ECCE

     A convergence is defined as " the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity  especially   :  coordinated movement of the two eyes so that the image of a single point is formed on corresponding retinal areas." This is a holy season for Jews and Christians beginning with Purim, Palm Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, and then Passover. During this season, there will also be heavenly events occurring that represent a convergence. These events include a complete solar eclipse and, during that eclipse, the sighting of the Devil's Comet.       The observance during this season that we will discuss today is Purim, which joyfully celebrates the victory over an evil enemy in the Book of Esther. However, Esther is also a prophetic Book. It has this important end time meaning for the Church: If you don't take responsibility to fulfill your purpose here, you won't be saved, and someone else will be raised up who will obedien...

      We discussed two nations and two kingdoms last week, and this week, I am addressing those two nations, America and Israel, prophetically.  We start with the Word of the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah: "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this ( aleph-tav /Alpha and Omega in Greek: ref. to Jesus Christ, see Rev. 1:8 , Rev. 21:6 , Rev. 22:13 ) word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend ( yatab - to be good, pleasing, be well, be joyful, to make good, right or beautiful) your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying The temple of the LORD [note: We are living temples]...For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed no...

      The title of this message is loosely based upon the Book by Charles Dickens called "A Tale of Two Cities". There are only two nations in the world that declare "God rules". The first is Israel, and  the second, America, but both of those nations soon violated that covenant. Documents and quotes from our Founding Fathers and later presidents contain the strong belief and reliance upon God as a foundational tenet of this nation. One quote from John Adams is in a letter that he sent to the Massachusetts Militia in 1798: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (Click here to read the complete letter). President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address given at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, said in part: "It is rather for us to be dedicated here to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion - that we her...

      When Jesus had taught the parable of the sower and the seed, He ended the parable by saying, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." His twelve disciples had asked Him about the parable: "And he said to them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." (Mk. 4:9-11). The Lord had multitudes that followed Him, and He had the seventy who followed Him, but then He had the twelve disciples who had the more direct and intimate relationship with Him. It is to these twelve that Jesus said that it was given to them to understand the mysteries of God's kingdom. The word "mystery" used here is the Greek word mysterion which means "hidden thing, secret, mystery, the secret counsels which govern God in dealing with the righteous, which are hidden from ungodly and wicked men but plain to the godly." God's secrets are with the righteous, rather than w...