While John warned against deception in the last days, and we should be mindful and discerning the times in which we live, keenly aware of the rise of the spirit of Antichrist — he also gave us encouragement: “…you have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
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We’ve just returned to Israel and the region seems to be nothing but a boiling cauldron ready to erupt. In just a few days, we will celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, in Hebrew. Most Christians recognize this holiday as the Feast of Pentecost — the time when the Holy Spirit descended and empowered His saints to accomplish the mission of global witness to Yeshua (Jesus).
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A National Geographic article published a few years describing a real celestial event which took place at the time of the birth of Jesus reminded me of Risto Santala’s explanation in his book, “The Messiah in the New Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings”. He wrote about a conjunction of major planets that took place which could have led the wise men from the east, to Israel.
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On Saturday night, throughout Israel, on the 17th of Tammuz, Jewish people from around the world will fast and begin a three week period of mourning leading into Tish B’Av (9th of Av). On this day, according to Jewish tradition, Moses shattered the Ten Commandments after he returned from Mount Sinai to witness the children of Israel worshiping a golden calf. In coming devotionals, we will recount the numerous tragic events associated with the 9th of Av, and sorrowfully remembered by Jews each year, but today I want to focus on the events particularly connected to this unique day, Tammuz 17.
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The LORD bared His holy arm, in a manner of speaking, God rolled up his sleeve(s) and revealed Yeshua, (Jesus) in the eyes of all the nations. A major sign of the end of this age will be the preaching of this gospel of salvation (“yeshua”, in Hebrew) to the entire world for a witness to all nations. We are called to participate in this mandate.
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Yesterday Israel celebrated Yom Yerushalayim or Jerusalem Day. It marked the 45th year of the restoration of Jerusalem back into Israeli hands. Hundreds of thousands of tourists have come to participate in the various celebrations going on in this beautiful city today.
...continue reading this devotion.At the beginning of the recent conflict with Hamas, we discovered an app called “red Alert”, which we, (along with millions of others around the world), installed on our iPhones. The app sounds an alert warning each time a rocket is fired into Israel, and identifies the city or area where the rocket(s) are expected to land. On the first day of “Operation Protective Edge” we were amazed at how often the alert sounded as hundreds of rockets flew out of Gaza. Driving with friends from the Galilee region back to our home in the Negev, the eerie warning sounded over and over again. With each warning we knew that potentially hundreds of people were in danger. And this has continued day after day for the past 11 days. Even today my phone has gone off incessantly.
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