May 31st 2008
It’s been a wonderful few days here in Israel thus far. We are staying in Ho Carmel, a suburb of Haifa. This morning I ran from our hotel, the Dan Panorama, down to the Mediterranean and back for a little swim—about a 10 mile jog round trip thru peaceful residential streets on a sharp downhill slope.
Holocaust thrivers... Two cute wizened oldsters, holding hands, were hobbling toward the early morning sea. I passed them and noticed a stenciled number on their left arms. They seemed very pleased, giggling a bit, as they played in their Promised Land. Not next year in Jerusalem; it’s this year in Jerusalem. At last.
Hanging out at Elijah's house. Every morning our group of about 300 gets bused out to a Druse village, Falija, where the Carmel Assembly meets at their own church campus. It’s about a half hour ride. The circular Jerusalem stone building, about 11 years old, has ten curved beams symbolizing the ten commandments; 12 uncut boulders around the alter symbolizing the 12 altars of Elijah, windows open to the sky encouraging an attitude of prayer. This is where they also have a guest house and intern housing. Some 30 volunteers live here along with a contingent of refugee emigrant women and children from Sudan and other African countries who have slipped in the back door of Israel across the Sinai desert at great risk of being shot or dying of thirst.
A note from Bethyl. Today is Shabot. To you Shabot Shalom! As we enjoyed our buffet breakfast, overlooking Haifa Bay in the distance, we read from John Henry Jowett. “Many members of a family may bear the same name…may sit and eat at the same table, and yet may have no more vital union than a handful of marbles in a boy’s pocket. … It is in the spirit, and there alone, that vital union is to be found.” Earlier this week we read: “the gifts are shown in that each person may find one’s completeness in his brother. … One is the architect, the other is the builder. And each requires the other, if either is to be perfected. So, by God’s gracious Spirit, each person is only a bit, a portion, and each is intended to fit into the other bits, and so make the complete person of the race.”
The bridge of tears over the years. I share ALL these thoughts as they vitally illustrate our experiences and learnings here. The feast of teachings has invited us to partake in ways beyond anything we ever would have imagined or truly understood when we said “I’ll eat this and I want this to drink” from the menu of choices we could have selected in being here in Israel these days. We have heard Dani, one of the pastors who is a Messianic Jew, talk about his visit to a Belzac, one of the concentration camps in Poland. He flashed a picture of bones heaped in a large pile outside the crematorium. He wanted us to get it.
As we listened to his story and watched his grief, we were moved…and the hundreds around as were as well. He knelt down, overcome with grief. Quiet fell over the group Then a woman, sobbing, came and prayed: “Father, please forgive me. I am German. Forgive me and my people for what we have done to the Jews.” The sorrow spread – Switzerland, England, France, Canada, Australia, the United States, Belgium, The Netherlands… all repenting for their sin of commissions and omissions—those who turned the Jews away from their shores, didn’t protect them. One prayed not JUST for what has happened, but for help and protection that we would NOT repeat this in the future. The tenor moved to ask those Jews to come to the front who’s grandparents were the generation that went through the holocaust. The group of perhaps 25 came forward and then extended the hands and hearts to forgive “the nations.” Even as I write this my heart is moved to tears—truly the Lord is IN this place, not just the location on the map, but in the location where His Spirit desires to unite the Jew, the Arab, and “the nations” of the world.
We have never experienced this bold honest telling of truth, then the truth being truly heard and acknowledged publicly, not blame, not excuse, just pure acceptance of sin and responsibility for the sin… the truth marching straight for the jugular vein – “forgiveness.” Vance and I know that “grieving truly is the healing feeling… but we know that grieving must come to its fullness and be relinquished through submission to forgiveness.: We are a blessed people to be standing “on holy ground.”
Dani ended the service by having us turn to Ezekiel 37 where the prophet, talks about dead men’s bones dancing, coming alive once again. Israel today is a fulfillment of that. A country once dead is now bustling. Jews, cut off from the true Vine, dead, will also one day be dancing in Yeshua—but today is not that day quite yet. Half of all Jews live in Israel; 40%, in the USA; 10%, the rest of the world. If you listen hard, can you hear the dance music starting to play?
Being made to feel at home…. Some of our holy ground is happening for me in reuniting with Vonnie Kemp Michals. Vonnie and I sang in Women’s Glee at Moody Bible Institute some 38 years ago. They live near the Carmel Assembly and have help to usher us into the place and time. Greg, her husband, met us at the train station in Haifa and drove us to the conference last Wednesday. We expected the ride, but as Vance said, “we didn’t expect a buffet.” Vonnie prepared juices, coffee, utensils, sandwiches, …” Our hungry bodies were fed so well. We’ve experienced a sweet spirit as the four of us have shared and prayed. God is Sweet and so Good.
June 1, 2008, midnight
The wind is blowing, folks....We’re at a local hotel in Tiberias tonight. Boy, does the wind whistle thru the passes around Mt Arbel, past Magda, and across the Sea of Galilee! This area is a natural wind tunnel from the Med thru a mountain pass and then inwards and downwards to below sea level. It’s good to have a bit of quiet this evening to reflect on what I’ve gotten from this convocation.
Mt Carmel teachings about Elijah and you and me
…. I was thinking of some of Peter’s teaching yesterday during our field trip on top of Mt Carmel beneath the statue of Elijah holding up his staff, beard whipping in the wind:
Summary: God will answer our prayers with fire--but only when we approach with a sacrifice we don't intend to take home. It also has to be something that costs us. God’s fire does not fall randomly here and there. It’s smart fire that lands where the costly sacrifice is laid out and left for Him to decide--consume, return, breathe life into it--His call.
Another point worth taking home: False religion is what we do when God doesn’t show up. Baal’s bimbos danced in circles. They whipped up a lather of emotionality. They made many words. We can do the same thing week after week and nothing changes. No fire. No oil. No life. Just repeat the same old tired 7-11 songs (seven words, eleven times) until we want to scream and cut ourselves with piercing thoughts and slashing sarcasms.
A third and final point: prayer is good, exceptionally needed, but doesn’t have to be long-winded. Baal’s prophets went on and on a long time. Many words. No results. Elijah spent most of his time repairing the altar, working. At the end of the day he prayed just a short prayer. Not: get my butt out of a sling so I don’t get slaughtered. Not: make me look good. Instead: for Your name sake, do this. And the fire fell. Just like Jesus raising Lazarus: short prayer for God to be made bright; surprising results.
Kingdom of God 101…..
Peter was talking about the kingdom of God and what that means today to you and me. Matthew 24:13-14-- "Staying with it—that's what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, and you'll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.
A witness (that’s you and me). People on the ground in every country all over the world. Preaching as a witness of the kingdom of God. That’s what’s needed before the second coming. The Kingdom is the realm of his rulership. If he’s ruling in your heart, there you have the kingdom of God; in your home, congregation, and business.
This was a core message of Yeshua. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. After each of these teachings, he would heal those who were sick. Something of this Kingdom abhors disorder. Disease is disorder. This is one demonstration of his sovereignty as King.
The Kingdom gospel is more than just being part of a local church. Numbers aren’t everything. Quantity doesn’t mean quality. Our church rolls are growing, but our impact for good in society is eroding. There are no demographic differences that count which separate out believers in Yeshua from non-believers in Yeshua: our daytimers and checkbooks are the same, our life style is the same, our divorce rates and child abuse rates are the same. This is not the Kingdom of God at work. God is concerned about influencing under his realm every area of our society.
The marketplace movement seeks to spread the kingdom in the world of business, politics, the trades. These too are callings, not second class citizens of this kingdom when compared to preachers and missionaries. So what is your calling? Make your calling and election sure. We are all to be held accountable to our gifts and calling, for not missing or minimizing them. We all want to hear the words, “well done, good and faithful servant; come into the joy of your master.”
What will it be like when all Israel will be saved? When all the taxi drivers and hairdressers are talking about Yeshua. They are some of the most influential opinion shapers in society. This is a picture of making disciples of all the nations. Every area of society will be subject to his rule, not just folks sitting in a building once a week, with their hands folded, or arms raised, listening to a guy up front yammering away.
Matthew 7:21-23 addresses this idea: "Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'
The rulership of Yeshua saves us from the rulership of our culture. When the church gets this idea, we can and will shake the nations and change cultures, for us and our children. We obey Yeshua’s Kingdom rule because He is the great lover of our souls and would not wish anything for us other than the absolute best, the most joyful, and the deepest wholeness.
Muslim Outreach Basics…
Muslim religion spreads thru fear and intimidation. Not love. And there are roots, human roots, that keeps this fear and intimidation stuck. Rejection is that root. Most Muslims deal with that rejection with feeling shame and anger.
God’s blessing naturally falls to those who embrace his Kingdom, Jew and Arab alike. He also allows us to choose the absolute lunacy of independence from Him, with all the curses that flow from that claim to independence. He allows us to claim our rights over relationship with him, knowing that we curse ourselves in so doing. Rights are what we claim when we don’t choose to work out relationships (see The Shack, William Young, p 137).
God's 2x4... Before this current era we had no reason—other than spiritually being exhorted to help them. Now we have oil and terrorism. So we wake up. Look around. Figure out the options.
Rejection and shame are still dominant factors within the Arab world. Omnipresent, even. This theme of rejecting one person and accepting another is continuous. The Arab’s father sold the land of Israel to Jacob for a plate of stew? That embarrassing story disappears and another book, another story, appears and gained acceptance.
Counseling Arabs in particular must address that root of rejection and shame. Takes time. You have to lay a framework of love before you get to that layer of trust, the fruit of love. Otherwise you get a defensive, angry response: denial and projection onto another—those are common responses to probing interpretations of root causes that are premature.
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