Are you insured?

Psalms 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

In the wake of this historic arctic winter storm and its catastrophic damage, an article came out discussing how this will break all records in Texas as a result!  In today's news, estimates point to a record over $20 billion dollars in insurance claims!

It reminded me of when we first arrived in Israel about fourteen years ago, my wife was almost eight months pregnant. We wanted to have everything concerning the birth worked out ahead of time because we knew we'd have so many other things to think about once we got here. So we made certain to pay for our Israeli health insurance coverage even before we arrived, just to be sure we would have no problems.

But something inconceivable happened -- the Israeli government went on strike before our payment information was entered into their records. When we tried to get prenatal care and sign up at the hospital, they had no record of our payment and thus, no way to help us (unless, of course, we were willing to pay an obscene amount of money, money we didn't have). Little did we know that the strike would continue on for four months!

To make a long story short, our baby was born on the kitchen floor of our little Jerusalem apartment. I can honestly say it was one of the most terrifying, yet profound experiences of our lives.

But this got me thinking about insurance. Why do we buy insurance? So that we can be insured that we will get the help or care we need, should we ever need it, right? SURE! Well, we even paid in advance to have that assurance, and we didn't get it when our time of need came!

We are living in crazy times. Times where anything goes -- and anything can happen. And there is really only one insurance company that has been found truly faithful to help us in our time of need through it all. No, it's not Red Cross, or Blue Cross... It's THE Cross! What's more, this insurance doesn't cost us a thing! You'd think more people would jump on this deal, wouldn't you? Yeshua (Jesus) already paid for it with His hard-earned blood sweat and tears, on the cross two thousand years ago.

Let's take the time today to spread this heavenly insurance available for FREE -- in this day and age ... people need it!

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I happened (on rare occasion) the other day to see a CNN headline, “Health Officials Brace for Three Major Viruses this Fall”. Immediately, I thought, “Not again!” Yet, scouring the headlines, it now appears that several colleges are instituting mask mandates even though there isn’t a case of illness yet. While the world is being prepared for an “outbreak” of disease, I’m hoping we may learn a lesson from history so that, perhaps, we’ll see an “outbreak” of revival!

As we enter this season of Teshuva (Repentance) during the month of Elul, we enter a unique season approaching the Fall Feasts. This month initiates a 40-day countdown to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and is traditionally known as the time the King would visit His people.

As we continue our study of the men who followed David, another characteristic was their ability to war.They learned how to battle with both the right hand and the left hand for hurling stones. If you have ever thrown a ball, you know that you can aim effectively with your dominant hand — but try it with the opposite hand — it’s far more difficult to throw accurately.  But the men that followed David learned to throw with both arms effectively!  It must have taken months of training to develop such skill.

When David was a fugitive from Saul, the men who followed him recognized his rightful place as King of Israel, and they developed a deep loyalty to him, this little band. As we read yesterday, these men were transformed from distress, debt, and discontentment [1 Sam. 22:1-2] into becoming mighty men of war. Having joined David, they quickly realized that they were joining a conflict.

Last night, Jewish people around the world will mourn Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the fifth month of the Hebrew calendar year. Some of you may know that a lot of bad things have happened to the Jewish people on this date, the first of which was when the spies returned with an evil report of Canaan, the Promised Land, recounted in Numbers 13 and 14. Both the first and the second Temple were destroyed on this exact date, hundreds of years apart. The Crusades began on this day in 1095. The Jews were expelled out of England on this day in 1290, and again were expelled from Spain and Portugal on Tisha B’Av in 1492. And there are many more examples of this infamous day in Jewish history!

An ancient legend tells of a king who walked into his garden one day to find almost everything withered and dying. After speaking to an oak near the gate, the king learned that he was troubled because he was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine overheard their conversation and added that she, too, was upset, for she could not bear delicious fruit like the pear tree. The pear tree heard his name and began to complain that he did not have the lovely odor of the spruce. And so it went throughout the entire garden.

In the midst of a serious heat wave, wildfires are spreading across Europe causing thousands to evacuate. This reminded me of a story I once read.