This edition looks at the prayer you never heard.

SINCE YOU ASKED
Mention the date 1607 and what comes to mind? Hopefully, you’ll remember

"Beautiful Gate" in Jerusalem

 that this marked the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Three ships landed on Jamestown Island on a very special day. It was May 14. The State of Israel would be born on this day 341 years later. But that’s only part of the story. It was also the beginning of the Jewish Feast of Weeks, also known as Pentecost. This fact was not lost on the settlers. They were apparently also aware of how the feast was celebrated and the significance of its elements. This Jewish feast involved the presentation of 2 loaves of bread (with leaven) symbolizing Jew and Gentile being made one with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
 
Those settlers wrote a prayer that was prayed daily at the Jamestown fort.  They prayed that Jew and Gentile would be reconciled together as one-that the days of iniquity would come to an end-and that God’s glory would be revealed. Not the prayer I would expect. Of all the things they could have prayed about, they chose reconciliation between Jew and Gentiles- not reconciliation between white men & Indians, not between black and white, slave or free- reconciliation between Jew and Gentile. Let that sink in. This nation began with a passionate connection between its settlers and the people of Israel.

AS I SEE IT
In the first place, you’ll never learn things like this from the modern history textbooks where every religious reference has been removed. (One popular textbook presents the first Thanksgiving as a time when the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians, not to God.) 
 
Secondly, we need to comprehend the importance of this. Those settlers knew their Bibles. They knew how important this issue was to God. They also knew that the only way this reconciliation was to happen was through Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), through Whom Jews and Gentiles would be made into “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). Little by little, the Church is waking up to its Jewish roots and to the fact that the New Covenant was actually given to the Jews (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Ezekiel 36). Christians have become beneficiaries of its blessings by being grafted in to Jewish Israel (Romans 11:17). 

America will never be restored to her former greatness unless we return to where we began- earnestly seeking the unity and reconciliation of Jew and Gentile. One way to do this is to be Israel’s best supporter and defender. The other way is to learn God’s heart on this matter and follow His leading. The “Becoming One” Bible study, companion book, and leaders guide will introduce you to what is probably new material for you. It is eye-opening and powerful. Post 98 reveals some other interesting facts about our early settlers.

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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Old songwriters never die. They just decompose.