Bits n Pieces on The Times in Which We Live

Sitting here at the desk this morning, sun shining in through the window, looking at a beautiful blue sky with lots of white fluffy clouds. I looked at the 7 plants sitting there basking in the nourishing light and noticed that there is a big spider web connecting one of the plants to the corner of the window frame. There is also a big blue bottle fly buzzing around against the glass.

So tell me, why doesn't Fly get caught in the web and become Spiders' lunch? Instead Fly remains a nuisance. Spider - do your job!

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There was a dispute out at the dumpsters just about 10 minutes ago. Crazy Lady from the podyezd next to us was out there with her 3 little dogs, going through the dumpsters, searching for tasty tidbits for the dogs. The dogs - brown mama dog and 2 white puppy dogs - milled around at her feet in anticipation.

As I was walking through the living room I heard one of the puppies start barking, so I looked out to see what was going on. Oh dear! Another old woman was out there, starting to dig through the dumpster Crazy Lady was not digging through. (Remember! We are the proud viewers of TWO dumpsters!)

They started talking to each other, voices raised, and then somehow they came to peace. Not sure what happened because I could not hear the individual words. But the little dog stopped barking (1 of the 3 is a major barker, the other 2 only bark occasionally).

Maybe they decided that what the dumpsters need is a world-wide economy, that the rich dumpster diggers should give all their stuff to the poor dumpster diggers and then all the dumpster diggers will be equally poor?

Who knows.

I'm just glad they didn't get into a yelling match and start throwing trash at each other, that Crazy Lady didn't sic her little dogs on the intruder.

Dumpster Peace!

(I wonder if they took into account their carbon footprints and if global climate change/warming/whatever will improve now?)

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I'm over half way through listening to a series of sermons by Arturo Azurdia III. He preached these while pastoring a church in California. The series is "An Exposition on the Book of Revelation" and can be found here.

Mel preached through the Revelation a few years ago, here in Kherson. Rev. Azurdia preaches through it in a very similar way. These are not dispensational sermons, so if you listen, don't expect to hear charts and ponderings on who the Antichrist is and so forth.

I have been so encouraged by what I am listening to. I was searching for End Times from a Reformed point of view when I found this series on the Monergism website. I am so glad I found them! The Word of God has been such an encouragement to me as I live through the beginning of the death of the United States of America, former home of the brave and former land of the free. I have been in mourning since before the presidential election. My mourning has only intensified since the election.

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I wondered, for awhile, if it was "Christian" to mourn the death of your country. After all, I have been told - whatever is happening politically, it is God's will because God is sovereign. The unspoken part is that it is wrong, possibly a sin even, to mourn over this, so cut it out.

I am reminded of Jeremiah - the weeping prophet.
I am reminded of Jesus Christ - who wept over Jerusalem.
If those two, and others, could weep over what they saw and knew was going to happen, why should I not be allowed to weep as well over what is happening and is going to happen to my own country?

I weep.
I mourn.
Sometimes I rage at the stupidity of people and how they cling to their sin and refuse to repent. I rage at false thinking, selfish thinking, sinful thinking. I rage at what the outcomes are - the actions come directly out of what is in the heart.
I weep.
I mourn.
I pray that God has chosen my grandchild as His own and will draw him to Himself - quickly.
I pray that Christ will soon return.
And I rest, in mourning and in gladness, because He IS coming and this will soon all be over.

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In the middle of the mourning, I understand that we are living in unprecedented times.

Oh, someone might say - look at the Roman Empire! The Greeks! The Babylonians! The Chinese empires that have come and gone! Why should what is happening now be any different than the fall of those countries?

I'll tell you! At least from how I see it. Take it or leave it.

All of the civilizations that came before us only dominated or were a part of a small geographic area. What is happening now is global. From the Far East to the West, from the North Pole to the South Pole - the whole world is affected by the current economic crisis (thus the increase of dumpster digging old ladies once again here in Kherson - they are but a symptom of the problem). Shoot - even the moon and Mars are affected by it now that we have human-made things there. We, humanity that is, have expanded off the earth and are now directly affecting the solar system around us. Even our 'space trash' is making an impact (pun intended).

So the whole world is ready, primed, waiting. People are still starving in various parts of the world - including here in Kherson, Ukraine. Nations are still at war with each other, and it is increasing daily (watch out for what those North Koreans are really up to, and why has Iran been helping them??). Christians are at an all time high of wanting to be entertained and pacified - TBN and the garbage spewed on it is all over the world now (I will never forget the blonde old woman - the wife (former wife?) of the founder of TBN, in black high heels walking up and down the stage, taunting and preaching "ha! Ha! Devil" - all the time looking like an old used-up prostitute off the streets of Yalta, where we were watching it on a television broadcast coming out of Turkey. And we wonder why the Muslims think such bad things about "Christianity". Still makes me want to gag and cry out to God to STOP these things that are being done in His name.)

Maybe that is what is happening! Maybe God IS putting it to a stop.

What is happening now is GLOBAL.
The four horses of the Apocalypse .

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On the other hand, there is a part of me that is not mourning. There is a part of me that is excited to be living in these times. To be a part of this, to see it happen, to possibly be alive when Christ returns to earth again.

Oh, I do not want to go through suffering myself, and I oh so much do not want my children and grandchild to go through suffering on such a scale!

But to be among the chosen few who see it and know it for what it is... Am I one? Is it time? Will I - or my children - be a martyr for the Lord? What a wonderful privilege!

I listen for a shout and a trumpet blast. And wait in anticipation.

I have a lot more thoughts on this - maybe I'll write more in the future.