Today in Jerusalem, this is a model of the 2nd Temple with a close-up of Solomon's Porch.
Luke 23:26-31
English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio
And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.
28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
A good question, surely, when we are 2 millenniums past Jesus giving us all of God's promises and changing Heaven forever.
And how often I pictured Jesus dying like "Godspell" with just a few sympathizers. Here we read, the truth, a great multitude of people Mourned for Jesus. These are the people in the Book of Acts who filled the Temple. They are referred to as a multitude again.
Acts 2:6
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
Acts 5:12 -15
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
Joel 3:14
Acts 2:6
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
Acts 5:12 -15
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
Joel 3:14
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
People will forever disagree if the day is all at once, or like the people who come back from near death experiences - immediately. Time belongs to God. It is His invention. I suppose He can use time any way He wants. We, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, will find out what time is all about in Heaven when we get there.
What does the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, say about the time when the wood becomes dry?
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel [2nd Chapter of Joel]:
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
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People will forever disagree if the day is all at once, or like the people who come back from near death experiences - immediately. Time belongs to God. It is His invention. I suppose He can use time any way He wants. We, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, will find out what time is all about in Heaven when we get there.
What does the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, say about the time when the wood becomes dry?
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel [2nd Chapter of Joel]:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and magnificent day.
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Thank You, Jesus Christ Our LORD.
I've been thinking this weekend about my son's friend Cory's funeral. He died in Iraq and people turned out for his funeral lining 6 miles of road from the Church to the Interstate. And I knew Cory had 6 really good friends. People wanted to honor the valiant, Christian, Hometown 19 year old. The stood on the overpasses with firetrucks and ladders extended with the flag hanging. Traffic on the interstate - the other side - was halted. It was amazing. I prayed for Cory not to depart this life without seeing what was done for him. Volunteering for that mission. His mom is Christian Child Minister for her Church. I believe he is the only man I've known who died for this country.
He was an excellent young man, encouraging delinquents of the neighborhood to stop setting fire to their fences and play hide and seek they called 'Commandos'. Organizing an intervention for a very young boy, from the country, not to go in the woods & hurt what that boy called "critters." Changed the life of that boy. I really prayed fervently this glory would be revealed to Cory, as my son & I drove the 6 miles behind the hurst. I felt assuredly Cory could see it all. The day Cal told me Cory had gone behind his parent's wishes (and I hear them on that completely) and enlisted, I saw a cloud, as Cal spoke, in the shape of a star.
The Media largely ignored the amazing funeral. The war wasn't in the agenda at the time. Only our Hometown News and the Local Blog published the photos.
Later, Cory's neighbors dedicated a flag, a flag pole and flower bed with a brass plaque to him, it is the park behind their house. And as I stood with the hundred or so people, their Scottish pastor said he knew Cory wasn't there today, he'd asked God and received that answer and Knew in his being the knowledge was from God. Cory Lives in Paradise. And I knew with the Pastor, it was so. And it dawned me - this isn't your average thing people used to say at Memorial Services from my childhood. Times are changing. The crowd of 100 people knew what the Pastor was saying was true.
My Pastor Clark also hears from God. I hear from God when I read the Bible.
Planned Obsolescence is one of the signs for the passage below. My washer and dryer are about 3 years old and need to be fixed. Our furnace, stove, water heater (had just broken & not flooded the house), sinks, toilets and faucets from our 1953 first cottage were all functioning in 1999 when we sold our home. My husband's 1921 childhood home had the same thing. "We have the technology." The booklets from the 1953 appliances showed pride and hope in the drawings and the descriptions. People wanted to produce a good product.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
Did you see the "End of Days" movie? It is about the passage above. My husband and I watched it; we were absolutely horror struck about the presence of evil not being stopped by holiness. I don't believe there is another movie like it, Praise God.
Hebrews 1:1-3
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
We voted with our feet when the Church where my husband & I were baptized as infants, met as teenagers, started saying in the Bible Studies, and later the pulpit; Paul did not know the Holy Spirit and we could disregard what he wrote 2,000 years ago. Do you know his Books, inspired by the Holy Spirit, speak of Temple sacrifices continuing to be done. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. People still build monuments in areas they know Paul preached. Paul gave his life for his LORD. There is no greater love.
2 Peter 3:2-4
That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
The people who dwelled and lived with Jesus could not do other than preach Him and live for Him and die for HIM. Jesus Christ did not die in obscurity. Even Josephus, wily general, befriending Herodian kings and Roman Emperors proclaimed this to be AMAZING. Several times, he was interested enough to find out what was going on with the Jesus situation and he wrote his amazement. 16 years after Jesus died, Roman Emperors where putting people to death for Jesus and this continued for 400 years. They could not stop Jesus.
I've been thinking this weekend about my son's friend Cory's funeral. He died in Iraq and people turned out for his funeral lining 6 miles of road from the Church to the Interstate. And I knew Cory had 6 really good friends. People wanted to honor the valiant, Christian, Hometown 19 year old. The stood on the overpasses with firetrucks and ladders extended with the flag hanging. Traffic on the interstate - the other side - was halted. It was amazing. I prayed for Cory not to depart this life without seeing what was done for him. Volunteering for that mission. His mom is Christian Child Minister for her Church. I believe he is the only man I've known who died for this country.
He was an excellent young man, encouraging delinquents of the neighborhood to stop setting fire to their fences and play hide and seek they called 'Commandos'. Organizing an intervention for a very young boy, from the country, not to go in the woods & hurt what that boy called "critters." Changed the life of that boy. I really prayed fervently this glory would be revealed to Cory, as my son & I drove the 6 miles behind the hurst. I felt assuredly Cory could see it all. The day Cal told me Cory had gone behind his parent's wishes (and I hear them on that completely) and enlisted, I saw a cloud, as Cal spoke, in the shape of a star.
The Media largely ignored the amazing funeral. The war wasn't in the agenda at the time. Only our Hometown News and the Local Blog published the photos.
Later, Cory's neighbors dedicated a flag, a flag pole and flower bed with a brass plaque to him, it is the park behind their house. And as I stood with the hundred or so people, their Scottish pastor said he knew Cory wasn't there today, he'd asked God and received that answer and Knew in his being the knowledge was from God. Cory Lives in Paradise. And I knew with the Pastor, it was so. And it dawned me - this isn't your average thing people used to say at Memorial Services from my childhood. Times are changing. The crowd of 100 people knew what the Pastor was saying was true.
My Pastor Clark also hears from God. I hear from God when I read the Bible.
Planned Obsolescence is one of the signs for the passage below. My washer and dryer are about 3 years old and need to be fixed. Our furnace, stove, water heater (had just broken & not flooded the house), sinks, toilets and faucets from our 1953 first cottage were all functioning in 1999 when we sold our home. My husband's 1921 childhood home had the same thing. "We have the technology." The booklets from the 1953 appliances showed pride and hope in the drawings and the descriptions. People wanted to produce a good product.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
Did you see the "End of Days" movie? It is about the passage above. My husband and I watched it; we were absolutely horror struck about the presence of evil not being stopped by holiness. I don't believe there is another movie like it, Praise God.
Hebrews 1:1-3
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
We voted with our feet when the Church where my husband & I were baptized as infants, met as teenagers, started saying in the Bible Studies, and later the pulpit; Paul did not know the Holy Spirit and we could disregard what he wrote 2,000 years ago. Do you know his Books, inspired by the Holy Spirit, speak of Temple sacrifices continuing to be done. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. People still build monuments in areas they know Paul preached. Paul gave his life for his LORD. There is no greater love.
2 Peter 3:2-4
That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
The people who dwelled and lived with Jesus could not do other than preach Him and live for Him and die for HIM. Jesus Christ did not die in obscurity. Even Josephus, wily general, befriending Herodian kings and Roman Emperors proclaimed this to be AMAZING. Several times, he was interested enough to find out what was going on with the Jesus situation and he wrote his amazement. 16 years after Jesus died, Roman Emperors where putting people to death for Jesus and this continued for 400 years. They could not stop Jesus.
In January of 2011, people went mildly Cuban Missile Crisis over the animal die backs. Google searches became primarily about questions about the end of the world. Our media, which gives military secrets away like M&Ms started not publishing pertinent information like Vietnam having a massive cattle die off (one of the plagues began this way).
So the question would be: Are we there yet? We can have the complete and total assurance Jesus knows in His Eternal Kingdom when this will occur. Jesus lives in Paradise and continues to pray for us. Any one who tells you they know for sure is knocked in the head. Yet Jesus told us we would know like seeing a fig come into leaf. I love things that grow and this is - A Very Good Analogy. Why? Fig leaves are huge. Jesus had a good sense of humor.
And the answer to the question is: the Church proclaiming & adjusting to the world's values & today's standards is shrinking. And a huge majority of people loyally pray and believe. And then do exactly what they want to suit themselves. = Sign. We have a young generation who learns Church values from Saturday Night Live's Church Lady. And they believe it.
We are a crass culture. Yet people cry out for God. And He hears them. Eventually this will be all for show and He will come for His Beloved. We are seeing signs of the end. We see the Church culture huddle together proclaiming more about what is wrong than the LOVE and actions a people who love GOD should do. My best guess would be about 500 years. I pray for my family to be with the LORD in complete wholeness before we experience the horror of the last days.
Proclaim the Gospel. Jesus said He is the LIGHT of the World. It is by the Word of GOD we exist. And Thank YOU Father God. Willing to LOVE us when we are crass and not holy. On Your mercy, each day we give YOU tremendous thanks. You are a God of Love.
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