Great Judgments

NOTE: This prophetic word was spoken by Prophet Stanley Frodsham who was a personal friend of Smith Wigglesworth, a traveling companion and author of one of the books about him. It was given in Chicago in 1965, five years before he died. This is only an excerpt of the entire prophecy.

Great Judgments

"With great judgments will I plead with the population of this country. Great darkness is coming upon the countries that have heard My gospel but no longer walk in it. My wrath shall come upon them. The darkness shall be so great and the anguish so sore that men shall cry out for death and shall not find it. There shall be a lingering death, famine and great catastrophes.

My wrath shall be manifested against all ungodliness. It shall come with great intensity. You have known my love but have not experienced My wrath or My severity.

My judgments are literal and not a thing to be passed over lightly. Realize the severity of My judgments and My intense anger against the sin in My household. My judgments shall begin in My house, for I will cleanse My house that it be not a partaker of My wrath against the iniquities of the cities.

Before I visit the nations in judgment; I will begin at My house. When I do cause My wrath to come upon the cities of the world, My people shall be separate. I desire a people without spot or wrinkle, and such will be preserved by Me in the time of My wrath, which will be coming upon all iniquity and unrighteousness.

I am going to prepare you for the coming days by a hard path that will cause many to cry out continually unto Me. For when the going is easy, men do not seek Me but rejoice in a temporary blessing. And when that blessing is removed, they so often turn this way and that way but do not come to Me. I am showing you these things in order that you may seek Me continually and with great diligence.

As you seek Me, I will open truths to you that you have not seen before, and these very truths will be such that will enable you to stand in these last days. As you are persecuted, reviled and rejected by your brethren, then you will turn unto Me with all your heart and seek Me for that spiritual life that you need so when the tribulation comes, you will have that which will enable you to stand for many will be tossed to and fro.

Men's hearts shall fail them because of trouble on every hand. These days shall be very terrible, the likes of which have never been seen before.

Coming Glory and Deceiving Spirits

When I visit My people in mighty revival power, it is to prepare them for the darkness ahead. With the glory shall come great darkness, for the glory is to prepare My people for the darkness. I will enable My people to go through the darkness because of the visitation of My Spirit.

Take heed to yourselves lest you be puffed up and think that you have arrived. Many shall be puffed up as in the olden days, for then, many received My message but they did not continue in it.

Did I anoint Jehu? Yet the things that I desired were not accomplished in his life. Listen to the messengers, but do not hold men's persons in admiration or adulation. For many whom I shall anoint mightily with signs and miracles shall become lifted up and shall fall by the wayside. I do not do this willingly, for I have made provision that they might stand.

I call many into this ministry and equip them, but remember that many shall fall. They shall be like bright lights, and the people shall delight in them. But they shall be taken over by deceiving spirits and shall lead many of My people astray.

Hearken diligently concerning these things, for in the last days shall come seducing spirits. They shall turn many of My anointed ones away; many shall fall through diverse lusts and because of sin abounding.

But if you will seek Me diligently, I will put My Spirit within you so that, when one shall turn to the right hand or to the left hand, you shall not turn with them, but instead you will keep your eyes fixed wholly on your Lord.

The coming days are going to be most dangerous, difficult and dark for there shall be a mighty outpouring of My Spirit in judgment upon many cities, and many shall be destroyed. My people must be diligently warned concerning the days ahead.

Many shall turn after seducing spirits, and already many are seducing My people. It is those who do righteousness that are righteous. Many cover their sins by great theological words. But I warn you of seducing spirits who instruct my people in an evil way.

Many of these I will anoint that they in turn may purify and sift My people, for I will have a holy people. When I come I shall not find faith upon the earth but in a few, for when the time of testing comes, many will depart from their Lord.

Many shall come with seducing spirits and hold out lustful enticements. You will find that after I have visited My people again, the way will become narrower, and fewer shall walk therein. Be not deceived, the ways of righteousness are My ways. For though Satan come as an angel of light, hearken not to him; for those who perform miracles and speak not righteousness are not of Me.

I warn you with great intensity that I am going to judge My house and have a church without spot or wrinkle when I come. I desire to open your eyes and give you spiritual understanding, that you may not be deceived, but may walk with uprightness of heart before Me, loving righteousness and hating every evil way.

Look unto Me, and I will make you to perceive with the eyes of the Spirit the things that lurk in darkness that are not visible to the human eye. Let Me lead you in this way that you may perceive the powers of darkness and battle against them. It is not a battle against flesh and blood, for if you battle in that way, you accomplish nothing. But if you let Me take over and battle against the powers of darkness, then they are defeated, and then liberation is brought to My people."

Bert M. Farias, revivalist and founder of Holy Fire Ministries, has authored several books with an emphasis on helping to restore the true spirit of Christianity in the Church today, including the newly released, Passing on The Move of God to The Next Generation.

 

 

Christianity and Freedom

Christianity and Freedom by Bill Wilson

As we enter the weekend when we celebrate our independence and freedom, there are those who wish to abolish the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and remake our country into a communist utopia.

There are reports, for example, that Antifa, an anarchist anti-fascist group, will march on Gettysburg and desecrate Confederate graves. Sounds like fascism to me. This is the same group that has been violently attacking conservatives across the nation. It is essentially the military arm of the left.

This is just one example. As we celebrate this weekend with family and friends over a 'burger or a 'dog, let us remember the price of our freedom and the role of Christianity in preserving it.

With the immoral and amoral trying to place a death grip on our free society, Christians must stand strong, otherwise freedom will cease to exist.

"Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the safeguard of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its own duration."

These are the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat who came to America in the 1830s to observe what made the country so great. His "Democracy in America" is considered a historic treasure about the unique success of the United States. Tocqueville wrote that America is free because of its collective Christian religion.

He pointed out that the laws that governed the Plymouth colony were derived from the Hebrew texts. In the later 1600s, even the law of Connecticut stated that man shall not "have or worship any other God, but the Lord God." He said that Americans "have succeeded in incorporating somehow into one another and combining marvelously...the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom."

Tocqueville believed America was unique in this very way. As we look around the world and see the devastation of modern human trafficking-slavery-it is non-Christian states, such as Islamic nations and others that have no defined connection to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are perpetrating humans in bondage.

Cotton Mather wrote in 1820, "There is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts, to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint; by this liberty we are all inferior; 'tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good; for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives."

Galatians 5:1 says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

As Christians we must demand and accept no other form of liberty. 

 

 

An Open Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump,

I have been in your corner since your nomination to the candidacy for president by the Republican Party.

I must admit that I have always thought of you as a successful businessman and have taken note of your family circumstances, simply because they were always quite public.

In my estimation, the liberal left and its minions in the media have set themselves on a course that is entirely aimed at destroying your presidency. What they are doing to you has never happened to such an intense degree to any other president in history. Yes, President Lincoln was vilified during the Civil War, but the visceral attacks against you have far exceeded those of Lincoln's political opponents against him.

I understand that to succeed in the world of business and finance to the degree that you have, one must be ever vigilant to stay one jump ahead of his competition, and one must be quick to quash any suggestion by a competitor that ones product is inferior.

It is easy to understand why your well-honed self-preservation reflexes continue to be aroused by the visceral and factless attacks that are unleashed against you daily, but, Sir, you don't have to lash out at them anymore.

Just as you have the Secret Service surrounding you to protect you from physical attack, you have supporters around you who are willing to leap to your defense when the mindless liberals who disdain your effort to “make America great again” lash out at you with their poisoned arrows of criticism.

Mr. President, please focus your attention on what the patriotic citizens of this nation elected you to do and allow us (your patriotic supporters ) to defend you against the lies and innuendos that are the only weapons the left has against you.

During World War II, in Nazi occupied Denmark, the nation's king is said to have ridden alone on his horse around the city of Copenhagen to encourage his people at a time of great distress. It is said that during one of those legendary rides a Nazi soldier who was posted along a Copenhagen street asked a young boy who the solitary rider was.

The child told him that he was Denmark's king. 

The soldier's next question was, “Where is his bodyguard?”

The boy replied, “All of Denmark is his bodyguard.”

Please, remain lofty in your office; please remain aloof from the mud-slinging.

Please stay busy about making America great again—while you allow those citizens who love you and respect what you're doing for our beloved land to defend you against the liberal character assassins and traitorous loons who want you to fail because they want America to fail.

Let us be your bodyguard.

Sincerely,

An American Patriot

Video Seen 5.2 Million Times

Video Seen 5.2 Million Times by Dr. Jim Denison

Today is Asteroid Day. In case you want to join the celebration, you can watch a program on NASA TV describing how researchers find, track, and characterize Near-Earth Objects.

From the skies to the seas: a video showing tourists in shallow water at a Florida beach has been seen more than 5.2 million times. Not because of the tourists, but because of the seven sharks swimming around them.

From sharks to tragedy: an aspiring YouTube star convinced his girlfriend to shoot a gun into the thick book covering his chest. He was certain that the book would stop the bullet and the video would make them famous. The bullet killed him; his girlfriend has been charged with manslaughter.

From tragedy to celebration: a baby was born on a Spirit Airlines plane traveling from Ft. Lauderdale for Dallas/Ft. Worth. The airline has awarded him free air travel for life.

You're probably wondering what these stories have to do with you today. Here's the answer: very little. Your odds of dying from a meteor, asteroid, or comet impact are one in 1,600,000. You are 17,777 times more likely to die in a car crash.

Sharks are not likely to kill you, either—falling coconuts kill fifteen times more people than sharks each year. I would guess that you're not willing to fire a gun into a book on your chest. And I could find no statistics for the number of babies born on airplanes since this happens so rarely.

Here's my point: we typically care about the news in direct proportion to its relevance to our daily lives. With the advent of social media and digital news sources, we can limit what we see to what we want to see more fully than ever before. If a topic isn't obviously relevant to us today, it's not relevant at all.

This is an understandable way to cope with the onslaught of messages that bombard us every day. But it's exactly the wrong way to think about issues that matter most. The urgent is seldom significant, and the significant is seldom urgent.

This theme has been on my mind recently because of a petition I read in The Valley of Vision, a compendium of Puritan prayers. The author says of Jesus' return, "That day is no horror to me, for thy death has redeemed me, thy Spirit fills me, thy love animates me, thy Word governs me."

He knows that on that day, "Thou wilt come to raise my body from the dust, and re-unite it to my soul, by a wonderful work of infinite power and love, greater than that which bounds the oceans' waters, ebbs and flows the tides, keeps the stars in their courses, and gives life to all creatures.'' As a result, "I triumph now in thy promises as I do in their performance."

Nothing seems less relevant to our secular culture than preparing for eternity. But on the day we die and go to Jesus or he comes for us, nothing will be more relevant. In the meantime, being ready for that day is the very best way to live each day.

One day will be our last day. What if it were today?

 

 

Today in History

Today in History

1936

Gone with the Wind Published

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936.

In 1926, Mitchell was forced to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries. With too much time on her hands, Mitchell soon grew restless. Working on a Remington typewriter, a gift from her second husband, John R. Marsh, in their cramped one-bedroom apartment, Mitchell began telling the story of an Atlanta belle named Pansy O’Hara.

In tracing Pansy’s tumultuous life from the antebellum South through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era, Mitchell drew on the tales she had heard from her parents and other relatives, as well as from Confederate war veterans she had met as a young girl.

While she was extremely secretive about her work, Mitchell eventually gave the manuscript to Harold Latham, an editor from New York’s MacMillan Publishing. Latham encouraged Mitchell to complete the novel, with one important change: the heroine’s name. Mitchell agreed to change it to Scarlett, now one of the most memorable names in the history of literature.

Published in 1936, Gone with the Wind caused a sensation in Atlanta and went on to sell millions of copies in the United States and throughout the world.

While the book drew some criticism for its romanticized view of the Old South and its slaveholding elite, its epic tale of war, passion and loss captivated readers far and wide. By the time Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937, a movie project was already in the works. The film was produced by Hollywood giant David O. Selznick, who paid Mitchell a record-high $50,000 for the film rights to her book.

After testing hundreds of unknowns and big-name stars to play Scarlett, Selznick hired British actress Vivien Leigh days after filming began. Clark Gable was also on board as Rhett Butler, Scarlett’s dashing love interest.

Plagued with problems on set, Gone with the Wind nonetheless became one of the highest-grossing and most acclaimed movies of all time, breaking box office records and winning nine Academy Awards out of 13 nominations.

Though she didn’t take part in the film adaptation of her book, Mitchell did attend its star-studded premiere in December 1939 in Atlanta.

Tragically, she died just 10 years later, after she was struck by a speeding car while crossing Atlanta’s legendary Peachtree Street. 

 

 

Words to Ponder

Words to Ponder

The BIBLE
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1


Quotes of Presidents
“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. ”  Jimmy Carter


Wise Words
“Too dangerous to get in the water these days. There are sharks and crocodiles in some places swimming near beach waters!” Anonymous

We Can Assume the Role of the Church

We Can Assume the Role of the Church Mark Zuckerberg

CHICAGO, Illinois, June 27, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Facebook communities can fill the void left by decreasing religious participation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested last week.

Zuckerberg wants groups formed on his social media platform to fill the role in people’s lives once held by churches and groups such as little league teams.

People are in need of purpose and support, the millennial social media mogul said, and Facebook groups can provide that meaning.

"It's so striking that for decades, membership in all kinds of groups has declined as much as one-quarter," Zuckerberg said. "That's a lot of people who now need to find a sense of purpose and support somewhere else."

Speaking to Facebook’s first Communities Summit in Chicago last week, Zuckerberg also said people are basically good and want to help others. But he said the motivation for people to give of their time or money was as much from a sense of community as much than their faith.

"People who go to church are more likely to volunteer and give to charity,” Zuckerberg said, “not just because they're religious but because they're part of a community."

Facebook gathered administrators of groups on its platform in Chicago last week for the summit. Zuckerberg has also been touring the U.S. to meet and hear from Americans. His appearances have fueled speculation that he may run for office in the future.

His 13-year-old social media site recently reached roughly two billion users. The average user belongs to 30 groups, and while more than one billion are members of groups, just 100 million are in “meaningful groups,” or groups where they have a sense of purpose.

Zuckerberg wants that number of users in “meaningful” groups to be one billion, such that "we're going to change Facebook's whole mission to take this on."

He wants to connect groups around common interests or beliefs but also issues.

"In the next generation, our greatest opportunities and challenges we can only take on together,” Zuckerberg said, “ending poverty, curing disease, stopping climate change, spreading freedom and tolerance, stopping terrorism."

Speaking about this effort, he equated leadership with a care-taking role.

"A church doesn't just come together,” said Zuckerberg. “It has a pastor who cares for the well-being of their congregation, makes sure they have food and shelter. A little league team has a coach who motivates the kids and helps them hit better. Leaders set the culture, inspire us, give us a safety net, and look out for us."

Concerns were raised late last year with Facebook’s announcement that it planned to use a number of reputed fact-checker sites and otherwise liberal media entities to combat so-called “fake news.”
Facebook’s choice of partners — Snopes, Factcheck.org, ABC News and Politicfact — to supposedly curtail fake news immediately drew red flags over potential censorship of pro-life or other traditional values reporting.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced plans to “talk more openly about some complex subjects.”
Among the questions Facebook Vice President for Public Policy and Communications Elliot Schrage said are under consideration are: How aggressively social media companies should monitor and remove controversial posts and images from their platforms. Who gets to decide what’s controversial, especially with a global audience and various cultural norms? And who gets to define what’s false news versus simply controversial political speech?

The forces behind Facebook make no bones about use of its platform for a particular agenda.

After the Obergefell Supreme Court decision imposed legalized gay “marriage” on the U.S. in June 2015, the social media platform promptly instituted a Celebrate Pride profile picture tool containing a rainbow flag overlay. The tool quickly became a means by which one could either show support for gay “marriage” via a Facebook profile or in theory also be identified as not supporting it.

In 2014, Facebook unveiled a feature allowing users to choose between some 50 gender identity entries for their personal profile. Users can now choose between male and female, or customize their own.

Earlier this year, Facebook blocked a Christian blogger’s account several times because she made Bible-based posts critical of homosexuality. Facebook staff later apologized and restored her access.
Gizmodo.com published statements last year from a former Facebook staffer saying the social media giant’s “news curators” “routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential ‘trending’ news section.”

The Facebook curators were also directed to artificially “inject” certain stories into the trending news module, regardless of whether they were popular enough to be included or weren’t trending at all. They were also told not to include news about Facebook itself in the trending module.

Facebook’s news curation came into question the year before as well when Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts trafficking scandal initially broke, with speculation that trending news skewed on its site to mitigate the abortion giant’s role in the scandal.

Zuckerberg himself also openly lobbies for liberal issues.

He joined with the heads of several tech companies earlier this spring in writing to Gov. Greg Abbott to oppose Texas legislation they deemed discriminatory. Zuckerberg was also among the CEOs last year to oppose North Carolina’s HB2 law protecting privacy in the state’s restrooms and other similar facilities.

In September 2015 at a U.N. summit in New York, Zuckerberg expressed willingness to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to curtail speech on Facebook critical of "the wave of Syrian refugees entering Germany."

While giving the Harvard commencement speech last month, Zuckerberg floated support for student loan debt relief, higher taxes for the wealthy, and “universal basic income.”

He has also stated that Internet access is a human right.

To Sin Against God’s Wisdom Is...

To Sin Against God’s Wisdom Is to Sin Against Oneself by Dr. D. James Kennedy

“…but he who sins against Me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate Me love death.” Proverbs 8:36

In Proverbs 8, God’s wisdom cries aloud in the street and beckons men and women to live their lives according to His precepts.

Wisdom then concludes with today’s verse: “…but he who sins against Me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate Me love death.”

I think that there is a great truth found here. It is a very far reaching truth.

For example, none of us would ever think of pitting ourselves against the law of gravity. One would not climb up the Empire State Building and jump off just to see if sometimes gravity doesn’t work. We know that it works all the time.

One knows that if we violate it, the law will break us.

The moral law is not different or elastic; it is one. The law is all one given by the same Law Giver and therefore we can only break ourselves against that law.

Although Jesus Christ has taken the eternal punishment—the wrath of God—for our breaking those laws, how slow we are to realize that when we sin against the law of God we invariably bring the chastening and displeasure of God upon ourselves.

Have we not been foolish? Have we not been slow to realize that the law is all one and that we can no more break the moral law of God than we can break the physical laws of God?

All we can do is break ourselves upon them by violating His laws. May God grant us greater wisdom to experience the joy of obedience to Him.

Lord, thank You that You are the source of all wisdom. This day we choose life and eschew death. Thank You that You are the Lord of life. Give us strength for today to follow after You and not break Your laws…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN EMBRACE HIS WISDOM.

 

 

Fake News

Is President Trump correct when he say

PragerU added a new video: What Is Fake News?

What is fake news? Is Donald J. Trump correct when he says CNN, The New York Times, and other mainstream outlets report fake news? Commentator and bestselling author Andrew Klavan explains.

The Same Power

"THE SAME POWER THAT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD LIVES IN ME." Romans 8:11

Nothing is greater than that power.
Nothing can supersede that power.
Nothing can overcome that power.
Nothing can replace that power.
Nothing can cause that power to fail.

LORD JESUS, I claim that power...that power that raised YOU from the dead and that YOU have given to me...to pull down every stronghold in every circumstance about which I pray.

By that power working in me and flowing through my prayers, YOU "... WILL DO EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL I CAN ASK OR THINK..." Ephesians 3:20

Thank YOU for YOUR power, DEAR SAVIOR, and thank YOU for the WORD OF PROMISE that is behind it.

May I remember, in every circumstance that confronts me, that YOUR WORD, that cannot fail and cannot lie, says, "MY WORD, THAT GOES FORTH OUT OF MY MOUTH, WILL NOT RETURN TO ME VOID, BUT WILL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE AND PROSPER IN THE THING TO WHICH I SEND IT."

Something to Think About

Something to think about as you enjoy your ocean vacation this summer:

" EVERY time you put your foot into the ocean, there are at least TEN things bigger than you, that immediately know you are there."

JESUS

JESUS...the only name given under heaven whereby men might be saved.
JESUS...the name above all names.
JESUS...the same yesterday, today, and forever.

JESUS...breaks every chain.
JESUS...makes me more than a conqueror.

video

Words to Ponder

Words to Ponder

The BIBLE

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Quotes of Presidents

“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” Theodore Roosevelt

Wise Words

"You who have but a weak faith have yet a strong Christ." - John Owen

 

 

Confusing

English is a very confusing language. It challenges even English teachers who supposedly know it well enough to convey its intricacies to others.

No matter what language one uses to read the BIBLE, GOD'S immutable word, whether English or the original languages of Hebrew and Greek or Latin, one can become confused if he endeavors to discern its spiritual truth solely from an intellectual perspective.

The WORD of GOD itself explains this phenomenon by telling mankind that "GOD is a SPIRIT and they who worship HIM must worship in spirit and in truth."

His truth cannot be discerned when it is studied from other than the vantage point of its spiritual intent.

GOD is not endeavoring to confuse man, nor is HE intending to make HIS WORD in-discernible to those who would glean its wisdom. Rather, HE would have those who seek HIS revelation to do so from its only sure vantage point--the vantage point of the SPIRIT, which is who HE IS!

If HIS TRUTH is approached from a mere human perspective, small, virtually indiscernible errors will shroud man's understanding. The one who seeks GOD only with his mind will not perceive HIS HEART, which is where HIS intent lies.

Seek the marbleous truth of GOD "with all your heart" as HIS WORD admonishes. Don't take it for granite that you can discover it in any other way.

Analytical Grammar

Your Ends vs. God's Ends

Your Ends vs. God's Ends by John W. Ritenbaugh

"After this Absalom the son of David had a lovely sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. Amnon was so distressed over his sister Tamar that he became sick; for she was a virgin. And it was improper for Amnon to do anything to her." II Samuel 13:1-2

"However, he would not heed her voice; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, "Arise, be gone!" II Samuel 13:14, 15

The strong desire to be unfaithful to one's clearly stated and understood responsibilities is a drive we have to deal with and overcome.

We must learn that there is a living principle that God activated and still enforces in His creation. When this drive controls a person, retribution will automatically follow. Thus, the person is considered faithless.

Any time a thing—in this case, sex—becomes an end in itself, it creates an idol, which will provoke a response from God. In addition, as this illustration shows, it also ceases to give the satisfying pleasure God intends. Like a drug, the individual constantly needs more to achieve the satisfaction he desires.

Solomon shows clearly in Ecclesiastes 1:8 that human nature cannot be satisfied: "All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."

This is not the way God made us; it is the way we have become as a result of Satan broadcasting his spirit and us following its promptings.

We have become perverted in our tastes, and our tastes have to be converted in order to enjoy the benefits God intends.

Honoring the Fallen

Honoring the Fallen

U.S. 7th Fleet added a new video: Musician plays Taps pierside of USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62).

June 27 at 6:52am · 

 

#FITZ UPDATE: Today we honor the seven Sailors who died in the collision aboard #USSFitzgerald June 17. Please join us in a moment of respect for our fallen shipmates.

Whether Left or Right...

Whether "left leaning" or "right leaning," listening to our fellow citizens is essential to understanding them. It is the only way we can learn those areas where we share common ideas.

Most importantly, it is the only way we can affirm the rule of law and maintain civility in a society that seems increasingly more inclined toward violent expression of disdain for the differences among us.

 

Camille Paglia: A Lefty's Advice for the Left

 

Such a logical and objective approach to controversial subjects is rare from left-leaning folk, but is certainly welcome.

 

 

Wisdom to Handle Problems

The wisdom to handle the problems that children evidence sometimes does not arise within ourselves; sometimes we, as parents, as teachers, as pastors, as people who love and counsel children, must lean wholly upon the LORD.

 

Secondary Trauma in Adoptive Parents

 

Anyone who is regularly exposed to trauma and suffering is at risk of developing secondary trauma. First responders, humanitarian workers, and ministers are but a few examples of people who regularly bear witness to suffering and trauma and who are…

 

I before E

My cup of confused English spelling runneth over...

Analytical Grammar

Your Ends vs. God's Ends

Your Ends vs. God's Ends by John W. Ritenbaugh 

 

After this Absalom the son of David had a lovely sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. Amnon was so distressed over his sister Tamar that he became sick; for she was a virgin. And it was improper for Amnon to do anything to her." II Samuel 13:1-2

"However, he would not heed her voice; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, "Arise, be gone!" II Samuel 13:14, 15

The strong desire to be unfaithful to one's clearly stated and understood responsibilities is a drive we have to deal with and overcome.

We must learn that there is a living principle that God activated and still enforces in His creation. When this drive controls a person, retribution will automatically follow. Thus, the person is considered faithless.

Any time a thing—in this case, sex—becomes an end in itself, it creates an idol, which will provoke a response from God. In addition, as this illustration shows, it also ceases to give the satisfying pleasure God intends. Like a drug, the individual constantly needs more to achieve the satisfaction he desires.

Solomon shows clearly in Ecclesiastes 1:8 that human nature cannot be satisfied: "All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."

This is not the way God made us; it is the way we have become as a result of Satan broadcasting his spirit and us following its promptings.

We have become perverted in our tastes, and our tastes have to be converted in order to enjoy the benefits God intends.

The Other Side

The Other Side by Michael Snyder

"In the legal world, eyewitness testimony is one of the most powerful forms of evidence, and over the years I have spent a good deal of time researching eyewitnesses from all over the planet who have been to Heaven and have come back to tell us about it. But until this week, I had never come across Steven Musick's amazing story." -Michael Snyder

While serving in the U.S. Navy, Steven Musick had an extremely negative reaction to a swine flu vaccine that he was given. He was very ill for months afterward, and it was ultimately decided that he should be given an antidote for the vaccine. He had an even worse reaction to the antidote, and he went into a coma for five weeks.

During that period of time, he actually died and went to Heaven at one point. While in Heaven, Musick says that he had the opportunity to walk arm-in-arm with Jesus:

He also described all of his memories of the sights he recalls from Heaven, saying he was in an outdoors or agrarian environment that included a large oak tree, a massive wheat field, rolling hills and mountains. Musick said it all collectively offered up a "wonderful view" filled with "brilliant" scenes, adding that it was "like HD on steroids."

But it was Musick's purported interaction with Jesus that might capture the most attention, as he said the two walked arm-in-arm and engaged in conversation.

"Jesus was in his early 30s, long flowing brunette hair, hazel eyes, dark complexion," he said. "He's not overly large, but he's massively built. You would think that he's a weightlifter, a body builder.
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Jesus told Musick that he couldn't stay in Heaven, and that is when he was sent back. He has documented his experiences in a new book entitled Life After Heaven: How My Time in Heaven Can Transform Your Life on Earth, and he is hoping that what he has to share about Heaven will encourage people to live better during the time that they still have here.

Of course, there are so many others that have experienced the reality of life after death as well. One of my favorites is the testimony of Tamara Laroux. She screamed out for God to forgive her during an ill-fated suicide attempt, and she will never forget what happened to her next:

I began screaming out to God, "God, forgive me." The gun went off. My lungs began to fill up with blood. I began to go deaf. My eyes were open, and I became blinded. I knew that death was gripping my soul. Then all of a sudden, I felt my soul leave my body. I instantly began falling and falling.

At that moment, I knew I was no longer in control of my destiny. I ended up in a place that was complete torment. My body was burning. I no longer was lonely. I was no longer depressed. I became depression. I became loneliness. I became a tormented being of fear. I saw all of these other people, and everybody was screaming out in pain. The mutual thing that everyone shared there was their desire to scream out to everybody on earth, "Do not come here. Acknowledge that life is about Jesus Christ."

Fortunately for Tamara, she was not left there. Before coming back to life, the Lord also allowed her to experience Heaven:

I saw the hand of God literally come down. I knew that He was coming for me. His hand picked me up, and instantaneously I was no longer a being of tormented sin. I now was being cleansed. God took me over the heavens.

It was beyond peaceful and gorgeous and magnificent. However, I was not allowed to stay, and I was certainly not allowed to see anything specific. But I was able to feel His presence in His entirety, perfect serenity, joy for the first time, complete, whole joy. This hand just began to bring me back into the universe. I saw myself coming back to my home. I went through the ceiling and the hand placed me gently back into my physical body. He went up, and I opened my eyes.

But supernatural encounters such as these are not just happening in the western world. In fact, countless numbers of Muslims have personally interacted with Jesus in dreams and visions all over the Middle East, and this has resulted in multitudes turning away from Islam and embracing Christianity.

And God is reaching people in supernatural ways even in the remotest parts of the globe.

When two young missionaries sought to reach the primitive Kwaio people of the Solomon Islands, they knew that they were going to be in for a challenge. They learned the Kwaio language, and they were very determined, but if God would not have shown up, probably nothing would have happened.

The breakthrough came when they got to pray for the chief of the tribe who was very sick. The chief actually died from his illness, but when he came back to life, he had an extraordinary message to share:

"Let the elders gather," he said to his startled hearers, "and let someone go and find the boys who came earlier to tell me about Jesus."

When they gathered, the chief related an amazing story about seeing Heaven. "A being dressed in glorious white had taken him a great distance to the most beautiful place he had ever seen," Eastman recounted.

"A person called Jesus Christ, the Son of God who the young men had told him about, was being worshiped by a huge crowd of people. The glorious being explained to him that this beautiful place was where people who believed in Jesus would go for all eternity to worship Him. So everything the boys said was true."

Needless to say, this had a dramatic impact on the tribe. As a result of his testimony, villagers all over the region began surrendering their lives to Jesus:

Every person, including Chief Haribo's immediate family of 21 members, received Christ as their Savior. And soon more than 300 villagers throughout the area (in 10 nearby villages) had surrendered their lives to Christ.

Just as that tribal chief discovered, everything that the Bible has to say about life after death is true.
When you die, that is not the end. The Bible tells us that we can live forever, but eternal life is only available through Jesus Christ. He paid the price for our sins on the cross so that we might live, and now it is up to each one of us to decide if we are going to accept that free gift or not.

If you have not invited Jesus Christ into your life, I would very much encourage you to do that as soon as possible. As others have found out, life is very short, and you never know when it will come to a very sudden end.