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Surfing on The Waves of Anti-Semitism

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 18:31:34 GMT

France, followed by Britain, my country of birth, and now Canada have declared support for a Palestinian State, and while piling pressure upon Israel to ceasefire and pour even more aid into Gaza, they say very little to the mass murderers, Hamas!!

In January 2024, just 3 months after the genocidal attack by Hamas upon peace loving communities on 7th October 2023, I visited the devastated area.

I was shattered!

The site where babies were burned to death. Young women were raped and murdered.

I looked into the eyes of a Jewish mother whose young daughter was murdered by Hamas. She could not speak! Someone spoke for her.

This mother's eyes were hollow; her skin was pale; her vivacious daughter, whose photograph hung on the community wall, with a lit candle remembering her all too brief life.

The decision by messrs Macron, Starmer and Carney to make these proclamations now, while 50 further hostages remain in the cockroach infested tunnels of Gaza, is beyond disgusting.

Yes there is great suffering in Gaza. It has been going on since June 2007, when Hamas murdered its Palestinian Authority leaders in Gaza, imposed Islamic law, and murdered Christians, before launching rocket attacks upon Israel for 16 years prior to 7th October 2023.

The people of Gaza need to be delivered from Hamas!!

Yes, Israel has made several mistakes in its responses to 7th October.

Yes it is beyond tragic, that Gazan civilians have died in this war, but please remember Hamas is happy for them to die to boost their propaganda.

Britain, France and Canada know all this is true so why are they supporting the formation of a 3rd state, yes a 3rd state, that would seek to destroy Israel at the earliest opportunity?!

A 3rd state?! Yes, the original 2 state solution back in 1947, supported by the UN, was Israel as a Jewish State, and TransJordan as an Arab State!! Just look at Jordan's flag.

So why are these nations, and many others too, rewriting history and supporting a 3rd state?!!

There are large Muslim communities in the UK, France and Canada.

There are much smaller Jewish communities there too.

If Starmer, Macron and Carney can attract Muslim voters, they might get re-elected!!

So Israel is being put on the sacrificial altar of their collective appeasement of the Islamic people in their nations!!

Anti-Semitism is rife, and they are surfing on its waves!!!

Emily Damari, a former UK/Israeli hostage in Gaza, who wants the war over nevertheless declared to Keir Starmer 'you are on the wrong side of history.'

She declared 'Shame on you!'

I would add more strongly, you are flying in the face of God's word and judgement.

God will cover Israel in His shelter but the warnings for those nations who gather against Israel are abundantly clear.

The Lord also will roar from Zion,

And utter His voice from Jerusalem;

The heavens and earth will shake;

But the Lord will be a shelter for His people,

And the strength of the children of Israel. Joel 3:16

And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. Zechariah 12:3

Please pray for Israel, and for all the people suffering in this war.

Pray for truth and justice to prevail.

Shalom and Thanks

Top Photo: Burnt out homes at Kibbutz Nir Oz

Longing for Justice and Hope

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:25:20 GMT

“But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream” - Amos 5:24

I have been in deep reflection for some considerable time about the current realities on the ground here in Israel, and how they relate to the nations, too.

We are living in seriously challenging times, and all of us who believe in Yeshua are having to navigate our paths and responses both sensitively and with great discernment.

My recent three-minute video alluded to these thoughts.

In the video, I reference God’s word in Isaiah 59:14:

“Justice is turned back,

And righteousness stands afar off;

For truth is fallen in the street,

And equity cannot enter.”

This verse has been gripping me for weeks. As David Davis, our founding pastor on Mt Carmel used to say, “I have been camping out” in Isaiah chapters 58, 59, and 60 for several weeks now.

Isaiah 59:14 seems to sum up the current realities here in Israel.

After five elections in a period of four years, the elected government, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, has within its ranks ultra-right-wing extremists who believe that Arabs should not even live in Israel.

Itamar Ben Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich have been given ministry posts in order to secure Netanyahu’s majority in the parliament.

Itamar Ben Gvir is an extremist who openly supports Jewish terrorists such as Yaakov Teitel , the man sent to prison for 90 years for committing murder and for sending a bomb wrapped up in a Purim gift to a Messianic family in Ariel, Israel. The bomb exploded and seriously injured the family’s 15-year-old son, who miraculously survived but required more than 20 surgeries.

Ben Gvir served as a lawyer in this case and declared, “we are all Yaakov Teitel” as he sought to justify his client’s murderous intent.

Now Ben Gvir has been given authority over Israel’s police force by Prime Minister Netanyahu. A price Netanyahu paid to keep his coalition together, and to keep himself in power.

If this isn’t bad enough, Bezalel Smotrich has been given authority over Judea and Samaria, the so called “West Bank.”

In recent weeks, sixteen Israelis have been murdered by extreme Islamists. Two were slaughtered by a terrorist who lived in the Arab village of Huwara.

The deaths of innocent Israelis continues to enflame the situation and wound the heart of every Jew in Israel, including mine.

But this is no justification for the evil attack that Jewish extremists then carried out on Huwara. Jewish settlers nearby burned Arab homes and cars and murdered one resident. This inexcusable violence grieves the Jewish soul. Any self-respecting Jew knows that such barbaric acts committed by fellow Jews is disgraceful and completely alien to Jewish thinking.

In a subsequent rant , Smotrich said that the Israeli army should “wipe out Huwara!”

When he realized that his words had been recorded, Smotrich apologized! His apology was clearly a public relations exercise and didn’t reflect any genuine change of heart.

Now you might react by asking, “Why doesn’t Netanyahu, (who historically is Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister with a legacy of service and an emphasis on security that has been worthy of respect) just sack Smotrich?”

The answer is simple. Netanyahu needs these extremists and their parties for his majority in parliament. If he sacks Gvir or Smotrich, he loses his majority and he loses his power.

I love Israel. I will continue to be an advocate for Israel and stand for God’s purposes for Israel and the Jewish people.

That said, I also know that I represent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and His truth is sovereign.

We who love Israel must be willing to speak out when injustice and hatred infiltrate our nation and government, and not just ignore issues because they make us feel uncomfortable.

We cannot excuse such realities or just write them off as a politically inspired left-wing attempt to undermine a right-wing government, as some do.

The protests in Israel have brought together hundreds of thousands of citizens across the political spectrum. They are an expression of how deeply unhappy the majority of the Israeli people are with the government’s attempt to neuter the State’s historically independent judiciary.

We are called to pray for those in authority, and we do pray for all of our government ministers. But we must also speak out against evil and ungodly behaviour.

In recent times I have listened intently to a very brave and courageous Arab woman who loves Yeshua and recognizes Israel’s covenant relationship with God, including the land covenant.

At the same time, my Arab friend longs to see the Arab people grow in understanding and hope and is supporting educational initiatives among Arab youth and children.

Education will always be critical in bringing about any positive change among people anywhere.

As I listened, I was deeply convicted of the need for hope for Jews and Arabs alike and I will seek to practically and spiritually inspire and pray for such hope whenever I can.

Even as tensions and violence increase in Israel, and indeed around the world, it is wonderful to identify powerful hope springing up in the midst of growing hatred and darkness.

Isaiah declared this powerful hope in great contrast to the realities that existed as he spoke God’s words and revealed God’s heart.

"Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the LORD will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you." - Isaiah 60:1-2

People, arise! Get up! Shine!

God’s glory and His resurrection power are risen upon us!

Yes, the world is gloomy and spiritually bereft. But God’s promise to us is ringing out through His words. The Lord will arise over us and His glory will be seen upon us.

This is God’s promise as we continue to long for justice and hope to prevail.

Two 16-year-olds die while Qatar hosts the world!

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 10:30:35 GMT

Early yesterday morning, the news came through of yet another dreadful terrorist atrocity that involved two bombs laden with nails and placed at two bus stop areas at the entrance to Jerusalem.

I have driven on those very roads countless times.

Later, it emerged that the first pronounced death from this attack was Aryeh Schupak, a dual Israeli/Canadian citizen who was on his way to religious studies. Aryeh was only 16 years old and was buried this afternoon in Jerusalem.

Earlier in the night, a 16 year old Arab teenager, Ahmed Shehadeh was killed in Nablus. Ahmed was involved with other men in terrorist activities that were attempting to stop Jewish worshippers going to the tomb of Joseph.

Two 16 year olds are dead. One Arab teenager who should be studying and looking forward to life, but was instead involved in extreme violence, paying the ultimate price, and a Jewish teenager who was on his way to Yeshiva to study, and had his life cruelly taken from him.

Such losses are simply devastating.

I was deeply affected by the news of the terrorist attack and, although I don’t want to be emotive or condemning in this article, I feel compelled to write as I see a clear unmistakable connection between the acts of terror that killed a perpetrator and a student within hours of each other, and the football World Cup in Qatar.

Qatar is currently hosting the World Cup event with much fanfare, and many of my friends are caught up in the frenzy of the games.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love football, but when I heard that Qatar was being allowed to host the tournament, I and many others were outraged.

The secular media has emphasized the anti LBGT stance of Qatar, and the shameful loss of life among migrant workers being paid a pittance to build the stadiums.

They have primarily ignored Qatar’s funding of Hamas and Al Qaeda, and their clear anti-Semitism.

Qatar’s history and current activities read like an unspeakable crime record.

I decided some weeks ago that I would quietly boycott watching the tournament. The players have no choice but to participate, but as I wrote a few days ago on social media, I don’t have to watch it!

I certainly didn’t want to be a killjoy by telling all my friends to join me in boycotting watching the games.

Qatar funds Hamas, a terrorist organization based in Gaza that hates Israel and recruits young Arabs to commit acts of terror. Hamas and other similar groups were an inspiration for the 16-year-old Arab boy, Ahmed Shehadeh, whose terrorist activities ultimately led to the end of his young life.

When the 16-year-old Jewish boy, Aryeh Schupak, was killed in the terrorist attack yesterday, Hamas were quick to rejoice.

As I was reflecting on these disturbing realities, I felt that I must speak out my horror that so many people seem to be oblivious to the connections that are staring me in the face.

I have watched every World Cup that has been played during my lifetime, but I cannot watch this legitimisation of a nation that it responsible for so much bloodshed.

I cannot accept the notion that it is OK to turn a blind eye to these realities either.

Please take a stand in prayer and intercede for the nation and people of Qatar.

Pray for an increased awareness of these grim connections.

Pray especially for those who are grieving the loss of two 16-year-old boys who should have their whole lives ahead of them, but today are gone!

As Jews and Arabs are weeping, I cannot shout, “goal!”

Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).

A small pointer to a vital restoration

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 07:52:58 GMT

It is often said that the greatest gifts come in small packages.

In March 2020, after I finished speaking at the Sunday service in De Rivier Church in Gouda, Holland, an older woman came up to me and placed a small package in my hand, carefully wrapped in tissue paper. The woman was very emotional, and it was clear that she was giving me something precious.

As I removed the tissue, I saw that I was holding a yad.

The yad (or pointer) is used in synagogue services when the Torah scrolls are read. Readers use it to follow the text on the scroll and avoid putting their fingers on the parchment.

The yad signifies the holiness of the Torah. It preserves the scrolls by preventing the damage that could be caused by human hands.

This reverence for the Torah resonates deeply with all of us who hold the Bible as God’s Word and understand its holiness and the powerful truths contained within its pages.

I have many childhood memories of attending my synagogue in East London and seeing the yad that was used there, including at my own bar mitzvah.

The woman who gave me the yad in Gouda was called Mieke Moens. She went on to tell me the amazing story behind it.

On 10th May 1940, the Nazis occupied Holland after a brief resistance from the Dutch army. When it became clear that the Nazis were coming to occupy all of Holland, the Jewish community in the city of Leiden feared for their lives.

At the time, there was a Bible-believing Christian man called Daniel Elkerbout who worked as a plasterer in Leiden and had assisted the Jewish community in some repair work on their synagogue.

Leaders from the Jewish community in Leiden approached Daniel and asked him if he would hide their Torah scrolls for them so that the Nazis would not destroy them.

Daniel agreed to keep their Torah scrolls safe and hid them behind a false wall that he created in his home. Even Daniel’s own family were unaware of these hidden Torah scrolls until after the war had ended!

When the war was over, the surviving members of the Jewish community in Leiden came back to Daniel and he happily returned their Torah scrolls to them.

With grateful hearts, these Jewish survivors presented Daniel with the yad from their synagogue as a token of their deep appreciation for this Christian who was willing to risk his life for the Jewish people.

What a powerful symbol of Christian love and sacrifice towards the Jewish people from whom the Saviour of the world and the Jewish Messiah came.

It later emerged the Elkerbout family also hid three Jewish people from the Nazi occupiers during the war, so saving their lives. But they never sought publicity for their heroic and courageous acts as they reasoned that they were only doing what any Bible-believing Christian should do in such circumstances.

The yad that Daniel received was a small, ornate, wooden pointer with ivory decoration. It remained in the Elkerbout family for three generations.

Meike Moens is the granddaughter of Daniel Elkerbout.

Meike explained to me the amazing history of this small precious yad and said that she felt it should not remain with the family anymore and should be returned to Israel!

I accepted the yad, but I knew that I would not keep it in my family home on Mount Carmel.

I felt honoured to carry it to Israel, and I knew that it should have a place where it would be seen by many people and its story would be preserved. So, I decided to donate it to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.

Due to the outbreak of COVID 19 and lengthy lockdowns when the museum was closed, the donation was put on hold.

Finally, after a two-and-a-half-year delay, I had the great privilege and joy of presenting the precious yad to Yad Vashem’s Archives and Fragments Departments on Sunday 23rd October 2022.

The yad will be used in exhibitions within Yad Vashem and will be seen by the tens of thousands of visitors that come to the memorial museum every year.

Jewish school groups making organised visits to Yad Vashem will also see the yad and hear the amazing story behind it.

In all my communications with my fellow Jewish people working in Yad Vashem, I was open about being a Messianic leader in Israel. In other words, they knew from the outset that I believe that Yeshua/Jesus is our Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world.

I was aware that God was enabling me to be an ambassador for the growing body of Jewish believers in Yeshua in Israel and indeed, around the world.

As a Jewish believer, I was also a link in the chain that allowed this precious yad to pass from the synagogue in Leiden to a righteous Christian man in Holland before being returned to the Jewish people by a wonderful Christian woman, via me, a Jewish man who came to saving faith in Yeshua over 40 years ago in London.

I have had the great joy and privilege of being the bridge between the Church and my Jewish people whom I both love and honour.

There is an unbreakable chain that binds together the future of the Jewish people and the future of believers in Yeshua around the world.

Those of us who love and worship the Lord are longing for His return. The scriptures in both the Old and New Testament are very clear that He will return to Jerusalem (Acts 1:11, Zechariah 14:4).

Meanwhile, the Apostle Paul declares God’s holy perspective on the role of Gentile believers in the restoration of the Jewish people back to God through faith in Yeshua, and the resurrection life that the body of believers will receive when Jewish people come to faith in the Lord.

“For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” - Romans 11: 13-15

This merging of God’s ultimate salvation of Israel, and the future of all believers in our Lord is going to be hastened when Christian people show unconditional love and care for the Jewish people.

It is a process that calls all of us to step forward and be willing to play a part in this amazing restoration of Israel as a nation, and restoration of Israel to their Messiah.

Daniel Elkerbout must have understood this calling. His family have carried his memory of standing with the Jewish people in their dire need. Meike Moens understands this calling, too, and has returned the yad to Israel.

Next month, I will be returning to Gouda. I hope to see Meike Moens again and present her with a certificate and photos of the donation ceremony at Yad Vashem.

The precious pointer that was so graciously given to her grandfather, Daniel Elkerbout, will now remain forever in Jerusalem.

This serves as an illustration of what our future holds.

A small pointer to a vital restoration.

Shalom everyone.

The real threat to all our freedoms

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 11:13:19 GMT

Why do the nations rage,

And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

And the rulers take counsel together,

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

- Psalm 2:1-4

Now as He (Yeshua) sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And Yeshua answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.

- Matthew 24: 3-4

Yesterday, here on Mount Carmel, our congregation gathered to worship the Lord of Lords in our weekly worship service.

I stood to pray for the dangerous developments on the Ukraine/Russia border, and the serious and wide-ranging implications for the rest of the world.

Our world stands on the precipice of events that could lead to a third world war.

Firstly, let’s try to understand what is driving the current crisis.

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, has spent years shoring up his own power by removing political opponents within Russia. He rules with impunity and has previously expressed clear views about what he thinks needs to happen for Russia to be secure and strong.

In 2005 Putin gave a speech in the Kremlin , in which he described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century." Putin added that, "...the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself."

The collapse of the Soviet Union, following the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, led to various former Soviet Union states becoming independent. Putin calls this "an epidemic of disintegration that infected Russia."

Putin’s views expressed nearly 17 years ago are deeply rooted in his belief that the fall of the communist Soviet Union was a disaster for Russia.

Putin is driven by an ambition to restore the Soviet Union under a different name. Back in 2014, Russia moved into the Crimea, a disputed territory that was previously under Ukrainian sovereignty, as well as an area in Eastern Ukraine, where fighting continues to this day.

Belarus is already a puppet state under Russian control. But other former Soviet states, such as Georgia, are looking at what is happening with Ukraine, wondering if they will be next on Putin’s hit list!

On the 4 February 2022, Reuters reported on Putin and President Xi Jinping of China meeting at the commencement of the Beijing Winter Olympics. They declared a "no limits" partnership, backing each other over standoffs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate more against the West.

In other words, China will support Russia’s sovereignty and pending invasion of Ukraine, and Russia will support China’s aggressive intent to invade and rule Taiwan!

"Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no 'forbidden' areas of cooperation," the two countries said in a joint statement.

The timing of their announcement was highly symbolic, given that the United States, the UK, and other nations have subjected the Beijing Olympics to a diplomatic boycott.

The agreement marked the most detailed and assertive statement of Russian and Chinese resolve to work together to build a new international order based on their view of human rights and democracy.

Russia and China, along with Iran and North Korea, are dictatorships that crush any opposing views, and persecute people of faith, including believers in Yeshua.

Russia arms and trains Iranian forces, while China props up the evil regime in North Korea.

Recently, a Russian government official warned Israel to stop bombing targets in Syria. These targets are Iranian arms and missile sites, so Russia is allowing Iran to infiltrate Syria, and pose an existential threat to Israel, even as the Russian army has also taken root in Syria, propping up Assad’s government.

Israel will be watching events in Ukraine with deep concern at the responses that have emanated from President Biden, the UK and Europe.

Last August, the US and the UK abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban, and now the Afghan people are in the middle of a huge humanitarian crisis.

The West’s response to the situation in Ukraine has been weak. Some US and UK troops have been sent to Poland and other NATO countries that border Ukraine, but Ukraine itself is being left to face over 100,000 Russian troops, tanks and planes that have surrounded its border.

The historic similarities between these events and the events that led up to the two previous world wars that devastated our world in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 are disturbing. Yet, many people around the world are too distracted by COVID and other matters to see what is happening.

Debates about COVID and the vaccine have caused great division within the worldwide body of believers at a time when it is imperative that we stand together in unity against dangerous military threats.

God’s Word helps believers know how to respond to these alarming developments.

Psalm 2 describes how leaders, like President Putin and President Xi Jinping, rage and plot in vain:

"He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The Lord shall hold them in derision." - Psalm 2:4

As believers in the King of Kings, we would do well to use our collective energies to pick up the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s holy and powerful Word, and declare these scriptures over the political dictators of our day. We should also pray for godly wisdom for the other leaders in knowing how to respond to these very real threats.

In Matthew 24, Yeshua entered into a private discourse with His disciples concerning the last days. His first words were:

“Take heed that no one deceives you." - Matthew 24:4

Deception takes many forms and part of the current deception is in the appalling distractions that so many people have been caught up in.

The right to protest in Western democracies, and I include Israel in this regard, is totally acceptable.

People in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and Germany may be extremely unhappy with their government's response to the pandemic, but they should also be thankful that they can protest freely, express their opinions without being shot or murdered, and can exercise their democratic right to vote, and remove such governments from power.

No such right exists in Russia, China, Iran or North Korea!

I was deeply moved by a TV news report I saw a few days ago that showed a Ukranian woman who had purchased a rifle. "I will fight for my nation and my freedom if the Russians invade us," she said.

Brothers and sisters let us pray for this woman and for the people of Ukraine, Taiwan and all who are threatened by these dictatorships.

Let us not be distracted.

These events pose the biggest threat to all our freedoms!

Shalom, Be Still!

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 11:55:21 GMT

“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” Mark 4:39

Just two days ago, here in Israel, we received warnings of an approaching storm that duly arrived yesterday 20th December 2021, pouring much needed rain upon our dry land, but also threatening damage through very high gale force winds and severe floods.

The Israeli media gave it the name, ‘The Carmel Storm’, so we prepared for its arrival in practical ways, prayed for God’s protection, and waited.

The day before the storm, there was a quiet lull in the weather across the land, but we all knew the storm was coming!

Back in November 2019, I was privileged to speak in Malaysia on the God-given theme of “The Coming Storm.” Here is a picture of the promotion for that event.

In Kuching in East Malaysia, the afternoon before the meeting happened, there was a huge thunderstorm, with much lightening and rain as if to illustrate the theme perfectly.

A few days later, I was in Penang, and amazingly, the same thing happened there. A huge thunderstorm arrived some hours before I spoke on the same theme!

When I arrived in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, I was asking the Lord, somewhat cheekily, what He might do to illustrate the theme as there was no accompanying thunderstorm this time. When a special sister in the Lord, Susanna Koh, arrived at the conference, whose husband was a pastor in Kuala Lumpur but had been kidnapped (filmed on street cameras, probably by special forces of the Islamic government) and never heard of since, that was an even more powerful personal illustration of the theme.

We stood together and prayed for our dear sister and her family who are still to this day going through a storm most of us could hardly imagine! If you are interested in knowing more, here is an update on Susan Koh’s quest for justice .

In November 2019, I certainly did not know that the whole world was about to be engulfed by the plague of COVID 19, even as I spoke from Matthew 24, including the following verses:

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:7-8

The word “pestilences” can be translated as “plagues.”

God has been preparing His sons and daughters around the world, through His powerful and unchanging Word, to face the storms that we are now experiencing. I would suggest that as a body of believers in Messiah, we have not been shaping up so well in our response!

We have all experienced lockdowns, restrictions, and some of us have known personal bereavements as a result of this plague.

I have lost several good friends in the UK to COVID.

To listen to a very close friend of mine weeping down the phone as she informed me of the loss of her mother, whom I loved, is something I will never forget.

What made it even worse, was not being able to attend the funeral, and comfort her family and friends because I was in lockdown in Israel.
That experience has been multiplied millions of times all around the globe, and it is still happening.

I strongly believe that this COVID plague, with all the subsequent divisions around the world, and among believers in the Lord, caused by the issues of governmental responses and vaccinations is an example of the words our Lord declared some two thousand years ago as He sat with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem.

"All these are the beginning of sorrows."

I believe these are the times we are living in, although I should point out that there have been other dark periods of history, such as the dreadful so called “Spanish Flu” in 1918, and the Holocaust, which marked the culmination of centuries of Jewish slaughter and murder in Europe.

Anyone alive during those events might have understandably concluded that they were experiencing "the beginning of sorrows."

I believe they were, and so are we today. It is a process that will be completed.

Unity among believers in the Lord is absolutely essential as we experience severe shakings here in Israel and in all nations.

“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.” Hebrews 12:25-27

God’s Word in the Scriptures perfectly prepares us for what we are experiencing today and what we will see in the coming years, but we must live this Word out and seek unity.

There is a raging battle for unity, which must be part of all our struggles whatever our strongly-held opinions are on a range of subjects.

Some of the issues that divide us seem to be a big distraction from our main responsibility to share the good news of redemption. They seem to stop us from praying about much bigger matters, such as the under reported talks going on in Vienna right now to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. This is a critical issue!

Psalm 133 reveals that our God declares the blessing of life forevermore in our unity.

Yeshua prayed for all of us in John 17 "That they may be one."

It is a unity in diversity, of cultures, identities, opinions, and generations, but it is a unity I will continue to battle for, even in the crazy world of social media, where proper thoughts and discussions are almost impossible to carry out.

It is so much better when we can understand each other’s hearts in person, looking into each other’s eyes, pray together, and hug too, when possible.

Please keep praying for the ending of this COVID plague.

In between the storms, there are periods of calm, and even sunshine. As I write, the huge rainstorm we experienced this morning has been transformed into a picture of a clear blue sky and bright sunshine.

Most importantly of all, as we approach the end of 2021, and look ahead to 2022, let’s declare our Lord’s words over our families, communities, and nations:

“Shalom, be still!”

We need His powerful peace in our lives. We need His peace to bring healing and unity.

Here in Israel, we need His peace to bring healing in our cities and villages.

We need His shalom to undo the plans of darkness emanating from Iran.

Lord we pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We declare your words over all the storms around us at this time, “Shalom, be still!”

Agony in Afghanistan: Open Our Eyes Lord

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 14:36:37 GMT

“Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.” - Psalm 82:3-4

The reports and images we have been seeing from Afghanistan have given us just a glimpse of the evil and barbaric rule of the Taliban. The slaughter at Kabul airport has added to the sense of utter chaos and devastation.

To see babies being handed over barbed wire fences by desperate parents to US and UK soldiers in Kabul airport to ensure their children’s escape is to witness an agony few of us will ever have to experience.

It is unspeakable torment. It reminds me of the Jewish parents who sent their children from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport to England to escape death in the concentration camps.

The images and reports we have seen in the media are bad, but what we have not seen are the systematic murders being carried out by these radical Islamists, going door to door executing thousands of Christians, and others who assisted the Americans and British in the last 20 years.

Here in Israel, we have been receiving reports from the believers in Kabul and other areas of the country. Many have been martyred, even as some have declared their intention to stay and seek to share the gospel of our Lord.

The media has barely referenced the plight of Christians in the land, preferring to highlight the extreme abuse of women and girls instead.
Indeed, the treatment of girls and women by the Taliban is appalling, with sex slaves and forced conversions and marriages, but it is also clear that the lives of believers in Yeshua/Jesus matter little to western media outlets.

The response of the key politicians involved in this debacle has been both eye-opening and appalling.

To witness President Biden and Kamala Harris laughing and ignoring questions about their mishandling of this enormous tragedy has been shameful.

We should not forget that President Trump was the one who negotiated the withdrawal of US troops with the Taliban, using his “America First” policy as a justification for abandoning Afghanistan. The conditions of the deal that Trump negotiated have obviously been broken, but it was still this deal that set the scene for the Taliban takeover that we are seeing now.

President Biden’s administration has just ignored the “conditions” and handed the people of Afghanistan over to barbarism on an unprecedented scale. The fact that Biden’s administration actually gave information to the Taliban about those it wished to evacuate beggars belief!

How revealing it is that Hamas in Gaza were first to congratulate the Taliban! Radical Islamists around the world have been emboldened by this capitulation.

As Israel has learnt from painful history, you never negotiate with terrorists!

Equally appalling has been the response from the UK government. They should be ashamed!

British citizens have been abandoned in Afghanistan. This is a dreadful stain on Britain, the nation of my birth.

The ordinary people of Afghanistan have been betrayed. They have been handed over to evil terrorists. The sacrifices of soldiers who gave their lives to liberate the land from the Taliban have been thrown to the wolves by their own governments.

Now we hear the appalling news of the ISIS K attacks in Kabul that have murdered some 200 people, including women, children and 13 US service members.

I listened to Boris Johnson responding by calling the Taliban “the authorities in Afghanistan,” as though they were a legitimate governing body. They are barbaric murderous terrorists!

Several hours after this slaughter of US marines and Afghan people, President Biden had not emerged from the White House to respond! His silence and his incompetence speak ever more loudly.

Eventually President Biden faced the media, and while declaring that the US would hunt the ISIS K terrorists down, he did not change the plan to abandon Afghanistan.

This begs the question: How do you pursue those who attack you while retreating at the same time? And how can you claim to continue fighting a war on terror, yet allow the Taliban to overrun Afghanistan?

It was also disturbing to see President Biden suddenly bow his head in the middle of receiving a question, appearing to crumble under the pressure. It is an unforgettable picture.

Firstly, we must pray for the people in Afghanistan, and the growing Afghan diaspora and seek to reach out both practically and spiritually to those who have escaped.

It was heartening to see that a Jewish synagogue in North London has been overwhelmed with provisions for Afghan refugees on their way to the UK.

I know of wonderful believers who are ministering directly to Afghan refugees in Turkey right now, including two precious spiritual daughters of mine, responding to God’s call, in spite of the risks involved in a country that is also run by an increasingly radical Islamist government.

Let us proclaim God’s word in Psalm 82 that our God will “defend the poor and needy” and “free them from the hand of the wicked.”

Ironically, in the middle of this tragedy, Israel’s Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, arrived in Washington to see President Biden and discuss the very real threat coming from Iran.

The irony can be seen in two ways:

Firstly, as the Taliban take over Afghanistan, murdering Christians, political opponents, and anyone who will not bow to their medieval ways, the nations who have been quick to recognise the new authority in Afghanistan are China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran!

If you wish to identify wicked police states in our world, just look at who agrees with a Taliban government!

Let us not lose our focus. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are police states that threaten the peace of the world.

Secondly, Israel faces an existential threat from Iran and radical Islam, and Naftali Bennett’s presence in Washington, just as the agony in Afghanistan continues to scream out so loudly, raises the obvious question:

How can Israel trust President Biden? How can Israel trust any assurances from the US, EU, UN, UK, or any of the world powers?

Even when Trump’s pro-Israel administration was in office, Israel knew that their promises and assurances would count for nothing as soon as the next government came along.

No western democracy can guarantee Israel’s security, no matter how supportive they may be at any particular time.

Afghanistan is proof that 20 years of freedom can be dismantled in a matter of days when Western priorities change.

These same nations and governments that have abandoned Afghanistan continue to put enormous pressure on Israel to give up land to Islamists whose overwhelming purpose is to destroy her.

The Biden administration still wants a nuclear deal with Iran, which is comparable to negotiating with the Taliban.

It is making deals with the devil!

Here in Israel, we who believe in the God of Israel recognise our calling to pray and fast more as we call upon Him.

We will declare again and again that, “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4).

We will pray for wisdom and strength for our political leaders, and for God’s kingdom purposes to be fulfilled, come what may.

We are praying for the people of Afghanistan, for their safety and deliverance.

We are praying for believers in our Lord, especially in the West, to have open eyes to understand the dreadful realities in Afghanistan, and the very obvious implications for Israel and for their own nations.

We will continue to pray against the plans of darkness being made by radical Islamic terrorists to renew attacks in the major cities of our world.
We will pray for our enemies to be transformed by direct revelation of our Lord and Saviour, Yeshua.

We will declare God’s word to counter the fear of these dangerous times:

“God is our refuge and strength, a present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear…” - Psalm 46:1-2.

Please join us in these declaring these vital prayers and truths.

Shalom and Blessings.

You Can Do More!

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 19:28:35 GMT

Healing the Hurts of Arabs and Jews

During the recent 11-day war with Gaza, during which Hamas fired over 5,000 rockets at my nation, Israel (more than the Nazis dropped on London during World War 2), and after the dreadful riots in several Israeli cities between minority groups of right-wing Jews and Arab Muslims, I was crying out to God from our home on the slopes of Mount Carmel.

I was also reflecting on not being able to attend a prayer gathering of Arab and Jewish believers in Nazareth because of the riots and acts of arson that had taken place around Nazareth the day before the scheduled prayer gathering.

Deep within my spirit, I heard the Lord challenging me: “Colin, you can do more!”

I am not going to claim that I am the first person to hear this calling.

There are already several initiatives within Israel to bring Arab and Jewish believers together in fellowship and ministry, which have produced important fruit.

Our congregation on Mount Carmel places great emphasis on “the one new man” of Ephesians 2:15. Everyone who comes to our worship meetings witnesses a “one new man” worship team of Jews, Arabs and one German, praising God from the top of Mount Carmel!

It is a vision and sound that pierces hatred and darkness, and shines God’s glory through the airways and across Israel and the Middle East.

Yet, as I prayed to God during the conflict a couple of months ago, I knew He was calling me to do more. I knew the Holy Spirit was challenging me to go and carry God’s presence wherever He would lead me.

There are no “no go areas” for the kingdom of God! I have declared these words many times before, but they seem especially significant in the light of recent events.

I wasn’t able to attend a prayer meeting in Nazareth because of the fires and rioting.

Now, a burden for Nazareth has gripped my soul.

When God wants to do something new with us personally or corporately, there is normally a birthing process that brings such ministry into being. Whatever the Lord is birthing through me, I believe it will begin in the city where Yeshua spent His childhood.

Nazareth is a forty-five-minute drive from our home. From certain parts of Mount Carmel, we can see the white buildings of Nazareth on the top of a neighbouring mountain.

Most believers would immediately associate Nazareth with our Lord. “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Today, Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel and has a vast majority of Arab Muslims living there.

Over 77,000 people live in the city, and more than 70% are Muslim.

Arab Christians, both Evangelical, and Catholic, are a small minority of the city’s population. It seems ironic that Nazareth, the place where Yeshua grew up, has become such tough ground for the preaching of the gospel.

The Jewish city of Nazareth Illit, with a population of 40,000, is located close to Nazareth.

Shihab al-Din Square

This square is situated in central Nazareth and is adjacent to the Arab Market and the Church of the Annunciation, which is a major tourist site for Christian visitors. There is a small Muslim chapel, Makam Shihab a-Din, at the grave of Shihab a-Din, one of Saladin’s nephews, right beside the Church. On the roof of the surrounding column, there is an Islamic State flag and various signs in English and Arabic that shock many tourists with their aggressive anti-Christian messages.

This is a rude awakening for those who naively believe that Islam is a tolerant religion.

After God put Nazareth on my heart, I began contacting friends who could put me in touch with key believers in the city. With much prayer, the Lord led me to reach out to an Arab brother in Nazareth.

His heart-warming welcome and openness for me to visit were overwhelming.

We spent two hours together looking at his church, which holds around one hundred people and is situated in an industrial area of Nazareth. I was very inspired by their food and clothing distribution centre nearby that seeks to help needy families in Nazareth, both Muslim and Christian, as well as Jewish families in the neighbouring area.

It was clear that this wonderful Arab church carried the same vision to reach out to the weakest and most vulnerable people in their community as our congregation on Mount Carmel.

We agreed that I would join him in the future, visiting families of any background who may be hurting. He also invited me to speak at his church, and we are looking to arrange a date.

A week later, I attended a key worship and intercession meeting of Jewish and Arab leaders from within Israel. It was held at our worship centre on Mount Carmel. Again, the Lord prompted me to connect with two of the participants: a Jewish leader based in Tel Aviv, and an Arab pastor based in Jerusalem.

During this meeting, a vision to “pray and cleanse” areas in Israel where Jewish and Arab people died in the riots was shared. As my own declaration of no “no go areas for the kingdom of God” continued to pierce my heart, I knew straight away that I needed to connect with this vision.

The following week, I visited my fellow Jewish brother in the Lord in Tel Aviv to build relationship and share our journeys of faith.

Building relationships is absolutely critical for ministry in Israel. It is both time consuming and sacrificial, but very necessary.

In the coming week, I will go to the ancient port city of Yaffa (Jaffa), with other Jewish and Arab believers, to pray where dreadful violence took place in the recent riots. God-willing, we will be able to reach out to local Jews and Arabs in Yaffa with comfort and prayer.

This is just a beginning. The call to go and give myself to this specific ministry feels very urgent and Helen and I are looking at how I can be released from home duties to fulfil it.

The biggest practical need is for a second car. Our family car is in constant use taking our children to and from kindergarten and other appointments. This makes it challenging for me to drive to other parts of Israel without disrupting our equally important home life.

When I look at our children, Yaakov and Hannah, growing up in Israel with the challenge of carrying the identity of being both Jewish and Arab by birth, I am stirred by the thought of them, in their maturing years, wanting to know what I did to bring unity and healing.

The believing body of Jews and Arabs in the land has a clear responsibility to be the salt and light that shines God’s kingdom glory into every city, village, and street in Israel.

At the recent worship and intercession meeting, I declared the following words from our Lord in prayer.

“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” – Matthew16:18

This is the challenge for all believers around the world. The words of the Lord must break through the hatred and divisions within Israel.

The gates of hell must not prevail in Nazareth, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Akko, Yaffa, or Jerusalem.

Please pray for godly unity to prevail among Jewish and Arab believers within Israel.

Please pray for the provision of a second car to enable me to fulfil this pressing call across Israel.

If you would like to contribute towards the purchase of a much-needed second car, please email me directly at colin_yisrael@hotmail.co.uk, or contact me through Facebook or WhatsApp.

Shalom and blessings from Mount Carmel in Northern Israel.

A Collision of Faith and Politics

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 06:56:47 GMT

Shakings in Israel & Beyond

“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:25-28

Helen and I have now been living and serving in Israel for over twelve years, during which time, we have witnessed changes within Israel, and indeed further afield which can be likened to a massive shift in our world, of such seismic power it feels as if we are experiencing the effects of a massive earthquake.

Everything is changing quickly.

In Israel, we have had four elections in just over two years without a conclusive result.

Israel’s elections have always led to a coalition of different political parties, but the divisions of the last two years have now resulted in a coalition government that is being formed, but not yet ratified, of the most disparate political parties that have ever come together in Israel to try and form a government.

They are correctly and desperately trying to avoid a fifth election, which is unwanted by the vast majority of Israelis of all beliefs and backgrounds.

Given the huge differences of political ideology between the parties involved, no one is certain as to how long such a coming together will last, or indeed, function.

In trying to make sense of this situation, and for believers in Yeshua to know how to react and pray, it is made more complicated by the current collisions going on for so many around the world in the areas of faith and politics.

Most believers form their opinions on events in Israel and the Middle East, from secular media outlets, whose reporters are frequently expressing their own perspectives, and though of some value, they are often slanted, untrue, and have no basis in faith.

I am regularly asked to explain what is happening in Israel, and I do so with the strong conviction that believers can make a difference with informed prayers and better understanding.

Here are some of my thoughts about what is going on right now:

Benjamin Netanyahu

Bibi, as he is often called, has been Israel’s longest serving prime minister, and has been recognised by both supporters and detractors alike, as being strong on maintaining Israel’s security over the twelve plus years he has been in power.

I would say at this point, that Bibi Netanyahu is worthy of respect and honour for his years of service to Israel, and for his protection of Israel’s security.

Netanyahu has wooed Evangelical Christian supporters around the world, and particularly within the US. He correctly identified Christian support as being vital because of their unique understanding and commitment to God’s word in the scriptures, which clearly identifies God’s continuing purposes for Israel.

Tourism has been, pre-covid, the second largest industry in Israel, and Christian tourists have been the overwhelming majority of the visitors pouring into Israel. I am sure this will continue to be true as Israel and international travel begins to reopen.

Many Christian ministries and leaders have been given privileged access to Israel’s Prime Minister, and given Bibi’s longevity in the role, the support levels have risen to the point that many well-meaning believers loved Bibi, and any pending election would find Christians in the nations expressing their prayer that Bibi would continue in office, seemingly without any knowledge or understanding of what was happening in Israel.

This included those ministry leaders who got to rub shoulders with Israel’s longest serving prime minister.

The hero worshipping of Bibi has been akin to the passionate support engendered by Donald Trump in the US.

As an example, please look at this incredibly unbalanced response by Mike Evans, a Christian minister from the US who established the “Friends of Zion Museum” in Jerusalem in recent years. His support for Bibi ignores several realities about his leadership.

The problem has been, in particular, the last two years, as Bibi Netanyahu has sought to maintain his position while being under indictment for serious criminal charges of bribery and corruption, and the slow but clear loss of support within Israel for his leadership and political party, Likud.

As the support waned, Bibi has, for the last four elections, encouraged far right extremists to stand together in the election, so that he could use their support to bolster his chances of staying in power.

These right-wing extremists include the Otzma Yehudit party. They are followers of the deceased Rabbi Kahane and believe that all Arabs within Israel should be ejected from the country! Their clear racism and Bibi’s encouragement for them to stand, was like making a pact with the Klu Klux Klan.

So, when Christians in the US and elsewhere were declaring their support and prayers for Bibi over the last two years, they were by default, aligning themselves with hateful extremists.

There is no room for race hatred of any kind in the Kingdom of God.

The opposition parties have an amazing array of leaders who have all served under Bibi Netanyahu in previous governments, and now, above all other considerations, oppose him passionately. That oppositions speaks more loudly than words!

What has astounded many supporters of the Likud party, and friends of Bibi, is that he did not decide to stand down from leading the party and from being prime minister, in order for his Likud party to appoint a new leader who would easily have a formed a centre right government with other centre right parties.

Bibi Netanyahu has been clearly putting his own personal needs for power above the needs of the country and his political party.

The new coalition government being formed

For a helpful secular Israeli understanding of this situation please look at this article .

Our congregation on Mt Carmel continually prays for Israel’s leaders, and this will continue.

As God’s people, we are not called to only pray for our political choices, or for those we voted for, but we are called in God’s word, to “pray for all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

That is our biblical mandate, and what is not needed are believers around the world declaring their love for Bibi at the expense of those other political figures who God may be raising up to lead our nation at this critical time.

Never in my lifetime has this unbalanced tendency towards political alignment been so clearly seen as in the US in recent times.

Christian supporters of the Trump administration rightly prayed for their nation and president all the way through the 2020 election. Indeed, I was pleased to join with such prayer initiatives on Zoom at the time. But since the outcome of the election, and the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, those prayer initiatives seemed to have either lessened considerably, or disappeared altogether.

“Praying for those in authority” must include those we might oppose. Indeed, it could be argued that such an administration needs even more prayer!

As Messianic Jewish believers in Israel, we know that whoever is in power, they will not view us with friendship and support, but we will continue to pray for them, and make a positive impact in the nation we love and support.

As Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid seek to alternate as Israel’s prime minister over the coming four years, please pray for them, and for all those who will serve in government with them.

Real enemies

Israel has real enemies. Both Hamas, who rule Gaza, and are internationally defined as a terrorist entity, and Fatah, who are led by Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian Authority, are committed to Israel’s destruction. Hamas openly declares this reality in their charter, while Fatah regularly declares “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” which is basically declaring all of Israel should be under their Islamic rule!

How does anyone make peace with someone who seeks your total destruction?!

In addition, Iran, who arms and trains Hezbollah in Lebanon, regularly swears that it will “wipe Israel off the map.”

Even as the recent eleven-day war with Gaza was brought to a tense ceasefire, and the internal riots between Arab Muslims and right-wing Jewish extremists within Israel receded, threats of war from Gaza, and calls for riots in Israel by Hamas continue unabated.

Even so, the Biden administration, the EU, the UK, China and Russia are pressing forward with a desire to renew the Iran nuclear deal that Iran has broken constantly.

Israel is the sacrificial lamb on the altar of the West’s desire for Arab oil!!

It has ever been so.

While sighing deeply at these awful realities, we know with a much deeper assurance, that “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4).

Please pray for Israel’s peace and security.

A Kingdom that cannot be shaken

God’s Kingdom cannot be shaken, even in the midst of persecutions, plagues, and political meltdowns. But we must guard our unity while seeking to make an impact in our communities and nations.

I believe that the shakings in our world are multi-purpose in God’s design.

If truth and righteousness are to prevail, then any unrighteousness in any ministries must be exposed and resolved. During the plague of Covid, there have been sad but necessary exposures of certain ministries.

“Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28)

We need an outpouring of grace, to maintain unity, to address that which is ungodly, to reach out to those who are lost, and to live with a reverence for a holy God without compromise.

Yesterday, 5th June 2021, our congregation on Mt Carmel gathered for our Shabbat worship service inside our worship centre for the first time in fifteen months.

As we worshipped the living God, with many hands raised and voices lifted, there was a moment when our unity and collective love of our Saviour and Lord reached a spiritual height of both joy and relief.

As we move forward in God’s purposes for His kingdom, and for Israel and the nations, let us come together in prayer and worship across the body of Messiah.

May our faith sweep over the political chaos around us all.

May we cry out together:

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Shalom everyone.

Israel’s Latest War: Irony and Intercession

Wed, 19 May 2021 07:25:17 GMT

For the upright will dwell in the land,

And the blameless will remain in it;
But the wicked will be cut off from the earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

- Proverbs 2: 21-22

These words from God came to me yesterday morning as I was reflecting on the ongoing conflict in Israel.

The dreadful images of innocent people dying in this latest war have been shown by news media outlets across the world, and while much of the reporting has been the usual diatribe against Israel, there is no getting away from the human tragedy and suffering that has filled many of our TV screens and computers.

A few days ago, I filmed a short video on our Clear Views from Mount Carmel YouTube channel, in which I prayed from Mountt Carmel over the city of Nazareth, and indeed, I prayed for the entire country.

I expressed the deeply felt irony that a planned gathering of Jewish and Arab believers in Yeshua/Jesus was disrupted by the threat of violence, so that many of us chose not to go.

The meeting was held on Zoom, with a very small number of believers physically present.

The meeting ended with everyone singing Hinay Matov Umanayim - Behold how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity, from Psalm 133.

The irony was that several Jewish believers, including Helen and myself, felt that the risk was too great, and were denied the opportunity to worship and pray with Arab brothers and sisters in the city of Nazareth, the very city where our Lord spent most of his childhood.
Why? Because today Nazareth is dominated by Arab Muslims who make up approximately 80% of the population, and riots and acts of arson nearby had already occurred the previous day.

Most Christians around the world rely on the very secular news media to show them what is happening, and I have been appalled as I have watched some of those reports and interviews conducted by Sky News and the BBC in the UK, that are so slanted and unbalanced.

I watched as Sky’s Mark Stone reported on the "pain of people in Gaza" in such a way as to suggest that there was no pain or suffering anywhere else!

I saw Adam Boulton of Sky News harangue Tzipi Hotovely (Israel’s ambassador in the UK) in an interview in a rude and aggressive manner while his interview with a Palestinian diplomat was conducted in a totally different way, allowing lies and half truths to go unchallenged. When I searched "Adam Boulton in relation to Israel" online, I read that he had some nasty history in respect of Anti-Semitism too.

Have you ever noticed that the weather reports on Sky News are funded by Qatar Airlines, an arm of the Qatar government that funds terrorists in Gaza?!

The BBC is well known for its extreme anti-Israel reporting, especially from its Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen.

Elsewhere around the world, secular media outlets simply cannot be trusted to tell the truth or provide balance.

It is, therefore, understandably difficult to know what is happening in this latest war in Israel, which has been escalated by Hamas’ firing more rockets from Gaza into Israel than Hitler’s Nazis dropped upon London during the Blitz in the Second World War!!

I am just going to point out some relevant facts for you, with my comments where necessary to help bring understanding, but also to encourage intercession and prayer for Jews, Arabs, and everyone affected by this latest war.

1. Sheikh Jarrah

Sheikh Jarrah is an East Jerusalem neighbourhood where Jewish people owned property before the establishment of Israel in May 1948.
In the war that followed Israel’s independence, Jordan took over East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and all the Jewish people had to flee into West Jerusalem.

Arab families moved into those Jewish owned homes and have been there ever since.

In June 1967, during the Six Day War, Jerusalem was liberated and unified under Israel, and the Jordanians later signed a peace treaty with Israel, never asking for the land they occupied from 1948 to be returned to their rule.

Interestingly, no one ever jumped up and down and called Jordan an occupying force for 19 years, but as soon as Israel took over the area of East Jerusalem after a defensive war, the expression "Occupied territories" came into being. They are not occupied territories but disputed territories.

In respect of Sheikh Jarrah, there is an ongoing legal case that has been going for many years that potentially could evict Arab families from their homes. This legal matter is not the reason for the war and internal riots that have occurred.

No one has been evicted as yet, and the case has been postponed by Israel’s Supreme Court, where both Arab and Jewish judges will determine the outcome.

There are two reasons why I believe the Arab families should NOT be evicted.

Firstly, we are talking about a situation that arose 73 years ago. A generation has passed, and to now seek to uproot those Arab families from their homes is frankly too late, and unwise.

Secondly, any Arab families who had homes in areas they left in 1948 are not legally entitled to claim those homes back, so there is no equality in the law on this matter.

I think the Israeli government could provide financial compensation to those Jewish families affected by the original uprooting and end the matter immediately.

2. Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas is the leader of Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority has continually postponed elections for over 15 years, including a recent election.

Hamas, recognised internationally as a murderous terrorist entity, who took over Gaza from Fatah by murdering its own people in a dreadful coup in June 2007, used the cancellation of elections and dispute over Sheikh Jarrah, to start a populist war on Israel by firing over 3000 rockets indiscriminately into Israel, thus seeking to claim that they are the true defenders of the Arab people in Israel, Gaza, and Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the West Bank.

The fact that media outlets present the war as a dispute that gives Hamas some legitimacy is beyond appalling.

3. Hamas has a clear agenda to totally destroy Israel

See this quote written about the Hamas Charter.

"On January 25, 2006, the day Palestinian Legislative Council elections were held, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and candidate for the post of foreign minister, stated that Hamas was committed to the ideology of its 1988 charter. He noted emphatically that 'the movement [would] not change a single word in its charter,' which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, and would not become a purely political movement, but quite the opposite, it would continue its policy of 'resistance' (i.e., terrorist attacks)" (Reuters, Gaza, January 25).

4. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

This is the epicenter of all the problems.

During and after Ramadan, tens of thousands of Arab Muslims gathered on the Temple Mount to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli authorities knew that many Islamic extremists were planning violence and were stockpiling rocks and some other weapons to use, storing them inside the mosque.

That is not what the media calls worshippers , but what most people would call rioters.

There have been many previous incidents where rocks are thrown down from the Temple Mount by Arab Muslims upon Jewish people praying at the Western (Wailing Wall), which is of course, life threatening.

So, when the Israeli police intervened by closing the area around the Damascus gate of the Old City, which is a real hotspot for violence, and then sought to enter the mosque to remove all the weapons and rocks, rioting begun in earnest.

The media calls it interfering with Muslim worshippers!!

5. Tiktok videos and Israeli extremists

In the build up to the violence on the Temple Mount, several videos had been posted on Tiktok by Arab Muslims showing filming of violent attacks on orthodox Jews in the Old City and East Jerusalem.

This incensed the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and a march, organised by extreme right wing organisations, was allowed to proceed to the Damascus Gate, with these Jewish extremists shouting "Death to Arabs!!"

The Arabs responded by throwing rock at Israeli police.

The march should never have been allowed by Israel, but the fact is Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel’s Prime Minister) has encouraged the extremists to stand in the recent elections in Israel and needs their support if he is to stay in power, while his court case for serious crimes continues.
The state of Israel’s politics has never been as grim, and we may well face a 5th election in just over two years in the coming months.

6. Hamas rockets and Israel’s response

Hamas fires rockets to kill and wound innocent civilians. They do so using human shields, including women and children, so that should Israel fire back at their rocket launchers, women and children will likely be killed or wounded, and they strengthen their propaganda.

Hamas has also fired rockets from schools, hospitals, ambulances, and UN run buildings.

It is a clear culture of death. A total disregard for the lives of Jewish people and its own Arab people. Many of their rockets have fallen short, landed in Gaza, and killed women and children.

Israel has aborted some bombing missions because women and children were seen at the targeted site. Israel has also warned inhabitants of targets they are going to destroy, giving 10 minutes for people to leave, before taking action.

The furore in the media, about Israel’s bombing of a high rise building that housed Al Jazeera and an American news outlet, but also housed Hamas terrorists, is frankly ridiculous, and when Israel warns in advance of its intentions, the terrorists live to tell the tale too!

Israel has responded by seeking to bomb Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and has not sent in ground troops as at this time of writing, because the casualties on both sides would be even higher if they did.

Israel has sought to destroy the various tunnels used by Hamas, and its stockpiles of weapons and rockets.

Let us not forget that since the last Gaza war in 2014, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have periodically fired rockets into Israel, leaving the people in Southern Israel traumatised, and not able to experience real lasting peace.

Only when Israel responds to put a stop to the murder and terror, do media outlets suddenly come out of the woodwork and blame Israel for defending itself.

7. Rising Anti-Semitism

Throughout Europe, the UK, the US, and around the world, the hatred and abuse of Jewish people is on the rise. In London, a highly abusive march by left wing extremists last week, addressed by the former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, (the Labour Party under his leadership was found to be institutionally anti-Semitic by an independent and legal investigation) sought to proclaim the sufferings of the Palestinians, and basically legitimise the murderous intent of Hamas.

That was followed by a drive through group flying Palestinian flags in a very Jewish area of London proclaiming the rape of Jewish women. Four of those involved were subsequently arrested.

Let us remember the former Chief Rabbi of the UK, Lord Jonathan Sachs, who wrote a wonderful article explaining that "Anti Zionism (Anti-Israel declarations and views)" is Anti-Semitism a year or two before his untimely death.

Let us be clear that the growing hatred of Israel is Anti-Semitism.

8. God’s word and Urgent Prayer Needed

Please declare God’s word in Proverbs 2 over Israel and its peoples.

I believe that the problems here and the anti-Semitism around the world are spiritual and demonic in nature and require spiritual solutions.

Pray for the salvation of Jews and Arabs.

Pray for a government in Israel that will act justly towards Jews and Arabs alike.

Pray that the Shalom of our Lord, the Prince of Peace, will prevail in Israel and across the Middle east.

Pray for the Messianic believers in the land who are called to be salt and light in the surrounding darkness. That we may have more courage in being God’s people, and ambassadors for peace and reconciliation.

Pray against the violence and hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, and for an extension of grace and mercy upon all those who hate and seek violence.

Thanks for all your messages, phone calls, and continued prayers for Israel’s peace and security, and for our congregation and family.

From Corinth Until Today: A Call for Unity

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 18:51:10 GMT

“To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Messiah Yeshua, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord, both theirs and ours” - 1 Corinthians 1:2

When Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, his first and most vital declaration was to remind every follower of Yeshua that they were “called to be saints.”

In the middle of a world crisis, our calling remains a massive challenge.

We need to constantly remind ourselves of our calling in Messiah.

It is March 2021, and here in Israel, we are emerging from a third lockdown, while the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine has so far been given to almost 5 million people and over 3.7 million people have received the second dose, including myself.

Israel is well ahead in percentage terms as it seeks to fully vaccinate its population of over 9 million.

The latest data emerging from Maccabi Health Services reveals a very encouraging 95% effectiveness rate.

There is a raging debate among believers as to whether to receive the vaccine or not, and there is a clear danger that vehemently opposed views can lead to divisions, resentment and even hatred.

Ancient Corinth was a city full of cultural and religious excesses that were infiltrating the believing communities and dividing the followers of Yeshua.

Paul, who had been used of God to birth that first century community of believers, wrote to them under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to address the various issues that had undermined the testimony of God in their lives.

The overriding issue was their obvious lack of unity.

1 Corinthians 1:10-11:

“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.”

“There are contentions among you” is equally true today, and none has seemed to be more contentious than the issue of the vaccines.

I came to faith in the Lord over 40 years ago in London, and since that amazing day in my life, I have witnessed at close hand the never ending tension between those who believe that all sickness is from the devil and pray for healing for those who are sick, while refusing to consider any medical help from a doctor, and those who would run to every medical department available to address their health concerns, and would not appear to seek prayer and healing from God.

Most believers find themselves in the middle of those opposite extremes, weighing up their thoughts and decisions.

Pastorally, I have never felt or indeed seen a conflict in praying wholeheartedly to our God for complete healing for someone, while also advising seeking medical advice and treatment where possible.

The debate about the vaccines is alive and well here in Israel, as it is around the globe, and seems to be a heightened example of the very long-standing tensions that have always been evident among believers with regards to spiritual healing and medical treatment.

We discussed and prayed about these matters as a leadership team on Mt. Carmel and agreed that we could see no biblical or spiritual reason not to take the vaccine, but we would respect our people’s decisions either to take or not take it without condemnation.

That principle will continue to guide us in the coming season. We will not be divided into the vaccinated and unvaccinated!

What has been so disturbing has been the scale of fear being spread on social media by those who oppose taking the vaccine. Some of these posts express very unbalanced views, and reference dubious sources of information.

It is fair to say that news media outlets and government communications in Israel and across the world are strongly supporting the vaccination drive, and that has had the opposite effect upon those who are sceptical about the vaccine.

There is a degree of propaganda on both sides of the argument.

I want to note that I have already received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and I am absolutely fine. That said, I have good and loved friends who will not take the vaccine, and I fully respect their choices. Our common unity in Messiah must override our differences over the vaccine.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was dealing with believers who were so divided they would only listen to their leader of choice. “‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ’ they declared, disrespecting each other, and the leaders they would not listen to (1 Corinthians 1:12).

Sadly today, there are many believers who will not listen to any leader, justifying their unaccountability by saying they answer to God alone, very much like those in Corinth who said “I am of Christ.”

Paul was writing knowing full well that many of the people who would hear the letter did not want to hear him or thought they were far too spiritual to receive any advice from a mere man, even if he was the Apostle Paul!

There is a tendency for believers who feel strongly about an issue to look at those believers who disagree with them as being unspiritual. Believers who have taken the vaccine are often accused of just swimming with the tide of world opinion.

Paul was faced with that type of thinking, which can be very disrespectful and outright abusive when he was addressing the issue of widows seeking to remarry.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul addresses various practical issues concerning marriage, divorce, circumcision, and those who were unmarried or widows. Within the context of a very carnal and divided community of believers, Paul offers a variety of clear instructions and then reminds all believers of an essential truth.

1 Corinthians 7: 39-40:

“A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is, according to my judgment—and I think I also have the Spirit of God.”

Paul ends his God-inspired advice with a truth we need to remember about all who call on the name of the Lord:

"I think I also have the Spirit of God."

Here is the principal in God’s word we need to own and live out.

In our disagreements over issues that do not in any way affect our salvation, we need to respect the indwelling Holy Spirit of God within each of us.

We also need to respect those whom God has called and gifted to lead and pastor among us.

The problem that seems to be increasing among believers around the globe, is the sad reality that many are “sheep without shepherds” (Matthew 9:36) who declare all kinds of views but are completely without anyone they are accountable to.

It would be interesting to know just how many followers of our Lord have never been properly discipled, or are currently without a congregation, and without the true freedom that comes from being accountable either to a Pastor or leader, or from within a ministry team of leaders.

True freedom can only be experienced with clear accountability, and it is a blessing to seek wisdom with a multitude of counsellors.

Proverbs 11:14:

“Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”

Unity is critical in the body of Messiah. It is absolutely fine to have strong opinions about the issues of our day but let us respect the Holy Spirit within each of us and seek to be accountable to godly leaders in our own congregations, or in the wider body of Messiah.

I pray that those who would fundamentally disagree with this blog would ask themselves to whom are they really accountable and hear my heart as I declare like Paul, “I think I have the Spirit of God.”

Shalom and Blessings

Jeremy Corbyn, US Democrats, & the Elephant in the Room

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 10:05:27 GMT

On 29th October 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that had investigated charges of anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party published its report. It exposed dreadful anti-Semitism right from the top of the UK’s major opposition party all the way down through its membership.

This legal investigation revealed unlawful and appalling practices and views within the Labour Party, which has many far-left members.

No sooner had the report been published than the previous leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, rejected it. He said it was ‘exaggerated.’ Corbyn was immediately suspended from the party by the current leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

Although Corbyn has been suspended, his views are unlikely to change. He should be expelled from the Labour Party, along with thousands of others who hold the same views.

The Labour party’s left-wing political equivalent in the US is the Democratic Party, currently led by Joe Biden. We are all aware of the US election next week on Tuesday 3rd November.

Corbyn, and many of his far-left associates in the Labour Party claim that their party is anti-racist. They say they abhor anti-Jewish behaviour and views.

The US Democrats would argue that they too are appalled by anti-Semitism. Joe Biden on the US campaign trail decried the murder of Jewish people in a synagogue last year in Pittsburgh.

The elephant in the room, that they try so hard not to mention by name is Israel.

They don’t consider their opposition to Israel to be anti-Semitic.

Let’s remember some of the things that Corbyn - who ran for British Prime Minister less than a year ago - has said and done over the years.
Corbyn famously said that ‘Israel is a racist endeavour!’ He has repeatedly opposed its very existence while describing the murderous terrorist organisations, Hamas, and Hezbollah, as his ‘friends.’

During the last UK election campaign posters featuring Corbyn’s anti-Israel views were promoted, and therefore put forward as acceptable beliefs that should be part of the British discourse.

They were even placed in areas where large Jewish communities live in the UK!

Many Jewish people were terrified at the prospect of a far-left government in the UK and determined to leave the country if Corbyn won the election.

There’s a photograph of Corbyn several years ago laying a wreath at the graves of the Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Yet he claims he was ‘present but not involved’ in the ceremony!

As far as Corbyn and the far-left is concerned, Israel should not exist!

These horrific beliefs are extreme and must be defined as anti-Semitic.

The US Democratic Party has also moved to the left in recent years. Former Presidents Carter and Obama led the Democratic party towards more left-wing policies and practices.

Obama, whose Vice President was Joe Biden, supported the Iranian Nuclear deal, which put Israel’s very existence at risk. Also, in the last week of his presidency, he tried to transfer hundreds of thousands of US dollars to the Palestinian Authority. These funds had been withheld by the US Senate because of the Palestinians’ continuing support for terrorists who had committed murder in Israel.

Obama overruled the Senate as a final act of back-stabbing Israel before his departure from office. Trump, however, blocked the transfer of finance in his first week as President.

The US Democratic Party under Biden includes far-left haters of Israel such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as well as Bernie Sanders and Biden’s potential Vice President, Kamala Harris, who is also one of the most extreme left-wing politician in the Democratic Party.

They all support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) movement, which nations like Germany have rightly declared as anti-Semitic.

Given Biden’s obvious frailty, it is disturbing to think that if he won the Presidency, he could very well be unable to physically manage the job and be removed very quickly in favour of Harris!

Biden is also likely to renew the Iranian Nuclear deal, placing Israel on the sacrificial altar of left-wing ideology.

Israel. My home. The only nation in the world where Jewish people are not a minority, and the only true democracy in the entire Middle East.
Yes, Israel is imperfect. But its right to live free of existential threats should be beyond question, as it is for every other nation in the world.

However, irrespective of the left-wing political fanatics who daily expose their anti-Semitism, Israel will continue to be a nation, as God himself has restored her, and has gone on record in His word concerning her future.

Amos 9:14-15:

I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.

I have dear friends in the US and UK who feel they cannot vote for President Trump in the US, or the Conservative party in the UK for ideological reasons. I do understand those who struggle to support right-wing political parties.

Being Jewish, I know full well the racism of the right both historically and presently.

The question to my friends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is: Are you willing to vote and support an ideology that at its very deepest roots hates Israel, is Anti-Semitic, and would, if it had its way, create circumstances in the Middle East that would lead to another Holocaust?!

As Israel’s one and only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, once said: “If the Arabs would lay down their weapons, we would have immediate peace, if Israel were to lay down its weapons, there would be another Holocaust.”

These words remain sadly true today, even in the light of the recent normalisation agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and possibly Sudan.

God’s word on Israel is clear.

Isaiah 66:22:

“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain.

Whatever your political persuasions, please stand against the virus of anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel that continues to rage in our world and through our political systems.

Israel’s annexation plans: Now, never or later?

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:07:54 GMT

‘But now, thus says the Lord who created you O Jacob, and He who formed you O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine”’ – Isaiah 43:1

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been saying that by 1st July this year he will annex Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (often called the West Bank), and the area of the Jordan Valley that lies strategically along the Jordanian border.

The much-heralded Trump Peace Plan allocates these territories to Israel as part of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu’s coalition government has made plans to unilaterally annex these areas, irrespective of an agreement with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.

The Netanyahu administration’s reason for this move is that they think it best to complete the annexation while Trump is still in office to increase the chances of US government support. With a US presidential election looming in November, no one knows whether Trump will be re-elected, so Netanyahu’s administration is trying to plan strategically.

If Joe Biden is elected, there will be no support at all from the US. So, the idea is to act now and avoid US opposition.

The thinking also goes that no amount of negotiation with the PA will bring a resolution They have already categorically rejected the Trump Peace Plan. So, the only way to secure the disputed territories is the annex them now.

It is clear that the PA and Abbas are just as committed to Israel’s destruction as the Hamas terrorists who rule Gaza, and the Iranians, whose proxy terrorists, Hezbollah, dominate Lebanon.

From a biblical perspective, God has already gone on record about how He views His land:

‘…but the land [Israel] which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year’ - Deuteronomy 11: 11-12.

Israel is God’s land, and He watches over it perpetually. That in itself is an amazing thought.

The biblically mandated land is much bigger than Israel is today and even much bigger than it would be if the proposed annexation took place.

‘Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness [the south of Israel] and this Lebanon [way north of Israel] as far as the great river, the River Euphrates [same as the modern day Euphrates], all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea [Mediterranean Sea], toward the going down of the Sun, shall be your territory’ – Joshua 1:3-4.

Today, the River Euphrates flows through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, and empties out into the Persian Gulf. No one believe that Israel should invade those areas today.

The restoration of the nation of Israel has been going on for 2000 years and is still in process. We do not know how it will be completely restored, but we are assured that God is constantly watching over His land.

Now to the question currently facing Israel and its leaders:

In the light of the biblical mandate, the PA’s desire to harm Israel, and the US political uncertainty, should Netanyahu’s administration unilaterally annex the Jewish settlements and Jordan Valley on 1st July?

In other words: Should they do it now, should they never consider such a move, or should they leave it until later?

Before I express my own views, I would like to remind all of us who believe in God and care deeply about this matter that first of all we should pray. Urgent prayer is needed .

The problem I have with annexing the land now is wrapped up in the problem I have with our Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing to lead Israel while he is on trial for the serious criminal offences of bribery and corruption.

Yes, Benjamin Netanyahu has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is not in dispute. But should any political leader be allowed to lead a nation while being tried for criminal offences?

I strongly say ‘no’. It is totally unacceptable.

With this in mind, Benjamin Netanyahu should not be the one making decisions about an annexation that will probably affect Israel and her international relationships for generations. It will likely lead to more bloodshed and war.

The problem is that critical decisions can be used to lever political power and strength that is not about the well-being of the nation, but the interests of the leader.

In the run up to his trial, Netanyahu has attacked the judiciary, the police, the prosecution counsel and the media. Although he is a defendant on trial, he is able to launch these attacks from a position of political power as the country’s Prime Minister.

This is not only unhealthy, but outright scandalous.

The government in Israel is a coalition of self-interest and mistrust. It is top heavy with expensive cabinet posts at a time of financial crisis around the world.

The facts on the ground are that Israel already has control of the Jordan Valley now. So, why go for annexation when the area is already under Israeli control? The same applies to the various Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Carrying out the annexation now will not significantly change realities on the ground. (Annexation would apply Israeli sovereignty to the disputed territories, but it would not change Israel’s current military control over these areas).

It makes political sense to wait. And it would be so much better if these critical decisions were made by an Israeli Prime Minister not mired in criminal proceedings.

So definitely not now!

So then, should Israel never annex these territories in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley?

I certainly wouldn’t want these areas to ever be transferred to Palestinian control as part of some future peace deal.

The PA does not, and likely never will, recognize Israel’s right to exist. When Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, all it got was Hamas rockets and terror. Israel should never cede land like this again.

Although the Trump plan is flawed in many respects, its value is that it shifts the debate quite correctly to examine the PA’s incitement of its children to hate and glorify terrorism, and to highlight Israel’s very real security needs.

Israel’ control of the Jordan Valley is the only way to ensure her ongoing security on the Jordanian border. To relinquish control would be strategic and military suicide.

So, I’m definitely not saying ‘never.’

Which leaves us with the option of ‘later.’

This maintains the security on the ground now, while calming the current frenzy sparked by Netanyahu’s annexation plans.

It allows the positive parts of the Trump Peace Plan to be digested and accepted as genuine and viable issues for Israel’s future security.

It also gives time for an untainted leadership to emerge in Israel that can respond to the challenges of Israel’s future without the self-interest and power grabbing that seems to motivate Netanyahu right now.

Finally, I believe with all my heart that God’s purposes for Israel, including the restoration of the land, and the restoration of its people into saving grace far outweighs all of the political intrigue currently being played out.

‘Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep’ – Psalm 121:4.

I take God at His Word regarding Israel. Please join us in praying for justice, wisdom and right decisions that will eventually bless all the people affected.

Thank you for your prayers.

Black Lives Matter & Jew Hatred

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 07:52:27 GMT

I recently poured out my feelings about the horrific murder of George Floyd in the US.

It amazes me that some people are still trying to excuse what happened.

Let’s please stop it.

Whichever way you look at it, this was an act of cold-blooded murder perpetrated by a white police officer and his three colleagues, caught on camera for all to see. Justice must now be served.

The riots and deaths of both black and white people that have followed the George Floyd atrocity are just as disturbing and wicked. But this doesn’t take away from the reality of George Floyd’s murder, carried out by white policemen who abused their power to take the life of a black man.

As a Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus, ministering in Israel with a wonderful congregation of Jews, Arabs and others together, I have listened to some of my black brothers and sisters in the US, UK, Israel and around the world agonising over this racist murder.

In my previous blog, I described the collective agony of black people as a boiling pot that has been tipped over. The unbearable pain. The last words of George Floyd, ‘I cannot breathe,’ have echoed around the globe and left anyone with a heart for truth and justice feeling breathless.

In the quest to put a stop to racial discrimination, it is right for all of us to proclaim: ‘Black Lives Matter.’

However, as deeply and passionately as I support the heart cry for justice for the black community, I have been disturbed to discover the Jew-hatred that many in the Black Lives Matter movement hold.

For me, it is outrageous and appalling to champion the rights of one race (the black community) while spewing hatred of another race (the Jewish people and the nation of Israel).

I have been fighting anti-Semitism all of my adult life, having experienced it during my childhood in the UK, and as an adult, too.

Every time I hear of a racially driven attack or murder of a Jewish person, my heart fills with pain. It’s a pain that Jewish people all over the world share. An ache that penetrates to the soul.

When the leader of Iran declares, ‘We will wipe Israel off the map,’ he knows that his words will touch a deep wound in Jewish hearts.

As COVID-19 spread around the globe, so did the heinous attempt to blame Israel and the Jewish people for this modern-day plague. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories claimed that the Jews were manipulating global events to extend their power, and that they were profiting from the virus.

Now theories are abounding that blame Israel and the Jews for racial violence in the US. An article first published by Amnesty International in 2016 made atrocious claims about the Israeli-US police training program. One false claim was that US police learnt brutal and abusive tactics in Israel, which they used to carry out human rights abuses in the US. Now these baseless accusations are being repeated by Black Lives Matter activists , suggesting that Israel is to blame for the murder of George Floyd.

A fact that many of these activists don’t realize is that the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in the US spoke out in favour of the training program (GILEE) in 2019. These mainly African American police chiefs wanted to put it on the record that they were fully supportive of US police benefiting from the vast experience of one of the most skilled police forces in the world.

Black Lives Matter activists are also drawing comparisons that don’t exist between the black community’s struggle for justice and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. They claim that Israel is guilty of genocide and support the boycott of Israel (BDS).

(Many western governments have rightly banned BDS and correctly identified it as anti-Semitic).

What saddens me most is that Jewish people understand the black community’s pain possibly like no other group. When I first came to faith as a young Jewish man, I immediately felt a sense of belonging among the black Christian community. So many of their experiences were my experiences and their struggles my struggles.

Most Jewish people around the world are appalled at George Floyd’s murder and are standing in solidarity with the black community.

I appeal to all my black brothers and sisters who are rightly proclaiming ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Please don’t align yourself with a political organization that spews out anti-Semitic hatred and lies. If you also happen to be a believer in Jesus/Yeshua, you may want to explore the other values held by the BLM movement that are in stark conflict with biblical faith.

Dr Martin Luther King Junior spoke these famous words in August 1963 that still resonate today:

‘And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."'

Let those of us who stand for truth and righteousness repudiate racism in all its forms.

Let freedom ring!

‘I cannot breathe’ – We are breathless

Sun, 31 May 2020 11:35:05 GMT

‘For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?’ – Jeremiah 8:21-22

The agonising murder of George Floyd in Minnesota USA crushed mercilessly by the knee of a police officer, with apparent help from three other officers, has reverberated around the world.

The video of his death, which I find too excruciating to watch, includes the victim’s last words: ‘I cannot breathe.’

What kind of man can ignore the cry of a fellow man desperate for breath? It is beyond any rational understanding. It was cold-blooded murder.
George Floyd, as we all know, was a black man, being crushed to death by a white police officer.

This was not an isolated incident. There have been several killings of black people in the US in recent weeks. But this evil murder of George Floyd was captured on video for everyone to see.

I have listened to, read, and watched the agony of many black people around the world, for whom this latest murder and the victim’s final words echo so powerfully. This needless killing seems to have tipped many people beyond their ability to endure murderous abuse anymore.

I am obviously not black. As some of you know, I am a Jewish believer in Jesus/Yeshua, currently living and serving in full-time ministry in Israel.
But I am the father of two young adult children in the UK, who, although they are mixed race, are deemed ‘black’ by the society they live in. And now I have a baby granddaughter too.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my black brothers and sisters. As a white Jewish man, I found faith and life within the black community that I grew to love and respect. I saw first-hand some of the obstacles they faced just because they were black.

I vividly remember one night in the early 80s when I was out on the streets of Hackney, London looking for a young girl who had run away from the children’s home where I worked. I happened to see some policemen verbally abusing a group of black people on the street.

Maybe things have changed since the 80s, or maybe not. But I remember thinking how easy it was for these policemen to abuse and demean this group of young black people, knowing there would be no comeback because the power was in their hands.

Rioting, even back then, was the inevitable uprising of people who found themselves frustrated, trodden down, unheard, and abused beyond human endurance.

Black believers in the Lord knew and felt the deep pain of their own community. It was these believers who showed me, a young Jewish man, love and acceptance.

My first pastor and spiritual father, Ira V. Brooks, a black Jamaican with a love for the Jewish people and a man of great wisdom and sensitivity, made sure that the church was not a silent bystander while the abuse of the black community spiralled out of control. He got involved. He embraced all sectors of the community. I remember his strong practical outreach to families who lost loved young people in a house fire in South London.

I often wonder whether the fact that I found myself as a young Jewish believer in the Lord being discipled by people who knew racist abuse all too well was God’s way of keeping me.

I was familiar with anti-Semitism from my childhood, when I was hit over the head with an iron bar simply because I was Jewish (some say this explains my sense of humour!). Maybe I found deep comfort and understanding from my black brothers and sisters because we shared the common experience of being hated just for who we were.

I have listened intently to the anguish of my black brethren in the UK who are despairing about what is happening in the US right now.
I posted on social media some words that Dr Martin Luther King Junior said back in the 1960s:

‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’

Martin Luther King’s words seemed much better than anything I could say or do.

But then I felt rebuked by my own seemingly lame response. I needed to write something myself.

I am still at the forefront of battling anti-Semitism wherever it rears its evil head!

During the 2019 UK election, I posted many messages about the appalling anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party. I appealed to my UK friends, many of whom are black and would naturally vote Labour, to consider the glaring anti-Semitism coming from its leader at the time, Jeremy Corbyn.

I asked the question more than once: How can anyone who says that the Jewish Jesus/Yeshua is their Lord and Saviour in all conscience vote for a political party that is under investigation for hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism?

Some UK people responded positively. One or two may have changed their voting intentions. But many more did not say anything! I felt sad and disappointed by the silence of many.

I am certain that racial hatred has no place in the Kingdom of God.

I am also certain that my black brothers and sisters, who I love and respect, should not have to endure the deep torment they experience every time a member of their community is murdered or abused.

The death of George Floyd tipped over a boiling pot of agony!

I feel that distress.

When George Floyd cried out ‘I cannot breathe,’ his words left us all breathless.

I am writing now to express my solidarity with the black community.

This virus of racial hatred in all its forms must be overcome. We must speak. We must act. We must pray.

In the Kingdom of God, we should bear each other’s burdens.

Let us stand together.

Shalom and love everyone.

Praying for the political reality in Israel

Fri, 01 May 2020 17:22:31 GMT

"'Fear not, you worm Jacob, You men of Israel! I will help you,' says the Lord and your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel." – Isaiah 41:14

From April 2019 until today, in the space of less than a year, Israel and its people have endured three general elections.

Israel’s system of proportional representation means that there will always be a coalition of political parties in any government. So, after every election, parties who may have been bitter enemies on the campaign trail suddenly make alliances to try to form a government.

The political situation in Israel was at a complete standstill until a last-minute deal was struck on 20th April between Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu and his Likud party won the largest number of seats in the most recent March election. But even with the help of the right-wing religious parties, Netanyahu could not muster a majority to form a government.

Since December 2018, Netanyahu has headed up a caretaker government. This government has had to respond to the worst global crisis since World War Two: the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the March 2020 elections, Gantz’ Blue and White party made alliances with left and centre-left parties as well as the Arab Joint List, but still could not form a workable government. Their only apparent agreement was in seeking to pass legislation to prevent Netanyahu, or any other politician, from forming a government while under indictment, as is currently the case with Netanyahu.

In light of the coronavirus crisis and the political deadlock, Gantz entered into coalition talks with Netanyahu. This is something he had previously vowed he would never do, and which led to the messy breakup of his own political party. It has now been agreed that there will be a rotation government in which Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for the first 18 months, followed by Gantz for the remainder of the term.

The proposed bill to prohibit any Israeli politician from forming a government while under criminal charges has now been shelved and will not go before the Knesset. Netanyahu himself agreed to this bill prior to his own criminal indictment.

Netanyahu faces charges of three serious cases of bribery and fraud, one of which would carry a prison sentence if he were found guilty.

Once it emerged that these matters would go to Israel’s supreme court, it would have been right for Netanyahu to stand aside and seek to clear his name, in the hope of perhaps resuming his political career in the future if found innocent. But Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, refused to budge.

Netanyahu’s court case has been postponed until at least May. It was due to be heard in March, but the courts closed for all but the most urgent cases as part of the country’s coronavirus measures.

Many were suspicious about the resolution to freeze the courts: a decision made by the Interim Justice Minister appointed by Netanyahu and announced in the early hours of the morning just days before Netanyahu’s trial was scheduled to begin. There have been discussions in Israel about whether the courts should close at all. Some say that their operation is essential for any functioning democracy.

Among the worldwide body of believers, there are some who support Netanyahu with a zeal that I believe is misplaced and who are convinced that he is the rightful, God-ordained leader of Israel. I believe that, in addition to his underhanded response to the present corruption charges, what happened in the run-up to the first of the three elections last April needs to be understood in order to see how unpleasant the politics have been at this time, and to reach a more balanced view of the situation.

Last April, Netanyahu was worried about the results of the forthcoming election, so he encouraged a small far-right party, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), to run in the election and merge with other right-wing parties in the hope that they would pick up a couple of seats and possibly help bolster Netanyahu’s coalition.
So, what is wrong with that? You may ask.

Otzma Yehudit is an ultra-nationalist, religious far-right party whose members follow the teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane was a racist extremist who believed that all Arabs living in Israel should be forcibly expelled from the land if they were not willing to receive financial incentives to leave of their own accord! His ideology was hate-filled and dangerous.

Because of its extremism, Otzma Yehudit is dismissed out of hand by most Israelis on both sides of the political spectrum and would never be elected. But what was disturbing in the April 2019 election was that Netanyahu, in a desperate attempt to stay in power, encouraged such a dreadful political party to stand, and was willing to consider an alliance.

Thankfully, Otzma Yehudit did not win any seats.

I respect Bibi Netanyahu’s service and leadership of Israel over many years, but I cannot respect what happened last April. I believe that he crossed a line and that his willingness to compromise with an evil ideology should be a red flag to any believer in the Lord.

On Mount Carmel, we are a congregation of Jews, Arabs and others, worshipping the Lord together and proclaiming the incredible biblical unity of "One New Man in Messiah" (Ephesians 2:14-18).

As one of the leaders of our ‘One New Man’ community, how could I vote for a political leader who would align himself with a racist party intent on expelling my Arab brothers and sisters from Israel if it had its way?

Now Benny Gantz has compromised on his own absolute bottom line that he would never enter a coalition with Netanyahu. By reneging on this promise (albeit it with the rationale that he is doing it for the good of the country during this crisis), he has left many of his supporters deeply disillusioned.

Israel’s new so-called national emergency government will be jointly led Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz. Together, they must head up the nation’s battle against coronavirus and its devastating economic and social impact. The need to pray for Israel’s leaders has never been more urgent.

God’s Word must be held above all political opinions and parties, whether in Israel or elsewhere. Sometimes it means we simply cannot vote, but we can pray.

At the top of Mount Carmel, we always pray for our leaders, and never advise anyone how to vote. What we do ask all believers to do is to proclaim God’s powerful Word over Israel.

"Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10) is surely the most powerful and balanced proclamation that can be made, and it still needs to be proclaimed today.

Brothers and sisters, please pray for Israel at this time. But rather than praying for any one political leader or party, please join us in our prayer ‘Your kingdom come, you will be done’ over Israel.

I think it would also be good to pray for a new leader to emerge within Israel, who would not be as tainted as our current leaders are, and who might lead Israel in future years.

Some time ago, I was in one of our intercessory prayer and worship meetings on Mount Carmel, and found myself pronouncing Isaiah 41:14. I winced within myself as the description of Jacob/Israel as a "worm" brought home the reality of who we are before a Holy God.

Yet God, in the same breath, declares that Israel should not be afraid and that He will help her.

We need God to intervene and bless us with a sound and righteous government in Israel.

Please pray for God’s will and purposes to be fulfilled, and that He will save and redeem us at this critical time.

Fire kills viruses

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 15:52:15 GMT

[Note from Colin: This is an article written by Andrew Baker, a dear friend and wonderful servant of God. We believe it is an important word that the Body of Messiah needs to hear at this time.]

We are living in a key time right now, with unprecedented things happening around us. Many people are complaining about being ‘locked down’, ‘locked in’, but this is an extremely important season for believers, if we can catch it. This is the time to be ‘closed in’ with God prior to Pentecost. The season from Passover to Pentecost is a very important period. After celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord, remembering also how the Israelites were saved by the blood on the door lintels and we are saved by Jesus shed blood, we then continue through the rest of the days of unleavened bread and through the season that then leads up to Pentecost.

This is the time of removing all the leaven; removing anything that is hindering our walk with God. This is the time for reflection when the Holy Spirit will work within our characters, correct matters and help us to be prepared for the new season ahead. He will give us revelation and fill us with all that is necessary in readiness for what is facing us and the world in the days ahead. He will then bring us to Pentecost and fill us with the fire of God, if we are prepared and ready. After that we move into the unknown! We don't know if we have one plague: coronavirus, or many. We do know that the financial system will be in difficulty, that is even before us now. We also know that over the last 10 years or more God has been ‘preparing the way’ as we, as prophets and intercessors, have made inroads in the spirit into the financial realm. So, in that area, we shall see the things of the world declining and the things of the people of God advancing; that is the subject for another day. So, this is one of the things I wanted to mentioned to you today: this period from Passover to Pentecost and how important it is not just to feel ‘locked down’ but to be ‘locked in’ with God getting ready for the times ahead.

There is another matter I want to I want to talk about.

One day last week I was asking God: “what is the key to being rid of this coronavirus” and the Lord answered me with the word ‘fire’. It was as though God was saying ‘call down the fire’ and also, ‘use the fire that is within you’.

So I began to look at some scriptures concerning this fire. The first scripture I saw was in Zechariah 2:5 where the bible tells us of the Lord, “I will be a wall of fire around her (Jerusalem, God’s people) and I will be the glory in her midst” brackets mine. God was the fire of protection around His people! It reminded me of a story from Reinhard Bonnke where his tent, the place where he was having a huge meeting in Africa, was surrounded by fire in the spirit after prayer. The result was that various witch doctors could not even get into the tent to perform what they came to do; that is, to destroy Reinhard and the work. All they saw was a wall of fire around the tent, apparently, according to one of them who got saved later. Instead the power of the destroyer was nullified by the fire of God protecting Reinhard and the entire congregation in the mission tent. I also remember a meeting in Washington DC where, during the glory conference we were attending, the fire brigade were called three times, fire having been reported coming out of the roof of the building. So we see the fire of God’s protection; the fire of God’s presence; the fire showing us that God is ‘on the job’, present in the situation.

We are told in Hebrews 12:29 that “our God is a consuming fire”. That was the same fire of the Lord that fell and consumed everything when Elijah called down this fire upon the sacrifice he was offering. The result was that the people who had been in two minds about whether to serve God or Baal said, “The Lord, He is God”.

Where the fire is, the presence is. Where the presence is, so is the fire; even a consuming fire. Do you remember the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3? Although verse 2 says that “an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire”, yet verse 4 tells us that “God called to him from the midst of the fire”(NKJV). Be it an Angel or God Himself, fire was that which surrounded the heavenly appearance. It was the same in Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation. Then there was David who built an altar and made offerings to the Lord, as seen in 1 Chronicles 21:26. David called on the name of the Lord and “He answered him from heaven by fire”. The fire of His presence; the fire of His protection; the fire that burns-up our offerings. This fire also cleanses and this fire kills the enemy and consumes all of his germs. Again in Leviticus 9:23-24 we see that “the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and the fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering”.

Hebrews 12:18 talks of the mountain that burned with fire; and in Genesis 19:24 it rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed the filth. Fire consumes not just the good offerings but it consumes the enemies work. It consumed, in that case, Sodom and Gomorrah!

Fire also refines: Malachi 3:2, referring prophetically to John the Baptist, talks of the ‘refiners fire’ coming to prepare people for Jesus.
Jesus said Luke 12:49 “I came to send fire on the earth”. The fire purifies, destroys, it separates, consumes, kills everything that's bad. Revelation 20:14 tells us of the Lake of fire that destroyed even the foul spirits too.

Looking more at the New Testament we see Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist speaking of Jesus: “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. In Acts chapter 2 the outworking of that promise of the fire is recorded: “then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them they were filled with the Holy Spirit”. They then went out and demonstrated the power of the Kingdom the power of God, the very same fire of God we have been reading about, was now within them! Normally the fire of God would burn us up as impure sinful humans before a pure and Holy God, but the blood of Jesus protects us so, thank you Lord. We can have the Holy Spirit, God on earth, often seen as fire, living within us; that is quite awesome actually.

Let us recap quickly: the burning Bush, Pentecost, the fire at the glory meetings in Washington, Reinhardt Bonnke’s tent fire, consuming sacrifices, fire and glory of his presence, God the consuming fire, the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, then the refiners fire, the fire sent by Jesus on the earth, the fire filled baptism of the Holy Spirit, fire being the killer and ultimate destroyer of every plague, and everything evil including the devil himself.

Back in Acts 2 and this time verse 4 we see that this fire released the gift of tongues and, of course, whilst being a way to privately communicate with God and a way to worship in spirit and truth, yet tongues are also a weapon against the things that are contrary to the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, in prayer, it is as though we are firing off a machine gun in the spirit against the demonic work of the enemy; I feel sure this will have happened to many of you who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

In the New Testament we saw the fire of God at Pentecost and it is the same when believers lay hands on someone to receive the baptism of the Spirit it. It brings that fire; it brings power; it brings refining and it destroys evil. I'm saying it over and over again on purpose.

So, as I was praying, I saw something of what we should do in this current crisis .This fire is the very presence of God that can burn up the enemies. We need to pray down the presence; we need to pray down the fire on this plague; we also need to see that the fire of God is within us and as we speak, as we declare, as we pray, as we command the situation, this fire will kill the plague.

Father will also cover us by the blood of Jesus so that we will not be affected by fire, of course, as we release our prayers , especially in tongues.
Psalm 97:3-5 “a fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies… the mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord” The fire, the presence, burning up the enemies; we are getting the picture now. Psalm 18:8, a “devouring fire from his mouth”. Psalm 68:1-2 “Let God arise and his enemies be scattered… as wax melts before the fire”. God is this very presence; the Holy Spirit within us is the fire. The blood protects us, cleanses us makes us righteous and acceptable in His sight and therefore the fire does not burn us; in fact the fire can live within us! I remember the words of Jeremiah, “His word was in my heart like a burning fire”. So, I say again, we need to call down the fire of the presence of God, the anointing. It is the presence of God that will destroy this plague; the fire of the Holy Spirit within you can kill the plague. The fire of God around you will protect you, by the blood of Jesus, and the fire released when the Holy Spirit Himself speaks through your mouth in tongues, when praying in spiritual warfare, can destroy this plague and virus. We need to believe that the fire of God is within us and around us and will burn up God's enemies!

The Holy Spirit is the missing piece I once saw when I was doing a jigsaw puzzle with Carole. Yes, it would seem to have been a very mundane thing; it was a jig-saw of the Christopher Columbus going to the new world, the new territory. It was a prophetic jigsaw puzzle, in effect, and one piece was missing. I could not understand why the Lord would give me a prophetic jig-saw picture, so important for this present ‘new day’ and ‘new season’ in God, with a piece missing. We actually prayed to find the missing piece! That day we were visiting a local charity shop and there in the window was the same jigsaw puzzle. We bought that jigsaw, found the piece and put it into the jigsaw we were doing. God had provided the missing piece, but I still asked the Lord: “if this is a prophetic jig-saw, then what does this missing piece represent in today’s new day? Why is it missing and exactly what is missing from where? Then the Lord showed me: the power of the Holy Spirit has been locked out of many churches and out of the lives of many believers. The Holy Spirit is, and brings, the fire! He, the Holy Spirit, is the jigsaw piece that's missing.

Today we must see this revelation and pray for the restoration of this fire right across the body of Christ; the restoration of the Holy Spirit so that Christians can demonstrate the Kingdom of God instead of just speaking words.

Paul said he did not just come “with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”.

So, here we are during this pandemic, we are staying in our houses. We are all being asked to stay in, to stay at home. Many people, including believers, are looking and saying ‘Oh! how many weeks, how many days am I going to be stuck inside? Shall I mark it of the calendar day by day like a person in prison may do? However, as believers, perhaps we are missing the point and the opportunity. When we were discussing this in the last ministry team meeting spent in one place, Anna commented and said “but this is the very purpose to stay in the house”. Here we have Passover coming now, then after that the feast of unleavened bread (the cleansing out of the leaven Brenda Taylor and I were talking about that same week). Then we have a period 40 plus days (50 in total, of course) leading up to Pentecost during which the apostles and other believers stayed in the upper room waiting for the fire to fall. They didn't know what was going to happen or how it was going to happen, but the fire came when they were in unity, staying and waiting inside a building until the fire fell! Now we are in the same position; creation is groaning for this breakthrough; we are all locked into our buildings, as it were. This is the time to be crying out to God for the presence, for the fire, for the holiness of God to come to burn, to purify, to destroy the enemy and to bring God’s power and enabling to those who will receive the Holy Spirit and His fire back into their churches and into their lives. This will then give power to believers, breathing fire, as it were, in conversation, in prayer, in declaration, in prophecy, in evangelism and in worship. The fire will go forth it will enable the believer to do his or her job; it will burn up the power of the enemy and it will purify and cleanse what has been spoiled. Yes, our God is a consuming fire and He will build a wall around believers and around the church and around Israel too. He will appear as fire from within you and around you. His fire will go forth before Him and will destroy his enemies and we can be sure of one thing from all of this destruction and burning and cleansing and refining and destroying of the enemy: there will come a powerful revival! There will come upon the earth the Kingdom of God in power. There will come upon the earth a release of resources that have, for many years, had to serve the devil’s work. There will come Jesus Christ King of Kings and Lord of Lords to take His place, amen.

Let us call on the fire of God in these days and see the end of this plague, a solution for believers and new converts too to come through the days ahead in victory and the return of the Lord Jesus to carry out all that is promised in the word. So be it. Passover to Pentecost; will you be ready for the fire?

I will not let You go unless You bless me

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 17:35:18 GMT

The days we're living in now feel more like a movie than real life. Whoever would have believed just a few weeks ago that the whole world would have been brought to its knees as we're experiencing now?

Key questions for believers at this time are how can we pray into this crisis and what might the Lord be saying through it?

When I close the bedroom door, turn off my phone, seek to quieten my restless mind and listen to the Lord, the first sense I have is of the Father's love, compassion and profound grief at the pain and anguish around the world.

Some see this plague as an act of judgment or a divine call to repentance. And this may in part be so. Today's world has fallen far from its loving Creator and many are hopelessly lost in self-destructive ways.

But even if God is sounding the shofar and beseeching His people to wake up and repent, His heart is breaking as He does so.

None of us can yet comprehend the magnitude of suffering happening around us.

Those who are sick and fighting for the next breath.

Those who have lost love ones but still have to endure the agony of isolation.

Those who are overcome with fear and anxiety for themselves or others.

Those working on the front line in the hospitals, fighting sickness and death around them every day.

Those facing lockdown with abusive families.

Those in financial crisis.

The list goes on. But our Father sees every detail and weeps for His children.

Yet as dark as these days are, there is more to this terrible plague than that.

As I sought the Lord's face this morning, I found myself returning to one plea: "Lord, don't let all this suffering be for nothing. Don't let this horror pass without bringing forth redemption. Don't let the ashes settle until we have found the beauty beneath. Lord, I will not let You go until You bless me."

For some of us, the pain of today or the battles we are facing are too intense to allow for quiet reflection. Right now, it's just a matter of survival. The time for thinking and processing will come later.

Others are spending more time alone with their own thoughts than ever before.

But whether or not we can perceive it now or not, I believe there is a blessing to be found in the midst of this global pandemic. I believe there is a Father crying to us through the storm to come into His embrace.

I believe there is a call to reach beyond ourselves and the ordinary busyness of our lives. To see life for what it really is. To realize how flimsy all our mighty towers of Babel really are and to put our trust in the only One who can save.

When this affliction passes, as I believe it will, I pray to God that I will be forever changed by what I am seeing now. When Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, he did not give up the fight until he received his blessing. I pray now that we will stand firm and contend in these days, and that we will come out transformed.

A Glorious Day is Coming

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 17:02:09 GMT

Life Lessons in Self Quarantine

It is Day 7 of my enforced self-quarantine that is scheduled to last 14 days here in Israel.

When Israel’s government announced all its returning citizens from overseas would have to enter 14 days of self-quarantine, I was in Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, waiting to fly home after a wonderful 2 weeks of ministry in Stuttgart, Germany, and Gouda, Holland.

There were large turnouts at several of the meetings, and there were moments when the tangible presence of the Lord came among us.

It is an undeniable pleasure and privilege to speak God’s word to so many precious followers of the Lord, and to be called to bless the nations with God’s word from Zion (Isaiah 2:3).

In addition, to spend time with my German family in Unterenslingen and the wonderful pastoral family in Gouda meant times of laugher, important conversations, wonderful fellowship, and many hugs.

When I minister overseas, I always try to limit my time away from family to no more than two weekends of ministry.

So, as I got ready to board my flight home, I looked around at my fellow Israeli passengers and saw a lot of miserable faces. 14 days of self-quarantine is nothing to look forward to!

Helen and I felt it would be too much for our children for me to be at home, but untouchable, locked in our bedroom, so we decided I would stay in what is a large house not far from our worship centre on the top of Mt. Carmel.

So that will now be a total of 4 weekends away from home. Helen is carrying the heavy load of care for Yaakov and Hannah without my help, and now their kindergardens are shut indefinitely.

I entered the quarantine house and settled down to a routine of increased prayer, Bible reading, general reading, and communication primarily through the internet and occasional phone calls.

Thank God He has made me resilient and determined to get through these days without being miserable or going stir crazy.

I went from wonderful fellowship and standing in front of hundreds of people to complete isolation!!

On my return to Israel, the apparent self-defeating aspect of this imposed self-quarantine hit home immediately as I was free to make my way north from Tel Aviv airport using public transport. My luggage was a giveaway that I was coming from the airport. People on train platforms glanced my way, and taxi drivers did not want me in their car. The taxi driver who took me was clearly scared and opened all his windows wide for the entire journey.

I transitioned from ‘Guest Speaker’ to ‘Social Outcast’!!

I have become a hidden member of the community, locked away from the outside world and unable to do anything practical to help my family or my congregation.

Prayer has become central in what I can do during this time.

And I have been going deeper into God’s powerful word, so that I can proclaim in prayer, His word over Israel, the nations, my family, loved ones and friends.

Proclaiming Psalm 91 seems to be advisable for all of us as the effects of the coronavirus sweep across the world. We are experiencing a plague.

Psalm 91:10: ‘No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.’

Passover is fast approaching, and many believers will be celebrating our Lord’s sacrificial death on the cross, and His resurrection too.

Exodus 12:13: ‘Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood (of the unblemished lamb), I will pass over you; and the plague (the death to first born male children) shall not be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.’

We will be covered by the blood of the Lamb during this virulent plague.

We need to proclaim these powerful words of our God during this time of plague and mass panic.

We know as believers in Yeshua that we await a glorious day of His appearing.

2 Timothy 4:8: ‘Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing.’

The love of Yeshua’s appearing can also be translated as ‘all who eagerly await His appearing.’

What a glorious day is coming. Along with Yeshua’s first coming, His second coming will be the greatest day in Earth’s history.

As I have been praying and reflecting on all that is happening around the globe and here in Israel, I believe that we are experiencing harbingers and foreshadowing of future events.

This coronavirus plague is paralysing much of the world, so now we are all being prepared for even greater tribulation in the future, even as we struggle to cope with today’s events.

But look at other harbingers that have been experienced. The war in Syria has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people, and Europe and other Middle East countries have been flooded with millions of refugees.

The Ebola crisis in Africa accounted for over 11,000 deaths.

Closer to my Jewish family in the UK, the fear experienced by the UK Jewish community in 2019 as they faced an extreme left Labour Party whose anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel was openly exposed, and was only temporarily halted by their election failure. But what might happen in the next five to ten years?!

But as there are these very real harbingers of future tribulation, there are also some glorious foreshadows of the glory that is to come.

This coronavirus crisis will pass. People will start getting back to some degree of normality.

There will be understandable joy for families who are re-united.

They will be days of glory.

When community celebrations resume, there will be joy on the streets of many cities and nations.

When our congregation on Mt Carmel can come together again in worship, praise and prayer, it will be a glorious day.

When I walk out of my self-quarantine in 7 days’ time, and hug Helen, Yaakov and Hannah, that will be a glorious day.

When I see smiling faces and hear laughter again, that will be a glorious day.

When I can freely stroll through a park or look out at Jerusalem or the Sea of Galilee again, that will be a glorious day.

When I can jump on a plane, and fly to loved ones again, that will be a glorious day.

Before the great and glorious day of Yeshua’s appearing, there will be other glorious days coming.

And maybe it has taken a season in self-quarantine and national and global lockdown, for me to truly learn and love the value of a hug, the joy of a smile, the comfort of family, and the glorious days we will experience, before the most glorious day of all.

A Peace Deal that Works for Israel & its Neighbours

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 10:44:28 GMT

On Tuesday 28th January 2020, President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, presented the US administration’s long awaited peace deal for Israel and the Palestinians. President Trump hailed it as ‘the deal of the century’.
The actual document is 181 pages long and was put together by a team of US officials led by Jared Kushner and took over two years before it could be presented.

To look at the plan is to marvel at what appears to be the skills of a contortionist, in detailing a map that includes tunnels and access roads weaving in and out of Judea and Samaria (often called the ‘West Bank’) in a land that I remind us all is the size of Wales in the UK!!

In seeking to connect Gaza to Judea and Samaria via a long tunnel, and some Jewish areas to main Israeli routes, with very obvious security measures all around the over ground roads, this was clearly and exercise in trying to make sure that the two people groups would be kept apart in a maze of intricate and excruciating planning.

In other words, as the old saying goes ‘neither the twain shall meet!’

The plan has been given a four year implementation time period, to try to solve what has often been called ‘the longest running family dispute in world history’, that begun with Isaac and Ishmael as revealed in the scriptures.

It was very telling that Oman, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates sent representatives to the presentation, and there have been signals from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States that they at least see these proposals as a basis for negotiations.
Iran, Turkey, and most noticeably, the Palestinian Authority all strongly opposed the plan, which is no great surprise.
Subsequently, The Arab league has rejected the plan, and the rejection of the plan by the Palestinians was expressed long before the plan was even presented.

Mahmoud Abbas certainly revealed some of his true colours by calling President Trump ‘a dog, and the son of a dog’.

Can you imagine the outcry if Trump had called Abbas by the same words?!

Trump and Netanyahu’s personal political problems were highlighted by the media as they made the presentation, but let us be clear that the impeachment proceedings in the US will be defeated, and I would humbly predict that President Trump will probably be re-elected in the US election later this year.

The three corruption charges against Benjamin Netanyahu will be heard in the Supreme Court in Israel this year. It is still unclear whether Netanyahu will be blocked from forming a government in the build up to the 2nd March election because of these serious charges, but it is clear that the large majority of the Israeli electorate would be happy to see a coalition government between Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Benny Gantz’ Blue and White Party, and it would have already happened if Netanyahu had been willing to stand down, and seek to clear his name in court, before any attempt to resume his political service.

It was positive that Benny Gantz met with President Trump the day before the presentation, and agreed in principle, to the peace plan.

So will it work? Can this peace plan live up to its’ billing as ‘the deal of the century?’

And how should we, who love the Lord, position ourselves in these matters, and in what way should we pray?

I would join with some others in observing that the main value of this ‘peace plan’ is in the way it reshapes the debate about forming a durable peace.

Israel’s very real security needs have been clearly expressed and responded to in the plan, and in any future peace process discussions, these issues can never be overlooked again, as they have been by the UN and the now depleted European Union (After Brexit).

The behaviour of the Palestinian leadership, media and society has been strongly challenged to end incitement of hatred towards Jewish people, cease rewarding the families of those who commit murderous terrorist acts in Israel, and change their unacceptable teaching of school children to hate and want to murder Israelis.

But let’s be very clear. There is no sign of this happening, and a four year plan cannot remove ingrained hatred of Jewish people that has been fed viciously for several generations.

We do need to pray for the politicians involved, and especially for the people within both Arab and Jewish society who really want to find ways to build relationships and understand each other better. Any initiative that brings people together should be encouraged generally and supported in prayer.

But I will continue to say that there is no political peace process that will work as I believe that the problems here are mainly ‘spiritual’ and spiritual problems require spiritual solutions.

Our congregation situated on biblical Mt Carmel for nearly 29 years continues to experience the amazingly powerful transformation of both Jewish and Arab Israelis who come to faith in Yeshua/Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, being reconciled to God, and then reconciled wonderfully to each other.

Ephesians 2:14 – 15: ‘For He (Yeshua/Jesus) Himself is our peace, who has made both (Jews & Gentiles) one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity (hatred), that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two (Jews & Gentiles), thus making peace (shalom).’

Now this the ultimate Middle East Peace Process, and His name, the name above all names, is Yeshua/Jesus. He is the one who removes the hatred; He is the one who removes the barriers; He is ‘our shalom’; He is the Prince of Peace/Sar Shalom.

I know this sounds somehow impractical; I know it sounds like a bypassing of the normal processes of problem solving and political compromise and negotiation, but I can only declare that what we experience here in our wonderfully diverse Messianic believing community is what I strongly believe is the only true peace process that will work in Israel.

When Jewish and Arab people encounter the living God they are changed over time from hate to love; yes, it still needs to be worked through, and it is challenging, but it a process of transformation that brings overwhelming love and real lasting peace.

We must continue by all means, to pray for the peace of Israel and all of its’ Arab peoples and neighbours. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). Pray for all the politicians involved; but please pray for the radical building up of the ‘One New Man’ body of Messiah in Israel and the Middle East. Pray especially that more and more Jews and Arabs would come to saving faith in Yeshua/Jesus, and experience, deep within their hearts, the glorious transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This is real peace. This is the everlasting shalom we crave.

We trust God at His word concerning Israel.

Isaiah 46:13: ‘I bring my righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger, and I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.’

We need your prayers to be joined with ours in seeking the growing salvation of Jews and Arabs in Israel and across the Middle East.

In 2020 He is still the Name above all names

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 13:53:40 GMT

‘Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name’ – Philippians 2:9.

‘We beheld His glory… full of grace and truth’ – John 1:14

As we enter into a new year and a new decade, it’s natural to look back and reflect on events in our personal lives and global events that have impacted the world.

We also look forward to the coming year with both new hope and excitement, as well as some trepidation for the challenges that lie ahead—again, both in our personal lives and in the nations and communities we live in.

Those of us who declare that Yeshua/Jesus is Lord must remember that He is still the Name above all names in 2020.

His Name is above the name of any political figure. It’s easy to get caught up in the political debates that are occurring around the world, and to call out the names of the politicians we love or hate.

Here are the names of some politicians who have been prominent around the world in the past year:

Trump, Johnson, Pelosi, Putin, Netanyahu, Obama, Corbyn, Rouhani, Biden, Erdogan, Merkel, Macron, Kim Jong-un, Mahathir, Trudeau.

Apologies to all those I left out!

In the world of celebrity, there are other prominent names:

Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Mohammed Salah, Stormzy, Greta Thunberg, Gal Gadot, Lionel Messi, and I will not leave out the football coach I love and admire, Jurgen Klopp.

His Name is above them all.

Our congregation on Mount Carmel—Kehilat HaCarmel—just announced its vision statement after a long period of prayer and seeking the Lord. Many parts of the vision are applicable to believers all over the world.

We desire to ‘pursue God’s presence’. We all need to experience afresh the truth that ‘in His presence is fulness of joy’ (Psalm 16:11) . If we are experiencing the awesome and holy presence of God in our lives, then we will shine in the darkness of 2020.

Our congregation seeks to ‘impact Israel and the nations.’ Every time we pray, we can all ask the Lord to bring change and deliverance into our lives, families, communities, churches and nations.

Instead of simply expressing our opinions, we can pray for each other, for our governments, our enemies, our leaders, our pastors, our world.

As we enter 2020, we can also pray that the Lord would change us!

One transformation that many of us desperately need lies in the way we conduct our relationships. I will speak for myself and say that I constantly ask the Lord for more grace in my heart towards those around me. Especially those who express opinions I disagree with.

Another great need among many believers is to be able to stand for what is true and righteous. Truth is being sabotaged in our world today—especially through the media. We need to seek the truth from the One who is ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6).

For those who need major breakthroughs in their lives, there is great power in declaring: ‘Lord make a way where there is no way because You are the Way.’

I am committed to praying for people in this way wherever I speak and minister in 2020.

Yeshua was not only full of God’s glory. He was and is ‘full of grace and truth.’

When all the famous names we will reference this year and beyond, are ushered off the platforms of life or popularity, we need to proclaim and remember that we serve the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. His name, YESHUA/JESUS is the ‘Name above all names.’ He is eternal. Our God is the everlasting Father.

In 2020, our King is still the Name above all names.

Happy and Blessed 2020 from Mount Carmel.

The hate-filled words of a London bus driver still echo today

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 07:20:30 GMT

During my recent trip to Malaysia, I had the privilege of visiting the site where the only synagogue that has ever existed in Malaysia once stood, on the beautiful island of Penang.

The history of the Jewish people has included a succession of painful demands to leave their diaspora homes. The dispersion of the Jewish people was not just one eviction from their biblical home of Israel, but dispersion upon dispersion, constantly having to flee hate-filled antisemitic nations.

The expulsions of the Jews from Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century.

The Jewish flight from pogroms in Russia and Poland in the 1880s.

The Middle Ages crusades that slaughtered Jews and Muslims across Europe.

The expulsion of Jews from the land of my birth, the UK, in the 13th century.

And, of course, the Holocaust during World War II that claimed more than 6 million Jewish lives.

In 1957, the Jews of Penang were told they would have to leave the newly independent Islamic nation of Malaysia.
Today the building that once served the small Jewish community of Penang is a small coffee and breakfast bar. As I pondered the plight of that 1950s community of Jews in Penang facing the prospect of eviction, I remembered my own childhood experience on a London bus one day as I travelled home from school.

I was wearing my Jewish school uniform, which had a menorah as the school badge, and I had a kippa clipped to my hair. As I paid my fare to the driver, he loudly declared: ‘Move along Jew boy!’ That was sadly not an unusual experience for Jewish children in England.

‘Move along Jew boy.’ That is what the Jews of Malaysia heard in the 1950s in Penang. It is what over 850,000 Jewish people heard in the Arab lands they had called home for centuries until Israel’s independence in 1948, when they had to flee for their lives, and most settled in Israel.

No wonder my people are sometimes called ‘wandering Jews.’ These wanderings have been the inevitable result of centuries of slaughter, hatred and humiliating persecution.

Only when I returned to live in my ancestral home of Israel did I feel that I was now residing in the one nation I could truly call home.

Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is the only real home for the Jewish people. I am happy to share my home with the nearly 2 million Arab Israelis, the wonderful Druze communities, and others who call Israel their home too. But make no mistake. Israel is home for all Jewish people.

The UK is approaching a general election on 12th December. In my living memory, there has never been an election where antisemitism has been so high on the agenda. The Chief Rabbi of the UK, Ephraim Mirvis, has been compelled to speak out about the virulent antisemitism that has been so evident in the British Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn has promised to recognise a Palestinian state in the first week of his premiership if elected. Those of us on the ground in Israel know this will only serve to inspire the Islamic terrorists among the Palestinian people and provoke more violence towards Israel.

The enemies of Israel will see that they do not have to recognise Israel’s right to exist so long as they have political support to continue their murderous ways. Corbyn is offering Hamas and Hezbollah, who he previously called his friends, a carte blanche to continue their terrorism.

Corbyn hates Israel. He does not think Israel should exist, and he has called Israel ‘a racist endeavour.’

I watched the interview conducted by the journalist Andrew Neil with Corbyn, where Corbyn was repeatedly given the chance to apologise for Labour’s antisemitism, particularly in the light of the Chief Rabbi’s remarks.

Corbyn did not apologise, since he does not view his hatred of Israel as antisemitic. More recently, he has issued a grudging apology, but it is clear that his views remain unchanged.

If Corbyn became Prime Minister, the underlying message to the UK Jewish community would be the same one I heard spoken by a London bus driver all those years ago: ‘Move along Jew boy.’

Antisemitism is spreading like wildfire across Europe, the UK, the US, and throughout the world.

Corbyn, and all those who agree with his hatred of Israel are like the ancient and historic haters of Israel and the Jewish people.

Psalm 83:4: ‘They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”’

My deep heartfelt prayer for the British people is that they would reject Corbyn and the Labour party in the forthcoming election.

The UK Chief Rabbi was absolutely right when he said that ‘the soul of our nation is at stake.’

Psalm 83:16: ‘Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O Lord’.

May the scourge of anti-Israel prejudice and antisemitism be crushed in the UK.

The need for humility from Bibi Netanyahu

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:33:00 GMT

'Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me this far?”' - 1 Chronicles 17:16

On Tuesday 17th September 2019, Israelis went to the polls again in another election because Prime Minister Netanyahu could not form a coalition government after the previous election in April.

In April, Bibi Netanyahu’s party were just about the largest party, and he was quite rightly given every opportunity under Israeli law to seek a coalition government, but not enough of the smaller parties were prepared to work with him, and so we had a re-run election.

This time, the result was different and the Blue and White party under Benny Gantz (former IDF Chief of Staff) and Yair Lapid emerged as the largest party with 33 seats to Likud’s/Netanyahu’s 32 seats.

It is clear that the Israeli electorate are crying out for a national unity government, which would—respectfully—lay aside the ultra-religious parties in the Israeli parliament.

Indeed 52% of voters polled said they would prefer a government without any religious parties involved.

But there is one major stumbling block.

Benjamin Netanyahu is facing indictment in the Israeli Courts for corruption and Benny Gantz made it clear before the election that the Blue and White party would not join a coalition in which Netanyahu was either in leadership or partnership, as he needs to go through the legal processes and clear his name before such an arrangement could even be considered, let alone agreed.

President Reuven Rivlin also has an important role. As the right-wing block of parties had one more recommendation than the Blue and White party in the Knesset, Netanyahu was asked by Rivlin to try to form a government, but everyone knows this will be impossible as things currently stand.

Bibi Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister and is worthy of respect and gratitude for his strong defence of Israel’s security during the years of his leadership. That said, in a desire to maintain power both last April and in the run up to this election, he crossed several red lines. For example, encouraging the far-right extremist and racist party Otzma Yehudit (followers of the late Rabbi Kahane) to stand in the elections in the hope that he could bolster his coalition with their presence.

It was akin to a US president seeking coalition with the Klu Klux Klan!

It has been a dirty election on both occasions from more than one party.

Throughout history, so many leaders have found it impossible to let go and allow others to lead.

There are many believers in the nations who appeared unaware of the facts on the ground in Israel and prayed for Netanyahu to win, while the more correct prayer had to be ‘Your Kingdom come, Lord, over Israel, and Your will be done, in heaven as it is on earth.’

Now it seems that the major obstacle to the national unity government that Israelis have clearly voted for, which would involve the coming together of the Blue and White party and Likud, is Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to see that his leadership cannot proceed as before.

If Bibi Netanyahu were to do something totally out of character, stand down and allow his Likud party to be led by someone else, then a national unity government could be formed.

If Netanyahu is indicted for corruption and bribery, then he may not have a choice. Either way, he should surely seek to clear his name before continuing his political career.

In I Chronicles 17:3-15, the prophet Nathan was instructed by the Lord to tell David that he could not build the temple, which was David’s heart desire and purpose.

David’s response was full of humility and grace: ‘Who am I?’ This reaction revealed David’s total acceptance of God’s word and a clear understanding of reality on the ground.

Although David’s deepest desire to build the temple had been crushed, he honoured God and declared the proclaimed: ‘The Lord of hosts (armies), the God of Israel, is Israel’s God.’ That is as true today as it was in David’s time.

So please join us in seeking the Lord and asking for His will to be performed in the next Israeli government. And if Bibi needs to stand down, pray that he will find the humility to do so gracefully.

Let us all proclaim the eternal truth: ‘The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God.’

Trump, Omar, Obama, Corbyn et al.

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 06:52:21 GMT

‘The Lord shall hold them in derision’

‘Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.’ – Psalm 2:1-4

Extreme and unacceptable views are prevalent in our world today and are sadly often expressed by political leaders. The well-known verses quoted above from Psalm 2 reveal the truth that these leaders have set themselves against the Lord.

The Lord’s response is to laugh at the arrogance of such political figures.

There is a great need among the followers of Yeshua/Jesus for discernment regarding political leaders, and for a much deeper, more prayerful response to the issues of the day.

While, undoubtedly, God can use these leaders to fulfil His own purposes, we are not free to blindly accept everything they do or say. So, let us examine some key matters before us now.

President Donald Trump took over from Barak Obama in the White House in 2016.

During Obama’s time in office, he did all he could to remove God from the US state school system; his red lines on Syria turned green when Assad’s regime crossed them; and his parting gift to Israel was a stab in the back. Obama’s last act in office was an attempt to release tens of thousands of dollars to the Palestinian Authority – funds that Congress was withholding because of the PA’s financial support of terrorism. As soon as Trump was installed as president, he blocked this release of funds to the PA.

Obama – like most western politicians – also supported the LBGT movement and advocated for transgender toilets in the US.

President Obama and his wife Michelle were polite and dignified in public and won many hearts, including those of Bible-believing Christians. Yet their policies conflicted with biblical faith. Many of my black brothers and sisters in the faith still support the Obamas without seeming to understand that much of what they stand for goes against the Word of God.

Donald Trump has very little of his predecessor’s charm. His behaviour, particularly on Twitter, and his public and private manners are often far from godly. He is a controversial figure who has polarised US society.

Despite all this, Trump did the right thing when he fulfilled his campaign pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, so recognizing that Jerusalem is and always will be the undivided capital of Israel. More than that, he was actually fulfilling a US legal statute. Most people don’t know that in 1995 Congress passed a law pledging that the US would move its embassy to Jerusalem. Since that time, every US president, including Clinton, Bush Jnr and Obama, has signed a sixth monthly waiver to postpone the implementation of this law. Until President Trump.

Now Trump is being castigated for his tweets against four female democratic senators. He wrote that they should ‘return to their countries of origin’ to ‘fix the crime and lawlessness in those nations’ rather than just criticising the US. He also referenced all four women’s anti-Semitism and anti-Israel views.

The four women, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley are all US citizens and elected officials.

Let’s be clear: President’s Trump’s statements were racist.

The chants of ‘send them back’ from Trump’s supporters were also racist, and indefensible.

However, there is clear evidence that all four of these US women democrats are extremely anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic.
Ms Omar advocates boycotting Israel and has compared the country to Hitler’s Nazi regime. Ms Cortez likened refugee camps on the US/Mexico border to Nazi concentration camps – a remark that is both anti-Semitic and plain ignorant. If we say that Trump was racist in his response to these women, then we must remember that they, too, are racist and anti-Semitic.

Those who were quick to condemn Trump for his racism, including some believers in the Lord, are often silent about anti-Semitism.

Racism is racism, wherever and whoever it comes from. There is absolutely no place for racism in the Kingdom of God.
We must also remember – in the midst of our anger and offense at these political leaders – Yeshua’s radical command to ‘love your enemies.’

Are you praying for Trump? Obama? Others who have hurt or offended you?

In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn and the leading members of today’s Labour Party have also expressed extreme anti-Israel views. Many Jewish members of the Labour Party have received appalling anti-Semitic abuse from others within their own party.

The Labour member of parliament Naz Shah famously declared in 2014 that all the Jewish people living in Israel should be relocated to the US! She was suspended at the time but has since been reinstated after apologising. Ironically, she is now the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities!

This is another clear example of racism among political leaders.

Sadly, Israeli politicians have also been guilty of racism. Israel always has a coalition government, which often leads to instability and gives some smaller political parties too much influence over government policies.

In our recent election, Bibi Netanyahu engaged in talks with followers of the late Rabbi Kahane (who was banned from the government for his extremism and racist views). Bibi was looking for coalition partners in order to maintain his premiership, but by dialoguing with Kahanists, he crossed a red line. Kahane’s followers are known for their anti-Arab views and reluctance to condemn right-wing violence. These views have no place in government, and any politician who courts support from these sorts of political parties is entering into an agreement with racism.

Let’s be clear.

The problem with political parties of all kinds is that, sooner or later, they are going to advocate policies that conflict with biblical faith. Too many believers across the political spectrum are quick to support politicians and fail to discern these areas.

Dear brother and sisters in Messiah Yeshua/Christ Jesus. Let’s start praying more and seeking discernment.

If anyone is racist, let’s be clear to condemn it, without compromise. If we want to praise a political figure, let’s do so in a calm and balanced way.

Stop politicking and start praying.

Livin' on the Frontline

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:12:44 GMT

Forty years ago, in 1979, I was living and working in Dalston, Hackney, East London.

Dalston, and that area of Hackney in general, had a reputation for being a tough neighbourhood. But as one who was born and raised in the Hackney area, I did not fear the late night walks through some of the notorious streets of Dalston that led to my one-bedroomed flat.

One of the popular songs of the day that I enjoyed listening to seemed to capture life at that time. ‘Livin’ on the Frontline,’ by Eddie Grant (1979) could often be heard blasting out on loud music systems by both black and white people who felt the song reflected their day to day experiences.

The inner-city problems of Dalston included violent crime, drug abuse, racial tensions, and a total mistrust of the local police.

Drug dealing was happening on the streets in broad daylight.

I was working in a residential children’s home in Dalston, caring for some very challenging streetwise young people, and the home became a magnet for many of their friends to hang out. This offered a vision of the troubled society we were living in.

In every sense, it felt like we were living on the frontline.

That year, I had a personal encounter with Yeshua / Jesus as a young Jewish man and experienced the joy of salvation in a wonderful church in Hackney, which radically changed my life.

Suddenly I was now ministering and praying on the frontline too.

Now in 2019, 40 years later, I find myself living and serving Yeshua in full-time ministry on Mount Carmel in northern Israel.

It is a great privilege and joy to live and serve in Israel and be involved in speaking God’s Word around the world. I can never take this calling for granted.

From the high vantage point of Mount Carmel, as I look at what is happening both around the world and closer to home here in Israel, realities on the ground are extremely challenging. There is much confusion among believers in Yeshua, as well as deep darkness everywhere.

‘And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’ - John 3:19

Here is the central issue in the words of Yeshua Himself: The greatest light has come into the world - Yeshua has come, suffered and died on the cross, conquering death, so that we all may have life and be clean. But many people love darkness and choose to do evil.

There are three very different issues I have been thinking about this week that seem to sum up the confusion and despair around us.

It is amazing to see the confusion around the world concerning gender. These days, boys can choose to be girls and vice versa, and public toilets can include a gender-neutral alternative. From a pastoral perspective, many of the individuals who see themselves as transgender are deeply confused and need wise, sensitive counsel to help them wrestle with painful realities and find their true identities in God.

We must be open to receive these people into our congregations with love rather than judgment. But we must also stand on the biblical truth that God created two genders: male and female, and that attempts to blur this distinction go against God’s word (very often with devastating effects for the individuals involved).

The second issue is the virulent anti-Semitism that seems to have become mainstream across much of the world. On 25 April 2019 the New York Times published a clearly anti-Semitic cartoon , revealing a disturbing reality that hatred of Jewish people and Israel has become publicly acceptable.

Even the University of Cambridge (a supposed bastion of British education) gave the racist anti-Semitic President of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamed, a platform to express his hatred of the Jewish people freely on 17th June 2019!

The third issue I have been reflecting on is a confusion sometimes seen within the body of believers concerning the significance of their Hebraic roots . Dan Juster wrote an excellent, balanced article about this recently. He explained the complexities and problems of Gentile Christians, who, in their embrace of the Hebraic roots of their faith, become legalistic and sometimes ‘religious’ in their observance of the Shabbat or the biblical feasts.

I find myself musing on these issues, and many more besides, as I continue to serve in Israel and speak internationally.
If I thought life was challenging back in 1979, I now know that it does not compare with what is happening in our world today.

Today, believers here in Israel as well as those around the world really are ‘Livin’ on the Frontline.’

Germany & Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day: Standing Together

Fri, 10 May 2019 16:54:34 GMT

‘Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord’ - Hebrews 12:12-14

Recently, I was honoured to speak in Stuttgart Germany at an ICEJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem) event.

It was a special time of both celebration and painful remembrance as we celebrated 70 years of the restored German Republic, 30 years since the Berlin Wall came down, and all this as the nation of Israel entered into its annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).

The event in Stuttgart included wonderful times of worship, and speakers from Germany, the US and Israel.

There was a beautiful rendition of the theme music from the film ‘Schindler’s List’ that moves me every time I hear it.

I believe the event was an example of the miracle of God’s powerful restoration that enabled Jews and Germans to stand together just 74 years after the end of World War II and the liberation of the appalling concentration camps, in which millions of Jewish people were slaughtered.

Our God works through processes of time. We know that our own personal healing experiences are often completed over extended periods of time.

The abused and broken relationship between the German and Jewish people is still in that process of restoration.

I remember my first ministry trip to Germany back in the 1980s. I was attending a ministers’ conference near the Black Forest.

My parents had previously told my brothers and I that they would never visit Germany as they could not imagine walking down the same street as someone who may have been a Nazi in the war. Such were and often still are the wounds carried by Jewish people because of the Holocaust. My parents were not alone in this regard. Albert Einstein refused to return to his birthplace, Ulm in Germany, for the same reasons, even though they wished to honour him and name a street in the city after him. This street - Einstein Strasse - is still there in Ulm today.

Before making my first visit to Germany in the 1980s, I decided to honour my parents by telling them I would not go if they didn’t want me to.

They responded by saying ‘Oh no son, we would never impose our feelings on any of our children.’ And so I made my first visit to Germany.

During that visit, I shared my testimony in a small church in the Black Forest. At the end of the service, the pastor approached me and asked if I could pray with a woman. He told me she was a Nazi during the war. She had repented and received God’s forgiveness, but she really wanted the forgiveness of a Jew!

As the woman wept before me and I knew I must pray for her, I struggled inwardly with myself. However, the moment I began to pray, I felt God’s presence ministering to me and giving me the grace to truly forgive.

From that day on, I found that I could freely and totally love the German people - a love that I know is supernatural.

Looking back, I am sure that God was laying foundations for all the ministry I am now privileged to undertake in Germany, and it is so much easier today, because I feel overwhelmingly loved by the German people.

We see German Christians volunteering in wonderful ways here in Israel, looking after Holocaust survivors, standing with the Jewish people, and serving in our own ministry. I, too, have been ‘adopted’ by a wonderful German family, whose love and kindness towards me often leaves me speechless.

When the Berlin wall came down 30 years ago, it was the German and the Jewish people who had most cause to celebrate. The Germans saw their nation reunified, and understandably and correctly declared Berlin as their undivided capital city. Meanwhile, over a million Jewish people were finally able to leave the former Soviet Union and return to their biblical home, Israel.

And what is good for the Germans to do in proclaiming Berlin as their undivided capital city, is also good for Israel, as Jerusalem is the everlasting undivided capital city of Israel.

Yes there are real battles ahead for this restoration process between Germany and Israel: Anti-Semitism is spreading like a cancer across Europe, the UK and the US, and just last week, a report about young Jews in Berlin declaring they had ‘no future’ in Germany surfaced to remind all of us there is still a way to go for complete restoration.

We pray for the day that Germany will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Please join in the prayers for that big move ahead.

Today, we rejoice at this amazing coming together of Germany and Israel. If God can bring such transformation in just over 70 years, then He can bring healing to other intractable situations around the world, including Israel’s ongoing conflict with Gaza and its neighbours. We pray for the day when Israel’s neighbours will be delivered from their demonic religious hatred, come to know the Messiah and embrace Israel’s right to exist.

I believe with all my heart that Israel’s ongoing restoration must continue to involve the wonderful care and love being poured out by German believers, and that Germany’s restoration must continue to include the Jewish people. Indeed, I, as a Messianic Jewish believer in Yeshua, commit myself fully to the healing and restoration of Germany and its people.

As we did in Stuttgart, let Germany and Israel stand together in this miraculous restoration, fulfilling God’s word and ‘looking unto Yeshua, the author and finisher of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:2).

Our responsibility as followers of Yeshua / Jesus is beautifully expressed in Hebrews 12:12-14, which says that we must ‘strengthen our hands which are hanging down, and our feeble knees’, so we can raise our hands in worship to the living God and humble ourselves before God on our knees. That way we will be healed, our nations will be healed, and we will be able to pray for healing over all in need of restoration.

We need to ‘pursue peace with all people’ and be holy and blameless before our Lord.

Responding to the Hatred, Lies & Violence around the World

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute yo u.’ - Matthew 5: 43-44

Some weeks ago, we enjoyed a wonderful family meal at Maxims restaurant in Haifa. Helen’s parents joined us, and the children were enjoying both the food and the attention of our very sweet waitress, a young Arab Muslim.

I felt led to share with our waitress a small part of our children’s adoption story, and she was so thrilled, and gave them a small chocolate gift.

It was a lovely moment together.

Maxims is the restaurant that suffered a horrific suicide bombing attack by Hamas back in October 2003 that resulted in multiple deaths. Maxims is a jointly owned by a Jewish and Arab family, and they lost family members in the attack.
They decided to continue the restaurant after the terrible attack, which is a shining light of co-existence in Haifa, and within Israel.

While we were at Maxims, I was aware that two missiles had been fired at Tel Aviv from Gaza by Islamic terrorists, whether from Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Israel responded, quite rightly, by striking various terrorist targets belonging to both groups within Gaza.

Two days earlier, I was in Jerusalem with our SOM Israel study tour. We gathered in Gethsemane as Islamic terrorists had just thrown a bomb at Israeli police on the Temple Mount, seriously injuring one officer. The Temple Mount was subsequently shut down, as was the Old City with much violence coming from many Arab youths.

The WAQF authority, who run the Temple Mount on behalf of Jordan and the Muslims, then spread outrageous lies that Israeli police had attacked Islamic clergy and children. They encouraged violent protest from the Arab youth who had gathered at various points in Jerusalem. As we drove to the Garden of Gethsemane we prayed for all involved, and for our Lord’s shalom to prevail in Jerusalem.

In Gethsemane, as I shared God’s word, helicopters flew overhead, various calls to prayer in various Mosques were loudly blaring, and then a young Arab man shouted abuse at us through the fence as I was speaking. I paused to pray for deliverance and peace for the young man, and he immediately fled.

Then we heard the devastating news of the mass shooting in two Mosques in Christchurch New Zealand, that claimed the lives of 49 Muslims at the hands of a right-wing extremist. I could not help but think about the sweet Muslim waitress who had served us at Maxims. When I saw some of the victims of the attack in Christchurch, I determined to pray for all the people affected and declare from the top of Mt. Carmel that we will stand against the murder, violence and lies that are being perpetrated both in Israel and across the world.

And now, today, we have heard the terrible news of Christians being slaughtered in Sri Lanka by Islamic terrorists.

Gethsemane, which literally means ‘the oil press, is the amazing site of Yeshua’s agony for all of us. Yeshua was physically and spiritually ‘pressed out,’ sweating drops of blood (Luke 22:44) before being taken and ultimately crucified. This very weekend, we have celebrated our Passover Lamb.

Our Lord was murdered, abused, and lied about, but we rejoice that he not only bore our sins on the cross, but that He is alive. He is risen!

I have now seen for myself the anger and abuse that happens too regularly on social media with large numbers of lies and misrepresentations, even among many followers of Yeshua.

There are those who portray Israeli soldiers as abusive and disgusting, which is completely wrong given that most of the IDF are restrained, moral, and doing a very difficult job under severe provocation.

There are those who defend clear wrong-doing by a small number of soldiers, when their actions have been clearly seen to be indefensible.

There are those Israelis - a minority - who seem to be unable to say anything good about the country that gives them life and protection.

There are those who express anti-Semitic statements completely devoid of any truth and showing stunning ignorance of daily life within Israel.

There are those who speak hatred towards Arabs and Muslims that is not acceptable in any form.

There are those who clearly hate each other across political divisions and spend too much time filling up social media with their mutual animosity.

Some believers in Yeshua are caught up in all of the above and have not been praying or remembering Yeshua’s words to all of us:

‘Love your enemies’ (Luke 6:27).

You cannot love someone if you are unable to pray for them. And you cannot really pray for someone if you do not receive God’s heart for them first.

In order to receive God’s heart, we need to be people of prayer and humility. We must be peace-loving, willing to listen, and not quick to exercise our anger.

Stop abusing each other, start listening to each other, pray for one another, love your enemies.

If we do so more consistently, and understand and receive God’s heart for all people, then we can experience more often the joy of an evening like ours’ at Maxims.

We must listen to and obey Yeshua, our Passover Lamb.

Hatikvah: Powerful Hope

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:27:17 GMT

On 27th January, it was International Holocaust Memorial Day. The date marks the liberation of Auschwitz, which was one of scores of appalling death camps built by the Nazis for the extermination of, primarily, the Jewish people, but also Nazi political opponents, and others such as gypsies, homosexuals and disabled people.

In fact, anyone who did not fit the Nazi’s white Aryan ‘super-race’ were candidates for death. The Nazis had a plan to exterminate every Jewish person on the planet. Most people know that at least 6 million Jewish people died during the darkest hours of Jewish history in events that took place from the 1933 election of Adolph Hitler through until the end of World War II in 1945.

I visited Auschwitz with Helen in 2014, and, more recently, I visited Mauthausen Goosen Concentration Camp near Linz in Austria.

It is difficult for me to even begin to describe those visits, that left me with memories that cannot be erased.

Our School of Ministry (the Israel Study Tour run by our congregation) that happens every March and November, and in which I am privileged to serve and teach, always takes participants to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in West Jerusalem.

If you want to understand Israel today, with all its complexities, and its fierce determination to prevent its enemies from ‘wiping it off the map,’ as many of them say they want to do, then a visit to Yad Vashem is essential.

Recently, I found myself weeping at an episode of ‘Band of Brothers’ (the 2001 mini-series set during World War II). This episode portrayed American soldiers liberating one of the death camps. The Holocaust remains an open wound for the Jewish people and cannot just be swept aside or ignored.

We need to remember the Holocaust, and declare ‘Never again,’ not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but also for any race or people that is facing potential genocide.

While remembering these horrors, which cannot be underestimated, I believe that our God is a God of restoration who desires for all His servants to know the powerful hope they carry, and to understand this powerful hope through His restoration of the nation of Israel after 2000 years of dispersion, slaughter, and hatred.

The fact that the nation of Israel was restored in 1948 is positive proof that, when God says in His word that He will return the Jewish people to their biblical home, as, for example, in Ezekiel 36: 22-28, then He is faithful to His promise. It is evidence of the powerful hope that we who love the Lord have in our covenant relationship with Him.

The fact that the darkest years in Jewish history happened just three short years before the glorious restoration of Israel speaks loudly of God’s amazing grace and covenant.

Hatikvah , which means the hope , is Israel’s national anthem. It speaks of the eternal hope the Jewish people have in the God of Israel who restores their lives and their land.

On our visit to Auschwitz in 2014, as Helen and I walked back from the area where the gas chambers once were, a double rainbow suddenly appeared over the red-bricked gate house, through which the infamous railway used to run.
It was as though God was repeating to the Jewish people that He would ‘never again’ allow such horrors to be inflicted upon them.

Psalm 121:4: ‘Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.’

Having made Aliyah from England, I realized when I saw that rainbow that the Lord was reminding me that I now live and serve in Israel not just for myself, but for all my people who never made it back to their biblical home.

My prayer as we remember the terrible events of the Holocaust and wonder at the God who restored the nation of Israel, is for the Jewish people to know and love their own Messiah.

Then they will rejoice in Yeshua and experience ‘Messiah in us, the hope / tikvah of glory’ (Colossians 1:27).

The Battle against Anti-Semitism & Anti-Zionism

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 13:36:00 GMT

When I was five years old, I attended a local state infants’ school in East London, as the local Jewish school was oversubscribed.

I remember well the day a little girl called Jennifer sat down next to me and asked me if I was Jewish. In my innocent mind, I thought everyone was the same, so I said ‘yes’ proudly. Jennifer’s response was to let out a shocked ‘ohhhhhhh!’ and walk away from me.

I remember asking my mother why this happened. It was no surprise when, some two years later, I happily transferred to the local Jewish primary school as a space had become available.

Later, in my Jewish secondary school years, I experienced violent attacks from pupils of neighbouring Church of England schools, and anti-Semitic abuse from London bus drivers and some members of the public.

As a young Jewish man living in England, I proudly declared my Jewish identity, and began what has become a life-long battle against anti-Semitism. When I came to a living faith in Yeshua / Jesus as my Messiah and Saviour, that battle actually increased as I found unexpected disdain for my people among some Gentile Christians. Sadly, that is still true today even though there is heart-warming support and love too.

Now as I live and serve in Israel, and travel to minister internationally, I can see a very clear relationship between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments, often labelled anti-Zionism.

Two men I deeply respect and have had the privilege to meet are Canon Andrew White (Church of England priest and former Bishop of Baghdad), and Dr Michael L. Brown (international Messianic Bible teacher).

On 24th January 2018, Dr Brown published an open letter to Dr Jack Sara ( (Principal of Bethlehem Bible College) in response to his criticism of evangelicals for supporting Trump's decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

Here is one of the points from Dr Brown's letter:

'... God did promise the physical land of Israel to the Jewish people before the Law was given at Sinai, and as Paul explained in Galatians 3, the Law, which was 430 years after the promise, cannot nullify the promise. As for the perpetuity of that promise, could God have made Himself any clearer? “He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance’” (Psalm 105:8-11).

You might say, “But that’s not fair.”

May I ask you, dear brother, why everyone else gets a homeland but the Jewish people don’t get one, even a tiny one in the Middle East? If my calculations are right, the physical land of Israel constitutes roughly 1/650th of the surrounding Arab and Muslim land. Is it so terrible that we Jews have a homeland?'

Dr Brown correctly references clear biblical texts that state God’s unchanging covenant with Israel, and promise to give the Jewish people a homeland.

However, the right of the Jewish people to a homeland is questioned again and again by people who say they are not anti-Semitic. These people often criticize Israel without knowing all the facts, without balance, ignoring the hate filled threats and actions from Israel’s immediate neighbours, and the Palestinian agenda of liberating the land 'from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean).'

The Palestinian threat (both from Fatah, who are wrongly portrayed in the West as ‘moderates,’ and from Hamas in Gaza) is grave, and seeks the total destruction of Israel. This must be clearly understood as anti-Semitism.

On 4th January 2019, Canon Andrew White made the following declaration on social media:

‘Most of you know how I passionately love the Jewish community. This year we are faced with a huge challenge, there has been a radical increase in anti-Semitism. This year I am going to work flat out to overcome this evil.’

Firstly, I thank Canon Andrew for his bold statement, and I am certainly one of many who will continue to fight this battle against anti-Semitism.

Immediately on social media there were one or two responses claiming that ‘legitimate criticism of Israel’ is not anti-Semitic.

My response is that most criticisms of Israel are unbalanced and often inaccurate, and come from people who completely fail to acknowledge the threats and abuse coming against Israel from its neighbours and enemies.
They also ignore the slaughter of the dispersed Jewish people throughout history.

These imbalances, that include Israel being forced to be even smaller that it is today (the size of Wales, or the State of New Jersey in the US, or Kruger Park in South Africa), in order to have peace with the Palestinians and its neighbours, who don’t acknowledge Israel’s right to even exist, is nothing short of asking Israel to commit national and strategic suicide.

It is totally anti-Semitic.

Yes, of course Israel’s government can be rightly criticized and is, and as the only true democracy in the Middle East, subject to its own electorate.

But I remain convinced that many of those who wish to criticize Israel do so from a perspective that would deny Israel’s right to exist, ignoring reality on the ground, and are actually extremely anti-Semitic.

One only has to look at the behaviour and beliefs of much of the British Labour Party and its current leader, Jeremy Corbyn to see the truth of this statement.

I thank God for servants like Canon Andrew White and Dr Michael Brown who are strong voices for truth in these challenging times.

I know that, as a Messianic believer living in Israel, I have a dual responsibility to be a blessing to the nations I am privileged to speak in, and to stand against the virulent anti-Semitism that is assaulting both Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.

These are battles for truth and righteousness.

2019 Looms Large – ‘Arise, Shine’

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:11:10 GMT

Isaiah 9:2 & Matthew 4:16: ‘The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, Light has dawned.’

As we enter 2019, those of us who declare that Yeshua is Lord and Saviour in Israel and around the world need to live out this vital truth.

The darkness is increasing, but we should not be surprised as Yeshua Himself declared: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

This darkness sadly includes those who also say they believe in Yeshua but have become lukewarm, distracted, compromising in many areas of practical life, or so caught up in the arenas of politics or personal struggle, they have side-lined the centrality of their faith in a living God.

In Israel, we face ongoing threats from our neighbours, plus increasing pressure from world powers to compromise our security. All this while approaching the uncertainties of a newly elected government after 9th April. Please pray for Israel’s security and future.

The US seems more divided than ever while the UK ‘s pending departure from the EU has seemingly stressed out the people there, including believers.

Frankly, I think the institution of the EU is morally and spiritually bankrupt, and will unravel further in the coming years, so I am sure that the UK needs to leave it no matter what the short-term traumas they will face.

That said, what the people around the globe and in Israel need to see is the ‘great light’ shining powerfully in the darkness, and the best way for this to be manifested is for Yeshua’s followers to press in with greater worship and intercession and be actively shining His glorious light.

So, let us “Arise and shine for our light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us.” (Isaiah 60:1): Let’s do it!

Happy New Year!

A Very Jewish Conversation

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:57:21 GMT

‘And so all Israel will be saved’ - Romans 11:26

As we flew as a family into the UK last night for a weeks’ holiday visit with our family, I found myself sitting in a row with two other Jewish men.

Soon, a conversation was struck up between the three of us, which, on reflection, was very significant.

We had not met each other before. One was a young modern Orthodox Jew, who was returning home to the UK after a period of study at a Yeshiva (Jewish place of study for men) in Jerusalem.

The other Jewish man was, by his own definition, not religious but secular, and very involved in advocacy for Israel in the nations of South Africa (his place of birth), and Australia (his place of residence).

We discussed a range of topics, including Brexit, and the terrible anti-Semitism in the UK, with particular reference to Jeremy Corbyn (the leader of the British Labour Party and leader of the opposition), who is clearly anti-Israel and allows rampant anti-Semitism in his political party with complete impunity, it seems.

As the three of us spoke together, I felt free to declare that I approach these issues from a Messianic Jewish perspective and that I am in the leadership team of a congregation of Jews and Arabs in Israel who worship Yeshua together.

The secular Jewish man immediately said without any animosity ‘Jews for Jesus?’ and I responded by saying we do share beliefs with them if not some of their methods, but we are a worshiping community on Mount Carmel.

The Orthodox Jewish man showed no animosity either, and we continued to speak together very pleasantly finding much common ground.

I shared how many believers of Yeshua in the nations love Israel and are praying for the Jewish people. I highlighted prayer altars in nations such as Malaysia (a Muslim majority country) and Kenya who pray specifically for Israel’s salvation and security. They were amazed and encouraged.

Indeed, at the end of the flight, we all shook hands, and the secular Jew said ‘Kol HaKavod’ (‘All respect’) to me, the follower of Yeshua.

This was a radical change from the many other potential Jewish responses to a Messianic Jewish believer like myself, which could range from disdain to outright anger and great offence. I could have been perceived as a traitor to my own Jewish people.

When Christians and Messianic believers around the world frequently ask me ‘How can we pray for Israel?’, two of my key answers are ‘To pray for the salvation of the Jewish people, so that they would come to the revelation of who their Messiah is’, and ‘To pray that Jewish hearts in Israel and around the world would be ‘softened’ towards Yeshua and the gospel.’

And in my very Jewish conversation with these two other sons of Israel, I saw that their hearts had clearly been ‘softened’ as a result, I believe, of the prayers and intercession being made by believers around the world.

I want to encourage all of us to keep on praying for the salvation of Israel and the Jewish people, and for the hearts of Jewish people everywhere to be softened towards Yeshua, His followers, and the gospel.

This will hasten the day when the words of the Apostle Paul ‘All Israel will be saved’ will be fulfilled.

As Helen, Yaakov, Hannah and I departed the plane to spend Christmas with family in the UK, my heart was deeply encouraged by this very Jewish encounter and conversation, just as the season of celebrating Yeshua the Jewish Messiah, and Saviour of the world is about to begin.

Proclaiming Truth and Righteousness

Sun, 16 Dec 2018 12:46:51 GMT

There is a growing darkness in the world and increasing confusion among those who follow Yeshua as their Lord and Saviour. It is clear to me that there is a need for godly voices that will proclaim truth and righteousness.

Social media is clearly the major current platform for reaching the global community, so I humbly seek to add my voice to the remnant of those who would push back against the tide of darkness.

I am privileged to serve God from the vantage point of living in Israel and speaking to believers in Yeshua around the world.

I am reminded of our Lord’s words: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

Karl Barth, a great theologian, once delivered a sermon in which he declared: "He is the hunger as well as the food."

While many of us are urgently seeking spiritual food and life, what Barth was teaching us so very clearly is that Yeshua is the one who has put that "seeking" and "hunger" inside us, as well as being the one who satisfies our needs. He really is "the hunger as well as the food."

Yeshua is "The Way, the Truth, and The Life" (John 14:6).

Together may we hunger and thirst for His truth and righteousness in every way and find His divine answers and wonderful provision.