Israel: The Promised Land

[This was written as an answer to a Pastor John who does not understand the importance of Israel.]

Pastor John’s Problem is the same as the rest of us. Ignorance knows no boundaries.

We are all ignorant of one thing or another. Some are ignorant about computers, others about music and many about Israel.

There are really ONLY TWO CHOICES..

1) Either you BELIEVE the God of the Old Testament when he makes a promise.

OR

2) You DON'T BELIEVE him when he makes a promise. Now if you don’t believe him, you cannot be a Christian because the founder of the church, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah believed him and believed the promises he gave in the OT.

It is a simple choice. This God also happens to be same God of the New Testament.

In the OT we see many promises reiterated over and over again to Abraham and his seed, the children of Israel.

If we won’t believe one, then we won’t believe many, so for simplicity I give you one.

Gen13:14 NASB

The LORD said to Abram, ..... "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

15for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. [referring to the land of Canaan] NASB

I looked up the meaning of forever and it means FOREVER! Eternal, not changing, to the end of the age, everlasting .... FOREVER.

This is what God promised Abraham and his descendants the Israelites. If you keep looking through the Bible you will see this was affirmed over and over again to his descendants.

Let’s suppose that God changed his mind about stuff like this. Then he can also change his mind about ETERNAL life given to those who believe in and follow him.

Imagine God saying “For those who believe in me and my son Jesus, I will give ETERNAL life UNLESS I change my mind later.” I hope you don’t follow that God!

Now I know that no pastor would make decisions about Israel based on political rather than spiritual considerations. However in case there are some reading this who do not know history, let us mention the political.

The land of Israel [at the time a protectorate of Great Britain] by the Balfour Declaration of 1917 were given a MUCH LARGER ISRAEL than present. In fact the Arab representative agreed that this was the homeland of the Jews from ancient times.

Unfortunately, shortly after some other Arabs thought he was including too much land, he disappeared and Israel was pushed back to approximately its present borders.

In 1947, the United Nations, reaffirmed that Israel had been and was to be the homeland for the displaced Jews who somehow survived the Nazi holocaust.

“Resolution 181 laid a foundation within international law and diplomacy[9] for the creation of the state of Israel; as it was the first formal recognition by an international body of the legitimacy of a Jewish state, to exist within a partition of the territory along with an Arab state." Israel's declaration of independence soon followed on May 14, 1948.

So here we have two proofs that Israel has a right to its own land, both politically and by God’s spoken promise.

It was their homeland in ancient times, B.C., there were always some Jews who lived in the land, and it was formalized twice by Britain and by the United Nations.

Personally believing God should be good enough for those who call themselves Christians.

I believe that when God says ETERNAL LIFE, he means ETERNAL LIFE and when he says he gave the land to Abraham and his descendants, FOREVER, I believe he means FOREVER. If you don't I pray for you.

Charles Pedley
http://charlespedley.blogspot.com

Lost a Job?

This doesn't make the necessary grieving process any easier but it might make it more meaningful.

I am sure you already know this but when God allows hard times, it is always because he has something better for you to do.

Psalm 139 became so real to me after the loss of my daughter's first husband to Hodgkins. [See JoyfulMourning and BrokenClay ]

"13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. NIV

Notice especially V 16 ... How could God "ordain" ALL MY DAYS before ONE of them came to be?. I know He can do anything but if you add up all the people in the world and multiply by 365 ... and that is only one year.... All I can say is that He must have a massively good computer to keep track of all those days!

But the biggest wonder is how he cares even for our DAYS. If you as a female live to the average age of 84, that gives you, I hesitate to say, ONLY 30,660 days of life. If that doesn't seem very long, then try seeing how much of MY life is left according to stats. Only 5475 days left! Yipes!

And yet God cares about every too-short one of them! And even has a plan for EVERY one of them!

God bless you!

Digsby. Wow!

Have you heard of Digsby yet? No? Yes you have I just mentioned it! Ok. Ok. I know pretty lame. Makes you feel superior doesn't it? Good that is the intention. Most people need more feelings to lift them up not put them down.

That has nothing at all to do with Digsby, my new discovery. I am sure you know what an instant messenger is right? You know, Yahoo Messenger, AIM [AOL Instant Messenger], Windows Live Messenger, the original messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, and so on.

Some of you also know that there are several IM's which let you tune in on one or more of the other messengers, just in case your friends do not use the same one as you. There is Trellian, Miranda, Pidgin, and others. Then I discovered that my favorite web suite, at Zoho.com, now includes Zoho Chat which can connect with most other messengers. But the most fun was yet to come. I discovered Digsby!

Digsby? Yes, Digsby. Digsby not only can tune in to all your friends on all the other IM's, but check your email, AND your social networking site, like Facebook, Twitter, etc. And yes it transfers files and can turn on your video camera so you can video talk!

I just tried it today. I am very impressed so far. Ask me next week if I love it as much. The constant facebook popups telling me what my friends were doing became a bit annoying. However I am going to turn that off. I don't WANT to know. I will find out all in good time if it is important.

So give Digsby a try. You may fall in love again, this time with Digsby!