Turkish Daniel 7 video: “Daniel Kitabı Bölüm 7”

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I’ve been able to complete the Turkish version of the video on the book of Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7 is the Old Testament chapter that most thoroughly prepares us for the book of Revelation. The imagery, information, characters and timing found in Daniel 7 are all seen more fully in Revelation. I believe much of Daniel 7 has been fulfilled. But the parts Daniel himself was most desirous to know about are for the endtime soon to come. Here is the link to the video:

Should Christians be passive?

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There is a time for every purpose under heaven. So said a famous song, quoting from King Solomon. So there is a time for believers to do more than fold their hands and pray. There is a time for that, certainly. But, equally, there’s a time to take action in the real world, to put feet to your prayers and deeds to your faith.

This goes against the grain of so many believers in these times. Part of the crippling weakness of so many people of faith currently is that they’ve been conditioned to believe that there’s very little they should do besides pray. Of course, prayer is vitally important, essential, necessary and even required. But nowadays it just escapes most believers that there would be any more than prayer that God would want from us.

I could cite innumerable examples from the Word of God where believers were commanded to take action in real time to do God’s will in this world. In one situation even, some people were praying when the Lord spoke, asking them why they were praying when there was sin to be confronted. “And the Lord said, ‘Get up, why do you lie there upon your face? Israel has sinned.” (Joshua 7:10)

Probably most believers know (if they know much about the Bible) that it’s full of commandments to action, not just prayer. “Go into all the world.” “Roll away the stone.” “Teach all nations”. “Visit the fatherless and widows.” And on and on it goes.

So why doesn’t that resonate with believers today? Why is prayer all they think they can and should do? Are they lazy? Fearful? Complacent? Do they think that all the admonitions through the centuries to Godly activism are now all in the past? Do they think, “All we need to do today is be good citizens, acquire wealth and after that give a little to charity and missions” ?No, we should just pray and “Trust the Lord”. “The Lord knows”, I’m often told.What a sad delusion and compromisers’ limbo has the vast majority of modern nominal Christianity fallen into.

Most of us have heard of “The Salvation Army” and many people, Christian or not, respect the work they do with homeless people and the dregs of society in our times. But few know that in the late 1800’s Salvation Army workers were being killed on the streets of Europe, martyred for the work they were doing at that time. What were they doing? Well, for one, they were some of the most adamant and extremist folks there were when it came to fighting against the greatest plague on society of that time, the demon of drink.

One of the most famous Christian fighters of those times against drinking was Carrie Nation, a 6 foot tall woman who became famous for walking into bars in the US in the late 1800’s with a hachet (!) which she used with vigor to do all the damage she could as frightened patrons and bartenders looked on.

Don’t laugh. Yes, alcohol in our time has been far eclipsed by a host of seemingly worse things, cocaine for decades and now the opioids crisis. But back in the 1890’s, alcohol ruined countless families and was the bane and scourge of generations, rather like it is still in parts of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to this day.

Did the Salvation Army offer “thoughts and prayers” back then? I’m sure they did. But the Christian activists of those times who went into bars and starting destroying the places are perhaps reminiscent of Jesus going into the temple in Jerusalem with a whip. Seems to be a pretty good example there of the Lord Himself getting active against a prevailing evil of His time when He was here on earth.

And certainly it can be mentioned with this that the Civil Rights movement in the southern USA in the 1960’s was frequently led by ordained ministers, black and white. These ones came to feel that simply praying against the racism and injustice that had prevailed for so long was just not all that the Lord wanted them to do. There is no greater example of that than Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer could be mentioned, one of the most famous modern martyrs who stood up against the Nazis in World War II and was killed by them shortly before the end of the war. Ordained minister and theologian, Bonhoeffer choose to speak and act with passion against the Nazi regime, becoming well known in the 1930’s for his opposition to the doctrines and actions of the Nazis.

If there is anything Jesus wasn’t, He wasn’t passive. And He didn’t command His disciples to be passive. But maybe it’s like Paul said in one place, “To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:18) We do want to be led of the Lord in what we are doing, not just do a bunch of feverish good works and helping needy causes of which there are so many. “But wisdom is profitable to direct”. (Ecclesiastes 10:10)

I guess sometimes it’s like the saying, “The boat has to be in motion for the rudder to take effect.” There seems to be a paucity of Christians really willing and ready to get “in motion”, to stand up like the Salvation Army, Martin Luther King and Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, at the forefront of the moral and spiritual crises that are also now everywhere in our times.

And to bring this all back home, I personally am facing some of these things right now. I’m looking to the Lord about things going on in my part of the world, appalling, infuriating things that are beyond the political and are fully into the spiritual sphere, which need spiritual warriors to confront and expose what’s happening. Or so it seems to me. I’ll try to keep you updating as I look to the Lord about what my reaction and actions should be in the next months. God bless you and God help us all.

Hungarian Daniel 7 video: “Dániel könyve 7. fejezet”

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I’ve been able to complete the Hungarian version of the video on the book of Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7 is the Old Testament chapter that most thoroughly prepares us for the book of Revelation. The imagery, information, characters and timing found in Daniel 7 are all seen more fully in Revelation. I believe much of Daniel 7 has been fulfilled. But the parts Daniel himself was most desirous to know about are for the endtime soon to come. Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LwynqN70Pg

 

Godly weirdness

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If you’re going to be Godly, you may end up having to be weird. It’s just the way the world is now. It’s not really that the Godly are weird, it’s that the world is weird and contorted against the ways of God. So if you follow God, then you are going to look twisted to the majority.

I come from a weird family. What do I mean by that? It was weird when I was growing up not to use “the N word”. (Google it if you don’t know what that means.) Out of 500 kids in my school in central Texas, I was the only one that didn’t regularly use that word. Of course back then everyone in my school was white; no brown or black kids at all. This was before integration of the schools.

So I got mocked by everyone for saying “Negro”, which was the accepted non-racist word that was used back then. I was a little weird. But my folks told me how that hating people because of the color of their skin was wrong and evil, even though most of my friends who did were all Christians and went to church while my family were not Christians.

I grew up being just a little bit proud of being from a weird family. I realized that the modern majority may not hold the moral, ethical high ground; in fact they often don’t. Then in university I experienced the shocking event of nearly dying and finding out that there is a spiritual world, an eternity that we pass into, ready or not. It was the biggest shock of my life and it put me on the path to becoming a radical Christian some months later.

You could think, “OK, now he won’t be weird anymore. He’s going to be a nice, normal Christian, settle into society and be like everyone else.”

Nope, not at all. I actually found that, if you look to the Bible and history, Christianity is full of weirdoes! “Peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9), as the Bible actually says we are to be. Jesus, (was He the greatest weirdo of all?), said to His motley crew of followers, “Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19) What? Christians are called by Jesus to be “out of the world”?! We are not of this world?!

My experience up to that time was that the Christians I knew were usually the most worldly, conformist, bland people I ever met! But here in the Bible I’m finding other weirdoes like myself! People who went against the status quo of their day when the majority were proponents of hatred, unbelief, injustice and utter Godlessness.

I learned about some pretty weird people in the Bible and church history, people who were rejected and mocked by the majorities of their generation and who often ended up paying for their Godly weirdness with their lives. No greater example can be found than Jesus Himself. His flesh and blood brothers thought He was weird and they tried to straighten Him out. But Jesus said to them, “The world cannot hate you but Me it hates, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” (John 7:7)

So I guess all my life, running in the background has been that little awareness that I’m weird. But I’ve been ok with it because I have felt that it’s more important to stand on the side of truth, justice, love and the cause of righteousness than it is to be accepted by “this present evil world”. (Galatians 1:4)

But not everyone looks at it this way and it’s a tremendous struggle for many Christians to rise above their desire to be accepted and thought well of by their surrounding worldly neighbors.

This is what happed to Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Here’s what Peter the Apostle said about Lot. “But that righteous man, dwelling among them [the people of Sodom], in seeing and hearing, did vex his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly deeds.” (II Peter 2:8)

Lot and his family probably seemed weird to the people of Sodom. But it sounds like Lot, although he didn’t partake in their sins, was pretty much compromised where he was, like so very many Christians are becoming more and more in our times. Finally, in Lot’s case, the angels had to come down and just forcibly take his family out of Sodom before its utter destruction at the hand of God.

And maybe I need to add a little something for balance. We all should know that there is “good weirdness” and “bad weirdness”. Just being constantly anti-social, contrary, freaky and difficult to be around is certainly not what I am talking about here. It’s about holding truths, values and deeds that reflect the ways of God, which are so often thought of as weird when any of us dare to be different and go against the status quo.

Are you weird? Are your values at odds with the values and deeds of our present world? Are you compromised with the world because you don’t want to stand out and be different from others? Or are you like the heroes and heroines of faith in the Bible and history who were not “conformed to this world”? (Romans 12:2)

If you’re willing to buck the tide and stand up for the ways of God, you’ll be blessed in this life and the one to come. It can be lonely at times but then the Lord can bring you into contact with other weirdoes like yourself, “sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16), as the Lord said. It’s way better to flock together with the sheep than to run with the wolves and snakes of this world when you actually aren’t one of them.

If this be weirdness, make the most of it.

Stay weird, my friends.

 

German Daniel 7 video – “Das Buch Daniel, 7. Kapitel”-

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I’ve been able to complete the German version of the video on the book of Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7 is the Old Testament chapter that most thoroughly prepares us for the book of Revelation. The imagery, information, characters and timing found in Daniel 7 are all seen more fully in Revelation. I believe much of Daniel 7 has been fulfilled. But the parts Daniel himself was most desirous to know about are for the endtime soon to come. Here is the link to the video:

Defeated… by Increments

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Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” It was a joke about his advancing age but it’s also sort of a deep thought. By increments is the way things often come, both good and bad. I’ve been thinking about how sin can end up actually defeating us. So often it is by increments.

It’s a sad fact that we are much more likely to be defeated by the devil when he takes the slow, methodical approach rather than some sudden shocking attack. They say, “The storm that keeps us awake is safer than the calm that puts us to sleep.”

When God was leading Gideon in preparation to battle the huge army of the Midianites, He told Gideon to take his men down to the river to drink. As Gideon watched them, God brought to his attention a tiny minority of the men who drank from the river while also being watchful of their surroundings, looking to be aware of any encroaching enemy. And God told Gideon that with that tiny band of 300 soldiers he would defeat the vast army of their enemies. And they did.

Gideon’s tiny band of 300 was seen to be watchful while the rest of the army of Israel was not. How fitting for our times. How much the forces of darkness are roaming and rampant in our lands. But so many of God’s people are indolent, somnolent and almost acquiescent as the forces of darkness claim more souls daily in our countries.

And I’m not making this up. I could cite examples in my own home town in the last month that are things that are almost like out of a sci-fi horror movie. But it seems only the tiniest handful of Christians are aware of what has transpired or are taking any action to protect their own children in my home town from the gross darkness that public institutions are now mandated to instruct them in.

It’s like what they say about the frog. I’m told that if you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if instead you just slowly turn up the heat on the frog in the pot, he’ll get boiled. By increments. That’s so often how the devil and sin will defeat us: just slowly wear us down and get us accustomed to what will finally kill us in the end.

As I’ve written before, I believe we’re not called to only “believe in Jesus” but also to serve the Lord. This is clear both in the Old and New Testament. We are not just supposed to be sluggish grazing sheep of the Lord. Instead, it’s God plan and will for us to grow to be shepherds of the flock ourselves who care for the people of God and even stand up to fight in the spirit the battles of the Lord against the forces of darkness who come against His people.

Jude, the Lord’s brother, said in his short book that “we must earnestly contend for the faith.” (Jude 3) I so much pray and hope that the Spirit of God can find among the many millions of nominal Christians at least some Gideon’s band who are watching and prepared to go into spiritual battle in the real world in these times. Not politically in a worldly sense but still in devout, ardent Christian activism as the Lord leads.

Solomon said, “The prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished.” (Proverbs 27:12) I like the part about “foreseeing the evil” but maybe sometimes the way to take is not to “hide yourself” but to confront and expose the evil before it takes your children and claims the land that is supposed to be our inheritance in the Lord.

But when the devil comes along as the sly, persuasive snake, talking us out of our faith, reasoning with us out of our convictions, it’s pitiful how well this seems to be working in so many places. Christians are being seen to be backed into a corner, divided, confused, surrendered and fainting in the face of the march of darkness. It’s like the article I wrote about where Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Well, there is room for encouragement. I’ve always been encouraged by some obscure verses found in Daniel 11, a chapter Jesus Himself very specifically referred to, about the last days before His return. It says there of those final times, “The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” (Daniel 11:32 & 33)

So from those verses I’m led to believe that there will be at least a Gideon’s band in the final days who recognize the steady incremental advance of the forces of Satan in my country as well as throughout the earth. God has said in His Word that there will be some, perhaps very few, who will not bow the knee before the “strange gods” (Daniel 11:39) of our times but will hold fast to their faith and the Word of God, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom they shine as lights to the world, holding forth the Word of Life.” (Philippians 2:15 & 16)

Frankly, right now I’m not seeing very many like that who have that holy vision and fearless boldness. But according to God’s Word, there will be some. Please pray with me that the Lord will find those few and raise them up.

Being Led of God

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God is neither deaf, mute or inert. He’s not dead or even sick. God yearns to speak to our hearts personally every day and be the main factor in our lives. But it’s pitiful how few people really know this, take it to heart and take action about it. And, yes, I certainly mean most Christians.

The Bible says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) But how many believers are really led of God? How many even know what that means? It means that God, through the Holy Spirit can give you downright, upright personal directions for your life, daily and hourly.

Now that probably sounds “out there” to many if not most reading this. But it’s not. It’s New Testament Christianity and there are loads and loads of examples of this in the New Testament as well as the Old. In Acts 8 Philip was going down to Joppa and on the road he saw the Ethiopian eunuch who was in his chariot. Somehow Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah 53. Then what happened? Take note! The Spirit told Philip to “Go, join yourself to this charioit”. (Acts 8:29) Philip was led of God. He heard the voice of God telling him something to do right then.

Often it’s a matter of doing what the Holy Spirit is telling you go do, right then. Philip obeyed the voice of God, went and witnessed to that man and it changed the course of history in Ethiopia. But God had to find a person willing to obey Him in that split second of the golden opportunity, made by the Holy Spirit.

Now I know some will be growing skeptical here. “Mark, are you advocating ‘hearing voices?’ What about the Word of God, Mark?!”

Of course I agree. The first way to know the will of God is through His written Word. This is the irrefutable, unmistakable and final way to know the will of God. As Isaiah 8:20 says, “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” In Phiip’s case, he already was fully versed in the Word of God from what he had been learning in Jerusalem, at the beginnings of the early Church. But in his case, it took the sudden, supernatural prompting of the Holy Spirit to lead him and point him at that moment into the high will of God.

The problem is, lots of people know that they should put God’s Word first, obey it and promote it above all. But they “leave the other undone.” They’re big on the Bible but not really having a living relationship with the Lord. And inadvertently they fulfill the verse “the letter kills but the Spirit makes alive.” (II Corinthias 3:6) One of the things that Jesus said that has always really spoken to me is this. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.” (John 14:21)

But how many people are really having the Lord manifest Himself unto themselves daily? How many are really being led of the Lord? We need to “pour out our hearts before him” and in turn He has promised repeatedly, “Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not.” (Jerimiah 33:3) It’s sad and even ominous that the personal relationship that many believers have with God is pretty distant, often rather stale and tenuous as well.

It doesn’t have to be that way and it really shouldn’t be. Moment by moment  we should be in a living personal relationship with the Lord, our “antennas” up, our spirits “turned on and tuned in” to hear His voice. Yes, He may speak to us through His Word. He may bring to our minds some verse from His Word that applies to our situation. Of course, if you are weak in the Word, if you’ve never really delved into it or even memorized portions of it, then it becomes more difficult for the Holy Spirit to “bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

I think even the state of the world in our times can easily be traced back to a lack of real, personal contact with God for most people on a daily basis. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) How many are personally, individually coming in prayer to the throne of grace and then obtaining the help they need? Or the council and direction they need?

So often, God has to put the pressure on. So often, so many of us are content to rock along in our comfort zone, settling down into our routine so that there’s little difference at all between us and the children of this world. Therefore, God in His love puts the pressure on in order to break us out of our lethargy and dullness and get us to seek His face for His grace.

Would to God that more people would “judge themselves so that they wouldn’t have to be judged”. (See Romans 11:32) So many live in spiritual poverty, so many will look back in regret and remorse when they get to heaven for all they could have done and should have done, but didn’t.

Well, thank God. Thank God for the future to come and which in many ways truly is here already. While so many Christians are content with things as they are, Satan and his minions are working overtime to increase the evil and darkness upon this world. And Christians more and more are being swept away or dulled into spiritual death by these things. But some are seeing the rapidly rising tide of darkness and are learning that they have to start praying, hearing from God and obeying him like their lives depended on it.  Oh, that His Spirit will find hearts willing to awaken and get engaged in following God like never before in our times.

Empty Fields

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In early September I was alone, far off in a vast field of grain on my birthday, in eastern Norway. Suddenly, all that I saw around me took on a deeper meaning and spoke to me.  A large harvester combine stood alone in a half harvested field. Someone had started harvesting but then stopped. I looked at the ripe golden grain waving in the field, with storm clouds on the horizon. But no one was there. I was struck with sadness and I think this must be how the Lord often sees things in this world.

Jesus told His disciples, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35) And He was not talking about wheat, barley and rye. He was talking about the harvest of souls, the multitudes who were ready to come to Him and the kingdom of heaven. But they needed someone to gather them in, to lead them to salvation in Jesus and nurture them in the new life prepared for them.

I didn’t start crying that morning but I easily could have. Where were the laborers? Someone had walked off and left the crop in the field. And sadly this is exactly how it is right now in the lives of many laborers, as well as many fields all over this world.

I felt so very thankful, on my birthday, how that the Lord has presevered me over many years, not just physically but also He’s somehow kept my faith from being snuffed out and I’m still involved in sowing, reaping, harvesting and feeding His sheep, now (thank you, Jesus) in many countries and many languages by means of web sites, videos and cyber space.

It’s all by His grace. But also I could have given up many times. I could have shrugged my shoulders, figured I’d done enough, and turned to enjoy the rest of my life in my home country, eating barbeque, drinking beer and watching the games.

OK, sometimes I do those things. But my vision, goal and passion are still what they have been over many decades: to be of service to the Lord in winning souls and feeding His sheep. But I know of many fields like I saw on my birthday, standing in the sun but with no laborers. There was even a huge machine nearby that could be used. But no one was there. Jeremiah said one time, “The summer is past, the harvest is ended and we are not saved.” (Jeremiah 8:20) What a sad verse.

I believe “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”. I think we are called to not only believe in Jesus but to serve Him. And that doesn’t mean voting for the correct political party. That means to feed His sheep, to nourish His little ones, to do all we can to witness, win souls and take care of the results. Not to leave fields of grain waving unto the horizon until they turn rotten in the encroaching winters.

I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable here but maybe I should say more since that is what I feel I was hearing from the Lord that morning. Are you a harvester who has left the field? Do you know how to share the gospel with others, to lead people to Christ, to feed His sheep? Are you still doing that?

“Well, Mark, I’m old. I did that for years but I got tired. People were not nice to me, they didn’t appreciate me, my family mocked me for doing that and even some of the ones I worked with on the field were mean and false brethren. So, no. I’m not interested in that anymore.”

Sadly I believe there are a lot of folks who think that in their hearts, even if they don’t say it out loud. Or maybe you are saying, “But Mark, I’m not a missionary like you have been. I just go to church on Sunday, listen to the sermon and then try to be a nice person. Isn’t that enough, Mark? It’s not my responsibility to witness to others, is it Mark? That’s our pastor’s job.”

All this would seem to be logical, reasonable and acceptable until we look at the words of Jesus. It says of Him, “When He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion upon them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) He was just as human as any of us. But Jesus’ heart stayed fixed on the love He had and the vision He had of the lost, despairing humanity He saw before Him. And most of you reading this have that same Jesus in your hearts right now.

Yes, you may have labored faithfully years ago in some fields, witnessed and won souls to Christ and fed His sheep. But the need is still very much there.

Even the methods have gotten easier in some ways. I’m finding that some of these extremely difficult fields that would be almost impossible for me to visit safely are now actually open through the internet. And I’m finding young people of those nations and languages who are longing to know more about the things of God, if only someone will explain it to them.

Maybe this is a sad article, you say. Not really uplifting and encouraging, as you were hoping it would be. Well, God does encourage us and uplift us. But also He can at times plead with us and implore us to not leave our plows in the field, as Jesus talked about in Luke 9:62. “No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

And I should certainly add that “the field” doesn’t have to mean some distant foreign country. For most of us, the field is right where we live, the lives we interact with each day or those we can come in contact with in our personal witnessing. These are the ones we should see as our field that we are called to labor in.

Every single one of us is so very needed by the Lord in His service, to lay down our lives and take up our cross and follow Him. “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.’” (Matthew 9:37 & 38)

It was a sad birthday picture that the Lord brought meaning to on my walk that morning. So few are laboring to bring in the harvest of souls who wait for the message of salvation in these, their times. Abandoned fields, abandoned harvester combines and evidently lost harvests. Please pray that He will quicken the hearts of the harvesters (maybe you?) to return to their callings and jobs. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29)

Heart Attack Blessings?

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Two days ago I had a heart attack. Last night I got back from the hospital I was rushed to where I had a stent placed in a vein. It’s been a very  (…)  time; I don’t even know what word to use to describe it. But I’m left here realizing what an amazing and loving God we have and how I’ve just survived, utterly by the His grace, an event that kills millions every year. And, strangely, there’s an emerging element of supernatural blessing and divine purpose in what’s happened to me over the last 36 hours.

I was fixing my lunch just after finishing a rather vigorous workout that I do at home. And I began to realize I was having a strange pain in the middle of my chest, unlike any I’d ever had before. I went to look up the symptoms of a heart attack and many of them I didn’t have: pain in my left arm or jaw, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, and others. But there was definitely a discomfort in my chest that didn’t go away.

After some hesitation, I talked to a dear friend who rents me the room in the place where I stay. He was busy but I told him it was an emergency. With difficulty I told him that I thought I was having a heart attack and needed to go to an emergency room. God bless him, he immediately dropped everything and we were off in the car right away.

At the emergency room things really swung into quick action. They did an EKG and the doctor said that I’d had, or was having, a heart attack. All during this time I wasn’t really feeling super bad. They ask me what my pain was on the scale of 1 to 10 and I said about 2 or 3 but that it was more discomfort than really pain. But it certainly was discomfort.

The emergency room people immediately took me in an ambulance to one of the main cardiac hospitals in our small Texas city. I actually was in fairly good spirits and was conversant with people in the ambulance and once I got to the hospital. Admittedly the thought did cross my mind, “Well, am I going to die now? I don’t feel really bad.”

It all was moving very fast. And I knew the reason for this as I’d read in the past how it does really come down to a matter of time in these situations. During this time one super busy nurse told me “Minutes are muscle” and the goal is to try to intervene before the damaged heart muscle really gets worse or the overall problem escalates.

What they did was to insert a stint through a hole in my wrist, up into my heart. I learned later that an EKG is able to identify the quadrant of the heart where the problem is. But then they insert some kind of dye in that area and by seeing how it interacts, they can identify exactly what the place is that needs the stint.

And I learned that this is not all actually about big arteries but about the smaller veins that run along the outside of the heart and supply blood to the heart itself. One of those veins had become blocked and needed the stint.

But here’s where it gets interesting. The big arteries that carry blood in and out of the heart could be seen like very big highways. But the veins are like smaller city streets, some bigger and some smaller. The place where my vein was blocked was what could be like a somewhat smaller street. They were able to identify it and put the stint in so blood could flow again. Within less than an hour after the operation, I was beginning to feel ok again and not having those symptoms.

And here’s the eerie thing, what they told me today. While I was on the operating table, when the doctors used that dye to find where the blockage had happened, they found another “bigger street” vein that was still functioning but was 90% blocked.

My cardiologist had not been able to know that without doing the stint work that was done yesterday during the operation. So they said very definitely that I need to come in and discuss another similar operation to get a stint into the vein that is 90% blocked. But if this incident yesterday hadn’t happened, we would not have known how badly that one is blocked and that vein is larger and more strategically placed than the one that went bad yesterday. This heart attack was used by God to bring to light a more serious condition I’ve had which no one was aware of until now.

I’m still personally coming to grips with all this. In Texas you can be bitten by a rattle snake. It may not kill you but it certainly can. Or your house can be hit by a tornado. It may not kill you but it certainly can. And 36 hours ago I had a heart attack. It may not kill you but it certainly can.

But here I am, back at my desk, in my room and not really at a place yet where I’ve fully fathomed what has happened to me. And it seems like it was, so strangely, almost an act of Providence that this till-now unknown blockage of a vein on my heart could be made known, so that it can be operated on.

What kind of comment can be made to this? What an experience of underserved mercy and prescient providence to allow something like this to happen. I think of the many people who have been praying for me. I think of the open doors of ministry that the Lord has given me over the last few months and years. I think of how my life on this earth could have come to its end over the last 2 days. But God has turned it all into something good. “Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.” (Romans 11:33)

 

Did the ancient prophets actually exist?

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Are the writings of the ancient prophets just all Jewish myths? A number of people have written me to say that the prophecies of Daniel are all myth, without any historical fact. I’m sure that millions of people have been told that and probably believe it. But is it true? Are the prophecies of Daniel (or Isaiah or David for that matter) just total fabrications? Inventions, fictions of cunning men to delude and enslave mankind?

Some of you may find this outlandish. But, believe me, there are hundreds of millions of people who look at things this way and I hear from them nearly every day. And after all, how can we really know? These writings are from hundreds of years before Jesus, very ancient history for many people. Therefore it’s easy to assume that there’s no real way to know. And so the assumption follows that it’s probably something some other race, creed or nationality foisted on my race or creed. And some conclude that it’s just all totally, utterly rubbish!

But is it? Can we possibly get to the root and empirical facts of the mater without getting all religious and mystical? Thankfully the answer is emphatically yes. You may not be of my race, nationality or faith. But some things are understood by all to stand outside these boundaries or classifications. You may not share my views or even like “my people”. But if I said “Two plus two makes four”, the majority of you would not find fault with that. (Don’t laugh; there are those who will definitely argue with that assertion.)

“So how can we factually know that the ancient prophets truly and fully existed in real time?”

The best answer I can give to as broad a range of people, beliefs and views of all kinds is this: research the Dead Sea Scrolls. This isn’t a matter of your faith verses mine, your nation verses mine. This is about as certain and sure a thing as you can ascertain when it comes to fact in our modern times.

Here’s what happened. In 1947 a shepherd boy, looking for his sheep, threw a rock into a cave in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. And he heard something break. Creeping inside the cave, he found a group of ancient urns, some of which contained scrolls with writing on them. This is how the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These scrolls had been placed in these urns in these caves around the time of Jesus, 2000 years ago. They are considered to be probably the most significant and astounding archeological discovery of the last 100 years.

And let me just add here that this is not about, or contingent on Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Communism, Hinduism, Buddhism or any other faith. This is about something as definite and concrete as anything can be known to be real in our times. The reason these scrolls are so significant is that they contain at least parts of every book in the Old Testament except Ester. Some whole and complete books are in the Dead Sea Scrolls collection, like the book of Isaiah and the book of Deuteronomy.

These are the actual physical writings from 2000 years ago, visible, touchable, utterly verifiable and known to be real by scientists around the world, uncontested when it comes to the facts of their existence. Furthermore, when these ancient texts were compared to what are now found in the Old Testament scriptures in the Bibles of our times, they corresponded almost completely exactly to the way we have received the Scriptures that we have today.

So if someone maintains that the ancient prophets are just myths, passed down like fairy tales, translated hundreds of times and completely unworthy of any respect, I suggest you do some research yourself on the Dead Sea scrolls. If English is not your first language, I’m sure there are reputable sources of scientific information in your language which explain in much more detail than I have here about these things.

You may not like what the ancient prophets told. Perhaps because of the crisis in the Middle East for the last 70 years, you may even be someone who has a strong prejudice against anything remotely Jewish. But I hope, if you are a seeker and lover of truth, pure and real truth from the God of truth, the God of Abraham, I suggest you research these things to find out if the ancient prophets of God were a reality. God bless you in your search. Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.” (Matthew 7:7)