Today was my first full day of the Israel Summit. It was incredible. All this pre-reading I have been doing has totally paid off. The hotel we are staying at is nice…the beds are very comfortable…but the room was hot last night and I didn't get a lot of sleep (I am kind of grumpy tonight as I write this - not to mention the internet won't let me PAY to use it -that’s right - they're charging be $5/2 hrs. Woohoo) Anyway, we started out with a meeting of everyone at the CUFI (Chrisitians united for Israel) conference together for a morning session. John Heagy, the founder, spoke to us some really great stuff. He talked about how God is essentially married to Israel, and when you are married, you CANNOT be "all things to all people." God's heart is in Israel - he has chosen ISRAEL - not the USA, not VFCC, but ISRAEL. He has not replaced Israel with the church, but repeatedly in his word declares that Israel is close to his heart and will rise again. When we support Israel, we are blessed by God…Gen 12:3 "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you". It was a great sermon.
After that, we got to go to lunch. Shawna from VFCC is here, and she and I, along with her roommate, Jess, went to lunch at a deli. It was relatively close and the sandwich was pretty tasty. Also, pretty cheap. We grabbed Starbucks on the way back to the convention center. Our first "breakout session" was with the young people of CUFI. It was a lot of the Eagles Wings people talking - nothing relatively interesting though. Stuff I’m already pretty familiar with since I'm traveling with them. But I scored a promo DVD to show at the Forge.
The second session I attended was entitled "Radical Islam: In Their Own Words." SO TIGHT. John McCain has said that Jihad-ism and Radical Islam is "the transcendent problem of the 21st century." Some of his contenders have labeled it simple as a bumper sticker, or a mosquito bite. Barack Obama has said we only need to deal with the radicals who bombed us in 9/11 and take care of them. The speakers communicated that if we only took care of the people who "got us" in WWII, we would simply have bombed a fleet in the Pacific and the Nazis wouldn't have been stopped. We aren't fighting ISLAM, and we aren't fighting TERRORISM, but we're fighting a radical utopian ideology which is held to by 10-15 percent of the Muslim population - the concept of jihad, or suicide for the cause of Islam. These people aren't looking for land from Israel in the conflicts over there; but denying the existence of a Jewish state to exist. These people HATE the western culture, and have a dream for a "new muslim empire". They will do whatever it takes to make sure the west nations cannot obstruct them. Sen. Rick Santorum spoke and said there cannot be victory in the War on Terror unless we have an understanding about Jihad and what it is we're fighting - and that's why so many people don't agree with the war now - because we don't know what we're fighting, and the president isn't allowed to say we're fighting radical Islam. Because we're people of faith, and we're fighting a branch of faith, it’s a hard thing. But the reason the Soviet Union was disarmed was because Reagan explained what we were fighting against. Bush has not done that - and morale at home has been weak - despite the tremendous success we're seeing in Iraq.
Another problem with fighting this radical muslim and their governments is their church and state coexist dependently. Jesus said render to Caesars what is Caesars, and to God what is Gods. Jesus didn't come to create an earthly kingdom. Mohammad did, and conquered wheverever he went. Christians teach about the goodness of God and his being just. Islam teaches that God is all powerful. And as long as they obey the 5 tenents, nothing is really said about what is good/moral. We are fighting an enemy, in Israel, as well as throughout the Arab world, that cares nothing about this world, and everything about the next.
We need to support REAL allies in the Arab World, and allow balanced Muslims to take power in the US to demonstrate that regular Islam is not crazy, thus setting the example. If the people take charge of their countries…it might be one step closer to vanquishing the radicals. Another thing that Dr. Walid Phares said was that an immediate withdrawal from Iraq would create chaos; that Iran will probably invade at least 2/3 of it, and establish a government that will make alliances with Iran and Syria, and thus a huge dictator driven Islamic Empire will be seen throughout the Middle East. I found that interesting….ehem….take notes Mr. Obama.
This is all taken from my scribbled notes as I wrote frantically to capture what the speakers were saying. I am really impressed with everything thus far.
We had a banquet tonight for the students with good food. Students from around the nation gave testimonies about CUFI on campus clubs. I think VFCC could benefit from one; but shawna and I don't really have time to innitiate or run one :( . We'll see though.
I finally got internet after 2 hours of trying (hence I posted this...) Glad...grateful...tired...and going to bed soon. Thank you all for the continued prayers. The biggest thing to pray for is that my suitcase isn't too heavy! :-) Tomorrow night we are having a "night to honor Israel." I'm pretty excited about that. Til my next update...
Shalom. From DC.
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