Shabbat shalom friends!  In Jewish tradition, days begin at sunset, and Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is known as shabbat (sabbath).  Thus, throughout Israel you will hear, “Shabbat shalom” throughout the day of shabbat.

Yesterday we were Compelled to Pray for God’s Chosen People, and we continue that focus today, but with a bit of a twist.  We have looked to Anne Graham Lotz’s 911: An Urgent Call to Pray for Jerusalem as a guide for our prayers, but it seems she is not the only Graham calling us to consider the signs of the times.  Her brother, Franklin, in an interview with CNS News stated:

As I read the news, I can’t help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue His church and God pours out His wrath on the world for the rejection of His Son.

(I recommend reading the entire article.)

Anne and Franklin are children of world-renown evangelist, Billy Graham, and they have carried their father’s passion for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Yet, in doing so, the Lord has obviously led them both to sound the alarm that the time of salvation is at hand.  Jesus Christ is returning and we must be ready.  From the very birth of the church, salvation and end times have been inextricably linked.  In Acts 1, Jesus’s first-century followers asked Him if that was the time He would restore the kingdom to Israel, to which Jesus responded:

“It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The same Holy Spirit who has come upon us is the One who compels us to be witnesses to Jesus Christ.  We are to be witnesses first in Jerusalem, but also Judea and Samaria (inside the borders of Israel, though mostly occupied by Palestinians)!  Fellow believers, let’s pray for the eyes and ears of all those in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to be opened to the gospel; and let’s pray that every remote part of the earth will hear the gospel and respond to it.

Friends, those are prayers for the last days, as Jesus said He will restore the kingdom to Israel at that time!  I am compelled to pray for that day, aren’t you?  Indeed, Jesus is the Blessed Hope in whose appearing we anxiously await!  Let’s pray to that end!