You’re a child of the King! Have you snuggled up to Him lately?
Here is a lullaby for you:
Obama reaches out to Muslim Brotherhood and lists Israel as terror sponsor
This week two events occurred that had sweeping and colossal prophetic implications, and both were at the direction of Obama.
Obama listed Israel as a terror-sponsoring nation.
“The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) maintains a list of ‘specially designated countries’ (SDCs) that “have shown a tendency to promote, produce or protect terrorist organizations or their members.” The folks from these nations get special scrutiny when they enter the U.S.”
Some nations on the list are Afghanistan, Oman, Iran, Somalia, etc. Now Israel is listed alongside these nations as “Specially Designated Countries” that according to the definition, “promote, produce, or protect” terrorists, at least, according to Obama. “They managed to list the world’s biggest victim alongside the globe’s leading perpetrators of terrorism. Israelis coming into America get the same high level of scrutiny that Iranians do!” wrote Dick Morris.
The other piece of news is that Obama is to resume formal Muslim Brotherhood contacts.
“The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.”
It is going to upset Israel and its backers because the Muslim Brotherhood has sworn to obliterate America and Israel. Am I exaggerating? No. Frank Gaffney, Jr, a columnist at theWashington Times and founder of the American Center for Security Policy wrote this week that it is a tipping point.
The Tipping Point: Embracing the Muslim Brotherhood
“The Obama administration chose the eve of the holiday marking our Nation’s birth to acknowledge publicly behavior in which it has long been stealthily engaged to the United States’ extreme detriment: Its officials now admit that they are embracing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic). That would be the same international Islamist organization that has the destruction of the United States, Israel and all other parts of the Free World as its explicit objective.”
The article continues, “To understand why the Obama administration’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood is so ominous, consider three insights into the organization’s nature and ambitions:
First, here’s the MB’s creed: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
“Second, here’s the Ikwhan’s mission in America: “A kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, sabotaging its miserable house with their [i.e., Americans’] hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. … In short, the Muslim Brotherhood is deadly serious about waging what it calls “civilization jihad” against the United States and other freedom-loving nations.” Read the whole article, it’s good. You can also read the sources for the Muslim Brotherhood’s aims and goals there.
So it would seem that the jihad from within has begun. Some might claim that it began on January 20, 2008, Obama’s inauguration day. Between the economic destruction he has wrought, tripling the debt from 500 billion to 1.5 trillion, and the political damage he brings in inviting the camel’s nose under the tent, we seem to be an a clear downward path of obliteration.
He is America’s enemy, but he is not the enemy. That would be satan. From a spiritual perspective, Obama emanated enough spiritual creepiness, that even in pre-crash and pre-prophecy aware 2007 USA, thousands were convinced he was the antichrist. He still gives off such a spiritual amorphousness that millions are convinced he’s a Muslim waiting to become Caliphate. He exudes enough sinister perverseness that just thinking about him leading the world though the UN makes us fall on our faces in prayer for it NOT to happen.
Now, we all know that we cannot comprehend Jesus’ glory, His holiness, nor the depths of His love. We know it exists, but we are told in the bible that we can’t comprehend it (Isaiah 55:8; Ephesians 3:19; 1 Corinthians 13:12). It’s a joy to try! It’s a joy to know He loves us so much the depth of it passes our understanding! So does His holiness. Every Prophet and every disciple who saw His glory in visions fell flat on their faces. Isaiah cried, I am undone!’ meaning he was completely destroyed just seeing how great the holy God is and how puny we are.
But similarly as we do not understand the depth of His love and the greatness of His holiness, we can’t understand satan’s evil. We know it exists. We know it is bad. But the depths of it remain unexplored in the recess of our mind because we truly can’t comprehend it. We see the news compound and intensify in evilness in anxiety-producing quantities each week and we say, “That’s the worst!” But then along comes a worse worst.
In Obama’s actions we sense a ‘drawing-in’ of the collective evil. We shudder. We say, “Thank the Lord we won’t be here!” But just think of the people who will face the deepest evil the world has ever known: the antichrist. It will be worse than the flood, when all the world was corrupt and the thoughts of man were continuous evil. (Genesis 6:5). It will be worse than the flood when every man, woman, child, and animal on the entire face of the earth was drowned and God was sorry He made us.
How do I know the upcoming time will be worse than that? Jesus told us: “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.” (Matthew 24:21).
If you are glad you won’t be here to watch more dastardly shenanigans from Obama, imagine how relieved you will be to escape the antichrist! But what of those left behind to deal with an evil so deep and pervasive Jesus has to cut short the days just to ensure some remnant survives? Be strong, witness in love and humility, and be unafraid of rejection! You will be rejected. But be unafraid, because it is Jesus you answer to, not some lost angry person.
If you do witness and are heckled or persecuted for it, do not reply. Because really, there is nothing you can say or do that will be worse than what the poor, unsaved person will be facing for eternity. Nothing.Is. Worse. Than. Hell. There is no witty comeback, no red anger, no insult flung at a heckling mocker that’s worse than what they will see and endure shortly. So be quiet in the face of hatred and move on. Knowing this has helped me still my mouth and quiet my typing fingers when people say or do things against me in because I spoke up for Jesus.
Obama is bad. He gives me the creeps. He makes a lot of people’s spiritual hackles raise up. And worse is coming. By His grace we are saved from it. By His grace those you speak to in delivering a witnessing seed may be saved from it too! Share in confidence, trusting the Holy Spirit’s direction!
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How long, O Lord?
I had someone ask me recently about the duration of all this. My friend intimated that I’ve been talking about this stuff for almost three years now, when’s it gonna GET here? Sooo, could I be wrong in translating the news of the world in terms of an imminent prophetic event? Am I wrong? Am I promoting an imminence that is false? Let’s take a look at that notion, biblically.
Generally, time has no meaning. Our life is “but a vapor that appears for a little while then vanishes away.” (James 4:14). I ask, what’s 3 years in the face of eternity future? In the face of 6000 years past? In front of a God to whom a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day? (2 Peter 3:8). He has the full measure of the timing He wants. He waits until the grapes of wrath are fully ripe, even a little overripe, (Rev 15:16). He waits until the entire measure of the iniquity is filled (Gen 15:16). He waits until the full number of Gentiles are come in. (Romans 11:25).
Now, more specifically, in 1948 Israel was born, and that was a huge end times sign. It was a direct Hand of God moment. And by most interpretations the generation who sees that will not pass away before seeing all these things come to pass.(Mt 24:34). No one who is alert and studious can fail to notice the signs. Over these last 3 years the US has fallen from prominence, half the work force is on food stamps, crime is up nationally 41%, homelessness and bankruptcies are a tidal wave upon the banks, which are failing at an exponential number since 2007. Even John MacArthur said this week that America’s judgment must truly be imminent.
Now even more specifically, I referenced the scripture about “peace and security” which is from 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Paul is talking about the period of judgment called The Day of the Lord, and the Second Coming. Here is the verse: “For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” Now here is the rest of the verse:
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” Though Paul is talking about the judgment period of the Tribulation, we can back-extrapolate the principle he is explaining, to us at the threshold of that time. Understanding the signs, understanding our position as the generation placed here at Divine will to accomplish His purposes in these last days, understanding that time means nothing, how does the bible say we are supposed to live? As a child of the light, alert and sober! Here is what that means:
Barnes Notes: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief – The allusion here is to the manner in which a thief or robber accomplishes his purpose. He comes in the night, when people are asleep. So, says the apostle, the Lord will come to the wicked. They are like those who are asleep when the thief comes upon them. But it is not so with Christians. They are, in relation to the coming of the day of the Lord, as people are who are awake when the robber comes. They could see his approach, and could prepare for it, so that it would not take them by surprise.”
We will not be surprised. Why? We are not asleep! We see His approach. We prepare for it! We who are soulfully injured by blasphemy, evil, iniquity, sin…should and do pray for His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8 says, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Not only is it right to expect Him to appear any day, any moment, and to live for Him completely as if this moment could be our last to serve him on earth forever, but we receive a crown as a reward for eager anticipation!
For those who may be flagging…may be tiring from expectancy and anticipation: Habakkuk, that wise old prophet, recorded what God had to say about that:
For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay. (Hab 2:3)
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All gay all the time: God gave us over
With the approval of the NY State Legislature and governor in legalizing homosexual marriage last week, the floodgates are already opening. The voices decrying the moral equality of anything gay are increasingly voices in the wilderness. Yet the numbers are truly, TRULY embarrassing. Let me show you:
In the Christian Posts’ “All Gay All the Time” essay, they stated “A Martian who visited modern America today might well think that half the population was homosexual-and the other half wished it were” and then backed it up with numbers. They wrote the statistic that only about 2% of the US population identifies itself as homosexual. And that 2% figure is already rounded up from 1.8%.
The population of the US is 311 million. 2% of 311 million is 6.2 million people. Taking aside objections that the homosexual population isn’t distributed evenly, for the sake of argument, 6.2 million divided by 50 states is 124,670 gays per state. Enacting a state-wide agenda because of the wants of 124,000 is disproportionate in the extreme!
Let’s look at Christians in America, every one of which should recognize that NOT all voluntary sexual relations are equal… and who should claim homosexuality as a sin … and homosexual marriage as against God’s model for marriage as shown to us in Genesis 2. Seventy-five% of Americans say they are Christian, which I don’t believe. We know that there is a huge apostate church that accepts homosexuality. We further know from the proportions of the saved vs unsaved in the bible that many are not truly saved (parable of the Sower in Mt 13). Further, there will be many who will claim to be one of the Lord’s children but aren’t. (Matthew 7:22). So let’s knock that 75% Christian figure down to 35%.
Thirty-five percent of Christians in the general population of America is one hundred eight million. 108 million who stand for opposite gender relations as opposed to 6 million who don’t. 2% versus 35%. If I was to use the generally accepted standard of 75% of the population being Christian the numbers get so embarrassing I don’t even dare to go further.
This tells us several things. First, Christians need to do a better job of maintaining biblical standards in their minds and hearts and mouths pertaining to the gay agenda. I’m not insisting we go forth in social Gospel activities. It is a spiritual problem, not a social one. Here is what CARM says:
“As a Christian, you should pray for the salvation of the homosexual the same as you would for any other person in sin. The homosexual is still made in the image of God — even though he is in grave sin. Therefore, you should show him the same dignity as anyone else with whom you come in contact. However, this does not mean that you are to approve of their sin. Don’t compromise your witness for a socially-acceptable opinion that is void of godliness.”
The same essay says: “Homosexuality is clearly condemned by the Bible. It goes against the created order of God. He created Adam and then made a woman. This is what God has ordained and it is what is right. Unlike other sins, homosexuality has a severe judgment administered by God Himself. This judgment is simple: They are given over to their passions. That means that their hearts are allowed to be hardened by their sins (Romans 1:18-32). As a result, they can no longer see the error of what they are doing. Without an awareness of their sinfulness, there will be no repentance and trusting in Jesus. Without Jesus, they will have no forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there is no salvation.”
In listening to John MacArthur the other day, in his sermon about Jeremiah “Prophetic message for an ungodly nation” (GREAT SERMON!) he mentioned a lot of people wonder if America is under judgment. There is the famous quote from Billy Graham, ‘If God doesn’t judge America he needs to give an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah.’ We expect judgment. Yet, we don’t see brimstone falling, nor earthquakes ravaging, nor thunder booming. Where is the judgment? MacArthur said that the Romans verse (quoted & linked above) is a judgment. God gives them over to their perverse lusts. So, how can a disproportionate population of 1.8% push an ungodly agenda onto a population of 311 million, 75% of whom claim to be Christian?? God’s judgment. He gave us over.
–A good opinion piece by Pat Buchanan The death of moral community
–Christian Post: All Gay All The Time
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Bizarre tsunami in UK, along with static electricity
HT to Anonymous who passed along this UK Telegraph news link of a bizarre event that occurred this week along the southern coast of England. Scientists are still unsure of what caused a mini-tsunami to occur along an enormous swathe of coast, from Penzance to Portsmouth.
The UK Telegraph reports:
“Witnesses said the sudden movement around 200 miles out to sea caused the tide to suddenly shift by 50 metres, creating walls of water. The change in air pressure also generated static that left onlookers’ hair standing on end in the extraordinary environmental events earlier today. There were even reports that the conditions caused fish to leap out of the water. Experts said the phenomenon, which was felt from Penzance in Cornwall to Portsmouth, was likely to have been caused by a landslide on the continental shelf under the sea. Simon Evans, 45, who was digging for bait on the beach at Marazion in Cornwall, said: “It was really eerie, like nothing I’ve ever experienced.” The weather was really foggy but extremely warm and close and the sea was as calm as a mill pond.”
“One minute I was literally stood at the water’s edge, then when I turned around the water had retreated around 50 yards. “It was surreal and I couldn’t believe what had happened. I had no idea what had caused it, but I didn’t really want to hang about and find out. “The only time I’d ever heard of anything like it was hearing about tsunamis so I jumped in my car and got out of there.” Tourists visiting St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall were also caught up in the events as a metre-high wave surged up rivers. Bob Hunt, head guide at the National Trust site, said: “One minute they were happily walking across the walk way and the next they were knee deep in water. It was bizarre. “I’m not sure what caused it but everyone’s hair suddenly stood on end. It felt as though there was suddenly lots of static in the air.” “The sudden change was so strong there were two walls of water, with the eastern side around 8 inches higher than the other.” Bob Brown, who was launching his dinghy at the time said a landowner had seen “lots of fish jumping out of the water.”
“The Tidal Gauge Anomaly recorded higher tides than forecasted in Newlyn, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Dr Martin Davidson, coastal processes expert at the University of Plymouth, said the wave was probably caused by a sand or mud slide at sea. He said: “They are quite rare and it was probably not a tidal phenomenon but more likely a tsunami of some kind. “It was probably not due to an earthquake, which is the normal cause of a tsunami. This one was probably more likely to have been caused by a landslide.” The Met Office said there was no evidence of weather variations and The British Geological Survey said there was no seismic activity in UK waters over the weekend.”
Are you familiar with the situation at La Palma? It is an place in the Canary Islands that is called a “geological time bomb,” where land in a fissure at the volcano Cumbra Vieja that is twice the size of UK’s Isle of Man slips precariously each year. It is said that if the volcano ever erupts, half the island will slide into the sea, causing a massive tsunami wave that will swamp the east coast of the US. More about the geology of landslide-induced tsunamis, here, and information about Cumbra Vieja is also at the link. The revered BBC science documentary series Horizon did a show on it in 2000. CNN did a story about La Palma’s Cumbra Vieja in 2001, here.
In reading about the mini-tsunami at the UK, La Palma was the first thing I thought of. I have no clue why there would be static electricity, but the comments from the YouTube page indicate that people did feel it, and that the barometric pressure was also affected. The one-minute Youtube video below is also at the UK Telegraph page.
from Youtube comments
–“Between 10 and 11 am. There were a series of waves and tidal changes during the whole day.”
–“Noticed here in West Wales the barometer rocketed to 75% relative humidty, from the usual upper sixties just before last monday morning, and with not much reason when checked the weather forecast. By the afternoon it had fallen back to upper sixties. All very peculiar it was, and must be related to this mini-tsuami. No thunder and lightening though as Cornwall got, nor hair standing on end.”
How bizarre how bizarre!
How bizarre
How bizarre, how bizarre
Ooh, baby (Ooh, baby)
It’s making me crazy (It’s making me crazy)
Everytime I look around
Everytime I look around (Everytime I look around)
Everytime I look around
It’s in my face
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Cowering under His power: prophesied astonishment and terror appearing on the scene
I look at language in the bible and look deeply into the meanings and I’m struck with how plainly it tells us what the Tribulation is going to be like. And then I look around at people who report current news and I see the same kind of stunned silence. It’s starting.
In Matthew 12:33 it says, “And when the multitude heard this they were astonished at his doctrine.” Look up the word astonished in the New Testament as it relates to what Jesus said and what He did, and you will see how much they were astonished. It doesn’t mean just that the people were dazzled or amazed, briefly tickled and then went their way. The Greek word means “strike out of one’s senses” , i.e. with the outcome of being utterly amazed (dumbfounded) or left “at a loss” from witnessing the incredible (causing the viewer to gape in astonishment).” Strong’s Numbers. In other words, just listening to Jesus preach or witnessing Him do miracles caused them to go outside their senses and be struck dumb, unable to cognitively cope with what they were hearing or seeing.
This is a link to a page showing how many times people were “astonished” (ekplesso) at Jesus and His preaching, and in Matthew 19:25, they were not just astonished, but greatly and exceedingly astonished. If you’re already out of your senses after hearing Jesus how much more can you get out of our senses? How much more at a loss can you be? It is superlative atop superlative.
We know from the reaction of every prophet or Apostle taken to heaven to view the proceedings, that their reaction was to fall on their face. Isaiah, John, Ezekiel, Paul, and the others fell dead in a faint. Isaiah shouted “O I am undone!” (Isaiah 6:5). The word undone means utterly destroyed, completely unraveled. Not many people have had the privilege of seeing heaven in a vision while in unglorified body, but we can see the reaction of those and of the people who witnessed Jesus even as a man, that the reaction is to cower under that power. All the people seeing Jesus immediately recognized His great power and authority. They had different reactions to it, with the Pharisees choosing not to accept it, and many believers turning away. But they were all “astonished,” gaping, after witnessing the incredible.
We read in the bible that in the Tribulation men will cower upon seeing incredible power. They will be astonished, equally unable to cope with the incredible, their puny brains unable to take it all in. God’s might is astonishing;
“And great earthquakes shall be in divers places and famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.” (Luke 21:11). That ‘fearful sight’, in Greek is phóbētron – a fearful sight, emphasizing its terrifying impact on people trying to withdraw or flee from it. It is used only in Lk 21:11. So from the Age of Grace we move to the Tribulation. We go from the astonishing, amazing enough to knock you back on your senses, to the terrifying, so much so that they try to flee.
In Luke 21:26 we read, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken…” (Luke 21:26). That word fear is a panic flight, terror. The word is most often used to indicate negatively withdrawing from the Lord (His will). Men will see what is happening and they will have massive heart attacks on the spot. Their bodies are unable to absorb the shock of seeing such power.
That fear, astonishment, and panic is beginning. You see it in Journalists. Reporters are at the forefront. The are at the front lines of witnessing terrors coming upon the earth, which will worsen in the Tribulation. They have to absorb and internalize what has happened, make sense of it, and then report comprehensibly to you and me. At some point the ability to absorb the scope of what is happening will outstrip cognition, as it did those disciples and prophets and followers who witnessed Jesus’ power. Here are two examples:
Weather Channel’s Mike Bettes was the first to arrive on scene in tornado devastated Joplin, MO. Surveying the scene around him, he was overcome with emotion. Though reporters are supposed to appear unengaged and unaffected, reporting the news unemotionally, I was touched by his obvious pain in witnessing the scene. It is the only humane response to what he was seeing. And just what was he witnessing? The power of God. I dare to say that the word ekplesso can be applied here. One is “struck out of one’s senses”, i.e. with the outcome of being utterly dumbfounded or left “at a loss” from witnessing the incredible.”
Also reporting a little while later from Joplin was Diane Sawyer. She is under a tent and rain is pounding on the canvas. Thunder booms above them, and briefly she and the crew debate whether it is even safe to be there. There is no power, the printer had stopped working, and ongoing the technical difficulties of reaching the NY office from a destruction zone are apparent. At one point Sawyer- seeing that she’s going live in moments, and despairing of ever getting paper copy- begs for a Blackberry at least. With time ticking away, Sawyer says repeatedly, “I have nothing.” The crew to me seems unorganized, dumbstruck, and fearful. Others have said that Sawyer looks “anxious, tentative, and confounded” but I think Sawyer looks composed. She refers to the area as a moonscape. Certainly the area outside the tent is a pile of unrecognizable rubble. Truly, how does one report on a massively emotional story in a few moments of air time? How do stories like this affect a person emotionally? One does absorb the tragedy no matter how one tries to filter it. A journalist IS the filter. The Joplin tornado news story is one that is on the edge of ability for humans to report it emotionally, technologically, humanely.
If you read Matthew 24 or Revelation, you know that the severity of natural disasters will ramp up considerably until absolutely nothing is left. Even the mountains crumble. We rely on people to report these disasters and we rely on technology to carry the pixels and the voices back to us. The impossibilities of continuing to be able to do that on an organized basis are rapidly coming to a close.
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Do I smell good?
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| image source |
The bible talks about fragrance, smells, ripening, and odors. “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” (Revelation 8:3)
God smells us, like in this verse:
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? ” (2 Cor 2:14-16)
I think that’s funny because God doesn’t have a nose, but He can smell. He wanted us to be able to smell, so He formed us with a nose so we could.
I’m intrigued by smells. See, I have no functioning olfactory sense. I cannot smell the world or anything in it. I can’t smell my dinner burning, (which happens a lot) nor the grass when it’s mowed nor a bakery nor my clothes to see if they are dirty nor the food in the fridge to see if it is safe to eat. I can’t smell and I never could. But God can. He can smell me. The unsaved can smell us Christians.
I’m talking metaphorically, of course. But, when you awaken each day and you pray, do you think God will be pleased with your prayers? Are they sweet smelling to Him? Or are they so pale they have no fragrance at all? Do they have a stench as in Isaiah 3:24 and Amos 4:10?
I’m looking forward to heaven, when I will be able to smell. Won’t that be wonderful, when all the paralyzed will walk, all the deaf will hear, all the blind will see. All the autistic children will speak, all the sick will be healed. There are no handicapped parking spots in heaven! But back to the fragrance.
One of the good, old fashioned preachers in 1904 said, “Every saintly life on earth, is a sweet fragrance unto God; and every sinful life, is a stench in his nostrils. As the rose scents the evening air — so a pure life scatters a sweet Christian influence and a knowledge of God throughout the world. The literal translation of 2 Corinthians 2:14 reads thus: “But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of his triumph, to celebrate his victory over the enemies of Christ, and by me sends forth the knowledge of him, a stream of fragrant incense, throughout the world.” A saintly life diffuses a sweet, heavenly fragrance throughout the world, and brings a knowledge of God and the nature of his salvation to the minds of men. Let me exhort you, therefore, to a pure life — a life full of devotion and reverence to God. You can make your life, by God’s grace, a constant, flowing stream of fragrant incense, whose sweetness will linger long on the air after you have passed to higher realms. So may it be.”
[source Charles Ebert Orr]
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A great sermon
I listen to several preachers but most often I listen to John MacArthur. I quote him a lot, as you know if you are a regular reader of this blog. MacArthur is one of only a handful of preachers, if that many, who preach through the bible verse by verse. He doesn’t speak topically and apply or overlay a few verses to make a point. He takes a verse or two or maybe three, and he spends 50 minutes teaching it.
He is the only preacher in the world now, I believe, who has preached through the entire New Testament, verse by verse. He started 43 years ago, and he finished in June. It was a poignant moment and I watched and celebrated with him and with his congregation via internet.
He isn’t going to go verse by verse through the Old Testament, he said. But he did do a wonderful series on the 7 days of Creation, here. You can listen or read the sermon. It is a fantastic and very uplifting series. He is now beginning some Old Testament sermons by using the verse from Luke 24:27, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” This means that in all the books from Moses and all the books where the Prophets spoke, Jesus is present. He is in the Old Testament, everywhere from beginning to end, in actuality. Jesus is in Genesis 1:1 and He is in the last book of the OT, Malachi. But MacArthur is beginning his series limited to Jesus through the Old Testament akin to the Road To Emmaus, the place where He said he “expounded on these [Old Testament] things concerning Himself.” MacArthur’s begins with Jeremiah, here.
His aim is to show the parallels of Jeremiah the man and Prophet in his time amid an ungodly nation to our time here in this ungodly nation. Judgment came in Jeremiah’s life, and we who are burdened with the spiritual pregnancy of imminent labor feel judgment will come in ours too. Knowing that and listening to MacArthur’s preaching that won’t mean it’ll be a feel-good moment but it does give context and meaning to why and how God worked through this very human man, so sorrowful, and the doomed nation, but preserved in a remnant! Just as it is today.
I recommend the series to one and all.
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Emergent church questioning tactics are bad leaven
I’ve written before about the emergent church and its apostasy. One of the tactics of the apostate emergent person is to constantly question the bible and its doctrines. “Does hell really exist?” “Would a loving God punish?” “Is hell really eternal?” These and other doctrines are opposed not from a hatchet, but from lightly sprinkled leaven. Leaven-questions are designed by satan to diffuse into the person’s heart and chip away at the authority of the bible, the certainty of the Word, and by extension, the questioner’s faith.
Here is one example of the questioning tactic, best perpetrated by Emergent Rob Bell, lately known for his book “Love Wins”. This quote is from his book ‘Velvet Elvis’ in which he likens the membrane of Christianity to a trampoline where we all jump and jump:
“But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?”
Bell’s ‘what if’ questions continue:
“What if that [trampoline] spring [the virgin birth] were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart? . . . If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?”
What he is saying is that the bible is confusing, the plain meaning of virgin could mean several things, and if you apply one of those several definitions to Jesus’ birth then the whole ‘thing’ collapses. But God is stronger than one word, “one spring” in Bell’s trampoline he calls Christianity, and the only thing actually falling apart is faith.
One question leads to another. Taking away the plain meaning of a word under the guise of deeper intellectual study of the passages is a very good tactic for chipping away at faith, because the questioner can lull himself into thinking he is performing intellectual study with honestly spiritual intentions. You can read more about the false doctrines of Rob Bell and how to spot them,here.
I had a conversation the other day with a person who has been a Christian for 50 years. She is a pastor’s wife. Her husband is not pastoring a church right now and hasn’t been for a long time, but he teaches in a community ministry and also teaches adults at a Sunday School. Their son in law is going to seminary. In other words, they look like a faith filled family, but her certainty in the basic doctrines are slowly being chipped away by her husband and son-in-law’s constant questioning in a pattern that exactly mirrors what I showed you in the Rob Bell method of hermeneutics.
‘I used to believe in the pre-trib stance’ she said, ‘I was taught that growing up. But now I’m not so sure.’ That lack of certainty is torturing her, because as a good Christian she knows the bible isn’t unclear, and as a good Christian wife she submits to her husband’s teaching. There’s a dissonance there that hurts. She didn’t say it, but I could see it.
The bible is tightly woven. It is a perfect book. That means you believe it all or you believe none. Once you start disbelieving a central doctrine, like the pre-tribulation rapture, then you have to adjust your thinking in many other doctrines to accommodate your new stream of thought. If you think the rapture will happen later, into the Tribulation (it doesn’t matter if you think it will be mid or post tribulation, satan is happy just to get you over the threshold in the time of Jacob’s Trouble) then you have to start questioning all of the following:
2 Thessalonians. In that letter, (esp. verses 1-10) Paul sought to reassure the believers there who had been infiltrated with false doctrine. They had been told falsely that they missed the rapture- ‘our gathering together to Him’ as Paul terms it. Persecution had begun, and so thought that the Tribulation had started and they were out of luck on the rapture doctrine. They were deeply worried. Now, if the default position is that we all go through the Tribulation, why would Paul need to even reassure the Thessalonians that they hadn’t missed the rapture?
The Restrainer: The rapture is to occur prior to the Tribulation. When disbelievers start questioning this, they have to resolve the sign that Paul gave in 2 Thessalonians indicating the Day of the Lord. The rapture is distinct from the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the period of time when Jesus punishes the corrupt earth. While the rapture can happen any time, The Day of the Lord cannot occur unless and until three things happen and one of those is the Restrainer is taken out of the way. In 2 Thess 2:6-7 Paul says the Day of the Lord won’t happen until and unless the antichrist is revealed, and the antichrist won’t be revealed until the Restrainer is taken out of the way. That’s a reverse timeline. The Restrainer is the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit, indwelling you and me as salt and light in the world. We act as a preservative from the Spirit’s influence in us and in the world. Once He is out of the way, the antichrist can come to the fore in all his corruptness. Now this is timeline presents problems to the post trib believer. Dismissing the plain meaning of the verse is hard to do, so instead they re-define who the Restrainer is. They say ‘maybe the restrainer is a lawless governmental system. Yeah, that’s it!’ [Note: the Spirit doesn’t leave the world in the Tribulation, He simply changes ministries, dispensing with one of them: His restraint of evil].
Encouragement: Paul explained in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 about the Day of the Lord in a passage titled, “The comfort of the Lord’s Coming”. He ended with saying to encourage each other with these words. Jesus said the Tribulation would be worse than a time ever experienced on the earth and never will be so bad again. It will be so bad that no flesh would be left alive if He didn’t cut the days short for the elect’s sake. Are you encouraged or comforted by the words that Christians will go through the worst time ever, be squashed by hail, have our head chopped off, get hunted, starved, and then martyred? “Be of good cheer! It will be awful but then Jesus will come!” I’m not encouraged. I’m not comforted. It is counter-intuitive to think that Paul would try to cheer up the Thessalonians by reminding them they would be appointed to go through the worst time in the history of the world, even worse than the Flood that wiped out everyone!
Wrath: Paul had written earlier in 1 Thess 5:9 that we are not appointed to wrath. His sentence is very simple: “we are not appointed to wrath.” But rather than accept that statement plainly, the emergent questioner poking holes in the pre-trib stance must now resolve that statement to coincide with the fact that the Tribulation is wrath and we will be appointed to it. Indeed, my friend said, “I wonder, what IS wrath, really.” Because the bible is tightly woven, one re-definition of a doctrine elicits another. Now they have to figure out what wrath really means. Like Rob Bell wondering what ‘virgin’ really means. Soon we’ll have people saying ‘that depends on what the meaning of is is.” Oops, we already had that happen. That was President Clinton trying to escape the plain meaning definition of sexual intercourse.
There are more things a post-tribulation believer has to re-define but you get the idea. You can see how, once you drift away from the solidity of the bible’s plain doctrines, supported by each other throughout the entire book (“Scripture interprets scripture”), that you have to begin an alternate construction which, because it is a man-made structure, is a house of cards on sand. Believing in the pre-tribulation rapture satisfies all questions and upholds all other doctrines in the bible. Believing in mid or post tribulation rapture elicts more questions … that must be answered … which causes more questions … which induces re-definitions … and you see how “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:8-9). The evil diffusive properties of bad yeast permeates and spoils.
People have said to me, “It doesn’t really matter when the rapture takes place, before or in the middle or at the end, does it? It’s only a matter of timing.” Yes it matters. It is not a matter of timing. It is a matter of leaven.
The glorified properties of truth and the leading by the Holy Spirit into wisdom and understanding uplifts and solidifies, He doesn’t create confusion. “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:8).
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Three US nuke plants on edge of disaster
The horrors of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster in Japan after the March earthquake and tsunami are vivid on American minds. Almost immediately it was apparent that the government was not telling near to the truth about the scope of the disaster. Soon the evacuation zone was widened, crops grown near the plants were recalled, and not long after that, mutation began appearing in the animal ecosystem. A bunny was born without ears. And now, residents who had lived within 40 km are emitting radioactive urine.
From across the Pacific, which proved to be little comfort as a barrier, Americans watched in horror as this nuclear disaster unfolded and as the nuclear cloud wafted our way. The power of the quake and the enormous force of the tsunami shook many people to their core. I know that it did for Christians, who knew they were watching the majesty of the Lord warn us again.
Well it wasn’t long before American shared in nuclear horror, as for the last month we have been hovering on the very knife’s edge of a similar kind of tragedy. Three nuclear plants are under the Sword of Damocles and no one knows when or if the horsehair will let go. The National Weather Service reports significant flooding is occurring in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Portions of the Interstate in Nebraska was closed. CNN has a good overview here. Here are some pictures to ground us on where these things are happening and how they impact each other
Here is the news roundup:
Cooper Nuclear Station: Snowpack and rain runoff continue to swell the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. This flooding has damaged or ruined thousands of acres of farmlands, and spring planting was interrupted. Hole cities have been evacuated, homes lost and lives destroyed. Along these waterways are oil refineries, and nuclear power stations. Cooper is one of those nuclear stations that is inches away from inundation. As we all learned from the tragedy at Fukushima, water and nuke plants do not mix. However, unlike Fukushima, the Corps of Engineers and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knew of the coming flooding weeks ahead and began to prepare. Whether their preps will be enough remains to be seen with at least another month or tow of flooding to come: “One of the biggest threats to the safety of any nuclear power plant would be a prolonged loss of electrical power because the plants need to be able to continue pumping water over the radioactive fuel to keep it cool…Cooper also has two main lines of outside power, at least three generators on site and a battery system that can power the plant in an emergency. Flooding remains a concern all along the Missouri because of the massive amounts of water the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released from upstream reservoirs. The river is expected to rise as much as 5 to 7 feet above flood stage in much of Nebraska and Iowa and as much as 10 feet over flood stage in parts of Missouri. The corps expects the river to remain high at least into August because of heavy spring rains in the upper Plains and substantial Rocky Mountain snowpack melting into the river basin.”
Ft Calhoun: This is more of an issue. The waters have indeed encroached upon the plant, actually inundating parts of it and there has been a fire, power outage for a short time, and failure of a berm yesterday. This local news report from KLKN-TV insists “all is well, no worries and no threats exist.” I truly hope that is the case.
The Gavins Point Dam: “Record water flows of about one-point-one million gallons per second are still jetting from Gavins Point Dam into the swollen Missouri River, with no sign of a break ahead for many weeks.” This dam is under a lot of pressure as historic, even epic, flows have kept the Corps of Engineers busy for weeks. Nuclear consultant Arnie Gunderson said recently that the issue is the dams and levees upriver. Controlled releases mean more water downstream, which is bad for the Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Station plants, just mere feet away from total inundation. Gavins Point is under pressure, and as a result, the wild rumors going around the internet is that that particular dam is cracked. This article mentions it in an interview with a nuclear regulatory chairman who was on site, inspecting the Gavins Point dam, and the answer is short and to the point: “See that YouTube video about a supposed crack in the Gavins Point Dam? Ruch said that’s hogwash. “It’s crazy,” he said. “The dam isn’t cracking, it’s performing as designed.” Other mentions in that same article are as follows:
* A berm burst near the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station early Sunday, but government officials say the plant remains safe. It has been closed since early April for refueling.
* Flood water surrounded two buildings at the plant, but officials said those buildings can handle flood waters of 1,014 feet above sea level. The river is now at 1,006.3 feet and is expected to crest at 1,008 feet.
Jaczko will visit the plant Monday.
* The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to secure the levee at Cass County’s Lake Waconda, Col. Bob Ruch said.
* Several sand boils, or leaks, have been spotted in the levee that holds the Missouri River back from the dam.
Sand boils or Sand Volcanoes occur when water under pressure wells up through a bed of sand. The water looks like it is “boiling” up from the bed of sand, hence the name. Sand boils can be a mechanism contributing to levee failure during floods. This effect is caused by a difference in pressure on two sides of a levee or dike, most likely during a flood. This process can result in piping, whereby the removal of soil particles results in a pipe through the embankment. The creation of the pipe will quickly pick up pace and will eventually result in failure of the embankment. A sand boil is difficult to stop.” [Wikipedia]
All is well, we keep hearing. In my opinion, the news is mixed. Now let’s take a look a bit south and east.
Los Alamos Nuclear Lab: Wildfires rage 50 feet from Los Alamos. On the right of the map is the Missouri River basin with the affected dams and nuclear plants.On the left of the map where the pin is shows the Los Alamos Center. Notice that in between is Joplin MO, where the tornadoes were last month. The mid section of the nation has been hit hard.
“The wildfire that surrounds the nuclear lab in Los Alamos, N.M., has grown to at least 61,000 acres amid mounting concerns about what might be in the smoke that’s visible from space. Such fear has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to bring in air monitors, along with a special airplane that checks for radiation levels. So far, officials have not been able to find anything. “Our facilities and nuclear material are protected and safe,” Laboratory Director Dr. Charles McMillan told ABC News.”
All is well. All is well. Here is a photo.
It does not look as though all is well. Not at all.
The Iranian state news outlet, Press-TV has a good summary here of the situation with American sources noted.
One last thing. I noticed in the above article where there is video also, that the newscaster noted that the smoke can be seen from space, and they show a NASA satellite photo of all the smoke. The Eritrea volcano (Nabro) erupted for the first time ever and the way that the populace knew it erupted was the satellite photo. (News from the sparsely populated and tightly controlled Eritrean civilization rarely makes it outside the border). And the Chilean volcano eruption caused a bunch of satellite photos to be circulated…And the floods can be seen from space, too. (here). If we were astronauts I’m sure I’d be looking at a planet under a lot of smoke, strife, and overall visible negative activity. Our planet is groaning!
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