Defending Israel

Where are all the supporters of Israel today? I know it's Memorial day here in the USA but still I must ask, where are all those people who claim that they support Israel?
Perhaps it's because it's a holiday weekend here that you are not even aware of what has happened over there, if that is the case then I will take a moment to explain.
On Sunday, The IDF intercepted ships that were bound for Gaza , supposedly with relief supplies for the people of Gaza, and loaded with pro-Palestinian supporters. The incident apparently got ugly.

From what I understand, the IDF told the ships that they needed to go to the port of Ashdod and that there the supplies of humanitarian aid would be inspected and then sent overland to the Gaza strip. They refused to comply. In fact their wording was not just no, but F!#@ you! From there they were boarded and the IDF was attacked and quite appropriately defended themselves. The number of casualties seem to vary from news agency to news agency but either way this is madness that could have been avoided had the people on those ships obeyed the laws. They were warned that Gaza is a war zone and that as such they could not go any further, but they continued on and provoked what is turning out to be an international incident. You will note that I have no sympathy for the people on those ships. They had no right or business being there and Israel gave them a chance to do it the right way, but they refused. I personally believe that this had nothing to do with getting aid to Gaza, I believe that it was a well orchestrated event by Israels enemies for the sole purpose of trying to isolate Israel and drum up more support for Palestinian thugs.
I did hear one Palestinian woman, who spoke up for Israel, say to protesters in Ashdod, something to the effect that she is Palestinian but that she is an Israeli citizen and that this land has always been Israel, sorry I didn't get it exactly right, but it seems that that one woman has it figured out. She got blasted by others that were there but she stood her ground.
So again the question; Where are the supporters of Israel here in the US? I have looked at the news from many sources and nothing I see tells me that we are, as a nation, backing Israel. Of course that may have a lot to do with the fact that we are spending $500 million and using special forces troops to train the PA army, though I could be wrong on this, and we seem to have an administration that would rather kiss up to all the Arab countries so I don't suppose that I should be really looking at them to do anything.
What about the Christian Evangelicals? Where are they? I always hear how much they support the land of Israel and it's people. Is it that the only time that you wish to support Israel is when you think you might be able to convert them, but not when they are backed into a corner and in desperate need of your moral and physical support?
Tell me something , those of you of a Christian bent, Who gave the land of Canaan to Israel? Could it possibly be G-D Himself? According to the scriptures that you have, that you supposedly study, that land belongs forever to Israel but more importantly to G-D because He is the creator and He gave them what was His to give. It is forever theirs. Gift of G-D , end of argument.
Where are the Jewish leaders in this country? I realize that many were supporters of this current administration, but still I would think that with the obvious distaste that Obama and company have for Israel that they would at least walk away from him and say something in support of their G-D given land, but I have heard nothing.
So while I see little support coming from us to Israel, I am going to say with out question or remorse that I fully support Israel and their right to defend and control the land that G-D gave to them. Something else some of you may want to consider, according to the prophets, Israel will one day posses all the land that was once theirs and I can tell you it is a much larger land then the tiny strip that they currently possess.The scriptures also make it clear that those who support Israel will be blessed, those who don't will be cursed. Look around you America, we have thrown out G-D and have rejected Israel and our nation is being torn apart. If you can't see the disasters and the obvious connection to G-D then there is nothing more that I can say to you that will help.
May G-D have mercy on us who still believe in Him, follow His Torah, and may He bless Israel and keep them safe.

Shalom,
Ignacio

Holding Grudges

Early this morning the life of someone that I never got to know very well came to an end. She had been ill for quite some time so none of this comes as any surprise, but as it is with me, when there are issues concerning death it saddens me greatly.
The real tragedy though is not that she died, as I said she had been ill for a long time, but that she held onto grudges until the end.

What a waste of life. I know it's not good to speak ill of the dead but in this case I am not speaking ill I am simply speaking the truth and I should point out that the issue isn't just with her, but goes throughout her entire family.

I have never known people that will fight and bicker over such trivial issues to the point of not speaking to each other,as this family does, instead using others to be their messengers for them. Well today the messengers end and now you have nothing but your own shame and stupidity to show for it. Surprise! Life ends.

The sad part is that those in this family that need to read this won't see it. They will be busy making arrangements for the funeral and, I am hoping, regretting the years that have gone by, wasted by anger over stupid, trivial and meaningless things.

There are however some of you who may be reading this that I have hurt and offended over the years. If this is the case, or if you know someone whom I have hurt and offended in some way; I simply ask for your forgiveness, I don't want to spend another moment in anger or grudges.
I know of at least two whom I have hurt in the past. The first is my oldest daughter, but because she has G-D in her life and I apologized for what I had done, she forgave me and as a result we now have a dad/daughter relationship. I cannot make up for the years lost, but we can go on from here and we have.
The other person is someone that I grew up with,went to school with,literally from diaper days, and yet a few years ago, through a misunderstanding on my part, which I apologized for,she has come to hold a grudge against me. Thing's happen and mistakes are made but is holding a grudge really worth it?

If you are holding a grudge, let me ask you a really simple question;Why?
Who said that you or that other person is going to be alive , even as soon as later on today? Are you G-D? Do you know the length of your own days , never mind everyone else? No you don't. So why do it, why hang on to something that really is only killing you? Someone on Face Book posted a saying that goes something to the effect of "Holding a grudge is like you drinking poison and then expecting the other person to die" it's stupid and a waste of the time that G-D has given you in this life.

I have heard it said that the best time of the year to be in Israel is just before Yom Kippur, the Day Of Atonement. I have been told that it is the one time of the year where everyone is nice to each other and people go out of their way to seek out forgiveness and to grant the same to those that have done them harm. The reason for that is that they believe that on the Day of Atonement,G-D passes His judgement on everyone and that all nations and peoples fates, for the next year, are decided on that day. So ,accordingly, they wish to be right with both G-D and their fellow man.
We should live our lives everyday like that. Forgive each other, make things right with G-D and with your fellow man and or family, or you just might wake up tomorrow and find out that the time that you thought that you had has just run out.

Shalom,
Ignacio

Life lesson from a T-Ball game

Last night my family and I had the extreme pleasure of watching a whole bunch of little kids playing T-ball. T-Ball for those of you who may not know is when they put the baseball on a "T" and the kids hit the ball off of that. It is usually for kids from about the age of 3 to maybe 6 and the ball, bat and bases is about as close to real baseball as you get in one of these games.

What really made this fun to watch though was the kids themselves. They were clueless as to what they were doing out there. The kid hitting the ball would swing the bat in the general direction of the "T" and usually at least make the ball fall off the "T" and then run for all they were worth towards first base. Now I say towards it because it was rarely a straight line and many times they had to go around infielders who were more interested in the worm they found then the person running by them. There was one little girl who hit the ball and it went down the first base line and while she ran to first, the entire team on the field went after the ball. They weren't interested in getting her out, in fact I'm not sure they even realized that was the idea. No, they were more interested in being the first one to get the ball just so they could run it back over to the coach. I really thought for a moment that the girl was going to get run over by all them as they all ran to the ball, but to her credit she was paying just enough attention to what was going on to stop for a second and then go around them.

Some of the fun of all this as well was just watching what the kids were doing as they were "playing" the game. I mentioned two boys on the first base line looking at a worm they had just discovered and then there were two others that were chasing each other all over the infield. Probably the cutest sight of them all was two little girls, one on the outside of the fence and the other on the inside crouched down, talking to each other then giggling, all these kids totally oblivious as to what was going on.

The there were the parents. Most of them were sitting in chairs socializing and cheering on the kids, didn't matter which kid or team, and in general just relaxing and having some fun and lot's of laughs. They were enjoying life as it was being given to them in the moment and, so it seemed , forgetting that the rest of the world even existed for just an hour or two.

There are any number of lessons to be learned here, but the one I want to focus on for a minute is that we need to relearn the art of relaxing and enjoying the life that we have been given. I am speaking very much for myself here , but I can't help but think that there are probably a lot of others out there like me who can easily let all the troubles in this world get to them.

I am not trying to say that we can become like those little kids playing T-Ball, totally oblivious as to what is going on, but I am saying that for a little while we need to put down all our worries and cares and watch the world through their eyes for a little while. My enjoyment of the game didn't come from their great skills and talents it came from the sheer joy that the kids had going on just being out there playing. No worries, no fears, just sheer pleasure in doing what they were doing.

So what should we do then?

Solomon writes in the book of Ecclesiastes that most everything that we do on this earth, most of the stuff we strive for or to have is nothing more then chasing after vanity and the wind but I really think he sums it up well in a couple of places as to how we should treat this life and as to what we should do.

Eccl.8:15 So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

I believe that this is one of the most important verses to found, especially for today's world. We are taught to strive and achieve and go after all the various things that the world has to offer and we are taught to do them even to the point of sacrificing everything else to achieve our goals. I know that I have known many people who strived for that proverbial nest egg/pot at the end of the rainbow, just to loose it all and their families as well. What did they gain from it? Nothing bad hard earned experience.

Solomons solution seems much simpler to me. Eat and drink and enjoy this life that G-D has given you. He is not saying don't try to do better for yourself, but I believe he is saying get your priorities straight. The parents of those kids, had the right idea, They let all the craziness of the world go away for a while and they took time to enjoy their families and the innocence of their children. This is a huge gift from G-D for all of us.

The last point I want to make with this is simple as well, though it seems that this point everyone wants to argue over, and it is the conclusion to the matter. Eccl. 12:13 "Let us hear the conclusion to the whole matter: Fear G-D and keep His commandments,For this is mans all." Simple and to the point.

So enjoy the life that G-D has given you . Fear and love G-D with all of your heart and keep His commandments. I would only add one other thing to it that hopefully would meet with Solomons approval; Get out and watch a T-Ball game and get life back into perspective.

Shalom,
Ignacio

Ants and Space

Have you ever watched an ant? I know, it's not exciting, unless you happen to come upon an ant war. But you ought to sit down and watch an ant sometime just going about it's business. An ant's universe really isn't all that big, and for the most part they go about their time searching out for food and then bringing it home, nothing exciting but very vital if the ants are going to survive. In fact, their world is so small that they do everything by smell, one ant goes out finds food and leaves a trail of smell for the other ants to follow and off they go all in a file grabbing the food and bringing back to the nest. Have you ever seen what happens if the trail is messed up in some way? The ants will get confused and start running around trying to find the original trail, it never even crosses their mind that there may be another way to get to the food.

Now imagine with me that we are a bunch of ants. Our entire known universe is a patch of grass behind my house in Arkansas. For us, this means that our world is hard packed red dirt and rocks with a variety of grasses and wild flowers and during the summer very hot and dry. We do have our enemies from 10,000 variations of spiders to other ants in other colonies, but for the most part our world is very consistent and methodical. We search for food and we find our food and attack anything that threatens the nest or our queen. That's our life, that is our universe. Don't mess with it.

Seems perhaps a bit silly in a way, an ant does not see beyond it's own borders and can't begin to understand, as we do, that there is much more to this universe than just that patch of land that they occupy. Try telling an ant that not only is there their patch of land, but there are millions of patches of land all around them and it just keeps going on and on. They would probably think your nuts because all they know and or wish to understand is just that which they see in front of them, that which they can smell as it were. This, by the way, is not a slam on ants. G-D gave them their place and they are doing exactly what G-D intended for them to do. I simply use the ant and it's habits to illustrate some things about us humans and to show you what I mean we will turn to space for a minute.

Remember that I talked about the ant and it's territory. We are very much like the ant in that respect. We have our own little universe in which we live and we have our various routines that we live by and just like the ant, if it gets messed with we tend to freak out. What makes it bad though is that we have a choice in what we do and how we think and yes even how we view the world and the universe.

The other day I was looking at pictures that have been sent from deep space from various telescopes and to say that they boggle the mind is putting it mildly. Stars and Nebula of various sizes shapes and colors, thousands of star systems in distant galaxies that we are just now, for the first time, able to see. They are now discovering that some of these "stars" that we have been looking at are actually entire galaxies thanks to these telescopes and they have even found one place that is creating new stars. One of those "newborn" stars is 10 times the size of our sun and scientists have admitted that they don't even know how that's possible because it goes above and beyond what they had always understood about star formations. Simply put, that despite everything that we have ever thought we knew about the stars, our scientist are discovering just how little they actually know, much to their credit I might add. This is what made me think of ants and us.

We have a choice, we can continue to live in our little universe and look at things from our limited perspective, never lifting our eyes to look and see if that's actually true or not. We can scurry about smelling the trail left to us by others who think the same way and yes we will find sustenance, but that will be it.

Or, we can lift our eyes up to the heavens, to the night sky, and realize that not only do we know very little, but that which we thought we knew is wrong as well. We may have somethings right. But when you consider the vastness of the universe and you look at what G-D has created out there, that we are only now starting to see, you come to that awesome, wonderful place of humbleness where you realize that we know nothing. That's the place where G-D can use you. When you understand, from a humble perspective how little you know in this universe, that is when G-D can teach you the most.

Take some time to watch an ant and then take the time on a clear night to look up into the heavens and see if you have one of those Job moments:

Job 42:1-6

Then Job answered the LORD and said “I know that You can do everything,And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.Listen, please, and let me speak You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,But now my eye sees You.Therefore I abhor myself,And repent in dust and ashes.”

Job is one of my favorite people because he understood what it was like to loose everything and still remain faithful to G-D, and in that position he came to realize just how little he knew about G-D and the universe. He looked up and was humbled.

How much do you think you know? Are you like the ant who can't see beyond his small world or are you like our scientist's who are starting to understand the universe is much different and much larger than they thought?

Is your theology the the only right way and does everything that is from G-D fit into it? Is it possible, that maybe, just maybe, the things of G-D are so huge that we can't possibly understand it all. Could it be that the things that science is now seeing in deep space is G-D's way of telling us just how much like little ants we have been?

I'm not slamming on your religious beliefs, I love HaShem and I try to serve Him with what knowledge that I have of Him and from Him. I am simply asking you to think and to look up and see if there is anything to what I am saying. The universe and the G-D who created it will humble you just as He did to Job, if you will allow it and perhaps introduce you to a universe that you never even knew existed.

Shalom,
Ignacio