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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Does this look familiar??

More on the middle east <>< Does this look familiar??

NETANYAHU GIVES OBAMA "ESTHER" SCROLL, EVEN AS HE WARNS TIME IS RUNNING OUT WITH IRAN

Biblical story tells of a Persian tyrant who wanted to "annihilate" the Jews.Joel C. Rosenberg[Image](Tucson, Arizona, March 6, 2012) -- All the signs to me look like Israel is going to war with Iran, and soon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strikes me as a man who has made his peace with the task ahead of him, a man who now believes his nation is capable of winning a war with Iran and has made all of the preparations necessary to strike if need be. I'm not saying he's made a final decision. But he's talking like a leader ready to make that final decision in the not too distant future. Today, Netanyahu will address Joint Session of Congress. The PM's message to Congess is expected to be similar to the address he gave last night to the AIPAC conference and to President Obama in the Oval Office, a clear, powerful and sobering message: When it comes to stopping Iran from getting the Bomb, he said, "none of us can afford to wait any longer." I'm in Tucson today, preparing to speak to over 1,000 pastors and ministry leaders about Israel, Iran and Bible prophecy. I'll also be speaking tonight about Revelation 3:1-6 and Jesus' message to the Church at Sardis and what lessons we can draw for the American church as we face the growing possibility of an implosion in our own country, as well as an explosion in the Middle East. Will post more analysis of the Netanyahu visit and it's significance over the next few days. That said, what I appreciated most about the speech was Mr. Netanyahu drawing the AIPAC audience's attention to the Biblical story of the Jewish Queen Esther, whose prayers and fasting moved the Lord to intervene to save the Jewish people from a Persian tyrant in ages past. Earlier in the day, Mr. Netanyahu gave a decorated copy of an Esther scroll as a gift to President Obama during their Oval Office meeting, and discussed the significance of the story with the President. What is not clear is whether the Prime Minister explained the ending of the story: Yes, Esther did her part, praying, fasting and intervening before the Persian king on behalf of the Jewish people. And yes, the Lord did his part in changing Ahasuerus' heart, and putting the evil Haman on the gallows, and dramatically changing the dynamic in favor of the Jews. But it must be remembered that in the end, the Jewish people did have to fight against the Persian forces hell bent on their destruction, and with the Lord's help the Jews miraculously prevailed. "[T]he king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them…..The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm; and no one could stand before them, for the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples." (Esther 8:11 and 9:2) What encourages me about Netanyahu giving the scroll to the President is that it further reveals the Prime Minister's growing interest in the Bible and even his desire to make the Scriptures part of his Oval Office discussion. You may recall that a few months ago, Mr. Netanyahu announced that he was starting a Bible study in his personal residence. Please continue praying for each of these world leaders and their advisors that they would turn to the God of Israel and the Bible for wisdom, discernment and courage during these critical times. Full details and analysis on the blog, including links to Netanyahu's full text and a video of his AIPAC speech. Please also go to the "Epicenter Team" page on Facebook and comment on this story, and share it with others. ---------------------------------------- ALSO ON THE BLOG: * "ISRAEL, THE CHURCH AND THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS" -- information on a conference I'll be speaking at next month in southern California at Talbot Seminary and Biola University. I hope you'll register and join us. * LIVE IMPLOSION SIMULCAST SET FOR JUNE 16TH -- Is America headed for implosion, or revival? Can America recover from our economic and spiritual challenges before it's too late? On Saturday, June 16th, we will consider these critical questions during a live, three-hour "Implosion Simulcast" broadcast around the country and around the world. Please sign up your church, home fellowship group, or small group Bible study today to participate in this unique event. [Link to website where you can get more information and sign up: http://incastevents.com/implosion/] * PRAYER REQUESTS: In this context, let us continue praying for President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Lord gives them both wisdom to know the right thing to do, and the courage to do it. If there is a peaceful way to stop Iran's nuclear program and bring down the Iranian regime so the Iranian people can live in freedom and all the region can live in peace and security, let's pray the Lord shows them how to achieve this - and soon. "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Please pray especially for Mr. Netanyahu and his advisors, that they would be like the sons of Issachar, "men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do." (I Chronicles 12:32). [To find more news and analysis of events and trends in the U.S., Israel and the Middle East, please go to: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/.]
BLESS ISRAEL: Would you prayerfully consider giving a generous, tax-deductible gift to The Joshua Fund? Come help us educate and mobilize Christians around the world about God's love and plan Israel and her neighbors, including Syria; provide food, medical supplies and other humanitarian relief to the poor and needy, to Holocaust survivors, and to widows and orphans; stockpile supplies ahead of the next war; teach the Scriptures throughout Israel and the epicenter; and get more Bibles into Syria. Thanks so much, and may the Lord bless you and your family as you invest in the work of The Joshua Fund at this critical time.
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Read Joel's blog

Monday, March 5, 2012

Something We as a Nation need to be Praying for!!

High-level meetings between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu are set for Monday at the White House. This could be the last face-to-face meetings between the two leaders before Netanyahu makes his final decision whether to go it alone on Iran. Please pray especially for Mr. Netanyahu and his advisors, that they would be like the sons of Issachar, “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” (I Chronicles 12:32). Pray for Mr. Obama, too, that the Lord would change his heart and that he would show far more support for Israel, and for the two countries to emerge unified in their determination to act decisively to neutralize the Iran nuclear threat and help bring down the evil regime in Tehran before it is too late. At the moment there remains real and serious tensions between the two leaders and Iran is working hard to exploit the divisions. America has enough troubles right now without potentially turning against the nation of Israel in violation of Genesis 12:1-3. I expect to address the latest developments at a pastors conference I’m speaking at this week in Tucson, Arizona, March 5-7, .

“At the White House on Monday, President Obama will seek to persuade the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to postpone whatever plans he may have to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months,” notes an important new article by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic. “Obama will argue that under his leadership, the United States “has Israel’s back,” and that he will order the U.S. military to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if economic sanctions fail to compel Tehran to shelve its nuclear ambitions.” Goldberg’s article has triggered a series of other similar articles in the mainstream media, confirming the coming pressure by Obama against Israel. “President Obama plans to caution Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week against attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, urging patience while international economic sanctions take full effect,” reports the Washington Post. “Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu on Monday begins a critical week in his effort to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and preserve the trust of the United States’ closest Middle East ally. Israeli leaders have made clear they think time is running out to stop Iran from achieving the ability to build a nuclear weapon….‘We’re trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel,’ said an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.”

just a thought..... Why we should start Praying!!

The media is fixated on the GOP primaries and the American presidential campaign and giving scant attention to Russia’s upcoming election on Sunday, March 4th. But the Russian vote may prove to be a bigger deal than our own. Here’s why:

Though protests movements against Vladimir Putin throughout Russia in recent months suggest a growing number of Russians finally see the former KGB chief for what he is — a thug and a bully – polls still suggest he is expected to win handily. If those polls are right and Putin does, in fact, reemerge as president then let’s be clear: we will be watching a new Czar rising, a tyrant who will rule with an iron hand over his own people, and look to project Russian power elsewhere in the world. Putin has, for example, drawn sharp criticism from Mikhail Gorbachev who says Putin’s political party is a bad copy of the Soviet Communist Party: anti-freedom and corrupt.
Putin says he will immediately begin to rebuild Russia’s tattered military, investing $772 billion to that end – we should take him at his word and consider seriously why he is so determined to have a stronger military in a world in which Russia faces no real or serious threats to its own national security.
Putin is increasingly anti-American and has said Americans are “living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar.”
Putin, at heart, is a fierce Russian nationalist, which means he is an imperialist, which means he is devastated by the weakness of “Mother Russia” and mourns how it has been shrinking over the past few decades. In 2005, Putin said, “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. For the Russian people, it became a real drama. Tens of millions of our citizens and countrymen found themselves outside Russian territory. The epidemic of disintegration also spread to Russia itself.” For most of us, the greatest geopolitical catastrophes of the 20th century include World Wars I and II, the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide in Sudan and Rwanda, and the death of tens of millions under Stalin’s reign of terror, to name a few. Most sane people think the end of the “Evil Empire” was a good thing; Putin isn’t one of them.
More than anything, Putin wants to regain and reassert the glory and the power of Mother Russia. That means he wants to expand her territory and enlarge her borders. The problem Putin faces is that Russia can’t signficantly expand westward because NATO is moving eastward (though Putin has spoken openly ofcreating a merger with the neighboring country of Belarus, which is also currently run by a tyrannical dictator.) Russia can’t expand eastward because China is now a rich and strong and nuclear-armed power. Russia can’t seriously expand northward because there’s not much to gain from the North Pole. Thus, we should expect him to project power southward. Since 2000, he has, in fact, been building strategic alliances with Islamic countries throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. He has sold billions of dollars worth of arms to Iran, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Sudan and other Islamic powers. He’s been particularly vocal in defending the tyrants in Tehran and Damascus. Expect Moscow’s focus on the Islamic world to increase dramatically. (Note: Putin has spoken openly of creating a Eurasian economic union in Central Asia, similar politically and economically to the European Union but likely dominated by the Kremlin.)
Would Putin actually use military force to defend Iran and Syria, and challenge their enemies? We shall see, but I believe the issue is not one of will, but of timing. I think Putin is itching to find a place to showcase Russian military power, but he first has to make certain his forces are truly ready again for battle.UPDATE: Russia upgrades radar station in Syria to aid Iran
It should also be noted that the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel wrote in chapters 38 and 39 of his biblical text that in the “last days” there will be a political and military alliance between Russia (Magog), Iran (Persia) and a coalition of other “epicenter” countries that will move against an increasingly secure and prosperous State of Israel for an apocalpytic battle driven by greed and a lust for power. Ultimately, the prophecy tells us that Russia and her allies will be decimated in this war and face divine judgment, while Israel will be saved. It remains too early to say that we have arrived at such a fulfillment of the “War of Gog and Magog” prophecies, but the geopolitical, economic and spiritual trendlines suggest we are steadily moving in that direction.

For all these reasons, Sunday’s presidential elections in Russia may prove a bigger deal over the short-run — and over the long-run — than our own. The trendlines are intriguing, to say the least. Russia will pose an increasing threat to American and Western values and interests, and in time will pose an even greater threat to Israel and to the security and stability of the Middle East. The media may not be paying attention, but we should.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Some more pix,

some of the pix are from the Cancer Redemption Center.. and the others are from a ride we went on today.. up into the Mountains and water fall ...enjoy