To the East and Far East

If you have been reading the blog posts since mid-October, you know that God has been leading me to become more factually aware regarding the Middle East. I've touched on the ten largest (by population) countries in the Middle East and their current rulers. I then added the same infomation on Russia. According to prophecies in Ezekiel, a large country to the north plays a significant role in end times. Remember we are viewing the Middle East, specifically Israel, as the epicenter of the world.

This post finishes our foundation. I thought we had the major players down pat, but I keep being pushed to include the same information on Afghanistan and China. Review the six past posts, even print them out, and be well acquainted with a world map - which, by the way, is an excellent gift.

AFGHANISTAN
29 million
The government is an Islamic Republic. The President is Hamid Karzai; two Vice-Presidents are Mohammed Fahim and Karim Khalili.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
1 billion 331 million
Hu Jintao is the President of China. Wen Jiabao is the Premier of the State Council. There are three vice-premiers: Wu Yi, Zeng Peiyan and Hui Liangyu. The People's Congress re-elected Hu Jintao as president of China on March 15 2008, giving him a new five year term at the helm of the world's most populous nation.

Connect the Dots

Yesterday I recieved in the mail Anne Graham Lotz's Fall newsletter. I cannot believe how it confirmed what I am learning and how God is leading. An excerpt from her cover article says...

And daily I face, along with so many of you, the burden of knowing what time it is in human history. The oppression of seeing our nation officially in rebellion against God, unable to connect the dots of the environmental disasters, terrorist threats, brutal crimes, political scandals, corporate corruption and economic recession, to the removal of His hand of blessing, is a heavy weight on my spirit.

'Connect the dots' screamed off the page to me as I had written those exact same words in my prayer journal recently and re-written them on my October 18 blog post titled Wake Up With Me. Here's what I wrote...

I know very little about the Middle East. And I have been led to know more about the Middle East. In fact, a few weeks ago, I felt God was prompting me to do three things:
* Wake up, open my eyes – connect the dots between news and biblical prophecy…
* Get informed – read, know the present, know the past, know the map, know the leaders…
* Get prepared – listen and be ready to obey where God puts me and what He asks of me…

We must all wake up! As events unfold on the national and international horizon, we must put two and two together and seek God for answers. He is speaking. He is speaking quite a bit through studies of the Major and Minor Prophets. Anne Lotz goes on to say that God has led her to saturate herself in His Word, in particular the Minor Prophets!

I pray, fervently pray, that He has not totally removed His hand of blessing.

To read Anne Graham Lotz's article in its entirety, here you go... http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/news/2010/11/2/fall-2010/

Awaiting the City of God by R.C. Sproul

October 17, 2010

Evangelical Christians love America. Some see in her the last hope of creating a Christian nation. But it is not a Christian nation. It is pagan to the core. It is in danger of becoming, if it is not already, the new “Evil Empire.” The Mayflower Compact is a museum piece, a relic of a forgotten era. “In God We Trust” is now a lie.

Yes, we must always work for social reform. Yes, we must be “profane’ in Martin Luther’s sense of going out of the temple and into the world. We do not despise the country of our birth. But in what do we invest our hope? The state is not God. The nation is not the Promised Land. The president is not our King. The Congress is not our Savior. Our welfare can never be found in the city of man. The federal government is not sovereign. We live—in every age and in every generation—by the rivers of Babylon. We need to understand that clearly. We must learn how to sing the Lord’s song in a strange and foreign land.

America will fall. The United States will inevitably disintegrate. The Stars and Stripes will bleed. The White House will turn to rubble. That is certain. We stand like Augustine before the sea. We pray that God will spare our nation. If He chooses not to, we ask for the grace to accept its demise. In either case, we look to Him who is our King and to heaven, which is our home. We await the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God.

Coram Deo: Are you looking to your King and to your eternal destiny, despite the circumstances around you? Keep your focus on the heavenly Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God.
1 Corinthians 15:50: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.”
John 3:5: “Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”
2 Peter 1:11: “An entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

To the North

Joel Rosenberg in his book, Epicenter, calls the Middle East the epicenter of future biblical events. The book expounds Rosenberg's views from Ezekiel's prophecies.
"Therefore, son of man, prophesy! Tell Gog, 'A Message from God, the Master: When my people Israel are established securely, will you make your move? Will you come down out of the far north, you and that mob of armies, charging out on your horses like a tidal wave across the land, and invade my people Israel, covering the country like a cloud? When the time's ripe, I'll unleash you against my land in such a way that the nations will recognize me, realize that through you, Gog, in full view of the nations, I am putting my holiness on display. Ezekiel 38: 14-16

RUSSIA
The population of Russia is 141,927,297 as of 1 January 2010.[2][3] The population hit a historic peak at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev (elected May, 2, 2008) is the President of Russia in 2010.

Formerly Vladimir Putin's Chief of Presidential Staff, Medvedev was also the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post he had held for the second time since the year 2000. Medvedev's candidacy was backed by then President Vladimir Putin.

On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by the largest Russian political party, United Russia and several pro-presidential parties, and officially endorsed by United Russia on 17 December 2007. A technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev had never held elective office before 2008.

Some would argue Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is still the leader of Russia because he is still controlling things from behind the scenes. Despite his popularity, he was prohibited from running for a third term as President.

The Players

I thought it would be helpful to know the top ten Middle Eastern countries by population and their presidents.

EGYPT
79 million
The fourth and current President of Egypt is Hosni Mubarak. His first term began on 14 October 1981, and as of September 2005 is serving his fifth term in office. There is no constitutional limit upon the number of terms that any one individual can serve as President.

IRAN
75 million
The current President of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since the Iranian presidential election, 2005. He was reelected after the disputed Iranian presidential election, 2009.

TURKEY
72 million
The office of the President of Turkey was established with the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. Current office-holder is the 11th president, Abdullah Gül since August 28, 2007.

IRAQ
31 million
The current Prime Minister of Iraq is Nouri al-Maliki, who holds most of the executive authority and appoints the Council of Ministers, which acts as a cabinet and/or government. The current Presidency Council, a transitional replacement for the President of Iraq who serves largely as a figurehead with few powers, is composed of Jalal Talabani, Tariq al-Hashimi, and Adel Abdul Mehdi.

SAUDI ARABIA
27 million
Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, born August 1, 1924 is the current King of Saudi Arabia, and head of the House of Saud. He succeeded to the throne and assumed the title of King upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd, on August 1, 2005.

YEMEN
24 million
His Excellency Ali Abdullah Saleh, born March 21, 1946, is the first and current President of Republic of Yemen. Saleh previously served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from 1978 until 1990, when he assumed office of president of Republic of Yemen (North & South Yemen). He is the longest-serving president of Yemen, ruling for more than 32 years and counting.

SYRIA
22 million
Syria's current president is Bashar al-Assad, who won a referendum on extending his presidency for second term, garnering 97.62 percent of votes in 2007 and is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who held office from 1970 until his death in 2000.

ISRAEL
7 million
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel (the title of President of Israel is an honorary position). The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem. The current prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, the ninth person to hold the position.

JORDAN
6 million
Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, born 30 January 1962, is the current King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 after the death of his father King Hussein. King Abdullah is a member of the Hashemite family. Abdullah has been married to Queen Rania of Jordan since 1993 and his mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein. Queen Noor of Jordan, born 23 August 1951, is the last wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan. She was queen consort of Jordan between 1978 and 1999. Since her husband's death in 1999, she has been queen dowager of Jordan. American by birth, and of Syrian, British, and Swedish descent, she acquired Jordanian citizenship and renounced her American citizenship at the time of her marriage. She is the current president of the United World Colleges movement and an advocate of the anti-nuclear weapons proliferation campaign, Global Zero.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
4 million
The current President is Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Nahyan became president on 3 November 2004, following the death of his father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

History in the Making

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – To lively African drumbeats and against the lighted backdrop of the trademark African red sunrise, over 4,000 Christian leaders from over 190 nations gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Center to open the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization Sunday.

Cape Town 2010: Highlights from the Opening CelebrationIt was the first time in over 20 years that the Lausanne Movement, a global network of evangelical leaders who work together for world evangelization, held a global conference. The third Lausanne Congress, also known as Cape Town 2010, is described as the most diverse Christian gathering – in terms of ethnicity, denomination, profession, and gender – in the 2,000 year history of Christianity.

Congress participants represent 198 nations, nearly every stream of Christianity, a diverse age range (40 percent of participants are from 20 to 40 years old), and diverse professions (1,200 participants are pastors, 1,200 are scholars and in the academic field, and 1,200 are from the medical, business, and media fields).

“We have come to dream. In those days, the Prophet Joel said when I pour out my Spirit on all people your sons and daughters will prophesize. Your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions,” said Doug Birdsall, executive chair of The Lausanne Movement, Sunday evening.

“[A]s we see the grand narrative of redemptive history, we believe that the future is as bright as the promises of God,” he said. “We will reflect this week on the mission of Lausanne – the call to the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world.”

The significance of the Lausanne conferences lays in its founding in 1974. Lausanne I was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, and led by American evangelist Billy Graham. More than 2,700 evangelical leaders from 150 countries gathered for that historic conference that resulted in The Lausanne Covenant – a document defining the theological ground works for collaborative world evangelization. It also provided a framework for unity and serves as the statement of faith for hundreds of Christian organizations worldwide.

Also during Lausanne I, missiologist Ralph D. Winter shifted mission thinking when he gave a presentation about unreached people groups. Winter said the completion of the Great Commission should not be based on national boundaries but on unreached people groups.

More than a decade later, Lausanne II took place in Manila, Philippines. That Congress produced the Manila Manifesto that reaffirmed and expanded upon The Lausanne Covenant and the call to “Proclaim Christ Until He Comes.” The 1989 gathering brought together 3,600 leaders from 190 nations.

On Sunday evening, Birdsall read letters written by Billy Graham and John Stott, key leaders of Lausanne I, to attendees of Lausanne III.

Graham, 92, said he would pray daily for the conference in Cape Town and said the task of Lausanne III is to analyze changes in the world in the 21st century and see how God is calling Christians in this generation.

“[R]emember some things won’t change,” said Birdsall, reading Graham’s letter. The love of God, the good news, and Christ’s commandments do not change, said Graham in his written message.

The respected evangelical leader said he will be praying that God will increase the burden on the hearts of participants for the lost world and that they would rededicate themselves to the commitment to the lost world. He also told attendees to keep their eyes on Jesus Christ every day.

Meanwhile, English Christian leader and Anglican clergyman John Stott, 89, in his letter said he rejoices that the conference is being held in Africa where God is pouring out His blessing. Stott, who was a key figure in drafting The Lausanne Covenant, said he is praying daily for the conference.

“If God is still speaking to the Church as we enter the third millennium, if He has something to say to us, what is it He wants to say,” said Birdsall. “Speak Lord, your servants are listening.”

“Grant us a fresh vision of yourself for your Church.”

Lausanne III will address a wide range of issues facing the Church in the 21st century, including worldviews hostile to Christianity, the threat of terrorism, HIV/AIDS, and the prosperity gospel. The conference will conclude on Oct. 24.

Wake Up with Me!

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I thought I’d let you know what the Lord has put on my heart.

I know very little about the Middle East. And I have been led to know more about the Middle East. In fact, a few weeks ago, I felt God was prompting me to do three things:
* Wake up, open my eyes – connect the dots between news and biblical prophecy…
* Get informed – read, know the present, know the past, know the map, know the leaders…
* Get prepared – listen and be ready to obey where God puts me and what He asks of me…

It began with recently reading through Isaiah in my read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year. I’ve read Isaiah upteen times, but this time I saw scriptures I’d never seen before, and ones I had seen I now read in a different light. Followed by Jeremiah, I’m seeing judgment everywhere. If any of the unfulfilled prophecies of judgment were to happen in my lifetime, I can tell you for sure that I am woefully unprepared.

Lying awake one night God began to bring things to mind – current happenings – that seem to confirm to me that He is leading others in the same way.

* BSF- BSF has not added another study since Romans. Is it any coincidence that the study that began worldwide this fall is the Book of Isaiah?
* David Jeremiah – Dr. David Jeremiah’s new book, The Coming Economic Armageddon, uncovers the Bible's prophetic clues to the world's shocking financial future--prophecies that just might indicate that we are living in the final days of Earth's history.
* Anne Graham Lotz & Joel Rosenberg – will join together on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to do a worldwide simulcast, Wake up Call for the Church. Full details on my September 25 blogpost…
* The Lausanne Movement – Christian leaders are meeting this week in Cape Town, South Africa to address biblical evangelism in a drastically changed world. They have not met since 1989. * Studies of Revelation – It used to be you could not find a study of Revelation, now they are everywhere. Beth Moore has one and Kathy Phillips, from Houston, Texas and founder of Prepare for Life, just completed a 22-lesson study entitled "Revelation, the Unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ".

I’m sure you have other happenings to add to my list. Join me in waking up! More on this as I ask God to remove the scales from my eyes and the muffs from my ears to see and understand more fully what He is up to.

So Dear to Me

We loved you so much
that we were delighted to share with you
not only the gospel of God
but our lives as well,
because you had become so dear to us.

I Thessalonians 2: 8 NIV

I love this verse! I love it because it is what really happens when I teach a class. It happened to me a year ago when I began leading the Wednesday girls, and it has happened this fall with the Southwood Thursday girls. You simply become dear to me. I don't know any other way to say it.

God does it. He has a special way of knitting hearts together who study His Word together. I've talked to other bible teachers and they say the same thing. It seems impossible that you can love ladies who you do not even know, but it is true. I can look out into the audience and here's what I see - beauty, vulnerability, realness, eagerness to know and hear God, dedication and appreciation. And it simply catches my heart. I can't wait to get back this week - I've missed you so much.

Wednesday girls - We are approaching our half way mark in The Truth Project. I know it is overwhelming at times, but oh, so worth it. I wish I were in your shoes, studying Truth in my thirties. I love you all.

Thursday girls - I understand that the Stones of Remembrance exercise brought you closer together as groups and closer to God. I'll never forget the first time I sketched out my lifeline. I was bowled over at the amount of in-depth Bible study God put in my path during my thirties, all in preparation for some dark days in my forties. I would never have seen it so clearly had it not been for placing and labeling those memorial stones on a scrap piece of paper.

I can hardly wait for this Wednesday and Thursday - to be back with all of you. I love you with a heart only God could have given to me.

Take another look at I Thessalonians from The Message...
We weren't aloof with you. We took you just as you were.

We were never patronizing, never condescending,

but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children.

We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message,

we wanted to give you our hearts.

And we did.

Afternoon in Oxford

Nothing compares to visiting grandbabies, but when there is a spare hour, I have the treat of Oxford's Square waiting for me just five minutes away. My tour guide, Paula, gave me an overview of the art, shopping and eating before driving to nearby Taylor Grocery for unbelievable fried catfish. Thank you, Paula!

Views of the Square...



Our tour began with William Faulkner's home... a great place for future picnics and maybe one day, plein air art...


Southside Gallery, to see what's interesting in the art world... and to see more on Oxford's art, go to my art blog, Blessings in Brushstrokes...

the landmark of all landmarks, Square Books...


Mississippi Madness, lots of Peters Pottery...

a clock in the new store, Stash...


great pajama's at AC's...

and Off Square Books was preparing for a booksigning, an every Thursday night event...

then, a quick 15 minute drive to Taylor...





Everyone says come back for Christmas... no problem, I'll be back before then. The sweetest family in the world lives here!

Home from the Hospital

Settling in with this precious one...

Sweet Caroline

Sorry it has taken me longer than I thought to post... I forgot what 'babyville' is like! I've lost all track of time and of anything else happening in the world, except this... waiting, hearing, praising, loving, thanking, rejoicing!!

Miss Caroline Girard, born September 28, 2010, 1:06 PM, 7 lbs 8 oz, 19.5 inches - a gift from God!

Anne Graham Lotz Announces Worldwide Simulcast

Ordered Joel Rosenberg's Epicenter today after reading this:


"Wake Up Call for the Church" Simulcast

Worldwide Simulcast Scheduled for 9/11’s Ten-Year Anniversary:
A Wake-Up Call to the Church with Anne Graham Lotz and Joel Rosenberg
September 11, 2011

Raleigh, NC – AnGeL Ministries, the ministry of Anne Graham Lotz, today announced plans for a worldwide simulcast to be offered for broadcast into church sanctuaries and homes on September 11, 2011-–the ten-year anniversary of the attack on America.

“This 9/11, one small church in Florida is capturing the world’s attention with its controversial Qur'an-burning plans,” says Anne Graham Lotz. “Instead, what if this time next year, churches all across America marked this anniversary – not by looking around, but by looking up and getting right with God?”

The planned simulcast, offered as “A Wake-Up Call to the Church” will include teaching messages from Anne Graham Lotz, Bible teacher and award-winning author, and Joel Rosenberg, New York Times best-selling author of The Epicenter and Inside the Revolution, and an authority on Bible prophecy.

“Sunday, September 11, 2011, will mark the tenth anniversary of the attack on America. I have long felt the original 9/11 attack was allowed by God as a wake-up call for His people – a time to look up and get right with Him,” says Lotz. “But did we sleep through the alarm? My prayer is that this simulcast, held on such an historic anniversary, would serve to gather the church and reissue the wake-up call to the hearts of Christians everywhere. It is my prayer that it would refocus us on Jesus as our Hope for the future and re-ignite such an intense longing for His return, that we live the rest of our lives with no regrets.”

The program will be broadcast into churches and on the Internet for individual viewing from 6:00-9:00 pm EST and PST, Sunday, September 11, 2011. The simulcast will originate from an historic venue once described by evangelist Dwight L. Moody as the “Pulpit of America,” Tremont Temple Baptist Church, located in downtown central Boston, the same city in which the terrorists boarded the fateful flights ten years ago.

The simulcast will be followed by an 8-week Bible study held in the simulcast host churches. The study is designed to reinforce the wake-up call.

“Prior to 9/11/11, I will be leading those who wish to participate in daily prayer for our homes, churches and nation. If churches or individuals commit now to spend the next year leading up to Sunday, September 11, 2011, praying for God’s people to humble themselves, seek His face, and turn from sin, I believe He will hear us, forgive us and heal us,” added Lotz. “The alarm has gone off. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to get right with God.”

Becoming a Host Site
Details are still being finalized for host church registrations. To receive information on becoming a host church as details come available, email your contact information to angelmin.info@angelministries.org or phone AnGeL Ministries at 919-787-6606.

About Anne Graham Lotz
Founder of AnGeL Ministries, Anne Graham Lotz has proclaimed God’s Word worldwide for over thirty years. Referred to by her father, Billy Graham, as "the best preacher in the family," Anne has inspired listeners in arenas and prison cells, stadiums and sanctuaries, the United Nations and Amsterdam 2000. Anne launched Just Give Me Jesus revivals in the year 2000, which have been held in more than 30 cities in 12 countries. She is an award-winning, best-selling author. Her eleven books include Just Give Me Jesus and The Magnificent Obsession.

About Joel Rosenberg
Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of five novels and two nonfiction books, with some 2 million total copies in print. He is also the founder of The Joshua Fund, a nonprofit educational and charitable organization to mobilize Christians to “bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus” with food, clothing, medical supplies and other humanitarian relief. As a communications advisor, Joel has worked with a number of U.S. and Israeli leaders, including Steve Forbes, Natan Sharansky, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The son of a Jewish father and a Gentile mother, Joel is an evangelical Christian with a passion to make disciples of all nations and teach Bible prophecy. For more information on Joel’s ministry, visit www.joelrosenberg.com.

What's everybody reading?

One of my favorite questions... and one asked several times yesterday at Book Club.

A red letter day six times a year is when I get to have lunch with these girls and discuss books. We have a delicious lunch - this time an artichoke and sausage soup - (in Beyond Parsley if you have that cookbook) with corn muffins, and for dessert, meringues with lemon curd and blueberries. Thank you, Anne! Yum!
We just finished reading Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart - a light, easy, whimsical true story of two girls who spent a summer in NYC working at Tiffany. For November we're reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy and I'm sure we will mention the upcoming movie. November's meeting is at my house, so I need to dig into my cookbooks. Anybody else take cookbooks to bed with you, as I do?
So, what are you reading? Forgotten God by Francis Chan is on my bedside and it's good! I'm sorry to say this summer spoiled me when we did a blog read together. I'm not listening and hearing and doing as I did in our summer study. Next in line is Radical by David Platt.

I need a good book to take to Molly's for a few rare free moments in between taking care of Anna, the new baby, and my baby... Mol.

Yes, we're a week away and on baby watch. I'll do a post the day the baby is born if at all possible. Love to all you blog friends!

A Sweet Hello From Molly!

(A guest post from Molly... Suzanne's Daughter)

Hey Everyone-

Mom asked me to do a little guest post today. I hope that is okay with y'all.
Especially since this post will more than likely be a brain-dump/photo-spill of our summer.. =)




I just can't believe summer is over and "school" has started... (especially since it's still 100 degrees outside).

Anna LOVED her summer!



And now we are (not so patiently) waiting on the arrival of her little brother or sister!

I have eight more days until the scheduled section.. but I'm sort of hoping he/she will come before then.

=)

I hope you all had a great summer full of little fun adventures too. I'm sure mom will be letting you know next week when the "new baby" arrives!

Thanks for having me "over".