Today is the feast of trumpets spoken of by God in Leviticus 23 and various other places in the Bible.  It’s a day of victory and a day of renewal.  It is my firm belief that on this Holy day in the future, Christ will return.  He has fulfilled all of the spring feasts literally (Passover(Death), Feast of Unleavened Bread(burial), First Fruits(Resurrection), Feast of Weeks or Pentecost or Shavout (Giving of the Holy Spirit) and it is my belief that He will fulfill the Feast of Trumpets with his return to Earth “immediately after the tribulation of those days..” and will fulfill the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) with the judgement and the feast of tabernacles with our dwelling with Him for eternity.

But today is to be a day of new beginnings.  The Jewish people actually celebrate today as thier new year however to God, it is simply the first day of the seventh month.  We can make today a day of new beginnings too.

Oh how I pray that today will be a day of new beginnings.  My fear however is that as I write this post on Friday evening, the 26th, a bailout bill will pass the house and senate sometime before Tuesday when this is posted.  Maybe even this weekend.  As a result, stability will be achieved, Wall Street will soar and the media will move on to the presidential election and it will be business as usual in America and within months, it will be a thing of the past and the storm will continue to brew.  This financial crisis has come upon us suddenly but for those that were aware, not unexpectedly.  That’s the problem.  We so often in America do not know what is coming until it is upon us because we are so involved in so many things.  Few have the desire or time to watch for calamities of any sort to come and it would be unrealistic for anyone to think that all should be aware of everything.  But this particular financial crisis was created by all of us.

America is a fat nation.  I don’t mean overweight people, I mean material items.  We, like the ancient Biblical peoples, want stuff and collect lots of it.  To get this stuff, we often use credit.  We then need bigger homes to hold our stuff and many of us want brand new homes.  As the mountain of credit piles up, a sudden slow down in the economy causes a ripple effect.

Yes, Congress may be able to put a band-aid on the problem but the real problem is that few will change their ways.  If you touch a stove when the burner is red, you will get burned.  If you try to pet a dog and he bites you, it will hurt.  I bet you will never touch a red hot stove again and I bet you will not try to pet that dog again.  We learn from the pain we have inflicted.  It’s the way God created us and it’s a brilliant design.  The problem now is that the pain was not severe enough.

On the feast of trumpets each year, Israel was commanded to put off the old and put on the new.  To make changes and draw nearer to God.  We must do that starting today or by next year on the feast of trumpets, we may not be able to afford internet connections to read what is on this blog or any website for that matter.

Our economy is suffering and this bailout package will only stop the leak for a while.  When people don’t change, the dam is going to burst and with it a flood.  In the midst of this tragedy, many have risen and shined brightly and seemingly brought stability.  But as the darkness approaches and we return to our ways, the end will come suddenly and our backs will break just like a twig is broken when stomped on by a mighty foot.  We had a september 11 of the financial world.  Seven years after September 11, 2001, we are living in a September 10th mode.  If we do that again this September 11 of the financial world, we won’t last another seven years.

I encourage you to pray about this.  If your prayers reveal that I am raving lunatic, then pray for my sanity.  If your prayers reveal that I am right, please pray for God’s intervention and mercy.  Please tell others to be aware and if the bottom falls out (and someday it will.  America won’t be here forever), and we are still around, let’s not forget the two greatest commandments:  Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Peace be with you!

Note added on Monday night September 29.  Today the bailout bill failed and because of Rosh Hoshanna, congress will take two days off.  At this point, I hope they don’t pass a bill, but they probably will.  Regardless, America will enter into a recession and maybe even a depression.  I am not sure, but it will be long and severe.  But perhaps that is what is needed to get people to focus on God again.  God doesn’t want us trusting int the dollar, he wants us trusting in Him.   Time will tell.

For the past three days, I have not given a very nice view of the church.  I have picked apart many negative aspects, but I have not even scratched the surface.  However it was on the surface I wished to remain.  I didn’t want to point specific churches, we all know who has homosexual ministers for example.  I didn’t want to focus on specific people, we all have issues.  We have huge problems in America and among the biggest are not really homosexuality or abortion.  The biggest problem in my mind is materialism fueled by pride and greed.  It’s in society and it’s in the churches too.  From the leadership to the laity, there is much corruption and few seem to want to change it or don’t know how to change it.  Those that try are quite often successful, but only because God is their strength.  Here’s my suggestion for where we should go from here.

We must pray!  Provident, Radiant, Almighty Yahweh!  I can’t tell you how to pray or what to pray for, but please pray.  Pray every day, pray multiple times a day.  Whenever you think about it, pray.  Don’t get down on yourself for not praying, just stop and pray when you are about to.  Revival can come to America, but America’s finest must pray.  America’s Christians must pray.  Our neighbours to the North can help too.  All of you Canadians, please pray first for your nation and then for our nation and in turn I encourage all Americans to pray for Canada too.  Pray for all Christians, Pray for revival.

The Christian church in America is weak and without knowledge.  We must remember our first love whom is Christ and not the world.  We have got to focus on God and remember that it is He who will see us through any trial that we are in or that will come.  We must change because changes are coming and if we change now, we can be ready and will not be caught off guard with that punched in the gut feeling when it happens.  We will be strong and will be ready to lead others who are weak but want so much to be strong.  They will need us and we must be ready, but we must pray for revival for ourselves, our families, our churches and our communities.

Please, whatever you do after reading this, please pray!

Tomorrow, I will give a final thought on where I feel our nation may be going.  It’s not pretty, and I hope I am wrong, but please, no matter what happens, good or bad, pray!

In continuing the talk of America in crisis, I wanted to speak about two issues that are very near and dear to my heart.  No matter what you want to call it, the sky is that area above the ground.  It’s the atmosphere, stratosphere, tropisphere, or firmament. I don’t care what you call it, it is still part of God’s creation and is that area that is blue and contains clouds. 

If we started an initiative to call the sky an automobile, it would still be the area created by God.  You can call it toast, I don’t care.  The same is true with marriage.  It’s an institution created by almighty God and it is defined as a union between a man and a woman.  When two men or two women choose to join in state sponsored union, they can call it marriage, but it is not a marriage no matter what you want to call it.  A marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman and nothing else. 

Murder is taking the life of another human being.  God created all life and life begins at conception, not when breath is in the lungs.  Abortion is murder and you can call it whatever you want, but it is murder.

We will always have those that choose abortion over life and choose to call homosexuality, ok.  God calls these people “The nations” among other names.  He never intended for His chosen, called out people to be associated with the nations or to intermingle with them.  Yes, we are to lead others to Christ and we are to fulfill the great commission, but we are to be Holy and not like the nations.  When a church condones homosexuality or abortion, they are intermingling with the nations and God brought judgment to Israel for these acts. 

Many will say “This is the age of grace.”  and I would ask you to give me concrete proof that such an age exists because in all my studies, I have not found such an age.  Dispensationalism is a concoction of the Catholic church and very harmful to God’s people.  God said in Hosea that His people perish for lack of knowledge.  Dispensationalism is a lack of knowledge and often leads to intermingling in the world. 

So what can the church do?  Find out tomorrow.

It’s more than just a lead in to why God flooded the earth.  It’s a statement of today’s church in America.  Genesis 6:1-2  When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

What did God say?  The Sons of God saw the daughters of men.  What’s the difference?  Who are children of God?  Who are adopted as sons of God?  Believers are.  Who do you typically find in church or who at least organizes churches?  Believers.  Many times in the Bible God warned the Israelites (or the first assembly of called out believers) to not marry the daughers of foreign nations becuase they would cause them to go astray.

To put it simply God said “Stay focussed on me.  I should be your first love and if you allow the beauty of the world to attract you, you will not focus and you will become like the world.”  Balaam told Balak (Numbers 21-24,31) to get the Israelites to follow other Gods and then they would be destroyed by God.  Solomon went after foreign women and lost his kingdom, it was divided.  The church has not remained holy and focussed on Christ and has become, like the world, just another business.  Oh yes, it’s a church and we call it a church, but when you look at it, you may not recognize it as such if you simply look at the balance sheet.  We, the Sons of God, have gone after the daughters of men. 

We try to be like the world in that we have memberships, like a club.  Yes, this is regulated by the government however the government will be the first to say there is a separation of church and state.  We try to be like the world in that we have fundraisers, yet Jesus Christ overturned the tables of bartering in the temple and called it a den of robbers.  Many churches recently have decided they want to be like the world and declare that homosexuality is ok and allow homosexual pastors.  Yet God has said that such actions are an abomination. 

When will the church stop trying to be like the world?  We call out to God and often wonder why our prayers go unheard, yet we want to be like the world.  It reminds me of the people of Israel calling out for a king in 1 Samuel when God wanted to be their king.  LORD, Have mercy on those individuals that still cleve unto you and put you first before self and before church and definitely before the world.  For the sake of these, please hold back your judgments.

I bet you are expecting this to be about our current financial crisis.  No, I gave up on that for now.  I am waiting before I comment anymore on that.  I probably won’t comment on that for the remainder of this month. I have another crisis I want to speak about for a few days. 

Zephaniah 3:5 – The LORD within her is righteous; 
       He does no wrong.
       Morning by morning He dispenses His justice,
       and every new day He does not fail,
       yet the unrighteous know no shame.

The “Her” in this verse refers to the rebellious cities.  See the full context here.  But look at that last sentence.  The unrighteous know no shame.  To all reading this post:  America in general, as a majority, as a nation, no longer knows shame.  We allow things that used to be shameful to the older generations to be seen as humorous and acceptable.  If you don’t accept it, then you are a PRUDE or a religious ZEALOT.  If you do not think it is funny, then  you are old fashioned.  After all this is 2008 and times are different now.  This isn’t your grandmother’s world anymore and that’s just too bad.

As I watch people at work, on television, in the supermarket, or at recreational events, I am deeply saddened by what I see.  But what saddens me more, the people that should stand up and say “THIS IS WRONG” are far too often silent. I mean the church.

Why isn’t the church speaking more about the fact that young children are “hooking up” and having children of their own.  Why isn’t the church speaking out more about what is on television?  Sure, there are comments made and actions taken but they are far too insignificant.  I believe our churches are so focussed on keeping the people they have and keeping them happy and worried about how to manage the little money or in some cases mass amounts of money that they have and they are failing to reach out to the people that so desparately need us.  As a result, our children are growing up knowing no shame and they are becoming young adults that know no shame and as young adults they make decisions without shame and we have rampant homosexuality, venereal diseases, murder, deceit, adultery, divorce, corruption and other fruits of the flesh.  America is failing becuase our heart is failing and the heart of America is Christianity and at the heart of Christianity is God; but He fails not. 

America!  The Lord within her is righteous; He does no wrong.  Morning by morning He dispenses His justice,  and every new day He does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame.

With the recent bank failures going on around the United States, I found comfort recently in 2 Corinthians 5, the first 5 verses.  Paul mentions that the spirit was given to our bodies which long to be in heaven.  It is a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. 

The FDIC or federal deposit insurance corporation guarantees that the money we invest in a bank is safe.  We simply cannot lose it.  What it doesn’t guarantee is that the value of that money is safe.  If I have 1000 dollars in a bank, I can get 1000 dollars out.  1000 dollars to me right now is a lot of money but in 2009 may have about the same value as 500 dollars or even 100 dollars.  But the FDIC guarantees that I can get 1000 George Washingtons out if I so choose. 

God gives us a better guarantee.  He has guaranteed us a place in heaven through His son Jesus Christ.  This is like our FDIC insurance.  We can get there.  But the greater guarantee is the value of this deposit.  The value of this deposit never decreases and in fact, can drastically increase each day of your life.  As you grow closer to God and understand Him more and appreciate Him more, you can have a greater value of the spirit He has sent us to guide us and lead us to Him.  Even if we feel the value is decreased, it doesn’t.  God’s stance is never dependent upon our disposition.  It is now and always will be the sovereign choice of God to do what He pleases and therefore His value never decreases. 

It’s amazing to stop and ponder.  It’s a deposit made in heaven, not in a human bank.  A heavenly bank.  A deposit that we can rest assured will always be of great value to us.  Rest assured in these weary economic times, God has our back.

I was speaking on the phone with someone one day and rolled my eyes at a comment that was made.  No, not because I thought it was funny.  On the contrary because I thought it was well, to be blunt, just plain stupid.  But in that moment, I realized something.  That person may think things I have said in the past are stupid or just not worth the breath I used to produce the sentence.  It was humbling.  What was more humbling though was when I then realized that God loves that person with all of his what I would call idiosynchrocies  (I doubt I spelled that right).  I was in my mind critiscizing a child of God. 

For the rest of that conversation, I made a point to treat that person as a child of God.  Why I didn’t from the beginning only shows that I still have a long way to go in being conformed into the image of Christ, but I am trying daily.  When I speak with him again, I sure hope my first thoughts are pure and pleasing to God and not another thought of “Oh, it’s you again”.

Romans 15:7 says “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”  Those are certainly words to live by.  We always want to praise God, but too often we don’t want to obey the words that suggest we could bring praise to God.  Maybe today we can all try a little harder.

“I see a danger of nations looking more inward, rather than toward a shared future,”

These are the words of Ban Ki-Moon, Chief of the United Nations as opening remarks at the UN annual debate today.  What this mean?  It means that yes, soon, but not now, someone or some government or entity of nations will rise up and be the needed leader.  With it comes great persecution of Jews, an economic system that is blasphemes God and yes, judgments like the world has never seen before and will never see again.  We are getting closer everyone.

Had someone made that statement to me years ago, I would have listened with interest but inside I would have said “No way.  THere’s no way it will happen in my lifetime”.  Nowadays I say it is quite likely it will happen in my lifetime.  I am not saying definitely, that would be foolish, but it is likely.

I don’t recall now where I saw it so I can’t provide the link, but perhaps it could be searched for.  Yesterday someone was calling for a world currency to replace the weak dollar.  Of course this cat call probably goes out daily, but this one seemed to have teeth in light of America’s downward economic spiral.

Look, all I am saying is be prepared.  Obama wants change and I say now that change is good.  Let’s change our lifestyles and stop living like we have lived for so long.  Let’s not change washington, let’s just fix it.   I am not advocating voting for Obama.  In fact, I strongly encourage you to consider both sides because no matter who wins, they will start out with a failed system.  I wouldn’t want to be either candidate now.

Be prepared.  Life as we know it is going to change in the near future and as long as I can, I will be here to give my insight.

Can we walk on water?  On our own no way.  We could make an argument from Matthew that since Peter did, we could too.  But I don’t want you to go out and trying to walk on your swimming pool unless it is less than about 20 degrees F outside and it is covered with a thick sheet of ice.

But spiritually I believe in all the world, we are going to need to walk on water someday.  Some need to to today and all of us will need to eventually.  Remember how Peter was able to walk on water?  He focussed on Jesus.  Once his focus left Jesus, he sank.

Let’s just say that hypothetically by Christmas, 2008, the United States finds itself in a huge economic crisis.  Umm, wait, that day is today.  But few see it.  But let’s just say it is well known by the end of the year 2008.  What will you do?  Will you worry about where your next meal comes from?  Will you become a violent person and lose focus on Christ?  I hope not.  I hope we recover from this bailout that the US government is trying to do right now.  But if we don’t and if the stock market crashes and we find ourselves unable to live like we currently live, then please walk on water.

Revelation paints a grim picture of the last days of the earth.  If we ever have to live through that, take heart in God’s strength.  If we persevere, we will live and we will be taken care of by God.  DON’T LOSE FOCUS.  Keep your eyes on Christ, the author and perfector of your faith.

I tried to just abandon this blog.  I am not sure why.  I just got away from it while I was under the weather and it became too easy to just let it go.  No one was asking what happened so I just figured no one cared.  No, I am not trying to get a poor me attitude. I just figured, ahh, what’s the use. But God had other plans and whenever I considered just posting “This blog is closed”, I couldn’t do it. I figured after the third attempt that God would convince me to return to it someday. I guess that day is today.

I guess I still have much to say.  It’s not all good though.  But since God wants me back here, I will come back and see where He leads me.  He has to lead me because I have proven that I won’t do it on my own desire.  So let’s see where God leads in the comming days, weeks and months.

By the way, I still have not fully recovered from that illness that hit me a few weeks ago.  I still have a lot of chest congestion, but I am not complaining.