Gary Carpenter Ministries
Monthly Partner Letter

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Dear Partner,

Anti-Semitism is rising all over the world. Merriam Webster's dictionary gives the following definition of the word:

Anti-Semitism: hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.

Even in the USA, the current administration's relationship with Israel is the "coldest" it has been in many decades. Through the centuries there have been waves of this prejudice that has risen and fallen over time. We seem to be in a time of increasing Anti-Semitism in our generation. Yet the apostle Paul had a love for the Jews that surpassed all bounds of natural, human love. Hear what he says in his letter to the believers in Rome:

Rom 9:1-3   I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (2) That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (3) For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Paul is saying that not only does his own conscience bear witness to the fact he is telling the truth, but even God the Holy Ghost (who searches every man's heart) is bearing witness that Paul is telling the truth. Then Paul says he could wish that he himself might be accursed from Christ if that somehow would mean his brethren, his kinsmen according the flesh (the Jews), could be saved. What does it mean to be accursed from Christ? Eternal damnation because Jesus Himself said that no man could come to the Father except by Him.

Paul's conscience and the Holy Ghost are both bearing witness that Paul would be willing to suffer eternal damnation in hell if that would somehow mean the Jews would be saved. Talk about loving the Jews. The apostle Paul was far more developed in the love of God than I currently am. I love my family. I love the people at my church. I love many friends. But I have to be honest . . . I don't love ANYBODY enough to suffer in hell forever for them. But Paul did. Where did Paul get such supernatural love? There is no doubt he had to get it from the source of love. That source is God. God doesn't just "have" love. God "is" love!

1Jn 4:16   And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Paul had spent so much time in fellowship with the Father through the avenues of worship, prayer, and the Word that the very love of God for the Jews had been transferred from the heart of God into the heart of Paul. I find it amazing that as Anti-Semitism is rising in the world (even in parts of the Christian world), the truth is that God LOVES the Jews with an undying, unfailing, eternal love.

I am finding that even though I don't yet have the same love within me that Paul had within him, there has been enough of the transfer of the love of God into my own heart that I have an amazing love for the Jews. I find myself often saying out loud during my prayer times, "I pray for the peace of Jerusalem." I was doing that for a long time before I discovered that there is a specific promise for those who will love Jerusalem and pray for its peace:

Psa 122:6   Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Paul's heart desired that every single child born of the lineage of Abraham would be saved.

Rom 10:1   Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved

That is the heart of God also. As Anti-Semitism rises in the world, let us take the opposite path and remind ourselves to pray and make intercession for every single descendent of Abraham to receive the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior. Paul declares to all of his Jewish brethren that he himself is an example of a saved Jew. He was born a Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin, yet he was saved through faith in Jesus Christ. They can all be saved the same way.

Sue and I love you and appreciate you.   We thank God for your generous and giving heart.   God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

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