Archives for October 2014

Living the Moment: “from Israel” #2

October 30, 2014 By

imageOur Boeing 777 landed on the runway of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. We were finally here! And on our way up the concourse, there was a sign that said “Welcome to Israel!” Take a a picture of me, I requested, hardly able to contain my excitement.Get passport stamped. Pick up luggage. A two-hour drive in the waning light to Galilee. Tomorrow would hold great promise, I thought.

Magdala was our first stop in the light of morning. In recent years, a synagogue dating back to the times of Yeshua, had been unearthed there.  I thought of her, Mary (Mary of Magdala; you call her Mary Magdalene) and her life-changing encounter with Yeshua (Could this synagogue have been where He met her?) Her encounter with Him caused her to leave that little town and that local synagogue and follow the One who had cast from her seven demons. The guide pointed to a split in the surrounding mountains and said that Yeshua would have walked from Galilee over those mountains down to the city of Magdala. And she would follow Him, I thought, through those mountains, into Capernaum . . . to the cross . . .  and to the grave! 
 
Next stop–The Mount of Beatitudes: We walked past a garden of olive trees up an incline to to a grove of ficus trees. Under that grove, Bishop taught us from the Sermon on the Mount in the near vicinity of where it is believed to be the spot where Yeshua sat and taught the multitude! A gentle breeze, like the Ruach of God, blew off the Sea of Galilee and made that moment special. The breeze caressed us as we recited together the Lord’s Prayer, just as Yeshua taught His disciples to pray.
The teachings in each spot transported us from 2014 to the first century and allowed us to live those moments that we had read about! Living in the moment with Him enlarges us so that when the time comes, we can live as He lived when we are in less than ideal situations! His Presence is truly here!

 

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“I Can Only Imagine”: From Israel #1

October 28, 2014 By

“I can imagine what I would do when my face is before You. When I stand in Your presence, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for You, Jesus, or in awe of You be still. Will I sing hallelujah or be able to speak at all. I can only imagine.”

imageWell, recording artists Mercy Me asked the above questions in wonderment! As I sit on the Boeing 777 plane taking thirty of us across the Atlantic on a tour of Israel, I am 2 hours away from my destination!

And I am asking the same questions that Mercy Me did.

What will I do when the plane touches down at the Ben Gurion  Airport?

What will I do after going through baggage claim and stand on the outside of the airport, on the grounds that He consecrated?

What will I do when our driver picks us up and takes us to the kibbutz in Galilee where I will stay? Galilee was the headquarters of Jesus’s ministry.

What will I do when I board a boat that will sail across the Sea of Galilee?

Or when I teach in the Garden of Gethsemane!?

Or at the Pool of Siloam?

Or stand on the grounds of the ill-fated Jericho!

Well, I can only imagine . . . and you, well, you have to wait for my 2nd blog.

PRAYER: Abba, none of us has any idea what that day will be like when really do stand before You, but until then we want to live every day in Your presence as if it were the last one! And in the land that you blessed with a promise, I want to encounter you in everything I do! Amen!

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A Season of Rejoicing

October 9, 2014 By

We have entered the season of The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) on God’s calendar. It is the only feast in which God calls us to rejoice!

“and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name.” (Deut. 16:16, italics, underscoring & boldface mine)

Everyone, yes, everyone is commanded to rejoice! We have been given a command to rejoice . . . and for seven days! Seven is the number of spiritual perfection!

“Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year” (Leviticus 23:41).

That seven-day rejoicing prepares our minds to realize that our lives should be lived in complete joy (not only for seven days, but always) because we know the One in Whose presence there is fullness of joy and at Whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore! That indeed is spiritual perfection!!!

The angels understood this when they said to the shepherds:

“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke 2:10) They spoke the language of Sukkot.

The wise men who saw the star knew that this season had brought them the Messiah, so Matthew records that:

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10).

From prison, Paul tells the Philippians:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

When the host of heaven sees the reason that we should be rejoicing, they say:

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” (Rev. 19:7).

What does this have to do with you? You have been called to rejoice! It is a command! Difficult times will come and life happens, BUT we have been commanded to rejoice. So let us, together, push past this veil of flesh! Let us silence the voices of this world that tell us we have nothing to rejoice about! Let us be like the angels, the shepherds, and the great host that stood before the throne and say to one another, “REJOICE!” God gave us the greatest Gift ever, the Gift of His Son and with Him come the fulfillment and the future hope of great promises.

Yes, we DO have a reason to rejoice. Moreover, He says when we rejoice during this Festival, our joy will be made complete.

“For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” (Deut. 16:14-15)

PRAYER: Abba, thank you for giving us this season as a reminder that this is how we should live . . . in complete joy regardless of our circumstances. As we celebrate The Feast of Tabernacles, thank you for blessing our harvest, the fruit of our hands, and for making our joy complete.

 
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