Posted in adam smith, apology, buycott, chick-fil-a, jesus, rachel, wars and rumors of wars

Adam Smith, Chick-Fil-A drive thru guy who berated drive-thru employee, apologizes. Sort of.

Posted on by elizabethprata

Updated to include identity of and comments from law-breaker who defaced Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Torrance, California. See below.

——————
When Jesus said in Matthew 24:6 that one of the signs of His soon coming would be wars and rumors of wars, automatically we think of military wars. And indeed it means that. Military war is not only what He meant, in my opinion. He didn’t use the word strateuo: “to make war” (from stratos, “an encamped army”). He used the word polemos which means war but it also means battle, strife, quarrels.

The word ‘polemos’ that He used in English is ‘polemic.’ A polemic is “a contentious argument that is intended to establish the truth of a specific belief and the falsity of the contrary belief. Polemics are mostly seen in arguments about very controversial topics.” Polemics address important issues in religion, philosophy, politics, or science. The word is derived from the Greek meaning “warlike, hostile” which comes from polemos, “war”. (Wiki)

What we have in the Chick-Fil-A controversy is a very open war- a culture war with polemical battle lines drawn on one side and the other. This week America was engaged in a national convulsion in polemics, AKA culture war, strife, battle, and quarrel. Christians brought biblical light to a Godly value (heterosexual marriage) and focused it in such a way as to shine it directly into the eyes of those who are yet in darkness. My own opinion is that this is also what Jesus meant when He said ‘you will see wars and rumors of wars.’

Now for the relevant application. I’ll boil the culture war down to two people, Adam Smith and Rachel.

Distribution of Chick-Fil-A restaurants
in the US. Wiki commons

The background to this war is that in an interview with the Baptist Press, Chick-Fil-A chain restaurant owner Dan Cathy responded to a question about the company’s support for traditional marriage, saying:

“Well, guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We operate as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families – some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that … We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.” Source

His mild and gentle but clear statement caused a firestorm of protest. The usual protests came from the homosexual segment of the population, but this time the politicians and Mayors of major cities, particularly Boston and Chicago, stated that they would do everything in their power to stop Chick-Fil-A from operating as a company in their city.

The usual argument in culture is one thing, but the US is founded on principles of freedom of speech and religion, and this not-so-veiled attack on those principles ignited a peaceful protest by the conservative segment of the population. They decided to go and buy Chick-Fil-A food as a sign of support. On August 1, 2012, Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day happened. Boy, did people turn out for this!

Illinois
Texas

South Carolina
Arizona
Maryland
Even in GASP! Boston!

Boston, Burlington Mall

My Christian brother in Norway tweeted, “Why is everyone from america talking about this chick-fil a or something??” I told him that the national convulsion we’re experiencing here is simply the latest iteration of an age-old battle. This week it burst into open warfare in such vitriolic proportions that the culture war spilled overseas to the notice of other nations.

You might ask, the homosexual agenda has been visible for a long time, this isn’t the first time it has burst open in America. Remember Stonewall? How about all those Pride Days, Gay Parades, and legislative rallies and protests for homosexual marriage?” Yes, that is true, that is part of the culture war. It’s been one-sided so far. But this week was the first time in my memory that the initiative was taken by Christians, in a well-planned and organized push-back.

People who are not in Christ are in satan. There is no in-between. Satan deludes the unsaved into thinking that there aren’t that many Christians. They think we are kooks, living exclusively in the south, and that we have no power. Christians are no-account in an unsaved person’s life, because they simply don’t see us. We are invisible to them because satan has blinded them to the Light of Jesus that is in us. I cannot stress this enough.

I can say these things because I wasn’t saved until I was 43 years old. Until then I was a New England liberal elite who thought Christians numbered in the dozens, maybe hundreds, living Deliverance style in the woods of Mississippi. Or maybe all in one subdivision. They were easy to avoid and had no impact to my life. When I did get saved and moved to the south I was shocked, shocked I tell you, at the sheer number of Christians. Before, they were invisible to me. And that is because satan has blinded their minds.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

I have four points I’d like to finish with.

On Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, Adam Smith, an executive at an Arizona company named Vante, sat for a looooong time in the drive-thru. He was there to buy some water and to tell the employee serving him that she worked for a horrible company that denies homosexuals their rights. He said he felt good, purposeful and jazzed to be doing it. We know all this because he filmed his encounter and posted it on Youtube. The next day his company fired him.

A day or so after that, Smith posted an 8-minute video apologizing for his actions and stated he wasn’t just saying this because he was fired and he has a lot of time on his hands to reflect on his actions. His video is below. You can watch for yourself. First I’ll post some of his comments and embed them in the context of the (culture) wars and polemical arguments bursting out all over.

“You should know I never planned to say the things I said that day…and how I said them. I planned to peacefully participate in the Youtube post where Jackson Pearce asked people to order a large water as a sign of support for the gay community. But when I got to your window, after seeing all of the people in and outside the restaurant, that came to support Chick-Fil-A, I lost it. I just lost it. I couldn’t believe the number of people that came out to support a corporation…”

1. What he really means there is he couldn’t believe how many people came out to support a corporation that openly embraces a Christian value. Because, of course, liberals and homosexuals and the unsaved come out in force and in numbers all the time to support or oppose corporations. Look at the Occupy Wall Street protests. They oppose Bank of America or other banks. Last time I looked, those were corporations.

2. I can just see how sitting in that long line for all that time roiled Mr Smith. He got madder, madder and madder. Satan opposes God. When someone is deeply reprobate, they will be angry when confronted with truth. Smith had buckets of time in line to watch truth in action. Romans 1 says that all have seen God because He has revealed His invisible qualities to us through the creation. In this case the truth hit him on the nose and he couldn’t help but see the numbers of people who support corporations with Godly values. Those who deliberately suppress this truth descend on a path that gets darker and darker. Confronted with truth, they get angry. They will become the things they claim to hate!

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans 1:28-30).

Smith could not believe the number of people who love God and who support Godly principles. Smith was confronted with visible, tangible proof of the fact that God exists in many people and he shrank like a vampire from holy water, screaming ‘noooo noooo nooo’. OK maybe not literally, but pretty close, seeing his own words above! “I just lost it.” So he lashed out:

“For me, the main goal of supporting the gay community outweighed any collateral damage that Rachel became. … I just literally saw Rachel as collateral damage.”

3. In other words the war in the reprobate to win at all costs no matter who gets hurt in the process is clearly unveiled. This is because in suppressing the truth, they are filled with all manner of unrighteousness as described above. Their unreasoning, satanic hatred of all things Godly will darken them to the point that they rise up in violence. This is a war. When presented with the truth become so blinded with rage they lash out and as in any war, there is ‘collateral damage.’

Like this:

Huffington Post reports, Homosexual “Manny Castro has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the “Tastes Like Hate” message painted on the side of a Chick-fil-A restaurant Friday morning in Torrance, Calif.” Castro claims that he, as a homosexual man has few rights and that the people at Chick-Fil-A were trying to take away what few rights he has left. “When Castro saw news photos of thousands of Americans lined up around the block to buy a sandwich in support of the company on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” his heart sank even more.” Castro says Americans eating chicken sandwiches to support their preferred restaurant is the “same thing” as when 40 years ago Christians protested whites marrying blacks. Therefore, he reasoned, his defacement of local property is “not that much of a crime.”

You notice that it was when Castro “saw” the photos of lines upon lines of people at Chick-Fil-A that the polemical issue really affected him. “His heart sank.” It was when he was confronted with the truth that he was angered into negative action, that is.

They will never see the irony in that a hate filled heart will, under cover of darkness plot an evil plan, buy paint, gather together in unrighteousness, and in their foolish battle, they break the law in order to claim that others hate. Breaking the law is the most hateful incivility in the highest degree. But their reprobate minds just lose it and in the ensuing war, there is collateral damage. In this case, an innocent restaurant manager who had then to deal with the aftermath of reprobate hate plastered on his building.

Smith goes on to say that the reaction against him subsequent to his video posting and then his firing was discouraging. He has received threats against himself, his family and his co-workers. This is unfortunate and is not a Christian value. People who do those things, no matter what side of the culture war they say they are on, are reprobate with a foolish heart and a darkened mind.

However Smith also says that on the other hand it is encouraging. Because, he says, “If people can get this passionate about a guy being rude to a girl in the drive-thru, how much more passion can we have for our fellow human beings have whose basic rights are being threatened by a corporation like Chick-Fil-A?”

4. So you can see that he is not really sorry. His heart is still darkened. He recognized the light inside of Rachel the woman he berated, but he wants to harness that light for satan’s purposes.

This “war” will continue and even deepen. The lines are drawn so clearly now.

The chasm between the Light-filled Christian and the Dark-Hearted Reprobate will shrink, and shrink and shrink, until one day Christians will be raptured and we will study war no more! The Dark-Hearted Reprobate will have no one left to battle with…so he will turn against the next guy whose heart is even darker than his. Because their war is really against God. They will continue, because Romans 1:32 closes out with:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

May God have mercy upon them…but His wrath is building.

—————————————
Original video of Smith going through drive-thru on Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. It is a little over 2 minutes.:

Adam Smith’s apologetic video, it is about 8 minutes

Posted in australia, china, ebola, israel, jordan, panetta, prophecy

News roundup: Russia sends ships to Syria, Israel, Jordan, Ebola, China, squirrel head

Posted on by elizabethprata

What’s going on in the world world, anyway? Here is a news synopsis for you-

Never has so much been stated in an article and so little has been said. It is all vapors and platitudes. The only concrete news I got from this article in the Jordan Times is that Panetta is out of the country.

King warns of ‘dangerous ramifications’ of Syrian crisis
“US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s six-hour stop in Jordan — his first visit to the Kingdom as defence secretary — is part of a regional tour that he began earlier this week, making stops in Tunisia, Egypt and Israel. … His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday voiced Jordan’s concern over the escalating situation in Syria and its “dangerous” ramification on the region, calling for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. The King reiterated the need for a solution that would put an end to the bloodshed and spare the Syrians more suffering, a Royal Court statement said.”

UN Peace Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan quit this week. Syria’s ally Russia has something to say about that.

Annan’s Exit ‘Opens Gates’ for Intervention – Russian Ministry
“Annan’s decision against extending his mandate as the UN envoy to Syria raises loads of questions regarding the future of this country. He is an honest international mediator but someone wants to push him out of the game to open the gates for forceful actions. This is obvious,” Gatilov wrote in his Twitter account.”

Note how Russia sees the situation, this next paragraph is through their eyes:

“The West is pushing for President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, while Russia and China are trying to prevent outside interference in Syria saying the Assad regime and the opposition are both to blame for the bloodshed.”

Methinks Russia doth protest too much. Because meanwhile, the Lebanon Daily Star reports,

Russia sends navy vessels to Tartus: agencies
“Moscow is sending three large landing ships with marines aboard to a Russian naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, Russian news agencies quoted a source in the general staff as saying on Friday. The source said each ship would have up to 120 marines on board and that the vessels, already in the Mediterranean, would arrive in Tartus by the end of this week or early next week. The source said the ships’ mission was to replenish supplies at the small Russian maintenance and repair facility, manned by fewer than 100 personnel, according to analysts.”

Landing ships. Did you catch that? Landing ships. Wiki– “They are designed for beach landings and can carry a 450 ton cargo. The ships have both bow and stern doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 m² of vehicle deck stretches the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked. They were built for the Soviet Navy during the Cold War, but the current Russian Navy has little need for a long-range amphibious capability and most of them are kept in reserve or are retired.”

Well, some of them just came out of retirement.

Meanwhile in Israel, the talk is of that long spoken of and long prophesied war and rumor of war, a pre-emptive attack by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Will Israel attack? Won’t they attack? Do it! Don’t do it! (Matthew 24:6)

Israel May Be Preparing for Military Strike on Iran
Don’t attack Iran now, warns ex-IDF intel chief
Israeli General: Israel unlikely to attack Iran right before US presidential elections
Romney respects Israel’s right to attack Iran, aide says

Oy, I think the “rumor of war” is worse than the war.

The US has been on a downward trajectory for some time. The Chinese have been on an upward trajectory. Our economies, world influence, power, and stability have been like a see-saw. We know the US is not a player in any sense in the end times prophetic plan. The US is not mentioned. The ‘Kings of the East”…are. (Daniel 11:44, Revelation 9:13-16, Revelation 16:12-16). In my opinion this article clearly shows the switch. Now, China is the nation not to say no to.

Australia rejects US proposal for nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth
“Australia, which tries to tread a fine line between supporting its closest ally, the US, and not upsetting China, its biggest trading partner, yesterday rejected a proposal to base a US nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth, saying it did not want US bases in the country…. “I think they’ll [the Australian government] be very careful not to risk further displeasure from China by doing anything that suggests they’re supporting a US military build-up in Asia,” Hugh White, head of the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, told Associated Press.”

I’ve been watching the Uganda ebola case for two weeks now. It has grown into a concern. People are fleeing hospitals for fear of an outbreak

Suspected Ebola cases growing in Uganda
“KAMPALA, Uganda — Six more patients suspected to have Ebola have been admitted to the hospital days after investigators confirmed an outbreak of the highly infectious disease in a remote corner of western Uganda, a health official said on Monday. Stephen Byaruhanga, health secretary of the affected Kibaale district, said possible cases of Ebola, at first concentrated in a single village, are now being reported in more villages. “It’s no longer just one village. There are many villages affected,” Byaruhanga said. This is the fourth occurrence of Ebola in Uganda since 2000, when the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized in northern Uganda. At least 42 people were killed in another outbreak in 2007, and there was a lone Ebola case in 2011.”

Uganda Ebola outbreak: patients flee hospital amid contagion fears
“Terrified patients fled from a hospital in western Uganda as soon as news broke that a mysterious illness that killed at least 14 people in the region was Ebola, one of the world’s most virulent diseases.”

Remember, ebola is the disease with the 90% mortality rate because it melts your insides. (pestilences: Matthew 24:7)

The NY Times lead a story on ebola with this: “Of the pathogens that keep worried scientists awake at night, few rival Ebola for ruthless efficiency. The virus contains just seven genes, yet it manages to kill up to 90 percent of the people it infects.’

Which prompted this Virology Professor to investigate if the 90% statistic was true, and found this on the WHO page:

“According to the WHO page on Ebola haemorrhagic fever, “Zaïre, Sudan and Bundibugyo species have been associated with large Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) outbreaks in Africa with high case fatality ratio (25–90%) while Côte d’Ivoire and Reston have not. Reston species can infect humans but no serious illness or death in humans have been reported to date.’

I think the average mortality rate from ebola is an average 65%, but it is pretty well universally acknowledged that the rate increases dramatically during an outbreak. Hence the fear conveyed in the above articles. Just to compare, the 1918 influenza outbreak that killed about 20-100 million people had a mortality rate of 2%.

Source

Health teams face real-life horror in Ebola battle
“When officials in Uganda verified an outbreak of the Ebola virus on Saturday, it set international health workers in motion. The hemorrhagic virus is the stuff of real-life horror — spreading through contact with infected individuals, their bodily fluids and even clothing they have worn. In many cases Ebola leads to a rapid decline marked by fever, diarrhea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.”

How is this a good idea, I ask?

Aussie Tycoon Wants to Clone Dinosaurs for His Real Life, Resort-Based Jurassic Park
“In other billionaire news today, a controversial and ostentatious Australian is supposedly planning a real-life Jurassic Park, complete with cloned dinosaurs. Clive Palmer, who also wants to build a modern-day Titanic replica, has held talks with the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep, reports Australia’s Sunshine Coast Daily. Palmer, a mining magnate, owns a luxury resort on the Sunshine Coast, in southern Queensland on Australia’s Pacific side. He would put the dinosaurs in his new resort there, the Daily reports.”

Big head squirrel feeder
“Hang this vinyl 5-1/2″ x 8″ Big Head Squirrel Feeder in front of a window or near a porch, fill it with something squirrels like to eat and when they stick their head up there, the squirrel looks like he has a hilariously huge head with a goofy smile.”

Take that, squirrel! I heap humiliation upon you! Plus, I fart in your general direction!

Posted in millennium kingdom, prophecy, tribulation

Conversations in the Millennium Kingdom

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Millennium Kingdom is the nearly next event on the schedule of God’s prophetic plan. There will be the end of the Church Age, culminating in the rapture of the saints. Then 7 years of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, and the return of Jesus to put an end to sin (Dan 9:24). After that He establishes His kingdom which will last for 1000 years. Satan will be bound and put in the pit so he won’t even be around to bother anyone for all that time. (Revelation 20:2-7)

The Jews will live in their promised lands, and the Church Age Saints will live in New Jerusalem. Believers who made it through the Tribulation will enter the Kingdom and repopulate the earth. Without sin and with the earth having been restored, the population will explode quickly. It will be a time of peace and harmony.

“And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” (Isaiah 32:17–18)

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people.” (Amos 9:13–15).

The curse of creation will be gone and the animals will be friendly.

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together;” (Isaiah 11:6–9)

The children who are born during the Millennium Kingdom will grow in a happy, healthy, whole environment. If they die at age 100 it will be as if they died while a child, so ‘young’ they must have been accursed.

“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” (Isaiah 65:20).

We who are raptured or resurrected through death will be talking with these children. After all, they will be be born with a sin nature and have to be taught about Jesus. Can you imagine some of the conversations in our rocking chair as we sit under our vine, and the kids come around? Maybe a kid crawls up onto our lap, or sits on the porch and asks for a story. We can give them the real “back in my day” stories!

Back in my day, you had to lock the doors because of robbers.
What’s a lock?
It’s a thing where it prevents the door being open unless you have the key.
What’s a key?
It’s…oh, never mind.
What’s a robber?
It is a bad guy who comes to take away your things without permission.
Why would they want to do that when everyone always has everything they need?
Maybe they were hungry.
What’s hungry?
LOL, maybe they just wanted our TV, eh, Bessie? [speaking to neighbor]
What’s a tv?
Never mind. Hey, kids, look at that lion over there. Back in my day, they would chase you and chomp you and eat you up!
No! Not my friend Leo! He’s nice!
Well, maybe they were hungry and they wanted a human to eat.
What’s hungry? You said that word before.
You kids make me tired. Go play with that cobra over there. (Isaiah 11:8)
OK bye Grandma Elizabeth!

Back in my day… [shudder]. I think I’ll go visit Martin Luther and Apostle Paul for a while. Ack, kids these days. They never had it so good.

Posted in ahmadinejad, emp, iran, israel, netanyahu, prophecy, threa

Twitter wit, and a sobering look at EMP

Posted on by elizabethprata

I enjoy Twitter. I get news, fast, ‘meet’ like-minded Christians who encourage each other, and usually have a laugh. People really are very funny and witty. There are two guys who are usually re-tweeted by someone I follow. One is the Surly Deacon and the other is the Church Curmudgeon. Church Curmudgeon’s tag line is “It ain’t the way it used to be, I’ll tell you that.”

The Church Curmudgeon ‏said the other day, “I am big! It’s the deacons that got small! #DeaconMovieLines”.

I thought that was pretty funny … because we’re all part of the body in equal standing before the Lord.(1 Corinthians 12:27-31).

If you know that famous movie line from Sunset Boulevard and how Gloria Swanson nailed the delivery, all the better. Here is Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond:

“The Surly Deacon said on Twitter the other day- “Under the cover of darkness someone (me & Ted) replaced the 2008 Baptist hymnal with the 1975 one. Contemporary worship has to go.”

The wit for me is that the Surly Deacon thinks 2008 Baptist hymnal is contemporary. There’s depth to that comment if you think about it.

Here is something more sobering, especially in light of today’s headline from Drudge regarding yet another threat from Iran’s President Ahmadinejad that Iran’s only goal in life is to annihilate Israel. When, oh, when will the US top level officials begin to understand Iran really means it? Iran not coincidentally wants to annihilate the US as well. They’re just not as vocal about it.

Here is the headline:

Ahmadinejad: World forces must annihilate Israel
“In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel…. Ahmadinejad added that “liberating Palestine” would solve all the world’s problems, although he did not elaborate on exactly how that might work. … Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust a myth, has previously called for Israel’s annihilation, in a 2005 speech in which he used a Persian phrase that translates literally as “wiped off the page of time.”

Psalm 83 says they would say that:

“O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” (Psalm 83:1-4).

If you live in the US and you are reading this, don’t get too comfortable. The video below shows how easy it is for Iran or one of its paid proxies can attack us and send us back to the year 1700 in one second.

Joel C. Rosenberg brings us up-to-date on the war drums in Israel-Iran-Syria, you note, the exact hot zone today and the exact prophesied hot-zone at the end of days according to Isaiah 17:1, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39.

Here is a short clip on the tenuous and vulnerable position the US is in this very day.

The US is in a vulnerable position before her enemies, but no Christian is. We are safe in Jesus. No matter what happens, we are safe in His arms.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

Posted in fireball, prophecy, sinkhole

Increase in fireball sightings swamp reporting agency

Posted on by elizabethprata

We haven’t had a foray into the strange and fringe for a good while, so I pass this along for the UFO-logists in the group.

As you know, I love quantifiable data to use as a benchmark for comparing events to history. I think it helps us stay grounded and not get carried away too far with prophetic newspaper exegesis. In this UFO report from the National UFO Reporting Center, they say that fireball sightings have increased tremendously.

We know that Revelation is an orderly UN-creating of the universe as opposed to Genesis which is the account of Creation. In Revelation we read that the mountains will fall, rivers will dry up, houses will topple, stars will plummet, the sun will go out…

Just before that uncreation, the Lord will collect His bride in the rapture and take us to heaven. Even so, we were told to look for signs that will precede this time that will be so devastating no flesh would survive if Jesus had not cut short the days. Matthew 24:29 says that at the end of the Tribulation the stars will fall. Celestial things will happen and in my opinion it is no surprise that we see a foretaste now of what will happen in the Tribulation. In the context of His talk about the end of the age, Jesus said to be on guard! Why? “I have told you these things beforehand.” (Mark 13:23).

So here is a bit of news that’s ‘out there’ in more ways than one!

NUFORC INUNDATED WITH SIGHTING REPORTS DURING JUNE AND JULY 2012

“We apologize for the long delay in updating our website and database of reports. Our last posting was July 4th. The delay is explained by the fact that we have received an unusually large volume of reports, and we are working on a full-time basis to get them all proof-read, and posted to our site.”

“Part of the explanation for the increase in sightings is the several radio programs that Peter Davenport, NUFORC Director, has made appearances on, in order to discuss the high volume of reports of “fireballs” that we have been receiving since June 2011. Whereas a typical number of reports submitted per month to NUFORC over the last 17 years has been 250-350, during June we received 974, and we have received 1,052 during July. The majority of the reports from the last two months appear to be about the “fireballs,” which we have discussed frequently over the past year. This type of sighting appears to have increased significantly, within the last month or two, and they now dominate the reports we are receiving.”

Here is another piece of news. I often report on sinkholes. They frequently happen when a long-undiscovered or a recently catastrophic failure of a water pipe saturates the ground underneath and suddenly the top-pavement gives way. This is nothing unusual. Slightly more unusual, Florida in particular has endured a spate of sinkhole events over the last three years. So much so that a legislative session was called to re-regulate the insurance industry covering these swarms of claims coming in, and when that didn’t work they simply stopped covering sinkholes in many cases.

Even more unusual are the sinkholes that happen in cities. The Guatemala City sinkhole in 2010 was a surprise and a shock to many, it looked exactly like a shaft of hell had opened up.

Well now one has opened up in Brooklyn NY of all places.

Giant sinkhole opens up in Brooklyn; nearly eats car [Updated]
The Earth went looking for a snack in Brooklyn on Wednesday when a twenty-foot deep, twenty-foot-wide sinkhole opened up between Fourth and Fifth Avenues in Bay Ridge at about 6 p.m., according to CBS. Several cars lined the collapsed portion of the street. Fortunately, the sinkhole didn’t swallow any vehicles; however, it got at least a taste of one that leaned into the gaping hole. “We’re so blessed,” said the Zen-like car owner. “If we were five minutes later or anything, we could have been in the hole.” Another cavity formed earlier in the summer in the same neighborhood. The cause is unknown and we’re not geologists, but our recollection of high school earth science tells us this is a pretty clear-cut case of an undernourished Earth.”

Ah! the update later says that the cause was a sewer line break, so the case is perfectly normal.

What I always find interesting about these events, whether they are explainable as normal or not, is the language used to report on them, and the reaction to them. People are skittish these days. You see it in the reporting. Maybe because I live with words and both my professions have been working with words (teacher, editor) I am tuned to the nuances of how a general trend in reporting goes. I’ve mentioned often that lately the news reports from Mainstream Media have used apocalyptic references and language, even some bible verses. I do not think this is because all those reporters are Christians, I think it is that though they are likely not saved, they are responding to the verse in Romans 1:18-20:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

As for the response of people in reading these reports, they remind me of the verse in Luke 21:25b

“…distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,”

That is not to be taken literally. The sea and the waves are a metaphor for the peoples of the earth in clamor, as the waves of judgment come roaring one after the other, faster and faster. The metaphor is used in like manner in Isaiah 8:7-8, and explained in Isaiah 57:20.

Don’t you feel that people are pretty skittish these days? Spooked? On edge? Look what happened in the days after Aurora shootings at theaters around the country. In one PA theater, they thought they saw a gun and there was a panic stampede out the door. It doesn’t take much to get people to act crazy these days. And for good reason!

This essay by Grant Phillips called Chaos to Glory really sums things up:

“So many souls, Christians and non-Christians, live in fear and dread today. Thousands are without jobs, or barely making a living. Retirement funds have disappeared into the pockets of thieves. The elderly are wondering how they are going to make it. It’s always been tough for them, but it’s getting worse, much worse. And then there is Obamacare. Plans for college have been put on hold or forgotten. Those graduating from colleges, universities, trade schools, etc. are shocked to find nothing there for them.”

“The cost of … well … everything, keeps going up, but the funds that come in the household have remained at the same level, shrunk or vanished. The only ones not feeling the effects are the wealthy and very wealthy. Nature has turned against man and taken his homes in floods, wildfires and other “natural” disasters. There is too much rain in some areas, and too much drought in others. Winter skipped Spring and went directly to Summer, and Summer is here with a blast. Extreme heat has broken over 4,500 records.”

“Any crime you care to mention is out of control. Our police agencies are swamped, and our jails and prisons are bursting at the seams. We may soon be hearing about the largest bank scandal in history. It is alleged that twenty major banks have been fixing interest rates for years. If this is true, it will affect the global financial system, and major Banks could crumble.”

“Diseases are rampant. New wars are anticipated. Earthquakes are breaking out around the globe. Volcanoes are waking up. Violent storms are moving over the oceans and headed toward land. And I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Is there anything that could possibly give us hope for a better day? All that is around us is nothing but utter chaos, and is worsening by the day. Suicides are up because people are losing hope. Can there possibly be sunshine at the end of this long tunnel?”

Yes! He goes on to cite the verses that give us hope. His essay is worth the read. I would make one editorial change to his piece, lol, if I may be permitted. Chaos is a good word to use for the lost. They see the world coming apart and it seems like chaos to them. But NOT to us. Jesus is in perfect control. Remember the verse above: why should be be in guard? Because, “I have told you these things beforehand.” That should actually give us comfort. It was planned between Him, the Father and the Spirit, it is coming to pass and it will come to its conclusion, just like He said.

That also means His plan for us will come to pass. In his piece, Grant cite his hope verses, and I’ll cite mine now:

“So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6)

“Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.” (Psalm 86:2)

His holiness shows us that He can and will do it. His resurrection shows us He can and will do it. Prophecy shows us He can and will do it. So do not be afraid, even if a sinkhole opens up under us or a fireball flies by our eyes, He saves his servants who trust in Him. You know what some of the definitions of the Hebrew word for ‘saves’ means? Delivers, endowed with salvation, gained the victory! Because He lives, we are in Him, endowed with the greatest treasure of all, salvation by our Savior and knowledge of our Lord.

Even if a sinkhole opens beneath me, I shall proclaim Him! Even if a fireball streaks in front of me, I shall point to Him! In the panic and tumult around me, I exalt Him, the Prince of Peace!

“…be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11b)

Posted in dust storm

More on haboobs, YES they are unusually frequent this year

Posted on by elizabethprata

For the last week I’ve written about the Arizona dust storms also known as haboobs. I wrote first to search out if they were usual or unusual and second, to determine of the storms we have been getting and increasing in number or are exhibiting unusual characteristics. The answer was yes to usual but also yes to now exhibiting unusual characteristics and also they are increasing in number. Then I wrote an update, here.

I was not the only one who has noticed the dust storms getting more frequent and more severe. This article appeared today in Israel’s daily, Arutz Sheva.

Largest Dust Storms in a Century Roll Back into Dust Bowl
Massive dust storms – the largest in a century — are rolling back into America’s Dust Bowl, bringing destructive “haboobs.” According to meteorologists, the huge dust storms are becoming more frequent, forming during the monsoon season from June until the end of September. This summer’s dust storms are the worst to have hit since the massive “Dust Bowl” disaster that struck the Midwest in the 1930s. This past Monday, the state of Arizona was struck again – as it had been one year ago — with the city of Phoenix shrouded in a dust cloud 2,000 feet high and nearly 60 miles wide. Nine thousand homes were left in the dark as electricity poles and tree limbs were snapped, and Sky Harbor Airport was shut down temporarily. Since June, five such dust storms have rolled into the state’s valley area. [Ed. note- one occurred in May of this year, making the total 6]. Phoenix was hit by three dust storms in a row in the past seven days – a very rare phenomenon, meteorologists said, and one that could be fatal for area residents…” [Emphasis mine.]

So if you were wondering, it’s God is calling, will you pick up the phone?

Posted in church, ed young, mark driscoll, sexual, temple prostitutes

We’re THIS close to temple prostitution nowadays

Posted on by elizabethprata

EDITED to remove hoax reference to Wal-Mart CD refusing to stock Vineyard CD of racy worship
lyrics.
———————————–
I wrote about the current trend we are experiencing in the Jesus is my boyfriend issue a week or so ago. In it I mentioned that the trend we’re currently experiencing in some Christian and/or evangelical quarters is to reduce Almighty God to our boyfriend or husband, and how this not only diminishes His august Majesty but introduces an inevitable sexual component to this unwanted trend.

In this essay I am going to extend the trend forward to a place that is obvious once you think about it.  I alluded to it when I mentioned in that Jesus is my boyfriend essay women as ‘camp followers’. I’ll answer answer the question of “why are mega-pastors like Ed Young, Mark Driscoll, and others introducing sex into the pulpit and why is contemporary music turning into breathlessly romantic and sometimes sexual songs about Jesus?” Here is my answer:

Because satan is preparing for the re-introduction of temple prostitution/sexual divine where the ancient pagan practices of sexual rites constitute a vital offering to deities. Now stick with me as I make my case. It is long so get comfortable.

Since time immemorial, worshipers have sought a union with the divine. We all have eternity in our hearts, (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We all have a conscience. (Romans 9:1). We all have knowledge that a higher being created the world. (Romans 1:19). Some of us suppress this truth. (Romans 1:18). Some respond and are saved by the blood of Jesus when we repent. When we repent, we finally recognize our union with Him, He sends the Spirit to dwell in us, and we are united to Him through covenant, marriage, and adoption.

However back to Romans 1. Those folks who refuse Jesus take a different path. They still seek union with the divine but because they are under satan’s sway, they have to live with his version of it. For those who suppress the truth, they respond to the union with the divine in ever increasingly corrupt ways. The trajectory is always down, as the progression in Romans 1 shows us.

In my opinion, the most overt unholy element of the current unholy perverse downgrade is the union of the sexual in worship.

Everything old is new again. We always come full circle. If you get a globe (remember those?) put a felt marker on the dot of your town, and spin the globe all the way around allowing the marker to draw a line, where will you end up? Back on your town. It is the same way with cultural trends. New Age is really old age. Today’s Personal Revelation is really old Gnosticism. Today’s Charismatic ecstatic experiences are really old Catholic mystic visions. Nothing satan does is new. Why should he expend energy creating new ways to pervert worship when all the old ways still work?

At root of the oldest way to pervert worship is sex. Let’s go back to Genesis and put our marker on the dot of the Garden, and draw that line through to today and you’ll see we will end up where we began.

In Genesis 3 satan tempted Eve. He told her that the fruit was good to make her wise. (Gen 3:5). She saw it was good and a delight. The word delight as used here in the Hebrew means ‘exceedingly, greedily, lust(ing), pleasant.’ She lusted. She didn’t just say, “oh, look, a piece of fruit!” She’d seen it every day so far! Satan made her see it differently, through exceedingly greedy lustful eyes. Satan joined that lust of the eyes with the lust for wisdom and we have the beginning of his tactic to unite the lust of the eyes with the pride of wanting higher wisdom.

Let’s advance that tactic of uniting the sexual and the divine, the erotic and the Gnostic, to Genesis 6:2, where “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.” It means what it says, people. Unholy sexual union with heavenly beings.

Let’s advance the scene to Exodus 32:6, the Golden Calf-
“And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

What happens when you are congregated with all your friends and family, sit down to eat and drink, and rise up again to play? Clarke’s commentary says of the word play

“And it appears they went much farther, for it is said they rose up to play, letsachek, a word of ominous import, which seems to imply here fornicating and adulterous intercourse; and in some countries the verb to play is still used precisely in this sense. In this sense the original is evidently used, Genesis 39:14.”

Paul wrote of that scene, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did.” (1 Cor 10:6-8).”

It was an orgy, OK? The context indicates this very strongly. If they were worshiping an idol they were under satan’s sway and under satan’s sway with the additional accelerants of food and drink and dance, they went the extra mile and indulged sexually. It was another case of the union of the sexual and the divine.

Scenes of the Golden Calf revelry in ancient art. Note how often they are shown partially dressed-

Adoration of the Golden Calf, Nicolas Poussin
Gerrit de Wet – The Adoration of the Golden Calf

Van Leyden Lucas – Dance of Jews around the Golden Calf

Let’s advance the scene again, to the times of the pagans until Jesus came. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus was the first to state that the ancient Mesopotamians practised temple prostitution. This is really tough on the heart to read:

“The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four.”

Temple prostitution was a practice in most cultures. Deuteronomy 23:17 forbids followers from indulging in temple prostitution.

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.”

Khajuraho Group of Monuments

Divine and sexual union is a central teaching in Tantric Buddhism, where sexual practices and rites constitute an important offering to Tantric deities. The temple Khajuraho at left is a monument to the Hindu and Jain gods, and is described by UNESCO World Heritage sites as “decorated with a profusion of sculptures that are among the greatest masterpieces of Indian art.” Most of the sculptures are graphic sexual acts. In one of the sculptures a man is having relations with a horse. Masterpiece, eh?

Even after Jesus, the carnal/sensual remained as a part of worship in many cultures, even Catholicism. The sexual as worship was practiced by Catholic and other mystics in the Middle Ages. The late Middle Ages  from 1300-1500 was the height of the Catholic Mystical period especially for women. These females, especially Teresa of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen, experienced and wrote about their personal, intimate, erotic, ecstatic and divine union with God through overtly erotic experiences when overcome with their ‘visions’.

Other female mystics were, starting in the 1200s, Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, Mechthild of Hackeborn, Mechtild of Magdebourg, and Gertrude the Great. Their visions are largely based on the Song of Songs and filled with eroticism and the Body of Christ. As we approach the current age, we find Mark Driscoll setting off a firestorm with his graphic and heinous teaching of the Song of Solomon. It was so bad it earned a 4-part rebuke from John MacArthur. Did I not tell you that everything old is new again?

Julie B. Miller, writes, “Scholars of women’s religious history and spirituality readily agree that medieval and early modern women mystics utilized the vocabulary and imagery of  sexual love to describe their passionate and intense relationships with the divine.”

In Ruth Evans’ book “Medieval Virginities” we read that in much current scholarship the erotic language of women medieval mystics is not thought to be entirely allegorical. Rather, the religious experience of  these women is often regarded as intrinsically erotic…

Jean Gerson, a medieval male mystic himself, noted this trend in 1415 and warned against it. But there is a clamor to accept mysticism today and all that comes with it, including the re-emergence of accepting a union of the sexual.

OK, you get the idea. So what does this globe trotting that have to do with today? Because that old notion of uniting the sexual with worship is ba-ack! BIG TIME. It is not in the pagan religions though and it is not in the Catholic religion. It is in traditional Christianity!

It started a few years ago in books with ‘frank’ explorations of sex within the confines of a one-man, one-woman Christian marriage. Lately Ann Voskamp explored the idea of sexual imagery with Jesus like this: “God makes love with grace upon grace, every moment a making of His love for us. [C]ouldn’t I make love to God, making every moment love for Him? To know Him the way Adam knew Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin?”’ The trend continued with certain sexually topical sermons in the emergent churches. It quickly descended to stunts, like this one from Ed Young with his 24-hour “bed-in” and “7 day sexperiment.”

Ed Young and his 24-hour bed in, sexperiment

It continued with Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill.

Mark Driscoll ‘Obsessed With Sex,’ Says Critic; Followers Ecstatic to See Pastor Go ‘Mainstream’
“The popular and controversial book about sex and relationships penned by Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll has one critic claiming there is a new craze for “sex talk” in the church, while the pastor’s followers seem excited that Mars Hill manages to promote a biblical approach to sex among secular audiences.”

This downward trend continued with lesser-known pastors taking the Young and Driscoll stunts as permission to be even more “open” about sex in the pulpit. The sex focus became prevalent, palpable, and more disgusting. I’m talking over only the last 4 years. It has happened that fast.

It continued further, with Driscoll preaching the Song of Solomon is a salacious way. Elder of the faith John MacArthur publicly rebuked Driscoll in a 4-part essay called “The Rape of Solomon’s Song.” In the first essay he said, “Mark Driscoll has boldly led the parade down this carnal path.”

He is more blunt in this essay about Driscoll’s version of proper sermon topics and language here, in the essay called “Grunge Christianity.”

“[I]t would certainly be accurate to describe both his vocabulary and his subject matter at times as tasteless, indecent, crude, and utterly inappropriate for a minister of Christ. In every message I listened to, at least once he veered into territory that ought to be clearly marked off limits for the pulpit. … Apparently the shortest route to relevance in church ministry right now is for the pastor to talk about sex in garishly explicit terms during the Sunday morning service. If he can shock parishioners with crude words and sophomoric humor, so much the better. The defenders of this trend solemnly inform us that without such a strategy it is well-nigh impossible to connect with today’s “culture.”

MacArthur is referring to a particular sermon Driscoll had preached in Scotland that was extremely sexually graphic, offensive, and tasteless. I won’t even link to it.

So as this parade of carnality now permeates the pulpit, added to this is dance and me-oriented romantic lyrics in praise songs. Am I exaggerating the nearness of the return of temple prostitution? Methinks not.

Look at Passion Worship Band’s lyrics to “Madly”:

We are madly in love with you
We are madly in love with you
We are madly in love with you
We are madly in love with you
And all of my life and nothing less I give to you my righteousness…

WE have righteousness to give to Jesus? NO!

Or these sensual lyrics:

You are my desire, no one else will do
‘Cause nothing else could take your place
To feel the warmth of your embrace
Kelly Carpenter – “Draw Me Close”

Or these–

You call me child and I’ll call you Father
Kisses from heaven of joy and laughter
…
I want to lavish my love on you, Jesus.
David Harper – “I Want to Lavish”

Included in racy or romantic lyrics are breathless sexy singing arrangements. Todd Friel warned about this amorous phrasing and sexy singing delivery. Humorously but not so funny, there is a list of 6 lyrics from secular love songs and Christian praise songs. It is impossible to tell them apart. Add to that terrible turn of events, the widespread recent inclusion of dance and skits to ‘praise and worship’ music time during services…

Praise Dancing is now emerging as a ‘ministry.’ It is also called “body worship.” You notice the unintended double meaning, I hope. Increasingly we see dance movement accompany contemporary music as part of the worship service.

Here is an example of a body worship praise dance called Total Body Worship Too… at a Baptist Bible fellowship.


During the dance, people got up and danced themselves, others rushed forward to capture the moment in film or video. The pastor was dancing along the side. As the dance went on, the dancers increased their tempo and simply gyrated and flung their arms all around with no obvious choreography. It is chaotic worship that focuses attention on the body and not Jesus Christ. Pardon me, but I see no ministry here.

“Praise dancing is a ministry,” says 17-year-old Ariana Starks at a recent Saturday morning practice at St. James, where she shimmied her shoulders to vibrant gospel music. “Most young people go to church and find it boring. This is a way to attract people into the house of God who wouldn’t normally want to come. … “The Lord is using us through the art of dance to preach the word of God,” says Debra Crenshaw, founder of the Fremont-based Christian dance company Dance For His Glory. “It can be entertaining, and people can get enjoyment from it, like the purpose of secular dance. But that’s not our sole purpose.”  Dance as worship is an age-old custom that can be traced back to the ancient Israelites who danced during Jewish festivals and ceremonies. Sufi Muslims have also been connecting with the divine through inspirational dance for centuries, going back to the whirling dervishes. ” (source).

Did you catch that? ‘Connecting with the divine’ through the body. A physical act. not a spiritual one of the mind and heart. Oy.

Contemporary music already has relinquished much of its mooring to biblical doctrine, and marrying the romantic Jesus boyfriend theme of contemporary music lyrics with bodily expressions of the divine love, on the pulpit or stage, is yet another example of the sexual carnal intrusion ready to burst on the scene in full force when the Spirit is taken out of the way. Challies speaks to praise dancing here.

Modern day cults always have a sexual component and ritualized sex. It is one way you can tell it is a cult!

Our globe has come full spin and where we started with satan in the Garden with wanting higher knowledge to be like God and lusting after the pleasurable fruit. (The lust of the eyes and the pride of life). We are that much closer to the golden calf dancing of Exodus and the pagan practices of ritualized sex at the pagan temple.

Hillsong Church dancing

“The Worship of the Golden Calf” by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504)

The Holy Spirit restrains sin. It is one of His ministries. Prior to the Flood judgment, God removed the Spirit (Genesis 6:3). He will do so again before the Tribulation judgment (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Can you imagine the flooding-in of the sexual when there is no restraint, if there is THIS much of the sexual is already present, even in evangelical churches?

Below is a still from a video of Elevation Church – Charlotte, NC Code Orange Christmas dance to advertise the Code Orange revivals in January at Elevation Church

I didn’t want to put salacious pictures in front of you, but I’d like to close with a challenge: as you view some of these ‘praise concerts’ at churches complete with dancers, mimes, props, Charismatic laughter, body gyrations, loud music and hypnotic drum beats, synchronized hopping, keep in mind the Pastor Ed Young in his bed, the imagined picture in your head of the temple prostitutes, and ask yourself, isn’t it obvious where the romanticizing Jesus movement,  mystical ecstatic experience, Song of Solomon sex talking preachers are headed the moment the Holy Spirit is out of the way? The final union of the sexual and the divine- satan’s way.

Posted in bible, drought, God, warning

Language of God: drought

Posted on by elizabethprata

God communicates with His people. Isn’t that magnificent? He wants to have a relationship with us. God has always used different ways to communicate with man. He wants us to know Him, His expectations of us, His love and His reproof.

In the Garden, He would walk in the cool of the day. (Gen 3:8). With Moses He spoke face to face. (Exodus 33:11). Or through a bush! (Exodus 3:1).

He spoke to the the prophets (Jeremiah 36:2). In this way He sent the Law and then later He sent the Spirit to inspire the words of the bible, written down by the chosen apostles and disciples. (1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). He sent angels with messages (Acts 8:26; Luke 2:9). He speaks to us through discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11) and trials (1 Peter 1:6-7). Sometimes He even uses a donkey (Numbers 2:28).

He uses symbols. “And God said to Noah: I will make a covenant with you. Never again will all men die because of a flood. This is my token to remind you of my promise. I will set a rainbow in the sky.” (Genesis 9:11-17). Bread is a symbol of Jesus’ life sustaining eternal truth. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life…” (John 6:35)

If you think about the myriad ways God speaks to us, it is amazing. There is another way He speaks, and like all the other ways, He uses vocabulary. For example, if you hadn’t read the bible you would not know that God is speaking to us when He sends a rainbow. This next language He uses to speak to us is through ‘natural’ events. Earthquake, fire, hail, thunder, drought…are all ways God sends His people His word and expresses His will.

God is the creator of the earth and all the universe. (Psalm 24:1). He can and does use anything in it to get His point across. In Revelation we see 100 pound hailstones, a sun that turns up the heat, earthquakes, and at one point, no rain for three and a half years. (Revelation 11:6).

Remember that everything that happens on the earth, God either indirectly allows to happen, or directly causes to happen. Allows, or causes. That’s it. When people mock the notion that a particular natural disaster event was due to God, they are wrong. We don’t always know the reason behind the event’s occurrence but because God is sovereign, He either caused it or allowed it. Here is God causing an event:

“Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:1)

Here is God allowing an event. Satan had come to God and asked to harass Job. God said OK, but do not kill him. The great wind that came and killed Job’s sons and daughters is one of the events that God allowed to happen:

“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, and 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.” (Job 1:18-19).

Let’s focus on drought as one of God’s vocabulary words. Drought is not a sudden cataclysmic event like an earthquake. It takes a long time to happen and its build-up is more creeping than instant. That is what makes it even more amazing. Only God who knows the end from the beginning, knows how to start a drought years prior and allow its progression to increase to the point of pain just at the moment the people need to be pricked. That is the heavenly dynamic. This article from NASA explains the earthly dynamic,

“While much of the weather that we experience is brief and short-lived, drought is a more gradual phenomenon, slowly taking hold of an area and tightening its grip with time. In severe cases, drought can last for many years, and can have devastating effects on agriculture and water supplies. … In general, drought is defined as an extended period–a season, a year, or several years–of deficient rainfall relative to the statistical multi-year average for a region.”

Australia is susceptible to droughts– “Why are droughts dangerous? When there is a drought, there is less water available for growing crops, farming animals, industry and our cities. Droughts also impact the environment by causing erosion, harm animals by destroying their homes and cause people to pay more for food and affect our water supplies. Droughts are hard to predict and also hard to live with.” (Source)

Places in Africa are in a terrible drought. “Two of Africa’s impoverished drylands – the Horn of Africa in the East and the Sahel in the West – have experienced devastating droughts and famines in the past two years: the rains never came, causing many thousands to perish, while millions face life-threatening hunger.”

The United States of America is in a terrible drought right now.

Corn prices hit record as crops shrivel
“Corn prices surged to a new record high Tuesday, as the worst drought in more than 50 years continues to plague more than half the country. Almost 90% of the United States’ corn crops are in drought ravaged areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and nearly 40% are situated in the hardest hit spots. Corn prices have soared more than 50% during the past six weeks as the crops continue to shrivel in relentless dry heat throughout the Midwest.”

Source

 Worst U.S. Drought in 50 Years to Raise Food Prices in 2013
“We’re expecting another year of tough food prices, bad news for consumers,” said USDA food economist Richard Volpe. “The difference between normal and higher than normal in this case is one hundred percent attributable to the drought,” Volpe said. The food price index data is released by USDA each month; it is a set of numbers that indicates how much an average shopper is likely to pay at the supermarket. … More than 60 percent of America’s farms are located in areas experiencing drought. Two thirds of all crops and two thirds of livestock are produced in areas experiencing at least moderate drought.”

The dry section of the Morse Reservoir, one of three reservoirs which supply water to nearby Indianapolis, in Cicero, Indiana,on July 12, 2012. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

This next verse is a direct example of how He uses the language of drought to squeeze His people and warn them they need to repent-

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” (2 Chronicles 7:13)

God is telling us a few things here. First, He controls the heavens and allows or disallows rain. Second, when God shuts up heaven and prevents rain it is because they have turned their faces away from Him. Third, He makes a promise, if they repent and turn their faces toward Him, He will re-open heaven. What a blessing! God is holy- He hates sin. God is kind, He warns His people.

In this next biblical example, God is telling us that His decision to send drought or rain is extremely precise. He is very much in control.

“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;” (Amos 4:7).

Annie Vallotton Amos 4:7 illustration Good News Bible
“Still you did not come back to Me”

Most of America, and part of Africa and Australia are without water. At the same this time China and Japan and North Korea have endured torrential rains in just these last weeks.

Yesterday- Torrential rains hit China’s arid northwest
“The heaviest downpours in six decades have hit Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region, since Sunday, authorities said.Precipitation from 8 a.m. Sunday to 8 a.m. Monday in the city proper exceeded 100 mm, or half of the average annual precipitation in the city, according to the city’s flood control and drought relief headquarters.”

Credit AP, from Salon.com

 God either directly causes or indirectly allows each thing to happen on this earth and in heaven. Every drop of rain is noted by Him. Each arid seed blowing down a Kansas drought-stricken path is seen by Him. God speaks to us in many ways, praise His name! One way is through what the secular world calls ‘natural disasters’…but I call it the loving Hand of an angry God who seeks to turn His rebellious children from their ways. It’s all in the vocabulary. And the dictionary to understand this language is the bible.

Posted in Colosseum, end time, jesus, news, shark

600M without power in India, shark attack, Colosseum is tilting

Posted on by elizabethprata

Some news I thought was interesting

Colosseum in Rome is leaning, officials say
“Experts say ancient building has started to tilt, with south side 40cm [15inches] lower than north, and may need urgent repairs. The ancient Colosseum in Rome is slanting about 40cm lower on the south side than on the north, and authorities are investigating whether it needs urgent repairs. Experts first noticed the incline about a year ago and have been monitoring it for the past few months, Rossella Rea, director at the 2,000-year-old monument, said in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.”

Before I was saved, I went to Italy. One of those times I visited the Colosseum. I wrote about that visit here. For a short while immediately after I was saved, in reading the passages in Revelation and Peter and Isaiah where the earth will be completely deconstructed and remade, I was sad that all the pretty things would be swept away too. All the “great art”, all the “monuments to man” like the Colosseum or Pyramids. But of course all those were made by sinful man’s hands and many of them, particularly in art, are odes to false gods. (Botticelli’s Primavera for example). As I matured I began to see man’s works for what they were, symbols of debauchery against a holy God amid our history across human epochs. The Colosseum will fall. Now or later, it is guaranteed to be swept away in the calamity of judgment imminently bearing down on us. Let’s start seeing these cracked and tottering monuments of rebellion for what they are- and get used to thinking about the glories ahead made by Jesus’s hands. (John 14:3).

600 million without power as massive blackout plagues India
“India’s northern and eastern power grids have failed, plunging half the country into darkness. It is the second consecutive day in which blackouts struck India. … Hundreds of miners are reported to have been trapped in Burdwan, North of Kolkata following the outages. “We are trying to rescue the coal miners. All efforts are on to resume power supplies. You need power supplies to run the lifts in the underground mines,” Mamata Banerjee told reporters in the state capital Kolkata. … Power is also being channeled into the subway to help get stranded passengers to the nearest station. The subway has been partially restored after coming to a grinding halt when the power cut struck. … A grid failure in Delhi and much of northern India left more than 300 million without electricity on Monday. This was one of the worst power outages to hit the country in more than a decade.”

600 million is twice the population of the entire US. Those in the dark today represent about 60% of the entire nation of India, which has 1.2 billion people. Wow.

The spiritual metaphor that sprang to my mind was the light versus the dark. India is the birthplace of four of the world’s major religious traditions; namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. According to 2001 census as Wikipedia reports, 80% of those 1.2 billion people in India are Hindu. Again according to Wiki, only 2% of those in India are Christian. Now they are in the dark physically. The nation is in the dark, spiritually. Even if the Electrical Power Minister organizes the crews to get the lights back on, those people will still be in the dark.

source

Man Hospitalized After Shark Attack Near Cape Cod
“The man bitten by a shark as he body-surfed with his teenage son off the coast of Ballston Beach near Cape Cod, [Truro] Mass., is expected to live, officials said. The attack happened around 3:30 p.m. Monday when Chris Myers, a father of two, was pulled under the water by a shark. Police say the shark bit Myers in both legs below the knees in possibly one single, crushing blow. “They dragged him out and they had to carry him up here and they had to wrap it around his legs and he was bleeding through the gauzes,” a witness said. “It was bad. Both his legs were pretty bad.””

Shark attacks this time of year in Massachusetts are not unusual. Seals come to feed, and they come pretty close to shore. Sharks prey on seals so it’s natural they would be close to shore as well.

I visited Martha’s Vineyard in 1975, crossing from RI to the Island on a friend’s trawler. That is where Jaws was filmed. Some of the filming apparatus was still around. The movie was just out but the kids I was traveling with nor the parents seemed concerned about swimming in the harbor. I remember the older teenage boys jumping from the flybridge into the sea, plunging down deep under the slate gray surface. Shudder. Not me. Too spooky

I have mentioned before that I also lived on a sailboat for a while. On our first day in the blue Bahamian waters, just after crossing from Florida, we swam and swam, delighting in the fact that we could see the bottom. The water was that clear. In the Atlantic you never see the bottom unless you snorkel close to shore. “What’s under there?” was a question that had held endless fascination for us and now we could actually see! We swam further and further, trailing along the anchor line that extended far in front of the yacht. Finally as the sun set we called it quits and climbed back aboard. Our VHF radio crackled on and the buddy boat we had crossed the Gulf Stream with told us some important information. “Never swim at dusk. The sharks come out to feed. In the ocean, you are at the bottom of the food chain.”

The ocean can be, and often is, a hostile environment even for man who has been given to reign supreme over the animals. On dry land, we are on hostile territory too- spiritually. Satan is the god of this world, according to 2 Corinthians 4:4. When Satan tempted Jesus, he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just worship Satan. (Matthew 4:8-9). Jesus did not refute that satan had the ability to make the offer. Though under God’s sovereign control, satan has been given latitude on this earth to roam freely and to devour whom he will. (John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8).

If you are not saved, you are at the bottom of the food chain. Satan comes at you sneakily. Satan will chomp your legs just as fast as that shark did to that man in Cape Cod. If you are saved, Jesus has lifted you from the bottom of the food chain to the top! However, satan will still try to come at you, like Chihuahua nipping at your heels. If you do not resist him, he brings other Chihuahua dogs to harass you, or God may even cause him to dog you (2 Corinthians 12:7) for your own good. Always remember we’re on hostile territory- enemy territory. It is what is going to make reaching heaven through death or rapture such a relief. We’ll finally be in friendly lands, not a stranger any more but home with the Father and our spiritual family.

Posted in prayer

Pray ceaselessly

Posted on by elizabethprata

We always pray for the weak and the hurting. That is good. But please also pray for the strong, whom the weak lean on and don’t usually ask to be prayed for. As more people hurt, more people go to the strong. In other words, let’s all pray for each other.

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,” (Ephesians 6:18)