Today, Tuesday, 11 March, was filled with the theme of the day (that is what I gathered it to be!)...THE ONE NEW MAN.
Of course the day began with the fright and horror...at 1am...with my confrontation with this man looking over me on my bed! I literally jumped out of my bed, shouted at him WHO ARE YOU?!? He said he lived there with a girl!! Whatever it is, i thought he did not have any right to just come in!! I shouted GET OUT!! a few times and pushed him through the door.
I genuinely thought that this man must be staying in this place and entered the wrong room as my door was not locked. My fault. Felt to check and lock door before sleeping but thought "Should be ok". Later found that this man broke the shutters in the main office and came in through that. The police came and recounting the incident made me feel violated and traumatised. Peter Tsukahira came to speak to us, apologised, and called us up to be prayed for. He said this is the first time this has happened and it was to derail us a little as to what God wants to do in us. I feel the same too....but the Lord did warn, but yet He still protected us all!
And, exciting things were in store for the day.....THE ONE NEW MAN.
We began with David Davis with a summary of his life (his life story is in ROAD TO CARMEL) and then sharing with us from Ephesians 2.
* Written by Paul when he was in jail* Paul always went to the synagogues first and preached from the OT. The Jews knew what he was talking about* It was the Jews that brought the gospel to the Gentiles, miracles broke out and people stopped buying the statues and did religious stuff - when revival comes, it shakes the foundations of society* The word of God went to all parts of Asia, based on the Jews and Gentiles together* v14 - made one - echad (same Hebrew Word when we say ONE God)* v15 - ONE NEW MAN. New here means fresh, pure, holy, never before touched. It is faith in the power of God to do it.
The glory of the ONE NEW MAN, Jews and Gentiles. Though it was the Jews that brought the gospel, they were ONE. For the different people groups - Jews, Arabs and others, there are cultural differences historical happenings that have caused enmity and hatred, but we heard different people sharing on how God changed hearts of men to desire to see the ONE NEW MAN a reality. David also shared a few testimonies how God has been reaching out miraculously to the Moslem world. There are Christian satellite TV going out and reaching millions of Moslems. There was a lady in Iran who was changing channels and she came across the JESUS FILM. She began to watch it, and she was just falling in love in the Jesus that did miracles....and died on the cross. At the end, the person on the show read from Revelation 3:20... Jesus is standing at the door and knocking at your heart, if anyone opens the door he will come in and sup with him. There was a knock on her door, she opened it and Jesus came in, she made him a meal and Jesus left! She called the number on the show and said, "Jesus came in to the door" Of course they thought she was responding to Revelation 3:20, but she was saying, "Jesus came through my door and had a meal here!"
There was further teaching about THE ONE NEW MAN from Zechariah 4:1-14, compare with Revelation 1:4-12, Romans 11. Note the 2 olive trees, and the lampstand(s). Olive trees - the natural olive tree (Jews) and the wild olive tree (non-Jews), and how the light of the lampstand is to be lighted 24/7, fulness of the Holy Spirit. The lampstand is crafted from ONE PIECE OF GOLD. This is the believers refined - JEWS AND GENTILES. The cost of putting the oil into the cultivated olive tree (Jews) is costly, supporting and reaching out to the Jews will cost you. And wanting to see this ONE NEW MAN will cost you. Read about the olive tree in my next posting. This part of the teaching is very summarised!
Later in the afternoon, we attended an Arab church. Here, it is unlike Kehilat HaCarmel - It had a cross, and it was called 'Church' as these terms are fine with Arabs. Again, here, we hear of the miraculous beginnings of this Arab church and how God is working in the hearts of people to bring all people- whether it is Jews, Arabs, etc together....ONE NEW MAN. But as we hear of the pains and sacrifices experienced by the Arab pastor ...this ONE NEW MAN comes with great costs. But it was also others that came along to help and gave to the work of God. Again, there is just too much to write down! God is indeed moving in a great and mighty way in these last days!
For dinner, we were taken to a restaurant, named MAXIM, owned by an Arab Christian. Again, this is to teach us what it really means ONE NEW MAN. We were told....a few years ago, a woman suicide bomber stood in the middle of this family restaurant and blew herself up, killing 17 people and injuring many more. They thought, this is it, we will just close it down after 2 generations. But the encouragement of others to continue, they did, because this is to show love to the people that actually caused the tragedy. They opened the restaurant again and hopes that it will continue to many generations to come to continue the LOVE STORY amongst all people!. They had this on the wall :
The serviette from the restaurant Try reading the Hebrew letters....from right to left - regular mem (first letter 'm'), qof (k), samekh, yod, final mem....that gives the word MAXIM. Some Hebrew letters have 'regular' and 'final'....you see there was no spacing between words during the ancient times, so they had letters to let you know that it was the end of the word with the 'final'...there is 'regular' and 'final' nun, mem (m), tav (t), dalet (d), khaf (k), etc
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A wonderful end to a day of ONE NEW MAN.......
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