Monthly Archives: October 2011

Oct 26 2011

Albert Einstein on Jesus

Albert Einstein was offered the job of being first prime minister of Israel, a lot of people thought he was an atheist although from Jewish background, thought this was a fascinating glimpse of something he said though!

(saw this on a blog called DailyMinyan – hope you don’t mind me quoting it :o)
Interviewer: To what extent are you influenced by [the teachings of Jesus]?
Einstein: As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.
Interviewer: You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
Einstein: Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus.
Interviewer:  Ludwig Lewisohn, in one of his recent books, claims that many of the sayings of Jesus paraphrase the sayings of other prophets.
Einstein: No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as he.
(From interview with G.S. Viereck)

Oct 22 2011

Volcanoes may threaten UK and Europe?

Saw this last week, this seems worrying.

There are active volcanoes in Iceland bigger than the one that went off at the beginning of 2010 which paralyzed Europe’s air traffic, this below article says there is signs of activity:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/icelands-scientists-say-activity-at-katla-volcano-increasing-next-eruption-could-be-huge/2011/10/13/gIQAbt7rgL_story.html?wprss=rss_world

I have been interested in volcanoes since a child, and I visited Iceland in 2005, a country formed by friction between North American and European plates of the earth’s crust.

Read this Wiki article on Katla – from this article; “Following the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruptions, on 20 April 2010 Icelandic President Ólafur Grímsson said “the time for Katla to erupt is coming close … we have prepared … it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption”.

Historically, Katla fires off every 40-80 years, but hasn’t done so since 1918.

This other live volcano called Laki is more serious.

It has killed 23,000 people in the UK, and possibly SIX MILLION in total in 1783-84!  Given the destructive potential of a volcano, not just from lava flowing and melting a town but also poisonous sulphuric gases causing death to humans and livestock and ultimately a famine.

If you are interested in geology and its potential risks to urban areas, Google Earth is a good tool to study patterns of volcanos around the world, and the tectonic plates that seperate continents, you can use the tick boxes to turn on places with volcanic activity.


Back here in Biblical lands, there is a huge live one close by in Syria, and its called Es-Safa.

In contrast, part of the Golan Heights in between Israel and Syria, is also volcanic, its exact state unknown but probably not erupted in several thousand years.  There is one more probably live one near the Turkish border which doesn’t have a name.   This makes me think Syria doesn’t have very many geologists I reckon! 🙂

(Click above to take you directly into Google Maps)

Es-Safa looks quite significant by its obvious brown crater visible from space though!

By some measuring I have done here, Damascus is less than 100km from this vast looking dark hole, the bible says Damascus will be destroyed one day (heap of ruins Isaiah 17 : 1-3) so maybe it won’t be by war!

To me its phenomenonal to think the most destructive forces in the world are not always man made like nuclear bombs but something natural hidden under the ground, having said that, when I was in Iceland, I got to hear an amazing story about the lava from a volcano stopped dead in front of the gates of a church as the congregation inside prayed to Jesus for safety.   You can see evidence of this there today.

Possible references to volcanoes in the bible:- Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:23; Judges 5:5; Psalms 97:5; 104:32; 144:5; Isaiah 34:9,10; 64:1-3; Jeremiah 51:25; Micah 1:4; Nahum 1:5,6

Oct 19 2011

Double celebrations! Sukkot in Jerusalem and Gilad Schalit’s release

During Sukkot, there is a march through the city each year, usually people from different government organisations like the army, the Magon David ambulance, El-Al airlines etc as well as groups of Christians from all over the world with flags from their respective countries.

The event was just over as I took this stretched picture, but people were sitting on hotel balconies and out in the street with armed guards and buses parked sideways in the roads as make shift barricades.

I heard on the news about the real possibility of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit and thought I would believe it when I see it, knowing that terrorist organisations should be not be trusted with any kind of deal.   It amazes me to think that a swap of 1,000 Palestinian terrorists for one soldier has not been condemned as wrong or immoral by the UN, Red Cross, any moderate Islamic organisations or indeed any nation at all.   A large number of these Palestinians were jailed for suicide bombings and other appalling tragedies.   Nevertheless this shows the people of Israel’s value of human life, I think Yeshua’s story about the lost sheep is quite relevant here: Luke 15 : 3-7

I had to run some errands for some people at work which involved taking a 8 mile or so ride in a car to drop off some food for a staff meeting.  On the way was a helicopter close to a main road that had either just landed or about take off next to a police station. Quite possibly part of the process of releasing the prisoners.

I have been praying for Gilad and written some updates here as I used to pass tents campaigning for his release every day.

https://britinjerusalem.com/2009/10/02/succot-and-gilat-shalit-video/

https://britinjerusalem.com/2010/08/18/kidnapped-gilad-shalit-4-years-on 

Later on I went to a convenience store to get something for lunch to see a 5 second video of Gilad drinking a bottle of water next to a helicopter and smiling, so this was proof Gilad was coming home and so desperately what the people of this nation wanted to see, although there was understandable anguish from families who had lost loved ones to terrorism.

If you see the tall overhead traffic light in the above picture, if you turn right, this heads down Berlin Street, just a few yards down there is the Gilad Schalit tent which I have visited before.   This place is a kind of protest structure and shrine to this young man locked up for 5 years.

Outside this spot, there isn’t as many people as I thought, but the atmosphere is still buzzing!!

Here, I got to watch the TV on a projector as they showed Gilad in a car been taken to his parents house in the upper Galilee, there is a emotional sense of satisfaction as it shows the front door of his family’s home shut giving him some much needed privacy and he looked clearly pale and disoriented when on the TV.

This was a really good to be in this city when this history making event happened.

I think we need thanks for our loving Father in heaven that has been a happy ending to this ordeal, and I hope everyone in Israel and overseas who has been watching this does too.

Part of the quirky nature of Jerusalem means I often see friends, Christian, Jewish and Arab, natives, immigrants and foreigners accidentally in different parts of the city, I hope to one day see Gilad here and shake his hand when hes in a fit state to get around. 🙂   I expect hes going to want to know what a Facebook is and amazed at the amount of publicity there has been to get him free.

A few days ago, a friend from my church pointed out some interesting scripture about Sukkot and foreign Christians gentiles visiting…  more soon!

Oct 15 2011

Feast of Tabernacles 2011 event by ICEJ

This week I went to the opening night of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s Feast of Tabernacles, at a large hotel in the north part of Jerusalem.

I know many of the volunteers that are involved and this is the week they have been getting ready for all year, and probably the most significant event the Christian visitors to the holy land come for.

Sterling effort as usual, some great worship music.

It was also interesting to check out the conference room outside with various different Christian ministries and people from tourism offices promoting places like Nazareth and Beer Sheva as well.

Would of been nice to check out the rest of the event, but it is quite expensive to attend, but quite a bit cheaper for local Israelis or Christians with volunteer visas.

Oct 14 2011

September back in UK and back in time for Rosh Hashana

I mentioned that I took some time back in the UK to see family, this was good to have a break, as I had been particular busy at work, and have new servers and network equipment to install quite soon, some of this will mean some weekend work maybe.   I hadn’t been back home since January so this was a good chance to relax for a bit.

Back in the UK, I decided to take a trip to London on a National Express coach to attend a prayer and demonstration outside of the House of Commons buildings in London, to stop Israel from being divided, and the very real threat of violence and war as a result of this.

There was about 300 people outside here, some of the banners were also in Hebrew as there were a few Messianic Jews and Hebrew speaking Christians there.   This was organised by Christian Middle East Watch, a ministry I haven’t heard of before, but was impressed at what the had to say.   The only thing that worries me, is that most British Christians that support Israel tend to be over retirement age, I wish there was more of all ages of people involved, for people praying, promoting and visiting Israel into the future.

Back in Portsmouth, I got a chance to have a decent roast dinner and beer for £6.50 (wow bargain!) with friends from church for lunch at a new Wetherspoons pub.   I also got to go blackberry picking with my family including my 1 year old niece by some bushes next to a golf course.   It was a bit of a shame I only got to see a fraction of the friends I wanted to see in the two weeks though.

I took a train to Wales to visit the UK office of the charity I work for, to roll out some necessary new equipment and antivirus software.  I didn’t manage to get everything done, but I have remote software to do some updates, the 2 hour time zone difference gives me an advantage that I can make some changes without disturbing the users from working.  Working at this site isn’t part of my official responsibility but I really wanted to do some preventative maintenance to ensure they are less likely to hit problems in the future.

Got to watch a brief bit of TV in Wales at our UK director’s house of the UN conference with Benjamin Netanyahu speaking, which he did brilliantly, with difficult decisions ahead with more determined plans for a Palestinian state being presented.

Slightly humourous moment on the plane back to Israel, I was flying on a Saturday so there weren’t any religious Israelis on the plane, but when using the toilet on the plane, someone had eaten some bacon flavoured crisps and left the empty packet behind on the floor!

Now back in Israel again, just at the right time before Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), so I got only work half a week, and spend 2 1/2 days relaxing, actually had to 3 hours of important work from home due a server that broke just before leaving.  Its funny when celebrating the New Year (5772)  people aren’t actually waiting for a special change of a clock or anything like that, just good food and company of friends.

I am also fixing two other volunteer’s laptops, setting up a wireless router in a neighbour’s home which the current one won’t work with the HOT supplied cable modem for some reason, enjoying church, friend’s birthday evening out at a waffle restaurant today.

Oct 9 2011

Tunnel bike ride on Yom Kippur

The 8th of October is Yom Kippur or day of atonement, one of the most significant events in the Jewish calender, its a holiday where everything shuts down completely, people fast, stay at home and huge numbers of people visit the Kotel (Western Wall)

Me and some friends decided to do some spontaneous craziness, there is a big tunnel that passes under the front of the Jaffa gate, its part of a big dual carriage highway that acts as a important traffic artery that winds its way hidden under the famous gate so not to spoil the historical look of the old city.   This road is very busy, and there is only one day where its empty…

I am riding up with my friend Yossi who lives quite near me, bizarrely all the traffic lights around Jerusalem are permanently flashing amber.

Heading towards the tunnel, oh wait, drat – its shut!!  Bah.

Waiting for the other guys to show up, one of them was still in bed!   Slackers. 🙂

 

Ok, we are all set….

The tunnel is shut – as in there is a barrier over one side of the ride to stop cars going in, easy to dodge this on a bike though 🙂

One of my other friends got some videos of this, maybe try and put this on Youtube later…

Ok, this is one way back, the road is a steep, not that obvious, but you give up riding 1/3 of the way back!

Stopping for ice cream at German Monastery in Old City.

Some general randomness and goofing off all around the city, including going up some steps reveals some bike-friendly and a skateboarder’s paradise of slopes and interesting corners to ride around….

 

Certain bits of the old city gives you hidden rooftop views of the markets below..

After this epic ride around a few of us went to the Kotel (Western Wall) and got some pizza.   Good day I think with my Christian, Jewish and Arab buddies. 🙂

Oct 6 2011

Sukkah tent shows pathway into Jerusalem Jesus plans to take

Last week, I was out and about at the Shuk (open air market) and notice some people have the tents already up for Sukkot, this was a few weeks early, I suppose just like us folks in Britain complain the shops display Christmas stuff in late September.

There was something different about this tent though;

I really like the illustrations of Jerusalem from long ago on this Sukkah, its beautifully done.   The shapes of these buildings in the old city are easily recognisable from the ones from today, just there is a busy main road where people are taking camels through.

The Golden Gate!

This side is quite exciting, as this shows this special gate which visited twice before (see here) as its where the scriptures tell us our Lord Jesus will return via this side of the city.   Only thing is if you look at my previous blog article you will see the distinctive double archway entrance is blocked up and has an Arab cemetery in front of it, trees, thorny bushes and railings stopping anyone from making a path to there.   Actually these specifically placed obstacles aren’t going to stop our Lord and King from his return, which is probably soon!

Wonder if anyone could mention who did these nice illustrations.

Oct 1 2011

Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faces execution

I was sad to hear about a young pastor called Youcef Nadarkhani about the same age as me who is facing death in his home country of Iran for apostasy.

Apostacy in crazy Islamo-fascist states like Iran, is defined as leaving Islam because its not your cup of tea, not through insulting Mohammed or the Koran.  In this case though, its because some Persian people would rather seeking the love of Jesus than their state enforced religion.

Heck, Iranian people can’t even write blogs as they can be traced via their internet providers.   Executions of Christians is a depressing reality that happens quite often, especially in Iran, China, Indonesia and even Turkey.

Iran has the largest number of Muslims coming to Christ.   Some of the time this down to missionaries in the most hostile place in the world, and sometimes its down to dreams and visions (Joel 2 : 28)  and without any human intervention, entirely down to the holy spirit.

I really think western nations and the UN should get more vocal about this and put pressure on Iran to set this man free.

After the recent Ahmadinajad’s crazy outburst at the UN, should be a huge embarrassment for all decent people who work for Iran’s government, if there are any.   I wonder what rules the UN have for this kind of outburst and if they have ever asked anyone to leave.

In the mean time, please do pray for this man and contact the UK Iranian embassy and tell them what you think on info@iran-embassy.org.uk or 0207 225 3000.