Listening to “Shall we gather at the river”, and thinking about all my Christian friends I’ll see there. Let us gather at the river now, in our hearts, and worship Him, acknowledge His power and His love. His grace delivers us, we lay our burdens down. I praise Him today and all days. He is waiting for us there, arms outstretched and in perfect love He will envelop us. He is on His throne, and He reigns. Again, I praise Him today and all days.
Let’s discuss a bit more of the effects from this morning’s earthquake. I posted quickly after I awoke and turned on the laptop to discover that a devastating earthquake had occurred, followed by a tsunami of global proportions, damage, radiation leakage, fires, shell-shocked wandering thousands, and all the other attendant effects. Since then, scientists have discovered more about the quake and the effect it had on the earth. There are two effects of high significance. After we explore those, we’ll delve into what the bible says.
From the Italian newspaper Corriere, we learn “The impact of the earthquake that hit Japan this morning shifted the earth’s rotation axis is nearly 10 inches. It’s the preliminary result of studies carried out by INGV, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. According to Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA, the Earth’s rotation rate is increased causing a shortening of 1.6 microseconds duration of the day. A microsecond is one millionth of a second.” This quake was so powerful the entire island of Japan was moved 8 feet to the east.
TEN INCHES! That is one huge quake. I read earlier today that this quake was thirty times stronger than the famous in in 1906 at Frisco. God is powerful. No, it was not a “natural disaster”. It was God. Psalms 104:32- “He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.”
Speaking of smoking hills, in Russia, Kamchatka volcano exploded. Translated from Russian, “Almost simultaneously with the strong shock that hit Japan and triggered a giant tsunami in the Pacific, two Russian Kamchatka volcanoes erupted. Eruption was accompanied by earthquakes. In the Russian Far East, there has been a strong volcanic eruption. The air got a great cloud of volcanic dust, which can pose a threat to air traffic in the region. In both cases, the volcanoes that threatened the outbreak of several days or even months.” Mount Karangetang volcano in Indonesia erupted at the same time, as well. More here.
He toucheth the hills, and they smoke…
Another effect from the Japan quake was that the earth ruptured. “David Applegate, a senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the 8.9-magnitude quake ruptured a patch of the earth’s crust 150 miles long and 50 miles across.”
“The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.” (Isiaiah 24:19).
God is in charge of the earth. He formed it, He created it, and He will renew it after destroying it in a fervent heat. (2 Peter 3:10). What we should be taking away from this day is the knowledge, certainty and power of an Almighty God. He is shaking us, warning us. Yes, these are still warnings. But this is really bad, you say. Yes, today is really bad. But they are still warnings.
Imagine how terrible the day will be when THIS happens: “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (Rev 6:12-14)
I’ve often wondered about how bad things will get before we are called to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-18). How bad will the birth pangs get and what will that look like? The church is not destined to be on earth for the Tribulation, that is a fact. The angel told Daniel in Daniel 9:24 the 6 reasons God will make a Tribulation, and one of them is to punish, and end the iniquity on earth. Church age believers are not destined for punishment, our sins are pardoned and we are free from accusation. (Col 1:22). But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment. So this is how I decided to think about it.
Today’s events were the first global event of the birth pangs. Remember, the prophesied birth pangs began at Jesus ascension and will end when He returns in Glory. The nature of pangs is that they begin almost unnoticed and increase to an unbearable pitch, accompanied by screaming. Today’s quake has affected every continent and all the oceans. It is a cataclysm that we as humans on one planet are all experiencing. In the past and even in the recent past, there have been cataclysms but they have been localized. Katrina. Indonesian earthquake, Australian drought. Pakistan floods. But today, we are all affected. I think that means that we are near the tipping point from His warnings during the Church Age, to punishment for the unbelieving masses in the upcoming Tribulation. I do not know the mind of God, only what He shared with us in the bible. But He has told us that He will call us, and call us, and call us to Him, but there is a limit to His patience and His calling. It will not go on forever. Christians the world over can feel that time nearing, when He will stop calling and begin punishing. You can just feel it.
Today’s events really make us see how easily a day like that one in Revelation 6, still future, can come about. It makes us see how powerful God is, and how loving. Yes, loving. I hope that the events of today caused some to re-think their faith or beliefs. What a blessing that would be. If those beliefs do not include Jesus as number one and ourselves as sinners whose destiny should be hell, then you need a radical re-think. Jesus is love and He is shaking us. He wants to see you, and you, and you in the place He is preparing for you in New Jerusalem. I hope the events of today caused Christians to witness like there’s no tomorrow. Because there might not be.
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UPDATE: I posted more here. “Earthquake: At what point do the warnings end and the Tribulation punishments begin?” Bible verses, and my reasoning why I think the rapture is coming SOON.
A 8.9 quake occurred last night in Honshu Japan. In addition, more than fifteen quakes occurred in that region that were OVER 6.0, classified as major. Here is one snippet of the USGS page that shows some of them but not all of them:
A tsunami happened subsequent to the quake that reportedly had waves 3 feet high. This 8.9 quake was the fifth largest quake to occur since 1900. Now, the Onagawa Nuclear plant is reportedly on fire. Japan has called a nuclear emergency. Four million people are without power in Tokyo and the massive damage from the quake, tsunami and fires is devastating. Devastating isn’t even the word.
Carl Worline opened his latest essay by saying:
“The entire world is on edge because everyone senses that something big is about to happen. Christians know that either the Rapture of the Church or the battle described in Psalm 83 is about to occur. Many Muslims in the Islamic world think their Mahdi is about to return. Members of the New Age Movement look for the arrival of their Maitreya at any moment. The ancient Mayans, various tribes of American Indians, Nostradamus, the notorious 16th century soothsayer Mother Shipton, and Sir Isaac Newton have all predicted a series of cataclysmic worldwide disasters will occur around this time in history. Even the chief ju-ju bead counters who write for the supermarket tabloids are predicting the return of “The King” (Elvis). The Earth longs to be free of the curse it has suffered under ever since the original sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus told us in Matthew 24:7-8 that His return would be preceded by upheavals in nature which He likened to the birth pangs of a woman about to give birth, increasing in intensity and frequency as the moment of the arrival of the child draws ever closer.”
I want you, Christian, to think for a moment, that these events are not punishments. They are warnings. The heightened state of agitation, fear, and heartbreak from all these things are not the Tribulation, yet we wake up every morning with a dread to look at the news to see what has happened that was worse than the day before. A year ago things were bad but in the space of the last 365 days the world has experienced “historic” events one after the other than are monumentally worse to comprehend. Yet they are not the Tribulation events. These are warnings.
So…imagine how terrible the tribulation events will be! Please, please, thrown away your fear and WITNESS to people. The quake is a demand from God that He is present and working in the world to awaken the non-believer, threaten the apathetic, and to announce His soon return for us. Don’t waste even a precious day navel-gazing. The nature of birth pangs is such that a crescendo is reached suddenly.
Non-believer, these extreme events are not “natural.” Things will not get back to normal. They will only worsen. If you cannot believe that they will or even could get worse, listen up: they will. It is because of sin- your sin, my sin, the world’s sin. God will not be mocked and He will punish sin. Your acceptance of that fact and your repentance and appeal to Jesus to forgive them is your redemption. He died on the cross as the sacrifice so that YOU could not be punished when the Great Day of the Lord comes. Will you be able to stand when it does? I pray you will. He loves you, He is shaking you even now. Wake up!
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I read a couple of articles today from other people who were talking about doom. They are not Christians as far as I could tell. But I liked some of their phraseology. This first one is Clif High of Half Past Human. It was in the part of his newsletter where he was urging people to get chickens and plant gardens, because,
“Our agricultural system is already showing failures as it continues under extreme stress.”
He has a point. US wheat stock exports projections have been lowered by 25 million bushels, and grains in general. The American Farm Bureau report for Mar 10, 2011 states, “USDA still sees very tight global grain stocks, and we are going to need to see big U.S. and world grain crops to make up the balance.” There is strong demand and tight supply, not a good combination. Add to that, unpredictable and extreme weather and possibly (probably) war, and what you have looming is Revelation 6:5.
Looking up from the earth toward the sun, moon, and stars, there is a lot of action in the celestial realms too. Jesus said during the tribulation there would be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars…(Luke 21:25) and we see that even now prior to the Tribulation. In this article from “The Week” the phrase “humanity’s heightened state of agitation” is well-stated and something that, you note, is observed by a non-believer but the question is also asked, can the earth take another blow, this time from above?
SUN AND MOON ADD TO EARTH’S WOES
“As if the problems being caused on planet Earth by ourselves are not enough to contend with, the sun and moon are seemingly conspiring against us to push our social environments to extremes. From a psychological perspective, some might make the case that humanity’s heightened state of agitation is simply a byproduct of increasing natural turbulence. Well, two such events are set to wash over the Earth in the very near future, one over the weekend and the other on 3.19.2011. The first is a gift from the sun; a huge solar flare erupted yesterday pointed directly at Earth. Aurora could be visible from as far south as New York City this weekend. The second gift is courtesy of the moon; a super-sized moon [caused by the moon passing as close to the Earth as it can, the first in 18 years] will be visible on March 19. In the past, ‘super moons’ have coincided with natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Although scientists have not definitively linked the correlation, years when ‘super moons’ have appeared have coincided with extreme weather and other natural disaster events. With the global economy in such a precarious position as it is, and unrest as prevalent as it is today, one has to wonder if the Earth and its inhabitants can handle a double-whammy from the sun and moon.”
The above is an M-class flare that erupted earlier this week, not the X-flare that happened yesterday. But that is a huge one, isn’t it? Really big.
The Lord is amazing! He created the universe as a habitation place for us, and will create is anew to rid it of the piled-up sins after the Tribulation. Whole words will fall out of our vocabulary, never to be uttered again: famine, worry, war. “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” Rev 21:3-2. There will be no night there, another word that will fall into disuse. Come soon, Lord Jesus!
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There have been twenty-four earthquakes today in Honshu Japan, four of them over 6.0, which are USGS classified as “major.” Twenty of them were in the upper 4.0+ range and into the upper 5.0 magnitude range. And for good measure, there was another strong quake off New Guinea.
6.6 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
6.1 2011/03/09 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
6.0 2011/03/09 OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
6.1 2011/03/09 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
7.2 2011/03/09 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
In Australia, animals have been washing up on shore in large numbers. “Dead fish, eels and crayfish have been found on shores with the coastline of Green Head, some 290km north of Perth, being covered in washed up carcasses. Green Head resident Rod Wilson said: “It’s very heartbreaking. I’ve been here for 28 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. To us it’s a local ecological disaster.””
Massive fish kill in California. “Officials said there is layer of fish about 12 to 18 inches thick covering the bottom of the marina, and those fish will wash up to the surface in the days ahead. Firefighters are using a hose at the bottom of the harbor to try to stir the fish up for a diver to capture. A sewer vacuum truck is also being used to suck the dead fish from the water with a long plastic hose. “Now that you have millions and just tons of dead fish, it’s going to become a hazmat situation,” Sgt. Phil Keenan of the Redondo Beach Police Department told KTLA.” News reports variously attribute the fish dying to winds, red tide, and/or lack of oxygen.
The dead fish are wall-to-wall and are 18 inches deep in the water.
In space, news, the sun has been active. Just as seismologists have an earthquake rating system for magnitude, the astronomers-that-be have a rating system on the gaseous emissions that flare out and eject from the sun. C class is small, M class is medium and X-class is the largest. An M1 is smallest M-class flare and a M9 is largest. Spaceweather.com summarized of one of the larger M-class flares: “FAST CORONAL MASS EJECTION: A coronal mass ejection (CME) exploded from the vicinity of sunspot 1164 during the late hours of March 7th. It leapt away from the sun traveling ~2200 km/s, making it the fastest CME since Sept. 2005. A movie of the cloud prepared by Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab shows a possibly substantial Earth-directed component. This CME and at least one other could brush against Earth’s magnetic field on March 9th or 10th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.”
The Coronal Mass Ejections emitting from the sun this week sure have been crackling. On March 7th, there have been 7 M flares, on March 8th there were 5 M flares. There have been at least 2 flares on March 9th, and still counting. And this evening, we have an X flare.
NOAA Space Weather Alerts, Message Code: SUMX01
Serial Number: 69
SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1
Begin Time: 2011 Mar 09 2313 UTC
Maximum Time: 2011 Mar 09 2323 UTC
End Time: 2011 Mar 09 2329 UTC
X-ray Class: X1.5
Optical Class: 2b
Location: N90W10
NOAA Scale: R3 – Strong
Coronal Mass Ejections (when a flare is released from the sun and its emission travels through space) can affect earth if earth is in the path. We can experience anything from satellite dish disruptions, radio transmission interruptions, to electrical power grid outages. The X-Flare that occurred just happened a few hours ago and NOAA et al are still assessing its direction and potential impact.
I wonder, at what point will people say that it is God, and not “natural disasters.” When an earthquake so bad happens that the mountains crumble and men hide in the caves? (Rev 6:14;15). Or when the sun becomes dark, the flips on the lightswitch again? (Rev 8:12). Or when 100 pound hailstones fall? (Rev 16:21). The fact is, there are many who will continue to believe that God does not exist and that the events occurring in the world are the result of global warming or climate change or wars or man’s failure to unite with one heart or to tap into its universal consciousness or that any moment now, it will all be right again. Pharaoh himself saw the works of God and refused to believe.
Many will believe during the Tribulation, and praise God for that. He super-seals 144,000 evangelists and they proclaim His word and they believe. An Angel flies around the sun proclaiming to every tribe, nation and tongue, and many believe. The Two Witnesses proclaim God to the peoples and many believe. But many will not. I hope you believe.
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First, the footage:
“G1’s anchors explain that two passersby saw the object as they were driving in their car, near the town of Agudos in Sao Paulo state. They hopped out of the car to shoot the video with their handheld camera. According to the TV station, the cinematographers reported the earth shaking at about the same time the object vanishes in a blast of light, noting that other people reported the earth moving in the same general area. According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program, there have been no earthquakes in the area. Chile was rocked by a few earthquakes in recent days, notably a 6.8 magnitude temblor on February 11. Video-editing expert Philip Cavaca told G1 that the film was a well-made montage — but a hoax nonetheless. “It can be seen in one frame,” he told the station. “When the truck goes by, you can tell that the UFO was moved, which is un-noticeable to the naked eye,” he said. According to Cavaca, by freezing the image you can see the exact frame in which the “UFO” alters. The station did not reveal the identity of the videographers, but did say that the video was the talk of the town in Sao Paulo. Watch the UFO video and judge for yourself at G1.globo.com.”
What does a UFO have to do with the end time? Or with a sane, pleasant person going about her business and having tea? Well, UFOs are really fallen angels. They are off planet dwellers who travel at the speed of light or faster, through dimensions, have been stated by God to visit is, and are extremely bright, sowing a white light that deceives. (2 Cor 11:15)
Further, this is a time when we are told would be full of deception (Rev 20:10) and falsity (Mt 7:15), and to beware (Phil 3:2).
Staying in the Word of God, and having an active prayer life in order to stay close to Jesus is the only way to avoid falsity in these deceptive end times. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalm 91:4.
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The introduction to this 7 minute video says that it occurred at 4 in the morning local time. It shows a guy walking along a deep but narrow crack in the ground in Seagi Gulistan, Pakistan, this morning. He is speaking breathlessly and excitedly, but since the language is in the local dialect with no translation, I do not have confirmation of what he is saying. I am making an assumption that since he is taking the time to walk the length of it and to speak excitedly that the crack was not there at sunset. At the end of the video he pans from the crack to one end, then sweeps back to show a panorama of the other end. Here is a photo of one pan and the other, in case you do not have ability to watch video. No homes appeared to have been impacted by this sudden crack, as it appears to be an unpopulated area. The video is below.
I will keep tabs on this story and if it turns out to be a hoax (how could it??) I will let you know, and if it is reported on in English sometime I will also bring you those details.
Long-time followers of this blog know that I have shown from the bible that the earth will crack up. The verse is a promise from the Lord that the earth will split asunder, in That Day. ( verse source). Other strange and abrupt earth cracks are happening in Africa, Malaysia, Michigan, and Peru. Not to mention the sinkhole scourge. That we are seeing precursors to the eventual crack up is no surprise. You can almost hear the trumpet…
UPDATE: I looked at a map and noticed that this crack appeared 50 miles from Quetta Pakistan. A year ago a volcano erupted in Quetta, which is not notable, except a volcano had never, ever erupted there before. The locals were immediately fearful. More here.
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In the body of Christ, all are important- even the seemingly small. Are you doubting your importance to Christ and His work? Don’t.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread”
I was reading this verse today and it reminded me of something that happened to me some years ago. We were liveaboard yachtsmen then and had sailed from Maine to the Bahamas. We were staying a while in the Bahamas, enjoying the numerous islands, hopping from one to the other. We had made some friends and sailed with them, anchoring at night and socializing over scrabble and rum. On the day of the photo, I and my husband were sailing with our chums on Sea of Abaco. It was a yacht race, and we were aboard their boat.
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| I’m in the foreground in the yellow shirt |
So me and the boat owner’s wife were sitting amidships enjoying the race, looking at the other boats, and chatting. After a few minutes, she said, “Let’s go below and get some water.” We moved to the galley and a second later we heard an enormous crash! The boat shook and rolled! We instantly thought we had run aground, even though the Sea was deep at that location. We scrambled up to the deck only to see that the mast had fallen down! It had crashed down on the spot where we had just been sitting!!
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| dismasted credit. note, this was not the boat I was on. But the mess was similar. |
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| Again, not our boat, but the sails and rigging dragging in the water is similar |
The other owner had fallen into the water and the sails and heavy ropes and rigging were ensnaring his legs, potentially dragging him under. The boat came to a dead stop in the water and we were simply in shock.
A dismasting is one of the most terrible things that can happen to a yachtsman on the water. Fortunately we were half a mile from nearly the only and the best boatbuilding and repair facility in the entire 700 mile chain of islands. The owner guy was a schmoozer and finagled parts from the States in no time and within a week they were on their way. As with any tragedy, we wanted to know why. What did the mast autopsy say?
The cotter pin was gone.
This is a cotter pin:
This is how a cotter pin is used:
A cotter pin is “a metal fastener with two tines that are bent during installation used to fasten metal together, like with a staple or rivet.” (Wikipedia)
A mast and its rigging system is complex, and it relies on the sum of its parts, plus tension, to work. “On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the top of the mast. The other end of the forestay is attached to the bow of the boat.”
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| forestay is #16 |
And the cotter pin holds the forestay to the bow. With the cotter pin gone, the tension of the system was disrupted, and at just the right moment, the mast fell backwards.
The first thing you see on a sailing vessel is its mast and sail. It is a beautiful thing, billowing in the wind, doing important work to propel the boat. The next thing perhaps you see is the boat itself, its lines and its beauty. As Alan Jackson sang in “Boats to Build,” it has a “fair curve from a noble plan.”
The next thing you may notice is the stays and shrouds hearing them hum and sing in the wind. You hear the engine, you see the keel when heeling in a stiff breeze. You never notice the cotter pins.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread”
We Christians make up a body. Every body part has a function. If we’re serious about our walk with Jesus, we want to make a difference. We see great evangelists opening hearts to the Spirit and subsequent salvation. We see missionaries making great sacrifices. We listen to pastors preach as if they were on fire, and altars filled with weeping responders. We see teachers publishing book after book, with eager readers excitedly discussing new points of view.
We never notice the cotter pins. But if the pin is gone, the mast falls down. It has its part in the system, and every body part is important to Jesus, the Head of the Body. If you have been feeling sad, like you’re insignificant, like you don’t make a difference, YOU DO.
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In Ezekiel 38:1-2, 6,8-9 we read: “Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him…Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. … In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
Chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel depict a climactic battle in which a confederation of armies sweep across Israel and almost decimates the nation. (Russia, Iran, Turkey/Armenia, Northern Africa including Libya and Ethiopia and environs, Saudi Arabia. It is climactic because it is at the moment of destruction that God Himself opens the veil between heaven and earth and personally saves Israel. It is this moment when Israel realizes how much she needs her God and returns to her old Covenant with Him. (Ez 38:18-23; Ez 39:7;22).
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| source |
When the Soviet Union collapsed and laid low for so many years it seemed that the Russian Bear was vanquished. The US was often stated to be the only global superpower. Oh, what a difference a few years make, but are as nothing in the timing of the Lord. Russia is back, and she is growling. In these news excerpts, notice how her growls are consistent with activities she is prophesied to take part in during the Tribulation:
With Russia’s $650 billion rearmament plan, the bear sharpens its teeth
“Moscow – The graying bear is getting a make-over. Russia’s military is launching its biggest rearmament effort since Soviet times, including a $650 billion program to procure 1,000 new helicopters, 600 combat planes, 100 warships, and 8 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Analysts say Russia, while already the world’s fifth-largest military spender, needs strong conventional forces to reduce its overreliance on its aging Soviet-era nuclear missile deterrent. Valentin Rudenko, director of the independent Interfax-Military News Agency, says it could create “a whole new ballgame.” “For about two decades we’ve had no real modernization, at least not like what’s being proposed now,” he says. “Russia will finally have a modern, top-level armed forces that are capable of protecting the country.” [my note– Or invading Israel…]
Your Jewish News: Russia launches universal ID and payment card.
“Imagine a piece of plastic that gets you a doctor’s appointment, pays your bills, allows you to rent a car or buy a plane ticket and even get Moscow registration faster than the sham ads in the Moscow metro. President Dmitry Medvedev promised Monday that three years from now all Russians will have this magic card. He gave the government till May to make final calculations of the funds necessary to introduce the universal electronic card, or UEC, for all citizens and urged banks to not take advantage of card users at the meeting of the commission on modernization and technological development of the economy Monday.”
The Gog-Magog battle seems to be sparked by the question in Ezekiel 38: 13- “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?'” We do not know what the ‘great spoil’ is that Russia and her allies seek to plunder, but it is reasonable to speculate that it could be oil. Israel knows the engine of the world is run by oil and that she, her neighbors, and Russia possess it. An article in the conservative Jewish newspaper Haaretz this week was headlined: “What about a revolution in oil dependency?” and it is noted,
“The repeated warnings that the world economy is relying on a dwindling resource lying deep down in the earth, underneath unstable states, are proving true before our very eyes. Global oil consumption is now at a record peak of about 88 million barrels a day. The two largest producers are Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together supply about one-quarter of the market. The largest proven reserves are also in Saudi Arabia. Only that country has surplus production capacity, by which it is able to take up the slack in the event that one of the smaller producers is in trouble – as is the case now in Libya. All the other exporters are pumping oil at their full capacity.”
So oil is in short supply. In Israel, natural gas is too:
On March 3, 2011 the government of Israel and the Delek Gas company were in talks about how to deliver the bounty of gas the company had found late last year. Everything was rosy. “Israel’s production of natural gas is set to soar in coming years following the discovery of two fields in the eastern Mediterranean that could provide the country with its natural gas needs for decades and even make it an energy exporter.” The two fields are named Tamar and Leviathan. Then on March 5th we read this:
YNet News: Israel’s natural gas supply cut off
“Israel has been cut off of its natural gas supply until further notice. A malfunction occurred in the Yam Tatis reservoir which is currently the sole gas supplier for Israeli power plants. It remains unclear when the malfunction will be fixed.”
A few hours later we read in Arutz Sheva/Israel National News that “No Natural Gas in Israel Until Further Notice”
The Delek gas company says it’s trying to find the problem, but whatever it is that went wrong at sea over the Sabbath, it has cut off Israel’s natural gas supply. The “Yam Thetis” natural gas supplier underwent maintenance at its offshore gas deposit today, expecting to renew the supply immediately after. But it didn’t work out that way, and while experts seek out the source of the problem, Israel remains gasless until further notice – hours, days, or weeks away. The Israel Electric Company will continue to supply electricity, but it will be fueled only by diesel fuel (soler) and mazut – causing ecological and other problems. It is thought that the problem might possibly be a computer fault. The gas deposit is jointly owned by Noble Energy, Delek, and Isramco. The works today were designed to prepare to increase the supply of gas to the electric company, in light of the uncertainty in the Egyptian gas market. Egypt’s EMG company, which halted its gas supply to Israel a month ago, continues to waffle on when the supply will be renewed. Since 2008, Egypt has supplied Israel with 40% of its gas needs, used for 20% of Israel’s electricity.”
In energy news elsewhere, in the UK, electricity is predicted to be the issue-
UK Telegraph: Era of constant electricity at home is ending, says power chief
Electricity consumers in the UK will need to get used to flicking the switch and finding the power unavailable, according to Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid, the country’s grid operator. … “The days of permanently available electricity may be coming to an end, the head of the power network said yesterday.” Under the so-called “smart grid” that the UK is developing, the government-regulated utility will be able to decide when and where power should be delivered, to ensure that it meets the highest social purpose. Governments may, for example, decide that the needs of key industries take precedence over others, or that the needs of industry trump that of residential consumers. Governments would also be able to price power prohibitively if it is used for non-essential purposes.” (other source, Global Warming Policy Network)
What will happen when the oil/gas/electricity becomes scarce? I can hardly venture to guess the riots and unrest then. It becomes easier to envision a Psalm 83 battle, Isaiah 17:1 concluded and the Gog-Magog war on the horizon.
It’s raining and dark on this weekend morning. And cold, too, for a Georgia spring. The gas heat is crackling in the stove. I like it. I have a cup of good, hot coffee steaming on my favorite coaster. Home fries are sizzling on the pan. I am writing my weekly prophecy newsletter for emailing later. And of course the bible is next to me and open. Gaither Vocal Band channel is playing on Pandora Internet Radio, and I am very, very happy. I have a lot to be grateful for. That I can call it the weekend means I have a job on the weekdays. I have food, and not just any food, but food I savor. I am safe from the weather, warm and dry. I am listening to hymns, something many people in the world are denied the blessing of. I am doing the work that the Lord gave me to do: writing prophecy to warn and remind. It is work I enjoy, no less, and He has mightily enabled me, another praise. Under His wings I am sheltered, happy, working. I feel peace. I know Him who IS peace.
Have you counted your blessings today? Sometimes even the smallest things are the biggest blessings. I hope you have peace today as well.
Until later,
Elizabeth
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