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People think about God in different ways don’t they. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression ‘God is just about
as real as the gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans’ and ‘God has given up on humanity’. What these people are saying is, whether God exists or not, he has got nothing to do with my life
today.
It’s very difficult to get people who take this view to open their minds to the possibility that God is active in life today. Faith is
needed to trust in God and recognise how he is working in our life. But how can we get this faith in the first place? If you feel you cannot recognise God in your life, just think about the State of Israel, which
has now passed the 50 year milestone. This is one of the clearest examples of how God intervenes in life.
Think back to the time when Britain was part of the Roman Empire. York and St Albans were thriving garrison cities. Roman Legions occupied the
forts on the wall between Carlisle and Newcastle. Israel at this time was a waste land and Jews were scattered to the four corners of the earth. To both Jews and Christians of that age the prophecies in the Bible
which predicted re-population of the country and a thriving vibrant nation must have looked improbable. For example: “Fear not”, says God , “for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from
the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north “Give them up” and to the south ‘do not keep them back!”
This is from the 43rd chapter of Isaiah. The apostle Paul makes a
similar prediction where he insists that the casting off of the Jews is only temporary: “hardening in part is happened to Israel,
until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” he says in Romans chapter 11.
For nearly 2000 years Jews wandered among the nations, persecuted, tortured, despised and cursed. Then, in the last century, a glimmer of
change emerged and in 1948 the State of Israel was set up. Looking back at the history of Israel we can see that this could not have happened without God’s intervention. By looking at Israel we can say God is
active with nations; he is active in the lives of people today.
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