December's Bible Studies

There are so many wonderful things for us at this time of year. Beautiful trees, displays of lights and decorations, all placed by loving hands to bring us joy. There are gifts carefully chosen just for us, cookies and cakes fill our houses with delightful smells, wonderful music echoes throughout, the type of which is reserved but for this special time alone. In the midst of this seasonal grandeur, let us never forget the reason for the season.

We celebrate His birth each year, to remember graciously the everlasting gift that our Father in Heaven gave to us. Through a virgin He was born, in a manger in Bethlehem, The Lord Jesus Christ. Look out at the night sky and see the most sparkling star which made Christ known to the wise men, and lead them to Him.

What does Christ use to lead you to Him?

He calls us this day. Let's go...

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December 1st- Ezekiel 40-41 & 2 Peter 3

December 2nd- Ezekiel 42-44 & 1 John 1

December 3rd- Ezekiel 45-46 & 1 John 2

December 4th- Ezekiel 47-48 & 1 John 3

December 5th- Daniel 1-2 & 1 John 4

December 6th- Daniel 3-4 & 1 John 5

December 7th- Daniel 5-7 & 2 John

December 8th- Daniel 8-10 & 3 John

December 9th- Daniel 11-12 & Jude

December 10th- Hosea 1-4 & Revelation 1

December 11th- Hosea 5-8 & Revelation 2

December 12th- Hosea 9-11 & Revelation 3

December 13th- Hosea 12-14 & Revelation 4

December 14th- Joel & Revelation 5

December 15th- Amos 1-3 & Revelation 6

December 16th- Amos 4-6 & Revelation 7

December 17th- Amos 7-9 & Revelation 8

December 18th- Obadiah & Revelation 9

December 19th- Jonah & Revelation 10

December 20th- Micah 1-3 & Revelation 11

December 21st- Micah 4-5 & Revelation 12

December 22nd- Micah 6-7 & Revelation 13

December 23rd- Nahum & Revelation 14

December 24th- Habakkuk & Revelation 15

December 25th- Zephaniah & Revelation 16

December 26th- Haggai & Revelation 17

December 27th- Zechariah 1-4 & Revelation 18

December 28th- Zechariah 5-8 & Revelation 19

December 29th- Zechariah 9-12 & Revelation 20

December 30th- Zechariah 13-14 & Revelation 21

December 31st- Malachi & Revelation 22

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It's my prayer that you have been richly touched by the hand of our Almighty God during these Bible studies. If you are still on your way through the studies, I hope you will continue. All of the daily studies you'll need are all right here within this blog, just for you. The desire of my heart is that you'll find your way home to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the Words of the Bible. Never forget that our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Words never change. As always, Blessings to you my friends! -Happy Holidays! -Rev. Debbie* <>< <>< <><

Will The Church Go Through The Tribulation? 
 - By Grant Phillips - http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips95.html

The Church will not go through the Tribulation. There is a distinct difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming. Some may disagree with me, and that is perfectly okay. Whether you and I, do or do not agree about the Rapture, it will have no effect on our salvation in Jesus Christ. 

However, for those who disagree, I strongly believe that rather than my being sorely disappointed, you will be pleasantly surprised.  

There are many differences in these two events as shown here:

 ·         Rapture: Jesus comes FOR His Church.

 ·         2nd Coming: Jesus comes back WITH His Church.

 ·         Rapture: Jesus waits in the air for His Church.

 ·         2nd Coming: Jesus comes to the earth.

 ·         Rapture: Church removed and unbelievers left behind.

 ·         2nd Coming: Unbelievers removed but Tribulation saints left behind.

 ·         Rapture: He comes to present His bride to the Father.

 ·         2nd Coming: He comes to judge and set up His kingdom.

 ·         Rapture: The marriage of the Lamb in Heaven follows the Rapture.

 ·         2nd Coming: The marriage is followed by war on earth.

 ·         Rapture: It happens in the twinkling of an eye.

 ·         2nd Coming: Will be a steady view of His return.

 ·         Rapture: Only the Church will see Him.

 ·         2nd Coming: Every eye will see Him.

 ·         Rapture: Jesus descends with a shout.

 ·         2nd Coming: No shout is mentioned.

 ·         Rapture: A resurrection takes place.

 ·         2nd Coming: No resurrection is mentioned.

 ·         Rapture: It can happen at any time.

 ·         2nd Coming: Can only happen at the end of the Tribulation.

 ·         Rapture: Angels are not sent. Jesus comes Himself.

 ·         2nd Coming: Angels are sent to gather people for judgment.

 ·         Rapture: Earthly bodies are changed to Heavenly bodies.

 ·         2nd Coming: The Church returns with Heavenly bodies.

 ·         Rapture: Jesus does not return on a white horse.

 ·         2nd Coming: Jesus does return on a white horse.

 ·         Rapture: Jesus' return is for His Church (His bride).

 ·         2nd Coming: Jesus returns for redeemed Israel and Tribulation saints.

 ·         Rapture: It is a message of hope and comfort.

 ·         2nd Coming: It is a message of judgment.

I'm sure this is not an exhaustive listing, but with it we can see that the Rapture and the Second Coming are not one and the same.

The seven year period of Tribulation on earth will be a time of God's wrath on earth like never before. He will judge the nations and through this self-same judgment bring Israel back in faith believing. "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:17) But concerning His bride, the Church, He says, "And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thessalonians 1:10) He promised again in Revelation 3:10, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Revelation 3:10)

Also, some see Revelation chapter four verse one as a clear reference to the Church being raptured. On the other hand, some do not, even though they believe in the Rapture. Personally, it is very clear to me that this passage is most definitely referring to the Church being taken up to Heaven via the Rapture. This verse is shown below in four reliable English translations.

"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." (KJV)

"After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." (NKJV)

"After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." (ESV)

"After these things I looked, and behold, a door   standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like   the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." (NASB)

Note that in every instance verse one begins with the word "after" and ends the same. In chapter one of Revelation we see Jesus revealed (revelation) in His glory. In chapters two and three Jesus is speaking to the church. He then transfers the Apostle John to Heaven in chapter four verse one to continue the prophecy. In chapter one, we see the eternal "I Am." In chapters two and three, we see the present day and age of the church period. Then beginning at chapter four, verse one He immediately takes us past the church age to the future.

If I go to see a play and there are three acts to the play, I will see one act after the other, not all three at once. Neither do they overlap in any way. If I attend a concert, I will listen to one song after the other, not all at one time. Neither do they overlap in any way. Neither do the church age and the Tribulation period co-exist or overlap in any way. One follows the other. As in a play, Act 1 comes BEFORE Act 2. Act 2 comes AFTER Act 1 and BEFORE Act 3. Act 3 comes AFTER Act 2. The Apostle John is shown the church age, and then he is raptured up to Heaven to see what follows the end of the church age. To me, you just can't get any clearer than that. After means after.

Some say that the word "Rapture" is not in the Bible. That is true, and neither are the words "Bible" or "Trinity" found in the Bible, but they are just as true as the Rapture.

The word "Rapture" is derived from the Latin translation of "caught up" in

1 Thessalonians 4:17, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The Latin translation uses the word "rapturo," and this is where the word "rapture" is derived. The Greek word is "harpazo," and it means:

 1.     To seize, carry off by force

 2.     To seize on, claim for one's self eagerly

 3.     To snatch out or away

A few other verses where "harpazo" is used are:

Acts 8:39, "And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing."

Acts 23:10, "And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle."

2 Corinthians 12:2-4, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven."

So there is no doubt that Jesus will come in the clouds and eagerly claim His bride the Church for Himself, by seizing her and snatching her away by force to Heaven at the end of the church age. The next act will be the Tribulation, AFTER the Rapture.

The Tribulation period is a time of intense judgment by God. What groom would beat the living daylights out of his bride and then say, "Okay, now let's go get married." It ain't going to happen.

Some say that the Church has suffered persecution down through the years, so why would she not suffer during the Tribulation? The reason is quite simple. "Persecution" has come from evil men who carry out the deeds of their father, the Devil. Judgment comes from God. The Tribulation, as I have already stated, is not persecution. It is judgment. God is not going to judge those who He has already promised will be protected from His wrath to come. (See verses above.) Conclusion; the Church will not go through any part whatsoever of the Tribulation. She will be raptured (LT-rapturo), snatched up (GK-harpazo), BEFORE the Tribulation, and the Tribulation will commence AFTER the Rapture.

Grant Phillips

 grantphillips@windstream.net 

12th-century rabbi predicted Israel's future

Now his prophecies about return of Messiah are being studied

JERUSALEM – Judah Ben Samuel was a legendary and prolific German rabbi of the 12th century who made some astonishing and specific predictions about the future of Jerusalem and Israel that came true.
Judah Ben Samuel, also known as Judah he-Hasid (Judah the Pious), lived and worked from the end of the 12th century until the beginning of the 13th century in Regensburg, authoring a number of books in the German language.
Ludwig Schneider of Israel Today magazine has translated some of his work into English over the last few years, including “The Book of the Pious – Sefer Hasidim” and the “Book of Calculations – Sefer Gematriyot.”
Following the Christian crusades to the Holy Land, between 1096-1270, a regular correspondence developed between the Jews in the Holy Land and the Christian West. Thus, for example, the rabbis in Worms and Regensburg in Germany knew that Saladin’s Ayyubids had been ruling in the Holy Land since 1187.
At this time, Judah Ben Samuel published the results of his biblical calculations (Gematria) and astrological observations and summarized as follows: “When the Ottomans (Turks) – who were already a power to be reckoned with on the Bosporus in the time of Judah Ben Samuel – conquer Jerusalem they will rule over Jerusalem for eight jubilees. Afterwards Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one jubilee, and then in the ninth jubilee it will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which would signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”
One jubilee is 50 years (Leviticus 25). It is the 50th year after seven times seven years, the year in which each person should regain ownership of his or her land. Ben Samuel’s calculations were purely theoretical; there was absolutely no sign at that time of their being fulfilled. He himself was not able to experience their fulfillment, for it was only 300 years after his death that the first of his predictions were to come true.
The Mamluks, who had been reigning in Jerusalem since 1250, were conquered in 1517 by the Ottoman Turks. They remained for eight jubilees (8 x 50 = 400 years), that is to say they were in Jerusalem for 400 years. Exactly 400 years later, in 1917, the Ottoman Turks were conquered by the British. The League of Nations conferred the Mandate for the Holy Land and Jerusalem to the British. Thus, from 1917, under international law, Jerusalem was no-man’s land.
Then, when Israel captured Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967, exactly one jubilee (50 years) after 1917, Jerusalem reverted to Jewish-Israeli ownership once again. Thereby, according to the prophecies of Judah Ben Samuel, the Messianic End Times began.
Many scholars have studied and made reference to Judah Ben Samuel’s writings in an effort to understand how he reached his conclusions. Among those referencing Ben Samuel were Rabbi Isaac Ben Solomon Luria, a mystic dealing with the messianic world (Jerusalem, 1531-1572, Safed); Joseph Solomon Delmegido (1591 Candia – 1655 Prague), a mathematician and astronomer (“Mazref le-Chochma”), Azulai I (1724-1806), a famed bibliographer; Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), a Bible scholar; historian Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891); and Torah scholar Jacob Epstein (1925-1993).
The secret of how Judah the Pious arrived at such accurate predictions has less to do with the actual calculations than it does with the fact that he had consecrated his life to God. His pupils Rabbi Isaac ben Moses (Vienna), Rabbi Baruch ben Samuel (Mainz) and Rabbi Simcha (Speyer) testify that Ben Samuel was a model of abstinence and selflessness and was awaiting with a burning desire the coming of the Messiah.
Ben Samuel was often called “Light of Israel.” Even bishops came to him for advice. If anyone asked him where his wisdom came from he would answer, “The prophet Elijah, who will precede the Messiah, appeared to me and revealed many things to me and emphasized that the precondition for answered prayer is that it is fueled by enthusiasm and joy for the greatness and holiness of God.”
But to recap the astonishing predictions: In AD 1217 this scholarly and pious rabbi prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight Jubilees. Now, keep in mind, he made this prediction 300 years before the Ottoman Turks seized control of Jerusalem in 1517. If indeed 1217 and 1517 were jubilee years as Judah Ben Samuel believed, then his prophecy was exactly right, because exactly 400 years after the Turks took control of Jerusalem they were driven out of the city and the holy land in 1917 by the Allied forces under the command of General George Allenby – on Hanukkah, by the way.
But it gets more interesting still.
The rabbi also prophesied that during the ninth Jubilee Jerusalem would be a “no-man’s land.” This is exactly what happened from 1917 to 1967, due to the fact that the Holy Land was placed under British Mandate in 1917 by the League of Nations and literally “belonged” to no nation.
Even after Israel’s war of independence in 1948-49, Jerusalem was still divided by a strip of land running right through the heart of the city, with Jordan controlling the eastern part of the city and Israel controlling the western part of the city. That strip of land was considered and even called “no-man’s land” by both the Israelis and the Jordanians.
It was not until the Six Day War in 1967 when the entire West Bank of the Holy Land was conquered by the Israeli army that the whole city of Jerusalem passed back into the possession of Israel. So once again the prophecy made by the rabbi 750 years previously was fulfilled to the letter.
It certainly would be significant if both 1917 and 1967 were Jubilee years, considering the significance of what happened in Jerusalem on those years. But it gets even more interesting, because Judah Ben Samuel also prophesied that during the 10th Jubilee Jerusalem would be under the control of the Jews and the Messianic “end times” would begin. If he’s right, the 10th Jubilee began in 1967 and will be concluded in 2017.
“The Bible should be our standard for prophecy and interpretation of prophetic events,” said Joseph Farah, editor and founder of WND, upon learning of Judah Ben Samuel’s predictions in Israel Today. “But one cannot ignore what this 12th-century rabbi said and wrote. It’s well-documented. And I applaud Israel Today for bringing it to light. The implications of these predictions is staggering to say the least.” •

The Following Movie is From:  Prophecy Update Ministry    http://prophecyupdate.com

**Review of the following posted movie **  

 

I would venture to guess that not 1 in 100 Christians gives much thought about the unseen spiritual warfare occurring in each of our lives and the current events Randy provides in his daily emails.   Randy's new video, "Aliens, Angels and Armageddon" sorts through Old and New Testament scripture to share explanations for angels, good and bad, and how all of us are part of the unseen fighting occurring around us.  You will think differently about Randy's articles and your own life's struggles when you filter them through the lens and knowledge of knowing Satan and his demons are continually trying to destroy Israel and torment us with different fiery arrows.  These lessons will strengthen your faith and provide perspective to endure the trials you undoubtedly will experience sometime soon.  Great job, my brother! -

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Banned Episode: Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura - Police State

Share Jesus with others while there is still time.

Share Jesus with others while there is still time.

(we never know when our last time to share may be.)

Words of truth, words that last
After all this world's past...

Words of Spirit and life
That should settle all strife...

Words that slice you and me;
Words that cleanse, words that free...

Words as strong as a stone;
Words that flow from God's throne...

May those words yet fulfill
All their work, Christ's own will.

By God's grace, now we've heard.
Thank you, Lord, for each word.


It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. 
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
--Jesus, in John 6:63. (ESV)

November Obama Re-election Followed By RIOTS, US Nuked, Fema Camp?