Posted in creation, genesis, prophecy, revelation

If Genesis is creation, is Revelation UNcreation?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been reading the Creation verses a lot lately. Genesis 1 is wonderful and it fascinates me completely. I am also listening to John MacArthur’s series on Creation and last night I heard him explain the verses relating to Day 3. I think it is so important to be thoroughly familiar with the Creation verses because they are under such assault. The Spirit has impressed me with this, and when I read in the local newspaper an opinion piece by the founder of the paper that he believes evolution and creation are co-existent, I couldn’t let it go. Rather, the Spirit wouldn’t let me let it go. I wrote a response, and still, the Spirit wouldn’t let go.

Part of what I wrote was this: “First, science and the bible are at odds on the point of creation. There is no scientific process that has, can, or will ever confirm the creation of the world. It can’t. Creation was not a scientific event, it was a supernatural one.”

Christian, don’t worry about defending the bible against science. It is our job to witness to His holiness against sin.

I continued listening to the sermon, and MacArthur got to the part about seeds. The earth was made fully mature. Adam and Eve were grown adults. The trees were mature and bore seeds and fruit from the first moment. So did plants. (Genesis 1:11). MacArthur said,

“One of the great, great wonders of the world is the science of seed dispersal. I watched an entire video on that just absolutely astonishing to see how God designed seed dispersal, not the least of which is accomplished by birds in your own yard, sometimes even attempted on your car and on your head. Pre-fertilized seed dispersal is very efficient.”

How DO seeds disperse, I wondered. Wikipedia explains, “Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, … There are five main modes of seed dispersal: gravity, wind, ballistic, water and by animals.” I started to think about the Tribulation and the verse in chapter 8 came to mind.

“The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” (Rev 8:7). The earth is judged and that includes the vegetation, which He created on Day 3. Hmmm, grass and vegetation die in this, the First Trumpet Judgment.  But the verse later in Revelation came to mind also,

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.” (Rev 11:6). If wind is one of the major ways seeds are propagated, then after the vegetation is burned up then there is very little chance that new growth will occur, especially of no wind if blowing “on any tree”… or its seeds. And when the Two Witnesses cause no rain to fall upon the earth for three and a half years, (Rev 11:6) then that diminishes the chance for new growth all the more.

Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam, detail, Sistine Chapel

It occurred to me then, that Revelation could be seen as the orderly progression of UNcreation. Do the seven days of Creation match in reverse the seven years of Tribulation? Not exactly but in general. Revelation depicts judgment to be sure. But what a synchronicity that the first book of the Bible reveals how Creation was made, and the last book depicts its unmaking. On Day 1 the Light turned on, and ‘immediately after the tribulation of those days’, the sun, moon, and stars give no light” in other words, the lights are turned off. (Matthew 24:29-31). Heaven is made on Day 2, and in Rev 6:14 heaven is rolled up as a scroll. The sea creatures die. The land creatures die. The people die. The sun, moon, and stars fall.

The people know it is God, that He exists, and that He is exerting His power over them. In Revelation 16:9 they curse God on account of the plagues but they refused to repent and glorify Him. Those on the earth who rebel and deny His creative power will watch a slow and excruciating dismantling of creation, plank by plank. This is judgment indeed.

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Posted in e coli, end of days. prophecy, germany, pestilences, superbug

E coli source eludes scientists, new strain continues to kill

Posted on by elizabethprata

The story of the week has to be the e coli epidemic that began in Germany. I noticed news out of Germany over a week ago that reported people being hospitalized in an e coli scare. According to FamilyDoctor.org, e coli bacteria “cause severe cramps and diarrhea. E. coli is a leading cause of bloody diarrhea. The symptoms are worse in children and older people, and especially in people who have another illness.” The Organic Trade Association says, “E. coli (Escherichia coli) are bacteria that normally live in the intestines of animals, including humans. In fact, the presence of E. coli and other kinds of bacteria within our intestines is necessary to help the human body develop properly and to remain healthy. There are approximately 100 strains of E. coli, most of which are beneficial.” It typically occurs when meat is undercooked or raw vegetables containing the bacteria are consumed that have not been washed well and typically it can be handled with an antibiotic and goes away in a few days.

This e coli strain is different. It kills. Fast.

In Germany, as people who came down with it failed in health, they were quickly hospitalized. Then more were hospitalized. Then they started dying. They died quickly, with kidney failure. The doctors started to get scared and a panic was born.

May 23:  “Potentially fatal strain of e-coli spreading in Germany“
Two victims of a potentially fatal strain of e-coli have been placed on artificial respiration machines, a Frankfurt hospital said Monday, while hospitals across Germany were reporting a surge in infections.”

Then the next day, May 24, “Three people with E.coli infection die in Germany” German authorities have appealed for calm following the deaths of three people infected with a deadly strain of the E.coli bacterium.”

That didn’t take long…appeals for calm amidst a deadly strain of disease they can’t find the source of. Food roulette. Every uncooked thing you put in your mouth could be deadly. No wonder they appealed for calm. On May 31st CNN asked “How serious is Germany’s e coli outbreak? By then, 16 people had died.

As of today, 10 countries are affected, “Scientists are working to find out more about the bug behind the serious food poisoning, which has now killed 17 people in Germany and one in Sweden. Their tests so far show that the illness looks like a new disease. More than 1,500 people in 10 countries have been hit by the E. coli bug, including seven people in the UK,” reports the BBC.

The news worsened over the last few days, revealing that kidneys failed quickly after contracting it, and that it is a new strain. Time Magazine reports simply that the “e coli vegetable scare hits Europe“. “As scientists scramble to find the source of an E. coli outbreak linked to raw vegetables that has killed 18 in Europe and sickened nearly 2,000, consumers are swearing off lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes just in case. Schools have pulled raw vegetables from menus, piles of cucumbers sit untouched on shop shelves, and farmers say they’re losing millions. “Cook it or don’t eat it,” Hamburg kidney specialist Rolf Stahl told reporters at a press conference about the epidemic on Friday.”

Germany reports 199 new cases in two days, and fear grips hospitals. “At least 18 people have died and 1,823 cases have been reported, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. The number of reported cases is based on hospital records, and the actual number of infections may be 10 or more times higher, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The strain circulating in Germany and nine other European countries produces a toxin not usually seen in E. coli that can damage the kidneys and other organs. Germany alone has reported 520 cases of the kidney ailment” Bloomberg reports today.

Surrounding nations began issuing warnings, both cooking warnings and travel warnings. Then more people started getting sick. Farmers began dumping crops, as seen in this Reuters photo below:

A farmer throws out a cucumber crop after it was impossible to sell it in El Ejido, near Almeria in southeastern Spain6/1/11
Francisco Bonilla / Reuters

The source of the outbreak could not be found. Was it cucumbers? Tomatoes? And then the real panic began. It is “an entirely new super-toxic E. coli strain,” according to BGI-Shenzhen, a DNA sequencing center in China.”

And we end up today with another superlative. I mention frequently that the weather and the world economy and finances often cause new superlatives each week or each day. “Deadliest tornado on record”, “Historic snowfall, “Epic flooding.” Reporters are running out of words to describe the ratcheting -up of events that continually surpass known and expected measurements. Now this:  “E. coli that has sickened thousands in Europe has become the deadliest outbreak of the bacteria on record as a rare strain is causing kidney failure in unprecedented numbers, U.S. health officials said.” Deadliest. On record. Wall Street Journal says “The outbreak is the deadliest in modern history to involve E. coli,”

The bible says that in the Tribulation we will have pestilences. Of that Luke 21:11 verse, John MacArthur says, [excerpted] “over the centuries civilizations have endured smallpox epidemics, viral hemorrhagic plagues, Bubonic plagues, the Black Death in “England, Ireland, Scotland, Portugal, Russia…just massacring people everywhere, whole villages, whole cities, people dying by the hundreds of thousands all across Europe. … Bubonic plagues in Iceland, Europe, Moscow. … From 1850 to 1900 there was a pandemic of Bubonic plagues in China that killed millions and millions of people. Today we’re afraid of the Czar’s virus, the bird flu, staph infection, and we realize that bacteria are morphing around some of the antibiotics that have been dealing with them in the past. And the whole world is put on notice that we’re all susceptible to all of this.”

In the past three years we had a bird flu pandemic, Gulf Oil spill poisoning fears, radiation fears, and now the e coli plague hitting Europe. Scientists have not been able as yet to find the source, and it has been weeks already since the e coli disease began in Germany in early May. Farers are incurring temendous losses. hospitals are filling. The news reports use words like “fear”, “scare”, and “superbug”.  I want you to really see how unexpected and how sudden the bible verses will come true. When the church is gone, pestilences will crop up from anywhere, anytime, all the time. We are completely vulnerable! That is the point of these warnings. We must rely on Jesus and Jesus alone. Nothing man builds will remain standing at the end. It all comes down. Nothing man learns will be proved of worth at the end. It will all become a vapor, and poof, what we thought was solid knowledge will be gone. Only Jesus matters, only Jesus counts. Man’s strengths are actually his failings. Today an earthworm plague, a suddenly erupting volcano at Mexico City, a killer e coli outbreak in Germany whose source eludes scientists, a deadly tornado in Springfield Mass… what next? I don’t know but what I do know is that there will be something and I also know that it will happen soon. Birth pangs are like that, relentless, coming faster and faster.

Are people by now feeling unbalanced, like nothing can be predicted any more? Good. That’s Jesus telling us HE is the rock. HE is the refuge. Turn to Him and you will not fear. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18) for “He himself is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14a)
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, ohio, plague of worms

Earthworm plague sweeps Cincinnati

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am still working on the main blog entry for today, after having done many errands, cleaned, and wrote on my other blog first. But this caught my attention. Ew. Gross!

Earthworm plague sweeps Cincinnati
Recent heavy rains and the mating season thought to be the causes of the worm deaths in the Ohio Tri-State (In other words, they don’t know)

People across the Tri-State [Ohio Indiana Kentucky] awoke to an unusual sight Thursday — thousands of earthworms lying dead on sidewalks and porches. WLWT was first alerted to the issue by Rick in West Chester. “This appears to have started sometime yesterday afternoon, as I do not remember seeing them yesterday morning,” Rick wrote. Shortly after Rick’s email, WLWT reporter Brian Hamrick began taking photos from his home in Florence, where thousands of worms coated the sidewalks of his neighborhood. After one post on FB, more than 90 people said they had seen the same thing, from Fairfield, to Mount Airy, Pleasant Ridge, Independence and Sardinia. We even got confirmation from our sister TV station in Louisville that they had a few hundred dead worms on their sidewalk. WLWT went in search of an answer as to why so many worms died all at once. Lee Townsend, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky, said there could be three reasons: the recent heavy rains, mating season or acidic soils. Townsend said the rain and mating season were the most probably culprits. During mating season, the worms climb out of the ground and can get stuck on surfaces like the sidewalk, where they are left to die.”

In another article, they report, “After one post on Facebook, more than 90 people said they had seen the same thing, from Fairfield to Mount Airy, Pleasant Ridge, Independence and Sardinia. WLWT even got confirmation from its sister TV station in Louisville that they had a few hundred dead worms on their sidewalk. WLWT went in search of an answer as to why so many worms died all at once.”

It isn’t a plague of frogs, nor a plague of lice, nor a plague of flies. (Exodus 8-9). It is a plague of worms. I didn’t change the words in the MSNBC headline. That was theirs. Entomologists are trying to explain why three states are experiencing a plague of worms that are grossing people out. Heavy rains? There are many springs and early summers where it rains hard. Mating season? Doesn’t that happen every year? From day to day, things sure are getting exciting! I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
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Posted in prophecy, sex in graveyard

Sex in the graveyard? "rolling over in the grave", literally

Posted on by elizabethprata

Before I get serious today with a post I’m working on, here is a story out of New Jersey that skitters over to black comedy and at the same time is just sad.

Woman is injured in Hamilton graveyard by falling tombstone during ‘extracurricular activities,’ police say

Note: photo not of the graveyard in question.

 “HAMILTON – A woman who may have been engaged in sexual activity in a township cemetery Tuesday evening was injured when a tombstone fell on her leg, police said. The 39-year-old woman was not badly hurt, and the administration of Ahavath Israel Cemetery declined to press charges, according to police. The woman was with a male friend in the graveyard off Cedar Lane just before 7 p.m. visiting the grave of a relative. When the two engaged in some “extracurricular activities,” one of the grave markers rolled onto the woman’s leg, Capt. James Stevens said. The woman was taken by ambulance to Capital Health Regional Medical Center for treatment. Police did not know the extent of her injuries. Cemetery management was contacted, but no criminal investigation of the two was launched after the administration decided not to file a criminal complaint.”

What about the family of the person’s grave that they defiled? I hope they file charges. And I wish they would release the name of the woman and the man.

Here is a rhetorical question. We know the answer already. How does the visitation of a dead relative, an activity that usually evokes emotions of sadness, melancholy, reminiscence, tragedy, etc, flip over to instant and wanton sexual gratification? It’s just gross and monstrous to think that people would have such little self-control that they decide then and there to engage in such activity instead of concentrating on the purpose for which they arrived in the first place. Ugh, in a graveyard no less. In normal times such mixtures of activities and places remain far apart from each other, but as we skid headlong into the Tribulation, we can see the results of Paul’s warning.

Perilous times will come:

“…for they will be unholy, unloving, without self-control…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” As we see society breaking down piece by excruciating piece, Paul’s warnings along with Peter’s, Jesus’ and others show us how far from propriety, holiness, and self-sacrifice we have come. Thanks to the nature of sin, there is still a long way to go. But praise the Lord, we won’t be here to see it. Frankly, I’ve seen enough already.
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Posted in theology

Trigger happy cops shoot alligator lawn ornament

Posted on by elizabethprata

This made me laugh out loud. I’d posted a few days ago about police on a hair trigger. I’d used the sad examples of the dancers at the Jefferson Memorial being arrested, and of the Pima County police that stormed a vet’s home looking for drugs and shooting him 22 times in front of his family, and security guards at a soccer game using their nightstick on a subdued prankster. We’ve all read lately of the taser incidents. But this one takes the cake.

In landlocked Kansas city…it all started when some kids came home from playing in the neighborhood and told their dad that they saw an alligator…who called 911…who called the conservation officer…who called police…who dispatched three officers.

Independence Police Shoot Alligator Lawn Ornament
“Police responding to an alligator sighting in a suburban Kansas City pond took quick action to dispatch the big reptile. It wasn’t until after the second rifle shot bounced off the beast Sunday that the three Independence officers realized it was a concrete lawn ornament.Independence police spokesman Tom Gentry said the department received a call from a man who said a gator had been spotted in the woods. Gentry said the alligator was in the weeds near a tree by a pond and it looked real. An officer shot the gator twice in the head — per instructions from a conservation officer — before realizing it wasn’t moving.Gentry said the landowner told officers he put the fake gator there to keep children off his property.”

Police told the landowner that a ‘no trespassing’ sign would have been wiser. I’m not so sure.

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Posted in bible, savior

Jesus knows us, remembers us, will not forget us

Posted on by elizabethprata

Many times in the bible, there are appeals for the Lord to remember a person. ‘O Lord, remember me’ is a common entreaty. Here are just a couple of examples from the New Testament and the Old Testament.

“Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. (Nehemiah 5:19)

“O LORD, You know; Remember me and visit me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.” (Jeremiah 15:15a)

“Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor toward Your people; Visit me with Your salvation,” (Psalm 106:4)

“Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” (Thief on the cross Luke 23:42)

The entreaty speaks to a private concern. Even though we know that God’s ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8), we still worry that He won’t remember us. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. I can’t remember the title of the last book I read. Because we are human and we filter all our experiences and thoughts based from the last experiences and thoughts we’ve had (connecting the new to the known), we project understanding out from ourselves. It’s a habit. So we can’t conceive of how the Lord will remember each and every person who ever lived…deep down. We have a little niggling worry. From early rock art painting hand stamps to Kilroy Was Here, we all do things to imprint our impression upon the world so that the world will remember that we were here. Can God really remember each and every person? Hard to conceptualize. Easier to sink back into fleshly bewilderment that there just may be one tiny crack that I slip though, forgotten.

NOT SO! Do not worry. In many scriptures, the Lord says He will remember us. He knows us! He knows us each by name. He knows us inside and out. He knows the hairs on our head. He cares for us, shelters us, and will not forget when we are called to go. He will greet us by name.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14)
“To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (John 10:3)

“The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,” (Nahum 1:7)

“Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” (2 Timothy 2:19a)

“But the man who loves God is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:3)

He not only knows your name, but He has prepared a place for you and will give you a new name when he greets you!

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17)

It is a beautiful miracle that the God of the universe, Creator since always, Savior of all humanity, knows us. Take comfort. He will not forget you. But here is the question of the day: do you know HIM?

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Posted in egyptian cleric proposes slavery, prophecy, revelation

Slavery in the Tribulation? Muslim cleric proposes it as solution to economic woes

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve always been puzzled by a verse in Revelation. LOL, more than one verse, but this one really gets me. At the fall of Babylon, we see in the threefold woes that are uttered, that a healthy economy in luxuries had been ongoing. Far from the economy being dead, as many suppose, it traded in all the world’s luxuries as if nothing untoward was happening. The rich still exist but the poor comprise most of the world. We also know that the economy is massively different, being under the control of one man, the Beast (antichrist) as revealed in Revelation 13. But the rich still buy things. We know from Revelation 6 that many are not rich but are really are devastatingly poor, unable to even afford more than a loaf of bread which equals a whole day’s pay. For the rich, they keep on keeping on with their consumerism of ridiculously luxurious items. Except for one particular luxury item in the verse at the end:

Revelation 18: 9-13
Threefold Woe Over Babylon’s Fall
“When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

“‘Woe! Woe to you, great city,
you mighty city of Babylon!
In one hour your doom has come!’

“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.”

I could not understand how this could be, though I believe it totally because God’s word is inerrant. But I had thought slavery was pretty much stamped out. There is indentured servitude in informal form, and children sold as sex slaves. But organized slavery today, though it exists is the smallest number than it ever has been in history, is rare. 12-27 million people are purported to be slaves today. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations, according to Wikipedia. But then again, I don’t know why I am surprised that slavery as indicated in the Revelation verse would not be a going boom to the economy. It is the natural end to the philosophy of Darwin, and simply an extension of abortion and euthanasia. There is no regard for life if you adhere to those philosophies or engage in those activities. Life means nothing. Further, the bible tells us that life will mean less than nothing:

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. (Mark 13:12)

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). Lawlessness here in this verse translated from the Greek is ‘sin’ or total and complete disregard for God’s laws. People who totally dismiss God will be more liable to disregard the soul of the person inhabiting the body, and just kill it. Or sell it. It’s an “it,” not a person. Then today I read this:

Egyptian Cleric: Poverty Can be Solved by Selling Humans ‘Like Groceries’
“Over the past week, a video has surfaced featuring prominent Egyptian cleric Salafi Shaykh Abi-Ishaq al-Huwayni. In a translation posted by Al Mutarjim on his blog Translating Jihad, al-Huwayni is quoted as advocating jihad (he says it’s “a real pleasure”) and encouraging listeners to ease financial problems through the capture and sale of human beings (he says they can be sold “like groceries”).”

Here is a translation from the video which is at the link. Sounds like he has thought long and hard about this. I mean, he has a mini-economy in people going on there in that twisted head of his:

Here’s the translation in copy form:
“We are in the era of jihad. The era of jihad has come over us, and jihad in the path of Allah is a pleasure. It is a real pleasure. The companions (of the Prophet) used to compete to (perform jihad). The poverty that we’re in—is it not due to our abandonment of jihad? But if we could conduct one, two, or three jihadist operations every year, many people throughout the earth would become Muslims. And whoever rejected this da’wa, or stood in our way, we would fight against him and take him prisoner, and confiscate his wealth, his children, and his women—all of this means money. Every mujahid who returned from jihad, his pockets would be full. He would return with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women, and 3 or 4 children. Multiply each head by 300 dirhams, or 300 dinar, and you have a good amount of profit. If he were to go to the West and work on a commercial deal, he would not make that much money. Whenever things became difficult (financially), he could take the head (i.e. the prisoner) and sell it, and ease his (financial) crisis. He would sell it like groceries. Of those who are–” and the video is abruptly cut off.

I am writing about that verse for the first time, and inevitably the Spirit gives deeper understanding each time I read it. But for now, we take at face value that there will be an economy in human commerce in the Tribulation. Slavery. Dead ahead.
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Posted in theology

Springfield Mass. tornado, surreal (UPDATED- tornado sucks up river)

Posted on by elizabethprata

I watched an intense storm pop up in central Massachusetts this afternoon. All of the eastern seaboard is under a tornado watch, from DC to Maine. Half an hour ago, a tornado touched down in Springfield Mass and ripped through the city at rush hour. Tornadoes in New England are rare. They do happen, but they are rare. Municipalities don’t have tornado warnings and the people don’t expect them. If one hits, people must rely on eyesight to visually spot it or be tuned in to emergency weather messages. They may not be tuned in, and even if they are, they don’t know what to do. I didn’t.

When I moved here to Georgia I had to learn what to do when a tornado warning is issued. You go to the cellar or to the lowest floor of your building. You put as many walls between you and the outside as possible, going into a closet or the bathroom if need be. I didn’t know any of that nor was familiar with the power of these storms as I am now.

The tornado that hit Springfield apparently did much damage. Trees and power lines down, buildings damaged. Another one is headed for Worcester MA, and one just hit Sturbridge. I’m listening to live scanners, and also looking at video and photos. Amazing. This is surreal. I don’t know what is in store for Boston or NY later today but the weather channel guys are making comparisons to weather conditions similar to Tuscaloosa and Birmingham Alabama in terms of signature and situation.

The guy stayed looking at it until the hail conked his head, then he made a beeline for the car.

Jesus said that as we approach the end of days that the birth pangs will become more frequent and painful. We are not under judgment yet but we can definitely see that the times are getting crazier. I’m more amazed every day at seeing the results of what the bible tells us to expect.

Don’t forget, today, June 1, opens the 2011 hurricane season.
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Posted in 300 sheep dead

300 sheep die within one hour

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mystery disease kills 300 sheep within an hour
Published Saturday, May 28, 2011

“A Saudi farmer who went into his barn to take his 300 sheep on their daily pasturing was shocked when he found them all dead, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said on Saturday. The farm said he checked the sheep an hour earlier and they were all alive in their barn at his far in the western town of Qunfudha. The unnamed farmer had owned the sheep for years and they were his sole source of living for his family of 16. “Inspectors at the ministry of agriculture said they had taken samples from the dead sheep to determine the cause of their death,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.”

Weird.

Now this, 8 dogs drop dead in one hour on popular Yorkshire walking path. Though officials don’t know how or why, they suspect poison. Whether either of these two stories are wierd or have a normal explanation, it is a sad, sad thing that the animals suffer.

And now this, a talking monkey an African mob suspected of being a “witch” was killed.
“Animal welfare groups in South Africa have condemned the “barbaric” killing of a vervet monkey by a mob of township residents who said it was a talking witch. The monkey was beaten, pelted with stones, shot at and then doused with gas and burned to death in Kagiso near Johannesburg, by residents chanting “Kill that witch!”, reports South Africa’s Star newspaper. The vervet monkey had reportedly wandered into the township after becoming separated from its troop. Residents said the monkey had been going around Kagiso “talking to people,” and believed it was linked to witchcraft and would bring them bad luck.”

Terrible!
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Posted in laodicean church, prophecy, regeneration, repent

Where’s the beef?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Remember this Wendy’s commercial from the early 1980s?

I used to love Clara Peller, who was a breakout hit for several years in the ad cycle. Good for her.

In the world in general there is a steep decline in civility, modesty, and behavior that would comport with what the Lord advises is pure living. With all the millions of Christians claiming that they are Christian, you would think that there would be more modesty, cleaner language, more purity, stronger families, and higher regard for Godly things. There is a terrible disconnect and it all has to do with transformation.

Philippians 3:20-21 reminds us that we have a bodily transformation to look forward to: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

But before we get there, 2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us that after submitting to the Lord, our transformation of mind and spirit is an ongoing process- “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”[emphasis mine]

We would expect such an ongoing transformation. When we first believe, He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our body. A supernatural occurrence begins to start the transformative process- the transfer of a divine being from heaven to our flesh. If you really mull through all the ramifications of this, it is mind-blowing. God sends a part of His very self to be planted inside our body which then works as an engine of transformation to His likeness.

Paul reiterated the transformative process in Romans 12:2- “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Our minds AND our bodies are being transformed by the Spirit into Jesus’ likeness.

What this looks like on the ground is a slow or a fast but a visible process where people eschew the same activities, recreation, language, and thoughts they had before. A beer-drinking, porn consuming, profanity laced man will become a gentle, moral, and upstanding husband or bachelor. Initially, the transformation is hard for the new believer but it gathers speed and becomes easier as His holiness spreads in us like a tapestry being enlarged, thread by thread. After a while, we notice that our eyes can’t stand the same television shows, books, movies, and computer activities we used to enjoy. We notice that not only has our own language cleaned up, but hearing it from others is jarring. Not only do we notice that our character is being transformed but being around unbelievers is a strain as the things they say and do hurt our gentle soul because they are an affront to God. Friends drop off, new ones are made. You begin to eagerly look forward to church, not counting it as a trial but a joy. The Spirit is transforming you.

When you repent, you renounce yourself. You allow Christ to become in you more fully every day. Now, reformation is not regeneration. Reformation is a fleshly effort in our own strength to change our ways. Due to our sin nature, permanent reformation is impossible. We will fail. If we could reform ourselves to the extent necessary to become acceptable to God, then we would not need Jesus.

Regeneration means we are being knit by a divine, supernatural process into a new creation. But it doesn’t happen spontaneously. When we are saved, we are always saved. But are we growing? The writer of Hebrews acknowledged that even after some lengthy period of time, some Christians were not growing. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Hebrews 5:12). They should have been strong enough to have been teaching others at least the basics (‘first principles’) by then, but were disappointingly still ingesting milk and not strong meat!  Do a self-check. Are you still on milk of the Word and not the meat?

When I say that regeneration is not spontaneous I mean that it takes effort of the Christian to apply himself to the process. Once you are saved you are always saved, but as for growth to produce good fruit, if the new Christian never reads the bible, never or rarely attends strong worship or listens to bible preaching, never studies, haphazardly prays, or only occasionally does any deeds, they won’t grow. They may have heard the word, but they are not doers of the word- in the aforementioned things.

James 1:21-27talks about being a doer. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

This is the age of the Laodicean church. There are many who are hearers only and worse, what they prefer to hear is false doctrine that tickles the ears. They are not growing, and in truth, many of them are even deceived as to their natural state. Thinking themselves saved, they are not. If you never confess your own sins, thinking that your initial confession and forgiveness covered it all forever, you will not be regenerated. James urges us James 5:16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” We all sin daily but if we confess daily then we are purified and the gratitude for this purification makes us submit even more to the Spirit’s work in us. It is a cycle.

Jesus said that there are true disciples and false disciples. (Mt 7:21-23). Many won’t make it into the kingdom, they will realize too late that their hearts deceived them. Check yourself. It is pretty simply really. “WHERE’S THE BEEF?” Do you have a fluffy exterior, big and laden with condiments, but if you peek inside, is there little to no meat? Has there been spiritual fruit borne of your deeds lately? Or not? If not, there is a problem.

Take another look at the commercial. Except let this script run through your mind:

“It certainly is a big church.”
“It’s a very big church.”
“A big, busy church.”
“It’s a very big, busy…[lifting the top to peer at what is inside]…church”
“Where’s the Gospel?”
“Some churches give you a lot less Gospel on a platter of tolerance.”
“Where’s the beef??”
Announcer extolling solid doctrine, un-watered down and meaty.
“Where’s the BEEF?? I don’t think there’s anybody back there.”

I hope you are asking yourself the important and ever-pertinent question- where’s the Gospel? Look at your church. Look at yourself. Are you on meat? Do you feel yourself being regenerated, part of an everlasting cycle of doing, hearing, growing? Or not? Ask yourself now. You don’t want to find out you belonged to a Laodicean Church when it is too late to change the outcome…

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