Category: prophecy

Posted in jesus, landslides, prophecy, south korea

South Korea: 11 inches of rain in one day triggers massive landslides

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Debt limit fight in our nation’s capitol is all-consuming and claiming our entire attention right now. As a matter of fact, I have several South American Spanish language channels on my television lineup and the other night they devoted quite a bit of time to our issue, with Spanish-language reporters present and filming first-person in Congress, and interviewing Congressmen afterwards, with the interviews translated into Spanish. The debt limit fight is claiming many nations’ attention right now. The debt limit fight has global repercussions, and I plan another blog entry later to discuss the effects of such political crises.

But meanwhile, there have been terrible rains, storms, and landslides in South Korea. Chinese media reports, “62 killed in South Korea Flood“

“South Korea is struggling to cope after the worst rainfall in decades triggered landslides and flooding. Residents in the worst affected areas are worried and scared as the disaster claimed 62 lives with 9 still missing. … The national weather agency says Seoul received more than 300 millimeters of rain on Wednesday (11.8 inches), the largest single-day in July since records began in 1907. And the downpour had left more than 11 thousand people homeless and flooded 978 hectares of farmland across the country.”

Below is a video taken from inside a moving vehicle on a highway looking outward through the windshield at the road ahead at the moment that a landslide occurred, sweeping cars and trucks into the woods.

As I said, our debt limit fight is important, but please always remember to pray for the people in the world who are rendered homeless, hungry, or grief-stricken because of the continual natural disasters affecting so many…Those without Jesus must be petrified at what is happening to the world. Those who are Christians must need encouragement to persevere in the faith. Both groups need our prayers.
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Posted in end time, pisgah, prophecy, volcano

About that volcanic activity in California…was DutchSinse right?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’d reported a few days ago about a dust-up between a citizen scientist called DutchSinse who said he had discovered volcanic venting at extinct/dormant/inactive volcanic craters in southern and central California. The USGS had felt compelled to issue a press release denying that the anonymous videographer’s claim (but not that data existed showing something, only that he had interpreted it wrong.) In that exchange between the Government Agency and the anonymous videographer (a ludicrous event to begin with) the USGS had gone on record July 29 stating:

“USGS volcanologists evaluating the situation find nothing to indicate that the NEXRAD feature results from volcanic activity. Satellite images from the same period DO NOT SHOW the steam or ash clouds that accompany volcanic activity…” .

So…there’s a situation? Anyway…

The point of the essay was to discuss the difficulty in the average citizen to find truth in media reports and to trust what the government is telling us, a condition that exists in parallel form in the church with the warnings about false teachers, false doctrines and false prophesies. The stress of the average person in attempting to sort out what is undeniably increasingly horrific news just at the time when trust in media is failing most is getting to stratospheric levels. I was tickled to read that as Obama took the debt ceiling debate to twitter, he lost 40,000 followers. People are plainly disgusted.

So who to trust? Well, DutchSinse came back with two interesting videos. One was a clip showing MORE plumes of what he called venting, and right along the line of extinct/dormant volcanic craters in the Mono-Inyo chain. USGS says this about the volcanic chain–

“The Long Valley Caldera is only one part of a large volcanic system in eastern California that also includes the Mono-Inyo Craters volcanic chain. This chain extends from Mammoth Mountain at the southwest rim of the caldera northward 25 miles to Mono Lake. Eruptions along this chain began 400,000 years ago, and Mammoth Mountain itself was formed by a series of eruptions ending 50,000 years ago. The volcanic system is still active. Scientists have determined that eruptions occurred in both the Inyo Craters and Mono Craters parts of the volcanic chain as recently as 600 years ago and that small eruptions occurred in Mono Lake sometime between the mid-1700’s and mid-1800’s.”

In successive videos, he reported 6 vents in all. That, along with recent earthquake activity in the same area reaching magnitude 6.0 caused him to conclude that the extinct/dormant volcanoes were waking up. Not such an outlandish assessment as one might think, ever since the extinct chain that had never erupted in Eritrea woke up one day and killed 32 people. (Nabro). By the way that situation also had citizen reporters and amateur scientists alerting the world that the eruption had occurred. They were initially marginalized because Nabro had never erupted, but they knew what they knew and they persisted. Within days they were proven right.

The second interesting video is one where a second USGS press release denies their earlier denials. Or something. These things get tangled up if you don’t follow them in detailed fashion, but the USGS release states “Satellite images from the same period do not show the steam or ash clouds that accompany volcanic activity, and there is no seismicity in the vicinity indicative of volcanic unrest/eruption.” But DutchSinse shows that there is quake activity in the vicinity and that the satellites do show vent-cloud activity. Now, maybe the quake activity in the vicinity isn’t the right kind of quake activity, but there was seismicity, a 6.0 quake was recorded, and there were clouds. I looked at the radar and I looked at the quake charts…so…again, the dustup continues.

Below, NASA Pisgah Crater photo

Remember in 1997 two volcano movies came out at the same time, Volcano and Dante’s Peak? At the time I thought it was ridiculous to make a movie about such an unrealistic disaster as Volcano had in setting the disaster in LA with eruptions and all. But is is not unrealistic. There are active volcanoes in the Long Valley area.

This trailer is from Volcano and has the campy tagline “The Coast is Toast” and featured tough-guy Tommy Lee Jones.

Dante’s Peak was considered the more sober and scientific movie of the two and featured tough-girl Linda Hamilton. I’ve digressed. To the issue at hand- The back and forth between the government agency and the anonymous citizen will likely continue. But we can all rest assured that this information from the California Seismic Safety Commission is true:

“Volcanoes: More than 500 volcanic vents have been identified in the State of California. At least 76 of these vents have erupted, some repeatedly, during the last 10,000 years. Sooner or later, volcanoes in California will erupt again, and they could have serious impacts on your health and safety. — Miller, C. Dan, 1989, Potential Hazards from Future Volcanic Eruptions in California: USGS Bulletin 1847, 17p.”

My money is on “sooner.”
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Posted in bible jesus, false teachers, prophecy

What is "deception by investment"?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We are told that in the last days, deceivers will come. They will carry false doctrines, false teachings, and they will want to follow their own lusts instead of sound doctrine. This web page has a list of all the verses in the bible that speak to false doctrine. This web page lists all the warnings about false prophets (which are teachers, too).

In some cases, it is easy to tell who is false. Todd Bentley down in Lakeland FL was easy to spot as false for Christians – but still deceived a great many. People assume he got all those tattoos before he came to the Lord but he got them after, most of them in 2006, just two years before he hit the big time with his (false) ‘revival’. That was one clue that was pretty easy to track and confirm. Hitting old ladies during boisterous healing sessions was another.

Other false teachers we’re warned about, like in 2 Timothy 3:5, have a form of godliness but deny its power … those teachers are harder to spot. When I was a brand-new Christian and had not yet begun attending church, I watched Joel Osteen quite frequently. It took me a while to realize that I was always still hungry. His preaching sounded good but left me empty. I referred to my Bible after his half hour speeches but soon came to realize that he often used the verses out of context or twisted them to give us hope for an earthly success gained in our own strength.

I was a babe in the faith then, still on milk, but the Word is so transparent and so sure that relying on it brought me clarity as to Osteen’s teaching. (Hebrews 5:12; 1 Cor 3:2). I credit the Holy Spirit with it all. He is our teacher, (John 14:6). He molds character (Gal 5:22-23). If we submit to His teaching and allow Him to mold us, soon we will see through His lens more and more and not the craven lens that is our sinful flesh.

But because we ARE flesh, it gets tangled in everything. We can’t separate the flesh from who we are but continual submission and obedience regenerates us and we grow in His Christlikeness. Occasionally you have to take a look at a spot or blemish inside yourself. It’s hard to excise embedded fleshly lies from spiritual glorious truths. Jesus said in Mark 9:43- “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire…” Excising the flesh where it has fallen prey to sin or where lies are embedded within is sometimes a violently difficult process.

Sometimes someone will come up to you and say “So and so may be a false teacher bringing false doctrines.” You get angry, because you like that teacher. The first reaction will always be fleshly. Translation: emotional. People’s reactions will range from peeved to furious. When my friend and I were talking about false teachers and she asked me about Joyce Meyer, I said I believed Mrs. Meyer teaches a different gospel and therefore is false. She agreed. She wasn’t angry because she had already come to the same conclusion I had and therefore no anger flared up. But when I said I had concerns about Beth Moore, she got ticked because she had not come to that conclusion. Challenging Beth Moore as a teacher was also challenging my friend as a student. That anger arises because of something called “deception by investment”.

When a person begins to suspect their favorite teacher is a false teacher, they continue with the deception because they’ve invested so much of their life in them. They’ve invested their reputation. They’ve invested their money. They’d rather persist in deception than admit they were deceived and abandon their investment.

When we invest time, energy, even money in a teacher or a ministry and then some bubbling reservations or charges are raised, our fleshly response is to dismiss them out of hand. But that’s exactly when the lie firms its grip. Look at it as a morning glory.

I had a morning glory on the left side of my door for about a year. Boy, that thing grew fast! It soon wound around the wrought iron plant stand and up over the awning. The flowers looked so pretty in the morning when they bloomed! But then my landlord said that he had to excavate that area and was going to pave it over. I had to get rid of the wrought iron stand and the flowers.

I’d never dealt with morning glory flowers before. I was amazed at how firmly they were entrenched! I thought I could just pull them down but no way. I thought I could just use a knife to cut them away but nope, that didn’t work either. I had to use scissors and personally excise each strand. It took hours. Each vine was stronger than it looked.

A year later, on the right side of my door, I spotted some more morning glories! Look at the bottom of the photo below. I really can’t tell where the root is, or which stalk is the main one. Just suddenly one day there was a clump.

In the photo below, we can see how tightly wound the vine is to the thing which it claims, in this case, an old cable wire.

Left unattended, there will be shoots sprouting off to go in other directions to claim other things to cling to.

This how false teaching is. It emerges from whence you least expect. You’re surprised by it. Its root or origin is often difficult to determine. If left unattended, it winds among your flesh tighter and tighter. It gets harder and harder to excise. And left unattended for a long time, this happens:

How long did it take for that tree to grow into and up over the metal fence? It took decades, but the end result was that there was no way to remove the fence from the tree without killing the tree. They had become one flesh.

Here is my practical advice when hearing a charge of false teaching, either about yourself, or about another favored teachers you’ve invested in: be ready for the flesh to rebel. It will flare up like a match.

Your feelings will be towering, monumental, roaring. They will flare up! But don’t let that be your response. It is only a fleshly reaction. Instead, what happens to a match? It burns out quickly. Let the emotions about the charge of false teaching leveled on your favorite teacher dissipate. If you don’t allow them to lead you, they will dissipate. Then begin the work the Holy Spirit wants to lead you into. He will either confirm or deny the charge, but allowing yourself to let the anger drive you means you are allowing the morning glory vine access to a tighter grip. And we have seen what happens when we allow the flesh to lead us into failure to explore truth: a dead tree.

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Mt 7:19)

But the Lord is merciful. If you are far along in refusing to believe this teacher or that teacher is false because you have invested so much into him or her, if you do begin the examination process by repenting and pleading to be out of deception, you will be forgiven. It first begins with swallowing your pride.

“God sends Isaiah to foretell the ruin of his people. Many hear the sound of God’s word, but do not feel the power of it. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind, because they will not receive the truth in the love of it. But no humble inquirer after Christ, need to fear this awful doom, which is a spiritual judgment on those who will still hold fast their sins. Let every one pray for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, that he may perceive how precious are the Divine mercies, by which alone we are secured against this dreadful danger. Yet the Lord would preserve a remnant, like the tenth, holy to him. And blessed be God, he still preserves his church; however professors or visible churches may be lopped off as unfruitful, the holy seed will shoot forth, from whom all the numerous branches of righteousness shall arise.” (Matthew Henry commentary).

Be careful out there, brethren. Don’t let the morning glory vine choke off truth through its fleshly grip but instead, let His pure glory lead you into truth. Even if you have to cut off your hand to do it.

Posted in prophecy, salvation, woman at the well

Reviewing lessons from the woman at the well

Posted on by elizabethprata

The woman at the well in John 4:1-42 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes, and the glory of the Word is that each time I read it I’m moved by a different part.

If you are not familiar with the event, then take a moment to read it.

The woman who came at noon to get water at the well met Jesus. He struck up a conversation with her. As the conversation progressed she realized He is the Messiah and He confirmed it. The Disciples returned and watched and listened to the conversation. She ran off back to town, excited, to tell the news. Sounds simple, eh? There are many truths to be plumbed from this passage.

Here is what struck me today:

First, she might have been marginalized because of her promiscuous reputation, but she was not ignorant. She was well aware of the scriptures. She not only knew Jacob as the previous owner of the well, she knew that Jacob was her forefather in the religion. (John 4:12). Soon she understood that Jesus was not just “Sir”, but a prophet. (John 4:19). Immediately she took the opportunity to ask Him a religious question in attempt to gain understanding on a religious debate that had been going around, regarding where the Samaritans should worship. (John 4:20). I know that she used the question as a diversionary tactic to bring the conversation away from her sins, but the fact that she asked it on the heels of her discernment that the man she was peaking with is a prophet shows she understood in His authority enough to ask it in the first place.

By verse 25 she revealed that she knew the scriptures well enough to speak of her faith and hope in the promise of the coming Messiah. (John 4:25). In verse 26 Jesus states that He is the Messiah.

They talk a bit more and then excited, she runs into town to share the Good News, bringing back with her the men of the town to see for themselves. This tells of great faith and clarity in the extraordinary moment she found herself in. I mean, her joy in learning that Messiah had come trumped everything. She ran to town to tell everyone- including her 4 ex-husbands. When was the last time you had enough joy in the Word to share with people who hated you enough to put you out? Including your ex-husband??

Now let’s look at the theological implications. Here was a woman going about her daily business. Walking to the well didn’t take extraordinary strength or talent. Drawing water was humdrum. So her mind was likely on neutral, as mine usually is when I do the dishes or vacuum. As she got to the well she encountered something unusual, a Jew, talking to her, (“for the Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” John 4:9). Rather than shrink from something unusual, she asked questions, open and curious as to what was going on. Compare that to yourself. If you were involved in a mundane task, like at the checkout line at the grocery store, and someone out of the ordinary started talking to you, what would you do? Would you continue on your way, or would you look them in the eyes and converse, curious? Too many people today are wrapped up in the daily mundane, too dulled to notice something unusual, like salvation standing in front of them.

Further, the woman knew her scripture, and applied them to her immediate situation. How many of us do that today?

Last, when the disciples returned, they saw the woman and Jesus talking, but it was expressly stated, “And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” We should take that to heart as a lesson, as well. When salvation is knocking for your friend or loved one, and the door is opening, be sensitive to the situation. Don’t squash it, or hurry it, or interfere with it.

The woman went to get water, and met with the object of her faith in the flesh! It was a momentous occasion. She had been expecting the Messiah but was sensitive enough to the open door to walk through it: “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

If you are saved, then be aware of the people that the Lord puts in your path. They’re there for a reason. If you are not saved, then be sensitive to the knock at the door of your heart. He sends people to us to draw us to Him. Listen. Don’t be in such a rush that you focus on the mundane task to the exclusion of salvation standing in front of you.
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Posted in bank of america, economy, prophecy

Too big to fail? Maybe Bank of America is not too big

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m not posting a lot of my own stuff this week, but I wanted to point you toward Michael T. Snyder’s blog entry today:
“Too Big To Fail?: 10 Banks Own 77 Percent Of All U.S. Banking Assets“

His blog entry contains a devastating amount of information that concludes with saying the ‘too big to fail banks’ are likely to fail soon, one of which is Bank of America. And even as I finished reading the essay, the first third of which I posted below, then I read this news: “Bank of America needs 50Billion or may go bankrupt“

And of course, there was a bank run and a stocks shedding.

Here is Michael T. Snyder’s excerpt of today’s blog entry, I recommend it in its entirety.–

“Back during the financial crisis of 2008, the American people were told that the largest banks in the United States were “too big to fail” and that was why it was necessary for the federal government to step in and bail them out. The idea was that if several of our biggest banks collapsed at the same time the financial system would not be strong enough to keep things going and economic activity all across America would simply come to a standstill. Congress was told that if the “too big to fail” banks did not receive bailouts that there would be chaos in the streets and this country would plunge into another Great Depression. Since that time, however, essentially no efforts have been made to decentralize the U.S. banking system. Instead, the “too big to fail” banks just keep getting larger and larger and larger. Back in 2002, the top 10 banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Unfortunately, these giant banks are also colossal mountains of risk, debt and leverage. They are incredibly unstable and they could start coming apart again at any time. None of the major problems that caused the crash of 2008 have been fixed. In fact, the U.S. banking system is more centralized and more vulnerable today than it ever has been before…”
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Posted in israel, manasseh tribe, prophecy

"Lost" tribe of Manasseh given go-ahead for return to Israel

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’d written on June 27 about the “lost” tribe of Manasseh were captured by the Assyrians and carted off in the 8th century BC. They are now living in the far hinterlands of northeast India, near Burma, and have for 2700 years practiced the Jewish faith precisely as the original tribe did when they were captured.

For several years now, a representative has been appealing for aliyah, being allowed to return, en masse. They were making good progress until a few years ago when previous Prime Minister Ehud Barak inexplicably stopped all petitions and refused to hear them. In June of this year they had another meeting which was better received. The Rabbinical council acknowledged that this group is of the Manasseh tribe, and all that then remained was the go-ahead for the process to begin for them to return to Israel. That permission was granted this week.

Resolution to Bring Bnei Menashe Home
“The government has decided to draft a resolution to bring India’s Bnei Menashe populace home to Israel, after years of lobbying by the Shavei Israel Organization. The 2,700-year-old group, which claims its ancestry from the Lost Tribe of Menashe, has maintained many of the laws and traditions written in the Torah.The resolution, backed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, is expected to go to the Cabinet by the end of this month.”

We often think of miracles of the blind suddenly seeing, cancerous tumors disappearing, tornadoes missing one particular house though devastation is all around. But this is a miracle too. It is a fact that by the second generation all displaced cultures begin assimilating. All displaced cultures absorb the culture around them. They lose their language, or it begins to be peppered with phrases from the culture in which they live. Maintaining perfect mirror-like images of the original culture, though thousands of miles away from their homeland has never occurred in all of anthropology- except the Jewish people. This is truly a miracle, a 2,700 year old miracle! If you are interested, here is an article from Haaretz newspaper from 1999, tracing the Manasseh Tribe’s winding history to the place they live in now:

Bnei Menashe in India

“Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind.” (Ezekiel 39:28)

As we  read the rest of the news, particularly as it relates to Israel, please ponder the miracle that this is. His providential care is eternal. His promises from centuries ago hold in perfect truth until the day of their fulfillment. That means His promises for us, too, His church and bride, also are eternal, timeless, and perfect. He is mighty, not losing even one of His sparrows, whether they are in exile in the mountains of India for 2700 years, or are in the rolling hills of Georgia, He knows where all His children are, and He will not leave any one behind.
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Posted in bible jesus, end of days, end time, prophecy, sin

Why TV cooking shows have morphed into adventure programs

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been talking about two things lately. First, are the increasing superlatives that must be attached to describe the events we’re seeing in the world. Because Jesus likened the time to birth pangs, we know that birth pangs get worse and worse, more and more painful as the big event nears. The weather is record shattering, this flood is the worst ever, this tornado outbreak is the biggest in history. Yet the superlatives keep getting attached to the events in ever bigger form as the events grow larger and records keep getting shattered. It is an upward spiral that eventually will bring everyone down.

The second thing I’ve been mentioning is ever-deepening sin. Sin’s depths know no bounds. In 1969, Charles Manson was discovered to have led a bevy of mind-controlled females and males into committing the Tate/LaBianca murders in California. Nine people died and it absolutely shocked the country. Nowadays if there aren’t at least nine killings on a television show the ratings dip. As one sin becomes passe, another worse one has to take its place. There is simply no where else to go for the rush except to top it and try and repeat the rush next time.

This deepening of sin and its combined adrenaline rush is played out in television show titles. I was noticing on the television listings about the nature of the titles of reality shows. The Food Network for example. In decades past, the shows used to feature gourmet chefs who were galloping, or were frugal. The titles were benign, inoffensive, charming. The very first cooking show on television was James Beard in 1946. (no, not Julia Child, she came along more than a decade later, in 1962). Beard’s show was simply called “I Love To Eat.”

Nowadays we have gone from:

Top Chef … to … Chopped …to… Iron Chef …to… Extreme Chef. Where once upon a time, people were content to simply sit still for half an hour and watch a competent chef teach them something new, we watch quick-edits of chefs running in the desert and dodging hailstones while extracting ingredients from a block of ice or using a Swiss Army knife as a lone cooking utensil, being are pushed to their physical and mental limit. All for a good pasta.

In 2003 “The Restaurant,” a reality show featuring two owners at odds with each other, was compelling enough to spawn more restaurant shows, each with a more adrenaline-rush name:

Hell’s Kitchen … to … Restaurant Nightmares… to …Restaurant Battle …to … Restaurant Impossible. Impossible! As each television season unveils a new show, the names have to be tougher, the people participating in them have to be rougher, the fights bigger, the injuries worse. And these are the cooking shows. In order to lure increasingly jaded audiences, they entice them with teasers promising blood, crashes, fisticuffs. Again, I’m talking about cooking shows.

In 2000, The History Channel aired a 46-minute episode titled “Ice Road Truckers” as part of the ‘Suicide Missions’ series. The IRT episode became a break out show on its own. After four years, Ice Road Truckers alone wasn’t good enough (not enough of them sank beneath the cracking ice to drown their drivers in a frozen lake?) so we got IRT: Deadliest Roads in the Himalayas with constant quick-cuts to crushed vehicles at the bottom of precipitous inclines.

The shows titles and of course their material are getting more extreme. I think if we looked at a prime time television line-up schedule from 1965 and then looked at one now we’d be shocked at the mentions of extreme, death, deadly, etc. Like this- What’s after ‘Fear Factor’? “Terror Factor”?

The only place to go is down. Television is rapidly becoming more and more shallow, nasty, and polluted. However, being a mirror for our culture, it is only reflective of the people who watch it and our descent into sin is also rapid, polluted, and nasty. It is a progression James 1:15 aptly describes: “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The lust he describes is not just a sexual lust, it is a coveteousness, desire, sensuality that seeks to fill the emptiness inside. That emptiness is a place just waiting for Jesus, His light, His holiness, His righteousness. But if they do not accept Jesus, they continually seek to fill it with ever deepening poisons and perversions.

Unbelievers say that they are free. They are not, they are slaves to their lusts. The television schedule shows us that, plainly. But Jesus is the INSTANT answer to the need for that emptiness to be filled. He is waiting to fill it. You will be a participant in His plan to regenerate you from the inside out. He replaces lusts and poison and depravity with light and holiness and righteousness. You feel fresher. You no longer seek and seek and seek the next high, because you have finally found the ultimate High: Jesus.
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Posted in crime, end of days, end time, holy spirit, prophecy, restrainer

Copper thievery and sinful conditions

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sin doesn’t end. Sin doesn’t settle. Sin doesn’t shrink. It expands, creeping bigger, more, deeper. A lie in your mind changes to a lie out loud, to two lies, to a tangled web … There is no end to Jesus’ love and conversely, there is no end to sin. The heights of Jesus love are mirrored by the depths of sin, and sin can go pretty deep.

Jesus, Paul, and Peter outlined the specifics of what was to come at the end of the age (in the Tribulation). But they all also taught about moral conditions that would be upon humanity. Jesus said “love will wax cold”, (Mt 24:12); Paul said they will be brutal, unloving, and without self-control (2 Timothy 3:3); Peter said the truth will be blasphemed and covetousness will rule (2 Peter2:2-3) just to give a few examples.

Jesus also said that the Tribulation will be a time like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, the evil of man was so great that he only had evil thoughts, continuously. (Gen 6:5) That is 100% sin saturation! We are not at 100% saturation of evil now, but we are sliding down the hill quickly. After believers are removed from the earth at the rapture (Gen 6:3) and the ministry of restraint of the Holy Spirit is removed, (2Thessalonians 2:6) evil will have free reign to unleash whatever it will. It will be pretty bad. Jesus said that unless He cut short the days, no one would be left alive on the earth, it will be so evil and violent. (Mt 24:22).

So let me give you an example of the descent of sin. We are not in the Tribulation now, but we do have to move from the level of earthly sin we’re in now toward that 100% mark and I believe we are seeing the speeding up of it now, in this time just prior to the rapture.

The metaphor of deepening sin is encapsulated in an example of the copper thieves.

Copper thievery is a sin that has always plagued us. But it has spiked exponentially, said police in Alabama. “Record copper prices have caused a surge in U.S. copper thefts, plaguing law enforcement and local governments and prompting states to pass new laws. “Since the beginning of the 2004 spike in copper prices, copper theft and copper prices have been directly linked,” a 2010 U.S. Department of Energy study on copper wire thefts said.”

Thieves used to take coils from constructions sites, empty houses, when no one was around. Then they began stealing copper from churches. They graduated to gutters, and these kind of bandits are called “gutter grabbers.” Most often the house is occupied, the thieves not caring if people are about. They they moved on up to larger booty: transformers. In this article titled, “Antioch Copper Wire Thieves Reach New High – Or Low” you see, the lows just keep getting lower. “Just days after Pacific Gas and Electric lamented the ongoing and widespread theft of copper wire from its Antioch power poles, the utility is now revealing that a particularly brazen thief – or thieves – stole an entire transformer from a power pole.”

The booty is getting bigger, and so is the personal risk, both to the owners of the copper and to the thieves. More of them who attempt to steal copper from live wires are getting fatally electrocuted.

So then they ‘graduated’ from transformers to whole air conditioning units, attached to houses where the people are living. Stealing the unit puts the people inside at risk, of course. In a heat wave people die. Stealing the scrap metal or copper from live gas lines means houses explode, sometimes with the people inside them. These thieves sunk even lower, stealing the AC unit from an animal shelter, putting all the puppies and kittens at risk.

So in a short time we have gone from a constant of petty wire thievery at abandoned homes or constructions sites, to huge AC units attached to homes, churches and non-profit centers, and from pipes to gutters to entire transformers that black out whole neighborhoods. But we don’t stop there.

These thieves stole an entire irrigation system in Modesto CA. “Thieves crushed a grape crop when they took off with the tools that help a local vineyard to grow. Grape grower Frank Rashid was on track for a record-breaking year. “See how beautiful?” said Rashid, gesturing toward his grapes.But in an instant, thieves crippled all of his hard work. “A lot of trouble for me, [and] the grapes; I can lose the crop, you know,” said Rashid. Bad guys stole the grape irrigation system worth more than $10,000.”

Copper thievery has gotten so persistent and so bad that there are states proposing laws regulating the sale of the metal. Copper thievery has risen sharply in Winston-Salem, with “more copper thefts in Winston-Salem in the first six months of 2011 than there were all of last year, city police said.”

The boldness of the copper thieves, the size of the booty, the heightening of danger, are examples of a downward progression in sin and evil in these last days. This progression is in all sins and crimes of course. We’ve gone from child abuse, to child abuse and kidnapping, to child abuse, kidnapping and murder, to child abuse, kidnapping, murder and dismemberment. Embezzlement is no longer perpetrated by a furtive, mealy-mouth man in some back cubicle at a tiny company. That sin’s depths were revealed to us in the Bernie Madoff schemes where he boldly made off with billions. Petty shoplifting is a thing of the quaint past, now we have whole mobs storming stores in full view of security guards and grabbing all that they can. Each and every sin on earth is getting deeper, worse, more corrupt.

The point is, you don’t want to be here when there is NO restraint. Things are this bad now but soon there will be free reign to plunder, steal, be brutal and selfish and the sanctity of life will mean nothing.

By His grace He died to save us from our sins. He will forgive you your unholy crimes if you ask him with penitent heart. He is sending these signs and warnings to us now to let us know the era is drawing to a close. He will remove His bride from the earth, He will send the Holy Spirit into retreat, He will allow satan full capacity to do his worst. You really don’t want to be here when that happens. And you don’t have to be. Just turn to Jesus.
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Posted in eu recognize palestinian State, Israel coast, prophecy, unilateral

"Palestinian envoy to UN: European states will recognize Palestine before September"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is an article for your consideration. Please read it in its entirety. I know it’s long but there is nothing more important these days in our Christian lives than the welfare of Israel, the lostness of the Arabs, and prophecy being laid bare before us. Pray.

The following article from last night’s Haaretz is extraordinary, and it resolved for me the feeling of imminence and burden I’d had all day. We know that in September, the United Nations may declare Palestine a sovereign state whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem during its annual General Assembly meeting. Things are coming to a head with Israel, and the prophesied Psalm 83 war may be the result. It could be as soon as this fall. Let me give some background.

Psalm 83 is an intercessory prayer for success in a war that hasn’t happened yet. It involves Israel and her neighbors. Here is more information about it.

Over the last two years the Palestinian Authority has been engaging in successful shuttle diplomacy, jetting around the world to pitch their notion that the Palestinians deserve a state with actual land and borders. Adding to the mix was a new idea: to leave the negotiating table with Israel and go directly to the UN and ask the UN to unilaterally vote a Palestine into being, and be done with it. This isn’t unprecedented, that’s how Israel got their state when General Assembly resolution 181 passed on November 29, 1947.

The PA shuttle diplomacy has paid off, though they are not a nation now, they have gotten over 100 countries to formally and diplomatically declare recognition of any such future Palestinian State.

Meanwhile Palestinian Authority has been working with the UN on the criteria for being “allowed” to be a state. They must prove to the UN that they have competency in 6 major areas, education, infrastructure, governance, economy and the like. Recently, the UN declared that the PA has achieved those criteria and were ready to become a nation if the UN Security Council voted so and the General Assembly followed up with a 2/3 affirmative vote. You’ll read the Palestinian representative speaking to that in the news article below.

The UN itself has no authority to make this place or that place into a nation, but they lay the groundwork. After Israel was voted a nation in November 1947, the UK- which had occupied Palestine since 1917,  gathered its forces and on May 13, 1948 moved out. The next day, Israel declared its independence.

So back to the present. The PA has threatened to bring a resolution to the Security Council on making them a state. Here is how it is supposed to work as this UN fact sheet outlines: “The application is considered first by the Security Council. Any recommendation for admission must receive the affirmative votes of nine of the 15 members of the Council, provided that none of its five permanent members – China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America – has voted against the application.” Though nine votes are required from the Security Council to pass, five of those must be from the five permanent members. One ‘no’ vote kills it. It will never see the light of day in the General Assembly. The US has stated that they plant to veto any such resolution. Personally, I have my doubts that the US would stick to her guns, but the PA isn’t taking any chances. The deadline for submitting any resolutions to the Security Council is Friday, July 15. That’s tomorrow.

I’d read last week that they may skip the Security Council and go straight to the UN General Assembly. How can they do that? I’d wondered. That isn’t the process. I searched and searched and kept my eyes and ears open, and finally found this article last night. In it, the PA explains how.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told Haaretz reporter in an interview that they will go directly to the General Assembly and ask for a vote. They say they have the necessary 130 votes for passage. When that happens, “they” [meaning the US] wouldn’t dare withstand the will of 2/3 of the world. It seems that his reasoning is that it is easier to vote no when voting against 8 others, but they would not want to be the only naysayer against a Palestine state in the face of  130. It’s about pressure. And if anything, Obama has shown that he eschews pressure and prefers going with the majority because it’s less uncomfortable. That the Quartet failed this week to get both parties back to the negotiating table worked in the Palestinian’s favor as you’ll see near the end of the article.

The article is long but it is fascinating in the PA’s specificity and confidence regarding their tactics. Of course it could be bluster. The article mentions stalemate, but we know that at some point the stalemate is broken because Israel’s land is divided (Joel 3:2) and she gets her temple. (Dan 9:27; Mark 13:14). The pressure being brought to bear on this unbearable situation is heightening to where the Psalm 83 war seems likely in the next few months, in my opinion. IF this comes to pass as the PA suggests it will, Israel will not stand for the Arabs making themselves a nation on their land. There would be war, the Psalm 83 battle and perhaps also the fulfillment of the Isaiah 17:1 prophecy. If the situation does NOT come about as the PA states, the Arabs could be so upset that they could spark an ‘Arab Summer’ and simply revolt, as we have seen happens so easily in the region these days. Any way you slice it, the tension is ratcheting up to a level where it seems inevitable that armed conflict would be the result to break this stalemate. Psalm 83 could be that conflict.

Palestinian envoy to UN: European states will recognize Palestine before September
Riyad Mansour tells Haaretz that the Palestinian Authority’s UN bid is last chance for a two-state solution.
By Barak Ravid

BUDAPEST − The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, is in the forefront of the Palestinian diplomatic move − now gaining momentum − before the General Assembly meet in September. In the coming weeks, Mansour will submit to the UN secretary general an official request for Palestine to be accepted as a full member of the world body. Mansour hopes that September will see more than 130 countries voting in the General Assembly in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state, even if it does not receive full membership status.

What do you think about the fact that the Quartet [United States, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations] has not published a statement?

The Quartet decision to send envoys is a fancy way to say they failed. The Americans just could not deliver the Israelis.

Don’t you think that the Palestinian move in the UN is just symbolic and will not change anything on the ground?

The Israeli government is fighting us, saying that the international community should not let us do that. If it is symbolic, why are they fighting it so hard? It is definitely not symbolic.

What will happen if you don’t get the 130 votes that you are expecting?

If we go to a vote tomorrow, we will get two-thirds of the General Assembly. We have the votes. The significance of the number of votes is to maximize the pressure on the Security Council. What will be the argument of anyone to deprive us of the right to join the community of nations?

Do you think you will be able to get any EU member states to recognize the Palestinian state?

Just hold tight. You will be hearing interesting news soon about it before September.

Are you going to apply to the UN on July 15 and ask to become a full member?

We will apply when we are ready. Israel submitted it’s application in 1948 on the last week of the General Assembly session. They asked the Security Council to suspend the articles that dealt with time regimentation because of their special situation. It took Israel seven months to become a full member in May 1949. Look at South Sudan. It will take them two weeks to become a member, so the time procedures are not rigid.

But what will happen on the next day − after the UN resolution?

It is similar to [General Assembly] Resolution 181 in 1947. The following day nothing happened, but was Israel able to declare independence without 181? I don’t think so. We are going through the same process right now. The next day, the sun will rise from the east but the resolution will be historic and will lead the way for a declaration of independence. Huge things take time. Things will not change in 24 hours. All those who wish for a silver bullet, there is no such thing. But there is accumulation.

Do you see a Tahrir Square scenario in Ramallah?

It is not for me to decide but for the Palestinian people. Our people have a rich tradition of struggle and collective wisdom in doing what is proper. If they will believe and come to the conclusion that this battle is their battle, and not only the battle of Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] or Salam Fayyad, that will reflect itself. The Palestinian people are like the Egyptian people and are capable of doing remarkable things. But these things you don’t give orders for. If the Egyptian people managed to change the U.S. position in 18 days so that Obama told his ally Mubark to leave, what will the position of the international community be if the Palestinian people will say we what independence − and we want it now? We learned our lesson, and this is why our struggle will be peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. Why would anybody stand in our way?

You are not afraid to find yourselves in a third intifada?

I don’t want to give it names. It is just the will of the Palestinian people. If it exhibits itself in a peaceful way, it will enter the configuration of the dynamics of how to solve this situation. If the international community will not step up to the plate, as it should, and the Quartet is not doing anything, the Palestinian people who live under occupation might contribute in their own way.

You think that the Palestinians will conclude that the only way to change the situation is to resort to violence?

If there is violence, it is from the Israeli army. Our people in Bil’in demonstrated peacefully against the [separation] wall, and they have with them Israelis and internationals [foreigners]. Those who brought violence there was the occupying army.

You think that the lessons of the first intifada were learned?

Our actions speak for themselves. Take Bil’in as an example. Those who oppose our move in the UN are coming every week with a new story. The Palestinian people do not need credentials to prove that they are struggling peacefully to put an end to the occupation.

Are you worried from what might happen if the stalemate continues?

This is the last chance for the survival of the two-state solution. Israel will be responsible for what will come later. By going to the UN, we are trying to save the two-state solution. The danger is that we will get to the extreme possibilities of the one-state solution that is suicide for Israel. Something has to give. Israel can’t continue holding the stick at both ends.

Why are you going for a unilateral move, and not going back to the negotiating table?

Our independence is not a matter for negotiation. The Israelis in 1948 did not seek permission from anyone to declare their independence. We are no different. The negotiation should be on the six core issues − not on our right to a state and independence. Everyone is telling us that we have done a great job building our institutions, and that we are ready to govern ourselves. Should we wait until Netanyahu is ready to negotiate with us?

This is not a unilateral action. We engaged many countries bilaterally, and they recognized us. One hundred and twenty-two states and very soon we will have more than 130. This recognition is an investment in peace, not a unilateral action.

We are going for a multilateral action. When we go to the UN and we want to legislate the results of what we have done in the last two years, how is that unilateral?
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Posted in end time, peace, prophecy, rapture

Peace be with you

Posted on by elizabethprata

Good morning,

Did you ever have a feeling of peaceful well-being that was saturating you completely? A feeling of rightness in the world, though it is fallen and corrupt, but of sweetness with the Lord anyway? Of needing nothing and wanting nothing, just content with what you have and relieved that all has been taken care of and provided for by the Almighty? Of gladness that you know the Holy Spirit and can feel Him doing the regenerative work in you? That is how I feel this morning.

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21)

Because He was loving and obedient to the Father:

We soon share in His peace forever

Please accept His free pardon that He offers for your sins. Pray to Him and confess, making Him Lord of your life and you will be cleansed from the sins that weigh you down so. You will then know true peace, being reconciled to the Prince of Peace.
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