BETWEEN THE LINES

DESPITE OBAMA, I'M ON A SPIRITUAL HIGH

Exclusive: Joseph Farah explains why he's not stressing about today's news

I’ve just spent the last two weeks retracing the steps of the prophets and Jesus and breathing the majestic air of Jerusalem and Galilee and the Judean desert.

So forgive me for not wanting to deal with subjects like Barack Obama’s criminal amnesty decrees.

I don’t feel like yelling and screaming about what’s happening in Ferguson, Missouri, either.

I can’t get excited about the firing of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary.

No doubt I will soon feel differently about all these newsy topics and more.

But, for now, I’m still just coming down from a spiritual high from a second annual pilgrimage to Israel with Jonathan Cahn, my messianic Jewish brother from another mother.

You will never know exactly how I feel or what I mean unless you come with us on one of these excursions. It’s a life-changing experience that deepens your relationship with the One True Living God.

I don’t mean to diminish anyone’s outrage or concerns about what’s happening in the world. Normally, I would be right there with you. But sometimes it’s important to put some distance between yourself and the tumultuous news of the day. It’s probably even truer for me, a lifetime newsman, than the average person.

You’ll have to pardon me for being slightly disengaged.

I’m still transfixed by what I’ve seen – like the latest archaeological excavations and findings at the City Of David and the first-century synagogue probably attended by Mary Magdalene.

I’m still quietly reflective about the amazing time of fellowship I experienced with 310 fellow pilgrims – not just from the U.S. but from all over the world, as far away as New Zealand.

There’s just something different about being in Israel. It changes you.

Israel was very much in the news while we were there. There were terrorist shootings. There were terrorist automobile rundowns. There were some riots. Tensions were high as we ventured up the Temple Mount.

But this was a spiritual sojourn all the way. It was a chance to get closer to God.

My news and political instincts were still at work. It was touch-and-go as to whether we would be able to ascend the Temple Mount, right up until the last moment. Jews who wanted to pray at the holiest site in Judaism were being restricted. Christians were not being hassled so much by the Islamic gatekeepers.

With that in mind, I suggested to Jonathan Cahn and our tour coordinators a stunt to declare our solidarity with Israel’s Jews. We’d go up to the Temple Mount as Christian tourists, assemble like Gideon’s army up there and then quietly pull out kippas from our pockets and place them on our heads while praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

We’d take video of this and publish it on WND and Facebook, bringing to the attention of the world the way Jews are discriminated against even in the capital of their own country – even on their holiest religious site.

But cooler heads prevailed.

I was told it would be provocative.

Israelis told me, “We have to live with these people. You’ll go home to the United States, but we will still be here to face the contempt and the violence.”

To which I replied, “I get to go home to Barack Obama. Which of us faces the worst fate?”

One former high-ranking Israeli military commander told me: “You make a good point.”

So it never happened. The demonstration never took place. Maybe someone else will refine my idea and make it work at the appropriate time and place. Or maybe we will do it … next year in Jerusalem.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/despite-obama-im-on-a-spiritual-high/#THCea2xm86LfhCKI.99

My comments: In the END it is the Plan and Purposes of God Almighty that PREVAIL. We should all take heart in that REALITY.