so crazy

a few days after my post about God partnering with us, i heard a teaching about God's purpose for Israel. it blew my mind. the whole idea that God intricately designed a legitimate way for us to be his friend, partner and bride reminded me again of the incredible supremacy of God. his thoughts are higher than ours!

God created the jewish people so that through man he could redeem our relationship to him. Those of us who are non-Jewish are grafted in. We are given the opportunity to join this family of set apart, priestly God-chasers. God wants to partner with us!! He made man to be with him, perfect, and man screwed up. Only man could fix that mistake. But not any imperfect man. So God created a family through which to raise up the Messiah. He created a family that was set apart to set the world right once again. Through this family came Jesus, the god-man. God came close to his people so we could come close to him!

Why is there so much trouble in the middle east? Because satan knows that Jesus will not return until his family, his people, cry out for him to come back. Jesus went through the cross, the humiliation of being human, the permanency of being human, becuause he wanted closeness with US. I don't know where we all get this idea that Jesus is just waiting to spring his return on us, when we least expect it, so he can catch us doing something wrong. Jesus is coming back as a judge, no doubt about it, BUT, he wants his people (the Israelites, and the grafted-in Gentiles) to WANT him back. Otherwise, what was the point of all he suffered? he did these things becuase he wants us to draw near to him.

Satan knows that Jesus will not return until his people are desperate for his presence. Because of this, Satan is trying to obliterate the Israelite people so they cannot cry out for Jesus’ return. (I'm not taking a side in the conflicts, or saying that Israel has been blameless in all the tension. I AM saying that it makes sense that satan would pit people against people and create destruction for both sides because it will divide and disillusion their view of God.)

Back to crying out for Jesus to return...as grafted-in Gentiles, we too will be cut off from God’s family if we do not support Israel in crying out for Christ's return. The Jewish people are not the old story, marginalized because our new evangelical Christianity is so much better. The Jewish people ARE the story, present and alive. We, as non-Jewish followers of Christ, are called to support the family he chose to use to bring salvation to the world. We are called to intercede and draw others near to him.

it blows my mind. his thoughts are higher than mine!