Most of us are familiar with the story of Jesus reading from Isaiah’s scroll while in the synagogue in Nazareth. Luke records it this way:
16“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:16-19
Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2. He actually stopped just short of the phrase “and the day of vengeance of our God…” That last phrase actually coincides with what we find two chapters later in Isaiah 63:4:
The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.
I was reading a devotional this morning from about ten years ago and the author touched on the subject of God’s agenda. I have included a short portion of it below:
“The Messiah has a dual agenda: vengeance and redemption. The first time He came, it was all about redemption. The second time, it will be all about righting wrongs and judging wrongdoers. We can be grateful that the redemptive work came first; otherwise, we’d all fall under His righteous sword. But God mercifully sent our Savior long before judgment, and He has given us at least a couple of millennia to reap a harvest of salvation. Though the day of vengeance and the year of redemption are both on His heart, the year of redemption came first and lasts longer. The day of vengeance is just a matter of cleaning up the rebels’ mess.” (Walk Through Ministries, 2015)
We are quickly approaching 2,000 years from when Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended back to the right hand of the Father. God’s agenda for the Church Age has been for the Gospel to be presented around the entire globe. The limited time allowed for the god of this world over Planet Earth and its inhabitants is almost at its end. Then God’s agenda changes from redemption to vengeance. Psalm 2 tells us that mankind’s rage and rebellion against God and His Anointed One will utterly fail and be judged during the seven years of the “Great and Terrible Day of the LORD.” This seven-year period of time appears to be framed between two massive world wars which will be bookends of this catastrophic period of time. The first is the Gog – Magog War detailed in Ezekiel 38-39; the Great Tribulation concludes with the greatest of all earth’s wars, The Battle of Armageddon. As I write today’s update, our world is hurtling toward the first of these wars which may prove to be World War 3 — indicating the time of God’s vengeance is at the door.
The vast numbers of people around the world who are coming to Christ today — particularly in the third world, is one of the indications that we are running out of time. In the 13 years I have written updates for the House of Blessing, I have never seen as many people brought to a faith in Jesus as in the last six months, and the numbers seem to be increasing week by week. Some of the stories shared are of large numbers of people witnessing supernatural miracles, causing them to bow the knee to Christ. Others are brutal encounters in which it seems nothing good was accomplished. Afterward, however, there are events in which many people are reached — even after someone has paid the ultimate price by dying for their faith in Jesus.
I received a report from Abdelrahem a few days ago that told the story of a sheikh named Abu Lafi. He happened to be friends of Sheikhs Ballout, Shaheen, and Hab Romman in Latakia. Abu Lafi was a man with a reputation of being a powerful and influential sheikh. He had planned on accompanying a group of Hajj pilgrims that were traveling to Mecca but his plans were interrupted weeks before the actual departure time. Readers may recognize the similarity of some of the details of his experience with the account of another sheikh in a previous update. Here is Abu Lafi’s story.
About two months ago, Abu Lafi began to have visitations during the night hours by a man who came to teach him the Bible. As he was being taught night after night, he found himself memorizing the Scriptures in his sleep. About three weeks ago he had a special night vision in which the sky split open before him. As he watched, he saw a man with a very bright countenance appear before him. He gave Abu Lafi instruction not to go on the Hajj but rather go with his friends to a mosque located in the Tartous Governorate (Syria). He did so, and when he had his chance to speak, he gave testimony to his recent experiences and confessed to them that he was now a firm believer and follower of Jesus Christ. He told them that eternal Truth could only be found in the Bible, and in no other holy book. He also told them that there was no other sacrifice of any value excepting the sacrifice provided by Messiah Jesus on the cross. There was no other sacrifice that could atone for mankind’s sins. This meant there was no value to the sacrifices performed during the pilgrimage to Mecca. He emphasized that people needed to wake up to the Truth NOW, before the imminent return of Jesus to earth as the eternal God-King. There were about 400 people in this gathering and what Abu Lafi said caused such anger with some in the crowd that they, in a rage, threw boiling water in his face and then ran him out of his village. Even his wife and children turned against him. He was thrown out with nothing but what he was wearing.
At this point, Abu Lafi left for Latakia to look for his friends who had also become followers of Jesus. When he located Ballout, Shaheen, and Hab Romman, he told them his story. After hearing him out, they tested his knowledge of the Scriptures and he was able to prove to them that what he had told them really was true. He had, in fact, memorized the entire Scriptures in the past weeks. From the time that he had been trained in the Scriptures until the day before he was supposed to have left on the Hajj, he had prayed earnestly concerning what God’s plan for him is. It will be interesting what God does with this man. Such a gift from God will not go to waste!
I received another report of an event involving Omar, Al-Shomri, and Bayan. As I understand the details of the story, Omar, along with the other two men, was ministering to a large group of people, teaching them about the true identity of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice He made on the cross, and about His imminent return. They were challenged by a couple sheikhs named Zahi and Burhan. “We want to see what your Lord, the Lord of your Gospel, will do.” Omar responded to their challenge with a request of his own. “Bring me 10 kg of flour (about 22 pounds), a little cooking oil, and 500 ml of water.” Omar then prayed with Al-Shomri and Bayan before asking the sisters to make dough for them. After the dough was prepared, they baked it and over 700 people were fed to satisfaction. After Sheikhs Zahi and Burhan saw the obvious miracle that happened right before their eyes and the eyes of all those gathered, they could not help themselves but knelt before Jesus and committed their lives to His Lordship!
Many of those who had gathered had heard of Al-Sahtouri and the way that he and his wife and sons had been tortured and executed because of their faith in Jesus and refusal to give up their bible. (See the previous Mideast Update). It seems, due to the fact that he had been so well-known for his kindness even while still a Muslim sheikh, and now because of his defense of the Gospel, his story has spread into many regions. Even HOB’s Murtada and Shahbandar and their wives, who had been expelled out of southwest Iran, had heard of Al-Sahtouri’s story. (Some long-time readers will likely remember the names of these men but I had not heard any news from them since before Pastor Rashid passed away. They are now located in Basra, Iraq where Omar had been challenged by the two sheikhs). There are quite a number of other believers who were expelled from Iran and also from among the Kurds. Some of the sisters’ names are: Zahra, Sarah, Roya, Dunya, Jourie, Sidqi, and Latifa. Some of the brothers’ names are: Arafat, Irfan, Azin, Zaid, and Dawoud. Some of the leaders’ names are Bahram, Ali, Dad, and Fardat. All of them had heard about Al-Sahtoruri. The death of Al-Sahtouri and his family is causing a great many Muslim people to question what was of such great importance that he would sacrifice his life and that of his family to protect it. Many are now coming to faith in Jesus because of his story. Praise God! The Bible says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His servants. Al-Sahtouri had only been a believer and follower of Jesus for about two weeks!
Note: The reason that I mention so many of these names is because it is easy for us in another part of the world to see them merely as members of another missionary group. They are, however, real people with real names, and they are our brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we will share eternity.
I received another report from Omar on June 8. He said that he, Al-Shomri, Bayan, Bahlol, Murtada, Shahbander, Zahi, and Burhan were asked to come to the province of An-Nasiriyah (on the Euphrates river approximately 100 miles north of Basra in southern Iraq). The two sheikhs who asked them to come were Sheikhs Lutfi and Azayzah. They all met with a large group of pilgrims, headed up by a man named Shalabi, who were just returning from their pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. As they were gathered, a big discussion began about religion. This discussion happened in front of about 950 people who had gathered. Among the group of returning pilgrims were ten elderly people who were obviously suffering badly. Omar asked the group, “Did you go to Mecca and perform the Hajj pilgrimage? Did you heal them? They answered, “Yes we went on the Hajj, but no, our sick ones were not healed.”
Omar and the brothers then approached the ten sick people and prayed for them. Before the eyes of all 950 present, every single person was healed! The healings were so obvious that it caused quite a stir among the crowd and soon they began to respond to the message of the Gospel. Many of them verbally bemoaned the fact that they had gone on the pilgrimage and now saw that it had been a total waste.
As we think about the details of the tremendous miracles in the past months, one would think everyone would recognize the Source of the miracles and bow their knee to Jesus. But, this is not the case. There are many enemies who will do anything possible to discredit the miracles and the Source. But, at the same time, the Holy Spirit continues to empower His servants. The leaders / elders are memorizing large portions of the Scriptures and are being given the ability and anointing to share the Gospel as if they have been doing it for 50 years. God is good!
As I was about to conclude this update, I received word through Al-Kilani that a group of HOB missionaries, men and women, were attacked near the village of Al-Mastouma by a religious extremist named Abu Diab and those with him. They were all assaulted, with the women being raped multiple times, and the men thrown into the waste and sewage system because they refused to deny Christ. Abdelrahem reports that the women are in a terrible state, but are being cared for by Ferial and Hafiza near HOB’s site in Aleppo. Thankfully, the men thrown into the sewage system did not die. All of those that were assaulted are being brought to where Abdulrahem is by Kilani.
Abdelrahem said that there is a great effort now being made to silence the Word of Truth found in the Gospel, but it will fail. God’s Word cannot be silenced, nor can it be stopped. All the sheikhs are being cautioned to use extra caution in their movements because as the time of our exodus from this world comes nearer, the more desperate the god of this world will be to stop the message.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. The House of Blessing counts on the prayers of God’s people, and it is a great blessing when they are able to print more Bibles. In the last few days, 500 Bibles were distributed to the HOB leadership in Mosul, another 500 to the leaders in Erbil, 500 Bibles to the leadership in Basra, and 500 to the community that Al-Sahtouri was from. The need, however, continues to be great for more Bibles to distribute as well as teaching booklets for the thousands of Bible students. Contact through either of the email addresses below if you desire to help. Thank you all.
Forever in His Service,
Jake (aka Jack)