Daily Devotional for Saturday October 13, 2018

Can a Jewish person be saved?

(Genesis 12:1-7, 13:14-16, 15:18; Deuteronomy 9:4-6; Joshua 1:1-11, 21:43-45)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, help me to always be prepared to serve you in any way that I can. My life belongs to you. I am ready, willing, and able to answer your call as I go through my life each day. Use me for your glory. I am yours! In the name of Jesus I pray...AMEN!

Recently, there has been a swirl of controversy in the news whether a Jewish person can go to heaven or not. The answer is a resounding YES!!! God's free gift of everlasting life is available to ALL MEN! A Jewish person cannot go to Heaven just be being born a Jew. They are saved like all men, and that is by putting their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. A Jewish person by virtue of their birth is one of God's "chosen people," but like everyone else, each one will be held accountable for their sins. God's only plan of redemption is by faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Pray today for those Jewish men and women you may know, to give their heart and life to the Messiah--Jesus!!!

Giving away the land that God gave to the children of Israel, to their enemies. Please, do yourself a favor right now and get your Bible and sit down and spend the next 10 minutes reading the anchor verses for today, Genesis 12:1-7, 13:14-16, 15:18; Deuteronomy 9:4-6; Joshua 1:1-11; 21:43-45. You could spend hours reading all the passages in God's Word that confirm that modern-day Israel is the land God promised to Abraham and gave to His children. You do not have to be a Bible scholar to quickly realize in just the few key passages I have given you today that the land of Israel is indeed the exact land God Himself promised to His children 4,000 years ago, and fulfilled that promise in 1385 B.C. when Joshua took possession of that land.

Having laid the Biblical case to support that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, now you can see why giving away even one inch of that land to anyone else is going against God Himself. No person, no nation, has the right to give away what God promised and gave to the Jewish people. Those who do make themselves an enemy of God! Over and over throughout the Bible and human history, nations have invaded this land, taken it over, only to be defeated in the end. The land of Israel is only 20,330 sq km, slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey. Out of the billions of square miles that exist on this earth, this is the only place on the planet God literally promised and gave to His children. For anyone to go in and try to give a piece of that land away is foolish.

That is why the "peace plans" the United States have a large role in working out will never work and actually put our nation on the opposite side of God again! Let me be clear. The Gaza Strip belongs to ISRAEL! The West Bank belongs to ISRAEL! Jerusalem, all of it, belongs to ISRAEL! For this nation to be involved in any deals, even under the guise of "peace," that involves giving away the land God gave to the children of Israel is taking on God Himself! Not to mention that this land is being given away to the ENEMIES OF ISRAEL!!!

My friend, one of the problems many have with the Bible is that they can't understand why a God of love would command His children to go to war and "Kill every man, woman, child, and living thing" as He did many times in the Old Testament. The reason was this. God in His omniscience knew that the enemies of Israel, those who came to possess their land, had no desire for peace but the complete destruction and annihilation of the Jewish people. The complete obliteration of the Jewish people was their ONLY goal, not peace. Sadly, there are some people who have no desire for peace, only death and destruction and you either destroy them or they destroy you. That is one of the sad realties of living in this fallen and evil world.

Israel clearly understands the reality that there are people who desire their death and destruction. They don't have the luxury of great oceans on either side as we do and their enemies literally live all around them. That is what makes this current "peace plan" so silly. To actually take some of the small amount of land that belongs to Israel and literally give it to their enemies is absurd and ridiculous. It will only embolden and empower those who seek the destruction of Israel. Again, make no mistake about it. While we and others seek "peace," it takes TWO to make peace. Despite the claims by the Palestinian leadership, their goal is NOT peace but the destruction of Israel.

I have always been amused at why anyone thinks it is necessary to give the little strip of land God gave to Israel away to her enemies, when Israel is surrounded by Arab nations with VAST AMOUNTS of land who could easily assimilate their Arab brothers into their countries. Why do the Palestinians have to live on the land God gave to Israel when there is plenty of land in neighboring Arab countries they could live on? What is wrong with a "peace plan" that gave some of the land in surrounding Arab countries to the Palestinians?

I love you and care about you so much. I want to close today with a powerful promise God made to Abraham 4,000 years ago in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." This one verse of Scripture is why what is happening in Israel right now is so critical to THIS NATION! In being part of a plan to give away the land God gave to Israel to anyone, especially her enemies who seek her destruction, puts us on the wrong side of God. We should be seeking the BLESSINGS of God, not His CURSES!

Know that I am praying for you today. Even though most Jewish people have rejected Christ as their Savior, blinded to the reality that He is the Messiah they were promised in the Old Testament, they were, are, and always will be God's chosen people. The promise God gave Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is still in effect today. Our Christian faith is traced back through the children of Israel. The last events of this world will be played out in Israel. That is why we need to pray for and support the Jewish people and God's plan for the land of Israel. Our blessings in life come from following God not being in opposition to God!

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller