© 1 January 2016 Revive Israel Ministries

The Radical Christian

Excerpt from Francis Frangipane

A man might be a nominal Christian, mostly unaffected by spiritual things, until one day he reads the Bible, and he finds a spiritual fire ignited in his heart. If that man remains in his new conviction, he will increasingly pattern his life after Jesus Christ. He will become more loving and forgiving, and more willing to invest his life in seeing others redeemed as well. He will, in short, become more Christlike. 

If a nominal Muslim begins to read the Koran, and continues his daily devotionals, at some point he will increasingly surrender toward obeying all of Mohammed’s teachings.  Just as the follower of Jesus ultimately seeks conformity to Jesus, so the committed Muslim will prove his faithfulness by obeying even the militant extremes of Islam. The works Mohammed did the follower of Mohammed will also do.

And this is the problem: the Christian who becomes increasingly like Christ is being conformed to a redeemer; the Muslim who becomes increasingly like Mohammed is being conformed to a military leader. To read the full article, click HERE!

In this video Asher covers several recent news events from this past week that clearly illustrate the current socio-political state of Israel.  To watch in English, click HERE!

By Bassem E.

John wrote about the spirit of antichrist, "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is of God; every spirit that does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh is not of God; this is the spirit of Antichrist" 1 John 4:1-3.   

John was addressing Gnosticism and Docetism. They claimed that although Jesus appeared to be in the flesh, he really wasn’t in human flesh form like us. Their first leader Frenacus Basilides (about 120 AD), said that at the cross, Jesus changed forms with Simon of Cyrene; and he was crucified in his place.

In a certain sense Jesus first dealt with this spirit in Matthew 16 when He rebuked Peter, when Peter tried to tell Him not to go to the cross (vs. 21 – 23 - "Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block; for your heart is not on the things of God but on the things of man").

This antichrist satanic formula continued throughout the ages, until the formation of Islam, as one of Satan's most successful projects. John warns the believers from the spirit of Antichrist, which is a similar spirit that tries to destroy God’s plan of salvation. 

We ought to deal with this spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit and the unity of the Church: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn. 4: 4).

By Tal Robin

It is the role of the older brother to demonstrate the will of the Father to the rest of the family.   God desires to be with mankind as a father desires to be with his children.  God was saddened because He lost His family at the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

He worked throughout history to create for Himself a people or family, in the likeness of a firstborn son, whose roles would be to show other nations this desire of His. In this way Jesus came as the Firstborn of the sons of God.  A Father's desire is for His family to be united.

Jesus announced to humanity that God is our Father, and prayed in John 17 for unity among believers and between them and the Father. The Messianic remnant in Israel has a corresponding call to be a "firstborn" among nations; to help bring about the reunification of the family.

Kalah

Since the creation of the world God's greatest desire was to dwell with mankind, but after the fall everything changed. Once separated from Him, God knew that there was nothing we could do to restore that connection with Him or even to relate to Him in the way that was once possible in the Garden of Eden.

From the perspective of mankind, God suddenly became something distant, unknowable and unattainable. God needed a way to relate to us again so He sent Yeshua and called those who believed in Him to be His bride.

The word for bride in Hebrew is "kalah" but this word also means daughter in-law. This means that because of God's great love, we as a body are not only the "kalah" (bride) of Yeshua, but we are also the "kalah" (daughter in-law) of God the Father.  So no matter how you look at it, we are HIS "kalah." - Shani Ben-Ari


Ezer K'Negdo

When God created the woman for man, He referred to her as "helpmate."  The term in Hebrew is actually "Ezer K'negdo," meaning "Helper Opposite" or "Helper Against." The concept is beautiful, that generally a husband and wife have exact opposite strengths and weaknesses.  He is strong where she is weak; she is strong where he is weak.  They have complementary gifts and callings.

My wife Betty sees details and practicalities, where I see only large picture elements.  We couldn’t function without one another.  She is like a microscope; I am like a telescope.  I write the rough drafts of these articles; she does the proof read.  Sometimes this can be uncomfortable, as she always sees my weaknesses (and lets me know of them right away).

Betty is really the perfect biblical wife with the perfect biblical balance:  50% helps me and 50% opposes me! - Asher Intrater