A peculiar people
” I long to dwell in Your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.” Psalm 61:4
We rejoice in the privilege to be adopted into the family of God!
Like Paul, I want to shout out: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Rom.11:33)
In His infinite wisdom, God created us for fellowship, first of all with Him, and then, with one another. With so many fellowships breaking apart these days and so many people being hurt by it, it is tempting to tell ourselves that we can be fine without a congregation.
But look at the picture above. That is a picture of covering over. It is a picture of protection and blessing and love. This is the picture of His bride and His family.
This is the design of our heavenly Father. It is a design of order, obedience, unity and trust.
Paul urges us to not give up meeting together, but to encourage one another, Peter tells us to offer hospitality without grumbling. Out of reverence for Christ, we are to submit one to another, according to the design that God set forth. We should keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters, to be completely humble and gentle, to be patient, bearing with one another in love. We should be looking for ways to spur one another on toward love and good deeds and in our relationship with one another, have the mindset of Christ Jesus.
When we look at the book of Acts, we see that the believers met together every day. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
And amazing things happened! People were added to their number daily! Why? Because they saw the love among them.
John said: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Yeshua called us to love one another as He has loved us, so we must love one another. If we reject the fellowship of the believers, how will we learn to love unconditionally? Or learn the discipline of submission or learn patience? How will we grow if we put ourselves outside the family of the Redeemed? If we did have a choice, we would all choose to fellowship with the people that we like, those we get on well with. None of us would choose to fellowship with that difficult person, or the one who talks too much or the weird one!
But this is exactly the life that we are called to!
God is our Father and I am only an earthly mother but it fills me with such joy to see the love that my children have for one another. Their loyalty and kindness to each other is a beautiful thing. How much more does it bring joy to our Father in heaven?
If we only love those who love us, what credit is that to us? Even sinners love those who love them.
Lastly, we are called to be sober because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour. This is so true. Lions will wait for their prey and often, when a herd of antelope starts running, the lions will seek the young and the weak and separate them from the rest of the herd. Once they are separated, it is far easier to kill them.
There is safety in a herd!
If you are not part of a congregation we strongly urge you to find one and commit yourself to it so that you can truly be a fully working part of the body of Christ and grow in love and godliness as our Heavenly Father intended!
The Kingdom of God is not a building. It is a people. A peculiar people. Us.
By Marti Iluz
Turning the hearts of the fathers…
Perhaps some of you know, the relationship with my father has been very difficult in the last 6 years. The period before the faith in which I rebelled against him and the period after the faith in which he rejected me because of Jesus led to total separation.
God through it brought me closer to his fatherhood, to develop dependence solely on him and still continued to give me love and patience and hope for the relationship with the earthly father and most importantly prayers for salvation and constant evangelization both in words and actions.
In the past year he has dealt with cancer and this has opened him up to closeness to my relationship, and although he still accused me because of faith, God showed me to continue to fight for him and not to relate to what is happening “in reality”.
I suffered from mockery, unpleasant words, rejection, curses and much more. And yet slowly I saw the heart soften and the relationship become closer. I was in a state of constant forgiveness toward my father with the understanding that he was a spiritually sick person and stuck there, and I had to continue to fast and to pray. Close friends from the Body of Christ continued to pray with me and encouraging with words and scripture.
Two weeks ago he underwent an emergency surgery to remove a benign brain tumor and have a shoulder surgery and after a week in the hospital he realized that he was given a new life. Yet he suffered from depression in the light of all that was happening. Again, the situation brought him closer to the Lord, the situation brought me closer to my spouse, and together we continued to pray, fast, evangelize and love my father.
For two nights in a row I was able to pour the Gospel into my father’s ears, and this morning he said these words: “Shiran I feel much better, your prayers help, God listens”. He also recognizes me as his daughter, someone who cares and loves him- God lets him see me through his eyes. Hallelujah!
I share because I want to give that honour to God. I share so that we will not give up on our families, because Jesus will not give up for them. I share so that we can understand that in God we have everything: father, mother, brothers , children.
I share so we can thank him.
By Shiran, our Jewish sister in the faith
The Servant of the Lord
Israel, the Figtree
What is the symbolism of the fig tree to us as believers in Israel what can we learn from it the context of God’s plan for Israel?
In Israel the Fig Tree grows wild in many places around the country. One of the special joys of living in the Galilee is the abundance of this wonderful resource which turns almost into overflow in season. Every morning my wife brings a little harvest of ripe figs home from her morning walk. The fruit are sweet and tasty and because of the great yield, even after the birds have been fed, there is still plenty untouched ones to go around.
But sometimes we look at a Fig Tree and from a distance it looks promising with lush green leaves – beautiful to the eyes – but when we come closer we see, even in season, that there are no fruit on the tree.
In many places in Scripture, Israel is likened to the Fig Tree as we see in Hosea 9:10 ,“I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.”,
“The vine dries up and the fig tree fails;”(Joel 1:12), “There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree” (Jeremiah 8:13)
Judaism as we know it today looks so impressive from the outside. It’s green leaves are full of promise but it doesn’t yield godly fruit. It is interesting that Yeshua cursed the fig tree in Mark 11, in Jerusalem, the Holy city, where the temple stood. Clearly, the fig tree is the picture of the Pharisaic system of that time, that became the Rabbinical system of today.
Israel was supposed to be a light and a source of blessing and Truth to the world but instead we created for ourselves a rabbinical religion full of rules and laws and philosophies of men that have the appearance of wisdom but is empty of substance, truth and life. Yeshua cursed this system because it has never borne, nor will it ever, bear good fruit.
But God! Because of God’s irrevocable promises of Redemption, Israel, the fig tree, is starting to bear fruit. Not fruit according to the Jewish Rabbinical system of good works that leaves you empty and frustrated but fruit that God initiates in us through His Holy Spirit who lives in us, according to the plan of God to build His kingdom here in Israel. We as Jewish Believers in Israel, although we are few, are here as proof of the beginning of this great plan of God to bring this figtree to bear fruit so that the Kingdom of God may finally come into it’s fullness in this land.
”Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.” Isaiah 8:16-18
And the amazing truth about all of this is that God have used the nations to bring Israel back to life by provoking them to jealousy. Many Israeli Jews who visited other countries came back believers in Yeshua their Messiah through the faithful witness of the church.
We as believers must understand from the image of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32-33:”Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
Yeshua told us to learn from the parable of the fig tree. When we see the branches becoming tender, then we must understand that the time for the harvest is near. We are now living exactly in the time when the nation of Israel is coming back to life slowly. They are coming to know their Messiah Yeshua, the Son of God. They come one by one, slowly, but surely.
Know and understand that for 2000 years the gospel was preached throughout the world to all the nations. It is not a coincidence that Israel came into existence exactly in this time.
According to the plan of God, the gospel is now returning to Israel and God is bringing the tree back to life and causing it to yield fruit, good fruit – the right fruit. The Fig Tree is bearing fruit this time and we praise God that you and we are part of this plan.
Israel is the end of the plan of God to bring the day of the Messiah!
We bless you brothers and sisters! Never be ashamed to share the good news to the Jew first and be ready to answer anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that we have!
by Israel Iluz