders from around the world. The "One New Man" doesn't mean that every single Jew and Gentile believer will be in significant relationship with one another—the huge number of Christians worldwide and the small number of Messianic Jews simply makes this impossible. This is where the role of leadership in the Body of Christ becomes key: When leaders, who represent communities of believers, come together in prayer, trust, and relationship, then a global One New Man church can be realized.
3. Cooperation: As relationship grows, we are seeing cooperation in prayer and worship conferences, outreach, media, etc.
4. Government: This last one requires a whole article by itself, but we believe that in these days the Lord is restoring a fullness of apostolic and prophetic order and spiritual government to His people. The fullness of this restoration is dependent upon the right alignment with the fullness of the One New Man restoration of relationship between Israel and the nations, in Christ.
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On August 19, modern audiences will encounter a brand-new take on the classic Ben-Hur story most notably captured in the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston. Released by Paramount Pictures, the new film features updated takes on classic scenes such as the chariot race and the gallows ship scene, but also features a stronger evangelistic message and an extended appearance by Jesus Christ (played by Rodrigo Santoro).
Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the "noisiest Christians in Hollywood," helped bring the new film to life. In this interview, the couple explains how the film was made and why the message of forgiveness is so important to the world right now.
DH: How did you get involved in producing Ben-Hur? How did you first find it?
MB: We were invited to be involved by the chairman of MGM, Gary Barber, who had seen The Bible series and Son of God and really felt that with this story having this through-line of the message of Jesus, it would be very beneficial to the filmmaking process to have Roma and I involved. It was an approach from MGM that actually not only led to doing this movie with MGM and Paramount but also into a much bigger relationship with their companies. It's really amazing.
RD: It was the catalyst for a partnership with MGM that we were just so thrilled with and excited by. So it's been amazing. We came in the early stages of script development on the story working with John Ridley, who wrote 12 Years a Slave, who took the script and we were involved each step of the way. Had a great time over in Italy. The film was shot entirely on location in Matera and in Rome.
DH: In light of what's happening in society, how would you say that moviemaking can be a balm of the pain that society feels and hope for the future?
RD: Certainly in our company, we believe it's more valuable to light one candle than curse the darkness. We try to do that through our work and with our work. The themes that are woven throughout Ben-Hur are themes of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of mercy, of loving, of letting go of bitterness and hatred and anger. Through grace, stepping into a place where we can all get along. I think that we've seen such division rise up in our country and separation and it is our hope in some small ways through our work that we can find the bridges between us. Because we are all children of a loving God and we have to look out for each other.
DH: Can you talk about what all went into making a movie like this?
MB: It's a very large budget movie. You see these big summer blockbusters and part of what causes the enormity of the budgets are the special effects and the experience of 3D that young audiences are expecting. As we mentioned to you guys last night, from a Christian audience perspective, it's very important to make content that would stand on its own whether it was Christian focused or not. It needs to stand on its own and be high quality in order to attract a wide audience. If it happens to also have a message of forgiveness and love and redemption and the story of Jesus woven in right, that's actually the right approach. Because you can't be expecting young secular Americans to be attracted to watch a movie that doesn't have the right trailer and the feeling that it's a big action, summer exciting movie. Remember what you're up against, look at the slate of this summer. People only have so much money to go to so many movies and so you've got to offer something pretty epic. Also, it being Ben-Hur, if you're going to reimagine Ben-Hur, you've got to do it for a new generation. It's the same story but it feels more present for a younger generation.
RD: We had a father and son in the audience last night (at a screening) and the father brought with him emotional memories of the 1959 version but his son has never seen that version, has no preconceived idea of what that might be. We refer to the son as the 'Ben-Who' generation and I think there's such an opportunity for this story to reach our young people and through this action adventure movie, bring them to the story of Jesus, bring them to the foot of the cross. As Judah drops to his knees, you know he's been clutching that rock which he picked up when he gave Jesus the water, he picked it up to hit the Roman. He's still got that in his hands and I love that moment. Because I think of all the places myself in my own life when I've held onto stuff, I've held onto disappointment or I've held onto hurt or I've held onto anger. Yet there's always an opportunity in front of the cross to let that go, to lay that down. I think it's such a powerful moment. I think it's pretty spectacular.
DH:Ben-Hur is really the beginning of your partnership with MGM, right?
MB: Yes, it's turned into a situation where we've actually merged all of our companies so now The Voice and Survivor and The Apprentice and Shark Tank all are now MGM shows as a result of the merger. We wouldn't have merged into MGM had it not been for Gary Barber reaching out to us on Ben-Hur, so we're grateful to have had a chance to work on it and thankful for the overall relationship.
RD: The bigger opportunity (is that) Lightworkers Media, which is our production company, has become the faith and family division of MGM. So it just gives us an opportunity to do more, reach more.
MB: And Roma's launching with MGM a channel, a 24-hour family and faith channel, in the next few months. We're working on a name right now.
DH: A.D. The Bible Continues was just fabulous. Any future plans to continue in that regard?
RD: As we are finally locking this picture and we see the Romans with their red capes, we looked at each other yesterday and said "Maybe we won't do any more donkey and sandals for a while." (laughs) With The Bible, Son of God, A.D., Dovekeepers and now Ben-Hur. They're all great stories and Ben-Hur is such a great story.
MB: I'm looking forward to rereading the version that Carol (Wallace) has written now with updated language. I don't know if you've ever read Ben-Hur but it's hard going. Incredible writer, but it's amazing how it starts with the three Magi. I never knew that from seeing the original movie.
DH: Other companies have tried biblical epics and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So why is it important for you to partner with the faith community on projects like this and bring them alongside you?
MB: I think we learned from the beginning when we started The Bible, and one of the first things we decided to do was engage several faith consultants. We thought about 5-6. We ended up with about 40 faith consultants across different denominations, Catholic, Protestant, across all different segments of Christianity. That was really valuable what we learned from that. We also were involved with the Jewish community on The Bible. We allowed everyone to air what their ideal scenario would be and when there were things that theologically maybe different, to allow us to find something that felt wasn't offensive to any one group. We've learned through that experience and it's not a theoretical college idea, this is a practical business approach that we fulfilled and we'll keep doing that. Then it went on to Son of God and then A. D. Obviously with Acts, it was a whole new set of questions. And now with Ben-Hur, we've involved the faith community.
RD: Also, with being Christians ourselves, telling the story accurately was important to us. There's a little bit more freedom in this story because it's a fictional story. The story of Ben-Hur is a fiction story, although woven through it are important moments, a life-changing moment for the character when he encounters Jesus Christ. Ultimately through grace, his life is transformed and his life is changed and then through that grace, it alters everyone's life so even toward the end of the movie you see Sheik Ilderim, played by Morgan Freeman, you see a change in his heart, you see the hardness in his heart when he comes lovingly and rescues the mother and the sister. You see the mother and the sister healed through mercy and you see Judah's heart restored and then by extension, Messala. It's a beautiful coming together in the rain, the healing rain as it were, as the blood of Christ is washed into the earth and the whole land is washed clean. That's where the fictional story met a story of faith. But we look at other examples of films of the last few years that didn't honor the story of faith, that didn't tell the story as accurately and the movies ended up not being good and not being supported. Not being accepted.
DH: How does your partnership affect your family? Is it ever hard at the end of the day to go home and just be Mark and Roma?
RD: When you're married to an Irish girl, you have to know when to keep your mouth shut and stand in the back of the room.
RD: We do really well together considering we spend more time together than most people do and we often joke but it's also true, it's a miracle we're still speaking to each other. My girlfriends always say to me 'I couldn't even do yard work with my husband, I'd hit him over the head.' But we do well. We have respect for each other and we love what we do. {eoas}
Dewayne Hamby is a longtime journalist covering faith-based music, entertainment, books, and the retail industry. He is also the editor of the White Wing Messenger, director of communications for the Church of God of Prophecy, and author of the new book Gratitude Adjustment. Connect with him at www.dewaynehamby.com or on twitter - @dewaynehamby.
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Some good news this week -- the number of terrorist attacks inside Israel has plunged from a high of 70 last October to only six in July.
"The number of terrorist attacks in Israel last month was one of the lowest in 10 months," reports the Jerusalem Post. "There were six attacks in July, according to the IDF, a drastic fall from the 70 seen last October. Since the current wave of terrorism began, 41 Israelis and foreigners and about 250 Palestinians have died."
"A senior IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the July number shows that recent tactics used by the security system are working," the Post noted. "These include a combination of precise intelligence from the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) with daily and nightly IDF operations to distinguish terrorists from the rest of the population in the West Bank. The operations allow the majority of Palestinians, including 100,000 holders of Israeli work permits, to continue with their day to day routines."
The article further noted that "the success in pinpointing and stopping terrorism, most of which has come from 'lone wolf' attackers, will be a major issue brought up by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot during his visit this week to the United States. Eisenkot is a guest of Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is the third meeting between the two since Eisenkot entered his position a year and a half ago. Dunford has been a guest of the IDF in Israel twice."
Thank the Lord for His grace and mercy on both Jews and Arabs and other nationalities here. Thanks, too, to all of you who in the U.S., Canada, and around the world who continue to faithfully and consistently pray for the peace of Jerusalem in obedience to Psalm 122. The Lord is hearing and answering these prayers, and we have much for which to be grateful. Let's keep praying -- and praying especially for those who have been wounded over the past year, and for the families and friends of those who have been killed and are still grieving.
If Israeli Jews are such blood-thirsty haters of all things Arab, then why do Palestinian Arabs prefer working for them?
Palestinian Authority TV acknowledged as much in recent broadcasts of the program Workers’ Affairs, which were translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
A number of Palestinian laborers were interviewed, and openly stated that both pay and work conditions for Arabs are far better with Israeli employers than with fellow Palestinians.
“The lack of monitoring of [Palestinian] owners of companies and factories and their exploitation of workers is what has forced people to Israel, to work and build in Israel,” said Qassem Abu Hadwan, a laborer from Hebron. “Workers have to go to Israel, because no one [in the PA] gives them what they deserve for their work.”
Indeed, figures released by the Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that “the average [daily] wage for employees in the West Bank was 94.1 shekels, and 61.9 shekels in the Gaza Strip, while the average for employees in Israel and the settlements was 198.9 shekels.”
Israeli-Arab Attorney Khaled Dukhi of Worker’s Hotline explained that the situation is even worse for female Palestinian workers, who have to pay exorbitant fees to “middlemen.”
“In practice, he [the Palestinian employer] takes 50%, 60%, and even 70% of her salary. The middleman steals two thirds of her salary,” noted Dukhi.
There are currently some 120,000 Palestinian Arabs working legally in Israel and the Jewish settlements, with thousands more seeking work permits or making their way across the Green Line illegally.
It is difficult to imagine how an independent Palestinian state would survive economically when so little of its labor force wants to work there.
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