Month: May 2011

Posted in ahmadinejad, end of days. prophecy, gog magog, iran, resign

Are Ahmadinejad’s days numbered? Reportedly asked to resign

Posted on by elizabethprata

An Examiner article states that Arab TV has reported that the Iran’s Supreme Leader Khameini has asked President Ahmadinejad of Iran to step down. If true, it indicates a tightening of the strife that has burst onto the surface between the two over the last two weeks. I’d reported that Ahmadinejad was sulking for 8 days, after he had asked his chief to resign and that request was immediately vetoed by the Supreme Leader. Ahmadinejad did not like being vetoed and immediately went underground, dispensing with his public duties, canceling a trip to Qom, declining to make any speeches, and being absent from the Parliament.

Ahmadinejad’s absence from parliament was promptly decried by the Ministers, and 219 of the 290 wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad asking him to return to duties and cease his work-boycott and his unwillingness to submit to the Supreme Leader. No go.

Now there are rumors that Arab TV has reported last night that the President has been asked to step aside. Normally I wait to publish something like this on my blog, except that the rumor was picked up and reported by BNO Twitter News, the most reliable and fastest news outlet on the web.

In addition, in a strange piece yesterday I’d read in The Guardian (UK), Ahmadinejad’s closest allies were accused of practicing sorcery and communicating with unknown worlds, and arrested. It was reported:
“Ahmadinejad allies charged with sorcery”
Iranian power struggle between president and supreme leader sees arrests and claims of undue influence of chief of staff
Photo: “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is described as ‘the actual president of Iran’ by allies of the country’s supreme leader.”
“Close allies of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being “magicians” and invoking djinns (spirits).”

If Ahmadinejad resigns, you can bet that he will be replaced with someone even more fanatical. Iran (Persia in  he bible) is prophesied to be an aggressor in the very last of the last days, sparking a war that trips the world over to the Tribulation. (Ezekiel 38-39). Stay tuned. If this much is made public coming from the tightly controlled and secretive Iranian nation, then more will surface and soon either Ahmadinejad’s resignation or the refutation of his resignation will be reported also. I am staking my opinion toward the resignation. I think Ahmadinejad’s days are numbered.
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, end time, jesus

Christianity’s other dirty word

Posted on by elizabethprata

I hear this a lot: “Oh, all that end times stuff is so negative” and, “I don’t want to read the negative parts, I like to focus on the positive.” I wrote the other day about one of the dirty words of Christianity: doctrine. The other dirty word in Christianity lately surfacing is “negative.”

People have an idea that reading Revelation, or the sections of books that discuss the end time are ‘too negative.’ I have a few things to say in response to that attitude, which is becoming a prevailing one.

Hogwash.

If the end time verses are ‘too negative,’ then that means Old Testament books like Haggai or Zephaniah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Micah or Zechariah or…well, most of the Old Testament, is “too negative.” Jeremiah preached 60 years without one convert. Most of his proclamations were ‘negative.’ If someone is too sensitive to read few verses in 1 or 2 Peter, or James, or Matthew, then how are they to stand all of the Old Testament?

More to my personal opinion, though, are my reasons for rejoicing in these scriptures. To me, they are not negative. They are positive. Now before I go further, let me clarify something. After the rapture when the Tribulation begins, it will be a horrible time. The 7 years in which God sends His judgments on the world will be horrible. There is nothing positive to say about that. However, during that time, there will be salvation. There will be grace, in the Two Witnesses and the angels that He sends to proclaim His truth. Those are positive things even in the face of terrible devastation. I don’t wish that time on anyone, but it is a fact that millions WILL go through it, including my family and many of my friends, so in that regard I believe it could be a positive if they indeed see the rapture and the Tribulation judgments as works of a Holy God and thus repent. Since they certainly are not repenting now, then the Tribulation could be the positive thing that helps them see their need for our Holy God.

In addition, I rejoice in His:

Justice
God’s Holy Character is one that includes love, and light, and joy. But His holy character also includes justice. I rejoice at the knowledge that the end time is a time of His justice. Sin will be wiped from the earth! (Dan 9:24).

Renewal
It will be a time of renewal of all things. (2 Peter 3:10)

Faithfulness
The promises He made long ago to rectify injustice, deal with sin, and to reverse the curse will be upheld! It gives me comfort to see that through his Judgments, His Holy character remains constant over epochs, culminating in these so-called ‘negative’ verses in the long-ago uttered promises. It shows His is faithful. He won’t forget.

Salvation
“And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” (Rev 7:10) Many will be saved. In the long run, will one or two or three or even 7 years of Tribulation matter in the face of an eternity with Jesus? it is a blink, a statistical nothing compared to the eons the person saved will get to have with him!

Glorification
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;” (Rev 7:9) Through His grace, we will be glorified in mind, heart, and body.

In sum, here is nothing negative about the end time. Truly, it’s all good!
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Posted in maine, microquake, prophecy, signs of the times

Microquake swarm in Maine

Posted on by elizabethprata

Bangor Daily News out of Maine has this:

Swarm of tiny earthquakes stretches from Belfast to Bucksport

“Searsport, Maine – As many as 30 tiny earthquakes have been detected over the last few days in the area between Belfast and Bucksport, but geologists say there’s no cause for alarm. “Microquakes is what we call them,” Henry Berry, a bedrock geologist with Maine Geological Survey, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “Unless you were right there, you wouldn’t notice them.”

“But plenty of people have been noticing, Searsport Police Chief Dick LaHaye said Tuesday afternoon, just minutes after he dispatched an officer to Savory Road, where a resident had called to inform authorities about another earthquake. They’ve responded to calls about gunshots and shotgun blasts, calls from people who felt their feet vibrate along with the earth and calls about things falling off shelves – all of which were determined to be related to the earthquake, he said.”

“We’ll continue to investigate,” LaHaye said. “There’s obviously something going on. It’s outside of the police purview at this point, but we’ll continue to respond to any and all calls that come in.” The quakes have all measured less than 2 on the Richter magnitude scale, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Conservation. On that scale, the threshold at which damage can occur is magnitude 5.”

“Typically, Maine experiences several small earthquakes of magnitude 2 or less each year, according to Dr. Robert Marvinney, Maine state geologist and director of the Maine Geological Survey. The quakes occur in response to the movement of large rock plates that make up Earth’s crust, even though Maine is not near a plate boundary, where most of the large earthquakes occur, he said.”

“The crust in Maine is still adjusting to the loss of thick ice at the end of the last ice age, and this may be a cause for some earthquakes,” Marvinney said in the release. few people who were near the microquake epicenters contacted authorities because they heard unusual noises, Berry said. “Probably the thing you would notice would be noise – it would be a bang or a pop,” he said, “almost like the ice cracking in a pond in the winter.”

“A dispatcher at Waldo County Regional Communications Center said Tuesday that there have been some calls from concerned residents, mostly from the Searsport area. “They don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “They think it’s blasting.” According to Berry, the tiny quakes are not unusual for the state, although having so many of them in such a small amount of time – called a “swarm” by geologists – is less common.”

“The earthquakes are shallow, geologically speaking, Berry said, although they are located 2 or 3 miles deep into the Earth’s crust. He said that the eastern part of North America is not located near the edge of a tectonic plate, but within a large plate. “Places where there are large and frequent earthquakes, such as California or Japan or Indonesia, those are places that are on plate boundaries,” the geologist said.”

“Earthquake swarms in Maine’s past include about three dozen larger earthquakes that hit the Bar Harbor area in 2006, causing minor rock-fall damage. The largest of those registered 4.2 on the Richter scale. In 1967 in the Augusta area, at least 12 events occurred, with the largest registering 3.9.”

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Posted in end of days. prophecy, pre-tribulation rapture

Being in the family of Christ

Posted on by elizabethprata

So many people have family members who are not saved, and mourn over that fact. But Jesus prophesied this.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34)

“For son dishonors father, Daughter rises against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.” (Micah 7:6)

Jesus is that sword. His name holds power. His Word holds power. Expressing His truth will divide the writhing unsaved and the convicted saved. It will divide those who accept that they personally sin, and those who are deluded into thinking they are good people. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, that is God.” (Luke 18:19)

Jesus makes promises that He will keep. Many of you have lived a life where your faith divided you from your family. Many of you are beginning to experience that now. The end of the end time, which is now, is when the rubber meets the road. The gap between believer and non-believer is widening and soon there will be no fence straddlers. After the rapture, the antichrist will force all to receive a mark of worship. People will have to choose; worship the antichrist, or worship Jesus. There will be no other option. Now, since we are so close to the rapture and then the Tribulation, you can see that widening happening.

It’s heartbreaking to have family members who won’t believe. Even if you became a believer and your life and your attitude are demonstrably changed, and they see all that but they still won’t believe, it is very hard. But Jesus made a promise to us,

“Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time–houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions–and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:28-31)

Even though we may lose family members to satan, Jesus promises recompense. Jesus is not promising here that we will receive a hundred houses, but only using the number to show proportion. Once we abandon carnality and all its bonds, for the sake of His name, we enter the body of Christ, which is a family. He rewards us richly! Just being named as one of the LORD’S family members is riches beyond compare! But knowing that we will be united with men and women who also love Jesus in perfect form is also riches. I will be grateful to call the woman next to me at the wedding supper of the Lamb my sister. I will be honored to call the man across from me at His table my brother. Joy will abound.

Knowing this relieves a micro-bit the mourning I feel for the loss of the souls of my family. But in another one of His promises and in His grace, He affords us prayer, a wonderful blessing. He said that anything that is asked in His name shall be granted. (John 14:14). Pray for your family, brethren! And prepare for your extended family soon to be enlarged. A lot!
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Posted in end time

More booms mystify -this time it’s Virginia

Posted on by elizabethprata

There have been series of booms in various states that mystify locals. Sometimes the booms occur coincident with quakes, and other times, not. Today another state reports mysterious booms: Virginia

Past booms:

Florida, March 2011
Geologist: Shaking Wasn’t Florida Earthquake
“Investigators are trying to solve a bizarre mystery in Flagler County. A wave of people called 911 around 9:30am Friday to report the ground shaking in Flagler County. The calls all came from the Hammock area of Palm Coast. However, people in the north Daytona area, as well as in Deltona and as far north as St. Augustine, said they felt it as well.”

South Carolina, March 2011
Residents report loud booms; CofC says no indication of seismic activity
“Loud booms and shaking across the Charleston area Monday afternoon had people a little jumpy.
Three big booms were reported late Monday afternoon. The reports came from people in different parts of the metro area. A Mt. Pleasant man said it felt like a truck hit his house. Vacationers from Canada reported hearing and feeling a series of loud booms at Folly Beach. Earthquake experts at the College of Charleston said there was no evidence of seismic activity.”

NJ, March 2011
Newark Police Puzzled By Mystery ‘Boom’
Police were investigating the cause of a mysterious noise on Monday after multiple people reported hearing it and feeling it. Residents living in the area of Idlewilde and Weiant avenues called police on Sunday afternoon to report what sounded and felt like a loud explosion. The noise caused homes to shake, residents said. Police and fire crews responded after several people called 911 to report the noise. They were unable to find any sign of an explosion or what might have caused so many people to feel the shaking.

Washington State, March 2011
Mystery boom heard Saturday
A loud boom was heard through Moses Lake Saturday night about 8:30 p.m. Authorities do not know what caused the sound.People described it in a variety of ways from a methane explosion to a sonic boom. “I don’t know what it was, but it was loud,” said Moses Lake police Capt. Dave Ruffin. “It sounded like a transformer blowing (up) down the street.” The Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC) received several reports through 9-1-1 about the sound of an explosion and deputies were dispatched to determine the cause, said Kyle Foreman, Grant County Sheriff’s Office public information officer. “The sound came from the sand dunes, but we couldn’t find anything,” said Foreman.

There were other booms in various states in January 2011 and in late 2010. I wrote about the booms in this piece “The language of God: Thunder.” The one thing that is immediately evident when reading the summary of news articles about these booms, is, they are all extremely similar. Booms are heard. Calls are made. Officials investigate. Quakes, jets, military, drilling etc. is ruled out. End conclusion: officials are mystified. Here is the latest:

Mystery boom rattles parts of Va.
“A loud boom rattled Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore but the source is a mystery. Media outlets report that the mystery boom occurred Tuesday night. It was reported in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk. Some residents reported that the disturbance shook their homes. The U.S. Geological Survey’s reports show no seismic activity at the time. A spokeswoman at Oceana Naval Air Station says a sonic boom from the base wouldn’t be heard as far away as Suffolk. A NASA spokesman says there wasn’t any rocket activity at the Wallops Island facility that could cause such a noise. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Rusnak says there wasn’t any severe weather at the time.”

In Revelation John observed “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” Notice that rumblings and thunder are distinguished from each other. In the Greek (and the King James version) the word rumblings is “voices.”

It’s curious, what IS going on at the throne room of heaven, and what DOES God’s voice sound like? Ezekiel 1:24a gives a clue:

“When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.” That’s pretty loud.

That same language is repeated in Rev 8:5 “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” And again, in Rev 10, 11, and 16. Always the three; lightning, thunder, and rumblings.

I like Wesley’s notes. His take on the voices/rumblings is: “And out of the throne go forth lightnings – Which affect the sight. Voices – Which affect the hearing. Thunderings – Which cause the whole body to tremble. Weak men account all this terrible; but to the inhabitants of heaven it is a mere source of joy and pleasure, mixed with reverence to the Divine Majesty. Even to the saints on earth these convey light and protection; but to their enemies, terror and destruction.”

Revelation talks of the voice of the seven thunders, which could be a voice or they could be an additional set of judgments we were not privy to. The voice told John not to write specifically about the seven thunders. (Rev 10:4) so we don’t know.

Back to the booms. They could have a logical explanation. But I don’t think the explanation is earthly. I believe that they are warning signs, and that once we are gone and the judgments begin, that the earth-dwellers will be hearing a LOT more rumblings that precede the judgments than they ever cared to before. If the voice of God were to be heard on earth to awaken people to His presence, I believe that booms are exactly what they would sound like. Mysterious, terrifying, explanation-defying booms.

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Posted in theology

7 minutes vs. 16 hours: how the media reports delay

Posted on by elizabethprata

A political observation:

7 Minutes Vs. 16 Hours: How The Media Reports Delay

“George Bush was relentlessly mocked for waiting seven minutes (actually waiting for his security detail to ready the exit and for his vehicle to be readied) before leaving the school he was visiting. He calmly finished reading My Pet Goat for the kids before going to his now-ready helicopter.”

“On the other hand, after Obama was told (most likely for the fifteenth time) that the CIA was really, really, really quite confident that Osama bin Ladin was at that compound in Abbottabad, he decided he needed to sleep on it.”

“Sixteen hours later (hours during which Osama might have fled– bear in mind, his courier’s name had just been outed by WikiLeaks), he made up his mind. How does the media report this? Well, relying upon those in Obama’s inner circle (that is to say, his political flunkies and spinners), we’re told this:”

“But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared ‘It’s a go’.” Why does it matter that he did this “before they could speak”? They had spoken already yesterday when they strongly, strongly urged the president to give the order, and he had decided to sleep on it. They were only waiting on him, after all.”

“So, after 16 hours of vacillation, during which the operation might have been rendered a failure by intervening invents, he fist-bumps a piece of furniture and finally makes up his mind. This is something to brag about? This is, in Howard Fineman’s words, “almost Biblical”? Seems like a very cautious, feckless, indecisive individual delaying and delaying on critical decisions and then attempting to sound heroic when he finally does what he’s being paid to do.”

Thanks to OCBill. This is from the Daily Mail, via Drudge.

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Posted in doctrines, end of days. prophecy

The latest Christian dirty word

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is a popular sentiment going around these days among Christians. On the surface, it seems that the people holding to this sentiment are humble, peacemakers, and modest. It seems like the sentiment they hold is one that is good, and would lead to a greater good. It is this: “I can’t stand fights over doctrine. Let’s put all that aside and come together in unity.”

Awww. NOT. See, doctrine is getting a bad rap these days. They make it out to be a dirty word. These days I hear, “Oh, I don’t go in for all that doctrine“. “Doctrinal fights are so messy, and so counter-productive.” “Let’s put aside doctrine and worship in unity.” “I don’t play the doctrine game.”

It is a devastating sentiment. It is false in the extreme. Those who hold this sentiment are not modest, humble, or peacemakers, but rather are enemies of God. Let me explain how and why, through scripture.

“Jesus said, ‘Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.'” (John 7:16 KJV). The word doctrine in the Greek is didache, from which we get didactic. It is defined as “established teaching, especially a summarized body of respected teaching.” If you are a person who holds doctrine in contempt, who sets it aside in the pursuit of a false unity, who doesn’t ‘play that game’, you are saying that the teaching of God is of no importance to you. That His truth, delivered by Jesus, from God, to men, is something you are willing to set aside for the sake of unity. Unity like that is simply holding hands, singing Kumbayah, and sinking in the sand, for there is no foundational truth to support the people who claim to profess. But at least you will all go down in unity.

So if you set aside the teaching of Jesus, which is His truth, what kind of unity are you really getting? If you are not willing to “stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer” (1 Tim 1:3) then you are not willing to oppose false teachers, as Paul was commanding Timothy in that verse, and be extension, us.

I stand on doctrine. I contend for doctrine. I love doctrine. Doctrine is the most important thing there is. Why? It is TRUTH. Doctrine is the teaching of Jesus Christ.

If you are not willing to put up with sound doctrine, then you are willing to “suit your own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Tim 4:3). After all, if you won’t contend for sound doctrine, then you will accept anything, right? Churches where doctrine is set aside will let falsity will creep in, and right away, too. Individual Christians who put aside doctrine will wind up having tickled ears instead of hard-won battle wounds, because they are too sensitive to fight for truth.

If you don’t ‘play that game’ then you will be “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;” (Ephesians 4:14). In other words, if you don’t know what you are uniting over, then you will be tossed by every little thing.

In looking up the topic of doctrine in the bible, we read that Doctrines
•Are from God.
•Are taught by Scripture.
•Are godly.
•Immorality is condemned by.
•Lead to fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
•Lead to holiness.
•Bring no reproach on.

Further, we read that–
•MINISTERS SHOULD
◦Be nourished up in.
◦Attend to.
◦Hold, in sincerity.
◦Hold steadfastly.
◦Continue in.
◦Speak things which become.
•Saints obey, from the heart.
•Saints abide in.
•A faithful walk adorns.
•The obedience of saints leads to surer knowledge of.

In addition,
•THOSE WHO OPPOSE ARE
◦Proud.
◦Ignorant.
◦Not to be received.
◦To be avoided.
•Not endured by the wicked.

If you don’t play that old doctrine game, if you think doctrine is of no matter, if you seek unity instead of a messy fight to stand on the truth of ‘Him who sent me,’ go right ahead. All of the above is something that you have given up. And that is a lot to give up. As a matter of fact, doctrine is everything. Without it, you have nothing. Think I am exaggerating? Nope. All of the bible is doctrine! “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

There are not ‘many doctrines’ – ergo there is nothing to fight over. There is only one, unified doctrine of God. It is the heart of faith. That is why I stand for doctrine. It is why I am willing to fight over it. Are you?
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Posted in alabama boy, end time, tornado

Miracle of Alabama: Parents watch as eight-year-old boy is sucked into tornado … but LIVES to tell tale

Posted on by elizabethprata

UK Daily Mail has a great tornado story with an miracle ending: He is the boy who got sucked up into a tornado – and lived to tell the tale. Eight-year-old Reginald Epps Jr was picked up off his feet and pulled into the swirling darkness when one of the Alabama twisters tore through his home. As his family cowered beneath him he was carried through the air some 30ft before being set down again with just cuts and bruises. When the wind died down his terrified family looked up to see him walking towards them – and were stunned to see he was still alive. Reginald Jr, known as RJ, was at home in Coaling, Alabama when the tornado swept through at 200mph. At home were his father Reginald, 35, mother Danielle, 36, and brothers James and Joel, six and four. Speaking from his hospital bed in the Regional Medical Centre in Tuscaloosa, Mr Epps said that the family were watching the TV when they heard the tornado could be coming towards them. The firefighter said: ‘It was just after 5pm and I was due to be at work an hour later, but I thought I’d wait and see what was going to happen.”

“‘I had just got some flashlights for me and my wife and we were all in the kitchen when we heard the wind pick up. Then the windows at the back of the house blew out, it was like they popped.”

“‘I shouted at RJ to get up and come with us to the bedroom but when we made it in this roar started.”

‘I looked up and the walls and the roof came away and RJ few off with them. ‘It happened in an instant, he just got sucked away from me. I tried to reach up for him but I couldn’t stop him. It was like he was on a bit of string being pulled from behind. ‘Then I got down on top of James whilst Danielle got on top of Joel to protect them. I got hit by flying glass and other stuff and we held on and prayed for our lives. ‘Danielle was saying: ‘God, protect us! God protect us!’ and I said to James in his ear, I will never forget his face: ‘It’s OK buddy, I’m here for you, I’ll protect you’.’After just 30 seconds the tornado passed on, leaving their home utterly destroyed. Mr Epps said: ‘When it settled down I could see this dark silhouette walking towards us and realised it was RJ. ‘I couldn’t believe it.”

“‘I shouted: ‘Hey! Come here’ and he came towards us and we huddled together for a bit longer until I was sure it was over.’ Mr Epps, RJ and James were all taken to hospital and the children were released that day with just cuts and bruises. Mr Epps is still being treated for a punctured lung, three fractured ribs and cuts and bruises.”

The Daily Mail(linked above) has great photos, as usual
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Posted in jesus, now is the day of your salvation, prophecy

Encouragement, "The Little Hut"

Posted on by elizabethprata

From a Twitter buddy via New Rochelle NY Holy Trinity’s website. I hope it encourages you as it did me:

The Little Hut

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened and everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger.

“God, how could you do this to me?” he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

“How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man of his rescuers.
“We saw your smoke signal,of course. How else would we have found you?” they replied.

It’s easy to get discouraged sometimes when things appear to be going badly. But we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.

For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for it.

You say, “It’s impossible.”
God says: “All thing are possible.” (Luke 18:27)

You say, “I’m too tired.”
God says: “I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28-30)

You say, “Nobody really loves me.”
God says: “I love you.” (John 3:16,13:34)

You say, “I can’t go on.”
God says: “My grace is sufficient.” (II Cor. 12:9 – Psalm 91:15)

You say, “I can’t figure things out.”
God says: “I will direct your steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say, “I can’t do it.”
God says: “You can do all things in Me.” (Phil 4:13)

You say, “It’s not worth it.”
God says: “It will be worth it.” (Romans 8:28)

You say, “I can’t forgive myself.”
God says: “I forgive you.” (I John 1:9 – Romans 8:1)

You say, “I can’t manage.”
God says: “I will supply all your needs.” (Phil 4:19)

You say, “I’m afraid.”
God says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear.” (II Tim.1:7)

You say, “I’m always worried and frustrated.”
God says: “Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say, “I don’t have enough faith.”
God says: “I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)

You say, “I’m not smart enough.”

God says: “I give you wisdom.” (I Cor. 1:30)

You say, “I feel all alone.”
God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)

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Posted in birds point levee, flood, new madrid, prophecy

Cairo Il. mayor orders town evacuated: huge pressurized sand boil (Updated)

Posted on by elizabethprata

“CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The mayor of a small southern Illinois city threatened by two swollen rivers ordered all residents to leave by midnight Saturday because a “sand boil,” an area where river water was seeping up through the ground behind the levee, had become dangerously large. Cairo Mayor Judson Childs issued a mandatory evacuation order for the city of 2,800 residents late Saturday afternoon hours after meeting with Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, the Army Corps of Engineers officer tasked with deciding whether to blow a hole in the Birds Point levee in Missouri, downstream from Cairo, to relieve pressure on levees along the dangerously high Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Walsh, who toured Cairo’s levee area, described the boil that has been growing since it was first spotted Tuesday as the largest he had ever seen, the Southeast Missourian newspaper reported.”

The situation in that part of the country is dire. “Southern Missouri has gotten 473 percent of its annual average rainfall, says the Weather Channel. Major flooding continues in the Mid-Mississippi and Lower Ohio Valleys. In some locations, river levels are either reaching record levels, or are at levels not seen since the 1930s. Rain continues today and is expected to continue.” The levees are groaning under pressure to hold all this water back. One solution was to blow up the levee where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet, The Birds Point Levee. from barges loaded with 250 tons of explosive. (I wonder how the New Madrid Seismic Zone will appreciate that).

Blowing the levee would relieve pressure on the levee but on the downside it would inundating roughly 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland (200 square miles) and 90 homes. The region has never had this much rain, period. Rainfall is at catastrophic levels and 5 more inches are predicted. The rivers are already at historic flood stages and with the addition or more rain it could mean that the rivers stay at historic levels for five more days.

When the action to blow up the levee was first proposed, MO officials sued the Federal Government to stop it. Late this week, the Feds declined to stop the Corps of Engineers’ decision, and now the decision rests one man, Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh. The key marker for whether to blow up the levee is if the river reaches 61 feet, and it is at 59.62 today as of 5 AM.

“If General Walsh orders the levee breached, the two barges will pump explosives into an 11,000-foot system of pipes buried below the levee. A detonation crew will then blast the levee, allowing water to tear through the gap at an estimated 550,000 cubic feet per second, which they expect to drastically lower water levels upstream. Over the following 24 hours, the crew would blast two more holes in the levee downstream, allowing the water to re-enter the river,” reported the NY Times yesterday.

Add to the swollen rivers, the historic levels, the unprecedented rain, now a sand boil near the levee. “Walsh, who toured Cairo’s levee area, described the boil that has been growing since it was first spotted Tuesday as the largest he had ever seen, the Southeast Missourian newspaper reported. Sand boils occur when high-pressure water pushes under flood walls and levees and wells up through the soil behind them. They’re a potential sign of trouble.”

We know the weather has gone crazy. I wrote in this week’s newsletter (email me to sign up) that “Terrible weather this week! I say that every week! And it just gets worse! The Ecuadoran folks at Banos are enduring an erupting volcano spewing boulders the size of truck raining down on them. Earthquakes are on track for a 200% rise in most magnitudes. The tornado outbreak the south went through this week is the second worst-ever, and it may become THE worst before all the counting is done. And now come the floods, drought is still rampant, and wildfires in Texas are still wiping out whole counties.

Superlatives are continually being used. Wikipedia defines superlative as “In grammar, the superlative of an adjective or adverb is the greatest form of that adjective or adverb. This indicates that something has at least one feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to in a given context.” Most, Biggest, Worst, and the ever-popular Record-breaking and the like are routinely attributed to today’s weather events. Superlatives lose their meaning when the degrees they are being compared to routinely exceed the comparison, every day. These days weather events are demonstrably off the charts. When The Tribulation starts, the charts will be shredded, because there will be no context for what will be happening. Do you see how close we are?”

Man has covered the earth with infrastructure, manipulated the land to yield life-supporting food or factories. When more rain than is expected comes, or bigger than ever tornadoes, or earthquakes where they have never been, it is disrupting in a way that we can not even foresee nor even calculate monetarily. Alabama has suffered massive train damage, it is not even being reported. The railway system as suffered unimaginable destruction. Railways are important to the flow of getting food and other good in and around the country. Roads, bridges, culverts, and public buildings are wiped out in many areas of the south. Do we have money to pay for rebuilding all that? No. Plus engage in three overseas wars, donate to the UN, fulfill donation pledges to Chile, Haiti, and Japan for help in their time of earthquake need? No.

You see how easily the house of cards we have built on the earth can be dismantled. This time, just some extra rain did it and the middle section of the country is at risk.

UPDATE: Flood may top 1927 record “A surge of water not seen since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 is forecast in coming days to test the enormous levees lining the Mississippi River on its course through the Deep South, adding another element of danger to a region already raked by deadly tornadoes and thunderstorms. Mississippi’s and Louisiana’s governors issued flood warnings Thursday and declared states of emergency.”
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