June 17, 2013 by Jeff Davis

A New Twist on Superman

Yesterday was Father’s Day and many emotions were going through my mind. For starters, I came to the realization I had no concept of time until I became a parent! I still cannot believe my little girl is 17 months old!!! Also, over the weekend, I went to see the new Superman movie and it really impacted me for several reasons.

Firstly, I was able to take a young boy who was not my own and be a stand-in dad for a day and I honestly think I got more out of it than he did, even though he is still talking about how awesome it was.

Secondly, watching Kal-El (Superman) and Jor-El (Superman’s Father) willing to sacrifice all they had for those they loved really hit me. I realize the story is fictional, but God’s word tells us that there is no greater sacrifice than to lay down one’s life for another. Also, Jor-El sent his son to earth just like God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our hope and savior!

Thirdly, finding out the “S” on Superman’s chest was not really an “S.” On Krypton, it was the El-family crest which stood for hope; that really hit me. Last night, I couldn’t get that thought out of my mind because El is the divine suffix of God and the “S” I believe correlates to our “Savior” Jesus Christ who is our everlasting hope. Maybe I’m stretching it a little far and maybe I’m just a little emotional after celebrating Father’s Day, but there is something great about doing things for others and being a father to a fatherless generation.

Jesus and Superman had a lot in common. They were both persecuted and misunderstood and they both came to save the world and were both heroes. Of course, once again, Superman was a fictional character, but Jesus was not! I have been where he was born, I walked where He taught and saw where it is believed He was crucified. I even got to see where His tomb is and the thing that separates Jesus from every other deity is that Jesus was not in the tomb because He rose on the third day and is seated at the right hand of God!

This Father’s Day, I’m not only grateful to be a father; I’m eternally grateful for the sacrifice our Heavenly Father made to save us! He is the ultimate hero and example for the way we should live our lives.

May 5, 2013 by Jeff Davis

My Fathers

Tomorrow, I will get to do something that I have dreamt about for a long time. I will get to go with my earthly father to see my Abba Father in the Holy Land. With the recent chemical warfare attacks in Syria and the Israeli missile response, the region is in high alert, but when is it not?

Since Isaac and Ishmael, there has been strife amongst nations; each claiming the rights to Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. I am looking forward to meeting my God on this trip and sharing the experience with my father will make it that more special and I hope one day I will have the same opportunity with my daughter and wife!

Going to the center of the world and seeing Jerusalem where one city shares three faiths is going to be amazing and walking where Jesus once did will truly be humbling. Nothing makes an area holier than when other religions compete for the same place and in Jerusalem this has been the reality for over 2,000 years. The struggle is unending and this holy place has turned into a battlefield.

We will be there to celebrate Israel’s establishment as a state and I look forward to sharing my experience with all of you. Please be in prayer for safe travel and that God would do amazing things in and through me while we are there. I am so excited to see what God has in store for me and I pray this experience be part of the foundation of my ministry!

April 8, 2013 by Jeff Davis

Home

Getting prepared to visit Israel has already been a journey in itself! I go there as a pilgrim, not as a tourist, I go there to visit sites, not to see sights, and I go to see the Promise Land which God promised to Abraham and his descendants.
“On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” Genesis 15:18-21 (NIV)

I have spent much of the last two months reading the history of Jerusalem from the time of the Canaanites all the way up to present time and it was so sad reading every time the nation would fall and the Temple would be destroyed. It broke my heart to read the horrific things the nation endured, but there was always one constant when these events took place: they turned their back on God and ultimately, their protective covering was lifted.

Having a home is a wonderful thing and growing up in a military family; home was where the Air Force sent us. As I researched the Jew’s history of deportation, slavery, and ultimately slaughter, my heart broke, so I know the Lord’s heart also broke since they were His chosen people.

It’s Interesting the Jews were entitled to stay in Israel and use the land but only to the extent to which the laws were followed and observed. A great number of Jews believe, “their greatest contribution to the moral standards of humanity was not monotheism (belief in one God), but the insistent charge to remember when they had no home” Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman. When Jews were unable to move there, they visited; when they couldn’t visit, they would pray for her and dreamed of stepping foot where their ancestors once did. Even though many of them lived in the west, their hearts would always be in the east!

Every one of us is governed by an ethos or moral code which guides us home and we are always trying to get home.
After 70 A.D. when Titus leveled Jerusalem to the ground one million Jews were killed; during the holocaust, Hitler’s “Final Solution,” it’s estimated six million Jews were killed and that’s how many currently live in the nation of Israel today! I thank God on May 14th, 1948, the nation of Israel was officially recognized and many Jews could finally return to their home. Getting to be there on that anniversary is going to be amazing! I thank God I have a home and I pray our nation turns from its evil ways, so God does not turn His back on us. I pray He hears us from heaven and would heal our land and that we as a nation would open our hearts back to Him. No politician or elected leader is capable of fixing our nation; only God can and only by believing in Jesus Christ will we have a future home in heaven. We were birthed as one nation under God and it’s saddens me to see the decay of what that great principle has become! As a nation, if we are not willing to give up everything, we have already lost the war.