What generation are you in?

Today’s Bible word is GENERATION. The spiritual question is: What generation are you in? There are only two to choose from. Either you are in one or you are in the other. As all are in “this generation”, this question must be answered by all. Tip: choose number 31!

1. Matthew 11:16
   “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions,
   
   
   
   
   
2. Matthew 12:39
   But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
3. Matthew 12:41
   The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
4. Matthew 12:42
   The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
5. Matthew 12:45
   Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
6. Matthew 16:4
   A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.
7. Matthew 17:17
   Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
8. Matthew 23:36
   Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
9. Matthew 24:34
   Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
10. Mark 8:12
    But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
11. Mark 8:38
    For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
12. Mark 9:19
    He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”
13. Mark 13:30
    Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
14. Luke 1:50
    And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.
15. Luke 7:31
    And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like?
16. Luke 9:41
    Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”
17. Luke 11:29
    [ Seeking a Sign ] And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
18. Luke 11:30
    For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
19. Luke 11:31
    The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
20. Luke 11:32
    The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
21. Luke 11:50
    that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation,
22. Luke 11:51
    from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
23. Luke 16:8
    So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in theirgeneration than the sons of light.
24. Luke 17:25
    But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
25. Luke 21:32
    Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.
26. Acts 2:40
    [ A Vital Church Grows ] And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perversegeneration.”
27. Acts 8:33
    In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”
28. Acts 13:36
    “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;
29. Philippians 2:15
    that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
30. Hebrews 3:10
    Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
31. 1 Peter 2:9
    But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

End times church countdown: God wants these two things

God is consuming fire

As 2012 had closed and 2013 is well on its way to closing the first quarter, the watchman sees more signs more clearly. Looking through old notes he noted many prophetic words, signs, dreams, and visions from the Lord had indeed come to pass. Reading the Bible as a whole, he realized that this Book speaks more to spiritually discerning Christians than those who continue to walk in the flesh (not discerning spiritual things).

The latest message is: Revelation time is here. Even the world has described significant extreme weather related events and phenomena as ‘almost Biblical’ or simply ‘Biblical’. People round the globe are asking what all these signs mean. Do churches have an answer? What churches (or individuals rather) should now ask is, as questioned by Apostle Peter: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness”? (2 Peter 3:11)

“Holiness” and ‘Godliness” are the two things that God looks for. Are end times churches and Christians who attend church ready in these two characteristics? How may one attain such divine qualities?

2 Peter 3:10-13

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³ But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

HOLINESS: SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

1 Peter 1:2

English Standard Version (ESV)

² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1 Peter 1:13-16

English Standard Version (ESV)

Called to Be Holy

¹³ Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 2:9, 11

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

GODLINESS: GIVEN BY GOD; OBTAINED BY FAITH

2 Peter 1:1

Greeting

1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

2 Peter 1:3-4

Confirm Your Calling and Election

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, throughthe knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

2 Peter 1:10-11

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

THE LORD JESUS HAS THUS COMMANDED US

Luke 21:32-36

English Standard Version (ESV)

³² Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Watch Yourselves

³⁴ “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

OUR PART IS TO PAY ATTENTION AND OBEY, JOINED TO THE LORD, BE OF ONE SPIRIT WITH THE LORD, MADE HOLY BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

Hebrews 2:1, 4

Warning Against Neglecting Salvation

2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

⁴ while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews 3:12-13

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

1 Corinthians 6:11

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹¹ Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you weremade right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:17

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁷ But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

PAUL’S ADVICE TO TIMOTHY: AVOID AND FLEE FROM UNHOLINESS AND UNGODLINESS!  DRAW NEAR TO THOSE WHO CALL ON THE LORD FROM A PURE HEART.

2 Timothy 3:1,2, 5

English Standard Version (ESV)

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

 

⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

2 Timothy 2:22

English Standard Version (ESV)

²² So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 

Extreme weather is here to stay: “almost Biblical”

almost biblical weather ; what is going on?

Angry summer Australia

Weather Gone Wild

Excerpt quoted: “Rains that are almost biblical, heat waves that don’t end, tornadoes that strike in savage swarms—there’s been a change in the weather lately. What’s going on?

“What’s going on? Are these extreme events signals of a dangerous, human-made shift in Earth’s climate? Or are we just going through a natural stretch of bad luck?”

stormy

(National Geographic, September 2012)

stormy

flood

is our weather getting worse?

freezing

(The New York Times: Jan 10, 2013) Excerpts Quoted: “Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace.”

“China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a dreadful heat spell. Eastern Russia is so freezing — minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and counting”

“Bush fires are raging across Australia, fueled by a record-shattering heat wave. Pakistan was inundated by unexpected flooding in September. A vicious storm bringing rain, snow and floods just struck the Middle East. And in the United States, scientists confirmed this week what people could have figured out simply by going outside: last year was the hottest since records began.”

“The heat wave in Australia; the flooding in the U.K., and most recently the flooding and extensive snowstorm in the Middle East — it’s already a big year in terms of extreme weather calamity.”

“in Britain, people are used to thinking of rain as the wallpaper on life’s computer screen — an omnipresent, almost comforting background presence. But even the hardiest citizen was rattled by the near-biblical fierceness of the rains that bucketed down, and the floods that followed, three different times in 2012.”

“The same thing is true in Australia, where bush fires are raging across Tasmania and the current heat wave has come after two of the country’s wettest years ever. On Tuesday, Sydney experienced its fifth-hottest day since records began in 1910, with the temperature climbing to 108.1 degrees. The first eight days of 2013 were among the 20 hottest on record.”

“To the north, the extremes have swung the other way, with a band of cold settling across Russia and Northern Europe, bringing thick snow and howling winds to Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow. (Incongruously, there were also severe snowstorms in Sicily and southern Italy for the first time since World War II; in December, tornadoes and waterspouts struck the Italian coast.)

“China is enduring its worst winter in recent memory, with frigid temperatures recorded in Harbin, in the northeast. In the western region of Xinjiang, more than 1,000 houses collapsed under a relentless onslaught of snow, while in Inner Mongolia, 180,000 livestock froze to death. The cold has wreaked havoc with crops, sending the price of vegetables soaring.”

“Way down in South America…The summer has been punishingly hot. The temperature in Rio de Janeiro climbed to 109.8 degrees on Dec. 26, the city’s highest temperature since official records began in 1915.”

“At the same time, in the Middle East, Jordan is battling a storm packing torrential rain, snow, hail and floods…”

“Israel and the Palestinian territories are grappling with similar conditions, after a week of intense rain and cold winds ushered in a snowstorm that dumped eight inches in Jerusalem alone.”

“In Beirut on Wednesday night, towering waves crashed against the Corniche, the seaside promenade downtown, flinging water and foam dozens of feet in the air as lightning flickered across the dark sea at multiple points along the horizon. Many roads were flooded as hail pounded the city.

Several people died, including a baby boy in a family of shepherds who was swept out of his mother’s arms by floodwaters…”




extreme weather