Remaining

“These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jerico.” Numbers 26:63
“But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered. . .in the wilderness of Sinai. So there was not left a man of them except Caleb. . .and Joshua.” Numbers 26:65

I feel I can relate to the generation that never made it out of the wilderness of Sinai.

O Lord, even if all my days be spent in the wilderness, I thank You for allowing me to live each one to the fullest with You. And here’s a simple poem . . .

With You

Life is a blur
of rough terrain

each clearing entered
grows over again

but there is beauty
in the wilderness too

each time I look
and always find You.

Inside Israel – Nervous

Welcome to Inside Israel, where “J” , a Messianic believer (one who is Jewish and also believes and has received Jesus as their Savior) sends us a letter. Today, the title says much. J is nervous to share what God laid on her heart. I pray that we are able to receive it in the Spirit that it was sent! God bless you and as always, thank you for praying for Israel and for J!

I greet you in The Name of The Lord, Yeshua h’Meshiach, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. I also greet you from this city… Jerusalem… a city with eternal significance, the weight of which I feel day in and day out. What a privilege to live here, and what a responsibility! Above all, I am responsible to God, Who put His Name here, but no more then each of you are responsible to Him…for He called each of us to ‘Follow’ and to ‘Know’ Him. Wow!

I had a disturbing encounter recently, and one that I ‘began’ to write about in my head (usually on the bus!) since it happened, but only now, as I am reading this morning, do I feel that I can, and need to, write about it on ‘paper’.

The position of ‘replacement theology’ came up again. It has been awhile since I thought about it, actually forgetting that it was there. I went to The Lord and His Word. For those of you who don’t know (and I know from letters that some don’t), replacement theology basically says that the nation/people ‘Israel’ has been replaced by the Church because of the sins of Israel. All of the promises to Israel are now promises to the Church. Israel is eternally cursed unless they turn and accept Jesus (I do not dispute that…only the METHOD, by the way).

This made perfect sense. For two thousand years (what a LONG TIME!) Israel was in exile, cast off and chased and without a country. There WAS no ‘Israel’. (I actually had someone say to me once ‘You are Jewish? I didn’t think there were anymore Jews!’) What WAS the Church to think? What must it have been like in the hundreds of years preceding our time to read the promises to Israel…to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the first covenant…and there WAS no Israel. How would you deal with that theologically?

And so, theologies grew.

In looking back, I am thankful that The Lord frustrated my deep desire to ‘go to Bible school’ because He knew that I am lazy by nature and that if I had had the richness of such an experience I would have neglected the path HE had for me. He called me instead into ‘His Bible school’ (just like all of you)…rising early, spending long hours in His Word and on my knees with only One Teacher. I remember the GREAT direction given by my first Pastor to ‘ALWAYS weigh EVERYTHING by the FULL counsel of the whole Word of God.’ Sometimes I would take two pages and write ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ when I was trying to understand where The Lord stood on something. Doing that often brought me to my knees crying out ‘Oh Lord! Your ways are so much higher then mine and Your thoughts so much higher then mine! I do not know where you stand, so lead me in Your path!’

Also, years ago, I went through a very difficult time (back some 20 years ago or more) when my world was turned upside down and I was in great fear as to if I were even His. At that time He taught me a great and precious lesson; I laid myself out before Him and asked Him to deal death to ANYTHING that I believed as truth that WASN’T Truth. Since then I have prayed that often; ‘Lord, if I hold dearly a stand as truth but it ISN’T True, PLEASE DRIVE IT FROM ME AND CORRECT ME!’ I pray that now too as I share this.

Now…I am sure that I STILL hold opinions and views that He will need to adjust or obliterate… but I trust Him that His work in me is not yet finished and that in His mercy He has heard my prayer. TRUTH is so important…TRUTH is His Name!

So…what happened when I was reminded about ‘replacement theology’?

It isn’t ‘easy’ living here. We do many things wrong as a nation. We are not saved yet, as a people. The world hates us. It is harder for me to be reminded that part of the body also feels that we are illegitimate before The Lord.

BUT, THE WORD! As I was reading just now and felt that it was ‘time to write this’, I read in Jer 33:23-26 (but indeed Jer 31,32, 33 etc restate the same thing over and over)

“…Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, The two families which The Lord has chosen (speaking of Judah and Israel), He has also cast them off? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them, ‘Thus says The Lord; ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and I will have mercy on them.’”

‘Well, Lord, this is just ONE scripture’, but, no…it isn’t. Immediately Romans 11 came into my head. I turned to Luke, where I am now in the New Covenant, but as I began reading another scripture came to me…Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying ‘You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of The Lord’.” I prayed ‘Blessed is HE Who comes in The Name of The Lord’…and I asked Him again; ‘Lord? Is replacement theology right? Am I off base? Correct me Lord, if I am believing something that is not Your Truth, correct me in Your mercy’. Then I felt to come and write, even in the midst of my time before Him.

Because it is His very NATURE that is at the core of the issue; If he will also cast off the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forever because of their (awful!) sins,… then what about the sins committed under the Second Covenant?? I am reminded that Paul brings that up in Rom 11:20 when He says “Do not be haughty, but fear, for if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either…” Back in Jer 32:39 The Lord addresses that fact that He will bring the people back to the land still unsaved saying ‘THEN I WILL GIVE THEM ONE HEART AND ONE WAY THAT THEY MAY FEAR ME FOREVER’ (this is AFTER coming back). I grow impatient; ‘Lord! We seem so far from you as a people and a nation! How and when will you turn our heart!? Am I believing a lie?’ But He says He WILL do it… In Jer, in Zech, in Romans and in so many other places…over and over His promises ring True and promise to come to pass…as they have in the past so they will in the future!

I am sticking my neck out by writing this. I know that I am out of my territory. I am NOT ‘a preacher’…I am an observer. Most people like my ‘bus writing’ best…and I do too. They are ‘easy’ to write. But I feel pressed in my heart to write this. Perhaps some of you know people who withstand your stand with Israel and stand firmly in replacement theology…or perhaps you yourself are unsure. DON’T BELIEVE WHAT I WRITE! (or anyone else). READ THE SCRIPTURES FOR YOURSELF…ALL OF THEM, for they are ALL ‘HIM’. Remember, the ONLY ‘Bible’ that The Lord Himself had, and preached out of was the First Covenant…LIKEWISE…THE APOSTLES! That was what they read and that was what they referred to when they spoke of ‘scriptures’ and ‘written Word’…they did not yet have any other. I encourage you, and myself, read the WHOLE counsel of The Word. “That I may KNOW HIM, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable to His death.”

“In the beginning…GOD…”! is how it begins…and it ends with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. AMEN”!

ani b’derek

Zealous One

“Phineas . . .has turned back My wrath, from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.” Numbers 25:11

For some reason, the word “zeal” scares me a little. But maybe the lack of zeal is what should really scare me.

Thank You, O God, for sending us Your zealous Son to be pierced for our sins, turning back the outcome of a life apart from You. And here’s a simple poem . . .

Turning Back

Zealous for His Father
Jesus never once
compromised holiness
compassionately cleansing
the plague
of our flesh.

Kept Back From Honor

” Now therefore flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor.” Numbers 24:11

Balak was so upset in the above verse, when Balaam couldn’t curse Israel. Balaam could only speak the words the Lord put in his mouth.

Oh Lord, please keep me back from honor today if it would in anyway dishonor You. And here’s a simple poem . . .

To Honor You

Oh let me fill my days
with all the ways
there are to
honor You -
to pray and praise
Your wonderful name
giving glory to
all You do.

“Oh What God Has Done”

“The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them
God brings them out of Egypt . . .
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh what God has done.’” Numbers 23:21-23

That there is the tiny nation of Israel today in the place God established it thousands of years ago, surrounded by countries who do not wish it to exist at all, makes me say indeed – look what God has done!

Father, we thank You for all You have done and are doing in and for Israel. We also thank You for what You have done bringing each of us out of our own personal Egypts . . .giving us new life with You. And here’s a simple poem . . .

Out of Egypt

Twenty-four years ago I passed
from Egypt’s grasp
into a place
filled with His grace.

Hard to believe so much has changed
and rearranged
inside of me
setting me free.

I stop and look – what You have done
through Christ Your Son
amazement sings
praise to my King!

This is one of those poems I’m not thrilled with. It is done in the Minute Form that I learned over at Jessie Carty’s poetry blog, but I just didn’t get it worked out very well before it was time to post it. I welcome your poems or any improvements to this one!

New Neighbors

“Then he sent messengers to Balaam . . .to call him, saying, ‘Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth, and are settling next to me!’ ” Numbers 22:5

Balak goes on to ask Balaam to curse his new neighbors. He wants them gone. And I wonder if I have been less than welcoming when change settles in.

Oh Lord, please change how I view change, that I might be a blessing and not a curse. And here’s a simple poem . . .

Settling With Change

Each time change comes
I can decide
whether to embrace it
or turn it aside.

Prisoners of War

“When the King of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwells in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners.” Numbers 21:1
“So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities’.” Numbers 21:2
“And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites . . .” Numbers 21:3

To this day, Israeli soldiers are targeted to be taken as prisoners. Their enemies know how valuable their sons and daughters are and so use them to barter with and make demands.

Thank You Lord, for coming to set the captives free. And here’s a simple poem . . .

Freedom Fighters

Can I be okay
while there are those imprisoned
by politics and poverty
addictions and fears?
Teach me how to
reach out with You, Lord
to let them know
freedom is here.

The King’s Highway

“Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” Numbers 20:17

Edom refused Israel’s request to pass through the land.

Lord, thank You for Your Holy Highway that passes through what the enemy considers his. And here’s a simple poem . . .

Road Trip

There is a highway
that we travel
entering into
what isn’t safe
but we must go
and grab the hands of
all those willing
to leave that place.

Inside Israel – For His Glory

Hello to all who have come by for a look inside Israel. J of Jerusalem takes us along with her for encounters with Yeshua and those He would place in her path. God bless you as you pray for Israel and J today! Here’s J . . .

(It has NOT been without difficulty that this letter comes to you with love and blessing in The Name of Yeshua! I began writing:…)

“Yesterday, 15th of Jan 2010, was my 36th birthday in Yeshua! He found me, 36 years ago, in the mud, washed me in His PRECIOUS Blood, and has kept me these many/few years and I want to worship Him with you for that. He has done the same for you. WOW! Worthy is The Lamb that was slain and lives forever! May we be a blessing to Him, living for His glory alone! AMEN!

I have a story (or two) to share:

Israelis are very direct and to the point. They don’t like to waste time or beat around the bush. They want ‘truth’ and they want it NOW! This characteristic is often misinterpreted by non Israelis as ‘aggressive behavior’ but I have come to admire this blunt directness. It says to me ‘We are stressed and desperate. We have no time to wait. We need the Truth NOW!’

But HOW to communicate that Truth effectively is something I passionately seek…and yet sometimes, I confess, shy away from. It is like being an archer…you either hit the target…or you don’t. Each word is weighty and important. What a responsibility!

I generally get a ride to kehila (fellowship) with Marin, the woman whom I asked prayer for a short time ago. She is newly widowed. Rudy (whom you prayed for and who asked came to Him at the last minute) was her husband. Our kehila rents a space in a large building and if no one is at the main door to let us in, we ring a bell and a guard comes down. We get varied reactions from the building guard who must ask where we are going. Yesterday, however, two policemen were entering the building when we arrived so we waited for them to open the door. One asked ‘Where are you going?’ We answered, giving the name of our congregation and the floor number and he asked ‘What is that?’ I said ‘We are Jewish believers in Messiah. It is a Messianic congregation.’ He scowled and said ‘I have a big problem with that.’ Marin asked ‘What is your problem?’ He responded ‘I believe in One God … “Hear o Israel, The Lord your God is One God, The Lord your God is One”. (He was quoting the ‘Shma’…the most important prayer in Judaism) You believe in a man who is Messiah. I have the same problem with Habad. They also believe that a man can be Messiah.’ (Habad, or Chabad, or Lubavich is the ultra orthodox sect that, like the Haradim, wear almost only black and white and extreme clothing and believe that this rabbi or that is or was Messiah-VERY brief simplistic description!) Marin began to answer and I was thankful because his statement addressed things that my Hebrew wasn’t deep enough to answer. Our elevator ride was short, but I suggested that he come to our floor and ‘observe’. He seemed shocked ‘Oh! I couldn’t do that! I don’t want to be one!’ He was scared. ‘We are not missionaries’ I explained. ‘You are welcome to just see who we are and what we believe and no one will accost you.’ When they left the elevator Marin bemoaned ‘How will one like him ever be reached! We must pray for him!’ And that IS EXACTLY the answer! That is also the ONLY way that I was reached in the deep mud pit that I was in…through prayer touching the Heart of God…because no man was used to touched me…I would have listened to no man. How wonderful that He cares and how we must pray…how I must pray!

(NOW…THAT IS WHAT I WROTE ON THE 16TH. THIS IS THE NIGHT OF THE 19TH….LETS SEE IF I CAN FINISH THIS)

And…I GOT TO SHARE AGAIN TODAY! At work we have a bit of a crisis. It takes 4 secretaries to keep the Dr. office working. I’m the ‘mama’ of the pack as they are usually young girls. Well…the last 3 young girls quit at the same time…it’s been… STRESSFUL! A new girl was hired this week. She’s 23 and sharp as a whip! The daughter of doctors, they made aliyah from Russia 8 years ago. Her Hebrew is perfect, unaccented. Finally today we found some time to talk and I surprised myself by sharing with her immediately that I was a believer. She was totally accepting and told me that she had no problem with this…but didn’t know what it was. The door was open for me to share and I was thankful for the grace to share in Hebrew more easily then usual. Our time was short before work poured in upon us again, but her name is Ala (a Russian girl’s name) and I do ask for prayer for her.

Sundown tonight ushered in the celebration of Tu b’shvat…’the birthday of the trees’. It’s a lovely celebration marked by songs, planting of trees and the eating of dried fruits and nuts and giving of flowers. It is a time of being thankful for the miracle of the cycle of growth (this is the time that the seeds, particularly of fruit trees, swell in the ground and sprout…when buds form on the trees, fruit forms in the flowers) and a thankfulness for the fruitfulness of the land that God has given us. (I am NOT able to do this letter justice…I am SO tired…but if it isn’t finished tonight, it won’t be…so please forgive that it’s unraveling a bit…) The shuk is loaded with fruits and nuts and my Grandchildren are singing delightful songs and dancing with flowers in their hair. It’s lovely!

BUT…the joy is NOT reflected on the buses this year…oh no it isn’t! You may recall some of my descriptions of the construction of our ‘lite rail system’. It seriously defies description…but I’ve tried. You see…this is year NINE of construction…or is it ten. OBVIOUSLY it has been the subject of HEATED public debate through the entire time, and no place is it more heated then on our buses. The bus riders are your least ‘powerful’ people in our society; the people with no cars. We are a perhaps colorful, but rather voiceless ‘mass’, and the ‘lite rail construction’ could easily be considered ‘bus-rider-abuse’ as our routes have been changed, lengthened, increasingly crowded and expensive as the roads used by the buses are also the route of the train. WELL…Saturday night, Jaffa Road, our main artery, was officially and permanently closed to all motor vehicles and city buses were permanently diverted to new ridiculously long routes which turned narrow one way streets into two way BUS traffic streets! The word ‘belegan’ (which loosely means ‘chaos’) was indeed created for this! I thought the BUS DRIVER would have a stroke on Sunday morning as he maneuvered his way down Agrippas (a narrow street in the back of the shuk) at 6am stuck behind trucks unloading at the shuk. My normally 1 hour ride to or from work now takes 1 and a half hours (or 12 minutes by car…) I think that this was the first time that I heard the DRIVERS actually ANGRIER then the riders! The riders have been angry for 9 or 10 years now while the bus drivers shook their heads. Right now it’s the riders shaking our heads as the drivers yell. There is STILL no ‘lite rail’ running, by the way… but they still do tell us it WILL happen. But there was no dried fruit or nuts being passed around the bus as it has been in the past. I had ample opportunity to pray for my OWN spirit to be quiet this morning in light of the situation, and as I gain the victory I will be praying for my fellow riders as well. I look forward to telling you of the victory and hope that we are soon singing on the bus again.

Well, with all of the important things happening in our country and around us, I have shared none of it. I also have some serious prayer requests to share…and will only ask right now for prayer for our older daughter who is about to give birth and is exhausted (they just moved and have all been down with stomach virus). She was quite ill with serious post partum depression 4 years ago, and I ask you to remember her this time for victory…ALL of the family. I ask specific prayer for our 7 year old Grandson.

With SO much more to write I am falling asleep. God bless you. I can not tell you how much each of you mean to me. Very lovingly, for His glory, your sis

Open Vessels

“This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; and every open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean.” Numbers 19:14-15

Much can and has been said about being open minded.

Thank You, Lord, for Your Holy Spirit which covers and filters what comes into Your vessels. And here’s a simple poem . . .

His Filter

To be an open vessel
with a Holy Spirit lid
allowing in what brings life
shutting out what reeks of sin.