Shalom from Jerusalem dear Friends:
Josh drove us to the airport in Athens Greece, David picked us up at Ben Gurion airport in Israel and Daniel and Shelly had the Sabbath candles lit and a feast spread out before us upon arrival home. We are grateful to all four sons who shower us with loving-kindness. Chris up in Helsinki does the same, of course.
Jay and I arrived back in Israel Friday night to the intense crush of terror breaking all around. Rockets from Gaza and Lebanon did their best to disturb. A bank was hit and the lead balls and bolts packed into the missiles smashed through the front of the building, destroying computers. A mother and her daughters were shot while driving along the Dead Sea road. The two girls died and the mother is fighting for her life. This very night a car rammed into 7 tourists in Tel Aviv killing one, and injuring the others. This is our reality in Israel today. Today Syria lobbed 6 missiles towards Israel, and 3 landed in Syria and Jordan. In Israel, no lives have been lost in any of these missile attacks.
Today is holy to Jews. Attention was focused on the Western Wall; in Greek it is translated, as The Wall of Tears. Here, the Cohanim gave the priestly blessing to Israel. You know it, say it with me: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you; and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. So Aaron and his sons put My Name upon the children, and I will bless them.” Numbers 18: 24-27
How comforting is that? No other nation has this divine mandate of an Eternal Covenant that God first spoke to Father Abraham.
Food for Thought:
“When the righteous are in authority and become great, the people rejoice; But when the wicked man rules, the people groan and sigh.”
Proverbs 29:2
“I will bring them (all Israel) back home again from the land … until no room can be found for them. And they will pass through the sea of distress and anxiety with the LORD leading His people, as at the Red Sea …”
Zechariah 10: 10,11.
We’ve just come through Passover when we rehearsed the first deliverance from Egypt. Only The LORD God of Israel knows what our future holds. We know the end of it all will be glorious. “I Meridel, do believe God’s Word is absolute. We sense we are coming into Jacob’s Trouble. Will our government play right into the hands of enemies, as weird as that may sound? We have also awakened to the truth that Jesus sent his Apostles OUT of Israel to the world. None of them was here during the destruction in 70 AD. He left clear instructions to leave Jerusalem when the armies approach. I believe this word applies to today and I would be a fool to say I understand it. We are waiting and listening on the LORD who has the words of LIFE at this critical time in our history.”
Today, Israelis came to visit. We sat together chatting in the shade of a large olive tree as the temperature was up to 33C here today. “It’s so good that you have a home in Greece at this time.” They said. “How did you know? Are you prophets?”
Jay and I were careful to explain that Israel’s entire history, past, present and future is written by the Prophets including The Revelation and of course, spoken of by Jesus. Everyone here is trembling, as there seems to be absolutely NO let up with the bad news be it from the government, or the madness of the nations surrounding us. When we mentioned Jacob’s Trouble: their response was this: “We as a people have never lived without trouble! I am brokenhearted,” our friend Gili said.
Please pray for Israel’s peace and for Jerusalem.
Believers in the Messiah have good news: “He is risen!”
Because of Jesus we live and move and have our being. I must tell you, it is a real joy to be in Greece where Passover is the most important Feast of the entire year. Jesus is loved, and many know Him personally. Grace blankets the nation and we need a place to rest and take stalk of the intense lives that we have lived in Israel. We are very pleased with the ongoing relationship of cooperation between Israel and Greece. It is comforting for us Israelis.
Today Jay lit a 24-hour candle in honour of the memory of his father, Victor Alloway Rawlings, who fell on this day, April 9th 1945, in WW11 in Holland.
Thank you for your prayers all of these years. We plan to stay in Israel for three months before returning to Greece. Let us continue to stay in touch. Here is a very very good film on the Holy Land that takes us back to Biblical Times. I pray you will enjoy it as much as we did. With this, I will close, as it is a busy time for us all.
Loving greetings from our Jerusalem home to yours:
Jay and Meridel Rawlings and family.
Drs. Jay and Meridel Rawlings, Box 84156, Mevasseret Zion, 9079097 Israel.
After June our address is: P O Box 47554, Ermioni, Greece 21051.