“Listen to Me, O
house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth and
have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same; And
even to your graying years I will bear you!
I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you”
(Isaiah 46:3-4).
Hey Gang, If could stand on the top of the Mount of Olives
and shout, so as to be heard across the land of Israel, that is what I would
shout: Zechariah tells us precisely what
is going to happen in the last days, just prior to the end of the age when he
wrote, “Behold, I am going to make
Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the people around; and when the
siege is against Jerusalem, it will be against Judah” (1:2).
He goes on and paints
a panoramic picture of 2016 when God has fulfilled His word to”…make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the
peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be
gathered against it. (vs, 3).
I would shout, “Listen
up people of ‘the apple of God’s eye”, “For in the Day of the Lord I will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the
house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them” (vs.
8).
Listen up, readers of Gramps Morning Thoughts, the Lord
decreed: “Then it will happen on that Day
that the Lord will again recover, the second time with His hand, the remnant of
His people who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar,
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the
banished one of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth” (Isa.11:11-12).
After retiring as President or Eagle Village we placed all
of earthly possessions in a storage unit and moved into our fifth wheel, with
the intention of traveling and volunteering in ministries as long as our health
allowed. After several trips in the middle parts of the states we were heading
for the south to spend the winter months and decided to visit friends enroute,
but God had another plan in mind for us.
It was to be a two or three-day visit and then off to the
sunny south but God had a different idea. we were asked to remain in the Otter
Banks of North Carolina and pray for our host couple as they sojourned to
Jerusalem for a meeting for an organization called The Ebenezer Emergency Fund,
a ministry that sent out fishermen to find Jews who wanted to make aliyah
(return to Israel) and help them travel to Kiev, Russia, where they were put on
their ship to travel to Haifi, the port of embarkation for the Olim (returning
Jews).
Our heart’s desire was to be a fisherman and go to Kiev and
be part of the crews that ministered to the Olim who were brought to Kiev. Many were in very poor physical
condition. Although the fisherman on
land and on the ships were not allowed to share Jesus to the Olim, many of them
came up to the staff and said, “We know
why you are here and want you to know we believe in your Lord.”
One story that was very special involved a very elderly lady
who was bedfast. They found her in a
very isolated village more than a thousand miles from Kiev. Her heart’s desire was to go to the land she
had always loved- Israel. The story of
getting her to Kiev was a story of God’s loving and powerful story of one
miracle after another until the day she was carried aboard the ship bound for
the land of her dreams.
Five days later she arrived in Haifi and was taken from the
ship to the embarkation center, where shortly after her arrival her heart gave
out and she passed away. The question
is often asked, “Why did you invest so much in an old lady who you knew may not
survive the rigors of a trip of this magnitude?”
The simple answer which is not understood by many
folks today – “Because Jesus said, “Go into all the
world and save my people”. There
was as many hallelujahs heard in the heavenlies when this dear saint passed
through the gate of heaven as when Peter and Paul and the great saints of the
ages.
Soooo, my friends, there is so much that wants to get out my
heart and brain to you but will have to restrain myself until another
time. But, let me add one last comment
before closing, the wonderful thing about Israel becoming a nation and seeing
Jerusalem come under Jewish control is that it
is fulfilled prophecy that you can touch.
We were blessed to be able to go to Israel, not to do the tourist things
but to get our hands dirty in the soil of the land. Did you know you can be blessed filling sand
bags when you know those sand bags may one day protect one of God’s chosen
people?
The Word says- Israel will once again become a home for
God’s chosen people, the Jews, and the olim who will come from the four corners
of the earth. That is not ‘pie in the
sky’ but pure reality and something
that can be shared with anyone who is not so sure the Bible is the Word of God.
Blessings,
Gramps
PS we are returning in November. If you are interested in going along, send us a message:
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