Servant of Messiah Ministries

Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

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“Afraid” by Betty Stam

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Afraid

Afraid?  Of what?

Afraid to see the Saviour’s  face,

To hear His welcome, and to trace

The glory gleam from wounds of grace?

Afraid  –  of THAT?

 

Afraid?  Of what?

A flash  –  a crash  –  a pierced heart!

Darkness  –  Light  –  O Heaven’s art!

A wound, of His a counterpart!

Afraid  –  of THAT?

 

Afraid?  Of what?

To do by death what life could not –

Baptize with blood a stony plot,

Till souls shall blossom from the spot?

Afraid  –  of THAT?

While students at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute in the early 1930s, Americans John Stam and Betty Scott individually sensed God’s call to serve as missionaries in China. The country was enslaved by idol worship and torn apart by a violent Communist uprising. After leading them separately to China, the Lord brought their lives together in marriage and a shared ministry.

But just three months after the birth of their daughter, Helen Priscilla, John and Betty were captured by Communist rebels.  Helen’s remarkable deliverance led to her being dubbed “The Miracle Baby.”

This poem was written by Betty Stam,  just before being martyred together with her husband in December, 1934. They were paraded through the middle of town naked, led to the town square where the Communist regime forced everyone to watch. 

There they were decapitated for the whole world to see.

The Stams’ powerful testimony was carried around the globe by secular newspapers that featured front-page stories about the young couple’s faith, dedication and martyrdom.

As a result of their deaths, many unbelievers turned to Christ and numerous Christians were moved by the Stams’ sacrifice to become missionaries themselves.

Like the Lord they served, John and Betty Stam reached more people through their death than in their short ministry.

 

“Chocolate Soldiers” by C.T. Studd

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HEROISM is the lost chord; the missing note of present-day Christianity!

Every true soldier is a hero! A SOLDIER WITHOUT HEROISM IS A CHOCOLATE SOLDIER! Who has not been stirred to scorn and mirth at the very thought of a Chocolate Soldier? In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys bounding out of school, to obtain their heart’s desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier’s vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigour of a hero.

EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER—of Christ—a hero “par excellence!” Braver than the bravest—scorning the soft seductions of peace and her oft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.

THE OTHERWISE CHRISTIAN IS A CHOCOLATE CHRISTIAN! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. “Sweeties” they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution.

Here are some Portraits of Chocolate Soldiers taken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

“He said, ‘I go sir,’ and went not.” He said he would go to the heathen, but he stuck fast to Christendom instead.

“They say and do not”—they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. “Never,” said General Gordon to a corporal, as he himself jumped upon the parapet of a trench before Sebastopol to fix a gabion which the corporal had ordered a private to fix and would not fix himself, “Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself.”

To the Chocolate Christian the very thought of war brings a violent attack of ague, while the call to battle always finds him with the palsy. “I really cannot move,” he says. “I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:

I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
Or sail thro’ bloody seas.

Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.

Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Till they’re roly poly—
Puddings so to speak.

Chorus:
Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate,
Sugar and spice and all that’s nice
Must be on our slate.

GOD NEVER WAS A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURER, AND NEVER WILL BE. God’s men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.

NOAH walked with God, he did not only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and did not melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, did not open the door an inch when once God had shut it. A real hero untainted by the fear of man!

Learn to scorn the praise of men.
Learn to lose with God;
Jesus won the world through shame!
And beckons us His road.

Blood Moons – Pattern Recognition or Prophecy?

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Notes to download: Blood Moons - Pattern or Prophecy

Sunday September 27th 2015 will be a harvest moon and a blood moon and a super moon and the last of a Lunar Tetrad. NASA says this is the first time in 30 years for a super moon and an eclipse to coincide.

In discussing the sun, moon and the stars let’s be certain we are together on the definitions of astronomy and astrology. Astronomy is the science of studying the movements and positions of planets and stars. Astrology is the worship of stars, which is cultic and pagan.

The harvest moon is also special because it will rise in the east near sunset and appear full for several days in a row — making it seem as if there is more than one full moon. A “normal” harvest moon wouldn’t necessarily appear bigger and brighter than those during the rest of the year, but this one may because it’s also a super moon.

A blood moon can appear reddish in color during a lunar eclipse (which will fall on Sunday, Sept. 27 2015). That’s because the moon reflects light from the sun. According to NASA, almost all colors except red are “filtered” out, and the eclipsed moon appears reddish or even brown. This filtering effect is one of the origins of the term “blood moon.”

The Bible could also refer to blood moons. From Joel 2:31-32 (New King James Version): “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Sept 27th 2015 moon is final moon of what’s called a “lunar tetrad,” which began in 2014. A lunar tetrad is four total lunar eclipses in succession, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, separated by six lunar months (or six full moons).

The harvest moon, blood moon, super moon and eclipse will all be visible starting Sunday night, Sept 27th 2015.

Now what makes this particular Lunar Tetrad of blood moons interesting is that they have all fallen on the Gods Holy Days (Feasts of the Lord in Leviticus 23) as defined by His Calendar. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar based calendar, so starts each month on a New Moon and so the 15th of the month is traditionally a Full moon.

It is important to realize that the bible NOWHERE mentions “lunar tetrads” or ‘blood moons” as having some special prophetic meaning. Scriptures do not say that they point to any specific prophetic outcome.

At best this whole article is merely speculative pattern recognition. We cannot draw conclusions about the timing of the Rapture or the Tribulation based on a naturally occurring “sequence of eclipses” and “blood moons.”

BUT…..Four blood moons on four Feasts of the Lord within two years is very rare and has only occurred seven (7)  times since the time of Yeshua. There are now four blood moons scheduled to appear in 2014/2015 and then there will NOT be any for the next 100 years.

The events that have followed each of these seven Tetrads have been startling…..

Continued here…Blood Moons – Prophecy or Pattern?

Stock Cycles and Shemitah Years.

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  • 1966: Stock market collapse, Dow down 22%, Fed tightens, Vietnam War, protests
  • 1973: Oil embargo (Oct) Yom Kippur War, Stocks down 45%, recession
  • 1980: Inflation, Iran-Iraq war, Silver panic, 21% interest rates, Stocks crash, recession
  • 1987: Black Monday (Oct.) Largest single day crash ever
  • 1994: Bond collapse, DJIA bear market, Wars
  • 2001: Stock market crash, 9/11 (Sept.) Stocks lost 821 pnts (7.7%) in 3 days, recession
  • 2008/9: Stock market crash  9/29 (Sept.) Stocks lost 777 pnts (7%) Tarp Bailout, recession
  • 2015/16: ???

As a former stockbroker with Morgan Stanley I started my career just weeks after the Black Monday of October 1987.  The Seven Year Cycles in stocks caught my interest.  My career suffered a few of those cycles.

7 year cycle peaks at 2015

Jonathan Cahn a Messianic Rabbi has made the Shemitah Year a household word with his book the “Mystery of the Shemitah.” This Shemitah (Shmita) commandment was given to Israel in Leviticus 25 and was to govern their agriculture and their economics.

The Sabbath Year

In Leviticus chapter 25 v 1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 That which grows by itself from your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vines, for it is a year of complete rest for the land. (Lev.25:1-7).

The Year for Canceling Debts

Deuteronomy 15 v 1 – At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.

God took this land rest so seriously that He only allowed Israel to violate the command for 490 years then He came to collect on the 70 years of rest they owed the land. They were taken into captivity for 70 years to give the land an opportunity to rest.

Jeremiah 25 v 11 This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. …13 I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

2 Chronicles 36 v 19 – 22  So they burned down the house of God, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned down all the palaces with fire, and destroyed all the precious items. 20 Then he carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who survived the sword, and they were slaves to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia ruled, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

So the question remains …. Does this apply to America?  The land rest command was only given to Israel which was a Theocracy bound to YHVH in covenant with their borders defined in scripture. God calls that particular piece of property “His land.”

The USA is a Gentile nation (melting pot of the world) which cannot assume those promises/curses as some kind of New Israel.  That is just another version of Replacement Theology. The USA is not Israel and given her moral behavior and national character….she is no longer even a “Christian nation.”

However…..Ps 24 v 1  says “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.“ He is coming back to rule it with a Universal Law. Those Shmita Laws were given by the  “God that does not change.” Would those Land Rest Laws (Shmita) not be implemented over all the earth?  He is coming to reign for 1000 years, and of His government there will be no end?

Are we in America suffering the unintended economic consequences of ignoring those economic principles? Regardless…the principle of reaping what we have sown will be judgement enough to bring about our ruin.

 

 

Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World by Dr. Tim Keller

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Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World
by Dr. Tim Keller and Dr. Edmund Clowney

Originally taught as a Doctor of Ministry course, Dr. Keller and Dr. Clowney (1917-2005) ask, “Is Jesus made visible in every sermon or only talked about?” By analyzing and deconstructing other models of preaching that either exhort on moral levels or attempt to evoke an emotional response, Dr.’s Keller and Clowney provide a model of preaching that is Christocentric. This model of preaching focuses on three aspects to guide the listener and preacher:

  • First, how does this text tell me about Christ?
  • Second, how does this text show that the listener’s life is poor without Christ.
  • Third, how to lead the listener to worship and adore Christ.

Link to iTunes University  Reformed Theology Seminary        

Download 144page  Class Notes as pdf Preaching the Gospel in a Post Modern World v 2001

Download 188page Class Notes as pdf Preaching the Gospel in a Post Modern World v 2002

The notes are NOT available anywhere else….so I offered up both years as they were expanded.

The 36 hour class is College Level and includes 18 hours of Lectures and 18 hours of Question/Answers.

God called me late in life, ill prepared and unqualified to even consider college/seminary but with a zeal to teach. There are wonderful resources available on the internet to prepare and equip men whom God has called.

I share this class with the hope that others like me can benefit from these lessons and be more effective in sharing the Gospel. Whether you teach a small group or serve as volunteer chaplain – properly exalting Yeshua in your teaching glorifies Him.

This class has shown me ways to do that.

He said Ps 40 v 7 the volume of the book is written of me….and finding Him and lifting Him up allows Him to draw all people to Him.

Lu 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Lu 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Christ Centered Preaching by Dr. Bryan Chapell

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This is an excellent homiletic class that I am working my way through now.

I found this useful and recommend it for the following reasons…

The audio lectures and notes are freely available online at iTunes and at Covenant Seminary.

Link for   Covenant Seminary Class                       

Link for    iTunes University Class – Covenant Seminary

They include both lecture transcripts and class notes for each lecture.

Download Transcripts as pdf Christ Centered Preaching Class 28 Lecture Transcripts - Bryan Chapell

Download Class Notes as pdf Christ Centered Preaching Class Notes 28 Lessons - Bryan Chapell

The Text book by Dr. Bryan Chapell – “Christ Centered Preaching” is available on Amazon to complete the course experience.

The 30 hour class is College Level and well taught.

God called me late in life, ill prepared and unqualified to even consider college/seminary but with a zeal to teach. There are wonderful resources available on the internet to prepare and equip men whom God has called.

I share this class with the hope that others like me can benefit from these lessons and be more effective in sharing the Gospel. Whether you teach a small group or serve as volunteer chaplain – properly exalting Yeshua in your teaching glorifies Him.

This class has shown me ways to do that.

He said Ps 40 v 7 the volume of the book is written of me….and finding Him and lifting Him up allows Him to draw all people to Him.

Lu 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Lu 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Yeshua set the example for proper teaching. It is my hope to follow His example. A sincere thanks to the men that went before us and passed on their experience and wisdom to the next generation.

The Pope and Palestine

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The U.N. turns 70 years old this year. The State of Israel was created by UN Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947. Called the partition plan, Israel accepted the deal, but the Arab governments rejected it and went to war against Israel. It would have created an independent Palestinian state on 52 percent of historic Palestine.

France and New Zealand has been working on draft to be presented to the UN Security Council resolution that would set out the steps for a negotiated end of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and a solution to the nearly 70-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The draft would define the pre-1967 frontier as a reference point for border talks but allow room for exchanges of territory, designate Jerusalem as capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state and call for a fair solution for Palestinian refugees.

Most of the 135 nations that have recognized a state of Palestine did so in 1988, after the Palestine Liberation Organization declared it; Sweden was the last, in October. The British, French, Spanish and Irish Parliaments have in recent months passed resolutions urging their governments to follow suit.

France is also considering sharp economic measures against Israeli goods and businesses east of the Green Line. Settlements are illegal according to international law and the EU should not apply its agreements with Israel to them.  Brussels  has toughened its stance on implementing these policies following Israel’s March 17 elections. The EU, Israel’s biggest trading partner, is exploring guidelines that would require Israel to label settlement products. It already bars goods produced in settlements from receiving customs exemptions given to Israeli goods.

Vatican recognition of Palestinian State

On May 13th on the anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe known as Nakba when 750,000 Palestinians were uprooted during the war, the Vatican, the world’s smallest country, officially recognized Palestine. Official diplomatic recognition came in the final version of an official joint statement of the Vatican and Palestine.

“The wider Arab world often thinks that it’s a Christian West against a Muslim East,” Father Khader said, “so this is an important step from the Catholic Church to show that, no, it is standing with the rights of Palestinians and with the right to a state of Palestine.”

During his visit to Palestine in May 2014, Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop in Bethlehem, the little town where Jesus was born. He placed his hand on the 30-foot high concrete structure that Palestinians refer to as the “apartheid wall.”

This pope is no stranger to diplomacy and he was effective in facilitating change in US-Cuba relations. President Obama and Raul Castro both thanked Pope Francis for urging them to reach the landmark agreement to swap prisoners and end decades of Cold War animosity.  When the Pope and Obama met at the Vatican for the first time in March 2014, the Pope lobbied the U.S. President to lift sanctions on Cuba.

The Pope visiting  the USA now and his stated position on Palestine is recognition. Would he not lobby President Obama to join the majority of the U.N. as they dictate the establishment of a Palestinian State? The USA veto alone has held back the majority decision in the UN to divide Israel.

The inevitable division of the land is certain. The French diplomatic initiative coupled with the recent Vatican and European support may be enough to cause the U.S.A. to reconsider its use of the UN Security Council Veto.

Then Israel will have its future decided by the same Babylon that gave it birth with the resolution 181 in 1947.   Joel 3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

 

 

Russia, Turkey and Palestine

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President Vladimir Putin opened Moscow’s new grand mosque on Sept 23rd – Yom Kippur . The new mosque, which can accommodate 10,000 people, is the largest in Europe. Islam is the second largest religion in Russia after Orthodox Christianity, making up around 15 percent of the population.
Putin was joined at the ceremony by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Russia’s Kremlin-backed Council of Muftis said private donations covered the construction of the mosque, including contributions from Kazakhstan and Turkey.

For Abbas the meetings extended his early Kremlin contacts with Putin. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had launched his “diplomatic intifada” against Israel with the exit from the Kerry peace initiative back in January. His meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev marked his breakaway from the US-led peace process with Israel. He then signaled his bid for Russian backing for a Palestinian state.

This gave Putin a chance to widen his influence on three very important Middle East issues. He is actively arming the Syrians and has boots on the ground in Syria while providing their government new fighter jets. He has concluded a $1.5 billion dollar purchase of Iranian oil and other trade deals before sanctions with Iran are officially lifted.

Putin accepted Chairman Abbas request for help and they jointly announced a $1 billion Gas project in Gaza section of the Mediterranean with Gazprom to produce 30 Billion cubic meters of natural gas. Russia’s Technoprom export engineering firm was also considering a small oil development project near the West Bank city of Ramallah, hub of the Palestinian Authority government headed by Abbas.

The Palestinian leader began his conversation with Putin by calling Russia a great power that deserved to play a more prominent role in the volatile Middle East region.

This move confronts Israel with two troubling concerns:
1. Russian interests could potentially encircle Israel’s offshore Mediterranean gas and oil sites and Russian pipelines may block Israel’s export facilities.
2. Under international law, the Palestinian Authority is not recognized as an Independent state and is therefore not empowered to establish Special Economic Zones in the Mediterranean as closed areas for prospecting for oil or gas.

By taking charge of the offshore exploration opposite Gaza, Russia is offering its Palestinian partner implicit Russian recognition of its status as an independent national entity authorized to sign international contracts. This will help the process of creeping Palestinian Statehood without any Israeli participation.

Russia’s desire to liberate the poor oppressed Palestinians and their support in the  UN for those motions have far less to do with poor Palestinians and much more to do with Oil and Gas.

A Middle East Spokesman put it bluntly – Russian tactics for Syria and Iran had proved effective, he said, and there was no reason why Moscow could not perform the same function on the Israeli­Palestinian track.  It was time to end the American monopoly on peace making. 

Soon all of the diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East will be in the hands of Israel’s enemies.

Extinction is forever

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You will recognize them by their large oversized nose called a proboscis which is thought to help cool the hot desert air and also heat the frozen air entering the lungs.  Saiga are listed as a critically endangered by the union for the Conservation of Nature after their numbers fell to to less than 21,000 in the 1990’s. Their odds of survival improved as their numbers grew to 257,000 with a herd in Kazikhstan and Russian and Mongolia.

All that came to an end with the shocking die off of 60,000 antelope in just 4 days this year. Within one month 134,000 of the animals lay dead wiping out two herds some 300km apart simultaneously. These deaths of one third of the worldwide population are catastrophic and a United Nations backed effort known as CMS statement confirmed that “not a single animal survived in the affected herds” Researchers are baffled as to the reason “The extent of this die-off, and the speed it had, by spreading throughout the whole calving herd and killing all the animals, this has not been observed for any other species,” said Steffen Zuther, a geoecologist and coordinator of the Atlyn Dala Conservation Initiative. “It’s really unheard of.  The question is why it developed so rapidly and why it spread to all the animals?”The few remaining antelope now still face is historic enemies – wildlife crime and poaching, so the odds of their survival look bleak.

Meanwhile back at home……the Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has a huge impact on our food production since they pollinate most of our crops. Two thirds of crops require pollination by bees — that’s one out of every three bites of food we take. The droughts across the West are impacting their populations. A dangerous new pattern in the bee crisis is alarming researchers and advocates. For the first time ever, beekeepers are losing more bee colonies during summer months than the cold winter months. Beekeepers have reported losing more than 40 percent of their honey bee colonies over the last year, according to a recently released survey.

Nature is feeling the strain of fewer resources stretched by a larger population with growing needs of water, arable land and materials. We are consuming more and also wasting more. We have caused 322 animal extinctions over the past 500 years, with two-thirds of those occurring in the last two centuries, according to a paper by the Journal of Science.

I wonder what the Creator thinks when He looks at what we have done? Gen 1 v 31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.……….Six times God reviewed every days creation and concluded….It was very good.  He then turned over the beauty of all He had made for man to keep and take care of…. Gen 2v15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden to cultivate it and keep it.
Today God listens to the groans of His Creation Is 24 v5 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. 5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws….

What will we say when He calls us to account for our management of His planet?

Droughts lead to Fires

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The higher temperatures in the West have led to a dwindling snowpack. This has meant that the forests have become drier and so more susceptible to fires. The drought and now fires have spread from Alaska, who moved its famous Iditarod race due to a lack of snow, through Washington and to southern California.

In the conifer forests of the western United States, earlier snow melts, longer summers and an increase in spring and summer temperatures have increased fire frequency by 400 percent and have increased the amount of land burned by 650 percent since 1970.

Active fires have burnt three times as many acres in Washington state as in California. Fires over 100,000 acres are considered a “megafire” and before 1995 there was only 1 per year in California. This year California has had 5 “megafires.” Reports said more than 5,000 fires had burned six million acres already, and there have been several fatalities.

Washington Record Fires

Tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars have already evaporated. And with no end in sight, there may still be years of suffering — and painful decisions — waiting ahead.
The U.S. Forest Service spent around $200 million a week battling wildfires across the country during the summer of 2015, breaking all-time records, according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Oregon and Washington were among the hardest hit states, with hundreds of thousands of acres scorched.

Several Western states — California, Montana and Idaho — are also seeing a severe fire season with some 11,600 square miles scorched so far. Authorities have warned that smoke from these fires is creating hazardous air quality and that the choking haze could soon spread north into Canada.
About 1,250 firefighters were battling the fires, which were just 10% contained and threatened over 5,000 homes. The firefighters included about 700 Washington National Guardsmen.

Crews also arrived from New Zealand and Australia, as areas of central and eastern Washington battled 16 large wildfires covering more than 920 square miles.

We should not be ignorant of the ways in which God works. God often withholds rains upon a people who continue to sin against Him. Is the prolonged lack of rain in California just blind coincidence or is God angry with us as a people?

Drought—followed by famine—is one of the consequences for national disobedience. Our national sins do not go unnoticed by God. God makes this clear to Solomon and the same applies today since God has not changed (Malachi 3:6).

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:12-13).

I wonder if we as a nation will seek His face….and more importantly will we turn from our wicked ways.