We are seeing God’s word fulfilled before our eyes if we will simply slow down to look and listen.
Maranatha, Lord come quickly!
myblessedhope
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Jan, 21, 2013
I met Ron Nachman once, during my first trip to Israel. David Lewis took me to the city of Ariel to visit with his old friend. Nachman was a fixture in Israeli life, having been born in Tel Aviv and then later becoming a semi-famous mayor of Ariel, the largest of Israel’s “West Bank” communities. The world called him a settler.
Today, he was buried in the land of Israel. He succumbed to cancer last week, and Israel lost a visionary leader.
In his Ariel office, Nachman rolled a cigar in his mouth and chatted easily. He liked evangelicals. He said with some force—not to us, but to the enemies of the Jewish state—that when the U.S. gave back Texas, Israel would talk about giving back land won in the Six Day War.
It was a good point.
For 10 years after the Six Day War, Israel attempted to negotiate with the Arabs, but were always rebuffed by the gang leader, Yasser Arafat, and his handlers. So, in 1977, led by Ariel Sharon, the Israelis began populating the largely barren territory in the country’s heartland with adventurous Jewish pioneers. Today, more than 300,000 of them live there, a fulfillment of, among other prophecies, the one we read in Amos 9:15. Truly, according to the Lord, they will never be uprooted again.
I remember how striking Ariel was on that first visit. Gleaming buildings, streets, civic centers, schools. Neat and orderly. Quite a contrast to the portrait painted by opponents of the Zionist dream. Wherever they go, the Israelis improve the local environment.
Sanctioned in the 1970s by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Nachman recalled how Ariel and Lilly Sharon arrived and:
“Ariel and Lilly Sharon showed up and told us the Americans had given the green light to create six security outposts. Sharon banged on the table and said, ‘Go up there in uniform, go in civies, go naked, but go!”
Although a fellow like Sharon (and Dayan) would not have thought first that they were fulfilling prophecy, they certainly were the catalysts for that reality, in the modern era.
On a recent trip to Israel, I drove through the whole breadth of the country and marveled at what the Jews have done—Jews like Ron Nachman.
The world hated him and he didn’t care. He was loyal first and last to his people.
I admired him very much.
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In Romans 10 Paul lays out how salvation is open to all, Jew and Gentile. He writes:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” – Romans 10:4-5
What he is saying is now it is not about works or how closely to a “T” you follow the law. But that it is through God’s gift of grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is really that simple, and yet a hard step for some of us.
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
Christ is the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14), through faith in Him you will be saved. It is the only “works” that God requires for eternal salvation.
myBlessedHope 