Daily Archives: December 5, 2024

News and Info

Why The Majority Of The Nations Refuse To Acknowledge Jerusalem As Israel’s Eternal Capital

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It’s official. Paraguay has become the sixth country to move its Embassy to Jerusalem. The relocations began with President Trump’s move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem in 2018. The United States was followed by Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea. Now, Paraguay, as the newly elected President Santiago Peña promised in 2023, will move its Embassy back to Jerusalem.

“Today, we close an important chapter here at the Embassy in Herzliya, from where we worked tirelessly for the Paraguay-Israel relationship,” the Paraguay Embassy in Israel announced in a video statement. “But, like every story, it is time to move forward toward a stronger future. This is a historic moment that brings our nations even closer together.”

With President Trump returning to the White House next January, we can safely assume that more countries will follow in relocating their Embassies in recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s rightful capital.

But what does God think about Jerusalem, and does He care what the nations think?

Indeed, He does! In 2 Chronicles 6:5-6, God says, “Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”

In 2 Chronicles 7:15-6, God says about the temple mount in Jerusalem, “Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” There is no other place on planet Earth where God makes this declaration. His eyes and His heart are perpetually in Jerusalem.

In Ezekiel 5:5, God further says, “This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.”

There you have it! God considers Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel, and He has placed it at the center of all the nations.

Yet, there are world leaders who refuse to see it that way. Donald Trump took a lot of flack over his decision to move the US Embassy. When you move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, you are acknowledging the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital. That recognition is unacceptable to the world—despite what the God of the universe and history declares.

Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital for 3,000 years, dating back to the time of King David. It’s mentioned over 850 times in the Bible. Not once is Jerusalem mentioned in the Quran, and yet most of the nations and their leaders are more sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians than that of the Jewish people, in whom the history of the city is well documented and speaks for itself.

The nations ought to tremble as they refuse to acknowledge God’s sovereign choice over that special city. Jerusalem is the city where He has placed His name forever, and it is the city that He has given to His chosen people—the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Period.

For that very reason, there is a warning to the nations in Zechariah 12:2-3. In these verses, God says, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

There is a showdown on the horizon with the countries that come against God’s chosen people, and it’s not going to fare well for the nations.

It’s a spiritual battle. Satan hates Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jewish people. Why? Because God loves and has made promises to them. If Satan can destroy the Lord’s chosen people and nation, he believes he can render the promises void and make the God of Israel a liar.

This endeavor by Satan to thwart God is an effort to avoid judgment. We know from the Messianic prophecy in Genesis 3:15 that one day, the seed of the woman (Jesus Christ) would crush the head of the serpent. As we read in Ephesians 2:2, Satan is working overtime in the “sons of disobedience” to carry out his dirty work. That is why the majority of the nations refuse to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital.

There is coming a time, as we read in Zechariah 12 that God is going to “make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces…” One day, this hatred of the nation’s going to come to a head.

In the New Testament, we read that when Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns at His Second Coming, He comes back to rescue the remnant of His people—to save Israel physically and spiritually. Christ will then rule on the throne of His father, David, for one thousand years, and the millennial Temple in Jerusalem will be constructed.

In Matthew 25:31-33, we read, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”

This chapter goes on to detail that the “sheep” and “goat” nations are judged based on what they did or didn’t do to the Jewish people. The goats are cast away into eternal darkness, awaiting judgment at the Great White Throne, which occurs following the thousand-year reign of Christ. The sheep, on the other hand, are those that will go into the Millennial Kingdom.

Well done, President Santiago Peña! I believe that you’ve shown the world a picture of what being a Matthew 25 “sheep” looks like.

 

Robert Gottselig 
Robert Gottselig is the Director of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Canada and the host of ‘In News Surrounding Israel’ and Cruizin’ For Zion.

 

Source: Why The Majority Of The Nations Refuse To Acknowledge Jerusalem As Israel’s Eternal Capital – Harbinger’s Daily

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – A Prayer for God’s Will

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Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. Luke 22:42

Luke 22:41-44

Today’s Insights

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve chose their own will over the will of their creator. God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Their actions have affected all future generations.

The garden of Gethsemane (see Matthew 26:36-46) is the second garden to have a universal impact on the course of human experience. There, Jesus was faced with a similar choice: do what seemed beneficial to Himself or submit to the will of the Father. Christ asked for there to be another way. But in a decision that would undo the rebellion of Adam and Eve, He submitted to God’s will and went to the cross (Luke 22:39-44).

Today’s Devotional

As a young believer in Jesus, I picked up my new devotional Bible and read a familiar Scripture: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). The commentary explained that what we really should be asking God for is our will to line up with His. By seeking for His will to be done, we would be assured that we’d receive what we asked for. That was a new concept for me, and I prayed for God’s will to be done in my life.

Later that same day, I became surprisingly excited about a job opportunity I’d already turned down in my mind, and I was reminded about my prayer. Perhaps what I didn’t think I wanted was actually a part of God’s will for my life. I continued to pray and eventually accepted the job.

In a much more profound and eternally significant moment, Jesus modeled this for us. Before His betrayal and arrest, which led to His crucifixion, He prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Christ’s prayer was filled with anguish and agony as He faced physical and emotional pain (v. 44). Yet He was still able to “earnestly” pray for God’s will to be done.

God’s will in my life has become my ultimate prayer. This means I may desire things I don’t even know I want or need. The job I originally hadn’t wanted turned out to be the beginning of my journey in Christian publishing. Looking back, I believe God’s will was done.

Reflect & Pray

What prayer request is on your heart? What do you believe God is calling you to do?

Heavenly Father, please guide me to do Your will.

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Shoes of Peace

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Put on the full armor of God…with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Ephesians 6:13,15 (NIV)

The devil is our enemy, and he looks to gain entrance into our lives in any possible way. But God has given us armor that we can put on and wear to protect ourselves from evil attacks. The pieces of armor are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:10–17).

Have you put on your shoes of peace today? In other words, have you decided to walk in peace today, no matter what happens—even the situations that catch you by surprise? You can be ready for anything as long as you remain at peace, trusting God to help you.

Jesus left us a legacy of His peace, a peace that passes all understanding (John 14:27; Philippians 4:7). God is honored when we remain peaceful in the midst of a raging storm of threatening circumstances. It shows that we trust Him to take care of us. Peace is one of the most beautiful qualities we can possess, so be sure to wear your shoes of peace each day, trusting God with all your heart.

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You for the shoes of peace. Remind me to put them on daily and trust You to handle the things I can’t. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – “No one knows what lies ahead, or what it will mean”

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Celebrating Advent in four tenses

Three stories are dominating the news this morning: yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing on transgender hormone regiments for adolescents, the continued fallout in South Korea over its president’s brief martial law declaration, and the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson yesterday morning outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Each, in its own way, illustrates the unpredictability of the future, whether in cultural, political, or personally tragic ways.

After psychologist Philip Tetlock evaluated several decades of predictions about political and economic events, he found that “the average expert was roughly as accurate as a dart-throwing chimpanzee.” The recently-deceased Lance Morrow, one of my favorite journalists, said it this way:

As mankind penetrates further into the twenty-first century, the future becomes ever more difficult to manage or even to imagine—politically, biologically, electronically, environmentally, existentially. No one knows what lies ahead, or what it will mean, or where it will wind up. The possibilities are extreme. At the far edge of the moral imagination, we hear the future’s sucking sound, pulling the world toward God knows what.

Morrow’s closing colloquialism is actually good theology for these unpredictable days.

“God knows what,” indeed.

The four “comings” of Christ

Jesus rode into Jerusalem the first time on a humble donkey (Matthew 21:1–11); he will return on a conqueror’s white horse (Revelation 19:11–16). St. Cyril of Jerusalem (313–86) observed:

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first coming and await the second.

However, with all due respect to the great theologian and everyone who refers to Jesus’ return as the “second coming,” I’d like to suggest that his ongoing engagement with our world should actually be understood in four “comings.”

  • At his first, he entered the world for the purpose of purchasing our salvation by his death on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 13:8 NKJV).
  • At his second, he enters humans individually when he becomes our Savior (John 1:13) and his Spirit takes up residence in our lives (1 Corinthians 3:16).
  • At his third, he comes for humans individually when he takes us to heaven (John 14:3).
  • At his fourth, he will return to the world as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

Let’s think about these monumental events for a moment. Would you agree:

  • That Jesus’ first coming and his atoning death for our sins is a transforming gift to the fallen human race?
  • That his third coming, his transportation of humans through death to heaven, is a transforming gift to us personally?
  • That his fourth coming, his ultimate redemption of our fallen planet (Revelation 21:1–5), is a transforming gift to our world?

Why, then, would we not equally celebrate his second coming for our personal salvation and its present-tense, transforming significance for our souls?

Why Easter predates Christmas

Many people are surprised to learn that Christmas did not become a Christian holiday until the fourth century. The date when Jesus was physically born was less consequential than the fact of his atoning death and triumphant resurrection, which is why Easter predated Christmas as a holiday by centuries.

The abiding relevance of Christmas is not just that Jesus was born into a human family, but that because of Christmas each human can be “born again” into the family of God (John 1:12–13, 3:5). As St. Irenaeus famously noted, he became one of us that we might be one with him.

As a result, each of us can—and should—experience the living Lord Jesus as personally as those who were present at the Bethlehem manger. He longs for us to encounter him every day in prayer, Bible study, and worship, practicing his presence with transforming intentionality.

When we do, predicting the future becomes less important because the One who holds tomorrow also holds us (John 10:28). And we know that whatever comes to us in this life, our Lord’s third “coming” will one day take us to the eternal reward he is preparing for us now. Or his fourth “coming” will turn this world into “a new heaven and a new earth” where “death shall be no more” as he makes “all things new” (Revelation 21:1, 4–5).

Either future should fill us with present joy and transforming hope.

“A mind through which Christ thinks”

In the meantime, our lives are Jesus’ manger, our worship his shepherds, and our witness his angels as the Child of Christmas continues his transforming work in the world through us. St. Augustine observed,

“A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.”

Will you be such a “Christian” today?

Thursday news to know:

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The same Jesus who turned water into wine can transform your home, your life, your family, and your future. He is still in the miracle-working business, and his business is the business of transformation.” —Adrian Rogers

 

Denison Forum

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – His Mercy Found Me

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by John D. Morris, Ph.D.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

The third verse of the hymn “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” sets the stage for the implementation of His majestic plan.

He left His father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race;
’Tis mercy all! Immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me!

The plan involved the death of God the Son, the Creator dying for the creation, the righteous Judge taking on Himself the penalty of the condemned, the rejected Holy One becoming sin on behalf of the true sinner. The convicted ones, powerless to alter the situation, simply receive the offered grace through faith (our text).

First, God had to take on Himself the nature of the condemned but live a guiltless life so He could die as a substitutionary sacrifice. To do so, God the Son had to leave His Father’s throne. And, although “being in the form of God, [he] thought it not robbery to be equal with God [i.e., was willing to give up His kingly status]: but made himself of no reputation [literally ‘emptied Himself’], and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:…and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Adam rebelled against his Creator’s authority, and all of mankind suffered. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12), yet Christ’s work on the cross changed all that. “For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (v. 15). Amazing love! JDM

 

 

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – The Temple Of The Holy Ghost

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Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. — Genesis 41:40

I have to account to God for the way in which I rule my body under His domination. Paul said he did not “frustrate the grace of God” — make it of no effect. The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is as eternal as God’s throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God works in. “Work out your own salvation”; I am responsible for doing it. It means that I have to manifest in this body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mystically, but really and emphatically. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” Every saint can have his body under absolute control for God. God has made us to have government over all the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imaginations and affections. We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to inordinate affections. Most of us are much sterner with others than we are in regard to ourselves; we make excuses for things in ourselves whilst we condemn in others things to which we are not naturally inclined.

“I beseech you,” says Paul, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The point to decide is this — “Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body shall be His temple?” If so, then for me the whole of the law for the body is summed up in this revelation, that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Daniel 1-2; 1 John 4

Wisdom from Oswald

I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye.Disciples Indeed, 385 L

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – A Thousand Anxieties

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I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
—Psalm 34:4

Man has always been beset by worry, and the pressures of modern life have aggravated the problem. To men of all time Jesus said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow . . . but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33-34). Many of you are filled with a thousand anxieties. Bring them to Jesus Christ by faith. He will bring peace to your soul and your mind.

Get more practical guidance on dealing with anxiety.

Your future is in God’s hands. Listen to this 1-minute message.

Lea este devocional en español en es.billygraham.org.

Prayer for the day

Knowing You hear me, Lord, as I talk with You brings me peace in the midst of any storm.

 

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GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – Embracing Hope and Strength

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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.—Isaiah 7:14 (ESV)

Let this verse be an everlasting beacon of God’s hope and strength. The miraculous conception and birth of Jesus, our Savior Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” is a powerful reminder of God’s presence in your life. This incredible event demonstrates that even in the most unexpected circumstances, God’s promises are fulfilled.

Heavenly Father, You are always with me, and Your promises never fail.

 

 

https://guideposts.org/daily-devotions/devotions-for-women/devotions-for-faith-prayer-devotions-for-women/

Every Man Ministry

Every Man Ministry – Kenny Luck -“Be it So” Versus Being Liked

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For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ––Romans 10:10

St. Ignatius of Antioch (98-117 AD) was a Syrian who became a disciple of the Apostle John after converting to Christianity from paganism. He rose to prominence in the Church and succeeded the Apostle Peter as the third bishop of Antioch, being ordained by Peter himself. Ignatius defied pagan Emperor Trajan’s edict to worship false gods, and was fed to the lions before the crowds of the Coliseum.

“Be it so” are words of a man who has stopped caring about what men think— especially powerful men like Emperor Trajan. If Ignatius were living among us in the digital age, he would have a problem with men today, men who are so concerned about being accepted or liked by people, bosses, friends, peers, neighbors, or the guy in seat 22A next to him.

Finding “Be it so” air to breathe is really hard in today’s world. Loss of a strong identity in Christ has created a culture of Christian men who are more at ease chasing cool and being liked. We want to be admired and respected but not really known. Sexual conquest, physical attractiveness, recognition, and status have landed many of God’s men in a stupor of self-importance and spiritual insignificance.

It’s a subtle game, but a game nonetheless. Instead of “Be it so,” they are hitting the crack pipe of being liked, which is too intoxicating to give up. Being liked by everyone is the wicked twin of “Be it so”: a charade, an act, and a fraud. It’s a show—a parlor trick—versus what a real God’s man is supposed to be. The only outcome of a life devoted to the shadow is a life controlled and dominated by sin, because there is no honesty in that life.

Where there is no honesty, there is sickness of character, which is expressed in sick conduct and sin. And we wonder why we fail in our relationships with God and people.  In the end, neither buys our act.

What honored God during the Roman persecutions still honors Him today. Be a man of God’s Word and one’s personal word, committed to Christ, surrendered to the direction of the Holy Spirit. This is what makes earthly kings tremble and Jesus smile.

Thank You, Father, for showing me what comes naturally and then what comes from You.

 

 

Every Man Ministries