Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Why Ezekiel 38 Will Precede Daniel 9 - by Jack Kelley -
https://gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy/why-ezekiel-38-will-precede-daniel-9/ "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble" (Daniel 9:24-25). Dispensationalists believe, with good reason, that there's one "seven" left to fulfill from the promise the angel Gabriel delivered to Daniel near the end of the Babylonian captivity. From the King James translation, we know the prophecy as Daniel's 70 weeks, where each week represents 7 years. 69 of these weeks (7 plus 62) had passed when the Messiah presented Himself to Israel as their King on the only day in His life that He did so. On our calendar, it became known as the first Palm Sunday. In the prophecy 69 weeks equals 483 years (69 x 7). This is the exact time that had passed since Artaxerxes Longimonus issued his decree giving Nehemiah permission to begin rebuilding Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-10). (The city had been destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar's army conquered Judah and took its people captive to Babylon.) Daniel's prophecy was being fulfilled in specific detail, and Israel's failure to realize this marked the beginning of the end for them (Luke 19:41-44). After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed (Daniel 9:26). The Hebrew word for Anointed One is Messiah. Four days after He presented Himself to them as their King, they executed Him, which is what the Hebrew word translated "cut off" means. Nothing the angel Gabriel had promised to Mary (Luke 1:32-33) had come to pass. Three days after that He rose again, fulfilling a sign He had promised to the religious leaders to prove His authenticity, the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40). He gave them 40 days to recognize what was the most dramatic fulfillment of a prophetic sign in the history of mankind and accept Him as their Messiah, and when they didn't He ascended into Heaven, fulfilling another prophecy in the process. Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me" (Hosea 5:15) About 38 years after that the Roman armies destroyed the city and the sanctuary, and for all practical purposes, the nation of Israel ceased to exist. But a few years before that happened, the Jewish leadership of the Christian movement called the Church had become divided over the issue of whether Gentiles who were coming into Christianity had to put themselves under the Law first. In other words, did a Gentile have to become a Jew before becoming a Christian? The unspoken question that lurked behind it was even more troublesome to them, and that was, "If not, what's to become of Israel?" They had been taught that the only way to God was through Israel. Was this being changed? The Council At Jerusalem They all came together in Jerusalem, where James, the Lord's half brother, and head of the Church in Jerusalem set them straight. Israel is being temporarily set aside, he told them, while the Lord takes out of the Gentiles a people for Himself. After that, He will restore Israel to allow the remnant of mankind one more chance to seek Him (Acts 15:13-18). Therefore, Gentiles would not be required to convert to Judaism in the process of becoming Christians. The Greek word translated "take" in Acts 15:14 means to carry away for one's own purpose and the one translated "out of" means to remove from a specified time and place. Before restoring Israel to fellowship with Him, the Lord will take a people for Himself out of the time and place of the Gentiles. James was describing the rapture of the Church and saying it will precede Daniel's 70th Week. Paul, who was at the meeting, confirmed this by saying Israel has been blinded in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. After that Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25). This is another testimony that the rapture of the church will precede Israel's restoration and redemption. From these two prophecies, we understand that Israel's rejection of the Messiah did not end the Old Covenant. It merely interrupted its 490-year post-exilic duration 7 years short of its allotted time. After the Church is gone this seven years has to be completed. "He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him" (Daniel 9:27). The final seven years will begin with a covenant to be signed by the "ruler who will come", mentioned in Daniel 9:26. Gabriel said this leader will come from the people who would destroy the city and the sanctuary after the Messiah's execution. In the middle of this last seven years He will put an end to sacrifices and offerings by setting up the Abomination of Desolation which kicks off the 3 ½ year Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15-21). Put this all together and you can begin to see why I believe the Rapture of the Church will precede the beginning of Daniel's missing 70th week. According to these prophecies, the church has to be gone before Israel returns to their covenant relationship with the Lord. And That's Not All But my main purpose in reviewing all this with you is to find the answer to one other very important question, and here it is. What event will suddenly cause Israel, currently a predominantly secular nation, to officially restore their Old Covenant relationship with God? The study of human nature tells us that while people typically fall away from their beliefs gradually, they don't come back to them the same way. Usually, some external change or event, often catastrophic in nature, has to take place to snap them back. And so it will be for Israel. And remember, it has to be a return to the Old Covenant because they're seven years short of completing the time God promised them. And the first half of those final seven years includes sacrifice and offerings, a requirement of Old Covenant worship. If it was the rapture of the Church that gets their attention they'd be motivated to enter a New Covenant relationship rather than return to the Old Covenant. Something else has to happen to bring them back. And it will. An unexpected event that will threaten Israel's very existence is set to take place soon and God will use it to bring the whole nation running back to Him, ending a 2000 year estrangement. This event won't be a protracted one that causes them to slowly conclude that they're doomed and drive them to their knees in a desperate plea for help. Rather it will be one orchestrated and executed by God Himself for the specific purpose of opening spiritual eyes that have been blinded since that first Palm Sunday. It will happen so fast that they won't realize what has transpired until it's all over. God will cause a coalition of enemy forces to strike Israel without warning. They'll come in such numbers that it will seem like a cloud has covered the land, and when they do, He will decimate them with torrents of rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur. Then He'll sow confusion in the ranks making them turn on each other. When it's over there will be so many dead bodies that it will take Israel seven months just to bury them all. Of course, the event I'm referring to is the Battle of Ezekiel 38-39. Four times during Ezekiel's prophecy of this battle God's objective was made clear. Ezekiel 38:23, 39:7, 39:22, 39:28 all tell us His goal is to show His greatness and holiness to Israel and the nations so Israel will know He's the Lord their God. This is the event that will cause Israel's national reconciliation with God and kick off the remaining seven years of the Old Covenant. Today there appears to be a growing desire among some in Israel for a Temple. But if you read between the lines you'll see it's a nationalistic movement, not a spiritual one. Advocates are hoping a Temple will underscore their right to the land by demonstrating their historical presence there. But this movement is by no means reflective of the national mindset. Most people realize the danger of such a thing. But after the Battle of Ezekiel 38, the demand for a Temple will be a spiritual movement that will represent the great majority of people in Israel. They'll want to worship the God they've rediscovered and Old Covenant worship requires a Temple. It won't be just a monument to their past but a necessity for their future. And with the great victory, God will have just handed them, who will dare to deny them? Even the coming world leader will appear to be championing their cause, enforcing a covenant that will allow them to build their Temple. To Israel, it will seem like peace has finally come. One More Time Sad to say, even after so great a victory the Battle of Ezekiel 38 won't result in a permanent peace for Israel. They'll discover they've been deceived by the very one they thought to be their champion, bringing about the worst period of persecution the Jewish people have ever known. And this time when foreign nations are mobilized against them, it won't be just a regional coalition. Zechariah 12:3 says all the nations of the world will line up against Israel. This time Israel will know in advance what their fate will likely be and will come crawling to God for help (Hosea 6:1-2). This time God won't just use His signature weapons of rain, hail, earthquakes, and fire that He can deliver from afar. Nor will He sow confusion into the enemy's mind to have them defeat themselves. This time He'll fill the sky with the armies of heaven, with His own Son at their head and the Son will slay them all with just the Word of His mouth. This time they won't spend multiple months burying the dead because God will summon great flocks of birds to devour the carcasses (Rev. 19:11-21). This time will be different because it won't be only the Father they will have recognized. This time it will be the Son as well (Zech 12:10). The reconciliation will finally be complete and the Kingdom Age will begin. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. Israel's Future Restoration Vindicates God's Holiness - By Jonathan Brentner - https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/https/jonathan-brentner-g8fgsquarespacecom/config/2020/9/28/israels-future-restoration-vindicates-gods-holiness The certainty of the Lord fulfilling His oft-repeated promise to restore the fortunes of Israel displays His holy character as a covenant-keeping God. As such, it assures us of our "blessed hope" in Jesus' appearing (Titus 2:11-13). You might think I am at least a bit out of my mind for making such statements. How could I possibly say that Israel's future restoration vindicates God's holiness? Does that not seem rather extreme for even an avid premillennialist as myself? And how could it possibly have anything to do with our future deliverance as New Testament saints? I begin the defense of my sanity with what the Lord Himself said in Ezekiel 36:22-24: "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land." Ezekiel tells us that God's future outpouring of blessings on the Jewish people has nothing to do with their goodness. In His own words, the Lord says that He will act "for the sake of my holy name" and to "vindicate the holiness of my great name." In other words, the Lord's keeping of His promise to restore a kingdom to Israel vindicates His holiness. There's much more at stake here than just the future restoration of a kingdom for Israel. The keeping of His covenants with and promises to Israel sets God apart from all other objects of worship. It first proves His ability to keep His word; and second, it demonstrates His unshakeable determination to do so. It's all about defending the honor of His name. For us, it signifies that when Jesus promises eternal life to His followers such as in John 10:27-30, we can know with absolute certainty that He will keep His word to us. He is, after all, one with the Father; and as such, we can count on His promises because He places the burden upon Himself to fulfill them, not us. Because so many in the church today deny a future restoration of Israel, let's look more in depth at what this passage and Zechariah 12-14 tell us about Israel's future. The Promised Restoration of Israel in Ezekiel 36:22-38 Remains Unfulfilled How do we know this restoration of Israel lies in the future? It's because the details of the entire passage, 36:22-38, reveal that God has not yet fulfilled this prophecy. Verse 27 says this about the renewing of Israel that will take place in the future: "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules." We know from John 16:7-11 that the Holy Spirit could only come in such a way after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. God could not have fulfilled Ezekiel's prophecy before the time of Christ because it points to a time when the Lord will put His Spirit in the hearts of the Jewish people, which could only happen after Calvary. Furthermore, since the time of Christ we have not seen all the words of this passage come to fruition. While we see glimpses that some of the blessings regarding the Land are happening now, the Lord has not yet fulfilled the details of His promises contained in Ezekiel 36:22-38. If the words of the prophet Ezekiel matter, and they do, then we know that God has not yet given His people all the blessings that He promised them in this passage. And the text tells us that the Lord placed upon Himself the burden of fulfilling all the details of Ezekiel 36 in order to protect the integrity of His holy name. The future restoration of Israel is primarily about the Lord's character; Israel will receive the many blessings promised to her because the Lord is a covenant-keeping God. Israel Will Repent at Jesus' Return to the Earth Zechariah 12 reveals that the fulfillment of God's promised restoration of Israel will begin at the time of Jesus' second coming. It's then that the Jewish people will repent en masse and open the door to God pouring out His Spirit upon them as Ezekiel described in chapter 36:26-27. In Zechariah 12:10-13:1, the prophet foretells a time of widespread repentance for the nation of Israel at a time when the people will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Verse 10 says, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." Zechariah goes to considerable length to identify the subjects of the prophecy as people of Jewish descent. Who else could he describe as people looking "on him whom they have pierced?" As further clarification that this great change of heart must refer solely to the descendants of Jacob, the remaining verses of chapter 12 and the first verse of chapter 13 leave no room for doubt. This future time of repentance and weeping refers to Israel; it cannot refer to the church. The apostle John alluded to this prophecy in his description of Christ's second coming. Revelation 1:7 says, "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him." God Promised a Kingdom to Israel Zechariah tells us much more about Israel's glorious future. Zechariah 14:9 states, "And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one." The remainder of the chapter describes the battle by which Jesus takes control of the nations of the world as well as the extent of His worldwide kingdom. The Lord, through His prophet, revealed that Jesus would someday reign in Jerusalem and that the extent of His rule will reach to the ends of the earth (see also Zech. 14:16-21). In addition, Zechariah 12-14 assures us that God's knowledge of how the Jewish people would treat their Messiah did not prohibit Him from revealing that one day the One we now know as Jesus would rule over nations of the earth from Jerusalem. I am not simply stating the obvious here. I say these things to emphasize the following: when the Lord promised a future kingdom for Israel in Zechariah 14:8-21, He did so in full awareness that His people would reject their Messiah, which would directly lead to His death on the cross! One cannot possibly understate this truth: God made all his promises of a glorious restoration for Israel through Zechariah and many other prophets with the full understanding that these very same people would "pierce" their Messiah. To assert that God could use behavior of which He knew all about when He made His promises as the basis for later reneging on them impugns His character and His holiness. This takes us back to the words of Ezekiel 36:22, "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came." He must vindicate His holy character as a covenant-keeping God by keeping His covenants with Israel. What Does This Mean to Me? If God can renege on promises based on behavior He has always known about, it casts an ominous shadow over our expectations for eternal life. It implies that God is not only capable of reneging on His promises, but of doing so based on behavior He knew all about at the time he made them. Did God know about all our sins (past, present, and future) when he pronounced us righteous at the time of our salvation (our justification)? Absolutely! We never surprise the Lord by anything we do or say as bad as it might seem to us at the time. The Lord knew about all our future sins when he pronounced us forever righteous based on Jesus sacrifice on our behalf. We cannot nullify this declaration with our behavior (Rom. 8:31-35) just as Israel cannot nullify His covenants with the nation based on their behavior (Rom. 9-11). Do you see how this confirms our "blessed hope," the heart of what the Gospel promises us? We know that the words of Titus 2:11-14 contain unshakeable promises because of God's holy character. We know that Jesus is coming for us and it's at that moment we will experience the eternal life the Lord promises us (John 14:2-3; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; Rom. 8: 23-25). We can have absolute confidence in our Gospel hope because of the Lord's character as a covenant-keeping God. It's impossible for Him to renege on any promise or covenant that He makes. Those who falsely claim that God has rejected Israel assign the many Old Testament promises regarding Israel's future restoration to the church, which not only contradicts God's stated intent in Ezekiel 36:22-38, but also Paul's words in Romans 11:1-2. Others tell us that God fulfilled all His promises to and covenants with Israel with Jesus' first coming. Those who make this erroneous assertion retrofit passages such as Ezekiel 36 and Zechariah 12-14 with an understanding totally foreign to these texts. Both of these false viewpoints fail to maintain the integrity of the words of Scripture and dismiss the necessity of God to vindicate His holiness by keeping His promises to Israel (Ezekiel 36:22-24). Israel's current existence reminds us that we serve a covenant-keeping God and signifies that He will soon send His son to take us home. Maranatha!!! Jonathan Brentner Website: Our Journey Home Please consider signing up for my newsletter on my website. Thanks! E-mail: [email protected] Nearing Midnight: God's Staying Hand - Terry James - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Author's note: While looking through correspondence from my friend Ed Merrick, a well-known school principal and public educator in our region, who died at age 83 on September 4, 2020, I came across an article he found to be especially compelling, and in his always encouraging way let me know. It was posted as a terryjamesprophecyline.com blog article on July 6, 2020. It is an article I think needs looked at again as we rapidly approach November 3, 2020. The past weekend this nation celebrated Independence Day 2020. The holiday is a sort unlike any celebrated by any other country in earth's history. There will never be a holiday of its like again this side of Christ's next intervention into the sordid and sorry affairs of man. I can say this with certitude-at least within my own view-because America is the last hope, in human terms, for freedom to the extent America has enjoyed that blessing for 244 years. We are witnessing liberty's last gleaming. When thinking on this commentary, I first thought to title it "Why America Is Lost." The thought was that the nation has since some time in the 1950s begun the dismantling of all that is good about her, as French philosopher and admirer of America, Alexis de Tocqueville, would have it. By the late 1950s, influences by Karl Marx and especially of Charles Darwin, as well as by other anti-God minions, had so invaded the educational process in America as to weaken the undergirdings that held erect America's "goodness." That "goodness" is the Judeo-Christian principles upon which the founding fathers placed the republic they created. By 1963, those principles had eroded to the point that prayer and Bible reading were banished in public classrooms. The Ten Commandments became anathema to the new masters of education. There were actually statements made to the effect that the commandments should not be posted anywhere in public places-especially not within public classrooms. The rationale? Because the children might actually read them and begin to think they have to obey and practice them. That insanity is recorded for anyone who cares to research it. I'm not making it up, as they say. I remember a thirty-something-year-old professor standing before my political science class in my freshman year at college lauding the marvels that Marxism-Leninism offered as opposed to the evil presented by American adventurism and bloody war-making since the founding. By then, the erosion of American "goodness," thus its "greatness," was well underway. So, as I say, I started to give this commentary the title, "Why America Is Lost." I thought to present the fact that the disease of anti-God inculcation has so infected America at its core that the nation cannot be spared the inevitable fall that God's righteousness-the only goodness that exists-ultimately demands. As de Tocqueville and any observer within the realm of rationality would rightly conclude, America has lost her goodness, her godly foundational mooring. So she has lost her greatness (the gleaming of freedom as testimony to God providing certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). We have allowed the "wickedness in high places"-those principalities and powers in the lofty perches of academia and government-to replace the godly foundations. The nation has been and is at this moment being deconstructed by lawlessness in an avalanche of tearing down all values formerly held to as suitable for a good and moral people. Founders like Franklin and Adams forewarned about dangers intrinsic within the populace ever abandoning the Judeo-Christian base they had erected. Any other people than a morally based, truly free people, they consistently forewarned, are unsuitable for God-given governance. Any people not firmly moored by such providentially influenced foundation are ultimately destined to lose their liberty, was the message. That those liberties implicit and explicit within the Bill of Rights are even at this moment under assault cannot be denied. The anarchists, arsonists, and so-called deconstructionists of the radical left make liberty's last gleaming a manifest destiny for Americans. The Democrat party champions those who are fomenting a cultural revolution that mimics those of Mao and others. Lawlessness rules in major cities where the reprobate thinking of Democrat mayors and governors agrees with the Marxist demands that law enforcement be eliminated through defunding and other means. The Republican Party for the most part refuses to stand up against the evil that has taken over much of the nation's youth-the Millennial generation. From kindergarten through doctoral programs, these have been victims of a satanically influenced cabal of anti-God educators for more than six decades. The title, "Why America Is Lost," therefore, would be appropriate for an article in this day and time. But the impression struck as the depression deepened in thinking on these matters. "You have left out one ingredient to all this seeming madness afflicting the nation and world." Indeed, I had left out the most important ingredient when thinking on the insanity raging within our nation and beyond. That factor is God's staying hand. America, although it shows every indicator of precipitous decline from which there seems no escape, remains the freest nation on earth. Its economy, already untenable because of debt extrapolated into hundreds of trillions of dollars for future generations, remains intact, despite suffering a complete shutdown due to a largely contrived virus threat. Most of the nation's heartland continues to function and show progress toward a return to a degree of normalcy, despite the most vicious attempts imaginable by globalist diabolists in DC and other capitals of the world to rip American sovereignty and autonomy to shreds. It is incontrovertibly true from the perspective of Bible prophecy, within the observations of those spiritually attuned. God continues to restrain the raging efforts to bring down this supernaturally inspired experiment in liberty. America will be here, I'm believing, until that restraint is withdrawn when Christ calls all born again believers to Himself. Meantime, it is incumbent to pray fervently that He who sits in Heaven-and obviously has the rebels of planet earth in derision as in Psalm 2-continues to restrain the satanically enraged evil with His omnipotent, staying hand. Our society is in the process of breaking down all around us - by Michael Snyder -http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/our-society-is-in-the-process-of-breaking-down-all-around-us Have you noticed that people don't treat one another with the same level of respect and civility that they once did? Everywhere I look, people are treating one another badly, and this should greatly alarm all of us. Perhaps we can blame some of this on the pandemic, because the restrictions that authorities have implemented around the nation have definitely put people in a bad mood. And of course the fact that this is an election year is certainly not helping things. But I am seeing people that are supposedly on the same side treating each other with extreme contempt. Conservatives are fighting with conservatives, liberals are fighting with liberals, Christians are fighting with Christians, and over the past year I have been seeing families break up all over the place. Hearts are growing so cold, and all of the strife and discord that we are witnessing makes me wonder what things will be like when economic conditions in this nation really start falling apart. There is so much anger and frustration in the air right now, and we are definitely seeing this being reflected in the crime numbers. For example, it is being reported that burglaries in San Francisco have risen 42 percent so far this year... In San Francisco, burglaries are up 42% in the first 9 months of this year, compared to the same time period in 2019. In the Northern District, which includes Pacific Heights, the Marina, North Beach, and Cow Hollow, it's up 59%. In the Mission, 79% and in the Richmond up 50%. In some neighborhoods, the same criminals are returning over and over again, and things have gotten so bad that one local resident recently admitted that she "cannot sleep at night anymore"... Thieves are returning to the same homes and neighborhoods within the same week, sometimes only one day apart. "It's a big wave of crime right now. it's home burglaries and this is scary. I cannot sleep at night anymore," said Iryna Gorb. I can't even imagine what it must be like lying in bed wondering if this will be the night when the burglars will return again. In addition to home invasions, San Francisco is seeing an alarming number of stores being hit as well... And it's not just happening to homes. Video from a Pacific Heights' Food Market a week and a half ago shows a suspect's seen setting up a blow torch on the store's glass. When it doesn't budge, he comes back and tries a throwing a planter to break in. We are seeing similar scenes play out all over America on a nightly basis these days, and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead. Over on the east coast, New York City has also seen a 42 percent rise in burglaries so far in 2020, and the number of shootings is up 91 percent... Year-to-date, there has been a 91% spike in citywide shooting incidents, a 42% increase in burglaries and a 33% decrease in hate crimes. Considering the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have already moved out of New York City, there shouldn't be that many people left to shoot, but these are the numbers that authorities are giving us. And sometimes people are being murdered without a gun being used at all. I have to admit that I was greatly disturbed when I recently heard what happened to one man on a Manhattan subway platform... A man has died after he was repeatedly stabbed in the legs following a dispute on a lower Manhattan subway station in New York City on Saturday, officials revealed. The attack unfolded just before 3pm on the northbound J/Z train platform in Chambers Street Station, near to City Hall, where the victim, in his 20s, had been ensnared in an argument with another man, said to be in his 30s. How cold does your heart have to be to attack someone like that? Sadly, acts of extreme violence are happening in our major cities so frequently now that they barely make a blip in the news. In the middle of the country, murders and shootings in Chicago are both up over 50 percent in 2020, and it is being reported that "dozens of children" under the age of 10 have been shot over the last nine months... The Windy City - like others across the country - has seen an uptick in violent crimes this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic, mass layoffs and nationwide unrest. Murders and shootings are up 52% from the same time last year, according to police data, and dozens of children under 10 years old have been shot, some fatally. This is what America has become. We have become a place where children under the age of 10 are being shot on a regular basis. Most of us depend on the police to protect us from this sort of violence, but they are being shot on a regular basis too. Here is just one example that was in the news today... A shooting over the weekend left one Myrtle Beach police officer dead and another injured, according to a news release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The officers were responding to a domestic violence call Saturday night. Authorities say shots were exchanged between them and a suspect after a confrontation. The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is steadily disappearing, and it isn't just happening in the big cities. Some of the worst crimes of all are happening in less populated areas, and if you doubt this just check out this example. For decades, we have been raising children in an environment in which traditional moral values have been relegated to the fringes of society, and so we should not be surprised that our society is now literally coming apart at the seams all around us. And if you think what we have experienced so far is bad, just wait until we get a few more years down the road. Chaos and violence in our streets has become the norm, and our society now teaches us that it is perfectly okay to hate one another. Treating others the way that you want to be treated is such a simple concept, but it works. Unfortunately, most of the population has rejected the simple values that once united our nation, and so our society will continue to fall apart all around us as we plunge into a deeply uncertain future. Daily Jot: Biden's cunning corruption exposed by Senate Report - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com The Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Obama White House conspired to fabricate a narrative accusing President Trump of collusion with Russia, leveraging influence over Ukraine, and having undisclosed business dealings with communist China. All the while, Vice President Joe Biden and his son were doing exactly that which Biden and his political allies accused Trump. An 87-page joint report issued by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance indicates that Hunter Biden, aided by his father Vice President Joe Biden, enriched the Biden family with scurrilous dealings in Russia, Ukraine and China. The Bidens used the position of Vice President, hidden by a complicated international cadre of corporations and bank accounts, to extract money from government officials in Russia, Ukraine and China. In doing so, they enriched themselves, family members and friends, such as former Secretary of State John Kerry's son, at the expense of American foreign policy and national security. According to the report, these dealings were known to government employees in the State Department, but their warnings were largely ignored and worked around. Joe Biden and Kerry both denied knowing anything of Hunter Biden's dealings, even as money transfers in the tens of millions of dollars were flowing into family-owned bank accounts. Shortly after Vice President Joe Biden took over Ukraine foreign policy to fight corruption there, Hunter Biden joined the board of the company Bursima, which was under investigation by the Ukraine government. Then a $7 million bribe was paid to "shut the case." When the investigation pursued, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees to the country if the Ukrainian government did not fire the prosecutor. The prosecutor was fired and Hunter Biden was awarded millions in return. He also had business dealings with China's Communist Party and the Peoples Liberation Army which involved US military information. In Russia dealings, Biden received some $3.5 million from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow (removed for corruption), and paid Russian nationals involved with prostitution and human trafficking. During this time frame, Democratic Party operatives were paying to have false reports written about Trump to be used to remove him from the presidency. The Democrats went so far as to impeach Trump based on those falsehoods, including false accusations that Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in US military aid to Ukraine pending an investigation on Hunter Biden's corruption in Ukraine. These allegations posed by the Democrats also included a false document alleging Trump's participation with prostitutes in Russia, and collusion with the Russian government. All the while, Biden and his son were actually doing these things. Ezekiel 8:9 says, "Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." The more we dig, the more abominations we find. Biden is every bit as crooked as the Clintons; he's just more cunning. Daily Devotion: A Vision for Lost People - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. -John 4:35 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/a-vision-for-lost-people/ - Listen Sometimes as Christians, we see nonbelievers as the enemy. Remember, we were all nonbelievers at one time. Nonbelievers are not the enemy; they're under the control of the Enemy. The Bible says that "Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT). So let's understand that and see nonbelievers as Jesus sees them: as sheep without a shepherd. We want to see them come to believe in Jesus. Why not set a goal for the coming year to lead 10 people to Christ? Maybe you're thinking, "But what if I don't meet that goal? What if I only lead three people to Christ?" That is still good. It's better than not leading anyone to Christ. And it's better than no goal at all. Look for opportunities to start evangelistic conversations. I think if you were to say today, "Lord, I want to lead someone to Christ this year. Lead me to do that," you would see results. Would you dare to pray a prayer like that? You'll have to leave your comfort zone, but you'll be glad you did. One of the greatest joys I know is seeing someone come to Jesus. Jesus said, "You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest" (John 4:35 NLT). Don't just think of the world. Think of your world. Lift up your eyes in your family. There are people ready to come to Jesus. Lift up your eyes in your neighborhood. There are people ready to come to Jesus. Lift up your eyes in your community. There are people ready to come to Jesus. God can reach them through you. 
FROM THE HEART
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