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You read the headlines on the internet, “Isis urges U.S. brothers to kill 100 American soldiers and claims to have their names and addresses.” I sincerely hope that this is a false flag or misinformation, if you will. Islamist radicals often use tactics like this to instill terror into the hearts of nonbelievers of Islam. But knowing that terrorist cells exist in the United States I would be hard pressed to say that this is only a scare tactic. Today, anything is possible.

It’s understandable that this threat would make any military personnel edgy. I would urge American Christians everywhere to pray for our men and women in uniform as well as their immediate families.
Islamic terrorists will continue to harass us in one way or another. They are here in the U.S. to explore ways to destroy us. Not only are there terrorist cells in our country, but incarcerated Muslims are converting many disenfranchised American prisoners to Islam. Muslim extremists are making converts by the truckload and we are FOURTH in the world in promoting jihad on face book! It seems that Islamic extremists are hard at work in our country. We are thousands of miles away from the heat of battle, but we are in a battle for hearts and minds, a spiritual battle, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against wickedness in high places.”

Among the other young men being converted are those who won’t work or are privileged kids in universities where godlessness is taught. Many of them have been brought up by atheists, alcoholics, two mommies, two daddies or drug addled parents. They have turned to a life of crime and dissipation, not realizing the ultimate results of their actions. Far too many of them have no morals or foundational faith in Christ, which makes them little more than brute beasts. You can hear it in their so-called rap music lyrics, lyrics that boast of killing and raping.

Is God giving mankind over to a reprobate mind that the Bible warns about? Obviously this is what is happening with Jihadists in other parts of the world, otherwise how could a person kill and dismember innocent children or set fire to a living, breathing human being? Not to mention beheadings and stoning women to death. It’s beginning to look like the pits of hell have been opened and demons are wreaking havoc across the globe.

Nevertheless, it’s my understanding that some Muslims are having an encounter with the risen Christ in personal visitations. Only God can save them by showing up in person in a vision. I suspect though that this is only happening to those who still have some light in their spiritual lives, but don’t know any better and are only going along with the crowd, but they are few.

To continue, it was reported the other day by some members of the U.N. that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a Fatwah against nuclear proliferation. But anyone who knows anything about a Fatwah knows that it has to be put in writing to be valid – and it hasn’t been. But, even if it were put in writing it wouldn’t really mean a thing since the Quran says that lies can be told to subvert the enemy of Islam. Furthermore, the U. N. is made up primarily of Muslim nations!

We know that Satan is the father of lies and so it stands to reason that these people are doing his will and not the will of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the true creator of heaven and earth. I would suspect that Iran has nuclear bomb capacity even as we speak and are only waiting for the right time and circumstance to carry out a nuclear attack on Israel. If Israel didn’t have the military might to protect itself, this would have already happened.

We also know that Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran and are ready to attack northern Israel from Lebanon and Syria. Years ago Lebanon was overrun by Muslim immigrants when they were offered shelter there from warring factions years ago. Thus, Hezbollah immigrated, infiltrated and eventually took over that nation from top to bottom.

I find it hard to believe that some apostate Christians think we serve the same God. Allah is the moon god and on their flag is a depiction of the crescent moon. But no, I don’t hate Muslims. I despise their satanic ideology.
I remember once several years ago an old Pakistani woman asked me to pray for her dying husband. I knew she was a Muslim and she knew I was a Christian. “I don’t care what you are, but please oh, please pray for my dying husband,” she wailed. Being a born again Christian street evangelist I felt obligated to do so, and embraced the crying woman who laid her head on my chest while crying openly. When I asked her what her husband’s name was she replied, “Mohammad.” So there I was praying for Mohammad in Jesus name!
I told you that story so that you wouldn’t accuse me of being an Islamophobe. I know God loves all of his creation, but there can be no compromise with Islam who would kill our children and families. Their intent is to kill, maim and destroy all who are opposed to them. “The devil goes around but to kill and destroy.”
These things must be revealed so that you are fully prepared for any eventuality. So I strongly suggest you get your life in order and prepare to meet your maker in the rapture or in death, whichever comes first.

By the way, on a lighter note, I actually saw a good movie today, a Christian one at that! The name of the movie was “Do You Believe”. (Before the movie began we had to sit through a wave of previews of new Christian movies that will be screening in the near future and of course one is a football movie.) “Do You Believe” was pretty well done with a number of professional actors filling the primary roles. It was obvious to me that the lighting, sound and camera work were professionally done, as well as the editing. The story was well written too! For all the aforementioned reasons it proved to be entertaining. This is not your typically unprofessional Christian fare, and they did as well as can be expected; but alas, it was not evangelical enough for me.
Roma Downey and her husband, who are Catholics, have a continuation of the New Testament coming out during Easter on television. Also, the movie “Four Blood Moons” was mentioned during the trailers. That may be coming out on DVD. I’ll let you know.

Even after a number of setbacks, I am going to try to get my evangelical films, calling for repentance, made for “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We owe it to our loved ones, friends and neighbors, and fellow Americans to warn them about the days that lie ahead and the need to repent, based on Biblical prophecies in these, the last of the last days. So that they, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near” like it says in Isaiah 55:6.

YBIC
Jim Torres “Towers”

A very dear friend shared this with me last year. Obviously suffering is all around us, soldiers have seen the young cut down and many ask why? I can not expound on it as well as my friend does below.

Where is God in your suffering?
A funeral message in honor of Marilyn Peterson. (1947-2014)

My mom’s life changed when we had our first boy, Micah, six years ago. She fell in love with him and tried desperately to will herself to health so that she could spend 2-3 day stretches at our house, playing and loving on him. My mom and I were able to spend much more time together and the majority of it was spent talking about the Bible and about Christ. She soaked in the Word of God and read the whole Bible several times, listened to countless sermons, and asked incredibly thoughtful and challenging questions. In honor of those talks with her, in honor of her and for the honor of Christ, I would like to spend a few minutes on an issue that we talked about many times. As most of you know, I am an engineer who sits in a cube all day. I am not a pastor or a very good speaker. My qualifications are simple. I know God. I love God and I know and love His Word. I have written this message out as I know it may be difficult to get through. Thank you all very much for being here and hearing this message.

My mom was a wonderful beautiful woman who loved me every second of my life for 43 years.
God is a wonderful beautiful God who has loved me every second of my life for 43 years.

My mom suffered as a child and was torn apart in the divorce of her parents.
My mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 30 and was bed ridden and racked with pain much of her remaining 40 years.
At 48, she lost her precious daughter, Jill, in a car wreck, and she never emotionally recovered from that.
At 63, the doctors told her that she had multiple myeloma, (bone marrow cancer), and that she had at most a couple years left.
At 66, she entered the hospital with unbearable pain and ten weeks later at 67, she lay on a hospital bed in her living room, unrecognizable, and gasped her last breath at 3 in the morning last Thursday night.

Is God really such a wonderful loving God? It is quite easy to accept the fact that God is loving when we are young and have never experienced hardship or tragedy. But when we meet evil and pain, tragedy and suffering face to face, the loving God of our youth does not seem so loving.

There is great tension in the statement that God is love and that He allows evil, tragedy and suffering to exist and even to flourish.
This tension if left unexplored and unresolved will at best cause a person to become ambivalent or indifferent towards God. At worst, it will cause a deep anger and resentment toward God.
The tension can be resolved, but it must be resolved alone with God and in His Word. Much of the world does not really wish to resolve this tension because it gives them a convenient and rational reason to live as they please and to be their own God. But for those who eagerly desire to know Him, He is also eager to teach and He has taught me. He taught me on September 18, 1995, in a hospital bathroom at 1 am after I had collapsed on the floor in grief over my dying sister.

My begging, pleading, and anger exhausted, I lay in silence on a cold hard bathroom floor knowing that He was not going to perform a miracle that day and that my sister would be dead in hours.
Empty of myself, God taught me. He taught me the true heavenly perspective of tension and it wasn’t “how could a loving God allow good people to suffer”. It was “How could a Holy and Just God give so much love, so much mercy, so much grace, and so many blessings to a rebellious and thick headed people such as we are-such as I was”. It was at that moment that I realized I had not deserved such a beautiful, kind-hearted sister and instead of pleading for her life as if I was entitled to something, I began to, with great emotion, pour out my thanks to the God who gave me a sister and as I prayed, I was met with as best as I can describe it- a hug from God, and that hug had just redeemed the worst day of my life and made it beautiful.

The Bible is very clear as to why suffering and tragedies occur. They occur because we are rebels and we desire to be our own god. We broke off our relationship with God and there were great consequences, the worst of which was separation from Him forever. In His great mercy though, He promised that He would save us and therein lays the great tension and greatest mystery of the Bible. How can God save a doomed people that He loves and still be just. Even our corrupt earthly judges have to issue forth justice and demand payment when laws are broken. -How much more the Great and Perfect Judge. Where do perfect love and perfect justice meet?

Almost every page of the Bible hints and points to this answer. God did not ask Abraham to kill his son Isaac to teach us about faith. He was asking Abraham to rehearse and point to what He (God) was going to do in a thousand years on that same hill. God would lead his own Son up the hill to be killed as a sacrifice for many. The Bible does not record that Isaac carried his own wood to His sacrifice for the sake of our curiosity. It was recorded so that when we saw Jesus carrying his own wood (cross) up the hill for his sacrifice, we might know that it had all been carefully planned out from the beginning.

Where do perfect love and perfect justice meet? They meet at the cross of Christ.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The Father sent his Son to us, to live a sinless life, to die on a cross, and to be raised to life 3 days later to prove true His claims and our redemption.
Our sins have been paid (perfect justice), our redemption has been purchased (perfect love) and they are offered to us as a free gift.

Why does the Bible record that Jesus was crucified between two thieves? Once again God is painting a picture for us to look upon, to contemplate and to take wonder in.
We are those two thieves. We stand rightly condemned for our rebellion and many sins. We have no recourse. We have no way down…no way to rescue ourselves just as they did not.
The Bible tells us that both thieves mocked Jesus, but at some point, one of them turned to Jesus and humbly and simply asked to be saved. Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise”. The most important question in all the world is this-Which of those two criminals are you?

Psalms 90 says, God teach us to number our days. What that means is that as you look upon my mom’s casket today, please realize that you will be there very soon. It was just a few moments ago that my mom was holding a baby boy in her arms and now he is 43 and speaking at her funeral. Time is so very precious and short and the Bible is very clear that you only have this lifetime to make a decision to follow Christ. If you do not know Christ, I urge you to humble yourself at the foot of the cross and ask Him to save you. He is indeed Mighty to save and he turns no one away. If you already belong to Christ, I urge you to recommit your life to Him and surrender your whole self to Him as He is deserving and most worthy of it.

I will close with this thought. For those who belong to Christ, suffering is allowed for a season. We are told to expect it, but we are also told that He will be there with us and that He will turn it into something beautiful. Last Thursday night at 2:45 AM, my mom was dying and gasping for air. It was as horrible as anything I could have imagined. But God was there and He was holding us close. Marilyn’s sister was lovingly by her side. I was stroking my mom’s forehead. My dad was holding her hand and I glimpsed both wedding rings and realized that ‘til death do us part’ was happening in front of my eyes. She breathed her last and my dad put his head down into Marilyn and cried and cried and then said, “God thank you so much for my wonderful wife.” God was there and we gave mom to Him at 3am and she entered glory not because of her good works but because of Christ’s finished work on the cross. Praise be to Him who is mighty to save.

Where is God in your suffering? God is on cross 2000 years ago bleeding and dying for you.
The question is not where is God in your suffering.
The question is where are you in God’s suffering.

Closing Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for blessing us with your beautiful daughter Marilyn.
We mourn that we will be apart from her for a while, but we are eternally grateful that we have the hope to see her again in glory.
We would not have this hope apart from your precious Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be all honor, glory, majesty and power.
Maranatha. Lord come quickly!
-Amen.