Shabbat Shalom

Dear Family,

It was so wonderful to be here during the Passover season. I love how this city transforms whenever there is a holiday. It was a new experience for Callie to be celebrating Passover with a whole nation the way Christmas is celebrated in the States. Passover is particularly special because of all the significance we see in this biblical feast. For Believers, Yeshua is the true Passover Lamb whose blood has saved us from wrath and destruction. This truth brought new significance to us as we were immersed in the holiday as a new family here in Jerusalem. Each household was supposed to sacrifice it's own lamb so that everyone in the house would be protected. The covering of the Lord has taken on a new dynamic for us as we have become a separate household from our parents. We must be even more diligent to place ourselves under his protection and guidance each day. The added spiritual responsibility to listen to and do what the Lord tells us is tangible. Please pray that the Lord would continue to knit us together in His love and that He would show us how to build a house that would glorify Him.

Israel seems to be caught in a very difficult place right now. Israel has always faced difficulty, but there has always been support, however small, for this nation. In Israel, people are beginning to see how useless and destructive the peace process has been. Not one thing has been accomplished over all this time and now we are looking at a radical Hamas that is far stronger than it has ever been. With the complete failure of all of the "peace plans", Israelis from the far Left to the far Right are talking about new approaches to achieve peace. There is a growing agreement that continuing to regurgitate the same old plan (with subtle changes) will bring more destruction. The sad thing now is that the present administration in the US has declared it's support for the Saudi Plan. With this endorsement, the US has declared that it will not support any new ideas, condemning Israel to relive the cycle it has been living for 20 years. Where is the hope for Israel and the Israeli people? Please pray that we would, as a nation, run into the arms of the One who can save us.

The Lord has been really showing me lately how careful we must be about what we allow into our houses. What things are we allowing to operate in our midst as believers? I am not simply talking about music, movies, or TV which many people would assume right away. I am talking about the spiritual things we are allowing to operate in our houses because of what is going on in the world. There are SO many things happening right now that it is very hard not to be affected spiritually by them. It would be easy to see the financial trouble and be affected in a number of different ways. Fear of losing security might drive us to ignore what we hear from the Lord about how we should use our assets and look simply for a way to secure profit (giving greed free reign). Fear might cause a hoarding spirit to come into our midst and cause all generosity to vanish. Worry about the international situation might cause us to turn around from going to a place God has called us to go thus giving a spirit of self-preservation freedom. We in the West have been far too comfortable, far too long and we have no idea how to respond to the perceived lack of security. I have seen spiritual things operating in people that I could have sworn I would never see in them. We must come quickly back to the reason why we live. We have never lived for ourselves. What has changed from then until now? The money we have, the house we own, the life we live has never been ours. Why have things changed now? We were fine saying these great spiritual things as long as in the back of our minds we were sure we would never lose them. To say that the Lord can take everything away from us (because it is all His anyway) is scary because now there is more chance of that happening. Brothers and sisters where is our faith? Faith needs to be the thing operating in our homes. Faith in a God that we know is there. Faith in His Son who has saved us from a life separated from God. Faith that no matter what storm is raging around us, we know that we are anchored to the One can bring us to safety. Come let us hold fast to what we know to be true. He is God and there is no other. He loves us and will never forsake us. Blessings!

In Yeshua,

Devin and Callie

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