The Jerusalem Prayer List – July 30th, 2009

by Joseph Shulam

Today is the ninth day of the month of Av, July 30th, 2009.  For most people in the world this day might not have much meaning. For the Jewish people this day is a landmark in history.  In Jerusalem restaurants and coffee shops are closed, there is no movie theaters open, all forms of entertainment don't function on this day.  Much of the Jewish population of Israel and all around the world take this day as a fast day, a reminder, a memorial, these days not so much for what our enemies did to us but what we have caused God to do to us in order to restore us to be what we ought to be.  I am very interested in the shift of emphasis that has occurred in this nation in the last twenty five years.  It used to be that the emphasis in the media and in the synagogues was on the evil of our enemies, Babylon, Persia, the Greeks Seleucid Empire, Rome, the Crusades, the Muslims, the Russian Cossacks, the Nazis, and the beat goes on until today's hate mongering terrorists from all races and religious backgrounds.  Now the Israeli public and even some of the Orthodox Jewish religious leadership has turned inward.  There is a whole lot of introspection and soul searching in the Israeli society and the emphasis is not so much on what happened that our first temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon on this very day and the second temple was destroyed by Rome on this very day, and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 was on this very day, and many more events that are not so uplifting all happened on this very day, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av.

Of course there are the standard slogans and cliché's that everyone uses that the first temple was destroyed because of idolatry, and the second temple was destroyed because of senseless hatred, or just plain racist prejudice and insensitivity to the pain and need and plight of your fellowman.  But, when I take these slogans that might be full of meaning for a moment and break them down to daily activities the idea becomes a night-mare that fills my own heart with fear.  Can you imagine the guilt feeling that a sensitive Jew must have in his heart to believe that when he expressed negative and prejudicial and racially hateful feelings against his Jewish or Arab neighbor he actually causes God to punish the nation with such destruction as the one that happened in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was ransacked and burned and the temple was destroyed by Rome?  Can you imagine how a conviction like this ought to affect a person today in the land of Israel, where racial and sectorial hate and rage actually fuel the very fabric of our society?  So many people today in Israel are turning to God, to an alternative God, not the God of inside the Synagogues, not the God of the black-dressed ultra orthodox, but a God that can meet the person on the streets of Tel-Aviv, and in the coffee shops of Ben-Yehuda Street in Jerusalem.  A God that is not boxed up in a neat package wrapped in beautiful colored paper and presented from a well polished pulpit, but a God that speaks to prophets prostitues, beggars and Kings at the same time and in the same voice.  Last night there was a reading of the book of Lamentations in the Tzavta club in Tel-Aviv.  The Tzavta club in Tel-Aviv one could say is the Mecca of secularism in Israel.  In fact it was created and envisioned by the son of the former chief Rabbi of Bulgaria, Rabbi Daniel Zion who was a firm disciple of Yeshua the Messiah.  The Rabbi's son rebelled against religion and became totally secular, a leader of the secular Israeli culture and created the Tzavta club.  Last night in this temple of secularism in Tel-Aviv the secular Israeli crowed read together the book of Lamentations.  This book of the Bible that laments the fall of the first temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Who knows may be God is working in Israel not through the established “high priesthood” of the religious temples of doom that seek to enslave people in their systems, but again through those who are not wise and not rich and not learned.  Who knows, may be God is speaking to prostitues and tax-collectors again and gathering them in the most unlikely places to speak of how to fix the problems of our history and calling to be a holy nation a nation of priests?  I hope so!  I pray so!  I want so!  I hope that you do too, because the same problems that we have in Israel and in our synagogues, you too have in your churches in the showcases of the Holywood Gods where Benjamine Frankline is not one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, but a key and a ticket to buy God's blessing and prosperity.  May be you too want to pray to be able to meet God in the most unlikely places like in the livingroom of your next door neighbor.  I write these things not to be negative toward the churches, but to urge the church, all the churches, to get out from behind the pulpits and get back into the society where they have to deal with evangelism and pain, and suffering, and poverty, and do the work of the Gospel, all the good works for which we were saved by God's grace.  (Ephesian 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”)

It is a good thing to remember the grace of God and His blessings, but also a remembrance of His wrath and punishment because of our sins.  The idea that Christianity is always going to be talking only of positive things and remembering only the wonderful love and grace of God is a weak and half true idea.  We have to see the fullness of God's relationship with mankind and know that the same God that so loved the world and gave His only begotten Son so that we might all be saved from the wrath of hell is the God who controls the Sea and the waves and the winds of the Tornado and Hurricane.  He is the God who took Israel out of Egypt but also the same God who walked with them into the German gas chambers in Buchenwald and Aushwitz, and went up in the smoke of the Crematoriums to show the world how evil man can become when politics control the church and the church controls politics. 

Well, I said a mouthful already and there is so much to pray about on this day when a good 60% of this nation is fasting and remembering the fall of Jerusalem twice on this very same date, and in addition as much as 16 events of calamity and suffering that happened on this same date to the Jewish nation.  Please pray for the salvation of Israel!

Please continue to pray for our dear brothers and sisters who are suffering from pain and illness in Israel, Japan, United States, Finland, Brazil, Germany, and all around the globe.  I can't pray for the sick generally all around the world.  I normally pray for those whom I know or for those who ask me to pray for them.  I don't always list them in this list, but most of those that I pray for daily I do list.  A new person on this list is my dear mother-in-law, Marcia's mother, June.  She has had cancer two years ago and she is really not feeling good now.  Please lift her up in your prayers and don't forget to lift up Marcia.  She will have to wear the cast on her left hand for at least one more month.  Marcia's left hand was the good hand, that has less Rheumatoid Arthritis damage.  So, now Marcia has a cast on her left hand because she broke both major bones in her wrist and her right hand is very limited.  She needs our prayers and I need your prayers too. 

We continue to pray for dear Ruby, Paulo, Inge, Paulo, Tellervo, Tim, Helena, Lynn, and Kemi.  These are our friends around the world who need healing and restoration and comfort from God's magnanimous grace.  In Israel we continue to pray for Leah and Ilana, Ahuva, Sara, Zvi, Sarit, and Meriam. 

We also ask you to pray for those in our congregation who have no income and lost jobs and are looking for jobs and are suffering because of the breakdown of World Economy.  This is true for dear brothers in Israel and for other brothers in Brazil and in the United States too.  The Word of God teaches that we are all parts of the same body and that when the toe is in pain the head also feels it.  We have the mutual nervous system that connects us all to each other, but it would seem that in our own days our nervous system is a little paralyzed and we need to pray for revival and awakening.

We are still waiting to hear from the judge about our building situation.  Please pray for a speedy,  favorable and righteous decision from the judge in the appellate court of Jerusalem. 

Please continue to pray for the Soup-Kitchen and for Kol-HaYeshua radio broadcasts.  These are both unique and very special services that we provide for Jerusalem and Israel.  The Workmanship of God's Spirit in us is worthy of your prayer and support. 

May God hear your prayers for us and all your other prayers and grant you favour in all your hearts desire!  Israel is fasting today in memory of the destruction of our temple.  May we all learn to fast and take our own sin and mistakes and have a clear historical recollection of how God has dealt with us in the past and how we ought to live now so that in the future the words of Isaiah the prophet given about 2800 years ago might become true for our own lives and soon.

Is. 61:3 “To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

With love and appreciation for your prayers and support!

Joseph Shulam
 

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