This evening John and I were blessed to watch a small but powerful concert of the wonderful Israeli singer and worship leader, Joshua Aaron. Apparently he and two other musicians were in The Netherlands giving this concert and he explained that the rest of his band are all in the I.D.F. on active duty in the war in Israel. 

Something about this concert started causing many long-ago memories to swirl around in my mind and I knew it was because Joshua was singing familiar worship songs in English, in Hebrew, and then in Dutch. I truly love hearing the sounds of music and praise being lifted up to the Father in various languages of the tribes and people of the earth. It took me back to a moment in Jerusalem many years ago when I was living there in the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations.  We were hosting the annual conference and people from about 180 nations had gathered there to hear teaching from the Bible and to worship the Lord together.  At one point the worship leader on the stage began singing the song "Shout to the Lord" and as the people joined in, I heard a sound that seemed to catapult me straight into the Throne Room! I heard ONE SONG being sung to The God of all the Earth in probably about 50 different languages!  We were singing together - as one - but the words were all different. And it touched me deeply to think, "This is what the Lord hears continually in Heaven! He understands every word, He delights in every dialect, and He hears His people as one united body across the entire planet!" I cannot tell you how thrilling this revelation was to me!

Suddenly the memories of many mission trips came flooding back like a televised travelogue. First I remember myself riding on the back of a small motorcycle amidst the jam-packed traffic on the streets of Nepal. I was holding on to the small waist of the pastor who had fetched me from my hotel to bring me to the church where he would teach me how to sing some of their songs in the Nepalese language. Then the scene changed and I see myself in a very large building in Ivanovo, Russia. It was in the dead of winter and the owners of the building refused to  allow coal to be delivered for heat since it was a Christian church! But the Russians came anyway - at least 300 of them - dressed in big fur hats, heavy boots, and warm wool coats. The women wrapped their babies in several layers of blankets and the children hopped and danced to keep warm. I led them in worship, singing "As the Deer" and "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord" and several other songs in the Russian tongue. They stayed the entire day in the cold, lifting their voices and their hearts, grateful for electricity that powered my keyboard, and delighted that I sang in their language.

Then suddenly my memory takes me to  a huge structure in Nigeria that served as a church. There was a concrete floor and a tarp-like "roof" that kept off rain.  Again, this was an ALL DAY WORSHP FEST, even though the temperature was over 100 degrees F. and the humidity at least that high! I never saw such an eye-popping pallet of color in all my life as these beautiful Nigeran women in their stunning dresses and hats filed into the church.  I led them in singing their traditional Nigerian worship songs - just as I had led the Kenyans in their lilting Swahili praise of "Mambo Sawa Sawa"!  These were such grand times, being able to knit my heart to all these people from many nations, tribes and tongues as we worshipped together as one. 

The most intimate time of worship I recall was in Jerusalem, with a group of intercessors. We sang all our praise in Hebrew and though we were from many different nations, singing in the ancient Hebrew language gave us a sense of worship in David's Tabernacle, God's FAVORITE house of worship!

I see the world so divided, so filled with hatred and intolerance.  On my TV screen I hear the vitriol spewed forth by young college students, even as I continue to witness the intense hatred of the Jewish people spreading like a cancer around the world. So on this rain-swept, peaceful evening, with John at my side softly singing, and all these wondrous memories flooding my soul, I feel so grateful that I have had so many opportunities to connect with so many of God's precious people around the world! 

John picks up the small shofar on the table beside his chair and starts to sound little blasts along with the exciting Middle-Eastern music in the concert.  And then another treasured memory returns.  I think of my dear friend Mariana, who was with us in the House of Prayer.  She was from Kyrgyzstan and she and her team led the whole conference in worship with one tiny little instrument called the Oz-komuz, a mouth harp played by blowing air through a tube! 

All these sounds are precious to God not because any of us are so talented, and not because any one language or instrument is superior to others, but because our hearts are turned toward Him and our worship is ONLY FOR HIM.  From the hurdy-gurdy played during this Joshua Aaron concert to the Oz-komuz played by my beloved little friend, it all reaches the ear of God and I believe it gives Him great delight! He does say in His Word that one day we believers will all be gathered together from every nation, tribe and tongue; can you IMAGINE the glorious sound that will ascend on that day as our voices are joined with thousands upon ten thousands of angels? 

Just know that YOU will be singing too. He doesn't audition voices; He auditions hearts!

The rise of anti-Semitism in our own country is devastating. I've been really pondering how it is that this evil spirit that promotes hatred of the Jewish people has risen again, all across the world. What is this spirit and how does it so easily gain a foothold in the minds of so many? 
Tom Teepen of the Atlanta Constitution once wrote this in an article:
​"It's the viruses of the spirit that most elude us, isn't it? Smallpox was eliminated from the world in 1977, polio eradicated from the Western Hemisphere. The rest of the world should follow within a few years, and widening immunizations make it possible to free human life from at least a few other diseases, especially those of childhood, by century's end. But no serum, no vaccine, yet reaches the soul." The article continues expounding upon anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern European countries and then he said this: "The disease isn't only Eastern European. France has suffered. The infection has cropped up in Japan, where anti-Semitic books have been selling briskly to a readership that doesn't even quite know who Jews are."

That is the terribly curious part of this new wave of anti-Semitism in America, particularly in our universities and college campuses.  The students hold protests and rallies to support the Palestinians and blast the familiar chant "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA!"  When asked what river and what sea, most do not have a clue. They don't know who the Palestinians are either, or why they should take up their cause. No one has educated them to understand that there has never been a Palestinian race of people or a Palestinian nation with a legitimate government. Like most young people, they have a need to fight for something, to champion a cause, and this infection (as Teepen referred to it) found more places and people to invade.  

Please understand that to chant "from the river to the sea" is to call for the genocide of the Jews, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That encompasses the land of Israel. That is the ancient battle cry to "drive the Jews into the sea!"

It's the day before Passover, friends, and my heart hurts. I was all lined up to lead a beautiful, holy Passover celebration at a large church near me. Most of the people of this church had never experienced a Passover Seder and my heart was overjoyed at the opportunity to show them how every single element of this ancient celebration is fulfilled in our Messiah - and the Messiah of the Jewish people also!  Jesus came to earth born of a Jewish woman. He grew up in a Jewish family and learned the Torah (the first 5 books of our Bible). He recruited all Jewish disciples and just before He was crucified, He gathered with those disciples to keep the Passover. Why WOULDN'T we, as His believers, want to do this too, in remembrance of Him?  

Yes, we do this in our churches when we take communion, the bread and the cup. As the Apostle Paul said, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). It is good that we do this, as the Lord commanded us, proclaiming His death and His resurrection until He returns for us. Yet, the keeping of the Passover is that and SO MUCH MORE! It is the remembrance of the great deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt - pointing to our own deliverance from sin through the blood of Jesus, who became the Passover Lamb. Instead of just keeping and celebrating a small part of God's story, the Passover gives us the opportunity to celebrate the WHOLE STORY, His grand eternal plan of Salvation!

Yet, we are suddenly thrust into another time of this Jew-hatred virus, spiraling throughout the world, fomenting acts of violence and prejudice. It comes directly from the source of all evil, my friends, from Satan himself. He knows the time left to him is short and he will be working overtime to kill, steal, and destroy, with a sniper-sharp focus on the Jewish people, through whom the Deliverer will come. He is operating right now on the world stage, as Israel once again battles for its very survival. But he is operating also, ever so stealthily, in the schools, in the churches, in the minds of all who do not cling to and worship Yeshua, the Son of God, the Redeemer.  I want to love what God loves and hate what God hates. The Bible makes that ever so clear for us. God says of His people Israel, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful! Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the FOREMOST OF THE NATIONS. Make your praises heard and say, 'O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'" (from Jeremiah 31)

Teepen concludes his article: "The health of humankind is not measured just by its coughs and wheezes but by the fevers of its soul. Or perhaps more important yet, by the quickness and care we bring against them. If our history suggests unreason's durability, our experience teaches that to neglect it is to indulge it and that to indulge it is to prepare hate's triumph."

May hate not triumph in us or in our children. May our Passover tables be filled with the good things of God that remind us of His miraculous parting of the Red Sea to rescue His people from cruel bondage. May our hearts be singing and dancing as Miriam did. And may we eat the matzah and lift the cups, boldly and passionately continuing to proclaim Yeshua's death - and His resurrection - until He comes again. Behold the Lamb of God! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us - THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST!

Shabbat Shalom! 
And if you desire to keep a small, family Passover together at YOUR table, email me right back and I'll send you the simple, beautiful Seder service you can do in your own home. May it be a blessing!