Prayer

Who cares about Jerusalem?

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Jerusalem is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible; more than any other city.  Babylon, the second most mentioned city, has only 286 scriptural occurrences.  If references to the ‘city of David’ and ‘Zion’ are included, Jerusalem is mentioned over 1000 times.  The word occurs more times in the KJV than the words ‘sin’, ‘grace’ or ‘faith’.  Evidently, if we are interested in the Bible, we must be interested in Jerusalem.  Likewise, if God wrote the Bible then He must be interested in Jerusalem too.  In fact, if we search the scriptures we find that God is more passionate about Jerusalem than any other city.  In Isaiah 62:1, He says,

For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. (NKJV)

In Zechariah 8:2, He says,

‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal;
With great fervor I am zealous for her.’ (NKJV)

In Luke 19:41 we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.  It is the place where He died, where He was raised from death, where He ascended, where He poured out the Holy Spirit, and to which He said that He would return and live with mankind forever.  If God is so passionate about Jerusalem, and we want to draw near to His heart, we ought to be asking Him why He cares so much about this city, and if He would help us to care about it too.

It is clear from the Bible that God has a plan for the city of Jerusalem and that He wants us to play a part in seeing His plan fulfilled.  The modern state of Israel has had its share of conflicts in its short and troubled history, and Jerusalem has seen more conflict than maybe any other city.  Our first focus is to pray for peace.  But peace means more than just an end of conflict.  The ultimate peace that Jerusalem and Israel needs is the peace that was declared to the shepherds by the host of angels in Luke 2:14 that was from God towards men.  As in Isaiah 62, we pray for righteousness and salvation in Israel and Jerusalem.

Here are some brief points for prayer:

  1. Pray for peace and protection. (Psalm 122:6; Psalm 83:1-5,18; Psalm 121:4; Zecheriah 2:5)
  2. Pray for restoration and healing. (Jeremiah 30:17-18; Isaiah 61:4; Amos 9:11; Isaiah 51:3)
  3. Pray for reconciliation and forgiveness.  (Romans 11:18; Ephesians 2:15; 1 Peter 4:8)
  4. Pray for wise leaders and just government.  (Proverbs 21:1; James 3:17; Proverbs 14:34; Mark 3:24; Isaiah 9:6-7)
  5. Pray for believers and salvation. (Isaiah 44:3-5; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Joel 2:28; Ephesians 3:16-19; Romans 11:25-27)
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Longing to be reconciled

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Recently, I have been struck by the inadequacy of many friendships. It’s not that I have encountered great bitterness, or hatred, just a superficiality masking a deep and crippling reality of isolation and rejection.

I have lived in London for the past seven years; one of the largest and most densely populated centres on the planet. But I have encountered far more who struggle with loneliness here than in the small provincial town where I grew up.

What’s the root here?

I think its mostly that we keep trying to get past the person in front of us. We’re so ‘connected’ that we’re actually disconnected from the moment. We can’t see what is here right now because we’re constantly trying to get what is a little bit further ahead.  We’re all together in the same place, but we’re not really together.

At the close of the film, Boyhood, the central character, having just arrived at college and taken an impromptu visit to a nearby desert area, sits on a small hill with another college student. She turns to him and says,

You know how everyone’s always saying seize the moment? I don’t know, I’m kind of thinking it’s the opposite. You know, like, the moment seizes us.

I was struck by this as being surprisingly profound. In the modern world we act like we own time and we are the ones holding our universe together.

The past few days, I have had Ephesians 1:10 bouncing round my brain.

…that in the dispensation of the FULLNESS of the times He might GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (NKJV, emphasis added)

Jesus actually owns time, and he is using it to work out His purpose.  The psalmist said, my times are in Your hands; the prophet Daniel said God changes the times and the seasons.  In Greek, the word ‘fullness’, above, speaks of a maturity. Jesus is maturing time like a fine wine until all His purposes come to completion. Yet we treat time like something we can seal up in bottles and keep in the cupboard.

One of Jesus’ main purposes revealed in Ephesians 1:10 is to gather everything together to Himself. His heart longs for everything in this world that has become separated from Him to return to Him. No wonder so many feel separated and lonely. We refuse to yield to His order, which would actually include gathering us together, and we try to institute our own order in our lives.  To help myself grasp this, I put a note on my wall with the words,

I don’t seize time.  Time is God’s.  I let God seize me in time.

Why don’t you take 90 seconds right now, and consider what it would mean for you to let God seize you in every moment.

Colossians 1:17 says:

And He Himself existed before all things, and IN HIM all things consist (cohere, are HELD TOGETHER). (AMPLIFIED, emphasis added)

I’ve heard many Christians talk and pray about healing division in the Church, and the need for healing between the Church and the Jewish people.  I’m convinced it starts with surrender.  Many times, we don’t have rewarding relationships with those around us because we have neglected right relationship with our Creator.  If we genuinely surrender to God’s long-term purposes in our daily moments by loving the one in front of us and ‘practicing God’s presence’ in constant prayer, I’m convinced that we will begin to see the healing we are looking for; healing in our relationships with those around us, healing in the Church, and healing for the Jewish people.  It’s only in abiding in Christ, by the power of the Cross, that His purposes will be fulfilled in and through us.

For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity… (Ephesians 2:14-15, AMPLIFIED)

Isaiah 43:19

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Dear friend,

The scripture above has for a long time been significant for me, not so much as a divine direction or instruction, but really just in that it has always felt familiar.  I can’t remember the first time I heard the words,

I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

But, when the ‘way’ first opened for me to work with a university in southern Israel which is located well within the desert of which this scripture speaks, I began to take notice.

For someone who may have stumbled across this page in the endless availability that is the internet, I am a Christian.  I was brought up in a home that valued the truth that everything I have as a Christian, and the very constitutional foundation of my nation as a UK citizen, has passed to me through one unique and remarkable people; Israel.  My whole ethical code and system of values began to be birthed when the Creator spoke to one man living in southern Iraq and told him to go to the desert.  When Abraham became God’s friend, did he know that God would use him and his family to show who He was to the whole world?  I believe God still wants to do that.

In the verses that follow Isaiah 43:19, God repeats His statement but adds something special:

…for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
to GIVE DRINK to MY CHOSEN PEOPLE,
21     the people whom I FORMED FOR MYSELF
that they might declare my praise. (Isaiah 43:20-21, emphasis added)

When God asked Abraham to be His friend, and to come with Him to the desert, He created a nation.  He separated Abraham and his family to Himself by showing them Who He was.  This family that became the nation of Israel experienced an intimacy with God that no other family had access to.  In the prophet Jeremiah, it actually says that God ‘married’ Israel around the time that He gave Moses the ten commandments.  He became united with this nation in a way He never has with any other; and it all started with friendship.  Ultimately, God sealed His commitment to this nation by becoming personally part of it in Jesus.  Do you know that Jesus has a nationality?  Some Christians think that when Jesus came, it meant that God had finished with Israel as a nation; their purpose was accomplished and now He could move on to everybody else.  I think exactly the opposite.  When God became part of Abraham’s family personally, He committed to them in an astounding and unprecedented way.  It is a miracle and a mystery that through the cross and through personal identification with Jesus I can become part of that family too as an adopted child, but I am certain that God’s plan is still to ‘give drink’ to His natural family in Jesus.

So in this space you will probably hear some news updates, maybe even some archaeology for the geek followers.  I will probably talk about God a lot and share some of the things He has shown me about Israel.  For now, thanks for getting this far – hope to see you again some time soon.