Israel is the key to all end-time prophecy.

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Dec 8

On a Clear Day

Remember the old song? “On a clear day, you can see forever.”

I thought of that this week as I read some of the postings on RR’s “prayer request” forum. Folks, there is a mind-boggling amount of pain out there. With the economy slowing like a rusty old wagon — at the holidays no less! — it seems to me that more people are struggling than ever before. Some of the situations people find themselves in are…I don’t have words to describe it. It seems worry and fear have gripped even Christians. I am not above having some good old-fashioned anxiety myself.

Before I get into my subject this week, which has a direct bearing on all this, let me say that more than ever, let’s hold each other and lift each other up. Some of us will never meet this side of heaven, but we are spiritual kin. If you have any extra prayer, use it for others. Reach out in spirit and claim God’s promises, and do it for someone else.

A friend of mine is about to go under in his business. He is the salt of the earth and can’t seem to catch a break. Like you, I know lots of people suffering physically and financially and emotionally. In our part of the country, a network news anchor was brutally murdered recently and her parents are learning more horrifying details of the attack. Needless to say, I could go on. I don’t want to, and I know you don’t want me to. You get the point.

But now let me say this. I can’t give all of you money, much as I wish I could. I can’t heal your family. I can’t do many things. However, it is my prayer that in some way, you or someone you know can hold onto this:

God is real, He cares for us as individuals, and nothing can shake Him. We wonder, from our feeble perspectives, how God can allow such pain. We are focusing on the wrong thing, and our wrong focus comes straight from the pit.

You might never get to the Holy Land. But I’ve been there and I’ll tell you that the truth of God’s word is everywhere. There is a garden tomb that is empty, and it is just outside the Old City walls. There is a barren hill with a rock face in the shape of a skull nearby. I’ve read about this in the Gospels.

Israeli soldiers patrol the land, just as Ezekiel’s book promised.

Jews are everywhere, millions of them! Just as Isaiah said it would be.

New Jewish homes dot the hillsides, many thousands of them, just as Amos and Jeremiah said they would in the last days.

You can’t turn a corner in any city without seeing a sign proclaiming the soon coming of the Messiah, or have a chance conversation with a cab driver, solder, politician, businessman, or single mother in which something biblical is not mentioned.

United Nations vehicles and diplomats and worldwide media choke the streets of Jerusalem, and Zechariah said very long ago that the Holy City would be an obsession for the world in the last days.

Drive around and look at the lush foliage and flowers and fruits and vegetables in the land. This is what the prophets said the barren land would return to in the last days.

What do you make of all this, if it is not the work of an all-powerful, loving God?

Can you fathom the fact that if God took care of an entire people for 2,000 years — because He promised He would — that He will fulfill His promises to you? Jesus said in the book of Matthew that if you are tired, come to Him.

Friends, this is not some esoteric, pie-in-the-sky…thing. It is practical and real for you today. If God did all those things with regard to Israel, that I mentioned above, are you worried that He forgot what He said He’d do for you if you are beaten down and exhausted?

If you think God has forgotten you, you are quite mistaken.

I know you have chronic pain. I know you can’t pay your bills. I know your husband is leaving you. But please, get this: Israel is alive. She shouldn’t be, humanly speaking. Two thousand years as a desert backwater should have been her permanent fate. But God said no, in His own time He would return the child He loves to the place He loves.

Israel is back.

Your world might be cloudy and dark. Frankly, I’ve been through times when everything seemed dark, and you feel so cold and alone. But predictive prophecy, and Israel in particular, clears everything up.

Do yourself a favor. Take your Bible and read Isaiah. Read Amos 9:15. Read Ezekiel 37. Then think carefully about where Israel is today. She is back, back where she belongs. All because of a totally strong Father who is our ultimate protection.

I wish I could help all of you, but in reality I have all the strength of a lima bean. God, though, is a force that no one can reckon with.

Remember this and I have a feeling that the skies will clear for you and you will be able to see — really see — that if you are God’s child, only glory awaits you. We are all going forward together, so let us strengthen each other in the night.

Our God is very, very great.

My prayer for you this holiday season is that peace will come to your mind and heart.

God knows your name. He knows where you are. He loves you infinitely. He will sustain you.

Israel is proof of that.

jim@prophecymatters.com