Category: Reflections

The PM of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, are both facing charges and efforts to remove them from their elected offices.  Both reject the charges against them.  Both claim that what they do, or have done, is no different than what others before them have done; or else that they are simply being falsely accused of some degree or other of misconduct.  (I am not saying here whether either of them is criminally guilty of the charges against them.)  In both countries, those who are most excited about the prospects of their political demise are those who are actively and openly pursuing giving up national sovereignty, and openly advocating for erasing all the boundaries of order — not only politically, but also down to even of gender.  How low will we go? Continue reading “The Judgment Seat of Messiah”

Not everything is relative, without any reference point.  The Earth is God’s center in the universe, His reference point. He created it “in the beginning”, and everything else that He did is in reference to it. Yeshua/Jesus came here to put away the sin of the world, and to cleanse things on Earth and in the heavenlies. I do not know if that means the Earth is the geographic center of the universe. It might be. Beer Sheva is close to being the geographic center of the State of Israel, but Jerusalem is the “center” of God’s purposes here.

The Jewish “New Year” begins on the evening of the 29th.  This mo’ed/appointed time is actually the beginning of the seventh month on God’s redemptive calendar, and is called the Memorial of [Trumpet] Blasts.  Prophetically, it is a call to repentance for the people of God — whether Jews or Christians — in preparation to acknowledge their sins as His covenant people saved by grace (the Passover), and accept the Father’s provision of His one-and-only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the individual, and of the nation/people as a collective whole.  Yeshua/Jesus, the Son of God, is that sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit is working in the lives of those in covenant relationship with the one true living God to bring us to complete dependence and trust in His grace and love through even the severe chastenings of a holy and righteous Father.  There is glory and holiness on the other side.  That is surely a new beginning!  Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

As I consider the Shabbat (Saturday), God told Israel to remember that He created the heavens and the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh.  He also told Israel to keep the Sabbath because He delivered us out of bondage in Egypt.  In other words, on the Shabbat, the Jewish people are to remember our Creator, and our Redeemer/Deliverer.  When we remember what YHVH did when He created the world, the first day (Day One/One Day) He called the light out of darkness, and divided/distinguished the light from the darkness, which was created that same day. 

When a person is born-again by the Spirit from Above, we are brought into God’s light, and we see.  Both the first day of the week and the 7th day of the week are unique days, and the day after the Sabbath recalls both:  we are a new creation in Messiah Yeshua/Christ Jesus, our Creator and our Redeemer/Savior; and God still has His plan for this creation through the salvation of Israel.  Our sins are forgiven, and through Him we know the Father and receive the Holy Spirit unto everlasting life with the Lord!  Isn’t that wonderfully good news?! 

And connected with this good news is that Yeshua is coming again, and all who are His will be gathered together with Him.  The Kingdom of God will be established throughout the universe that He created and made for His glory, and the joy of all who love Him.

This next Sonday, Aug 11, will mark 37 years since my wife and I became Israeli citizens (and dual citizens of the U.S.)! We arrived in Netanya, Israel on Sept 21, 1981, and settled in Beer Sheva in Feb of ’82, as the Lord led us to choose once it became certain that we were here to stay. It was not an experiment, but a walk of faith in obedience to the Word of the Lord to me to “Go to Israel” when we were born-again seven months before we came. We had gotten married 10 months before that life-changing moment for us both!

It is interesting to me at times to think of how God has located us. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, we were in the northern South of the original United States of America, and Richmond became the Capital of those southern states during America’s Civil War, which for Southerners was always “the War”. Richmond is rich in American history, both for the Revolutionary War of Independence and also for the Civil War. Most people drive by Richmond on the major highways as they head for somewhere else: Richmond is not their destination on their trip. In Beer Sheva, we are also in the northern South of Israel, and Beer Sheva is its administrative center.

Beer Sheva is rich in Biblical history ever since Abraham named the place where he made a covenantal oath with a Philistine king over the ownership of wells. Most people do not make Beer Sheva a destination point in their itinerary, as they bypass the city on the major highways to somewhere else. Richmond, though, was not a desert, but had four seasons. Washington, DC, the nation’s Capital, was accessible from Richmond; Jerusalem, Israel’s Capital, is likewise easily accessible. Richmond is about half-way along the eastern seaboard of the States; Beer Sheva is geographically near the center of the State of Israel. The Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea, are not so far away.

Prophecies written for us through the Spirit of Messiah long ago are increasingly coming to pass — or about to — in our days. Scriptures written four millennia ago still stand true in these end-times of the last days.

Heaven and Earth may pass away, but the Word of YHVH abides forever! Yeshua said that it is all about Him, so if we deny or reject any part of it, we are taking away part of the testimony that He is the Word of God, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is no small matter.

I came to faith through a man who understood the times according to the prophetic word of God, and he could answer the questions that I had, mostly having to do with history, government, and politics, and also about the Jews and the Chosen People. His name is Dwight (never knew his family name, nor was I ever able to get in contact with him again).

War by Iran seems imminent, and if so, this is in line with what Daniel the Prophet wrote about the end-times, explained to him by the angel Gabriel, the same angel who told Mary that she would conceive and have a son who would be called the Son of the Highest. If we do not read the Old Testament and understand that many ‘jots and tittles’ have yet to be fulfilled, then we will be less likely to discern the times. Jesus said that every jot and tittle of the Law and the Prophets will be fulfilled. When He speaks about the last days before He returns being like the days of Noah, or the days of Lot, we need to read the Torah about what those days were like. Daniel writes about the fourth kingdom and the fourth beast as leading into the return of the Son of Man and the establishing of His kingdom with the saints. No one is going to figure out the day and hour of the Lord’s return, but the times and seasons He expects us to be awake to.

Whatever viewpoint one has about the timing of the rapture, Paul makes it clear in 2Thes 2 that it will not happen unless there is the apostasy and the revelation of the Antichrist. Whoever/Whatever the restrainer is, he/it will not be removed until at least that occurs. At least until then, the rapture can not happen at any moment, even as I write these words. There are things which must take place first. And these ‘things’ are more and more taking shape.

For me, it is both exciting and frightening: in the Spirit, exciting; in the flesh, frightening. Thank God for His love and grace through our faith and hope in who Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah is, and for what He has accomplished by His death on the cross and resurrection!

The first verse of the Bible, Gen 1:1, states simply and directly that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth”. He created them together at the same time, at the beginning of time.

Science, evolution-based, tells us that the universe somehow came into being 13.5 billion years ago, and the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. That simply and directly contradicts what the Creator Himself had Moses write to reveal and to inform us of the truth of the matter.

If YHVH is God — the Father, Yeshua/Jesus, and the Holy Spirit — believe in Him, and believe what He says. Glory to God for His marvelous works!

We look for New Heavens and a New Earth. (2Pt 3:10-13; Rev 21:1-5) Can God create these in a moment, or will the saints be waiting while He takes millions of years to do it after the destruction of the current Heavens and Earth?!