Finding Grace in Your Season of Transition - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA NEWS

Transition can be stressful, but it can also be exciting in anticipation of what new things God has in store for you. (iStock photo )

Finding Grace in Your Season of Transition

8/31/2016 J. LEE GRADY  CHARISMA NEWS

This week my wife and I packed our belongings and made the biggest move of our lives. After living in the Orlando area for 24 years we pulled up our roots and relocated to Georgia. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done because I'm a sentimental guy who gets very attached to people and places. Yet I found extra grace for this transition because I knew I was following the Holy Spirit's leading.

Counselors say relocation is one of the most stressful things in life—ranking right up there with the death of a loved one. It weighs us down because it's a huge combination of stressors—selling a house, buying or renting a new house, hiring movers, leaving friends and stepping into the dark unknown. Not fun stuff, in my opinion.

Yet many people who are reading this are about to step into a transition—or are already in the middle of one. I have taken much comfort from the fact that the Bible is full of people who were called by God to move. Abraham, the father of our faith, began his spiritual odyssey when the Lord said: "Go from your country, your family, and your father's house, to the land that I will show you" (Gen. 12:1).

Think about it. When God wanted to do something really important in the Earth, like start a new nation that would serve Him, it began with a relocation. Spiritual blessings often are not realized until someone moves! Moses had to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. David had to move to Jerusalem. And Jesus' last words to His disciples were about moving to foreign countries.

If you are in a season of transition, you will want to consider these guidelines:

1. Have courage. When Joshua was preparing to relocate the people of Israel to Canaan, God said three times: "Be strong and courageous" (Josh. 1:6,7,9). Moving requires a leap of faith, and doubters always get cold feet. Has God given you a big promise about the land you are about to possess? Don't be surprised if the devil tries to make you fearful. Take a deep breath, resist fear and forge ahead.

2. Take one step at a time. Moving isn't just one decision, it's a tangled mess of many decisions that can overwhelm you. You don't have to handle everything at once. The Bible says you are not on your own; you don't have to figure out your relocation plan by yourself. You have a Shepherd, and He is good. He leads you "beside quiet waters" and He guides you "in paths of righteousness" (Ps. 23:2-3). Trust your Shepherd's leading. He will make your transition peaceful; and He promises that "the steps of a good man are made firm by the Lord" (Ps. 37:23).

3. Let go of the old. When God wanted to bless Naomi, He told her to leave the forsaken land of Moab and move to Bethlehem. Her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth pledged to go with her, but her other daughter-in-law, Orpah, stayed behind. Orpah couldn't tear herself away from her culture and her lifestyle, even though God was visiting His people in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:14-16).

Sometimes when God calls us to a new place in the Spirit, we discover that we are hindered by many soulish distractions. You must love Jesus more than you love your comfort zone. It's good to have roots in a place, but you must never let those roots become stronger than your willingness to follow God anywhere.

4. Cry if you need to. A few days ago, after we finished loading every piece of furniture on our moving van, I walked through my house in Florida one last time and locked the front door. Then I sobbed in my car as I remembered playing with my young daughters in the back yard, hanging Christmas decorations on the shrubs and burying our family dog in the back yard. It's totally normal to feel sadness when we move. The best way to process your feelings is to let the tears flow.

5. Be open to God's detours. One important lesson I learned in my transition is that we must never lock ourselves into "our" plan. You may sense the Lord leading you to leave where you are, but when you begin moving to your new destination God may redirect you. The apostle Paul was heading to Rome to preach the gospel, but a shipwreck took him to the island of Malta—and thus he led a successful but unscheduled revival. Don't be so headstrong about your destination that God can't gently nudge you 15 degrees to the right, or take you on an unexpected detour.

6. Expect miracles along the way. When I knew for sure God was calling my wife and I to Georgia, we asked our friends to begin praying with us. I shared with them seven specific prayer requests, and the first item on the list was: "Quick sale of our house." Guess what? Our house sold in less than 24 hours—to the first people who walked in the door! Since then, all but the last request on my list has been answered.

Moving can seem like a chore, but if you invite God into the process it becomes a thrilling adventure. When the Holy Spirit says go, He goes with you. When He calls you to leave the old and step into the new, He pushes you to a new spiritual level. 

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, 10 Lies Men Believe, Fearless Daughters of the Bible and The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale. You can learn more about his ministry, The Mordecai Project, at themordecaiproject.org.

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Global Recession? The Canadian Economy Shrinks At The Fastest Pace Since The Last Financial Crisis - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Global Recession? The Canadian Economy Shrinks At The Fastest Pace Since The Last Financial Crisis Posted: 31 Aug 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Things have not been this bad for the Canadian economy since the last global recession.  During the second quarter of 2016, Canada’s GDP contracted at a 1.6 percent annualized rate.  That was the worst number in seven years, and it was even worse than most analysts were projecting.  This comes at a time when bad news is pouring in from all corners of the global economy.   While things in the United States are still relatively stable for the moment, the same cannot be said for much of the rest of the planet.  Canada in particular has been hit very hard by the collapse in oil prices, and the massive wildfire in northern Alberta back in May certainly did not help things.  The following comes from the BBC… The recent drop in GDP was larger than analysts had projected, but not far off the predicted 1.5% loss. “[The figure] could have been worse, given the hit from the wildfire, and clearly confirms the disappointing downward trend in exports over the last few months,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. In May, wildfires devastated the parts of northern Alberta where much of Canada’s oil and natural gas is produced. For many years, high oil prices and booming exports enabled the Canadian economy to significantly outperform the U.S. economy.  But now conditions have changed dramatically, and all of the economic bubbles up in Canada are starting to burst.  This includes the housing bubble, as we have seen home sales in the hottest markets such as Vancouver drop through the floor late in the summer.  In fact, it is being reported that home sales during the first two weeks of August in British Columbia were down a whopping 51 percent on a year over year basis. Do you remember the housing bubble in the U.S. that helped fuel the last financial crisis?  Well, a very similar bubble is now bursting up in Canada, and some investors have positioned themselves to make a tremendous amount of money when the whole thing comes violently crashing down.  The following comes from Wolf Richter… This summer, famed short seller Marc Cohodes came out of retirement (he now raises chickens on a farm in Sonoma County, CA, and sells the eggs for a fortune in San Francisco) and jumped into ring with a number of interviews on TV and in the print media, and this too rattled some nerves – largely because it hit home. “I think it’s a money laundering-induced market,” he said as we reported at the time. “Where the local politicians, or the BC Liberals, are kept or in cahoots with the real estate brokers, developers, lawyers, that angle. And they have sought Chinese money to keep the market propped up and it won’t last,” he said. “China has capital controls on, and Vancouver has become the money laundering mecca of either the world or North America, and something is going to change and change drastically.” If the price of oil does not rebound in a major way, the Canadian economy is going to continue to deeply struggle. Meanwhile, one of the biggest economies in Africa is also shrinking.  Nigeria is yet another oil-dependent economy that has fallen on really hard times, and during the latest quarter their GDP shrunk by 2.06 percent on an annualized basis… Nigeria has slipped into recession, with the latest growth figures showing the economy contracted 2.06% between April and June. The country has now seen two consecutive quarters of declining growth, the usual definition of recession. Its vital oil industry has been hit by weaker global prices, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). There are so many signs that indicate that the global economy has entered a new major downturn.  Yes, the U.S. is doing better than almost everyone else for the moment, but this will not last indefinitely.  Our planet is more interconnected than ever before, and just as we saw in 2008, big trouble on one side of the globe quickly affects the other side. Today we also learned that the 7th largest container shipping company in the entire world has completely imploded.  Total global trade has been declining for quite some time now, and it was inevitable that this sort of thing would start happening… After years of relentless decline in the Baltic Dry index… … today the largest casualty finally emerged on Wednesday when South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping, the country’s largest shipping firm and the world’s seventh-biggest container carrier, filed for court receivership after losing the support of its banks, leaving its assets frozen as ports from China to Spain denied access to its vessels. Over in Europe, an emerging banking crisis continues to simmer just under the surface. Most Americans are completely oblivious to the fact that major global financial problems could be just around the corner, but CNBC is reporting that banks over in Europe are “preparing for an economic nuclear winter situation”… European banks, in particular, have had a very tough six months as the shock and volatility around Brexit sent banking stocks south. Major European banks like Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse saw their shares in free-fall after the referendum’s results were announced. In the U.K., RBS was the worst-hit, with its shares plunging by more than 30 percent since June 24. The current uncertainty over when the U.K. will start the process of quitting the EU has banks on tenterhooks. But a source told CNBC that banks are “preparing for an economic nuclear winter situation.” Speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic, a source from a major investment bank told CNBC that financial services firms have put together a strategy in place that takes into account the worst-case scenario that could happen by the end of this year. So precisely what would an “economic nuclear winter” look like? I don’t know, but it certainly does not sound good. We should be thankful that things have been as calm and stable as they have been so far in 2016, but nobody should be fooled into thinking that our problems have been fixed. The truth is that the global debt bubble is at an all-time high, the banks are being more reckless and are more vulnerable than ever before, and troubling economic numbers continue to pour in from all over the planet. The stage is certainly set for the next major global economic crisis, and it isn’t going to take much to push the world over the edge.

Bless God, oh His angels, the strong warriors who follow His word. - ISRAEL365

Bless God, oh His angels, the strong warriors who follow His word. Psalms 103:20  (The Israel Bible™)   בָּרְכוּ י-הוָה מַלְאָכָיו גִּבֹּרֵי כֹחַ עֹשֵׂי דְבָרוֹ תהילים קג:כ bar-khu a-do-nai mal-a-khav gi-bo-ray ko-akh o-say d'-va-ro

Today's Israel Inspiration Today's verse highlights the close connection between faithful service to God and the strength of Israel. When we follow His word, God showers his blessings and protection unto Israel. Young brave soldiers of the Israeli army combine spirit and strength to defend the Land and People of Israel.   Support the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces! » Israeli Spies Save Life of 5-Year-Old Syrian Girl Doctors in Israel saved the life of a 5-year-old refugee girl from Syria after Israeli spies smuggled in a bone marrow donor from an enemy state. Gotta see it to believe it!   Watch here » For First Time Ever, IDF Opens Historic Ultra-Orthodox Paratrooper Unit Establishing a new, elite Paratrooper unit is no easy task, when its soldiers are ultra-Orthodox Jews with many unique needs.   Read more » What is the meaning of the Shofar?   The significance of the shofar dates back to the dawn of Jewish history, and its call still echoes today in synagogues and temples all over the world. The prized shofars of the Bar-Sheshet and Ribak families have a long and proud pedigree, reflecting the epic history of the Jewish people traveling throughout the diaspora and finally returning home to Israel.   Receive a Free Case with Your Purchase of any Shofar! »   Today's Israel Photo Despite intense training in the Jordan Valley, a soldier from the Givati Brigade takes time to wear tefillin (phylacteries) during his morning prayers.   Support the soldiers of the IDF » Yesterday's Photo Trivia Yesterday's photo by Noam Chen featured the Roman ruins in Caesarea, a city on the Mediterranean that Herod dedicated to Caesar Augustus more than 2,000 years ago. Today it is not only a relic of the past, but a popular tourist attraction.   If you enjoy your Israel365 daily email newsletter, please consider donating to one of our causes or buying products from our store and blessing the Land and the People of Israel.   Thank You to our latest Tree Donors! "Todah Rabbah" to Monique J. from Ohio; Robin M. from Maryland; Joan and Trevor B. from Washington. Plant a Tree in Israel »  Thank you to our recent Aliyah Donors! "Todah Rabbah" to Lawrence H. from Hawaii; Rowena W. from Canada; Matthew P. from Australia. Donate to our Aliyah Fund »  Thank you to our Israel365 Store Charity Donors! "Todah Rabbah" to Anton S. from Australia; Sandra T. from Alabama; Maxim T. from New York. Shop the Israel365 Store »   “They Inspire and Offer Hope to the World” It’s great to hear from you and make new friends from all over the world. Please send me an email and let me know how you are enjoying Israel365 (don’t forget to say where you are from!).   Stay in Touch » Good morning Rabbi, I look forward to your emails everyday. They inspire and offer hope to the world. I pray for peace to be within your borders and for G-d's spirit to draw every Israeli into a close personal relationship with Himself. I pray for holiness to reign among your people. I'm more than excited to visit Israel for the first time in November. I'm told it will change my life.  I love the people of Israel. Blessings, Skip Ball, Thousand Oaks, California Hello, Shalom Shalom! I'm a friend, in profound love of Israel and her people. I love Jerusalem and prayer everyday for her Peace. I'm an American living in Switzerland. May God bless you and the Zion city of God! Amen. Today's Israel365 is Sponsored in honor of Jillian Ezekiel We would like to say goodbye to our longtime Israel365 email newsletter editor Jillian Ezekiel whose last day is today. Jillian has been with us for three wonderful years and has added so much along the way. Her sincere love for Eretz Yisrael along with her immense professional skills as a sharp eyed editor has enabled Israel365 to become such a beloved source of Israel inspiration to so many people around the world each and every day. If you would like to send Jillian a note of your personal appreciation, you may email her at Jillian@Israel365.com. I know that Jillian has been a big part of our success and we wish her and her family well as we say Shalom, L'hitraot and Todah Rabba Jillian!   Shalom, Rabbi Tuly Weisz RabbiTuly@Israel365.com

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Lutheran Church Has "Outrageous Obsession With Israel": Christian Media Analyst - JNS BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon. (Wikimedia Commons)

Lutheran Church Has "Outrageous Obsession With Israel": Christian Media Analyst

By JNS August 31, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“Behold, God is mighty, yet He despiseth not any; He is mighty in strength of understanding.” Job 36:5 (The Israel Bible™)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S., passed two Israel-related resolutions earlier this month at its triennial assembly in New Orleans, La. One resolution established an “investment screen” that will recommend where Lutherans should invest their money with regard to Israel and the Palestinians. The other urged a cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel unless Israel meets a series of conditions and calls for the immediate U.S. recognition of “the state of Palestine.”

Dexter Van Zile, a Catholic pro-Israel activist, who monitors and analyzes the Christian media for the Committee on Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said, “the Lutheran Church has an outrageous obsession with Israel.” He told JNS.org the group “has been beating up on Israel for a long time, and this is just the latest example.”

ELCA logo

David Brog, of Christians United for Israel, said in a statement that the resolutions “blame Israel and only Israel for the conflict in the Middle East. Such one-sided scapegoating of the Jewish state will only fuel further Palestinian rejection and violence.”

Lutheran student activist Austin Reid told JNS.org the church’s resolutions “send a message of discrimination against Israel and neglect to hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for misguiding the Palestinian people.” Reid is an Emerson Fellow at StandWithUs and attends the ELCA-affiliated Capital University in Ohio.

Other observers are more hopeful.

The church setting up an “investment screen,” rather than directly calling for a boycott of Israeli products, is a positive development, according to Emily Soloff, the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) associate director of Interreligious and Intergroup relations.

Soloff, who attended the Lutheran conference, called the resolutions “problematic” and come across as one-sided. But, she emphasized, the assembly did not adopt the explicitly pro-BDS language which was proposed by a number of individual church synods, or branches.

Rabbi David Sandmel, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), conducted a workshop on Lutheran-Jewish relations at the New Orleans conference. He said he was “not thrilled” by the resolutions, but whether the investment screen will lead to divestment “depends on how [it] is structured, and that is not spelled out.” He added that the Jewish community “should not leap to conclusions while the jury is still out.”

Will “screen” lead to divestment?

Some Israel advocates are pessimistic about the “investment screen.”

“[It] is just a step away from boycotting,” CAMERA’s Van Zile said. “The Lutherans seem to be doing something similar to what the Presbyterians did a few years ago. First, they set up criteria that would disqualify Israel from investments. Then they declared they can’t invest in Israel because it doesn’t meet the criteria.”

An investment screen translates to divestment from Israel, according to the website, Exposing the ELCA, run by Conservative Lutheran dissidents.

“This resolution will be used by the ELCA to divest from Israel and select companies that do business with Israel.”

They go further. The resolution says the investment screen must develop “human rights social criteria,” which will determine where the church’s social-purpose funds should be invested. This is based on concerns raised in an official Lutheran church report.

ELCA members vote at the triennial assembly in New Orleans, La. held Aug. 8-13. (ELCA)

The report, called the ELCA Middle East Strategy is a 2005 church document that recommended “making consumer decisions that favor support to those in greatest need, e.g. Palestinian providers as distinct from Israel settlers on Palestinian territory.”

The document accused Israel of fostering an “environment of oppression,” and claimed that Israel’s security fence “poses an imminent threat to the future of the church in the Holy Land.” The document also complained about the “destructive effect” of Israeli policies on “the ability of Palestinians to marry and raise families.”

The marriage and families reference could lay the groundwork for falsely accusing Israel of “genocide,” according to some experts. Article two of the definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations in 1948 includes “imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a targeted] group.”

The language choice raises the danger that the Lutheran church “may falsely allege, or at least imply, that Israel is guilty of genocide,” Prof. Elihu Richter, director of the Jerusalem Center for Genocide Prevention, told JNS.org. That allegation could then be used as a basis for denying U.S. aid to Israel and justifying a Lutheran boycott of Israeli companies or products.

Ignoring Palestinian abuses

The second ELCA resolution calls on the Obama administration to present a plan for establishing an “independent” and “viable” Palestinian state, with a “shared Jerusalem” as its capital. The Lutherans also urge the president to extend diplomatic recognition to the “state of Palestine” immediately, rather than wait for the issue to be negotiated between the parties, as the U.S. and Israel prefer.

On U.S. aid to Israel, the resolution asserts the U.S. should halt all military and financial assistance unless Israel agrees to “comply with internationally recognized human rights standards as specified in existing U.S. law, stop settlement building and the expansion of existing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, end its occupation of Palestinian territory, and enable an independent Palestinian state.”

Pro-Israel activists see those terms as blatantly one-sided. Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, writing in Newsweek, called the ELCA “a church in decline but one whose enthusiasm for attacks on Israel never wanes.” He noted when the Lutherans refer to construction in eastern Jerusalem, they are referring to “just construction by Jews,” with no mention of Palestinian construction in the city. Likewise, the resolution targets U.S. aid to Israel, but ignores U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is approximately $500 million annually.

The church’s reference to “human rights standards” likewise reflects a double standard, Abrams writes. “These requirements apply to one single country: Israel. In a world awash in repression and human rights violations, only Israel.”

In its latest annual report on global human rights, the U.S. State Department found that the Palestinian Authority carries out “arbitrary arrests based on political affiliation,” engages in “torture and abuse” of prisoners, “restricts freedom of speech and press…through harassment, intimidation and arrest, discriminates against women,” accuses victims of sexual harassment of “provoking men’s harassing behavior,” and “rarely punishes perpetrators of family violence.”

In the Lutheran resolutions, there was no mention of the PA’s behavior.

The ADL’s Rabbi Sandmel said Palestinian human rights violations were “not mentioned” either by the delegates, who attended his workshop, nor the Lutheran church professionals with whom he spoke individually. It would have been “helpful” and “more balanced” if the Lutherans “showed as much interest in Palestinian violations as they do in Israeli violations,” he added.

Soloff, of the AJC Committee, told JNS.org that she did not hear any delegates discussing Palestinian human rights violations during the sessions she attended. She believes “there was a consciousness of Palestinian corruption” that was not articulated. Soloff said the failure to acknowledge the PA’s human rights abuses was “disappointing,” but “in the larger picture, the ELCA did demonstrate a much more nuanced and balanced approach between Israel and the Palestinians than some other mainline Protestant churches have done.”

Pro-Palestinian activists pleased

Supporters of the resolutions see the ELCA’s positions as consistent with the pro-BDS stance of other churches. The group, Isaiah 58, a Lutheran faction that lobbied for the resolutions, issued a statement declaring, “the ELCA adds its own voice and approach to the growing number of U.S. churches that have endorsed economic acts of conscience in support of Palestinian freedom and human rights.”

The group hailed the “investment screen” resolution as “an important step to ensure that we are not profiting from” Israel’s “nearly half-century-old military occupation of Palestinian lands,” according to a prepared statement.

Similarly, The Electronic Intifada, a leading pro-Palestinian website, praised the resolutions as “a massive shift” demonstrating “the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has become the latest U.S. denomination to take economic action against the Israeli occupation.” In 2013 at the previous ELCA assembly, 70 percent of the delegates voted against an “investment screen” resolution, the website pointed out.

Text of the 1994 “Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America to the Jewish Community,” in which the Lutheran Church repudiated Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic writings. (Screenshot from ELCA.org)

Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the United Church of Christ, and the Quakers have all endorsed divesting from Israel. The Episcopal Church has rejected divestment, while the Mennonite Church has delayed a decision until 2017. The United Methodist Church’s pension fund dropped five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio in January. However, in May, the Methodists’ national conference voted to reject BDS.

Future of Lutheran-Jewish relations

The ADL’s Rabbi Sandmel is focused on what he sees as indications that “there is opportunity for conversation [with Lutheran leaders] about some of these issues.” He said “for someone like me, who has pretty close relationships with these folks, it’s important to recognize it’s not just the text of the resolutions that matter, but also their broader context and how the dynamics within the church will affect future contacts between church leaders and the Jewish community.”

Some activists are skeptical about those relationships.

CAMERA’s Van Zile said, “Some Jewish leaders are reluctant to criticize the Lutherans, because they want to maintain good relations with their few remaining allies within the denomination. But nobody should be fooled. The anti-Israel activists within the Lutheran Church have been in the driver’s seat for a long time.”

Still, Sandmel said he’s encouraged that in the background material for the Israel-Palestinian resolutions, the ELCA acknowledged that “some Jewish leaders have interceded with the U.S. government, some directly with the government of Israel” in connection with “the critical funding for the ministries of Augusta Victoria Hospital,” a Lutheran-sponsored medical center in east Jerusalem.

The hospital was in danger of closing in 2014 because the Palestinian Authority refused to pay the more than $25 million that was owed in unpaid bills for treatment of Palestinians whom the PA sent there. ELCA officials successfully lobbied the Obama administration and the European Union to pay the PA’s bill.

It has not been previously reported that Jewish leaders were involved in that lobbying effort, nor have those leaders or their organizations been identified.

The ELCA cited the episode as evidence of the benefits resulting from having the church “serve as a place where the concerns of Palestinian Lutherans and the concerns of American Jews have been in conversation.”