With every bone in my body I will praise him: “Lord, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?” (Psalm 35:10)
Read: Exodus 39:1-40:38, Mark 1:1-28, Psalm 35:1-16, Proverbs 9:11-12
Relate: Earlier today a friend posted something up on my facebook wall. I am posting the video here, but please make sure there are no children nearby before watching this. It is footage of a Palestinian girl who was shot by Israeli soldiers and then left to die on the street without medical aid.
Along with the video this friend, who is not a Christian, posted this comment: “Once again, I hope you and your friends will pray to your God to free the Palestinians from the nasty, cruel behaviour of your God’s chosen people.” While I would in no way equate the Israelis now with the Hebrew people of Biblical times as “God’s chosen people”, he is right that I should be and will be praying for those innocent civilians, Israeli and Palestinian who are caught between the Israeli soldier/terrorists and the Hamas resistance/terrorists. In the same way I continue to pray for those trapped between the Turkish forces and the PKK and the same way I continue to pray for those trapped between the butcher Assad and ISIS. Injustice is injustice wherever it rears its ugly head.
React: When speaking and writing specifically regarding the Syrian refugee crisis, I often have to be wary of looking for purely political solutions. I just get so angry sometimes with how the west continues to lock its doors while giving minimal lip service sympathy for their plight. I get frustrated when I hear things like how various European nations have pledged to give Turkey 3 billion for the refugees on the condition that Turkey continues to keep those doors into the rest of Europe closed. I want so badly to be able to convince those leaders that it is in their best interests to open wide those doors.
Ultimately, the solution won’t be found through convincing arguments. The solution will come when those European and American leaders come to know our God and begin making their policies under the Biblical principles of loving and caring for the poor and helpless. Ultimately the situation back in these hotbeds of war and violence won’t be found through diplomatic negotiations. No new borders or compromises will solve the situation between Israel and Palestine. No bombs or military strikes will end the rampant destruction Bashar Assad and ISIS are making of what was once the birthplace of the first missionary movement. The harvest is there but the laborers…
Where are they?
Respond:
Dear God,
I ask for laborers. I ask that You would raise up an army of loving servants who would put aside their comfortable complacency and surrender themselves to You. I ask for hundreds… thousands who would take up the standard and go into Palestine, and Syria, and those places in this world that are so desperate to hear Your truth and break free from the violence and oppression they seem to be facing on every side. I pray that none of us would rest content until Your glory has broken every bond of oppression and injustice.
Amen.
THE RIVER WALK 
Amen!
I agree absolutely with your prayer. We need people to go and love in those situations. I am praying that God will provide for me to go.
However, the posting of that video is irresponsible, to say the least. There is absolutely no context for the shooting – we have no idea what happened in the minutes before it started only the hate-filled diatribe that is written by the poster on YouTube. It is propaganda at its worst.
The facebook version of this video already has over 8,000 shares and 285,000 views… and it hasn’t yet been up for one full day. The world is seeing this video whether or not I share it. Will we just shut our eyes and ignore it or will we put it in a godly context and allow it to get us away from our computer screens and on to our knees?
Views by other people, no matter how many they may be, do not make it a true, accurate or fair representation of what is happening there. I’m not going to throw my hands in the air and say I will no longer follow you. I share your heart too often for that. I will say that I am disappointed by your use of this video which adds nothing of value to the rest of your blog and I pray God enlightens both of us to His will.
Bless you and your writing my friend 🙂 ❤
To add facts to the context, the fifteen year old girl was shot in the arm after attempting to stab an Israeli soldier. She is still in critical condition. Speculation is that the stabbing attempt is related to two other Palestinians killed in the exact same spot less than a week earlier. The man tipped from his wheelchair by the soldiers is fine. There is an internal investigation into the conduct of the soldiers at the scene.
I pray all of us would quit making political footballs out of the dead bodies of strangers. Does it have to be personal before we can allow ourselves to feel the tragedy of so many lives lost? Refugees and immigrants aren’t the enemy, they are us, and we could easily, find ourselves in their shoes. The enemy is huge, empathy-less, corrupted government, that arrogantly alters lives with the stroke of a pen, or the push of a button that sends a drone to kill thousands of miles away in another country. Somehow, we have to resist becoming like them and learn to see each other as fellow human beings again.
https://partikaposts.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/politics-101-things-arent-that-bad/
“God save us from ourselves, is all I can pray at this moment…”
When there is no God, there is no lasting good.
-Alan
Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
God’s plans must be fulfilled among the nations. Do we look to men to resolve the international Melendez? None so wise and knows the way, as the Lord God Almighty. With one word He can stop the carnage and speak peace. With one stroke of His hand He can disperse men like He did at Babel to prove that the wisdom of men is the foolishness of God. Let God arise and his enemies be confounded. Amen and glory be to His Name.
“international melee”
Hi Beejai, could you please explain what you meant when you said “While I would in no way equate the Israelis now with the Hebrew people of Biblical times as “God’s chosen people” Are you implying that the Israeli nation today does not consist of Jabob’s descendants but of some other “gentile” peoples? Or are you implying Israel are no longer God’s chosen people? Or are you implying that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people, and that all the promises made to Israel, now belongs to the Church? Your comment needs some clarifying please. You could email it to me at cullen252@bigpond.com if you like.
Like you, as a committed Christian, I do not agree with many of the things that Israel does, but I do think, as several Generals from other nations, including the USA have said, Israel’s armies morals and ethics are far better than those of any other nation in the world, including the “Christian” nations.
I would also remind you that Israel’s enemies are masters at making videos purporting to show Israeli soldiers performing all sorts of atrocities, only to be proven later to be lies, false propaganda aimed at stirring up trouble against Israel by the rest of the world, to encourage BDS etc. They have all the uniforms, and equipment and Hebrew speakers they require, to make their lying propaganda videos look and sound authentic.
I saw a video taken by a UPI reporter of a very large group of people, mostly young people according to Hamas who had been “killed” during the last invasion of Israel into Gaza in 2014. He just happened to capture one of the “dead” youth under the white tarpaulin which was covering the many “dead” bodies from the hot sunshine, suddenly raise the edge of the tarp to wipe the sweat off his face and head, several other dead bodies further under the tarp could also be seen wriggling around in much discomfort. The video was taken using a long range telephoto lens, so fortunately nobody saw him take it, or it would have been confiscated by Hamas.
I do not judge this video to be true or false, I don’t know. My father taught me only to believe half of what you see and a quarter of what you hear. Today, 70 years later my advice to my great grandchildren is to only believe 10% of what they see and 5% of what they hear. The whole world is in deep deception from their own governments, from the scientists, from the state and municipal authorities, and sadly, all too often from their church leaders, their own Pastors, their friends and sometimes even their families.
I enjoy your blogs, keep up the great work, the world needs more people like you. Remember that not all are called to be “Pastors”, not all are called to be “Missionaries”, not all are called to be “Youth Workers”, etc. and not all are recognised by their church leaders or by their church, but ALL are called to be witnesses, and ALL who are obedient will be recognised by the Lord, which is far more important than the recognition or acclaim of their church leaders or their church or their friends. It’s not the tag your church pins on you, but the calling in your heart from the Lord, and your willingness to obey HIS calling which counts.
God bless you as you continue to obey HIS calling in your life.
I will try to answer that with as brief an adequate answer I can provide.
When using the word “Jewish” today there are three different things one can be referring to: biology, culture, or religion. When referring biologically to the Jewish people, I will not debate that Israel is predominantly a Jewish state. Although that bloodline has been thoroughly diluted with European intermarriage, many can and have traced a direct line of decent back to the early Hebrew people.
Jewish culture can also carry a similar line of decent. In many ways that culture has evolved and adapted to the point where a Jewish man from Biblical times would not recognize the difference if he were teleported into present times. However, one can trace that evolution and the gradual changes since the Jewish culture has been well documented and they have largely kept (sometimes involuntarily) separate from their neighboring cultures and people.
The religion has also evolved down through time. I would love to be able to see Gamaliel’s take on Maimonides, or Levi Gershom, or more recently Martin Buber. Can you imagine his take on Kabbalism?
Now, I would say that the Jewish religion holds no unique status against Islam, or Mormonism, or… They all hold shades of truth but are far from recognizing the saving reality of the grace of God. Peter makes it clear that we, the church, are now God’s chosen people, His holy priesthood. We are those who belong to Him. The state of Israel may or may not be a fulfillment of certain end time’s prophesies. I am personally of the opinion that they are not… at least not yet. After all, end times scholars keep adding years to how long a “generation” is since “this generation shall not pass until…”
Israel is a state like any other state. They hold a unique, historically and religiously huge piece of real estate but that means the worlds eyes are on them and they have a major responsibility to behave accordingly. IMHO they have grossly failed that responsibility over and over again.
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May God help us,AMEN!