When We Hurt
Easter was the next morning. I was at church, tired but rejoicing after three packed-out presentations of our church’s passion play that weekend. Hundreds of people…
CHRISTIAN LIVING
A Life That Pleases God
1 Thessalonians 4:9–12: How to live a life that pleases God is the overriding theme of the first 12 verses of 1 Thessalonians 4. Verses 1–8 speak about sexual purity, and verses 9–12 provide practical instruction on how to maintain right relationships with…
Distracted Living
A new year has begun, and new prospects are on the horizon. The Bible challenges us to spend our time wisely and avoid wasting opportunities: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because…
On the Judah Road
Sometimes we make one decision that changes our lives forever. That’s what Ruth did, and God blessed her. I’d like to tell you about a girl who grew up 30 centuries ago and made a decision so momentous it not only secured her place in history but…
Living in Moral Purity
1 Thessalonians 4:1–8: Some people find it difficult to live for Christ. But God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us, and we need to learn how to yield our lives to His control. In the final two chapters of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul…
Christmas Bedlam
For many of us, Christmas is far from the “silent night” and “peace on earth” we sing about. Copious community events, school concerts, and church programs fill the season.
Coming of Age
They may have been children 20 years ago, But today they are posed to take over the church. What is the best way to impart sound doctrine to the generation that is coming of age?
Why They Care
Millennials are a highly justice-oriented generation. They empathize with the downtrodden, embrace social-justice causes, and have massive potential to do good. But what is their motivation, and is it enough?
Coaching the ‘Participation Trophy’ Generation
Baby Boomers were taught, “Play to win.” But they taught their children, “Play to have fun.” How do we now teach this generation hungry for purpose to contend for their faith?
Bible Museum Opens Soon in Washington
If you love God’s Word and Israel, you won’t want to miss the Museum of the Bible’s grand opening in November in Washington, DC. Located only three blocks from the United States Capitol Building and…
Paul’s Encouraging Word
1 Thessalonians 3:6–13: Greatly relieved by Timothy’s encouraging report that the young Thessalonian church was not wavering in its faith despite persecution, the apostle Paul penned this letter to the Thessalonians.
Do I Have To?
Do I have to? Those four little words frequently crossed my mind and sometimes my lips in response to my parents’ directives during the formative years of my life. The inevitable consequences and pressure to conform…
From the Editor Jul/Aug 2017
Every Wednesday, we have chapel at The Friends of Israel headquarters. It’s a wonderful time when we pray together, hear a brief message, and sometimes connect via Skype with one of our workers overseas who…
A Trail of Carcasses
Camped at Sinai for 12 months, the fledgling nation of Israel received God’s Law, constructed His Tabernacle, and established the Levitical priesthood. It had great dreams and high expectations of entering a land that flowed “with milk and honey” as it set out from…
Fiasco at Kadesh Barnea
After traveling through the desert from bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel embarked on the last leg of the journey to their new home: the land of Canaan—the land God had promised them. With the end of the trek in sight…
Rebels Without a Cause
It didn’t go well for Korah and crew when they complained against God. In fact, the ended up in what people today might call a giant sinkhole. Anyone who knows a little Yiddish probably knows the word kvetch. It means complain and whine habitually.
The Covert Conspiracy
Many things happen behind the scenes that affect our lives and the history of nations. The Israelites fell prey to the enemy’s devices, and it cost them dearly. If you think you know everything going on around you, think again. Life is not always what it seems. Sometimes circumstances are orchestrated…
The Desert Complaint Department
A lesson in what NOT to do–even though God is always faithful. Complaining is a flaw of sinners. It is part of humanity’s sinful condition. It is part of humanity’s sinful condition. We grumble about long lines, prices, people…
A Minister’s Encouragement
1 Thessalonians 3:1–5: Birthing is not easy. That’s why it’s called labor. Paul felt personally responsible for the Thessalonian church, which he had birthed through his ministry. He cared for the babes in Christ there with the gentle love…
Hide-and-Seek
I recently heard someone sarcastically compare man’s relationship to God to a cruel game of hide-and-seek where God supposedly hides slightly out of reach and demands to be found. Man is “it”—seeking the ever-elusive God but never able to find or please Him.
Who is This Person?
What if you looked in a mirror and were unable to recognize yourself? Unfortunately, this type of thing happens. Sometimes traumatic brain injuries or diseases make it difficult for people to recognize faces, even their own. The condition is known as…
Ministering With Affection
1 Thessalonians 2:7–12The church is a family. People enter it by being born into it spiritually. And, as in a family, all members have responsibilities; and their commitment to and love for one another are necessary to create…
Open the Door!
Years ago, young people were always afraid of being picked last. The humiliation of standing alone while your peers pondered which team was going to be stuck with you was devastating. Even being picked second to last was…
From the Editor Jan/Feb 2017
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Israel My Glory, and we plan to run vintage articles by Victor Buksbazen, the first editor of the magazine and first executive director of The Friends of Israel.
Inside View Jan/Feb 2017
Sitting around a table in Warsaw, Poland, last summer, I listened as our Friends of Israel staff there shared how God worked in their lives to bring them to faith in Christ and eventually into Jewish ministry.
Tapestry of Grace
Why did so many people in the Bible do such bad things? Was it okay that God’s people had multiple wives?” a newly saved young mom asked me. I told her the Bible portrays humanity’s sinfulness honestly, but its record of such behavior does not…
The Man Whom God Knighted
There is no other biblical personality that has been made more the butt of harsh and unfair criticism than that of the patriarch Jacob, one of the ancestors of the Jewish race. He is depicted as the cunning supplanter…
Ministering with Integrity
1 Thessalonians 2:1–6: The apostle Paul’s abrupt departure from Thessalonica brought accusations that he was a religious charlatan preaching for financial gain and personal honor. If the accusations went unanswered, they…
God is Up to Something
The scattered stones and ruins of the ancient city of Philippi silently lay in the bright Grecian sun. Standing there, as I scanned the landscape around me, the organized rubble seemed to shout, “This is the place! This is the place…
Corrie’s Courage
A pastor’s visit to the Ten Boom house reminds us how the faith of one Christian family preserved many Jewish lives during the Holocaust. We were in the last room on our tour through the Corrie ten Boom Museum…
Didn’t Know Who You Were
The wonderful Christmas season will soon be here. It’s a time to celebrate the divinely supernatural, when God did something for humanity that is so spectacular it has to be experienced personally to be understood.
‘For My Name’s Sake’
I am Charlie Perry’s great grandson. That fact may not mean much today, but in my small hometown many years ago, it meant plenty. Charles H. Perry was a man of impeccable integrity…
The Thessalonians’ Testimony
1 Thessalonians 1:9–10: When the Thessalonians received Jesus Christ as their Savior, they experienced a thrilling transformation. They were completely delivered from the darkness and depravity of paganism and anxiously…
7 Things I Learned About Dealing with Officials
I was fully prepared to breeze over a July 14 article in theguardian.com headlined “Ghostbusters in line for China ban due to supernatural theme.” But I read it, and I’m glad I did…
From the Editor Sep/Oct 2016
Have you ever heard of the Yazoo land scandal of 1795? Apparently, it is considered “the most corrupt deal in American history,” according to historynewsnetwork.org…
The Peter Principle
What do you do when the Bible says one thing and the government says another? Follow the principle the apostle Peter gave us. A significant parade of years has passed since my grammar school days…
Rejoicing Over Salvation
1 Thessalonians 1:5–8: The apostle Paul did not preach on the power of positive thinking to the Thessalonians. He did not use skillful oratory, philosophical arguments, clever expressions, or…
Recycling History
Israel’s wise King Solomon, with years of world-watching behind him, concluded, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9)…
Thankful for the Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 1:2–4: When kindness is shown to someone, the usual response is to say thank you. No New Testament writer other than Paul expressed thankfulness to his fellow Christians…
Liberty, Love, and Life With Christ Conclusion
During its formative years, the church was entirely Jewish, as Jewish people by the thousands recognized Jesus as their long-promised Messiah. But by the end of the apostle Paul’s first missionary journey…
Liberty, Love, and Life With Christ Part Four
Christians are to honor God’s holiness by keeping His commandments. But what about gray areas where the Bible is silent? In those cases, followers of Jesus must not offend their consciences or those of other believers…
God’s Way
Youcef Nadarkhani, 38, is an Iranian-Christian pastor. He spent three years in prison and was sentenced to death by hanging on charges of apostatizing from Islam and evangelizing Muslims. Although released in September 2012, he was…
Why We Believe
Every year Christians pause to remember an event that changed history. Whether you call it Easter or Resurrection Sunday, it is a day of rejoicing, when we gather together in churches around the…
The Twisted Cross
I was in 10th grade U.S. History class when we got to the chapter on World War II and learned about Hitler and the Nazis. To me, the Second World War was just a misty history that happened…
Liberty, Love, and Life with Christ Part Three
Christian liberty is a gift from God. Scripture says Christians are free to practice whatever God’s moral absolutes do not prohibit (Gal. 2:4; 5:1), providing they do not violate their own consciences (Rom. 14:22–23)…
Vessels of Clay Romans 9:1–29
Four thousand years ago, God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees (southern Iraq) to the land of Canaan (Israel) and made him an awesome promise…
A Plea From a Millennial
A few miles from my boyhood home, just off a dusty country road, sits a little orange brick church. The tattered curtains sway in and out…
Confronting Church Conflict
3 John 5–14: Third John focuses on three men, two of whom—Gaius and Diotrephes—were church leaders. Gaius was a committed servant, full of love and truth, and given to hospitality…
Liberty, Love, and Life With Christ Part Two
Christians should live according to God’s universal guidelines of conduct through the power of the Holy Spirit. Part one examined the fi rst guideline. Here are three more.
How to Walk and When to Stand
Since June 26, when five Supreme Court justices issued their majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, the millennia-old idea of religious freedom in America has…
He Still Seeks and Saves
Tears streamed down Sandy Yao’s face as she stood by her mother’s bed. God felt so far away. She had trusted His Son as her Savior. She believed God had opened the door…
A Beloved Servant
3 John 1–4: Churches are like families: full of members with differing personalities, dispositions, and temperaments. Some members are friendly, loving, truthful, generous, and hospitable…
Liberty, Love, and Life With Christ Part One
Have you ever wondered why genuine Christians differ in their opinions on the morality of certain conduct? Some sincere Christians believe…
Inside View Sep/Oct 2015
Do you ever feel like you want to do something to help Israel in addition to praying? That was how we felt when we started the Israel Relief Fund many years ago.
From the Editor Sep/Oct 2015
A few months ago, the husband of one of my dearest friends died of a heart attack while eating lunch. One minute he was alive; the next, he wasn’t. My friend told me the ambulance arrived…
Psalm 121: Our Security
Imagine a Jewish father singing to his children, “My help comes from the Lᴏʀᴅ, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber…
Psalm 125: Our Protector
Mayhem is everywhere. This motto is used by one of America’s biggest insurance companies. The television commercial portrays “mayhem” in the form of a man running amok…
Psalm 127: Our Provider
Situated at the midpoint of the Psalms of Ascents, Psalm 127 is didactic, or instructional, and is attributed to King Solomon. Confronting the reality of daily existence, it motivates readers to…
Psalm 128: Our Source
A steady stream of families paraded across the stones and steps that marked the path to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. I sat nearby as they carried canopies, banners, and balloons…
Psalm 129: Our Guardian
From their sojourn in Egypt to their days in Europe during Hitler’s Third Reich to today, the Jewish people have been afflicted. Yet against all odds, this tiny group of people…
Psalm 130: Our Redeemer
If there is one thing we all share, it’s trouble. My Jewish friends often use the Yiddish word tsuris. I remember one day in 2010 that dumped a tremendous amount of tsuris on me. I learned…
Psalm 131: Our Hope
Psalm 131 is a song of humility. This Song of Ascents was composed by King David. Though one of the shortest psalms, it is also one of the most poignant. David composed it while experiencing severe challenges and inner turmoil, perhaps when…
Psalm 132: Our Dwelling
Psalm 132 is the longest of all the Songs of Ascents and focuses on worship, which the nation of Israel modeled after the experience of its greatest king and worship leader…
Psalm 133: Our Unity
Hine ma tov u’ma-nayim, shevet ach-im gam ya-chad. These Hebrew words are familiar to anyone who attends synagogue regularly. “Behold, how good and how pleasant…
Psalm 134: Our Blessing
When God blesses something, He bestows on it life and goodness. During creation, God only blessed living things; He did not bless the sun, moon, or stars. After He created Adam and Eve…
Standing for the Truth
2 John 5–13: All Christians should obey biblical truth and manifest love, as taught by Jesus Christ. The “elect lady and her children,” whom the apostle John mentioned in his second epistle, lived observably according to these commandments…
The Inextinguishable Church
The global campaign to eliminate Christianity and the followers of Jesus Christ is as diverse as it is unrelenting. In the Middle East and Africa, ISIS Islamists have reverted to…
Living Truthfully
2 John 1:1–4: A major problem in the first-century church was the proliferation of false teachers. Under the inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John…
Humanity’s Rejection of God’s Moral Absolutes
Humanity’s refusal to accept God’s wisdom has led people to reject His moral absolutes. Consequently, individuals engage in practices that violate what God ordained for mankind. They commit…
From the Editor May/Jun 2015
Many years ago I had a wonderful friend who truly loved Jewish people. She was a devout Christian who had come to Christ later in life from a Greek Orthodox background and…
Abraham’s Three C’s
The great American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but…
Sarah and Abraham
As a child, I had a favorite teacher who skillfully arranged biblical characters on colorful backdrops of desert sand, tents, or a palm-covered oasis. Drawing our attention to…
Abraham’s Faith
Anyone who has read the story of Abraham would agree he was an ordinary man who was made extraordinary by faith. He stands out in Scripture as a stellar figure whom Judaism calls…
A Rock on Which to Build the World
Abraham is the only person in the Old Testament called the “friend” of God (Isa. 41:8; Jas. 2:23). In the New Testament, he is listed as an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Mt. 1:1) and…
The Long Arm of Grace
Reading the biblical account of Abraham’s life is like watching a tightrope walker who steps onto a thin wire to traverse cavernous depths. The slightest misstep can bring disaster. Counted as…
Humanity’s Rejection of Genuine Wisdom
The foundation, or beginning, of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps. 111:10). Unfortunately, large segments of humanity do not fear the Lord and have no true wisdom. Instead…
Inside View Mar/Apr 2015
“To be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). I thought of that verse when I received word that our beloved and longtime colleague, Zvi Kalisher, had passed away…
From the Editor Mar/Apr 2015
When I was reading the book of Obadiah awhile back, I felt it offered so many good principles for everyday living that I thought you might enjoy an entire issue on it. Many months later, as I was preparing…
The Pitfall of Pride Obadiah 1—4
Obadiah 1–4: When the apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy to tell him how to pastor the church at Ephesus, he cautioned him not to give too much responsibility to…
Groundless, Yet Deadly
Pride is a matter of the heart. In both Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Old and New Testaments respectively, the words pride and proud denote an arrogance, a puffing up…
You Reap What You Sow Obadiah 15—16
Obadiah 15–16: Have you ever seen someone revel in another’s misfortune or be smug and self-satisfied when sympathy was called for? There’s a saying, “What goes around comes around.” The Bible…
Victorious in Christ
1 John 5:1–12: The apostle John used the word overcomer more than any New Testament writer when speaking of the Christian’s victorious life in Christ (1 Jn. 5:4–5)…
The Foundation of Genuine Wisdom
The Bible teaches that the foundation, or beginning, of genuine wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Unwise people spurn the fear of the Lord by neglecting God’s moral absolutes…
Recollections of a Friend
In a life spent traveling and meeting hosts of people from all walks of life, I’ve found that few individuals leave an enduring legacy. Such a legacy was left by a person of small stature but…
A Tribute to Zvi
I first met Zvi Kalisher in 1977 on The Friends of Israel’s first tour to Israel. We had just arrived in Jerusalem, and that evening Zvi shared an hour-long testimony. I left the meeting saying…
My Dad
I was privileged and blessed to have two believing parents in the Lord Jesus. The most important heritage they gave us was a biblical and spiritual education and guidance…
The Zvi I Knew
Considering all of the difficulties he faced as a Holocaust survivor and a moneyless, unemployed immigrant in a precarious Israel, Zvi Kalisher had every reason to become…
My Memories of Zvi
My wife and I first met Zvi in 1978 at a Friends of Israel (FOI) banquet in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was the highlight of the evening. His life story, ZVI, by Elwood McQuaid, had just…
True Christian Love
1 John 4:7–21: If one thing is glaringly missing in the life of many Christians today, it is the expression of Christian love. Throughout the First Epistle of John, the apostle John emphasized…
Contrasts of Wisdom
The Bible calls attention to several problems with false wisdom, which, in reality, is not wisdom at all. After Babylon had manifested great pride in abusing the Israelites during their 70-year…
Up Close Among Suffering Nigerians
“I’m sorry, Mr. Johnson, but your life insurance application was rejected.” When I asked why, the agent explained: “On the questionnaire, your answer about travel said you are going…
Spiritual Discernment
1 John 4:1–6: First-century believers were often inundated with heretical doctrine from people whom the Bible identifies as false teachers and false prophets. At that time…
The Wisdom of God Conclusion
God gave Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar a dream that disturbed he could not sleep. Then God revealed to Daniel the dream’s content and meaning. This article explains…
Loving One Another
1 John 3:11–24: In 1 John 3:10, the apostle John declared, “Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” These strong words…
The Wisdom of God Part Three
This article provides more examples of God’s distribution of wisdom. Nebuchadnezzar, the crown prince of Babylon, came to Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem in August 605 BC.
Saints and Sinners
1 John 3:4–10: The First Epistle of John teaches that people who are truly born again are children of God and will practice righteousness (2:29), keeping themselves pure from sin…
The Wisdom of God Part Two
Proverbs 2:6–7 states, “The Lᴏʀᴅ gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.” However, the Bible also reveals…
Behold God’s Love
1 John 3:1–3: God’s redemptive program began with His love for fallen humanity. Those who have been “born of Him” (1 Jn. 2:29) by faith in Jesus Christ manifest this…
The Wisdom of God Part One
Webster’s New International Dictionary defines wise as “discerning and judging soundly concerning what is true or false, proper or improper.” It defines wisdom as the…
Warning Against Antichrists
1 John 2:18–29: At the inception of his epistle, the apostle John declared, “God is light” (1 Jn. 1:5). He said people who walk in God’s light abide in fellowship with Him.