All around the world there are changes taking place. The vast majority of these changes are not good. This evil is actually preparing the world for an empire that will rule over all the nations. This one world government will eventually be ruled by the antichrist.
I have a very good friend who I catch up with every few months for breakfast. We order our food and coffees and then sit down and the conversation starts with something like - ‘How are you?’ ‘How are things with the family?’ ‘’Have you heard the one about the pastor,...
In this and the next two issues of Israel & Christians Today I will be sharing some thoughts from the Torah portion, or parsha, named Ekev—Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25.
When we hear the word ‘gospel’ today, we tend to think of the basic message of Christianity; namely that mankind is separated from God through sin and that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin through His death, burial and resurrection.
I have seven beautiful grandchildren—six handsome grandsons and one stunning granddaughter. I love them with all my heart… and the thing I love to hear the most is when we sit down for our Friday night Shabbat meal and they say ‘Tell us a story Grandpa.’ And by story they mean a Bible story.
The remarkable Asbury revival in Kentucky USA, had millions of Christians worldwide glued to their screens to see if this might be a new awakening
Mark 12:29-30 is a very familiar verse to most Christians and often quoted. Did you realise that Jesus was quoting the first two verses of the Shema which was an integral part of daily prayer then—and now?
As an evangelical Christian closely involved in building bridges between Christians and Jews, there is a subject I try studiously to ignore, and that is the “problem” of Messianic Jews. It is indeed the “elephant in the room.”
When the Shema is recited by the Jewish people (and Christians), it begins with this statement: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4) Pronouncing God’s name YHWH is considered a sin, so the Jewish people use other words to replace...
In Part 01 of our series about Jerusalem and Christians visits, we learned that the ‘river of pilgrimage’ has been flowing from the very beginning of the church age. Christians constitute the highest amount of sacred visitors to a holy city which is also sacred to Judaism and Islam, too. This growing phenomena in Christian visits is even more remarkable considering that neither Christ nor the apostles command it, and there is more of a spiritual, rather than geographic, emphasis in Christian worship. We also learned why Christians visit Jerusalem. They can be summarised in two key words: Devotion: From the very beginning, Christians have been motivated to visit Jerusalem so that they can ‘walk where Jesus walked.’ Following in the footsteps of the Master is a strong sign of devotion. Education: Pious believers visit Jerusalem because they want to learn more about the Bible. Considering that Jerusalem is mentioned over 811 times in the KJV, it is indisputably the premier city of Scripture. What is remarkable is that these twin pillars of devotion and education can be applied across the board, to pilgrims from every denomination and every century of the church age. The Tourism Factor To the ancient […]
Lessons learned from Israel Tours: When visiting other countries you enjoy learning the culture, food, history, flora and fauna that make those countries unique. You enjoy the experiences, share them with your friends when you get home and then go on with life. That’s what holidays are all about. If the nation you’re visiting is Israel it not like that at all. On our last tour to Israel, one of our group made the comment that every leaf and rock in Israel is a lesson, each contains a sermon and is life changing. That is a perfect description of Israel. A site we love visiting is Neot Kedumim; it’s a fantastic Biblical Landscape Reserve, commonly referred to as the Biblical Garden. When imagining a garden, you think of manicured lawns, hedgerows, pretty flower beds, tapered trees, meandering walkways and maybe a fountain or two. That’s not Neot Kedumim. Neot Kedumim is 620 acres designed to look like natural landscape, but is a “unique recreation of the physical setting of the Bible in all its depth and detail that allows visitors to see life as it was lived 3000 years ago.”* The goal of Neot Kedumim is to grow all the […]
Easter: March 25-29 | Passover: April 23-30 “Everyday for more than a millennium, since the time of Moses, the priests had offered sacrifices for the sins of God’s people at the third hour and the ninth hour—at dawn and at three in the afternoon. And each year since the time of Moses, Israel had celebrated Passover, and the priests had offered the daily sacrifice at three in the afternoon before Shabbat and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now all those offerings came to one great, final conclusion as God’s Lamb, presented to the people as He rode into Jerusalem on lamb-selection day, was offered at the exact hour of the last sacrifice of Passover.” (Echoes of His Presence, Ray Vander Laan, Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado) Quite a few years ago, those words by Ray Vander Laan touched me deeply. I pictured Jesus riding on the donkey, into Jerusalem, on lamb-selection day and that fact, brought me to my knees, overwhelmed. God is amazing and His covenant is specific and provable. He has never detoured from His plan to bring us into His Kingdom. “The spiritual does not come first, but the physical and then the spiritual.” […]