This past week we ended the holiday of Hanukkah or “Dedication” that commemorates when Judah Maccabee restored the purity of Jerusalem’s temple after having been desecrated by Gentiles with their pagan sacrifices. Among other things, Judah’s forces tore down the altar that had borne the blood of pigs, and rebuilt a new one in its place. Having completed the remodeling, Judah celebrated this rededication for eight days at the end of 164 BC. At the heart of Hanukkah is restoration of pure sacrifice.

Jerusalem’s name is only proclaimed once in the Bible in double use—when Jesus repeated the great city’s name with pregnant emotion—“Jerusalem, Jerusalem!” His double use marked the gravity of the moment—like an exasperated parent chiding a child or a weary teacher pleading with a pupil.

With the soon coming defeat of ISIS in the city of Mosul, Iraq will be rid of the last major stranglehold of the Islamic extremist group in their country. ISIS, though, still breathes in the shadows of Iraq, as witnessed by the recent targeting of an ice cream shop in Baghdad that killed dozens.

This week the UN held a first-ever summit on the 65.3 million refugees and migrants in the world. During this conference hosted in New York City, President Obama met with leaders of Jordan, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Canada and Ethiopia, along with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in hopes of gaining $3 billion in pledges for the refugee work.

As the World Trade Center Towers in New York City fell on September 11th fifteen years ago as a result of Islamic extremist attacks, those of us still living then knew the world had suddenly entered a new era of fear. While the annals of history have always been scribbled in the blood of millions who have died in war, 9-11 has proven to be a portent of the 21st century’s slippery struggle with an elusive enemy.

On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror" in the aftermath of the Islamic extremist group, Al-Qaeda’s, September 11th attacks on the United States. Interestingly, similar words were first used by the Reagan Administration in 1984 when it called for a “war against terrorism” in reaction to the bombing of the American and French barracks in Beirut which was linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In ancient Jewish tradition, you could have more than one father. Yes, you had your birth father, the one who raised you, but if you followed a sage, a rabbi, a teacher, he also became your father. He was the one who mentored you in ministry. He discipled you over 2,000 years ago. You left all and followed him.

Pharaoh said kill them all—every newborn Hebrew son. This was either an eventual genocidal plot or a temporary population control measure for Pharaoh’s Hebrew slaves. Either way, those that survived in that generation of Hebrew boys would be forever marked in their society as exceptional, their lives precious, and their future choices held to a higher standard.

Over 2700 years ago, the Prophet Isaiah recorded a time when an oppressive darkness swallowed his land. At that time, the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser III, had conquered the northern tribes of Israel and taken many into exile. Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, had survived after making a preemptive treaty with Assyria.

We are all witnesses to a seismic moment in modern history. It is being called the greatest refugee crisis since World War II as hordes of desperate men, women, and children from lands of chaos and conflict seek safety and hope in Europe. The news over the past weeks has been dominated by apocalyptic scenes of crowds swarming razor wire fences and overwhelmed police trying to contain the tens of thousands.

Recently, two famous churches on two different continents were attacked within hours, or possibly even minutes, of each other. One attack was against the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a historic African American church. On Wednesday evening, June 17th, Dylann Roof entered the church joining a Bible study for about an hour before opening fire around 9 p.m. killing nine people.

Last week, Israel celebrated its birth. Following the Jewish calendar, on the 5th of Iyyar, 67 years ago in Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion and the Jewish National Council declared the establishment of the modern Jewish state. Yet, before every birth, there are labor pangs, and before those travails a fetus has slowly developed in the wake of conception. The modern state of Israel’s birth was much more than one miraculous day.

In his response about the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy, and more specifically, a passage of scripture known as the “Shma” within Jewish tradition.[1] Dt 6:4-5 is a command to the people of Israel to follow God’s Law completely and unequivocally. This call to obedience is curiously phrased as “love.” How can one command love? Who can command that love?

A group of three families, which included seven children six years old and under, went to Jordan Nov 15-16 to visit with Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The three families were JCF’s Eva and Danny Kopp, my family, and the Nazarene Church’s Shahade and Annabelle Twal. My wife, Sharon, had an impression that we should go as families, along with our young children, for two main reasons. One purpose was so that we as families could connect with their families on the most basic level—as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Turkish Ottoman Empire had ruled much of what we call the Middle East for 400 years. With the defeat of the Central Powers, which included the Turks, the Ottoman Empire was carved up by the victorious Allied Powers.