Ready for a challenge, my friends?  I hope so!

This week we have seen a series of videos regarding the Iran nuclear deal, we had a chance to examine the actual text of the agreement, we have examined the “spin” put on it in Obama’s attempt to convince us it is a good deal and we heard Benjamin Netanyahu tell us why it is a bad deal.  I agree…it is a very bad deal.

In the 1930’s, the world stayed silent while Hitler’s Nazi regime planned, then carried out “The Final Solution” to rid the world of Jews.  Today, the ayatollah’s Iranian regime is planning to carry out the extermination not only of Jews, but ultimately Americans as well!  So, for those of us who adhere to the Biblical command to bless Israel, pray for her, and support her, what do we do?  Well, on Wednesday we asked, Will the World Speak Up This Time?  Today, let’s respond with, “I will speak up!”

There are lots of ways to “speak up”:

• Call, email or write your Congressmen and tell them not to approve this deal!  Don’t know who your Congressmen are, or how to reach them?  Find out here.  It doesn’t have to be long or complicated.  Just tell them you are against the deal!
• Engage in conversation with others.  Again, you don’t have to know it all…none of us do!  Just share what you know!  As Christians we need to know the issues, and we need to sound the alarm!  We also need to vote our values…and encourage others to know the key issues and vote their values.  Use Facebook, blogs, and yes…even real, live conversation!
• Speak upwards!  Yes, perhaps most importantly, pray!  1 Chronicles 12:32 provides a fantastic principle for us all: “[sons of Issachar]…men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…”  Pray particularly for Israel’s leaders to “understand the times” and for God to grant infinite “knowledge of what Israel should do.”  But, pray the same for our nation’s leaders as well.  After all, how can we (as a nation) bless Israel if we fail to understand the times and know what Israel should do?

Day-by-day I feel more-and-more burdened to be a faithful watchman on the wall.  Perhaps we’re not all “called” to be so, but I suspect many of us are.  May I encourage you to read and contemplate Ezekiel 33:1-6?  I’ll close with it today, and my prayer is that others of you will join me in being faithful watchmen (or women!)  Let’s blow the trumpet!

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’

Blessings!