GRATEFUL

This morning, I wrote on my status for FB that I was grateful for God allowing me life when He did. I’d like to elaborate a bit on that, primarily because there is so much more to say…I’ve lived nearly 3/4 of a century and it has been extremely eventful to say the least! If you read my blogs you know I love Israel and her history, have read and researched from a Biblical perspective how and why she is back in the land God gave her 4,000 years ago. So I will start with the events as I know them, that brought her home.

We have to go back to the late 19th century when what were referred to as Zionists began to write letters, get bills passed, make people aware of the plight of the Jews. They had been homeless now for nearly 2,000 years, A Roman General named Titus completely destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, just a Jesus predicted in Matt 24, and drove all the Jews out of the area. It is referred to as the Diaspora, and has lasted until 1948. These things are all recorded in the Scripture for us, and very detailed. But you have to read it for yourself…and you will find it fascinating, that God would give us so much information. And……we can believe it or not, our choice.

When God made the earth as we know it, He apparently had a time-frame for how long He would deal with humans…I say apparently because I do not know and have not read to my knowledge, any dates for the end but He has given us many, many events to watch for so that we know when it is near. Israel once again being back in the land He gave to her thousands of years ago. Another important happening is for the city of Jerusalem to be controlled by the Jews. This happened in 1967. He said the Israeli’s would make the land bloom, grow, be prosperous and important once again..

If you pay attention and think about what I am telling you, you will understand that life and history is all about God and His people, the Jews. The rest of us are part of the story but only a small part. Jesus made that clear in John 15 in the story of the vine, and the grafting in of “another” branch…that’s us, gentiles…He graciously offered us a place in His Kingdom if we would accept His gift of eternal life by admitting our unsaved and hopeless condition without Christ, yield to Him and be His “body” here to further His Kingdom . The primary reason that happened was because of the unbelief of the Jews ending in the crucifixion of the Lord, all part of the Triune God’s plan from before the foundation of the world.

God has been working out His plan for the end time for probably a couple of hundred years…some of the events that needed to happen did happen in the time period of
WWl. Papers were signed giving legal claim to the area now Israel. The League of Nations was formed and some of the members championed the cause of the Jews. Most important I think was the British Empire was given the land we now call Palestine, plus a little more, because they were part of the Allies that conquered the Ottoman Turks. The Turks held most of the Middle East, it was divided up among the allies, Great Britain, US, and France. This “victory” put the land into the hands God wanted it in, basically non-Arab hands. Then we move on to WWll…the horrible holocaust and the influx of Jews from all over the world…truly an act of God, drawing them back to their homeland. The League of Nations was no longer a power, but the United Nations had taken it’s place. They were asked to finish what the League had started, give the Jews back their homeland and the Arabs living in the area an equal amount of land for theirs. The Arabs refused, the Jews accepted. Israel became a recognized nation on May 14, 1948, and the two groups of people are fighting on until this day. I have other blogs about Israel that you can read to get more information if you like.

The last thing I want to put down for this blog is something from Daniel, he said learning would increase rapidly, people would “run to and fro” and Jesus said in Matthew that “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the day of the Son of man.” If you will recall, in Noah’s day, the people of the world were so corrupt, God destroyed them all but Noah and his family, eight people in all. Pretty bleak huh? I’ve live nearly 74 years, seen most of these things happen, count myself blessed to have been born in this time-period. The car, the planes and military  weapons, the atom bomb and Hiroshima, the birth of the EU, computers, cell phones…TV!!!  My grandkids cannot believe I grew up without TV and a computer! But…….we have paid a terrible price, our marriages and family life, our Christian life has turned into religiosity, most of us do not “know” God as we should, we run around and around doing nothing…you get the picture don’t you. I am still thankful for the lifetime God has given me, the love and mercy He has shown me, I trust He has made me worthy of His love.