Grove, Oklahoma, seems an unlikely place for a Messianic congregation of Jews and Gentiles that could have kingdom significance! But as Isaiah says, “My ways are not your ways.”
We just returned from a three day conference hosted by Curt Landry and the House of David. God brought an interesting group of people together including Jerry and Judy Ball who lead intercessory groups and Frank Naea, a New Zealand Maori who was the International President of YWAM and is now leading an evangelistic “Wave” across the US. He came to receive a blessing from one of the world’s original “host people” and a Gentile pastor—a Jew/Gentile blessing.
Friday night Coach Bill McCartney flew in to give his own personal God-glorifying testimony of coming to the Lord, leading the Colorado Buffaloes to National Championship, the call to begin Promise Keepers, and now God’s vision for the Road to Jerusalem that he and Raleigh Washington are leading.
I personally am not sure I have ever sensed a more open heaven for preaching than I experienced. Of course I sought the Lord about the four messages I was to bring, even spent one whole afternoon with the Lord and His Word before speaking on “End Time Relationship with Israel and the Church.” It was not the first time I have spoken on this subject, but it amazed me to find such freshness in familiar passages in Romans 9-11, Matthew 24, 13, Luke 21, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Micah, Zechariah and others.
For example, I had been so involved with Micah 5:2 and 3 that speak of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and of his ancient origins, that I had missed Micah’s prediction that there would be a time when “the rest of his brothers” would “join the Israelites.” Micah foresaw the coming together of Jew and Gentile in Messiah Yeshua long before Paul described the “one new man” in Ephesians and Romans.
I continue to read the Word with a “This is that!” expectation. As I do, I am reading the unfolding of history. For example, Isaiah 11 not only describes Jesus’ first coming: “He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.” It also looks to another coming when he will “strike the earth with the rod of his mouth” and “with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.” Isaiah foresees that future time when the “wolf will live with the lamb,” and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
“In that day,” Isaiah promises, “the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people.” The first gathering from the nations is happening today. There is coming a second time when he will gather the exiles of Israel “from the four quarters of the earth.” At that time “they will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west” and “plunder the people to the east.” Interesting when one considers who today lives to the west and east of Israel. Isaiah sees a time when the Egyptian sea will dry up and the Euphrates River will be broken into seven streams and there will be a highway for his people that are left in Assyria.
Very interesting! Isaiah describes this in more detail in his 19th chapter when he sees Assyrians and Egyptians and Israelis all worshipping the Lord together and becoming a blessing in the whole earth. See what you miss when you do not read the Word?!
“The Book” is very interesting! I came away from the Grove meetings with a renewed passion to challenge God’s people to be a “people of the Book.” How can we know God without reading His revelation of Himself? How can we expect to know God’s heart without knowing His Book? How can we expect to get enough of Him in one weekly meeting of a few scattered scriptures, no matter how anointed the “man of God” may be?
You know one of the reasons Coach McCartney is such a strong man of God? When he became a believer, he was challenged to read the Word. He had never done that. He made a vow to God that he, a coach, would read the Word every day before he read the Sports’ Page! For thirty-two years he has done that! That’s why God can continue to use this man. That’s why Jesus is such an integral part of him.
Read the Book!
Eat it! Drink it! Hunger for it! Listen to it! Know it! Memorize it! Receive it! Obey it! Cherish it! Follow it!
These are dangerous days. And my understanding of the Book does not insure that they will get better before they get worse!
If you need a good reading plan, check ours out at www.calebcompany.com. Determine to be a “people of the Book.”
