Unto the King Better than Babylon

My mind has been filled with so much recently. The time I’ve sacrificed to feeding off content, articles, podcasts, scrolling, staying up to date with certain matters has left me feeling discouraged, malnourished, and weak. I feel the lack of sustenance in my soul and the effect it’s having on me. My God and His life-giving words haven’t been given the one required catalyst: my wholehearted attention. All He needs is our attention with an open heart. No wonder this very thing, our attention is preyed upon all day long without ceasing.

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can shift our perspective to give us the thoughts of God. I consider it an experiential miracle and such a GIFT!!! Everything else is chasing after noise and swirls that will keep us entangled, no matter how much they tickle our ears.

“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood…” Psalm 78:17.

“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16

We need the pace of the Kingdom and rhythm of God’s Word to retrain our actual brains in this hurried, distracted age. It might feel like coming to the Lord is the hardest thing to do in the moment where you know you’re malnourished in your soul, but feel like it’s the hardest thing to put the stimulus of your screen away and turn off all the distractions. I have been there, yesterday even, and I know all to well how it feels, but I’m telling you, giving yourself courageously and with audacity to Jesus in that moment is the wisest decision you could ever make. Even if you don’t feel entirely different right away, that continual act of coming to Him and meditating on His Word will transform you and He will give you lasting peace. We just have to come.

He is always looking for hearts that are faithful to Him. He is constantly making Himself available to us and all it takes is simply (and courageously) shutting down all the enticements around you and turning your attention to Him. I say courageously because I believe it takes true courage to say no to all the easily accessible and ‘exciting’ things surrounding us all day. It’s odd to see someone walking without AirPods in or something to distract them. It’s uncommon. It takes faith to say no because in that act, you are telling the Lord, “I believe You are better. I believe Your presence is the nourishment I truly need.” I promise you, it will shock you how welcomed you will feel by Him. (Even if you’ve neglected Him for hours on end.. He is just that kind and gentle and will never hold it over your head, but instead, He will LOVE YOU). We need to stop taking ownership of accusation and the efforts to disqualify ourselves from coming to Him.

GOOD NEWS: HE WILL HELP US. :)

I was reading through Daniel earlier and this thought was illuminated to me in a way that I hadn’t experienced before.

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials. The commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has allotted your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking gaunt in comparison to the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” 

But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please put your servants to the test for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

So he listened to them in this matter, and put them to the test for ten days. And at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better, and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.” Daniel 1:8-16

Daniel and his friends were resolute to deny the delicacies of the King. What was desirable, enviable, and especially accessible to them was forfeited in exchange something far more valuable: namely, “a pure heart, a clear conscience, and sincere faith.”

They chose to give up something the world would have defined as successful and desirable for simplicity. They chose to live before God with a clear conscience. They chose to love Him by obeying Him wholeheartedly instead of abdicating their inheritance to coddle their carnality. They chose to guard their consumption and in do so, their very hearts. This unflinching resolution effected the entirety of their being. Their appearance reflected what was true of their hearts. They said no to the meat, bread and wine of the earthly King to enjoy food Babylon didn’t know about: obedience to the will of God.

The Ancient of Days never changes. He longs for us to stand in the grace lavishly poured out on us in Jesus Christ. The God who set Daniel and his friends apart and is our God today. He wants us to let the water of the Word, (not the wine of this world) FILL and RENEW OUR MINDS, that we might be transformed and set apart as our Father dreamt we would be.

I wonder what proverbial meat, bread, and wine of this age we need to reject today in order to live simply before our King who is better than Babylon. What can we say no to today to guard our hearts and live before our Father with a heart that is pure, a conscience that is clear, and a faith that is sincere? How can posture ourselves to feast more on He who IS the BREAD OF LIFE and be truly nourished?

I encourage you to read the entirety of Proverbs 4 today in light of this! Here is a brief excerpt

Proverbs 4:13-27

“Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings, do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.”

For All Who Crave His Appearing

The whole purpose of life and the greatest desire in our Maker’s heart is to be with us. He didn’t create us to be ok without His physical presence. He set up existence and sent Christ into the world to secure the promises given to us, but Jesus telling the disciples that it is “better that He go away so the Helper can come” was not for us to become content with making this world our Home and not living for the age to come. He never sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us to have us abandon seeking our heavenly Country. He longs for us a longing that we need His grace and an enlarged heart to understand.

We have become too comfortable and satisfied in our little lives chasing after wind and the praise of men, bandaging our lovelessness with Christianese and pleasantries, meanwhile Christ is longing to return and redeem the earth. But He won’t come until Israel is crying out “blessed are you who comes in the name of the Lord.” And Israel won’t be singing Psalm 118 until the Gentiles are provoking them to jealousy by the divine display of love, mercy and compassion that can only be revealed in a transformed people who reflect the glory of the Lord on our countenance.

Oh Christ, deliver us. Make Your face to shine upon us!

The stage was set for His plan of redemption from the beginning. The divine brilliance of Jew and Gentile roles in the kingdom woven throughout all of scripture. God elected the Jewish people to reveal to us what He was like and through Israel, reveal to humanity what WE are like. He could have chosen anyone, and He decided on Abraham to be the Father of many nations because He wanted to. That’s the whole reason. Because He wanted to and God gets to do what He wants. Election offends us if we haven’t begun to grasp how massive God’s heart actually is. He elected Israel for the sake of the WORLD too! The nations were in the plan from the beginning. Israel’s gifts and calling cannot be reversed. The Church wasn’t born as Christ’s side was speared to replace Israel. The unbelief of Israel breaks God’s heart, yes. But He will not lie to them or be false to His covenant. He knew this would happen, and per usual, every blow from the enemy is thrown back on him in such a manner that makes him tremble at his ignorance and inability to fathom the hidden wisdom of God. God will have the praise of the nations. He will have true worship erupting from the house of Israel.

The election of Issac has offended Ishmael from the outset, but God has a plan for the descendants of Ishmael and they won’t be forgotten by Him. Many will be brought into the family by the God of Israel and this will provoke Israel to jealousy… her greatest enemy being transformed by the love of their Jewish Messiah. What a sobering provocation. How deep this merciful heart of our God is!

Unfortunately at the present time, we have a detrimental lack of understanding when it comes to the fullness of the plan. Our discipleship methods have been consumeristic and self-seeking. We are more concerned with our personal lives than the personal desires of Jesus Christ, the desires we were born to find our own fulfillment within instead of pursuing our own. We spend more energy focusing on the lives we want instead of losing our lives to find our life in Him, His purposes, His plan, His desires, His PRESENCE. We were never meant to live obsessing over our wellbeing. We were never meant to love our lives more than Him. Jesus Himself said to us, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28. The psalmist says, (without exaggeration), “because Your love is better than life, my lips will praise You.” Psalm 63:1

The confusion concerning Israel is not a merely a political issue. It is a deeply spiritual issue. You cannot see this clearly without the biblical narrative at play and a correct understanding of God’s eternal plan of redemption. This plan has many integral factors, one of which is His purposes and promises to the descendants of Abraham coming to pass. Israel’s role is integral in the return of Jesus. And we Gentiles who have been grafted into God’s family through Israel’s election are integral to Israel’s ultimate salvation. If we experience offense at the Jews, this ultimately exposes offense at the God of the Jews. We are in danger of forming a Jesus of our own making if we are ignorant of His heart for the Jewish people. We are in danger of being offended at God and joining the rage of the nations against God’s Holy Hill, Zion, and His very beloved, very Jewish Son, Yeshua of Nazareth.

In the Quran, Allah commands all who oppose him to be slayed wherever they are found. Jews are to be annihilated because “they forsook the covenant with Allah.” The Palestinians have largely been tragically indoctrinated with a demonic doctrine that teaches them to hate the Jews and that they will be given salvation if they cleanse the land of all who do not submit to Allah. This is a type of devotion that many Christians in the west haven’t even experienced concerning the true God of love who in Christ, gave His own blood for the world to experience salvation. Is He not worthy of more radical devotion than the followers of a religion that leads to death? When will we wake up from our slumber and ready ourselves to be the Bride eager for her Beloved?

The reality is, the enemy does not want Jesus returning because he knows his time is short and his destruction is soon. And the Father won’t send His Son until His Bride stops living for herself and instead, submits to His Lordship and lives or His desires. We have a submission issue, and therefore we cannot experience lasting fulfillment until we submit and kiss the Son. Until we repent for loving inferior things and wanting our way more than His, we are in danger of seeing Him “as a harsh Man” as Christ warns those with ears to hear in the parable of the talents.

May we give Him room to enlarge our understanding of the beauty and severity of His nature. May we be a Bride found awake, pure, and prepared for Him.

Maranatha, Lord.

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Luke 12:37

“From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8

Union and Communion

There is a Man with scars in His hands
awaiting His bride to clasp on

To leave father and mother and cling to Another
‘til this Night breaks forth into Dawn

Union and Communion — the birthright of Eden
the snake sought to rob us and failed

“til death do us part” can’t belong in our vows
for the Man with scars tore the veil

The Beauty of Childlikeness

I’m in airports all day today instead of frolicking through this scene of Narnia where I found myself this time yesterday.

The lines are long in here and everyone looks like they just woke up to the screech of someone yelling at them. Dazed stares. Disgruntled expressions. I actually think the most exhausting workout for people today is reciprocating a simple smile. 

I watched a little boy in his stroller stare with wonder at the security machines. He started to laugh and clap at the life size toys before him as his mom strolled him closer to the front of the tedious line. His untainted joy at seeming drudgery melted the annoyed expression off of a man standing behind them. Other children nearby heard the little boy and smiled with a familiar flicker in their eyes.

They speak the same wordless language.

It’s as if the laughter of a child echoes out a secret whistle. It’s the kind of whistle with the power to stir those who are willing to hear it and be swept up in what it’s like to live without chains. To claim back what is so easily forfeited as humanity morphs into the man-made images society constructs. Like the tower Babel, glory always seems to be JUST outside of reach.

And so the construction plans continue like a fish caught on a hook. Exhaustion ensues. Insecurity ravages. Addictions are the sole outlets to relief. Robotic numbness is the norm. And we call it living.

But the life we long for is Life Himself. Not some ethereal unknowable deity. His name is Yeshua. Jesus the Christ. There is no other. And despite gross misrepresentations of Him, all that we ache for and infinitely more is found in Him alone.

He authored the invite for us to embrace innocence again. Childlikeness. Freedom. Not the counterfeit kind - but the real stuff which can only be activated through trust. The deep Treasure worth digging for in exchange for everything and everyone else. Even ourselves.

I’ll leave you with a quote I haven’t been able to get out of my head for three weeks. Enjoy chewing on it!

“The great beauty of childlikeness is the absence of self-consciousness.” -Andrew Murray

Memories from the Island of Cyprus

This little man’s sister and mama welcomed me and my friend into their home the other day. We laughed, sipped coffee around their table, used google translate for every single sentence, kept getting fed more and more snacks, laughed some more. 😂

More often than any place in the world will you find an embrace in the arms of a stranger which reminds you of an old friend. I adore this about Middle Eastern culture. It’s like a flavor of welcome that makes you feel like family although you just met out on the street. How lovely it is to live with a wide open heart AND an open door. (Perhaps our hearts are as wide as our front door).

Selah

Sometimes language feels tired and overused. Sometimes familiarity feels too stubborn to be pierced. The thoughts and opinions of man are stale to me (including and especially my own) unless they ring of Him.

Beyond all the noise… there are whispers of Him. God is whispering. There is a sound around the throne as i type these thoughts. What does it sound like? 

Oh Christ! Give us ears to hear you. Attune our ears and dilate our eyes to your kingdom that is coming. May it come on earth as it is in heaven.

Despite all the seeming urgency, He waits so lovingly for a quiet, listening ear. One who is unreservedly wholehearted and considers everything else as loss that “I may gain Christ and be found in Him…” and yet we need Him to want Him. 

sS breathe on us, Jesus of Nazareth. My heart and flesh yearn for you… the Living One. we can do nothing without you. Teach us how to live and love like You: to do and say only what we see the Father doing and saying.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be the honor and glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever x100000000000000000000000 amen!

The Unoffendable God

“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘LIVE!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘LIVE!’…. I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became Mine.” Ezekiel 16

He wasn’t offended by us - we who were wallowing in our blood and sin. The Father didn’t take offense at humanity when we decided a snake was worth listening to instead of Him. He didn’t take offense at us when we chose inferior lovers instead of choosing the One more attractive and satisfying than thousands upon thousands of other beloveds. we grieved Him, we broke His heart, He hates our sin, but that didn’t keep Him from the greatest inconvenience for love the halls of history would ever echo. God chose to die instead of being offended. He inconvenienced Himself for us - to the point of death. a death so brutal the most gruesome of perverted murderers deserves. it was a death difficult to look at, as any death is. but it was more than the offense of a crucifix, it was the Man hanging on it who was offensive to the onlooker, the romans, the religious. it was the words He spoke. the claims the made. the way He loved and loves still.

The life of Jesus and His undiluted words are offensive to those who don’t see Him for who He is. He is offensive to flesh because we were made for GOD - not to live and die in the nature we were born into. He allows His words to be offensive because He wants to pierce beyond the flesh and show us the necessity of being born AGAIN and receiving a new heart. a heart so in love and hanging on His every word that we “don’t want to leave too.” (John 6:67)

To those who know how worthy they are of an eternity in a real hell separated from Life Himself because humanity is incapable of saving ourselves from our sin, this God Man is through and through everything for which we’ve ever longed.

The life of this scarred Man declares that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” but only those who have received in themselves the flesh and blood of the Man of Heaven - Jesus Christ.

And all of a sudden, in light of this- It makes sense that He has the right to train our hearts to see how willing we are to remain unoffended by Him. He knows what the days ahead look like. He needs a Bride convinced of His nature and loyal to Him no matter the cost. The unoffendable God made knowable says, “eat my flesh and drink my blood” and many turned away and walked with Him no more because they took offense at Him.” Who are we to take offense at Him when He never took offense at us? If we only have the capacity to love because He first loved us, we also have the capacity to be so swept by Him that it doesn’t matter what He says, how He says it, when He says it… we have nowhere else to go because He has the words of life. Love doesn’t take offense. Do we truly love Him? 

Is He this real to us? Are we tethered to Him so much so that He has been given complete authority in every arena of our lives? He is not simply our Friend, (although wonder of wonders- this is indeed true) but He is our LORD. He is the Almighty God who is truth and who gets to define our definitions. What if our wills were broken enough to be unoffended by Him? What if we actually chose to wrestle with Him about the complexities of things instead of walking away with a cold heart? What if His body died to the fear of offending the world and stopped trying to conform christianity into a palatable pattern for the world to digest with greater ease? His physical body died to model to the Church, the body of Christ, what love looks like: keeping no record of wrong; choosing to go to the end with the hope that maybe some would see Him and turn to Him and trust Him for who He is even if it means embarrassment/injustice/even our physical death. 

What if we, like Jesus, walked in the fear of God (and thus, friendship with God) to such a degree that we trusted Him above our own acceptance in the world? What if we simultaneously (and seemingly paradoxically) loved people deeply enough to actually feel the heartbreak of Jesus if they turn us away because they’re actually turning Him away? it takes us being willing to suffer with Him to even be aware of when His heart aches.

What if what we seem to take initial offense at from Him is actually all we’ve ever longed for? It just requires surrender to receive. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24

“And blessed is he who is not offended by Me” Matthew 11:6

THE NUKAK

In the depths of the jungles, under the shadow of the clouds,, dwell human beings. Human beings with souls who are precious to the heart of God. People wandering, wondering, and waiting; people for whom Christ died.

It was the 1970's. Four adventurous young men from an organization called “New Tribes Missions” trekked into the deep, dark jungles between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers in south-east Colombia. There were rumors of an unreached tribe located somewhere beyond the trees, and they set out to find them.

After miles of walking into the unknown, the four men began to hear a sounds that were written off as animals or birds. But as the sounds grew closer, the men began to realize they were surrounded by a group of the Nukak people hidden behind the tall trees.

The four men began to sprint back from which they came as fast as their legs could carry them. Should they reach the Guaviare river, they would be safe and out of the Nukak territory. Suddenly, one of the four, Danny, was shot in the neck with the Nukak’s weapon of choice: the blow dart. These blow darts are not to be messed with. They are long, fast, and deadly. Miraculously, Danny was not killed. He and the other men made it out alive and began making preparations to find other avenues to reach the Nukak. 

After a few years, the men from NTM began to build trust with the Nukak and many spent years living among these fascinating people who once chased them out of their jungle. They began learning the culture and language of the Nukak, as well as cultivating an unlikely friendship. Danny, (the aforementioned blow dart man) actually ended up spending many years living among the Nukak with his wife. They are very loved by the entire tribe, even to this day.

The Nukak are nomadic, hunter-gatherers who fought hard to stay alive despite the many tragedies and hardships that come to their people over the decades. They faced disease, death, and have come close to extinction. They faced exile from their land due to the drug cartel. Armed and dangerous guerrillas overrun and occupy the jungle they call home.

I had the honor of meeting the Nukak in March 2016. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had in my life. Seeing a group of people so far different from anything I had ever known was beautiful to me. Although few people on the entire planet know their unwritten language and it was impossible for me to communicate with them with words, I loved them immediately. 

The day we arrived in the village, we heard that a young Nukak man died earlier that morning. Many Nukak choose to poison themselves with the poison they use in the blow darts. They do this if they face rejection, disappointment, or if they had a fight with a friend or relative.

During my stay in Colombia, I was able to document numerous stories from missionaries who have been living among the Nukak. Some of these missionaries have been there for just a few years, and some for decades. Hour after hour, we listened to their stories of faith, courage, hardship, and victory. They have been giving their time, money, and very lives to learn the Nukak’s language and culture so they might effectively and clearly share the Gospel with these people they have grown to deeply love and care for.

To Be a Child Again

I will spend the rest of my adult life remembering to be like a child... 

...curious. simple. innocent. honest. trusting. full of courage and an easy laugh. open heart and wide eyes. eager to love the relative AND misfit. (even the relatives who are misfits😜)

It’s a gift [should we choose to accept] that we can use the skills cultivated while #adulting as we learn to become children again. To be cunning and wise like serpents. discerning. reliable. genuine. patient. filled with solid truth and the only true Life. overflowing in Love.

May we not become calloused as our naivety falls away, as the years pass by and we encounter darkness and the stench of our broken humanity.

We penetrate the darkness with the laughter and reckless trust of a child compelled by love. The wrestle to refuse the embittered life is worthy of a fight. // #tobeachildagain

The Truth Behind the Headlines

Do not believe everything you read. 

The media flooding the airwaves is telling a narrative about the recent Gaza situation that is contrary to reality. 

The protest in Gaza is not ‘peaceful’. It is not an ‘unarmed demonstration.’ It is a propaganda scheme conceived by the terrorist organization Hamas. Their goal is to bring accusation on Israel for crimes against the Palestinian people and to amass the world’s pity for Palestinians and further hostility for Israel. It was an attempt conceived by a TERRORIST organization to breach the border and invade Israel to steal, kill and destroy. 

Hamas is intent on the destruction of Israel and they are exploiting the Palestinian people to bring about their desired wicked end.

It is tragic and deeply unsettling that Palestinian children and minors lost their lives in the violence of this week. There is no joy in the death of anyone. It is indeed grievous that lives have been lost at the border. This is not a light matter and I want to stress that there is no rejoicing in the death of Israel’s enemies and no one here is on the streets celebrating the loss of 58 Palestinian lives. But Hamas, the very ones who encouraged even children to be at this event, sees this tragedy as a victory. The sacrifice of children is a “win” to them. The current media propaganda is exactly what they hoped for. Hamas wants the world to blame Israel while they remain hidden behind the scenes, disguising the root issue. 

Israel is a human state and her government makes mistakes. I’m not saying they’re perfect by any means, but the picture that you are likely seeing on CNN, BBC, or other media outlets is skewed. Hamas has placed Israel in a lose-lose situation. They can’t let the vicious terror group, responsible for many massacres and attacks in the land, cross the border with upwards of 40,000 angry rioters. Israel’s defense of her sovereign border is drawing international condemnation, but what other choice does she have? She won’t leave the vulnerable families in Sderot, Ofakim, and other surrounding communities to the wrath of Hamas. 

The reality of what is going on must not be brushed under the carpet or ignored for the sake of “social justice” and for the sake of championing the minority or the outcast. My heart is for the orphan, the widow, the outcast, the poor, and those who suffer injustice. My heart is not only for those who are suffering in Palestinian territories under the vicious terrorist regime, but it is also for the people who have been scorned, outcast, and mutilated by the world for centuries: the children of Jacob. The people of the covenant. The Jewish people.

The adversary himself, Satan, would love nothing more than to decimate the Jewish people and the Land of Israel because he knows YHWH is not finished with Israel and her children. This is the bloodline though whom He has chosen to redeem the peoples of the earth. The God who made covenant with Abraham and His offspring forever has not forgotten Israel and moved on to the Church alone. We are joyfully adopted into the family of God… yes. But He has not forsaken His chosen people, the Jews. The enemy knows that if he can destroy Israel, he can prove God to be a liar.

“Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:37

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Romans 11:25-29

The enemy’s hands and feet in this current game of destruction is Hamas. Please do not be fooled into believing the schemes of the greatest anti-semite in history (Satan)… especially if you call yourself a disciple of Christ. We are not fighting against flesh and blood. There are dark powers, principalities, spiritual forces of evil behind all of this and we cannot be unaware of the his schemes. 

Satan knows the King is returning here to Jerusalem, to step His beautiful feet on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), and establish His throne on His holy hill. But even though he knows this, he will fight to the very end to align the perspective of the world with his own as it regards Israel. (And if he can get the church to agree with him on his disdain for Israel like he has in the past, it’s a cause for rejoicing in his kingdom). I want to agree with GOD… not the enemy of our souls.

It is written in Zechariah 12 that all nations will gather against Jerusalem…. and that will happen. Instead of swallowing what current media is feeding, please go talk to God Himself and ask Him about His heart, purpose, and plan for the Jewish people and this Land.

Further resources: 

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5261338,00.html

http://m.jpost.com/.../IDF-releases-details-of-how-it...

https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/don-t-be-an-armchair-soldier-1.464197

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX-atfFWeq8

https://sonofhamas.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/hamas-scores-deadly-pr-victory/

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8917/palestinians-abdullah-tamimi

https://www.bridgesforpeace.com/.../gazan-mob-tries-to.../