Remember The Holiday Party!
Saturday, 3 January 2026 – at 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Dixie Crossroads – Titusville, Florida
RSVP by 27 December to
Registrar@TempleChurchPriory.org
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As modern Templars and Christians, the Season of Advent and Christmas takes on an acute significance. We cannot consider the profound implications of Christmas without likewise considering the events of two millennia ago in the tiny village of Bethlehem, just 30 miles due south of the gates of Jerusalem. And we likewise cannot forget that the Season of Advent is actually all about the Season of the Resurrection, which took place just outside Jerusalem’s walls. For without the Resurrection, the Advent has no meaning whatsoever.
If we look down from low Earth orbit right now and take in the City of David’s sprawling 49 square miles, we see a city in confusion, threatened from every side. Israel is on a perpetual war footing, always in a focused, intense stand to protect itself from complete annihilation, getting no help and vanishingly little support from but a handful of nations.
The Christian population currently in Israel is down to less than 1.8%, comprised mostly of Palestinian Christians. These are those of our family whom we took our Oath to protect. They are the tiny remnant, the very few whom we as modern Templars work for day and night.
With all that in mind, I encountered this scripture this morning in my private Bible study:
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.” (Psalm 122:6-7)
First, I read these verses through the eyes of a Christian. Next, I re-read the verses through the eyes of a modern Templar Knight. Then, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, I considered the sweep of more than 900 years of history leading to today. And after all the absurd complexity of today’s geopolitical and military “reality,” I was led to a single inescapable conclusion:
I am commanded to “pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.”
Nothing has changed since the day that King David penned these words. And yet, the Holy Spirit led me to understand that I am certainly not to pray for a political or military victory there, or even a plot of real estate – just as Jesus roundly rebuked the Pharisees for the same egregious error when they asked Him when the kingdom of God was coming:
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or, “There it is!” For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.’” (Luke 17:20-21)
I am commanded to “pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.” That Peace has a Name – and that Name is Jesus. For Jerusalem will only find its Peace when He returns in everlasting power to heal not just Jerusalem and Israel, but also to heal the planet of its vast and enormous deadly sin burden. The city of Jerusalem cannot find any rest or peace until Jesus is fully accepted, embraced, and worshiped as their Messiah by His ethnic people. By definition, peace is not possible on any level until that change takes place.
The good news is that we already know how it will come to pass… just not when.
So, here we are, beloved, in the Season of Advent, celebrating when Jesus came to save us from our own sins and to extract us from our mess that we could never undo – just as the same Jesus will extract His ethnic nation from the mess they can never undo without Him.
And, while cleansed by the Blood of Christ, together we celebrate the incomparable gift of Jesus Himself as a propitiation not only for our sins, but ultimately as the Propitiator of His very creation that He will heal and remake by His omnipotent power.
The revelation of Jesus Christ to the apostle John provides a clear description of what happens when God answers our prayers at exactly the right moment for the Peace of Jerusalem. This is the Jerusalem for which we are praying, reigned over by the One Who will rule the world from it in a majestic peace that never ends:
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“And (the angel) carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
“The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
(Revelation 21:10-27)
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This is the physical Jerusalem King David was prophetically speaking of – created by the hand, will, and Word of the One Whom King David’s offspring would follow 42 generations later. He is the One Who became the Messiah and the incarnate Peace of Jerusalem for which we yearn and pray.
May He grant each of you and your family peace this holiday season and bless you abundantly as you worship Him during His Season of Advent!
Maranatha!