Random Thoughts

In no particular order:

- I haven't done this in a while, so I thought it was a good time to reconnect and take a minute to thank the people who take their time to come here and look at the news/commentary from around the world that pertain to prophecy. I'm especially thankful to those kind people who send me private messages and words of encouragement - I just want you to know how much I appreciate it and how much it means to me. I never wanted this blog to be about me in any way so I usually avoid putting down my personal thoughts and opinions (although probably obvious) and lean away from commentary. However, I'm considering to getting back to doing more commentary, as I did a while back. These days, the sheer amount of news is so overwhelming that it dictates taking a step back and attempting some context or how events fit into the big picture.

- Some of you who have been around a while know this, but originally this blog was simply an easy way to communicate to and follow-up with several bible study groups I had been involved with. After a few months of posting the news etc.,  I checked to see if anyone was even coming here (in which case I was going to just stop) and much to my surprise there were several hundred coming by daily, so I decided to keep it going and it has somehow steadily grown since then. I have no idea how those original people found this site. It's clearly a "God Thing". It seems that over the last couple of years in particular, readership has grown from all over the world - in unexpected and diverse places.  I'm overwhelmed that He allows me to work for the Kingdom doing something that I love and something I have never once seen as 'work'. We have had a lot of new viewers recently from Europe, Ukraine. Philippines, and Australia so I hope this message is spreading and reaching as many as possible. If the Church refuses to do this then it depends on all of us collectively to spread this word far and wide. 

- I receive a lot of comments relating to the lack of a robust comments section, particularly as compared to years back when there were a lot of comments going back and forth on a daily basis. I believe there are two factors involved, one being the fact that I began listing news articles separately rather than on a single daily "page". Now the articles scroll so fast that it's hard to have a "conversation" via the message box. I may condense each article down to a couple of paragraphs each and put them back on a daily page again. If you have any comments/opinions for this please feel free to comment below or contact me. I also had to start moderating comments because we were getting some inappropriate comments and the inevitable arguments about the timing of the gathering up. 

- I believe we are getting really close to the concluding events of this age and perhaps as a result have been prompted to discuss this more and more with whoever is willing to listen :) - more so than ever before. I think there is a reason for that.

- We now have Russia-Iran-Turkey locked in a strong alliance, and who now have troops, equipment, and all military infrastructure in located just to the north of Israel (in Syria/Turkey) and thus an invasion of Israel could occur at any time (aka Gog-Magog of Ezekiel 38-39). And this also happens at a time on the prophetic timeline - when we would expect it - and here it is now ready to go. As with many people, I believe Isaiah 17 will happen first and it will be a proxy war with Iran behind the scenes. Hezbollah and Hamas are making more and more moves to both the Golan Border, the Gaza border and also the Lebanon border. Adding in the West Bank, this looks a lot like Isaiah 17. More importantly, its hard to imagine any lengthy period before this all begins especially given the constant and increasing war rhetoric. 

- I'm still perplexed at the lack of interest from today's church in prophetic events as we approach the ending of this age. It is such an important topic and the ramifications of what is coming is so massively huge - to ignore it seems bizarre. However, this has been the pattern of biblical prophecy throughout the ages. Despite things happening exactly as the prophets foretold (in their time), prophecy was either ignored of viewed with contempt (see Jeremiah, Elijah, etc.) - so this age really isn't different. It is still perplexing and for this reason Luke 12: 35-56 seems even more important and worthy of study. 

- Watching the world events is both scary and depressing if you aren't in the right frame of mind. I like to call it living in the shadow of the Tribulation: It isn't here yet but its so close we can see and feel the shadow descending. I believe this is the very reason we are given Luke 21:28 - which tells us to stand up and lift our heads because redemption is drawing near. This focus emphasizes the positive aspect of being in this era and not the negative (shadow). Also reading about how the prophets coped with living in similar periods has been a great source of comfort.

- Did I mention that we are very very close to the end of this age?

- I wonder how much longer we'll be able to post about prophecy and related events the way censorship is going...

- Even after all these years of following prophecy and the developments around the world, I am always in awe of what the prophets told us and the sovereignty of God. To let us know what will happen in these scary times was an act of love but it also confirms all of our beliefs.

- I really believe we are close (did I mention that?)



- All for now. Again, I'm tremendously honored and grateful to be able to do this.