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“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.  But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

The words were sealed up, but now, people all over the world are speaking.  Some are having visions, especially in the Middle East.  In the Middle East, there are many stories of people who have had visions of Jesus and came to believe. 

There are some people who say they have been to Heaven – and back with the command to share all that they have learned with others.

How do we know when those who prophesy or see Jesus or Heaven are sharing honestly with us?  Of one thing we can be sure, someone who is honestly sharing will never, ever contradict God’s Word.  And since one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is discernment, we can ask the Holy Spirit ?

Is the out pouring of visions and prophesy a sign that we are in the Time of the End?  Only God knows for sure.  But if we live as if today is our last day, if we love the Lord and others as if this were our very last day; we will go in the right direction, Amen ?

“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”-Matthew 14:2

One of the first visits in Matthew 14, is the verse that describes the destruction of Israel, which we know has already happened.  But the Apostles wanted to know what would be the signs  of His return to them.  And so Jesus told them in Matthew 14:3-14:

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

^“Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

There are many lessons taught in the above verses.  But one very important lesson comes from this verse: ^“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”-Matthew 14:12-13

When our heart grows cold, we can’t love anyone.  Not even God.  It’s just not possible.  And, of course, we know what “standing firm” means ?

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”-Matthew 5:10

So if we want to be Saved in these very dark days, then we must continue to Love God and one another, and Stand Firm.  “With God All Things Are Possible”.  We need to pray now that God will soften our hearts, and continue to keep them soft, so that we can love others!  And we need to stand firm!  Which we can start today.  We can stand FOR God and WITH God, no matter what today’s culture says and does.

^“In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”-Revelation 1:16

“Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”-Revelation 19:15

There will come a day when Christ’s Sword (God’s Word) will mark the End of this world and the Beginning of the New Jerusalem.  But Jesus will not forget the people who follow Him.  He will still be the Bridge.

And we, who follow Jesus, we need not fear the Time of the End, for Christ is coming for us!  And as long as we belong to Him, we need not fear, because He is coming to bring us Home!

Christ’s “love is the bridge”, both now and in the End of Days.  We may encounter some rough waters (so to speak) and there may be persecution, but Jesus will always be with us and He will keep our souls safe 🙂

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”-Ephesians 6:11-17

There are so many important lessons shared in the above verses, but two of them are regarding who we fight (wrestle) and “sword of the spirit”. 

The first.  Who is it that we fight?  We “wrestle” not against our fellow human beings.  People who God loves too!  We fight against the “rulers of darkness”.  In other words, we do not fight against the person who is behaving badly, perhaps really badly, but the power of darkness that rules their spirit and makes them act so badly.  It may seem a small difference, but it is an important one!

The second:  “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”.  There is nothing more powerful than the Truth and God’s Word is the Truth.  We need to hold it in our hearts and remember that the “Battle is the Lord’s”.  For with the Sword of the Spirit, we can face any challenge.  We need not fear ?

“Whosoever there fore shall confess me before men, him I will confess also before my Father which is in Heaven.  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” – Matthew 10:32-33

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”- Matthew 10:34-36

In this day and age, so many are divided.  Not just in this country, but all over the world.  Jesus warned us this would be so!  Some would accept Him as Savior and Follow Him, and some sadly would not.

It can be heartbreaking to see someone we love make a choice to refuse to follow Christ..  It can be truly frightening to see millions of those we do not know refuse to follow Christ.  But in the end, our choice to Accept and Follow Jesus will be well worth it.  And any unhappiness or hurt of our time will be gone-forever.

We may at times be scared and hurt, but Jesus is here to comfort us right here, right now, because He loves us! It’s not over. We need not be afraid and we need to give all of our hurts to Jesus. For He loves us and will help us in our time of need!

Our life on this earth is but a moment compared to our Forever Home In Heaven. And there will be no more hurt or fear in Heaven. Choose Jesus , He will never let you down ?

The last line in Luke 11:4, where Jesus taught us to pray:

“And lead us not into temptation”-11:4

On it’s face, it’s meaning seems so obvious.  But when we really think about it, what does it really mean?  We are asking Our Father to not “lead” us into temptation.  But shouldn’t we also be doing this as well.

For example, could it not also be teaching us to “avoid” temptation.  Think of  how many times we put ourselves in a situation that tempts us to sin. 

Here’s an obvious one:  a married couple has fallen into the habit of criticizing each other’s every move, instead of building each other up. 

One of them stops at a bar on the way home from work.  Has that person not put themselves into a tempting situation?  Alcohol is available, there are plenty of people of the opposite sex who think they are great and no one is criticizing them.  Are they not in a tempting situation?

How about a person who is trying to diet for health reasons, but goes to the grocery store?

How about a person who has no money walking into any store?

How about a person who is having trouble with being kind to others, not getting enough sleep?

How about when a person dwells on their thoughts of hurt and anger at someone? If they see that person won’t those thoughts be more likely to become words?

Have they not all put themselves into a tempting situation?  A situation that might lead to sin? Do we not put ourselves occassionally into some type of situation that may lead to sin?

And that is why we need to avoid situations that might lead us to sin.  Because sometimes they do!  And that is what we are asking God when we pray The Lord’s Prayer-to “lead us not into temptation” ?

Praying the Rosary daily, one sees many things.  But recently, I saw a white statue of Mary and the side of her head was blown off.  The next day I saw Mary amongst many soldiers.  Her deep love, compassion and concern for each of them were clearly evident.

When Mary appeared in Fatima, she warned us of what would happen if we did not stop “offending God”.  Clearly, our world did not stop offending God. 

And she warned us of what would happen if Russia was not Consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  She even gave specific directions for this Consecration.  But was that Consecration really done timely and correctly?

War is coming.  Perhaps now, perhaps in the future.  But make no mistake, if nothing changes, war will come.

We need to repent and pray for God’s Mercy both on our country and on the world, before it’s too late!

“Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” – Luke 11:4

It’s clear that in order to expect God’s forgiveness, we must forgive others. That can be hard to do sometimes, especially when we feel our anger or hurt is justified. But the Our Father does not say, “forgive if it is easy”. God says, “forgive”.

But there are things we can do to help ourselves to forgive others, no matter how justified we feel.

The first is to make a decision to forgive them. Forgiveness is a choice. We have to start by making that choice.

The second is to ask God for help. Sometimes forgiving a person is more than we can do on our own. This is when we need to ask God’s Help, and He is happy to give it 🙂

And there is a third thing we can do help. We refuse to be lured into thinking about the past offence. We are human and sometimes we will catch our mind drifting back to past times, but we don’t have to let it. We can choose to think of other things. The Holy Spirit can help us with this, but we need to ask Him!

And there is a fourth thing, we can remember how much God has forgiven us. And we can focus on how much Jesus suffered for us so that we might be forgiven and enter Heaven. Whatever sin someone committed against us-it is clearly less than Jesus sacrificed for us 🙂

And lastly, forgiveness frees us! We need to remember that as well. Whatever the sin, it doesn’t just cause us anger-it causes pain. By forgiving the other person, that anger and pain is released and will eventually fade :). Leaving even more room in our hearts for God to fill 🙂

Feelings just are; but forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling.

God forgives us; we need to forgive others 🙂

“Give us each day our daily bread.” – Luke 11:3 (From The Our Father)

“Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity^[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – Luke 11:5-11

God knows of our needs even before we do. And He answers our prayers! But in order to see His answers, we have to recognize them.

I remember being quite sick and flying to see my Mom, who was also sick. In fact I was so sick, my son had to take me. Our flight was delayed and by the time we reached the hotel, all of the restaurants, even the fast food ones, were closed! I was so tired and so hungry! There was a small store open behind the check in desk. In that store were two, wonderful turkey sandwiches! Just the right thing for us to eat so late at night :). Co-incidence or “God”-incidence. God provided for us, just in time 🙂

There is an entire book called God Incidence. If you are having trouble seeing the wonderful things that God does for us, you may want to try reading it.

We get so caught up in our day, we forget just how much God loves us. Really loves us! We are not alone, God’s Got Us 🙂