Volume 6 Issue 27

Give you rest!

I separated myself and went  to a place for solitude and prayer for a few days.  In the room there was a nice broom. One day I casually put it outside. Next day while I was walking on the terrace, a crow sat on  the pillar holding something in its beak. When I watched it looked like  a leaf from my nice broom. Immediately my mind told me to go and check. I did and verified. I got angry with the crow. When I came back it was looking at me victoriously bending its head to one side. Before I could chase it, it flew away. It went to the other garden and sat there. There was anger in me towards that crow. If it were some person, I would have poured it out on that person. How to show it to the crow?.

Immediately my mind cautioned me for a defensive act,  “go and keep the broom inside”. I did it. Even though the crow disturbed my walk with God that morning,  it was a good lesson.  As long as I live on this earth, I have to use defensive measures for survival. To a new born child, the parents, nature, teachers, society and all the circumstances  teach how to defend yourself for a survival on this earth, sometimes even at the detriment of offending others. One has to defend one’s body from climatic conditions, attack from animals, insects, poison, sicknesses etc. one’s soul from compulsive thoughts,  compulsive feelings, compulsive emotions, compulsive behaviour etc. One’s  spirit from sin.  Then  my house,  my property etc. Lifelong you struggle for survival.

If you are a little careless these days, your wife will be stolen away by another man. One has to continuously watch the behaviour of the partner. If any traces of unusual behaviour  is identified, you will have to check the mobile sms, whatsapp messages etc. That also should be done in secret. The burden increases. If it is verified, and found true, the stress you undergo need not be explained. Then proving it, taking action, deciding the future of the children , all become great struggles.

 When children are growing up, your girl child should be watched over. There are all chances that she is stolen away at adolescent age by  another boy.  What all to be watched over? How can I be on constant vigilance of all these? What a  struggle to survive  on this earth! It has become a constant    fight against enemies. The whole world lives in enmity. This is the sum result of the sin of Adam.

When everything was pleasant and favourable, he disobeyed the Lord and obeyed the voice of the enemy. So the whole earth turned against Him.

“…….You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life”. Human life itself became a struggle on the earth. The one who was to rule over the earth became a slave to everything on the earth.

What does  the coming of Jesus into this world mean in this context?

Those who believe in Jesus, those who love Jesus  can put an end to this struggle and come to total rest. Rest and peace is the first  gift Jesus gave  to those who love Him.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Mat 11:28

When you make a covenant with Jesus to obey His commandments, Jesus and His Father, the Lord Almighty come into your life and they take over. Immanuel, “God with us” is fulfilled in you. God Himself dispenses into them, Father  being embodied in the  Son and the Son being realized in the Spirit. They control your life and you will be perfectly at ease and in peace.

With 'Peace' In Doubt, Israelis Search For Alternatives To Two-State Solution

The U.S. administration's negotiating team of Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner left the Middle East last week after gauging interest in a new U.S.-backed peace plan to the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict with top government officials in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

Notably absent from the schedule were officials from the Palestinian Authority, who continue to boycott the administration following the announcement by President Donald Trump last December that the United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The current peace plan (details have not yet been made public) is believed to be based on many of the principles established during the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were intended to lead towards the creation of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Yet it is the same Trump administration that has publicly challenged the merits of decades of U.S. policy calling specifically for a two-state solution.

During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February of last year, Trump had said, "I am looking at two-state, and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.

"I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two," said he continued. "But honestly, if Bibi, and if the Palestinians, if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I'm happy with the one they like the best."

David M. Weinberg, founding vice president at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies (JISS), tells JNS that when it comes to moving forward on peace between Israelis and Palestinians now 25 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords, "the old Clinton/Obama parameters are dead."

A study released in June by the American Jewish Committee  indicates that 48 percent of Israelis currently oppose the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state, with only 44 percent in favor.

Similarly, a joint poll released in January by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, shows that only 47 percent of Jews and 46 percent of Palestinians support a two-state solution.

Weinberg suggests that "Trump should be given credit for taking a fresh look at what is safe, wise, fair and realistic in today's Israeli-Palestinian reality." He similarly expresses his view that any new proposal "will do away with the hackneyed prescriptions of the past and shift the debate towards pragmatic solutions in which all regional parties shoulder responsibility for a settlement."

Calls for full Israeli sovereignty

Yet for some in Israel, pushes for partial annexations are simply variations on the current two-state paradigm. At the forefront of this movement are activists Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover, who co-founded the "Sovereignty Movement."

Parliamentary initiatives

In December, 1,500 members of the ruling Likud Party's Central Committee unanimously passed a nonbinding party resolution to effectively annex all Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.

- PNW Staff