Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Why I Go So Often To Israel - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Why I Go So Often To Israel

“Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,’ says Adonai, ‘and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’ (Jeremiah 29:14, Complete Jewish Bible)

“So why do you go to Israel so often?” I was asked recently, after returning from my most recent time to that nation traveled many times to over the past decades. That was followed with the statement, “Your sister asked me”, from an immediate family member. I am sure they were wondering the same.

I am quite positive others have thought that too. “Well, he’s just a bit …..?” I must admit that that has been spoken by more than one too.

Why not spend the money on a dream vacation to Hawaii, or a week-long cruise to the Bahamas; or a rented car tour throughout France or other parts of Europe? Hey, why not even a night out at Wrigley Field, which some still hold dear to their hearts. That would only cost a mere $200 or so, depending on seats, food, parking, and more.

Simple answer: the Lord has given me that privilege, honor, and life’s purpose, and I know it clearly. Even before I was prophesied as being called as a “scepter for Zion”, when I was ordained in 2003 in the little town of Pineville (kind of like Bethlehem is to Jerusalem in size and distance, but in this case, Charlotte, North Carolina where we have lived the past 25 years, since 1994) it had been firmly planted in my heart.

“Privilege?” you write? “Called?” you ask? “Honor?” you say? What is a scepter for Zion anyway?

Let me tell you.

Since that cool, August night at the Mackinac Island, Michigan Christian conference back in 1978,

having driven the long, long hours from our home at that time in Peru, Illinois, though East Lansing, Michigan, the Lord has put in my spiritual and natural being to connect with the land and people of Israel. When the great Bible teacher Derek Prince spoke eloquently and specifically about “Our Debt To Israel”, as Christian believers, something was birthed in my heart. And it has grown in size ever since. (Not to be funny, but the Lord changes hearts. Similar to the story with the fictional Grinch.)

Derek Prince with Steve & Laurie Martin Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 1988

Having been raised a Catholic, I had been wrongly taught that the Roman church was now “Israel”; that all that had been promised to the Jews and their Promised Land had been passed onto the ones Yeshua (Jesus) had called Himself to be His disciples (not pope) – Peter and His followers. Starting just a few decades after His ascension, and definitely by 330 AD, with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, that church organization has been trying to, and has accomplished much, in “de-Jewing” the very foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith.

Having falsely claimed this as the truth, the Replacement Theology theory, which I didn’t even know about until a few decades ago, has consumed the masses, declaring that the Church has replaced Israel and all the promises pertaining to it and the Jews.

That is what the Deceiver and Liar does – he twists the truth until people, in their accepting deception, can’t see the truth being eliminated, even as it is happening right in front of them.

So prevalent today in the societies of the nations worldwide, even that which has been rightly known as blatantly wrong is now considered right. Evil has replaced good as the accepted norm.

When it comes to Israel and the Land belonging to the Jews, as given to them by the Creator of the Universe, God Almighty, it has now been long taught throughout all reporting and newscasts that they, Israel and the Jews, are wrong, and everyone else is right. How absurd!

It is because He is right, stated for all ages in His Word, that I go to Israel so much. To stand with my friends the Jews while at the same time counting myself among those who do, and forever will, continue to do so, is a privilege and honor.

The Lord is returning His people to their Land. It is called aliyah. I see it. I know it. I stand with them in the midst of it, in the very land of Israel.

"For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel," declares the Lord God, "there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will accept them and there I will seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers.” (Ezekiel 20:40-42, NASU)

This is just one verse out of the entire Bible where He proclaims, He will bring them back.

I believe God. I believe in His Son, Yeshua (Jesus). I trust the Third Person of the Trinity, Holy Spirit. Therefore, what They have had written about Israel, from beginning to end, I don’t twist and turn for my own theological purposes. I take it for what He says it says and go with it.

That makes it right. No one or no other will change that.

One thing I can further be sure is this, that even as the rest of the world shakes, rattles and rolls, the Lord reigns, His Word is true, and those who stand committed to His purposes, knowing the end of the Book, will, in the end, see His long-time plans fulfilled.

Thank you, Yeshua. And thank You for the friends and relationships You have established, and continue to expand, as we bless Your people in Israel. The rewards promised are even greater.

Now think of this,

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. On May 10 I returned from my 20^th trip to Israel. And guess what? I brought back for you my last 58 short videos I entitle “Walk With Me in Israel”. Watch them here on our YouTube channel: Walk With Me - Israel May 2019

Also, my previous ones from other locations are here also on YouTube: Walk With Me

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

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Now Think On This #422 - in the year of our Lord 05.15.19 – “Why I Go So Often To Israel” – Wednesday, 4:30 pm

'The Baby in the Womb Is a Person': Alabama Aims Straight at Roe, Outlaws Nearly All Abortions - CBNNews.com

CBN News May 15, 2019

'The Baby in the Womb Is a Person': Alabama Aims Straight at Roe, Outlaws Nearly All Abortions

Alabama's Senate voted 25-6 to outlaw virtually all abortions in the state Tuesday. If signed into law, the measure would make Alabama one of the most pro-life states in the country.

WATCH NOW →

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Investors May Be Laughing At China’s “People’s War” Now, But Here Is Why They Won’t Be Laughing For Long…Michael Snyder

Investors May Be Laughing At China’s “People’s War” Now, But Here Is Why They Won’t Be Laughing For Long…

Posted: 14 May 2019 Michael Snyder

Wall Street is still treating this crisis as a temporary trade dispute, but the Chinese see things completely differently. At this point, the narrative in China is that the U.S. has deeply insulted their national honor, and every angry statement from U.S. officials is just digging the knife in a little bit deeper. The Chinese began their retaliation to Trump’s new tariffs with some new tariffs of their own, but they won’t be stopping there.

As I stated yesterday, China literally has hundreds of different ways that they can hurt us, and the longer this crisis goes the more likely it is that they will utilize all of those weapons.

And we got a hint of what might be coming on Tuesday. An editorial published in government-run media outlets boldly proclaimed that the conflict between the United States and China was now a “people’s war”…

In a series of opinion pieces and on-air editorials, the country’s government-controlled media used strong and nationalistic language to reassure a shaky domestic audience that China’s economy can weather the higher tariffs imposed last Friday by US President Donald Trump.
One strongly worded editorial published by both the Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said that while the US was fighting for “greed and arrogance,” China fought to defend “its legitimate rights and interests.”
“The trade war in the United States is the creation of one person and his administration who have swept along the entire population of the country. Whereas the entire country and all the people of China are being threatened. For us, this is a real ‘people’s war,'” the editorial said.

And similar sentiments were expressed on state-owned television during a prime time broadcast…

During a prime time broadcast on Monday, CNN reported that the state broadcaster CCTV also aired a statement saying that China would “fight for a new world.”
“As President Xi Jinping pointed out, the Chinese economy is a sea, not a small pond,” anchor Kang Hui said on his 7 p.m. news show. “A rainstorm can destroy a small pond, but it cannot harm the sea. After numerous storms, the sea is still there.” Hui concluded echoing a popular refrain, that “China…doesn’t want to fight, but it is not afraid to fight.”

Amazingly, U.S. stocks actually went up on Tuesday following these remarks. Apparently, investors think that China’s new “people’s war” is pretty funny.

But they won’t be laughing when China starts playing hardball with us.

For example, how much pressure do you think that President Trump will feel when the Chinese suddenly announce a national boycott of U.S. goods in the middle of Trump’s re-election campaign?

As CNBC has pointed out, China has implemented such boycotts numerous times before…

At the height of the South China Sea conflict in 2016, China administered an unofficial boycott of mangoes and bananas from the Philippines. The region is still in dispute.
Years before that, China boycotted salmon from Norway during a hotly contested human rights issue, and Norway eventually relented.
Five years back, the world’s second largest economy also boycotted Japanese cars and minerals over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea.

In addition, a massive Chinese boycott of South Korean goods in 2017 turned out to be an immense blow to the South Korean economy.

What do you think that it would do to the U.S. economy and to U.S. financial markets if China suddenly did the same thing to us?

It would be absolute chaos, and Trump would feel an unbelievable amount of pressure to cave in because his re-election prospects would be diminishing with each passing day.
This is a strategic advantage that the Chinese have over Trump. They don’t have to worry about the calendar, but Trump does.

And Trump could not hit back by declaring a national boycott of Chinese goods because he does not have that authority. He could ask his supporters to conduct such a boycott, and undoubtedly some of them would go along, but most Americans would just continue to shop the way that they are shopping right now.

If large U.S. corporations lose all access to the second largest economy in the world, it would be a complete and utter disaster for them. As Matt Egan has pointed out, the Chinese market has become “a critical growth engine” for some of the largest U.S. brands…

China’s booming middle class is a critical growth engine for Boeing (BA), Apple, Nike (NKE) and other American brands. China is expected to keep growing in importance as a buyer. And America’s insatiable appetite for cheap goods has created a Chinese factory juggernaut that employs millions of workers.
The world’s two largest economies are each other’s biggest trading partners. Nearly $700 billion in goods were sent between China and the United States in 2018 alone. And with $1.1 trillion of Treasuries, China is America’s largest foreign creditor.

In 2018, Apple reported total revenue of 265.6 billion dollars.

51 billion dollars of that total came from China.

Apple is extremely vulnerable, and so are dozens of other large U.S. corporations.

Out in the middle of the country, many farmers are already almost mad enough to pick up their pitchforks and march on Washington because of this trade war.

As a result of our deteriorating trade relationship, soybean exports from the U.S. to China have fallen from $14 billion in 2016 to $12 billion in 2017 to just 3.1 billion in 2018.
Desperately hoping that things would turn around, U.S. soybean farmers have stockpiled an all-time record of almost 1 billion bushels of soybeans…

Since December, when U.S. and China negotiators called a truce to tariffs and began signaling that an agreement might be reached, soybean farmers had been holding out hope that sales to China would resume, said Todd Hultman, an Omaha-based grain market analyst with agriculture market data provider DTN. In the meantime, the farmers had been storing a record stockpile of nearly 1 billion bushels.
The latest news of a new round of tariffs, with no agreement in sight, spooked the financial markets and some farmers who had been tentatively optimistic.

And now that trade negotiations have completely fallen apart, the price of soybeans is falling like a rock. In fact, we just saw it hit the lowest level in a decade.
Needless to say, the American Soybean Association is not at all pleased with the latest developments…

In a statement Monday, the American Soybean Association reacted with frustration edged with anxiety.
“The sentiment out in farm country is getting grimmer by the day,” said John Heisdorffer, a soybean farmer in Keota, Iowa, who is chairman of the ASA. “Our patience is waning, our finances are suffering and the stress from months of living with the consequences of these tariffs is mounting.”

Of course, soybean farmers are far from alone. Thousands upon thousands of farmers all over America are on the brink of financial ruin, and one J.P. Morgan analyst is describing it as a “perfect storm” for U.S. farmers…

The state of American agriculture is “rapidly deteriorating” into crisis, J.P. Morgan said Tuesday, due to three factors: declining exports, a poor crop of corn and soybeans and the trade war with China.
“Overall, this is a perfect storm for US farmers,” J.P. Morgan analyst Ann Duignan said in a note to investors.

It is funny how that term keeps popping up. Without a doubt, a perfect storm is rapidly coming together for the entire U.S. economy, but most Americans are still in denial about what is happening.

As for this “trade dispute”, the truth is that it isn’t going to go away any time soon.
In fact, a senior official in the Trump administration just told Axios that “he can’t see the fight getting resolved before the end of the year”…

A senior administration official said the differences between the two sides are so profound that, based on his read of the situation, he can’t see the fight getting resolved before the end of the year.

The longer this trade war lasts, the more painful it will become for the U.S. economy.
And as we move toward a presidential election year, the Chinese will increasingly be the ones with the strategic leverage.

So Wall Street can laugh for now, but the Chinese are fully convinced that they will be having the last laugh in this matter.

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 Dream and 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 Investors May Be Laughing At China’s “People’s War” Now, But Here Is Why They Won’t Be Laughing For Long…appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

[SIGN] BITTER ROOT ALLIANCES - Morris Ruddick

[SIGN] Bitter Root Alliances

Building Community Builders

Bitter Root Alliances

By Morris Ruddick on May 08, 2019 01:26 pm
BITTER ROOT ALLIANCES

Several years ago I was witness to a sequence of interpersonal interactions in a ministry setting that never should have happened among believers. It involved offenses. These offenses became the catalyst to setting in motion one of the most devilish compoundings of the flesh I have ever witnessed. Although repeated apologies […]

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Rick Joyner: The Church as We Know It in the West Is About to Die - RICK JOYNER CHARISMA NEWS

Rick Joyner: The Church as We Know It in the West Is About to Die

5/10/2019 RICK JOYNER CHARISMA NEWS

The church as we perceive it in the West is about to die. This is not something to rejoice over. Even though it may be far from the church that Jesus will build, it has accomplished much and will die in honor. It is a parallel of the life of Rachel, Jacob's wife, who died when Benjamin was born. Benjamin was the last son born to Israel and represents the last sons of God to be born on the earth. Benjamin means "the son of the right hand," and the right hand of God is called "the right hand of power." Like Rachel, the church will give birth to the "son of His right hand," but it will take her life. So this means she will have been a mother to the last-day ministry, and we honor our fathers and mothers.

The Reformation helped the church dig its way out of a deep darkness, but even as far as Christianity has advanced over the last 500 years, we have much further to go. This does not mean it will take another 500 years. As we are told in 2 Peter 3:8, "But, beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." This means He could do in one day what we think will take a thousand years.

It probably will not happen that fast, but everything is speeding up. However, what will happen will not happen through the continued reformation of the present model of the church. There is a new breed of ministry about to be released. It will be a people who walk in radical, revolutionary faith and power. This is such a new wine that the old model cannot contain it. For this reason we should not despair when the old model dies, but rightfully honor the Rachel that carried and given birth to the new breed.

Likewise, a new breed of radical, revolutionary patriot will arise in America, and not just America—in nations around the world. God established the nations and gave them boundaries. He said anyone who moved the ancient boundaries would be cursed. That's because He wants the nations preserved. Again, God's unity is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity that earthly men are trying to impose on the world. God's unity will prevail, and patriotism is going to win around the world. In this way the heritage and inheritances will be preserved, national and cultural identities will be preserved and the great unity of diversity will be possible.

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Once we see our purpose, we can see how the church in America has deviated from its calling and how the same thing has happened in our civil government. "We the people" are the ones who are primarily responsible for this because here, the people are the sovereign. The government of the republic is designed to be subject to us. The primary blame for having our authority usurped lies ultimately with us for allowing it to happen. The people will also be the ones who wake up and recover what has been lost.

This is a prophecy of what is coming, but it is also a forensic study of what went wrong so we can correct it and don't keep making the same mistakes. If we do not understand this, we will fall again, because what caused the fall has not been corrected. Just as Spurgeon once said that he could find 10 men who would die for the Bible for every one who would read it, we too can find many who would die for the Constitution. Far more may have died for it than have read it.

As I shared before, our ministry lawyer took constitutional law in law school, and the class never once referred to the Constitution. The entire course was spent studying Supreme Court decisions, obviously under the delusion that the Supreme Court was the supreme law of the land and that anything it would do must be constitutional. Those who claim to be "constitutional lawyers" can be the most ignorant of what is actually in the Constitution. When a politician today says something is constitutional, you can almost be sure that it is not. When they claim something is not constitutional, you can almost be sure it is.

That is how twisted things have become and why the Lord's first warning about these times was, "Do not be deceived." Deception is far more common than truth today. This is why things reported in the media are now more likely to be false or at least distorted. Why is this? You can also now count on the same from most of the pulpits in the American church. The message of the typical American church today would be unrecognizable to the apostles of the first century.

The disconnect from truth has come the same way in the media that it has in the church. Of course, this is not true in every church or the entire media. It's easy to see in the media how there is now a tendency to report what they want to be true rather than what is true. Is that not how we have changed the gospel, the church and even our concept of God into what we want them to be rather than how they are?

One of the basic characteristics of true humility is being teachable and responsive enough to change or to expand our concepts and beliefs. This too is repentance, and it is coming.

Rick Joyner is the founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries and is the senior pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church. He is the author of more than 40 books, including The Final Quest, A Prophetic History and Church History. He is also the president of The OAK Initiative, an interdenominational movement that is mobilizing thousands of Christians to be engaged in the great issues of our times, being the salt and light that they are called to be.

This article originally appeared at morningstarministries.org.