©June 30, 2012 Revive Israel Ministries

Itzhak Shamir, 1915 – 2012

Itzhak Shamir, former Prime Minister of Israel, passed away this Saturday, June 30, 2012. Shamir was born as Yitzhak Yazeranitski on October 15, 1915 in Rozhani, Poland, where his father served as head of the Jewish community in the town. Shamir immigrated to Israel in 1935. The rest of his family stayed in Poland and were murdered in the Holocaust.

In Israel, Shamir joined the resistance movements of Etsel and Lehi, and fought against the British mandate until the founding of the State of Israel. In 1955 he joined the Mosad under Israel Harel and became one of its top secret agents for 10 years.

In 1969 Shamir joined the Likud party under Menachem Begin, and was elected to the Knesset in 1973. He served as Prime Minister of Israel in 1983 and from 1986 to 1992. During his term, he led the country through the first Gulf War and the immigration of Ethiopian Jewry in Operation Shlomo.

In 1992 Shamir lost the elections to Yitzhak Rabin, and retired from public life in 1996. His latter years were spent in a nursing home.  

On Tuesday this week at 2:00 PM yellow firefighter planes began circling over our house. Two forest fires had been started 20 minutes apart, apparently by arson. One broke out several hundred meters to the south of our home, and the other several kilometers to the west. We could smell the smoke rising. The good news is that the firefighters got control of the fires within 2 1/2 hours.

The bad news is that there has been a new wave of terrorism in the Jerusalem area through arson. Since the beginning of the hot weather in May until this third week in June alone, there have been an astonishing 1,058 fires started, in the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding forests. Of those an estimated 70% are set on purpose. One firefighter said that this hasn't been made known in the media because it seems politically "incorrect."

This week "A" received navigator wings in the prestigious Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter division. However, "A" is a "she" - a beautiful blonde, 21 years old, with sparkling blue eyes, delicate features, and dimples. She grew up in a poor neighborhood of Afula, with her struggling single mom and five siblings.

Already an energetic and outstanding student in 2nd grade, she skipped a level and went straight to 4th.  There she started training five times a week in boxing, desiring to compete in the Olympics. Later, she was hired as a model, and earned money on the side being photographed for advertisements and catalogues. (However, she said modeling was superficial, and found boxing more challenging.)

In high school, "A" studied advanced placement physics and computer science. She graduated early at age 16, and instead of wasting time, studied for her bachelor’s degree, which she finished before being enlisted at age 18.  In a newspaper interview (Yediot, 7 Days, 29-06-12), she said, "When I go home on leave, I dress up in heels and skirts, but believe me, when I'm standing with the other soldiers in uniform, they don't see "A" the model, they see "A" the fighter.

by David Block

A tree can only grow as high as the depths of its roots allow it. Will we allow the Lord to get our roots deep by going way down and planting us where He so desires? You can only go as high as you have gone low. God desires to promote us. However, He often brings us to a low place before the promotion.  

Psalms 75:6-7 - Not from the east nor from the west… come promotion and lifting up.  God is the Judge! He puts down one and lifts up another.
Job 5:11 - He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
Luke 1:52 - He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly.
James 1:9 - Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation.

Yeshua is our teacher and Lord; He is the best example of being brought low and being lifted up. He shows us the way. Will we follow Him?

Matthew 21:5 - Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey.

Yeshua has taught us to be gentle and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29). It is necessary to go to a lowly place; to be saturated there in order to become as He is before His plan can be allowed to be unfolded. Those low places mold us and make us who we are in Him.  God is in the process of lifting us up, yet you can only go as high as you have gone low.

From our small congregation (175 people) in Jerusalem, Ahavat Yeshua, we have this week on short term emissary work: Michael M and Dan J in America; Stuart W and Herut in India; Or and Vered in Mozambique; Tal H in Poland; Ariel and Vered B in China; among others. Please pray for them. Let us join together to complete the Acts 1:8 mandate to preach the gospel of the kingdom from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Over the next several months, we will be posting teachings from Asher’s recent trip to the U.S.  The first teaching is entitled: Living to Honor God.  Asher speaks on the importance of looking to honor God in everything that we do, living to glorify Him on a minute-to-minute basis, regardless of the situation, and in doing so, live a life of faith.

Click the link below to visit our personal YouTube site at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ReviveIsraelTV

We encourage you to send this link to friends and family. Please help us to get these teachings out. They are being offered free of charge. Enjoy!