Coming Unglued????

I just started a new Bible Study, Unglued, by Lysa Terkeutst. It is about making wise choices in the midst of raw emotions. I wasn't sure about this Bible study before it started. I purchased the book and on Monday, Sept. 24, I read the first chapter and wow did it sound like me. Do I become unglued when things happen? Her example was not having a towel when she came out of the shower and blowing up at her kids because the towels were missing. Her kids did remove the towels but is it worth becoming unglued over? No, it isn't but that is so like me. I can become unglued over the smallest things and if it is a big thing look-out I will probably become very unglued. But this is not what God wants from us. He wants us to display His glory if things are going as planned or if things get out of whack. God is in charge and we have to trust Him, truly trust Him. He is in control over everything. Each thought we have is recorded in our 'internal hard drive' and each time we think this thought it goes deeper and deeper and soon becomes a pattern for thought. Then if this thought is tied to an emotion it becomes exponentially stronger. So we need to renew our thoughts and be transformed as Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is---his good, pleasing, and perfect will." Only with God's help can we transform our minds, I need to ask God to help me and truly trust Him so when I face things that are out of my control I will not act out of control. I can't always fix my circumstances but I can fix my eyes on God knowing He is in control and works all things out for my good. So when I am busy working on a project or cleaning the house and get interrupted I do not want to become unglued I want to trust God and know it is all in His plan. I want to bring Him glory and coming unglued does not bring Him glory. I just recently had an unglued moment, although I didn't become near as unglued as I do sometimes, we, my husband and our youngest son had planned on eating out and then going to see a movie. This was going to be a really fun evening after a very busy week. Friday night we went to our son's apartment to pick him up and go eat and then go to the theater. We ate and enjoyed our meal together but we kind of rushed so we could get to the movie on time. Well we got to the movie theater and guess what the movie was no longer playing, what a big disappointment, could I fix the circumstance? No. Was I mad? Yes but probably more disappointed than anything and I almost let it ruin my whole evening. But then I started thinking, if I let this ruin my evening with our son I am going to regret it. Is a movie worth it? Are my actions pleasing God? No. So I began enjoying our evening once again. This time I got "glued back together" before being "unglued" messed up the whole evening but like the first chapter said it is "imperfect progress". I know I will mess up again and once again be asking for forgiveness. I know there will not be immediate changes, like I wish there were but I pray with God's help I will become less and less unglued and stay glued together more and more until the day that I will never become unglued again when I see my wonderful, faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And as the hymn says "what a day that will be when my Jesus I will see, when I look upon His face the One who saved me by His grace, when He takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land, what a day, glorious day, that will be." NO MORE BECOMING UNGLUED!

And Now The Rest of the Story.....

Yesterday I stopped with the fifth Harbinger so today we are on the sixth. The sixth Harbinger is The Sycamore. Remember Isaiah 9:10 "But we will rebuild with quarried stone. The sycamores have been cut down." Well guess what was the only tree near the Twin Towers when they went crushing to the ground....did you guess a sycamore??? If so you were correct. When the North Tower fell, debris was scattered everywhere. There was a sycamore tree planted and it was uprooted. The fallen sycamore in Isaiah 9:10 was a sign of uprooting. The Assyrians intentionally destroyed the sycamore trees in ancient Israel of course the terrorists didn't aim to uproot the sycamore tree in America. They probably didn't even know about the tree, but isn't it kind of strange that it just happened to be a sycamore....the same kind of tree that was uprooted when Israel was struck by the Assyrians??? The author, Johnathan Cahn, says that when the sycamore tree was uprooted in Israel it was a sign of the nation's downfall and the end of its kingdom. What about America??? Was God trying to get our attention? Is He still trying to get our attention?? Okay, the sycamore tree is interesting but it even gets more interesting than that. This is going to be the last Harbinger that I am going to write about because I want you to go out and read the book. I can assure you, you will find it very interesting. You can order it from Amazon OR you can get it at LIFEWAY CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE. I saw it there yesterday on sale, remember the titel is The Harbinger the Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret to America's Future by Johnathan Cahn. The seventh Harbinger The Erez Tree. Remember Isaiah 9:10 once again "The sycamores have been cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place." A cedar tree was much stronger than the sycamore. More highly valued. It grew straight and majestic. Another act of defiance from Israel, instead of being humbled and turning to God they were going to build themselves up stronger than before. The Hebrew word for cedar is Erez which is a coniferous evergreen, which includes the cedar, the spruce, the pine, and the fir tree. In November 2003 guess what was seen in the sky....a tree over Ground Zero. It was being replanted where the Sycamore tree had once stood and guess what kind of tree it was....an evergreen (a Erez tree). It was a donated tree. It just happened to be an evergreen, I really don't think this just happened. Okay so listen to what the author says, the tower fell because of the terrorists. Fell exactly as it did to strike down a particular tree. The tree just happened to be a sycamore, which just happened to be growing at Ground Zero. The tree would be replaced and it just happened to be givien as a gift from outsiders who had nothing to do with anything, just wanted to give a gift. Their gift just happened to be the same tree that was spoken of in the ancient vow, the tree that must replace the sycamore. It was to be a tree of hope but not hope in God, our in ourselves. But without returning to God the strong cedars will come crashing down to the earth. There is A LOT more information in the Harbinger book and I cannot express enough how interesting it it. The next Harbinger is The Utterance and you will want to find out what it is. You will not want to put this book down. You will want to share it with someone else. But the main thing is we need to put our hope and trust in God, give our lives to Jesus, He gave His life for us. If we do not put our trust in God we have no hope. Our world as we once knew it is changing drastically and not for the better. America as a nation needs to wake up and turn back to God but it begins with us as individuals. May we turn back to God and then may God bless America!!!!

Very Interesting....continues

We are on the third Harbinger (the third seal), "The Fallen Bricks". Isaiah 9:10 says, "They said, "We will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone, and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars." This was Israel's first response when the Assyrians attacked them. It was a spirit of pride, defiance, and arrogance. They were attacked to turn them back to God but what were they doing, not returning to God they were not heeding the warning. They were not going to be humbled they were going to be stronger than ever and rise to greater heights than before....with God's help, NO they didn't turn to God they were going to do this ON THEIR OWN. The nation of ancient Israel was sealing their judgement by not turning to God, they were too proud. So what in the world does this have to do with America????? One of the most visible signs of the attack on 9/11 is the ruins, the fallen bricks, stones, rubble, where there once stood a building. 'The Bricks Have Fallen' at Ground Zero. Israel's wall lay in a heap, the bricks had fallen. The World Trade Center was a symbol of America's ecomomic power. But it came crashing down to the earth in just a moment of time. For a while it looked like America was heeding the voice of God. People sang "God Bless America", churches were full, people gathered for prayer, etc. But it was short-lived. There was no real heart change. But America did respond to 9/11 but how??? The same way as ancient Israel did. Which brings us to the fourth Harbinger: The Tower. Ancient Israel said not only would they rebuild but they would rebuild with hewn stone. The bricks that fell were not strong but they were going to build with hewn stone, which is much stronger than the bricks they built with to begin with. It was all about defiance. So they didn't bow before Heaven. So what did America say after 9/11, well from the mayor of New York City in the wake of the attack: 'We will rebuild....'; from the state's senior senator: 'We will rebuild....'; from the state's governor: 'We will rebuild. And we will move forward.' From the state's junior senator: 'We will rebuild.....'; from the city's mayor at the time of the rebuilding; 'We will rebuild, renew, and remain the capital of the free world.'; from the president of the United States: 'We will rebuild New York City.' Basically the same words as ancient Israel spoke. A sign appeared at Ground Zero with these words, "A new icon will soon rise above the Lower Manhattan skyline....the Freedom Tower." It was a tower of defiance. Before the rebuilding began an American senator said "I believe one of the first things we should commit to - with federal help that underscores our nation's purpose is to rebuild the towers of the World Trade Center and show the world we are not afraid- WE ARE DEFIANT." So the rebuilding of Ground Zero was going to be America's statement of defiance on those who attacked us. Commentaries (on the Bible) say this about ancient Israel's defiance and boasting: "They rise upon the ruins of their broken homes....boasting that they will show the enemy, whether God or man, that they can 'take it'." And from the words of the mayor of New York in response to 9/11; "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of the stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger." So the Tower is a symbol of reconstruction....is there somewhere in Isaiah that speaks of a tower? The Septuagint version (Greek version of Hebrew Scriptures) of Isaiah 9:10 says this; "The bricks are fallen down....but come....let us build for ourselves a TOWER." One more Harbinger before I stop for the day. The fifth Harbinger: The Gazit Stone. So they have decided to rebuild the World Trade Center with a bigger and stronger TOWER but remember in Isaiah they were going to rebuild ancient Israel not with bricks but with hewn stone. The Hebrew word for stone is gazit, so a Gazit Stone. It was a cut stone and guess what. After 9/11 a stone was cut out of the mountians and brought back...to guess where....Ground Zero. It was a Gazit Stone. A twenty-ton massive rectangular block of quarried stone. The stone that was to mark the rebuilding. It was called the Freedom Stone. So America didn't become humbled and repentant it became defiant. Just as ancient Israel used quarried stone so too America used quarried stone as an act of defiance. Here are the words from the governor of New York, "Today, we, the heirs of that revolutionary spirit of defiance, lay this cornerstone...." The rebuilding of Ground Zero was met with many obstacles and trouble, just as ancient Israel as they tried to rebuild. Eventually the stone is removed but do you see it almost looks like a reenactment of the history of ancient Israel. God was trying to get their attention, just as He is trying to get America's attention. *Portions of this blog come from the book, "The Harbinger...." by Johnathan Cahn

VERY INTERESTING

I just finished reading a very interesting book. The book was recommended by my dad, Tom Hawkins, and I ordered it on my kindle not even really knowing what the book was about. The title of the book is "The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America's Future" by Jonathan Cahn. It is about a man, Nouriel, who meets a "prophet" after he finds a seal, the first of 9 seals. The "prophet" gives the Nouriel clues to find the meaning of each of the seals and he searches out the meaning and then meets the "prophet" again and the "prophet" will explain the seal to Nouriel. This of course is a fiction book BUT it has many facts in it and the author is a Messianic Jew who says that this was revealed to him by God. And after reading the book it very well could have been, it would have been very difficult to find out all the information in this book with out some divine help, of course this is NOT the Bible, it is not inspired and should not be taken as such. I wanted to share some of the interesting facts in this book. You may find this uninteresting but I was very intriqued by some of the "stuff" in this book. The book compares 9/11 to the history of Ancient Israel. The first Harbinger (the first seal) is called "The Breach". In 782 B.C. Israel's enemies invade the land and wreak havoc. It was a removal of the protective hedge. It was a warning after many other attempts to wake God's people up to turn back to Him. When Israel remained in the will of God no enemy could have breached its walls but Israel didn't wake up to God's warnings so the wall was breached. Now look at America. It is the most blessed nation on earth. The ones who first came to North America came in search of God while those who went to South America went in search of gold. Our founders said if our nation followed the ways of God, it would be blessed with prosperity, power, peace, and security. But America has turned away from God so the hedge of protection has been removed, September 11, 2001. The walls of America's national security was breached. After Israel's walls were breached they turned to God for a while but then gradually things seemed to return to "normal". When 9/11 happened many American's turned to God, churches were full, people were praying. Did God cause 9/11? No, man did it. Evil men but God can cause evil to work for good. God wants America to turn back to Him and we did, for a while. But soon just like Israel we began to go back to what appears to be "normal". A different "normal" but we kind of forget as time goes on. When trouble came to ancient Israel it came to the righteous and unrighteous alike, just as 9/11 came to the righteous and unrighteous. People asked "where was God?" He was there, even though we drove Him out of our schools, government, media, etc. He was still there with those who lost their loved ones to comfort, with those who gave their lives so others could live and those who were with God in life are now with Him in eternity. The second Harbinger (the second seal): the second seal had pictures of men with beards, in robes with head coverings. Some of the men held bows and arrows aiming them upward. After searching for who these men were Nouriel found out they were Assyrians. The Assyrians were masters of terror. They burned cities to the ground, mutilated their prisoners, flayed alive those who rebelled against them, and nailed their skins to the wall to be displayed publicly. The Assyrians were the people who invaded ancient Israel. The second Harbinger is "the Terrorist". The terrorist who plotted out the attack on 9/11 are the spiritual children of the Assyrians, the fathers of terrorism. Another link joining America to ancient Israel. Here are some comparisons of the Assyrians and the terrorists, they are both children of the Middle East, they are both Semitic people, the Assyrians spoke a language called Akkadian. This language is long extinct but there is still one language spoken that is closet to ancient Akkadian....guess what that is....Arabic. The language spoken by al Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorists. So when America was attacked the words and speech patterns used were like that of the Assyrian leaders and warriors as they planned and executed their attack on Israel, two and a half thousand years earlier. The invasion of Assyria on Israel would cause military conflict, war, and a final and tragic national drama. Just as the attack on America on 9/11 caused us to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. In April 2003 American soldiers entered the Iraqi city of Mosul. Under this city are ruins of the ancient city Nineveh. Ninevah was the graveyard of the Assyrian Empire. Guess where ancient Assyria was.....now northern Iraq! So our American soldiers are walking on the same earth as the Assyrian soldiers once walked. And the people all around them are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians. So America was drawn into a war in Iraq which was once Assyria, the same place that ancient Israel was drawn into war with the Assyrians. But Israel soon found out that the war could not be won by weapons, the war was inside, they had turned away from God, their protection. America has also turned away from God....can we win with weapons????? Or is our danger also on the inside??? Next blog....the third harbinger. Do you see why this book is interesting? Is the history of ancient Israel being replayed today in America because we have turned away from God? *some of the statements in this blog were taken from the book, "The Harbinger...." by Johnathan Cahn