Hear the heraldry of your distant enemy call out to you in the night warning of coming onslaught, provoking your dread and fear, promising destruction by dawn’s arrival.  We know it’s not the truth but to listen tickles that unhappy doubt, prodding the imaginary downfall as if assured.  The shrill voice of darkly wisdom declaring victory for the powerful, the rage-minded and the merciless.  Silence echoes its frightening voice of tinnitus to equilibrium and dispelled courage.  Oh how can I stand against such raw, frightening prowess as prey to hyena’s jaw or tinder to open, savage inferno?  I am lost, I am riven, I am laid low bereft of will, might or sword arm.  Defeat is my choice to gain in trade what I may lose in battle, I sell my hope for a piece of nightmare, darkness and leniency.

This is the enemy.  The story of surrender to naught but a noisy night-shade, having already lost all his potency, shouting pompous threats through a megaphone, laughing as so many fall to the deception.  Giving in to a defeated, damned tyrant whose flag lay scorched, tossed aside a burning lake waiting his arrival.  The power to deceive given to him by each man losing sight of God, trusting not in the Creator of All, preferring to give way to fearful brigands.

Rebuke them Oh, my Mighty Christ The King Of ALL.  Send them to the depths if that be Your Will Lord, but remove them from my life, prohibit their whispers to my brothers, friends and charges.  Keep us clean, prepare us for this battle, which on such a day as the world has never seen will find You standing alone, victor over all unrighteousness.  Shatter all the enemy’s proffered illusion to the masses, sold for the price of eternal freedom.  Make his treasure worthless and pitiable.

I pray that all may come to You Lord seeking shelter and salvation, but I know Your Word says that this will not happen, so I pray for their immortals souls to be bequeathed to Your Justice and grace.  Forgive them Lord, they are blind and alone.  Grant them sight, Father, Grant them sight so that they may escape the tendrils of the succubus.  Set them free, indeed.  Praise You Almighty God, Maker, Keeper and Judge of All things from beginning to the end and beyond.  Your Word Be Praised, in Jesus’ Name I pray.  Amen.

http://youtu.be/XXOGCFHtOu8  Avoidance, aloofness and turning a blind eye.  The world’s attempt to placate the Middle East at an unacceptable cost.

The world matches the Word.  Loving this life and hoping that everything will remain copacetic is a dynamic for conflict with the Kingdom.  For things are not remaining constant, ceteris paribus is not the motto of our current era.  Russia for the first time is teaming up with the likes of Iran in pursuit of pacification and domination of the Middle East.  A scenario architecturally detailed in Ezekiel 38 and 39.  Turkey seeks return to the empirical stature of Ottoman history.  North Africa is wrought with Muslim passion for conquest, while Syria struggles to pacify the forces of tyrannical resistance.  Increasingly powerful storms strike weekly, earthquakes increase exponentially and local wars rage. The global economy is in disarray, carbon emissions are poisoning the oceans and the sky while violent pursuits and bloody octagon battles have become our children’s entertainment, passion and pursuit.  What about any of this belies an underlying current of prevailing peace?

People have decided that collective “spirituality” is the route to world salvation and that somehow unproven evolution will take us to the desired golden age of prosperity hitherto unavailable.  Our leaders are disingenuous talkers, our children are angry, disenfranchised and manic, our finances are uncertain, population levels threaten the sustainability of available resources and uncontrollable diseases continue to change the face of third world nations.

Who in their right mind would seek to maintain this current scenario?  What judge would come to this type of conclusion based upon the litany of current, global evidence toward the contrary?  This world is winding down, as the Bible foretold and yet even Christians fail to heed the consistent warnings of repentance, preparation, witness and right-living.  The Bible is the truth.  The lie and delusion is that somehow the sinking ship called “humanity” will suddenly right itself.  That somehow, men who have lied, stolen, raped, killed and dominated the weak throughout history will suddenly see their own wickedness and turn from their perilous path.  This vessel is going down, the rats have left and all that remains are godless victims left with a hope that they do not comprehend, ill equipped, ill advised and infected with the sin which punctured the ship at the outset of our dilemma.  When rapture occurs there will be no church-voice remaining calling the world to rationality.  The world will crave its true master and will be ripe for the entrance of the son of perdition, echoing their mantra of false peace, false hope, false love and dishonest salvation.  But that’s okay, he must first come before Christ may return to set the world straight.

The world’s coming hope is Christ the King.  He will give a new ship named appropriately, Righteousness.  Give a new relationship driven by Love, care and kindness and honesty.  And then in the end when all illness had been eradicated He will give a new home called New Jerusalem where we will reside with Him in peace throughout eternity.  Ah, the thoughts of breathing air without sin, pollution and worry.  Put your faith in Jesus, the only Salvation, the only Hope, the Rock of Ages.  The Messiah, the ruler of all God’s creation, the Light, the Truth, the Lion and the Lamb.  Thank you King Jesus.

I didn’t say that I loved them as the world went speeding bye.  I didn’t say how excellent I felt in the warmth of the afternoon sky.  I didn’t tell the story to everyone I met and missed every opportunity to voice out my regret.  I didn’t read the wisdom within the hallowed book or cry for deep discernment to the mysteries I mistook.  I didn’t say good morning before the noon day sun and wondered where they’d gone to as evening soon was done.  I didn’t say God help us in passion and in prayer, reluctantly recanting each plea that I’d lain bare.  I didn’t wake the city to warn them with my hope providing strong footing for all on slippery slope.  I didn’t tell Him thank you for forgiveness, love and grace and for giving me an eternal smile in my heart and on my face.  I didn’t say God Bless to all who would be saved instead choosing my own service to the idles that I craved.  I didn’t find the answer because I never stopped to ask, thinking myself unequal to even the smallest task.  I spoke so many phrases my words were never short but as I rambled endlessly, I did it all for sport.  Some times I spouted wisdom accidentally or just by chance and found my way to fortune and even to romance.  But the parts of life so empty along this golden way could have been filled with great treasure by the things I didn’t say.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/09/us-usa-housing-churches-idUSBRE82803120120309  And the churches continue to say that they can borrow enormous amounts of money to fund elaborate edifices without consequence to ignoring the Lord’s commands.  Fiddlesticks.  To the current America/Laodicean Church I recommend the following words of the Lord Jesus,  “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:  These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  I know your deeds, and you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Revelation 3:14-22

http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/Archive/News/Stakelbeck_Terror_030612_WS  Evidence thwarts speculation

http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/Archive/News/Stakelbeck_Terror_012512_WS  Be informed, be warned, be in prayer

Darkness drops upon early evening, just enough remaining light to make out shapes in the distance.  Street noise winding down as rush hour traffic turns into moments of free time before sleep.  A light rain falling, I slowly roll down the road-side path on my bicycle, bouncing up and down on the uneven pavement.  My thoughts review the day and I recognize a bit of anxiety knowing that I am still far away from home and the coming night will make my travel more difficult.

As I bring my nerves under control I look over my left shoulder at the commuter train, approaching from the southeast.  The snaking metal behemoth sounding its body-shaking horn several times prior to crossing the roadway in its off-perpendicular passage.  Three quarters of the way across the road I am brought to an abrupt halt as a speeding, dump-truck drives full throttle into the side of the train two cars behind the locomotive.  As the explosion and twisted metal ensue I realize that there are no lights on the train and the warning signals for the train crossing are not flashing.  My immediate shocks turns to horror as for the next thirty seconds, seven other vehicles of various size and shape follow the dump truck into the same spot on the side of the train.

I want desperately to run and help but I cannot reach the ghastly scene as each successive vehicle joins the collision.  In the instant I am crippled by inaction, I wonder briefly what the next hour will look like, not even imagining what tomorrow will bring.  My reaction is endemic of a reactive man to calamity.  What would I have done had I been prepared for such horrific conditions?  Of all the feelings that I could possibly experience, this paralysis, fear and helplessness is the worst.  A pain for which there is no ointment but Christ.  A response for which there is no other sensible course of action, but preparation of the mind, body and spirit for any other potential or future episode.  Experiential pain.

Walking alone on the busy boulevard reminiscing over things, loves and endeavors.  What have I remembered which should have been forgotten, what have I forgotten that which should be recalled?  Did I make anyone smile today, feel better about themselves or feel appreciated for the work that they were doing?  Did I care, actually care, not just listen waiting to give my well-thought out rendition of the next brightest thing I could conjure up?  Are people something which serves my need, ego or artifice or do I actually give a hoot about what resides at the heart of their concentric circles?  Is this world here for me or am I truly made to serve this world on my way to a better place for having learned all there is for me to garner from this life space?

Do children welcome me with gladness, do woman feel that I want to listen and therefore back me up when criticism comes to call?  The Lord says things like, What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?  Ecclesiastes 1:3  I ponder the fate of all men and realize that we all face the same maker based on the same rules in roughly the same amount of lifetime.  There is none of us different, that is the fairness of our Lord.  He loves us all the same and gave of Himself for all men, so that none can say there has been any partiality, superiority or favor.  Do I reflect this measure with which God looks upon all His creation?  Do I show all the same love, the same care the same attention?  Perhaps, not I will reflect on this on the walk back to my resting place.

“Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.  However many years a man may live let him enjoy them all.  But let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many.  Everything to come is meaningless.  Be happy, young man, while you are young and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.  Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.  So then , Banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.”
Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

There is a price for all my action or inaction.  Am I conscious of said cost or do I flippantly approach life in a sarcastic or selfish mannerism as not to weigh this accounting wisely?  Will I treat the next ten people I meet with the same comprehension?  Lord, teach me to be an excellent steward of the things, loves and endeavors.  So that I may bring glory to Your name in my use of your provision.  Give me grace, understanding, wisdom and peace and train me to love all the same way that You would have me care for them.  In Jesus’ Holy Name, Christ my Savior, Hope and Eternal Loving King.  What a glorious ring.

Lord, may I bless you with a jubilant heart?  You deserve my undivided attention.  Let me for this brief time lay aside those things which struggle to monopolize my attention.  For a moment, today Lord I got to witness in a substantial way to one of Your creation.  A young man seeking answers and wrestling with the half-truths he has been given, about Your plan for humanity, and the love which eludes him.  Dumfounded, as always at that moment when You prepare them for a message.  Amazed at the process which causes them to break down at certain point and ask for the Good News of Your Kingdom, even if for the duration of our relationship they had fought, avoided and cajoled me.  I am so very grateful that You would choose me to deliver this impassioned plea.  I hope that I brought glory to Your name in this young man’s eyes and that we will see him among the citizen’s of heaven.

Lord, please give me the words to convince my brothers and sisters that the time is preciously near.  Evidence of the coming persecution of believers stacks up daily and yet I fear that it is not being reviewed and thus heeded as preparation warning.  We were made to be tested by the fire’s of this world and the next.  Our meddle tempered to stand against the lashes of time and produce actions, resolve and tenor consistent with Your glorious intention.  I see many fellow Christians becoming something akin to the believers of old, standing in the face of impossible circumstance, proclaiming the truth in justice and wisdom.  I plead to You Father that You awake those who will be blindsided by the one to come in his own name.  Let us plant a seed of Your love in their soil, so deeply that even the fires of tribulation do not prevent its blossom.  Bring us awake to the time and the season.  Give us a heart of service for others, denying ourselves to fulfill Your will, in time to bring all who would be saved to the Cross.  Save them from the wrath to come.  Open their eyes to our missteps, straightening our path to thee.  In Your Mighty, Holy, Precious, Glorious, Resounding Name I pray.  Lord Jesus, bring us home.

http://youtu.be/IOetBYPBz6A  Sent in by Jamie regarding the current luke-warm church

• What is the cost of indulgent sin?

This illustration seems to paint a clear picture of the relative importance of even the smallest iniquitous infraction.  If you have a fifty-five gallon barrel of cool, clean water, let’s say something like those jugs that Jesus changed to wine for the wedding.  Then you take an eye droplet of cyanide, yellow-fever, arsenic or whatever deadly poison/virus you can find and drop ONE droplet of that substance in the barrel.  Would you then allow anyone you love to drink from that barrel?  This allows clear distinction of the cost of being tainted or remaining unpolluted by this world.  ONE droplet, one persistent sin, one exception to disobedient behavior can ruin the entire skin of new wine or water.  Yes, we will be forgiven each infraction, because the Lord knew that we would continue to sin, but must we continuously be returned to purity?

How do you explain the Lord’s direction to Joshua to destroy every man, woman, child, farm animal and thing associated with the tribes that they would encounter in the nation that they were given as “the promise land”?  Do you avoid or skip over this conversation or offer an insightful explanation as to nature of God’s instruction?  The Lord knows that if we remain in the company of the lost or those who worship foreign gods, commerce and self-governance that we will eventually abnegate the standard to which he holds us in exchange for “getting along”.

Remember Satan knows God’s commands and also our nature.  Lucifer had four-hundred years to set up pagan groups in the land knowing that God would eventually give the land of Canaan to the Jews.  While they were in captivity in Egypt, he established multiple pagan peoples of warring clans in a successful attempt to get the Jews to ignore God’s commands.  These people were some of those tainted blood, “giant-like” groups who had been infected by the fallen, the Nephilim, the Zamzummim, the Refaim and others.  The Lord knew that these obstacles lay before the Jews and Moses even told them that they would fail in there conduct of the duties to which God had consigned them.

To this day they have three trouble areas in Israel; the Golan, Gaza and Moab.  These three areas match the areas of Israel’s disobedience to God’s command.  As God promised he made these people as an irritant, a constant reminder of Israel’s tolerance/disobedience to God’s command of cleansing of the promised land.

Let us reflect upon Solomon for a moment, notably one of the most discerning, wisest men in the history of the world.  God warned him to keep himself pure, separating himself from worldly women, but what did Solomon do married hundreds of foreign wives who eventually polluted his pure worship to the Lord.  If Solomon fell to this inch by inch abdication of his principles then how can we hope to stand against infection.  My advice, love them, witness to them then get the heck away from them.  This is especially important in the United States where we are told to tolerate even the most objectionable behavioral practices in the interest of religious and emotional freedom.  Do what God told us to do and keep yourselves pure, do not think, like Solomon that you can stand up against the erosive effects of the constant droplets against your foundational beliefs.  Stand upon the Rock that will never be washed away, build your spiritual house upon Jesus Christ the Lord and you will never be moved.

Praise You Father in the Name of the Son, Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Amen.

Up on the roof top not caring to climb down and collect my belongings before fleeing the wrath to come.  Not too sure I really want to accumulate a lot these days as it becomes increasingly apparent that the return of the Lord for His church draws near.  I find myself feeling more and more the citizen of another world and less at home in what I once perceived the greatest place on Earth.  Little did I know how correct that statement had been.

Father, how long will this folly persist?  How many must blaspheme Your Holy Name before the time for recompense arrives?  How far must we dredge the depths of wickedness probing for a new bottom in the muck and mire?  I pray for them Lord as you’ve commanded but it breaks my heart to see and hear their flippant deconstruction of Your Majesty.

They seem to want to have an argument with me about the loopholes in relative righteousness.  Somehow perceiving that nullifying my opinion or making me the stooge will free them from culpability for actions they cannot accept as destructive.  As if negating my opinion or point of view releases them from the facts or reality of our participation in a world-wide, roller coaster ride toward twisted track in the approaching darkness.

They are loath to accept that my view matters little, their true argument is with their Creator.  Your Word states right and wrong and no amount of persecuting me will ever free them from their dis-synchronous existence within Your construct.  I am a constant reminder, a gadfly, a bur in the saddle and though I say nothing, I somehow represent an irritant stinging the third eye of their festering psyches.  Simply, my being alive, believing in Christ Jesus, makes me their enemy.  I don’t know how that is possible but I understand what prompts them and that Your Word clearly predicted millennia ago this precise scenario.

They have to make me wrong or they cannot be right.  How sad and nonsensical, yet unfortunately for all concerned, true.  It matters not how many times I tell them that I love them, they are compelled to hate me.  At some point they will need to confront me with ill intent to instruct me to silence.  In the grand scheme of things, my tribulation accounts for little as I get to be with the Lord, in this world and the next.  Hallelujah, Glory to God in the Highest.  Peace toward all men.  Praise Jesus My King.  Blessed be that Mighty Name.

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/player/bring-back-the-glory-261315.html  Will we be delivered from the hands of those who’ve spoiled us?

Will you follow the one who set you free?  Granted this world is messed up, but will we seek to use that excuse as comfort for our choice of unrighteous living?  Has it ever been sufficient pardon to explain away my actions with the shout of “well they did it too”?  Did any righteous judge of good conscience ever let anyone go because they made the decision to follow the actions of an evil man but claimed themselves pure?  Can we then plead insanity for abdicating our position as servants to the Most High God when faced with the evidential review of our behavior and every “off hand” or casual word we’ve spoken?  This country has done nothing different than any other nation which has forgotten the Hand which blessed them to prosperity.  This is no mystery.  It is no secret why we lose influence globally, our children fall prey to drugs, sex, violence and self-service.  We ourselves showed them the way to self-righteousness and slavery to the master of this world.  We have turned the fires of hell into a video game promising “wicked fun for everyone”.  I see rampant sin in the church and if you don’t then you are telling yourself lies or closing your eyes because you don’t want to believe.  There is no way back to glory if we as Christians do not begin with purification and obedience in our own lives. 

There will not be revival in this nation because we do not even want it in our individual lives.  We speak empty prayers not meaning them, take vows we never intended to keep and keep company with the lost, in folly believing ourselves impervious to corruption.  We consistently avoid the Word, warp the Word, forget the Word or remain ignorant of the Word thinking foolishly that this frees us from the obligation to do the Word of God.  Every man knows the truth that is God and if any of us chooses to deny that truth we are turned over to our decadent minds and in turn will seek to corrupt others.  Romans 1 as clear as the peel of locomotive horn across the winter valley.

I know the state of my life.  I know that I am a sinner saved only by grace and not by any action I’ve taken but by the actions of the Holy, Loving God I serve.  I understand that I am to turn from my sin and repent, allowing the Holy Spirit to rectify that which has been tarnished.  I understand that in a moment I was redeemed but I will be challenged time and again to remain vigilant to the path on which I have been led.  I voluntarily serve the Master who paid the price for my sin by giving up His perfectly righteous life for my life of sin.  He commands and deserves my obedience and to do otherwise is rebellion that will be measured, weighed and winnowed.  Henceforth, I am not my own man except in that I choose to do what I am told instead of follow the whispers, commands, fear or ways of my flesh, this world or the powers of unrighteous demons and fallen angels.  My actions are my most potent weapon against the enemy and my most powerful witness to those who seek freedom from bondage.  I will stand and let the Lord my God fight for me in this battle that has already been won.  I am victorious in Christ my Lord and will be seated at His feet in eternal righteous, basking in the light of His Glory and peace.  Praise Jesus all the days of this life and the next Amen.

My Holy God.  It is the simple things that humble me before Your feet.  Delighting slowly in Your Word, taking in the minute details, realizing that they are multifaceted gems of splendor.  I know that You wait upon us, watching, knowing that perfect moment when Your Son will be sent to collect His bride.  You have created a glorious world, even in its corrupted state it still holds tight to its reflection of Your grandeur.  We are astonished at the complexity of atomic structure, gravity, color, raindrops and dreams.  Each moment an opportunity to remember Your grace and delight in our blessings.  Awe too narrow a word to explain our condition.  I am a grain of sand upon one of Your quadrillion beaches, yet I still feel richly loved and tenderly admired.  Here is where I am meant to be until I may once again come home.  Until that day I will visit You in prayer, sleep, joy and laughter.  My Holy God.  Jesus be blessed.  Amen.