Thursday, March 28, 2019

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back - Eliezer Ben Yehuda's Story Continues - Maoz Israel report, Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram

March 2019

ELIEZER BEN YEHUDA'S DESTINY

TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK

By Shira Sorko-Ram

When Theodore Herzl, considered the Father of Modern Israel, died in 1904, Eliezer Ben Yehuda went into deep mourning. Although Ben Yehuda had dreamed and worked for a Jewish state nearly 25 years before Herzl appeared on the Zionist horizon, Herzl was his leader—the man who could lead the Jewish people back to their homeland.

In this sixth part of Ben Yehuda's fascinating story, you will read about the many challenges Eliezer and his family continued to face on their journey to resurrecting the Hebrew language.

Read the story

Reaching Israelis with the Gospel - in Hebrew!

Just over a century ago, God supernaturally used Eliezer Ben Yehuda to restore the Hebrew language to the Jewish people after 2,000 years.

Today, we at Maoz are able to preach the Good News of Messiah Yeshua to our people - in Hebrew - which has now become a native language for millions of Israelis.

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OTHER STORIES IN THE MARCH MAOZ ISRAEL REPORT:

Rebuilding Israel (Because They are Still Coming)

Representing Israel at the 2019 President's Prayer Breakfast

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How to Stay Renewed in the Spirit—Even in Old Age - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA MAGAZINE

How to Stay Renewed in the Spirit—Even in Old Age

This past weekend I preached at the historic Belmont Church in Nashville, Tennessee, a congregation that God used powerfully to spread charismatic renewal across the world in the 1970s. This was the church that gave us actor Pat Boone, Christian singers Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, and many anointed songwriters and outreach ministries.

For years, Belmont was led by Don Finto, a brave spiritual pioneer who was willing to challenge old denominational mindsets after he had a profound experience with the Holy Spirit as a leader in the Church of Christ. Don "retired" from his pulpit at Belmont in 1996, but he didn't even begin to slow down. He launched Caleb Company, an aptly-named ministry that focuses on mentoring and outreach to Middle Eastern countries.

I interviewed Finto on the phone for Charisma a few times over the years, but I met him for the first time last Sunday. He was seated on the second row, beaming with all the energy of a 30-year-old. I learned before the service that he is 89.

If you ask Finto his age, he emphatically says: "I'm 89 years young."

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My good friend Paul Gonzalez, who serves as Belmont's teaching pastor, told me that Finto traveled to the Middle East last month with a team from the church. After the team finished their mission and flew back to the United States, Finto flew on to a few other countries. He is a true road warrior.

"Papa Don keeps the pace of a man half his age," said Gonzalez. "He carries boundless joy. His laugh is deep and genuine, and nearly everything he says he does so with a hearty laugh."

What's the secret to this kind of youthful energy in old age? Finto embodies principles that many of us need to grab now. Do you want to live long and finish strong? Here are a few tips:

Keep yourself physically fit. Unless you are intentional about exercising regularly and eating healthy now, your body won't be strong in your 90s. If you carry around a lot of extra weight in your 40s, your heart or joints may fail—even in your 50s. Make a decision today to treat your body like a temple of the Holy Spirit so you can live longer.

Let God's passions become yours. People who are consumed with God's purposes have an inner drive that renews them. Isaiah 40:31 says it best: "But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." An intentional focus on Jesus will give you extra energy—and the same boundless joy that makes Finto laugh so much.

British Christian leader George Mueller demonstrated this youthful energy in old age. When he was 70, he embarked on a 17-year period of missionary travel that took him to 33 countries. (This was before air travel, so he sailed on slow-moving ships.) It was his passion to share Christ with the world that kept Mueller moving at a frenetic pace until age 87. He died at 92.

Hang around young people and invest in them. Finto is known in Nashville as a mentor to younger leaders. Even though he turned Belmont Church over to his successors more than 20 years ago, he continues to provide coaching and fatherly counsel to the next generation. You are more likely to find him mentoring and worshiping with a group of 20-somethings than playing shuffleboard with retirees.

Stay in step with the Holy Spirit. Finto made a decision long ago to move with the cloud of the Holy Spirit. When the charismatic renewal hit this country in the 1970s, he didn't dig in his heels and cling to old religious wineskins. He broke away from Church of Christ traditions and moved the church into a season of fruitful growth.

Finto is a modern Caleb—and he reminds me of that biblical patriarch. Caleb said at age 85: "I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in." Caleb never looked for a comfort zone. He never parked on yesterday's victories. He was always looking for the next challenge, and eager to embrace the new thing God is doing.

No matter how old you are, I hope you will decide to live a life of spiritual passion. Don't let life grow dull. Let the Holy Spirit renew your strength until your last breath.

J. Lee Grady was editor of Charisma for 11 years before he launched into full-time ministry in 2010. Today he directs The Mordecai Project, a Christian charitable organization that is taking the healing of Jesus to women and girls who suffer abuse and cultural oppression. Author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, he has just released his newest book, Set My Heart on Fire, from Charisma House. You can follow him on Twitter at @LeeGrady or go to his website, themordecaiproject.org.

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Great Resources to help you excel in 2019! #1 John Eckhardt's "Prayers That..." 6-Book Bundle. Prayer helps you overcome anything life throws at you. Get a FREE Bonus with this bundle. #2 Learn to walk in the fullness of your purpose and destiny by living each day with Holy Spirit. Buy a set of Life in the Spirit, get a second set FREE.

“As Many As A Million Calves Lost In Nebraska” – Beef Prices In The U.S. To Escalate Dramatically In The Coming Months - Michael Snyder

Million Calves Lost In Nebraska” – Beef Prices In The U.S. To Escalate Dramatically In The Coming Months

March 27, 2019 Michael Snyder

According to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue, there “may be as many as a million calves lost in Nebraska” due to the catastrophic flooding that has hit the state. This is not a rumor, this is not an exaggeration, and this is not based on any sort of speculation. This number comes to us directly from the top agriculture official in the entire country, and it means that the economic toll from the recent floods is far greater than most of us had anticipated.

You can watch Purdue make this quote on Fox Business right here, and it is important to remember that this number is just for one state. It is hard to imagine what the final numbers will look like when the livestock losses for all of the states affected by the flooding are tallied up. This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and the National Weather Service is telling us that there will be more catastrophic flooding throughout the middle portion of the nation for the next two months.

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts says that this is the worst flooding that his state has ever experienced. Ricketts originally told us that 65 out of the 93 counties in his state have declared a state of emergency, but that number has now risen to 74. Hundreds of millions of dollars of damage has been done in his state alone, and that is just an initial estimate.

It deeply offends me that the big mainstream news channels have spent so little time covering this disaster. This is the biggest news story of 2019 so far by a very wide margin, but because it happened in the middle of the country they are not giving it the attention that it deserves.

In the short-term, food prices will not rise too dramatically because the stores are selling the food that has already been produced. But as the months roll along, you will start to notice food prices steadily increase. Millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans have been destroyed by the flooding so far, and thousands of farmers will not be able to plant crops at all this year. And the livestock losses that we have already experienced will be felt for many years to come.

Beef will never be lower in price than it is right now. So if you are a beef lover, you may want to stock up.

When the flooding initially came, it happened so fast that many farmers were powerless to do anything about it. In Sherman County, farmer Richard Panowicz says that ice and debris were “exploding from the river”…

“Within 15 minutes it was devastation,” Panowicz said, with water, ice and debris exploding from the river with nothing to stop it.
He described some ice chunks as 3 feet thick and the size of an extended-cab pickup.
Panowicz said a lot of the dead calves he’s picked up have had broken legs. Many of the carcasses were found by neighbors.

In other cases, farmers were faced with a heartbreaking choice between saving their animals or saving their neighbors. One farmer that rushed to help his neighbors ended up losing 30 calves to the floodwaters…

Before Mahon could think about his animals, he needed to help his neighbors. As the water rose, he rescued one with his tractor, the floodwater lifting it up and spinning him 180 degrees. He helped save three more people — including an 85-year-old woman and a 9-month-old baby — with a boat, he said.
Then he could start counting his losses. He estimated the flood carried away 30 calves and almost as many cows, nearly $50,000 out of his pocket. It might be more.

Can you imagine the grief that these farming families are enduring right now?

Many of them are financially ruined and will never be able to go back to farming again.

Dave Eaton’s family has been farming the same plot of land for 152 years. But now the Missouri River has swallowed his farm, and with much more flooding still to come, he anticipates that his farm with be underwater “all year”…

The farm has been in his family 152 years. He was born there. He’s been thinking about what he’s learned about the Missouri’s upstream reservoirs and the mountain snowpack, and what it means for his land.
“It’s not like I’m new to the area,” he said. “My gut feeling is we’re going to be under water all year.”

And he is definitely not the only one that has had his year ruined.

Panowicz says that the hay and silage that were meant to feed his cattle this season were soaked “in 3 to 4 feet of water”…

The hay and silage to feed his cattle are soaked after sitting in 3 to 4 feet of water.
Sand now covers much of the pastureland he uses to graze his herd of commercial Angus cows and purebred Charolais bulls.
And 40 of his recently born calves died in the flood.

So what is he supposed to do?

Some Nebraska ranchers will bravely try to rebuild, but for Panowicz it appears that the end has come…

“I’ll probably sell the (remaining) cows and calves and get out of the cattle business,” said Panowicz, 65. “I’ve been around cows since the early 1970s.”

I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point.

America’s farmers have been utterly devastated. America’s cattle producers have been utterly devastated. Food production is going to be way, way below expectations, and food prices are going to escalate dramatically in the coming months. This is the kind of scenario that I have been warning about, and this crisis is going to continue to get worse as all the snow from one of the snowiest winters on record melts. In Minnesota, there are still more than 20 inches of snow on the ground in some places, and all of that water has to go somewhere.

This is the biggest national crisis that has hit the United States in many years, but the mainstream media and millions of Americans that do not live in the affected areas still do not seem to get it.

Of course once food prices start getting painfully high at our supermarkets everyone will start complaining, but there will not be any easy solutions.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dreamand The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post “As Many As A Million Calves Lost In Nebraska” – Beef Prices In The U.S. To Escalate Dramatically In The Coming Months appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

'God Is Awesome!' Tornado Destroys House, but Prayer Closet Still Standing - CBN News Ericah Jones

Prayer closet the only thing left standing after Alabama tornado (Photo credit: Jason N Christa Smith/Facebook)

'God Is Awesome!' Tornado Destroys House, but Prayer Closet Still Standing

03-26-2019

CBN News Ericah Jones

The deadly, monster EF-4 tornado that recently tore through Lee County, Alabama, devoured nearly everything in its path. But one Christian family miraculously survived – huddled inside a prayer closet that was literally the only thing left standing from their house.

That massive twister killed 23 people, including four children. But amazing testimonies are still emerging in the aftermath.

Catastrophic events like this can be devastating and hard to come to grips with, but one eyewitness says this proves God's power to protect.

Jason Smith serves as a chaplain with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, and he went to the tornado zone to minister to survivors. But what he spotted there ministered to him – a piece of slab left from a home that had been demolished by the storm, according to 11 Alive.

Smith was surprised by what he found there, so he went public with the story to offer some inspiration. And the images he shared from that house have gone viral.

"Listen to me please. I just left a family who survived the tornado in this house and the only left standing is this closet," Smith wrote in the viral Facebook post.

Sitting upright on the thick, flat piece of concrete were the frames to what appeared to be a closet.

"It's the grandmother's prayer closet, and the whole family survived."

Smith, while in total shock, also knew that there could only be one reason behind the family surviving a deadly tornado that day.

"My God is awesome!!! Shout somebody!" he said.

This isn't the only astounding story to emerge from that tornado. As CBN News has reported, 40 kids were miraculously shielded as they sang "Jesus Loves Me", even though the tornado ripped off the roof from the church where they were sheltering.