Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

_In This Judgment the Almighty Simply Hastened the Result of Their Own Actions
Sep 15th, 2020
Morning MeditationF. B Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

Nations are not destroyed until they are rotten at the core; as the north-east wind which snaps the forest trees only hastens the result for which the borer-worm had already prepared. It would have been clear to any thoughtful observer who had ventured out after dark in Sodom that it must inevitably fall. Unnatural crime had already eaten out the national heart, and, in the ordinary course of events, utter collapse could not be long delayed.

Go into the tents of Abraham, and you find simplicity; hospitality; the graces of a truly noble character, which guarantee the perpetuity of his name, and the glorious future of his children. Now go to Sodom; and in that sultry climate you find a population enervated with luxury; debased by cowardly submission to a foreign tyrant; cankered to the core with vice; not ten righteous men among them all; whilst the purity and sanctity of home are idle words. All these symptoms prognosticate, with prophetic voice, that their "sentence lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not."

This suggests a solemn lesson for ourselves. The tide of empire has ever set westwards. India, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, have successively wielded supreme power, and sunk into oblivion. Shall it depart from Britain, as it has departed from the rest? It need not do so. Yet, as we remark the increase of extravagance and luxury; the reckless expenditure on pleasure; the shameless vice that flaunts itself in our streets; the adulation of wealth, the devotion to gambling laxness of the marriage tie -- we may well entertain the darkest fears about the future of our fatherland. The only hope for us is based on the important part which we are called to play in facilitating the evangelization of the world. Should we once fail in this -- or should we send out more opium chests than Bibles, more spirit-sellers than missionaries --nothing can avert our fall.

Note....It is interesting that this was written a century ago.

The Persecution of Christians is Escalating Dramatically All Over the World
Sep 15th, 2020
CommentaryMICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Categories: Persecution

All over the globe, thousands upon thousands of Christians are being ruthlessly killed simply because of what they believe.  But if you only rely on corporate-controlled media sources for your news, you literally never hear about this relentless persecution. 

In fact, in this article I don't link to a single mainstream news source.  I had to go to Christian news websites to document what I am about to share with you, because the mainstream media avoids stories such as these like the plague. 

Of course if innocent people were being systematically butchered for a reason that aligned with the various agendas that they are constantly pushing, the mainstream media would be all over this.  It greatly upsets me that the deaths of Christians are treated as if they don't really matter, and we continue to see the global persecution of Christians escalate year after year.

For example, just take a look at what is happening in Ethiopia.  Extremists have been conducting a door-to-door campaign as they search for Christians to kill...

At least 500 Christians have been killed in an ongoing spate of coordinated door-to-door attacks and thousands of traumatized survivors have fled for their lives over the last two months in southern Ethiopia's Oromia regional state, including its capital Addis Ababa, according to reports.

For most of you, this is probably the very first time that you have ever heard about this.

This just shows the power of the mainstream media.  If they don't talk about it, then most of the population will never even know that it exists.

But we should be talking about it, because what is taking place is absolutely horrifying.  In some instances, Christian parents are literally being slaughtered in front of their children...

"The Qeerroo extremists arrived in cars and, armed with guns, machetes, swords and spears, sought out and slaughtered Christians. Children were forced to witness their parents being brutally murdered with machetes," it added.

An Oromo Christian was beheaded after he refused to tear off the thread around his neck, which is worn by many Ethiopian Christians as a sign of their baptism. The attackers told his wife that only those who prostrate before Allah for prayer are considered part of the Oromo community.

This should be one of the greatest human rights causes of our day, but the silence coming from the mainstream media is deafening.

It is almost as if there is a concerted effort not to talk about this.

But I refuse to keep silent.  These precious lives matter, and I am going to talk about them.

In South Sudan, 23 Christians were gunned down at a church gathering on July 27th, and the attackers apparently decided that was not enough and so they decided to burn down an entire village...

Meanwhile, in South Sudan, six children who had been taken hostage were among the 23 people killed when unidentified gunmen attacked an Anglican church in Jonglei State on July 27. At least 20 others were wounded.

"After killing people in the church, the gunmen went to the homestead village and killed people there," Bishop Moses Anur Ayom told the Episcopal News Service. "The gunmen burned down the whole village in Makol Chuei."

Once again, I'll bet you never heard about this story until now.

On the other side of the continent, thousands of Christians are being systematically eliminated by extremists in Nigeria...

This year already nearly 2,000 Christians have been mercilessly hacked and shot to death in surprise raids on their villages. These deadly, senseless attacks are often portrayed as ongoing clashes between farmers and herders. Those who follow closely believe they are part of a larger agenda -- seemingly supported by government officials and security agencies -- to drive Christians off their lands. Nigerian citizens have been disarmed by the government, but somehow, the Militant Fulani herdsmen are armed to the teeth and have no fear of encountering security response or capture.

This is something that has been going on throughout all of 2020, and this is another story that I'll bet you have never heard about until this article.

I could keep going through more examples in Africa, but let's switch gears.

In India, religious extremists regularly kill Christians, but those deaths rarely get much attention.  Here are just a few examples...

A young woman in the Khunti district of Jharkhand has become the fifth victim in a string of Christians killed in India because of their faith.

The woman, 25-year-old Suman Munda, was found dead on July 19 in a deserted place near her home, according to Vatican News. Just one month earlier, on June 24, another Christian, 27-year-old Ramji Munda, was killed outside a village in the Khunti district.

Overall, the number of attacks on Christians in India just seems to keep rising year after year.  In 2019, one group recorded "527 cases of persecution against Christians"...

The killing of Christians in India is on the rise.

In 2019, Persecution Relief, a group dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in India, recorded 527 cases of persecution against Christians, compared to 447 cases in 2018.

Sadly, the final number for 2020 will probably be the highest that we have seen so far.

But at least things in India are not as bad as they are in China.  As I have discussed previously, the Chinese government seems to have decided that the elimination of the Christian faith should be official government policy.  Over the past couple of years, countless churches have been raided, countless pastors have been imprisoned, and countless Bibles have been burned.

And even hundreds of pro-government "churches" that do everything that the central government tells them to do are still having their crosses taken down...

Bitter Winter reported on June 9 that crosses had been removed from over 250 state-run Three-Self churches in the eastern province of Anhui in the first four months of the year. According to the newly received information, an additional 656 state-run Protestant venues in the province had lost their crosses during the first half of this year, the total exceeding 900.

Thankfully, we aren't facing this level of persecution in the western world yet, but many of our politicians have used the pandemic that we are experiencing to implement very strict restrictions on Christian gatherings.

In fact, the city of Seattle temporarily shut down an entire park the other day in order to prevent a Christian worship event from taking place.  The following comes from Todd Starnes...

The City of Seattle shut down a local park in advance of a massive gathering of Christian worshippers.

Christians were banned from the park, but not Black Lives Matter or Antifa. Let that sink in, folks.

The organizers could have completely canceled the event, but instead they decided to take it to the streets and rebrand it as a "worship protest"...

But instead of canceling the event, the Christians simply relocated the service to the street and called it a "worship protest."

Brilliant!

It was wonderful to see such a diverse group of people all worshipping the Lord together under a beautiful blue sky.

But you can be sure that officials in Seattle will be brainstorming ways that they can prevent such a thing from happening again in the future.

Hatred of Christians is rapidly rising all over the globe, and it is going to get a whole lot worse in the years ahead.

Sadly, the corporate-controlled media will almost certainly continue to ignore the persecution that is happening because it definitely does not fit any of the agendas that they are trying to push.

That is extremely unfortunate, because every one of these lives that is being lost is of immense value, and their stories deserve to be told.

Revelation 12:1 Pt. 2 - Exploring Revelation
Sep 15th, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Prophecy;Book Study

THE SETTING

The Seal judgments and the Trumpet judgments have been unleashed on the earth. We are now beginning the last half of the tribulation period. The two witnesses have finished their testimonies, have been killed and caught up to heaven. Antichrist has also broken his covenant with Israel, Daniel 9:27.

The tribulation period has opened with Syria and Egypt coming against Israel. Then Russia and her allies, Iran and the Islamic nations that surround Israel have come against her. Both these attacks have been overcome. Actually God Himself had sent fire to annihilate Russia and the invading army.

Antichrist had taken the credit for the destruction of Russia, consolidating his position with Israel, appearing to be their Messiah. Until this midpoint of the tribulation, Israel had been living in peace and security guaranteed by Antichrist. Israel had been, for 3 ½ years practising Temple worship in the third Temple which had been built.

In Revelation 11:1 Israel and that temple worship had been evaluated. In verse 8, the evaluation is given, that is God's evaluation of Israel at this point. The purpose of this chapter is to bring Israel into focus. There is a great mystery surrounding Israel today. This chapter helps us to understand why they are in the land today. How they can survive though the Arabs around them out number them 50-1.

Revelation 12 represents the conflict of the ages, this conflict involves Israel, Christ, Satan and the Nations. This conflict describes the great conflict of the past and the great conflict of the future, however the present age of grace is not involved in Revelation 12.

Chapter12 is largely in symbolic form, rather than literal form. The bible is to be interpreted literally, that is the basic rule of interpretation. Always interpret the bible literally except where the bible indicates that symbolism is used.

In chapter 12, the Spirit of God speaking through John, goes to great lengths to emphasize that this is symbolic language. Why does the Spirit  do this? The answer is that the Spirit of God does not want us to take the rest of the book as also being symbolic language.

For the evidence that this chapter is symbolic language look verse 1, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven''. The word  wonder means a sign, wonder and sign are translated from the same greek word. So we can read it, There appeared a great sign in heaven. A sign is of course is figurative of a truth.

Verse 3, ''And there appeared another great wonder (sign) in heaven''. So in chapter 12 we have signs or symbols that are figurative of truth.

Chapter 12 is also a chapter of great things, we see a great wonder, a great red dragon, great wrath. And two wings of a great eagle.

This is a very important chapter in the book.

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 15th, 2020
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

For The Full Story Click on the Individual News Item

Tropical Storms Teddy, Vicky form as hurricane center tracks 8 systems; ‘storms everywhere’
As if one hurricane targeting the Gulf Coast of the United States and another moving directly over Bermuda on Monday wasn’t enough for forecasters, two tropical storms also formed within hours of each other. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Tropical Storm Vicky formed just a few hours after Teddy came together in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday morning.  The latest burst of activity marks only the second time in recorded history that five or more tropical cyclones have existed simultaneously in the Atlantic basin.

Sally intensifies, could wallop U.S. coast with 110-mph winds
The second strong storm in less than a month to threaten the region, Sally’s winds increased to 100 miles per hour (155 kph). It could wallop the Mississippi and Alabama coasts on Tuesday with devastating winds of up to 110 mph, on the cusp of becoming a Category 3 hurricane …

High number of coronavirus cases may be due to oversensitive testing
The criteria in Israel for determining by a lab test whether someone has coronavirus is higher than in many other countries, including Germany and the US. As a result, the number of people infected per million residents is very high in comparison. If new criteria of coronavirus tests are formulated, the number of those defined as infected with the virus will be noticeably lower, senior doctors in Israel believe.

Iranian Proxies Threaten Missile Attacks Against Israel and the UAE
“Yemen’s fighters and mujahideen, and among them the leader of the revolution, said a few months ago that we will strike Israel. We have missiles that can strike Israel and we will strike Israel and the Zionists. Today, we also say that the UAE has turned into a second Israel in the region.” “The Emiratis said today that they have given the island of Socotra to Israel,” Al-Halili said.

Iran weighing plot to assassinate US ambassador to South Africa
Officials have reportedly been aware of an ongoing general threat against U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks since early this year, however, new intelligence has revealed more specific threats against Marks. According to the U.S. government official, the Iranian embassy in Pretoria, South Africa is involved in the plot.

China’s military calls US ‘destroyer of world peace’
China’s Defense Ministry called the U.S. “the destroyer of world peace” on Sunday in response to a recent Pentagon report to Congress describing the threat of an expanding Chinese military.

Trump: Attack by Iran against US will be met with response 1000x greater
United States President Donald Trump threatened the Iranian regime on Monday over its planned assassination against the US ambassador to South Africa. Citing CIA and US intelligence sources, Politico reported that the regime was currently weighing an attempt on the life of Ambassador Lana Marks in response to America’s assassination of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in January.

Vaccine maker got $1 billion from taxpayers. Now it’s boosting drug prices
One of the world’s largest drug companies has been aggressively raising prices even as it received hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. government aid to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. AstraZeneca, which the Trump administration has celebrated for its vaccine work, boosted prices despite renewed promises by President Trump this summer to keep drug costs in check.

Robot can detect if people are wearing masks
A human-like robot called Pepper can now detect whether people are wearing a mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Pepper uses cameras to scan the faces of up to 5 people in a group, simultaneously, in order to check if they are wearing a mask. During the interaction, Pepper displays a green or red circle around the face on its tablet depending on whether the person is wearing a mask or not.

Scientists create gene-edited animals as ‘surrogate sires’ to boost food production
Scientists have created gene-edited pigs, goats and cattle to produce sperm with traits such as disease resistance and higher meat quality…genetically enhancing livestock to improve food production. The animals, created…using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9, could be used as “surrogate sires”…blank slates…transplanted with stem cells that produce the desired sperm…

Israeli strike kills 10 Iran-backed gunmen in Syria – Lebanese media
A suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria on Monday killed 10 fighters, including eight Iraqis, a Syrian opposition war monitor reported. Israel rarely comments on such reports, but is believed to have carried out scores of raids targeting Iran’s military presence in Syria in recent years.

Moody’s warns of crisis as it cuts Turkey’s debt rating
Turkey had its debt rating cut deeper into junk by Moody’s Investors Service, which warned of a possible balance-of-payments crisis in assigning the lowest grade it’s ever given to the country. The sovereign credit rating was cut to B2, five levels below investment grade and on par with Egypt, Jamaica and Rwanda.

Unprecedented numbers of birds are mysteriously dropping dead from the sky in New Mexico
Over the past few weeks, various species of migratory birds are dying in “unprecedented” numbers of unknown causes. And this growing number of birds in southern New Mexico that have mysteriously died have wildlife experts scratching their heads. “It is terribly frightening,” Desmond said. “…We’re losing probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of migratory birds.“

Sally rapidly strengthens into a Category 2 hurricane, extremely dangerous storm surge expected, U.S.
Tropical Storm “Sally” has rapidly strengthened into a hurricane by 16:00 UTC on September 14, 2020, becoming the 7^th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. At the time, its center was located about 220 km (135 miles) ESE of the Mouth of the Mississippi River. It had maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) and minimum central pressure of 985 hPa.

Eye of Hurricane “Paulette” moves directly over Bermuda
The northern eyewall of Category 1 Hurricane “Paulette” started moving over Bermuda at around 06:00 UTC on Monday, September 14, 2020. At the time, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) and was moving NW at 20 km/h (13 mph). Its minimum central pressure was 973 hPa.

Teacher Handouts Lesson Plan Comparing Law Enforcement To Slave Owners, KKK
While parents across the country battle the decision whether or not to send their children back to school, that is if they’re the lucky few who have the option, one teacher shows the nonsense kids may be going back to. A Westchester County high-school teacher handed out a controversial cartoon to 11th-grade students on their first day back at school.

Prof: White Christians deny climate change while West burns
A professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Oregon State University is claiming white Christians “turn away from the root causes of [climate] devastation” even while fires devastate western regions of the country.

Netflix ‘Cuties’ film ‘child porn’ uproar ensnares Obamas
The growing uproar over “Cuties” threatens to engulf the Obamas as they come under pressure to use their influence at Netflix to pull the provocative French film accused of glorifying the sexualization of girls.

Sally Strengthens Into Category 2 Hurricane Ahead Of Landfall Tuesday
The storm is about 135 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving west-northwest at five mph. Landfall is expected on Tuesday around New Orleans.

Left-wing arsonists are setting many of the wildfires in Western states… but why?
 It’s now abundantly clear that left-wing arsonists are setting many of the wildfires that are exploding across Western states. Naturally, Oregon fire officials have now “officially” denied the fires are being set by human beings, instead claiming all the fires are Trump’s fault because of “climate change.”

NOT CLIMATE CHANGE: Oregon Man Charged with Starting Fire with Molotov Cocktail – Went Back and Started 6 More Fires After Release
An arsonist in Oregon was arrested Sunday night for starting a brush fire with a Molotov cocktail. After his release he was arrested again on Monday for starting six more fires.

BlM Los Angeles Co - Founder: all Meetings and Protests Begin With the Pouring of Libation.
Sep 15th, 2020
CommentaryChristian News Network
Categories: Warning

BLM Los Angeles Co-Founder: ‘All Meetings and Protests Begin With the Pouring of Libation

LOS ANGELES — In a recent interview with a local radio station, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Los Angeles chapter co-founder Melina Abdullah explained that “meetings and protests begin with the pouring of libation” and the utterance of the names of the dead. She said that the practices are generally not allowed to be filmed in part due to the “demonization of the way in which we acknowledge spiritual energy.”

During the interview with KCRW, which was posted online on June 25, Abdullah, who also works as a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, was asked about the spiritual element of the movement.

She explained that spirituality “was always foundational to who we were,” and that on the first night they gathered, BLM participants summoned their ancestors as they stood in a circle under the moon.

“[T]here was always some component of spirituality,” Abdullah replied. “I think about the first night that we gathered and the summoning of ancestors to space and the very palpable spiritual energy that circulated through the group as we stood in a circle at St. Elmo Village, which is probably one of the most spiritual spaces in the city. … [W]e stood under the moon and pledged to build a movement.”

She outlined that as time went on, BLM began to be more purposeful about their organizing efforts, and as they

would “go pour libation at the ocean, we began to recognize the importance of spiritual energy and the fact that it had always been there, but we didn’t always recognize it collectively.”

Libation is an act that is defined as “a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit, or in memory of those who have ‘passed on.’”

“In certain African cultures, the ritual of pouring libation is an essential ceremonial tradition and a way of paying homage to the ancestors,” explains the site Powerful Black Stories. “Ancestors are not only respected in such cultures but also invited to participate in all public functions, as are also the gods. A prayer is offered in the form of libations, calling the ancestors to attend with an elder generally performing the ritual.”

As previously reported, in 2018, Abdullah poured libation and summoned the spirits of a number of deceased African American leaders during an event at Hollywood United Methodist Church. She instructed those gathered to declare “ashe” as she made declarations and poured bottled water into a plant.

Abullah was asked during the recent interview, for those who have not attended a BLM demonstration, to describe the opening of each protest. She stated that “[a]ll Black Lives Matter meetings and protests begin with the pouring of libation.”