Dec 12 2023

Israel trip in 2022 – 6. Galilee crops

See these bananas? There’s loads of them growing by the side of the road. I think there must several square kilometres of them.

Isaiah 27:6
In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

Here’s also where a whole load of olives have been harvested

Here’s a view from the road.

So I walked from the youth hostel part of the way around the radius of the Galilee, but only a bit below Capernaum.

Only thing was, before I left, I slipped down some stairs at the hostel and banged my knee on the hard granite floor. Although painful I went off walking. After 10kms of walking I decided to go back, it also getting dark.  Only the next day it started to hurt.

I had this Rav Card. Its like the London Oyster card for the tube. Buses are now cashless and I didn’t know. I got the card, but hadn’t put any credit on. A bus arrived and wouldn’t take my shekels in cash. A kind local Arab guy sat near the front got up and tapped his card allowing me to ride home for free.

The next day I didn’t go out, as my knee was really sore, so spent time hanging out on the roof top and reading, and praying my knee would heal.

This time I didn’t get to go back to see Jesus places like Capernaum as I needed a day to recover, then go to see Mount Tabor to see the place of the transfiguration.

1. Items in the wrong places – 2. Galilee rooftop chats of faith – 3. Storms and the Queen’s funeral – 4. The town about the rejected stone Rosh Pina – 5. Who might witness Jesus’ return before anyone else? – 6. Galilee crops – 7. Soon…..

Dec 10 2023

Asbury revival beginning predicted in 2018

I discovered this article from (December 2018) 5 years ago, about how the Lord was going to touch young people in Universities:-
https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/74231-prophecy-god-is-about-to-pour-out-his-spirit-on-universities?fbclid=IwAR3fGu2n5ovoZvGwEI3lOKCUCpGj7fjxua3yZaZEuQXhw1fCs9Iym6C3NMk

As I am part of the charismatic movement, I’m keen to know what’s spoken in the past gets realised.
The Asbury Revival that happened this year seems to be the wonderful fruit of this.

Dec 7 2023

Debunking pathetic boycott Israel campaigns

So propaganda like this I see quite a lot. This was posted by someone from Denmark.

Its been shown both in the Muslim world, or by the extreme left and Muslims living in the west.

Its highlighting that a group of well known brands are giving money to Israel, and by stopping business to them will “help the cause of Palestine”

Lets dismantle this.

Mcdonalds. They are an American company of course. There’s Mcds in Israel, who employ Jewish and Arab staff. And not in the Palestinian territories but a lot of Arab Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan and more. They operate as a franchise. I don’t recommend you support McDonalds in the Middle East, as there are thousands of smaller restaurant businesses run by Jews and Arabs that are loads better.

KFC. This is an American company, also operates as a franchise. This opened in Israel some years ago. Then they shut. Not because of political reasons. They just didn’t do very well as there are plenty of local fast food places.

Coca Cola. I wrote on this a little while back. You can get Hebrew branded Coke made in Bnei Barak (Israeli city) or Arabic brand coke made in Ramallah (Palestinian city) Its made under licence and sold most parts of the world. If you want you could get some kind of generic cola drink instead.

I’ve not been to Ramallah. But its were the Palestine authority government is for Fatah (not the same as Hamas who run Gaza) This picture above is from Ramallah. On the left some coke is being delivered in a van (Palestinian cars have white or green licence plates, Israelis have yellow) On the right, there is a big poster with some Arab lads drinking Coke.

Starbucks. US company. Tried running in Israel and it failed. Too much competition. Israelis would rather support their own cafes. I think they do ok in UAE and Saudi though.

Nestle. They are based in Switzerland. I think their products are sold in Israel, but Israelis tend to buy their own home grown food.

Cadburys. This is a British company started in Birmingham by a Christian family. I’ve never seen Cadburys chocolate in Israel, except in Arab shops where it had Arabic language versions made in Egypt and imported.

Israel makes a lot of technology products. HP, Apple, Intel, Motorola, Cisco, Qualcomm, Google and Microsoft have significant research and development done in Israel. As well as indigenous tech companies like Waze, Amdocs, Monday.com, NICE systems are Israel start ups.

If you want to boycott Israel you will have to throw away your favourite gadgets.

Like it or not. Israel is here to stay. Israel’s Messiah is also coming back to Jerusalem one day. Stop hating and get used to it.

Dec 2 2023

Fruits of revival seen in Portsmouth UK

I thought I’d show you what I have observed over the last few years in my home city of Portsmouth.

This is Langstone Church, I went here in my youth. I remember seeing many people commit their lives to Christ, baptised and married here. In recent years, it got smaller and its future was uncertain. Now its been taken over by Christ Central (in 2022) which is part of New Frontiers church, so its being used to reach the community again.

This is Kings Church. This was my main church from 1998 to 2009. This is a great community which I really loved, which is part of Assemblies of God. That year I left the UK to go and do ministry work in Israel.

They were in a small community centre, then bought an abandoned snooker hall, which then was too small. They got to acquire another church which was facing extinction.

This is Living Waters in Titchfield, a delightful oldy-worldy pleasant village 15 miles from Portsmouth.

This was also previous a different church that became defunct.

This is St Margaret’s Church in Southsea. This is my current church. This was abandoned, empty and in poor shape but revitalised.

So the common pattern I see, is new churches spring up, starting using a rented or less formal type meeting place, and take over large traditional church buildings.

I’ve been part of many churches, which are independent, Assemblies of God, Church of England, Messianic Jewish and Calvary Chapel, there’s multiple subgenres of these groups, as I’ve lived 4 years in Jerusalem Israel, 6 in London and before and now 3 years back in my home town of Portsmouth.

I like bringing people along to church that don’t yet know Jesus, or chatting to Christians not going to any church currently.

If you are in Portsmouth and want to know about my church or my faith, feel free to get in touch with me.

Nov 29 2023

Israel trip in 2022 – 5. Who might witness Jesus’ return before anyone else? Something exciting I’ve noticed recently….

See this place? its the Mount of Olives. The place the Jewish Messiah will return.

Zechariah 14:4-11
4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[a] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Few weeks ago, I gave a fun “keyboard and mouse” tour to a close friend using video conferencing software. You can see yourself as Google mapped out a lot of Israel in 2011. But no new footage If you want to walk up there using your computer you can see Christian tourists up there and young Arab men selling postcards and the camel available for rides.

Go on. Knock yourself out and look for yourself with this link. 🙂

While I lived out in Jerusalem, I’ve been up this special place many times, both with a tour and on my own. For some reason, I can’t find these photos I took more recently.

If you are curious, click the above links and “walk” around with your mouse. See the half circular steps for looking out? Now looking behind the lads with the camel, and see the parking spaces for tourist buses? Now look ahead towards the Jewish graves and you can see a small road for the ground keepers to drive through here. Something has been added you won’t see.

Take a look here. You won’t see this on the Street map view as the footage is from 2011. The bird’s eye footage is far more recent. And you can see this new structure which has appeared. So, Israel has built a mini police station upon the Mount of Olives site. This small caravan sized building, when I visited in 2022, saw it had some radio aerial or something on top. There were two young police officers with a drone which they use to do security checks. They were looking a bit bored looking at their phones.

Then it hit me. Who is going to be noticing Jesus’ return first? Maybe excited Christian pilgrims who are up there on a tour and their tired Israeli tour bus driver who is having a coffee and a cigarette. Or, these young policemen if this place is always manned 24/7. I’ve often wondered if Jesus would have a new crew of disciples. It just might be possible that they are going to relay pretty interesting conversations to their colleagues with their radios when he’s back.

EDIT: I found a picture of the police station from 2016.

1. Items in the wrong places – 2. Galilee rooftop chats of faith – 3. Storms and the Queen’s funeral – 4. The town about the rejected stone Rosh Pina – 5. Who might witness Jesus’ return before anyone else? – 6. Galilee crops – 7. Soon…..

Nov 28 2023

Should we use AI for Christian teaching?

There’s a lot of talk on AI and excitement about possibilities and worries of people losing jobs or false information being generated with no way to stop it.

I look at industrial machinery which always has a big red emergency stop button.

There’s been talk that this could be used for Christian teaching.

I had a play with Midjourney, an AI tool which can be used to generate pictures based on a brief entered by the user.

I asked it to show Jesus out with his disciples fishing, wanting to get a glimpse of the sense of brotherhood that would of happened in these days. With the picture set to high quality, this was generated in 90 seconds or so.

Wow! I was amazed how superb the quality is, the textures and colours are vibrant and clear!!

This isn’t the Sea of Galilee, as its too narrow. This looks more like Norway from the shape of scenery.

I did my most recent bucket list item of visiting Mount Tabor in Israel in 2022 seeing what’s thought to be the very place of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Again, I’m shocked how sharp and eye catching this is!

But, at the top of Tabor instead of the Greek Orthodox church and the Catholic church, there’s what looks like the Dome of the Rock mosque that’s in Jerusalem. Tabor is in the Galilee a long way away.

AI can’t determine faith in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob versus other faiths.

This place looks lush and green which could be correct in the February to April part of the season where there is rain.

With current war and recent terrible tragedies in Israel and Gaza, I’ve seen pictures generated showing those kidnapped being released before this actually happened.

So I think AI can have some use given carefully stewarded. We can use it to show something not too ambiguous but there will always be a need for human intervention to check before making public. A watermark with what it was generated should always be added.

Nov 11 2023

Why did Jesus become a curse word

You have probably seen it as well as me.   In most workplaces, you probably have someone who is shocked or upset and use swear words – or, call out the name of the well known religious leader as a curse word.

diversitybooth

I went to a computer show at the Excel exhibition in London which I have done for the last few years as I used to work doing computer maintenance for schools.    This booth here was to promote that common buzzword “diversity” more in workplaces.

So I asked her.   “Excuse me, madam, can I ask a controversial question…. “  “Go on..”

“Why does no one stub their toe and say “Oh Buddha, Krishna or Mohammed”   isn’t this not right in the spirit of diversity and tolerance? why insult only one religious leader”      She didn’t know.   I asked if she could suggest this to her bosses.

So why did this happen?   You know what, at some point, I’d like to figure out what did this slur enter common speech.   For now, I think I found out in the bible why this is:-

Galatians 3:12-14
12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Actually using the word Jesus as a swear word has also been done by one of my Orthodox Jewish colleagues, which I poke a bit of fun with them, which they thankfully stopped doing it.

For me, our Lord and saviour became a curse for us when he took the punishment for us.

Nov 10 2023

Did Jesus tell us to hate?

Once I heard people are confused about Jesus’ words on hate, consider this.

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even their own life–such a person cannot be my disciple. (NIV) 

hate?  Jesus?   The Ten Commandments tell us to Honour your Mother and Father, right?

Therefore I can see that religious themed bloggers who are atheists, or from another religion are likely to pull this ‘hate’ word out in a debate.

It seems common bible translations including the King James also state this; compare them here https://biblehub.com/luke/14-26.htm

Why is this?  It seems like this is a bad translation from the Greek to English.  This isn’t a problem with the scholars who re-jigged the scriptures to English.

I learned this from doing a bit of Hebrew whilst in Israel, or French a really long time ago at school.

Some words in certain contexts in certain languages are actually really hard to find the right equivalent word that fits.

Let’s look up the original Greek.   Its this word “μισέω” which is Miseo.

https://biblehub.com/greek/3404.htm 

“to renounce one choice in favour of another” – yes this is a better fit.

Jesus is telling his followers to re-prioritise their choices onto following him then their own family.

I really like the Strong’s concordance.   You can easily look tricky words up in the Hebrew or Greek on the www.biblehub.com or get the actual book.

Aug 5 2023

Israel trip in 2022 – 4. The town about the rejected stone Rosh Pina

I went to see some old friends in Israel who did originally lived in my home town in Portsmouth, they made Aliyah (formal process of immigration to Israel) and lived in Karmiel, a modern town in the Galillee, now they moved close to Rosh Pina.

Rosh Pina is a small town with 3,200 people and was established in 1882 by some Romanian families. It’s literally meaning in cornerstone in Hebrew. Rosh can mean first or head. These words feature in the scriptures in Psalms 118 here:

KJV with Strong’s The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner תהילים 118:22 Hebrew OT: Westminster Leningrad Codex
אֶ֭בֶן מָאֲס֣וּ הַבֹּונִ֑ים הָ֝יְתָ֗ה לְרֹ֣אשׁ פִּנָּֽה

Later on the gospels, in Matthew 21 : 42 Jesus refers to this passage.

You can gauge from this map above how much smaller Israel is that you think. As from the road near my friend’s house you can see in the distance the top of the Sea of Galilee.

When living in Israel 2009-2013 I didn’t get to see this town or nearby Safed. Now I’ve briefly seen them I want to explore on my next visit.

1. Items in the wrong places – 2. Galilee rooftop chats of faith – 3. Storms and the Queen’s funeral – 4. The town about the rejected stone Rosh Pina – 5. Who might witness Jesus’ return before anyone else? – 6. Soon…..

Jul 30 2023

Israel trip in 2022 – 3. Storms and the Queen’s funeral

After I booked my ticket to Israel, the UK was shocked by the announcement of the Queen’s death in September of 2022, I saw this online just when I was finishing work at about 6.30 I think.

When I got to the edge of the sea of Galilee, in the city of Tiberias, things didn’t look so good. I was told the museum on the pier was shut as I think a lack of Christian tourism meant it had ceased trading (if I am wrong do comment) and the pier had taken a battering, as the storms made famous in Jesus’ time still happen today.

The restaurant below has broken windows and looks in a very poor state.

This convenience store is more for tourists to buy snacks from. I don’t really see anyone around apart from a small handful of locals.
But wait – I spy what was on the television. I completely forgot the Queen’s funeral was being televised live.

Any television channel is likely to give a not accurate idea of what is going on, but using my limited understanding of Hebrew language, I see C of E leader Justin Wilby speaking about the Queen’s life and faith in God, and the Hebrew words ישוע for Jesus and רוח הקודש and Holy Spirit flash up on the screen, whilst a religious Jewish couple walk in and glance at the TV.

The Queen was a fine example of a follower of Messiah Jesus and spoke often about his influence on her life and this was mention in a eulogy of the leader of my country here which must watched by a few hundred million people in countless languages all over the globe.

To see our Lord and Saviour given honour and appreciation in the place where he spent his ministry is pretty sobering experience.

1. Items in the wrong places – 2. Galilee rooftop chats of faith – 3. Storms and the Queen’s funeral – 4. The town about the rejected stone Rosh Pina – 5. Who might witness Jesus’ return before anyone else? – 6. Soon…..