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When most Christians hear the phrase the kingdom of God, they rarely think of the land of Israel or the people of Israel. On its own, the word kingdom invokes a king and a castle in a mystical far-away land. When people hear the word kingdom and Bible in the same sentence, they tend to think of some ethereal and far-off realm where God dwells and rules on His throne. And it’s true–God does rule in heaven from His throne, ordering the universe. The kingdom of God is spiritual;

The significant uptick in recognizing Yeshua's Jewishness throughout Christendom in the twentieth century led many Christians to question the status quo of Christian-Jewish relationship. Their ponderings took the form of questions like: If I have given my heart to a Jewish messiah, should that have any bearing on my culture? If Yeshua will operate His coming kingdom-government out of Jerusalem and by the Torah, should that affect the way I live every day? What actually is th

It was Friday afternoon. The Sovereignty movement, led by Nadia Matar, was gathering a solidarity drive up to Chavat Gilad to comfort the bereaved family. It had been a very heavy week: devastating fire, and now bloodshed. The weight of it had been sitting on my chest. I did not have to think twice. I fixed our two big Israeli flags to broom poles and strapped them to the sides of the van, jumped in with my two oldest sons, and we drove ten minutes down the road to join the c

Living in Samaria can be intense. The land is beautiful and ancient beyond telling, but it hums with a low and steady vigilance, a watchfulness that settles into your shoulders on the drive home and does not easily let go. And yet there are a handful of places out here where all of that quietly drains away, where the guard comes down, and you can sit and breathe and simply be. For Becca and me, that place was a little restaurant perched on the western edge of Chavat Gilad, an

In a world filled with fast paced media, the ever-changing news, the unceasing clamor of podcasters, the new, interesting, yet unwatched flow of YouTube videos, the never-ending doom scrolling of TikTok, the latest and greatest roasts on X, the piles of unread emails, the ringing of alerts, chimes, alarms, reminders, reminders about reminders–in addition to everything else life throws at a person–it can be hard to see truth through the fog of it all. It used to be said that “

The house was quiet when I woke the children. My four older boys came down the stairs one by one, and my eldest daughter took her place with us as we loaded into the nine-passenger van in the early light. The roads to Jerusalem were nearly empty. No rush of traffic, no noise. It fit the day. It is Tisha B'Av, and we are fasting. None of us were hungry yet, but hunger was coming, and we knew it. No food, no water. A heaviness rode with us in the van, the kind of heaviness that

It was two years ago during the nine days of Av. I had the picture vision in my head and sketched it out. It was a rough sketch–more about getting emotions out than making a pretty picture–but somehow I knew it was a message from God. A truth He had been speaking to my heart. Just a month and a half earlier, I had experienced a late-term miscarriage. I was eighteen weeks along, to be exact. It landed me in the hospital hemorrhaging with dangerously low hemoglobin levels, but

Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) arrives like a long, low note of mourning held across the centuries. On this one day, both Temples fell. The fire that consumed the House of God still smolders in the memory of Israel, and every year His people fast, sit low to the ground, dim the lights, and read the Lamentations of Jeremiah, weeping for a Home they have never seen. We from the nations watch them mourn and quietly wonder how we are meant to relate to this day. For many of us, this

We like to pride ourselves on the fact that we live in a “modern era” in which “newest is truest,” and youth culture is celebrated more than age-old wisdom. Technology has amplified what is in the human heart for good and for evil. I am able to write this article thousands of miles away from Israel on a computer. However, the modern age is also a rootless age that prides itself on anonymity and self-image. People in the modern era cry out for the real, the authentic, and the

As I have traveled around the world sharing about the miracle of Israel's rebirth, I have encountered well-meaning Christians who claim that the modern State of Israel is secular, pagan, and against the will of God. They point to the fact that many of the founders of modern Israel were atheists, that the government is secular and not Torah-based, and that many Jewish Israelis returned to Israel because they felt they would have a better chance of security and success, not be

Prophecy can mean different things to different people. Some think of end times. Some think of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Some think of the Old Testament messages. But after my trip to Israel, I...

The concept of a “Holy War” is repulsive to the ears of a modern reader, and the fact that these two words can even go together may seem unconscionable. But history has united them into a bloody phrase that has cost the lives of millions and the wounding, starvation, and misery of millions more. From kings to popes to sheiks and many others throughout history, Holy Wars have been declared, fought, and changed the face of world history time and again. The misuse of this term

When most people pick up the Bible, they often do not realize that they are holding an ancient text that was given to a particular people (the Jewish people), in a particular ancient context (ancient Israel), with particular promises (the biblical covenants). You cannot get through the first book of the Bible without mentioning Israel or the promises of God. God’s promises in the Bible are often bound up closely with covenantal promises that are made with His people. The wor

Wide-eyed and wholly unaware of what was about to happen to me, I stepped out of the van. The mountain air brushed my 17-year-old face as the heavy clay and rocky soil crunched beneath my feet. Nir Lavi had a special spring in his step that seemed connected to his mischievous, contagious smile. He was a young man of close to thirty. Nir shifted his IDF-issued AK-47 to pull a well-worn Tanach from his pocket. We were standing at the edge of a vineyard that swept down into the

Shavuot (Pentecost) is the equipping holiday. On this day, God revealed His truth. On the very same day of the year, a millennium and a half later, He enabled that truth to be downloaded into our hearts. That truth sets us free, builds us up, enables us to walk in supernatural gifts, launches us into the great commission, and causes our hearts to beat in anticipation of our King’s return to Jerusalem. Lightning flashed, thunder shook the mountain, and the shofar blast grew l

The world’s oldest love story is more romantic than anything you’ll find in Hollywood or Hallmark. It is riddled with plot twists, villains, seduction, valor, betrayal, and unswerving faithfulness. God woos his beloved Israel, saying “Yes, I have drawn you with an everlasting love, you are written on the palms of my hands, and I have betrothed you to me forever.” There is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to depicting this divine love in human terms. The Song of Solomon

The Cup That Changed Everything There is a moment frozen in time that most of us have visited again and again, the Upper Room, the night before the crucifixion, the Last Supper. We know it well as a solemn memorial. But what if we have only seen half the picture? In ancient Jewish wedding custom, a young man who wished to take a bride would come to her with a cup of wine. He would propose, declare his love and his covenant intentions, and then offer her the cup. If she drank

Getting to know someone can be challenging. There is so much depth to every individual - strengths, weaknesses, personality traits, character, experiences, dreams, and passions. I was really close to my grandfather before he finished his time here on this earth. We spent time together working on his cattle farm and tinkering on cars. I feel like I got to know him pretty well. “D-Daddy” was a quiet, thoughtful man. He never got angry and was always willing to listen. I remembe

“For seven days no leaven (se’or) shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened (chametz), that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened (chametz); in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread” (Exodus 12:19–20). So what exactly is chametz? The Hebrew word se’or refers to sourdough starter—fermented batter used to cause bread to rise. In practice, it fun

The blueprints of the Tabernacle are not ancient trivia. They are a living declaration, written in silver, acacia wood, and rams' skins dyed red. We know the story. Betzalel and Ahaliav, filled with the Spirit of God, gather the people and build exactly what the Lord commanded. Silver sockets. Acacia beams overlaid with gold. Curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet. A veil. An altar. An ark. And then the glory descends, and Moses cannot even enter, because the presence of the H