In the last few weeks we have seen the bloodiest conflict yet between Israel and Gaza. The last news story I saw reported that Israel was appearing to scale back its operation, but there is no way to know what tomorrow holds, and the situation at the moment is terribly bleak. The last figures I saw reported over 1800 killed and 8000 injured in an area about half the size of Orlando. That would be a huge crisis even if your still had all your medical facilities and your power plant, which they don’t.
Yesterday I received an email update from a Palestinian pastor who has contacts in Gaza, and had been involved in ministering to believers there before this began. With his permission I’m sharing it here to ask you to join me in prayer for them, and for those who are able, to send aid. Please take just five minutes to hear his phone conversation with a pastor inside Gaza, and his description of the situation there. He estimates there are 2000 believers there.
(video removed)
Now I want to bring up something this pastor never mentions. In the times I have heard him speak, or in the few brief conversations I’ve had with him, he has never complained or spoken negatively about the lack of interest the American evangelical church shows toward their suffering brothers and sisters in Gaza and the West Bank. But I personally know there is often shock when people are even asked to consider that Palestinian Christian exist at all! In our fervor to support Israel, we tend to see the Palestinians as one big block of terror – all dark and sinister. But there is still a light in Gaza, and it’s suffering.
I want to share a few words with you from a book written 12 years ago. Many have lost their lives since then in numerous conflicts. But the situation spoken of here is just as true today as it was then. Please put yourselves in their shoes and try to see through their eyes for a moment:
“For many years, I have been hurt so much, more by my brothers in the West than by Israel. And this is common throughout the evangelical churches in Palestine. We do not ask the churches in America to give us money. We just want them to identify with us and allow us to identify with them. And if not identify, at least feel with us. Say you understand us. On the contrary, many of the brothers from outside come to us with judgment. They even come with rebuke. We feel cut off, alone, away from the church. We want to be part of the church worldwide.” – Jack, Palestinian Believer
“We wake up in the morning and have breakfast like Christians in the U.S…. We go through difficult times like they do. We love the Lord as much as they do. And we need them to be with us, not against us. I don’t have a problem with any Christians supporting Israel with money and prayers. I don’t mind that. I just encourage them to look at the other side and to recognize that there are Palestinian believers too.
“But the only emails I receive from Christians in America say that Palestinians are terrorists and need to be killed. A Christian church in America donated money for a tank. Imagine how we felt as we watched the news and saw a tank crossing over on shipboard to Israel with a big sign on it reading, “Donated by the Christians of the United States.” – Waleed, Palestinian Believer
These quotes, along with many inspirational stories of faith are found in the book, Between Two Fires by Jack Kincaid.
Do you know anyone praying for Gaza? Do you know any churches or groups weeping for them, praying, and mobilizing resources to help in their time of need? I would love to hear about it! Please leave a comment. That’s why I’m writing this. Please share it with your friends. You can be the spark!
The suffering of every person should deeply touch us, Jew, Muslim, and Christian. But if we do not even know what those in our own family are suffering, how can we show compassion to the rest?
I also want to share with you a picture and message that has come through a brother, who hasn’t as far as I know, read the book I just quoted. But Jesus impresses his heart with images and words that express His pleadings for us to turn our hearts to Him and what He loves.
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The Palestinian Bride
“Many of My people love Israel
and they pray for her often—
for her safety, peace, and prosperity.
They are proud to ‘stand for Israel’:
they preach it in their gatherings,
participate in conferences about it,
and assemble to protest and rally for it.
They support Israel’s politics;
they pray for Israel’s army,
for her military objectives,
and for her to be victorious.
They are attentive not only to the past
and present sufferings of Israel,
but also to potential sufferings that Jews
could experience under speculative scenarios.
But they cannot see the great sufferings
of their Christian brothers and sisters
in neighboring Gaza and the West Bank.
My Palestinian bride suffers,
but they do not mourn with her,
comfort her, encourage her or support her.
They do not ‘stand with’ her.
My bride in Palestine is an inconvenience
to the great devotion of many to Israel;
hearing of her suffering only interrupts
their unceasing prayers for Israel.
Many of My people in their hearts have sold
their suffering Palestinian brothers and sisters,
trading them for the hope of being rewarded
for unconditionally ‘standing with Israel.’
Although many in the church abroad
have forsaken My Palestinian bride,
yet I have not abandoned her,
and I have raised up a remnant of My people
to pray for her and support her.
Though she has not been loved
by many of her family—My people—
she shall be honored and called ‘My beloved’.”
*****
Art: “Forsaken By Family”
Ramone Romero
8thDay4Life 
May the Church abroad stand with her Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, at least as much as she had tried to “stand with Israel”,
May their prayers become as many and their sound become as vocal in support as those who “stand with Israel”,
May the Palestinian church become more than an “and also pray for” footnote on the Pray For Israel agenda,
May the voice of the Palestinian Church be as welcome in evangelical churches as the voice of Benjamin Netanyahu,
May the faith of the Palestinian church (which the gates of Hades has not overcome in almost 2000 years) elicit as many hallelujahs among evangelicals as pictures of praying or dancing Israeli soldiers,
May Palestinian expats living in America never have to worry again about sharing where they are from or what they believe when sitting in an evangelical church,
May Palestinian Christians’ prayers and writings for peace be published and circulated among evangelicals as widely as the volumes of books about supporting Israel,
May Facebook pages like Come & See and the Tent of Nations receive as many “likes” as Christian pages supporting Israel,
May Christian sites and Bible reference tools online make banners and advertisements for resources to support and protect Palestinian Christians just as much as they do for supporting and protecting Israel,
May conferences be organized, T-shirts and bumper-stickers be printed saying “I stand with Christ and His Church in Palestine and Israel”,
May names like Yohanna Katanacho and Sami Awad be as well-known and their teaching as listened to as names like John Hagee,
May the ways of Palestinian Christians like Musalaha and Daoud Nassar be as esteemed as “the way to pray for the peace of Jerusalem” as the multitude of preachers preaching “stand with Israel” from their pulpits,
May a prayer for Palestinian Christians be spoken for every Star of David waved in evangelical churches,
May as many prayer nights and meetings be organized and attended in churches to pray for Palestinian Christians as there are to pray for Israel,
May the plight of Palestinian Christians be as studied and known in evangelical churches as prophecy theories about Israel,
May as many Christians organize to help Palestinian refugees return home as they do to encourage Jewish people to move to Israel,
May as many Christians that hail the creation of the state of Israel as being the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies & promises also hail the two millennia-long survival of the Church in Palestine as the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy and promise in the New Testament that Hades would never overcome His Church,
May as many funds as are donated to Israel by evangelicals be matched by donations to the Palestinian Church,
May as many Christians that visit Israel as tourists also visit their Palestinian brothers and sisters to encourage them…
…and more.
I realize, after reading this post and some earlier ones, that there are many interconnected issues we face with the ongoing crises in the Middle East. Such as, are we to support the nation of Israel, what are our views on war in general, which reports do we believe, and many other issues. But what this post addresses is something that 8th day’s son recently addressed in a very simple but profound way.
That as Christians, we don’t hate, but love. We don’t curse, but bless. Our hopes are only in a City with Foundations, rather than earthly cities, regardless of our positions on various political issues in differing nations. This never changes with circumstances regardless of our views on these issues..
A blog I follow never fails to mention the need to love and pray for the Palestinian people (not only the Christians there) as well as for the Jewish people. This person regularly meets and prays with them all, although he is from an orthodox Jewish family who converted to Christianity.. And 8thday has made me aware of this need for years. My reading has broadened, and, hopefully my prayer life glorifies God.
As is always the case when I read him, Ramone has vividly shown us examples of the failure to follow Christ’s teachings within the church. The particular issue here is the great preponderance of support for one group over another within the evangelical movement. Even to the point of hatred for those members of the Body who are being persecuted just because of their ethnicity, and are in great need of the prayers of the Church.
Discussions about the settlements, occupation, the roots of the hatred within the area, and various media reports are not issues without varying sides to the story. In my opinion, they should be discussed apart from the issue in this post, if one is led in that direction (as 8thday has separated them). But our privilege as believers is to love and pray for all.
So enlightening a post. Thank you as always, Ramone and 8thday.
Thank you Jan! I wish the separation existed completely in the Church.
Praying… Jesus Yeshua you are the Prince of Peace. Only you can bring true peace. Strengthen our brothers and sisters in Palestine and Israel. May they be peacemakers, shining your light wherever they are. Forgive us for forgetting them.
Amen!
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Munya, I sent an email with instructions. WordPress does not allow me to unsubscribe users or I would help you out. Sorry!
This is a wonderful and powerful post. Christian Zionism and distorted views of Christian relationships with the modern state of Israel are causing a great deal of pain in Palestine – Gaza and the West Bank.