"...Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." - John 13 V36

"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 5 V8

Christ is our hope and salvation. Our last breath on earth is the first moment in heaven, in the presence of our Lord. This is the hope for every believer who has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We will follow our Lord where He is and let us encourage one another with the Hope that our Lord gave us.

"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth" - Psalm 33 V6

"Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it." - Isaiah 42 V5

Everything we see and also the things we do not see are created by God and nothing came into existence on its own. Our God, He gives breath to every living being and He created even the tiniest cell that we know of. Come, let us worship our great and awesome God with all our might and praise Him for His wonderful works. Praise God!

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay and You are the potter; And all we are the work of Your hand." - Isaiah 64 V8

"and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." - Luke 15 V19

After wasting away all his father's wealth on worthless living, the prodigal son soon realizes that the servants at his father's house have more to eat than what he has, and he makes a decision to return to his father and serve his father like one of his father's servant. We were all once like the prodigal son and we had to make our personal decision to reconcile with our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sooner or later every person has to make a choice and accept God's love through His Son Jesus Christ or reject His love. It is better to say to our Father in heaven "Make me" than to say "Give me". Blessed are those who inherit the kingdom of God! Let Him be our potter and we be His clay, according to His will.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper has reported that Iran is making preparations for war with Israel in the event that a military strike is carried out on its nuclear facilities. According to defence sources quoted in the report, Iran is positioning its Shihab-3 missiles to be ready for launch, and that Israel's Dimona reactor is one of the prime targets that have been selected for attack. The chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards warned yesterday that Israel is within reach of Iran's Shihab-3 rockets, which have a range of around 1250 miles. He also said that one of Iran's first acts in response to the destruction of its nuclear facilities would be to seize control of the Straits of Hormuz, through which sixty percent of the world's oil is transported. A former head of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad remarked that Israel has just twelve months to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem or face the threat of a nuclear attack themselves.

Quote: "General Mohammad Ali Jafari, chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, has issued a new warning against Israel not to attack it, saying the country is well within range of its missiles, the Iranian Jam-e Jam newspaper reported on Saturday. "This country (Israel) is completely within the range of the Islamic republic's missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime, despite all its abilities, cannot confront it," he said. "There is the possibility that by attacking Iranian nuclear sites the enemy wants to delay our nuclear activities, but any interruption would be very short since Iranian scientific ability is different from that of Syria and Iraq."

Another Revolutionary Guards commander has stated that orders have been given to dig 320,000 graves in Iran in which to bury enemy soldiers. Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh did not elaborate on which enemy would occupy the graves, but warned that he did not "wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War". While it's not clear how much of this is simply rhetoric designed to intimidate their enemies and how much is actual preparation for war in the Middle East, I thought the news concerning Iran apparently giving orders to dig the graves of enemy soldiers was extremely interesting. For the Bible states that this is exactly what will come to pass. Only it won't be Iran that is burying the bodies of their enemies following a foreign invasion. We know that the coming Israeli-Arab war mentioned in the book of Ezekiel will include Iran (Ezekiel 38:5). Prior to the Iranian revolution in 1980, Iran had relatively good relations with Israel. So it seems that only within the past twenty years could this prophecy have really been fulfilled. And President Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of Israel adds further weight to that theory. But Iran's graves will lie empty, for it is Israel that will have to give Iran a special place in the land to bury their fallen... 

Ezekiel 39:11-16
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD. And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

As you can see, all the signs of Christ's coming are falling into place. And that is why we go to the bother of commenting on these things. We don't rejoice at seeing calamity in the world, nor do we long for it as some claim. This isn't the way God intended for it to be. But we do rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ is returning to make all things new. That is our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13). Do you have a blessed hope? Or are you like most people in the world, their "hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth", Luke 21:26? Do not be afraid. You too can have peace of mind and know peace with God. Jesus Christ has already made peace between God and man through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). He is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Trust in Him for salvation today.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Source YNet News, LA Times, YNet News

This link from my friend Kathie. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem have revealed that the production of 120 priestly garments to be used in the administration of the Third Temple is now in full swing. The Temple Institute began production of the priestly garments in March of this year. Their production follows the recent completion of the Golden Crown of the High Priest in November of last year, and the blue ephod of the High Priest in 2005. It also closely follows the relocation of the Golden Menorah to the Temple Mount steps, which I was privileged to view during my recent trip to Israel. The garments of the priests are being created using special flax imported from India. The flax is then spun onto larger spindles in Israel, after which it is woven into priestly garments according to the manner prescribed in the Torah.

Quote: "PRODUCTION OF THE SPECIALLY WOVEN LINEN FABRIC for the making of the lay-priests garments is in full swing. Concurrently, the Temple Institute has enlisted master clothing designer Aviad Jeruffi to help in the design of the garments. Jeruffi has spent fifteen years studying the art of creating biblical era garments at the feet of a Yemenite master of the discipline, who himself has received the ancient tradition from his elders. MASTER DESIGNER JERUFFI can be seen in the photographs below modelling the priestly garments. The garments shown in the photographs are "mock-ups" only, and are not made with the "twined linen - shesh mushzar" that will be used in the actual garments when they are produced.

The woollen and linen belts that are to be worn by the priests are being woven using purple, crimson and blue thread, dyed according to methods that would have been used during the First and Second Temple eras. The blue colour, or 'techelet' in the Hebrew, is obtained from the gland of a specific sea snail mentioned in the Scriptures, which has recently been identified under the name of 'murex trunculus'. The crimson colour comes from a specific mountain worm which has been identified as 'kermes biblicus'. My friend Jim Clint wrote a beautiful article on this worm, how it speaks of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. Whenever this worm reproduces, its offspring feast on the mother's flesh, and as they do so they become covered with the red pigment dye contained within her body. The red dye is permanent, and cannot be erased for the remainder of the worm's life. The parent worm literally gives her life for her offspring, just as Jesus Christ gave His life for us (John 10:11). We can have eternal life because of Christ's death upon the cross. And just as these worms become covered with the red pigment from their mother's flesh, so those who trust in Jesus Christ for salvation are cleansed from their sins through His blood (1st John 1:7). If only these dear Jewish people recognized that Jesus Christ is the crimson worm (Psalm 22:6), Who gave His life on the cross so that they may have life. Do you have this eternal life? Have you feasted on the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?

John 6:53-54
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

We do not do this by taking wine and eating bread. These things are merely emblems of our faith in the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. His body has already been broken for us in the sufferings he passed through at Calvary (Matthew 26:26). His blood was shed for us upon the cross to make atonement for our souls (Matthew 26:27-28). The innocent life in place of the guilty. When we say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved", that includes believing in all that Christ has accomplished upon the cross, that He bore God's punishment for your sins and that His shed blood cleanses you from all sin. What a wonderful Saviour we have! Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today.

The blood that Jesus shed for me
Way back on Calvary
The blood that gives me strength from day to day
It shall never lose its power

Source Temple Institute