(no title)

kilamanjaro erupt, prophecy, silent bank run

Peoples’ lives are changing radically

Posted on August 3, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Here are a few random notes for you as I peruse today’s news:

“Confidential Wal-Mart Memo Discloses Substantial Drop In Store Traffic Compared To Year Ago“
From the guys at Zerohedge: “As if we needed another confirmation that the US consumer is running on empty, here comes Bloomberg with valuable disclosure from an internal, and supposedly confidential, Wal-Mart memo on store traffic patterns which indicate that in US store locations open for at least a year have seen a 2.6% drop in traffic in the February to June period compared to a year earlier. While this may not sound huge, keep in mind the company is massively leveraged to even the smallest marginal moves in traffic, courtesy of already razor thin margins. Specifically, the Wal-Mart stores in question had “82.8 million fewer visits through the first five months of the company’s fiscal year.” More than anything this is an indication of just how exhausted the US consumer is becoming if even the most beloved, widespread and cheapest option for purchases is now being shunned outright.”

I think that is an extremely concise summary of the memo. And its stark simplicity is depressing.

I’ve been saying that volcanic activity is up over the last few years. (data here). The Chaitén volcano entered a new eruptive phase for the first time in about 9,500 years on the morning of May 2, 2008. Just one day it went BOOM. In June, Eritrea’s Nabro volcano erupted and it never had before. Many other active volcanoes became even more active. Because of this (one surmises from the article below), a report was made to the Parliament of Tanzania regarding whether Kilamanjaro is exhibiting any signs of eruption. Some ash had been spotted recently. So because of that, and the fact that volcanic activity in other parts of the world, they decide they better go and check it out. Here is the story-

Government Wants to Research Mount Kilimanjaro for Possible Eruption
“The government, through Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), will soon conduct a research on Mount Kilimanjaro’s Kibo peak to check signs of volcanic eruption following recent volcanic incidents in different parts of the world. State Minister in the Vice-President’s Office (Environment) Terezya Huvisa revealed this in Parliament yesterday when responding to a question by Betty Machangu (CCM). She said that there was not any thorough research conducted to look into the possibility of volcanic eruption at Kibo peak, but following recent eruptions in different parts of the world, the government through Tanapa intends to conduct research at Kibo peak. … She further explained that Mt Kilimanjaro had three peaks which occurred due to volcanic eruptions about one million years ago. “Experts’ reports have confirmed that Mawenzi and Shira peaks had dead volcanic and there is no possibility of eruption,” she said. However, Huvisa said the Kibo peak was reportedly active as ashes and fire had been spotted recently. “The last incident of eruption at this peak occurred 200 years ago resulting in ash pit which exists until today,” Huvisa said.”

Big Think had a recent story about the Pisgah-USGS-DutchSinse dust-up. I reported on that here. The article makes a statement about the issue of how far to go with trusting citizen-interpreted data, and even whether it is a good thing to have such data available to people. I believe it is, of course, but you can read the Big Think article yourself to get the flavor of the discussion. What I took away from the piece is that there is a blunt reminder that the desert east of LA and south of Bodie is a hugely active seismic and volcanic field.

Bank runs are no longer enacted like the scene in the old movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”:

Nowadays it is called a “silent bank run” as in the Guardian UK’s article about Greece’s silent bank run this week.

“Official figures back him up. In May alone, almost €5bn (£4.4bn) was pulled out of Greek deposits, as part of what analysts describe as a “silent bank run”. This version is also disorderly and jittery, just not as obvious. Customers do not form long queues outside branches, they simply squirrel out as much as they can. Some of that money will have been used to pay debts or supplement incomes, of course, but bankers put the sheer volume of withdrawals down to a general fear about the outlook for Greece, one that runs all the way from the humble rainy-day saver to the really big money.”

Here is a story from Yahoo News:
US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury
“The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.”

I’m no economist, but that seems kinda bad to me.

Weimar Republic: German businessmen carrying armfuls of worthless money during the great depression. source.

So…there’s a lot going on. I really wonder how anyone who is not saved explains the plethora of unusual and extreme events occurring all over the world. It is the nearing of Jesus to come in judgment for our sins. I was watching an apologetics show recently, and there was a professor in a college railing against Christianity. When confronted, he’d said that Christianity has caused more wars than anything else in all of history. The response to the professor was to ask him if he believed that the present age (20th century and forward) is more, or less, Christian than in prior centuries and epochs. He said “less Christian.” Then how can Christianity have caused more wars when by his own admission, the world was less inclined toward Jesus than previously, and yet the 20th century has seen an increase in wars to an extent seen like no other? And the basis for those wars was not Christianity, but atheism, Marxism, Communism, nationalism and civil wars?

These articles sum up a clear pattern to me. Peoples’ lives are changing radically. What we knew before is going away, not to return. A calm earth, a stuffed bank account, purchasing merchandise at will, all gone. Now we have silent bank runs and empty stores and governments nervously eyeing the volcano with teams crawling up its sides to take a peek if it is coming alive or not.

The facts are clear. The road ahead will be very bumpy for those not reconciled in pardon to Jesus, but instead who stand in rebellion against Him as criminals. He is coming soon, please repent of sins and choose life everlasting. Please.
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bible jesus, end times, judgment, prophecy

A strange news article from Texas: TX reservoir turns blood red

Posted on August 2, 2011 by elizabethprata

“This is the original headline:

“End Times? Texas Lake Turns Blood-Red“
“A Texas lake that turned blood-red this summer may not be a sign of the End Times, but probably is the end of a popular fishing and recreation spot. A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish — and a deep, opaque red. The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end of the world, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials say the bloody look is the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water. “It’s just heartbreaking,” said Charles Cruz, a fish and wildlife technician with Texas Parks and Wildlife in San Angelo, Tex.”
“Blood red reservoir”
“Texas is experiencing major drought this summer, with 75 percent of the state’s area in an “exceptional” drought, the highest level, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). The state had hoped for some relief from Tropical Storm Don last week, but the system fizzled and brought only an inch or two of rain to areas near the coast.”
“End times predictions”
“As of last week, all that remained of the lake was a small pond a few feet deep, Cruz said. There were thousands of dead fish, he said, but no sign of life. Pictures of this blood-red pool circulated online in fishing forums and caught the notice of Indiana preacher Paul Begley, who said in a YouTube video that the lake might be evidence of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation. “The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died,” the passage Begley cited reads. “The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.” Begley may not have any more luck at predicting the end of the world than did Harold Camping, the radio preacher who set the date for May 21, 2011. But for as long as the drought persists, the OC Fisher reservoir is a reservoir no longer.”

Well. First, we are not in the Tribulation now. The ‘end times’ technically is the period when Jesus went up (Acts 1:9-12) and the time of the rapture when Jesus will come down. (1 Thess 4:17). After that there will be a period of judgment on the earth known familiarly as the Tribulation (Matthew 24:29) but known formally as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. (Jeremiah 30:4-7).

The verse the article cites is Revelation 16:3, but actually Rev 16:4 is more apt: “The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.” However, the whole point is moot, because when the verses above come true it’s actually quite far along in the time of the judgment period. In Chapter 19, Jesus returns, so we can see that quite a lot has been going on before the time when the sea is turned into blood.

For example, Revelation 6 describes wars in all parts of the world, a quarter of the world dying from diseases and other means, a great earthquake, 144,000 Jews have been supernaturally evangelized and are witnessing to the world, and much more. Since it is my interpretation that the Tribulation is mostly chronological, by the time Revelation 16 comes with its seas being turned into blood, many other markers will have let the world know that they were indeed IN the Tribulation. There will be no question.

I don’t find it mysterious or mystical that fish died in the reservoir. It has been incredibly hot in Texas for a long time. Here in GA the news just said that since May there have been only 4 days when temperatures have been below normal, and right now we are experiencing our 15th consecutive day of 90-plus degree temps. Texas has had it much worse. So it’s logical that the reservoir water temperature would increase to the point where fish life would die in intolerable conditions.

What I find is the interesting part is that someone didn’t say, ‘gee, it’s been so hot that the temps got high enough that the fish died.” Instead, a reference was made to Revelation judgments. And more interestingly, the comment didn’t die there, but was printed.

The end times are on people’s minds. That is for a reason. Judgment IS coming, but this long end-time period has been one of grace bestowed on the world and an example of His loving-kindness. As His warnings increase, the fact of the prophesied judgments are rising to people’s conscious minds, whether they believe in them or not. They’re thinking along judgment lines. The discussion of their imminence is happening in the secular world as well as the religious world.

Please heed these warnings from our loving God. He is giving you time to reflect on the fact that He is showing you He exists. He is showing you that judgment is a real thing. He wants you to reflect on your deeds, and know that they are sinful deeds rendered against a Holy God. (Mt 24:44). Please understand that anyone with a sin in them will never be able to enjoy the peace and closeness of heaven with Jesus because with unforgiven sin in them, you’re a criminal to him deserving of a sentence. The sentence is eternal separation from Him in hell. (Luke 21:34-35).

No, we’re not in Revelation times yet, but someday the world will be. But part of that same world will have been rescued from the coming wrath (1 Thess 1:10). His love is such that you get to choose which population group you will be in when that day comes. Don’t wait too long to decide.
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jerusalem, judgment, prophecy

Israel ready to negotiate Palestinian State borders

Posted on August 2, 2011 by elizabethprata

Well, blow me down with a feather. Did Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu just blink? With the United Nations being whipped into a frenzy by the Palestinians’ representative Abbas, and with a unilateral vote for Palestinian statehood looming which would be forced upon Israel, today Netanyau seemed to have ducked in the age-old game of chicken:

Israel Willing To Negotiate On Borders In Dramatic Policy Change
“In a dramatic policy shift, Israel’s prime minister has agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state based on the cease-fire line that marks off the West Bank, a TV station reported Monday. Up to now, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to spell out his plan for negotiating the border. A senior Israeli official would not confirm outright that the prime minister was now willing to adopt the cease-fire line as a starting point, but said Israel was willing to try new formulas to restart peace talks based on a proposal made by President Barack Obama. In a speech about the Middle East in May, Obama proposed negotiations based on the pre-1967 line with agreed swaps of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state. Netanyahu reacted angrily, insisting that Israel would not withdraw from all of the West Bank, though that was not what Obama proposed. Now Netanyahu is basically accepting that framework, according to Channel 2 TV, offering to trade Israeli territory on its side of the line for West Bank land where its main settlements are located.”

Debt limit: a manufactured crisis

Posted on July 31, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog wrote a piece this week called: “Stress!” He asked:

“Has anyone else noticed that the level of stress in this country appears to be extremely high right now? Today, it seems like our federal government, our state governments and most American families live in a constant state of crisis. Everywhere you look there are major problems. Right now everyone is stressed out because of the “debt ceiling deadline”. Earlier this year everyone was freaked out about the possibility of a “government shutdown”. If by some miracle Barack Obama and the Republicans are able to reach a deal in the next few days that will not help the national stress level for long. Another gut-wrenching “national crisis” will almost certainly come along very quickly.”

Gut-wrenching is right. While most of the common people may not understand exactly all the nuances and ramifications of the debt-ceiling limit’s various amendments, we know that it is big disaster. The event itself is a disaster and also the Fed’s, Congress’s, President’s, and Corporation’s behavior around it is a disaster too.

But at the same time I’m surprised. It isn’t like no one knew it was coming. It’s been an issue for decades that we spend more than we take in. It’s been an issue for months as we knew the annual deadline was looming. And yet at the last minute there is all this scurrying and hoopla and shouting and furor. It’s like 2008, when Lehman Brothers fell and the economic crash began. Senator John McCain suspended his presidential campaign and flew back to Washington. News coverage was intense. Politicians scurried and ran and wrangled and it sure was a spectacle. In between then and now, there have been similar spectacles of our government officials running around trying to solve this problem or that one.

As with anything grandiose and major, the people who are affected by it suffer. The American citizens are vicariously subjected to the politicians’ stress as we watch our future unfold.

Prolonged stress has effects. The American people have been intensely stressed for three years now. The pinball effect of careening from one crisis to another wearies the mind, heart, psyche. It cannot be sustained for long. The ever more intense cycles of crisis tire us out mentally, physically, emotionally, and we long for peace. We begin saying ‘peace and safety! peace and safety!’ We’ll do almost anything to stop the downward cycle of crisis management.

Many of the symptoms the people enduring the fallout from the governmental stress and crises are similar to those who live with a drug addict or an alcoholic. From Web4Health.com-

They deny the truth: “Family and friends devote a lot of time and energy to hide the alcoholic’s problems. An important part of this behaviour is to express apologies to employers, fellow-workers, friends, other family members and relatives for bad behaviour.”

There are a lot of people denying the economic truth right now. The NY Times had an article today that essentially stated maybe a credit downgrade wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Acting out: “Most of the close friends and relatives of persons with serious alcohol problems get into this kind of behaviour. “Acting out” is a psychological term for the impulsive, immature and sometimes irresponsible behaviour that a person uses in order to handle internal emotional stress. To drink together with the alcoholic can be one example. In later stages, the hostility that the conflict causes may begin to express itself in more negative activities, such as loud quarrels and physical attacks.”

We see a lot of hostility in the country right now. “Road rage” seems almost a quaint term in the face of the horrific shootings last week in the US.

They demand improvement: “Most people that live with an addictive person try to change the person or try to at least get him/her to improve. They can often struggle with this for months, years, or their entire life because of the belief that “everything will be all right if I only could get him or her to quit drinking”. Unfortunately, the result is often that both become losers. The harder you try to change people with alcohol problems, the more they will fight your attempts. The alcoholic becomes furious because of all the nagging, and a common behaviour is to decide to drink even more.”

Congressional phone lines are lit up and the faxes are falling in Senate offices like snowflakes in a Montana blizzard. I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t demand improvement. But they say, ‘everything will be all right this time if we just vote a different bunch in there.’

They become isolated: “As early as a few months after the arise of a serious addiction, the isolation from friends, family and society gradually takes over, although it can take years before you understand what is happening to you and your alcoholic friend. As the alcoholic’s problems increase, the contact with neighbours and relatives instinctively decreases in order to avoid shame and embarrassment.”

After Obama went on his apology tour in 2009, America has become increasingly isolated. Europe is dealing with their own problems. Creditor China becomes antagonized by our failures, and South America turns to the Middle East for ties and alliances.

They give up: “When they have lived together with a chronic alcoholic for a few years, most people get depressed. Their life has become a permanent burden with few, or none, moments of authentic joy and comfort. Apathy, aversion, physical pain and chronic fatigue may be the bodily expressions in this process.”

And it is at that point, when they seek a solution, any solution, from anyone. The antichrist will step in and offer one. Tired, depressed, apathetic, not just America, but the world will say “Yes! At last, peace and safety!”

What does living in prolonged stress do to our body? These are signs and symptoms of stress overload. They can be viewed personally, individually, and also as signs and symptoms that our nation exhibits:

Prolonged stress affects us. Living in a crisis mode is very bad for us. When I look to the following prophetic verse, I believe it may be interpreted three ways.

“But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.”‘

It could mean literally that people will go to and fro as busy people do, and/or widespread travel. We all know that life is more hectic, fast, rushed. In that fast pace, a close walk with the Lord often drops down on our priority list, so this satisfies satan. As knowledge increases, like science, people believe they do not need God any more.

It could mean that people do back and forth in their doctrine. For a long time it was understood that the rapture would occur before the Tribulation, now people go back and forth on that. “Yes it is! No it isn’t!” like a tennis match. For a long time people understood that hell is real and eternal, but now people go back and forth on that. Individuals also switch their position. For a long time John Stott believed in hell biblically. Then he became an annihilationist. Then he swayed from that a bit. (source). He went back and forth.

Thirdly, it could mean going back and forth in solving problems, as we have seen incessantly since the latest crisis began in 2008. Here, I also remember the prophetic verse from Luke 21:25:

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” The sea being the roaring multitudes, ever restless and clamoring for peace, and a way out from their distress. The same metaphor of the sea being restless multitudes is used in Isaiah 8:7-8 and Rev 18:15. (Commentary here). So in the time that is referred to here- Tribulation- people will be roaring and tossing. Though the Tribulation has not begun, in these waning last days of the Church Age, we saw the Arab Spring, and now with each successive crisis in America, the multitudes grow more weary, distressed, and roaring, going back and forth, to and fro in stress.

I don’t think I’m overstating things by referring to the effects stress has upon us individually and nationally. We see it in the outward behavior of people every day. Shootings over a wrong McDonald’s order. Flash mobs robbing stores and vandalizing at will. Fistfights over cutting in movie line.

We are all affected by the national stress and current crises, whether we endure them directly or not. It’s like living with an alcoholic. I don’t think it is too overwrought to use the metaphor again, in referring to Revelation’s Mystery Babylon the Mother of Prostitutes,

“She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. … “I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.”

Share the peace of Jesus in all you say and do. As the days get more stressful it gets harder for us to do that, I know. But we have to. The rubber is hitting the road. Our peace in the midst of roaring seas, clamorous multitudes, stressed populations, will be the Light, a beacon for all to come who are weary. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

jesus, landslides, prophecy, south korea

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

Posted on July 31, 2011 by elizabethprata

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

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

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

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

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

About that volcanic activity in California…was DutchSinse right?

Posted on July 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

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

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

So…there’s a situation? Anyway…

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

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

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

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

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

Below, NASA Pisgah Crater photo

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

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

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

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

My money is on “sooner.”
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bible jesus, miracles, rapture

A comment on miracles

Posted on July 29, 2011 by elizabethprata

Today’s people want miracles. They want fabulous signs and wonders, and flock to places where they think God is performing them. I happen to believe that once the scriptures were closed that the signs and miracles all but ceased. God used the signs and wonders through His designated apostles (the 12 plus Paul) to authenticate the performer of those miracles as being from God. Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance”. Hebrews 2:4 says of the Gospel, “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.”

Once the canon was set, once the apostles were dead, the signs ceased, because we now had the miracle of God revealed in His closed Word. In my opinion that is why we don’t see the large swathe of validated miracles and signs occurring today.

I’d like to make a distinction about the Tribulation. During that 7-year judgment period, there will be signs, wonders, and miracles. Many will be false (Matthew 24:23-24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9). Some of them will be true: (Revelation 11:1-6; Revelation 14:6-9). The very judgments themselves will be miracles, in that the laws of physics will be set aside and magnificent but deadly miracles will occur such as oceans turning to blood and 100 pound hailstones, and a sun that goes dark.

But between the period of the close of the canon and the death of the original apostles, and the tribulation, showy miracles have all but ended. In His wisdom here and there the Lord may certainly perform a sign in His sovereign will. In Mark 8:12 Jesus signed deeply and asked of the people, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.” He was saying that their belief rested in the show and not in faith. It is like that today.

Back to the clamor for miracles. In the ever-questioning God’s authority, emergent church, counter-reformation, ‘God spoke to me’ generation, they want a show. They desire a sign that will confirm the faith. But I remind us all, we overlook the miracles every day! There are so many. But they are getting lost in the clamor.

What about the miracle of a sinner repenting and coming to faith? It is the greatest act of a Holy God to draw a sinner to Himself for cleansing in redemption and forgiveness. It never fails to make me cry to see someone set aside the old man and ask Jesus to take over their life. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit, since no man can make that decision for himself, being completely craven. (John 6:44). What about an adulterous marriage restored through faith and love? It is a miracle, because they chose God as their foundation and not their lusts. What about a teen or youth involved in cults, or cutting, or depressed and suicidal, brought to joy in the Lord after prayer and tearful prayers of the family and church? What about the birth of a child? Each child, formed by the Lord Himself. (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13). What about answered prayer? A miracle that we have a God who listens to His people, though he is so High and we are so low. He listens and responds to us. A miracle. These are miracles. I praise the Lord for them all.

The quiet miracles from the Holy Spirit’s work are daily occurring around us. Take some time to thank Him for them. They are just as powerful, if not a more powerful witness to His everlasting love in this deeply fallen world.
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bible jesus, false teachers, prophecy

What is "deception by investment"?

Posted on July 29, 2011July 14, 2019 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bible, drought, end of days. prophecy, famine, rapture

US drought: "Desperation the only thing growing"

Posted on July 29, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

This is Cimmarron National Grassland, Kansas. Not much grass. The Grassland director explains that it is already drier than the driest of the Dust Bowl years.

Video here, explaining what is going on. The Cimmaron Grassland Director there is saying that there has been only 2.99 inches of moisture in the last 10 months, when the normal amount is 19 inches. The topsoil has blown away, and the grasses that remain have exposed roots. When the tender roots are exposed to constant blasting of wind and sand, they die. Compounding the issue has been fire. On Mother’s day there was a fire in the Grasslands that incinerated 15,000 acres, and could not be controlled due to 50 mph winds.

This report says that the Dust Bowl may be returning.

“Desperation is the only thing growing“
Since last September — 10 months ago — Morton County near Elkhart has received 2.99 inches of moisture. The normal average rainfall for that corner of Kansas is about 19 inches. There was no dryland wheat harvested in the county this year; more than three-quarters of the county’s acres are dryland. Farmers are selling cow-calf operations in record numbers because there is not enough feed. Newborn calves, less than a day old, are on the auction block.
Roads have been closed due to drifting sand, blocking access to gas and oil wells and causing some companies to shut the wells down temporarily. “I’d describe this drought as very bleak,” said Morton County agricultural extension agent Tim Jones. “You can’t do anything. It is hot, dry and windy. We are at a complete standstill.”

“Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a drought disaster declaration for 49 Kansas counties, nearly half the state.”

Blogger BayouRenaissanceMan has these two photos of the Kansas grasslands showing before and after:

He ended his blog entry with a plea for those who are so inclined, to pray for rain. I second that.

USDA Drought monitor for July 26, 2011:

We reel from one disaster to another, the flooding in the nation’s midsection was and still is monstrous, while just a few hundred miles to the west there is no water. Heat sears the east, while the west shivers in record cold. Crops are dying in many drought-ridden states and the deepening of the tragedy is now having impacts on next year’s cycle. The Dust Bowl cycle is also returning. Naysayers claim that there has always been a cycle of drought and lushness, and that is true, but the Dust Bowl was man made due to mismanagement of the land, and after a certain tipping point there was no recovery. The issue today may or may not be man’s mismanagement but surely the things the Lord has said will come to pass. Those things include famine and drought. During the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses sent by God will prophesy for three and a half years and will be given power:

“These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.” (Rev 11:6). So the naysayers who claim this is just part of a cycle and that we will return to normal soon are wrong. It will only get worse.

Worse, that is, for unbelievers who choose to deny Jesus and thus ultimately choose to remain on earth when the worst of the worst will hit. This is nothing now. During the Tribulation people will be longing for these days when at least sometimes it rained. Believers will be raptured from the earth to be with the Living Water, who is Jesus. We will be refreshed with life everlasting! Why will we receive these blessings? Because Jesus willingly came to earth to die in propitiation for our sins. He accepted the wrath of God as judgment for sinful man, replacing us whose punishment is deserved, with Himself, who deserved none. Since your sins have been punished already all you need to do is accept that His work on the cross was your punishment for your sins, and ask Him to forgive them. The punishment has been rendered but so has the forgiveness! You have to claim it though.

I bet if someone gave you a lottery ticket you’d put it in your wallet. You may forget about it. But perhaps your friend comes up to you to share the good news, saying, ‘Hey, I was watching the TV and the lottery number they gave was the one on your ticket! You won!” I am sure you would take the ticket out out, check it, and hurry right down to the lottery office to claim your reward. You might even get a speeding ticket, you rush so fast to get that money! But instead, in rejecting Jesus, it is like you say, ‘oh, yeah, I won a billion dollars’ and you go, ‘maybe I’ll claim it later. Or not. Ho hum.’ Yet the treasure that He offers, the treasure that He IS, is so much more than a billion dollars. Money rots away, it decreases in value, but the treasure of everlasting life with Jesus never rots away. It is priceless because it is infinite. Why don’t people claim THAT Good News?

Stay parched and thirsty if you want, but I sipped the living water and not only am I refreshed right now, in these dark days, but I am looking forward to everlasting refreshment with Him, in New Jerusalem! You can as well.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in the drought states, they are suffering. Thankfully, that suffering will end when the rapture comes. But for those who remain behind, it will be a very thirsty time indeed.

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Is 55:6)

““Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst…” (Amos 8:11-13 KJV).”
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drought, famine, Ogallala Aquifer

Drought in the US midsection, as Ogallala Aquifer recedes

Posted on July 28, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Is this a sad photo, or what?

It’s one thing to read about the American drought but quite another to see it. And I can’t imagine those living it. This one is out of Pratt Kansas. Pratt is about 75 miles west of Wichita in south central Kansas. The Pratt Tribune has the story:

“Pratt, KS — Crops are dying, grass is not growing and now the situation is so bad people need to start watering their trees. Some trees in Pratt and out in the country are starting to lose their leaves now while others leaves have brown tips or are turning brown altogether, said Mark Ploger, Pratt County Extension Agent.

“It’s not disease it’s just heat and lack of moisture,” Ploger said. All plants are suffering. The grass is not growing in pastures, feed is growing but is stunted and all the dry land crops are suffering to a point that no dry land corn will be harvested in the area this year. Many farmers have already put their dry land corn into silage but it’s so dry they have to wet the corn down as it goes into the silo to start the silage process.”

“The situation has gotten so bad in southwest Kansas that irrigation systems can no longer keep up with an entire circle and are now concentrating on watering just half a circle in a windshield wiper fashion, Ploger said. Insurance companies have loosened their requirements to allow farmers to take this step. The state Department of Agriculture has released CRP acres in several counties, including Pratt, so cattle will have something to eat. The fall planting season for wheat could also be in jeopardy if the area doesn’t get rain soon. Farmers can dust in the wheat crop but the farmers in southwest Kansas know that can have serious consequences without rain to get the crop up. Ranchers are also picking up the pace in weaning calves because the fall feed crop has no moisture and will not produce enough to feed the cattle all through winter.”

The rest of the article is at the link. Here is a NASA satellite picture of the crop circles from 2001. The circles are one-mile in diameter.

The NASA article explains, “Resembling a work of modern art, variegated green crop circles cover what was once shortgrass prairie in southwestern Kansas. The most common crops in this region—Finney County—are corn, wheat, and sorghum.” This image was captured “on June 24, 2001, accounting for the varying shades of green and yellow. Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June. Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year.”

“Farmers in this region have adopted a more efficient irrigation method, central pivot irrigation. Central pivot irrigation draws water out of a single well in the center of the field. Long pipes perched on wheels rotate around the pivot, showering the crops with water. Because the water falls directly on the crops instead of being shot into the air as occurs with traditional sprinklers, less water is lost to evaporation and more goes to nourishing the growing plants. Central pivot irrigation also creates perfectly circular fields, as seen in this image. The fields shown here are 800 and 1,600 meters (0.5 and 1 mile) in diameter.”

“Like crops throughout large sections of the U.S. Midwest, these crops are partly fed by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, a giant layer of underground water. One of the largest underground repositories in the world, the Ogallala Aquifer lies under about 450,000 square kilometers of the Great Plains—an area that includes parts of eight U.S. states.”

Now, the Ogallala Aquifer is something to be concerned about. “The Ogallala Aquifer is the main source of water for all uses in the Western third of the state. Counties located above the Ogallala Aquifer account for roughly 2/3 of the state’s agricultural economic value.” (source). The Aquifer is drying up. FAST.

Kansas studies dwindling Ogallala Aquifer
“COLBY, Kan.– When Rodger Funk began farming in parched western Kansas, the conventional wisdom was that water for irrigation came from an underground river and that it was inexhaustible. He heard that over and over again from his neighbors.”

“They were wrong.”

“Funk realized that in the late 1950s, when he and other farmers in the Garden City area met with geological researchers who had been studying the Ogallala Aquifer. “They announced the water was finite. It was geological water that had been put down a long time ago, and when it was gone, it was gone,” Funk recalled. “That was total news … but it started changing my life. I realized that we were not going to be pumping this water forever and ever.”

The High Plains Aquifer, more commonly known as the Ogallala Aquifer, lies under some 174,000 square miles in parts of eight states: South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. And it is drying up. The Kansas Governor held a summit this week to discuss the situation. In the article about the summit, it was stated,

“For years, the Kansas Geological Survey and the state’s Division of Water Resources have measured water levels in 1,400 wells in the aquifer. The rate of decline had been lessening since the 1960s, but that changed after 2000, when another drought cycle hit western Kansas and farmers began pumping more water out of the aquifer. In southwest Kansas, where the drought has been particularly bad, well tests in January showed the water level in some parts of the aquifer had dropped more than 5 feet in a year, said Brownlie Wilson of the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. The aquifer generally recharges only about half an inch a year. “If you see conditions like that year after year, it won’t come back in your lifetime,” Wilson said.

So no rain, no aquifer recharge, no crops, no food. No water, no topsoil, wind…equals, what? This again: Dustbowl.

What does the bible say about conditions in the tribulation? It will take a day’s pay to buy a loaf of bread. Hyperinflation? Scarcity? Scarcity for sure, Rev. 6:5-6. Famine, too, Rev 6:8, Mt. 24:7. I believe we are seeing the conditions deepening dramatically that will emerge in horrendous fashion after the rapture.

But conditions for born-again believers will dramatically get much better! We will never thirst again, having the Living water to drink from. Did you know that at the Second Coming the earth’s geologic configuration will change? In Jerusalem, a new river will emerge as the Mount of Olives is split. This is described in The River of Life: Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47:1-12. You can read about it here and see a map of what it will look like. The river’s flow begins at the Temple. It literally is a river and it literally is life from Jesus.

The river begins shallowly, gathers force and deepens, emptying into the Dead Sea, which will no longer be dead but contain teeming fish life. Fishermen will spread their nets along the sea banks to dry them from their hauls. Trees will line the river, giving fruit every month. The land itself will be revived from this water, and become lush with vegetation.

Jesus is the giver of life in every way. This earth is dying but those who are in Him live forever. Come, partake of the water of life that is a risen Jesus. Believe He died for you and your sins. Claim his redemptive work as our savior and your Lord by asking forgiveness of your sins. You will be walking along river banks of clear, pure water, in perfect joy, saved by Him who loves you so. Make the trade from the dusty drying aquifer that no longer supports life as it should, and submerge yourself under His living water that gives life forever.

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