Young and Purposed

Gordon Brown of the UK recently spoke of a 'global youth epidemic' that could be on the horizon. He quoted the number 81, as in 81 million youths from 18-25 currently without work. While youth without work is certainly a problem, what's worse is youth without any confidence or lack of purpose.

Here's some example's of youth with purpose:

16 Years old: Daniel from the OT of the Bible is handpicked for government service and deported to Babylon. He proceeds to declare God's present and eternal purpose while facing trials, visions, and adventures of all types.

19 Years old: Alexander the Great inherited his kingdom from his deceased dad and proceeded to take over the world.

20 Years old: Inventors of Facebook (Zuckerburg) and Apple (Jobs) open up the computer to the world

10 Years old, 11 years old, etc: How many great musicians were writing music before they could walk?

A culture of low expectations has resulted in a generation of young adults (dubbed children) full of poor self esteem, poor work ethic, and lack of belief to accomplish something noteworthy in life. The youth are looked at with self-pity, with acknowledgment that their time will some day yet come, but not now. Its a period of life, we say, that one must venture through to get to the other side. Ignorance, wonder, and self discovery takes time, or so we think, and should accordingly be figured into the timetable for when they will eventually break out their intellect and make a meaningful contribution to society.

A textbook from 1800 doesn't show a 12 year old learning the abc's, but rather learning trigonometry, compound sentence structures, and in depth world history. A textbook from today's 12th grade classroom shows none of the rigors of times past, which would help explain in large part why 37% of Americans can't even find on their own country on a map.

The challenge needs to be on the youth to become the leaders of today, not the leaders of tomorrow. College needs to be a time of self-discovery, but also a time of accomplishment as opposed to the four years of washed out party time leading to a degree in hospitality as happens today. Likewise, in the church the youth are the church of today--not the church of tomorrow and need to be involved in challenging roles to push them further and faster than they would normally push themselves.

Sure it may not be completely their fault that the youth don't have a job, but they can at least attempt to make something of their life instead of rioting or going to the government for a handout. Life is a gift and needs to be valued.

Martin Luther King Junior's Last Speech

Turnings Points

Growing up in life takes time, or so it is often told. The common perception of growing up is that is takes time, a steady process that comes with age. Life happens though--and often happens fast. A more representable description of growing up is that you move along and then grow up, at turning points. In terms of world history, look at the wars, the natural disasters, and the inventions. It's short bursts of energy followed by long periods of quiet and relativly uneventfull happenings.

1933 was one of those years, otherwise known as the year the Nazi party ascended to power. In reading a biography on the life of German pastor, martyr, and spy Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Dietrich felt that turning point and wondered if the church would survive on the other side. The threat to the church's existence during this time was palpable and with a Reich pushing their Aryan superiority and Hilter as god philosophy into academia and the church. Dietrich got it--he sensed it right away in 1933 long before the tumult that would follow in the years ahead.

One particular story described his perceptiveness. In 1933, on a special holiday honoring Martin Luther Bonhoeffer was selected to give the honorary message at the Cathedral in Berlin. Instead of giving a typical message of self-congratulating, pat on the back style embellishment of all the past accomplishments of the church, he gave a fiery on the congregation, calling out the sin and stagnation of a wafting church preaching from Revelation 1:19 on the church that lost its first love. His prophetic message rained on the church's party, turning a celebration into a somber funeral. This message started years of action that would ultimately lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the Germans.

2011. The world as we know it is about to encounter another turning point. You can feel it. China is ready with its 200 million man army and hoards of cash. The middle east is burning hot with anti-Semites and disdain for the Jews. America and her church lies waste, removed of a traditional God-fearing culture and family structure all while serving materialistic desires. Who will call out her sin and quote from Revelation 3:14 on the lukewarm church? The next turning point could happen fast, it only took a rise to power of one individual in Germany to destroy the country and change the world in a few short years. Yet, for the observant, the change was expected and seen long in advance.

Fatima Prophecy

The Fatima Prophecies could best be described as the proverbial enigma; wrapped in riddle, surrounded by mystery. Much has been speculated as to the whether the original prophecy has been doctored or changed to suit a more positive image of the Catholic Church and countless differences in interpretation have followed these prophecies.

If you want an in depth history of the prophecies, check out Wikipedia. The cliff notes version is basically this:

In 1917 in Fatima, Portugal (hence the name), three children; Lucia Santos, Jacinta Marto, and her cousin Francisco Marto claim to have seen an apparition while attending sheep and this apparition was indeed The Virgin Mary shining bright like a crystal ball in the noonday sun. The apparition then spoke to the children, giving them three separate messages to tell the Catholic Church. The apparition later came to be known as 'Our Lady of Fatima', and the words that were believed to have been spoken to the children came to be known as the three secrets of Fatima.

Thousands of individuals eventually flocked to Fatima upon hearing that this event took place. Later in the year a 'miracle of the sun' supposedly took place, giving evidence that this event actually took place. Eyewitness reported that the sun 'danced' in the sky and said this was the sign from the Lady Fatima to believe the words of the prophecies given to the three children. No scientifically verifiable physical evidence was obtained to juxtapose the eyewitnesses testimony. However the events transpired the Catholic church officially declared that the apparitions were 'worthy of belief.'

On 12 and 13 May 2010, Pope Benedict XVI had visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima and strongly stated his acceptance about the supernatural origin of the Fatima is undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions. The first and second parts of the “secret”—which are here published in sequence so as to complete the documentation—refer especially to the frightening vision of hell, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism.

The three secrets are as follows. They were delivered to the Vatican by sealed envelope shortly after the encounters in 1917. Much is made of the third secret due to the fact that it was not released for the public to see until the year 2000 by the Vatican.

First part: The vision of hell.

Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.

Second part: This is about saving the souls from hell and the conversion of Russia:

We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly:

“You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world”.⁽⁷⁾

Third Part: The murder of the Pope

After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

The main reason for the delay of the third secret had to do with the fact that the original three Fatima's did come with a time table. Apparently, Sister Lucia wrote the outside of the envelope that it could be opened only after 1960, either by the Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiriaworthy to make it known in 2000. The popes interpreted this part differently, hence the delay.

Third Prophecy Interpretation:

The Church did not release this Fatima secret until after the attempted assassination of John Paul II, which occurred on May 13, 1981. This of course puts speculation on the validity once more of these apparitions. John Paul II gave importance to the Fatima and it was apparently a medal from the shrine (erected in Fatima, Portugal where the event occurred) that stopped the bullet from the assassination attempt on John Paul II. Reportedly, without that medal the bullet would have done far more damage to his heart. He later placed the bullet that hit him as part of the Fatima Shrine.

A short link here on the many interpretations concerning this third prophecy was published in a ChristianityToday News Article shortly after the release in 2000.

Speculation and Intrigue

Yet Another part to this third Fatima is intriguing, largely due to the fact that many doubt the Catholic Church actually has revealed the entire Fatima and not just the parts that build up a positive image of the institution. Some speculation exists that the third Fatima says more about unsettled and troubled future times. Some Catholics have assumed that the prophecy referrs to a future pope who turned evil, attacked the Jews and brought down the RC church

In line with this view comes an odd opinion that has made the rounds, coming a little bit from left field:

For years the text of the original message was distorted or outright changed all together . Catholics like to quote the line about the Black so called pope who does heinous harm to the Jews. In fact it says “Black King secret son of Mohamed.” I believe it is talking about Barack Hussein Obama.

The Fatima Prophecy is indeed surrounded by intrigue and mystery. Many people still make a pilgrimage to Fatima each year to pay their respects. Could it have been a real apparition of Mary? Perhaps. However, if appears that these prophecies are so nebulous as to leave plenty of doubt as to their validity. To see the Catholic Church's commentary on the topic, visit the Message of Fatima.

Ezekial 2

After the opening vision in Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel lies prostrate before the voice of God awaiting the Word that is to come to him. Ezekiel receives his commission from God at this time (vs. 1-5), that of being the designated prophet to minster to the rebellious people Israel. After hearing the words of God, Ezekiel then receives the sins and judgements of God on a scroll, eventually eating the scroll and then moving on to preach to the people Israel starting in chapter 3.

So we being, Chaper 2....

Inner Strength

Ezekiel lies face down in awe of God, in holy reverence to the granter of the sparkling vision of God and beauty of God's Spirit out of the whirlwind to being this book. Does God commend him for his humble adoration? No, but rather calls him to stand, not unlike his call to Moses upon Moses' experience at the Burning Bush. The call to standing up is a call to action, but the decision to stand and take in the commands of God is on our own doing. Matthew Henry's Commentary (MHC) points this out:

v. 2. God bade him stand up; but, because he had not strength of his own to
recover his feet nor courage to face the vision, the Spirit entered into him and
set him upon his feet. Note, God is graciously pleased to work that in us which
he requires of us and raises those whom he bids rise. We must stir up ourselves,
and then God will put strength into us; we must work out our salvation, and then God will work in us.

When the Spirit of God calls, our adoration cannot delay our response but rather quicken our feet to action. God calls us to pray, but God also calls us to listen closely to his Spirit and when the call to action is placed upon our lives, we must be ready to heed the call.

Boldness

Why is it that we often get this picture of God being some lovable Shepard with the little children smiling around him while forgetting that that same God is also a God of righteousness and justice? Is it that we want an excuse to continue justifying our own self-righteousness?

In verse 4, God calls out Israel saying, "For they are stiff-faced, hard-hearted and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.'

MHC describes the true message of God in more depth saying, 'They are impudent children, brazen-faced, and cannot blush; they are still-hearted, self-willed, and cannot bend, cannot stoop, neither ashamed nor afraid to sin; they will not be wrought upon by the sense either of honour or duty.'

Oh how often we fall short and instead relish in our own rebellious ways. This is the reason God is sending Ezekiel to Israel as their self righteousness smoke has reached heaven's gate. God will not strive with, nor will he keep his anger from us forever.

Conscience as Witness

While man can try to explain away their naturally evil bent behaviors, nothing can explain away the feeling of guilt or sin upon the conscience. We all show the work of the law written on our hearts, with the conscience bearing witness to the truth and our thoughts accusing or excusing our behavior. Likewise, the conscience also responds to the Gospel in a similar manner.

Verse 5: He has authority to call those to an account to whom he
sends his ambassadors. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
whether they will attend to the word or turn their backs upon it, they shall
know that there has been a prophet among them, shall know by experience.

The natural question that Ezekiel or anyone else in likewise predicament would be stating is, What difference will it make if I go or not if they won't even listen to the message? God states it clear in verse five that their response will not be involuntary and unaccounted for, their conscience will bear witness to the truth of the gospel being preached. MHC states, '
When men’s hearts are made to burn under the word, and their wills to bow to it, then they know and bear the witness in themselves that it is not the word of men, but of God.'

The quality of omniscience, the all-knowing characteristic of God's nature should put the fear of God in any one's heart. MHC states, 'God knew this concerning them, how inflexible, how incorrigible, they were. God is perfectly acquainted with every man’s true character, whatever his pretensions and professions may be. ' We can run, but we can't hide. Our character, our very being, is always on display before the God of the universe as if a secret video camera is on full display and filming every move you make.

Understanding

While God sees our natural bent toward evil and hard hearts, He is always wanting to bring us to the truth and do so in a way that involves our participation. Toward the end of the chapter, Ezekiel receives the scroll of the words of God for His people Israel and in verse ten, God 'spreads it out before Ezekiel.' God did not want Ezekiel to implicitly eat up the scroll without having any knowledge of what it contains. He rather wanted Ezekiel to understand what it was that God wanted to communicate to the people Israel and then make that message his own. He spreads out his word for Ezekiel to see and understand, and then he commands Ezekiel to eat it. MHC states, 'Be not rebellious, says Christ, but eat what I give thee'.

God's message of salvation is likewise free, ready to eaten up by an understanding heart.

Ezekiel 1

Exiled in Babylon following the siege of Jerusalem in 597BC, a priest and prophet named Ezekiel communicates the message of God for his people Israel through the usage of prophecies, parables, signs, and symbols. Preceding the exile into Babylon, it had been the main custom of Israel to worship God at the temple, but now that they were exiled in a distant land was it still possible to worship God? Ezekiel, whose name means "God strengthens" or "Strengthened by God", is indeed infused with strength through visions to reveal to the people of Israel that God is still with them in their captivity.

CHAPTER 1:

Ezekiel's inaugural vision of God is nothing out of the ordinary, a descriptive majestic drama outside of the normal realm of thought written down. He describes four living creatures with four faces and four wings, surrounded by two moving beryl (Neptune, sea blue) wheels and moving like the appearance of lightning and fire. Above these creatures is expanse of crystal of which sits the appearance of God on a throne like that of a cloud on a rainy day.

A terrific animated description can be found here, with the help of some animated graphics and the chapter being read in the background.

A key verse I found here is in verse 20:
"Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels."

The picture here is of God in his heavenly like chariot, although his chariot sounds like an army, coming in an orderly fashion and moving as the spirit directed. In a sense the wheels, of which one wheel is inside and controlled in the other wheel, is like God's providence and direction controlling the circumstances of events here on earth in precise, orderly fashion. From our perspective it seems like his chariot is moving disorderly; however, what we fail to see is that every action of the chariot is being controlled by Divine will and moves guided by the Spirit of God.

The outer wheel is God's perfect steady providence. Vs. 18 mentions that the rims of the wheels 'were awesome, and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them." God is an infinite, all knowing omniscient God who moves as his Spirit directs. Matthew Henry's commentary states," The issues of things are not determined by a blind fortune, but by those eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the earth, and are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." It is not by some blind ignorant act of God that evil occurs, although we often treat the judgement of God like death, a future event that will never happen to us. The passage also describes the crystal layer above the spinning wheels upon which God sits and directs. While it may appear as a cloud from below, to God it is a crystal structure like clear glass for which God can see right through.

God is not slow in keeping his promise, as some count slowness but is patient with, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.

Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill

Revelation 8:8-9

And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with
fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became
blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and
had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

The Scripture clearly refers here to a future cataclysmic catastrophe that will destroy the sea and all its inhabitants.

Vs. 8 refers to a great burning mountain cast into the sea.

Vs. 9 refers to a third of the sea turning into blood.

Does this disaster fit into prophecy? This may or may not be the exact fulfilment of this verse, but it certainly has to fit into the bigger prophetic picture and it gives us a great picture of what is to come.

A lot of speculation surrounds the true ability to stop this leak. The normal method to stop leaks has already been tried in the dubbed "top kill" operation. Now, BP is trying to do something that has never been done before--drill 2.5 miles under the ocean floor at the perfect angle in an effort to cut off the flow via relief wells. The mathematical precision required for this operation to succeed is enormous & if this fails, all signs point to a never ending flow of oil into the ocean for as long as the eye can see.

Reports also indicate that the seabed could very well be cracked and the pressure could cause an eruption worthy of a Tsunami. We are also venturing right into the middle of hurricane season which will delay the process of building the relief wells which need to be drilled ASAP to avoid further deterioration of the casings inside the leaking well. There are so many variables at the moment and all seem to point to further judgement and disaster. The original well could erode and implode causing rendering a fix of the leaky well impossible, the seabed could crack up due the pressure at any moment, a hurricane could bring the oil inland and wipe out our crops, and who knows what else lays in store.

One thing we know, we're in trouble. It's not ironic that this rig blew up on the same day as Israel's independance day, especially after the hard antagonistic anti-Israel rhetoric coming from this adminstration. Check out this video on the connection between Gen 12:2, Israel, & our disaster.

Yet with a million warnings signs telling us that a mega disastor loooms, the public remains ignorant and blinded by their own comfortable existance. What's worse is that we're now being controlled in an Orwellian nightmare where journalists have to fear for their lives if they should even take a picture of the carnage.

From Washington's Blog:

"BP is destroying the Gulf, because the government has supported BP without
regulating it in any meaningful way. BP is covering up its blunders by lowballing spill estimates, keeping reporters out of areas hardest hit by the oil (and see this, this, this and this) and threatening
to arrest them if they try to take pictures, hiding dead
birds and other sealife, telling cleanup workers they'll be fired if they use respirators, and using
dispersants to hide the amount of spilled oil (the dispersants are only worsening the damage caused by the spill). And the
government - despite some occasional tough talk - is letting BP do whatever it
wants. Indeed, some even speculate that BP has been given emergency powers
which supersede those of local police and other law
enforcement."

If this disaster is not the fulfillment of Rev 8:8-9, it is sure a good premonition of the big event.

IMF head calls for World Currency

From abcnews:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

"That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization.

Strauss-Kahn said such an asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies.

He said having other alternatives to the dollar "would limit the extent to which the international monetary system as a whole depends on the policies and conditions of a single, albeit dominant, country."

Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister of France, said that during the recent global financial crisis, the dollar "played its role as a safe haven" asset, and the current international monetary system demonstrated resilience.

"The challenge ahead is to find ways to limit the tension arising from the high demand for precautionary reserves on the one hand and the narrow supply of reserves on the other," he said.

Several countries, including China and Russia, have called for an alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency and have suggested using the IMF's internal accounting unit.

Strauss-Kahn said the IMF also needs to do a better job of tracing how risk percolates through the global economy.

"Here it will be essential to improve our ability to monitor several dozen large complex financial institutions that make up the `plumbing' through which global capital flows," he said, while leaving national regulators the job of monitoring the solvency of individual institutions.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hoppi Indian Blue Star Prophecy

A Very spectacular but strange phenomenon over Norway occured recently. A blue 'star' appeared suddenly over Norway at the same time president Obama was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.


What is intriguing about this appearance is that apparently the Hoppi Indian Tribe from North America has been waiting for a blue star to appear in accord with their prophecies on the end of the world.

The prophecy is one of 9 that was predicted to happen before the world would cease to exist. The appearance of the Blue Star presages a coming time of world war and purification, leading to a devastation of most of mankind and then the coming of a new age.

You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.

It appears that according to researchers and those familiar with this type of event that a Russian missile is responsible for this blue star. However the case, it is noteworthy that this is the last part of the Hoppi prophecy yet to be fulfilled and this sign appeared over Norway at the same time the president of the free world happened to be there.

Antichrist

46 Prophecies the Anti-Christ will fulfill:

5. His 10 nation union will merge into a world government which he will dominate - Revelations 13:1-2

9. The world government over which he rules will be a red (communistic or socialistic) government - Revelations 17:14

The call for world government has increased in dramatic fashion as of recent. Nothing illustrated this to greater extent than the recent Copenhagen fiasco. In the documents that could have been signed by America's President, a new world environmental governing body would have been created with powers to regulate economies all over the world. This governmental body would have overseen the transfer of wealth from rich countries to third-world countries in order to repay the 'climate debt' that we have accumulated.

Lord Monckton covered this in depth, a speech of his can be heard here.

As the dollar declines in value, there have numerous calls for a new world currency. With global terrorism picking up over the last decade, a call for a global police force has been heard. The transformation of culture & society continues to move toward a more globalized political and economic systems.

How long till we see the 10 kings of Revelation 17 & 18? It may be soon.