Today, August 21, the 40 day Jewish season of repentance begins with the Great American Eclipse.

The Eclipse presents a glorious picture of Teshuvah’s admonition to return to the presence of God as the Moon, symbolic of the believers and the Bride of Christ (Psalm 89:37), joins with the Sun, symbolic of Christ the Bridegroom (Psalm 19:4). At the same the darkness of the Eclipse, reminiscent of the Day of the Lord (Amos 5:20), illustrates the Teshuvah warning of coming judgement for sinners.

Teshuvah presents all of us with the choice of life or death, blessings or curses as described in Deuteronomy 31:19, 20. The position of the Teshuvah Eclipse in the Heavens shows the same choice. During the Eclipse, the stars will become visible, with the stars of the constellation Leo to the East of the Eclipse and those of Cancer to the West. The constellation Cancer, meaning “The Holding Place,” represents the home of God’s people which is commonly known as Heaven. The constellation Leo, representing Christ as the Lion of Judah, pictures God’s judgment which we commonly describe as Hell. Thus, the Teshuvah Eclipse illustrates the choice between life and Heaven on one hand, and death and Hell on the other.
During the first to ten days of Teshuvah, from the August 21 Eclipse date to August 31, we invite you to join with us in praying for personal repentance, and choosing life:

August 21 – Deuteronomy 31:19, 20: Choose Life.
August 22 – Mathew 4:1-11 and John 14:32: The victorious 40-day Teshuvah Journey of Jesus.
August 23– Romans 8:12-15: We are Children of God
August 24 – Deuteronomy 8:1-5: Faith
August 25 – Romans 8:1, 2: No Condemnation for those in Christ
August 26 – Deuteronomy 6:17-26: Obedience
August 27 – John 1:19: Forgiveness
August 28 – Deuteronomy 6:4-15: Love God
August 29 – John 14:23 Love brings obedience and peace
August 30 – Tonight in the early evening look up to the Zenith and find the star Vega, meaning “He Shall Be Exalted”, in the constellation Lyra, The Harp, which pictures a dove and a harp and speaks of the role of worship in exalting Christ. Our solar system is moving toward Vega at 40,000 miles per hour, illustrating that we are destined for worship. So enter into His presence with worship and celebrate your destination.
August 31 – Galatians 2:8-10: Make sure you have received salvation by grace to achieve your destiny.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life. –Deuteronomy 30:19-20

On August 21, 2017 we believe that God is calling America to begin 40 days of prayer for repentance, unity in Christ, and healing our land.
There will be a sign in the Heavens on August 21, 2017, the Great American Eclipse, running across America from Oregon to South Carolina, announcing God’s call. August 21 is also the first day of the Jewish season of Teshuvah, a 40 day season of repentance and return to God leading up to the Day of Atonement.
We believe that we should respond to God’s call with solemn assemblies on August 21. Some may feel led to pray and read through the Bible, while others may make a pilgrimage to pray along the Eclipse path. Intercessors across America will be praying in a solemn assembly similar to one outlined below:
I Understanding the invitation and the warning
1. Teshuvah:
• To return to the presence of God
• 40 days of prayer beginning with the sign of the Great American Eclipse on August 21 and ending on the Day of Atonement, September 29.
• Traditional scriptures: Psalm 27 and Ezekiel 33.
2. The sign of invitation to Unity in Christ
• Moon, symbolic of the Bride (Psalm 89:37) moves into the Sun, symbolic of Christ the Groom (Psalm 19).
• Psalm 27: Dwell in the house of the Lord to see His goodness.
3. The sign of warning to sinners
• Eclipse shadow symbolic of darkness of the Day of the Lord (Amos 5:20)
• Ezekiel 33: Watchmen to warn sinners or be held responsible.
• Ezekiel 33: Sinners to turn from sin to live

4. View the eclipse (live or on media) while praying Deuteronomy 30:19-20: Choose Life

II Prayer for Personal Repentance
1. Follow Jesus in His Teshuvah journey ( Mathew 4:1-11)
2. Repent of doubt (Deuteronomy 8:1-5):
• About who you are- A child of God
• About God’s ability to provide for you
• Leading to pride that denies the need for God’s provision
• Undermining your faith
3. Repent of presumption (Deuteronomy 6:16-26)
• About testing God
• About disobedience to God’s commands
• Undermining your prosperity and your very life
4. Repent of selling out (Deuteronomy 6:4-15)
• About serving other “Gods” in your life
• About loving the world
• About forgetting God’s faithfulness
• About breaking God’s heart by not loving Him.

5. Thank God that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins when we confess them (1 John 1:9)

III Prayer for the Church to be united in Christ.
1. Agree with Jesus’s prayer in John 17:20-23
• All who believe will be untied in Christ
• May they have unity so the world will believe
• May they have the glory given by Christ to be united
• May they be in unity so the world will know that God loves the believers
2. Christians accept one another (Romans 15:7)
3. Repent of the scandal of division
4. Repent of thinking that unity is the same as uniformity
5. Accept the gifts of other Christian traditions
6. Learn to experience unity in diversity
7. Bless the Church with the blessings of unity

IV Prayer to heal our land
1. Acknowledge that the Church is to blame for America’s problems because God’s people have not obeyed God’s instructions in 2nd Chronicles 7:14.
2. Ask forgiveness for pride and failure to portray the love of God in our generation
3. Pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
4. Seek God’s face and His presence to know Him and become His partners in bringing His plans to pass.
5. Turn from our wicked ways.
• Repent and come into visible unity
• Bless and curse not
• Transcend politics and renounce division
• Repent of complacency

These are dangerous times for America, and it is up to God’s people to pray for healing our land and revival.
We invite you to answer God’s call and pray with us on August 21 and then through the 40 Days of Teshuvah 2017.
For more information go to our website at www.Teshuvah2017.com or download our book Teshuvah Eclipse at https://www.dropbox.com/s/835gr2gnzg1labn/Teshuvah%20Eclipses.pdf?dl=0.

With the Great American Eclipse less than two weeks away, many are wondering how eclipses were viewed in the Jewish tradition.

The Jewish website Chabad.org has published a report by Rabbi Yehuda Sharpin entitled “Does Judaism see Solar Eclipses as Bad Omens” to answer this question.

To start with, the Talmud does in fact state that an eclipse Is a bad omen for the world, a darkness coming because of sin. However, the ancient Jews knew that eclipses were natural phenomenon and could even predict them. The Rabbis viewed eclipses as warnings against sin and judgment. Some held that eclipses were an opportunity for prayer and introspection.

In Genesis 1:4 the Sun, Moon, and stars are called signs for the appointed times, and the Jewish commentary on the Torah includes eclipses as signs. Another interesting scripture is Jerimiah 10:2, which tells Israel not to be terrified by the signs in the sky even though the nations are terrified. According to the sages the sign of the eclipses holds no fear for those who act properly.

We find ourselves concurring with most of these Rabbinical beliefs about eclipses. We understand eclipses to be signs from God not only because of Genesis 1:14, but also as signs to the Church as announced by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21). For believers, we agree that eclipses are times of prayer and introspection, a time to unify in Christ as shown by the symbol of the Moon, representing Believers (Psalm 89:37), joining in the Sun, representing Christ (Psalm 19). We also agree that for non-believers eclipses are a warning of judgment to come and therefore and are fearful omens.

Those themes of prayer and introspection for Believers and fear of judgment for non-believers are heightened during the 40 day Hebrew season of Teshuvah which begins with the Great American Eclipse on August 21 and ends 40 days later on September 29, the Day of Atonement. The world Teshuvah literally means “to return to the presence of the Lord”, and the Psalm associated by the Rabbis with Teshuvah, Psalm 27, speaks of the blessings of dwelling in God’s presence. On the other hand, the second scripture associated with Teshuvah, Ezekiel 33, warns believers of punishment for failure to warn sinners, and warns sinners of judgment to come. Thus, Teshuvah is an invitation to intimacy and a warning of judgment.

We invite you to join with us in a solemn assembly on August 21 during the Great American Eclipse and in prayer for repentance, Church unity, and healing our land during Teshuvah. For more information see our website at www.Teshuvah 2017.com or read our recently published book Teshuvah Eclipses.

And don’t forget to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

This week marks the anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.

There were many blunders and missed opportunities for peace leading up to the outbreak of the war, but most historians blame the Germans for the start of hostilities. The lesson for Christians today is how the home for Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation could have fallen so far as to start the First World War and then loose Adolph Hitler on his bloody march through history. The concern of Christians is that America seems to be on the same path.

By the 1880’s Germany had become the richest and most powerful country on the European continent. However, as the Germans prospered they became complacent and lost their religious zeal. German theologians began teaching the documentary hypothesis, denying the truth of the Bible and destroying the faith of many. The government stepped into the spiritual void, substituting the state for God and marginalizing the Church.

Spiritually weak and desensitized to the Scriptures, the Christians made no outcry when Kaiser Wilhelm I brought the Alter of Zeus from Pergamum to Berlin. This Altar is widely believed to have been the Throne of Satan described in Revelation 2:13. The curse which accompanies such an object, setting the owner apart for destruction (Deuteronomy 7:26), caught the Germans by surprise.

The curse first worked on the Kaiser’s family. His son, Frederick, would have been a good king but never ruled because he died of cancer three months after the Kaiser died in 1888. Wilhelm’s grandson, Wilhelm II, an immature, blustering, arrogant man who was unfit to rule, became Kaiser instead. Under Wilhelm II, Germany became more militant and belligerent. He started a naval arms race with Britain and led his nation and Europe into World War I in 1914. The lost war drove Wilhelm II from Germany in 1918 and brought the curse to all of Germany.

The defeat of the Germans in World War I did not bring repentance or an end to their suffering. Financial depression wrecked the nation, and social order began to break down. By 1932, fear of a communist revolution wracked the German elites, and they looked for a strongman to restore order. They turned to Adolph Hitler, who quickly assumed dictatorial powers and created a ruthless police state to retain power. By 1932, much of the German Protestant Church had become a faithless, powerless institution. Christ was viewed as simply a good man and sin considered a psychological problem. Hitler became sure he could control a Christless church, and for the most part, he was correct.

As a result of German church’s failure to repent and return to God, Hitler marched unopposed into World War II. Millions died in the war, and millions more Jews and others were killed in the Holocaust. The victorious Allies devastated and divided Germany. The church and the nation that birthed the Protestant Reformation experienced a tragic fall.

Like Germany was once, America has been a beacon of light in a dark world. Like Germany, we became prosperous and complacent, allowing our universities to rob the faith of millions. As with Germany, the government has taken over many functions of the Church and many are trying to drive the Church out of the public square. Our curse and our Holocaust is the abomination of abortion, which has killed over 60 million American babies. America stands on the edge of disaster, blinded by its power and prosperity, like Germany was in 1880’s.

In 1887 God sent a warning to the Germans, a Great Eclipse which ran across the country on the first day of Teshuvah, the 40 day Jewish repentance season. The Church ignored God’s invitation to return to Him and avoid judgment before it was too late, with tragic consequences.

Now, God is sending a warning to America like the warning He sent to Germany, the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017 on the first day of Teshuvah. God is giving us another chance to avoid the fate of Germany. For more information see our newly released book, Teshuvah Eclipses or our website at www. Teshuvah2017.com

Join us in praying through Teshuvah for repentance, Church unity, and healing our land.

Before it is too late.

The Bible speaks of unity as something that is “good and pleasant” (Psalm 133:1), and in unity “The Lord bestows His blessings” (Psalm 133:3). Jesus prayed for Christian unity, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17:23).

For 200 years after the Protestant Reformation, the churches had tried to achieve unity by force. Countless martyrs, both Protestant and Catholic, were created by wars and persecution. The only unity achieved was the unity of the grave.

By the early 17th century, the nations were starting to appreciate the benefits of tolerance, but were unable to find a way to realize the promised benefits of Christian unity. They had not yet learned that unity is not the same as uniformity. To quote Pope Benedict XVI, “We should first try to find unity through diversity, in other words to accept what is fruitful in our divisions, to detoxify them, and to welcome the positive things that come precisely from diversity.”

It was not until the 18th century that Christians were taking their first halting steps toward unity in diversity, in the American Colonies.

The 13 American Colonies were a patchwork of religious beliefs. The Puritans were in Massachusetts, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Anglicans in Virginia, and Catholics in Maryland. Many other denominations were represented and quite a few Americans who had no religion at all. To reach this diverse group of people, God had to send something which would transcend their religious communities, which came to be known as the Great Awakening.

Beginning in 1739, George Whitfield preached the same message to all denominations, including Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Anglicans, Catholics, Quakers, Puritans, and Moravians. And, whereas prior reformers had tried to form new, pure denominations, Whitefield wanted his followers to reform the denomination they were in. Whitfield was the first to unite the Christians in the diverse denominations in Christ.

The Great Awakening prepared the American Colonies to unanimously come together to declare in the Declaration of Independence that God created all men equal. After the revolution the Americans united in their diversity to form the United States of America. When the Second Great Awakening came in 1801, it featured the largest Ecumenical meeting up to that point in modern history and Americans united in their diversity to help the needy and spread the Gospel at home and around the world.

Today America struggles under the weight of division as the Churches seem to be split between those who want only to help the needy and those who want only to spread the Gospel. Yet, if the nation is to survive, the Churches must unite in their diversity to both care for the needy and spread the gospel.

We must cry out to God for an awakening of unity in diversity which transcends the denominations like the Great Awakening and brings Americans together as in the meetings of the Second Great Awakening.

We ask you to pray for repentance, church unity, and healing our land during the 40 day Jewish season of Teshuvah, which begins with the Great American Eclipse on August 21 (See www.Teshuvah2017.com), and participate in ecumenical meetings such as Kairos 2017 to be held in Kansas City on October 24-26, 2017 (see www.kairos2017.com) .

Above all, pray that another Great Awakening will come to America’s we unite in our diversity once more.

In 1918 a new strain of influenza emerged which eventually killed as many as 100 million people. Unlike most illnesses, most of the victims were young and healthy. The reason for this mystery was soon discovered: the victims were not killed by the disease, but by their own immune system’s response to the disease.

Like the human body, our social body also has an immune system designed to fight off toxins. The immune system is composed of our laws and those who enforce them. The toxins are people whose behavior is damaging to society. But in America we are reaching the point where, like the 1918 influenza pandemic, our immune system is attacking the body.

Take the war on drugs. We all know that drug abuse is a terrible thing, so we passed laws against drug abuse and drug dealing. The effect of those laws was to criminalize common behavior in many minority communities and thrust the drug dealing business into a highly profitable big business. We passed more laws with tougher penalties, sending many minority community members to prison and allowing law enforcement to seize suspect property. The result is a devastated minority community and laws that let police confiscate cash from anyone, as in a recent case where a man on his way to buy a car had his money seized by police. The immune system has turned on the body, creating toxic results.

There is real oppression in the minority communities, but it comes not from the old evil of racism, but from the modern war on drugs. The minority community lives this reality, while most middle class whites are unable to understand what would drive young men into a life of drugs and gangs. Thus, more division is created as the social body is infected with more and more toxins.

It is time for Christians to deploy their spiritual weapons to bring healing to our society. The spiritual weapons needed are love and forgiveness, and we are going to have to let go of some of our cherished political positions to do so. We must admit that the war on drugs, like prohibition before it, is a good idea gone bad. We have made criminals richer and prisons fuller, destabilized minority communities, put all of our freedoms at risk, caused crime wars in our cities and abroad, and subsidized killers and terrorists around the world.

Drug crime can be stopped the same way prohibition era bootlegging was: legalize it, tame it, and tax it. Laws can be changed to restore our freedoms, and restoration can begin in the minority communities. Such monumental changes will not come unless the Church humbles itself, prays, seeks God’s face and repents (2 Chr 7:14). Then God will forgive and heal our land.

Let us pray that the Church will awaken to society’s immune system disorder and use its spiritual warfare weapons to heal our land.

Just ten days after the Americans celebrate their Revolution, the French celebrate theirs, on Bastille Day, July 14.

The two revolutions could not have been more different. The Americans honored God in their Declaration of independence. The French, on the other hand, adopted the atheistic, anti-Christian values of the French Enlightenment and set out to eradicate God from public life. Churches were closed, priests were persecuted, and the calendar was remade without any Christian holidays. To replace the Virgin Mary, the revolutionary leaders invented the atheistic “Goddess of Liberty”, which became the emblem of Godless Liberty.

The fruit of the revolutions was also very different. America became a beacon of hope for the world as it worked to make its dream of equality and God given rights become a reality. In France, the godless foundation of the revolution meant that all moral restraint on power evaporated, and the infamous Reign of Terror began. Neither life no liberty were safe, and even the revolutionary leaders were carried off one by one to the Terror. Finally order was restored but all hope of liberty vanished under the iron fisted rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. It turns out that Godless Liberty is no liberty at all.

Sad to say, the lesson of the French Revolution has been repeated over and over since then. The Communist revolutions in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, and elsewhere produced massive death and eliminated freedom. The same holds true for the Nazis in Germany and the Fascists in Italy who, like Napoleon, led the whole world into war. The post colonial socialists in Africa grabbed power after elections, giving rise to the famous statement of “One man, one vote, one time”. The same process has also occurred in countries like Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador where authoritarians have uses the promise of Godless Liberty to subvert Democratic intuitions.

Even in America our God given liberties have been eroded by the proponents of Godless Liberty. Beginning in the 1960’s, the Government has banned God from our public schools, allowed the murder of unborn, worked against Christian morality, and now mandated same sex “marriage.” At the same time, Big Government has increasingly limited the rights of Americans to exercise freedoms of religion, speech, and property. The fruit of the Godless Liberty in America has been fatherlessness, poverty, crime, and a Government which grows larger while the people grow poorer and smaller.

The success of Godless Liberty has come about because of failure by the Church to preach the gospel of love and truth. Lying pastors condone sexual sin, even gay marriage, when they should be setting people free in the name of Christ. Churches have substituted failed social programs for the life changing gospel of Christ. And the love of Christ is often hidden behind condemnation, political agendas, and Church division. America is on the same path which led the great nation of Germany downward from Martin Luther to Adolph Hitler.

Let us pray that the Church will repent of its sins and return to the lifesaving work of spreading the gospel and the love of Christ. We must humble ourselves, come together, and repent if our land is to be healed.

We invite you to join us in praying for repentance, Church unity, and healing of our land during the Hebrew repentance season of Teshuvah which begins with the “Great American Eclipse” on August 21, 2017. See our recently released book Teshuvah Eclipse on our website Teshuvah2017.com.

Let us also pray that the precious gift of Godly Liberty, and especially religious liberty, can overcome the evil of Godless Liberty.