DOES GOD LOVE YOU?

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I decided to do this post after reading this quote from Mike Bickle:

“We will never have more affection or passion for God than we understand He has for us. We will never be more committed to God that our understanding of His commitment to us.“

Let me start with what Jesus told us about our Heavenly Fathers’ love for us.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9

“I (Jesus) in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” John 17:23

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:15-16

“We love Him because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

“Now hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Romans 5:8-9

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Romans 8:35

I could add more but surely, what you have read should convince you that God loves us, those He created in His image to be in fellowship with Him.

What about God’s love for His nation Israel? During Jesus coming Millennial reign, He will transform their hearts and minds.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!” Jeremiah: 31:3

“And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:6

“I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33

“And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.“ Hosea 2:18-20


GOD MADE EVERY NATION ON EARTH

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“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” Acts 17:24-26

This Scripture reveals the extent of God’s control over nations. Having established nations at the Tower of Babel by confusing the languages these verses prove God has allotted the nations “periods and their boundaries“.

Moreover, God uses the nations for His purposes. Two great examples are how God used Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (He ruled Babylonia from 605 to 562 BC. As the most influential and longest-reigning kings of the Neo-Babylonian period, Nebuchadnezzar conducted the city of Babylon to its height of power and prosperity):

“The king (Nebuchadnezzar) answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery (Daniel 2:47)”

and Darius, King of the Medes and Persia ( He was king of Persia 521–486 BC, known as Darius the Great):

“I (Darius) make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” Daniel 6:26-27

Also, King Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and king of Persia from 559-530 BC. He is venerated in the Hebrew Bible as Cyrus the Messiah for conquering Babylon and liberating the Jews from captivity. 

“Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret laces, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me, there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” Isaiah 24:1-7

Read what David has to say about God, His nation Israel and His control over His universe. Above all, God established Israel as His nation for His purposes, and with Jesus as its King and Priest, it will rule over all the nations in His soon-coming Millennial Kingdom.

“Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel as his own possession. For I know that the LORD is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast; who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.” Psalms 135:1-12

PROOF OF ISRAEL’S ANCIENT HISTORY

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Magnetic Fields Frozen by Fire

Scientists from Hebrew University (HU) and Tel Aviv University (TAU) are employing “breakthrough” dating technology using the Earth’s magnetic field to verify military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Map of the studied destruction layers and the different military campaigns. A schematic illustration of possible routes is presented following Rainey and Notley (21). Chronological anchors are highlighted in bold.

The Study, “Reconstructing Biblical Military Campaigns Using Geomagnetic Field Data” was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is based on the doctoral thesis of Yoav Vaknin, who was supervised by Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef and Prof. Oded Lipschits of TAU’s Institute of Archaeology and Prof. Ron Shaar of HU’s Institute of Earth Sciences.

The effort involved 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines who claimed to have accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites throughout Israel. Using this new scientific dating tool, researchers now have more evidence that ancient Egyptians, Arameans, Assyrians and Babylonians did wage the battles that are described in the Old Testament during the 10th to 6th centuries BC.

When magnetic materials are burned or heated they record the precise direction and/or intensity of the Earth’s geomagnetic field at the time of the fire (thermoremanent magnetization). Researchers say they have found this data to be a reliable scientific tool for archeological dating because it makes it possible to reconstruct the magnetic field for particular times in history. Looking at sites where the dates of historical events was already firmly established through various collaborating sources, scientists use the preserved magnetic fields to piece together the timing of other destroyed areas where the dating was more questionable.

“Based on the similarity or difference in intensity and direction of the magnetic field, we can either corroborate or disprove hypotheses claiming that specific sites were burned during the same military campaign. Moreover, we have constructed a variation curve of field intensity over time which can serve as a scientific dating tool, similar to the radiocarbon dating method,” says lead author Yoav Vaknin, a PhD student at TAU, in a media release.

JEWS KNOW THEIR TEMPLE WILL BE REBUILT

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For over 2000 years the Jewish people have been mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple. On every festive occasion, its loss is remembered. No wedding takes place without the symbolically broken glass.

Ashes of mourning are placed upon the forehead of the groom and a section of a new home is left unpainted or unfinished, all in remembrance of the Destruction and the Exile from Zion.

One might ask, why are they still crying after 2000 years? Why can’t they get over it and move on? Why? Because there was never any closure, no burial. Why? Because even though the Temple’s bricks and stone have been destroyed, the Divine Promise still stands. The Temple will be rebuilt and until that day Zion will never be forgotten.

Jesus said, “Therefore when you see the ‘Abomination of Desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place…”
– Matthew 24:15

On Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the month of Av, the day that marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temple), Napoleon Bonaparte was walking along a street when he stopped in front of a synagogue. He heard crying from within. “What are those Jews doing?” he asked the soldier at his side. “They are mourning over the destruction of their Temple.”

“When did that happen?”

“Around 2000 years ago.”

“They are still crying after 2000 years? A nation that mourns so long will never cease. They will surely return to their land and see the rebuilding of their Temple.”

What was it that Napoleon saw that gave him the confidence to make such a statement? He understood that the connection between the People and the Place is intrinsic. One cannot live without the other. Just as the Jewish People are alive, so too is Zion. A nation that will not allow itself to forget will also not allow itself to let go or give up.

The Jews are still crying after 2000 years because they realize the greatness of what was lost and they long for its return like a father who knows his child is missing, but who is not dead. They also cry in anticipation as they see the ingathering of the exiles and wait for when Zion will be restored to its former state and the Temple will be rebuilt.

by United with Israel staff