The Reckoning

As the world spirals ever downward and the signs of the times manifest on an hourly basis, I am utterly astounded at the slumber most of the population is in.  I am burdened beyond measure to shout at the top of my lungs that people need to wake up, Wake Up, WAKE UP!  The enemy of your soul is at the gate and this unhinged world bent on self satisfaction is gladly ushering him in.

There is no coincidence that in vampire lore evil needs permission to enter your house.  Thus too, supernatural evil requires permission and society is beckoning it in with exultation.  Dressed as a sexy angel, the foolish world celebrates the fleshly desires evil brings with him.  They are drunk on the blood of innocents and scoff at the most High God day and night.  

Do you feel the shaking?  Do you hear the howling wind?  Do you sense the storm raging?  For the unseen is greater than the seen and wicked and dying men are blind to the calamity approaching.  A faithful and merciful God calls for the lost to repent and the remnant cry continuously in the streets, "Repent, return to God for judgement is coming if you do not."  

Deluded men say to themselves, "I am a good person, I have nothing to repent for."  This is a lie, for judged against the standards of perfection we fall short.  We have lived in a society for so long that tries to understand and excuse evil that we are no longer conflicted or convicted in ourselves or others.  We make excuses for everything we do: Well, I was depressed when I abused those drugs.  I was lonely so I slept around.  I was can not be held accountable,  I was born this way.  The rationalizations are as endless as the sins they seek to excuse.  We all do it, our self esteem depends on it.  Our society has taught us that it is harmful to blame ourselves and injure our self esteem but I say the opposite is true.

"If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Do you understand what that means?  That means that instead of making excuses and covering up for ourselves, we can be free of the bondage of sin and death, we can be cleansed and made whole.  We can be right with God and justified through faith in the Son, Jesus Christ.  

You are not damned unless you chose it.  God does not consign anyone to Hell, people chose it themselves.  They shake their fist at God, harden their hearts, and perish of their own volition.  For since the beginning of your life, "God has made himself known to you, through the rocks, the trees, the flowers, that at the end no man will be without excuse."  Seek the Lord, Repent, we have entered the time of the Reckoning.

Modern Idolatry

In Second Grade, the highlight of the week was Wednesday when the retired Senior Pastor would teach Old Testament Bible class.  He was gentle story teller who wove pictures and told tales that came alive in our imaginations.  We cheered the victories of the heroes and hung our heads in shame at their failures.  His stories about the Patriarchs, Moses, the Judges, and the Kings were fascinating.

The Old Testament is full of heroes and miracles but it is also full of idol worship.  Idol worship is strange to the modern mind, it seems silly.  As a kid, I always thought that I would never fall victim to all of the sins of the Israelites.  I mean who bows down to a cow statue, right?  I thought idolatry was dead, but is it?

Idol Worship - Then and Now

Idolatry is anything you love more than you should, where you devote your passion, your time, your money, and your thoughts.  Often your devotion will become part of who you are, your defining characteristic and part of how other people describe you.  Think about it for a second, what is the first adjective that comes out of someone's mouth describing your character?  Do they say: "He's an Executive", she's a "Sports Mom" or "She's in great shape"?  How do you describe yourself?  Be honest, what's the first adjective that you use?  How are you defining yourself?.

Now take it even deeper, what do you love?  Do you love your company, your work, your team, your children, your body?  Do you love them more than God?  Do you chose that activity over attending regular worship?  Will you drag yourself out of a sick bed to go to a game but pull the covers over your head for church?  Are you spending evenings reviewing spread sheets and reports but haven't picked up your Bible in years?  Will you drive two hours for a business appointment but not set aside a lunch hour a month to go to a men's Bible Study? Will you drive your exhausted children to football practice four days a week but let them sleep in on Sunday?

Where are your priorities?  Because, my Friends, I will tell you idolatry is not dead, it just wears a new face.  It has a business suit, a yoga bra. or a sports jersey, it might even be looking back at you from that selfie.  Is it in your children, who you try to give a perfect life free of the pain and failure you experienced as a kid?

The first two commandments state, you shall have no other God's before me and you shall not worship idols.  My friends, we are a nation that puts money, business, ourselves and sports above God.  We worship at the alter of the Dow Jones and fret over every jobs report.  We ecstatically worship in arenas, stadiums, and high school football bleachers and turn our noses up in disdain if the person beside us in church lifts their hand in worship and praise.  We care for our bodies in such a way that we are afraid to eat Salmon that has swum by a Salmon farm for fear of contamination.  We have become shallow, lame, and utterly boring in our inward focus and our worldly worship.

Sports Worship

We are a world of idolaters who thumb our noses at the Most High God.  We are a world ripe for judgement.  We are a world of scoffers and idolaters.  God will not be mocked, HE will not stand idly by forever.  Our world has been under a series of judgments for decades and they have escalated since 9/11.  I truly believe a third major judgement will soon befall this world soon if we do not repent and turn back to God.
We can not as individuals control the disintegration of this present darkness but we can change our own hears, we can change our families.  I implore you to look inside, look deeply inside, judge yourself harshly, judge yourself by the standard of perfection - look upon your life, repent, and change.  Ask God to be merciful to you and to your Nation.  Ask for His healing, return to Him.  He loves you, He'll take you back.

Convergence of Signs

Abigail and Dolley readers you might recall that last Summer I did a pretty extensive study on the Feasts of the Lord, the Blood Moons, Rosh Hashanah, and the Rapture.  We are gearing up again for the Fall Feasts and my expectations continue to mount that we are truly living in the last days.  The Church is admonished to keep looking up that our redemption draws nigh.  Here are some compelling reasons that seem to mark a convergence of prophetic signs, a gathering together of momentum and circumstances:

Signs in the Heavens - Blood Moons, Super Moons, Solar Eclipses, Meteors, Sun Spots, Magnetic Polar reversals, just to name a few.

Wars and Rumors of Wars - Ukraine and Russia and the Middle East are exploding

Right is Wrong and Wrong is Right - the utter reversal of what is considered good, right, and moral is astounding.

Men will become lovers of self - five years ago we did not even have a term for taking a picture of yourself, now the pervasive selfie has littered the landscape and promoted ever increasing levels of narcissism.

Pestilence - I am third or fourth line in the fight against the Ebola virus.  I can not even convey how awful this situation is right now and getting worse.

Earthquakes - The USGS has stopped keeping this chart, it would alarm the public if they were to put this out in a twitter style graphic.  You can see for yourself that up until 2000 earthquakes over 6.0 remained infrequent.  This year, 2014 we have had over 114 earthquakes over 6.0.

Convergence of numeric and prophetic dates - God is orderly, He does not do things in a haphazard manner and thus, if we can observe patterns from history we can extrapolate and observe the way He has worked in the past.  Since God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow we can rely on the constancy.

7 days of Creation
7 days of the Week.
The laws of Sabbath for the land are arranged in 7 year increments
7 Sabbath years times 7 = Jubilee years
The Jews stayed in exile 70 years. (the number of Sabbath years they did not uphold)
Daniel 9 lays out 490 weeks (years) for the redemption of Israel.
One week remains of Daniel's weeks, one 7 year period
The Tribulation is 7 years
Yom Kippur 2015 is 49 years to the day of Jerusalem's recapture by Israel
Rosh Hashanah 2015 marks the end of a Sabbath year.  (Historically a devastating day/year financially)
The final blood moon takes place on the Feast of Tabernacles 2015

Conclusion, I am not naming dates but it is a compelling fact that all of these things are indeed converging.  There are hundreds more signs, hundreds more studies and nuances that can be brought to bear, I simply wanted to lay out for you simple facts and observations.  It is the Lord's deepest desire that all will come to faith in Him, that none should perish.  Chose this day who you will serve for tomorrow is promised to no one.

Dolley's Famous Cake

Abigail and Dolley as you know, I'm not a food blogger.  Never the less, I am a good cook and have become quite famous in my family for wonderful creme cakes.  I wanted to share my recipe. Word of warning that while these cakes are absolutely heavenly they are not the prettiest cakes on the planet. The construction and the icing make them tough to put together.

To get started, determine your flavor combination. Pick a cake flavor, a fruit flavor, and a filling flavor ie chocolate with raspberry or yellow cake with peaches and cream.  I have made the mistake before of going a little crazy, so keep it simple.

The cakes are best when they are "aged". I believe they need at least 48 hours in the refrigerator before serving and have noted that they get better the longer they sit; they don't last very long though as they are eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack whilst in the house.

Dolley's Famous Cake

Total time: 2 hours
Start at least 48 hours before serving
Difficulty: Hard

Cake:
3 egg whites (if other than white cake, use two whole eggs)
1.5 c COLD water
1/3 c oil
6 oz container of yogurt (use the flavor of fruit you have chosen)
1 box of Cake Mix (white, yellow, chocolate, spice, ect.)

Filling:
1 small box of Instant Pudding (Vanilla, Chocolate, White Chocolate, ect)
2 c milk (REAL milk - Don't use soy - it won't set)

1.5 or 2 cups of fruit (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, coconut)

Icing:
2 c heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Optional sugar sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease three 9 inch cake pans. If you don't have any - go buy some decent cake pans, they last forever and you will appreciate them for years to come. I have the heavy dark coated ones and they are fabulous.  If all you have are 8 inch pans increase the cook time to 18 minutes.

Put a large mixing bowl and the beaters in the freezer.  You will use these to whip the icing later.

Cake:

In a large mixing bowl, whip the eggs until they are good and frothy.  If you are making a white cake you want the whites aerated but not stiff. Slowly add the cold water, then the oil, then the yogurt. Keep that mixer cranked up to turbo. The mixture should almost double in size. Turn off the mixer and add the cake mix, mix on low for just a few moments, only until it is incorporated. The batter should be lumpy. Quickly pour the mix into the three greased pans. Give them a shake and a shimmy to flatted them out and then holding the sides of the pan give them several good pounds on the counter to release the air bubbles. If they come out cattiwampus, it is even harder to put this leaning tower cake together... so don't skip the shimmy, shake, and pound step. Bake for 15 minutes in 9 inch pans or 18 minutes in 8 inch pans.  You want to make sure they are set but not overcooked, do the toothpick test if you aren't sure but keep in mind these are very thin and they will keep cooking a little once you pull them out of the oven.

Let the finished cakes cool in their pans for about an hour. You will need to use a rubber spatula to make sure the cakes are loosened.  If you get a crack, don't panic, the filling and the whipped cream will act as "glue", this cake can stand up to a couple of cracks.  The cakes themselves will be very moist and soft so be careful with them.  Once cakes are cooled, place first layer on cake plate or carrier - whatever you plan to store, transport, and serve it in.

Filling:

Next, in a medium sized bowl whisk together the pudding mix and the milk. Set in the refrigerator.

Icing:

When the cakes are cooled, start the icing.  Note, this icing is white.  If you want a colored icing you can add a little food coloring that you fold in after the icing is prepared.  If you want chocolate you can add cocoa to the ingredients before you mix but you may need to adjust the sugar or replace it with chocolate syrup. Be careful not to over sweeten this icing.  The cake, the pudding, and the fruit are sweet, you do not want this icing to be very sweet.

In the frozen mixing bowl, mix all of the icing ingredients; forever. Well, maybe not forever but wear comfortable shoes, it takes a while. If you have heavy whipping cream it won't take as long.  You want firm, stiff whipped cream.  Don't over whip because whipping cream will start turning to butter and you don't want that!

Assemble:

Retrieve the pudding from the fridge and divide in half. Spread pudding on the top of the cake and then add a layer of fruit. I will often use the fruit to balance the edges and the middle of the cake, with halves in the middle and whole fruit on the sides. Repeat with the next layer and top with the remaining cake. I always use the flattest one for the top.

Ice the cake, sides first in an upward motion, filling in the layers and trying to keep it from leaning to badly or being lopsided. Don't fret if it looks like a giant leaning blob - no one will care when they taste it. Some of mine have been beautiful, others a melting and leaning tower of Pisa.

If you are using sprinkles or optional toppings hold off on those until right before you serve.  They don't "age" well.

Store:

Refrigerate - These cakes are the best after they have sat for a couple of days.  Of course you can eat them immediately, but there is something wonderful about them as they age.

Enjoy!