As the “30 Days” booklet is being prepared, more conflict in Gaza has broken out. We do not know what the situation will be when you, our readers actually use the “30 Days” booklet later. But note, even through war and difficult circumstances, a number of Jews and Arabs have learned to respect and to love each other as disciples of Jesus. Here is a testimony from one Arab believer living in Israel / Palestine.
Testimony
“As a young Palestinian refugee I fled to Nazareth with my family during a time of war. Later we found that our home in Haifa was occupied by Jews during my family’s absence. As a child I found it difficult to understand how God could love some people and put others in the street. As the years passed I became an enemy of the Jewish people. Later after having acknowledged Jesus as my Messiah, I met an old Jewish man who asked for forgiveness for the things he had done personally. His step of seeking forgiveness touched me and since that time my love for the Jewish people has not ceased to grow.” When this former refugee was asked “Is it possible for a Jordanian or a Palestinian to love Israeli soldiers?” he responded: “For followers of the Messiah the word ‘love’ has a different meaning than for those who do not know the Lord. For us, the love of God comes through the cross of Christ.” He continued: “I have also visited Iraq. When I was there God filled my heart with love for the Iraqi Muslims. My heart was really grieved when I saw how the Iraqis and the Iranians had killed each other during the war from 1980-1988. I have also spoken of the profound love which God has given me for the Jewish people when Israeli soldiers were controlling my identity papers in Jerusalem.” He has found it possible to love Muslims and Jews.
Prayer Requests:
- There are several initiatives by Messianic Jews and Arab believers for prayer and reconciliation. The transformation which God brings is the greatest hope for lasting change in the Middle East. Pray for further breakthroughs in reconciliation and deepening love and respect among Jews and Arabs (1 John 4:12 and 19).
- Pray that the hope of true reconciliation through Christ would be better known in Israel and Palestine becoming an example for both Jews and Muslims. Jesus is rightly presented as someone who brings personal peace. He is also very interested in bringing peace between peoples (Matthew 5:9, Ephesians 2:14 and 2 Peter 3:13).
Special Prayer Section for the Thulukkan people of India
Recent political and economic reforms have sparked phenomenal growth in the Indian economy. However, in spite of its remarkable progress, India continues to suffer from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and environmental degradation.
More than 33 million people in southern India’s Kerala state speak Malayalam, one of the 22 languages recognized by the Indian Constitution. About 269,000 of them (just .023% of the total population of India) belong to a little-known people group called the Thulukkan. The primary religion of the Thulukkan people is Islam. Very little else is known about them. There are no known efforts to reach this people with the Gospel.
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This is so encouraging, and truly Isa al Masih is the only One who can take down the wall of separation between enemies.
I pray that hearts on both “sides” , in the USA and in Israel/Palestine, will have been softened through these days of prayer.
How One Palestinian Feels Toward Israel
John 13:34
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
BRETHREN , GRCAE AND PEACE BE YOURS ALL FROM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
I AM SO TOUCHED ABOUT THE LOVE WHICH CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN SHOWING TO THE MUSLIMS THROUGH PRAYER.
I REALLY THINK IT HAS BEEN A BLESSING AND PRIVILEDGE FOR ANYONE OF US WHO HAS BEEN TAKING TIME TO STAND THE GAP FOR MUSLIMS ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR T THEIR SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS.
THIS ALSO HAS HELPED TO A LARGE EXTEND IN UNIFYING THE BODY OF CHRITS ALL OVER THE WORLD TOWARDS THE ONE MAIN GOLD OF RECONCILING THE WORLD TO CHRIST.
MANY MUSLIMS AND EVEN NON MUSLIMS HAVE RECIEVED SALVATION FROM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST MIRACLOUSLY THROUGH THESE PRAYERS.
I RECOMMENT THAT AS THE BIBLE SAYS WE SHOULD PRAY AND NOT FAINT ,LET US CONTINUE WITH THESE PRAYERS FOR WORLD’S SALVATION ,SO THAT OUR HEAVENLY KINGDOM WILL CONTUNUE TO ADVANCE HERE ON EARTH AS WE WAIT IN JOYFULL HOPE FOR CHRIST’S COMING.
BYE TO YOU ALL AND REMAIN BLESSED.
CHE JOSEPH NGWA … CHINA
Thank you for your posts. I am homeschooling my three children. We are studying the history and culture of middle east this month. I will show my children this website. We will pray along with you.
May the Lord strengthen you and bless you while you do His work!
I came across two sites that are worthy of reflection ‘sacred space’ .ie and ‘ Forgiveness’ Project’. No
one ever thought that one person could bring the people of Northern Ireland, together after thirty years of conflict through bombings, shootings maimings in the most horrific ways, and these were supposed to be Christians! However, one person, Ann Gallagher who suffered the loss of family and friends during that time, had the courage to open this site to encourage forgiveness on both sides, and it mushroomed throughout the world for people who needed to forgive someone in their lives, and through the grace of God. The same conflicts are going on in Afghanistan and Iraq. Muslim against Muslim, and all against the West, and innocent people have died on all sides.Christ said ‘Love your neighbour as yourself” and this sums up the whole commandments. We are all neighbours on this planet, so let us try to stop the killings. Marriage of a Muslim to a Christian is better than marriage to a gun, so leave it all in God’s hands and start a forgiveness project on all sides to bring about Peace.
Wonderful comment, thanks so much for this.
Let me say, as an active participant in the Irish reconciliation process, that we also flew in to get leaders of political and religious parties on the ground to not just pray for each other, but also to go from home to home to ask forgiveness (reconciliation) way before the majority of the world had picked up on (heard about) the troubles.
We didn’t just leave it as a “prayer movement”, we also encouraged and DID reconciliation! We literally put Protestant families in Catholic houses and Catholic shooters in Protestant hospitals praying for each other.
Although hard to imagine for most, some of the most complex “political” and deep “reconciliation” was birthed from a God-given prayer and action plan. No different from what we do with the Muslim world: we pray, we act, we do.
Prayer is necessary to understand the mind of God. His way is always action!
Praise the Lord for this change in the heart of our Palestinian brother. Just this morning I was praying for the Palestinian people and confessed to the Lord Jesus that I have a mental blockage concerning peace in Israel/ Palestine. Islam has this concept that once they occupied a territory it always remains Islamic territory. They may temporally let go of it, but they never give it up.
This is why to my opinion Hamas and other Islamic groups in Israel / Palestine will never stop fighting against Israel. Ahmedinijad has said that he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. I remind myself that with God nothing is impossible, but I feel it is like asking God to change the spots of the leopard. Perhaps God wants met to ask for peace one person at a time for both Palestines and Israelis.
Dear Pieter Pretorius
You should pray that God shows you the way to increase in knowledge, to differentiate between right and wrong and to give you wisdom to separate the Truth from falsehood and perception.
God does not want you to merely and passively pray for others. He requires it from each one of us to take action once we have attained the the knowledge and the Truth, with our words and our possessions.
If you are looking for the Truth through the propaganda machines like CNN, BBC, and the Fox News or their likes, be sure that you will never come to it, hence you will never be able to be just
You see Pieter, as a spiritual and religious person, you have to an obligation to recover the reality about the oppressor and the oppressed.
I humbly recommend, reading the following carefully including 3 parts at the bottom of it.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97447§ionid=3510303
I pray for wisdom, I pray that the Almighty pours down His infinite Truth on people who are lost, I pray that Most Gracious, gives us strength to stand up for what is right, for ones who have been wronged, the ones who are blocked by air, sea and land, the ones who have been massacred year after year disproportionately in the largest open-air prison in the world.
I pray that He increases on His infinite Mercy towards all of us and make us realize the passing nature of this earthly life and the eternal and beautiful home of the next.
My friend Pieter, this life is only a test of Truth,the final goal surely rests with the Almighty. Though He is always victorious, we often fail to see it.
Continued,
Rising up against oppression, corruption and wickedness is the essence of God.
Most honored and blessed are those in the sight of God who have the devotion for God and the courage to stand up for His essence as His “Vicegerents
Peace and blessings of the Lord, the one God, be upon you and all.
Continued,
Another humble enlightening:
Ahmadinejad never said: “he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth” – This is a clear evidence of the lies told so many times that most of us take them as unquestionable facts. A lie by the war-mongering-machines, and oil-profiting-wicked.
What he said was “Much like Communism,eventually Zionism will vanish from the pages of HISTORY”
Now brothers, my friends, lets stand on the side of Truth, whether you are a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, lets stand on the side of Truth.
And let us remember that for as long as there’s no Justice on the face of planet earth, there will NOT be Peace; this is a crucial of the harmonious and governing law that exists not only on earth but the whole universe created by the Almighty, otherwise, the world and the universe would have soared towards injustice, corruption and absolute extinction.
Peace.
Dear writer and Commentators,
A Muslim does not have to convert to Christianity to “acknowledge Jesus” as the Messiah – as well as the fact that he was a savior and blessings from God.
In reality a person cannot claim to be a Muslim if he doesn’t acknowledge that Jesus as a Messiah and a prophet of God.
So, how does the Quran, hence the Muslims view Christ, Jesus?
See here:
Mover,
Seeking justice against a people who have driven you out of your homes and have massacred your family and oppressed your brethren has nothing to do with “love”. Just as you cannot “love” a person who would kidnap you children or sexually assault you sister, your wife, or any of your loved ones, or a person would is ready to kill you family, just as God does not love those who are unjust and He will deny them the eternal bliss.
God has created the universe in justice and balance, He has created the Sun and the Moon following their due courses – never will you see their orbits conflicting with each other – A message of magnificent and perfect harmony and peace within all His creations is the direct result of the established justice and His governing Laws.
It is the duty of each and everyone of us as His representative and vicegerent on earth to stand up for what is right, stand up for the oppressed, to seek justice for the suffering of our fellow human beings, but more importantly stand up against oppressor against ourselves
Moreover, if a Palestinian or anyone for that matter remains passive instead of struggling for freedom with his tongue, possessions and live, and “love” the people who are causing him and his family harm, in actuality he is accepting oppression and denying God: that is why most Palestinians’ views are not coherent with this post.
Peace and blessings of the Almighty be upon all