Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas! God in Flesh Emmanuel

 Merry Christmas from Pigeon Forge, TN, home of Dollywood and located in the Great Smoky Mountains!  We are here unexpectedly because my youngest boy wiped out on his skateboard and required surgery to repair his dislocated and broken ankle. Prayers for healing for Luke would be appreciated.

It’s been said that we will spend the first thousands of years in our new glorified bodies, simply marveling in amazement at how the Creator of the universe humbled himself, stepped into time and became part of His own creation. Our tiny minds simply can’t comprehend such a thing, but they will be more able to once we have our new immortal bodies and are spending our days as the bride of Christ.

As we look around this world and read about mandatory vaccines, stolen elections, cancelled churches, persecution of Christians and collapsing Biblical world views, it makes the “things of this world grow strangely dim.”  It makes us all the more excited to be listening for the trumpet that will summon us home.

Thank you Jesus that you created a way for us to get out of this worldly mess.  We so look forward to the day of your 2nd Advent even as we celebrate your 1st.

Maranatha

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Will I Find Faith When I Return

 What does it even mean today to follow Jesus?  Can you make up in your mind what it means to you?  Can you ignore things he said that disagree with what you think or feel?  Apparently so.

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Over the weekend, the formation of a new Methodist denomination was announced during an online worship service hosted by former and current Methodist church leaders. 

According to organizers, the Liberation Methodist Connexion (LMX), as the group will be called, is a socially progressive denomination that will reimage what it means to follow Jesus. But even a cursory review of the new denomination reveals nothing close to orthodox Christianity.

According to LMX leaders, fidelity to Scripture or Christian theology is not a priority for the new denomination. In fact, as one leader explained, "There are no doctrinal litmus tests" for joining the movement. "We seek not answers that lead to correct doctrines as to why we suffer. We seek correct actions, correct praxis, where God sustains us during the unanswerable questions," argued Rev. Althea Spencer-Miller, another LMX leader.

No doubt one of the first Methodist churches to come running to the new denomination will be Claremont United Methodist Church in California.  The theologically progressive congregation recently erected a nativity display that centered on the message of Black Lives Matter.  The display, features the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in front of a wall of BLM demonstrators holding protest signs that include statements like "Let justice roll down like waters," "I Can't Breathe," "Jesus Wept," and "Say Their Names."  


Monday, December 21, 2020

Nearing Midnight

 I'm guessing that most of my readers also follow the website Rapture Ready.  I look at it at least once per day to see what headlines they are following.  Many of my posts include articles that I found at Rapture Ready.

They have a weekly commentary that comes out every Monday called Nearing Midnight.  Both founders of Rapture Ready take time to pontificate about what has been on their minds over the past week.

Today I wanted to share what Terry James sees coming for 2021.  

It's SOOO true how many people I talk to that seem convinced that soon and very soon, everything is going to go 'back to normal".  Once the vaccine is here we can all go back to the days of 75,000 people sitting on top of each other at a Vikings game screaming, cheering and maskless??   I don't think so.  Do you know how many germs are spread at what we now know are "superspreader events"?

Sorry friends but I think I agree with Terry.  What America looked like last March before the shutdown will most likely never be seen again.  I fully expect that there will be millions of Americans who NEVER put away their masks.  They have been so traumatized by the fear of germs that they are forever changed.

Prophecy Prospectus 2021 

This year, one of the most tumultuous of American history, is at a close. While we think on the birth of the Savior at this Christmastime, the looming, dark clouds of 2021 foreshadow days just ahead that appear menacing. I think it good to think aloud at this point about what might lurk in the distance, overlaying that future with the template of God’s prophetic Word. That’s the only prism through which to view matters with any hope of ascertaining insight.

The presidential election of 2020, despite declarations by no matter the accounting system, remains unsettled in the national, political sphere and the spiritual realm. The battle goes on and is centered within Ephesians 6: 12—as is obvious to those who use that biblical prophecy template mentioned above.

I find the following excerpt, taken from what I consider to be a relevant article, to at least begin to summarize things as they’re shaping up for 2021 and beyond.

In terms of the economy and the American social situation, 2020 is definitely one of the ugliest years on record, there’s really no way around it. That said, I get the impression that many in the public are operating under the assumption that we are about to cross over the peak of the mountain and it will be all downhill from here on. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

All eyes have been focused on the pandemic event, and the thinking is that once the pandemic is “over,” the crisis will be over and everything will go back to normal.

But, as the globalists have been telling us since the outbreak began, the world “will never go back to normal again”. It’s not because of the pandemic, mind you, it’s because THEY won’t allow things to go back to normal. The “great reset,” as the World Economic Forum calls it, is meant to go on for many years. And, the globalists intend that every aspect of our lives be changed into something almost unrecognizable. (“If you thought 2020 was bad, watch what happens in 2021,” Brandon Smith, presented by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, December 12, 2020)

The author says that the reset planned by the globalists—bringing all nations into their desired new order by requiring that all join their one-world economy—won’t work. It is, he believes, destined to fail. What worries him, he says, is that a devastatingly serious or total collapse will cause a major depression. He says that breakdown is well underway. It has been initiated, he says, by international banks and central banks through massive debt creation and inflationary stimulus measures.

The stock market—which, he says, has seen the Dow at a record 30,000 lately—is not the thing to look at with regard to how well the American or world economy is doing.

But I don’t wish to get into the weeds on the economy; it’s not something I’m familiar enough with to delve into here.

However, fringe economists (those other than the well-known pundits on TV) have long surmised that it’s just a matter of time before the economic dam bursts and the economies of nations come crashing down. America will, they believe, suffer the greatest of all implosions.

My own thoughts continue to be the same as expressed in my series of ten articles written at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, “Scanning a Fearful Future.”

I write in the series that I don’t believe Bible prophecy predicts a huge economic collapse taking place until the moment God next catastrophically intervenes into wicked human conduct upon the

That conclusion is based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:36–42 and again in Luke 17:26–30. The Lord plainly prophesies in those passages that it will be business pretty much as usual at the time of the Rapture.

He has to be speaking of the Rapture, because He indicates that people will be buying, selling, planting, marrying—doing all the things of normal activity on earth. If He were describing the time of His Second Advent (Revelation 19:11), things would be so bad that nothing normal would be taking place.

We know that, at the same time, it will be like the days of Lot. The world will be totally debauched, with every sort of evil going on. It will also be like in the days of Noah (Genesis chapter 6): Violence will fill the whole earth.

We, of course, have all of the above taking place right at this moment. The “seas and waves” of Luke 21 are roaring. This refers to the peoples who are in turmoil around the world. Protests, riots—unrest of increasing magnitude—are taking place globally. And pestilence in the form of locusts and other sorts, along with a global pandemic of COVID-19, makes the Luke 21 prophecy by the Lord jump out at the observer of Bible prophecy.

Yet, it is business as usual.

If America collapses economically, the entire world will follow. The global economy is so intricately linked to the dollar and to the American economy that the weight of its fall would cause a fiscal earthquake.

This will happen, I have no doubt. This is the conclusion reached in the series I mention. It will happen when Christ calls the Church—all believers—to Himself in the Rapture.

Jesus said that, like when Lot was taken out of Sodom, that very day, God’s judgment will begin falling. The Rapture will be the beginning of the Lord’s Day. The economies of the world will crash.

So we come to the crux of the article: the “prophetic prospectus” for 2021.

Regardless of electoral results or ramifications, Jesus has indicated that things will be business as usual, while at the same time, societies and cultures will be corrupt, vile, violent, and evil, just like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Globalism will be advancing, it’s easy to believe, as Satan prepares to institute his man of sin. However, God has promised that when the man of sin is on the verge of being revealed to the left-behind world, God the Holy Spirit, indwelling the Church, will restrain the evil Satan wishes to inflict.

That is what we see happening right now, as we’ve watched the wickedness unfold day by day, hour by hour, over the past years, months, and days.

The prophecy prospectus, I strongly suspect, includes more of the same. The battle in the high places of Ephesians 6:12 will continue, with God’s restraining hand doing His work to hold back descent into total evil.

Suddenly, then, in the “twinkling of an eye,” Jesus will shout, “Come up here!”.

To see what happens then—from that moment of Rapture until God fulfills all prophecy—read Revelation, beginning with chapter 4. No matter what’s in store for 2021, the “prophetic prospectus,” if you’re a Christian, is glorious!

Here;  https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

I spoke at a Senior event at our church last January.  I said some of the exact same things as Terry here.  Life on earth will be pretty much business as usual up until Christ shows up like a thief in the night and snatches away his bride.  Once that happens and the restrainer is gone, destruction of the United States will be swift and that will lead to the financial collapse of everyone else.  The stage will then be fully set for the Antichrist to show up and deliver his mark on every human required to access the new financial system.

"But Dennis, 2020 hasn't been business as usual!  It's been a disaster!"

Yes, it's been crazy but it is still business as usual for most Americans.  Jesus told us there would be marrying, eating, drinking, planting and building as there was during the Days of Noah.  And yep, we are all still eating and drinking, we planted our spring gardens, new barns and apartments being built all over the place. Menards and Home Depot broke every sales record in their history and my niece was just engaged yesterday so is now planning her wedding.

Business as usual.  Even so, Come Lord Jesus!