Israel is the Main Stage with the Jews as the Stars.

Some people might hate to hear this but God has made Israel the center of the world (Ezekial 5:5) and not any superpowers including the United States of America.  People keep looking for the USA in prophecy but if it is there, it is well hidden.

All throughout the Bible Israel is the center of the nations.  God has chosen the Jews to be the stars of this worldwide play.  Have you noticed that not all of world history is found in the Bible?  Only the nations which interact with Israel in some way are written about in scripture. There are general references to nations which do not interact with Israel but only as a group.

There are people who say that Trump is the modern day Cyrus, and try to insert him into prophecies about Israel.  There are many American leaders who people have tried to proclaim as the Anti-Christ, including, Henry Kissinger, John F. Kennedy and now it is Obama.  One way or another people will try to get America into the Bible.

America is NOT the apple of God's eye. (Zechariah 2:8) The United States is a supporting player with Israel as the center of attention.  Do not try putting any nation before Israel.  You can spiritualize events around the world and twist them to seem like your nation is important, but in truth, Israel is the main stage of events and the Jews are the stars.

Those who spiritualize, tell spiritual lies because they haven't spiritual eyes. 

The Mountain Path

Jason wanted to see the sunset from the top of the mountain.  He heard people talk about how wonderful the view was from up there.  Since Jason didn't know the path up to the top he thought he should leave early in the morning.

Setting off up a trail he was in high spirits.  The path took some turns and in about an hour Jason found himself at a cliff and nowhere to go.  Backtracking he found another path and started up it, but soon it was going downhill instead of towards the top.

Jason kept trying path after path but all of them seemed to end up as a dead end or going the wrong direction.  The sun crossed the sky and set behind the mountain leaving Jason to spend the night on the side of the mountain.  Disappointed and cold he slept fitfully until morning came and he started back down the mountain.

At the bottom, he met an old man who was smiling happily.  "Did you just come from the top of the mountain?" Jason asked the old man.

"Yep." The man said with a joy in his voice.  "It was the most beautiful sunset I ever saw."

"I never got up there," Jason confessed.  "I couldn't find the right path up to the top.  What path did you take?"

The old man shook his head.  "Don't look at the paths son.  Look to your goal.  Keep your eyes on the mountaintop and keep going towards it.  It can be a rough climb at times but you're always headed in the right direction and you will get there.  Paths can lead you anywhere, but if you keep your eyes on your target you will never go wrong."

Are your eyes on the target?  Is Jesus your goal or do you keep looking at the path you are following?  The path of a church can go astray.  Paths of good works end up at a dead end. Satan has laid out many paths in the world for people to follow that lead to death.

Keep your eyes on Jesus and always strive towards Him and Him alone.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne ofGod."  Hebrews 12:1-2

Photo by Mitchell Orr on Unsplash

The Sacrifice

All over the Old Testament, you find people worshipping other gods in the high places.  Baal, Molech, Ashtoreth, Zeus, and others have alters placed on hills and mountains where they would make sacrifices to these false gods.  They would even sacrifice their own children to satisfy these abominations.

There is always a cost in serving them and there is a cost today as well for serving our gods. The gods of money, pleasure, beauty, power, comfort, success, a person, a job, entertainment, and even yourself all have a cost to serve them.  Anything you put first in your life is your god and it will demand a sacrifice of some sort.

You might have to sacrifice your health for your god, or perhaps your marriage.  People sacrifice their integrity, time, family, peace of mind, self-worth, and even their lives to their gods.  The cost is always something good and wholesome for something ungodly and self-centered.

God also has an alter but the difference is that on the Alter of God, God was sacrificed.  Instead of a man sacrificing to God, God gave Himself up as a sacrifice for man.   When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he became the universal sacrifice for all men.  With that sacrifice, He bought salvation and righteousness for us.  The only sacrifice we can now make is of ourselves to Him.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sister, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

Photo credit: Belize- Altun Ha -Sacrificial Alter by SnugglePilot

Your Life is a Tapistry

"For I know the plans I have for you." declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

The word for "plans" in the Hebrew is makhashabah, but it means much more than just planning.  It is a careful, intricate, and imaginative weaving of a fabric.  That fabric is your life.  The greatest craftsman of the universe is expertly working with different colors and textures of events in your life to produce a work of art.

Every victory and every defeat, every joy, sorrow, gain or loss is woven into your life to produce a masterpiece of beauty.  The red threads of your wounds and the shining gold thread of God's work are all found interwoven with the thick black threads of hate and destruction, while thin silver threads of God's answers bind up the darkness of evil.

All the good and all the bad are expertly woven into a unique tapestry of God's love for you.  Your life is a display of the immeasurable goodness and love of God for you.  Sometimes we can not see the beauty of a work of art because we are too close to it.  When we stand back and see the work from afar, we see the whole picture and just how beautiful it truly is.

God is crafting you into a masterpiece.  Trust the Master Artist to create in you a beautiful tapestry of love.

Photo Credit:  many years at the loom make for skilled hands by Lyn

God's Guidance

There have been many times in my life that I have stood at a crossroad and tried to find the best road to take with my life.  Life is not an easy course for anyone to figure out.  There are so many twists and turns which we never expected.

When Moses led the Hebrew Children, he didn't know the best paths to take them down.  He certainly wouldn't have chosen to live in a wilderness where they could never find enough food to eat or where there was not enough water, but that is where God took them.

God didn't just send a cloud by day and a fiery pillar by night to guide them.  He could have done that easily or just tell Moses where to go.  Instead, God, Himself lead the tribes of Israel in the pillar.  Exodus 13:21 His presence was always there before them.

Do you think that when you ask for guidance as to the path to take in your life, God is going to just send you a map?  When you're at a crossroads do you seek a signpost saying "THIS WAY---->"  You are asking for too little.

God, Himself is standing there with you.  In fact, He is always there with you, to guide and direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6  Never fear a decision that needs to be made.  God is there to give you the wisdom and the strength to follow the path God shows you. He won't just point the way to go, but He will lead you.  You will not be able to walk down the pathways of life without Him being intimately involved and always there with you.  He will share the good and the bad until the final day you get to meet Christ face to face.

God does not just send you guidance,  He goes with you to guide.

Photo by jens johnsson on Unsplash 

What is a Life Worth?

I have seen clothing saying "No Fear".  I have seen videos of people doing crazy and dangerous stunts on YouTube, and they seem to personify that slogan.  A real man shows no fear when facing death as he leaps from a cliff and using a special suit, he glides a couple of feet from the ground going around rocks and trees until he finally ends pulling his parachute.

NO WAY!  You wouldn't catch me within 10 feet of that cliff.  These people die when one little mistake happens.  The thrill of defying death in so many ways is addicting to these people.  Even kids do stunts with bikes and skateboards that could easily break an arm, leg or neck.

My question is, why do we glorify people who risk their bodies, health, and lives?  Why is life seen as something to be abused for the sake of entertainment?  Go to YouTube and you will find countless videos that people find funny where people are seriously hurt or killed.  Someone has a terrible fall which could have killed or permanently injured someone and everyone in the video is laughing at the guy before they even know if he is still alive.

We have no value of life.   Our entertainment consists of sports shows such as Ultimate Fighting where people go at each other like gladiators.  They are bloodied, broken and sometimes even killed in those battles.  Boxing doesn't have enough violence and blood for us now.

Life is precious.  God is the giver of life.  It is a gift to us all which we should prize and cherish.  Everyone's life is precious to God and should be to us as well.

Too often life is seen as something to use to gain money by prostitution, sex trafficking, drugs, and even slavery in parts of the world.  People are seen as objects to fulfill our own pleasures and to entertain us.  People are only worth what we can get out of them.

We don't even value our own lives.  We not only risk our lives and health but we allow others to use us because we don't see the value in our own lives.

Are you created in the image of God?  Yes. Genesis 1:27

Did God design you to be the person you are? Yes. Psalm 139:13:16

Does He know you in detail?  Yes. Luke12:6-7

What is your value to God?  The life of Jesus. Galatians 3:13-15

God values you and every human life, that has ever lived and will ever live, so much that Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was involved in all of creation, willing was sacrificed so that you would live forever.  God can create another universe in just 6 days if He wanted to, but there is only one you and He was willing to die because He values and loves you so much.

Photo by Solal Ohayon on Unsplash

How Can God Use a Nobody Like Me?

So very often we look around at the world and think, "I am a nobody.  I am not important.  I have nothing to give in a ministry to God."

We look at what we are and think that we are just a housewife, a truck driver, a salesperson, a roofer or any of a hundred different things and not good enough to really make an impact.  We look at what we are and think God does not have the ability to make us into something greater.

There was a Hebrew man who was a craftsman.  He worked with wood and metal and was good at his job.  He was not good enough though to do what God called him to do, build the tabernacle of God and all the furnishing including the Ark of the Covenant.

I imagine he was well known for his work, but he could never have been good enough for people thousands of years later to know about him.  What made him great enough to be the head craftsman of the holiest artifacts in human history?

"Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills-"  Exodus 35:30-31

God filled him with the Spirit of God.  God gave him the wisdom, knowledge, and skills to accomplish the task.  He might have been good, but without the Spirit of God, he could never have created the works he did.

The key to God using you is not what your job is, not how important you are to the world, not how much money you have, and not how much scripture you have memorized.  The true key to serving God is to trust in God.  As a Christian, you have been filled with the Spirit of God.  He is within you.  Trust Him and not yourself.  Turn yourself over to His will and do not let your will get in the way.

Bezalel never thought he would be so important that God would take note of him and tell the world throughout time about him and his work.  Bezalel was not a Moses, but he was willing to be who God made him.  He was willing to follow the leading of God, wherever it took him.

We are to be like Bezalel and just be ourselves.  God did not call you to preach?  Then do not try to be a preacher.  God has called you to something.  Trust God and go where He leads you.

The greatest you can be is to be yourself with God.