The Year Ahead

Sorry, but I had to take December off. Illness, death in the family and other things took precedence over blogging. I hope that each of you had a blessed Christmas. The past year of 2008 saw laughter and joy, grief and tears, disappointments and divine appointments. In other words, Life happened in 2008. Many things transpired here in the 10/40 window, many of them unreportable because of what happened and where it happened, but suffice it to say that our Jehovah God is still on the throne and in perfect control of His universe. It is easy to look around at the things going on in the world and if we are not careful we, like Peter, see the waves and take our eyes off of the Lord and start to sink. At times like this we have to remember that we are "in" the world but we are not "of" the world. Those of us who are trusting in Christ as our Saviour are both led and protected by an unseen hand that the world knows not of. I have been reading a book by Randy Alcorn entitled, "Heaven." It is a wonderful book and has given me joy just to read his thoughts about what Heaven will be like. I look forward to being there and I believe with all my heart that it will be very soon that we will hear the trumpet sound and we will be "caught up." This old world is not spinning out of control, it is spinning to a close. This is a great and wonderful difference for the child of God. Israel became a nation again in 1948. She celebrated her 60th birthday in 2008. If a generation is 70 years and this generation will not pass before the Lord returns, then folks, we don't have a lot of time to win the lost. Pray for Israel. Right now it is in the midst of a war...again. Israel knows that its only friends are the Christians who are standing with that nation. It has always been Israel and America its friend, but I wonder for how long America is going to stand with Israel. I do not believe in replacement theology. The church has NOT replaced Israel. Israel is still and always will be the apple of God's eye and God promised that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. America tried to force Israel to give away the covenant land and you can plainly see where America is today. In big trouble. Big, big trouble. Pray for Israel as the battle rages. Pray for America that we Christians will stand and do our best to reclaim our blessed country.