News You May Have Missed...or What the He??

Again, as usual, our illustrious federal government makes the all-too-true bad news sound like good things are happening. One month of "not as bad as last month report on unemployment & housing prices", and the "Recession is over, we may have hit bottom". "Break out the champagne, it's time to celebrate!"
America, we ain't seen nothin' yet...if anything, we're only in the eye of the storm, and the worst of its backside is yet to come. We have yet to see the bottom on the consumer side in foreclosures & unemployment, while the business side of banks, commercial real estate foreclosures & bankruptcies are still building momentum. Still on the horizon, the collapse of the federal bond & treasury markets are waiting in the wings. Seen the dollar, lately??? The dollar is falling precipitously against all major world currencies, while gold is still being artificially depressed to stave off the dumping of dollars.
I've had three family friends, and a son, lose their jobs in the last two weeks. How 'bout you?? If you haven't figured out by now that something has gone dreadfully wrong in this nation, then you're living in a fantasy world. May our Good Lord open your heart & eyes.
America is in desperate need of the RPF antidote; Repentance, Prayer & Faith. No government elixir or potion will fix these ills. Their measures are akin to putting a band-aid on a cannon-hole. The roller-coaster has merely hit a less chaotic piece or track, so catch your breath, the rest of the ride is the really scary part...

___________________NEWS____________________

Geithner Asks Congress to Increase Federal Debt Limit
Current $12.1Trillion Ceiling Will be Busted by Mid-October

Deficit grew by $181 billion in July

Obama Voters: "We've been Punked"

Georgia Banks Top Texas Ratio for Bankruptcy: 49 on List of 400

Personal Bankruptcy Filings Soar
Home Foreclosures Still Out of Control

White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost with Pharmaceutical Cos

Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference

The Ultimate GrandMaster of Universal Chess

Terry took the Facebook What is God's gift in you? quiz and the result is A PROPHET

Your destiny is a prophet. A prophecy can come as a dream, by painstaking writing, as an inner impression, a visualization, or vision, even take off from an earlier passage of Scripture. The prophet gives the message a literary or oratory shape, but the prophet doesn't create the message itself. That comes from the One who spoke through the prophets ... ask God, it might be you !
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Funny, I never consider myself as such, just a watchman, like Isaiah 21:6 says. Other friends who took the quiz were healers & prayer warriors. I merely declare what I see based upon God's Word, and making sense of the confusing puzzle of world events; earthly, political, social, & economic, etc.
I'm a pretty fair chess player, but I realized long ago, YHWH is the ultimate GrandMaster of universal chess. I never presume to know His thoughts, or outguess His moves toward our grand finale, but I do see the pieces & landscape taking shape, just as He states. Knowing the details is ever so illusive, no matter my nature & striving to understand & comprehend. Yet, once in awhile, He seems to give me powerful & overwhelming insight as to how it's coming together. Bible prophecy has always fascinated me, almost to the point of obsession, but again, I realize time in God's measure really is a day as a thousand years, even many days. The Old Covenant saints & prophets, Abraham, Yoseph, Moshe, David, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah and others were amazing & remarkable men in how YHWH chose & used them according to His purpose, not in their own strength & will. The prophecies of Our Lord Himself are most striking, and build upon what He already stated through those prophets by His Holy Spirit.
That all said, I cannot help but believe America is in her waning years as a world power. Nothing in God's Word or current events tells me otherwise. It may be 20, 30, 40, 50 more years before the final collapse, but implode she will. The biblical & historical records of man's sin & downfall of empires, nations & civilizations are indisputable. We're following the same path. We may colorize, politicize, & "spin" it differently, but the outcome is the same.
America & ancient Israel, under King David & his successors, are remarkably similar. We have known YHWH's blessings, forgiveness & protection just as Israel did. Yet, also like Israel, we are facing His judgment as we ignore & blaspheme Him, and fall deeper & deeper into spiritual idolatry and adultery. There are spiritual laws of cause & effect, just like the physical laws of cause & effect. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, so shall he reap." Ultimately, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Gal 6:7, Ps 9:17
Regardless of however God chooses to mold, make & use me, I will serve gladly. Like David, "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Ps 84:10
Have a Blessed Day!

No Earthly Place to Run

If your city or town is anything like mine, Atlanta, the morning, noon & nightly news is nothing but crime reports. From top to bottom, wealthy to poor, educated to illiterate, the perpetrators know no social or economic bounds. Burglaries, home invasions, car-jackings, land-frauds, bribery, influence-peddling, embezzlement, every illegal, immoral & unethical behavior & action seems to be overtaking our nation.
The popular philosophy of this age is that we can "educate" this moral & spiritual "devolution" out of any person's behavior & thinking. If we only provide better schools, teachers & resources to our children, then they will grow up to be model citizens...if this paradigm hasn't worked in over two generations (nearly 50 years), and the results are more evident each day, what in the world makes one think it will suddenly change tomorrow?????
In a nutshell, the atheistic, liberal, socialistic, & amoral philosophies & teachings of the last half of the 20th Century have been bearing fruit in America in ways we never imagined. All the past graduates of these schools of thought are now the politicians, bankers, teachers, lawyers, judges, movie stars, AND pastors across our land today. They are also your neighbor, your co-worker, your grocer, everyone you cross paths with daily. Most strikingly, they are also the person in the mirror you face each morning...You.
Sadly, the multitudes, and us individually, have no clue we were even brainwashed. We felt no pain, there was no torture, we accepted it blindly in our homes, our schools & colleges, our workplaces, our governments, and our churches & seminaries. No place we went left us unscathed, or not subtly encouraged to embrace these "free-thinking" lifestyles. And now, this is where it has brought us to...to a nation of confused, directionless, self-serving leaders & followers. The blind leading the blind.
For those blessed to be freed from this bondage, and it is bondage, blessed to be released from this "Matrix" of the world system, blessed to walk from darkness into light, it is often amazing to comprehend the stark realization of being lied to about nearly everything. While foundational moral, spiritual & ethical principles are espoused, their true origin and ultimate conclusion are doubted, obscured, re-characterized, and redirected. What if everything you believed or thought you knew was a LIE????? What if all the bases of science, history, government, economics, social development & obligation, personal rights & responsibilities you have been taught, learned & embraced are nothing but lies at their core??? The simple answer to the matter is if any of these are not founded & built upon the truth of the Word of YHWH GOD, then they are lies built upon lies. In other words, if you leave God out of the equation, the solution fails.
For instance, as a life-long student of science & technology, I often use the reference of Galileo & Isaiah. In 700BC, Isaiah 40:22 stated,"It is He (YHWH God) that sits on the circle (or, orb) of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; He stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in." Yet, in 1633AD, Galileo was tried for heresy against the Roman church and the science of the day. What this tells me is that science, religion and a church of that time were all wrong, but God is right & true from the beginning. If they (we) had believed God from the start, imagine how much further ahead earth exploration & science would be over the last 2700 years!!!! Furthermore, Galileo would have never been put on trial!! Scripture abounds in such scientific & historical, as well as spiritual, moral & ethical, facts, but few are they that glean the truth from its pages...
Over 4000 years ago, both Genesis 9:4 and Levitcus 17:11 state,"For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Yet for succeeding centuries, healers drained the blood out of people thinking this would allow illnesses to flow out. Later, doctors discovered the deathly folly of this practice, and that the exact opposite was the answer in many cases. Thus, perhaps unwittingly, they proved God's Word true again.
Europe was in its "Dark Ages" (6-14 centuries AD, over 800 yrs), due mainly in part to the shutting up of the Scriptures by the Roman church. No scientific, cultural, social or artistic
advances were made until the invention of the printing press by Johaness Gutenberg in 1452. And guess what the first book printed was??? The first mass produced printed book was the German Gutenberg Bible, based on the Latin edition from 380AD. People changed, lives changed, thinking changed as God's Word disseminated & embedded into their hearts & minds. Europe exploded in its Reformation. It was born anew.
A "Dark Age" has also taken over America, beginning over 40 years ago. The Scriptures & prayer in Jesus' name have also been shut up across our nation. The Bible is now ridiculed, blasphemed, misquoted, misunderstood, and belittled, as well as Christ Himself. Our governments, schools & businesses, even some churches, shun His Gospel, His instruction, His pardon and redemption. All "religions" are now deemed equal, any way & every way is a path to God. Men, women & children are left to their own imaginations to formulate their own morality, ethics, spirituality & righteousness. Is it any wonder our land is in such spiritual darkness, that men's hearts & minds are blackened with evil, corruption, malice and murder? And, each successive generation will be worse than the last...
My parting words for today's blog is to stand with the saints of old, and declare the eternal truth of all ages; "There is no God but YHWH (Yashua, Jesus), He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. NO man comes to the Father but by Him. There is no other name under Heaven given, whereby we MUST be saved (redeemed, made right with Him)!" Jer 10:10, Dan 2:28, Jn 14:6, Acts 4:12

Shades of Things to Come

"Now we see only a blurred reflection in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." I Cor 13:12

Much of what we see in today's world, and moreso across our nation, are dark clouds brewing on the horizon, with pockets of storms overhead . The details & distinctions are vague, but the mere fact of their presence is foreboding, not a cause for joy & celebration for the masses. Some seem to be elated over the prospect, and others actually appear to be seeding the clouds. Still more interpret the impending darkness as a catalyst to bring about new world order, change & centralization. It's no wonder many are confused, frightened, disillusioned, and without any real hope. False hopes abound, based entirely on political rhetoric, skewed media bias, and right out lies wrung from altered statistics. No one seems to question or take to task those in authority who propagate these "misrepresentations", or take the time to dig for the truth. At least not to the extent of their recanting or sincerely apologizing to we who are being deceived.

In garnering information from the primary sources, reported news, hearsay & personal observation, the actual facts are sifted out by astute discernment of all three. True spiritual discernment is a sword honed by the Holy Spirit. "Do not believe every spirit, but try (test, discriminate, prove) the spirits...because many false prophets (teachers, reporters, leaders) are gone out into the world." I Jn4:1
How is it honed?
"(By) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart." Eph 6:17, Heb 4:12

One of the most difficult aspects of the transforming of our minds as Christians is the realization is that most everything we know comes from visual, oral & written communications, transferred from someone else. Then, we realize that it is not What we believe, but WHO. Thus, all the information, data, facts, opinions, biases & philosophies we have adopted, formulated & embraced are based upon the works of others. How much of it is truth? Not as much as you might think...

The news I post may not be the most widely reported. Sometimes it may have been squashed by the mainstream media as un-newsworthy, not titillating or exciting enough, or unfitting with their liberal philosophy. And, although I cannot guarantee 100% verity of these articles, I can guarantee that the whole truth is NOT being revealed through the mainstream media. The most I may hope for is to provoke someone's thinking into investigating for themselves. If I ever unwittingly spread a lie, or even a half-truth, I humbly apologize and stand corrected before Yashua and man.

___________________________NEWS________________________________

True unemployment rate already at 20% (Jul 6 '09)

Google Unemployment rate Graph (Current)

USPS Projects $7Billion Loss in 2009

States Buckling under Revenue Crash

Symantec (Norton) quarterly profit tumbles 58%

Over 425,000 sign Petition in seeking Obama's citizenship proof
"Birthers" discredited by White House, mainstream media...Complete WND Archive

Making Sense of a World Gone Crazy

I'm not blogging as often, 'cause the Good Lord is blessing me with plenty of work. I'm not participating in this global mess, but trusting my Heavenly Employer each & every day. He does provide.

I'm sure most of us are level-headed, hard working, take-care-of-our-families, thoughtful kind of people. It's those other people who are driving our nation and the world off the cliff. You know, those rich, power mad politicians & lobbyists in Washington, those madmen dictators & religious nuts in foreign countries. Right? NO, wrong...dead wrong. It starts much closer to home.

It starts within ourselves, then our families, our communities, expanding across our nation and around the globe. The influences we allow to foster & affect ourselves spread incrementally, permeating our thoughts & lives little by little, day by day. Whether it's the shows we watch on TV, the books we read, the people we listen to, the activities we engage in, and the philosophies we adopt, they all add up to the persons we are on a daily basis. Then, there are the little hidden indulgences we keep to ourselves; the one too many pills or drinks we take to "help us get by, or help us cope", the little lies we told to make things go smoother, the occasional gambling or pornography we dabble in, the advantage we took of our neighbor or a stranger at the store or driving on the highway, the self-pride we took over a co-worker who just got reamed by the boss. Then, it spreads to our relationships; the spouse we're always arguing with, the rebellious child who contends with everything we say, the in-laws who always get on our nerves, the neighbor who's ever encroaching in our space, or the boss who's constantly in your face.
And who do we most often ignore, curse, defile, blame in all of this? Our Creator, Our Maker God who quietly provides the sunshine that lights our day, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the material for the clothes we wear and the things we manufacture. Everything on this planet is on loan to us, and we never make a payment to the true owner, we never say thank you, we never honor or praise His Goodness. Sure, we always lay blame for the bad stuff, the disease, the poverty, the natural calamities, the unfortunate circumstances which befall us. But, all the things we take for granted everyday are entitled to us...Really? Will there ever come a time we have to answer for all which we have done?
The Word of God says, "For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself...for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of the Messiah (Christ). For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Rom 14:7-12
No one today wants to hear the "sin" word. We pass it off as some irrelevant, ancient idea that has no meaning or bearing on us anymore. But, do we really understand what "sin" is? "Sin", in its simplest form is "missing the mark". Whose mark? God's mark, God's Bullseye. We do not live the lives our Creator intended, we fail miserably. The Ten Commandments (you remember them?) outline what God's Mark is, what the bullseye encompasses. Everyday, we miss this mark in one form or fashion, it's inevitable. It's in our nature, a willful flaw in our being.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (God's perfection)". Even more sadly, there is a penalty for missing the mark, "the wages (payment, reward, end result) of sin is death". Rom 3:23, 6:23
Thus, it stands to reason that mankind, for all his intellect & technology, cannot achieve perfection. He can never live in complete harmony with himself or one another. There is, has been, and always will be, strife, war, neglect, violence, and inhumanity. We can rack our brains, take all the social classes in the world, have the best parenting & education money can buy, and none of it will change our basic human nature. All of man's history, past, present & future gives irrefutable evidence to this simple fact. So, what is the answer? It's not what, but who.
Who stands above all the annals of history, exemplifies and satisfies all that God demands & requires from us? Who did completely what we cannot do? Who shields us from the penalty, wrath, & sting, of sin & death? Who empowers us to live holy, separated, pleasing, lives to God? There's only one who, who has rescued us from this body of death? Thank God through Yashua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) our Lord. "...the free gift of God is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.""God commended (showed, demonstrated) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom 7:24, 6:23, 5:8
So then, how & where do we start? How do we appropriate this gift, this forgiveness, this empowerment? We do it by faith, and only by faith. Not by works, not by any good deed or deeds, not by any human achievement, only by faith. What faith? Faith in who?
"...the life which I now live...I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.""For it is by His grace we are rescued, through faith; and this is not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God." Faith is how we connect to Christ, through the Word of God. The instant of decision, sparked by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, is when we begin to believe God. For without faith, it is impossible to please God: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him (with greater faith).""And the scripture was fulfilled.., Abraham believed God, and it was imputed (credited to his account) unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God." Heb 11:6, James 2:23
The instant we realize God is right, we are wrong, we ARE sinners, and our salvation is only in Christ, we are reborn by His Spirit. We embrace who He is, what He has done, and is doing for us & in us. "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God...you must be born from above." Jn 3:3,7 Now, the real work begins; "...be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom 12:2
So, there is no other recourse. We either believe God or man. There is no middle ground. We know man lies & deceives, so how can we or could we put our faith in him? Man's answers all prove false. "Yashua (Jesus) said unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me." Jn 14:6 "The person who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in himself. The person who does not believe God has made (called) him a liar by not believing the testimony that God has given about his Son." I Jn 5:10 "In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began." Titus 1:2
In the midst of all that's going on in the world, and where it's headed, who can you believe? Right now, this moment, believe God.