IYKYK – If You Know You Know

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• Featured Article: IYKYK – If Your Know You Know 
• Working Together For The Good: A Time Of Trouble That Brings A Nation To Jesus 
• Prophecy Update Videos   
• Nearing Midnight: Theft Is Out of Control 
• Just One Day After An Ominous Warning, The California Coast Was Hit By An Enormous Earthquake 
• Daily Jot: Stupidocrisy: The Drag On 
• Daily Devotion: He’s Been There 

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IYKYK – If You Know You Know – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.net/post/iykyk
 
PART I: The Conversation
 
You know the one I'm talking about.
 
It might have been inserted strategically, or just came out accidentally, but you let slip your growing enthusiasm over the soon return of Jesus Christ at the Rapture of the Church to a fellow believer. You didn't think much about it at first, given present company and a shared faith in Christ Jesus, but then the unexpected response happens.
 
This friend or coworker immediately raises an eyebrow and gives you the "slow your roll" look. They go on to warn you that "no man knows the day or hour" verse (although they can't quite remember where to find it in the Bible), and proceed to caution you that people have been saying Christ would return for ages and yet, we are still here.
 
Besides they say, we should never say "soon" in association with the return of Christ because "soon" is highly subjective and we were likely to promote other believers into either doing irrational things or losing hope when the Rapture doesn't happen immediately.
 
You say....come again?
 
You go on to point out that from the world's perspective, Christians have been doing irrational things for their faith for nearly two thousand years. Things like willingly embracing torture and martyrdom rather than denying Christ as their Lord. Things like facing frivolous lawsuits and losing their livelihoods rather than betraying their conscience. Things like losing friends and facing isolation over their incessant goings-on about the soon return of our Lord. You know... those kinds of irrational things.
 
They are like, no, no, no. They meant all these last days wackos selling everything they owned and moving to the mountains to wait for the Rapture or buying up billboard ads proclaiming the day.
 
You ask them...when did these happen?
 
Most likely they tell you they can't remember exactly when, but they are sure it happened. If they really know their history, they might mention the 'Great Disappointment' of 1844-45 or the Harold Camping charades of the recent past as evidence. 
 
You say, yeah, we should never do that because that is both foolish and unbiblical. Besides those two events are fringe outliers as compared to the many countless centuries of believers, who, both believed Christ would return soon, and also didn't sell all their possessions, but rather, waited patiently on the Lord.
 
They say, yeah, but 'no man knows the day or hour' again, as if repeating it was some magic bullet seemingly capable of slaying the 'rapture monster' in one shot.
 
PART II: The Sign of Jonah
 
Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. Matthew 16:1-4
 
This insistence on ignoring or dismissing the Rapture of the Church is not unique to your individual friends/family/peer, but to a growing majority of learned clergy who are working overtime (it seems) in an attempt to curb their flocks' enthusiasm with regard to the Lord's return. It reminds me of that worn-out old saying we've all heard from all the prophecy-naysayers and it goes like this;
 
My great-grand____ (fill in the relative) has been saying that the Lord was going to return since the 19_ _ (fill in the decade) and we are still here! See! Jesus isn't coming back anytime soon. He definitely will not come in our lifetime.
 
What they mean by saying that is because it hasn't happened yet, it will never happen, at least not in their lifetime. This is called normalcy bias. The premise behind normalcy bias is that because something hasn't happened yet, it is likely to never happen. The Apostle Peter deals with this line of reasoning in his second epistle:
 
Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:3-7 (my emphasis)
 
It also reminds me of the attitude the Pharisees and Sadduccees had in Jesus' day. By dismissing Jesus, they were dismissing God Himself. From their perspective (and I'm not defending it), the closest thing they had to God's man was Moses, and he had lived and died nearly fourteen hundred years earlier. After him, they had king David, who lived and died nearly a thousand years earlier. The last legit prophet they had (Malachi) had lived and died four centuries earlier. By the time John the Baptist came calling on people to repent because of the nearness of the kingdom, the Jewish leadership had long since abandoned their enthusiasm for God to do something miraculous. Be that as it may, they (the Jews) were not without excuse since Malachi (the last prophet) had given them their final message in the Tanakh (the Old Testament) concerning "the One" who would come.
 
“Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:1 (my emphasis)
 
The first-century Pharisees had become so apathetic to the coming of the Messiah, that even when the gentile wise men from the east showed up en masse to worship the One "born king of the Jews," they didn't even bother to walk the five miles with them to see for themselves if what the prophet Micah had written was true (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2). Talk about slighting God! So it was that part of John the Baptist's ministry in preparing the way for Christ to come into His own was condemning the religious leaders of their day.
 
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
 
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
 
Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
 
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.
 
Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matt. 3:1-12
 
What gets lost in translation in our reading of the ministry of Jesus in the gospels, is the harshness in which He treats the religious leaders of His day. We read it and it seems that Jesus is being overly harsh with people who didn't understand why He came. But they had the Old Testament giving them every clue as to who He was, when He would come (I mean, the Wise Men got it right and they weren't even Jewish), what He came to do, and even a forerunner (JTB) to prepare the way...and they still missed it.
 
That doesn't sound like innocent ignorance on behalf of the Pharisees (supposed experts of The Tanakh). It sounds intentional. Even demonic.
 
Therefore, it shouldn't surprise us now when reading over Jesus' miraculous works of healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, strength to the lame, speech to the dumb, and even raising the dead, that the only sign He would give them (the unbelieving Jews) was the sign of Jonah. In finishing His condemnation of them in Matthew 16, Jesus tells the Pharisees;
 
A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.
 
Now, the traditional view of the sign was that just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so too would the Son of Man be in the earth before resurrecting Himself from the dead (Matt. 12:40). But what if it wasn't JUST that He would share in a similar situation with Jonah, but also the message Jonah came bearing on behalf of the Lord to the Ninevites?
 
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Jonah 3:4
 
This bears a striking resemblance to what Jesus would later prophesy and would come to pass forty years later in 70AD when the Romans sieged and sacked Jerusalem.
 
Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44 (my emphasis)
 
Further tying this connection together, Christ had previously used the Ninevites as evidence of this, in that they at least understood the time of their visitation.
 
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Matt. 12:41
 
Part III: Common Doubts
 
After nearly two thousand years, it should be common for us mere mortals to question and wonder where God is and what He's doing. As we read in the Gospels, when Jesus' ministry began to manifest itself, John the Baptist's ministry began to decrease. To add insult to injury, John was arrested by Herod and scheduled for execution (Matt. 14). Somewhere in that process, even he (the greatest born among men) had his doubts.
 
And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
 
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
 
As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written:
 
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
 
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Matthew 11:1-15
 
Thus, after nearly two millennia of prophetic silence, the world has been wondering if and when Christ would ever return. From then until 1948, born-again believers have labored and struggled under both the countless empires that have come and gone, as well as the auspices of general ignorance (not willful) regarding Christ's "soon" return. Because without Israel (God's timepiece) back in her land, it would be impossible to know where we (mankind) were on God's prophetic calendar. All men had were the Scriptures, and what it promised would happen.
 
But now the Jews are back in their land for seventy-four years, and the prophetic signs are converging to the point that they are becoming so overwhelmingly obvious, no Bible-believing Christian has any excuse as to deny their existence (prophetic fulfillment), nor the timing of our upcoming visitation by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself at the Rapture of the Church (the season). So let us take a look at some of the most irrefutable signs that we are the final generation.
 
Part IV: The Signs of the Fig Tree Generation
 
 It's been said that World War I prepared the land for the people (by ending the Ottoman empire's four-hundred-year control), while World War II prepared the people for the land (vis the Holocaust). While that might be an overly simplified way to look at the first half of the twentieth century, there is no denying that Israel's return to the table of nations is nothing short of miraculous. Before moving forward, here is an abbreviated timeline of the events that led to her geopolitical resurrection.
 
1897: Theodore Herzl convenes the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland
1917: The British government (seeing the tide of war turning) approves of a Jewish homeland in the former Ottoman province of Palestine. Lord Arthur Balfour conveys this decision to Lord Rothschild in what has commonly been referred to as the Balfour Declaration
1920: The San Remo Conference set the boundaries for what would become British-mandated Palestine
1947: The newly formed United Nations votes and approves (barely) Resolution 181, which authorizes a Jewish and Arab partition in what was then the British mandate of Palestine
1948: The Jewish partition declares its statehood as the nation of Israel on May 14th, 1948
1967: As a result of the Six-Day War, Israel recaptures all of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights
 
Here is something worthy of consideration. During most of the same time that Israel spent in diaspora (from 70AD - 1948), mankind's technological progress remained unnaturally sluggish. It was as if something or Someone was slowing mankind's progress intentionally. There is an old saying that says crisis is the mother of invention. Therefore, I would consider the real explosion of technological advancements to begin at the world's first great military crisis, the onset of World War I. However, even by 1914, the prophetic stirrings of putting Israel back into her ancestral homeland were already in play.
 
However, that begs the question...why 1914?
 
Why was mankind limited to the speed of horse for nearly six thousand years, but the moment the Jews earnestly desired to return to their desolate homeland, mankind went from inaugurating manned flight (1903) to landing on the moon a mere sixty-six years (1969)? Were humans just smarter at the outset of World War I than they were in Roman times (i.e., the same Romans who built the aqueducts and some of the greatest architecture of any age, and established legal and philosophical systems we still use today), or was there something (or Someone) at work to keep mankind's progress in check until just the right time? Again, I am reminded of something that God told Abraham in Genesis 12:3,
 
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
 
So it seems that the fate of the world is tied up in a tiny nation at the center of the world. When she wasn't in her land, the world languished. When she was in her land, the world raced forward. Save the above verse (and other verses confirming it), the fact is when Israel wasn't in her land, mankind was limited to impossibly slow technological growth. But when she is back in her land, the speed and pace are such that we cannot even keep up. Furthermore, there is even a marked difference in the speed of technological advancements between 1897 - 1947 and from 1948 til today.
 
Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Luke 21:29-33
 
As watching believers, we already know the answer to that question. It was the Restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. He is not just restraining wickedness in the world at present, but restraining the potential for greater wickedness through man's insatiable desire to become like gods themselves. Had the Restrainer not put boundaries in place for humans writ large, and the nations, in particular, mankind could have achieved twentieth-century level technology presumably back in the Dark Ages.
 
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings Acts 17:26
 
On June 28th of 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife would be brutally assassinated in the streets of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the deranged Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Little did he, nor anyone else know that the untimely deaths of an obscure and relatively unassuming royal couple, would set in motion a chain of events that would go on to change the course of history forever.
 
But God knew (Isaiah 46:9-10)
 
From Sarajevo, World War I began, which ultimately saw the deaths of roughly forty million people, the restructuring of Europe, the collapse of two major empires (Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman), and became the casus belli for World War II. By the end of World War II, Israel had become a nation again after 1,878 years in diaspora at the same time the world formed the United Nations, and we collectively entered into the atomic age where weapons of mass destruction (WMD) became not just the single greatest threat to humanity, but also the greatest status quo mechanism ensuring its survival (Mutually Assured Destruction).
 
Author's Note: As my colleague, Britt Gillette has pointed out, technology is advancing so rapidly, that MAD is no longer the guarantor of the status quo.
 
It was also during this momentous age of change that at the exact same time when mankind shifted from looking at the signs of the times to actually living through the time of signs, the mainline churches were sleeping soundly at the helm of western Christendom. Like the Pharisees of Jesus' day, they used the silence of the previous centuries as proof positive that since God hadn't done anything in their recent past (their opinion), God would continue doing nothing in their immediate future. This is a dangerous and foolish attitude to take with God, and worthy (as we've read previously) of His stern condemnation.
 
It is natural and normal for us to have moments of doubt about where God is in our lives and what He's doing. But God, who so carefully watches over the sparrow and the lily, and knows every star in the universe by name and every hair on your head, as well as past-present-future simultaneously, knows our fears and our limitations. He has given us Bible prophecy as a light to shine in the increasingly dark times (1 Peter 1:19). We need not fear what lies ahead, because we have God's word to us that is not only more sure than the air we breathe, but cannot fail nor ever diminish. He said heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Matt. 24:35).
 
And just as John the Baptist, who came preaching repentance for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, had to decrease, so too must the Church decrease (by way of Rapture) so that Jesus can fulfill the promises made throughout Scripture to the covenant nation of Israel. God has to fulfill His promises to the Jewish nation because His word cannot fail. And as JD Farag is fond of saying, if God can break His eternal covenant with the Jew, how much easier would for Him to break it with me and you?
 
We should be ever thankful that God has not only proven Himself faithful until the uttermost but that He also longs to be with us and have us be where He is (John 14:1-3). And as our age winds down and our civilization falls apart, now is not the time to either shrink back or chase after every wild prediction that makes us weary and tired. Let us not be caught sleeping like the dead church of Sardis (Rev 3:3). Instead, let us be resolved in our common faith and shine brighter together as we see that day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
 
Even as John the Baptist had his moment of doubt, assuredly, the report back from his disciples would have immediately put him at peace and confidence that Jesus was the Christ. Just as we take comfort with the Holy Spirit indwelling and sealing us, confirms what we have known all along, because, If You Know, You Know.
 
Even so, Maranatha!

 


 
Working Together For The Good: A Time Of Trouble That Brings A Nation To Jesus - By Amir Tsarfati - https://harbingersdaily.com/working-together-for-the-good-a-time-of-trouble-that-brings-a-nation-to-jesus/
 
Don’t expect Israel to believe – not yet. They will believe. You know when? When they look at Him whom they pierced when Jesus will return. As we sang – His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and they see will Him and they will mourn and they will cry and they will repent. That will happen, unfortunately, after the tribulation. And that brings me back to Malachi 3. Malachi 3, I want you to see, as he says, “‘Return to me and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of host. But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ ‘Will a man rob God, yet you have robbed me,’ he said.” And then look at what we see in the book of Hosea 5. Look what it says in Hosea 5:15, “I will return again to My place.” Jesus came and then returned back to His place. “Until they acknowledge their offense, then they will seek My face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek Me.”
 
The tribulation is going to be a horrible time for Israel. But the Bible says this is the trouble of Jacob and he shall be delivered from it. And I want you to know, God is not done with Israel. Israel is a miracle, and Israel is a picture of God’s faithfulness, and Israel is your insurance policy that God is faithful to His covenants. And if you do not follow Him today, time is short. I want to tell you something. The rapture can take place any minute. And I want you to know that today, today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow. Don’t push it. Israel is a picture of God’s faithfulness. God wants to get your attention. He’s using His nation over there to tell you, “I love you in the same way I love Israel. Now you are My people. You who were once not my people are now My people.”
 
Romans 8:28 is a “go to” verse for many in times of struggle or adversity, and is often offered as a Christian “everything’s going to be alright.”
 
Romans 8:28 KJV – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
 
There are some things that, in our minds, don’t belong in the “all things” category. Traumas, trials, and suffering, and, yet, all things means all things.
 
Hebrews 12:11 KJV – “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
 
James 1:2-4 KJV – “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
 
1 Peter 4:12-14 KJV – “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
 
Chastening, trials, and suffering all have a positive outcome for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It is also equally true that those who love are those whom God loves, and nowhere is this proven to be true more than with Israel. The end result of the most severe chastening and extreme suffering is contained in a time period known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, or, as we know it, the Great Tribulation.
 
What results from such a time of tribulation such as the world has never seen is this:
 
Zechariah 12:10 KJV – “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
 
There is no greater example to us of the faithfulness of God than the regathered nation of Israel being back in their national homeland after nearly 2000 years of being scattered among the nations.
 
Hosea 5:15 KJV – “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
 
The Lord will return to the place from which He ascended 40 days after His resurrection, having originally come to save the lost sheep of Israel. He had healed their diseases and freed the demonically possessed. He was full of grace and truth, and, yet, He was despised and rejected by His own people and wound up on a cross.
 
It is in Israel’s affliction that they will turn to Him and finally look upon the One whom they pierced and mourn with tears of repentance. There are a great many things we can learn from Israel, including that all things work together for the good of those love God and are called according to His purpose.
 
Maybe you’re in a season of deep waters right now. Maybe the trials are pressing in and constant. Maybe you’re in the unpleasant season of chastening by the Lord. Remember, the peaceable fruit of righteousness can come from your struggles. It will for Israel. Joy can be had, even in trials and even if there’s nothing joyful about them. Suffering for His name’s sake is cause for rejoicing when His glory is revealed. Those are all good things working together with hard and unwanted things!
 
As Christians, we, of all people, should rejoice to see the Jews back in their homeland. No Christian should call the Jews “occupiers”. No Christian should call the land of Israel “Palestine”. No Christian should support the BDS movement, but every Christian should rejoice that God is faithful to those whom He calls – His chosen people.
 
Israel, and their eventual salvation, should remind us all that good stuff can come from the hard stuff. So, if you’re suffering, enduring a trial, or experiencing the loving chastening of God, look for the good stuff in it rather than just the exit from it.
 
All things work together for good means exactly what it says.
 
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

 


 

Prophecy Update Videos
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• Living in the Last Days and the Coming Tribulation: What You Need to Know – Watchman River Tom
• SITREP 12.19.22 - US Border Crisis 7.0 – Monkey Werx
• Be Liberated In Christ – Pastor Jack Hibbs

 


 
Nearing Midnight: Theft Is Out of Control – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/
 
Stores across the U.S. are grappling with a huge uptick in shoplifting that could lead to higher prices and closed stores if the problem persists, said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Most of the shoplifting is organized retail theft rather than petty theft. Most of the products targeted have a high resale value.
 
Walmart is having to lock up a growing number of items that used to sit openly on shelves. In the store in my town, I’ve noticed a growing number of cameras from various allies. The first camera I noticed was in the baby food section. I couldn’t understand why people would steal this product, but Infinity formula sells well on ebay.com.
 
Walmart isn’t the only big box retailer dealing with an uptick in theft. Last month, Target Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke said shoplifting has jumped about 50% year over year, leading to more than $400 million in losses in this fiscal year alone.
 
Many drugstore chains have had to cut their losses by closing hundreds of stores. Rite Aid is planning on closing 97 stores. The firm’s executive vice president of retail, Andre Persaud, said the day may come when all Rite Aid stores will be like a big vending machine with everything behind plexiglass to slow down thefts.
 
One woman who owned a high-end clothing store had to close her Business after it was broken into 17 times. Burglaries in St. Louis went door-to-door breaking into nearly two dozen businesses. DB’s Sports Bar owner Justin Gibson said this is the fourth time DB’s has been broken into this year.
 
“You’re taking food out of our mouths,” Gibson said. “It’s already hard times with inflation, and now we’re having to make these repairs constantly and hire extra security. We’re stretched very, very thin.”
 
Package theft in some areas is so bad that people can’t have packages delivered to their homes. I’m lucky to live in an area where I’ve never had something stolen from my doorstep. I recently watched a video where a guy did a funny prank on these thieves. He had a package next to his home on a long wire. When several thieves grabbed the box, he would chase after them, and they would be knocked to the ground when the length of the wire ran out.
 
The liberal media, always ready to defend criminals, said that soaring inflation is what triggers the crime wave. Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told Insider that property crime would jump this year as rising prices push consumers into the black market.
 
The real problem is that many people have become extremely evil. They think they are entitled to take stuff that they didn’t purchase. One guy at Home Depot loaded up a cart with three power washers and began walking out the door with them. When an 80-year-old employee tried to confront him, he just pushed him into a wall, which led to the worker’s death.
 
A huge factor that is embodying thieves is the meltdown of our legal system. San Francisco encouraged theft by only having criminal prosecution of people who steal items worth my than $900. So people boldly walk into a Walgreens, load their bags with items worth less than the new limit, and walk out of the store. One woman was robbed by a man who had been arrested 50 times in recent years. Another woman was brutally beaten over her purse. The man who attacked her was arrested and only given a $500 bail.
 
I once watched a video of a man in Singapore demonstrating how much crime is related to culture. He was in a cafe and left his laptop on the table and went around a mall for about half an hour. When he came back, the laptop was still there. Crime is very low in Singapore because people are taught it’s wrong.
 
Fear can also be a motivator of morality. If you go to a gold jewelry shop in Saudi Arabia, the dealers will let you handle all the gold products. It’s well understood that if you get caught trying to steal from the shop, they’ll cut your head off.
 
The extreme criminal nature of American society is a strong indication that our nation is doomed. Unless we return to our moral foundation, we will die like a hundred other empires that lost their soul.
 
“Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

 


 
Just One Day After An Ominous Warning, The California Coast Was Hit By An Enormous Earthquake - by Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/just-one-day-after-an-ominous-warning-the-california-coast-was-hit-by-an-enormous-earthquake/
 
This wasn’t “the Big One”, but hopefully it will serve as a wake up call for millions of California residents. The magnitude 6.4 earthquake that just struck northern California killed two people and caused quite a bit of damage, but scientists have been persistently warning us that someday a massive earthquake will hit the region that will be absolutely catastrophic. In fact, just one day before the magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit northern California, we were specifically warned that someday a very large quake in northern California could cause “thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage”. The following was posted by the Daily Mail on December 19th…
 
Seismologists say San Francisco is due a devastating earthquake in the not-too-distant future – potentially causing thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
 
The United States Geological Survey predicts there is a 51 percent chance of a magnitude 7 quake hitting within the next three decades – releasing energy equivalent to around 1,000 atomic bombs.
 
A quake of that magnitude would ruin buildings, shut off electricity and vital communications, and cause huge wildfires, according to government modeling.
 
So is it just a coincidence that a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the region just one day later?
 
Maybe.
 
According to Fox News, the quake that just hit Humboldt County caused substantial damage “to roads and homes”…
 
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office warned in an alert of “widespread damages to roads and homes” reported throughout the county after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook the northern California coast early Tuesday morning.
 
“Due to a large earthquake, widespread damages to roads and homes are reported throughout Humboldt County. Be prepared for aftershocks. Check gas and water lines for damages or leaks. Exercise caution if traveling,” it said in a tweet.
 
This is the largest earthquake that the state has experienced in quite a while, and one local resident says that the shaking lasted for about 15 to 20 seconds…
 
Jimmy Eller, who claims to live in the county, tweeted: “That earthquake was insane. A good 15-20 seconds of shaking.”
 
Those that have felt the ground violently shaking under their feet will never forget the sensation.
 
Another local resident that has lived in the region for 65 years claims that this latest earthquake is the biggest one that she has ever been through…
 
Diana McIntosh, 69, said the temblor woke her up inside her home in an apartment complex in central Humboldt County.
 
“It felt like north and south rocked back and forth, and it kept getting bigger and bigger. I heard banging, things crashing and glass shattering,” said McIntosh, who lives alone in her apartment off the freeway near the Pacific Ocean.
 
McIntosh, who said she has lived in the Eureka area for 65 years, called it the biggest earthquake she has ever experienced.
 
“I was screaming,” she said. “The way that it shook … I’ve never felt anything like that in my life.”
 
So was this the main event, or is an even larger earthquake eventually coming?
 
Nobody really knows, but so far there have been approximately 80 aftershocks…
 
Up to 80 aftershocks rattled parts of Northern California after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the area early Tuesday, according to California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci.
 
The largest aftershock was a 4.6 magnitude quake which happened in Rio Dell, which he described as one of the “hardest hit areas.”
 
Hopefully things will settle down for at least a little while.
 
But as I discussed last month, we have seen a lot of very unusual earthquakes lately.
 
And as I discussed earlier this month, volcanic activity has also been on the rise all over the globe.
 
We are witnessing a tremendous amount of instability all over the planet, and this is particularly true in high risk zones.
 
Of course the entire west coast of the United States sits directly along the Ring of Fire, and I have been warning for years that there will eventually be extremely catastrophic seismic events that will permanently alter the geography of the coastline.
 
Scientists have been issuing similar warnings. In addition to warning about what could happen to northern California, they have also pointed out how vulnerable southern California, Oregon and Washington are…
 
A 2008 scenario said a magnitude 7.8 quake could cause nearly 2,000 deaths and more than $200 billion in economic losses. Big quakes in Los Angeles are particularly devastating because the soil holding up the city will turn into a “bowl of jelly,” according to a post published by catastrophe modeling company Temblor.
 
Another scenario warns that a stretch of coast in Oregon and Washington state is capable of producing an earthquake much more powerful than the ones California is bracing for. Parts of coastline would suddenly drop 6 feet, shattering critical bridges, destroying undersea communication cables and producing a tsunami.
 
Thousands are expected to die, but local leaders are considering projects that could give coastal residents a better chance at survival.
 
But most people that live along the west coast are not interested in such warnings.
 
Thankfully, the U.S. Geological Survey has now developed a system that gives people advance notice when an earthquake is coming. In fact, it worked as designed during this latest event…
 
Some Bay Area residents were promptly woken up by a ShakeAlert app notification 10 seconds before a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Humboldt County early Tuesday morning. At 2:34 a.m., emergency officials released an alert via the ShakeAlert system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey telling people to drop, cover and hold on for an earthquake that occurred about 8 miles offshore of Ferndale, a town more than 250 miles north of San Francisco.
 
The alert was sent to some 3 million people in Northern California, and the system successfully operated as emergency service crews hoped, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
 
A 10 second warning may allow you to drop and cover, but if a giant tsunami is racing toward the coastline a 10 second warning won’t do you much good at all.
 
The experts assure us that it is just a matter of time before a massive seismic event kills vast numbers of people along the west coast.
 
But for the moment, ignorance is bliss, and most people that live in the region will continue to pretend that everything is just fine.

 


 
Daily Jot: Stupidocrisy: The Drag On – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com
 
A search of the Brietbart news website reveals over 16,300 stories with the key words “drag queens.” That’s right. The White House and Biden Administration obsession with drag queens seems to be the “pop” culture of the Democratic Party in 2022. That, and the attention to transexual rights, appear to be the centerpieces of the left’s most recent addition to their diversity, equity and inclusion storylines. And you know who the target is: your kids. Drag queen story hours at libraries and schools. Trans puberty blockers and sex change operations for kids under the age of consent. These things just half a generation ago would have been considered child sex offenses, predation, and molestation. Now it’s normal.
 
A November Rasmussen Reports poll shows, “The popularity of “Drag Queen Story Hour” doesn’t include the parents of school-age children, who overwhelmingly oppose the phenomenon in which men dressed as women perform for children.
 
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 60% of American Adults consider “Drag Queen Story Hour” not appropriate for children, including 44% who say it’s Not At All Appropriate. Only 29% think “Drag Queen Story Hour” is appropriate for children, including 11% who consider it Very Appropriate. Another 10% are not sure.” Some ten percent are not sure whether this perversion is appropriate, and an equal amount consider it very appropriate. Wow! But it gets worse.
 
Almost half of Democrats, 47%, believe “Drag Queen Story Hour” is at least somewhat appropriate for children. Of those, 19 percent consider it “very” appropriate. Only 41% of Democrats believe it is inappropriate. Some 22% of Democrats believe taxpayer funds should be used for “Drag Queen Story Hour.” The darling of the extreme left, the Washington Post, carried an OpEd by Monica Hesse in June titled “Drag queens are not the ones sexualizing drag story hour.” In typical leftist fashion, Hesse then condemns Republicans and conservatives for claiming drag queens are a threat to the sexuality of children. Yet she emphatically states that in her 20s she regularly attended drag shows, “and it made me think in new ways about what it meant to behave as a man, or behave as a woman, to perform masculinity or perform femininity.”
 
This is the dualistic thinking of the liberal. Drag queens are not sexualizing children or making them think differently about their gender and what they want to be when they grow up, but drag queens have made them think about what it is to behave as a man or a woman. To them, every child should have that experience as part of growing up. This is double-mindedness without even considering the moral aspects of how this type of conditioning, as endorsed by trusted people like principals, teachers, and librarians, could impact the mental health of a child. James 1:8 proclaims, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” To a liberal, James was only talking about men, which could be a man or not at any given time. It just drags on in, say it with me, Stupidocrisy.

 


 
Daily Devotion: He’s Been There - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
 
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. —Romans 8:3
 
https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/hes-been-there/ - Listen
 
Jesus was fully man but was also fully God. He was not a man who became God, which is impossible. He was God who walked among us as a man.
 
Romans 8:3 tells us, “So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (NLT).
 
Although Jesus was flesh and blood, He didn’t have the drawback of original sin. He had no sin whatsoever. Therefore, He went from faith to faith, from grace to grace, and from strength to strength. He grew up physically, mentally, and spiritually.
 
Luke’s gospel says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people” (2:52 NLT). He had human emotions. He knew joy, deep sorrow, and even loneliness. In fact, on the cross, when He bore the sins of the world, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” You can be sure that at that time, He was the loneliest man who had ever lived.
 
The writer of Hebrews said of Jesus, “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people” (2:17 NLT).
 
When you’re going through some form of hardship, isn’t it great to talk with someone who has already gone through the same thing? On the other hand, how shallow it is when we’re going through a difficult time and someone who knows nothing of what we’re experiencing says, “I know how you feel.”
 
Jesus has really been where we are now. Our God knows what we’re going through.

 


 
FROM THE HEART
    
Let Us Make the Short Time We have Left,
Count for ALL of Eternity!

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