Thursday, March 27, 2008
Vision for Israel - Prayer Letter – March 25th, 2008
JERUSALEM-ON-THE-LINE- SPECIAL EDITION
Prayer Letter – March 25th, 2008
JNN NEWS, P.O. Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel
"Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'" Romans: 8:35,36
PERSECUTION OF JEWISH BELIEVERS IN ISRAEL: Persecution of Jewish believers in Israel is increasing in both frequency and intensity. The Messianic community in Israel numbers about 15,000, spread out in roughly 120 congregations across the nation. The community members, who believe there is no contradiction between being Jewish and believing Jesus (Yeshua) to have been the Savior and the Son of God, has been steadily growing. About half of the community's membership was born Jewish. Please pray for the comfort and healing of Ortiz family and their beloved son, Ami. Their tragic story is reported below. Pray those guilty of this heinous crime will be apprehended and for the protection of believers in Israel.
SON OF MESSIANIC JEWISH LEADERS WOUNDED BY PURIM BASKET BOMB: Members of Israel's Messianic movement, both Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua, remain stunned and grieved by last week's terrorist attack on the family of Messianic leaders in Ariel. A traditional gift-basket filled with sweets and baked goods, exchanged between neighbors and loved ones during the Purim holiday, was delivered to David and Leah Ortiz's home last Thursday afternoon. Their 15 yr. old son Ami who was alone in the house opened it and it exploded, severely injuring the boy's neck and head and causing the family's apartment to be engulfed in flames. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital in serious condition. It is a miracle he is alive in view of the magnitude of the explosion. Ami's life is no longer in danger, but he is still suffering from serious injuries all over his body. His father reports: "His neck had an eight-inch gash like someone slit his throat. He has a ruptured lung. Doctors had to operate on his tongue. He has second-degree burns to his chest and arms, and there is no flesh on the thighs. He added doctors were forced to amputate two toes. "They're trying to make sure he won't lose his arms and legs. His whole body is full of fragments of shrapnel." Judea and Samaria Police admit radical Jews may have targeted the family. Ortiz described a long history of tensions with Yad Le'achim and other Orthodox activists in Ariel: "My neighbor said he had been told by religious Jews that if we were the only ones living in this building, they would have bombed it. They put posters all over town warning residents to keep away from us and calling for us to be excommunicated, and there was a demonstration in front of our house," said Ortiz. "I have served in the reserves for 15 years. All of my children went to school here, they are normal children, we are normal people. Ami is the captain of his school basketball team." All too often when Ultra Orthodox Jewish groups are behind such events they are never brought to justice. The news fades away and further investigations along with it. (JNN editors/Israel media sources)
YAD LE'ACHIM RABBI SAYS MESSIANIC JEWS ARE THE ENEMY: Rabbi Shalom Lipshitz, head of Yad Le'achim, the largest anti-missionary organization in Israel, said following the bomb attack on the Ortiz family child, he saw the Messianic community as an enemy to the Jewish people. "There is no one who hates Jews more than they do," said Lipshitz. "They are trying to uproot Jewish faith, just like the Spanish did in the Inquisition. They prey on Jews who do not know anything about Jewish heritage. We try to explain the 'truth.' We try to tell people that you cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time. It just doesn't go together. " Our job at Yad Le'achim is to make sure the Jewish people gets bigger, and fight people who are trying to make it smaller," said Rabbi Lipshitz. (J.Post)
ATTACK ON BOY ONE OF MANY: Members of the Messianic community in Israel said Monday that while the near-fatal attack last week on 15-year-old Ami Ortiz of Ariel marks a major escalation, it comes after years of anti-missionary violence directed at the community by both Jews and Muslims. "We get the feeling that nobody in Israel is willing to take a strong stand against violent anti-missionary activity," said Jewish-born, Beersheba pastor, Howard Bass. "We have experienced numerous attacks on the Messianic communities by Ultra Orthodox Jews over the years. Just this week two surveillance cameras that monitor our house of prayer were stolen." Last Saturday, during prayers at the 100-strong congregation, a group of Ultra Orthodox Jews stood outside and shouted insults, temporarily stopping the prayers. In December 2005, Bass's congregation was attacked by hundreds of haredi demonstrators who received the backing of the local rabbinic leadership. Police did not press charges against the assailants who forced their way into the church and forcibly stopped the baptism of two Israelis. The intruders threw chairs around and pushed Bass into the baptismal pool. (J.Post)
PERSECUTION OF MESSIANIC BELIEVERS IN ARAD: In Arad, another flashpoint for tension between the Messianic community and Orthodox Jews, the Chasdei Yeshua Congregation has been harassed repeatedly by the local Hassidic community. "They've verbally attacked us on a regular basis and they even tried to burn down our chess club last February," reported one member of the congregation. (J.Post)
CENTRAL JERUSALEM CHURCH TARGET FOR ARSON: In late Nov. 2007, a church in central Jerusalem was set afire before dawn and suffered extensive damage. Arsonists, suspected to be extremist Jews, forced their way into the church and set fires in three different places. The sanctuary had been burned down in 1982 by an ultra Orthodox Jewish group and later rebuilt. In both cases the arsonists were never brought to justice. (Israel Press)
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God is for Israel is that they may be saved." Romans 10:1
SAVE THE DATE AND PLAN AHEAD:
Succot Tour & Celebration: October 12-24, 2008 – for USA participants there will be a direct flight with Delta from Atlanta leaving on October 11th. The package price, including tips, is $3,099. Call JDI Tours in the USA at 248.340.9191. There are only 30 places left for this exciting tour group from the USA. Register now: www.succotcelebration.com .
VFI & JSH Conference in the USA in Charlotte, NC – April 10-12, 2008. Speakers include: Michael Brown, Jay Sekulow, Howard Morgan, Bob Weiner, Barry Segal and Claren McQueen. Conference theme is: The Restoration of Israel and the Nations. Register now: www.visionforisrael.com
VFI & JSH Conference in The Netherlands – June 6-8, 2008. Register now: www.visionforisrael.com
VFI & JSH Conference in Bromsgrove, England – June 28, 2008. Join us for a day of praise and thanksgiving for 10 years of The Joseph Storehouse at Bromsgrove. Celebrations will include a dedication of the UK Storehouse which is presently being reorganized and expanded. Register now: www.visionforisrael.com
1: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2: And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6: And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
9: And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10: And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11: Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12: And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
14: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15: And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
16: And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
17: And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
18: And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
19: And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
20: The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
21: And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
22: And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23: And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24: And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25: And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26: And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27: And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Labels: JERUSALEM-ON-THE-LINE, persecuted, prayer, Revelation, Vision For Israel, VOM
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