Posted in end of days. prophecy, love growing cold

State of the Church: Introduction: “Love growing cold”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Part 1: Introduction, Love growing cold
Part 2: Are you tending your anchor?
Part 3: The numbers aren’t good
Part 4: Carnal Carnival, & the greatest sin pastors commit
Part 5a: When carnality leads to spiritual abuse
Part 5b: Is your church spiritually abusive?
Conclusion: Spiritual Leaders and Humble Relationships

This blog is an apologetics, discernment, prophecy and encouragement blog. That means that after prayer and study, and through strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, I contend for the faith, distinguish between truth and error, and I encourage the brethren. It means I have a very dogmatic worldview, a biblical world view. To me, things are black and white, either truth or untruth, narrow or wide. I have this view because that is the view that Jesus gives us and by use of the gifts, His Word, and the Spirit, I employ it.

My heart and ministry is for fellow believers. I pray for the lost and I witness to them in word and in deed, but the ministry given to me by the Spirit is to believers. In this apostate, false, and dangerous time, there are many who are failing, falling away, going out from us, or simply are goats and they don’t know it.

These are times when we are told by Jesus that love will grow cold. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). This is what I call a see-saw verse. The first half of the verse depicts a condition of increase and the second half of the verse depicts a decrease, and the whole verse is causal. One causes the other.

I believe the timing of that prophecy is during the Tribulation but we know that the conditions of increased sinfulness and decreased love will reach painful proportions just prior to the Tribulation as birth pangs, and thus the resulting conditions of cold-heartedness will increase also.

M. Vincent explained the word “cold” from the Greek in the verse this way: “spiritual energy blighted or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind.” The word ‘love’ in the verse is the Greek word Agape, the ultimate kind of Christ love, or divine love. Lawlessness means sinfulness. Therefore the verse doesn’t speak just to coldness of unbelievers, in my opinion, it speaks to as much to believers. Unbelievers do not have Agape love in them to begin with. The prophecy depicts a dark time with an ultimate end as the loveless Laodicean Church (Revelation 3:14-22). Paul prophesies, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” (2 Thess:2:3). This is a church so apostate that Jesus stands outside it and knocks to come in. (Rev 3:20). The further apart from God we are, the less love we have. We are heading there now.

Clarke’s commentary says, “The love of many shall wax cold – By reason of these trials and persecutions from without, and those apostasies and false prophets from within, the love of many to Christ and his doctrine, and to one another, shall grow cold. Some openly deserting the faith, as Matthew 24:10; others corrupting it, as Matthew 24:11; and others growing indifferent about it, Matthew 24:12. Even at this early period there seems to have been a very considerable defection in several Christian Churches; see Galatians 3:1-4; 2 Thessalonians 3:1, etc.; 2 Timothy 1:15.”

See? It is about believers growing cold in their love.

Here is something to consider- the downward effects of choosing to get on the seesaw (or choosing to stay on it). Love grows cold because we do not study the Word and thus drift away from Him. (Hebrews 2:1). Or we privately believe the Word is insufficient, and seek carnal means to please God. Either way, we open ourselves up to destructive heresies brought by false pastors, false teachers, false prophets. It’s like flies to honey. Or Beelzebub to the unwary.

Destructive heresies are a disease. (2 Timothy 2:17). Once infected, we find we like these false teachings (2 Tim 4:3) and so we will clamor for more. Because the people clamor for more, the pastors give us more- poison which tastes good (“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20). Pretty soon, the parasitic nature of false teachings by the pastor and the carnal acceptance of them by the sheep meld us into this dance of death, and we happily all step onto the broad path. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matthew 7:13b).

You can’t have a failing church if you have aware sheep, or a vigilant pastor who feeds them good food. One or the other, or both, must be missing.

Because we believe prophecy completely, we know that this will happen and is even happening now. But we can ask ourselves, why does love grow cold among believers? That is the premise of this series: to explore the why and to identify if the why has come to your church…

For there to be a solid Christian, one must believe the bible is the only authority, it is inerrant and that it is sufficient. It is my contention that the problems in the church today, particularly ‘love growing cold’, is because of the believer’s rampant lack of belief in the bible’s sufficiency.

It is a mirror that is hard to look into. We must examine ourselves, look at each of our own actions to determine if we are the cause of the problem or if we are bystanding and letting the problem grow without doing anything about it.

What then does it mean that Scripture is sufficient? This definition of Scripture’s sufficiency from James Boice’s book “Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace” explains that “sufficiency means that the Bible is sufficient for the church’s life and work. It is able to draw unbelievers to Christ, to enable me to grow in godliness, to provide direction to my life and to go beyond myself and beyond the church to transform and revitalize all of society.” Boice says, “It is possible to believe that the bible is the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and yet to neglect it and to effectually repudiate it just because we think that it is not sufficient for today’s tasks and that other things need to be brought in to accomplish what is needed. That is exactly what many evangelicals and evangelical churches today are doing.”

I agree completely. In the next few blog entries, I’ll look into this relationship of growing belief of insufficiency and love growing cold.

My hope is to highlight the practical conditions that fellow believers may see or experience. What does it really feel like, look like, when love grows cold? What are the effects of destructive heresies? I want to lift our eyes from our individual lives looking outward at prophesies that affect unbelievers, to the prophesies that affect believers. Us. Hopefully through the next few entries we can ask ourselves, me included, have we left our first love? And is that leaving because we no longer believe the bible is sufficient for all good things?

After all, that is one of the charges Jesus made against the church at Ephesus, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4). Let it not be so! But if it is, how do we spot it? Stay tuned.

Part 1: Introduction, Love growing cold
Part 2: Are you tending your anchor?
Part 3: The numbers aren’t good
Part 4: Carnal Carnival, & the greatest sin pastors commit
Part 5a: When carnality leads to spiritual abuse
Part 5b: Is your church spiritually abusive?
Conclusion: Spiritual Leaders and Humble Relationships

Posted in christmas

Merry Christmas!

Posted on by elizabethprata
Comet Lovejoy seen from space: source

His creation is truly awe-inspiring, isn’t it? The angels, also called the stars, sang with joy at His birth. How bright that star must have been to lead the Wise men to the Christ-child. How bright that glory must have been to the shepherds keeping watch by night. His coming was heralded by signs in the stars and the brightest glory ever. His Second Coming will be the same.

His creation is His and we are His people. Each one of us believers is holy and sanctified. Love each other well and truly, giving thanks for each one. Even Paul who was so vexed by the Corinthians, gave thanks for each of them, “I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:4.) We give thanks for each other and love one another because He first loved us. How can we do less for each other? He came to bring us peace with Him, reconciled. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14). First that peace comes between a man and God, and then we display that peace toward each other, in love that Christ gives us.

Merry Christmas one and all. I hope your holiday is blessed with love and peace, most importantly, peace with Jesus through repentance and salvation, and then peace in knowing your eternal salvation is secure. What a present Jesus is to all of humanity, and what graceful present He gives each person who partakes of His mercy: the right to be called sons of God and brothers of Jesus. (Hebrews 2:10-11)

Love, Elizabeth Prata
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Posted in bible, christmas, repent

About blogging…

Posted on by elizabethprata

In January of 2009 I started this blog. It wasn’t my first blog. In August 2006 I started The Quiet Life, a more personal blog and one which I still keep up to this day. I picked up on blogging only a bit late, 2004 was proclaimed the Year of the Blog. Before that I’d been writing for newspapers and before that I’d been writing academic papers for Universities as a graduate student. 2004 was the year that the medium burst onto the scene and journalism has never been the same. Neither have activism, diaries, relationships, or book publishing. Even some churches have their own anonymous blogger watchdogs.

So in 2009 I received a conviction that my lifetime of writing would and could be put to good use for Jesus. World Wide Web outreach was possible through this medium. However, I was daunted in January of 2009 by the sheer number of blogs out there. Blogs covered every topic and every corner of the internet. “[T]he current estimates say there are about 450 million “active” English language blogs right now, but that number varies according to the source. Technorati estimated over 200 million blogs at the start of 2009, with exponential growth since then.” (source)

200 million blogs? Plus one more? Was anyone even going to notice my blog? My paltry words floating out on the ethersphere? But I leaped in, confident that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing and that even if only one person ever read this blog that it would be the right person at the right time. So on January 6, 2012 it  will be the three-year anniversary of this blog. I’ve blogged on this blog 1411 times, an average of 470 essays per year. More than one a day, every day, for three years. The Holy Spirit is endlessly creative.

I thought that the economic crash of October 2008 was a huge end time sign and was pleased to be used of the Lord for His name by writing. I love writing and I love the Lord so it is literally a match made in heaven. Through prayer and bible study the Spirit makes me aware of the deeper things of the Word and then I can turn around and write on topics I feel led by the Spirit to write about. If what I write is of the Spirit, He will pierce the heart of the person and they will be convicted, or encouraged. I’m humbled by this process, and often am reduced to tears of thanks when someone writes that they were moved by something on the blog. When that happens it is a visible manifestation to me of the Spirit’s working in the world.

But not so many visitors came in 2009 even after the crash. People still thought what was happening in the world was kind of normal. I didn’t think so but I knew the nature of birth pangs would be such that eventually they’d become noticeable to a wider swathe of the population, and then they would come running for answers. Hopefully they would accept Jesus as that answer.

For all of 2010 there were still millions of blogs being opened each day. I blogged on. Sometimes I’d get discouraged that the people would not respond as well to the theological posts as they would the weird posts. Essays about UFOs or sinkholes or weird noises or vampires always got lots of hits and the ones about Jesus being God … didn’t. But in the end I was grateful that someone felt compelled to read what is here because that meant they were searching for a Divine reason for the weird things happening rather than a secular one.

In January 2011 the page views went from the steady hundreds per day as they had been for two years, to a steady thousands per day. If you remember January 2011 opened with Aflockalypse. That was the world-wide event where thousands of birds at various locations simply dropped dead to the ground. Then it started happening with fish and then other wildlife such as starfish or penguins or seals. THAT seemed to get people’s attention in a way that even the economic crash of 2008 hadn’t. In March 2011 was the all-time high for page views and you’ll remember that was when the Japan earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster occurred. People were awake now.

Since Aflockalypse, the page views have only been upward.  Last night I passed 1 million views.

Though the numbers are humbling to me, they aren’t really so great in the blogosphere. Many, many other blogs get a million views per day, not a million views in three years. But I wanted to take a moment to thank the Holy Spirit for this ministry, because each and every one of those views is a blessing. Someone, somewhere, looked at a page here and in so doing learned a little bit about Jesus. Each time I write I aim to exalt Him, and to promote that He has a plan for each of us and that it is available to each of us if we will just repent of our sins.

I boast of Him, and the opportunities and ministries He gives us for His name. Delivering information about Jesus, connecting people with Jesus, alerting people about Jesus’ soon arrival, urging people to repent before it is too late, are blessings for me to perform in His name. Seeing the interest in prophecy go up as the page views rise (not just my blog but many others) means that people are becoming alerted to the times. They are waking up. And it is a blessing because He gave us a more sure word, prophecy, and it is coming to pass just as He said. (2 Peter 1:12-21).

THIS is the reason for this blog: (Philippians 2:6-11):

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

I want this blog to be as this verse, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Thank you all for your visits and your encouragement. I will keep blogging until the day I die or the rapture, whichever comes first. I will keep proclaiming the Goodness of Jesus until the end of time and then for all eternity. I hope that for your Christmas present you fall out of love with your sin and in love with the Savior from your sins.

As we read in the above sermon, “Romans 10:9-10, ‘If you confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved.’ Saved from hell, from sin, from judgment. Better to confess it now and go on confessing it forever in heaven than to go on confessing it in bitterness and remorse forever in hell. Every tongue will confess it.” (source). Will you confess today? It would be the best Christmas present ever.

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Posted in homosexuality, lesbian kiss, navy

"Kiss heard ’round the world: Lesbians chosen for Navy tradition"

Posted on by elizabethprata

This news from the LA Times last night:
“A public embrace between two female sailors from California is being hailed as “the kiss heard ’round the world” by activists who fought for a repeal of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Navy officials said it was the first time a same-sex couple was chosen to have the first kiss. The first-kiss is a Navy tradition for ships returning to port. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta from Placerville shared a kiss with partner Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles on Wednesday as Gaeta’s ship, the amphibious landing ship Oak Hill, returned to base at Virginia Beach, Va., after an 80-day deployment to Central America.”

Homosexuality is a sin.

“and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;” (2 Peter 2:6).

More than that, it its own judgment.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” (Romans 1:24-26).

When unrepented individuals sin, they are or will be judged. The progression of judgment of sin in the verse above actually begins in verse 18. It says that people suppress the truth by their wickedness, therefore God is wrathful. The truth that they are suppressing is the knowledge of the Creator in His creation. He has made it plain to them! But because they were wicked, they suppressed it, and in their suppression, they failed to give Him glory or thanks.

The next part in the progression is that He then darkens their foolish hearts. Then, though they claim to be wise, them become as fools, and they squander the glory of God by exchanging the “glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” (v. 23)

Then our verse picks up. Therefore He then gives them over to their sinful desires. And still progressing down the pipeline, next He gives them over to their degrading lusts. See, it goes from bad to worse. Last, “Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” Not just the men, but the women too.

It is one thing for individuals to be sinful. But when an entire nation is sinful it seems to me to be the end of the line. How is the entire nation being sinful, you may wonder? Because the Navy is a part of the US Government. The US government being the Navy chose, promoted, and sanctioned “their women exchanging natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” The Navy didn’t just allow this, it didn’t happen accidentally, they actively chose this and worse, they did so knowing that the kiss is emblematic of the cementing of family relations after separation in military duty upon return to port.

An Army Chaplain said the following in his essay about porn,
“Sex is like a living parable: when we engage in sex within a different context, we are creating a picture or image that stands in opposition to the one instituted by God. In short, when we engage in sex outside the covenantal relationship of marriage, we present a picture of a torn humanity seeking to replace closeness with God with the creativity of his own mind. This is why the language of Romans 1:24-26 is so shocking in the Greek: Paul is essentially saying that homosexuality is, itself, a judgment from God to depict in physical terms the spiritual counterfeit of mankind’s idolatry. But unnatural heterosexual relationships are just as vile in their depiction of man’s rebellion and defection from a right Creator/creature relationship with God.”
(source Ben, Chaplain, US Army Bowie, MD Potomac Presbytery, PCA)

When ‘even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones’, we are surely a nation under judgment.
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Posted in good preachers

Resources for the meat-eating Christian (Updated)

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update to include one more preacher I’d forgotten to mention.

Regular readers of this blog know that I quote and refer to pastor-teacher Dr. John MacArthur quite a bit. That is for several reasons. First, he preaches the Word and the word alone, in true expository style. That means he goes verse by verse, explaining the verse in historical and cultural context all the while keeping Jesus as the central focus. He has never succumbed to fads or gimmicks or promoting anything else from his pulpit besides Christ and Him crucified. Secondly, he has been doing this steadily from the same church for 42 years. Third, his website has a wealth of material on it, including sermons listed by topic or verse, and its transcriptions so you can read them as well as listen to them. There are devotionals, a blog, and books and resources. It is all doctrinally solid. And in this apostate age, that is quite a testament!

Each generation has its standout preachers. I believe that this century’s standout is John MacArthur. Preaching and teaching at Grace Community Church through the New Testament verse by verse for over four decades is an accomplishment of submission to the Spirit. But what other good preachers are there? Even if their archives are not as full or available, their sermons can be watched or listened to, and their books can be bought. I also enjoy:

Dr. Steve Lawson of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile Alabama. Dr Lawson preaches meat in a wonderful and clear way. He preaches God-exalting truth in a humble but truthful way. In a recent interview, Dr Lawson answered the question as to what he believes is the most foundational doctrine of the church, “I believe that the most foundational truth for the church today, as well as in any generation, is the sovereignty and holiness of God. As one’s view of God goes, so goes the entire church. A high view of God inevitably leads to high and holy living. But a low view of God leads unmistakably to low living. A towering view of God in which He is seen in His unrivaled sovereignty and absolute holiness has the most dramatic and profound effect upon the church. Such a vision of God inspires transcendent worship, induces godly living, empowers tireless service, deepens spiritual fellowship, imparts supernatural joy, breathes abundant life, and motivates global outreach. The church will never rise any higher than her lofty view of God.”

As a matter of fact, all the men (and one woman) I mention here have the highest view of God as holy and sovereign. It seems that it would be a given that good preachers and teachers would have this view, but in today’s world it is not so.

Don Green is part of the MacArthur church, leading a small group (of 600, lol!). Mr Green “was a litigation attorney in Chicago for several years before leaving his law practice to attend The Master’s Seminary, where he completed his M.Div. and Th.M. degrees with highest honors. He is an ordained elder at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, Don pastors GraceLife, a group of more than 600 adults. He has published several articles on biblical themes. He is also the Managing Director of Grace to You, where he oversees the daily operations of John MacArthur’s international media and radio ministry. Don and his wife, Nancy, have six children.”

Justin Peters is known for his discernment ministries, an important calling in this day and age. As with all good pastors, he is humble, clear, and Jesus-centered. The link on his name brings you to his website so you can read about him and his positionsbut you can also watch him on Youtube. This link brings you to part one of his seminar titled “A Call to Discernment“.

Phil Johnson is another Grace Community church pastor I listen to. Phil is the Executive Director of Grace to You. “He has been closely associated with John MacArthur since 1981 and edits most of John’s major books. But he may be best known for several popular Web sites he maintains, including The Spurgeon Archive and The Hall of Church History. Phil has a bachelor’s degree in theology from Moody Bible Institute (class of 1975) and was an editor at Moody Press before coming to Grace Community Church. He is an elder at Grace Community Church and pastors the GraceLife fellowship group. Phil and his wife, Darlene, have three adult sons, Jeremiah, Jedidiah, and Jonathan.” Where MacArthur is scholarly and Green is fatherly, Johnson is fiery.

If you really want some fire, listen to Paul Washer. Washer does not thunder, rather, he has a soft demeanor and a gentle voice, but his words are devastating. His website is called HeartCry Missionary Society and that is Washer’s primary focus: bringing the Gospel to the lost all around the world. He is also a Southern Baptist itinerant preacher. His sermons often focus on the character of Christ and how a person is saved from hell. He also preaches against decisional regeneration and corporate approaches to church growth.

Steve Hadley is younger (lol, 40ish) and a bit more casual than the others I’d mentioned. In other words, he sits down to preach and he doesn’t wear a suit. He also laughs and jokes a bit while he preaches and is really funny. But his sermons are not a comedy routine and the value he places on God’s sovereignty is HIGH. He preaches verse by verse with occasional meanderings into a topical sermon such as at Christmas time or when prophecy seems to warrant. He is solid on doctrine. I recommend him highly for those who want a slightly hipster approach (and I mean slightly) but is not oft-putting as some of the elder preachers are to the younger.

So I recommend the above four pastor/teachers, a missionary preacher and a discernment preacher, a nice variety. In addition, the following below can be relied upon for good handling of the Word:

I like Kay Arthur’s biblical-educational tv program “Precepts for Life” and I watch it when I am home at that time. I enjoy her books too. David Wilkerson, Dr David Jeremiah and Adrian Rogers are all good as well. (Yes I know that Wilkerson and Rogers have passed on but their archives are still alive). They tend to preach topically, which is OK. Charles Spurgeon of course, has a wealth of materials still archived online to read and enjoy.

It is up to every believer to seek truth that is unadulterated. We are all responsible for the decisions we make and the actions we take in His name, as well as what we allow in His name. It behooves us to know, then, what He has said and what He expects. Read the Word yourself, and the more you read it yourself the more you will find that when a good bible preaching sermon comes along the Spirit will have prepared your heart for deeper understandings. And vice versa- when you listen to a sermon and then go to read the Word there will be connections made in your heart. That is because the Holy Spirit is the common thread. The Spirit reveals all things Jesus came to preach and all things the Creator has made.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
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Posted in bible jesus, false christs, kim jong-il, supernatural signs

North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Il’s birth and death accompanied by divine signs, allegedly

Posted on by elizabethprata

North Korea has a population of roughly 24 million people, though exact numbers are hard to come by since the country is so closed to the outside. Because of this extreme insularity, NK is seen as one of the world’s most linguistically and ethnically homogeneous places in the world.

“North Korea is the world’s most militarized nation, having the fourth largest army in the world, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. It is a nuclear-weapons state and has an active space program.” (source)

As for its military, I believe it will be prophetically important. Bible.org explains of the prophecy of the Kings of the East and the huge army seen by John,

“The Great Army From The Orient“
“Two important passages in Revelation, namely, 9:13-21 and 16:12-16 contribute to the conclusion that one of the large armies employed in the final world conflict will be a military force of great power which comes from the Orient. The first intimation of this is found in Revelation 9 where it is recorded that John:

‘heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them’ (verses 13-16).

“The passage goes on to describe the character of this army and the conclusion that one-third of the men were killed in the resulting military struggle.”

Because of this insularity, the people are more susceptible to accepting what they are told, having nothing to balance what they are told against. The recently deceased “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il had developed a cult of personality around himself that extends beyond the grave, right up to heaven.

Here are some strange facts that Jong-Il cultivated and in the end, he probably believed them himself. He approved, or even made up, the following names and titles for himself to be used with impunity:

  • Great Leader
  • Father of the People
  • Superior Person
  • Ever-Victorious, Iron-Willed Commander
  • Great Man, Who Descended From Heaven
  • Glorious General, Who Descended From Heaven
  • Savior

“The same reports claim his birth were heralded by a swallow and caused winter to change to spring, a star to illuminate the sky and rainbows to spontaneously appear.”

And get this one, “It is reported that Kim’s official biography on the North Korean state web site, which has since been taken down, claimed that Kim did not defecate. Enough said.”

Jong-Il’s death, not surprisingly, has its own spate of supernatural events associated with the event. BBC reports today, “Strange natural phenomena have been witnessed in North Korea since the death of the country’s leader Kim Jong-il, the state news agency KCNA reports. Ice cracked on a famous lake “so loud, it seemed to shake the Heavens and the Earth”, and a mysterious glow was seen on a revered mountain top, KCNA said. … “Even nature is mourning, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday. A snowstorm hit as Mr Kim died and ice on the volcanic Chon lake near his reported birthplace at Mount Paektu cracked, it said. Following the storm’s sudden end at dawn on Tuesday, a message carved in rock – “Mount Paektu, holy mountain of revolution. Kim Jong-il” – glowed brightly, it said. It remained there until sunset. On the same say, a Manchurian crane also apparently adopted a posture of grief at a statue of the late leader’s father in the northern city of Hamhung.”

Wow, the ‘rocks and stones would cry out’. (Luke 19:40). And creation itself groans for the loss of the Dear Leader. (Romans 8:22).

NOT.

How do you suppose the ONLY superior Person, Savior and Ever Victorious One feels about a mere man calling himself these things that identify only Jesus the Most High?

We are told in Matthew 24:24 that false christs will come, even with signs that would deceive the elect if that were possible. We are told repeatedly about the falsity that will accompany the last days. We see from the reaction of the North Koreans how easy it is to deceive people. Not all the reactions of crying and mourning are real, but much of it is.

At the National Journal, Michael Hirsh wrote of Jong-Il and was excerpted by HotAir:
“There is, perhaps, no totalitarianism in the world that is as all-embracing as North Korea’s. Something like it hasn’t existed since Stalin died (and with him a personality cult very much like that which surrounds the Kims). I have spent time in other police states, but even in some of the most vicious of them, an undercurrent of dissent ran like a subterranean stream through the back rooms of restaurants, bars and private meeting rooms. Even under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi cab drivers would glance around when pressed and spit out their hatred of the dictator. Dissidents in Myanmar, during the worst of the crackdown, would whisper their fealty to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In Vietnam, Saigon residents would raise their eyebrows and snort at the central planners in the North. In China, after Mao’s death, there was a reappraisal of his policies, and the Communist Party ultimately allowed that some elements of “Mao Zedong Thought,” like the disastrous Great Leap Forward of the ’50s or the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s, had not been successful. … “One foreign resident of Pyongyang, when asked on our trip in 2000 if he had ever seen any evidence of dissent–even over drinks with North Korean associates–responded: “Never. Nothing.” North Korea’s regime has come the closest of any society to what Orwell called, in 1984, the literal inability to conceive an unorthodox thought.”

HotAir goes on to ask the same thing we are all wondering, I’m sure:

“Why do North Koreans behave this way when many Libyans were ecstatic to see Qaddafi go? Is it a simple matter of NK’s military being vastly more competent and therefore intimidating to the population than Libya’s was? Is it that NK, as a society, is even more cloistered than Libya, leaving North Koreans with no international yardstick to measure their own oppression by? Is it the absence of any strong tribal divisions in North Korea of the sort in Libya that gave people an identity beyond Qaddafi’s brand of nationalism? What’s the magic sinister ingredient?”

The magic sinister ingredient is satan. He is the lord of anyone on this earth who refuses or rejects the True Lord. (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31). The magic sinister ingredient is not that the different peoples and tribes react differently to news of their Leader’s death but the fact that they even for a moment first believed their leader’s good intentions. The magic sinister ingredient is that Saddam, Kim Jong-il, Gaddafi, Chairman Mao are all dead now, and Jesus isn’t.

All this shows us just how easily people can be duped. Kim Jong-Il duped himself into thinking he was a superior person, descended from heaven and endowed with powers. The millions inside that insular nation were duped into believing these things of Kim Jong Il when creation itself testifies that only One made the world and only One’s coming should accompanied by signs and wonders. Because the world disbelieves this, Jesus will allow signs and wonders to be performed by the antichrist, and then they will believe. “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). “and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11).

And by then, the signs and wonders won’t be made-up as Kim Jong-Il’s were, they will be real enough to the people, and if they can be deceived, they will be.

Please listen to the Word that tells us only One is God and only One came to save us and only One draws us toward that salvation. The Triune God loves His people. Please love the truth that Jesus lived as sinless man, died for our sins and rose again to reign at the right hand of the Father. He is willing to forgive sins and to welcome you to heaven. Kim Jong-Il is dead now. Jesus is alive.

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Posted in bible jesus, open door

Jesus opens the door and He shuts the door

Posted on by elizabethprata

Do you take the Lord’s power and grace for granted? Have you diminished His Holiness in your mind? Many people in this day and age have. How do I know? They think the Lord will somehow relent, and allow everyone into heaven after all. Or that His mercy is go great and so wide that they will be forgiven, even if they do not know Jesus. Jesus will not relent. His decision is final, and His decrees are sure. If you do not know Jesus on the day you die, you will be cast into hell. If you do not know Jesus on His day of wrath, you will die and be cast into hell.

Even saying such a thing in this day and age seems like a revolutionary act. People chide us Christians who flatly declare the truth from the Word, that He will not relent. “Our God is a loving God,” they exclaim. “He would never do that!” Well,  Remember rebellious Korah who was swallowed by the earth? Remember Uzzah who touched the ark? Remember Ananias and Sapphira, who blasphemed the Spirit by lying to the Apostle? Jesus will not relent, because He is the door.

“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

He is the only One who opens the door.

“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:8).

He is the One who shuts the door.

“And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. (Genesis 7:16).

When the ark was filled He shut the door and the rest of the world was judged. And so it will be again, for the unaware.

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ (Matthew 25:10-12)

He is the King of the Kingdom and it is He who says who enters and who doesn’t. He is the Door. Right now the door is open to all who would repent. It will be shut at the rapture. Not that anyone cannot be saved after the rapture, but with the door shut, you are in the cold, hard world and exposed to believing the lie.

“and with all the deceit of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11)

Enter now while the door is open. Repent and believe the truth: that Jesus is resurrected Lord and He is the only way to enter the Kingdom. He speaks the truth, and when He says that judgment is coming, believe it. The time will come when the door will be shut. As it says in Isaiah 26:20- “Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation is past.”

While the door was open, they did not listen and believe in Noah’s day:

Sinners before the Flood, 1594 Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem
After the Flood , Circa 1588 Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

This is what Judgment looks like:

Deluge, The COMERRE, Léon François Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes  

This is what grace looks like:

Noah’s flood KAULBACH, Wilhelm von (1805-1874)

How so? you ask. How is this grace? The serpents are writhing, the people are dying! Well, don’t focus on the serpents and the people. It is one way we diminish His holiness and His mercy. Focus on Him and His protected righteous and the fact that His promises of salvation are sure. The angels ministering, the ark itself was a lengthy warning to the same people who are now crying for the door to be opened. “Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation is past.”

Please answer His call, and repent!

“Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.'” (Luke 13:25)

“Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9)
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Posted in christianity, onward christian soldiers

Why your church is a military academy

Posted on by elizabethprata

The local church in America is a lot of things to a lot of people these days. For some, it is the main entertainment center of their life. They go there on Sunday and have films or comedy routines or dances presented to them, or even a bed and a sermon on sex, instead of expositional sermons. Youths lounge sulkily in darkened ministry rooms designed to look like city lofts, complete with cool couch, and a stage with a drum set in the middle so they can get jacked up for Jesus. The building is mostly a place for recreational and social activities, and entertainment.

For others, the church is a country club. It is a place where like-looking people from the same socio-economic strata congregate and have coffee and laugh and make plans to go the Cracker Barrel after the appropriately short sermonette their avuncular (until crossed) pastor gives them. No feathers are ever ruffled and all people are friends, at least for another week. And even if they aren’t, they’re family and they have been going there for years anyway. It is mostly a place for recreational and social activities, and entertainment.

For me, the church is a military academy. “The purpose of the United States Military Academy is “to provide the Nation with leaders of character who serve the common defense.” In order to achieve its purpose, the mission of the United States Military Academy is “To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; professional growth throughout a career as an officer in the United States Army; and a lifetime of selfless service to the nation.”

All we need to do is change a few words to replicate the duty of the Christian in service to our High Commander: Jesus, in not the nation but the Body of Christ. Yes, it is for a lifetime. We learn duty and honor to Him, we grow as Christians in His Spirit. Our churches are military training academies and the enemy is satan.

In other words, it is a training ground to go out and participate in war. The teachers are often the seasoned vets, familiar with the enemy and familiar with the training manuals. The cadets come in and learn from them, as well as make bonds with their fellow cadets. Other who may be younger than a seasoned vet teach some of the more basic classes. It isn’t an army base where it is insular and protected by barbed wire. It is a Military Academy, where we go in for educational purposes, get trained, and go out. Only to come back and get more training so we can better engage the enemy, depending on where the Commander decides to deploy us. And so on. Week after week we go in, get trained and refreshed, learn a bit more about the enemy, and then go out and wage battle.

However, I am sure there are sentries stationed around even an academy. They are needed. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8) We need to remain vigilant and aware of our common enemy’s whereabouts and his tactics at all times, even when we are inside the academy.

The warlike aspect of our faith is increasingly ignored in favor of the comforts of what we are told Christianity can bring us. Every day is a Friday. We can get comfortable seats at the movies and preferred parking places at the mall if we just believe. We sow a seed and reap 100 fold. Ugh.

The first century Christians didn’t have a church down the road to skip to because their flat screen is bigger. The medieval Christians didn’t even have access to the bible and the only church was the false Catholic church. The Third World countries that oppress Christians and persecute them have churches, but if you congregate there you may get burned alive inside. The Tribulation saints won’t have churches to rely on, but only basements and nooks and alleys and mostly will be on the run from the hounds of antichrist coming to behead them. We have the glorious opportunity now, here in this age and in this nation, this generation, to attend a church of our choosing and learn the Word and to rejoice in Him with brothers of the faith, to extend the kingdom and to glorify Jesus! How DARE WE toss aside our churches! How DARE WE let them go to the hounds of hell simply because we cannot be bothered! A nation with no military academy loses the war.

We ARE in a war, every minute. “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:” (1 Timothy 1:18-19).

Our walk is called a good fight of faith. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

The church is supposed to train us and equip us, the same as a military academy. “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12)

The pastor is supposed to be training the cadets but it is not a duty resting solely on the pastor. Any church that abdicates its duty and whose individuals in the congregation rely on the pastor only for education is in for a wild authoritarian ride! We learn from our elders and our teachers, and from each other too. (Proverbs 27:17). No one is higher than another. “But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.” (Matthew 23:8).

Puritan John Owen wrote, “The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word. It is a promise relating to the new testament, that God would give unto his church “pastors according to his own heart, which should feed them with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15). This is by teaching or preaching the word, and no otherwise.” That means no beds, no movies, no man-written books, no comedy routines, no interpretive dance, just the training manual, thank you: the bible. Can you imagine the reaction at West Point if the cadets attended a class on “Enemy Tactics 101” and the teacher said they will learn how to identify the enemy through watching an interpretive dance? The teacher would be laughed out of the classroom.

The point is to learn when you get there, not recreate or entertain. You don’t go to there passively occupy space without ever employing your brain. What if you went in to the Academy week after week and all the teacher ever did was give you the syllabus? Where’s the substance? The content? The meat? You would demand your tuition back! What if you went in there and all the teacher ever did was show recruiting films? You’re already recruited. Soon you get to asking, “Now what? I don’t know enough about the enemy. I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing to alert others to the danger, and I don’t know enough to know how to resist the enemy… and I’ve been coming to this Academy for 10 years!” (1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12). The church is for training, equipping, sharpening. When we go to church we are not recreating, we are not country clubbing. We are soldiers!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3).

You’re a soldier, soldier! Quit whining about the pews! Quit griping about the air conditioning! Stop wallowing in your laziness! Snap out of it! You’re in Jesus’s army now! “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Ephesians 6:11-17)


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Posted in theology

Rare Kelvin-Helmholz clouds in Alabama

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yahoo reports, “For a morning, the sky looked like a surfer’s dream: A series of huge breaking waves lined the horizon in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday (Dec. 16), their crests surging forward in slow motion. Amazed Alabamans took photos of the clouds and sent them to their local weather station, wondering, “What are these tsunamis in the sky?” Experts say the clouds were pristine examples of “Kelvin-Helmholtz waves.” Whether seen in the sky or in the ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when a fast-moving layer of fluid slides on top of a slower, thicker layer, dragging its surface.”

NOAA defines the wave-clouds as “Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds are a result of wind shear in a stable atmosphere. The wind speed at the top of the cloud layer is faster than that at the bottom, which rolls the cloud into wave shapes. These clouds form in stable layers of the atmosphere, such as near a temperature inversion. While Kelvin-Helmholtz waves are not uncommon in the atmosphere, it is relatively rare to get the “breaking wave” cloud shapes shown here.”

As a personal note, in all the Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds I viewed online, including the particular ones NOAA says are very rare, the photo of the ones in Alabama blows them all away. They are stunning. I believe the perfection of their formation is as rare as the hole punch cloud. Or this hole punch cloud. Or the tubular cloud.

Anyway, signs in the sky…
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