Love Never Fails

Nice art.  It goes with something I was thinking about when I woke up this morning, the verse in 1 Corinthians 13, that love never fails.  My perception of that has always been that 'love wins' or 'love does not lose'.  So I looked it up this morning to see if that is the true flavor of the word 'lose' in the original language.

What I found was that the kind of love Paul was talking to the Corinthians about was the kind of love that once you have it, you cannot lose it.  This is love that does not fall out of love. It is love that it is not possible to fall down from or fall off of.  It is love that is in such a steady place that it is not possible to fall from a place which one cannot keep this love.  It is love with a power that cannot fall powerless - it will never fall to the ground, or be rendered powerless.

This is the kind of love that the LORD gives us, but it is also the kind of love that He desires us to pursue with people in our lives – that we would be perfected in love. 

When I looked at the rest of verse 8, love was contrasted to prophecy, tongues and knowledge.  In each of those a different kind of "fail" was being expressed in the original language.  The fail these things are another word entirely; this "fail" means something that will cease, something that will be deprived of force, influence, power.

Corinthians 13:8 is the proof text that many use to say that gifts of the Spirit are no longer available to believers.  That is not what I believe and is not my point. 

Rather, in it I see the apostle spelling out our priority system to the Corinthians.  He is saying to believers, of all the spiritual things you pursue, be sure to put learning to love like He loves you at the top of your pursuit.

Everything else has a shelf life, but those who pursue learning how to love like God will take that into eternity with them.

No matter what happens in a person's life, love will not fail to find compassion for others.  When we mature in God’s kind of love will be stirred no matter how someone else has screwed up.  It is a flame that cannot be put out by many waters under the bridge. 

In Ephesians 4:13 Paul tells us about the "perfect" that is coming when the prophecy, tongues and knowledge spiritual gifts will come to the end of their usefulness.  It is the time with the Body of Messiah/Christ has come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. 

We the Messiah’s Body in the earth, as a whole, will understand the LORD's purposes for us so completely that we will genuinely reflect Yeshua's love.  As a whole, we will be the one new man - that maturity into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ/Messiah, which is God's purpose for us. 

We will love one another.  That right there is enough to cause many to believe it is mission impossible.

I believe in the reality that this is what it is all about from God’s perspective. Many of my good and spiritual friends do not believe it will ever be possible for humankind to ever so put on Messiah/Christ as a Body, that this could be possible on this side of eternity.  But I believe that is exactly the testimony of scripture as to God's purposes in Messiah Yeshua.

Often I fail to love the way God loves me but coming up to this level is at least in my sights.  It is the fixed point of my mission horizon.  No matter what the challenges we face in our lives, the opposition is aimed at making our love for others, hence our love for God to fail.  This is the battle, so let us fight the good fight with the God kind of love which is incapable of failing.

Love never fails.

By Donna DiorioIsrael Prayer Dot Com    arrowsfromzion@gmail.com or donna@d10r10.com 

2013 Prophetic: A Coming Shift

by Donna Diorio
Because of a good word I heard from Joel Osteen's service yesterday proclaiming that a shift was coming when the things that hadn't budged in a long time were suddenly going to shift overnight, I realized that "a coming shift" is the key phrase I've been picking up by the prophets over the last few weeks. Joel Osteen is not someone I would think of in connection to the word prophet, and he himself even said as much, but clearly he was also impressed by the prophetic nature of what he was speaking.

Now, as far as the prophets, I'm not one that follows after particular prophets. This one has a word that resonates with me, and then that one does - and in between times they couldn't be any further apart in what they are seeing for us. This troubles me, so I take a guarded approach to prophecy. If it registers, I listen; if it doesn't, I don't. 

One thing I know about prophets and prophecy is something I heard Asher Intrater speak last decade at an Israel gathering at Mike Bickle's KC-IHOP. Asher was addressing the fact that true prophets were all over the place with their prophecies because they did not know what the end game is.

If you don't know where God's plan is supposed to end up then your trajectory of prayer and prophetic understanding is going to be off. That's why we have prophetic words all over the map. There is an essence of the word that is true, but all prophecy is interpreted through the current understanding of the prophet so the prophets may all be shooting in the same GENERAL direction, but not zeroing in on the bull's eye of God's intentions.

God has been restoring truths, gifts and ministry offices back to the Body. Starting with Martin Luther's revelation that salvation is a free gift of grace by faith, God is restoring all that we lost so quickly after the first century A.D.   All the Divine benefits are being restored to a Body that is being matured to handle them. The five-fold offices are also being restored. 

Now here's a second thing that I know: Although the gift of prophecy and the office of prophet has been restored, it has not reached the equilibrium of Divine stability.  It cannot until the prophets lay hold of the significance of Israel in God's grand plan, and specifically the significance of the role the Israeli Body of Messiah plays toward that end.

So, we have many who think of themselves as apostles, but the place where God raised up and established the apostolic office in multiple men, is Israel. They came from different parts of the country but Jerusalem was where the counseled/council-ed together for the believers in Israel and the nations. Until the apostolic office is restored in Jerusalem, I do not expect to see a mature expression of the office of apostle in the rest of the nations - certainly not in terms of wide general acceptance of the validity of the office.

It will take the acceptance of the significance of those Israeli Messianic 'our-generation' apostles and what they have to share before those apostles in the nations come into their full stature. It is the same thing with prophets.

Here it is in a nutshell: The Church is not operating independent of what God is doing ultimately in Israel through the Body of Messiah in Israel. The Church cannot fulfill the vision of completeness and harvest apart from entering into the vision that God has for the restoration of the LORD's Body in the nation of Israel.

When the prophets and the apostles of the nations embrace the Kingdom vision of the Body in Israel, then the prophets will begin to see their trajectory zero in accurately. When the apostles of the nations begin to esteem the apostles of the Body in Israel and what they bring to the table spiritually, then the office of the apostles in the worldwide Body will begin to firm up, established by God in the eyes of the saints. 

Not until. The Church will not get to the end without embracing God's purposes in the Israeli Body of Messiah.

"For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. . . .For if thou were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" Rom 11:16, 24

Christian Giving "to bless" Israel

Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed BY the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their generosity. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints'.   2 Cr 8:1-4

“Whoever keeps the fig tree

will eat its fruit”

4 out 6 New Testament references to "the poor" are made by Paul speaking specifically of the donations he was raising among all the churches to deliver to the BELIEVERS in Jerusalem.   (Ro 15:26, 1 Cor 16:1, 15; 2 Cor 9:1; & 9:12-13)  The donations from the churches were collected over at least a 3-year period and when it came time to take it to Jerusalem with ambassadors of the churches in tow, the prophets came out to make it clear that Paul would sacrifice his freedom to deliver it.  There is great spiritual opposition to establishing the Church in support of the Kingdom vision of building the body of Messiah in Israel.

Most people think the apostle was encouraging Christians to give to the generic poor, but Paul was very specifically urging Christians to intervene in the poor circumstances of the Jews who follow Jesus in Israel. What's more, this is not something that was just for that day. It is positively, absolutely the necessity today. When the Church wakes up to this and quits lavishing donations on the anti-saints of Israel, then we are going to see an explosion of salvation in Israel. It takes financial resources to minister a vision as big as "all Israel shall be saved."

The whole 8th chapter of 2 Corinthians is the apostle to the Gentiles discussing Christian giving to the Body of the LORD in Israel. It is not about generic giving to the poor, but specifically about what he called in Romans 15:27 the "duty" of the Christian churches to minister to the material needs of their spiritual brothers - the believers in Jesus in Israel.

The parameters of this giving is spelled out in 2 Cor 8: For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack--that there may be equality. 2Cr 8:13-14

And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have. 2Cr 8:10-12

Today, the truth is that most Christians who give donations to Israel do so in an un-biblical way. They donate to and through the unsaved in Israel, the traditional rabbis who oppose the gospel and vehemently oppose the Jews who profess faith in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). Or they give to the unsaved government leadership projects. Or they give to Zionist settler groups using often ungodly tactics in attempting to possess the Land.

Whether it is the unsaved rabbi building bomb shelters or "blessing" the chief rabbi of the city who has threatened to run the local Messianic congregation out of town, MOST Christian to "bless Israel" does NOT support the Kingdom purposes of God in Israel.

Both of these examples are what major Christian Israel-supporting ministers have actually done not knowing any better.  That is why the ideal avenue of donating to bless Israel should be to donate through the spiritual leaders of the Jesus-followers in Israel who possess knowledge of the best places to plant your seed in Israel.  The un-saved simply cannot represent the interests of Jesus in Israel.  

Unfortunately, most Christians giving to Israel through unsaved avenues REFUSE to listen to the truth of the matter. No one is going to tell them they aren't doing good by Israel.

Good deeds are not the same as God deeds. Wake up, Church and start giving to build the Kingdom of God's dear Son in Israel.

"delivered from them that do not believe in Judea"

By Donna Diorio
January 2013

"For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things."
Romans 15:26-27

It was about 1992 when the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me the scriptures that now motivate my ministry on behalf of the Israeli Body of Messiah. That is when I really got hold of the special "duty" of Christians to minister to the material needs of the Israeli believers.  I wrote what the Spirit had given me to a sabra Israeli ministry who was a pastor at Francis Frangipane's Cedar Rapids, Iowa church, and Reuven Doron included it in his groundbreaking book, One New Man. The whole first half of chapter 16, "The Poor in Jerusalem" is near verbatim what I wrote to him in a letter. 

Doron's ministry was instrumental in opening my eyes to the Israeli Messianic Jewish ministries because he put focus on them like no other ministry I had ever seen.  As God continued to reveal significant passages of related scripture to me, my own emphasis began to shift to the believers in Israel and my understanding grew.  Over the years at different times God has opened my eyes to the scriptures in the New Testament that relate to how the Church is supposed to be joined to the Body in Israel by supporting the ministries, materially in donations but also standing with them in brotherly moral support.

I found that analogy of the Word being like hidden treasure that one had to patiently mine to be true. Or maybe it is like Hansel and Gretel, I was following a trail of 'bread' crumbs because truly when I have found new insight into to this topic, it has been a surprise find along the way. The truth about what Paul was doing on that last trip to Jerusalem, the repeated emphasis he put to the churches to collect donations to minister to "the poor" and "the saints" in Jerusalem - these came as gifts with the Holy Spirit connecting the dots for me, no great brilliance on my part!  Those verses suddenly came off the page with Holy Spirit highlighting.

Over the years trying to communicate these things to others has been my challenge. That saying about a calf at a new gate comes to mind because there are two major views among the Church about Israel and neither one of them regards the Israeli Body of Messiah as a significant fact.

I have said all that to say this: The Holy Spirit just opened my eyes once again to a real nugget. As I was looking up scriptures about "saints" I saw this with new eyes for the first time. Paul is speaking in Romans 15 of delivering an offering to the believers in Israel from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia.

"That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea;
and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints."

The clear meaning of this is that Paul is telling the believers in Rome that he knows he is going to need to be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea in order to get the donations from the Macedonia and Achaian churches to the SAINTS - the BODY of Messiah in Israel.  Same difference today.  The book of the Acts of the Apostles did not end, it has just skipped ahead nearly 2,000 years and resumed. 

The action in Israel has taken up where it left off – with religious opposition to the gospel.  This time however, Paul says confidently in Romans 11:26-27, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

If you are a Christian typically ignoring the SAINTS in Israel and blessing those that do not believe in Israel, you have smooth sailing. You will even enjoy special relationship with Israeli government leaders and some of the rabbis of traditional Judaism. If you turn your back on the SAINTS in Messiah, then unsaved Israel will surely reward you with entrance into audience with them. Just sell out the believers and you can brag about what high levels of the Israeli government doors are open to your ministry.

If you make your stand with the Body in Israel, the saints of the Messiah, then those Israeli doors of favor will begin to close on you. Many who have desired to feel special to Israel have succumbed to this temptation to be highly favored by Israeli government officials and traditional rabbis.  In truth it is the man-pleasing route, not the God-pleasing way.  

Hopefully, God will open the spiritual eyes of even the major Christian Israel-touting ministries to see how this undermines Yeshua's kingdom building in Israel, and also how ignoring the existence of the Israeli Messianic Body of Messiah actually encourages religious zealots to further persecute believers in Jesus. 

Some mostly diaspora Messianic Jews are guilty of the same thing seeking recognition and acceptance from the Tribe rather than oneness of the Body.

When it is obvious to unbelieving Jews that the Church cares that little for the Israeli Jewish believers, it makes it much easier to act against believers with impunity.   Harassment, persecution, firebombings. Like the apostle Paul before his encounter with risen Messiah on the road to Damascus, the religious opposition to the 15,000 believers in Israel is “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”  (Acts 9:1)

That’s not a sign that the Jews will never come to the LORD; the fact that they will is laid out clearly by the apostle Paul .  It is amazing that the truth is hidden in plain sight, yet even people who love the LORD can read over lengthy passages like Romans 9-15 without grasping the plain truth of those three chapters.  “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

The supporting passages of what Paul reveals of this mystery occur in Acts and in his letters to the various churches regarding raising donations for the support of the Israeli Body, and in his Ephesians writing on “one new man”. 

So, I also want to make a secondary application of the Romans 15:31 verse.  Those of us who are trying to awaken the Church to our brethren in Israel so they can better fulfill this mission to be witnesses in Judea and Samaria, we also run into those who "do not believe in Judea".

These are the Christians who don't believe that Israel is any different from any other nation since Jesus opened salvation to all the nations, or that there is any exceptional need to support ministry or evangelism to Israeli Jews.

They do not believe in Judea.

They believe God has abandoned any exceptional purpose or role for the Jews and the nation of Israel in His ongoing plan of salvation for mankind.  I'll tell you something, they may not persecute the believers like the unbelievers within Israel do, but the level of spiritual dismissiveness is extremely harmful and hurtful on many levels. 

The apostle Paul compares the connection of all believers to the human body, and in rejecting the role of salvation of the Jews in the last days we are effectively shooting ourselves in the foot.  Our own foot!

This rejection of the significant role of the salvation of the Jewish people as God’s plan for the world as it is moving to its consummation is not just detrimental to the salvation of the Jewish people but to the whole Body of Christ.  Those who claim to be the most focused on the final harvest of souls are rejecting the very key to releasing the abundance of the harvest: 

Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! . . . .For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?  Romans 11: 12, 15

In the beginning I wrote of Paul’s prayer request of the churches as he was returning to Jerusalem to carry the donations from all the churches back to support the Body in Israel.  He wrote, “Now I beg you, brethren, through the LORD Messiah Yeshua, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints."

Today, we can add the second application to that verse, so from within the Body of Christ who do not “believe in Judea” as well as from the religious opposition within Israel:   Deliver me, O God, from those who do not "believe in Judea," who do not believe the great work You are doing in those harvest fields through the Israeli Body of Messiah! 

Jan 14th UPDATE:  I got a nice email from my friend Yonit Klein of Emmaus Way in Israel about my article on "them that do not believe in Judaea." She wrote to say "cool insight is the secondary reading" . . .then something I have tried to put into words for a long time finally tumbled out right in my reply to her. Sharing that below:

I was ready to send it out as the primary meaning at first, Yonit, because it came across so strongly to me that the mostly charismatic church did "not believe in Judea"! 

Yeah! That's it. They may be on the cutting edge of the restoration of healing, deliverance, the prophetic and all the spiritual gifts but the simple truth is they DO NOT BELIEVE IN JUDEA. In fact, they look down on the mostly pro-Israel evangelical church because it does not much embrace the restoration of healing, deliverance, the prophetic and all the spiritual gifts. 

So there is a GREAT many in the charismatic church has the attitude toward the Israel-supporting Evangelical church, 'What do you know anyway? We are on the cutting edge of everything God is restoring to the Church, so your Israel-support could not possibly a truth God is restoring or we would have it before you. Spiritually they see the evangelical church as the spiritually slow siblings, so their embrace of Israel must be a misdirection from what God is really doing.

And, for its own part in making it harder for the charismatic church to see what God intends in the restoration of Israel, the evangelical church has made missteps in direction thinking that they are only supposed to support Israel at large, but they are missing the mark, because the mark is they are supposed to be supporting the BODY in Israel. 

The charismatic church detects that evangelical church is 'off' in its Israel support. Neither of the two schools of thought about Israel in Christendom will be right and pure until they lock into HOW God is restoring Israel and through WHOM: the Body of Messiah IN Israel. 

[I have long believed that God gave the mainstream Evangelical denominations the insight to recognize His restoration of Israel and that He gave the Charismatic - for lack of a better identificaton - portion of the Church the insight to recognize His restoration of the spiritual gifts and ministry offices BECAUSE at some point He was going to use it to show both sides just how much they needed each other and how they could not get to the purity of what He is bringing us to in one, without respecting what the other is bringing to the table. And then there is the whole Messianic Jewish part of the Body and neither the evangelical nor the charismatic sides have yet embraced what God is doing in the restored witness of Yeshua in Judea. When all these three come into a unity that respects each other at the God-like level, then and only then will the Ephesians 2:15 of a mature "one new man" in Messiah be coming to completion of the Ephesian 4:13 Divine Goal: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.]

Happy Hanukkah of 2012

Happy Hanukkah of 2012
A little background of Hanukkah &
a few thoughts from Israelprayer

Hanukkah, known as the Festival of Lights and in John 10 is referred to as the Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Miracles have a strong theme in this commemoration of the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BC.

The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a unique nine-branched candelabrum, the Menorah or Hanukiah.  This is different from the seven-branched menorah in the Temple. The Hanukiah Menorah consists of eight branches with an additional branch that is raised above the others.
The extra light is called a shamash, which in Hebrew means servant.  It is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest.

On the first night of Hanukkah, after sundown, the Servant/shamash candle is lit, which in turn is used to kindle one other candle in the Menorah. The second night, we light the shamash again and use it to light two candles. This continues through the eight nights of the Hanukkah until all the candles are lit - like the apostle Paul declared in Romans 11:26, "And so all Israel shall be saved."

Only the Servant candle can kindle the other candles in the menorah - each candle lit on its own ordained day, in a progressive order.  Yeshua, who called Himself "the Light of World" is that Servant candle, that kindles the light in the Jewish people, each in the day that God has ordained in the salvation of Israel.

This is a laser generated Hanukiah projected on a mound in a converted landfill which is the centerpiece of the Ariel Sharon Park near Ben Gurion airport.

Instead of Hanukkah and Christmas being at odds, surely God has positioned the observance of these two holidays that point to the Messiah of Israel and the Light that has enlightened the world, in close proximity for His own purposes.  We need not wrestle over these holidays, but let the wonder of His great love amaze us again for both Jew and Gentile.

Here are important passages that point to the 'Reason for the Seasons' in the plan of God to redeem not only the Gentile world but to once again kindle the Light of the World in Israel, among the Jews.

And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, 
How long will you make us to doubt? If thou be the Messiah, tell us plainly.  
John 10:22-24

Therefore they could not believe, because as Isaiah said again,
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; 
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, 
and be converted, and I should heal them.
These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him. 
 John 12:39-41

I say then, Has God cast away his people? God forbid. . . .
God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. 
Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah,
how he pleads with God against Israel . . . . 
But what does the Divine response say to him? 
"I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men 
who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 
Even so then, at this present time 
there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Rom 11:1-2, 4-5

What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; 
but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 
Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, 
Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, 
To this very day."  
Rom 11:7-8

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! 
But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, 
salvation has come to the Gentiles.
Now if their fall is riches for the world, 
and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!  
Rom 11:11-12

For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, 
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?  
Rom 11:15

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery,
 lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part 
has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion, 
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them, 
When I take away their sins."  
 Rom 11:25-27

Wishing you all a new season of enlightening in the plan of God by the Light of the World as we all come to the unity of the faith in Messiah, our King.  Donna Diorio

Chanukah and Christmas: A Message from Heaven?

An excerpt from 1 Maccabees 3:17-19 Jerusalem Bible to go with the graphic: 

‘How can we, few as we are, engage such overwhelming numbers? We are exhausted as it is, not having had anything to eat today.’ ‘It is easy,’ Judas [Maccabaeus] answered, ‘for a great number to be routed by a few; indeed, in the sight of heaven deliverance, whether by many or by few, is all one; for victory in war does not depend on the size of the fighting force; it is from heaven that strength comes…’

This morning one of the emails I received from a ministry couple in Israel opened with this statement that gave me a selah moment (pause to consider): 

"As many of you are preparing to celebrate the Lord's birth, many here in Israel are looking forward to Chanukah, which tells of the story of victory over apostasy and lawlessness. Even Yeshua honored this Feast as we see in John 10. Hebrews 11:33-38 includes the people involved in the Chanukah story in its list of the heroes of faith."

It has been my observation over the past 30 years that God speaks in the still, small voice more often than the burning bushes. Meaning, when I see a subtle thing like this, it catches my attention and I wonder if God is not telling us to draw a spiritual truth from the juxtaposition of Christmas and Chanukah that we have not considered before. Instead of the annual spiritual mud wrestling over the holidays, maybe we should mull over the significance of the above statement.

The New Testament is pretty clear about the lawlessness within the people of God that will exist, like Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus says to people who are actually doing wonders in His name, prophesying and casting out out demons in His name, "depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" There is another good place to pause and mull over what the Word actually says, not what we have been preaching instead.

What I am seeing in the paragraph sent from a Mt Carmel ministry couple - the man fighting the good fight of faith against cancer - is that maybe Christians SHOULD pay attention to the story of the Macabees. If the Hebrews "Hall of Faith" sees fit to list them, and if Yeshua Himself honored the Feast in John 10, then it probably does hold some meaning for those of us who abide in our calling to God through Jesus as Gentile Christians. Certainly, we hear very little preaching about the state of lawlessness that the New Covenant scriptures speak of as being among US in the last days. 

I don't think Paul was just talking about the unsaved when he wrote to Timothy (2Ti 3:1-5):

 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

We stand in faith by grace, but we excuse ourselves so easily. What Jesus said in Matthew 7 really should stop us in our tracks to carefully judge ourselves.

From Diaspora to Aliyah by Eddie Santoro

An eloquent expression
of what it means to one Messianic family

to have come full circle
back to live in the Land of their fathers

 Jackie & Eddie Santoro 
co-leader at Ahavat Yeshua
(The Love of Yeshua) Congregation in  Jerusalem
Zion’s Glory Ministry is also a Tikkun Emmisaries Ministry 

It's “Chofesh HaGadol” in Israel. In English that means “The big vacation” and that means school is out and summer vacation has arrived.  This affects Jackie and me personally as we are the proud grandparents of two beautiful granddaughters, Lia and Tori.

Our son, Evan and his Israeli wife, Iris both work long hours and not having the kids in school presents a significant day care challenge. So for some weeks during the summer, Jackie and I will be investing more time in watching our grandchildren. As any grandparent can testify, this “chore” is a source of incredible blessing and joy. The fact that we have two Israeli granddaughters is in itself a testimony of God's faithfulness. Allow me to share a precious story with you that the Lord put in my heart many years ago.

It was the fall of 1997 and we had just made Aliyah. We were new in the Land and almost everything felt different and strange. We could not speak the language, we did not understand the local people and we knew very little about Israeli society. Several weeks after we had arrived in our new home, the "High Holy Days" came upon us.

The experience was very different from what we knew as Jews living in the States. In Israel, the Jewish Feasts are the national holidays and the entire nation joins together in observance of these special days.

As the sun went down at the start of this Yom Kippur, Jackie and I were sitting on the deck of our newly rented apartment, feeling very alone and very far from home. As the sun sank low in the evening sky, we saw people beginning to walk on the street below. All of them were going in the same direction; families beautifully dressed for the holiday, and each man carrying or wearing his prayer shawl. Not having any idea of where they were going but desiring to be a part of Israeli society, I quickly changed my clothes, grabbed my prayer shawl and went down to the street and just followed along with the crowd. After a brief walk, we arrived at a local synagogue. I entered and participated along with everyone else, in my first and only orthodox Yom Kippur service in my fifteen years in Israel.

After the service I returned home. As I entered our apartment, there on the table were the holiday candles burning brightly in the candlesticks that had been passed down in the family from generation to generation. In that moment, the Lord spoke to me and I understood in a deeper way the miracle of our return to Israel. He showed me how over those long years, at some distant time, our families had been driven out of their home in Israel. I do not know the details of that long journey but I do know that somehow both our families ended up in Eastern Europe in the city of Minsk.

Mercifully, early in the twentieth century our families immigrated to the United States thus avoiding the terrible destiny that awaited all of those Jews who remained in their homes. From Israel to Europe and from Europe to America, the generations before us continued their long journey and at some unknown point, these candlesticks were purchased and accompanied our wandering Jewish family. 

And then, finally, in our generation those candlesticks completed the circle. We had the privilege and honor to pack them in a carton and return them, along with our family, back to where our journey originally began. In us, the long years of exile had been completed. In us, God's promises had been fulfilled and finally in us, the ancient seed that had been cast out from Israel so many generations before had finally come home.

As I consider the wonderful faithfulness of the Lord in fulfilling his promise to return us to the Land of our forefathers, I am filled with thanksgiving for his abounding mercy to us. He has not only established us in the Land, but through our seed he has blessed us with two Israeli granddaughters. These two beautiful children are not immigrants in a foreign land. They do not struggle with the language or the different traditions of Israeli society. They were born here and are growing up here and it is our prayer that through them the fulfillment of God's promise to Israel will move ever closer to its glorious climax.

Our congregation, Ahavat Yeshua is also filled with many people who have left their homes in distant countries to fulfill God's call to return to the Land. Most have no families here, and struggle daily to overcome the many challenges that accompany living in Israel. Each has a unique story and each needs an abundance of grace to succeed here.

Please pray for Evan and Iris and their children and for all of those who have returned and have chosen to fulfill God's destiny for themselves here. Pray that each would have significant impact through the new seed that they are planting in the soil of Israel and that each one would be used mightily to further the Kingdom, especially here in Jerusalem.

Please also pray for the return of many more Jews from throughout the earth back to Israel. The return of Israel from the Diaspora to their promised homeland is one of the great events that must occur in these last days. The journey is not an easy one but the rewards and blessing of being a part of Israel in these momentous times is more than worth the challenge.

We are grateful that we are home. We are grateful that the journey has ended. And we are grateful for each one of you who has helped us and continues to stand with us.  This Sabbath evening those ancient candlesticks will shine brightly from our table in the heart of Israel.  


To make a donation to the Santoro ministry Donations designated for Zion’s Glory: Tikkun Ministries PO Box 2997 Gaithersburg, Maryland