What the Bible says about light and seed

The True Light "In him, (the Lord Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world,…the world didn’t recognize him." John 1:4,9.

The Good Seed and the Weeds “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seeds in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Matthew 13:24,25.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Breaking news -- Avi Lipkin


It’s official, America is in BIG trouble

Reblogged from servehiminthewaiting.com

Folks, at this point in time, the question of God’s plans for America, how it will all end, and whether we have “more time” is answered, because Scripture has already told us that those who curse Israel will themselves be cursed.  Can God be swayed?  Of course He hears the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men and women.  But on the question of the treatment of Israel, the verdict has already been announced, and is non-negotiable.  Chastisement is coming.  The only room for variableness, may lie in degree of severity, which is all the more reason to put on the armor, and fast and pray like never before.
Here is Jan Markell’s commentary on this:

Revenge, Abandonment, Betrayal
By Jan Markell
March 30, 2015

Did you ever expect to see those three words linked to the U.S.-Israel relationship? Have we fallen down a hole and we now are in an “Alice-in-Wonderland” world? America embraces her enemies and lifts sanctions on Iran. She will likely place sanctions on Israel. It is an upside down world. Is the Mad Hatter in charge?

Things aren’t falling apart–they’re falling in place.

The entire world is in the process of abandoning Israel which the Bible foretells in Zechariah 12:3. It is ultimately fulfilled in the Tribulation but the process begins much sooner.

Here’s what some are saying.

Pamela Geller, President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative  and Stop Islamization of America says, “The White House actions against Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu are a ‘jihad against the Jews.'”

She refers to the story broken by Israel National News that the Obama administration declassified a Department of Defense top-secret document with details of Israel’s nuclear assets, a highly covert topic that Israel has never formally announced to avoid a regional nuclear arms race.

Geller states that Israel has shared its nuclear secrets with America for decades. They just never imagined someone in the White House would stoop so low as to reveal them to the world.

Joel Rosenberg says, “There is mounting evidence that Obama is preparing to ‘divorce Israel.’ Once it would have been preposterous even to ask such a question. Today, it feels like it’s a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’ Mr. Obama will formally abandon American support for the Jewish State. And the situation is rapidly going from bad to worse.”

Rosenberg cites some headlines:
  • U.S. Could Abandon Israel at the U.N. (CNN)
  • Washington Threatens to Abandon Israel at the U.N. (Times of London)
  • The U.S.-Israel Relationship is at “The Lowest Point in the Alliance That Diplomatic Sages Can Recall (New York Times)
  • Israel-White House Relations at All-Time Low (Breaking Israel News)
  • Iran Deal Worse Than Israel Feared (Times of Israel)
Rosenberg states,”For an American President, or Congress, or the American people, to turn against Israel and the Jewish people would be more than bad policy or unfortunate politics. According to Bible prophecy, such moves would pose an existential threat to the future of the United States.” 

Israeli commentator Caroline Glick writes, “the administration’s animosity toward Israel is a function of Obama’s twin strategic aims, both evident since he entered office: realigning U.S. policy in the Middle East toward Iran and away from its traditional allies Israel and the Sunni Arab states, and ending the US’s strategic alliance with Israel.
“Over the past six years, we have seen how Obama has consistently, but gradually, taken steps to advance these two goals. Toward Iran, he has demonstrated an unflappable determination to accommodate the terrorism supporting, nuclear proliferating, human rights repressing and empire building mullahs.”

Find Jan’s newest DVD on which U.S. Presidents have blessed or cursed Israel here. What are the consequences of cursing? How has our current President contributed to this? The DVD is just $15 and runs almost 60 minutes..
White House correspondent Bill Koenig, my frequent conference and radio guest writes in his e-newsletter, Koenig’s Eye-View from the White House:“The more President Obama’s actions affect or jeopardize Israel’s security, the stronger the response will be from the God of Israel as evidenced in Scripture. This will have enormous implications for the United States.” 
Koenig writes, “The Obama administration keeps speaking about its unprecedented security cooperation with Israel, but what good is that if Iran gets nuclear weapons? What good is it if Iran deploys missiles in Syria and Lebanon, or Hamas takes over the Palestinian Authority, entrenches itself in the mountains of Judea and Samaria and brings in arms from Iran and Turkey? What good is it if Iran takes control of Yemen and the Red Sea?”

(Find info on subscribing to Koenig’s e-newsletter here. It’s well worth the nominal cost.)

Journalist Bill Wilson writes, “The U.S. government is trying to literally ‘cut’ Israel in half with its proposal of a Palestinian state. All that burden themselves with this issue may find themselves ‘cut into pieces.'”

The White House has also suggested Israel shrink her borders to PRE-1967 borders. Call them suicide borders. They are not defensible.

Bill Koenig states, “This is the White House that continues to leak information that puts Israel’s security at risk, while speaking of its close co-operation with Israel. This is the White House that pressured the Pentagon to leak potential Israeli military actions against Iran to the press in 2012, 2013, and 2014. This is the White House that leaks news about Israeli air strikes inside Syria.”

Koenig provides a complete timeline of Obama’s anti-Israel hatred in his newsletter. He quotes Breitbart News suggesting President Obama finally called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his re-election — but the “congratulations” was actually a lecture directed at forcing Netanyahu to surrender to the terrorist Palestinian regime.

Joel Rosenberg summarizes that we are watching Barack Obama:
  • Negotiate an incredibly dangerous nuclear deal with Iran.
  • Refuse to share the precise details of this deal with Israel, America’s most faithful and trusted ally in the region.
  • Treat the Israeli Prime Minister nearly as persona non grata.
  • Send his political strategists and operatives to defeat the Prime Minister and his party in Israel’s recent elections.
  • Threaten revenge because Netanyahu won re-election.
  • Threaten to abandon Israel at the U.N. and allow anti-Israel resolutions to pass without an American veto.
  • And now declassifies details of Israel’s top secret nuclear program in what is being described as an unprecedented move.
Rosenberg concludes, “This is the most dangerous moment in the 67-year history of the U.S.-Israel relationship. What do the next two years hold? I cannot say for sure. I’m praying for the President and his top advisers to back off, turn from this dangerous path, and find common ground with Israel, despite policy and personality differences.”

Iran is about to become a nuclear power player with the blessing of America and a few other blind-as-bats nations. That means many nations in the region will  have to pursue this goal as well. If you ever wondered what end-time references to fire, vapors of smoke, and the resulting strange signs in the heavens mean, I think it is obvious. At the time of the very end, nuclear war will be raging — for sure in the Mideast. Maybe it will happen before the Rapture. The timing of all such events is uncertain. The Bible references appear to be Tribulation-based.

Things are coming together. They are falling in place. Even if it seems they are falling apart, they really are not. Nations must have “distress with perplexity.” (Luke 21:25.)  Can you think of a single nation that is not plagued with some kind of perplexity or plague? A dilemma for which the leaders have no solutions.

Neither kings, generals, mullahs, ayatollahs, presidents, Fuhrers, or pharaohs can obliterate Israel. But the evil they perpetrate on God’s covenant land can boomerang back on them and their empires.

We have been warned. Scripture is clear. Mess with Israel and there are consequences.

“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)


  
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Awaiting His return, Jan Markell
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Monday, March 30, 2015

Left fears facts: From ‘gay’ marriage to climate change

The Plan All Along

By Hal Lindsey
 



According to conventional wisdom, just before the elections in Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu said things so egregious that the United States has been forced to rethink its position as Israel’s friend and advocate before the UN Security Council.  But the conventional wisdom is wrong.  The change didn’t come as a result of Netanyahu’s comments.  His words made a “handy excuse,” but the change in policy was the plan all along.  The following is a brief history of how we know this.
We know this from several sources.  One is a man named Martin Indyk.  He served as U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli–Palestinian Negotiations from 2013 to 2014.  In effect, he ran the peace talks for the Obama Administration.
Indyk now serves as vice president and director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution.  That organization recently received $14.8 million dollars from the government of Qatar.  The New York Times pointed to that transaction as a classic example of a foreign government buying influence in Washington.  Qatar’s philanthropy also extends to several terror organizations, especially Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Back in February, well before the election, Indyk told the Institute for National Security Studies, “If there is a government in Israel after these elections that decides to pursue a two-state solution, then there is a way forward.”  Otherwise, he said things would get ugly for Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported at the time that without a change in Israel’s government, “Indyk warned, there will be ‘international actions’ pursued not by the Palestinians, but rather by the international community ‘in terms of a Security Council resolution’ to ‘lay out and preserve the principles of a two-state solution in the future.’”
Security Council resolutions are subject to veto by any of its permanent members.  That means that these things could not happen without U.S. approval.  So, this ultimate Obama Administration insider — the man they chose to lead what they considered crucial peace talks — warned that the U.S. would turn on Israel if it re-elected Netanyahu.
In the understatement of the year, Indyk said such actions would likely be “against Israel’s will.”
This means that before the elections and before Netanyahu’s offending remarks (which he didn’t say anyway), the plan was already in place to withdraw support for Israel from the UN Security Council and other world bodies.  Blaming the shift on Netanyahu’s manufactured comments is simply a ruse at best.
Blessing and Cursing
The current strain in relations between the United States and Israel has been well-documented.  That relationship stands at the lowest point since Israel’s founding.  Statements against Israel made by the President and Secretary of State have been bad enough, but the level of rancor shown by lower level White House and State Department aids has been absolutely stunning.
The problem has been characterized as a clash of personalities between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.  But the real problem is Israel’s security.  The president and his men seem to believe that the Palestinians will turn into good guys when certain terms have been met – terms that have been debated and rejected, since they will leave Israel undefendable.
But Netanyahu and most other Israelis have heard such pipe dreams from previous administrations of both parties, and they’re not buying it anymore.  They know the history.  They remember their own recent experiences with the Palestinians in Gaza and the disastrous Oslo Accords.  From those giveaways, they learned that you will never win by trying to appease an insatiable foe.
The new American policy toward Israel has already begun to manifest itself.  The recent declassification of U.S. documents pertaining to Israel’s top secret nuclear arms program makes a good case in point.  What kind of nation tells the world its ally’s most important secrets?
On CBS’s Face the Nation, Peggy Noonan expressed the opinion of most observers when she said, “I think U.S.-Israeli relations right now are in the worst shape I have ever seen them in — the worst shape they have been in since 1948 when America was instrumental in inventing Israel.”
That’s an interesting phrase — “instrumental in inventing Israel.”  It’s hard to fathom how a 239 year old nation could possibly have “invented” a nation that came into existence over three thousand years ago.  Of course, she means the modern State of Israel, but it’s still not in any way an American “invention.”
Israel is God’s invention.  He created it.  He made certain promises to it and about it.  No matter what the United States does, God Himself will take care of Israel.  While the Bible tells about some terrible times in store for that small nation, it will endure.
And God will deal with nations according to their dealings with Israel.  In Genesis 12:3, He said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.”  [NASB]
Anyone who thinks that verse refers only to Abraham as an individual and not to the Children of Israel, should look at Numbers 24:9.  There the promise is repeated as an oracle from the Lord, but this time specifically to the nation of Israel.  “Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you.”  [NASB]
We see the pattern hold true throughout the Old Testament.  Even those nations used by God to punish Israel when it strayed, were themselves punished when they treated Israel poorly.  Babylon is a perfect example.
In 1948, the United States, led by President Harry Truman, became the first nation to officially recognize Israel.  He did so only eleven minutes after their Declaration of Independence became official.
 Warren Austin, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, was so outraged by Truman’s decision that he left and went home.  According to the Truman Library, Secretary of State Marshall had to send “a State Department official to the United Nations to prevent the entire United States delegation from resigning.”  Marshall did this despite the fact that he and most of the rest of the U.S. foreign policy team had also opposed Truman on the issue.
What followed for the United States was an era of growth and prosperity unlike anything in the history of the world.  From that time through 1973, the U.S. economy grew by almost 4% a year.  Household income grew an astronomical 74%.  Compare that to the last few years when we’ve seen household income actually fall.
When God said He would bless those who bless Israel, He meant it.  In the United States, we’ve seen it with our own eyes.  But if He meant one side of the equation, He meant the other side as well.  He will curse those who curse Israel, just as we see happening before our eyes to the United States.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

John Bolton: Bomb Iran Before It Gets the Bomb


Image: John Bolton: Bomb Iran Before It Gets the Bomb (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Thursday, 26 Mar 2015 02:47 PM
By Sandy Fitzgerald 



There is only one way to block the Iranians from building a nuclear bomb, according to former ambassador John Bolton: Bomb them first.
"The inescapable conclusion is that Iran will not negotiate away its nuclear program," Bolton wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times on Thursday. "Nor will sanctions block its building a broad and deep weapons infrastructure."


The "inconvenient truth," Bolton insists, is that "only military action like Israel's 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required. Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed."


Such an attack would not need to destroy Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure, but instead, Bolton said, would break key links in the nuclear fuel cycle and set back Iran's program by at least three to five years.

"Rendering inoperable the Natanz and Fordow uranium-enrichment installations and the Arak heavy-water production facility and reactor would be priorities," said Bolton. "So, too, would be the little-noticed but critical uranium-conversion facility at Isfahan."

The United States could thoroughly destroy the targets, he said, but Israel, acting alone, could also take the necessary steps. He also called for the action to combine with U.S. support for regime change in Iran.


Meanwhile, Bolton said, President Barack Obama's fascination with striking a nuclear deal with Iran could trigger a wave of nuclear programs throughout the Middle East.

"The president's biggest legacy could be a thoroughly nuclear-weaponized Middle East," said Bolton.

Experts have been worried for years that it would happen, said Bolton. As in other cases such as India, Pakistan and North Korea, the West should have been vigilant, he says, "but failing to act in the past is no excuse for making the same mistakes now."

Obama, like his predecessors, inherited the effects of past presidents' decisions, but is responsible for what is happening on his watch, Bolton said, and his "approach on Iran has brought a bad situation to the brink of catastrophe."

Meanwhile, comprehensive international sanctions have crippled Iran somewhat but have not stopped the nuclear program's progress.

"Even absent palpable proof, like a nuclear test, Iran's steady progress toward nuclear weapons has long been evident," said Bolton. "Now, the arms race has begun."

He noted that Saudi Arabia is expected to move first, as "no way would the Sunni Saudis allow the Shiite Persians to outpace them in the quest for dominance."


Analysts believe that Saudi Arabia is able to get nuclear weapons from Pakistan, and Bolton said Egypt or Turkey would not be far behind.

Israel's nuclear capability, though, is mainly seen as a deterrent, not as an offensive measure, and has not brought on an arms race, but Iran is different.


The evidence is mounting that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey are quickening their pace for nuclear weapons of their own, said Bolton.

"Saudi Arabia has signed nuclear cooperation agreements with South Korea, China, France and Argentina, aiming to build a total of 16 reactors by 2030," said Bolton.

The Saudis have also held recent meetings with leaders from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, and "nuclear matters were almost certainly on the agenda."
Bolton said that Pakistan could quickly supply weapons, and he warned not to rule out North Korea dealing behind the backs of its Iranian allies "for the right price."


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Rev. Graham: ‘Don’t Shut Up!’ – ‘Homosexuality is Wrong’ & Abortion is ‘A Sin Against God, It’s Murder’


Reblogged from  cnsnews,com,blog
March 26, 2015 - 5:30 PM
While many Christian pastors are afraid to preach against homosexuality and abortion because some people in the pews complain, claiming their child is gay or abortion is a choice, the pastors must not shut up, said Rev. Franklin Graham, emphasizing that the sole guide is the Bible, which teaches that homosexual behavior “is wrong” and that abortion is “murder.”



 Rev. Graham, 62, also stressed that pastors and the church must not shrink from teaching young people moral truth because most of the schools and colleges teach that immorality, such as homosexuality and abortion, is “okay.”

“Don’t you shut up!” Rev. Graham told attendees at The Awakening 2015: Rebuilding the Wall in Orlando, Fla.

“It [abortion] is a sin against God, it’s murder,” he said.  “And today, young people in the church don’t know that homosexuality is wrong. Because pastors aren’t speaking about it.”

“And they [young people] go to school and the teachers in the school tell them that it’s okay,” he said. “That it’s all right. That God made them that way. That’s the way they are. And it’s a choice. That’s what they’re teaching. So young people today, in the church, don’t get it in the church – they believe this is okay. ‘What’s wrong with you guys being against this stuff? It’s all right.’”

“And they believe it because they hear it at school,” said Rev. Graham.  “But they don’t really hear it in the church. I’m just saying, in the church we have a voice. And people want to know, how do we navigate? See this right here? (He holds up a Bible.) This is the way we navigate. It’s the Word of God, and we preach the Word of God cover to cover.”
gay marriage
Commenting further on homosexuality, Rev. Graham said, “A lot of pastors have quit preaching against homosexuality.  You know why?  Because they are afraid that there may be some man or some woman in the congregation whose son or daughter is gay.”

“And so you speak against homosexuality and all of a sudden that person in the church is saying, ‘Wait a second, my son or my daughter, and listen, God made him that way and God loves him and for you to preach against them,’” said the reverend.

“Then, all of a sudden, that couple or that individual they begin to go to other people and all of a sudden you’ve got this yack, yack, yack going,” he said.  “Then all of a sudden there’s a whole group of people coming to the pastor going yack, yack, yack, yack.”
He continued, “Then the pastor is saying to himself, ‘You know what, I’m just up here by myself swinging and now I’ve got the church turning against me, I’ll just shut up.’  Don’t shut up! You don’t shut up!”

“And if the people are coming up to you going yack, yack, yack and they want to run you out of the church, let them run you out of the church,” said Rev. Graham.  “Go to another church – let them have that [first] church. God will bless you and He’ll honor you, if you speak up and tell the truth.”
bible
(AP Photo)
“Abortion. The same thing,” said Rev. Graham.  “Pastors are, ‘I don’t want to talk about that because there might be some lady out there and, you know, if I talk about abortion she’s going to get upset.’ Next thing you know, here she comes yack, yack, yack.  Then also here comes another person and another person. Now I’ve got a little committee of these yack, yack, yacks coming. And life is just short and I just don’t need this headache, so I’m just going to shut up.”

“Don’t you shut up!” he said.  “It [abortion] is a sin against God, it’s murder.”
Franklin Graham is the son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, who is now 96 and retired at his family home in Montreat, N.C. Over the last 55 years, it is estimated that Billy Graham’s preaching reached 2.2 billion people worldwide through radio, television, and public rallies.

Rev. Franklin Graham is president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the international Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse.

The Awakening 2015: Rebuilding the Wall, was sponsored by the Liberty Counsel.  On its website it says, “The Awakening 2015 was an in-depth Prayer and Patriotism event where people were united by love for our country’s freedom and our faith in Christ. We hope to educate, motivate, and activate you to make a difference in your community in 2015!”

My level of disgust is severely eroding my tolerance for news these days

Reblogged from servehiminthewaiting.com    

 

I can hardly bring myself to address some of the pure unadulterated B.S. that is the behavior of our elected officials, broadcasters, and even some Christian bloggers these days.  Does anyone have standards anymore?  I have been doing this blog for three years, and sometimes there simply are no words to address the goings-on.  I’ve unsubscribed to so many “sources” in the past year, it’s not even funny!

Why would a “Christian” blog do an article about the lasciviousness of Nicki Minaj, complete with an x-rated photo of her G-string clad posterior?  This is pornography.  Why perpetuate it?  I understand that sometimes a person can re-blog something and not be aware that a photo will show, or post a video that they may have been momentarily distracted or interrupted and miss some brief segment that had they seen it, they would have refrained from posting.  But come on!

And the speculation, the intrigue, the absolute ignorance of scripture!
Is it me, or does it seem like the entire world has lost its ever-lovin’ mind?  Our President is a criminal, our markets are rigged, our military is being systematically emasculated, and I say that without apology to the female soldiers, because a real woman gets it.  Scientists are trying to open portals to parallel dimensions.

Look, I don’t know if Ted Cruz (or the platform he purports to represent and deliver)  stands a chance, but I do know this, anyone who is holding out hope, who has some  pie in the sky conviction that “of course things are going to turn around”, you need to understand something.  If there is a turnaround, it will be only because somewhere someone was wiling to face the hideous truth about how grossly rebellious this nation has become, and they got on their face and they begged God on the basis of His Mercy alone, to forgive the sins of this nation and to give it one more chance.  And if God grants that mercy, it will be for the sake of the salvation offered in Christ Jesus, because He paid for the sins of this world and it is Gods desire that all would come to salvation, though He knows all will not do so.

There is a whole lot of damage that is going to need to be addressed.  The utter destabilization of the Middle East is a fact and America is not the center of this world.  If someone doesn’t find some testicular fortitude and rein in the madman in the White House before he utterly destroys this nation’s alliance with Israel, this nation is in for a world of hurt. God’s time-table revolves around Israel. What will be will be, just as it has already been written in scripture, but there is still about a flea’s eyelash worth of room for America’s ultimate legacy to be salvaged.  God judges people, and He judges nations.

I know that there are people who have been on their face before the Lord.  I’m not talking about the ones who imagine themselves as “taking dominion”, WE LOST THAT IN THE FALL.  Don’t tell me you are praying for this nation if you are going to pray in ignorance.  And don’t tell me that I’m too wrapped up in the “negative”  Listen, Jesus gave us a model prayer.

Our Father, if you aren’t saved, stop right there.  You father is the devil.

Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Hallowed. Do we even know what that word means any more?
His name is Holy because HE is Holy.

Sodomy is a sin, there is no such thing as gay marriage, marriage is a holy sacrament, a covenant that was created by God, and two men do not qualify, nor do two women, and if anyone has an issue with that, take it up with GOD.  Because you can be sure He is going to take it up with you, and you can hunt me down, and you can torment those who stand on the truth, but you are only storing up wrath against yourself which God will address in His good time. To put it in the inane language of the current day, yes, Sin really is a “thing”.
It’s not some passé societally-dictated device.

And hell is a real place.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it seems to me like we need to just take up our positions and get on with this thing.  This “tolerance” garbage is getting really old.  If you think God is love and that’s all He is, you are in for a very rude awakening.  If you think that a Christian owes it to the rest of the world to shut up and sit down and roll over, you are utterly mistaken about what it means to be a Christian.

Love that is not founded in truth is not love at all.  It is mere flattery.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
What a glorious day that’s going to be!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Israel national anthem - A Capella

Blog author´s note: This doesn´t sound like an aggressive hymn of conquest, does it? Rather it is representative of the spirit of shalom that motivates the Jewish people to seek to live in peace with their neighbors. I love this prophecy of Zacharias in Luke 1. The Jewish people is still waiting for their Prince of Peace, the desire of the nations.

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant—
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—
71 [aq]Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us;
72 To show mercy toward our fathers,
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;
77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation
[ar]By the forgiveness of their sins,
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us,
79 To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of PEACE.”


HaTikvah ("The Hope")

Israel's National Anthem
The words to Israel's national anthem were written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, an English poet originally from Bohemia. The melody was written by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia. Cohen actually based the melody on a musical theme found in Bedrich Smetana’s "Moldau."


Listen Now!!


As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,
With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,
Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost:
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Deuteronomy 30 New American Standard Bible (NASB)


Restoration Promised

30 “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you [a]call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and [b]obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore [c]you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the [d]earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will [e]bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

I was not saved by a loving Jesus wooing me

Reblogged from  the-end-time.blogspot.com
I wasn't saved by love. The Gospel was not attractive to me. It was not made attractive to me by smiling Christians. I was saved by wrath.


This is NOT my Jesus
Glorious Jesus who was and is and is to come did not woo me to the cross. No one fulfilled my felt needs. No one befriended me and cajoled me into loving Jesus. He battered my head with a 2X4, dragging me kicking and screaming to the cross, where He made me face my sin. Once I saw my sin, I saw His coming wrath for it.

I repented.

THEN I loved Him. After He opened my eyes I saw all His loveliness and grace and mercy and long-suffering and patience and grief over sin and sinners. But I was not wooed, nor was I loved onto Mt Moriah. It is not true that "Jesus won't come where He isn't welcome". It is not true that "Jesus won't force Himself on anybody." He is sovereign God! He goes where He pleases! (Psalm 24:1). He drop kicked Saul/Paul to the ground AND blinded him! He didn't ASK Mary if she'd like to become pregnant and an object of ridicule and rumor the rest of her life. No, He sent an angel to TELL her how it was going to be. (Luke 1:30-37)

He isn't wringing His hands in heaven hoping that Jane or Tom or Mary will believe in Him, and maybe they will, if he just sends the Spirit to soften the pew cushions ... or energizes the preacher with a louder "WOO!" ... or if the musician plays one more verse of "Just As I Am." Maybe if He can make church "exciting" then Harry will repent and believe. No.

It was the sovereign wrath that convicted me and convinced me. It is why I love passages like this.

The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin ~1853

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

Let us begin the marveling now. Marvel at a Savior who saves by His sovereign election, will, purpose, and plan! Marvel at He who is wrath and judgment and holiness and fierce anger! Be afeared of His anger over your sin. Marvel that El Shaddai... El Elyon ...sent His Son to take on all anger for sin. Marvel that He is also Jehovah Rapha, and Jehovah Jireh, the LORD that heals, the LORD will provide. Marvel at the wrath. It makes marveling at the grace all the more sweet.

Wide is the Gate - Volume 1

Turning Against Israel - Hal Lindsey

Reblogged from http://www.hallindsey.com/watchman-warning-3-23-2015/

According to the media, on March 16th, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu told the world there will never be a Palestinian state as long as he serves as Prime Minister.  There’s only one problem.  That’s not what he said.
Here’s what he actually said.  “I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to radical Islam against the state of Israel.  There is a real threat here that a left-wing government will join the international community and follow its orders.”
The key word is “today.”  That means, “Under the present circumstances”… “As things are now”… “In the current situation.”  “Today” does not mean “forever.”
In media coverage, we rarely hear the actual quote. Instead, they describe him as saying “as long as I’m Prime Minister.”  But he didn’t say “as long as.”  He said, “Today.”
The New York Times characterized Netanyahu’s statement as “declaring definitively that if he was returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state.”

The New York Daily News called such assessments “pure bunk.”
The Daily News seemed to be one of the few major news outlets to examine Netanyahu’s actual words.  Their editorial showed how reasonable his comments were.  “Israel would necessarily have to surrender territory to the Palestinians under any two-state pact,” they wrote.  “Netanyahu’s indisputable point was that doing so, as the facts on the ground now exist, would better position hostile forces to launch assaults.”

The media loves what they see as the story of the “real Netanyahu” coming out in the heat of the campaign, and showing his true feelings regarding a two-state solution.  Why should they bother with the facts when the fiction perfectly fits their prejudices?
The Obama administration also seems intent on reading the worst into Netanyahu’s statement.  The Department of State is the department of diplomacy.  They usually bend over backwards to see the words of foreign leaders, especially allies, in the best possible light.  Yet, the opposite is happening here.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, President Obama said, “We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available.”

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t say it.  It doesn’t matter that he later explained in interview after interview that his words didn’t mean it “wouldn't happen during his prime ministership.”  It doesn’t matter because the administration sees this as an opportunity for leverage over Israel.

The president and his team have decided that under Netanyahu’s leadership Israel will never give up East Jerusalem, nor negotiate away Israel’s national security.  They now believe that a negotiated peace is not possible.  So their new plan seems to be an imposed peace.  They’re using Netanyahu’s statement (the one he never really said) to give them political cover for turning against Israel.

The president misrepresented the prime minister’s position, then said, “That's why we've got to evaluate what other options are available….”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest threatened that Netanyahu’s campaign statements will “have consequences.”  A senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal that such consequences might involve “potential action at the U.N. Security Council.”
The Security Council is the only United Nations body authorized to issue binding resolutions to member states.  The one safeguard is that permanent members of the Council have veto power over such resolutions.  In the past, the U.S. used its veto power to protect Israel.  But the U.S. now threatens to use Netanyahu’s supposed comment as an excuse to remove its protection.

On April 1st, the Palestinians will officially become part of the International Criminal Court.  Their expressed purpose in seeking membership has been to gain the ability to file war crimes suits against Israel.  Will America have Israel’s back?  It’s being “reevaluated.”
The BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) against Israel has had little impact so far.  However, the United States government’s newly inflamed anger against Israel gives anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes new political cover.  In fact, rage against Israel has become politically correct on university campuses worldwide, and from there it’s spilling over into the streets.  If the U.S. government turns on Israel, the rage will go unchecked.

Will the United Nations be allowed to simply draw new borders at its own whim?  Will Judea and Samaria be stolen from Israel by international fiat?  Will trade restrictions on Hamas-run Gaza be removed allowing that terrorist organization to openly import its weapons of terror?  Will East Jerusalem be taken from Israel and given to the Palestinian Authority, a group now actively partnering with terrorist Hamas?

The angry U.S. response to Netanyahu has had the effect of hardening Israel into a position it never took and the U.S. never wanted — no two-state solution, no more dividing the land.  Interestingly, that has been God’s position all along.  In Joel 3:2, the Lord speaks of judging those nations who “have divided up My land.”


America has been Israel’s staunch defender for many decades.  But Zechariah 12:3 speaks of a time when “all the nations of the earth will be gathered against” Jerusalem.  Is the United States now turning to this dark side?

Folks, things are happening fast.  The return of Jesus is very, very close.