Fly 'til I die...

Well, today starts my vacation until January 3rd and it's a great feeling to not go to work for a while. I finished up with shopping today, wrapped the presents (albeit poorly as Melissa can testify), and Melissa and I are having our Christmas tonight. It will be good to catch up with some friends this weekend and see both sides of my family. This morning started off early with a Crackers at the Barrel morning breakfast with my community group. We didn't actually have a Bible devotion, but we did fellowship...always a good thing! I went back home to try and get more sleep, but this whole bit with Russia and Iran has really got my attention. I started reading from Thessalonians 4:16-17 about the rapture and Ezekiel 38-39 about the armies that will invade Israel from Russia and its former Soviet republics, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, and Libya (present day names used). BTW, all are Muslim nations except Russia proper. Ezekiel is clear that this will happen in the "latter days" and it should be noted that no invasion like this has occurred before. Thus, the prophecy still needs to be fulfilled. In today's news, Iran is very interested in developing military-technical cooperation...“Until now, our cooperation has mostly been established in the sphere of trade,” the ambassador was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. “But the Iranian government now wants to strengthen cooperation with Russia in the field of energy, in particular nuclear energy." The European Union has formally protested to Russia about the deal. The tension is building and the news networks haven't picked up on it yet. If we hold to a pretribulation mindset, then we, as Christians, will never see the invasion and subsequent Israeli victory. In the midst of His wrath, God will also pour out his grace and mercy to bring many Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) to salvation.

Many who turn to God and accept Christ as God as a result of His demonstration of power will be among the massive assembly of the redeemed in Revelation 7:9-14.

Noel!