Israel's 1st Jubilee in 2000 Years Begins

      The 7th of June 2016 will be the 49^th anniversary of Israel capturing the Temple Mount during their Six Day War.  I remember this for several reasons. First I was stationed in Germany and we were rigging out supplies to parachute into Israel if they needed back up. We even had planes of troops that went all the ways to Turkey and sat under the wings of planes for a few days waiting to see what was going to happen.  That was no small task as we could not fly over communist territory, Austria, Switzerland or France.  Our planes had to fly out to the English Channel down the coast across Spain just to get to Turkey.

      As a rigger getting equipment ready to go we learnt a few things.  We always did training exercises and sometimes rigged live ammo.  Sometimes they would even give live ammo to the troops for their weapons, but during this rig out we rigged something we had never rigged before. It told us this was the real deal.  We were rigging Blood Plasma to drop by parachute.  While we rigged the infantry units were practicing door to door combat operations.  Something we did not worry about in the Vietnam era.  It was serious and intense training trying to cram months of training into a few hours.

 

    At the time I was on orders to go to Vietnam and was out processing to return to the United States enroute to Vietnam.  That was all thrown out the window.  The mission we were involved in had priority.  I was running from God win it all happened and I thought I was going straight to Armageddon.  

     So why is any of that important?  It is not unless you believe the Word of God. Then you know that the event on that date started the first year leading to a Jubilee with Israel in their homeland. It began and would last forty nine years which ends June 7^th 2016.  Then starts the 50^th year, which is the year of Jubilee.  If you read Leviticus 25 you will understand it talks about God bringing his people back into the land and settling accounts with his people.  It tells very clearly what Gods people should do and about God keeping His Word across almost 4000 years of history.

     If you keep reading into Leviticus 26 you will see what God says he will do if His People fail to follow His Word.  It is not pleasant that is for sure, and a lot of it sounds exactly like what is happening in this day and age. In Romans 1:28 it says God will give the people over to their reprobate (depraved) minds. By what is going on in America in this day and age that may have happened already, America is becoming more and more depraved.

    Some people will say Israel became a nation in 1948 and it physically did, but it was approved by the United Nations in November 1947.  Numbers 32: 11-13 clarifies that issue.  No one over the age of 20 years when Israel left Egypt would

enter into the Promised Land. Twenty years old is when men came of age in Israel. God gave them twenty years back in their land before he started the Jubilee period and a march toward judgment.

       Luckily for me the Israelis handled everything fine on their own.  They did not need us.  After a while we stood down and I went on my merry way to Vietnam.  Little did I know it was just the beginning of my relationship with God.  The vision or dream, whichever it was, and my return to Germany two years later always made me feel I would still be here when the end came.  That is part of what I saw.  The heavens parted, and God came riding down golden steps on a white horse. Scary stuff if you are a back sliding Christian.  I may have heard it in a sermon growing up, but I am pretty sure I never read it myself.

     The main thing I learned from years of reading the Bible is that if God says He
 is going to do something, He does it.  Jubilee is a time of God setting things straight and dealing with the lost.  America is a back sliding nation.  Read the 28^th Chapter of Deuteronomy which gives the Blessings and Curses God pours out on nations that obey him or fail to obey him.  You will very quickly see that while America may have been on the Blessed side at one time, it is definitely on the cursed side in this day and age.

      Looking back on it all over the years I see how stupid I was at the time.  Like if I volunteered God was going to put everything going on in Creation on hold till I got back.  Or that I could run far enough to get away from God. All the years I was trucking I had “The Spirit of Jonah “ on the side of my hood and the verse below it was Proverbs 3:5-6.  It was and is my life verse.  I just live day to day and am amazed to see the Hand of God working in my life. My life has been Blessed Beyond Measure.

      I can’t count the times I have seen God intervene and straighten my paths or open and close doors to guide me and keep me safe. That would take a very long novel and much of what I have written in my blog posts over the years shares many of those experiences in hopes it will help another headed down the same road.  

     Lord willing I will be attending my grandson Isaiah’s graduation from High School on the 29^th of June.  It would be a true Blessing to be here for his little sister’s graduation in June of 2019.  That would make seven for seven through High School.   Having dropped out of High School myself, that makes me very proud.  Not that I had anything to do with it, but that they have all had the willingness and perseverance to go the distance and graduate.

      After I left the Army I managed to go to college, I pray they all do too, though I am and will be proud of all of them regardless of what they do.  That just leaves my great-granddaughters which won’t graduate till 2029.  I fear none of us will be here that long.  So my greatest desire is that all my grandchildren come to know the Lord. Three out of seven of them were baptized in 2003, forty-two years to the day from the date I was baptized. God is good.  He will never leave us nor forsake us and what is His, is His for all eternity. Thank God, he is such an awesome God.

     

Mad Dogs of Darkness

                      Mad Dogs of Darkness

         Fighting a Holy War, or is it, A Wholly Unholy War

      The West and really the whole world have failed to properly deal with ISIS and its brand of terrorism and terrorism in general.  Terrorist that only spew hate are nothing more than Mad Dogs and should be dealt with just as you would a mad dog. You do not try to make friends with a rabid dog and you do not try to live in harmony with it. Your only option is to exterminate it.  The only solution is to get rid of the problem.

      What generally defines a Mad Dog is one that bites the hand that feeds it. By that definition ISIS is truly a group of mad dogs. They have no boundaries.  They attack followers of Islam as quickly as anyone else.  Suicide bombers show a total lack of respect for life. Which according to most faiths is a gift given by God and should be respected.

     The true evil of the ISIS brand of hate that masquerades itself as faith was made clear to me when the attack in San Bernardino, CA took place.  The Mad Dogs who performed this vicious act lived with and worked with the people they killed, for almost a year. They did not discriminate as they killed men and women, black and white, Asians, Indians and religious people.

    Their actions bit the hand of the local Islamic community that took them in and supported them in following their faith.  If the locals interviewed were telling the truth they never had a clue of the evil in their midst and did not and do not support the acts that they performed.

    Some argue that terrorists are protected under the Geneva Convention.  If my reading of Article III of the convention and the issue of Grave Breaches of Articles says they are to be found and punished for their crimes and are not protected from punishment. Based on my reading of Article III ISIS is in violation of the Convention and in my view should be exterminated just as they would be in society.  They should receive capital punishment or at minimum removed from society and caged like the wild animals they are. They are not acting as soldiers but as hate filled animals that should be exterminated and removed from society.

      All the nations involved in the actions which have created ISIS and all the refugees from the horrors of war should be responsible for protecting and aiding the refugees wherever they are.  With at least five armies killing people in Syria, escape is the only way to save one’s life. If you think I am wrong. You have the Syrian Army, the Syrian Rebels, the Iraqi Army, ISIS Army, The Turkish military, the Kurdish military, The Russian Army and the American Army along with the forces of NATO.  With all those groups bent on destroying each other, your only chance of survival is to get out of the line of fire, which means becoming a refugee.

     Having spent thirteen years in military logistics and twenty years in trucking I understand one thing. No group survives without logistics.  If you cut off their supplies they cease to exist.  ISIS is no exception. They can practice San Bernardino type operations without a country on small scale and continue to be terrorists, but to field an Army requires, weapons, food and other supplies.

    America and its allies need to develop what I call Rattlesnake Drones that strafe anything that moves in ISIS held territory.  We should not see the ISIS pickup truck parades or any vehicles with ISIS flags especially American military vehicles. They should be strafed day and night till they do not exist and until they understand that the only ISIS that exist are dead ISIS.

    Large parts of the world live under Islam, Indonesia is a good example. You do not see mass suicide bombings there.  Sure it happens when outsiders come and do it, but is not the nature of Islam except in the Middle East.  It is a product exported by the Saudi type of Islam.  It is time for the world to call a spade a spade and turn its back on Saudi Arabia. Let them cut their own throats and sell hundreds of billions of dollars of American assets. It shows where their true loyalty was and is to the dollar.  When they do it they will find you only make pennies on the dollar when you have a fire sale.  It will cause world markets to collapse that will hurt them far more than us.

 

    Destroying ISIS is as simple as making sure “NOTHING” goes into or out of ISIS territory. That includes people. Then apply pressure and it will blow away with the wind as it loses its support.  You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Any group or nation allowing supplies into the ISIS area should be treated the same as if they are a part of ISIS, cut them off also. No supplies, no bullets and no guns, mean no Army. That is logistics in action.

The Last Passover.

           The Last Passover before the Jubilee

     Sometimes I am pretty dense but I have learned sometimes things happen so God can get our attention.  Recently I had one of those events. It was totally unexpected. I was only doing a good deed by going to a banquet for the FFA(Future Farmers of America) with my great nephew.  He lives with me and I am sort of his guardian.  He asked both me and my wife to go but she was already committed to something else.

    I had the pleasure watching Gabe actually sit on the board and speak.  You would have to know how quiet he is to understand how significant that action was.  In the few years he has lived with me I have learned several things, some by accident.  Did you know Gabriel was the Angel who spoke to both Mary and Daniel?  Both are linked to the end time and being able to understand what God is doing.

   In the course of the dinner the gentleman I was sharing my table with. (His daughter was also in FFA and very involved) asked me if I drove a truck for a living. I told him I used too.  He then informed me that he had been the one who pulled my truck out of a ditch on my birthday in 1997.  There was an ice storm and I was leaving Saturday night to be in Laredo on Monday morning like a good little trucker. My whole family was at my house, but duty called and I left. Down the road I learned from that experience and if I had things to do at home I did them. That is why instead of delivering to Bayonne, New Jersey on Monday 10^th September 2001, I unloaded a day later and was an eyewitness to the events of 9/11. 

   His revelation of our connection in the past really moved me.  I was sure there was some significance that I had yet to grasp. If you read my post Coming Full Circle you will have a better understanding of why timing of events in life are sometimes prophetic. At least in my life they seem to be.

     In nineteen sixty-seven Israel fought the six day war.  At that time I was a paratrooper stationed in Germany and on orders to go to Vietnam.  Then their war started and all of a sudden I had a vision of going to Armageddon instead of Vietnam.  Fortunately things worked out.  We had troops who had left Germany and landed in Turkey in route to Israel.  Had things not gone the way they did America was fully committed to backing Israel up. I also learned a new measure to tell if our excercise was just training or reality. We had rigged live ammo for deployment many times, but we had never rigged blood plasma for a parachute drop. That became for me the what defined maybe from reality. We didn’t have to back Israel up and a few days later I was off to Vietnam.

    It was shortly after the dinner that I had a bit of a revelation.  Because of a dream/vision (not sure which it was) I always believed I would be here for the coming of Christ.  My health has made me question that wisdom and made me take a harder look at the events in the vision.  I was in my room looking out and down when it happened.  So now maybe it was not me in the vision, but it is still going to happen.  With Gabe living here and my brother now living next door I realized they might be the ones in the vision.

     I am not sure how I came to the realization but I had not noticed before that this is the last Passover before the start of the Jubilee year that should start June 7^th.  That will be the end of the forty nine year period leading up to the first Jubilee since Israel recaptured the temple mound.  To me the Passover has reminded me of the promise of God to return to his people.  Reading Leviticus 25 will give one a better understanding of what the Jubilee is all about.  It is about honoring God and turning to him.

     So if you believe the Bible and take it to heart the start of the year of Jubilee starts a series of events that climax with the return of God to fulfill His Word to those who believe in him. A Jubilee year lasts the whole year. It is sort of like we are living in the 21st century.  The year 2100 has not come but each day brings us closer to it.  All events before the year 2000 started were not part of the 21st century. All events that happen before June 7th are not part of the Jubilee, but they lead up to it. Yes there will be a Passover in 2017 and it will be part of the Jubilee year.  The only point I am making, and not doing very well at it, is that we will be entering a period of time prophesied by God over 4000 years ago, at the time of the writing of the Book of Leviticus. A prophecy made "before" Israel entered the Promised Land and before they were removed from the land, which also was prophesied, just as their return at a future point in time. A time which came to pass in November 1947 by a United Nations mandate and the physical return in May of 1948. Just as promised in the Word of God.

      Does that mean the world ends on June 7^th 2017?  There are still a lot of prophecies to be fulfilled, like the two witnesses to the end time. They testify for three and a half years. What can happen though is the beginning of the time of tribulation.  If you read Matthew 24: 29-31 it makes clear that those who believe will not be delivered till “after” the period of tribulation starts. This is contrary to the popular series of books that stirred interest in the end time. Just remember they are fiction and not the Bible. So my advice is if you believe the Word of God.  Do you believe it to be literal or figurative?  For me it is the literal Word of God.

    Will I be here to see it all happen?  It really doesn’t matter.  I have shared everything I think the Lord has Blessed me with.  So whether I am here or there is really irrelevant.  The point is that His Word will come to pass, Every jot and tittle. The only way you really know God is too know His Word, as it testifies of him.

Trump versus the Status Quo

                        Trump versus the Status Quo

    My only problem with Donald Trump being President is if the Oval Office will have a roulette table or slot machines and whether the Rose Garden will be the 18^th hole or the teeing off spot for the Washington Mall golf course. Some may not find this humorous but the present election cycle needs some humor, it is a very sad situation.

    Remember when politicians talked about budget deficits and balanced budgets.  It may be because you have to have a special calculator with extra digits just to put in the numbers that it is not mentioned anymore. Cutting spending is not even a topic, Let alone balancing the budget.  The size of the government was another favorite that has gone by the wayside. If the real dark horse, Sanders, were to win, the present budget would double over night. He will give everybody, everything they could ever want at tax payers expense. I actually heard him say raising our Federal taxes from 700 to 800 dollars a year would be a good thing for America. The last time you could use a regular calculator and do the national budget was during the Clinton administration. Wars and terror have not been good for the budget.

     Trump has definitely stirred up a hornet’s nest.  It has a lot of ironies if you sit back and look at it. The more popular Donald has become the harder the mainline Republican Party has tried to discount him as a serious candidate.  The more they do so, the more popular he becomes.  His outside of regular politics status fuels that growth.  As other candidates have come and gone Trump has capitalized on his ability to rock the boat.  He has insulted almost every possible constituency in America.  Yet he has continued to stretch his lead.

      When I look at Trump the sixth chapter of Proverbs keeps coming to mind. Especially verses sixteen thru twenty.  It makes clear that there are seven things that God hates. Trump is seven for seven and is the only reason I see him becoming President.  It is simply God giving America what it deserves based on what America has become.

    He has no comprehension of national security.  His threats to use nukes and to give nukes to South Korea and Japan as well as pulling out of NATO have finally brought his ignorance of the duties of the presidency into clear view.  He does not seem to comprehend that he will have to contend with Congress to pass all his wild ideas.  Of course he may be considering following Obama’s use of executive orders as a means to get things done.

     The only reality I have seen in this cycle is that Hilary Clinton may very well be the next President of the United States, that would be a God thing too.  If Trump gets the Republican nomination she is almost guaranteed a win. Trump’s only way of talking to women is by insulting them.  He has proven that matter over and over.  When you constantly insult half of the voting base, your chances are slim to none.  His only hope is that all the Bernie Sander’s voters will come over to him. Many believe Sander’s popularity is simply people voting against Hilary, not for Sanders.

    One irony is the very thing that is making him popular is the same reason that many say is the reason he can’t beat Hilary,  but if any candidate is part of the system it is Hilary.  Which may be the only reason Trump might beat her in the election as people are fed up with the Good Old Boy system of politics. We are doomed either way.

      Beating Sanders would be a piece of cake for Trump.  Sander’s is a non-Democratic Democrat.  Sander’s is a lifelong politician who has always been an independent third party candidate.  At least till this election cycle. His changing horses to get elected will probably cost him the election if he gets the nomination.

      Then there is the Cruz question.  How can he win when half his party hates him?  America can’t afford another eight years of grid lock which his unwillingness to compromise on anything would guarantee.  Cruz would probably be buried alive by the Clinton campaign.  Against Sander’s he would be very iffy in a head to head.

     Finally there is John Kasich whose only hope is a brokered convention.  If it comes down to a brokered convention he might get nominated as the least of three evils. He is probably the only hope the Republicans really have of winning the White House.  Unfortunately those chances are slim to none.

     The next few months ought to be interesting.  The only thing that could save America is if all of the states would put a box on their ballots for none of the above. Trump could get serious and threaten to do away with the Electoral College and make the popular vote the winner in all elections.  Doing away with super delegates who have the power to swing elections would make the system a little more of the people, by the people and for the people that Lincoln proclaimed it should be.

     At this point I will be checking the block for none of the above, well maybe for Kasich, but that is probably a throw away vote.  The only thing I know for sure is that America will get the President that God thinks we deserve and will accomplish his God’s) desires, be it wrath, or a collapse of the system. At least as we know it, the dice are being cast.  The only real question is can America survive this election cycle with so little hope for the future.

 

   I guess in the fall election I will be doing a write in vote for Willy Nelson.  He is probably the only person who could win no matter which side he ran on.  Unfortunately he is smarter than the average politician and isn’t running.  A lack of smarts seems to be a qualifying characteristic for politicians.

    Having finally put in my two bits, maybe I can get back too things a lot more important than this election cycle, at least it is out of my mind.

Top Posts of 2015

In the words of my grand-daughter, Sharing is Caring. If anything you read here touches you in some way, I encourage you to share it. It is the way this blog grows. I do not advertise, this is as close to doing so as I get. Having over 40,000 hits in over 80 countries it must be touching some lives. I have made 246 posts and 46 of those have over a 100 hits. I admit most of those are in the last couple years. There are diamonds in my early ones that have not been read much, but they are just as good as my new ones. However there are also some that need reworked and edited. Hopefully those posts will allow you to see how my writing has grown. I am definitely not a Hemingway, tho he is my favorite, but I am trying to grow. Thanks for reading and thanks again for sharing.



                     Learning the Meaning of First Timothy 5:8

                                  The day I discovered the family name used to be spelled
                                    Ryon instead of the Ryan as it now is, at the grave of my
                                  Great-Grandfather Asahel Ryon, It inspired my last post
                                              Are You Who You Think You Are

      When things go well, extremely well, I sometimes get the feeling I should not rock the boat.  My last post was very personal and made me start thinking and wondering who am I to write on the topics I do. It is certainly not because of an abundance of writing skills, but I do write out of sincerity and in a hope that something I say may turn on a light or open a door of understanding for the person who stumbles on what I have written. After I posted that last post my blog just took off.  I had a couple of really neat experiences when I had more readers in South Korea, Russia and China than I had in the United States for a few days at a time. When you have a dozen readers in places like Mongolia and Morocco it humbles you to know that the message is getting out to the whole world.  Especially in places that the Christian message is being oppressed.

        South Korea is the exception. From the Christian Koreans I have known it is truly a nation with a heart for God and the truth of The Word.  As I have no books out and only write posts on my blog, I truly value each reader, it is through their sharing that my readership grows.  Not for me, but that the message gets out to those who need it.

        This is my fifth year of writing my post and it has taken me this long to really get my feet on the ground.  Understanding the who and why of those who read your posts is not as easy as one might think  My first couple of years dealt mainly with economic advice as that was what I was dealing with in my life. Usually I did it from a faith based perspective. In 2015 it became pretty clear to me though that the main readers of my posts were reading because they had a heart for God.  Based on that understanding, it is my pleasure to break my posts into four categories.  Some posts are in more than one category, I left them in, in case someone only reads the one category.

     In the United States one of my biggest following groups are truck drivers. Mainly by Christian truck drivers who share with their friends.  It is also humbling to admit that my most read posts are How-to posts.  After the post listings is a brief explanation of why I haven’t been writing for awhile.

 2015’s Top Ten, This link brings up the referenced post with a simple click. I understand many people do not have the time to go digging around and finding posts.  Hopefully this will make it easier for any who would like to read them.

While the number of posts I have written each year has gone down, I pray the quality of the posts has gone up.

Are You Who You Think You Are? 10/15/2015

Armageddon Anyone?   10/2/2015  

Fixing the Holes in Your Pockets     8/28/2015

Blessed to Death  8/13/2015  

Church of the Eighty Foot Parking Lot      7/24/2015  

Hope in the Face of Mayhem  7/20/2015  

Coming Full Circle         6/7/2015     This is my most popular and read post.  It is only out read by some of my How-to Posts

Turning a Corner in Time        4/10/2015  

The Truth Will Set You Free   3/27/2015  

Fighting Fire with Fire, Both Spiritual and Physical     3/3/2015    

How Too Not Go Down A Hill         1/5/2015    

How- To posts

The posts with the small star (*) are really craft or how-to posts. The others just fall in that category based on my experiences.

*Cheap Starting Pots for Spring Planting, with pictures         2/9/2015    

Trucking Smarter Not Harder 11/18/2014

If You Have a CDL, a Ticket, or Legal Issue pending, In another State, You Might Want To Read This   6/27/2013  

*Simple Shelves and Recycled Storage Units (with pictures)  12/26/2012

*Deadhead? Or Not? How to Judge  9/14/2012

*Victory Ovr STUFFITIS       6/13/2012  

Trucker Logic       5/28/2012  

*From Trash to Treasures, with pictures   2/15/2012  

Trucking Posts

To All the truckers who read and share my posts, I truly appreciate your help in spreading my stories around and hope to have a book out in the next couple years based on my experiences, Lord Willing.

Trucking Smarter Not Harder 11/18/2014

If You Have a CDL, a Ticket, or Legal Issue Pending , In Another State, You Might Want To Read This   6/27/2013  

Deadhead? Or Not? How to Judge   9/14/2012  

Trucker Logic       5/28/2012   Funny, shows what rational thinking can do. LOL

How Too Not Go Down A Hill         1/5/2015  A must read for new drivers, learn from my mistakes. It may save your life

Things I Learned The Hardway 2/23/2014

Good News for Christian Truckers   12/15/2013

The Evolution of Trucker Logic        10/18/2013

A Trucker's Perspective--Why America is in an Economic Rut        9/9/2013    

Driving On Prayer         7/4/2013     One of my personal favorites as it taught me a lot.

How too Not Go Down a Hill. Part 2, Vietnam   4/12/2012  

Faith Posts

The following posts are ones I gleaned from my first five years of writings.  Ones that did not get that much attention, because I did not have the readership I have now, but hopefully they will appeal to those looking for additional reading.  The ones with the ** are ones I personally am proud of and think have a good message.

**A Meal with the Least of These     12/25/2014 Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways to give us understanding in life.

An Ex-Truckers Writing Tale  6/6/2014    

Sign of Jonah, The only Sign given   5/27/2014   Where we are at in time Biblically. Having had a relationship much like Jonah’s with God, I get where we are at. It took me over fifty years of studying the Bible to figure it out, but the light finally cane on, just as it did for Jonah.

**When God Says, April Fool!!       4/11/2014   This explains why I get Jonah.

A Little Further Down the Path (Meat Only)       11/4/2014  Fifty year Bible Study the shortened  version.       

A Wannabe Sky God     2/13/2014    Short version of my life story.        

When God Answers       1/16/2014  

**Putting Your Hand to the Plow     12/15/2013 Personal favorite and most read.

**Beware of Self Righteousness       11/25/2013

Do Gifts of the Spirit Still Exist?      9/26/2013  

Following the Road to Emmaus        8/19/2013  

The Widow's Mite         8/10/2013  

Three Thing's God Can’t Do   7/8/2013        You might read it before you dismiss it.

**Building A Hedge of God's Protection    6/22/2013   How to get close to God.

Some Often Missed Bible Details      3/26/2013  

Is America Dysfunctional? Or Reprobate   2/22/2013   Where is America at Biblically?

This Generation Shall Not Pass, Are We It?        10/18/2012

2012,  The Bible versus the Mayan Calendar  5/10/12

**You Need No man teach You        5/4/2012    

     Apologies are not my strong suit. When I was in the Army we used to say, “The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.”  That applies the same when it comes to writing.  Yet I feel obligated to all those who read my blogs on a regular basis

    Since October I have taken a new and deeper understanding of the Word of God and have come to see it as literal, which in many cases before I had taken figuratively.  First Timothy 5:8 says that those who do not take care of their own are worse than an “infidel” an infidel is one who does not believe in God, certainly not a place a Christian wants to find themselves.  So after taking a hard look at my life it moved me to start reaching out to those I know who are in need especially, to those in my own family.  I tried to help people in ways I hadn’t before. Not to pat myself on the back, but my twin great grand- daughters Mom has to be at work at 5:00 AM and it was hard for her to find a babysitter.  So I helped her get out of government housing and started babysitting for her on the days she works.  I go to her house at 4:30 AM and sleep on her bed till the twins wake up and then we come to my house till their Mom gets off work at 2PM.  Believe me being almost 70 and taking care of two four year old's is a challenge. Fortunately my wife helps when she is here. Being retired she travels a lot, just as I used to do, till I started taking care of the girls.

 

     I also found time to roof my daughter’s garage, rewire her house and upgrade the wiring after it almost burnt down.

 Been trying to keep my niece in firewood and her Dad in a place to live. My brother recovered the yard from its abandoned state.

Also that nieces oldest son lives with me and is attending high school and graduates next May (2017) I pray.  The same daughter(I have four) had lived with us for almost three years after a tree fell on her car and just a couple of months later a tree fell on her house trailer.  As an answer to prayer she found a house for her and her son last year, but it needs a lot of work. I can’t do the work anymore myself, but I can supervise and teach others to do it.  She found and managed to move into the house in spite of a very poor credit score.  It is only five blocks from where she works and eliminated the fifteen mile drive every working day from my house.

     The reason I am sharing all this is not to show that I am such a good person, but to show that when God in Malachi 3:10 challenges us to follow His Word, He Will Honor His Word to us. Psalm 37:23 says the steps of the righteous man are ordered of God. He will open the doors when there seems no way possible, it is what he does.  It is just that many are too busy to see it.  They need to let go and let God be in charge.

     My blog post is not really set up to make it easy for people to follow me or send me a message, but I truly value every comment, both good and bad. If you would like to contact me my e-mail address is sclaus2u (at) hotmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and especially for sharing. Especially stories where you have seen God working in your life.

    Besides all the other things I am doing.  I am trying to finish my new shop so I can start fixing and repairing broken furniture that I can sell cheaply to those who have a need for such items. It is something I did to make ends meet when I lost my commercial driver’s license after having a heart attack back in 2004. The post that tells that story is in the How-to section under the title From Trash to Treasures.

Are You Who You Think You Are?

                      Are You Who You Think You Are?

Some people do it their way right to the end. Saturday I drove up to Idaville, Indiana to see my niece. As I crossed the Owen County line on Hwy 67, I passed a State Trooper going the other way with his lights flashing. Behind him was a white pickup truck with an American flag on each mirror.  I saw what looked like a wooden box in the back. When I checked my rearview mirror sure enough there was a coffin in the back of the truck.  It was followed by an extremely long procession of cars and pickups, probably a couple hundred vehicles.  As a retired trucker the whole thing got my mind to spinning.  The rest of the trip was almost uneventful. At least that was what I thought the case would be. In reality it was just the beginning of several strange events.

The reason I was traveling on Saturday was that I wanted to go to a church near my niece’s house.  Normally I would leave Saturday and return Saturday, but is it fall and I decided to turn over a new leaf. Please pardon the pun. The church sign said Church of the Brethren.  Over the course of my life I have been to almost every denomination, including Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon and Seventh Day Adventist to name a few.  This habit started with my Mom who was always looking for the perfect church. If you read my post, “Church of the Eighty Foot Parking Lot” you will get an explanation of why. The thing that generated my interest in The Church of the Brethren was turning sixty-five and needing a copy of my birth certificate.

When I got the certificate I found my middle name was misspelled.  It was Frederick with a “K.” Well it was supposed to be Frederic with no “K.” That is how my Father’s name was spelled and it is the French way of spelling the name.  I knew there was a strong French link in my historical chain. At least on my Mother’s side of the family it is.  In the course of getting the information to get the certificate corrected I found myself in the family cemetery. It was the one for my Father’s side of the family which is at the site of a former Church of the Brethren, which I have since discovered has a strong German heritage.

That was when the shock really came.  All my ancestors up until around 1900 spelled our last name on their headstones Ryon. The thing is that since 1900 it has somehow changed to Ryan.  The first names all matched the census records, but not the last name.  With names like Asa, Asahel and other Biblical names I was sure I was in the right cemetery and at the right graves because of the birth and death dates.  In the course of my research I traced back to my Great, Great, Great Grandfather and found that he received a land grant in Ohio as a member of the Church of the Brethren from Thomas Jefferson for his service in the Revolutionary War which put us in the United States back to at least the 1770’s.

The whole purpose of this genealogy side trip was to explain why I found myself in the Pike Creek Church of the Brethren and the interesting event that transpired. Many would say it was just a coincidence, but I believe in God and there is no such thing as a coincidence.  All that happens in our lives is orchestrated by God whether we understand it at the time or not. So with almost a 140 year Brethren heritage it definitely got my curiosity going.  It was one of the few churches I had not attended over the course of my almost seventy years of life. So maybe this was another circle closing in my life.

 I have had many neat encounters and experiences in the course of my life.  There is an experience I call “A Harmony of the Spirits.” Don’t take that wrong. There is only one Spirit that matters, which is Holy Spirit.  What I mean by it is that sometimes when I travel I am not sure what kind of spiritual environment I am entering into.  Many times over the course of the years I have entered a church or situation of fellowship and found that the Lord prepared my path with His Word, a sermon, tape or even a song I was listening to just before I entered the situation.  The situation I find myself in seems to pick up right where what I was listening to before entering the situation left off. It gives me peace that I am in the right place.

That happened for me at Pike Creek when the Pastor Jason Metzinger had a short story in his message that reminded me of my experience from the day before.  It was about two pastors who became friends during World War I. One was Catholic and the other Protestant and they became very good friends.  As the war progressed the Protestant pastor was shipped to the front lines and killed. Many soldiers knowing of this unique friendship asked the Catholic Priest if the Protestant could be buried in the Catholic Cemetery.  The priest had no problem with it, but the higher church boards said it could not be done.  So the Protestant was buried just outside the wall. Later soldiers came to visit the grave and had heard the grave was outside the wall. When the soldiers said they could not find the grave the Priest pointed it out to them just inside the wall. When asked how it had been moved the Priest explained, “The board may say who is buried in the cemetery, but I get to say where the walls are placed.” It got some good chuckles.

It also reinforced what I have always believed when I visited those churches I knew nothing about.  All the churches claim to believe in and follow Christ. While I may not agree with or understand their doctrines, but I do know some of the people in that church will believe in the same Christ I do.  So I will find fellowship, where two or more of us are gathered together. That is why I attend church in the first place.

On the way home I made a side trip to a place called Turkey Run near Rockville, Indiana.  The first full week in October they always celebrate the Covered Bridge Festival. There is one particular bridge I always love to go and spend time sitting by Sugar Creek on the sandbar and enjoying nature. Then I realized it was another circle closing.  When I got of the Army in 1978, I used my savings account to start a canoe rental service. I had a van and ten canoes and would take student s on the local rivers and then pick them up when they were done and take them back home. In the course of running that business while also being a student I spent a lot of time sitting on river banks contemplating life. Which leads me to another story, but it is too long to put it in this post, maybe later, Lord Willing. 

Events in my personal life make me wonder if we are approaching some major event.  Time will tell, but Biblically I think the stage is definitely being set for some events mentioned in the Bible.

Armageddon Anyone?

                          Armageddon Anyone?

My favorite person from the Bible is Jonah, probably because I spent most of my life running from God just like him, then God poured out his mercy on me and showed me the error of my ways. Most of the years I was trucking I had “Spirit of Jonah” on the side of my hood, along with Proverbs 3:5-6, which you can see if you zoom in on my blog picture.  Gourds are mentioned only a couple times in the Bible, they were thought to be poisonous, but the cook added something and made them palatable. To me it means they are much like the Bible, it is sometimes hard to swallow, but when you read the whole thing it is easier to take.  In Jonah it says after he delivered the message God gave him for the people of Nineveh, he went and sat under the shade of a gourd plant which God provided for him.  Having delivered the message from God he waited to see God pour out his wrath, but the Ninevites repented and so God withheld his wrath. This upset Jonah, he failed to see or understand that he was just as deserving of God’s wrath as the Ninevite’s

     

                As you can see it is possible to sit in the shade of a gourd plant,                                                          Just as the book of Jonah said.

From some of my life experiences I have learned God is still unfolding His Word. Events unfolding in the world indicate to me that we are getting awful close to the end, especially the presence of Russia in Syria.  Having spent thirteen years in the Army I understand basic tactics and what happens in some combat situations. To me the stage is definitely being set for Armageddon. ISIS, not that I have any pity on them, is between a “rock and a hard place.”  As Iraq starts to finally get organized and possibly get assistance from their neighbors may be able to push ISIS north out of Iraq.  With Russia pushing south the question becomes where will ISIS go?

This morning I took the time to look.  Using a Google map you can see exactly where Armageddon is located in Israel and the Middle East. As I zoomed out it became apparent to me that it is the most likely escape route for ISIS when they start feeling pressure from both sides.  It is kind of like being in a tube of toothpaste and putting on pressure.  The toothpaste will escape through the weakest point. As that is not going to be South or North, west becomes the only option.  East would put them in confrontation with Turkey.  Armageddon is near a point where Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria all come together. Should ISIS get squeezed hard between Iraq and Syria their only escape route is to the west.  If you draw a line down the border from Syria across the north side of Jordan it forms a line pointed almost straight at Armageddon, or Megiddo in Israel.

Many people, based on the Left Behind Series, or other misguided thinking believe we will be raptured and out of here before Armageddon.  That is not what Jesus predicted though.  Jesus said there would be no sign except the sign giving by Jonah.  So if I am going to have to try and understand things and be ready, the Bible is the best guide we can have.  If we take the time to read it the timeline is pretty clear.

In Revelation 16:13 it speaks of three spirits.  One is a false prophet which I have come in my mind to associate with the United States and western powers, which profess to believe in Christ, but do not walk in the Light of His Word.  The Beast for me has always been the Soviet Union which claims to be Godless and therefore a beast.  The third spirit eluded me for a long time. Then I realized that the Dragon represents China and Asia. Revelation 9:13-18 makes clear that there will come a power from the East that has an army of two hundred million men.  The only nation on earth that can do that is China.  My question is why would they do that? For years I thought it was for the oil in the Middle East. Then a light came on for me. Regardless of what or why the same chapter makes clear that a third part of mankind will be destroyed. That would be two billion people by today's count.

Israel is known to have nuclear bombs. Have you ever wondered how they tested those bombs to know they work?  The rest of this paragraph is strictly conjecture on my part. In the 1960’s China got the bomb. How did they get it. Did they make a pact with Israel to let them test their bombs if they shared their knowledge. The only pact that could interest Israel in that situation would be a mutual defense pact. Whether it is defense or oil, the time has come where the “Dragon” definitely has reason to have an interest in the Middle East.

The entry of Russia into the Middle East mess does create a problem though.  They say they are there to help stop ISIS. Well ISIS is supported by Iran, and Iran is supposedly and ally of Russia. So if Russia fights ISIS they are fighting their supposed friend.  So is Syria getting played?  Is Russia there under false pretenses? Only time will tell and there does not seem to be a lot of that left.  It definitely pits Russian and American interests into a shadowy situation.  ISIS is a cancerous version of Islam that threatens anything and everything that they come in contact with.  ISIS exemplifies all the worst parts of Islam and stirs trouble for those who profess a peaceful version of Islam. The only solution is the total extermination of ISIS, but it is easy to see, that may be easier said than done.

There are a couple events in the last part of Revelation 16 that still need to happen and will really shake things up, please pardon the pun, as it is not a funny matter. A couple of my older posts address some of the end time possibilities that the Bible makes clear will happen before the end.  While I have been writing this blog for almost five years now, my Bible study has been going on for the better part of sixty.   The last thirty have been the most enlightening to me.  Some of the people I talk to say, “Your obsessed.”  That does not bother me as long as I “KNOW” that it is in line with the Word of God.  My peace comes from God and His Word, not from the things of this world.  Getting back on track, the last part of Revelation 16 makes it pretty clear that there will be an earthquake like man has never experienced before.  You may not be interested in taking the time to see what the Bible says on the matter, but I have, and it is rather scary.  The point to remember, regardless of what the “Left Behind Series” says, Christ made it clear we would go through a period of Great Tribulation before the rapture.  In my opinion that time is imminent.

The recent address of the Pope to the United Nations and his meetings with World Leaders only suggests things are moving forward as the Bible said it would. There are not a lot of things I do know, but one I know for sure and believe you can take it to the bank.  If the Bible says it, it will come to pass, regardless of what mankind’s opinion is on the matter.  So I would keep one eye looking up.

If you have read the Bible at all, it is plain to see prophecy is still being fulfilled. The thing to know is that there is not a whole lot of unfilled prophecy.  The Bible makes it clear when it is fulfilled the end will come, regardless if you believe the Bible or not. My only question is will we recognize the two witnesses to the end time when they show up?  I think we will and what they have to say is not going to make unbelievers happy at all.  It is a big old world, but the focal point of the whole world is Middle East.  Why? Because God said it would be.

Guess it is time to go take a seat under my gourd arbor and wait.