God's Answer for Peace in Israel 8-9-07

Good morning, Lord Jesus. My Father, my Friend, my Lord, my God. May the Father and the Son come abide in me as One by Your Holy Spirit (from John 14:23). Now prompt me to pray as You will, as I watch and wait, listening for Your leading in the silence of surrender. ... "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:33-34). I have chosen to believe the Word of God is true and to live my life as best as I can by Your grace in trusting surrender and humble submission to Your Word as my Truth. I don't like labels like "Evangelical," "Charismatic," "Fundamentalist," "Bible-thumper," etc. But I am -- or I should say I try to be -- a Bible believing Christian. And to me, believing it means to at least try by Your grace to live it. And when I don't, I believe I am called to admit it and call it for the sin that it is instead of trying to justify it, explain it, compromise it, or try to substitute my own will for Yours' and my own ways for Yours'. Though I know I have sinfully done that many times in my past, I ask for Your conviction that leads me to repentance, to receive again Your forgiveness and restoration of the intimacy of our relationship. But it seems to me that many who claim to believe Your Word are seeking ways to be able to compromise Your Word and still claim to be followers of Your Word -- especially with regard to covenant and promises Your Word expresses to the people and the land of Israel. I know many of my friends will not like my words, but these are the prayers on my heart today. Lord, convict us and remind us of Your Truth and Your Word, so You can forgive us and restore us as people who try to believe and live the Word of God as if it were true, because it is. By Your Spirit, encourage us to encourage others to hold firm to Your Word, Your covenant, and Your promises for the people and the land of Israel and everyone else. We need Your creative and certain answers, not our own, in submission to Your Word and will, not ours. You meet us where we are in our cultures and practices, but never leave us as we are. Then You begin the patient and painful process of bringing order and security, righteousness and justice to our hearts and our homes in the places You position us. The history of nations recorded in Your Word, with Israel and others, is messy and hard to understand as You began to form Your heart and Your will in the hearts and wills of a people whose journey with You would teach us about You and Your desire for relationship with all of us. And You worked out this history -- as You are still working out this history today -- in the context of a land and a people with the promises of a covenant. "I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens" (Exodus 6:4). Whether we like it or not, understand it or not, agree with it or not, this is Your Word. And we need Your wisdom to understand Your will, Your way, and Your answer for all the turmoil and terror in this land of Canaan, the land of Your promise to Your people. We know by Your Word, there will not be true and lasting peace until the Prince of Peace returns (for example, Zechariah 12:1 through 13:6; Isaiah 11:1-16). In the new Jerusalem of the new heaven and new earth, Your Word says, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be His peoples, and God Himself with be with them" (Revelation 21:3). But until that day, Your Word does not teach us to trade land for peace, or force others to sell their birthright and inheritance of God for the porridge of false peace (Genesis 25:29-34). Instead Your Word calls the people of Your covenant to honor the aliens among them. "You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 23:9). Through the conflicts and casualties of war on all sides, as well as the working out of Your will and Your Word in this land, today Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others live in the land of Canaan. Though Your Word seems clear about Your will of ownership of the land, ownership is not the only issue. Honoring one another, loving "the alien as yourself" and respecting them as a "citizen among you" without oppression and with full recognition as a people of equal value and great worth whom You love and gave Your life to save -- these are issues of just a much, if not more, importance. But deliver us and them from the temptation to seek our own answers to satisfy our own sense of righteousness and justice apart from Yours. Let us humble ourselves to seek Your wisdom and submit to Your will in our lives and theirs. We need Your answer to peace in Israel and in our own hearts and lands. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encourage today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Come to The Mountain! on Monday Nights for our ministry's weekly prayer for the peace of Jerusalem led by Doris and Bob McCray. 7 pm in the upstairs Community Room at First Southern National Bank on Harrodsburg Rd. in Lexington. All are welcome. Call for details: 859-422-1794 To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 www.messiah-ministries.org Daily Archives: www.morningbymorning.injesus.com