Posted in apocalypse, God, jesus, movies, sin, threads, tribulation

(Updated) The most unrelentingly horrific and unsettling apocalyptic movie you will ever watch that comes the closest to what the Tribulation will be like: "Threads"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update: Russia’s Putin oversees Russian nuclear forces exercise 

—————————————————-
Photo by Waiting for the Word, labeled for reuse

A couple of years ago in Sunday School, I was explaining the importance of understanding eschatology (last things). I was showing from scripture that pre-Tribulation rapture is biblical and is the only stance supported clearly by scripture. It makes a difference, I said, because firstly, it gives us hope and a goal to look forward to the return of Jesus for His bride without the fear of going through the Tribulation, and secondly, it gives us urgency to witness to unbelievers because the Tribulation is going to be horrific.

And yet, people still say that “I can make it through, after all I love Jesus.” Or, “It won’t be so bad if Jesus is on your side”, or other foolish comments like that. People have no clue as to how bad the Tribulation will be. Gaining a clear understanding of it is essential as is knowing where the Bride fits in the prophetic timeline.

After I got done explaining, one man who is of the ‘go along to get along, if you love Jesus then that’s all that counts, doctrine doesn’t matter” kind of guy said, “I’m a pan-tribber. It will all work out in the end.” Everyone in class laughed, and the five minutes I’d spent urging caution and due diligence to these matters evaporated.

I thought his was a craven rejection of the importance of Eschatology, something JESUS feels is important or He wouldn’t have spent the longest discourse in the entire bible speaking about it (Matthew 24). I thought that was a terribly laid back attitude and a failure to study of all the scriptures, prophecy included, because ALL SCRIPTURE is profitable, says 2 Timothy 3:16.

I’ve read Revelation many times and the horrors of God’s wrath can’t be overestimated. It gives me

shivers even to think about His unleashing of His wrath upon the unbelieving and rebellious world. The best book I’ve read on Revelation is John MacArthur’s “Because the Time Is Near“, which made me love God and fear Him all at once, even more. My breath was taken away at the verses and the explanation of His wrath and what lay ahead for people who delay too long in repenting and believing on Jesus.

Sometimes I get interested in a movie or a documentary that visually depicts a post-apocalyptic scenario. Not the Hollywood movies, but docu-dramas like BBC’s End Day. So, this week I was reading a headline that reminded me of one of the most chillingly accurate depictions of the rise of and aftermath of a global pandemic. Except I couldn’t remember the name of the documentary.

The docudrama was about the beginning of a flu epidemic that gained traction to become a near-extinction event. A Los Angeles family led by a doctor dad, are shown dealing with their growing understanding of how much of an extinction event it was, while the action was interspersed with interviews with actual doctors, sociologists, and the like describing the likely scenarios that will occur along the way as the pandemic grew. The film started with a cough and ended a full generation after society had collapsed.

I was thinking of that movie because I’d read a headline that antibiotic resistance has grown to be a present danger. It is no longer a future threat. I’ve been worried lately about antibiotic resistance and how that will impact the prophesied plagues set to overtake mankind during the Tribulation. So I read the article, still searching for that elusive documentary title about the pandemic. The report is from World Health Organization: (WHO)

A new report by WHO–its first to look at antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, globally–reveals that this serious threat is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country. Antibiotic resistance–when bacteria change so antibiotics no longer work in people who need them to treat infections–is now a major threat to public health.

I had seemingly forever forgotten the name of that pandemic docudrama about that Los Angeles family, and I kept searching for the title for a long time. During my search I came across the well-remembered US armageddon films, The Day After and Testament. The Day After was touted as a program likely to cause nightmares and counselors were standing by. In truth, even then, I thought it was pretty sanitized. Testament affected me greatly because it never showed a bomb but showed a family suffering anyway from nuclear fallout hundreds of miles from where the bombs actually fell. Normal life just sort of ended, slowly and agonizingly.

The main character, acted by the magnificent Jane Alexander, was part of the reason for the movie’s impact on me. She did a wonderful job as a mother watching her children and her way of life die in front of her eyes. Yet even that film was pretty sanitized also as to the effects of nuclear war. Nuclear winter in either film was never shown, and people appeared kind of grubby but were still pretty clean looking. Desperation was prevalent but despair was absent.

My search for the title of the pandemic movie set in Los Angeles finally yielded paydirt. It is called “After Armageddon” and it was on The History Channel in 2010. I recommend it. The link brings you to the full movie at youtube.

I came across two other documentary type films illustrating a societal collapse, this time, from nuclear war. They were “The War Game” (1965) ( link to The War Game here) which won an Oscar for Best Documentary, though the film is fiction. The summary of the film at Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) says “It was intended as an hour-long program to air on BBC 1, but it was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast. It went to theatrical distribution as a feature film instead. Low-budget and shot on location, it strives for and achieves convincing and unflinching realism.” The War Game was never shown on the BBC until a full 20 years after it was made, and a year after Threads was shown first. Threads is the movie I watched.

Threads was shown on the BBC in 1984 and is considered the ninth best UK television show of BBC history. The imdb.com summary states, “Documentary style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect on the working class city of Sheffield, England; and the eventual long term effects of nuclear war on civilization.”

I was a young adult in the 1980s and I vividly remember the nuclear fears. The aggressive USSR, President Reagan, the Iron Curtain, Strategic Defense Initiative (the space defense program dubbed ‘star wars’ by the populace). I thought positively that nuclear war was going to break out with the USSR and that was how I was going to die. It’s why the movies The Day After and Testament were so powerful. They fed exactly into the national psychosis about nukes. It was all the talk then.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Iron Curtain fell, the world drew a collective sigh of relief throughout the 1990s. Nuclear fears receded and after a short while seemed so distant and even silly. The stockpiles of nukes were forgotten as new fears arose: suitcase bombs and terrorists, and dirty bombs and pandemics.

I watched Threads last night. Before I watch any movie, I usually read up on the reviews. The reviews I could find were uniformly of the same opinion: it is the most accurate depiction of a nuclear war there has ever been put to screen. The external reviews and the internal user reviews (all 21 pages of them) uniformly said that the images stick with you and will give you nightmares. That the graphic nature of the life during and after nukes fall on Sheffield, Britain, are images that will stay with you forever. I thought I’d watch it anyway. Testament and The Day After had been manageable after all, and I was 30 years older than that now, to boot.

The film was done on a low budget but that just gives it a real feel. A young couple become engaged. She’s pregnant, and they buy a flat and begin planning their life together. Amid the backdrop of families meeting and wedding planning, pub visiting and family discussions ensuing, are newspaper, radio and television reports of a confrontation between the US and the USSR over Iran. The city is Sheffield, a target due to heavy industry located there at the time and a nearby military base.

The buildup to the moment the bombs drop was intense. In one scene, a low flying bomber almost buzzes the young man and his father who is outside gardening.

I needed a break and I decided to pause for a moment and see what the headlines were on Drudge. Imagine my shock when I saw this:

RUSSIAN BOMBERS, FIGHTER JETS ‘SEEN OVER CRIMEA’
From the May 04, 2014 edition of the Drudge Report.

Russia then. Russia now. We had a brief respite in the 90s, but Russia is back and the headlines we are reading about Russia and the Ukraine, the Jews evacuating, and the Crimea, are eerily similar to the ramp-up in Threads the days before the bombs fell. Both were about tensions in the Middle East and/or the Baltics, Iran v. Ukraine. Thirty years apart and nothing has changed- just as prophesied, Gog will instill in Rosh an evil thought and the Bear will rise to begin a holocaust war (Ezekiel 38-39).

In the movie, as each tv talking head, radio announcer, or print headline is shown, one action leads to a reaction, eventually the bombs fly one fine spring day and the world is never the same. Devastation occurs and millions die in the first salvos. The film starts a month before the bombs fly and ends 13 years later with the first after-nuclear war generation coming into their teenage years.

Here is the TV Tropes’ summary of the cycle that led to the all-out nuclear war:

“The escalation scenario that leads to Armageddon in the first place. After a coup in Iran, the Soviet Union invades to gain a toehold in the Middle East. The Americans send in paratroopers and set a deadline for withdrawal, and when the Soviets don’t back down they send bombers after their main staging base in Iran. The Soviets destroy most of the aircraft with a nuclear-tipped air defense missile. The Americans then destroy the base with a single battlefield nuke. In return the Soviets nuke the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, the Americans blockade Cuba, and after that it gets kind of hazy…”

Threads is without a doubt the most relentlessly hopeless, harrowing, ghastly movie of the genre. It spared no scene, it was accurate and unrelenting. As the website TV Tropes says, “To any would-be viewers: if you’re looking for a story with a happy or hopeful ending this movie is not the way to go, and a strong stomach is pretty much mandatory. There are no jump scares, the Body Horror is tame by the standards of modern SFX, and there is little Gore despite the ample opportunities the setting presents. And yet it is one of the scariest films of the 20th century…”

Death on an incomprehensible scale, and dark hopelessness was prevalent. Think: TRIBULATION. In the movie, millions upon millions were killed outright and in the first few months, millions more died of radiation sickness. Millions more after that of starvation and/or disease. Just like the Tribulation.

I could not help but think of the verses in the bible saying that they will be building and marrying eating and drinking when sudden wrath comes upon them. How one day people are at the pedestrian mall pushing babies in strollers and window shopping or ordering ale at the pub, and the next, the world turns upside down.

Though there are humans in the movie after the bombs fall there is no humanity. After, any vestige of cooperation, community or even love becomes a hindrance to the simple act of survival. The movie showed this as a realistic reaction to the loss of food, shelter, clothing, and normal life. By a decade later, even language had been reduced to grunts and monosyllabic words, because of the energy it takes simply to talk. And, what is there to say? It is a world devoid of love. As Lamentations reminds us, the ones who die right away are the lucky ones.

Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field. 
 (Lamentations 4:9)

THIS is as close to visualizing the Tribulation as one can come, and even this movie, bleak as it was, doesn’t show it all. The movie depicted “only” one issue, nuclear war and its effects and not the host of items the Tribulation will bring, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, fires, water as blood, etc, but… it shows enough. Nuclear war brings nuclear winter, famine, plague, societal collapse, and agricultural devastation. For two gripping and depressing hours, one can easily see the truth of Jesus’ words, “unless the days were cut short, no flesh would survive.” (Matthew 24:22). This is wrath. This is puny life, snuffed out under the mighty hand of God, who demands that sin be reckoned. As one film reviewer said, it is not a movie to be enjoyed, it is a movie to be endured. However, it is a necessary movie to watch.

I didn’t have nightmares but the movie did keep me up all night. The images and overall atmosphere in my heart kept me tossing and turning. Even today, a day later, I can see that it’s going to take a long time to forget the scenes. The woman at the pedestrian mall seeing the mushroom cloud and peeing herself, the husband in despair because he squandered the last bit of water, the foolishness of people protesting nuclear bombs when the war machine grinds on no matter what the populace says. The middle management local emergency guys with ties and clipboards buried under four stories of rubble, still trying to sort it all out. They died, entombed in their bunker, never having made one whit of difference. Desperation of the nurses at the hospital. The last scene.

Watch Threads, I dare you. It takes courage to stick with it. None of the people reviewing the film exaggerated. I’m not exaggerating. If you want to see what the people left behind will endure, this is as close as we can come cinematically to see the truth of God’s horrific wrath upon humanity’s sin and earth’s devastation as a result.

Sin is a terrible, terrible thing. God’s holiness and justice demands a response to it. We know that God is long-suffering and patient with His creation. One day, however, He will end His patience and determine that it is time to deal with sin on earth. He will rapture His bride first, but then, oh woes upon woes, He will unleash a holocaust that movies like Threads can only truly hint at. And the movie was bad enough. Praise our God for His patience and long-suffering. Praise Him that he brought you into the kingdom. Pray fervently for the lost and witness to them about the terrible effects of sin and the greatness of His forgiveness. Mercy and grace abounds in this present Messianic age. But it is ending, and fast. Please, please, consider these things.

The movie Threads is was on youtube.

Threads full movie

This link brings you to one of 12 parts of the movie Threads.

Posted in earthquakes, earthquakes are increasing, end time, God, science

The month that shook the world: Incredible time-lapse reveals planet as it was rocked by record-breaking earthquakes in April

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE:  Rare Earthquake Warning Issued for Oklahoma “We’ve never seen this before“
“Mile for mile, there are almost as many earthquakes rattling Oklahoma as California this year. This major increase in seismic shaking led to a rare earthquake warning today (May 5) from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey.  In a joint statement, the agencies said the risk of a damaging earthquake — one larger than magnitude 5.0 — has significantly increased in central Oklahoma.”

——————————————–

An article appearing earlier this week at NBC posed the following question:

Does it seem as if there have been more earthquakes in recent weeks? Some scientists thought so. … Ross Stein, a senior U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist who studies how quakes interact, got so excited that on April 12 he fired off an email to colleagues that started with this: “Guys, seems like a lot of big quakes have been popping off around the globe over the past week. … Experts for years have known that the seismic waves from one quake can trigger a quake somewhere else — a process known as “dynamic triggering.” … Lay’s own research has found that over the last decade the number of major quakes, those measuring 8.0 or bigger, is nearly triple the rate for the 1900s, but whether that’s just a random cluster or a sign of dynamic triggering is unclear.”

‘Dynamic triggering’ is a scenario in which the scientists who study earthquakes say that one big earthquake triggers other, smaller ones. A shaking the tree effect, where one big quake shakes out not one apple from the tree but a bunch, all over.

So even though the data says that the number of major quakes has tripled, they’re not sure if that means there are more quakes. In fact, this scientist in the discussion concluded that it’s an illusion.

“Stein, like Lay, also counted quakes but looked instead at moderate and large quakes (4.5 magnitude or greater) in the 10 days before and after the April 1 quake that struck Iquique, Chile. In his email to peers, Stein concluded: “I do not see a global increase in activity post-Iquique, at least for moderate and larger quakes — the ones that matter for hazards.”[It] seemed like a lot of big quakes” after Iquique, he later told NBC News, “but it’s largely an illusion.””

Um…Okayyy. If there are more earthquakes, there are more earthquakes. In my opinion they should study why this is happening, not get busy creating more theories as to why the data doesn’t really mean there are more earthquakes.

Still, the scientist found something else that perplexed them,

“Stein, for example, told peers in his email that he had found something “very unusual” about the Iquique [Chile 8.2] quake: The area near the epicenter saw an unusually high number of “foreshocks” to the mainshock on April 1. “Maybe only 5 percent of quakes have what, in retrospect, we would call foreshocks,” he says. It turns out that the Iquique foreshocks covered an area almost as large as the area of the Iquique aftershocks. That, Stein adds, is “extremely rare and worthy of study.”

An interesting article and video came out this week also, on the topic of whether there are more quakes, This time, the data is from the Tsunami Warning Center.

The month that shook the world: Incredible time-lapse reveals planet as it was rocked by record-breaking earthquakes in April

  • Earth shown as calm until April 1 when huge earthquake rocks Chile
  • Another huge earthquake shakes Solomon Islands in the South Pacific
  • The activity doesn’t let up all month with larger-than-normal quakes all in Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, and even an unusual one in the South Atlantic
  • According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which issues alerts for tsunamis, there were 13 major earthquakes in April

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted parts of Indonesia today served as a reminder of just how active the seemingly-solid ground beneath us can be. And these reminders have become increasingly frequent. On average, the world only sees one or two earthquakes per month that are 6.5-magnitude or higher. But April produced a higher-than-normal number of the major seismic events, as revealed in this incredible time-lapse video.

According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), which issues alerts for tsunamis, there were 13 major earthquakes in April. Five were higher than 7.8, which prompted tsunami warnings. Moderate-to-large earthquakes are less common, but last month was ‘easily a record for this institution,’ according to the PTWC. The time-lapse takes you on a journey of all recorded large and medium-sized earthquakes that took place from January through to April of this year.

The video is worth watching in its entirety. The first 2 minutes show the rather regular popping of small to medium earthquakes all over the world, and mostly in the same places. You get lulled. Then when the large 8.2 in Chile happens, the screen goes pop-pop-pop and it reminded me of popcorn, when the bag in the microwave really gets going and things are popping all over the place.

The USGS people say that more earthquakes happening [despite the data showing otherwise] is just an illusion, while the Tsunami Warning Center people say that April broke a record.

I respect the work of scientists and I am a happy beneficiary of their work, but the end of the end time means that at some point, God’s work in His creation will far outstrip what science can deal with, or what scientific but unsaved minds are prepared to deal with. At the height of the Tribulation men will see what is happening, be unable to comprehend, and fear will overtake them and they will die on the spot. (Luke 21:26).

How will the scientists explain 100 lb hail? (Revelation 16:1). No wind anywhere on earth or sea? (Revelation 7:1). No rain for three years? (Revelation 11:6). A third and only a third of the earth’s grass and trees burned? (Revelation 8:1). Men who are scorched and combust with heat from the sun’s rays just by going outside? (Revelation 16:10). People who try to die, but can’t? (Revelation 9:6)

We are headed toward the time of intersection. Man believes he has made gains in understanding our world and the universe and how it works. And he has. But mans falsely believes that–

–he will continue to make gains in understanding
–once understanding, he can control what happens

Mankind will discover that he does not understand as much as he believes he does and that though he is always learning he is never able to come to knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7) The truth is not in many of them. That truth is that God created the universe and He is in control of every dustmote and every atom. Albert Einstein came close when he said,

“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”

Not “an” invisible piper, but God, YHWH, and He is not invisible,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:15-16).

For those people who repent of their sins and claim Him as supreme Lord of all, they will see Him, and they will finally know as they are known. For the rest, what lies ahead is a continual restlessness of mind and soul, seeking the answer to life’s mysteries, and never able to discover the glory that exists right here, in Jesus, in knowing Him, and in the security of our eternal future.

And just for fun, 90s throwback

Posted in Martha Godwin, organist, service

Methodist Church Organist: has been playing every Sunday for 73 years

Posted on by elizabethprata

Christian Post:

Martha Godwin, 87, has been consecutively playing the organ at Macedonia United Methodist Church in Southmont County for the past 73 years. She started playing the organ at the church when she was only 13 years old in April 1940, and recalls how nervous she was playing her first song, “Wonderful Words of Life.”

Godwin was recently awarded the Guinness Book of World Records for playing the organ or piano for the longest consecutive time at one church. The official certificate proclaiming Godwin’s accomplishment will hang on the wall of the Methodist church, reading: “The longest career as a church pianist/organist is 73 years and was achieved by Martha Godwin (b. 17 Jan 1927, USA), who has served the Macedonia United Methodist Church in Southmont, North Carolina, USA since April 1940, aged 13 years.”

According to the High Point Enterprise, Godwin received her reward thanks to the effort of her brother, Tommy Hedrick, who with the help of other congregation members was able to prove to the Guinness Book of World Records that his sister had been playing the organ every Sunday at the church for 73 years. [emphasis mine]

Martha is somewhat embarrassed by all the attention, and when someone says, ‘You deserve it,’ she responds with a gentle laugh followed by a sheepish, ‘It’s one way I can give back to the Lord because he’s sure been good to me.'”

The UMC Western North Carolina Conference reported on this distinctive service too. Her photo from that report is below. Mrs Godwin said that her service is one way she can praise the Lord Jesus, who she says has been so good to her.

Her service reminds me of the following verses:

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5)

Thank you Mrs Godwin, for your faithful service to the Lord Jesus and His people!

Posted in discern, holy spirit, jesus, mind, philip, study, understanding

Do you understand what you are reading?

Posted on by elizabethprata

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.” (Acts 8:26-31)

Above, The Monteleone Chariot is an Etruscan chariot dated to ca. 530 BC. It was originally uncovered at Monteleone di Spoleto and is currently part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Though about 300 ancient chariots are known to still exist, only six are reasonably complete, and the Monteleone chariot is the best-preserved. Wikimedia Commons

The above is a tremendous passage, full of meaning and worthy of lengthy study. I’ll mention a few things that caught my eye, but the central lesson at this moment, is this:

The mind versus the heart. Then versus now.

Philip was going along and heard a word from the Spirit. Philip obeyed Him. We have the closed canon now but we obey the Spirit-inspired word.

Here was a eunuch reading the text of the word of God. (Isaiah 53). Philip saw him and was directed to the eunuch by the Spirit. Philip obeyed, more than that, Philip ran. Today we don’t obey, or if we do, we don’t hasten to do so.

When Philip arrived at the chariot, he heard the eunuch reading Isaiah. Philip recognized:
–it was the word of God the eunuch was reading, and
–where within the word of God the eunuch was reading from.

Today, biblical illiteracy abounds so that some people don’t even recognize the word of God when it is spoken, or believe that non-words of God are from Him when they’re not.

Philip asked the Eunuch if he understood what he was reading. This is the key thought in this essay today.

“Do you understand what you are reading?”

Manet, The Reader, 1851.

In today’s world, people don’t ask that. They ask, “How did you feel about what you read?” Or, “How did it make you feel?” It’s considered rude and intolerant to ask a person if they understand. The word for understand in the context used is from Strong’s word concordance, “I am taking in knowledge, come to know, learn; aor: I ascertained, realized.”

People get huffy if they’re asked if they understand. You can just see the reaction, either verbal or mental- “What do you mean, understand? I’m not an idiot. Maybe YOU don’t understand!”

In addition, look at the Eunuch’s reaction. Philip didn’t know the Eunuch. He didn’t work for several years to establish a relationship with the Eunuch before talking of Godly things. He didn’t seek to meet the Eunuch’s felt needs. He didn’t make the Eunuch comfortable. He didn’t give him a donut. He simply asked him if he understood it. The Eunuch’s reaction wasn’t huffy or prideful. The Eunuch responded humbly,

“How can I, unless someone guides me?”

Today’s Christianity is all about experience and feelings. This is thanks to Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, and Joel Osteen, among others in the purpose-driven, seeker sensitive, word/faith movements. Osteen in particular is known for what Osteen calls a ministry of encouragement, but unlike Barnabas’ ministry of encouragement in persevering the Lord through the scriptures, Osteen is simply in the pop psychology biz in making people feel good about themselves through the heart. Osteen doesn’t make people even feel good about Jesus, he strives to make people feel good about themselves, turning their mind away from Him and focusing their feelings on themselves.

The Eunuch provides a good example of a man humbly submitting to the Spirit. He admitted his biblical inexperience and his need for a teacher. He acted on his need by inviting Philip up to the chariot.

Understanding the scriptures always leads to a positive action, either obedience, or salvation, or witnessing (Woman at the Well) or ministry. In this case, we see that the Eunuch was baptized immediately.

Lambert Sustris (1515–1591) The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch
by the Deacon Philip

The bible is replete with verses that tell us to learn with our mind. Our minds are being renewed, (Romans 12:2.) Difficulties in understanding parables such as in Matthew 13:11-13, and symbols, such as in Revelation 17:9, call for a mind with wisdom, says the verse. We need to understand with our mind, before we decide how we feel about it with our heart. And even at that juncture, feelings are often murky and misleading. Yet so many of today’s bible studies involve circumventing the mind and going straight to feelings, based on experience. And you see where that has gotten us.

The next time you’re in a bible study group, ask the question that Philip did, “Do you understand what you are reading?” If you don’t want to go that far, then ask “Do I understand what I am reading?” That’s a good question to ask anyway. Don’t let the discussion revolve around feelings launched by questions such as “How do you feel about that?” with responses given through personal experiences, therefore coming to a conclusion that is what the verse means.(I.E., ‘I experienced it, therefore it is true.’)

Luke 24:45 says that when Jesus appeared to His disciples post-crucifixion, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”. He called the men of Emmaus foolish and slow of heart for not understanding.

How you feel about what you read is of no real consequence. Feelings are temporal, ephemeral, and often faulty. Why, even God allows the wicked to rest in a feeling of security. (Job 24:23). The security they feel is unprofitable for them because it is a false feeling. Don’t trust feelings about scripture, but seek to know, to understand, to comprehend. Feelings aren’t bad, but we learn the word of God through our mind. It is study which renews your mind. After that, you gain more and more clarity.

We all have the same guide that the Eunuch had, and in fact that Philip had: the Holy Spirit. He guides us into all truth. (John 16:13). We must study personally and also study under a guide or a teacher or a pastor so the scriptures will become understandable to us. Do you understand what you are reading? Ask the Spirit to deliver wisdom to you, He will do so without reproach. (James 1:5).

Posted in 90 minutes in heaven, discernment, extra-biblical, heaven is for real, heaven tourism

Have you been to heaven lately? Also, ‘Heaven is for Real’ Dad Says Critics are ‘Pharisees’

Posted on by elizabethprata

Many people seem to be having a trip to heaven and a personal tour of the place, even meeting John the Baptist, “he’s nice” and meeting up with relatives and chatting with angels. A few of the prophets and apostles in the bible saw heaven. Let’s compare their reactions to the experiences the modern day heaven tourists are having.

Colton Burpo says he went to heaven in his book Heaven Is For Real. Colton was three at the time of a medical emergency in which he did not die, but while on the operating table, he went to heaven anyway. He told his story to his pastor-father over the course of several years, and Heaven is For Real was born. Asked about Jesus, Colton described ‘him”.  Jesus has markers. [marks on feet and hands]. And brown hair and hair on his face. I was sitting on Jesus’ lap. I got to pet His rainbow horse. I was scared so Jesus had the angels sing to me.”

Now let’s look at Apostle John’s trip to heaven.

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” (Revelation 1:12-17)

Strong’s Greek, 3498 dead; literally, “what lacks life”; dead; (figuratively) not able to respond to impulses, or perform functions. So when John saw Jesus he fell as if dead, meaning unconscious and unable to perform functions. But Colton tottled around petting rainbow horses.

Kim Walker Smith of the band Jesus Culture says she saw Jesus in a vision, and had many other visions too.

“Anyways, (pause) so, irresistible, I go to Jesus, I fall in His arms. And as I’m laying in His arms, I’m still feeling kind of afraid to really even look at Him.  All the sudden this thought comes into my mind, and I know this is not my thought. I would never, ever, ever in a million, trillion years think this; and I think, “I need to ask Him two questions.” I need to ask Him, “How much do You love me; and what were You thinking when You created me?” And as this thought comes into my mind, I’m thinking, “No way! I am not asking those questions.”

Oh but she did. She was kind of afraid but quickly overcame her fear to ask the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE about herself.

Isaiah was afraid too. Let’s see his reaction to being with God.

“And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:4-5)

John fell down. Isaiah fell down. Colton sat in the throne. Kim sat in the throne.

“When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face.” (Daniel 8:15-17)

Daniel fell down. 

Let’s see how Jesse Duplantis’ heaven tour went.

In his hotel room on August 1988 Duplantis “felt a suction as if I was being pulled up out of the room” … zooming along at a phenomenal rate of speed, being carried in something like a cable car. It was a chariot without a horse.” A blond-headed angel is with him in the cable car. Duplantis asks, “Where are we going?” He smiled and said, “You have an appointment with the Lord God Jehovah”… (His name is YHWH, a real angel would know better and call God by His real name, says Justin Peters).

Duplantis continues, “Jesus was taller than I thought He would be. I would guess Him to be from five feet eleven inches to six feet one inch. I thought at first His hair was white; but when He turned His head, I caught a glance and saw that it was light brown. When He looked at me, the glory of God was emanating from Him. I said, “Jesus!” He said simply, “Do you like this place?” I said, “Yes, Sir”.

Do you like this place? Oh my.

In the recounting of the vision Duplantis says he had, he did fall down at the feet of Jesus, but not as though dead. He noticed the holes in His feet and when he stood up, he noticed Jesus’ height. That’s a lot of noticing, when all the other men, including even Peter in the boat with Jesus, shrank back or fell down. Some simply fainted.

In addition, “Jesus” told Duplantis that he’d learn a lot there, yet scripture alone is the place where we receive our teaching. God said the canon is closed and not to add to the word of the bible. (Revelation 22:18).  Finally, “Jesus” told Duplantis that he was supposed to tell the world that He is coming.

I said, “They know that.”
“No, they don’t know that. I brought you here so that you would go tell them I’m coming. Do you hear Me? I’m coming. Go tell them.”

So we have a new ‘go and tell’ given directly to Jesse Duplantis by Jesus. Because nobody knows Jesus is coming. Oh, my.

Though Jesse Duplantis was taught new things, and then told to go and tell, Paul said it is unlawful to tell.

“and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” (2 Corinthians 12:4).

If a contradiction exists between a man’s experience and the bible’s truth, which will you believe?

In one more comparison, here’s Ezekiel’s experience, and then Don Piper’s.

“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. … Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.” (Ezekiel 1:1, 28)

Don Piper: “As the crowd rushed toward me, I didn’t see Jesus, but I did see the people I had known. As they surged toward me, I knew instantly that all of them had died during my lifetime. Their presence seemed absolutely natural. They rushed toward me, and every person was smiling, shouting, and praising God. … Although no one said so, intuitively I knew they were my celestial welcoming committee. It was as if they had all gathered just outside heaven’s gate, waiting for me. … “More and more people reached for me and called me by name. I felt overwhelmed by the number of people who had come to welcome me to heaven. There were so many of them, and I had never imagined anyone being as happy as they all were…. I spotted two teachers who had loved me and often talked to me about Jesus Christ. … Everyone continually embraced me, touched me, spoke to me, laughed and praised God.” pp 22 & 24

me me me me me me me me me me me me me = # times we read me or my in those few sentences. Ezekiel spoke of the glory of the Lord.

“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8)

Quite a different use of the word me there, with Peter pleading for Jesus to remove Himself from sinful ‘me’.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter saw Jesus in His glory, his first impulse was to build a tent of worship. He said as much to Jesus, then,

“He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.” (Matthew 17:5-6)

The disciples were terrified in the presence of the LORD. Yet Kim Smith lounged in Jesus’ lap and asked Him of ‘me’.

Here are several short blog essays to help you discern that trips to heaven are not real. They ones by John MacArthur are aptly titled. Several in the list are by Tim Challies & another is by Justin Peters.

Sermon by Justin Peters: Spiritual Shipwreck of the Word-Faith Movement

Response to Heaven is For Real, 4 part essays

1. Blog by John MacArthur: Heaven Is Real; Hallucinations Are Not

2. Blog by John MacArthur: Dead Men Tell No Tales

3. Blog by John MacArthur: When Preschoolers Speak Ex Cathedra

4. Blog by John MacArthur: The Idolatry of Experience

Tim Challies Book Review: Heaven is For Real

Tim Challies: I Went to Heaven Books

Tim Challies: What The Bible Says About the Heaven Books

“The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven…not quite” Beth Malarkey’s Poignant Testimony about her son’s NON-trip to heaven, how it is just a lie exploited by others (“The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven”)

‘Heaven is for Real’ Dad Says Critics are ‘Pharisees’

Posted in God, grieve the holy spirit, love, Trinity

We grieve God, yet He loves us

Posted on by elizabethprata

Man’s sorry history of grieving the entire Trinity is long and sad.

In Genesis 6:6 we read,

Adam and Eve banished, Gustave Dore

“And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

During the incarnation of Jesus, Jesus was saddened to the point of tears over death, (His friend Lazarus), and over His city.

When Jesus was told Lazarus had died, he wept. (John 11:35). Matthew Henry said,

Christ’s tender sympathy with these afflicted friends, appeared by the troubles of his spirit. In all the afflictions of believers he is afflicted. His concern for them was shown by his kind inquiry after the remains of his deceased friend. Being found in fashion as a man, he acts in the way and manner of the sons of men. It was shown by his tears. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah 53:3)

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” (Luke 19:41)

Matthew Henry again,

“The Son of God did not weep vain and causeless tears, nor for a light matter, nor for himself. He knows the value of souls, the weight of guilt, and how low it will press and sink mankind.”

The Holy Spirit grieves, too.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

Gill’s Exposition says,

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,…. Not a believer’s own spirit, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, which is grieved by sin; nor the spirit of a good man, that hears our words and sees our actions, and is displeased and troubled at them; but the third person in the Trinity: and this is said of him by an anthropopathy, and supposes something done that is offensive to him; and he may be grieved, not only by unconverted persons, by their stubborn resistance and opposition to the Gospel and means of grace, and by their contempt of his person, office, and grace, but by believers themselves, and who are here spoken to; and which may be done both by their words, lying, angry, and corrupt ones

S. Lewis Johnson said of the Ephesians verse,

Now the New Testament has a word for believers. In Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 30, the Apostle Paul says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Grieve not.” Now grieve is a love word. Only those who love can be grieved. … Now when we disobey God, whether it be by a sin of omission or a sin of commission, we have grieved the Holy Spirit. That’s the word that the New Testament uses of believers. They do not resist the Spirit. They grieve the Spirit according to the New Testament.

Charles Spurgeon said of grieving the Spirit, “but where is the heart so hard, that it is not moved when we know that we have caused others grief?—for grief is a sweet combination of anger and of love. It is anger, but all the gall is taken from it. Love sweetens the anger, and turns the edge of it, not against the person, but against the offense.“

I feel so terrible having grieved my LORD and my God.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
(Psalm 51:1-4)

What an amazing and loving God we have, who came down to us!

A cross in a heart formed with candles taken in Camp Tejas,
Giddings, TX, USA By Wingchi Poon. Wimimedia COmmons

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:8-10).

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)

God our Trinitarian God, loves us so much, despite humankind’s grief against Him, despite the fact that we personally sin against Him each day. Honor Him by loving Him, resisting sin, and repenting when we fail. By reading His word to get to know Him better, and by praying in communication to Him. He loves His little children. Let us cry out ‘Abba! Father!’ Now that the Spirit is in us, let us not quench Him, resist Him or grieve Him any longer. Let us love Him with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul! He delights in our love for Him!

It’s so hard to fathom that despite the fact that we grieve each member of the Trinity at various times, He loves us so much!

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (Psalm 147:11)

————————–

Further reading:

Why God Tells Us He Delights in His Children

Three Surprising Ways to Grieve the Spirit 

Why Does God Love Us?

Posted in geisler, mohler, movie, oprah, the shack, william p. young

The bestseller book "The Shack" in development to become a movie

Posted on by elizabethprata

The lack of Christian discernment continues…(2 Timothy 4:3) or perhaps the reality is closer to a huge money making machine running over Christians and raking it in hand over fist. (2 Peter 2:3). Either way, in the wake of the blasphemous movie Noah starring Russell Crowe, and the equally blasphemous heaven tourism trip “Heaven is for Real“, comes a proposed movie based on William P. Young’s bestseller “The Shack“

It will star Forrest Whittaker and possibly Oprah. Though it is as yet unclear exactly what role Oprah will play, in The Shack, ‘God’ was depicted as a large, African American woman, sooo…. The Holy Spirit was depicted as a woman also, an Asian. As The Christian Post reports on the upcoming movie, they dug up the original quote from Dr Al Mohler regarding the heresy in The Shack-

In 2010, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described [the book] The Shack as a “wake-up call for evangelical Christianity,” and that its story reflected “a theology that is unconventional at best, and undoubtedly heretical in certain respects.” He also blamed its popularity among Evangelicals on their ignorance of “basic theological knowledge.”

To wit: though the book was heretical, it spent 70 weeks at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list.

How quaint those time were, lo those 4 years ago, when The Shack’s heresy was embedded sweetly in a well-written book promoting what was termed as merely unconventional theology.

Here are a few reviews of The Shack. Negative, of course.

The Shack: Helpful or Heretical? by Dr Norman Geisler

Challies: A review of The Shack

Why Christians Should Not Read ‘The Shack’

Burning Down The Shack

Our society is making God into its own image, and the script for it couldn’t be followed any better and the trip down heresy lane more successful. Willing ‘Christians’ are allowing the dilution of holy and fearsome God into a romantic, boyfriend living in a shack cheerfully making pancakes for ‘her’ universally loved sheep, who will all end up in the sheepfold.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, (2 Timothy 4:3)

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. (Jeremiah 2:11)

“Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:20) 


Posted in galatians, good, spurgeon

Do not grow weary in the doing good

Posted on by elizabethprata

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

These days are getting more and more evil. A Christian in an area like ours, the Southern United states, is so far spared the persecution many are experiencing abroad, praise the Lord. However, attitudes toward Christians from secular people are shifting rapidly even here in the so-called ‘bible belt.’ Though we are not persecuted from the outside, many local churches are dying from the inside.

Just as Britain is grappling with the reality that they are a post-Christian nation, a clear look at the US will show that we are too.

Apostasy is rising, which means that people who have called themselves Christians are behaving less and less like our Master and more and more like the world.

I used to think that discernment ministries, such as the ministry the Spirit gave me to perform online and in the real world, was the hardest. I was wrong to think so. Plus, I was in error. It is hard for everybody. I’m nobody special.

The tendency is to excuse themselves because at some time or other they have been victimized.~Charles Spurgeon
For example, I was talking with a sister in the faith who serves in a helps ministry. She has been given a strong desire to serve. Even when people who call themselves Christian ask for help from churches where a sweet women like my sister serves, the seekers of help often display the worst of human attitudes; entitlement, greed, laziness, ingratitude, and anger.

Paul warned Timothy to:

“understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

“Having the appearance of godliness”…Christians who look like they are Christians aren’t really, but will at some point be found to never have known the Lord. (Matthew 7:21-23). This is one of the saddest verses in the entire bible, to me.

Weary traveler by eharsee. reuse allowed

Discernment ministries arise within a church and online when a person has been spiritually gifted with a supernatural ability to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, between holiness and evil. It comes from 1 Corinthians 12:10.

Because it is getting toward the end of the end of the age (we have been in the end of the age since Jesus ascended (1 John 2:18), there are a good many people who succumb to tickled ears, heaping up teachers for themselves, and won’t endure sound doctrine. As I read on Challies’ website, not that they don’t know what sound teaching is, but that they WON’T ENDURE it.

People still refuse to accept such and such is a false teacher, or that a particular doctrine is aberrant, or an activity founded on a scripture is actually a twisted use of that scripture…. Discernment is seen as something unnecessary to a vibrant Christian life. So many people display an attitude of “let’s just agree Jesus is the only thing we need to agree on and leave the rest to God. But that’s not all there is, and still the gift of discernment isn’t adhered to much.

Back to the Galatians verse, Charles Spurgeon said in his exhortation about not being weary in the doing good, as related to teaching Sunday School

“It is true, my Brothers and Sisters, that you are not to save yourselves by doing good. Your motive is not selfish, but because you are saved already, you desire to manifest the power of gratitude and to prove to all the world that those who receive a free salvation are the very men who most cheerfully labor to please God and to bring glory to His name. O you who are debtors to infinite mercy, “Be not weary in doing good.” …

 Now, secondly, it appears from the text that in your service YOU WILL MEET WITH EVILS common to Christian workers of all descriptions. You will especially be liable to weariness and faintness. Take the first word as it stands in our version—you will be tempted to grow weary.  …

Do you not think that, at times, our getting lax in Christian work arises from our being very low in Grace? As a rule, you cannot get out of a man that which is not in him. You cannot go forth, yourself, to your class and do your work vigorously if you have lost inward vigor. You cannot minister before the Lord with the unction of the Holy One if that unction is not upon you. If you are not living near to God and in the power of God, then the power of God will not go forth through you to the children in y our care! Therefore I think we should judge, when we become discontented and down-hearted, that we are out of sorts spiritually. Let us say to ourselves, “Come, my Soul! What ails you? This faint heart is a sign that you are out of health. Go to the Great Physician and obtain from Him a tonic which shall brace you! Come, play the man! Have none of these whims! Away with your idleness! The reaping time will come, therefore thrust in the plow.”  

By Benson Kua from Toronto, Canada. Wiki commons

“Sometimes, too—I am ashamed to mention it—I have heard of teachers becoming weary from lack of being appreciated. Their work has not been sufficiently noticed by the pastor and praised by the superintendent. Sufficient notice has not been taken of them and their class by their fellow teachers. I will not say much about this cause of faintness because it is so small an affair that it is quite below a Christian. Appreciation! Do we expect it in this world? The Jewish nation despised and rejected their King and even if we were as holy as the Lord Jesus we might still fail to be rightly judged and properly esteemed. What does it matter? If God accepts us, we need not be dismayed though all should pass us by. 

Perhaps, however, the work itself may suggest to us a little more excuse for being weary. It is hard work to sow on the highway and amidst the thorns—hard work to be casting good seed upon the rock, year after year. Well, if I had done so for many years and was enabled by the Holy Spirit, I would say to myself, “I shall not give up my work because I have not yet received a recompense in it. I perceive that in the Lord’s parable three sowings did not succeed and yet the one piece of good ground paid for all! Perhaps I have gone through my three unsuccessful sowings and now is my time to enjoy my fourth, in which the seed will fall upon good ground.”

Spurgeon always has a good word. In addition, the Good Book says to

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (Philippians 2:14-15)

Spurgeon again,

“If there are a hundred reasons for giving up your work of faith, there are 50,000 for going on with it! Though there are many arguments for fainting, there are far more arguments for persevering. Though we might be weary and do sometimes feel so, let us wait upon the Lord and renew our strength and we shall mount up with wings as eagles, forget our weariness and be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!” 

————————————-

Methodist Church Organist has been playing every Sunday for 73 years

Posted in glory, God, providence, tornado, tragedy, weather

It’s tornado weather

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m working on another blog essay for tonight about not growing weary in the well-doing. But I wanted to pause and pray for a moment. There is a severe weather outbreak in the South and the Plains States of the US. Tornadoes, hail, lightning and severe winds and thunder are wreaking havoc at this hour, and have been since last night. Many people have died and much property is demolished. Lives are forever changed.

Our section of the South, Georgia, will start to get hit later tonight and tomorrow through Wednesday. It is by meteorological accounts, a very severe threat. Tupelo Mississippi just got hammered and there is a great amount of damage.

The Lord told us in His word that He holds us in His hand and the days of our lives are numbered. We never know if this moment will be our last breath or if we have another 20000 days to go. By this time tomorrow I could be dead, injured, or homeless. Or I could be the same- ensconced in my tiny apartment with three happy cats eating fruit and drinking tea. We just never know. However, what I appeal to the Lord for is my attitude. Here is my prayer:

“Lord, may You be glorified if You decide to blast my house in a tornado. May my attitude reflect submission to Your will, exhibit certainty that You are in control, and comfort in the knowledge that You have the bigger picture in mind- because all things work together for good for those who love you.

“If you decide to spare my house, then please may I reflect Your glory in gratitude that You have allowed me to continue unscathed, though, knowing that life’s trials are a sure thing and another one may be around the corner tomorrow. In all, Your will be done.”

“May You be glorified if some of those who have experienced tragedy through this weather come to salvation. Severe storms make a person think about life, family, and mortality. May they also think of You and Your Son,  and the afterlife you have prepared for those who love you. May your glory shine brightly in newly converted hearts, even amidst the debris.” Amen

Job Loses his Children and Property
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”…

 21He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” 

22Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
            (Job 1:18-19, 21-22)

Posted in encouragement, jesus, praise, revelation

"…and his face was like the sun shining in full strength"

Posted on by elizabethprata

In the spring and summer, the sun is a position that when it rises in the morning, it bursts over the trees and its rays shoot down the road.

I live at the end of a small one-way street. Looking east, the sun rises over the tree line for a few minutes, brightening the sky. It’s coming!

Suddenly the sunrays burst out and stream down the road, lighting all the bushes and pastures along the way

The brightness is incredible, reflecting off everything the sun rays touch. The bushes burst into focus, each leaf evident in the gold adornment

It’s as if the curtain of golden light is being raised- you can see half the bush illuminated as the sun rises higher and higher, the shadow line sinking fast to the ground as the illumination is almost complete

I always love that moment, when the sun comes up and the first light shows itself. What will it be like when we’re called home in the rapture, and we see the full light of the glory of Jesus?!

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. (Revelation 1:12-16)

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:22-23)

All praise to the Lamb, the Light of the world!!