Ray on Monday: It Hasn’t Happened – Yet!

In my growing up years – now in the distant past – there was a song called ‘Little things mean a lot.’ This was about doing things to enhance a relationship. In understanding the Bible something similar needs to be understood. In this matter it is ‘little words mean a lot.’

Unless we take heed to these little words we can misunderstand or misapply God’s word. What are some of those words? ‘Never.’ ‘Never again.’ ‘Until.’ ‘No more.’

In understanding God’s dealings with and purpose for Israel the above ‘little words’ have huge significance. To read some people’s views about Israel is to imagine the Lord God has wiped their name from off His slate. If that was the case then the Church and individual Christians need to tremble. For if He cannot honour His word to Israel then we have no guarantee He will honour it to us. Why? Because the Church with its greater sense of grace has proven as faithless – and perhaps more faithless – than Israel!

Following are just a couple of verses which stress some future purpose of God for Israel. Now the Devil and the World is endeavouring to prevent God from fulfilling His word. God will win, they shall lose!

‘The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink the wine for which you have labored.’ Isaiah 62:8.
‘They shall no more be plunder for the nations,…they shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid.’ Ezekiel 34:28.
‘You shall no more be termed Forsaken and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land shall be married…’ Isaiah 62:4.

Again and again throughout the Scriptures God has indicated His purposes. To some it is a challenge to beat. Others understand it as words generating hope in the faithfulness of God to deliver what He promised.

To be reminded of the Lord’s revealed plans for Israel, I encourage you to read Ezekiel 34-38 and Hosea and Zechariah 14. You disbelieve them to your own spiritual poverty of God’s faithfulness.

Ray (in anticipation) Hawkins.

All who respond to this devotional by either email direct without comment, or with your email in a comment, will receive ‘Israel My Glory’, a glossy magazine about God’s purposes to this Nation. Check out this organisation, Friends of Israel, at http://www.foi.org/  There will be no follow up by me after arranging for the magazine to be posted. Simply send your address to me on my e-mail, ray.haw3819@bigpond.com

Ray on Monday -Our Debt to Israel

Boycott Israel is a strange and twisted attempt by some to isolate Israel and cripple its economy. Such a view isn’t short-sighted, it is spitefulness mixed with ignorance and prejudice.

We will not agree with all Israel’s policies but we, especially if we are Christians, should be conscious of the debt we owe that nation. This is becoming more and more apparent as our society jets away from the moral and spiritual foundations of the Judeo-Christian faith.

Without Israel we would have no Bible. That in turn would mean we have no understanding of God or any concept of grace, hope and salvation. Why? Because we wouldn’t know of the Messiah who overcame sin, death and judgement on our behalf!

 Without the Lord God choosing the nation of Israel to be guardians of revelations, promises and prophesies, we would have no foundation for:
Understanding the purpose and spiritual significance of marriage.
How the world was created.
The beginning of the nations.
A framework for animal dignity.
Children’s welfare.
The source and curse of the occult.
Personal accountability and the climax to history.

These are but a small portion of the wealth contained in the Bible for our information and benefit.

Any intelligent assessment of our communities at this moment would admit we are in a moral and spiritual quagmire. We have no sense of absolutes, no foundation for marriage, a loss of reverence for God and a preoccupation with self indulgence regardless of how it destroys health and relationships. How has this come about? By a constant, deliberate and rejection of Christ with the undermining and rejection of the plain teaching of the Bible!

This isn’t new. How is it reversed? Not by force of arms but by force of a better lifestyle and faith based upon the Scriptures. When people in the moral and spiritual darkness long for something better, God offers His Word as their light out of darkness. How is that light to shine? When those who have trusted His Scriptures live them out and become Christ’s reflective lights in a dark world.

When we recognise our debt to Israel and accept God’s Word through them and the Church, we will no longer be in the dark about life and living.

Ray (in the Light) Hawkins.

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