2006 was an unusual year for me. In my 60 years of ministry I had no year like that one. I cannot go into all the details of what happened, but ten days before Pentecost Anneli and I spent more time in prayer for that particular day.

I asked the Lord how much time we have and immediately what came to mind was Pharaoh’s dream of seven good years and seven bad years. I thought that was interesting and I begin to ask the Lord when did the seven good years start, but there was no answer.

March 16, 2010 in my morning devotions the Lord led me to read the book of Exodus. I knew that He had a word for me and so in anticipation I started reading Exodus. Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 and so on until I came to Exodus 12:2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

I sensed immediately that this was the word for me that morning of March 16, 2010. When I looked up to see what day and what month in the Hebrew calendar this was, it happened to be the first day of Nisan. Not the second day or the third day of Nisan, but the first. Coincidence? No! There is no coincidences with God. I gather from this that I was to look at time from Hebrew calendar and not from the Gregorian calendar we use.

It was the nomination of Donald Trump in November of 2016 to be the 45^th president of the USA that the Lord was showing me when the seven good years started that was given to me in 2006 (ten years earlier).

However, I was not to count time from November when he was nominated, but from 1^st of Nisan of 2016 which happened to be Nisan 1, 5776 or April 19, 2016.

7 years would take me to the 1^st of Nisan 5783, which in the Gregorian calendar is our March 23, 2023, and then the seven bad years start. God was also showing me that we, the church, the Bride of Christ, would go through the first 3 ½ years of those seven bad years. 3 years then would take us to the 1^st of Nisan 5786 or March 19, 2026 but adding the six months would be another 180 days. Bible Chronology looks at 30-day months or 360 days in a year, and not the 365 we have with the Gregorian calendar. This brings us to September 15, 2026.

The seven feasts of Israel (four in the spring and three in the fall) have significant importance. Christ’s first coming was feasts in the spring and His second coming, which also includes the rapture of the Bride of Christ, are the fall feasts.

Paul in teaching the church of Thessalonica about the rapture said this: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

How does this happen? Paul goes on to explain: 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

The first of the ‘fall feast’ is what is known as The Feast of Trumpets: “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’” (Leviticus 23:23-25) “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets.” Numbers 29:1

We see in Thessalonica that Christ descends from Heaven, but He does not come down where His feet touch the ground. He comes later and His feet will touch down on earth. It is believed by many that this is when the rapture will take place. Christ comes for His Bride to take them back with Him. We see that these feasts are a shadow of what is to come. (Colossians 2:16-17) “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

If this is the case, then is the Feast of Trumpets in the year 2026? September 12, 2026 is the first day of Tishrei 5787, which is the 7th month in the Jewish calendar, the beginning of the Feasts of Trumpets.

After all this I was sent the name of a book called “God’s Keys of Time,” which I purchased. The author Dereck Walker brought out how when understanding how God views time, we can get a timetable of where we are in God’s overall program.

What are the keys?

The 1st has 2 KEYS revealing the divinely ordained Blueprint or Framework for Time, which governs the progression of God’s Plan: *KEYS 1 and 2: The Blueprint is a WEEK of 7 DAYS of 1000 years each.

KEY 3: At the end of every Jubilee Cycle of 49 actual years, God adds a special 50th year of grace. This must be a measurement in the Redemption Chronology.

KEY 4: The Principle of Unreckoned Time. God does not count times when His people’s sin causes His Plan of Redemption to be suspended.

When Israel and now the church is out of fellowship with God (rebellion has come in) then God’s redemption timetable is stopped.

We see this with us individually.

Dereck Walker brings this out in his book: “This is also a revelation of the total forgiveness of God. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to FORGIVE us our sins and to CLEANSE us from ALL unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) He remembers our sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17) “He blots them out. (Psalm 51:1,9) Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. (Acts 3:19) I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25) I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. (Isaiah 44:22)’ If God completely blots out our sins, He must also blot out the TIMES of SIN, and so He blots certain times of history out of His Redemption Chronology! This principle shows that God deals with man in forgiveness.”

This is why it is important to have, like Paul, a clear conscience before God and man. How we need to maintain constant fellowship with God, and when sin does come – we confess immediately.

Dereck Walker using these keys show that from Adam to Abraham there are 2000 years (2 days) and from Abraham to Resurrection of Christ another 2000 years, or 2 days. (A thousand years is as a day with the Lord.) This means that the fourth day, or 4,000 years, ended 33AD with Christ’s resurrection. Two more days takes us to the end of the sixth day (our year 2033, 6,000 years) of the length of man’s rule, and brings us into the 7^th day (1000 year) of Christ reigning on the earth.

WE know that Daniel’s 7^th year, or what is known as the Great Tribulation (especially the last 3 ½ years), takes us to our year of 2026. Being “pre-tribulation,” the Spirit-filled church will not go through the tribulation but be taken (raptured) out. Those left behind will go through the first 3 ½ years of the Daniels 7 years. This is called the Great Tribulation of the saints.  Many left behind will come to Christ, but many will die a martyr’s death in this time called the worst time on earth.

I believe that the Coronavirus that we are now going through is a “harbinger” of what is to come. The world is now changing and getting ready for the return of Christ.

Going to the grocery store early this morning I was struck with so many shelves being empty. In my 80 years I have never seen this before.

I (we) realize that having 6 years to do what the Lord gave His church to do; what does the Lord want me to do in these six years? May the Lord’s faithful disciples be doing the will of the Lord until He comes.

CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY – continued

“The one thing that God is after is character.” Oswald Chambers

It would seem that in every one of our presidential campaigns or even when some of our other politicians are running for election or re-election how little emphasis is given on character. I was surprised when many who responded and said that character is not what counts. “It is the issues that count.”

One would hope that it is only a few people that would believe that character is not important, but it seems that this is something that’s becoming more rampant in our public offices as well as in our religious establishments. How can we say that character is not important? Everything we do springs out of character. Real leadership comes out of character or from lack of it.

I would like to quote an article by Chuck Colson regarding the importance of character and when there is a lack of character what it can lead to. In his magazine “Break Point” Chuck Colson said this:

“There’s an issue that crops up in every major election campaign: Does a candidate’s private morality have anything to do with his public life? For years, liberals have said no – people can do anything they like in private and it doesn’t affect their ability to govern. And now a conservative leader John O’Sullivan, editor of national Review, has said the same thing, writing that he’d rather be governed by a competent sinner than by an incompetent saint. The assumption here is that governing requires only technical competence. But that’s a mistaken assumption. ln reality, governing involves a whole philosophy of life – and that in turn involves our personal choices and behavior.

“Let me give you just one example – a very important one. Nearly all forms of modern philosophy borrow from the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century French writer.  Rousseau’s political ideas are described in his book The Social Contract, where he says the ideal state is one that demands total allegiance. Rousseau wanted the state to take responsibility for raising children so it could indoctrinate them to devote their whole selves to its service.

“These were the ideas that fueled the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. They were adopted by Marx and Lenin and became part of communism.  They even influenced Pol Pot and his cadre of Paris educated communists, who slaughtered a quarter of the Cambodian population in their pursuit of the totalitarian state.

“Where did Rousseau get such an awful view of the state? “If we look at his life, the answer becomes clear. Rousseau was a drifter and a Bohemian. He had several affairs and lived most of his life with a mistress, a young washer woman, named Therese. When Therese gave birth to a baby, Rousseau faced a major challenge: Would he settle down and accept the responsibilities of family and fatherhood? The answer was a flat no. Children, Rousseau said, would cramp his lifestyle, would undercut his celebrity in the high society of the day.

“He persuaded Therese to give up the infant to an orphanage. (Today it would be an abortion). Over the years Rousseau had five children. Each one was deposited on the steps of the orphanage. When his friends criticized him, Rousseau tried to justify his actions. He hit upon the argument that giving up his children was actually the best thing for them – that the state could do a better job of raising and educating them; that the state was a better father.

“These ideas later became a key plank in Rousseau’s political philosophy. Having asked the State to be a father to his own children he devised a theory of the state as father to us all. The state should be responsible for forming our minds and our loyalties. In the words of historian Paul Johnson, Rousseau portrayed all citizens as “children of the paternal orphanage.”

Rousseau might have been appalled if he had known that so much of the barbarism of the 20th century – the Concentration camps, the mock trial, the genocide – resulted from his efforts to justify his own irresponsibility.”

Everything stems from character.

CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY continued

Romans 5:3-5 “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

In these next few chapters I would like to concentrate upon one of the important things that we will be faced with in the 21st century and that is: men/women of character. We are born with a personality, but not character. Character is something that is developed on how we respond to life situations that come our way daily. I would like to mention a few things that different people over the years have said about the importance of character.

“THE WORLD NEEDS MEN AND WOMEN…who can’t be bought; who keep their promises; who value character over riches; with an opinion and a will; who value inner greatness over visible career; who readily take steps of faith; who retain their identity in a crowd; who do not compromise themselves with falsehood; whose personal ambitions are not limited to personal gain; who do not say, ‘We do it because the others do it;’ who remain loyal to their friends through success and failure; who believe that tricks, calculation and cunning are not the only keys to success who are not afraid of standing up for the truth, even if it is unpopular; who can decisively say ‘no’ in the face of a world saying ‘yes.’” (Source: Dr. Elijah Morgan &Peter Riederer (http://www.yell.ch) in “Schweizer Arbeitgeber,” 14/2002) ”Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

”Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” –Abraham Lincoln

”Integrity is its own reward.” –Laura Schlessinger

”Character is doing what’s right when nobody’s looking.” –J.C. Watts

”It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.” –Mark Twain

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.’” –General H. Norman Schwartzkopf

”Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.” –Aesop

”You must look into people, as well as at them.” –Lord Chesterfield

“Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.” –Benjamin Disraeli

”Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.” –Henry Clay

”Man’s character is his fate.” –Heraclitus

Oswald Chambers said: “No man is born with character; we make our own character. When a man is born from above a new disposition is given to him, but not a new character; neither naturally nor supernaturally are we born with character. Character is what a man makes out of his disposition as it comes in contact with external things. A man’s character cannot be summed up by what he does in spots, but only by what he is in the main trend of his existence. When we describe a man we fix on the exceptional things, but it is the steady trend of a man’s life that tells. Character is that which steadily prevails, not something that occasionally manifests itself.”

We see what people down through the ages have to say about character. The person that God uses is a man/woman of character. With all of our getting; get character.

Looking back over the history of the expansion of the Kingdom of God 2000 years ago from that little obscure village in Israel, now we can see many challenges that the kingdom of God faced. Moving into the 21st century I would like to outline some of the things that we are now faced with and will be facing.

In Romans 12 we are told that we should “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.” One of the main battles in the days ahead will be with the mind, being able to think through issues, ideologies, etc. with a Biblical mindset or Biblical worldview.

A Biblical worldview is defined as a firm belief that absolute moral truths exist: the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is all powerful and all knowing and is still running the universe, Satan is real and that salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned. We, the church, have an obligation to live in the light of the revealed Word of God. The Word of God needs to be brought in to everything we do in life. This will affect our choices in life style as well as our way of thinking. It will be seen in our views on worship, family, business, morality, recreation, personal autonomy, personal possessions, etc. It will bring a complete re-working over of who we are and how we live and what we do.

A pastor remarked that the mission of the church is to prepare for Christ’s return in five ways. He went on to define these five ways: prayer, Bible study, fellowship, worship and evangelism. These five things are essential, but we can never overlook our responsibility to redeem our culture. God has not called us to let this world go to hell in a handbasket. Generally speaking we define our faith strictly in terms of personal salvation, instead we need to keep in mind that we are not only saved from SIN, but saved to the task of cultivating God’s creation.

We are not only saved from sin, but we are saved to tear down the structures of sin that have created these seven global challenges: orphans or children of the world, abused women, HIV/AIDs that have decimated whole populations, poverty, lack of water, environment and protecting the unborn.

We read in  the first chapter of Genesis that in six days God created everything and in the creation of man turned over to us the task of cultivating what He created. This is called the “CULTURAL MANDATE” and is as binding on us as the “GREAT COMMISSION.”

Our faith must encompass every part of life, every sphere of work, every aspect of the world. It must be the lens on how we see reality. If God is sovereign over everything, as we confess He is, then everything finds its identity and meaning in relationship to Him not only in our spiritual life, but in our work, profession, politics, science, education, entertainment and the arts.

Since God made the world He has also put in place God-given norms that govern all that He has created – both morally and physically and just as we would not go against the physical laws (like gravity) so also with His moral laws. Like Chuck Colson said: “Moral laws tell us how to govern our behavior. Laws of logic tell us how to think clearly. Norms of justice tell us how to run a government. Aesthetic norms guide the creation of beauty and the arts. If we don’t know the norms God has ordained for every area of life, then we’re living blindly and are bound to make wrong choices – hurting ourselves and others. We’re like a person who walks into a room blindfolded and bumps his shins against the furniture.”

We need to be aware of truth and fallacy. Like A.W. Tozer said: “Truth and error travel the same highway.” In this world of moral ambiguity we need to be able to discern what is true and what is false. This will be a real battle in the days ahead.