Israel & Jewish Roots

While flying to Israel for the first time last year, I wondered what the country was really like. My daily dose of cable and network news made me think I was about to encounter some unfriendly people. But nothing could have been further from the truth. What the church needs to know about Israel can't…

Missiles are fired from Gaza into southern Israel. Iran is steadily marching toward the production of nuclear weapons. And Hezbollah and Hamas are smuggling and stockpiling arms. Welcome to 2010. This may be a new year, but Israel's problems remain largely the same as last year's, and the year before. The persistence of Israel's problems…

When I was in a concentration camp during World War II, we had to stand every day for two or three hours for roll call, often in the icy-cold wind. Once a woman guard used these hours to demonstrate her cruelty. I could hardly bear to see and hear what happened in front of me.…

In the early 1970s, a significant number of Jews committed their lives to Yeshua and came to the conviction that they should call themselves Messianic Jews rather than Christians. There were several reasons for this. One was the history of institutional Christianity and its impact on the Jewish people. From a Jewish perspective, Christianity was…

We have led many tours to Israel, and sometimes people are hesitant to go because they are fearful of terrorists and possible war in Israel. When they express those fears, Tom and I always share that we feel safer walking the streets of Jerusalem than we do walking the streets of Atlanta. There is a…

Every visitor to Israel has at least one special moment from his or her trip that stands out. Whether it's walking on the same paths on which Jesus walked, sitting in a restaurant talking with local Israelis or planting a tree to help the desert rebloom—a visit to Israel is memorable. I asked believers from…

A 220-person Israeli delegation arrived this week in Haiti to aid victims of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the country late Tuesday. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a fleet of doctors, nurses and aid workers to provide medical care, food, shelter and other necessities to the tiny country. Relief efforts include a Home Front…

No other book of the Bible has more to say about the captivity of God's people and the promise of freedom and restoration than the book of Isaiah. Isaiah ministered as a prophet to the people of God in and around Jerusalem during the period when the nation of Israel was a divided kingdom.

Zechariah 12:1-13:9 is a powerful prophecy of when the veil of the Jewish people will be dropped and Israel will be saved in a day. Zechariah prophesies, "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me…

At 4:53 p.m.—the moment when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake turned Haiti upside down a week ago Tuesday—hundreds of Christians spent a minute praying for survivors, churches and relief teams on the ground in Port-au-Prince.Ministries are also responding to the diaster, providing relief and/or medical assistance to the small nation. To make a financial contribution to…

We may never know with certainty which of the four sites associated with "Emmaus" is the true location. Which one is the actual location where Jesus appeared to His disciples following His resurrection? The story in Luke 24 recounts how two of Jesus' disciples met Him while traveling. They were heading west from Jerusalem, to…

Prayer is one of the most valuable weapons of spiritual warfare. When we slip to our knees to communicate with God, He spiritually transforms our hearts and we send out prayers that can effect change in Israel and other hot spots around the world. The Bible says we "ought to always pray" and never let…

Although it takes a back seat to rumors of war, a tsunami of faith is quietly overtaking the Muslim world. Islamic adherents are laying aside their allegiance to Muhammad to follow Jesus Christ, despite the social ostracism, persecution and possible martyrdom that converts to Christianity face. Propelled by dreams, visions and miracles, this wave of…