Monday, June 16, 2014
Our Provision Is All Around Us!
Friday, June 13, 2014
Personal / Career Dreams - By Reliable Breaker & Controls
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
The Face of The Redeeming God
Thursday, December 13, 2012
God's Love John 15:9-17
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Be of Good Courage
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Three Chambers of God's love
Happy Valentines Day
Tiffany Ann Lewis:
Three Chambers of God's Love
A Look at Love Through the Tabernacle of Moses
Since "God is love" (1 John 4:8) and the Creator of the universe, it stands to reason that all expressions of love originate in Him. When considering God's love, the Greek word agape(pronounced a-gah-pay) is often discussed because it is a sacrificial love. I see agape as the foundation of all love, yet I don't believe we are to stop there; I believe agape was intended to take us some place further. If we "stop-ay at agape" (a little play on words) we will be missing the fullness of the relational qualities of love which God has designed.
In order to understand more fully this thing called love, let's look at it symbolically through the tabernacle of Moses. Moses' tabernacle is essentially one large rectangle with a smaller rectangle within it. The smaller rectangle is separated into two parts thus creating three unique sections that are all contained within one building. Heavy veils that act like our modern day doorway separate these sections. The first section or chamber is called the outer court; the second, the inner court or holy place; and the third, the holy of holies or most holy place. Thus we have three chambers in one.
Interestingly, ancient Greek has three primary words for love: agape, phileo, and eros. Hebrew on the other hand has just one primary word: ahab(Strong's #157). Yet, just as the tabernacle is three chambers in one, all three Greek expressions of love are contained in the one Hebrew word ahab (Strong's #157).
Ahab love encompasses all these different expressions:
- human love for another, includes family, and sexual
- human appetite for objects such as food, drink, sleep, wisdom
- human love for or to God
- the act of being a friend
- God's love toward man, Israel, righteousness
- lovely, lovable
- friends, lovers
- to like
Let's look at these three chambers alongside of the three Greek words for love. Please keep in mind that just as the three chambers are contained in the one tabernacle, the three expressions of love in Greek are contained in the one Hebrew word, ahab.
Door #1 – The Outer Court – Agape – Sacrificial Love
In Greek, agape love is expressed as self giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return. It is a love of choice and refers to the will rather than the emotion. It seeks the highest good for another at all costs.
We see agape love functioning in the outer court. This is the first court that you enter when coming into the Tabernacle. As you enter the outer court you see the brazen altar where a lamb or other animal was slain to take away sin. John 1:29 tells us that Jesus Christ is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Visualizing this scene we can grasp a fuller understanding of God's love.
One of the qualities of agape love is that it meets the needs of another regardless of the cost. God saw our need for a Savior and willingly gave His one and only Son as a sacrifice in order to restore the fellowship between God and man. Agape is the foundation of all love, and when we receive His gift of sacrificial love we enter into the family of God.
It is enough to have our lives redeemed and to receive the promise of eternal life, however, this is only the first area in the Tabernacle. There is another door to the next chamber; I call it the door of friendship. You see, agape does not require the personal friendship of phileo, or the emotional aspects of it, but I believe that it desires it. I believe the Lord is inviting us to walk through the door into the next chamber and experience the aspects of His friendship love.
Door #2 – The Inner Court - Phileo - Friendship Love
Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants... I call you friends" (John 15:15 NCV). Friendship love, phileo, speaks of feelings and emotions. It describes a heart-to-heart connection, a knitting of souls. A friend is someone with whom you share your joy and sorrow, your sin and shame, and your doubts and insecurities. You trust this person with what is on your heart so you are able to reveal the real you to them. Naturally, you won't share all of that with just anybody; you are only going to share that with your close, personal friends. I call these special people in my life "inner court friends." Just like in the Tabernacle of Moses, all were welcome in the outer court, but only a special group had access to the inner court: the Levites.
The Lord desires to engage at that level of relationship with us, too. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him..." (Revelation 3:20). We won't be close to the Lord if we keep the door to our heart closed.
Notice, there is only one letter difference between "close" and "closed": the letter "D." In the Hebrew alphabet, the letter "D" is a dalet and is the pictograph of a door! Beloved, Jesus is inviting us past the outer court and into the holy place saying, "Let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice"(Song of Solomon 2:14). Perfect love has cast out fear. This friendship is a safe place to talk to Him, to share with Him, to let Him see the real you. He won't reject you. He will hold you and do what no human relationship can... He will heal you.
Let's pause a moment. I am sensing the Holy Spirit ministering His phileo love right now... Thank You, Lord...
We have seen how the outer court reveals the sacrificial love of God and how the inner court reveals the friendship love of God. We can remain outer court or inner court friends with Jesus our entire life and that would be wonderful, however, there is still one more door in the Tabernacle. I believe God wants us to experience the full progression of His love. This third door gives us access to the Holy of Holies, where only one goes in to be alone with the presence of the Lord. In the Tabernacle of Moses, that one person was the High Priest. It is here as we are alone with God that we can encounter oneness with the LORD.
Door #3 – The Holy of Holies – Eros – Longing Love
The Greek word for love, "eros," means: longing, desire, and passionate love. You won't find the Greek word eros in the Bible, but you'll find its meaning in the Hebrew word "ahab." As I mentioned earlier, all the qualities of love that we have spoken of so far are found in this one Hebrew word. God is love, and He is the one and only true God of love.
During ancient Hebrew times the best man or "friend of the bridegroom" waited outside the door of the wedding chamber listening to hear the voice of the bridegroom rejoicing. This sound signified that the marriage had been consummated; husband and wife were now one flesh. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5b). This is a sound of rejoicing that is released in Heaven from our Bridegroom God. In John 3:29, John the Baptist describes himself as the friend of the Bridegroom who is standing at a door, listening for the sound of the Lord's voice.
Could this third chamber be a type of the third Heaven that Paul went to by the Spirit and received the revelation of the great mystery concerning the Church? "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" (Ephesians 5:31). Using the natural to define the supernatural, Paul said the great mystery that he was speaking of was Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32).
When we speak of being the Bride of Christ, we're not speaking of a person but rather a position, a type of spiritual standing. Throughout the Bible many relationships are used as a natural example to define a spiritual principle. Marriage is the most intimate of all relationships. A couple gets married because they are more than friends. The couple is connected on an emotional level that trumps any other human relationship. When two people are in love they want to spend the rest of their lives together. They want nothing but death to separate them. They want this person to be the first one they see in the morning and the last one they see at night. Their love is so strong that they can't seem to get close enough no matter how tightly they squeeze. They can rest in each other's embrace knowing they are loved and accepted by the other.
Beloved, the Lord desires this relationship with us. This closeness won't be experienced in the outer court with His agape love, or in the inner court through His phileo love. The oneness of God's love will only be experienced in the third chamber, the Holy of Holies as we abide alone with Him.
This is the longing love of God's heart and the whole plan of creation from the beginning. God just wants to dwell (tabernacle) with us because He is infatuated with us. Set free from the bondage of sin and death in the outer court and healed in the inner court, we learn to trust love again so we can run full speed ahead into the next chamber and embrace our destiny, Jesus Christ. That is the fullness of love. Amen and Amen.
Tiffany Ann Lewis
Dancing with the Flame of the Lord Ministries
Email: tiffanyann@tiffanyannlewis.com
Tiffany Ann Lewis is a prophetic worship leader and Bible teacher with a unique focus on Biblical Hebrew, and whose heart has been passionately awakened by a God who sees us in our shortcomings, loves us in spite of it all, and calls out to us so we can live (Ezekiel 16). Her vision is to create an atmosphere in worship where we can meet with God face to face. Where the Spirit of God moves freely, releasing emotional, spiritual and physical healing and igniting a passion for our heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus. Tiffany Ann has been ministering for over 10 years in prophetic worship throughout the Body of Christ. She worships with her family at Northway Church in Malta, New York, where she serves on the worship team.
Tiffany Ann Lewis:
Three Chambers of God's Love
A Look at Love Through the Tabernacle of Moses
Since "God is love" (1 John 4:8) and the Creator of the universe, it stands to reason that all expressions of love originate in Him. When considering God's love, the Greek word agape(pronounced a-gah-pay) is often discussed because it is a sacrificial love. I see agape as the foundation of all love, yet I don't believe we are to stop there; I believe agape was intended to take us some place further. If we "stop-ay at agape" (a little play on words) we will be missing the fullness of the relational qualities of love which God has designed.
In order to understand more fully this thing called love, let's look at it symbolically through the tabernacle of Moses. Moses' tabernacle is essentially one large rectangle with a smaller rectangle within it. The smaller rectangle is separated into two parts thus creating three unique sections that are all contained within one building. Heavy veils that act like our modern day doorway separate these sections. The first section or chamber is called the outer court; the second, the inner court or holy place; and the third, the holy of holies or most holy place. Thus we have three chambers in one.
Interestingly, ancient Greek has three primary words for love: agape, phileo, and eros. Hebrew on the other hand has just one primary word: ahab(Strong's #157). Yet, just as the tabernacle is three chambers in one, all three Greek expressions of love are contained in the one Hebrew word ahab (Strong's #157).
Ahab love encompasses all these different expressions:
- human love for another, includes family, and sexual
- human appetite for objects such as food, drink, sleep, wisdom
- human love for or to God
- the act of being a friend
- God's love toward man, Israel, righteousness
- lovely, lovable
- friends, lovers
- to like
Let's look at these three chambers alongside of the three Greek words for love. Please keep in mind that just as the three chambers are contained in the one tabernacle, the three expressions of love in Greek are contained in the one Hebrew word, ahab.
Door #1 – The Outer Court – Agape – Sacrificial Love
In Greek, agape love is expressed as self giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return. It is a love of choice and refers to the will rather than the emotion. It seeks the highest good for another at all costs.
We see agape love functioning in the outer court. This is the first court that you enter when coming into the Tabernacle. As you enter the outer court you see the brazen altar where a lamb or other animal was slain to take away sin. John 1:29 tells us that Jesus Christ is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Visualizing this scene we can grasp a fuller understanding of God's love.
One of the qualities of agape love is that it meets the needs of another regardless of the cost. God saw our need for a Savior and willingly gave His one and only Son as a sacrifice in order to restore the fellowship between God and man. Agape is the foundation of all love, and when we receive His gift of sacrificial love we enter into the family of God.
It is enough to have our lives redeemed and to receive the promise of eternal life, however, this is only the first area in the Tabernacle. There is another door to the next chamber; I call it the door of friendship. You see, agape does not require the personal friendship of phileo, or the emotional aspects of it, but I believe that it desires it. I believe the Lord is inviting us to walk through the door into the next chamber and experience the aspects of His friendship love.
Door #2 – The Inner Court - Phileo - Friendship Love
Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants... I call you friends" (John 15:15 NCV). Friendship love, phileo, speaks of feelings and emotions. It describes a heart-to-heart connection, a knitting of souls. A friend is someone with whom you share your joy and sorrow, your sin and shame, and your doubts and insecurities. You trust this person with what is on your heart so you are able to reveal the real you to them. Naturally, you won't share all of that with just anybody; you are only going to share that with your close, personal friends. I call these special people in my life "inner court friends." Just like in the Tabernacle of Moses, all were welcome in the outer court, but only a special group had access to the inner court: the Levites.
The Lord desires to engage at that level of relationship with us, too. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him..." (Revelation 3:20). We won't be close to the Lord if we keep the door to our heart closed.
Notice, there is only one letter difference between "close" and "closed": the letter "D." In the Hebrew alphabet, the letter "D" is a dalet and is the pictograph of a door! Beloved, Jesus is inviting us past the outer court and into the holy place saying, "Let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice"(Song of Solomon 2:14). Perfect love has cast out fear. This friendship is a safe place to talk to Him, to share with Him, to let Him see the real you. He won't reject you. He will hold you and do what no human relationship can... He will heal you.
Let's pause a moment. I am sensing the Holy Spirit ministering His phileo love right now... Thank You, Lord...
We have seen how the outer court reveals the sacrificial love of God and how the inner court reveals the friendship love of God. We can remain outer court or inner court friends with Jesus our entire life and that would be wonderful, however, there is still one more door in the Tabernacle. I believe God wants us to experience the full progression of His love. This third door gives us access to the Holy of Holies, where only one goes in to be alone with the presence of the Lord. In the Tabernacle of Moses, that one person was the High Priest. It is here as we are alone with God that we can encounter oneness with the LORD.
Door #3 – The Holy of Holies – Eros – Longing Love
The Greek word for love, "eros," means: longing, desire, and passionate love. You won't find the Greek word eros in the Bible, but you'll find its meaning in the Hebrew word "ahab." As I mentioned earlier, all the qualities of love that we have spoken of so far are found in this one Hebrew word. God is love, and He is the one and only true God of love.
During ancient Hebrew times the best man or "friend of the bridegroom" waited outside the door of the wedding chamber listening to hear the voice of the bridegroom rejoicing. This sound signified that the marriage had been consummated; husband and wife were now one flesh. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5b). This is a sound of rejoicing that is released in Heaven from our Bridegroom God. In John 3:29, John the Baptist describes himself as the friend of the Bridegroom who is standing at a door, listening for the sound of the Lord's voice.
Could this third chamber be a type of the third Heaven that Paul went to by the Spirit and received the revelation of the great mystery concerning the Church? "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" (Ephesians 5:31). Using the natural to define the supernatural, Paul said the great mystery that he was speaking of was Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32).
When we speak of being the Bride of Christ, we're not speaking of a person but rather a position, a type of spiritual standing. Throughout the Bible many relationships are used as a natural example to define a spiritual principle. Marriage is the most intimate of all relationships. A couple gets married because they are more than friends. The couple is connected on an emotional level that trumps any other human relationship. When two people are in love they want to spend the rest of their lives together. They want nothing but death to separate them. They want this person to be the first one they see in the morning and the last one they see at night. Their love is so strong that they can't seem to get close enough no matter how tightly they squeeze. They can rest in each other's embrace knowing they are loved and accepted by the other.
Beloved, the Lord desires this relationship with us. This closeness won't be experienced in the outer court with His agape love, or in the inner court through His phileo love. The oneness of God's love will only be experienced in the third chamber, the Holy of Holies as we abide alone with Him.
This is the longing love of God's heart and the whole plan of creation from the beginning. God just wants to dwell (tabernacle) with us because He is infatuated with us. Set free from the bondage of sin and death in the outer court and healed in the inner court, we learn to trust love again so we can run full speed ahead into the next chamber and embrace our destiny, Jesus Christ. That is the fullness of love. Amen and Amen.
Tiffany Ann Lewis
Dancing with the Flame of the Lord Ministries
Email: tiffanyann@tiffanyannlewis.com
Tiffany Ann Lewis is a prophetic worship leader and Bible teacher with a unique focus on Biblical Hebrew, and whose heart has been passionately awakened by a God who sees us in our shortcomings, loves us in spite of it all, and calls out to us so we can live (Ezekiel 16). Her vision is to create an atmosphere in worship where we can meet with God face to face. Where the Spirit of God moves freely, releasing emotional, spiritual and physical healing and igniting a passion for our heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus. Tiffany Ann has been ministering for over 10 years in prophetic worship throughout the Body of Christ. She worships with her family at Northway Church in Malta, New York, where she serves on the worship team.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
What Is Europe Sinking About?
JANUARY 17, 2012
What Is Europe Sinking About?
The shipwreck of a cruise liner is a metaphor for a continent.
By BRET STEPHENS
The Lord works in mysterious ways, or so it is often said. But in an era when few can read His signs, those signs have a way of becoming a bit more obvious. Like 45-10. Or how about another Titanic-type event, right on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the first one, as a way of prefiguring some great European disaster?
OK, probably better to leave Him out of it. But as metaphors go, Friday night's tragic-ridiculous shipwreck of a cruise liner off the Italian coast is an apt one for a continent in which nine countries had their credit ratings downgraded earlier that same day. Even the biggest ship can founder in calm waters if the captain is negligent. Even a rescue operation 50 feet from shore can turn into a fiasco if nobody has conducted a drill and the crew have no idea how to steer a lifeboat.
When the hors d'oeuvres are listing hard to starboard and the waiters tell you nothing's wrong, something's terribly wrong.
That last detail—from passenger accounts of the accident—reminded me of listening to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in New York last fall, explaining that Greece would never default, that the euro zone's financial position was not a serious cause for alarm, and that the main thing was to prevent further outbursts of market irrationalism. In other words, it wasn't the ship that was sinking, in Mr. Van Rompuy's view, it was just that the passengers had an odd way of occasionally going berserk.
[Source: http://online.wsj.com/article]
It is truly amazing to me to find this article on the Wall Street Journal website. Christ’s saying is true:
Luke 16:8
For the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light.
The church continues apace proclaiming a prosperity gospel while many in the world are recognizing that the party is about to come to a sudden end. The Concordia Wreck is quite obviously a sign of great financial and political trouble coming to the world. It would be hard to construct a more fitting metaphor of the foundering of nations. Following is an diagram of the Costa Concordia showing the names assigned to the various deck levels.
Translating these nation names to English, they are: Sweden, Greece, Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Poland, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, and The Netherlands. This ship was clearly designed to convey a message of unity (corcord) among nations. The United States enters the picture by virtue of the parent company, Carnival Cruise Lines, being a British and American corporation. What happens in Europe clearly has an impact upon America.
Art, a brother in Christ who has the New Wineskin blog, posted the following comment to yesterday’s post:
It is no coincidence that the ship went down just as several major bond rating agencies (such as Standard and Poor's) were downgrading the sovereign (i.e., national) debt of several European countries (but not all), raising their borrowing costs and driving yet another wedge between them.
The first press release regarding those downgrades was issued by S&P at 4:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, which was 10:36PM Central European Time (i.e., in Italy).
The Concordia had hit a granite outcrop off Giglio Island slightly less than an hour prior to that, at 9:42 PM European Central Time.
[End Quote]
God is certainly giving a sign of impending disaster. The nations will be shaken. Even secular sources of news and commentary have made the connection to this event and the conditions in Europe and the United States. This is attested to by the following politcial cartoons.
The Concordia is renamed Euro in this cartoon, indicating that the Euro is soon to fail as a monetary system. This will set the stage for a new, global monetary system to be put in place, plans for which have already been put in place.
September 9, 2009
United Nations Proposes New "Global Currency"
By Declan McCullagh
(AP)
The United Nations would like the dollar, euro, yen, and other national currencies to be succeeded by a new "global currency."
That recommendation appears in a U.N. report released this week, which suggests the dollar's outsize role in international finance has ended -- and says that it's time to invent a successor currency that would be managed by a "Global Reserve Bank."
[Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/article]
It is interesting to note that the date of the report above is 9/9/9, a number mentioned yesterday in the post on the Concordia disaster. The Concordia wreck occurred 99 years and 9 months after the wreck of the Titanic. In the same post it was mentioned that the number 9 in Scripture is “THE NUMBER OF FINALITY OR JUDGMENT.”
This is another political cartoon. Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France are shown atop the sinking Eurozone ship while Monti, the leader of Italy is desperately clinging to the side of the ship.
This political cartoon makes a correlation to Obama saving himself from the sinking ship of America even as the captain of the Concordia abandoned ship while passengers were still aboard.
Here is a further twist on this idea that emphasizes Congress’s role in causing America to founder. People of God, we would do well to pay heed to the signs that are being given. Even the world is taking note, though I doubt too many are actually taking any steps that will prove beneficial in surviving that collapse the coming economic collapse and resulting political turmoil.
Are you truly prepared to weather what is to come? What will you do when the dollar is devalued, and your wealth ends up at the bottom of the ocean? Have you already divested yourself from an attachment to the world’s goods and possessions? Are you walking as a true disciple of Christ? You do not want to have attachments to that which God is testifying will soon sink beneath the waves. It is those who are free from entanglements that will find it easiest to extricate themselves from the wreckage.
II Timothy 2:3-7
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Yahshua. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier... Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Have you learned to walk by faith, being directed by the Spirit, and confident of God’s provision and care for your life? Do you have the assurance that there will be corn supplied to you in a time of famine? Those who do not have faith in God will be swept up in the panic that follows the sinking of the world economic system.
Do not say to yourself that it will not happen. Very few would gave any credence at all to the thought that financial systems would be rocked in 2008. Nevertheless, the world faced a tremendous calamity with one crisis following hard on another. Major financial companies like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers became insolvent. AIG, the world’s largest insurance company faced imminent collapse. Home values that had been rising at double digit rates year over year suddenly tanked. In the ensuing years millions lost their homes to foreclosure. Millions more lost their jobs as the economy contracted and businesses failed.
Now, four years later, nothing has improved. State after state has faced severed a severe budgetary crisis. The Federal government has continued only by increasing debt load to “titanic” levels. The weight of all of this debt must soon pull the ship of state under water.
What should you do seeing that Yahweh is giving testimony to the catastrophic things soon to occur? First, do not place your confidence in leaders who do not walk in the ways of God, nor do they have compassion for the people they are elected to serve. They are mere hirelings. When they see danger come, they will flee. Place your trust and confidence in God. What He tells you to do, you must do, and that without delay. Get your house in order. Free yourself from worldly entanglements lest you be unable to escape the coming ruin.
If you have yet to accept the cost of being Christ’s disciple, there is no time to lose. To be Christ’s disciple you must yield yourself to His leadership. What He says do, you must do. Where He says go, you must go. You must lay aside self-governance and surrender to be governed by Christ. He must be the One who determines what you do with your time, money, and possessions.
Luke 14:33
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
I Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that... you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price...
In the aftermath of the Concordia disaster it became known that the people had not been prepared for an emergency. The ship’s captain had not carried out rescue drills. Overconfidence gave rise to complacency. The ship had sailed (nearly) the same route many times. There had never been need to abandon ship or use lifeboats before. The ship seemed exceptionally solid. She appeared to be able to remain floating for the imaginable future. No one, from captain to passengers, anticipated that this magnificent vessel would soon have a huge breach in her hull and quickly fill up with water and capsize.
Even after the damage was done, the captain refused to acknowledge what had occurred. It was passengers on board who reportedly contacted land based authorities with their cell phones to be the first to report a crisis.
Do not wait for the leaders of your nation to tell you a crisis is at hand. Do not look to them to tell you how to safely respond to what is to come. You will suffer loss if you do. Press into God. Seek His mind. Ask Him what He would have you do, and you must do this in all things. Do not just ask God how to survive economic and political turmoil. You must ask Him what He would have you to do in all things.
Psalms 146:3-10
Don't put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners. Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. Yahweh will reign forever; Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
What Is Europe Sinking About?
The shipwreck of a cruise liner is a metaphor for a continent.
By BRET STEPHENS
The Lord works in mysterious ways, or so it is often said. But in an era when few can read His signs, those signs have a way of becoming a bit more obvious. Like 45-10. Or how about another Titanic-type event, right on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the first one, as a way of prefiguring some great European disaster?
OK, probably better to leave Him out of it. But as metaphors go, Friday night's tragic-ridiculous shipwreck of a cruise liner off the Italian coast is an apt one for a continent in which nine countries had their credit ratings downgraded earlier that same day. Even the biggest ship can founder in calm waters if the captain is negligent. Even a rescue operation 50 feet from shore can turn into a fiasco if nobody has conducted a drill and the crew have no idea how to steer a lifeboat.
When the hors d'oeuvres are listing hard to starboard and the waiters tell you nothing's wrong, something's terribly wrong.
That last detail—from passenger accounts of the accident—reminded me of listening to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in New York last fall, explaining that Greece would never default, that the euro zone's financial position was not a serious cause for alarm, and that the main thing was to prevent further outbursts of market irrationalism. In other words, it wasn't the ship that was sinking, in Mr. Van Rompuy's view, it was just that the passengers had an odd way of occasionally going berserk.
[Source: http://online.wsj.com/article]
It is truly amazing to me to find this article on the Wall Street Journal website. Christ’s saying is true:
Luke 16:8
For the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light.
The church continues apace proclaiming a prosperity gospel while many in the world are recognizing that the party is about to come to a sudden end. The Concordia Wreck is quite obviously a sign of great financial and political trouble coming to the world. It would be hard to construct a more fitting metaphor of the foundering of nations. Following is an diagram of the Costa Concordia showing the names assigned to the various deck levels.
Translating these nation names to English, they are: Sweden, Greece, Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Poland, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, and The Netherlands. This ship was clearly designed to convey a message of unity (corcord) among nations. The United States enters the picture by virtue of the parent company, Carnival Cruise Lines, being a British and American corporation. What happens in Europe clearly has an impact upon America.
Art, a brother in Christ who has the New Wineskin blog, posted the following comment to yesterday’s post:
It is no coincidence that the ship went down just as several major bond rating agencies (such as Standard and Poor's) were downgrading the sovereign (i.e., national) debt of several European countries (but not all), raising their borrowing costs and driving yet another wedge between them.
The first press release regarding those downgrades was issued by S&P at 4:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, which was 10:36PM Central European Time (i.e., in Italy).
The Concordia had hit a granite outcrop off Giglio Island slightly less than an hour prior to that, at 9:42 PM European Central Time.
[End Quote]
God is certainly giving a sign of impending disaster. The nations will be shaken. Even secular sources of news and commentary have made the connection to this event and the conditions in Europe and the United States. This is attested to by the following politcial cartoons.
The Concordia is renamed Euro in this cartoon, indicating that the Euro is soon to fail as a monetary system. This will set the stage for a new, global monetary system to be put in place, plans for which have already been put in place.
September 9, 2009
United Nations Proposes New "Global Currency"
By Declan McCullagh
(AP)
The United Nations would like the dollar, euro, yen, and other national currencies to be succeeded by a new "global currency."
That recommendation appears in a U.N. report released this week, which suggests the dollar's outsize role in international finance has ended -- and says that it's time to invent a successor currency that would be managed by a "Global Reserve Bank."
[Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/article]
It is interesting to note that the date of the report above is 9/9/9, a number mentioned yesterday in the post on the Concordia disaster. The Concordia wreck occurred 99 years and 9 months after the wreck of the Titanic. In the same post it was mentioned that the number 9 in Scripture is “THE NUMBER OF FINALITY OR JUDGMENT.”
This is another political cartoon. Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France are shown atop the sinking Eurozone ship while Monti, the leader of Italy is desperately clinging to the side of the ship.
This political cartoon makes a correlation to Obama saving himself from the sinking ship of America even as the captain of the Concordia abandoned ship while passengers were still aboard.
Here is a further twist on this idea that emphasizes Congress’s role in causing America to founder. People of God, we would do well to pay heed to the signs that are being given. Even the world is taking note, though I doubt too many are actually taking any steps that will prove beneficial in surviving that collapse the coming economic collapse and resulting political turmoil.
Are you truly prepared to weather what is to come? What will you do when the dollar is devalued, and your wealth ends up at the bottom of the ocean? Have you already divested yourself from an attachment to the world’s goods and possessions? Are you walking as a true disciple of Christ? You do not want to have attachments to that which God is testifying will soon sink beneath the waves. It is those who are free from entanglements that will find it easiest to extricate themselves from the wreckage.
II Timothy 2:3-7
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Yahshua. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier... Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Have you learned to walk by faith, being directed by the Spirit, and confident of God’s provision and care for your life? Do you have the assurance that there will be corn supplied to you in a time of famine? Those who do not have faith in God will be swept up in the panic that follows the sinking of the world economic system.
Do not say to yourself that it will not happen. Very few would gave any credence at all to the thought that financial systems would be rocked in 2008. Nevertheless, the world faced a tremendous calamity with one crisis following hard on another. Major financial companies like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers became insolvent. AIG, the world’s largest insurance company faced imminent collapse. Home values that had been rising at double digit rates year over year suddenly tanked. In the ensuing years millions lost their homes to foreclosure. Millions more lost their jobs as the economy contracted and businesses failed.
Now, four years later, nothing has improved. State after state has faced severed a severe budgetary crisis. The Federal government has continued only by increasing debt load to “titanic” levels. The weight of all of this debt must soon pull the ship of state under water.
What should you do seeing that Yahweh is giving testimony to the catastrophic things soon to occur? First, do not place your confidence in leaders who do not walk in the ways of God, nor do they have compassion for the people they are elected to serve. They are mere hirelings. When they see danger come, they will flee. Place your trust and confidence in God. What He tells you to do, you must do, and that without delay. Get your house in order. Free yourself from worldly entanglements lest you be unable to escape the coming ruin.
If you have yet to accept the cost of being Christ’s disciple, there is no time to lose. To be Christ’s disciple you must yield yourself to His leadership. What He says do, you must do. Where He says go, you must go. You must lay aside self-governance and surrender to be governed by Christ. He must be the One who determines what you do with your time, money, and possessions.
Luke 14:33
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
I Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that... you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price...
In the aftermath of the Concordia disaster it became known that the people had not been prepared for an emergency. The ship’s captain had not carried out rescue drills. Overconfidence gave rise to complacency. The ship had sailed (nearly) the same route many times. There had never been need to abandon ship or use lifeboats before. The ship seemed exceptionally solid. She appeared to be able to remain floating for the imaginable future. No one, from captain to passengers, anticipated that this magnificent vessel would soon have a huge breach in her hull and quickly fill up with water and capsize.
Even after the damage was done, the captain refused to acknowledge what had occurred. It was passengers on board who reportedly contacted land based authorities with their cell phones to be the first to report a crisis.
Do not wait for the leaders of your nation to tell you a crisis is at hand. Do not look to them to tell you how to safely respond to what is to come. You will suffer loss if you do. Press into God. Seek His mind. Ask Him what He would have you do, and you must do this in all things. Do not just ask God how to survive economic and political turmoil. You must ask Him what He would have you to do in all things.
Psalms 146:3-10
Don't put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners. Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. Yahweh will reign forever; Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
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