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The Jerusalem Prayer List – Thursday, February 12, 2009
by Joseph Shulam
Today I leave the city of Vitoria, the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, and fly to Rio de Janeiro. Elhanan from Jerusalem is already waiting for me in Rio de Janeiro. Our host in Rio de Janeiro is brother Stein. We will be sharing this weekend with a Jewish congregation. This will be the first time that we visit this congregation in Rio de Janeiro. Leaving the Netivyah congregation in Vitoria is not easy. Since I have landed here in Brazil a week ago I have been embraced with care and love. I have been teaching every day and most of the days the teaching was to “Pastors” of different churches and then in the evenings for a general public. Teaching “Pastors” and leaders is a different experience than just teaching the Bible. It is a kind of Jeremiah style teaching. God told Jeremiah, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD. . . . “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jer. 1:8, 10) Essentially teaching people new ideas is a job of doing some undoing and than building up again. Most time you can't teach educated people who have years of experience new ideas without undoing some of their old ideas. The old ideas that we hold at times keep us from seeing and learning what the Lord is saying in His Word. For example one of the mornings I gave a more than two hours teaching on Biblical Baptism to a group of “Pastors” from various denominations and non-denominational churches. Well, Baptism is always a very loaded subject that carries with it a lot of history and emotion in the history of Christianity. I went through most of the texts that deal with the issue, but I started from the Torah and the Old Testament talking about the bigger Biblical picture before going into the emotionally loaded passages in the New Testament. I am assured by several of the people who attended the seminar that they have seen something that they have not seen earlier and that it will have consequences in their ministry.
There is a wonderful energy to teach people who are there to hear you teach God's Word with an open mind and a willingness to learn. But, one of the finest rewards that a teacher of God's Word has is to see the growing generations of young people change and become leaders in the congregation. When I first came to Vitoria of Espirito Santo the group was not even 30 young people, essentially High School students, and very few adults. On the first night that I gave a teaching we had some ten youth want to be baptized in a pool in a the home of the police chief of the city. Now these young people are almost all married and beginning to have children themselves. They are now the teachers and the supporters and the sustainers of the Netivyah congregation in Vitoria. This is the joy of being a Bible teacher!
The general elections in Israel have again produces another “Balagan” - or Chaos in the Land of Canaan. I say “Canaan” because Israel really ought not deserve such a confusion and instability as we have now. The two rival parties have just about the same number of seats in the Parliament and they are not fighting who really had victory in this election. Actually Franz Kafka could not have written a better scene for a grotesque theater than the reality of Israeli politics today. I felt fortunate that I was not in Israel and I did not have to make a moral choice of who to vote for in this election. In biblical terms a breakdown in leadership is seen as a scorge from God. In the eight century B.C. Isaiah the prophet said the following: “And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them . . . . Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, for what he deserves will be done to him. O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray and confuse the direction of your paths.” (Is. 3:4, 11-12) Please pray for Israel and for the Israeli government and for the Israeli people. After two thousand years of exile among the nations we deserve something better and we really need God's grace and His mercy on this nation. We need the teaching and the Good News that Yeshua can give us and change some hearts in this land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
I don't really know much about what is going on with all of your dear brothers and sisters in the ways of health in Israel, but I do ask you to keep praying for this list of people and mention them by name asking God to show them all mercy of healing and comforting and strengthening their bodies and their spirits. In fact we all ought to pray for all those whom we know to be in need of healing and comfort because we should all value ourselves as having been made “righteous” by His righteousness and we know that the prayer of a “righteous person is very valuable.”
Please keep Marcia in prayer. She has not been feeling good. Now she is in Tennessee with Barry, Beth, and Joey our grandson, and this week-end she will visit her mother and father in East Tennessee. Danah still needs your prayers because she still weak from the surgery and now she has gone back to work and is alone there in California.
I need your prayers for stamina and strength to be able to keep on traveling and teaching the Word of God.
Please pray for Brazil and the Restoration movement in Brazil, and pray for Japan and for our Japanese brothers and sisters who pray relentlessly for the salvation of Israel and the Jewish people. Pray for the United States and the churches in the United States to have an awakening of spiritual values and also to have more zeal for the Good News and the Good Works that they are already doing. Pray for Finland, and Germany and Korea and all those countries where the Lord has a mighty army praying and seeking to see Yeshua and the salvation of Israel soon and in our own days.
Thank you my dear brothers and sisters for your support and your love,
Joseph Shulam
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