Israel O Israel
Israel my Israel
The Chosen Land of God
The Chosen People of God
His holy land, given to his Holy people. I traveled there in the youth of my faith to look upon the land, the people, the history. I knew not what awaited me in this Holy Land. The land of my Jesus, the land of my God. In me were many things that didn’t belong, many things that were of man and earth not of God and his Kingdom. In Jerusalem I found my key. My Key, Jesus, HisStory, His Love, His gift to me. I learned many things about Israel I didn’t know. Things from the past 2000 years, things from the beginning of time, things from the past century. My eyes were opened to HisStory, His Love, His People that I didn’t know. But more than that I learned many things about myself I didn’t know. I understand now how important His People are to him and because of that they are important to me. I met Jews from other lands who were visiting and I talked to them. I told them that I was a Christian praying for the land and people of God. They were not offended, they did not rejecting me because I believe that the Messiah has come and is Jesus. Tears came to their eyes because of my love for them founded through Jesus. Thanks came from them because they know our prayers are sincere and they are greatly accepted. I traveled that land to pray and to learn. What I received was a closer walk with God, a deeper understanding with His people, a Higher experience and Love of Jesus. I have been changed and I can never go back. This land of God’s has touched my soul and my spirit man and brought them closer together.
Jerusalem, O Jerusalem
Jerusalem, my Jerusalem
You have taken my heart, in no place have I felt at home more than when I crossed over into your boundaries. My heart is yours and that is where my hearts home is now. I can never feel at home again until I return to you. I have walked the streets if Jerusalem, mingled with your people, God’s people. I have entered your buildings, prayed for your people, watched the sun set over your fair white buildings and cover your people in your glory and protection. The night lights showing you even more beautiful than in the day, with the glow of the lamps illuminating the beauty of you. I have walked streets that are new and streets that are old. I have sat on the steps where Jesus taught, I have seen the pits in your walls from the arrows and bullets, wounding you as you defended your people. O Jerusalem, you have my heart and I will never be whole again till I return to you. Your stone streets, buildings and shops, but mostly your people and your spirit.
O Israel, O Jerusalem
I look at the pictures I took every day and the memories fill my heart. I tell people the stories of you but it is nothing compared to the real experience. I can say words and paint pictures with my words, I can show the real pictures I took but nothing can be as real as you are. And you are real in me, I carry your memories with me every day. A word, a tune, a thought and I am with you again, living in the memory of you. All the thoughts, feelings, smells, noises and sights of you. The songs we sang, the rides we took. Your servant who showed you to us, educated us in your history, shared with us his feelings and his love for you, and made us feel the same love for you. Maybe not as deeply as he feels but then he has been with you longer and his love for you is deep in his being since the day he was born. To see you through his eyes, his love for you was the greatest gift to us. To share his country with us and to spark in us this love for you that will never die. To walk the streets that Jesus walked was amazing. To walk along and the stop and your servant would tell us “these stones were here in the time of Jesus” just touched me deeply to know that I was that close to Him, to His Glory, to HisStory. To sit in the garden where he prayed, to stand on the steps where he taught, to see the place of his death, to stand in the tomb of his resurrection. To sing in the upper room where he appeared to his disciples and where they received the Holy Spirit. These are no longer stories to me, it is real to me now. It is part of me now in a level I am not conscious of , deep in my soul and giving life to my spirit man. My heart is here with You, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. You are a part of me now that is deeper, pushing my earthly self out and filling me with your Spirit. To be more of you and less of me, that is all I want, that is all I need.
It has been over 6 months since I left and I think about Israel, the land and the people and HisStory every day. I have been touched more deeply than I know even now. I want to go back, I want to learn more, I want to get closer to God. But I have come to realize something, I left nothing behind, I carry it with me every day, Israel is now part of me and it is with me every day. In that I rest, I glory in the presence of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In that is my spirit at all times, climbing higher into them, into their Glory and Love. I am changed and I cannot go back, but more importantly, I DO NOT WANT to go back to who and what I was. I want to go forward into Jesus, into God into the Holy Spirit and be what they want me to be. I want this division between my soul and my spirit man to get less and less until they are one. Until I am one with Jesus, with God and in them so that all I see is of them. I really want to go back, but not just to go back. I want to go back when He is ready for me to come, because I know that if I go back before he is ready for me Israel will hold nothing for me. So I wait until his time is come for me to return. I watch for that opportunity and I get ready for it. I grow in Jesus every day, learning and now teaching. His Glory, His Love, His Grace … HisStory.
