Jostler

life is not consciousness. Death is not unconsciousness. Life is a Person. Since the fall, all men have been born dead. Dead to God, but we're born conscious beings....eventually the body dies too. Those who have been born again are made alive in Him...who IS life. Still conscious. Those who do not receive Him, and life, will die physically.....locked into the second death ALL are born carrying, permanently. Still conscious. It is appointed unto man, once to die, then comes judgement. All men will die once...the first death, physical death. Some will die twice. Still conscious.

Russia is.

that is no longer true. we officially dropped the "no first use" policy years ago. If we ever had one... https://www.armscontrol.org/act/1999-07/features/natos-nuclear-weapons-rationale-first-use

You need to switch places real fast.......REAL fast

Death did not enter man's realm of experience until sin did.

Still watching....still get the idea earthquakes are something i should be watching but no specific revelation of why so far. Still lots of interesting things going on, more New Madrid quakes which are very rare....all still very small but something appears to be stirring there. Statistically speaking we're long overdue for another 7+ somewhere in the world. We get one about every ~20 days on average....it's been almost 60 days since the last one. That Nevada swarm that began with the 6.5 on the 15th of May is pretty amazing. Almost 1700 aftershocks so far. Many in the 3-5 range so that place is still rocking daily. And again, the vast majority of those aftershocks are within 15 km of the epicenter....VERY tight pattern. Suggesting magma movement? I dunno....volcanism is a potential contributor to a number of areas of interest and 6 volcanoes have popped off with significant eruptions in Indonesia in the past few weeks.. Unusual (but still small) numbers of earthquakes up the Appalachian mountains extending as far north as Montreal keep popping up too. That area of South America (right near the Chilean, Argentinian and Bolivian borders) continues to throw off blot echos (4.5+ quakes that are VERY deep) which are keeping that area interesting. And Japan seems to be overdue for something bigger than a 6.0 San Andreas is abnormally quiet since the Nevada 6.5, Ridgecrest still ringing pretty solidly from that 6.5 and 7.1 last July 4th and 5th. Anyway, don't feel I have anything other than observations to share....still watching. Here's a view of the Nevada 6.5 and the aftershocks since the 15th....pretty impressive swarm.

I'm more prone to wonder when we'll get rid of these stupid traditions designed to keep people in bondage and go back to a MEAL shared in communion and remembrance of His sacrifice. Where do we see a RITUAL with a silly cracker and a plastic thimble of grape juice in the Word? When are we going to get back to what is really important to Him? Trying to figure out if pre-packaged or home made is somehow "holier" just ain't where it's at. Koinoinia....common union....fellowship with His suffering and with each other IN Him....and a meal is a great way to do that....much of fellowship in the early church involved common meals... why not let go of this traditional nonsense and get back to pursuing what is important to Him...

@BeauJangles is about 245km from the epicenter so I reckon this was felt a lot further away than i guessed it would be. Quite a few interesting quake swarms going on lately.

I think it was actually a good bit closer to you I imagine you can do without that second cup of coffee this morning

No, you're not putting words in my mouth. I think you're understanding what I am seeing. The Lord never intended His Church to take on this "top down" structure where one or two stand in front of His people while the rest stare at the back of each other's heads. Jesus never built a single cathedral and neither did any Apostle..... Putting men in place of the Head, and teaching them to follow a man instead of how to hear and obey the Holy Spirit themselves has paralyzed the church and gutted it's power. That system is by definition Nicolaitanism...and He hates it. We've ignored the divinely established structure of delegated authority, gifts given for the purpose of preparing the SAINTS to do the work of the Church. Apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors. The saints are kept on milk because they're easier to control. Seminary degrees determine who can "minister" and who can't instead of the Holy Spirit. We've elevated Pastor to just about the only leadership recognized....government by vote instead of the will of the Spirit. The result is a form of Godliness and no power whatsoever. He will overcome this. There was a day when 12 men who'd been with Jesus turned the whole known world on it's ear in a generation. Now we can have 12 churches in one town and the town hardly notices we're there. And our own assemblies are full of hurting people who often never manage to push through to overcoming. Bandaids over arterial bleeding but no healing. When the WAY we assemble comes back into line with HIS design, we will exceed the accomplishments and power displayed through the early church. And HE will be Head again... Yes, i am looking forward to the fall of the ivory towers we have built according to our own design and called His church.....then run and hid in them, slamming the doors in the faces of those who need Him most. Whited sepulchers full of dead men's bones. Full of wickedness and filth. We're told the end of this age will see the former rain and the latter rain fall, all in the first month. Even Jesus said those who believe in Him will do GREATER works than He did....amazing prophecy right there...and this generation will see it. The fear of the Lord will be re-established in the hearts of His people, and HE will be the Head once more.

I don't hate the Church at all. I hate the system men call the church centered on buildings instead of the people who are the Church. And so does He.

your "system" of churchianity is dying, and the Lord is killing it. I for one will be glad to see it go. What will replace it will have an impact on the world...for good. It will be capable of bringing in a harvest.... be careful not to make the same mistake the Scribes and Pharisees did....rejecting His ministry for the sake of their traditions and the system they loved more than God. Full of Nicolaitan spirit, doctrine and structure, which He hates, this current system the world sees as church is being torn down, foundation swept clean so He can build HIS church, according to HIS design, not kingdoms built by men in their own names.

Nobody is going to be picking out their own real estate in the New Jerusalem. The most prestigious properties will be those closest to the Throne. Even Jesus said those assignments were not His to make. Best bet for now is to make sure He is willing to allow us entry at all. Some who are born again, and will escape the lake of fire by His grace, will not be allowed entrance at all, much less a permanent place there.

Famine is a distinct possibility. It's on the list of things Jesus warned us to be on the lookout for in Matthew 24 and other places (Olivet Discourse). COVID-19 has caused all kinds of disruptions in many supply chains, things we no longer make in the US are all very vulnerable to shortages and in many cases just becoming unobtainable. Even our internal production and processing of meats is under tremendous stress right now due to meatprocessing/packing plant shutdowns. That has produced a two pronged crisis, with ranchers having no place to sell their herds (wholesale oversupply - falling prices for farmers already struggling financially), and has even resulted in significant losses due to culling herds that were ready for sale because they can't sell them and can't afford to keep feeding them. That production, millions of pounds of meat protein, is lost forever. And has left ranchers teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with some likely going out of business forever. A cow is not a computer. You don't punch a button and get a new calf. Bovine gestation is similar to human coming in at about 9.4 months on average, and it will take over a year after that to bring a newborn calf to maturity, ready for sale. Whatever "gap" forms from culling herds now and over the next few months will take over two years to overcome, so even now we're looking at less supply and higher prices for at least a couple of years. The situation is similar in the hog industry, with similar if slightly shorter recovery times due to the fact pigs produce more than 1 piglet per pregnancy, gestation and maturity take less time as well. But with that said, as at about May 4th, 40% of beef production and over 50% of pork production was no longer headed for grocery store shelves, and if that is not reversed very soon, it's going to have a very long term effect on our protein supply. The second prong of the crisis is just that, a lot less meat available for consumers to buy. Which inevitably means higher prices for what is still available, and if just a few more things go wrong, could result in too few total calories available to feed our whole population. Famine. The poultry production industry is having similar problems though i didn't find any statistics to tell how bad chicken production has been hit so far. If people are eating less meat, then pressure on other sources of calories will rise, especially proteins, and prices will likely be higher for all food in months to come. And all this comes on the heels of a number of assaults on the food chain, world wide over the past two years. Global grain production has fallen drastically two years in a row, with massive drought conditions in Australia for several years (Australian has historically been the "bread basket" grain producer for much of SE Asia for a long time now) and last year Australia became a net importer of certain grains for the first time in decades. Rice production in several major rice producing regions globally have been having bad years. China lost a full 50% of it's hog production last year alone do to a virulent pig flu that swept through their pork production system and is still spreading in surrounding nations. Again, there's about to two year lag for breeding and feeding to plug that hole, because current production has to be diverted from sellable pork to reserving females for breeding, and the time needed to mature to breeding age, gestation...and THEN feeding out a new generation of pigs to sell for meat. Not to mention the disaster that hit the most productive grain growing region in the world last year...our own midwest. Spring rains and flooding prevented millions of acres of corn, soy beans and other grains altogether....never got planted at all. Other acreage did get planted, late in the season, didn't perform well (reduced yields due to soggy soils) and then to top it off, much of even that got stranded in the fields, unharvested due to unusually early snowstorms last fall. We're not going back to what was "normal" six months ago...ever. The faster we can manage to get past the mental/emotional shock and begin to look forward the better off we are going to be. We may not be facing famine ... but if just a few more things go wrong with the food chain, we could be. Global food supplies are at lower levels than we've seen in modern history, and supply chains are not adapting to the new situation well at all at this point. There is more to be watching, locusts in Africa and SW Asia....etc. We may not know exactly how this will turn out....but "watchers" should be keeping an eye on this, and be praying about it. It's certainly a situation that COULD develop into exactly what Jesus told us to watch for, and should not be dismissed lightly. Look up....these are Bible days....

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/06/coronavirus-survivors-banned-from-joining-the-military/