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I hope this fine spring week has offered you beautiful glimpses of God’s creative intellect and His wonderful power. We always enjoy the march of the seasons. “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” (Psalm 104:19, KJV). Wherever we are in the world, reading this newsletter, we see and understand the times and seasons. We look for the robin, the crocus, the ladyslipper. The orderliness and consistency of the seasons since His ordination of them is a comfort.

Yet in Jeremiah 8:7 Jeremiah says of the seasons, meaning God’s season, “Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.” In the natural history of Israel, Barnes notes explains, “Jeremiah appeals to the obedience which migratory birds render to the law of their natures. The “stork” arrives about March 21, and after a six weeks’ halt departs for the north of Europe. It takes its flight by day, at a vast height in the air (“in the heaven”). The appearance of the “turtle-dove” is one of the pleasant signs of the approach of spring.”

As for the part of the Jeremiah verse which speaks to His judgments, Matthew Henry holds sway here: “Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious inquiry as to what we have done, from conviction that we have done amiss. They would not attend to the ways of providence, nor understand the voice of God in them, ver. 7. They know not how to improve the seasons of grace, which God affords. They would not attend to the written word. Many enjoy abundance of the means of grace, have Bibles and ministers, but they have them in vain. They will soon be ashamed of their devices. The pretenders to wisdom were the priests and the false prophets. They flattered people in sin, and so flattered them into destruction, silencing their fears and complaints with, All is well. Selfish teachers may promise peace when there is no peace; and thus men encourage each other in committing evil; but in the day of visitation they will have no refuge to flee unto.”

How perfect and prescient His Word is! What was true then is also true now. So many are in a season of backsliding sin, of wasting this season of grace. My statement goes toward the lost and Christians as well. The lines of demarcation are widening, and more Christians than ever are uncovered as pale, weak, lukewarm. It is the season of woe, because “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isiaah 5:20). It is the upside-down season. This is the season of proclaiming sin as good and Jesus as evil. Man becomes more like the animals every day.

In Numbers where God is dispensing instruction to the Priesthood, God said, “I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.” (Numbers 18:7b). It is a gift to serve Him. It is a gift to dedicate one’s life to him. It is a gift to be close to Him. It was a gift to the people who needed priests. He also gave the Prophets as a gift and in the New Testament, the gift of prophecy is also a gift. (1 Corinthians 12:10; Romans 12:6).

I feel deeply for Jeremiah the Prophet, who was known as The Weeping Prophet. Jeremiah lived in a time when the People’s pride was dragging them backward into sin and away from the LORD. (Jeremiah 13:15-27- “Pride precedes captivity”.) He lived when the people’s sins had piled up to the point where they were actually living in their last days. Jeremiah was the last prophet sent to preach to the Southern Kingdom. The searing effects of their sins had hardened them so much that no one ever listened to Jeremiah. He never had one convert. “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:24).

Unfaithful Israel, engraving by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Jeremiah preached and spoke and prophesied, but yet he was hated and reviled. They did not listen. He had no friends. He had no wife even to weep with, for the LORD had forbidden him to marry, knowing the grievous deaths that would soon take place in His coming judgment of the southern kingdom. God was actually sparing Jeremiah THAT special kind of grief, but Jeremiah still cried out, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1). He is saying here that he mourns so deeply for what he knows, that he does not have even enough tears to weep for the people.

“My mourning for the sins and desolations of my people has already exhausted the source of tears: I wish to have a fountain opened there, that I may weep day and night for the slain of my people. This has been the sorrowful language of many a pastor who has preached long to a hardened, rebellious people, to little or no effect,” says Clark’s Commentary.

This is how I feel. Is it how you feel? Do you weep for the people and nations that sin, who allow sin to drag their hearts to destruction? Do you rejoice in gladness for the warnings and grace the Lord bestows, but weep for those who refuse to heed? Knowing the brutality that awaits them in the Tribulation, punishment for living a brutal life of sin against Jesus? I do. I weep especially for all those who believe they are saved and are a sanctified Christian, but will discover to their horror at the rapture that they were not called up. They were left behind. “My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!” (Jer 8:18). Jeremiah could clearly see the people’s pride and sin and he could clearly see the coming consequences, destruction of the nation and destruction of many hearts.

I ask you this, gently, lovingly: at prayer meeting, we weep and cry and mourn for Aunty Tilly’s big toe, but do we weep and mourn for souls? Sob, tear our clothes, wish that our very head was a fountain that we could shed many tears for them? We speak of His love these days and His joy, of peace in knowing Him. All these things are good. But where is the grief? Where are our weeping prophets (Christians) today?

Jeremiah begged them not to succumb to the false gods who lulled them into security and which did not make them feel guilty or convict of sin. They did not listen, and they were destroyed. It shall be so again. Prepare your hearts. Jesus is coming soon. Don’t be left behind.

We had a nice study at church Wednesday night. We are going through Matthew, and we are up to Matthew 3. This chapter introduces an adult John the Baptist. and I loved exploring it. The people in our study will talk and share and contribute, which makes it interesting and collegial.

This blog post serves a dual purpose. It is good to employ some metacognition when studying the Word. That means thinking about your thinking. Knowing about your knowing. When you’re learning, understand not only what you’re learning, but how you’re learning it. To that end, I want to share what I learned about John the Baptist this week, and also how I learned it. I am hoping that this will raise your own awareness of how the Spirit may be working in your own study life.

So I was reading Matthew 3. When I first begin to read a section or book, I just read it. I let the words flow and I don’t stop to consult a concordance or look at a commentary. I just read. I let the word engulf me and wash me. I think it’s important to let the word speak for itself, uninterrupted.

Then I read it again. At this second reading I also resist the temptation to stop and look up stuff. At the third reading, I start digging. Now, at the first or second reading, but certainly by the third, a word or a verse will “jump out” at me. You know what I mean. If it happens at first I jot a note down and keep reading. But by the third reading, the Spirit seems to be pulling me to one certain point in the verses. This time is was John being a Nazirite. I mean, there is a rich variety of points to ponder in the chapter. Certainly John’s message of repentance, there’s the reference to the prophecy in Isaiah, there’s Jesus’s baptism, there is the history behind the Pharisees and Sadducees. But the Spirit pulled me to the behavior of John and whether he was a Nazirite from birth.

So then I pray. I ask the Spirit to dispense wisdom to me in what He wants me to learn. It is one of His ministries. (Ephesians 1:16-17; James 1:5; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10). After prayer, I begin research. In this case, I looked up Nazirite in the bible. Matthew 3 does not state that John the Baptist was a Nazirite, but Luke 1:13-17 seems to indicate that John would be specially consecrated from birth, and the addition of the prohibition of never drinking wine is one of the Nazirite vows. The verses say nothing about the most physically evident of the prohibitions, that the person making the vow shall never cut his hair as long as he is under the consecration, but I believe circumstances are such that I believe John was a Nazirite from birth. Luke 1:80 states he went to live in the deserts and from then on he consecrated himself to God completely, separating from society.

After I looked up the Nazirite vows in the bible in Numbers 6:1-21, and also looked up the verses relating to other Nazirites from birth- namely Samson and Samuel, I stopped to pray again. I asked the Spirit to continue to lead me in the direction He wanted me to go to learn what the Lord was making known. I can’t say I know how I got to Numbers and Luke and Judges and Samuel 2, just that it is a work of the Spirit to lead me to the right verses that relate to the study I’m engaged in. It is an answer to my prayer to be led and taught.

It is really interesting, how the Spirit works in this. A study always builds on something that came before and will build on something that will come after. A year might go by, and then some verse will “jump out at me” in another study of the future and I’ll remember this one, and a connection will be made.

Oftentimes, after I use the bible as primary source in the first through third readings, I’ll listen to a preacher I trust preach on it expositionally. This extends the study. And of course, I’ll go to class and listen to my home teacher and the comments from my fellow saints, folding in the insights gained from those places. The most important thing at this point is two fold: pay attention to what the Spirit says, and make notes. We often pray, but it is equally important to pay attention to the answer to prayer. Don’t send up a prayer for wisdom and insight and then move ahead so fast you leave your ears behind!

I picture the study of the Word as sewing a tapestry. Every nugget of learning through this process is a thread that weaves through the tapestry. The first and most important result of a study is to learn more about God. The bible is His revealed truth to us. It’s the only untainted way to learn Him and His ways. The bible contains words about who God is, what He is doing, what He will do, what he expects, and more. So I ask myself, what did I learn about Him through this? How does what I learned help me understand Him, my position before Him, and/or what I need to do to make corrections in any of the above?

Ultimately, a good bible study for me will include reading the Word, prayer, submission, and open mind, a notebook, and a willingness to use good study aids, such as concordance, commentary, or a solid bible teacher, and participation in my home church.

A good study would not be complete without seeing how the Word can be applied to my life. I ask the Spirit to let me know how to apply this new knowledge. The Word is not only the Word for head knowledge, it is for heart knowledge and for encouraging the saints and applying in life. So I ponder John, being filled with the Spirit, and think about how he consecrated himself so that he would remain pure. I thought about how bold he was to proclaim curses on the Pharisees. I thought about how humble he was to say that his time was over, he must increase and Jesus must increase. His humility was also displayed when Jesus came to John for baptism, and John said he wasn’t worthy to loosen His sandal. There are many messages to learn from John the Baptist, and I am sure the Spirit will reveal more to me in time, along with increasing the fruits He wants borne from this knowledge. Faith into action, based on the prayerfully studying the Word. I love studying the bible. I hope you do too.

My LORD and my SAVIOR. I follow YOU!

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HT @dpbkmb

Got time on my hands…I’m playing with the blog template & design. Hence my advance explanation of why the blog will soon be either gibberish or a black screen has been issued.

I had a request to increase the font size. If this is too big or too distracting let me know. If is it acceptable, let me know that too. Change is hard for me, so I can’t really tell. Thanks.

There are login issues, and that means I don’t always have access to the administrative parts of the blog when I want in order to check comments or to post a new entry. Comments are not showing up, either. Blogger says they are working on these issues, so please be patient. If you do not see your comment, that is why. Unless it was a comment I deemed not appropriate nor discussion-enhancing and I deleted it. 😉

Have a great day everyone.

Let’s see where you have come to!

“[Y]ou have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

Pretty far! Keep walking. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.’ (Colossians 2:6-7). We have much to be thankful for. As the verse says, we can be thankful for His city, for His angels, for His church, for His Justice, for His Spirit, for His mediation, for His blood. And as we know, soon we will be thanking Him in person. We will see His face. What a day that will be!

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Here are some good blogs that I recommend. These folks are good writers, thoughtful in their approach to Godly living, and sensitive to the Spirit:

Michael at Last Trumpet Living
A fool says in his heart there is no God. A bigger fool declines faith in Jesus.

Ma at Ma’s Blog 
A wife, homemaker, homeschooler, mother of six and a sinner saved by God’s sovereign grace.

Kim at Mystery of the Ages
Come along with me and discover what the mystery of the ages is, the mystery put in place prior to the foundation of time, that, had the rulers of this world known about it, they would not have crucified Christ….the mystery of Christ in You.

Michael T. Snyder’s blog at The Economic Collapse
An attorney, a blogger, a Christian, a writer, a speaker and an activist.

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The snowstorm of Christmas 2010 will go down in the books as a monster. Pouring out snow at the rate of 2-3 inches per hour at its height, covering a third of the nation with snow inside of 2 days, and stranding thousands and tens of thousands of people at mass transit points, is definitely a monster by any definition. News reports used words to describe the mood as irate, outraged or vexed. But it didn’t take long for headlines to start using words like chaos, fury, and anarchy. It took a day, actually.

US snow travel chaos
Fury as city is paralyzed by blizzard
Lord of the Fliers: Will Anarchy Break Out Among Throngs of Stranded Air Travelers?

The fun wasn’t limited to the US, either. Moscow had its own travel chaos this week, too. Fights broke out. In Moscow, air travel clerks were beat up. Aeroflot personnel were now scared of dealing with agitated passengers, saying the airport did not have enough security guards.

Soon there was no food. 400 people were stranded on a train overnight with no water and nothing to eat. At JFK, the thousands of people languishing inside the airport soon ate up all the food at the restaurants, and no replenishment trucks arrived to bring more. There was a fracas at McDonald’s when they ran out of food. Video here.

Daniel 12:4 records that the angel told him in the days of the end, many will go to and fro. So many people today boast that we can go here and there in a heartbeat, such is our advancement in technology. We think nothing of taking jobs that are located so far away from where we live, relying on trains, buses, and highways to get there. But what all that means is that we rely heavily on infrastructure. On any given day, a high percentage of the world’s population is commuting or voluntarily traveling far away from their home. The lines supporting all this going to and fro are thin. In the case at JFK, the airport is not far from one of the largest cities of the world but still, the snow prevented thousands from reaching food and hotels.

It only took a day for the support lines to break down. One day. And by a day after that, people were reverting to hunter-killer mode of the jungle days. People who cut in line at the airport were beaten back. People angling for food in front of Sbarro’s were fought off. Moscow airline Clerks were too afraid even to appear behind the desk. Even people safe at home in NYC were furious that the snow hadn’t been cleared yet and resorted to obscenities and anger. Even worse, there were casualties because of the storm: ambulances could not reach a woman’s newborn, who died in a hotel lobby. A grandmother in NYC also died due to delays in paramedics getting there. Trash hasn’t been picked up in days and it’s piling up.

It is not just New York and Moscow struggling to handle masses of people who are angry and stranded, Northern Ireland’s cold is popping water pipes all over the place. Many families have been without water for 8 days, and now there are public health fears. 40,000 homes and businesses in Belfast and 80 surrounding towns are dealing with raw sewage and/or lack of water as septic systems overflow and water pipes don’t. Scotland Yard is attempting to bring enough bottled water and showering facilities to the stricken people.

The truth is that we are so dependent on invisible supply lines, (water pipes, plow trucks, ambulances, grocery re-supply trucks) we begin to think they will always be there to provide for us in emergencies. This is not an essay about the fact that infrastructure crumbles almost immediately when pressured. It is about man’s  reaction to what happens when the supplies and transport we have counted on break down. Going to and fro suddenly seems like not such a good idea.

The 2010 break-down occurred after only two days, which resulted in anger, fighting, fury, and anarchy. Craven humanity resorts to anger and fighting in such a short time…with the Restrainer STILL ON EARTH. (2 Thess 2:7). The Lord will take Him out of the way at the rapture. Imagine what will happen when the world is subjected to peace being withdrawn from the earth, men slaying each other, no food, wild beasts attack and devour people all over the globe, the stars fall from the sky, and every mountain and island are moved from their places in a giant earthquake?

I just gave the highlights of the first set of judgments on the earth in Revelation 6. If people fight over a Happy Meal, if they punch the airline clerk because they haven’t been home in a day, if they get furious over lack of plowing, with the Restrainer on earth, imagine the reaction in the Tribulation!

It is not a time that you want even your worst enemy on earth. Does this motivate you to be more patient with your annoying co-worker? Does this fact implore you to show the peace of Jesus in all you say and do? Does this knowledge help you strengthen your resolve to have that difficult conversation with the unsaved family member? I hope so! Time is running out.

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“A brilliant fireball lit up the night sky above parts of New Mexico and Texas this week in a fiery display recorded by a skywatching camera. The fireball, thought to be created by a small space rock, occurred Tuesday night (Sept. 21) at about 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT) and was captured in a video camera as the meteor carved its fiery trail across the sky. It lasted 23 seconds and covered parts of New Mexico and west Texas, according to the website Spaceweather.com. [Video of the Sept. 21 fireball below.] “I was inside at the time, but heard and felt the sonic boom,” said radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, who operates the all-sky camera 20 miles (32 km) outside of Santa Fe, NM that recorded the fireball as it flew overhead. At first, Ashcraft thought the sound was thunder, but no storms were expected. Then a phone call inquiry led him to check his camera’s data, where he saw “a spectacular meteor occurrence.”

This verse from Luke is a promise of something to occur in the Tribulation, but we can see activity in the sun, moon, and stars rising as we near the Day. Or, alternatively, fireballs such as these could be satan and one of his lying wonders.

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea…” Luke 21:25.
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, (2 Thess 2:9)

Here is Mr Ashcrafts’s video. The fireball begins at about 8:00 position 9 seconds into the 30 second clip.