Is Thanking Our War Vets Enough???

Today is Remembrance Day, a day that we take time out to reflect on the World Wars I & II as well as many other wars that have taken place since. A day to thank a Veteran. But shouldn't we thank them every day? These are people who fought to ensure that freedom and (hopefully) good prevailed. Sometimes what I see happening to people in the military saddens me. Why is it that Vietnam Vets, who only did what they were told to do, live in suffering, mentally and physically, sometimes on the streets, sometimes addicted? These are people who followed orders, some losing their life in the process (and maybe those are the lucky ones). Imagine the atrocities that these men and women saw, and now live with. It is a shame that there are people who fought for our freedom, living on the streets. It is a shame that the disabled ones are living on a disability pension that hardly covers the cost of living. I did a search and found a chart that applies to American Military... A Veteran who has a disability of 70-100% and has a spouse and one child is eligible for a benefit of $2932 per month. If they have more than one child, there is an additional amount added of up to $75 (under 18), up to $250 (in college/university) per child. (having children myself, I can assure you that it costs much more than that to raise a child). There are Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment programs in place as well, but the bottom line is, do we do enough for our Vets? (this is in the US, I'm not sure about Canada) Some stats I found are sobering. In the United States, approximately 107,000 Vets are homeless and another 1.5 million are at risk of being homeless because of living in poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded and substandard housing. HOW IN THE WORLD DOES THIS HAPPEN? We pay athletes millions of dollars to play sports and yet men and women are leaving their families behind for a pittance. This world has it's priorities all messed up. Why should someone who acts/sings/plays sports make millions while someone who heads off to potentially DIE for your freedom make barely enough to support their family. They miss out on births, birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, recitals, school plays, graduations, weddings, and funerals, to ensure that we don't have to and yet they are left to fend for themselves in droves. Something has to change.... Thank a Vet, find out if there are any in your community living on the street, and bless them in some way. Demand change...

What's next?

If you are following the news lately, you might be astonished by all of the things happening. Earthquakes, floods, fires, rise in crime etc. There are many who believe that we are living in the end of days. Based on Scripture, I would have to agree to an extent. There are some people who believe that May 21 of this year is the beginning of the end. Hey, I am all for the rapture happening sooner than later, however, I have to say that I do not believe that this will happen. Jesus clearly said that no man would know the time and that HE did not even know when he would return. God knows when this is to happen, yet many men have come forward claiming a date. As far as I am concerned, when any man comes forth with a date, claiming that is the day of the return of Jesus, we should just ignore them. If God wanted us to know the date, it would have been clearly outlined in Scripture, we would not have to do all kinds of math to figure it out.

things are getting interesting...

I remember when I was living in Toronto, in the mid 1990s and early 2000, there was a man that used to preach on the corner of Young and Dundas. I remember hearing him and thinking he was a nut with all his messages of "God Loves You," "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near" and "the end is coming." I thought he was just another dooms-day-er, freaking people out. I never really paid attention to him as I waited for the light to change at the corner. You never looked at him, eye contact would draw his attention to you and then you were trapped! So now, it's some 9 years later and I get it. At that time, I knew just about nothing about God, Jesus and the bible, except what I had seen in movies and we know how accurate Hollywood is when it comes to that. (I hope you read a lot of sarcasm into that last bit) Anyway, in 2003 I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and things changed. I suddenly had this desire to read and learn the bible, and when I did read it, I understood it for the first time. So where am I going with this? Well, the guy on the corner was right. God does love us. We do need to repent. And yes, the end is coming. I am sure that I am losing some of you with that remark, but I'll ask you to stick around so that you can get some understanding of why I say all this. I have been doing a lot of reading and research lately into what is going on in our crazy, messed up world and *surprise, surprise* a lot of it lines up with what the Bible has to say. Anyone who has known me for the last 20 years, knows that there was a time when I dabbled in the occult, visiting psychics, playing with ouija boards, reading tarot cards etc, so you know that I always want to know the future. Well, the Bible is the only sure-fire way to learn what the future holds. The Bible has foretold many events and is 100% accurate. In the Old Testament, Prophets were 100% correct, 100% of the time. This is how the people knew that they were speaking on God's behalf. If the Prophet was wrong, they were not speaking on God's behalf and were killed. Pretty harsh. The most prominent Prophets were Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel but really the Bible in itself is a Prophetic book, showing us what God's plan is, and how Jesus is the fulfillment of many of the Prophecies, including future ones. He was born to a virgin, lived free from sin, rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, was betrayed, beaten, spit upon, rejected, given a crown of thorns, crucified, pierced, buried in a rich man's tomb, and rose on the third day. He told us that he would return and for centuries the world has said that he is coming. And every person in every century was right, he is coming, it's just that now, we are seeing the fulfillment of many prophecies indicating that the time of his return is imminent.
Many people look to Matthew 24:3-12 -
³ 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?”

⁴ 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.

9 "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,

I think that we can agree that we are seeing many of the things mentioned in verses 4-8. But did you know that all over the world people are being persecuted because of their faith in Jesus? Maybe not so obviously in North America, but in places like China, India, Egypt, and most of the Middle East, Christians are tortured, and killed because of their faith. More and more people are turning away from the faith in North America, either claiming atheism or that they are agnostic, they believe in something but not necessarily what the bible says and statistics show that 70% of kids raised in the church are leaving the faith by the time they are in college. I think we can agree that there have been many "false prophets" that set dates for the end of the world, only to be proven wrong over and over. There have also been many who have claimed to be Christ, (David Koresh, James Jones, etc) and based on what we are seeing in the news, the love of most has definitely grown cold. I mean, when a kid kills his mother on mother's day or another beats his mom because she drank his iced coffee, or another young person pistol whips her mother so that she will buy her a car, we can clearly see that wickedness has increased and love has grown cold. So what is next?

Look to the middle east... Over the last several months, we have seen many protests. People fed up with tyranny and wanting freedom to choose their leaders and live the way they want to. In some places like Egypt, the people have been heard and the leader has fled. Many believe that this is a step to fulfillment of Isaiah 19, which talks about Egypt falling apart.

Others believe that we are about to see the fulfillment of Psalm 83. Recently there has been a call for a 3rd Intifada. An Intifada is a "shaking off" and the first two have been uprisings against Israel. The first was in 1987-1993 and was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The second was in September of 2000 and saw a death toll of over 7000. Again the Palestinians rose up against the Israelis and while the first Intifada was mostly protests, the second was much more violent. As for the third? From what I have seen, this time it won't be just the Palestinians trying to "shake off" the Israelis. Social media has been used recently as a way to organize uprisings and the Third Intifada is no exception... A Facebook page calling for a mass protest to start in Cairo was recently taken down however, beforehand, thousands of people "liked" the page and it had some 75,000 members. The message on the page indicated that "millions would gather in Cairo" "but this time for an All-Arab march toward Israel." It just so happens that this is to take place around the 63rd year of Israels independence. So what is the significance? Psalm 83 reads

¹ O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.
² See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads.
³ With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.
⁴ “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

⁵ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you—
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
⁸ Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.^[b]

Tents of Edom = Palestinians
Ishmaelites = Arabs
Hagrites = Clan of Ishmaelites
Inhabitants of Tyre = Lebanese
The Descendants of Lot = Moabites and Ammonites

These are the groups of people that are planning to march on Israel in the coming week if the facebook page is to be taken seriously. The Bible tells us that they will not be successful, we will just have to watch and see. As for the significance of the 63 years, I will explain in my next post....

There are just some things I will NEVER understand

When I was driving past a nearby, very prominent hospital I saw a sign that was very disturbing. It said something along the lines of: "9 months... that's how much time you have in Canada to get an abortion... with no medical reason necessary." If I hadn't been driving I would have burst into tears on the spot. I remember having my ultrasound done at 10 weeks when I was pregnant with each of my children and marveling at the sound the the heart pumping the blood through the tiny human being that was developing. I could not imagine how someone could think that at that point, it was not really a life. But to then think of a person aborting a child at 22 or 23 weeks (or later) when so many have been born at this age and survived was heartbreaking for me. In the moment when I realized what the sign said, I glanced at my children in their car seats and I wondered if I feel such heart ache, what does God feel when each life is snuffed out?

Videos and agreements...

Today I saw a video from Iran that talks about the coming of the Mahdi. For those who don't know what the Mahdi is, it is the Muslim Messiah. They claim that the Mahdi is coming and that with him Islam will conquer and rule the world. On the flip side, most Christians believe that their Messiah, Jesus Christ is also returning soon. So who's right? Or could they both be right? If you are a believer in the bible, you have to be able to see that the potential for both sides to be right is there.
So what's coming? We live in a very exciting time. It's plain to see that something is going on. The political unrest in the Middle East, people protesting in England, the fall of the Canadian Prime Minister and his party, the economy still not recovered, natural disasters happening on an almost weekly timeline, the issues with radiation in Japan, the rise in criminal activity and the fall in morality, the speed at which technology is advancing... something is going on.
At a dinner with some friends last night, we broached on many of these topics and another, the consistency with which our pastors at different churches are preaching very bold, very truthful messages. It seems that in the four congregations represented at the table, we could all agree that the days of preaching sugar coated, don't offend anyone messages are gone, and we are getting walloped with messages that convict and I am sure offend some. AND WE ARE HAPPY! I want to be in a service where the pastor says, "look, this is the way God is telling us we are too live and if you don't like it, there are consequences." We need this! For too long we have been told that God loves us, that He forgives us, that's He's our friend. And yes, this is true but you know what? He is also a jealous God, He is a judging God, and He can be a very angry, wrathful God. We need to have a fearful respect of God and I think too many churches are afraid that if they teach about all of the characteristics of God, people will get scared off... but do we really want a church full of believers that only love God because He is warm and fuzzy and will give us whatever we want? Just like children, we need a father who is consistent and will correct us when we do something wrong.
Some of what we are seeing in the world is God trying to get the attention of people who don't believe in Him... Some will turn to Him, and some will curse Him and turn away. Where do you fit in?
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:14

The World...

This year has been a crazy one and it's only March... earthquakes in New Zealand, and Japan, flooding in Australia, Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, Japan, Hawaii, Guatemala, civil unrest in many Middle Eastern Countries including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, and now Syria. Is any of this sounding familiar?
The disciples asked Jesus what would be a sign of his return and he told them:

<sup>Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many. 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. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 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. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 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. -Matthew 24:4-14 (italics my emphasis)

It's pretty obvious that we hear wars and rumours of war in this world... look at Libya. Prior to the current unrest and resulting conflict, there were rumblings pointing to what we are seeing. And we are seeing the rise of nation against nation with France, Britain, USA and Canada stepping in to protect the civilians of Libya. A part of me wonders if this is really the intent or if the dismantling of Qaddafi's regime is ultimately for their benefit. Anytime the western world gets involved in any Middle East conflict, I feel suspicion, a niggling of "What's in it for them?" (or should I say us, as I am living in the west)
Falling away from the faith is almost a fad now. One stat that I heard was that 70% of children that attend church will leave the church before they graduate from college. Considering that the percentage of kids who regularly attend church is not that big to start with we are looking at a huge falling away! It's only natural that people will hate each other, if you are not communing with God and experiencing His love, how can you love anyone? 1 John 4: 8, 19 Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. We love because He first loved us.
Just look at the shows on television, like the Springer show or Maury. Would these shows even exist if we didn't hate? If you love someone, do you cheat on them? Some would argue yes, and ok, you can love someone and cheat on them but to do so over and over is not love for them but love for self and self-satisfaction. I would also put forth the argument that the love of others has definitely grown cold. People for the most part are disconnected from each other. We text rather than talk, most of us don't really know the people that live around us or work with us, except on a surface level, and compassion (while still alive) is waning. Sure we are upset when we hear about the devastation in Japan, but how quickly do we move on to the next news story, thinking, thank God that's not me. I know for myself, I wish that there was something that I could do but at the same time, there are struggles that I am facing in my life and so I focus on that...
So what is my point? I strongly believe that we are living in the end times. We are eye witnesses to exactly what Jesus was talking about. And what does that mean? Well, it's coming down to a real time of decision. When things really hit the fan who's got your back? I am so thankful for my faith in Jesus because I know that He will take care of me and all the other believers out there. For anyone that doesn't know Jesus, I urge you to open the new testament, read the book of John, learn about how Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all men, and open your heart to Him. Take your place as a child of God, be an heir to His promises and His kingdom....
In His love,
Cori</sup>

in awe...

I am finding myself in awe of people who blog on a regular basis, sometimes even daily. I would like to do that but where do I find the time. I admit that I could likely get off that addictive Faceb--k and use that time more wisely but it's addictive! LOL Do those people just have better discipline than I do? likely! Or has this become their addictive outlet? Who knows... with two little ones, it's not always easy to get on the computer either... so I guess I'll settle for sporadic blogging until I can manage to change this into my addiction! :P