our son

Our son will be coming home soon. He is finishing up his 5 months of Discipleship Training School with Youth With a Mission. They helped refugees of Sudan and Uganda. Here is another YWAM school who went to Israel in 2003.

The Last 3 Years

I got this idea from Lizraelupdate.com’s blog about Gilad Shalit.

What have I done in the last three years? Since June 2006 – graduated my son from high school, helped with my kid’s many plays they were in, fixed many sack lunches for my husband, gone to two family reunions, took a trip to Israel with Homeschool Travel, camped a few times in state parks.

We pray for the soon release of Gilad Shalit. May he find comfort in knowing many are praying for him.

Psalm 131

1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

3 Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

This is my 131st post, and this psalm fits it quite well. Actually, this is the 132nd post; Psalm 132 can be read here.

The road may be dark and long but the promises of HaShem are forever and true.

Psalms Chapter 23

1 A Psalm of David. HaShem is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul; He guideth me in straight paths for His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of HaShem for ever.

inspiration – serve God with all your heart

This man was on the 700 Club today. He is amazing, living his life to serve others and share the love of Jesus.

today, Thursday

Today I did my therapeutic swimming – my kids don’t go like in the past, so I got a membership for the summer by my lonesome to get some exercise since my ankle still bothers me to walk too much. I swam back and forth 13 times. Before that I visited my favorite thrift store because I had forgotten to bring a towel for swimming. I got a few others things too – blue tagged clothes were only 50 cents. I noticed a sign saying they really needed volunteers, so I signed up (I always thought I would eventually). I get to clean and price house wears. I prefer back room work so this will be perfect a few hours a week.

Last night I went to our new class at church – how to hear God’s voice. It was excellent, good and great.

There are 4 keys – Be still, Look for vision, get in the flow (spontaneous), journaling. Our pastor said he journals very much, just free-flow writing, then 24 hours later reads back over it and highlights what he believes God is speaking to him. I journaled 2 pages this morning, so will see what it looks like tomorrow. Exciting stuff. Simple but profound.

I thought this little guy was really cute – he lives where my grandparents used to live in the country. I used to bottle feed little calves like him – so cute.

hot hot and hotter

It has been hot hot and hotter here, but thank goodness it did rain last night – how refreshing.

My job is a stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom. I have really enjoyed it, but the time for that is surely coming to an end sooner than later. What to do? I like to garden and sew.

Today I organized some junk in the closet, keeping some, giving some away and throwing some away. Then I got the mail. I received the new Operation Exodus magazine (find their most recent issue here) and sat outside in the heat with the dog and read most of it. This is what I feel God wants me to do – pray for His chosen to return to His Land. I also received letters from 3 other ministries I like, 700 Club, Jews for Jesus and Zola Levitt. They are all tops.

The country-side around where I grew up in NE KS. (We went to a family reunion last weekend.)

The corncrib is still standing,

but the house is gone.

God is everywhere

Last night we heard Kuzaan Van den Berg, a missionary, speak. One of the things he said was, “God is everywhere.” I tried to find a youtube video about it and lo and behold here is a good one.

bind our wounds

On the last day or so of February this year, I twisted my ankle really badly. I was hurrying to get my daughter to her morning play on time. I had on a pair of shoes I rarely wear. There was something in the back seat I put half-way up the basement stairs on a shelf. When I turned to go back down, somehow my foot missed the bottom step and the shoe had no give, so I went on down and my foot didn’t. I let myself down on the floor and moaned and groaned, as my daughter came to see what happened. I told her to get me a pair of Dad’s socks. I tied them around my ankle and was able to drive her to her play. I never did go to the doctor, as a nurse said if I could stand on it, most likely it was not broken, just twisted. I kept driving, but hobbled a lot and it is improving ever so slowly.

The last few days or weeks, the verse keeps coming to mind, “He will bind their wounds.” This morning I found these verses on the subject. Each time I put the wrap around my ankle binding it, it feels so good and comforting and I’m able to walk better each day. Here are the verses from BibleGateway.

1. Job 5:18
For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.
Job 5:17-19 Job 5
2. Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:2-4 Psalm 147
3. Isaiah 30:26
The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
Isaiah 30:25-27 Isaiah 30
4. Hosea 6:1
[ Israel Unrepentant ] “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
Hosea 6:1-3 Hosea 6

Another thing while I’m at it. Today I did the Ezekiel 40 Bible Study about the Temple which the heavenly messenger showed the prophet Ezekiel in a vision. The question asked: “What does the symmetry of the ground plan of the Temple teach us about God?” I had no idea. I found a blog that spoke of the symmetry of flowers. Wikipedia said something about symmetry being about balance. Yes, I believe God’s creation is perfectly balanced and so is God. He is perfect, worthy to be praised and adored. Ezekiel 37:6 “I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, calling forth loyalty and obedient service].” (Amplified)

A tree grows symmetrically if allowed space to grow.

Ezekiel 38-39

I’ve done my Bible study on these 2 chapters. This blog – kingdom engineers gives a great study of these chapters – much better than I could ever do. I’d also love to get the book by Joel Rosenberg, The Ezekiel Option it mentions.

I will give some of my notes too.

In Ezekiel ch. 38-39 the prophet foresees the far distant future – an invasion of Israel by nations beyond what she’s has to do. These nations must learn that God of Israel alone is God. They will learn this by meeting His power when they seek to plunder His Land and being totally defeated, which brings them to Him.

EZEKIEL 38

Two ways the causes of Gog’s invasion is described:
vs. 4, 16 – God will bring them into His land and against His land that the nations may know Him
vs. 10-12 – Thoughts will come into their minds and they will devise an evil plan to go against Israel’s unwalled villages.

vs. 18-23 – God’s jealousy and wrath – He will enter into judgment with Gog. God’s greatness and holiness demonstrated in eyes of many nations – they will know He is the sovereign ruler Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service.

37:25-28 – everlasting covenant of peace with His people. Nations will know Israel is set apart for holy use.

EZEKIEL 39

Another prophecy against Gog – completeness of his overthrow.

vs. 9-20 – 3 ways this is brought out:
1) Battle gear will be burned as fuel for 7 years.
2) Dead buried in Valley of Hamongog east of the Dead Sea.
3) Sacrificial feast

“I hid my face from them” vs. 23
Deut. 31:17 – when angry God hides His face from them.
Ps. 30:7 – “You hid Your face and I was troubled.”
Ps. 104:29 troubled and dismayed when you hide Your face
Is. 8:17 – The Lord hid His face from the house of Jacob
Is. 64:7 – Hid His face and delivered into the power of our iniquities.

Blessings of vs. 29 – God will not hide His face any more from them – when He pours out His Spirit on the house of Israel.

I’ve snooped all around this blog today. Fun and interesting – God bless them.

driving to the Dead Sea

Ezekiel 36 & 37

A couple days ago I did the Ezekiel 36 & 37 study in Search the Scriptures.

EZEKIEL 36

Ezekiel 36:8-15 – Blessings promised to Israel:
1. The mountains of Israel will shoot forth branches and yield fruit to God’s people Israel.
2. God is for Israel.
3. God will multiply men – cities will be inhabited – waste places will be rebuilt.

1. Verses 16-19 say why God cast the people into exile.
a) they did their own way and did idolatrous things
b) unclean conduct
c) they shed blood
d) they defiled the land with idols

Verses 20-24 say why He brought them back.
a) He had regard, concern and passion for His Holy Name.
b) He bought them back for His Holy Name’s sake.
c) God’s holiness will be vindicated in them.

Verses 25-31 – Israel’s change in moral and spiritual condition.
a) God will sprinkle clean water on them
b) They will be clean from all uncleanliness and cleansed from idols.
c) God will give a new heart and new spirit
d) God will take away stony heart and give a heart of flesh.

Similarly, how does God transform a sinner into a saint? There is a plan of salvation called The Roman Road
Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the true gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Romans 10:13 “for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

2. Back to Israel. How will the change in the people and their restored prosperity affect the surrounding nations? Verses 35-36.
a) They will say the desolate land has become like the Garden of Eden.
b) Cities are fortified and inhabited.
c) They will know God has rebuilt the ruined places and replanted the desolate.

Ezekiel 36:20 “And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. – the nations saw them cast out and concluded God couldn’t protect them.” Psalm 42:10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

vs. “26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Jesus prayed that they will all be one as He and the Father are. John 17:21, 23
a) That the world may believe and be convinced that the Father sent Him.
b) United as one that the world may know and recognize the Father sent Jesus and loves them as He loves Jesus.

EZEKIEL 37

1. vs. 11 – Why people were unable to believe Ezekiel’s prophecies of restoration and blessing
a) their bones were dried up
b) no hope
c) they were completely cut off

The vision in verses 1-10 shows how things were worse than they seemed, yet what happened and why? God put breath and spirit into the dead because He will restore the House of Israel.

2. In the vision, the regeneration of Israel came in two stages
a) verses 7-10 – Bones came together
b) Breath and spirit came into the bones.

What this signified to Ezekiel – God will bring His people back to Israel and put His Spirit in them. The part Ezekiel played in the change that took place – He was the mouthpiece that spoke God’s Words. We should be the same to bring life to people.

3. Wonderful verses 15-28 – The glorious picture of the purified, restored and reunited Israel. There are five great features of the Messianic Kingdom (verses 24-27).
a) God’s servant David – king over them.
b) Will walk in God’s judgments and observe and do His statutes.
c) Will dwell in the land, Israel, forever.
d) everlasting covenant of peace
e) God will tabernacle with them forever

The conditions and blessings of Christianity -
a) Jesus is our Lord
b) We must walk in His ways
c) He will never leave us or forsake us
d) He gives us an eternal home

God is bringing the dry bones together in a physical way today as many of God’s Chosen People are returning to the land of Israel. Through various things I read, the Jewish people coming home to Israel say such things as,
“an overwhelming sense of belonging to Israel”
“felt at home for the 1st time in my life”
“destiny to live in the Holy Land of Israel”

‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders; Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
Isaiah 49:22-23

Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus sweat drops of blood. From Hannah’s Cupboard

It is in Isaiah 53 that we see the beautiful prophetic picture of the Messiah who would redeem us with much suffering. From it we hear the foreshadowing of his passion; “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried…He was pierced through for our transgressions…by His scourging we are healed…He was oppressed and he was afflicted…as a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied.”

Jesus is the Son of David

Israel – it’s history and Palestinians

Through some articles I’m reading I’m learning about the plight of the Palestinians – it is very complicated, but interesting to say the least. Even going on the Israel trip I didn’t realize they are between a rock and a hard place, not accepted in other countries and don’t have a place to call their own and often used as pawns against Israel, being brainwashed to believe they are right in their actions. See IsraelToday.

I love this website eretzyisroel.org about the history of Israel from 1850 to present – many informative articles that ring with truth.

God loves all people. His chosen people He will never forsake. I was reading recently in Jeremiah 31:5-6, “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name: If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the LORD, then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.”

God’s Word is true and faithful. FIRE AND HAMMER blog.
“Is not My Word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29

The youth pastor at our church is teaching The Shema to the youth this summer. Since I’m learning about all things Jewish, I had to read about The Shema. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

The Shema – from Jewish Virtual Library

learn-basic-Hebrew.blogspot.com

Mount Sartaba, Nablus