Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Isaac And Ishmael, Then and Now - Jack Kelley -
https://gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy/isaac-and-ishmael-then-and-now/ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."(Genesis 15:1-4) Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.(Genesis 16:1-4, 15) Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. (Genesis 21:1-3) But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac." The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."(Genesis 21:9-13) Abraham was 75 years old when God called him, about 80 when God promised him a son, 86 when Ishmael was born (Gen. 16:16) and 100 at the time of Isaac's birth. (Gen. 21:5) This made Ishmael 14 years older than Isaac, and about 16 or 17 when Isaac was weaned. When he made fun of Isaac, Sarah demanded that Abraham get rid of him. That snapshot seems to set the tone for our understanding of Ishmael. God had told Hagar that her son would be a "wild ass" of a man with his hand against every man and every man's hand against him. (Gen. 16:12) He was bigger, stronger, and older than his helpless baby brother, and yet he thought it sport to mock him. We can imagine that the jealousy between Sarah and Hagar had its effect on Ishmael and served to frame his view of Isaac from the beginning. And it doesn't take too much of a stretch to believe that Ishmael was told repeatedly that Isaac was God's choice to become Abraham's heir although Ishmael was the first born and, at least in his opinion, the rightful heir. When Ishmael and Hagar were sent away to fend for themselves the sense of abandonment likely made it difficult for Ishmael to trust anyone for a long time. I can almost hear him thinking that his life was a mistake, and wishing he had never been born. No wonder he didn't get along with anyone. This feeling of being an unworthy outcast matured into a resentment so strong that it permeated Ishmael's very soul and from that day to this, the descendants of Ishmael have stood against the descendants of Isaac. His anger had given the devil a foothold that grew into a stronghold so powerful that it has lasted through all the generations since. All this happened because Abraham and Sarah grew impatient with God and tried to fulfill His promise on their own. Once More, With Feeling A generation later, Esau felt similarly disenfranchised by Jacob's manipulation of Isaac. This was the case even though Jacob only received that which he had earlier purchased from Esau, who in a moment of extreme hunger traded his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew as though it was a mere trinket. Esau was so angry with his father, who refused to reverse the transaction, that he did the one thing that he knew would hurt Isaac the most. He married Malhalath, a daughter of Ishmael. (Gen. 28:8-9) How he and Ishmael must have railed against Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who in two consecutive generations had humiliated them in the matter of their presumed inheritance. Each recounting of the events added bricks and mortar to the stronghold the devil was building in their minds. It had been God's plan all along for His promise to Abraham to be fulfilled through Isaac in Jacob. When Sarah took matters into her own hand after waiting impatiently for six years to give her husband an heir, God promised to make Ishmael's descendants into a great nation with 12 rulers just as he had in mind for Jacob. "But," He said, "My covenant I will establish with Isaac." (Gen. 17:20-21) And Esau's descendants were given land east of the Jordan River that the Israelites were not allowed to take as their own. (Deut. 2:4-6) But Ishmael didn't inherit the covenant position and Esau didn't get the Promised Land, and to them what they received, though generous, probably seemed like 2nd best. Far from encouraging them to forgive and forget, their anger was further inflamed. The land given to Esau became known as Edom because of its spectacular red rock mountains and, until their rebellion against God, Esau's descendants thrived there. The final straw came when the Edomites took advantage of God's punishment of Israel during the Babylonian wars. Thinking to finally get the coveted Promised Land, they sided with Nebuchadnezzar and cut off the Jews' escape from the Babylonian armies, ambushing the fleeing Israelites and looting their homes. (Obadiah 1:10-14) As a result, Edom was destroyed and the Nabateans, another of Ishmael's descendants, took their land. We'll Return After This Break During Israel's 1900 year absence from the world scene, the sons of Ishmael grew into the family of nations that God had promised, but the hostility remained even though the Promised Land was seemingly theirs for the taking. When Mohammed, a descendant of Ishmael's, failed to convert the Jews in the region to his new religion, he declared war against them and the ancient hostility was born anew. All the old feelings of resentment were re-kindled, and even though the armies of Islam embarked upon an era of conquest that eventually took them all the way to eastern France, they maintained a special hostility toward the Jews. And then the unimaginable happened. For the third time they were required to step aside in favor of the sons of Israel. God was bringing His people back to the land He had promised to Abraham so long ago. Never mind that the land had been pretty much abandoned for much of the preceding 1900 years, it had been Muslim land and now it was being given back to their sworn enemies, the Jews. It violated their sense of ownership, tainted though it was, and it violated the promise of their religion. Mohammed himself had told them that any land conquered in the name of Allah would never be lost again to the infidels. Of course by now the majority of Mohammed's followers weren't sons of Ishmael, but Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, to use their Biblical names. But their historical hatred of the Jews had been kept alive through the religion they all shared in common. And most of the returning Jews weren't of the original 12 tribes but the descendants of Europeans who had converted to Judaism over the centuries. Only a remnant of today's Jews can trace their ancestry to Jacob's 12 sons. But it's that remnant that validates Israel's claim under the Abrahamic covenant in God's eyes. Therefore, the wars of today aren't between Ishmaelites and Israelites, but between Muslims and Jews. The family feud has become a battle of religions. Will the God of the Jews prevail, or will it be the god of Islam-for they are not one and the same. The God who inhabits eternity created the land and gave it to Abraham in an everlasting covenant. The god of this world had taken it as his own and refuses to give it up. It's the most hotly contested piece of real estate in the entire universe, and the contest has both its origin and its resolution in the spiritual realm, not in the assembly halls of human governments. So now we've come full circle. Ishmael, represented by the Muslims, is older, bigger, and stronger, but Isaac, represented by the Jews, is still the child of the promise. And as we'll soon see, what God has promised, He performs. Against all odds, Ishmael will once again be driven away, and God will use the occasion to re-instate His ancient covenant with the children of Israel, biological or not. It's another giant signpost that the End of the Age is upon us. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. Turn Israel into pariah state to 'end occupation,' UN official urges - Tovah Lazaroff - http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Turn-Israel-into-pariah-state-to-end-occupation-UN-official-urges-508622 Lynk urged the international community to end military, economic, academic and other forms of cooperation with Israel to ostracize it unto political change. The United Nations must "review Israel's status as a law-abiding member of the United Nations" by declaring its "occupation as illegal," UN Human Rights Council special investigator Michael Lynk said on Thursday. Such a move would isolate Israel internationally by way of forcing it to end its "occupation" of Palestinian territories, Lynk said at a press conference in New York. "Israel is not North Korea," in that its economy is dependent on international trade, particularly the US and Europe, Lynk said. This fact can empower the global community to force change, he added. What if, "all of a sudden Israelis wanting to travel abroad needed to have visas" or "if all of a sudden Israel wouldn't get preferential trade agreements with the EU?" Lynk posited. What if the many forms of military, economic or academic cooperation with Israel would now end? Lynk asked. If that would come to pass, there would be sea change in Israel's attitude toward the Palestinians, he said. Lynk spoke in advance of a presentation he plans to make to the Third Committee on Friday, urging it to formulate a resolution to the UN that would give the international body a wider tool box to use against Israel. This would include a UN General Assembly resolution that ask the International Court of Justice at The Hague to issue an advisory opinion on whether Israel's "occupation" was illegal, Lynk said. He explained that there is a vast difference between a legal and an illegal occupation, particularly with regard to sanction tools that the UN could use against it. "Now we regard Israel as the lawful occupant of the Palestinian territories, albeit with a range illegal features to it," Lynk said. "If we now change that from being a lawful occupant to an illegal occupant, that raises the pressure on what the international community would now be obliged to do under its [new] obligation on non-cooperation with Israel in the continuation," Lynk said. Such a declaration is unusual, but was done in 1971 when the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that South Africa's administration of Nambia was illegal, Lynk said. Should Israel's "occupation" be declared unlawful, then the UN chould consider making use of the Uniting for Peace resolution, which could give the UN General Assembly the power to sanction Israel. Lynk is a Canadian legal expert who holds the post of special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and is mandated to solely look at Israeli actions, not Palestinian ones. Lynk clarified that his position was not anti-Israel. This mandate is not aimed at Israel, but at its occupation of a territory that is not its own, said Lynk. Those who believe that his words or his mandate are anti-Israeli are just trying to confuse the issue, Lynk claimed. The NGO UN Watch took issue with the one-sided nature of Lynk's statements. "By any definition of human rights, morality and logic, if Mr. Lynk is a United Nations human rights monitor for the Palestinian territories, he must address Palestinian Authority and Hamas torture and arbitrary arrest committed against their own people, and Palestinian stabbings, car ramming attacks and shootings committed against Israelis," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch. Hamas Terror Chief: Our Weapons Belong to All Palestinians - by Ali Waked - http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/10/26/hamas-chief-weapons-belong-palestinians/ Hamas is treating the issue of reconciliation with the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority as a strategic one, according to the organization's Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, who added during a meeting with unions in Gaza that divisions will not be allowed to continue. "We won't be just another side of the division," said Sinwar, "and we don't want to turn into an alternative for the PLO." According to Sinwar, Hamas' politburo chief in Gaza, "We want the PLO to rightfully become the legitimate representative of all the Palestinians and to be the umbrella above all of us." Sinwar said that his organization rejects and opposes the terms Israel has set for Palestinian reconciliation. "We won't recognize Israel and we won't give up our weapons and we will continue to be committed to the mindset of liberation and the return of the Palestinian people," he said. In his comments regarding the weapons of his terrorist group, Sinwar repeated and stressed, "The weapons of the resistance collected by Hamas don't only belong to Hamas. They are the property of every one of Gaza's residents. We won't give up our weapons and they will be under a national umbrella that includes all of the Palestinians, and that is the umbrella of the PLO." Sinwar called on the Palestinian organizations, NGOs and public organizations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank "to exert all pressure possible to bring an end to Palestinian division." Meanwhile, Breitbart Jerusalem has been informed by an Arab diplomatic source that the Egyptians are currently blaming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the delay in the reconciliation. According to the source, Abbas is currently insisting that Hamas give up all of its underground infrastructure to the Palestinian Authority, including weapons caches and tunnels. The source noted that a delegation of Fatah officials led by former justice minister Freih Abu Median and other public officials met recently with Egyptian representatives in Israel and Ramallah, where Abbas rejected any option of moving forward with reconciliation without a clear plan to disarm Hamas and place its weapons under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. "Abbas was very inflexible in the meeting," said the source, "He said that just as he is a king in the West Bank, he expects to be a king in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian president said he doesn't want any rivals for power in the Gaza Strip and doesn't want any militias active parallel to the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip." The source added that Abbas is currently determined to completely subjugate Hamas through the reconciliation process and isn't prepared to compromise: "The president (Abbas) is making it difficult with the Egyptians, who clearly warned that they won't have any mercy on he who causes reconciliation to fail and, at the moment, Abbas is the main one causing it to fail." Dutch Admit Their Tech May Have Helped Iran, Syria Develop Advanced Arms - http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/10/27/dutch-admit-tech-may-helped-iran-syria-develop-advanced-arms/ The Dutch government has admitted that technology from the Netherlands may have been used to develop weapons of mass destruction in Iran, Pakistan or Syria. Dutch intelligence services have received "indications in a number of cases" that "Dutch technology was used in programs of weapons of mass destruction or for the means of transmission in Iran, Pakistan or Syria", the outgoing ministers of defense, foreign affairs and foreign trade said in a letter published overnight Wednesday. In such cases, customs officials can launch investigations which may lead to prosecutions, they added in their reply to a question posed in parliament. Dutch intelligence services "every year uncover a substantial number of attempts by foreign entities to obtain know-how and materials for weapons of mass destruction," they wrote. An MP from Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD party had raised the issue in parliament after revelations made by the head of military intelligence Onno Eichelsheim in an interview with the Dutch news agency ANP last month. Eichelsheim said the Netherlands was "almost a supermarket for countries that want to develop these types of weapons" and warned that Dutch businesses and scientific establishments were perhaps not fully aware of the extent of the problem. Even small businesses selling such things as ball bearings or heat-resistant materials should be alert to the dangers, Eichelsheim said, according to the public broadcaster NOS. "Dutch companies must be aware that third countries may have an interest in products and high-quality technology services which could be used to manufacture" such arms, the ministers said. They added they are actively working to try to halt such exports in suspect cases. While the Dutch government does not draw up its own blacklist of people or entities known to act as go-betweens in the sale of such technology, it highlights the existence of international blacklists and sanctions. The Amazing Accuracy of Ezekiel - Jack Kinsella - www.omegaletter.com "And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. . .(Ezekiel 38:11) Some two hundred years after the political subdivision called the 'Kingdom of Israel' was destroyed by Sargon II, the prophet Ezekiel from the Southern Kingdom of Judah wrote from exile in Babylon. When Sargon destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, he did what conquerors did in those days; he transplanted the population of Israel to elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire, and then relocated elements of other subjugated people in their place. The purpose of this was to keep the populations docile. A people without a land have little to fight for. After a generation or two, they assimilate, and the new land becomes their land. This is how the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were lost to history, and from the beginning of the 7th century BC, there was no place left in the world called Israel. The surviving kingdom of Judah, known as Jews, was captured and partially assimilated by the Babylonians in the mid 5th century BC. They survived their captivity in Babylon, and later, the Medo-Persians, only because they were allowed to return to their own land by Artaxerxes. In Ezekiel's day, there was no place called 'Israel', had not BEEN a place called 'Israel' for 150 years, would not be another place called 'Israel' for 2,520 years, and besides, Ezekiel was a Jew from Judah. But Ezekiel's prophetic writings are filled with references to a future place called 'Israel', one that he describes as "the people that are gathered out of the nations" (38:12) and then further describes as "my people of Israel" (38:18) Ezekiel wrote of Israel's regathering in the last days. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is shown a valley of dry bones. Those dry bones, the Lord explains, are the "whole house of Israel"(37:11) that the Lord says would be restored in the last days. Six hundred years BEFORE the remaining Jews of Israel were scattered by the Romans, the Lord told Ezekiel of their regathering in the last days. "Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." (Ezekiel 37:21-22) The fulfillment of this prophecy could not be more obvious. The Jews of the Diaspora have indeed 'come from among the heathen' from 'every side' and returned to the Promised Land. In 1897, the first Zionist Congress petitioned the British Crown to allow the ingathering Jews to set up a state in what was the British colony of Uganda. At the time, Palestine was in the hands of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The British told them they should ask the Ottomans to let them have their historical homeland and turned the Uganda request down. Ezekiel prophesied that the regathering of Israel would be on their own land, "mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations" (38:8) Abba Ebban, one of Israel's Founding Fathers, wrote in his book, 'Personal Witness' that, right up until the last moment before issuing their 1948 Declaration of Statehood, they were quibbling about what to name the new Jewish State. Some liked 'Zion' others 'Judea' -- and it was only at the last minute, AFTER ben-Gurion had already requested the new state be recognized by Washington, that they decided on the name 'Israel'. Ezekiel foretold all this two and one half millennia before it happened. He said his prophecy was for "the latter days." (38:16) Assessment: It is worth noting again that building moats and walls to protect against invaders was a common strategic option in Ezekiel's day. For that reason, Ezekiel's reference to a 'land of unwalled villages' was generally interpreted as a metaphor for peace, rather than a literal condition. The only modern equivalent would have been the Berlin Wall, but it was built to keep people from escaping, not to defend against invasion. But Ezekiel's walls are clearly defensive -- the whole 38th chapter is about a war of invasion against Israel. And today, 2500 years after Ezekiel foretold it, and more than sixty years after Israel's restoration, the Israelis are building a defensive wall around their country. It is an iron-clad certainty that the wall will be built -- it is already partially completed and is proving its worth. Areas protected by the wall are already experiencing fewer terrorist attacks. It is equally certain that the wall will come down. The entire world community opposes it (although they are having a hard time explaining why) and Israel is already preparing to mount its defense at an upcoming trial before the World Court in The Hague to justify its continuation. There will be no way the World Court can force the destruction of the wall without some kind of peace guarantee the Israelis can accept and the European diplomatic corps is hard at work trying to come up with one. So far, they've had little success, but it is not from lack of trying. The wall is becoming a focal point of world attention, to the exclusion of the terrorism that created it, and it can only have one of two outcomes. Either the wall comes down before it is finished, or it will come down at some point in the future. There is no way the world community will learn to live with the status quo. Once the wall is completed, the Palestinians will have their defacto state, Israel will retain the high ground and more defensible borders, and the Palestinians will have to achieve statehood the old-fashioned way. By building one. You know, like the Israelis did. That will never be acceptable to the world community. They were the ones who created the Palestinians in the first place, and having created a people, it is incumbent upon them to provide them with a state. Since the Israelis are not cooperating in giving up theirs, the plan is to create one beside Israel and force Israel to support it by providing jobs to the Palestinians. Palestine had no independent status during the Ottoman Empire. As European powers expanded their foothold in the region and as Zionism brought Jewish immigrants to their ancestral homeland, no one could define Palestine's contours. A picture emerged only in the early 1920s under the British Mandate, which extended from the Jordan River to the sea, from the upper Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba. The 1948 war created a de facto partition, but no Palestinian state. Jordan took the West Bank, and Egypt grabbed the Gaza Strip, filled with refugees from Israeli areas that now included 78 percent of the British Mandate territory. When Israel captured the Egyptian Gaza and Jordanian West Bank in 1967, the 'Palestinian people' were created out of the displaced Arabs. The prophet Daniel, and both Paul and John foretell a peace agreement with Israel that kicks off the Tribulation Period. Daniel says that a leader of the revived Roman Empire confirms a peace covenant between Israel and her enemies, which he breaks halfway through. In context, one could assume the covenant involves a mutual defense agreement, since, after the walls come down, Ezekiel says a Russian-led Islamic alliance launches a sneak invasion against Israel. Ezekiel 38:13 says Israel's 'allies' launch what amounts to little more than a weak diplomatic objection. The literal fulfillment of prophecies penned tens of centuries ago continue to unfold in our generation. Right down to details such as Israel's Tribulation status as a 'land of unwalled villages'. The same Guiding Hand responsible for Ezekiel's unwavering accuracy and attention to detail also guided those prophecies that yet remain to be fulfilled. Don't let anybody steal away your excitement! We are that special, chosen generation who 'shall not pass away, until all be fulfilled." You are not grasping at straws, or following vague and ambiguous prophecies that can be explained away by calling them 'interpretations.' This is the real thing. "And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28) The Church Must Wake Up! - By Geri Ungurean - http://www.raptureready.com/2017/10/25/the-church-must-wake-up-2/ I voted. I always vote. And I voted for Trump. My father taught us that voting was not just a right, it was a responsibility for every citizen. My grandparents from both sides emigrated to America from Ukraine in the early 20th Century. I think my father viewed America as a huge blessing, in light of the never-ending persecution and slaughter of the Jewish people. My father would say to us "America may not be perfect but there is no better country." After WWII my dad realized that this country was truly the only one which supported the State of Israel. He also knew that the chances of a mass slaughter of Jews would likely never happen in the U.S. In these last days, I'm not so sure of that. From history.com On August 28, 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine. The German invasion of the Soviet Union had advanced to the point of mass air raids on Moscow and the occupation of parts of Ukraine. On August 26, Hitler displayed the joys of conquest by inviting Benito Mussolini to Brest-Litovsk, where the Germans had destroyed the city's citadel. The grand irony is that Ukrainians had originally viewed the Germans as liberators from their Soviet oppressors and an ally in the struggle for independence. But as early as July, the Germans were arresting Ukrainians agitating and organizing for a provisional state government with an eye toward autonomy and throwing them into concentration camps. The Germans also began carving the nation up, dispensing parts to Poland (already occupied by Germany) and Romania. But true horrors were reserved for Jews in the territory. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews had been expelled from that country and migrated to Ukraine. The German authorities tried sending them back, but Hungary would not take them. SS General Franz Jaeckeln vowed to deal with the influx of refugees by the "complete liquidation of those Jews by September 1." He worked even faster than promised. On August 28, he marched more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews to bomb craters at Kamenets Podolsk, ordered them to undress, and riddled them with machine-gun fire. Those who didn't die from the spray of bullets were buried alive under the weight of corpses that piled atop them. All told, more than 600,000 Jews had been murdered in Ukraine by war's end. - source (Emphasis mine) I fully understand why my father loved and cherished America. My father was saved before he died in 1997. I am glad that he did not have to experience the 8 dark and demonic years of Israel-hating Obama. This Last Election Voting is certainly not a spiritual act. I remember the words of Jesus when the Pharisees attempted to trick him by asking if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar: "But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money." So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22: 18-21). Jesus clearly showed the people that an earthly government had nothing to do with the Kingdom of heaven. To those of us who belong to the Lord, the election may have been about moral issues, but it was not a spiritual act. It seems that many Christians believe that voting for a Conservative was indeed an act for which they might receive a crown in heaven. This is ludicrous and is harming the body of Christ. Many in the Church have gone back to sleep WAKE UP CHURCH! We have much work to do for our Father! Are we not to share His Glorious Gospel to add souls to His Kingdom? This is not our home; we are merely passing through. We ARE to speak out against abortion. We ARE to defend the sanctity of marriage, regardless of the heinous decision of the SCOTUS which changed the Biblical definition of marriage. Yes - we ARE to do what we know is right. But the reason that our Father has allowed us to be here on this very day, is to be salt and light in this increasingly dark world! Millions are dying in their sins and will spend eternity in hell!
Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). This statement from our Lord Jesus does not leave any room for debate. And because He is the only way to the Father, we MUST be about our Father's business while we are still here. How will people know what Jesus meant by this passage of Scripture if we do not tell them? How Can I Be Saved? So we must wake up, brethren. You did well when you voted in the last election. Many of us voted the Bible; and what that means is that we voted for the person whose views on moral issues were closer to the Word of God. But that was not an act of Spiritual service to God. He wants His people to repent and turn from their wicked ways. He wants His people to tell others how to be right with Him. He wants His people to put Him first in their lives. MARANATHA! [email protected] Daily Jot: Swamp is deeper and darker than one can imagine - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com Reports of late are indicating that the corruption in the Democratic Party in collusion with Russia is akin to organized crime where influence was bought and sold and the weight of the US government was exploited to justify spying on a presidential candidate and other American citizens. We saw that the power of the IRS was used to suppress conservative free speech and the good will operations of Christian charities. Planned Parenthood was favored with protective regulations and taxpayer funding. When candidate Donald Trump said the swamp needed to be drained, however, he likely had no idea how deep and dark it is; what a monumental and life endangering task it would be. But there is more. Draining the swamp is bipartisan. Trump quickly found out that many of the Republicans on Capital Hill were part of the problem, not the solution. The Senate and House hierarchy set out to oppose, block and undermine the very agenda that the people of the United States elected Trump to accomplish. The rift within the establishment Republican stronghold against Trump continues to play itself out as Senators are so uncomfortable that they are opting to not run for reelection rather than face a would-be angry constituency. We have witnessed a globalist cabal fight Trump at every juncture to undermine his "America First" agenda-Even to the point of former President George W Bush admonishing Trump for putting America and Americans first. That swamp is deep and dark. A year ago just days before the election the FBI reopened (then subsequently said "nothing to see here") the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email scandal and a host of other issues. The Daily Jot reported "Her pay for play influence bribery scheme, acceptance of millions of dollars from terrorist sponsoring Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, and a host of other self-enriching scandals appear to expose Hillary Clinton as a governmental organized crime boss. Clinton's careless and seemingly criminal administration of America's most sensitive secrets, however, may be the final link that would make even the staunchest of Democrats finally believe that where there is smoke, there is hellfire." Think about this list. Add on top of it the recent reports that have been confirmed about Clinton, the ex-"president," and so on. Then add another layer of elected Republican congressmen and senators who are obstructing Trump's agenda rather than see their globalist gravy train come to an end. Indeed the swamp needs to be drained and President Trump faces an overwhelming task, for as Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies," and as is written in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it?" I'm not sure any of us know the depth and darkness at the heart of the DC swamp. Daily Devotion: Our Ultimate Future and Hope - By Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. -Hebrews 13:14 We tend to think of life on Earth as the real thing and Heaven as the surreal thing. But it is the opposite. Heaven is the real thing. All that precedes it is but a glimpse of things to come. Earth is a pale version of Heaven, not the other way around. Whatever great joys you have on Earth, as wonderful as they are, will be better in Heaven. Maybe you will have all the things you hoped for and more. Then again, maybe there will be things that surpass your wildest dreams. Heaven is the real thing, and Earth is effectively the copy. We are told in Hebrews, "They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven" (8:5). C.S. Lewis wrote, "The hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as a substitute is to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal." As my friend Randy Alcorn pointed out, the problem is that "we tend to start with Earth and reason up toward Heaven, when instead we should start with Heaven and reason down toward Earth." Heaven is the real deal, the eternal dwelling place. Earth is the copy, the temporary dwelling place. Heaven is the ultimate future and hope for the Christian. I am not suggesting, however, that life is miserable. Life can be wonderful. You can be going through a bad thing today that will be turned into a good thing tomorrow. There will be many wonderful, joyful moments on Earth, too. But the ultimate joy will come when we see the Lord in Heaven. We must not lose sight of that. 
FROM THE HEART
IF YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED THROUGH THIS MINISTRY, THEN WE ASK THAT YOU WOULD PLEASE REMEMBER PROPHECY UPDATE IN YOUR GIVING - WE ARE TRULY, TRULY, THANKFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT Prophecy Update has no corporate sponsors. This ministry is paid for and prayed for by readers and supporters. Without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update, Please pray about becoming a monthly supporter - thanks! If ever there was a time to invest in God's Kingdom, it's now! What on earth are you doing for Heaven's Sake? "Share in the Blessings and Rewards that will last Forever!" "Folks, it's all beginning to unravel. America is in more danger of falling than at any time in its history. But I believe Bible prophecy predicts this very decline. From this point on, we believers have to get serious. We are going to face discouragement, disillusionment and, most certainly, persecution in the time between now and the Rapture. But don't be discouraged or disillusioned. The coming turmoil will provide us unrivaled opportunities to share the good news of the Gospel. So be ready to share your faith and your hope with those who need Christ. We still have time to reap a great harvest of souls for God's kingdom!" - Hal Lindsey 1) We need your prayers!- We proclaim the Truth of the Word of God and we are under constant spiritual and sometimes even physical attack. 2) We need your encouragement!- We need to hear from you, let us know how the Lord is blessing you through this ministry so that we can share it with others. 3) We need your input! - If you have a prophetic article or story or if there is a news related item we missed, let us know. 4) We need your financial support!- To put it quite simply, without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update. I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us to get the Word out and keep the world informed. Remember, your gift, no matter how small, does make a difference! You will be helping to touch lives, around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to the internet your generosity carries a global impact! - Thanks! Our Prayer for You- "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." 2 Corinthians 9:10-13 Prophecy Update is a 501 (c) (3) tax exempt - non-profit organization, and all your donations are tax deductible. If you have been blessed by Prophecy Update and would like to help support this ministry financially. You can make a secure donation online by going to: DONATE NOW Or Visit our website: http://prophecyupdate.com/donations/ Or write us at: Prophecy Update P.O. Box 40516 Bakersfield, CA 93384-0516 
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