Yom Kippur

This evening marks the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. It is the Day of Atonement, the day on which (in biblical times) God commanded that the High Priest of Israel would enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the national sins of Israel. He did this by sprinkling the blood of sacrifices on the Ark of the Covenant (where God’s presence rested). One of these sacrifices was a goat. There was also another goat, upon which would be transferred the sins of all Israel. This was known as the Azazel, or scapegoat. Each year this would be repeated so that the Israelites could come before God with clean hearts and consciences.

Modern Jewish tradition (a tradition which really only goes back as far as the Middle Ages) teaches that on Yom Kippur God will inscribe the name of each individual in His book of Life or His book of Death for the coming year. Observant modern Jews will spend all of tomorrow in synagogue, fasting in praying in the hope — not the certainty — that God will forgive their sins and inscribe them in the book of Life. In other words, they will leave the synagogue not really knowing for sure if God has forgiven their sins.

As a Jewish believer in Jesus, I have certainty that my sins have been forgiven, through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. His was a sacrifice unlike the scapegoat, which could only last for a short time. Jesus’ sacrifice was a final atonement for sin. Interestingly, there is evidence outside of the Bible for this. The Talmud (a collection of the lore of Jewish sages and rabbis) records that on the Day of Atonement a scarlet thread would be hung outside of the Holy of Holies. If the scapegoat, the sacrifice for sin, was accepted by the Lord the thread would turn from scarlet to white, making real the words that the prophet Isaiah had spoken 700 years before the time of Jesus:

“Though your sins are scarlet they shall be white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)

The Talmud goes on to record that each year on the Day of Atonement the thread might turn white or might not, reflecting the changing spiritual state of the nation of Israel. This continued for many years, until 40 years prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, after which the thread never turned white. It remained scarlet every year, until the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. This ancient Jewish document bears evidence to the fact that somewhere around 30 A.D. – the approximate date when Y’shua, Jesus was crucified – the animal sacrifices offered by the high priest of Israel were no longer accepted by God! This is because the blood of bulls and goats could never atone for sin for more than a short time. They were only shadows of a final sacrifice, a once and for all atonement for sin – the sacrifice of our Messiah Y’shua on the cross. Jesus is the fulfillment of Yom Kippur, as both our great high priest and a sacrifice for all of our sin. In Him our sin is truly forgiven and our consciences cleansed. Hallelujah!

Tonight Kat and I will go to a Yom Kippur service. Tomorrow we’ll follow the tradition of fasting, albeit not a fast from food (neither of us are allowed to fast from food for 24 hours due to medical issues, so we will be fasting from the use of the computer). Why do we do this, if we know that we’ve already achieved atonement? We do it to honor my Jewish heritage, and we do it to acknowledge and honor what our Messiah went through to atone for our sins. The solemn gravity of Yom Kippur has taken on for us a great joy as well, because we know that our sins are forgiven and that we have eternal life through Jesus.

Dealing With Disaster

This is a devotion I recently delivered to the staff of Jews for Jesus in Los Angeles. You may feel free to copy and pass along this devotion, so long as you credit me for the writing. Enjoy!

Dealing With Disaster

1 Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire; 2 and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way. 3 When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. 5 Now David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. 7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.8 David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue {all.}” 9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, {where} those left behind remained. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor remained {behind.} 11 Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. 12 They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; then his spirit revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. 14 “We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.” 16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives. 19 But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back. 20 So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, “This is David’s spoil.” 21 When David came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow David, who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.” 23 Then David said, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us.” I Samuel 30:1-23 (NASB)

When screenwriters sit down to write a movie script, they often find it useful to write what they refer to as a backstory for the characters. This is more or less a short biography of each character, which serves as a guide for what motivates the character and makes him/her who they are. As we read this passage from I Samuel, understand that we are coming into the theater in the middle of the movie, so to speak. Bear with me as I share a bit of David’s backstory, so we can best understand what we’re reading.

This episode is set during a time in David’s life before he has ascended to the throne of the united kingdom of Israel. Although the prophet Samuel had laid God’s anointing upon David, marking him as king, David’s predecessor Saul has not acknowledged this anointing. In fact, Saul has chased David the length and breadth of Israel in an effort to kill him. David and his men live the life of fugitives, hiding in caves and narrowly escaping death time and time again. David even spares Saul’s life on two occasions, showing that he honors Saul’s kingship no matter how dishonorably Saul acts.

When the pressure of this outlaw life becomes to much, David and his followers flee to the land of the Philistines — one of the many enemy nations surrounding Israel. Here David offers his services and the services of his warriors to a Philistine king, Achish. Achish accepts these services, gives David the town of Ziklag as a base, and sends David out to raid and pillage. David does indeed raid and pillage, but he only attacks the enemies of Israel: the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. By slaughtering every man, woman, and child in each settlement he raids, David manages to ensure that there is no one to challenge the deception he reports to Achish — namely, that David has been raiding against Israelite settlements!

Eventually the Philistines amass an army to attack Israel, and Achish brings the allegedly loyal David along to the battle. The other Philistine kings are apparently not so easily trusting as Acish; they object to David’s presence so vehemently that Acish regretfully instructs David to return to Ziklag. It is here that our passage begins, with a terrible disaster. While David and his men marched off to war their enemies the Amalekites raided Ziklag and burned it to the ground, taking the outlaw Israelite’s wives and children captive. Faced with this catastrophe, David’s men soon become embittered (literally, bitter in their soul) begin to blame him for everything. Amidst talk of being stoned, David demonstrates the first of three responses to this crisis. It is these responses that we can learn from.

1) David strengthened himself in the Lord. Before doing anything else, David relied on the Lord to give him strength. While the text doesn’t specify exactly how he does this, we have writings credited to David himself that give us some idea:

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2 (NASB)

“Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (NASB)

2) David inquired of the Lord. Having strengthened himself in God, David next sought God’s guidance. He asked the Lord what his next step should be: should he pursue the Amalekites? Should he lick his wounds and accept his terrible losses? Only after receiving the Lord’s command to pursue — and His promise of victory — do David and his men move against the Amalekites. As they start tracking their enemies, 200 of David’s men (1/3 of his forces) are too exhausted from their exertions to go on. Remember, they marched off to war and then back to Ziklag without a rest before they began pursuing the Amalekites. David is forced to leave these men behind at a brook called Besor.

Soon after, David has what we might call a divine appointment. David’s army finds an Egyptian in the field to whom they give food and water. This Egyptian turns out to be the servant of one of the very Amalekites who burned down Ziklag and took the Israelites’ families and possessions! With a promise that his life will be spared and he will be protected from his former master, the Egyptian leads David to the Amalekite camp, where David and his men slaughter almost all the Amalekites and take back their loved ones and their possessions. In addition, David increases his own holdings by taking the sheep and cattle that belonged to their enemies.

3) David gave credit to God for the victory. As David and his men return to Ziklag victorious, a small wrinkle develops. As they return to the brook Besor, some of David’s men — whom the passage describes as “wicked and worthless” — object to dividing the spoils with the men who remained behind. They demand that David return only the wives and children of those who stayed behind — their recovered possessions to be divided among those who fought –and then drive them out. In a stunning display of what made David a man after God’s own heart, David refuses to heed this demand. He reminds his men that their victory was given to them by God.

As believers in Jesus, there is much for us to learn from how David dealt with disaster. Whether we’re facing the minor stresses of everyday life or some major crisis in our lives, David’s responses are a model for us. We should daily remember to strengthen ourselves in the Lord; the best way to do this is usually by staying immersed in His Word. When faced with a crisis, do as David did and inquire of the Lord. As the t-shirt a friend of mine liked to sport says: PRAY HARD. Lastly, when God answers your prayers and gives you the victory — be sure to give the credit to Him. Praise Him for what he’s done in your life, and give testimony to the victory whenever you can!

Do The Next Thing

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, behold, I am about to take from you the desire of your eyes with a blow, but you shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come. Groan silently; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your mustache, and do not eat the bread of men. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded.” Ezekiel 24:15-18

Ezekiel was a man who had witnessed and done amazing things in the name of the Lord. We don’t know much about him from the book named for him, for the simple reason that the prophet doesn’t tell us a whole lot about himself. Nevertheless, when we come across this description of the death of Ezekiel’s wife, it is heart-wrenching to read what God asked of Ezekiel. Upon being deprived of the very “desire of his eyes,” Ezekiel was asked not to mourn, not to sit shiva, but instead to get up in the morning, put on his shoes, and eat his Wheaties as normal. How extraordinary!

Some of you may remember a scene in the movie Apollo 13, when two of the three astronauts trapped in a dying spaceship begin arguing with each other. The mission captain, played by actor Tom Hanks, tries to calm them down by telling them, “there are 500 things we need to do to get this bird back Earthside. We are on number 29. Let’s find out what the next thing is.”

Now, I have no idea if the real-life astronaut Hanks portrayed actually said such a thing in that situation. Whether he did or not, I think there is wisdom for each of us in the response the character gave. Right now, I and my colleagues in Jews for Jesus are approaching a busy season of ministry. We’re preparing for our annual High Holiday services, and soon after that we will prepare for Ingathering, an annual retreat we sponsor for Jewish believers and their families. It’s a lot to deal with, and it’s possible to get quickly overloaded with so much to do. That’s something that happens to everyone, whether they are in ministry or not. Maybe you’re someone whose brain just shuts down in such situations.

Just as Ezekiel set his grief aside at the Lord’s command, each of us also has to “do the next thing.” There’s always another activity coming up for us, whether it’s preparing for something in ministry or taking a kid to soccer practice. It’s important for us to find a way to do the next thing – whatever it may be – even when we feel so overburdened we can’t think straight. With that in mind, here are ten things we can focus on to help us in “doing the next thing.”

1. Go to God first. It’s easy for us to try and solve things on our own, but we need to let God be the Problem-solver. Like King David, we should be willing to say, “Hineni, here am I; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.” (II Samuel 15:26)

2. Receive all that God has to give to us, and all that He doesn’t. It’s easy to receive some of the things God has to give to us. It’s harder to receive some of the things He doesn’t (rest, a pause between activities, an answer to prayer on our timetable instead of His). “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; Thou dost support my lot.” (Psalm 16:5)

3. With acceptance will come peace. We have to reach an acceptance that even when it feels like we’re carrying the weight of the world, we must simply keep going. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27)

4. Remember that it is always possible to do the will of God. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)

5. Act immediately. Feeling overburdened can cause us to procrastinate from doing the next thing. Once you know what it is, to quote the Nike ad: JUST DO IT. “I hastened and did not delay to keep Thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:60) “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.” (James 4:14)

6. Love means sacrifice. What we do as Christians, called to be ministers of the Gospel, we do out of our love for God. That love demands sacrifice (of time, of energy, etc.) “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I John 3:16)

7. Choose your attitude. Having the wrong attitude is probably the number one reason that I fail to do the next thing. I’d bet it’s much the same for most believers. We need to be humble. We need to be willing to be in the service of others. “Have this attitude in yourselves which also was also in Christ Jesus, who … emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself.” (Philippians 2:5, 7-8)

8. Analyze your struggle. Some of the most difficult struggles I face in doing the next thing boil down to the fact that I want to follow my will instead of obeying God’s will. Make sure your struggle isn’t just delayed obedience. “I shall run the way of Thy commandments, for Thou will enlarge my heart.” (Psalm 119:32)

9. Give it all to Jesus. When we feel overwhelmed, it’s a good sign that we may have taken things onto ourselves that we should be letting the Lord handle for us. Take the time to give those things over to Jesus. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My load is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

10. Give thanks. Give thanks for everything you’re going through – think of how God is using you to advance His kingdom! “Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; it is oil upon the head. Do not let my head refuse it.” (Psalm 141:5)

End Results

A hostile comment on my previous post did remind me that I wanted to clarify something and post the end results of Behold Your God NYC. There were a total of 9 separate campaigns in July, of which the Bronx/Westchester campaign that I was involved with was only one. The final results of all 9 campaigns were as follows:

Last month, throughout the greater New York area, our campaigners handed out 1,872,800 broadside tracts. We received contact information from 11,718 people who want to hear more from us including 3,689 Jewish seekers and 2,712 Gentile seekers. We knocked on 9,430 doors and connected with 2,170 people in their homes. We also connected by telephone with 8,711 of the 25,790 people that we called. We sent 3,396 copies of the “Jesus for Jews“ testimony book free to seekers who requested them through our evangelistic ads and mailings, and prayed with 241 Jewish people and 261 Gentiles to receive Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

To clarify what I said in my previous post regarding numbers, numbers in and of themselves mean nothing. My ministry doesn’t measure its success in terms of these numbers. We measure our success by whether or not we succeeded in doing what the Lord has called us to do: to proclaim the Gospel, as Jesus commanded all believers in Him to do. In that sense, numbers are only an indicator as to how well we have done the job of proclamation. To those that would say that is a cover-up for failure, I would say this: try it. Pick any message you like, and attempt to proclaim it on the level we did this July in New York City, and see how successful you are.

Still hammering

Well, here we are nearing the end of the Bronx/Westchester BYG campaign. I’ve been suffering through a stomach bug the last couple of days, which has made it a little tougher. Last time I posted, I talked about us “hammering at the lock” … we’re still at it. We have had some success, though. Through God’s power, we can feel the spiritual barriers starting to crack here in Westchester county and we’re exulting. I thought that those of you reading this blog might like to know a little about our victories. I want preface this by saying that numbers in and of themselves mean nothing; with that said, I’m going to throw out some numbers as a marker of of our efforts and/or success in proclaiming the Gospel this July.

Pieces of literature distributed (one piece at a time!): over 50,000
Doors knocked on: over 800
Phone calls made: over 6,000
Jewish people who requested more information: 47
Gentile people who requested more information: 215
Jewish people who prayed to receive Jesus: 3
Gentile people who prayed to receive Jesus: 5

The general feeling on our campaign right now is that God is rewarding our faithfulness with fruit. Last night we did a film showing of Survivor Stories in the Bronx. Afterwards, a Holocaust survivor named Steve approached Amer Olson, our campaign leader, and prayed a sinner’s prayer with him! We are rejoicing today that Steve is in the Kingdom of God!

It’s hard to believe that Kat and I will be heading back to LA in a few short days. To be honest, as much as we want to be headed home, we’re also not looking forward to it, because we know that it is almost inevitably going to lead to another round of illness for Kat. Please keep us both in prayer as we finish up campaign and then head back.

Hammering at the lock

I’m writing this to you from White Plains, NY. Kathleen and I have been here for the past week, serving on one of the nine campaigns that make up the finale of Jews for Jesus’s Behold Your God . We are part of the Bronx/Westchester County campaign. I’ve been serving as a campaigner and Kat has been serving behind the scenes as a steward.

The entire worldwide staff of Jews for Jesus is here in the greater metropolitan area of New York City. That means some 200 full-time missionaries, plus Jewish believers who have volunteered for the campaigns, plus gentile volunteers like my wife who are serving behind the scenes. We gathered on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on July 2 for a consecration service, during which we washed each other’s feet. Later in the service, the chaplains for each campaign anointed with oil every single participant in the work this July. It was an amazing evening, in which we delighted in the presence of God’s Spirit.

Here in Westchester County, the first week of the campaign has been a time of shaking things down. Jews for Jesus has never made incursions into the Jewish community of this area, so a lot of what we are doing is a bit … experimental. Although we’ve engaged in the hallmark of most Jews for Jesus evangelistic campaigns by doing sorties (tract passing expeditions), we’ve done far more in the way of knocking door-to-door and calling Jewish households. We have two free film showings at the White Plains Public Library, and an art exhibition at the end of the month at the Westchester County Center. We’re displaying works by Marc Chagall, a Jewish artist who used the image of Jesus in much of his work. You can find out the schedule of events here. Hopefully, we are going to see curious Jewish people show up at these events

The response to our presence here has not been overly dramatic, but we are beginning to get the sense that the Jewish community is starting to notice us. Interested Jewish people are talking to us. One of our leaders, long-time Jews for Jesus staff member Jhan Moskowitz, has compared what we’re doing to trying to break open a padlock with a hammer. You keep hammering away at it, and each blow seems to have no effect at all. Then you hit it with the hammer again, and it springs wide open. Our prayer is that as we stay faithful by doing the work (being spiritual hammers, as it were), the padlocks on the hearts of those in the Jewish community here will being to spring wide open.

This is a test

You probably are familiar with the canned message that accompanies a test of the Emergency Broadcast System: “This is a test. This is only a test. If this were a real emergency, you would be given instructions on where to go and what to do.”

It’s been a week where I have to keep repeating to myself, “this is a test, this is only a test.” After a good stretch where her health was pretty decent, my wife Kathleen came down with a respiratory problem that kept her in bed all week. It was a struggle this week for ME to balance work and caring for her. It was a struggle this week for HER not being able to stand up without getting dizzy, and feeling guilty that she can’t get anything done around the apartment or that my caring for her was preventing me from working. Her health issues since we moved to Los Angeles have been something that has sometimes made both of us feel like we’re missing out on the best part of being married — enjoying each other’s company. The discouragement this has brought on is a real struggle for both us.

Several friends have reminded us that every so often God tests our faith. One friend suggested to me that our struggle is a test to teach me patience in caring for my wife and to teach Kathleen that it’s okay to rely on someone else when she’s weak. I really don’t know … and I don’t think it matters. God wants our reliance on Him in all things. This week I prepared for our weekly Jews for Jesus bible study with a study on Luke 18:18-30, a passage involving a rich young ruler who asks Jesus how he can have eternal life. Jesus tells the young ruler to give away all his wealth to the poor, which saddens the young ruler because he’s very attached to his wealth. The point of the episode is that the young man had made wealth his god. Jesus asked him to sacrifice that wealth for his faith, but the rich young ruler couldn’t do it. His heart was bent towards his possessions, instead of towards God.

So … if this is a test, I don’t know how Kat and I pass it, other than that we’re pulling closer to each other, and closer to God. It’s hard, but we know it’s what He wants of us.

P.S. Hi Jacki!

Abilene

Shalom y’all, from Abilene, Texas! It’s been sort of a crazy week. Kat and I spent the better portion of our week still touring in Illinois. Then this past Friday we began an 800-mile drive to Texas. We spent Friday night in Edmond, Oklahoma with Steve and Theresa Kahn, friends of Jews for Jesus.

This week would have been exhausting by any means, but Kat and I were very worried about her brother Matt and his family. Matt lives in Ashland City, TN, which you have probably heard about if you’ve listened to the news at all this week. Ashland City got hit hard by tornadoes; there was a complete loss of power and the roof of the hospital was torn off. Praise the Lord, Matt and his family were safe and protected in their basement.

We will be staying with Kat’s cousin Rayna in Lubbock midway through the week, which we’re looking forward to. Rayna and her husband Jay were at our wedding last December, and were a big hit with my family. Keep us in your prayers this week … we are really feeling tired, yet desire to finish the week strong and do some great ministry at our presentations.

Touring and tornados

Well, here I am out on the road. For the last week I’ve been presenting Christ in the Passover at different churches. This is a presentation in which I set out a traditional Passover seder table, and then go through the order of the seder dinner, explaining each of the symbols and how I believe it points to Jesus.

Kathleen and I left Los Angeles on March 25, and the days leading up to departure were quite stressful. Kathleen was very sick, and it wasn’t until the day before we flew out that we were certain she was well enough to travel. The U.S. Post Office suddenly decided that the address I have been using since last July is not correct, necessitating some frantic change-of-address business. And we discovered that someone at some point stole Kathleen’s social security number and used it to establish a checking account, which the identity thief apparently overdrafted. Kat looked at me late Friday night and said, “God must be about to use us in a really powerful way, because Satan is sure knocking us around.”

He hasn’t stopped either. Although the tour has for the most part been great, we’ve continued to have some horribly stressful stuff happen. Early in the week, we got a call from Kat’s mom, letting us know that Kat’s 2-year old niece Annabelle had just gone in for emergency surgery. Annabelle had fluid in her lungs from a severe bout with pneumonia, and when the surgeon got inside, he found the fluid had solidified. She is recovering, but it was awful to be traveling while this was going on. And then there are the tornadoes. You see, it’s tornado season in Illinois.

This past Saturday we were at a wonderful church in Pawnee, IL (near Springfield). In the middle of the service, we suddenly had to stop and cram everyone present into a stairwell, because a tornado was headed for town! Although I grew up in Illinois where this sort of thing is common it was the first time Kat has ever heard the civil service alarms go off, and she was a bit frightened. It’s sobering to realize that such a destructive force of nature is headed for you, and only God can preserve you.

Lest ye, O Faithful Reader, think that this is nothing but a laundry list of whining, let me say that I wouldn’t give this experience up for anything. I’ve done 4 tours like this previously, but it’s so different having my wife with me. There is a depth to the ministry that is accomplished that has been added by her presence. People sometimes open up to Kat that might not open up to me. And I have to say … each night during the presentation when I ask my wife to come and light the Passover candles, and I watch her face as she recites a blessing, I thank God all over again that this is the one He set aside for me alone.

Our travels continue for the next 2 weeks. Keep us in your prayers, please!

Who’s it up to?

In the last few days, someone shared with me a proverb of sorts that’s been very much on my mind:

“Pray like it’s all up to God, but work like it’s all up to you.”

It’s been a crazy week so far. I’m preparing to go on my annual spring speaking tour, giving a presentation called Christ in the Passover. Kat and I are leaving Saturday morning to travel in Illinois for 2 weeks, then driving down to Texas for a week. The preparations for this have been pretty all-consuming, and I’ve been spending hours on the phone confirming details with the pastors of the churches I’m visiting

That’s all crazy enough, but Kat has been sick for the last 2 weeks with sinusitis and bronchitis. We’ve had her in to see our doctor twice, and she’s scheduled to see him again tomorrow. I’m pretty worried about her, and whether she’s going to be well enough to travel, and if not how we’re going to work that out. And I know I shouldn’t be, because the proverb aside, it is all up to God. I know that, but watching my wife hack and cough and suffer through fever, it’s hard to focus on that.

I’d ask your prayers for Kat’s health and my peace of mind, as well as safety as we travel. I’m going to try and post from the road, if I get a chance and have some time.