I’m proposing another option to petitions, one that’s been proven to work for oh, a couple of thousand years Prayer!!

The beginning of 2011 will be remembered as a time of chaos and change in the Middle East.

A friend sent me a list of some of the names of God recently. As I began to ponder each one, I thought how grateful I am for each of those aspects of God.

Israel goes into the New Year facing a decrease in military deterrence capability against its enemies; continued failures in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians; and challenges to its legitimacy as a nation state for the Jewish people.

Last week I was in the presence of the likes of Joshua and Caleb — men of “a different spirit” (Numbers 14:24), men of strength, boldness and gentle humility, and most of all, men who believe God. These men are leaders who lead other leaders as high ranking Generals in the Israeli army.

There is much evidence to confirm that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew and with this understanding has come a good bit of revelation of what Yeshua was really saying.

Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, is the celebration of the Hebrews rededication of the temple after it was desecrated by the Syrians while God kept the “perpetual light” lit for eight days with only one day’s worth of oil. Yeshua is the light of the world and the perpetual light in our lives. This isn’t just a Jewish folk tale. There is much to be learned of Him to inspire us in the Hanukkah story.

Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have ended. The Palestinians blame Israel for not continuing the settlement moratorium. The Israelis blame the Palestinians for refusing to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

Despite the previously politically-correct idea that Islam and Judeo-Christianity have the same God, most of us know that just isn’t so. Yahweh and Allah are not the same God.

What’s your picture of Israel today? What do you think it looks like? The media often makes it seem like Israel is barely hanging on, in crisis all the time, and losing the battle. Such is surely not the case.