Pillar of Cloud Over the Golan Heights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5I-QKuF9OM

Shooting began on the Golan Heights about a month ago when this happened. (See the video link)

Please notice that is an event unusual enough that all of the soldiers in the area are taking pictures and recording the cloud. The cloud came down between Israeli soldiers and the shooters on the other side of the hill. It hung over the Syrian side and never crossed the border onto the Israeli side.

Two things come to mind.

God said that when all the nations of the world turn against Israel, He will personally defend them,

When Cecil B. DeMille filmed "the Ten Commandments" he depicted the cloud as a thin finger of flame. Looking at this reminds me that God is so much bigger and more powerful than we ever imagine He is.

God bless your day,

Kathi 

A Letter from Jesus

My Aunt Barbara sent this to me in an email. It was so good that I had to repost it here.

A Letter From Jesus To You My Dear Child


My love, I love you. (John 15:9) I have called you by your name, you are
Mine. (Isaiah 43:1) Before I formed you, I knew you. And before you were
born, I consecrated you. (Jeremiah 1:5) You did not choose Me, I chose you.
(John 15:16) Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in
good health, even as your soul prospers.(3John 2) Because you are precious
to Me, and honored, I love you. (Isaiah 43:4) I have loved you with an
everlasting love and I will continue my constant love. (Jeremiah 31:3)

How can I abandon you? My love for you is too strong. (Hosea 11:8) I love
you so much that I hung on the cross at Calvary. I died for you, and if you
believe Me, you will have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Yes, even
should she forget, I will never forget you. I cannot forget you. I will hold
you in the palm of My hands.(Isaiah 41:13) I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS UNTIL THE
END OF THE WORLD. (Matthew 28:20)

Do not let your heart be troubled, trust in Me. (John14:1) I will help you
(Isaiah 41:14) When you pass through the deep waters, I will be with you.
Your troubles will not overwhelm you.

The hard trials that will come will not hurt you. (Isaiah 43:2) When you
walk through the valley of the shadows of death, do not be afraid because I
am with you. My rod and My staff will comfort you. I will lead you in the
path of righteousness. (Psalm 23) I will give you peace in the midst of a
storm, not as the world giveth.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) Peace
I give which will pass all understanding and shall keep your heart and mind
(Philippians 4:7)

When you lie down do not be afraid, your sleep shall be sweet. (Proverbs
3:24)
My love for you will keep your dwelling safe. (Psalm 4:8)

Beloved, My eyes are upon you and I will give you hope, for I Am merciful.
(Psalm 33:18) You will have access to My grace and rejoice in hope while
sharing in the glory of My Father. (Romans 5:2)

I will give you joy and peace. The mountains and hills will sing, and the
trees will clasp their hands before you. (Isaiah 55:12) You may have sorrow
now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice and no one will
take your joy from you. (John 16:22)

Do not worry.(Luke 12:9) Even the hairs on your head have all been counted,
so there is no need to be afraid of anything. (Matthew 10:30) The mountains
may depart and the hills will be shaken, but My steadfast love for you will
never end. (Isaiah 54:10)

Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest
(Matthew 11:28) Come, my love come. I will lead you into solitude and there
I will speak tenderly to your heart. I will be true and faithful. I will
show you constant love and make you Mine forever.

I will keep my promise, and you will really know Me then as never before. I
Am who I Am. (Exodus 3:14)

I Am the LORD, your God. (Hosea 13:4)

Your Faithful Friend, Jesus

P.S. I AM the same Yesterday, Today and Forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Temple Curtain Torn

The Death of Jesus
…50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Matthew 27

When Jesus died the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. It was six inches thick. How much effort would it have taken to tear something that thick? 

It was torn from top to bottom. The earthquake did not have that effect. Not unless the Temple walls fell outward in opposite directions in such a way that they pulled on each side of the curtain in a more or less equal way.

I was taught this about the torn curtain: 

Either God or and angel tore the curtain. Probably an angel.

The curtain was originally made to separate the people from their Holy God. If they looked directly at Him they would have died.

Only the high priest was allowed behind the curtain and only once a year - carrying smoking incense to prevent a direct look at God's glory.

After Jesus died, the curtain was torn to show that now all people were allowed to approach God.

I believe these are valid points.

But I also wonder. There was an ancient Jewish custom of tearing one's clothes from the neck down when one heard bad news or was in mourning.

Might it not have been that God tore His "clothes", His covering, when His only Son died?

Maybe it's some of each.

May God bless us all.

Kathi

Open- or Closed-Minded

I recently got into a facebook discussion about a politically correct subject. I was not on the politically correct side since it disagrees with the Bible.

The discussion ended after about an hour and a half, but resurfaced the next day. It occurred to me that when people tried to trip up Jesus, He would use Scripture against the arguments. So I tried it.

After only two Bible quotes, I was called closed-minded. Only two verses sent my opponent into name-calling.

I would like to point out that Adam and Eve listened to the snake with an open mind. Look where THAT got us all.

Happy Resurrection Day,

Kathi Linz

The World Has Lost Its Mind

I ran across a saying that ended like this:
Truth - the supply always exceeds the demand.

Why? Why don't people want to hear the truth anymore? An even more pressing question is - why don't the people who know the truth want to let us know what it is? What are they hiding?

What I see, and I appear to be in rare company - is that the world is lining up in exactly the way Jesus said it would be at the end of the age. What I see is that demons are wreaking havoc on whole nations and no one seems to care. Instead they are cheering on the evil people and events.

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.: Isaiah 5:20.

The occult is in full swing and the leadership is pulling for transhumanism - the "improvement of humans by crossing them with machines and/or animals". 

The world has lost its collective mind. I know it will happen. God said it would. I don't have to like it and I don't think I'm supposed to like it. It's my calling to fight the world/evil tooth and nail. It's my duty to snatch every soul I can from the teeth of the Destroyer. That includes prayer and being salt and light in a dark and rotting world.

May God preserve us in this time,

Kathi

A Jealous God

Ezekiel, in chapter 8, talks about Israel's idolatry in very specific ways.

"The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood." v. 3

Verses 10 and 11 show the elders worshiping "crawling things and detestable animals" with incense. Verse 14 depicts women in the annual mourning for the death of Tammuz, a version of Osiris, Adonis, and Ba'al, all which came from the story of Nimrod, the founder of false religion. 

16 "He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east."

We don't ordinarily find jealousy to be a good emotion. Why should we think it is something the becomes a holy God?

What if...?

What if you lived in a beautiful house? You had come up with the plans for it yourself. You had chosen all the furnishings and decorations. The colors suited you perfectly and there was no other place in the world that you would rather live.

What if your family members came to celebrate a holiday with you and you were anticipating a superior event? Oddly enough, they bring with them an uninvited guest. Bigfoot, sasquatch, yeti. Call it what you will, it is large, hairy, and hasn't had a bath since...ever! It eats all of the food you laid out for your guests and then handles all of your precious things. Some break.

Worse yet, your relatives think it is the most interesting thing ever created and they want you to let it move into your guest bedroom!

What is your reaction? Do you passively let the creature take over your house and mess up everything you've spent so much time making perfect? Don't you wish your family had come to share time with you instead of - whatever that is?

I would be hurt, and might not invite my family back for a while, give them some time to get their priorities in order. And I would call the police or animal control to get rid of the hairy menace. 

No, it wouldn't be allowed to live in my house. I didn't invite it and I don't have to keep it.

I am not God and I can't think or feel a fraction of what He can. This is what I envisioned when I read the chapter. 

I feel bad that we are so willing to abandon the loving, the perfect, the most awesome and turn to what is dust and ashes at best, and at worst, is completely evil and deadly.

May God save us from making stupid choices as to what we put first in our lives,

Kathi

How Jesus Became a Rabbi

Jesus earned the title of Rabbi. People - even high ranking people - also called Him Master. Those titles were not used lightly. They had to be EARNED.

In Jesus' day, fathers took seriously the command to train up a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6) and to talk of them constantly to your children.

Deut. 6:6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.…

Fathers would teach their toddlers the whole book of Deuteronomy so they could recite it by the age of five. When the sons were five years old, the child would go to the local ruler of the synagogue and recite what he had learned. If he didn't know it well and stumbled through it, the son would begin to learn his father's trade. If the boy could recite Deuteronomy clearly and accurately, he would go to the next level of schooling.

By the time the boy reached his bar mitzvah, he was expected to know the rest of the Torah, all five books of Moses. During this test, the young man did not recite the whole Torah verbatim. The teachers would question him and he would be expected to know what part of the Torah applied and be able to recite that section truly. When Jesus stayed behind in the Temple when He was twelve, He was passing His test with such a level of understanding that He amazed the Temple teachers.

If, as Jesus did, a young man passed this stringent exam, he would go on to rabbi school. This lasted until the age of thirty. During these years, the scholars would study the histories of Israel, the wisdom and poetry, the prophets, the Talmud, and the writings of well-respected teachers.

At the age of thirty, these men were sent out to officiate in the synagogues as rabbis. But there was yet one more title possible.

If a scholar was observed by his teachers and fellow students to have "schmidah" (sp?), he could become a Master Teacher. This meant he was known to have the Spirit of God on him. He would need two witnesses who attested to this and would have a ritual baptism performed by a priest.

In Jesus' case, He went down to the Jordan River at the age of thirty. The baptism was performed by John the Baptist, the son of a priest. The two witnesses were the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the Father's voice from heaven.

After this, Jesus was allowed to gather His own students and train them under His own authority. Even being the Word of God in the flesh, even having been the Creator of the world, even with His divinity thinly clad in flesh, Jesus still fulfilled every requirement to earn the right to teach people about God and heavenly things.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

My thanks to Perry Stone for sharing this information.