Why I Love Israel

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee" (Psalms 122:6).

Right now, the sovereign State of Israel is under extreme duress.  Once again, the children of Israel must face yet another barrage of rockets from their southwestern neighbors and also, again, the resolve and fighting mettle of Israeli men and women is put to the test.  What other nation on earth could possibly endure the combination of the constant threat of annihilation and of worldwide disdain regardless of its course of action?  Truly, no matter what Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF do to protect the men, women, and children of the only democracy in the Middle East, the collective likes of CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, etc. will only cast the Israelis as cruel occupiers and baby-killers.  Nothing could possibly be further from the truth.

My intent here is not to analyze the causes of the newest conflict between the cowardly thugs on the Mediterranean—Hamas, and the most powerful nation in the region—Israel, but to just briefly share with the world why I love Israel so, and why I believe with all my heart, like the Spartans of old they shall absolutely triumph over all of their enemies, though they are as the sand of the sea. 

I am a Christian.  I love Israel because God loves her, and because He exhorts all who would love Him to love the people He took as His bride millennia ago.  The very existence of Israel proves that every promise He makes to me He will will without equivocation keep.  His written Word says that no power exists that can destroy His chosen-for-all-time people.  The fact that Israel exists shows I can believe every word of the Scriptures He gave through His people.  Israel is a testament to the greatness and power of God.

I love Israel for two words: "Never." "Again."  I love Israel because they will not subject themselves to genocide easily ever again, and she is willing to match their enemies' every bullet, bomb, and missile to prove that they will be victim to no regime's "Final Solution" ever again.  Going to war against an enemy who uses his own countrymen as shields is not easy, what with all the rules and restraints imposed by the Geneva Convention, but Israel refuses to allow the cowards to hide, refuses to let them employ the same, dastardly tactics that will let them continue to kill Israelis.  I love Israel because her leadership is not shrinking back from its charge, its primary responsibilty of enforcing its borders to protect its people.  I don't think it matters who they face, for the response must be the same—force, when provoked.  A certain Western constitutional republic and Chief Executive thereof could learn a thing or two from this bright tower of courage and valor.

Lastly, I love Israel because she can never be destroyed.  Those things that are eternal are worthy of love.  Israel, according the Scriptures, shall never again go out of existence, and like Truth, she will endure and valiantly triumph over those who have hated her without cause.  Of course, I do not hold up Israel as a perfect, sinless nation, for the reason she is even in this predicament is because Jacob's children have perpetually been stiff-necked and rebellious, even to the point of rejecting her long-awaited Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  But I choose to let the Lord deal with that, for His Word says that He will gather His people to Himself and they all will be saved, after having been poured upon with the spirit of supplication when Christ returns to fight for them in their darkest hour.  I realize that even Israelis may not subscribe to my belief about them in this matter concerning Messiah, but again, I trust God to work that out according to His Word and His good pleasure.

For me, I love Israel...

Christians Aren't Angry Enough

"For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me" (Psalms 69:9).

This is more of a rant than an organized post.  You probably could also classify this as the random musings of an angry lover of God.  Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it?  "An angry lover of God"?  Yes, I have to admit that that does sound odd, but on a deeper level it's very spot-on.  I love God, and daily I am striving to love Him more than I did the previous day and as the Scriptures say, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6:5; Mk. 12:30) and to love my neighbor as I love myself (Mk. 12:31).  Loving God and others is one of the primary reasons why we as Christians need the Holy Spirit; loving God as He deserves and commands is totally impossible without His Spirit empowering us to do it.  And for a moment just think about how hard it is to just like certain people, much more to love them, especially when we are treated unjustly, with hate and scorn and disdain—our flesh wants to lash back with similar sentiments—again, loving our enemies and those the world calls "unlovable" is precisely why we must have the Holy Spirit. 

I've gone on about love because it would be through love Christ said the world would be able to identify His followers as truly belonging to Him (Jn. 13:35), not holiness, righteous service, or acceptable worship, all of which are necessities for Christians.  Since our lives are, more than anything, to be governed by love, one might see love and anger as qualities that cannot coexist in the lives of Christians.  I can understand that.  For those who may not be particularly knowledgeable in the Scriptures and who may have heard the world's "version" of Jesus Christ and his message of universal love, peace, and harmony, I can understand why they'd be confused.  Yet the Jesus Christ of the Bible is one who loves in a way that is totally foreign to this world and also hates in a way this world cannot hate.  Yes, that's right.

Christ is able to effortlessly love those who hate Him; He showed His love on a cruel, rugged cross drenched in His blood, and He also showed His perfect hate for that which He took upon Himself—sin—at the very same rough, bloody cross.  Jesus showed He was very serious about sin by His death, submitting to the Father's will in that His death was man's only hope of freedom from the iron grip of sin.  When one considers what Christ went through; He was perfectly innocent, full of grace and Truth, love and virtue and this world did its best to totally destroy Him, and ever since then, has been trying to eradicate His memory from the history books and hearts of mankind.

In the world's attempts to destroy Jesus Christ, it has become much more forward about its intentions. At one time in the United States Judeo-Christian principles were highly esteemed, even by the ungodly.  But now, as the thin veneer of civility and morality is peeled back, the world is becoming all the more obvious in its hatred of Jesus Christ.  As the world, from virtually every sector, aligns itself with all that is blatantly antichristian its derision of Christ's Name becomes nastier.  I recently read a CNN article about the rapture of the Church and how Jesus would never endorse the doctrine of the rapture.  This article painted the Lord Jesus Christ as an uber-tolerant lover of any and every thing about man, who doesn't need or even want him to change, who'll take the elect as quick as he would the devout Catholic, the pious Muslim, the tormented pedophile, as quickly as He would the homosexual couple in love.

Of course, the idea that sinful man doesn't have to repent to have fellowship with God is a fallacy (Mt. 3:1-12; Lk. 13:1-5; I Jn. 1:6-9; 2:4), and all of those lies are attacks on Truth, and when Truth is attacked, that should make Christians quite irate. In America, we have grown accustomed to our peaceful, idyllic liberties, but it's high time we got angry about how blasphemous this society has become concerning Jesus Christ.

Hollywood constantly churns out movie after movie like Dogma, This Is the End, Bruce Almighty, Antichrist, The Da Vinci Code, and literally scores more, showing the world where that godless industry stands. And where it has stood has never been in question, but now,  like so many other sectors of this society the masks are merely coming off and they are showing Christians that they will no longer tolerate what we hold dear, that which has been so profound a blessing on this nation.

Christians, we have to awaken out of the malaise our comfortable living has induced and we have to get angry! But in our anger, we must go beyond the simple peaceful protest; we have to go beyond tweeting about it, posting our feelings on Facebook and Google+ and complaining to our friends. This is really about channeling that righteous indignation into more meaningful action, and that which will honor and glorify the Name of Jesus Christ and will endure the scrutiny of His examination at the judgment.

In our actions, we have to share the glorious Gospel, testifying by speech and conduct that Christ is worthy of esteem and praise and honor and worship because of the great love He has loved ALL people with and how He has offered Himself as the escape from the wrath to come (to those who receive Him by faith). We show our hatred for sin by sharing the cure for it; we hate the slavery to sin by declaring the freedom through Christ,  a free gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9). We do not channel our anger into hate for people. We do not use our anger to inflict harm on others. On the contrary, we wreak havoc on the kingdom of darkness with love and Truth for the lost but nothing but hatred for Satan and his infernal kingdom.

We have to divest ourselves from the entertainment system's blasphemy of our Lord. We can no longer watch their movies or listen to their music. I know that may seem hard, even impossible to some, especially since just about all of us have been raised almost from infancy on the industry's cartoons, movies, sitcoms, and songs, the snippets of which still float around in our minds still as fresh as day we first heard and watched it.

We have to use the talents and gifts and abilities to fight the Satanic propaganda and provide godly alternatives for ourselves and our children. Some of us are gifted in writing, speaking and teaching, singing, organizing, motivating and encouraging,  and all of these gifts can be used to defend Jesus Christ.

We should not accept the blasphemy of Jesus Christ lying down, but rather by focusing our anger toward Spirit-led Bible study, and effectual fervent prayer according to the will of God.

So much more could be written about this. We must stop looking for our elected officials to stand up for us, especially as they show that they do not love or know Jesus Christ, whether their name is Danny Davis, Nancy Pelosi  Mitt Romney, John McCain, Al Sharpton, or Barack Obama. No matter how much they offer lip service to our Lord, it is the blood-bought Church of the Living God that must defend the Lord of Lords, free speech rights or not.

Of course, we shouldn't be surprised by the world hating Jesus Christ because it does not know Him. We should also not be surprised when the world ramps up its attacks on Christ, in fact we should only expect it. But we absolutely don't have to stand by and do nothing.