Real Quality Assurance!

Over the last few weeks and months I have been anticipating this Friday with both tension, fear, and excitement. At first the thought of an archaeological dig was awe inspiring. But as the time grew nearer and nearer to leaving all kinds of thoughts entered my mind - mainly the thought of leaving Shannon for five weeks! In addition to that I thought of the recent conflict in Gaza as well as the surrounding countries that aren't too thrilled with Israel's existence. And without fail, people are very quick to remind me of these things when I tell them what I am doing. So the last few weeks I have been praying about some reassurance from the Lord. Well, He is definitely in the reassurance business!

After some weekly meetings this morning, I came to work to wrap up some loose ends before leaving this Friday. Laying on my desk was an unopened envelope containing the June 09 Jews for Jesus newsletter. I immediately thought I would open it and read it. Having been rather busy these last couple of weeks I have not found time to even open it or attempt to thumb through its pages. So with nothing pressing this Monday morning, I thought I would take a few minutes to read up on my Jewish brothers in Christ.

The opening article was written by the founder of Jews for Jesus, Moishe Rosen. Mr. Rosen wrote a very good article about adversity and perspective - EXACTLY what I needed to read at the time! In it he writes that when one is facing adversity it allows that person to gain a new perspective on who they are and where they are at - JUST what I needed to hear! I praise the Lord for Him allowing me to read this article at this particular time!

As I prepared for this trip I have always felt that there is a greater reason that I am going other than to dig in the dirt. I have always wondered who I will witness to while I am over there. Thinking about the Hebrew words we learned these last two semesters in Hebrew Language class I have been trying to think of ways to witness to Jews in Israel as well as verses to show them in my Hebrew Old Testament.

The next article was about HaTikvah, which is Hebrew for "the hope". Ironically it is the name of their national anthem, but to us Christians we KNOW who the real hope is in this world - Jesus Christ or Y'shua Messiah! This article gave specific ways to tell Jews about Jesus! I couldn't believe what I was reading. This was a way to engage them in conversation about Jesus!

Then after all of this, I look to the next page and listed there are twelve verses, six in the Old Testament and Six in the New Testament, that are related to holding on to hope in the Lord!

Could He have custom tailored this any better for me in my time of fear of the unknown? Surely not!

What an awesome Lord we serve!

Now THAT is what I call real Quality Assurance! He will reassure us in times of struggle and need if we truly seek to do His will.

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Striving for the Goal...