Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.
John 4:32-34 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work…”
Now let me tell ya about the food! You will forget protein shakes ever existed once you taste the food! Food in the kingdom of heaven is a full course meal where the kitchen is always open 24/7 for anyone who is hungry and knows how to GPS the location. FYI: the GPS location is very similar to the wedding garment because once you put it on…you’re there.
The Father’s kitchen has a name too. Well it does now that I named it. It’s called the “Glory Kitchen”. The food in the Glory Kitchen has already been paid for by the King (Jesus) and it’s anything you want.
Photo: Revati Upadhya
Food in the Glory Kitchen is doing the Father’s works. Don’t slap the menu away just yet. That may not sound tasty to you until you hear what those “works” are. Jesus showed us what they are when He was on earth.
John 14:12-13 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Ezekiel 38:5 Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet…
Genesis 10:6 The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.
These are Noah’s grandchildren. The sons of Ham by and large settled in Africa.
Put or Phut means “a bow”; a nation and people of northern Africa; probably Libyans. –Strong’s Concordance. Consensus among researchers and scholars is Put is modern day Libya.
Historical Put or modern day Libya is a country that will join Russia and others in their future invasion of Israel.
October 2018: Russia is adding military hardware and troops into Libya. The build appears to have started in March 2017.
Russia has built military bases in the Mediterranean port cities of Benghazi and Tobruk.
Russian Kalibr anti-ship missiles and the S-300 missile defense system are reported to be in Libya. Russian military equipment and military vehicles bound for Libya have been intercepted by Tunisia earlier in the year.
Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa. As of now, production is approximately 700,000 barrels per day. With political stability and safety, production could increase to 2,500,000 barrels per day. President Vladimir Putin’s Russia clearly wants a piece of the growing pie.
There is money to be made in other areas of the Libyan economy. The country has a rebuild coming from all the destruction of civil war. Putin wants to re-establish a railway contract and military arms deals.
Libya is also the main gateway to Europe for African immigrants. Six billion pounds a year are made in trading humans across the Mediterranean Sea. Italy is less than 300 miles away. Vladimir Putin looks to control the flow of immigration as a political tool against Europe.
It’s okay to want more out of life, but don’t want out of envy. There’s happiness in being content. Faith in God & doing what he puts in your heart will bring you what you need & more. Those that live life striving for more out of envy will find nothing but gloom in the end. Find happiness where you are to get more from life.
Proverbs 14:30 A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.
Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Jude 1:2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
The Greek word for mercy is ἔλεος/eleos. It is defined as pity or compassion. Mercy is being excused from a deserved punishment or outcome. HELPS Word-studies states it is God’s loyalty to His covenant. The word is used 27 times in the New Testament.
Per Strong’s Concordance, mercy defined: kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them;
of men towards men: to exercise the virtue of mercy, show one’s self merciful;
of God towards men: in general providence; the mercy and clemency of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ;
the mercy of Christ, whereby at His return to judgment He will bless true Christians with eternal life.
Eleos is defined as “compassion” in some cases. For example…
Matthew 9:13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion/mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Jesus
These are the words of Jesus in Matthew. He is quoting Hosea 6:6. The issue is one’s mental attitude, focus, and heart towards God. The Lord wants our hearts, not acts of religion.
Hosea 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
The first time “mercy” is used in the Bible is in Genesis 19:16. The context is Lot’s family and Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s action towards Lot and his daughters is “merciful”. Notice, Lot and his daughters were spared from the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife was extended mercy and she ultimately rejected mercy. Judgment, she became a pillar of salt. It does not matter if one is extended mercy. What are you as an individual going to do with mercy that has been extended to you?
Genesis 19:16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
This is the Hebrew word chemlah. It means pity or compassion just as the Greek word ἔλεος/eleos. Chemlah comes from the Hebrew word chamal which means to spare. The word implies we are responsible. Justice demands judgment. If a transgression is noted, punishment is indicated. The wage of sin is death. But, God is merciful.
Chemlah is used one other time in the Old Testament prophet of Isaiah. God is a God of mercy, even in the Old Testament. In the verse below chemlah is translated as pity.
Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, the verse above had prophetic implications toward the future work of Jesus Christ. Hindsight being 20/20 in the 21st century, we know this is talking about Jesus.
Afflicted… Who took affliction on behalf of an afflicted people?
…the angel of his presence… literally means “messenger of faces”. This messenger “saved” or yasha in the Hebrew. Yasha means to deliver or save from moral trouble. This is the verb form of the root word. The noun form of the word is “Yeshua”. Jesus is the English translation of Yeshua. Jesus delivers His people. Yeshua yasha…
Mercy is available. There is time now. God is merciful…
Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us…
Revelation 18:11, 13b And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore… and slaves, that is, human souls.
Featuring Christine Clarity McDonald
Filming for Christine’s autobiographical movie “Cry Purple” started this month, October 2018. Coming soon to a theater near you.
Prostituted individuals are not only bound by their exploiters, their possible addictions, and the purchasers (those willing to objectify them for their own sexual desires); they are also bound by the biases and judgments that we hold over them.
A human being pays for the possession of another’s body—maybe for moments or for hours. A living, breathing person with a history, a family, a story, feelings, and thoughts is purchased and ruled over, objectified, and commodified. The purchaser knows that their money brings the power to get what they want. It’s a sick issue of
dominating control, as I see it.
But is that how we are used to thinking of it? Stop for a moment and evaluate your own reaction. What comes to mind when you hear the word prostitute? Are the terms that pop into your mind filled with love, grace, and genuine sorrow? Or are they filled with judgment, disdain, and a “got–what–he/she–deserved” mentality? Do you picture the victim of unspeakable injustice, or do you picture a criminal?
Joshua 10:1 As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them…
This is the first mention of the city of Jerusalem in the Bible. Granted, some would argue the appearance of Melchizedek as the king of Salem is the first mention of the city. Jerusalem means “teaching of peace” or “city of peace”.
Historically, this mention of Jerusalem is roughly 1,400 years before the birth of Christ. This is about 3,400 years ago from our current time in the 21st century.
October 2018: A stone carving from the 2nd Temple era is now on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The carving is approximately 2,100 years old. Its dating is estimated to be 100 BC. The carving reads, “Hananiah son of Dodalos of Yerushalayim.”
Yerushalayim is how the capital is articulated and enunciated in Hebrew today in 2018 (Gregorian calendar).
The stone was unearthed near the modern-day Jerusalem International Convention Center. The stone was found about a mile and a half from the ancient city limits.
The find was directed by archaeologist Danit Levi of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Photo: Danit Levy, Israel Antiquities Authority
The Director of the Israel Museum is Professor Ido Bruno. He made the following quote regarding the stone carving.
“Every child who knows a few letters of Hebrew can read it and understand that 2000 years ago, Jerusalem was written and spelled like today.”
For more details regarding the find, click the following link.
In case there is any question to the ownership of Jerusalem…
Zechariah 8:3 Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a Family first, and then a Family Glory Business with an open-door policy allowing anyone in who agrees to put on proper shoes (Matthew 6:15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.) and shirt (Matthew 22:11-12 But when the king came in to see the wedding guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But he had nothing to say.) to come and dine at the Father’s table where there is much laughter, joy, peace, healing, and life.
The world might call it: No Shoes, No Shirt – No Service
But our Father in heaven calls it: Here’s some clothes kids. Come on in. Dinner’s ready and I love you!
As we enter, we are assigned a private Tutor (the Holy Spirit again) who will show us the ropes. We get to pick what we want to do in the Family Glory Business. The Holy Spirit works with us in a type of tag-team intimate relationship where He assigns us a realm or a sandbox to play in. He gives us the Father’s tools that Jesus used. The Spirit teaches us how to use them in the world to help others, flipping all darkness into light, just like Jesus.
Either one of us can tag first. We can start or we can let Him start, depending upon our level of confidence. We build what we can. When we don’t know what to do, we say, “Tag, you’re it Holy Spirit.” So, He takes a turn building. When He’s done, He says, “Tag, you’re it _______”.
We go back and forth with Him until our individual assignment in the Family is revealed and we know how to do things. If we make a mistake it is okay. We can just tear down that side of the sand castle and build it up stronger. Or crash the whole thing and start over.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Jude 1:1b To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
…those who are called… In the original Greek, the word for “those” is the definite article τοῖς. It is the plural form of what would be translated as “the”. Definite articles are a big deal in the Greek language. The koine Greek of the New Testament has no indefinite articles like we do in English. There are no “a” or “an” in the language. A definite article is a point of emphasis.
God the Father describes “those” as called or κλετοσ/kletos. The idea is called, invited (to a banquet); invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom through Christ; called to (the discharge of) some office; divinely selected and appointed.
Everybody is ultimately invited to the call of Jesus Christ. Salvation is for all of humanity.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…
…beloved… “Those” are “loved”. This is αγαπαο/agapao. This is God’s love for us. Defined as love, affection, good will, benevolence, to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly. This love is the nature of God.
The concept is God has loved us from the past and His love will never end. His love for us is eternal. It is God who has shown us what love is and how to love.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
…in God the Father… The verse states “those” are “in” God positionally. As believers in Jesus, this is our place. We are in the body of Christ. Believers are sealed with the Spirit. Jude states we are fixed in the Father. This position is confirmed by John as well as others.
John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
and kept for Jesus Christ: The Father has looked upon “those” and τερεο/tereo or “kept”. Tereo means: to attend to carefully, take care of or to guard. Metaphorically to keep, one in the state in which he is; to observe or to reserve: to undergo something.
The point is God has always “kept” us and He will continue to “keep” us. The Father does not change in the way He views us.
We are “kept” for Jesus Christ. The language is vague. But is there an implication something is coming to “those”???
1 Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
The Turmoil will not start in the United States, but it will reach our shores. The warnings are moving from inevitable Global Turmoil to Imminent Global Turmoil!
The Catalyst will not start in the Equity Markets, but in the Credit and Debt Markets of the World. The Debt Markets dwarf the Equity Markets by a factor of at least 20; the Credit Market is enormous!! Although the Turmoil will not start in the US, the US Dollar will be the cause! In an effort to Save the World, the Central Bankers reduced rates to zero or below and encouraged borrowing; encouraged squander and massive, pervasive Debt! Global rates have risen from 0.1% to over 3.0% in the US. A thirty fold increase! Thirty times more interest; thirty times more tax money to service the debt. To make matters worse, a gamble was taken; betting the US Dollar would indefinitely decline in value and Debt could be rolled over in cheaper and cheaper Dollars. Historical Cycles were ignored; the Day of Reckoning is coming as the Dollar has reversed and is now getting stronger and stronger. The equation of local currency vs the US Dollar is tipping. Not only is the payment rate trending higher, more local currency is needed to buy a US Dollar; a lot more!
Available Now-Click on Book
Not only Debt repayment will cause Turmoil, but Imports are typically expressed in International measures which is typically the US Dollar. Energy costs will skyrocket in Argentina and Turkey as their respective currencies decline vis-a-vis the US Dollar. Oil and refined petroleum Products will become very expensive and cause hardship on the local populations. Medicine, machine parts, electronics, replacement parts will all become expensive demanding more and more of free cash flow and eventually a breaking point!
Obviously, as more and more Capital is diverted to servicing Debt and rising costs, the Economy will suffer. It will become a Negative Feed Loop Spiral! Eventually, Debt will be Defaulted affecting the Pension Funds, Hedge Funds, Banks, Mutual Funds, Annuities, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and even small family reserves. Collateral Damage will be a Contagion as Peter can no longer pay Paul who then cannot pay Mark!
Bonds will face not only Market Risk as Interest Rates rise causing a relentless decline in value, but also Credit Risk as Defaults rise and credit Quality lowers. It is time to review holdings. It is time to re-allocate. The US Dollar cycles; it will trend lower again. Things and Real Assets will rise substantially in the US like they are now in Turkey and India. Real Things should be accumulated now while our Dollar is high. Commodities such as copper, aluminum, steel, asphalt, agriculture, farms, lumber, and residential rentals can be slowly bought. Cash flowing rentals contain these basic materials and will not only protect their value in the future, but protect the owner with an alternative cash stream when Turmoil reaches our shores.
I see the words love & pray as action verbs. I believe they are the two most mentioned action verbs in the Bible as well. That tells me our days should always involve loving & praying. Love is mentioned 310 times & pray 313 times in the King James Version. That’s a lot of times in the instruction book for life. Are you loving & praying enough?
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.
John 4:32-34 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work…”
