For The Middle East, There Is No Turning Back Now…

[1LoverofGod]

There is no way to avoid an apocalyptic war in the Middle East now. Too much has been said and done, and both sides have pushed things past the point of no return. It won’t be too long before thousands of missiles are flying back and forth, and that is going to have enormous implications for all of us. This war is going to look far different from anything we have ever seen in the Middle East before, and the level of death and destruction that we will witness will shock the entire globe.

On Wednesday, two massive explosions killed more than 100 people that had gathered in the Iranian city of Kerman on the fourth anniversary of Qasem Soleimani’s death…

At least 103 people were killed Wednesday and 188 injured in the Iranian city of Kerman after twin blasts near the burial site of slain military commander Qasem Soleimani, in what officials called a terror attack.
The blasts, at least one of which was caused by a bomb, state TV said, came on the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s death in a US air strike, and threatens to accelerate tensions in the region that have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The first explosion was 2,300 feet (700 meters) from Soleimani’s grave, and the second was 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away as pilgrims visited the site, IRNA added.

More

For The Middle East, There Is No Turning Back Now...

There is no way to avoid an apocalyptic war in the Middle East now. Too much has been said and done, and both sides have pushed things past the point of no return. It won’t be too long before thousands of missiles are flying back and forth, and that is going to have enormous implications ...

endoftheamericandream.com

 

[Kaatje]

There is no way to avoid an apocalyptic war in the Middle East now.

I don't know how to react to this.

Glad, because we're almost going home.
Sad, because the devastation the Tribulation will bring.
In awe of our God, because all His promises come true.
Praying for many to come to Christ at the eleventh hour.
Everything is tumbling through my brain.
But mostly the humbling knowledge that I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Who is a Lion.


And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

 

[Hol]

Too much has been said and done, and both sides have pushed things past the point of no return.

Observations like this are coming from all sorts of political pundits. The loudest seem to be conservatives.

I have had inner turmoil as this world is beginning to seem like the Titanic about to hit the iceberg. I am deeply disturbed.

At first in 2020 I fought my shock & emotional stress, but wasn’t winning. Bible reading probably saved my life! During 2023 the Lord drew me to trusting Him more and helped me unload so many burdens.

I still couldn’t get my emotions settled down, so I got depressed.

Finally He managed to take Bible verses & studies to a deeper level. That is working slowly.

I’ve experienced this ‘deeper level’ stuff in three distinct emotional/thought areas: 1) leaning on His goodness over my shock/fear, 2) focus my mind on His glory to answer why it’s okay that we are close to hitting an iceberg.

The third area, I’ll call it my shallow thoughts, reacts strongly to these doom & gloom dire predictions. God has won me over to guarding my thoughts with this simple reminder: If God plans for our time on earth to return to a civil status, for everything to calm down & we enjoy quiet lives, He alone can make that happen. (I’m thinking of 1 Tim. 2:2 on prayer: “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”)

 

[Andy C]

There is no way to avoid an apocalyptic war in the Middle East now. Too much has been said and done, and both sides have pushed things past the point of no return. It won’t be too long before thousands of missiles are flying back and forth, and that is going to have enormous implications for all of us. This war is going to look far different from anything we have ever seen in the Middle East before, and the level of death and destruction that we will witness will shock the entire globe.

I tend to agree it’s bad news coming soon. If there is soon direct combat between Hezzbolla and the IDF, this will leave the door wide open for others to enter. Also, the Red Sea is a powder keg close to igniting. The Houthis dont seem to give a hoot about being destroyed, as they keep attacking ships. Their destruction is coming quickly.

As sure as Im siting here, I fear our troops will soon be engaged in far more than shooting down missiles.

 

[Tall Timbers]

Tribulation doesn't sadden me because I understand that through the experience a great multitude of gentiles and a third of all Jews will find eternal salvation through the experience. Those may have otherwise been left behind. God is Love and sometimes it takes a lot to get the attention of people.

There's no reason for us to fear, Things are not falling apart, they're falling in to place.

Seeing and understanding the signs of the times is a wonderful blessing. Remember: This mortal life we experience is an almost invisible blip on the timeline of our eternity. We may suffer here, but we'll have the rest of eternity with Christ! We need not fear.

 

[1LoverofGod]

Jesus said we are in the world but not of the world.
The world lays in the hands of the wicked one and is the god of this world, and I don't think any believer imagined we would be here to see what we see today.

Jesus gave us the signs that would point to his return, but as we know His followers are not appointed to God's wrath so definitely we will not be here when God sends judgement on the inhabitants of the earth.

Scripture tells us the tribulation is not for the saved church, but it is Jacobs trouble.

We know by scripture that the world conditions will get worse the closer to Jesus return,

"But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived"
2 Timothy 3:13.

For the church, we hold to our blessed hope, Titus 2:13, and because the hour is so late by what we observe that it's apparent that we are seeing *shadows " of the coming Tribulation, and more than ever Now is the time to be grounded in The Word of God, being in "locked arms" with one another as believers to continually encourage one another and continually remind one another of our blessed hope, as we see the day drawing near.
2 Thessalonians 4:15-18
1 Thessalonians 5:11


We need to occupy until He comes, Luke 19:13, as we wait to be caught up to meet Jesus in the air.
Continually pray for one another.
1 Thessalonians 5:25

Isaiah 26:3 tells us that We are kept in perfect peace when our minds stay on God.

We were not promised to not have tribulations, in fact Jesus told us that in the world we Will have tribulation, but today take heart because He has overcome the world. John 16:33.

The enemy wants to steal kill and destroy, so we need to Keep ourselves completely armed in the Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-18, because the devil is roaming like a roaring lion seeking to devour someone, so when we see ourselves becoming weary as the world is becoming more wicked and Jesus has not come for His Bride yet, it's important that we take every measure to keep ourselves in the Spirit by doing all the things I have mentioned, staying grounded in The Word of God, praying for one another, keeping ourselves spiritually fed constantly, and encouraging one another, staying in locked arms to be there for each other to build one another up, as we are doing here.

We are promised to be kept from the "hour of trial" Revelation 3:10, The Tribulation, that isn't assigned to the church.

We believe All of the promises of God that are in Christ Jesus that are Yes and Amen.
2 Corinthians 1:20

The more we see of the wickedness of this world, the more we want to draw closer to God and keep connected to the Holy Spirit in us, because He is our Helper and Comforter.
John 14:26

When we think about how bad it's getting, we can reflect on our Christian brothers and sisters who have been under persecution continually since the early church in Acts, and how they've remained faithful in spite of the trials they've endured, and this should keep us in the proper perspective remembering that Jesus said, The servant is not greater than the Master, if He was persecuted, we too will be persecuted, but we have an eternity that no one can snatch out of the Father's hand.
John 10:28

It's easy to get caught up in all of the bad news in the world.
But....

"They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD"
Psalm 112:7

We need to be constantly fed by The Word of God to overshadow the bad news and remember God keeps His promises because....

“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"
Numbers 23:19

Stay encouraged and hold fast to our faith......

35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:35-39

 

[1LoverofGod]

I don't know how to react to this.

Glad, because we're almost going home.
Sad, because the devastation the Tribulation will bring.
In awe of our God, because all His promises come true.
Praying for many to come to Christ at the eleventh hour.
Everything is tumbling through my brain.
But mostly the humbling knowledge that I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Who is a Lion.


And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Amen

 

[Tall Timbers]

and I don't think any believer imagined we would be here to see what we see today.

I didn't know what we'd face today until today came, and the same goes for tomorrow, but if we read our Bible we know that the Church may see and experience quite a bit before the Church is Raptured. Quite a lot happens before Tribulation begins, and we may or may not see most of it, and I think we can take an educated guess that it only gets worse between here and the beginning of Tribulation. We may see much worse than we see today, at least those of us in most of the western world. In some parts of the world it really can't get worse now for our brothers and sisters who are being indiscriminately raped, tortured, murdered, and their villages being burnt to ashes.

 

[1LoverofGod]

I didn't know what we'd face today until today came, and the same goes for tomorrow, but if we read our Bible we know that the Church may see and experience quite a bit before the Church is Raptured. Quite a lot happens before Tribulation begins, and we may or may not see most of it, and I think we can take an educated guess that it only gets worse between here and the beginning of Tribulation. We may see much worse than we see today, at least those of us in most of the western world. In some parts of the world it really can't get worse now for our brothers and sisters who are being indiscriminately raped, tortured, murdered, and their villages being burnt to ashes.

I try to keep the perspective that All of Prophecy is true, and if we are seeing the Prophetic bad things that were foretold, we Will see the blessings that have been foretold.
We are in this world with unbelievers, but we have what unbelievers don't have, salvation and a sealed eternity in us by the indwelling of The Holy Spirit in us.
We may see things get worse but we are guaranteed not to lose our salvation no matter what.

"who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee"
2 Corinthians 1:22


When I think of the Rapture and it's Greek word Harpazo, it means to be "snatched away", as if from danger according to the Strongs Bible dictionary.

I imagine a small child casually walking onto the street and a fast coming car approaching and the mother seeing the danger coming and she runs to snatch him out of the way from the fast coming car

I imagine the Rapture may be the same. While we may experience tribulation in this fast spiraling downward world, Jesus will come quickly and snatch us up before we get hit with The Tribulation.

 

[Tall Timbers]

I imagine the Rapture may be the same. While we may experience tribulation in this fast spiraling downward world, Jesus will come quickly and snatch us up before we get hit with The Tribulation.

Yes, we aren't promised an escape from tribulations, but from God's wrath that will be unleashed during the period we know as The Tribulation, and all 7 years of it, and as things are going now, and very quickly at that, we (the Body of Christ worldwide) will like experience much tribulation before we're snatched away.

 

[Everlasting Life]

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me."

John 14:1


The times we are in are certainly.....not normal. It can be hard not to get caught up, especially as the world is panicking all around.

Even in this late hour and because of these harder times, the increased difficulties prime those hearts that extreme conditions are needed to finally accept the Gospel.

As we patiently endure (by God's strength) alongside the world, I pray many of us will have the delight to see others come to Christ in the midst of tribulations that we are encountering.

 

[mattfivefour]

So, when we see ourselves becoming weary as the world is becoming more wicked and Jesus has not come for His Bride yet, it's important that we take every measure to keep ourselves in the Spirit by doing all the things I have mentioned, staying grounded in The Word of God, praying for one another, keeping ourselves spiritually fed constantly, and encouraging one another, staying in locked arms to be there for each other to build one another up, as we are doing here.

Amen!!!

 

[Margery]

There is a point in childbirth, right before the final pushing stage called Transition.

It's a point where nothing makes sense anymore.

Everything you could count on in the past - the rhythmic contractions, steadily increasing in frequency and intensity are now completely chaotic. Nothing works right. Nothing feels right. The body feels like it's going off the rails in some way.

And that is the moment just before the pushing stage begins. It doesn't last long thankfully.

It's distinctive feature is CHAOS! Loud, overwhelming unexplainable CHAOS!



2 Peter 3:9 always comforts me

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

He is working on people we don't even know to bring them into our family, He is working on the hearts of all our unsaved family and friends that we pray earnestly for each night.

As He is dialing up the volume to save those who don't hear till it gets really loud, we are feeling the noise, the chaos, the pain.

Some people don't hear or see till things literally start blowing up around them. I pray my unsaved loved ones get saved and go up with us, but if they don't, the Tribulation is another big red blinking light pointing to The Cross of Calvary where Jesus paid it all.

The closer we get the more the signs point to the coming Tribulation. And the louder the warning sirens get-- get saved NOW!

 

[1LoverofGod]

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me."

John 14:1


The times we are in are certainly.....not normal. It can be hard not to get caught up, especially as the world is panicking all around.

Even in this late hour and because of these harder times, the increased difficulties prime those hearts that extreme conditions are needed to finally accept the Gospel.

As we patiently endure (by God's strength) alongside the world, I pray many of us will have the delight to see others come to Christ in the midst of tribulations that we are encountering.

Agree. 2 Peter 3:9

 

[1LoverofGod]

There is a point in childbirth, right before the final pushing stage called Transition.

It's a point where nothing makes sense anymore.

Everything you could count on in the past - the rhythmic contractions, steadily increasing in frequency and intensity are now completely chaotic. Nothing works right. Nothing feels right. The body feels like it's going off the rails in some way.

And that is the moment just before the pushing stage begins. It doesn't last long thankfully.

It's distinctive feature is CHAOS! Loud, overwhelming unexplainable CHAOS!



2 Peter 3:9 always comforts me

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

He is working on people we don't even know to bring them into our family, He is working on the hearts of all our unsaved family and friends that we pray earnestly for each night.

As He is dialing up the volume to save those who don't hear till it gets really loud, we are feeling the noise, the chaos, the pain.

Some people don't hear or see till things literally start blowing up around them. I pray my unsaved loved ones get saved and go up with us, but if they don't, the Tribulation is another big red blinking light pointing to The Cross of Calvary where Jesus paid it all.

The closer we get the more the signs point to the coming Tribulation. And the louder the warning sirens get-- get saved NOW!

So True, and as The Church, our purpose in being here in such a time as this is to "sound the alarm" of the urgency to receive Jesus offer of Salvation, just as Noah preached I believe like 200 years that a global flood was coming As he was building the Ark, which represented salvation from God's judgement at that time, so we too have the commission to preach the gospel of salvation in Jesus and also give the warning of what is coming.
Today Jesus IS "The Ark" , the Only way to Salvation, as Judgement is coming quickly in these last days.

It's hard to think that people just don't see what's happening in the world today, but then evil has become good and good has become evil, (Isaiah 5:20), so it's a different "normal", as it was being called "The new normal" in 2020, and believers can see why they don't see it for what it is......
2 Corinthians 4:4, says the god of this world has the minds of unbelievers blinded to the truth, because these choose to not believe.

I suppose their blindness is what will have them in the state Jesus spoke of when judgement does come, "they will be eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage ", and they will be caught by surprise when judgement comes because they are in darkness and will not be prepared when it comes"like a thief in the night".

Praying for these unbelievers to open their hearts and see the light of Jesus and be saved while God is still being patient

 

[Hol]

As He is dialing up the volume to save those who don't hear till it gets really loud, we are feeling the noise, the chaos, the pain.

You make so much sense sis

My prayer life is encouraged now

 

[mattfivefour]

As He is dialing up the volume to save those who don't hear till it gets really loud, we are feeling the noise, the chaos, the pain.

You make so much sense sis

My prayer life is encouraged now

She does, doesn't she!