Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Global Bully in Prophecy - By Terry James -
https://www.raptureready.com/2020/04/30/global-bully-in-prophecy-by-terry-james/ Among any group of human beings there always arises a bully. We've all experienced it since our days in grade school, even in kindergarten. My wife and I sometimes kept nursery and toddlers in church on Sunday mornings so that the younger parents could enjoy church service without the worry of riding herd on their little ones. I observed the same behavior among the very youngest. There was always one or two who bullied the others-took away toys or did other obnoxious things. These, of course, didn't really think or know that they were doing anything wrong. It was just a natural, human trait. And that's the problem. The natural thing amongst humans is the part of us that has brought forth the troubles throughout human history. The natural in this matter stems from the sin nature intrinsic to the fallen, human creation. "Progressing" up through junior high and beyond the bullying becomes more serious. It is done knowingly and with purpose. The purpose-to lord it over someone else for the bully's own ego and sense of power and control. It becomes even more evident in the business world, as people joust and elbow to climb the ladders of success within corporate structures. Then we come to the arena of politics and government. We have witnessed this in a profound way within the last four years, in my opinion. We are seeing it even now, as far as I'm concerned, in the way the swamp-entrenched medical "experts" within Washington, DC, officialdom have caused the rest of us to completely give up our livelihoods and altered, perhaps permanently, the American way of life. These have bullied even this president, in my view. They walked into the Oval Office and extorted him with the threat of 2.2 million deaths from the coronavirus, if he didn't shut down the nation's close interaction. I admire Mr. Trump and believe him to be God's man for the crucial hour so near the end of the age, as many who read our columns know. However, even such a self-confident, "Make America Great Again"president like Donald Trump is intimidated by the "experts" saying that 2.2 million Americans will likely die unless he follows their "expert" advice. Now, I sense he is realizing the mistake of listening to the veiled intimidation and is trying to finesse America's way out of this national economic nightmare. The doctors still hold the intimidating authority, though. To me, it is obvious in the way these "authorities," through using barely comprehensible medical jargon, step to the microphones and coyly contradict the president's words about starting the nation back up. So the bullying continues even within this so-called pandemic. Bullying has been, of course, powerfully manifested by nations throughout history. The ancient rulers of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, and all the rest literally beat their subjects and nations around them if those victims didn't comply with the bully-rulers' demands. This is seen in modern times by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and even lesser tyrants like Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and many, many others. To my way of observation, today's most pronounced national bully is China. This monstrous dictatorship from the far reaches of the Orient has, through accident or deliberate perpetration, shown itself to be clearly the leading bully on the international block. China is now seen as the prime culprit in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. They almost certainly, according to intelligence services from the UK and America, deliberately unleashed the disease after it, most likely, accidentally escaped biological laboratories near the Chinese city of Wuhan. It is thought that the dictator-leadership of China determined that since it escaped, they would keep the fact from other nations-particularly from the Western nations, so their economy wouldn't be the only one to catastrophically suffer if and when the pandemic developed-as it did. Intelligence sources accuse Chinese President Xi Jinping of rounding up perhaps millions of coronavirus-infected Chinese people and having them murdered so that the disease wouldn't appear to be so widespread in that country. This, of course, is the sort of thing that world-class dictators do. We remember the more than 30 million murdered in the Stalin purges and more than 60 million killed in the genocide by Mao tse-Tung in the so-called Cultural Revolution. So, the bullying by geopolitical tyrants continues-and in a big way. The following excerpt makes the case. China is continuing to under-report the true levels of deaths from Covid-19, national security officials in London and Washington believe. But European officials are wary about directly challenging China over the figures, sources told the BBC. That concern also extends to confronting Beijing over an information campaign to improve its standing and distract from blame in the crisis... Governments in Europe have been wary of engaging in a diplomatic row with China at a sensitive time. One UK official, who like others declined to speak on the record, said there was a "nervousness" about confronting China and that relations were "delicate". (Gordon Corera, "Coronavirus: Europe 'wary of confronting China over deaths,'" BBC News, 23 April 2020) Clearly, there are leaders in the European Union who are afraid to confront China. Governments and presidential administrations have shied away from confrontation from this behemoth state because of its feared military power and influence. Those same governments and administrations have given the Chinese dictators ever-increasing latitude to form and shape trade deals that have given the Chinese communists billions of dollars to build one of the world's most powerful militaries. Bullies must be confronted, and the United States now has a commander-in-chief who is doing exactly that. For the second time recently, American warships have sailed through the sensitive area known as the Taiwan Strait. This is an expanse of waters that separate the tiny island nation of Taiwan from mainland communist China. The communist regimes in the mainland have always considered Taiwan to belong to China. It is an illegitimate government that rules in Taiwan, the Chinese government continues to declare, because rebels (in their view) broke away from China and fled to Formosa (the name of Taiwan at the time). The Chinese communists have been threatening since that break from mainland China to invade and take the people of free Taiwan back into their regime. Bible prophecy, in my view of it, foretells-without mentioning the name of China-that this demon-possessed bully will be responsible for the deaths of fully one-third of human beings during the time of Tribulation. Almost without question, this evil state will be the king of "the kings of the east." And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16) And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12) Coronavirus, a Staged Crisis; 5G & the Coming New World Order - Joel - https://www.christianevidence.net Almost 2,000 years ago, the Bible prophesied that a new world order-a one-world political, economic and religious system-will exist under the rule of the Antichrist in the last days (Dan. 7:23; Rev. 13:7-8). Only in the last fifty years have we witnessed the emergence of a globalism movement, which seeks to eliminate national sovereignty and replace it with a global government! The powerful people and organizations behind this globalist movement only need one more thing to convince nations like the United States to give up national sovereignty-a major global crisis that will have the populaces of the nations, and the leaders, clamoring for solutions to their unbearable dilemma. David Rockefeller, the financier, in a speech in 1994 to the United Nations, said, "All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order." While this crisis will ultimately be the Rapture of the Church, the globalists continue to destabilize the world and manufacture crises to advance their agenda, from the climate change "crisis" to the coronavirus pandemic... Coronavirus, a Staged Crisis For almost two months, the official story was that the coronavirus originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China, and anyone who claimed that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory instead were ridiculed by the media as "conspiracy theorists". Now, however, the mainstream media is finally starting to pick up on what many knew all along-the coronavirus did indeed originate in a Wuhan lab! Anyway, I think the evidence speaks for itself. For example, the horseshoe bats that are known to carry the nearly-identical viral strain live 600 miles away from Wuhan; China's only bio-safety level four super laboratory that works with the world's most deadly pathogens, including bat coronaviruses, is only a few miles from the wet market where the coronavirus was claimed to have originated; the bat was never a food source in the city nor traded in the market; and the list goes on. See: Top 10 Reasons To Believe the Wuhan Virology Lab Caused 2019-nCoV There are also too many "coincidences" to conclude that the coronavirus 'escaped' this Wuhan lab by accident. Consider the following: 1. The location and timing of the outbreak. The coronavirus outbreak began in the city of Wuhan, which just so happens to be the largest city in central China with 11 million residents, the center of the country, and a major transportation hub-just in time for the Chinese New Year, the world's largest migration of people, and the start of the flu season! 2. The World Health Organization (WHO) and China's cover-up. When the first clinical evidence of a deadly new virus emerged in Wuhan, probably as early as October 2019, Chinese authorities (backed by the WHO) failed to warn the public for weeks-all the while downplaying the virus' severity, telling the world it couldn't be transmitted from human-to-human; suppressing and changing data; allowing international flights out of Wuhan; and harassing, reprimanding, and detaining anyone who tried to warn about its spread. Now, going from one extreme to another, authorities have gone into full-blown crisis mode, even purposely inflating the number of coronavirus cases and deaths to fuel the panic and raise the alert level. 3. The Gates Foundation recently ran a coronavirus simulation. On October 18, 2019, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and World Economic Forum met behind closed doors to conduct a five-hour simulated exercise specific to a coronavirus pandemic just six weeks before the real outbreak! Players at Event 201 discussing challenges and recommendations during the major pandemic exercise. Credit: Nick Klein / Center for Health Security 4. Bill Gates recently predicted a Chinese pandemic. Back in 2018, Bill Gates predicted that a super-virus pandemic could soon break out in China and kill 33 million people around the world in the first six months. He also predicted five years ago in a TED talk that the next catastrophe was likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Probably a deliberate softening up for the designated epidemic. 5. Chinese scientists recently stole deadly viruses from a Canadian virology lab. On July 5, 2019, two Chinese scientists were removed from Canada's only level-4 virology lab which also works with the world's most deadly pathogens, including coronaviruses, after they were caught shipping viruses into China. One of the scientists was said to have made at least five trips to China between 2017-18, including one to the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan; which, by the way, is owned by none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO. I wonder if the coronavirus was stolen from the Canadian lab by these scientists? 6. The Gates Foundation owns the patent on a coronavirus. On June 19, 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with the WHO, filed a patent for the coronavirus vaccine that was approved in 2018! 7. Gates and an alliance of organizations had planned to roll out a microchip vaccination program in 2020. On September 19, 2019, the ID2020 Alliance (spearheaded by Bill Gates) announced the plan to roll out "ID2020", which is a program that aims to give every human on the planet a digital ID by combining mandatory vaccinations with implantable microchips, in 2020-the same year as the coronavirus outbreak! I think it's fairly obvious that the globalists-and Bill Gates in particular-have had their hand in creating, and now manipulating, this crisis to bring about their vision of a new world order. And while people are buying into the media-driven hype and fear-mongering, a slew of agenda items on the globalist checklist are being pushed out in line with Bible prophecy: 1. Increased surveillance and control of world population (Revelation 13:11-18) All over the world governments are increasing surveillance of citizens using smartphone-based location tracking among various other surveillance methods, such as drones and CCTV footage, to monitor the spread of coronavirus. The risk and danger of contracting the virus, greatly exaggerated by the elite (WHO, medical industry, governments, and the corporate media), is being used as an excuse to implement de-facto martial law-quarantines and mandated shelter-in-place orders, travel restrictions, enforced shutdowns, and many other "airtight rules and restrictions"-making people more dependent on the government than ever and, ultimately, conditioning them to accept martial law and mandatory vaccination. 2. Increased censorship and control of information on the internet (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11; 2 Timothy 3:13) The global elite are using the excuse that spreading false information during an emergency is a bigger problem than usual to crackdown on the internet. Any information that questions or disputes the official narrative is labeled "conspiracy theory" and not reported in the mainstream media and scrubbed from Google, YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking sites. Search results for "coronavirus" are filled with bias fact checks by sites like Snopes. All this is preparing for the grand deception of the end times (2 Thes. 2:10-11; 2 Tim. 3:13). 3. Increased cashless transactions (Revelation 13:16-18) The global elite are also using the excuse that coronavirus can spread through notes and coins to accelerate the inevitable shift toward digital payments. On March 2, the WHO advised people to use contactless payments instead of cash (see 'Dirty banknotes may be spreading the coronavirus, WHO suggests'). And, now even more countries are exploring the possibility of developing a digital currency, with China said to be close to releasing a digital version of its currency. See: China aims to launch the world's first official digital currency 4. Global economic collapse (Revelation 6:5-6; 13:17) Perhaps the ultimate goal of the globalists, and the Chinese Communist Party who are playing right into their hands, is to cripple the US economy and transform the once-great US into an impoverished nation with no influence on the world stage. A powerless America serves their purposes because it will not be able to resist the movement that seeks to achieve global government, while also weakening the anti-globalist Trump's re-election chances-coincidentally in time for the 2020 presidential election. That's why the globalists were quick to take such unprecedented and unwarranted measures-locking down entire countries, confining billions of people to their homes for what they proclaim could be up to 18 months and completely shutting down the economy-in order to stop the spread of a virus that, so far, is little worse than the seasonal flu! And it's undoubtedly working, as we witnessed the worst week in markets since the financial crisis, including the worst two-day point drop in Dow Jones history. The longer this plays out, the more likely we are to see a global recession in the coming days. Possible Coronavirus - 5G Connection One other thing in this whole coronavirus hoopla that cannot be overlooked is the fact that a number of factors argue against this being a conventional virus, such as victims having trouble breathing, coughing without any phlegm, feeling an "electric feeling" on the skin, or simply falling over. At its height, many leaked videos showed people falling, collapsing, or sprawled dead in the streets of China, and especially Wuhan-so much so that Wuhan crematoriums were burning bodies 24/7 to keep up with the death rate, and Wuhan officials have been accused of burning bodies in secret. Outside of similar scenes of horror in Italy, and one case in New York City, no other place in the world has produced such anomalies, and the majority of patients are showing no or only mild symptoms. Why? What the media did not report in its coverage about the coronavirus is the fact that China, in its rush to take the lead in the 5G race, by the end of 2019 had installed 130,000 5G antennas throughout the country, with at least 10,000 antennas installed in Wuhan alone. For those who don't know, 5G is the next generation of mobile network technology after 4G that is currently being rolled out in many cities around the world, despite opposition from hundreds of scientists around the world who have published over 10,000 peer-reviewed studies concerning the health effects of wireless radiation and electromagnetic fields (see "International EMF Scientist Appeal" and "5G Appeal"). At the moment, Wuhan is probably one of the most 5G-electro-polluted cities on the planet. Milan in Northern Italy, the next epicenter of the pandemic, is the 5G capital of Europe. And Iran, South Korea, and New York, the other most significant hotspots of the virus, have all implemented 5G technology. Just a coincidence? A New York Doctor explained in a video that the coronavirus patients he's treated have symptoms which are consistent with a lack of oxygen-rather than a virally induced pneumonia. Interestingly, the oxygen molecule (O2) absorbs electromagnetic energy at 60 GHz like a piece of food in a microwave oven (source). Guess what frequency 5G operates at? 60 GHz. A study in Wuhan found that people with Type A blood are more likely to catch coronavirus and die from it than those with Type O, while blood Types B and AB fall somewhere in between-though researchers were unable to explain why. Interestingly, studies have found that Type A blood is more radiosensitive (susceptible to the harmful effects of radiation) than Type O, while blood Types B and AB fall somewhere in between. While I don't believe 5G causes coronavirus, I do think it's possible that what we are seeing, including totally anomalous outbreaks on cruise ships that are like airplanes, being radiated by 5G and Wi-Fi satellites from outer space, is the likely overlay of radiation sickness with the viral sickness. It is now known that 5G lowers human immunity and can both create its own viral (biological) anomalies, and make existing viral infections worse. (Source) So, why are governments all around the world rushing to inflict 5G on the public with no informed consent, no prior safety testing, and thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers raising concerns about its health effects? And why are Google, Facebook, and YouTube doing their best to hide and scrub all posts linking 5G to the coronavirus outbreak? IoT and Global Control Grid The real reason behind the rush to 5G is not the faster internet speeds, reduced latency, or increased bandwidth the technology offers, but the roll out of the Smart Grid and the "Internet of Things"-a nightmarish total control grid where just about everything you can imagine will be chipped and tracked, including you-it's a globalist's dream. Interestingly, the expected ubiquitous coverage of 5G, unlike previous generations, will make it possible for the Antichrist and his government to control ALL buying and selling worldwide (Rev. 13:17). For an excellent science-based article on the coronavirus 5G connection, see 'China, 5G, And The Wuhan Coronavirus: The Emperor's New Virus' by researcher and building biologist Paul Doyon. Conclusion As we literally watch the new world order, spoken of nearly 2,000 years ago in Revelation 13, emerging before our very eyes, it's hard to read the Bible and think that the writers just guessed things right. What are the chances of that? For those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior: now is the time to do so-so that you can escape the coming Antichrist's reign of terror before it's too late. For those who do know the Lord: it's time to lift up your head-your redemption is at hand. God's Timeline - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-4-29-2020/ In all of history, only at the end of World War II did the world order change shape as rapidly as it is changing right now. And those changes were set up by a global war. Today's changes have come, seemingly, out of the blue. Yet, every day the world looks more like the one described in the Bible as existing during the time of the tribulation. For decades, I have been teaching that these changes would come. But even for me, the pace and scope of change over the last few weeks has been stunning. In Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus spoke extensively about His second coming. He included a list of signs. In chapter 24, verses 4-7, Jesus gave what have since become the most famous of those signs. He spoke of wars and rumors of wars, people groups rising up against other people groups, countries against countries, and of famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. Then, in verse 8, Jesus said, "All these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs." That's quoting the New American Standard Bible. In it, the word "merely" has been italicized. The translators weren't trying to emphasize the word, but to let us know that they had added it. "Merely" is not in the original text. A better reading would be, "These things are the beginning of birth pangs." As we suffer the present pestilence, we can see that there isn't anything "mere" about it - except when compared to what's coming. When Jesus used the expression "birth pangs," He was comparing the end-times world to a woman in labor. "Birth pangs" are a series of contractions, waves of tightening and relaxing the uterine muscle. The process is called "cervical effacement and dilation." Relative to the lives of mother and child, it is an extremely brief period. But it can feel like it will never end. It is the painful and difficult transition of the mother's body that will allow her to give birth. Contractions are usually characterized by an increase in frequency and intensity. If the earth itself and all the people on it are beginning to experience "birth pangs," it begs the question. What's being born? And the answer is astounding. The thing being born is a new world. The signs will increase in frequency and intensity right up to the point when Jesus returns. Sounds terrible, right? That's why the seven-year period leading to the return of Jesus is known as "the tribulation." Jesus called the last three and a half of those years "great tribulation." In Matthew 24:21, He said, "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall." Though we're beginning to feel the birth pangs, we are not in the tribulation period. Jesus will remove His people out harm's way before the judgments of tribulation fall on the world. That event is usually called the rapture. After that, people will still come to Christ. For the sake of those post-rapture Christians, the tribulation will end before the destruction of everything. And it will end with suddenness and brilliance. "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matthew 24:27) There are many extremely specific signs of the second coming, but no signs specific to the rapture. There can't be. If there were, the event would not be imminent. "Imminent" does not mean it will happen in the next hour. Imminent means that it could happen in the next hour. James 5:8 says, "The coming of the Lord is at hand." That was almost two thousand years ago, so how could he say, "is at hand"? In this case, "at hand" means imminent. The first part of the Lord's coming - the rapture - could happen at any time. That means there cannot be any signs yet to be fulfilled before the rapture. Otherwise, it would not be "at hand." In Luke 12:40, Jesus said, "Be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." Jesus did not say, "Look for signs and when you see them, get ready." He said, "Be ready." If you expect to go in the rapture, you may wonder why signs should interest you. If we're seeing signs of events that will take place after the rapture - and we are - we should be looking up, because it means the rapture must take place very soon! Dire Straits - By Grant Phillips - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/04/30/dire-straits-by-grant-phillips/ One definition for the term "dire straits" I found is: in a very bad or difficult situation with its best player out of the game. Another long-standing way to put it is "between a rock and a hard place." Folks, we are right now, this minute, between a rock and a hard place. All of us have been extremely concerned about the COVID-19 Coronavirus and its attack upon people. As of this date (04/06/20), over 10,000 people in the United States alone have died from this horrible virus. Unfortunately, we have another problem just as bad. Economist Stephen Moore said Sunday, "At some point soon, we're going to have to make some real decisions about what kind of a calamity we are causing through the lockdown of our economy. I'm not saying we should be inattentive to the public health concern but, at some point, we have to worry about what we're doing to our society, and what kind of economy we're going to have after this is all over. If we go much past May 1, we are facing a potential Great Depression scenario." Now someone out there is going to accuse me of caring more for the economy than people, just as the liberal fake news has accused President Trump. The truth is that it is most likely many, many more will die from the effects of an extreme economic plunge; i.e. a Great Depression. Yet, in my opinion, Mr. Moore is probably correct. It doesn't take a mental heavyweight to figure this out folks. Prior to shutting this country down due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, our economy was booming. It was like a faucet turned wide open with the water at maximum flow. Now, almost overnight, the flow has been turned down to a trickle. Our country is paying people, with borrowed money we don't have, to stay home and not work. In turn, common sense says that thousands of companies, from small to large, are going to go belly up if we don't return to work soon, and very soon. Let me say in passing that I believe we had no choice and did the right thing in closing down so many avenues in our society. The best way to stop this deadly virus is social distancing. However, if there are no jobs to go back to, what does that due to unemployment? In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the unemployment rate went to 24.9%. In 1982 it went up to 10.1%. This February the rate was 3.5%. Obviously, we have a long way to go to get anywhere near the 1982 or even the 1930s figures, but haven't we already seen just how rapidly things can change? Now I have no doubt that President Trump and his administration are well aware of this. Our part as Christians should be to pray for our leadership. Pray that the Lord will guide us out of this, and pray that those in power will follow God's directives and give Him the credit He is due. I know that nothing happens in world affairs and also individual lives without God's permission. During the Ezekiel 38-39 war, no country will come to Israel's aide, not even the United States of America, if I understand it correctly. Keeping in mind that we are a good friend to Israel, at least during the Trump administration, what would prevent us from helping them? Either we are not able to help or the administration at that time has the same mindset as the previous Obama administration. So, either the administration changes to one that again hates Israel, or we are simply unable to help her. Now that leaves us with three other possibilities to think about. Will the administration change this fall to one that returns to hating Israel, or will this country be in such dire straits that we simply no longer have the ability to help our dear friend? Or will it be both possibilities, making the third scenario? Well, we simply do not know at this point, but it seems something very major is about to take place. Although I and many others would be overjoyed to see a true national revival take place in our country, I just don't see it ever happening. Jesus made it clear that, toward the end, people and circumstances would get worse and worse. Could we be barreling headfirst toward the end of this Church age? We most certainly could be. Should we still ask God to help us in this conundrum we are in? Absolutely! God still may delay His coming judgments upon us, just as He did when He sent Jonah to Nineveh, because Nineveh, from the king to the peasant, repented. If, and I emphasize the word "IF," the Rapture and the following Tribulation is rapidly advancing our way (because we do not know when Jesus is coming for us), why would any true Christian ask God to give us just a little more time before the Rapture? Why would we ask Him to save us from the predicament we are in? I can think of one very important reason, and that is: no true child of God wants to see anyone experience the hell on earth that comes with the Tribulation. Once the Church is gone via the Rapture, a time like no other in history, the Tribulation, will bring God's judgments upon the entire world. If we think things are bad now, we should think again. Everything the world has experienced today, and every day in history, is like a Sunday school picnic compared to the seven-year Tribulation which follows the removal (Rapture) of Jesus' bride (the Church) from this earth. Nineveh was a very wicked city. The Assyrians were just about the meanest bunch of people that have walked the earth. God delayed their judgment because they repented. Maybe if we repent, God will delay our judgment. Do we need to repent? Consider just a few brief comments. God hates murder (Proverbs 6:16-17). We grieve over those in our society that the COVID-19 Coronavirus has taken, and rightly so. But where is our grieving when over one million babies annually, nearly 3,000 per day, 120 per hour and one every 30 seconds, are murdered by abortion? Children are God's greatest gift to mankind, yet they are slaughtered on the altar of convenience. Our leaders and celebrities in this country as a whole claim to know God, but they in turn promote any and everything that is satanically driven. These hounds of hell take every step to remove God from our society. True Christians, the bride of Jesus Christ, are hated and ridiculed more and more each day. Our society, again as a whole, is drunk on the Hollywood, anti-Bible, anti-God, live-as-you-please lifestyle. People are living together unmarried. Homosexuals have been granted the right to marry and are a protected class. We bow before science, sex, entertainment and self-pleasure as our gods. They proclaim that Jesus is just one way among many to Heaven, but Jesus made it clear that He is the ONLY way to Heaven and there is NO OTHER WAY. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Our society wants nothing to do with God, especially the Son of God who died and rose again to pay our sin debt. His name is only, and constantly, used as profanity. Our society is interested only in personal pleasure and does not want to hear that we have all sinned against a holy God (Romans 3:23). It does not want to hear that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). It doesn't even want to hear that through Jesus we can have the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23b). The world today mocks louder and laughs harder than those who put Jesus on the cross nearly two thousand years ago. I wonder if our society had the chance today to crucify Jesus again, how many would volunteer to drive the first nail into His body? And then there are the thousands of local churches today, scattered all across America, who have compromised the Word of God (the Bible) and now promote everything from Satan's playbook while mocking the very name of Jesus Christ, our ONLY hope. Finally, there are still millions who love the name of Jesus, who know Him as Lord and Savior. We are the ones who need to be praying that those in rebellion against Him will soften their hearts before it is too late. Whatever God's plans are at this trying time we are going through, we have nothing to fear if we know Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, but those who do not know Him have much to fear. The world hates the true Church, but it is the true Church that God might listen to and postpone His judgments just a little while longer, so more may be saved and avoid His wrath. Grant Phillips Email: [email protected] Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html Daily Jot: The Farm Chronicles: GI Joe Honor - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com Sonny and I had been saving up our money for months. He had seen a commercial on TV that promoted a nearly foot-tall action figure called GI Joe in 1964. The action figure, not a doll mind you, was about to come out in the stores and we wanted to be the first to buy one. Finally, when the release day had come, we bugged my parents to take us shopping to Kent, a little further down the road than Ravenna, Ohio to Hills Department Store, where we were hoping to find the first GI Joes. Imagine our excitement as we rushed through the various aisles in the toy section to catch our first glimpse of this new toy. If memory serves me right, they cost about $2.50. We were short a few cents so Mom helped with taxes. My brother teased us about boys playing with dolls, but undeterred we informed him that it was an action figure, not a doll. These GI Joes became the catalyst for many an adventure played out on the living room and bed room floors in the winter time and far more outside when the Ohio weather became bearable. While we were fascinated with the M-1 rifle and the many poses we could do with GI Joe, it was the imagination he sparked in us that inspired many a battle, many rescues, many commando raids that may have started out with the action figures, but ended up with Sonny and I acting out our own battle scenes in the barn or out in the woods. When we weren't playing Cowboys and Indians, we were playing Army. The folks at Hasbro were pretty smart. They kept releasing accessories for GI Joe. And, of course, Sonny and I had to buy them. Green Beret's, bazooka's, grenades, frogman suits, airman suits, various camouflaged clothing and weapons. Then we had to have an official foot-locker to keep all the equipment. We had some of the best times playing with GI Joe. There was a place back in the woods by the creek where there was a dirt hill. That was a choice location to fight battles. Normandy was recreated there. GI Joe came across the creek, crawled through the dirt, dodging bullets and hurling grenades at the enemy occupying the top of the hill. Later, a competing figure came out call Captain Action, who came with a parachute. We adapted the parachute to fit GI Joe. We would toss him out of the third-story window at Sonny's house and watch him float to the ground. Got a lot of exercise taking turns running up and down all the stairs to see GI Joe parachute behind enemy lines. I still have my original GI Joe and all his military gear. In fact, every year as my son Christian was growing up, we would buy a GI Joe (the original large size) on the 4th of July. It renewed our patriotism and gave me an opportunity to talk about our country and the brave people who served it in the military, of which Sonny was one. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." Not long ago, Sonny and I were reminiscing about GI Joe. Those GI Joes helped teach us about patriotism, responsibility, leadership and honor, because that's what GI Joe represented to us. Still does. Daily Devotion: Are You a Betweener? - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him. -Psalm 78:32 Commentator Warren Wiersbe has pointed out that "many of God's people are betweeners. . . . They believe that Jesus died on the cross, but they are not living in the power of His resurrection." Some people believe that Jesus has saved them and justified them, but they enter into a lifestyle of sin. They don't live like they're saved; they live like they're spiritually dead. Are you a betweener? Do you believe in Jesus but find yourself still bound to a certain sin, a certain vice that has a hold on you? God can break that pattern of sin in your life. You can live a sanctified life as a follower of Jesus Christ. I'm not saying that you'll be sinless, because we all sin. But I am saying you can sin less. Maybe you're thinking, "I can't stop sinning. It's just human nature. I can't control it." Yes, you can. You make choices. Remember, Jesus warned a man that He healed, "Now you are well; so, stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you" (John 5:14 NLT). For every temptation in life that you faced and gave into, if you think back, you will remember there always was a way out. And there was power from God to give you the resolve to take that way out. So, if you didn't take it, that isn't God's fault. Rather, you made a bad choice. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure" (NLT). 
FROM THE HEART
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