Putting a Face on Prayer

            One of the most overwhelming experiences I’ve ever had in connection to the Jewish People was my visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.  The entire exhibit is deeply moving as you walk from room to room tracing the events of the 1930s and 40s—seeing pictures of people who died in the death camps, standing before a pile of shoes (some high fashion, others shabby and worn out). 

            But for me, two exhibits stand out in my memory.  One is the Valley of Destroyed Communities.  Covering several acres, this out-door exhibit is a maze created by tall limestone walls 20 to 25 feet high.  As you wander from one open air room to another you realize you are in a map of Europe, each room a different country—Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc.  The walls are inscribed with the names of villages, towns, whole cities that were entirely wiped clean of any Jewish presence—5000 communities where no Jew was left alive by the Nazi regime!  It is beyond imagination.

            The second is a darkened room dedicated to the memory of one and a half million children who did not survive the Holocaust.  As you enter the site through a dimly lit hallway, your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness as you view huge photos of individual children.  When you move through a door at the end of the hall, you find yourself in a totally dark room.  You feel your way around a path with hand railing and see in the center of the room six candles staggered on a glass column.  The walls, ceiling and floor are covered with mirrors that reflect not only the six candles in the center of the room, but the images of the mirrors opposite them.  The illusion is millions of candle lights surrounding you out into infinity in every direction.  In the background different voices, one after another, recites the name, age and country of origin of the children who were killed in the death camps.  The memory still haunts me today, over 20 years since I first saw this exhibit. 

            But as powerful as those two experiences were, the thing that moves me to pray is putting a face on Israel.  It is not enough to think about the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.  That is impersonal.  What really makes it real to me is to meet and become friends with Jewish people in my city.  As I have befriended some of them, it has made my prayers take on new life.  Yes, I do pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  I do pray for Israel and its leaders.  I pray the nation of Israel will be protected.  But when I pray for my neighbor here in my city, it takes on a whole new meaning.  I pray they will experience the love of God and the gift of His Grace that leads to righteousness and eternal life.  Join me?

A Judgmental Spirit

The problem for me is that I’m just so good at judging other people.  I’ve been doing it for so long and so often that I don’t even realize when I’m doing it any more.  But Faithful Holy Spirit is reminding me, lately, when I begin to do it.

            A judgmental spirit is the opposite of what Jesus told us to do when He said “love one another.”  It cuts us off from other people.  It sets up barriers between us and people He gave His life for thus creating barriers against evangelism.  As soon as I judge someone else, I limit how God could use that person to bless my life or how God can use me to bless them.

            When I judge someone else, I am assuming I’m right and they are wrong.  This can only be true if they are violating God’s standards in some way.

            We are called on to judge people’s actions when they are contrary to God’s laws.  Jesus judged some people (the Pharisees) for their pride and for placing obedience to minute laws above concern for people in need.  Jesus also judged cities for rejecting His miracles.

            My judgments are usually not based on righteousness, but on my personal preferences.  I don’t like someone’s hair style.  Or their style of worship.  There are so many things that separate us.  Whether to use drums and guitars to worship or not.  Do we sing three hymns—first, second and fourth verses only—or can we only use the latest praise chorus sung fourteen times with our eyes closed?  Come on folks.  We’ve got to lighten up with one another.

            Jesus Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount:  “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you.”

            “Lord, give me discernment to not judge others by my standards, but Yours.”

Redeemed Culture

            One of the justified criticisms against Christian missionaries from the West has been their rejection of the culture of the people they lead to faith in Jesus.  There are accounts from around the world of this tragic mistake.  Here in the United States we saw horrible results when the white man forced Native American children to be taken away from their parents and culture to be raised by white families in an attempt to “Christianize” them.  There are also accounts of totem poles destroyed supposedly because they were idols worshipped by Native Americans, when in fact they were historical accounts of the tribe.

            How powerful was the opposite position Lou Engle took at The Call Detroit on 11/11/11 this past weekend!  The opening of the 24 hour prayer time for Detroit and America was led by Broken Walls of Partition, a Native American group from Canada. Complete with full regalia, drum, and dancers they led the crowd in some of the most anointed worship I’ve seen in a long time.  The original songs written by the group featured powerful lyrics that conveyed deep spiritual truths and calls to join the Family of God—all done in music that was faithful to their culture.  That was followed by leaders from Black churches in Detroit who were given freedom to lead prayers in their colorful styles consistent with Black culture.

            Redeemed culture is a powerful tool that Holy Spirit can use.  One of my favorite verses from Revelation is the picture of what our worship will be like in heaven.  Rev. 5:9-10 tells us that the 24 elders around the throne of God take their bowls full of our prayers and sing a new song:  “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”  WOW!!!

            I can see in my spirit millions upon millions of believers worship around God’s throne, each taking a turn to bring praise and honor to His name in thanks for the redemption Jesus accomplished for them on the cross.  Imagine Native Americans in full regalia dancing their hearts out in thanks and praise.  Think of punk rockers who have been redeemed jamming before the Throne.  I think they will be in awe when they see staid, stiff white Anglo-Saxons worshipping Jesus with shinning faces as they sing “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.”  I know I was in awe as I saw Holy Spirit ministering through Broken Walls last Friday night.

            Redeemed culture is the reason I love being around Messianic Jews.  They are expressing their faith in Yeshua through their Jewish culture that is so rich and full of traditions and spiritual truths.

            How about you?  Are you letting God redeem your culture?  Find ways to express eternal Biblical truths through the culture you are comfortable living in.  God wants to use YOU to touch others in your culture group.  Don’t be afraid to redeem your culture.  If there are things that need to be cleansed in your culture and changed into expressions of holiness—do it!  Allow Holy Spirit to clothe Himself in your culture and bring others into His kingdom, for the glory of God and the praise of Jesus.

Another reason to pray for Israel

            Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.  She is surrounded by Arab/Islamic states that dwarf her in size, population, and military might. 

            To study the history of Israel’s modern independence in the 20^th century is to be impressed with the miracles that God performed to bring about the establishment of the state of Israel.  There is a whole series of television programs which document some of these unexplainable events.

            But Israel faces constant threats of extermination and must remain ever vigilant.  Lest we here in the United States think it is just “their problem”, we need to do all we can to support Israel because what happens to Israel will directly affect the U.S.

            Mossab Hasan Yousef, author of Son of Hamas and a believer in Jesus, recently spoke to a congress on Israel in Germany.  In that speech he clearly warns that if Israel were to be eliminated, it would be the beginning of the end of our Western freedoms.  I urge to you listen to his warning in a 14 minute video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN0Zb7ody_. 

            Please, if you have never prayed for Israel, please join the growing army of intercessors around the world in praying for her protection and for God’s blessing on Israel as a nation.  If you have been a part of that army already, I urge to you step up your prayers for her and encourage others you know to join you.  These are most crucial days and your faithfulness to pray is more and more needed.

Why have the Jews been persecuted over the centuries?

            Without doubt the Jewish people have been the most persecuted group of people throughout the centuries.  Over the history of man, there have been major attempts to remove Jews from society or limit their activities and ability to do business.

            The book of Esther describes an early holocaust plotted by Haman who became enraged at Mordecai, a Jew who refused to pay homage to Haman.  Haman projected his anger not just at Mordecai but to all Jews living in the country. 

            Herod was so threatened by the news of a baby born in Bethlehem that he had all baby boys two years old and younger slaughtered.  Rachel wept for her children.

            Jews were thrown out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella.  They were hounded from one country to another—generation after generation.  They were blamed for the black plague in Europe because there were fewer deaths among Jews (who avoided the ravages of the bubonic plague simply by keeping Mosaic law of washing their hands and handling human sewage).  The Russians and Polish people drove the Jews from their homes with pogroms. 

            There was the holocaust—calculated to be the “final solution” to the Jewish “problem”.  And lest we think that is all over and done with, there is a resurgence of Nazi ideology today complete with burning of Synagogues, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and frequent violence against Jews, especially in Europe.

            Sadly a significant portion of this persecution came from misguided Christians who blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus.

            What is the explanation for this sad history of persecution, of which we have just barely scratched the surface?   

            The only explanation that makes any sense is that this persecution is spiritual in nature.  Satan hates the Jewish people with a malevolence we cannot begin to understand.  He has hated them from the moment he realized that the Savior of the world would come through the sons of Abraham.  Over and over Satan has tried to eliminate the Jews as a people group to keep the Messiah from accomplishing His mission.  When he was not able to keep that from happening, he has continued his assault on the Jews to express his hatred for the covenant people of God.

            Now, in the 21^st Century, Satan knows his days are numbered.  As a result he has stepped up his persecution of the Jews.  This includes the Messianic community who have a double reason for being an object of his hatred—Jews by ethnicity and believers by faith. 

            We Gentile believers need to step up our prayers and support for our Jewish cousins.  Like Ruth, we need to embrace the people of God.  (More on that another time.)

Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah)

The Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated for seven days by building a booth, or sukah, in the back yard or on a balcony—anywhere outdoors where you can view the sky through the branches placed as a roof on the temporary shelter.  Israel was commanded to celebrate it every year and a warning of judgment was given for those nations that wouldn’t celebrate it:  no rain was to fall on them.  Zech. 14:16-17.

            We have celebrated this feast every fall for the last 20 years and find it to be a great time for family to gather and share God’s faithfulness.  It is a time to think about how God has blessed through the year.  This year we even had a basket of vegetables on the table in our sukah that we had grown in our small garden.  We talked about how the Israelis had to live in booths like this for 40 years as they wandered in the wilderness after believing the bad report of 10 spies who had checked out the land promised to them by God.  We tried to imagine what it must have been like to live day and night in a booth like this.  We also talked about how this flimsy, temporary shelter is a picture of our physical bodies that we will shed some day when we receive our heavenly bodies and live in eternity with our heavenly Father.

            After taking meals and even sleeping in a sukah for seven days, the eighth day is called Simchat Torah, which means Joy of the Torah.  On this day, the most joyful day of the year, the Jews finish reading the Torah for the year by reading Deut. 33:1 through Deut. 34:1.  They also begin reading the Torah for the coming year by reading Gen. 1:1 through 2:3.  This is considered the most joyful day of the year because the Torah is life!  We could learn much from the Jewish perspective of reverence for the Word!  Big celebrations are set up throughout Israel on Simchat Torah—all centered on celebrating the Torah.  Circle dances to lively music fill the parks and families joyfully gather to honor the Torah.

            As Believers in Yeshua, this day ought to be our day to celebrate the Living Torah and declare all that He has done in setting us free from sin.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Let’s celebrate true life in Yeshua.  Happy Feast of Tabernacles and Simchat Torah. 

The Feast of Tabernacles

            This Wednesday at sundown is the beginning of The Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths).  It is the only feast in which we are commanded to “rejoice”.  It is celebrated by building a small, temporary structure outside with the ceiling covered with branches so those inside can see the sky and behold God’s creation.  The walls are decorated with art work by children of things we’re thankful for—especially harvest items.

            This feast is a joyful time for families to gather to remember how Israel lived in booths for forty years in the wilderness after coming out from Egypt.  Lev. 23:33-43 gives specific instruction on how the feast is to be celebrated as a remembrance of how God delivered Israel from slavery.  What a great time to share with our children and grandchildren how God has delivered us from the tyranny of sin.  We need to make a big deal of the difference Yeshua makes in our lives—freedom from all sorts of bondage.  If it weren’t for the blood of Yeshua, what would your life look like?  The blessings of a righteous lifestyle need to be taught to our families.

            This feast also looks forward to the seven year Bridal feast of the Lamb when we will enter the joy of the Lord for all eternity.  It is a great time to teach the spiritual truth that our bodies are a temporary dwelling place but one day we will be given eternal bodies and live with Yeshua throughout eternity.

            Our family has celebrated this feast for the last 20 years and my grandchildren enjoy it as a special time with the family.  They help put up the pvc pipe framework and hang blue canvas on the walls.  We gather branches from various trees and bushes and lay them over the network of rope that forms the ceiling.  It is usually too cold in Central Oregon to sleep out in the booth, but it is great fun to lay out sleeping bags, look at the stars in the evening and talk about the goodness of God and our righteous heritage.  May God especially bless you and your family as you celebrate the Feast of Booths this year!

            Next week I will share about the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Simchat Torah (Joy of the Word).