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News From Jerusalem
April 1, 2005
But You, O Lord, are a Compassionate and Gracious God (Psalm 86:15)
Shalom! Greetings in Yeshua, The Lord! By God’s grace, things are going well here, and your prayers and support are being used by Him in many ways. May He encourage your heart as you see your share in the ministry here!
Last Saturday (3/27), we had a ‘collective birthday party’ for all the March birthdays here. We had a nice time at an outdoor park in Jerusalem, and played soccer and enjoyed some great food. Of course, yours truly slipped and took a pretty decent spill during the game and got scuffed up a bit, but no major injuries to speak of! Before leaving to go to the party, the Lord opened a good opportunity to minister to a volunteer that was here – Bill is going through a crossroads in his life, & God allowed a few us to speak to him and share truth with him. Please pray that God will encourage, guide, and be gracious to him. At night, God blessed me to go to Eliat’s dad’s place and watch the Israel vs. Ireland soccer game (Eliat is one of my Israeli friends). We had a good time (they tied, 1-1), and then we went over to his apartment and hung out and talked a bit. The Lord allowed me to share a bit about how true Christians love Israel; pray for Eliat - he’s pretty much a secular Jew, and thinks religion is ‘a thing of the past.’
On Sunday, God blessed a group of us to celebrate a Resurrection Sunday Sunrise Service at the Garden Tomb – a tomb that many believe once held our Savior’s Body. Check out: http://gardentomb.com/ It was a very moving service, and I was blessed to have a good view of the tomb’s actual opening. There may have been around 1,000 people there or so, and it was rad. One of the songs had a line that said, ‘Jesus Christ sets me free,’ and it was particularly moving to sing it there and on that morning. On the way to the tomb, God allowed me to give our Arab taxi driver a ‘Life of The Messiah’ DVD in Arabic. Pray that God opens his eyes to the truth of Jesus! After the service, some of us went to breakfast with Mike Harrington (who heads up Calvary Chapel Bible College-Jerusalem) and a few others that serve at the school. We read 1 Corinthians 15 together, and had some good talks. Afterwards, my friend Chico (an Israeli) and I hung out for around 4 hours together, in and around the Old City. He’s letting me use his cell phone until I leave Israel – what a blessing…praise The Lord! We went and got this really good Arabic food, and The Lord gave some good speaking opportunities. I told him how encouraged he should be when he prays – seeing how God brought the Jews back, gave them Jerusalem again, and that we were sitting there right in Jerusalem on that very day! May YHWH use me to provoke him to jealousy! When we were in the Old City, God allowed me to share about how no one fully keeps the law, and that ‘cursed is everyone who doesn’t do all in the law’ (and Chico knew that verse; Deuteronomy 27:26 / Galatians3:10). I explained that Yeshua kept all the law, and that He paid for us. Also, that animals were sacrificed as blood was needed for forgiveness, and that Yeshua is The Lamb of God. The Lord also enabled me to share how many believers back home really wish they could also be here since they love the Jews and Israel so much – Chico said to tell you to come!
One of the things that can be frustrating is how time flies by when projects depend on the help of several people. At times there’s a lot of waiting, and then you find out that the project can’t be done until a later time. A big part of those problems is the language barrier. Some things are much easier to do in America, and can be done much quicker than here. Some days these differences are funny… other days, they can be frustrating.
On Wednesday, Bradley, Ruth, Rob, and I went over to Len’s for a few hours to clean his apartment (Len is our brother that is dying with Cancer). We have a few groups of volunteers that will be helping us next week, and we wanted to get a head start on cleaning Len’s place before they come and also help at his place.
On Thursday, Ruth and I spent several hours at Ben Gurion International Airport – we had to meet three groups coming in, and pick up things they had brought with them. We were able to meet and speak briefly with other brothers and sisters from different Calvarys, and it’s always interesting to see that they too – just like all of us – are simply regular people.
Last night (Friday) was our main church service, and The Lord greatly blessed me to be able to teach the congregation. Bradley had to leave Israel for an important meeting, and he asked me to teach. By God’s grace, the night went really well, and I was blessed to teach on Matthew 14. I thank God so much once again, for the opportunity to teach my first ‘main church service’ here in Jerusalem! We celebrated communion, and The Lord enabled Artur and I to pray with different people after the service. (Please keep our brother, Artur, in your prayers – he’s only been in Israel for a few years, and he’s serving in the IDF, stationed near Eilat in a combat zone. Ask God to protect him and help him continue to improve his Hebrew.) Here are a few of the notes from the message:
Matthew 14:24-33 (Read)
•v.30 Don’t pay attention to the wind! Fix your eyes only upon Yeshua.
•Turn to Hebrews 12 with me – Hebrews 12:1-3. We all have hard times,
but life is a matter of where your focus is. (Read Heb.12:1-3)
•v.2 of Heb.12 tells us to fix our eyes on Yeshua. The Greek word here
means ‘to look away from one thing, to another thing.’ Look away from
other things, people, etc., and look to Yeshua. We need to change our
focus, and focus on Him.
•Back in Matthew 14, v.31. I wonder, does Yeshua ask us the same
question? We too often limit Him, but what can’t God do?
o Perhaps we think things like, ‘Oh, my past…’ – doesn’t God’s Word
say that all in Christ are new creatures? Old things have passed
away; new things are here.
o Or maybe we say things like, ‘Oh, my finances…’ – doesn’t God’s Word
say that He has plenty to provide for us with? Let’s turn to Psalm
50:10-12. All beasts are His; He knows every mountain bird; He owns
everything that moves in the fields; the world belongs to Elohim, as
well as everything in it.
I thank and praise God for all His mercies! And again, I also thank you for sharing in His work here. Serving The Lord is wonderful, and it’s a prayer answered by our Gracious God to be serving here. May The YHWH bless you for praying and supporting His work in Jerusalem! You are touching many different lives, in many different ways.
Jesus Christ is Risen!
jason
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