Shalom Partner and Friend of Israel,

Let us journey back in time to the very beginning before CREATION or the un-ending circle of ETERNITY…. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” - Genesis 1:1-2. A time where neither thing had been created nor un-created – a TIME where all there was …was God! Imagine this time just for a moment! In this NON-Time of so long ago - 6,000 years ago when there was only ONE lifeform  …Yahweh God – the Godhead (Father, Son, Spirit - John 1:1-4)  ...and LOVE. A love so VAST, so powerful, yet was NO other for Him to LOVE and so deep within the centre of His being that there occurred an event that “NO eye was to see – NOR mind could conceive” …and out of the “deep darkness” the un-ending self-containment would END a great abyss of nothingness when God said; “Let there be…!”

Never before, only ONCE since, has there been such a radical change in the History of God. Now as; “Let there be…!” sounded across the sphere of “nothingness” – there came a blinding flash that filled the hollow void! The Created Light – a picture God NOW shared the space! GOD then “created” a realm of “Spirituals” - yet this invisible and visible was inside Him and He called it heavenly places! “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17

The word “Created” here means; “to make something out of nothing.” It is the Hebrew word ‘Bara’ and it is found 44 times in the Old Testament …and is used ONLY of God’s Creation since God is the CREATOR of EVERYTHING! Atheism says there is NO God and that humans are gods. Paganism and Agnostics believe many gods are in the universe, but finite or limited in power. However, this first line of Scripture refutes each belief and introduces “theism,” which says there is an “infinite” God beyond the universe!

The God of the Bible, the God of Israel YHVH (Yahveh) is the CREATOR of everything including TIME. Genesis 1-2  …focuses on the Creation of the physical dimension, human experience, and activity …but the implication is that everything, such as Angelic beings, were created by God. This may be why it is said God created both the; “Heavens and the Earth” - which includes the “spiritual realm!” But, in Genesis 1, we also learn there is NO one …and NOTHING equal to God - He is infinite, while everything else is finite. God is the only necessary being and He is Eternal! At the very beginning, He EXISTED, for it is impossible for Him not to exist! “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” – Revelation 4:11.

Let’s continue on our journey of discovery… Why did God create everything …and then mankind? It was NOT for any deficiency in Himself, such as loneliness, for God is perfect and in need of nothing. God is LOVE (1 John 1:5)…and His love drove Him to make a place for us so we could enjoy His Creation, BUT also enjoy Him. So, Let’s see, first God made light, then the earth, water and seas, herbs, grass and fruit trees, sea creatures, fowls of the air then animals and saw it was good …and only then on the 6^th day made mankind  - male (Adam) and female (Eve) in His OWN Image …and saw that it was VERY good and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply! “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” - Genesis 1:26-31.

Although, God enjoyed in having “sea creatures” and “animals” present with Him …and although His solitude had at last been broken – His Creation had one another (i.e., “like had like” and “kind had kind”) …BUT here was NO kind after God’s kind …and so His audience, the accompanying of Angels, watched Him Create a wholly different life from them all… “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” - Genesis 2:7. From the RED Dust God created Adam, with His own Hands He formed him. It was the highest form of LIFE within the realm of visible things “created in the image of God!” The Angels MUST have stared at the Lord’s intensity as they noted how deeply His aloneness, uniquely edged on His face. Slowly He drew that element from out of Himself and engraved it upon CLAY.

With the last sculpturing stroke, God must have stepped back from the moist soil – allowing the Angels to have a full view of His completed work and they must have grasped in amazement and cried together; “His Image – Visible!”

When the Lord God breathed life into the clay’s nostrils and it began to quietly breathe… the Angels must have stood in wonder at the Creation of MAN since this creature would rule the earth …as surely as the Lord God who rules the Heavenlies in whose image, mankind was so obviously made …and very much like God could also LOVE.

And, like God the one called MAN  (Ish) -  Male (Adam) had NO kind after his kind …and so God made him a counterpart WOMAN (Ishah) - Female (Eve); “But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So, the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he (Adam) was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her (Eve) to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man”” – Genesis 2:20-23.

God is NOT only our loving ABBA Father… He is merciful and Genesis 3 tells us how the Adam and Eve story led to “the fall,” with a serpent convincing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit …and with Eve handing some over to her husband. In particular, the dialogue between Eve and the serpent (Satan) has much to teach us about God’s LOVE for us …as well as temptation and evil’s attempts to sway us! We read that Satan tells Eve that she won’t die if she eats the fruit and that God is simply trying to prevent her from being “like God” and “knowing good and evil.” So, once she saw the fruit as having the “power to give her wisdom,” Eve consumed it and the rest is history!

Could something as astounding as our DNA come from anything else other than Almighty God? NO! Because our DNA is ours and ours alone. Our DNA is like “a blueprint” of our souls …which is another SACRED thing that is NOT like anyone else’s in the world. Our DNA traces our past history and our future, because it determines who we came from and who we will create. It is a MIRACLE of life.And, like God the one called MAN  (Ish) -  Male (Adam) had NO kind after his kind …and so God made him a counterpart WOMAN (Ishah) - Female (Eve); “But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So, the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he (Adam) was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her (Eve) to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man”” – Genesis 2:20-23.

God is in the “microscopic” details, in the meeting of egg and sperm in the particular way that could only have led to us being formed (created) in our Mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13-18; Jeremiah 1:5). DNA is a kind of HOLY ground as it is from GOD our Creator. Nobody is alike, we are all unique and that’s how unfathomable huge God’s love is for us! God loves us NOT because of who we are but because of who He is.

The FATHER Heart of God is a Divine  Romance… We believe that God wanted us to come into the world as babies (unlike Adam and Eve as adults) …totally dependent and helpless because He intended the FAMILY to be a place where LOVE and where God’s presence be lived. In our changing world today, it is NOT always possible. One of the most wonderful revelations in the Bible is that God is our ABBA – Father! As believers what comes to mind when we hear the word “Father?” We automatically think of love, forgiving, protection, provision, warmth, tenderness and desiring to be intimately involved with each and every detail of our lives – and that’s God’s true nature. We connect our earthly fathers with our Heavenly ABBA Father - God. Good experiences bring us closer to knowing and understanding God for who He is.

The broken Heart of God? However, sadly NOT every person thinks like this when they think of the word “Father” as they paint a different picture and connect God to their personal worldly experiences …especially if having suffered many hurts, inadequate, rejection or abuse and so it is difficult for them to see their Heavenly Father God who He really is! Today many live with “orphan hearts” - “fatherless,” and wounded, stumbling life through only to visit the same hurts on their own children; “You (God) keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” - Psalm 56:8, These are beautiful words written by David when he was undergoing a dark time in his life. You see, God is NOT to blame! God is NOT the author of evil and does NOT cause our problems and has NOT abandoned anyone even though many have turned their backs on Him!

Since human beings are created in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:17) and the Bible describes God as having “emotions” similar to ours, we can rightly ask; “Does God Cry?” The quick answer is “yes.” When God took on the form of man and came as Yeshua (Jesus Christ) to live on this earth among us (Philippians 2:6-11). Christ felt the full spectrum of human emotions that we feel (Hebrews 4:15). The Gospels record a wide range of emotion expressed by our Lord, including a couple of occasions when He wept on behalf of other people.

Yeshua (Jesus) also wept in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His arrest, crying out with dread as He begged the Father for some other way to save us (Matthew 26:38-39). And,  Hebrews 5:7 says, “During the days of Yeshua’s life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. “Since Jesus is God in the flesh, we can say that when the Son Yeshua cried – God cried!”

We should note that God as MAN (Yeshua) experienced human life …whereas God as SPIRIT (the Father) has NOT! When God became MAN, He entered into the HUMAN experience and identified with us in every particular way - except SIN! As the Ruler of the Universe, Almighty God as SPIRIT does NOT need to shed actual tears …because NO emotion overwhelms Him. Although He has emotions, He is ALWAYS in control of them and does what He pleases (Psalm 115:3, 135:6; Job 23:13; Daniel 4:35). Even though the Lord needs nothing from us, He has chosen to make Himself emotionally responsive to our choices!

God our Abba Father - created MAN …and MANKIND rejected Him; He has sorrow when we rebel against Him (Genesis 6:6; Psalm 70:40). He can be provoked to anger by our defiance and rejection of Him (Isaiah 65:1-3; Jeremiah 8:19). He feels jealousy because of our idolatry of worldliness (Exodus 20:5, 34:14; Joshua 24:19). He rejoices with LOVE over His children (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 62:5). He hates wickedness (Psalm 5:5, 11:5; Proverbs 6:16). He has great compassion for His Creation (Psalm 103:8; Joel 2:13).

Yes, our Heavenly Father can be saddened… but nowhere in Scripture do we see an indication that the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies (Zechariah 8:14; Isaiah 22:14) cries TEARS. Christ shed tears, showing us God’s sorrow in a very human way. One of the reasons that Yeshua (Jesus) came to earth was to help us understand God. He told His Disciples, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” – John 14:9. His experiences and expressions allow us to bring our human understanding to that which is incomprehensible! For example; just as it is difficult to explain colour to a person blind from birth as they have nothing in their experience with which to compare it …so, it is with SPIRITUAL realities as. Yeshua - Jesus Christ the Son, showed us the Father in a way we humans could understand.

So, when the Bible records that Yeshua (Jesus) WEPT! God wanted us to know that He understands our feelings. He created us with the ability to weep. He allowed Himself to weep in the flesh while He lived among us. One major reason that the Father in heaven does NOT need to weep is the fact that He sees the; “beginning and the end.” We often cry because we feel trapped in the emotion of the moment, unable to see past it. God NEVER has that feeling. He is NEVER trapped in an emotion, unable to see past it. He already knows that His plan WILL prevail, so He is NOT - anxious, stressed, fearful, or overwhelmed (Isaiah 48:9-11). During His life on earth, our Lord brought to us the understanding that “God weeps with us,” even though it may NOT be in the same way or for the same reasons that we do.

The Bible is clear that when Christ returns first for “His Bride” – the true Church at the Harpazo (Rapture) …and then at His Second Coming …He will culminate the healing and reconciliation process that He began when He first came for Mankind 2,000-Years ago …and WILL finish what He started. We can look forward to the Lord’s Second Coming because of the reality of His First Coming. He will do away with ALL suffering, sorrow, sickness, disease and Mankind’s sin, selfishness and greed and will then RULE with patience and mercy to win hearts with LOVE  and NOT with force or might! How beautiful is God’s amazing LOVE?

We don’t understand WHY …God loves us?  But thank God that He does! When mankind stumbled way back in the Garden of Eden and many times afterwards into SIN and became contaminated by it, God would have been justified in stamping us out …and could have started ALL over again with another Creation …BUT He didn’t! God’s love is always redemptive (Genesis 3:15) and NEVER throws anyone away! Now consider the Lord’s jealous LOVE for Israel! There is really NO human being that can explain it and the New Testament even calls it “a mystery” and we (true believers) are exhorted to NOT be ignorant of this “MYSTERY” (Romans 11:25; 10:1; Psalm 102:13). Think about this; “Why is Israel the centre of the world today? Why is there so much strife and contention  over this tiny Nation? Could there be a “spiritual significance” that only the Heavenly Father knows MUST take place in these End-times? 

Now Let’s look a bit deeper at the “Wounded Heart” of the Father for Israel - His beloved Land and People…. God also calls Israel His “firstborn SON” (Exodus 4:22). How can any believer claim to know God intimately and have NO empathy for the Jewish people and land of Israel …when our Lord Yeshua (Jesus) was; born a Jew, grew up in the Jewish tradition, lived as a Jew and died on a Cross - as “the King of the Jews” in Israel? God did NOT reject Israel forever and neither should we! Yes, humanly speaking Israel is NO better than any other Nation …BUT because of God’s Covenants are with Israel’s Patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the Prophets our Heavenly Abba Father has maintained a LOYAL love for Israel even though for Centuries He withdrew His “visible” Hand.

Like a half-hearted lover, Israel made vows similar to marriage vows …in which the woman (Israel) promises to love, honour, and obey until “death do us part.” But as History painfully recalls, she did NOT appreciate the Lord God and broke her “sacred vows” as she wanted to be like the world instead. We the true believers in Yeshua (Jesus) as our Lord, Saviour and soon coming Messiah …as we read in Isaiah 40 the great comfort Chapter …that we are exhorted to speak “tenderly” to Jerusalem because she has received “double for her sins!” Throughout History as a consequence of; disobedience, unbelief, desertion, pretence and finally rejection of her Messiah Yeshua especially by the “National Leadership” – Israel HAS truly received “double’ for her sins. Throughout Leviticus Israel was warned that she would receive 7-fold retribution if she spurned the LORD and went her own way!

Israel has paid dearly for her rejection… and like Abba Father God she too is a “wounded lover” because of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. In other words, in times past, God and Israel have been through so many “good and bad” times together that Almighty God is craving and longing for their reconciliation! Israel was a “stiff-necked” murmurer, an ungrateful partner who spurned God’s lavish love only to follow after inferior, perverse, gods of the world. Like Israel we are NOT innocent as many Gentile Nations have rejected God and have broken His Heart as they follow Satan’s plans as we clearly see it today openly displayed.

Reading the Book of Hosea is like peeping into a “private LOVE diary” of God… In these agonising chapters we get a glimpse into God’s heart. He loves Israel passionately…yet His justice is offended, because Israel is portrayed as a “heartless harlot.” In fact, God put it on record through the Prophet Hosea …that Israel WILL eventually come to her senses! After continuing to experience the world’s hatred, rejection, and degradation  (and still today) like the wayward “Prodigal Son, Israel (the Prodigal Woman) WILL eventually come to herself and say; “…I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me than now.” – Hosea 2:7.

Both Israel and the Church (Bride of Christ) were redeemed BUT with something more precious than money or barley …we are REDEEMED with God’s own BLOOD (1 Peter 1:18-19). This explains why God says unequivocally to Israel; “I am the LORD and besides me there is NO Saviour!” – Hosea 13:4. The Lord is at this very moment, in our  End-time Generation in the process of finishing off His program of “World Redemption,” which means that He will NOT stay “divorced’ from Israel much longer! “…You shall arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time to favour her, yea, the set time has come.” – Psalm 102:14.

There has ALWAYS been “a remnant” (Messianic) from among Israel who have entered into Covenant with Jehovah God through the Lord Yeshua – Jesus Christ… Today the Congregations of Messianic Believers are growing in number yet facing persecution!  BUT when the “Fulness of the Gentiles” has been gathered in from ALL the Nations of the World and when the LAST undeserving Gentile is converted …so that the “cup of the Gentile Nations” is FULL  then as Romans 11  and in “God’s Love Story Diary” (the Book of Hosea ) it will be Israel’s time and ALL Israel WILL be saved! The similarities we have is; that Israel is compared to “the OLIVE TREE” and Gentiles as “the Wild Olive Branches. And when with Israel’s change of heart and NEW attitude towards the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) it WILL then be “a blow to ALL FALSE religions!” True believers in Yeshua are the only instruments of MERCY that God has through which to LOVE the Jewish People …as He didn’t give  this lofty assignment to the Angels. He is counting on us to act as His merciful intercessors and acts of kindness. Dare we fail Him this great and awesome service?

How will this Glorious Reconciliation finally happen? Isaiah gives the answer; “I (God) have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord,  give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise in the earth.” – Isaiah 62:6-7. In other words, we the true Church of believers are to act as “go-betweens” and petition God …and give Him NO rest until He is reconciled with Israel and their relationship is restored! Moses was the mediator between God and Israel. So, how can we be a mediator? The Apostle Paul gives us a KEY in Romans 11:31 that it is through our MERCY that Israel shall obtain MERCY …and Through our acts of LOVE and while we are merciful, praying and sharing the Gospel of Salvation, supporting the Lord’s Brethren …we WILL also be blessed! Finally, we read that Hosea also foresaw the Prophetic repentance of Israel in these Last Days; “…Come, and let us return to the LORD, for He has torn, and He WILL heal us; He has smitten and He WILL bind us up.” – Hosea 6:1.

Please keep Israel in your hearts and prayers during these difficult days. You truly make the difference! Thank you once again for your prayers, kindness, and generous support! We most sincerely believe that God WILL bless you for your faithfulness and love for His land and chosen people. God’s Word is true! He IS watching to see how the nations are treating His people. God will have mercy on Israel through Gentile believers acting as mediators towards them. This is one of the most amazing revelations ever given to the Church – an opportunity to do something that carries the highest priority in the heart of God. Yet, sadly, so few have seen the potential and the rewards of serving God in this manner - as agents of mercy to Israel and the Jewish people! Israel was and still is despised today and a despised Nation continually turning away from God BUT nothing ever altered the purpose of God for that nation. The despised element is always a noticeable element in the purpose of God. When the Saviour of the world came, He came of that despised nation (and just like Israel) He Himself was “…despised and rejected by men.” And there is that despised element; “…things that are despised God has chosen,” - 1 Corinthians 1:28.

We hope that you enjoy and become more informed by our work. We serve an awesome God and we are humbled by this opportunity to bring you this information. With Shalom to you and your family always,

Alf & Julie Saunders

01^st August, 2023

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