Been a few weeks since I posted, I think!  I was pretty sick with flu-like respiratory stuff a couple of weeks and am still not entirely over that, plus there being other stuff I’m contending with, at the moment as well. Please pray for me about that. I am hoping to not have a new potential health concern!

Where do I even start this commentary today?

By now you’ve probably witnessed all the hype about the Netflix movie produced by the Obamas, “Leave the World Behind”, or watched it.

I subscribed to Netflix for one day, just to see for myself what all the fuss was. Pretty bizarre! Clearly meant to convey more than what’s on the surface. I won’t dive into that because there are already numerous posts, articles, videos and podcasts that have mined that vein.

It uses some very strange, (annoying) unconventional camera angles, including shooting scenes upside down, but I guess that’s fitting, since that’s what “they” plan to do to present society as we have known it. Loaded with occult symbolism as well as scenes that spoof/mock Bible events.

It has gotten really hard to keep up, and to stomach a lot of what is happening, much less to digest and write about it.

It’s becoming very clear why scripture said people would have a heart failing them for fear of the things that are coming upon the Earth, and the tribulation has not even started!

Life’s hard, and getting harder!

In the life of walking with the Lord, it can sometimes feel like we face more than seems like our “fair share” of trials. The flesh tends to wonder why. I can honestly say that even having faced a lot of fairly significant trials, I was into my mid- 50’s before I ever felt that need to question “why”. But at the end of the day, I at least truly believe God has a purpose for any trial He allows us to pass through.  The problem is, even from the time I was a kid, I have had a potent “need to understand” (and be understood). I think it is either a rare trait, or I got wired with an uncommonly voracious version of it. I can’t fathom how people can be any other way.

It seems to me, something like that, would mellow some as a person ages. Instead, I seem to need it even more now than when I was younger.

A lot of my praying consists of asking God to create in me a right perspective. Also, for Him to prepare us for whatever lies ahead for us. And to help us get and keep priorities in appropriate order. I want to be in His will, and know if this is still in line.

A hope deferred makes the heart sick.

We couldn’t find a church for a long time. We are still very new to the one we feel God has graciously finally led us to, and it’s a longish drive.  My closest friends all have various challenging things they are dealing with at present, family stuff, or things having to do with their  jobs.  I feel a little Isolated sometimes and considering how precarious things are, that makes me a little nervous.

I think people may have somewhat gotten “over” blogs today, as compared to a decade ago. Many who were blogging when I started out, have moved on to Podcasts or videos. People overall seem to read less, and if they do, they want something they can  take in quickly. Attention spans are shorter, in the wake of soundbites and social media.

For about 3 and a half months, I’ve been combing through this entire blog, 12 years worth, thousands upon thousands of posts. Sharing videos, good sermons, news items, images, quips, humor, and my own rambling commentaries. I’m  checking each one. Had no idea it would take so long!

My goal is to have the blog ready for the inevitable day posting comes to an end.  I don’t want to leave dead-end links and “re-blogs” that will redirect to sites, posts, and videos that no longer exist. Search engines see that and pass right by, from what little I understand about Search Engine Optimization.

I still have over 200 to sift through, and about 60 or 70 additional “pages” to also go through.

Reviewing the last 12 years of prophecy,  geopolitical developments, and my own life as I access each post, I am struck all over again by how much America, and the world in general have changed! How much life itself has changed for almost everybody on the planet.

I have always relished epic novels that start way back in the past, and follow a family story through several generations. I marvel at the minds that are capable of producing such a  saga. I think why that appeals to me, is because I become invested in the characters. With really good writing, they often come to feel like friends, or the writing is so compelling, it draws the reader into the story itself, as if you are a part of the family, and there is this sense that you are going to miss these characters after you finish the story.  After a lifetime of Bible reading, I had never thought about it in those terms, but one facet of our Bible is that it’s exactly that sort of book! It is much more than that too, of course!

But I’ve wandered off topic.

“Fundamental transformation” has morphed our nation into something we hardly recognize today.  It’s not just America! Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, really any of the nations that were still somewhat free, took a drastic turn over 2020, and are still “devolving” at an astounding rate.  The 10/7 attack on Israel catipulted the world to the next level, even if that’s not evident to many yet.

So many of the facts I posted about over time have been scrubbed from the internet and replaced with propaganda and the approved narrative.

But there’s still a surprisingly good bit out there ( for now) documenting the tyranny and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the rich, powerful globalists. Those folks who, in their pride, have deluded themselves into thinking they have escaped the sovereignty of God. They know good and well He exists, but they laughably believe they can actually thwart Him, because they take after their father, the devil, and are susceptable to his lies.

Nothing in the world makes much sense anymore, and yet a majority of people either think everything is the same as it ever was, is getting back to normal, or that we are on the cusp of the next evolutionary leap.

Mind games! Programming. Brainwashing!

It’s so bizarre! Think about it. These are phrases which, practically speaking, we probably wouldn’t even be familiar with, if not for Hollywood!

To stand at this place in time, in the history of mankind, and to look back and trace and recognize the tactics Satan implemented over 6000 years, and the path he led the world down, which he continues to lead the lost down even now!  Turns out the Wizard behind the curtain is Satan himself!

It all comes together and starts to coalesce and make sense. Creation, rebellion, Satan’s fall, then man’s fall. The atoning sacrifice made, principalities and powers, how much our enemy has achieved, what God has told us about Satan, including his ultimate destiny! Calling out a people for His name. God’s plan and purposes, partial temporary blinding of the Jews, chastening of Israel, judgment of nations, eventual perfect justice, an utter end of sin, the thousand year reign, and the eternal ages beyond!

There are a lot of things over these years, I have seen or found out, that I wouldn’t mind being able to unsee and un-know. But this is the way it has to be, because God said there will be nothing hidden that won’t be uncovered.

Aside from blog maintenance, mostly what I have been doing the last 6.5 months, is mentally and emotionally processing my Mom’s passing. You see, after having 3 biological children, and getting her tubes tied, believing her family was complete, my parents ended up adopting one of our cousins. She was 9 months old, but behaved (and was wired) very differently than the kids Mom birthed. Part of it was nature inherited from a whole different set of parents, obviously. Another part of the problem was lack of bonding with those parents, and the neglect she went through the first 9 months of her life. Her father was a “messed up” Vietnam vet, her birth Mom (my Mom’s sister) was, well, I actually have never known the circumstances for which she gave up her 3 kids for adoption, maybe they were splitting up, and she could not have afforded to raise them on her own.  Mom was 27 or 28, so my aunt had to be around 23 to 25.

Much later in life, I did hear that my aunt suffered from pretty bad depression at some point, but I don’t know whether that was a factor in giving them up. There has been a lot of depression on that side of the family.

What I do know is that my Mom was never the same after our cousin became our sister, ( not my sister’s fault, of course) and that my parents, 17 years later, ended up raising two of the four kids born to said sister/cousin.

Mom married Dad when she was 17.  He was 24. That was a different era. They were both from rural West Virginia. Lack of job options prompted their move to Virginia. (Those are two different states, for those who still don’t know despite it having been that way since 1863).  Yes, I’ve encountered several people who don’t know this.

Anyway, once they had custody of both of those two grandkids (guardianship), Dad was only about a year from retirement. Jobs may have continued to be scarce in WV, but the cost of living there was, still is, much lower than in VA. Therefore, they moved back there, in part, to enable them to afford to provide for four instead of two, on a limited pension!

Growing up, we made trips to WV so much, that I consider it almost as much “home” as I do VA where I was born and raised. I loved WV and heard my parents talk about wanting to move back there the whole time I was growing up. When you’re a kid, you take everything at face value, so I didn’t realize it wasn’t an actual consideration. More like daydreaming. I wanted us to move there so bad!!! My “best cousins” lived there, and that would mean getting to see them more! But I also loved the sheer beauty of the area they came from, which is around Hinton/Pipestem/Sandstone/ Princeton. Plus, all the grandparents lived there!

Their relocating back to WV and raising a second family, meant when I had my babies, my Mom couldn’t be here. Not just that, but with two little ones they were raising, Mom wasn’t very accessible otherwise either, like by phone. None of their grandkids got to spend much time with them. So, there were sacrifices and trade-offs about which we all have our individual viewpoints and feelings.

All that to say, losing Mom was about way more than just the loss of my Mom. She was the last link and common denominator in other family connections, for one thing. While she was alive and in that house, there was still a piece of my Dad there, and even my grandparents. It was a lot of goodbyes rolled into one. And of course, it followed nearly two years that were fraught with stress and hard decisions, and all the things that accompany caring for a declining parent, their death, and funeral.  My relationship with her was not easy, most of my life. And times like that also tend to expose the cracks in other associated relationships. As an excruciatingly sensitive person, who feels stuff deep, that’s been a lot to assimilate and process (and get “filed away”) into that less accessible part of our memory that we keep (because it happened, so it’s part of who we are), but don’t much plan to revisit.

I have been asking the Lord to help me get a lot of “stuff” into proper perspective.

What took place in Israel October 7th had a profound effect on my already wobbly emotions and state of mind. It felt to me like the opposite book-end to 9/11.  Like it set apart some significant parenthetical season that will come up again later, and have bearing on events which we know, from Bible prophecy, are in the works and bearing down on the world like a F5 tornado.

Anyone who is awake has learned a lot between those two book-end events. More are waking up to reality, but way too many didn’t learn a blessed thing! Those who call themselves “woke” just get deeper into some sort of trance! It’s literally like they are hypnotized, and in essence, I guess they are.

There is no innocense left anywhere anymore. The devil has turned his sights squarely upon corrupting and decimating  children.  No wonder so many young people are so cynical and jaded.  The enemy has already innoculated many of them against the truth about God. And that’s a very serious offense to God, which He’s made very clear He will address!

I could never have guessed that God would not have yet given that shout and sent Jesus for the babies, children, and His bride by now! It could almost make you wonder if He has hit the pause button again, if not for the fact that Israel is now in the whole world’s crosshairs! If Psalm 83 is a war, I think it’s already underway. Early days, yet, but sure seems to  be just the beginning of a lot more bloodshed.

A lot about the Hamas attack doesn’t add up, for me. Israel is globally known to have the most stringent, top-notch intel on the planet. Mossad is in charge of foreign intel.  Shin Bet is similar to our FBI, covering internal domestic affairs, and Aman is their military intel. War was declared within just a couple of hours, and top brass came right out and “confessed” that they had been essentially asleep at the wheel. I know the IDF is different, but human nature is the same everywhere, and I just doubt that is standard operating procedure. That kind of willing accountability is virtually extinct!

I know the prospect of an “inside job” is unthinkable to a lot of people. But if it wasn’t orchestrated, or at least aided and abetted by someone on the Israel side, then God must have supernaturally blinded Israel’s satellite surveillance, as well as the IDF guards who monitor the border fence cameras 24/7. A supernatural move of God is more plausible than failure of multiple agencies as well as multiple safeguards, and maybe that’s what happened, but look how many times in scripture God had someone do the opposite of what they intended, especially in battle, and especially with Israel. (The Assyrians when Hezekiah was king, Haman).

I watched the Go-Pro videos as they were uploaded by the Hamas terrorists. I shared them on Xwitter. Not because I wanted to see, but because I felt people needed to bear witness. I have always been that way about injustices. The world needs to bear witness. The fact that Holocaust deniers even exist, is proof of that!

Used to be, unless you were a deployed, active duty soldier, you didn’t see the horrors of war and terror. Now, EVERYBODY sees it all in detail. Cameras on helmets, on guns, and of course cell phones everywhere. I think these events are causing people that are otherwise uninvolved and not directly impacted, to nonetheless experience degrees of PTSD. I can’t imagine how any citizen of Israel is managing to sleep, even being accustomed to sirens, rockets, and 45 seconds to get to a shelter day or night when sirens go off.  What blows my mind is the denial of most of the rest of the world. I have been consciously trying to really think of it all in terms of the enmity, hatred, and jealousy of Satan. (We wrestle not against flesh and blood). Those attacks were blatently demonic, and it is chilling to see the sheer numbers protesting Israel and defending Hamas, especially in America. I was aware of no-go-zones and Sharia in European states, and at least one here in the U.S. but there are already ones here that I hadn’t heard about. I knew we have had sleeper cells, but those individuals pretend to assimilate, until they reach majority. So the fact they protest so openly and unabashedly, reinforces the likelihood that there are waaaayyy more here than any of us realized. When their numbers reach that scale they establish territory and implement the practice of Sharia without respect of the laws of the nation, state, or town they intend to conquer. U.S.intel has known about these sleeper cells since before 9-11! But the Obama and Biden administrations have imported even more millions of them since then!

I hope the images of hundreds of thousands marching in support of Hamas serves to get through to more citizens just how serious the intent is of Islam, to outnumber and overtake our population and  populations of all western nations, but I won’t hold my breath waiting. Some nations citizens are calling for them to all be deported. At least one government is actually legislating that very measure.

The Lord asked whether, when He comes, He would find faith on the Earth.  How small will the remnant be? And we ask, Lord, how much longer? I ask every day! (Multiple times on some days!)

As I reviewed the Obama years, there was so much groundwork that got accomplished on his watch. (Though our freedoms had been eroding long before that). Many others before him, laid groundwork too, but his administration, his 8 visible years (and the ongoing covert term) have been pivotal. There are some pastors that I regard highly, who think Obama may be the AC. I can’t rule him out, myself, but neither am I convinced. Although top Jewish Rabbis did claim during Obamas rise, that they were having meetings with “the Messiah”. School children prayed to him! Coinkidink?

When Trump won, people quickly forgot about the weaponization of the IRS, the massive amount of guns and ammo purchased by various governmental agencies and departments, the guillotines, gun confiscation in New Orleans, trains with shackles, fields full of grave liners, Deep Underground Bunkers, Fema camps, mayors demanding to check  pastor’s sermon notes, strange urban military drills, the lawlessness of government that happened during Obama,  and that even happened under Trump, in any areas where liberals held majority. None of it actually stopped during Trump’s time in office, it’s just that most of it moved underground. When the globalist “haters” aren’t in majority at the Federal level, they just redirect their efforts to states and major metropolitin areas. Likely either Obama or maybe Susan Rice, is the one really calling the shots now! We know it isn’t Joe!

I speculated, and still believe that shortly after Obama took office, that day Air Force One was unexpectedly spotted flying over Manhatten near “Ground Zero” it was a signal to radical Islam that Islam had officially established itself in U.S. government, right up to the Commander -in -Chief. That was just my own personal conclusion, but in hindsight, it seems to have proven true. Not just that, however, because they couldn’t have done it without the “Green Movement”. The Red/Green Alliance works together. They invented “Climate Change” as a pretext to instate “climate laws”.  (Changing times and laws?) It’s the same principle as when Shia and Sunni, who are enemies, willingly join forces against a common foe. It’s all been a long time coming.

With Covid and the jackboot thuggery on full display, and the 2020 “election”, the January 6 fake “insurrection”, they were casting off  Constitutions and Charters of Western nations everywhere, swapping them out for “rule by mandate”, executive orders, and legislating from the benches of court systems.

Congress ignores the will of the people, stonewalls the President ( when it was Trump) Obama over-ruled congress via “a pen and a phone”, judges override the president,  AND the shadow government overrides all the legitimate branches! Federal has been trampling State’s Rights for a long time now. Military brass have been doing end runs around the Commander-in- Chief when it was Trump, but decimation of our military started with Don’t Ask/Don’t tell, and the aiding and abetting the enemies of America, as well as the military industrial complex predate that!

It’s only been a little over a decade since my Dad passed, and he wouldn’t recognize this world if he could see it in 2023.

And ya’ll, there’s no telling what-all 2024 is going to usher in.

It seems like lately, instead of “Blessed Hope”, too many of the leaders of the watchman community  ( by that I mean those with the bigger platforms and who are most widely known), now seem to more often be saying, “brace for persecution”, like it is a certainty. Maybe, but I’m not convinced it will prevade prior to the rapture, (unless everybody’s math is off as to dates of creation, birth of Christ, death of Christ, etc). There will be some, as it’s already happening, but  also, despite the current administration pressure on Israel to end this war, a bi-partisan majority of congress seems to still support Israel, and a majority of US citizens do too. I think that may provide some buffer, as long as it prevails. But if more in congress and in American citizenry continue to turn from that support, all bets likely are off.

I also believe the power and “reach” of Islam will be curtailed soon, if not crushed entirely, in course of the fulfillment of prophecies.

I will add, though, that yesterday I heard a well respected and known prophecy scholar (Ken Johnson) say he believed the rapture could be as late as 2075. (Ouch!!!!) No way!  It was a video from 2013, so I don’t know how the ensuing years might have changed his conclusion. Speaking for myself, that was a bit of a punch in the solar plexis! Is it just me? Where they had been saying “it sure feels like we are on the cusp”, the statements now make it seem like a lot of folks are recalibrating. When a swath of every generation since 1948 has been convinced it would happen in their lifetime, does it make it more likeley, or less likely to be sooner rather than later? I say more! There is a set day, and the mere fact the sun still “sets and rises” means that finite number of days is getting smaller.

I maintain that the closer a car gets to the rear-end of a Semi, naturally the scarier things will look, so as we hear more strident warnings of financial collapse, and witness the disentigration of order (scary prospects) we should be more assured that our exit is getting even closer. I still hold hope we will be snatched out simultaneously with the collapse of America and/or financial collapse, because when that happens, it will have a major impact on the whole rest of the world. The economy is global regardless what currency anybody is using!

You might say “but look at how fast antisemitism increased. (Over 300-some percent increase compared to last year at this point!) Yes, Islam hates America and Christians just as much as they hate Jews, but you have to keep in mind that a pivot of focus back onto the Jews, the whole world having strong feelings about what happens concerning them, is itself a time-stamp!

I hate uncertainty, and I am impatient. Maybe I don’t understand enough about all of Bible prophecy. But if God delights in simple, childlike “rose-colored-glasses” kind of faith for Salvation, it’s all the more reason to think He will be gracious right up to the end of the age of grace. I think possibly the serious scholars in their desire to be systematic, may get a little too cerebral and kinda lose sight of that. I get it. It’s their conscientiousness and dedication, and their appreciation and respect for the platforms God has given them, that makes them extra cautious about getting people’s hopes up. Fortunately, I am at a “much lower paygrade” and as such, not constrained by that concern, lol.  I know a lot of Christians who are serious students of scripture, and I know a lot of Christians who don’t have so much of a burning desire to understand everything, but whose faith is implicit and rock solid. God made both kinds, but a lot of the ones with that childlike faith, just seem to enjoy a more consistent peace, (ignorance is bliss?) and it puts me in a mind to aspire to that childlike end of the spectrum of faith. I have that inquisitive mind and burning need to understand, but everything about the way God built me, lends itself to hanging out in the outlying extremes. Full speed ahead, or reverse. Hot or cold. All in, or not at all. So I am leaning toward implicit trust. The older I get, the harder it is to even attain full speed, and even if I want to be all in, there’s no garauntee my brain or my body will come to a unanimous vote. I tend to “complexify” things. Simple is starting to sound real enticing at this juncture!!! If I can manage to pull it off.

I hope ya’ll all are peaceful and have a blessed Christmas season! But, if you’re struggling, make sure you talk it out with the Lord. This is something He has recently been reminding me about! (Like I said earlier, I tend to complexify things!) I have performance anxiety. I can know and understand a thing backwards and forwards, but when put on the spot to demonstrate it, I nearly always freeze up. Believing someone expect something of me, sometimes is paralyzing.  I realize “do not be anxious about anything” sounds and feels like something you just can’t help. The fact is, He is not asking nor expecting you to somehow conquer or turn off the anxiety. God has never asked anybody to do anything that isn’t actually possible. Right there in the same verse, He provides us step by step instructions on how to arrive at the “not being anxious!” How crazy is it to be anxious about not being able to make ourselves not anxious? We are “dusty-frame-having” foolish creatures. We gotta quit letting our brains freeze up at “do not be anxious” and read the rest of the instruction! :

1. but (instead, as an alternative to being anxious)
2. in everything
3. with thanksgiving (I think thanking God not only for what He already gave, but also for what He will give, implies an expectation and confidence that He will meet the need, which just delights Him! If we ask while really not expecting, we bring no faith to the table, which doesn’t please Him! Thanking Him in advance is an example of faith with works, as opposed to faith without works, which is “dead faith”)
4. present your requests (needs) to God (just ask God for the things you need)
5. and the peace of God
6. which transcends all understanding (The flavor here in the word “transcend”, is to surpass, or bypass, because the peace that God gives, is insane! When viewed through the intellect, it appears misplaced, irrational! Doesn’t even make sense!, so bypass the intellect. Spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned!)
7. will keep (guard, protect as from hostile invasion) your hearts and your minds
8. through (by means of) Christ Jesus ( He may or may not alter the thing causing your anxiety, but if he doesn’t, He will change your disposition toward it. He will give you a perspective that eases your mind. “Through Christ Jesus” is an acknowledgement that  Jesus purchased for us, (through His death), entitlement to that protection. It is ours, because we are His!