Now is the Time for Faith

This will be a bit different “Israel Watch” this week. Rather than do a straight analysis, I have on my heart to encourage you. With the world perhaps more insane than it’s ever been, it seems like a good topic.

From what I hear and read, a great many people are having difficulties. It’s the usual laundry list, but one at a hyper pace. People are afraid of losing their homes. Although I do think of Trump as a rescuer economically, Biden trashed it to such an extent that the recovery will take longer. Things are tight.

For others, relationships are difficult. Especially parents that raised their kids right but now see them struggling because of poor decisions.

Then the international goings-on are truly crazy. France’s former leader Sarkozy has been sentenced to prison. Emmanuel Macron is hated by the people but clings to his corrupt power. Muslims have invaded Western Europe. I’d be uneasy about traveling there now.

There’s always a however, however.

It occurred to me this week that this is the greatest moment to be alive. Most of the readers of this column are believers, I think. We have a different focus. In Christ, we are free. Including free from throwing in the towel. As we watch the world descend farther into chaos, the calmer we should feel.

Israel is a great focus of our faith. The return of the Jews to their ancestral home in the last century (they’re still coming!) is the greatest miracle since the Resurrection. It should be on our minds a lot, as a witness to the power and majesty of the Living God. I’ve written about this many times, but novelists Mark Twain, Walker Percy, and Anne Rice understood very well that Israel’s return is something unexplainable apart from the supernatural. In my perfect world, churches and pastors all over America would tell this to their people. Most don’t.

Even now, when we see Jew-haters crawl out from their rancid hideouts, we should be encouraged rather than fearful.

This world is passing away!

“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)

The fact that it’s passing away should make us joyous.

This week, I heard that a wonderful prophecy conference, held for many years with wonderful fellowship each year, will not return next year. They are closing-up shop. And these are fantastic, faithful people. I think we can all figure out what happened. Such conferences aren’t well-attended today. Those audiences are aging.

I don’t think that’s cause for sadness, though. It means we are that much closer. Which is what a dear, wise friend of mine said this week when we discussed it. It isn’t 1975, anymore. The “Adrian Rogers’s” of those days have passed from the scene. Just as Scripture predicted in the New Testament, their places have been taken by hirelings.

We are exactly where we’re supposed to be. We are outliers now. Our role, in my humble opinion, is to pray, and reach those we can reach with the truth of the Gospel. As we know very well, still a glorious evangelism tool is the witness of fulfilled predictive prophecy. It is one of the things that makes the Bible and our God wholly unique.

Our current place in history makes Scripture all the sweeter. It is honey to us, while the world tastes bile.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

We know that our faith “works.” I hate the pragmatism of the current Church Visible, but sometimes, if something works, it is good.

We are seeing people that were friends turn. This is personally a devastating blow. And it sounds trite, but it’s true: when the cares of life seem to overwhelm us, we need to concentrate on what we have, not what we don’t have. As fall turns into winter, most of us aren’t well-off. But if you have a dry place to live and are warm and have enough to eat, we are blessed. Some don’t even have this, so it is up to the rest of us to help when and if we can. Some of this is easy for me to say. I have a decent place to live. I have always really enjoyed “simple” things. I can wash and dry my clothes. I only have myself to take care of. I have enough to eat.

Appreciate these things more in the down times. What I’m trying to say is, as believers, do we ever truly have “down” times? Death, money problems, battered relationships…all weigh us down.

But I urge you, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Our life here is temporary and is rapidly passing away.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)

The holidays are here soon. I hope that whether you spend it with a big family, or with on one, that you will experience peace and joy. This year especially, let’s praise our Great God, who is Master of all. He will even remove evil one day simply by showing up. Even in misery, He is Lord. When the remainder of Europe’s British and French armies were trapped at Dunkirk, God sent thousands of citizen boats to pick them up on the beaches. Those men that were saved in 1940 returned in 1944 to shatter Hitler’s armies at Normandy. History is FULL of such stories. We are just like the Israelites, that had the Red Sea behind them but feared anyway shortly after.

History is exactly where it’s supposed to be, and so are those of us living in it right now.

If you are struggling right now, you are not alone. You have all of us, and more importantly, you have the Lord of History on your side.

Tell the Lord what your issues are. And don’t forget to thank Him that we live in this era of world history.

Be encouraged!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/TheGodThatAnswers

(My two new books, The God That Answers by Fire, and Zechariah 2, are now out. You can find them here and here. Let me know what you think, and if you think they are worthy, an Amazon review would be great. Thank you!)

 

 

Sometimes Broken Records Play the Clearest Music

Yes, I’m going to invoke Zechariah again. Or Jeremiah. Or Ezekiel.

It’s fascinating to realize that since Scripture is all true, one day, Israel will find herself completely alone in the world. What a bizarre prediction. Yet God said over and over that it will happen.

It’s sort of like the question, “Where is America in Bible prophecy?” One conclusion must be that we are sidelined in some way in the very last days, losing our superpower status.

So it is we ask, What possible conditions will there be when Israel loses her few allies? We speculate.

This week, there were flare-ups between Israel and the Americans. For me, the number one thing to always keep in mind is that Hamas (read: Gazan Arabs) murdered Israeli children in ways that would have made the Assyrians blush. Raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl?

Personally, I’d give Israel a permanent green light to do whatever they wanted in Gaza. But the painful fact is, President Trump—and especially his VP, J.D. Vance—do not at all have a biblical view of Israel’s current situation. They just don’t. Get a load of these comments, per The Times of Israel:

“US President Donald Trump on Thursday declared, ‘Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank,’ as officials from his administration leveled harsh criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after lawmakers advanced legislation to annex parts of the West Bank while Vice President JD Vance was visiting the country.

“’Don’t worry about the West Bank,’ Trump told reporters at the White House, in his first comments on the matter since the Knesset voted on the two bills Wednesday. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he repeated. ‘Israel’s doing very well. They’re not going to do anything with it.’”

For his part, Vance left in a bit of a huff this week, having spent a couple days in Israel. He felt that the Knesset vote was “stupid” and he was personally offended by it. I did not at all hear him say he was offended by Gazans murdering Israeli men, women, and children.

Vance is Catholic. How devout I have no idea. Trump appears not to have personal faith. They don’t have a view that sees Israel as a key cog in History. They do not appreciate the specialness of the Jewish people, especially Future Israel.

Back during the campaign, key Trump allies began speaking almost in a biblical way. “West Bank” (an Arab term used to erase Jewish history…”Judea-Samaria”) was referred to in a biblical sense. It was the first time in my life that I had heard major political figures speak that way.

Was it only to gain votes?

Looks that way.

Trump has also bragged that he basically tells Bibi what to do. He says things like he will decide this and that.

American presidents making decisions for Israel has been a disaster the last 60 years.

Now come reports that American drones are monitoring Gaza. Maybe some U.S. troops on the ground. What is this?

So again. We read the Prophets, specifically those passages that relate to the very end of time. What in the world would account for a tiny nation in the Middle East not only out of friends, but attacked by an international coalition army representing every nation on Earth?

Well, what we are seeing now is exactly how that could/will happen. Israel’s greatest friend and ally of all time, the great United States…turns on the Jewish state? And with a “friendly” President? LBJ, Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Obama, Biden…all devils when it came to Israel. They will answer one day to the Judge for how they treated Israel. They endangered Jews.

But we are living in a moment when the American president is a friend. His grandchildren are Jewish. He has had great friends in the Jewish community for 50 years. He moved the embassy to Jerusalem. Recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And many more good things. The strike on Iran was iconic.

And yet he squeezes Israel when she needs a free hand. His fresh-faced VP is offended.

(I guarantee you J.D. Vance would not be a friend to Israel. His friends like Tucker Carlson would make sure of that.)

We are not there yet. More from The Times:

“Another US official warned Thursday that Trump will ‘f**k’ Netanyahu if the Israeli leader jeopardizes the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, according to a Channel 12 report.

“’Netanyahu is walking a fine line with President Trump. If he keeps going, he’ll f**k up the Gaza deal. And if he f**ks up the deal, Donald Trump will f**k him,’ the official reportedly told the outlet’s correspondent Barak Ravid.

“’In English, it sounds even cruder,’ news anchor Yonit Levi noted at the end of Ravid’s report.”

This is Nixonian language from the current administration.

“Netanyahu updated Vance about the Knesset vote during the vice president’s visit, assuring him that it was merely a ‘preliminary vote’ and would ‘go nowhere,’ the public broadcaster Kan reported.

“’This cannot happen while I am visiting here,’ Vance was said to have retorted. American officials reportedly warned Netanyahu that the vote could provoke a backlash and destabilize ongoing negotiations over the ceasefire.

“Leaving Israel on Thursday afternoon, Vance said at the airport that he was told the initial passage of the bill was a ‘political stunt’ and ‘purely symbolic,’ but that, if so, it was a ‘very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it.’”

Such temerity from the young upstart standing in the shadow of the man that has fought for Zion all his life.

Israel will take her land, all of it, at the appointed time. No one can stop them. The Lord of History has decreed it.

All this is why I continue to say that the current conflict is going to become the trigger to Armageddon.

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/TheGodThatAnswers

My book on Zechariah 2 will thrill you as you see just how detailed God’s prophetic promises are. The God That Answers by Fire will be the perfect book for you to give to a relative or friend that is seeking answers about the Bible and whether God exists or not.