Evidence of God’s Presence

During a 3.5 year period from 2014-2018, there were 7 different instances where fire’s destroyed everything around it, except for God’s Word, and 1 where a tornado left a Bible unharmed opened to PSALM 46 which says:  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…and repeats twice…The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge”

PSALM 50: THE MIGHTY ONE CALLS

3Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

PSALM 34 :

7The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that fear him & delivers them.

JOEL 2:

17… why should they say among the people, WHERE IS THEIR GOD?

…27And you shall know that I am in the middle of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

ACTS 2  : THE HOLY SPIRIT AT PENTECOST (Joel 2:28-32 )

 ¹⁷And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: ¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ¹⁹And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 

1 CORINTHIANS 3: CHRIST THE ONLY FOUNDATION 

¹¹For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  ¹²Now if any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,  because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. ¹⁴If any man’s work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  ¹⁵If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

PSALM 42: AS THE DEER PANTS FOR THE WATER (isaiah 40 -44)

¹As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God. ²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? ³My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say to me, WHERE IS YOUR GOD?

HEBREWS 12:

₂₉ For our God is a consuming fire.

1 PETER: A LIVING HOPE

6Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 

LUKE 21:

₃₃Heaven & earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away

ISAIAH 40: PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD

1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins. 3The voice of one that cries, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain: 5and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. 6The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.  7The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of Jehovah blows upon it; surely the people is grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOREVER.

HERE IS YOUR GOD!

9O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! 10Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young.

These things
all happened
within a
centralized location:

THE “BIBLE BELT”

May 14, 2014 

  Long-forgotten Bible survives fire in Brenham, Tx 

BRENHAM, TX – Valerie Escalera says she has no explanation, no idea how such a thing could happen. A book, Escalera said, was sitting inside the cab of her burned-out pickup truck, on what used to be the back seat. She wasn’t expecting to find much when she finally got the nerve to inspect her beloved 1995 truck after it was destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon while her father Armondo was driving it on Highway 105.  Escalera peeked through the windows and saw one item intact.  There was a book sitting on the springs of the back seat, the wind flipping its pages.   “I thought, ‘Oh my God. What is this?” she said.   When the pages flipped back to reveal the cover, she knew immediately what it was.  It was her leather-bound Bible, inscribed on the cover with her name and her ex-husband’s name.  It sent a shiver up Escalera’s back.   

The Bible had survived a fire that fused the doors shut and
melted away the dashboard.

“When it revealed itself that it was the holy Bible, I thought, ‘This is unbelievable. This is crazy,’” she said.  You see images (of religious figures) and all that.  But this is sitting in the back of our good old ranch truck. Everything burned and melted around it. There’s not even a steering wheel.“ The leather cover is barely charred. The edges of the Bible are intact.  “I’d put it in a cardboard box, and there’s no trace of that.”   Escalera said she tucked the Bible away when she drove the truck here from California in 1996, covered it with sweatshirts and forgot about it.   Until Monday.  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it,” she said this morning. “I’m going to try and take it out. Maybe it’s an omen or something …”

January 6, 2016 

  Couple finds Bible in ashes of burned down home

NEWPORT, TENN. (WVLT) — A Newport couple that lost almost everything they own in a house fire found a surprise in the ashes.  Justin and Cynthia Wagner were just about to head to bed on Sunday night at their Trentham Road home when they smelled something burning coming from outside the house. Justin said he looked out his front porch and noticed the garage he converted into a makeshift apartment was engulfed in flames.  The fire destroyed the Wagner’s garage, left their Mazda unrecognizable, and did extensive damage to the majority of their two-story home.  “Pretty much everything that we own is gone,”  Wagner said.  But then a friend found an unexpected surprise while he was helping the couple clean up on Wednesday morning.

In the middle of the ashes was a Bible, opened up to 
JOHN 3:16 which reads, “For God so loved the world
 that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
 believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Wagner took that as a clear sign.   “That tells you right there that God is still here with us, he’s still here for us,” he said. The majority of the Bible was burned with the edges of the pages blackened and charred, but the words of the passage are nearly untouched and clearly visible. Wagner said he has no doubt in his mind that God saved he and his wife that night because there is still more work for them to do on this earth.   “Maybe God let this happen to us so we could get a new start in life,” he said. “After I had seen the word of God and I seen it on that, I felt like God was reassuring me, I saved your life through all this. I brought you guys through this for a reason.”

February 22, 2016 

 Bible Survives ‘Unscathed’ in Fiery Crash

MEMPHIS, TN –  (Credit: WREG)  A Tennessee man was rescued from a vehicle by good Samaritans and police on Sunday just moments before it exploded and caught fire.   The crash happened on the eastbound side of I-385 near Memphis on Sunday afternoon. The 2014 Jeep Laredo struck a pole and burst into flames.   The Memphis Police Department responded to the scene. An officer and several Good Samaritans were able to pull the trapped driver out of the vehicle right before the explosion. 

After firefighters extinguished the fire,
 officials found an undamaged Bible
 in the passenger seat of the vehicle.

The driver was taken to Regional Medical Center with non-critical injuries. His car was completely destroyed. One witness posted video on Facebook saying, “I just saw GOD on 385.”   Anita Irby wrote, THE ENTIRE EXPRESSWAY STOPPED and people ran from their cars trying to break the windows and open the doors of this mans car to free him; as they were, the others went up in prayer for God to deliver this man from the paws of the devil.[…] None of the flames touched him.”

October 14, 2016

 Intense Car Fire Burns Everything 

GAFFNEY, SOUTH CAROLINA – The sweltering blaze engulfed the car and everything in it. Those who witnessed it never guessed anything could survive such an intense car fire.  “When the fire was burning it was an intense fire,” said onlooker, TJ Felder.   “Then it just blew up.

But then firefighters pulled an intact Bible
from the backseat.  “There was a bible
in the backseat, It was charred on the edges
but not burnt up” said Gaffney Fire Department
 Chief Jamie Caggiano.

And this certainly isn’t a first for Fire Chief Jamie Caggiano. “Family bibles…A lot of times people want those, and we’ll go back in and get them. You’ll see them charred around the edges, the cover will be charred, the bottom will be charred, but the contents will still be in good shape,” he said.  And while he admits there are all kinds of theories as to why this occurs, you can’t help but suspect there’s something bigger going on. “It kinda makes you think, and kinda gets — you know — in your heart and makes you think about what’s going on at the time,” he said. I don’t know how, but God. There’s no other way that could have survived.  It just goes to show, the word of God is always going to stand.” TJ Felder went on to say.

November 22, 2016 

 Dollywood employee finds burned Bible page

 GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE – The day after wildfires tore through Gatlinburg, damaging or destroying more than 700 structures, killing at least 10 people and displacing thousands, Isaac McCord was doing his part to help out, picking up debris from the Dollywood park grounds.

 Gripping his rake, he revisited a spot in Craftsman Valley he had skimmed over after his co-worker, Misty Carver, quipped, “Is that how you clean your room?”   Provoked, he said he had started “really getting in the nooks and crannies” under a park bench when he caught a glimpse of a piece of paper lying in a puddle of water — soggy, seared and torn in two.

McCord, a University of Tennessee alumnus who now works as a human resources training coordinator at Dollywood, said he had no idea what the paper would read, but considering the circumstances, he was curious enough to pick it up.  “As soon as I got down on the ground, I noticed it was a Bible verse, and I was like holy crap,”   McCord said in a phone interview on Tuesday night. “It was in a puddle of water. I said, ‘I want to take care of this the best way I can,’ so I gently scooped it up and carried it out the best I could.”

McCord, 24, sat on the bench where he found the paper, and called Carver over. Their work partners, Dollywood wardrobe manager Angela Davis and employee Kimberly Moore, had left to go to the restroom, McCord said.  In silence, the pair pored over the page, the edges of which were burned black, rendering many words illegible. But parts of the right side of the page were preserved enough to get the message across: it perfectly reflected, McCord said, the tragic natural disaster that had thrust Gatlinburg and Sevier County into the national spotlight the night before.

“O Lord, to thee will I cry: 

For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness,

 and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field,” 

 the page reads, according to a picture

of the page posted on McCord’s Facebook.

“At first, we didn’t know what part of the book it was from,” McCord said on Tuesday night, “but we saw bits and pieces about fire and scorching the land, and how the beast groaned and roared for help.”  The page appears to be from the first chapter of Joel from the King James version of the Bible.  “We were like this is unreal, this is unbelievable,” McCord said. “When we had both fully read it, we looked at each other — and I will never forget this moment — we both burst into tears. I was ghost white, and we just prayed. There was nothing else to do.  “Still to this moment, almost four hours after the fact, I don’t have words for it.”

January 24, 2017 

 Tornado breaks church window but leaves Bible intact, open to Psalm 46 in Hattiesburg, MS

HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI. —A tornado wreaked havoc on parts of southern Mississippi.  The William Carey University campus in Hattiesburg was hit hard, with the gym destroyed and many other buildings having sustained extensive damage. The stained-glass window in the school’s Bass Chapel is gone — but it’s what was left inside the chapel that has many amazed.

The tornado left a Bible unharmed and open to PSALM 46,
 which begins, “God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.”  It repeats twice…

“The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge”

Rick Wilemon, who teaches in the school’s art department, posted photos of the chapel and Bible to Facebook. The tornado killed four people and injured more than 50 others, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The William Carey University campus remains closed while the university works to rebuild and prepares to resume classes.

December 25, 2017 

 Bible pulled from fire rubble 

HAUGHTON, LOUISIANA – A Haughton family loses everything in a house fire early Christmas morning, but they have found comfort after family Bibles are pulled from the rubble, intact.  The fire happened just after midnight Monday morning on Highway 164. “Money, insurance cards, life insurance cards, deeds to the house. They’ve been staying here for like 30 years and everything they own is gone, all their clothes everything.” Everything that had been a part of Tineke Brewer’s parents lives, now reduced to rubble.  

On Christmas Eve, her 70-year-old mother chose to spend the night at the hospital with her 76-year-old husband, who’s fighting to live following brain surgery.  The only one inside was Tineke’s cousin.  “She said something touched her and told her to get up,” explained Tineke, “so she said when she got up she walked out her door and she seen smoke and fire. Her window was hard to lift up, she said that she just kept on trying to pry it open and she jumped out the window.” Looking at the pile of debris, Tineke can’t help but think “what if.”    “My son, he usually stays over here when my mom is at the hospital, and that night around 10 o’clock he came home and he said his head was hurting, so I gave him some medicine he laid on my couch and went to sleep.”  Two hours later, the fire erupted.  “My husband and my nephew were putting up a basketball goal at the back for the kids, and they ran over here and came knocking on the door saying my mom’s house was on fire. My child could’ve been there.”  But the only items to survive the blaze assures them that this is all part of God’s plan.

“The Bible is the only thing, everything else is crisp and burnt,
 but the Holy Bible never burns up, it’s a blessing.” The charred edges reminding them to be strong, brave and to be thankful. 

 

  March 19, 2018   

 Fire Destroys South Carolina Home But Bible Remains Intact Among Rubble

NORTH AUGUSTUS, SC –  A North Augusta family is rebuilding after a fire left them without a home.   The family lost everything, including their 2 dogs, but among all the rubble one thing remained.  “I will never leave you or forsake you, and he hasn’t left us.” Homeowner Wendy Crawley told WJBF NewsChannel 6.   Crawley says she was on her way home, when she saw her life go up in smoke.

Wet pages & minor smoke damage, but her bible survived the fire that destroyed the home and just about everything in it.

 “Laying on my night stand, is where I kept it.” Crawley said. “It was the only thing I found that we really needed.”   The flames showed no mercy, claiming the lives of Crawley’s two dogs.   “One we’ve had one for 15 years and the other one was our son’s service dog.” She said.   Crawley says Sugar was very special to her 10-year-old, who was diagnosed with Autism 8 years ago.  “She was always there for him,” she said. “If he couldn’t figure out how to calm down, she would come and she would sit, and she would just lay on him and love on him.” 

On Monday, the homeowner took our crew through what was left of her house.  For 17 years her family made memories there. Now they can only start over with their faith and the community’s support on their side.   “God didn’t start that fire, but he has certainly brought you through it.” She told WJBF NewsChannel 6. Crawley says the bible is only one of the miracles she witnessed, that reminds her someone upstairs is keeping her and her family safe.  “Do you want to know something crazy? When we came over here, not an ash on that bed.” Crawley said. “Now the cabinet beside it, is messed up, but not an ash on his bed.” 

In 2014, the same year the 1^st          occurred in Brenham, TX, was the beginning 4 consecutive blood moons that fell on either Passover over Feast of Tabernacles, with the last one on being a super blood moon over Jerusalem in 2015

August 21, 2017:  The 4 blood moons were followed up in 2017 with “The Great American Eclipse”  

September 23, 2017:  33 days after “The Great American Eclipse”, the vision John saw on the Isle of Patmos in REVELATION 12 occurred on : “The Sign of the Son of man in heaven”.  This sign (celestial alignment) has never occurred before and checks off all the boxes for the vision that John saw in Revelation 12:1-2.

REVELATION 12: THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON

¹And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: ²And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

September 23, 2017:

This is the exact sequence of events Christ foretold would happen in Matthew.

MATTHEW 24 : THE RETURN OF THE SON OF MAN  

29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: 33So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34Truly I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

The Eclipse passed directly through Gatlinburg on August 21, 2017.    At the bottom of the page found Gatlinburg, Tn is the beginning of JOEL 2 which states to “blow the trumpets and sound and alarm”.   

The trumpet was blown as a warning sign, and also as reminder of the ram offered for a burnt offering as a ransom for Isaac, (who happened to be the name of who found the page from JOEL in Gatlinburg in November of 2016) at Mount Moriah, where David bought the Threshing Floor and where the Temple was built.

 JOEL 2: RETURN WITH ALL YOUR HEART

1Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD comes, for it is near at hand; 2A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread on the mountains: a great people and a strong; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yes, and nothing shall escape them. 4The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 5Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 7They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 8Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path: and when they fall on the sword, they shall not be wounded. 9They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run on the wall, they shall climb up on the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 11And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

 12Therefore also now, said the LORD, turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents him of the evil. 14Who knows if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering to the LORD your God? 15Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare your people, O LORD, and give not your heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: why should they say among the people, WHERE IS THEIR GOD?

18Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 19Yes, the LORD will answer and say to his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: 20But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill smell shall come up, because he has done great things. 21Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. 22Be not afraid, you beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. 23Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he has given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. 24And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that has dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27And you shall know that I am in the middle of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

28And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.  30And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.  32And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

JOEL 2:28-32 was quoted by Peter after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

which speaks of the God doing wonders in the earth, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes:

• in blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke,

• the sun being turned into darkness,

• and the moon into blood,

ACTS 2: PETER PREACHES TO THE CROWD

16But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel…

19And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: 21And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

LUKE 21: THE RETURN OF THE SON OF MAN (Matthew 24:26-31; Mark 13:24-27)

25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near.

The sign on September 23, 2017 occurred 3.5 years after the first blood moon on April 15, 2014, marking the end of 1^st half of the Tribulation Period, and the beginning of the “Great Tribulation” period, where the Woman flees to the Wilderness for 1260 days, to place prepared by God.

     REVELATION 12: THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON

1And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule^a all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

7Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers^b has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

13And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood^c on the sand of the sea.

September 23, 2017 marked the “great tribulation” period and marked our 3.5-year journey (1260 days) into the wilderness where we have been protected and fed.  It gives us a time marker to know where we are in God’s story. 

ISAIAH 40: PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD

3The voice of one that cries, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord; make level in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain: 5and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

6The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.  7The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

This makes the significance of the blood moons that led up to our journey in wilderness even more incredible because they fell on festival days that marked Israel’s deliverance and the marvelous way God sustained them in wilderness.

The 4 consecutive blood moons that preceded the sign on 9/23/2017, fell on the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Passover was kept before the children of Israel to remind them of the marvelous way in which they were delivered from Egypt.

Tabernacles was kept before the children of Israel to remind them of the marvelous way in which and were sustained in the wilderness.

Tabernacles commemorated the time when the children of Israel lived in tents during their wilderness journey and it would last the entire week. 

The people lived in booths outdoors and listened to the reading of the Law.

The Feast of Tabernacles reminded them that by their own disobedience, they were compelled to wander 40 years in the wilderness, but in spite of their unbelief, God was faithful in caring for them and in bringing them to their inheritance.

These special days reminded them of their dependence upon Jehovah and of the blessings that would come if they would be obedient to His will.

After the Israelite’s left Egypt, for 40 years they lived in temporary shelters described as “tabernacles” or “booths”, underscoring the transient nature of their journey and their dependence on the Lord for sustenance.  The feast of tabernacles thus served to remind Israel of its fragile history in the wilderness and to celebrate God’s goodness to them in the land and the joy that would result in the crops from the work of their hands. It was an annual opportunity to attend to the needs of some of the lowliest and most neglected of Israel’s population.

The REVELATION 12 sign in the heavens where the woman gives birth to a man-child before fleeing into the wilderness points to the sign of Immanuel in ISAIAH 7.

ISAIAH 7: THE SIGN OF IMMANUEL (“God is with us”)

14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.^h 

Immanuel meaning “God is with us” signifying the presence of God will be with us as we travel into the wilderness.  The Israelite’s, before they began their journey into the wilderness, God’s presence was shown to Moses by the burning bush and then God’s presence was made known to Israel, by a pillar of cloud and fire

Amazingly, we have also been given tangible evidence of his presence with us by fire and smoke before being led into the wilderness.  He is with us in our Tribulation and our wilderness journey and He will never leave us nor forsake us. 

The Wilderness is where God shapes his people and it is a place fit for feeding flocks. The Wilderness is the time between deliverance from bondage and the promised land, and it is a time of extraordinary uncertainty. It is a time where we come under circumstances that seem contrary to God’s goodness.  He leads us into the wilderness for a good we cannot see.  Israel didn’t wander into the wilderness, God led them into the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and fire.  Where he leads, he goes. God is present with us in the wilderness.  One of the greatest challenges for Israel to learn was that God was with them.  His presence brings guidance & direction, provision and protection, peace and rest, hope & confidence, joy & gladness. More than anything, including food and water, we need his presence.  The passage of Scripture it was opened to in Hattiesburg could not be a more fitting passage, which proclaims twice (2x) that “He is with us”.

PSALM 46: THE LORD OF HOSTS IS WITH US

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the middle of the sea;  3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.  4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.  5God is in the middle of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.  6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.  7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.  8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he has made in the earth.  9He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder; he burns the chariot in the fire.  10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Also, the passage of scripture from JOEL found in the puddle of water after the Gatlinburg fires which points us to Peter after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in which he quoted directly from Joel

   JOEL 2:  28And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;

His Holy Spirit replaced Jesus physical presence by indwelling his followers, and guides and leads us in truth in the wilderness.

God orchestrates every wilderness for his glory.  Israel got to the edge of the wilderness and then God tells them to turn back towards Egypt, from the very danger they had just escaped from, and Israel was asking God, what are you doing?  He orchestrated all of this so he could crush Pharaoh and his hosts, and to be glorified, and be known.

He puts us between a rock and a hard place.  God led his son into the wilderness prior to his public ministry.  There will never be a deeper, darker, wilderness than the cross.  Pharaoh the enemy of God and his people, he thinks that going after them when they are standing at the red sea that he will crush them just as they Satan and his hosts saw the opportunity to crush the anointed one and destroy God’s plan.  Satan’s crushing of the Messiah on the cross was the crushing of himself and death.  Through the cross His is Glorified.  The purpose in every wilderness is His Glory.   Wherever our feet take us, God is with us.

EXODUS 14:5-31   When Israel took their eyes off God (Pillar of cloud and fire) and they turned their eyes toward their enemies approaching, they lost faith.  They began to cry to God, but it was not a cry for rescue, it was cry of complaint.  They are complaining to Moses, but they are really complaining about God.

At the heart of Israel’s fear is a foundational distrust in their God.  They are not trusting His love, care, or power.  Those things are at the heart of every fear.  Moses said in Exodus 14:13-14 “fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the lord, which he will work for you today.  For you shall never see the Egyptians again, the Lord will fight for you and you only have to be silent.”   Moses is telling Israel where to direct their eyes and gaze.  Stop focusing on your fear or you’ll miss the miracle.  Why did God do it this way…He wants them to see as well as the Egyptians that there is only 1 true God.

The wilderness provides the perfect backdrop to see God’s glory on display.  If circumstances hadn’t been so dire, we would not be able to see God’s Salvation as clearly.  Since 2014 we have been in the most unprecedented times in history which have included unparalleled natural disasters and violence.  Here is a timeline of some of the events that happened during 2014-2018 not to mention the global pandemic we are currently in during 2020.

When things get the darkest is when God’s Glory shines brightest.  God used the wilderness to form Israel into a nation.  Their fear was transformed from an unhealthy fear of their enemy to a healthy fear of their God.  Their gaze went from only seeing their circumstances to seeing the God who is over their circumstances. 

The Wilderness is not something to be rescued from.  It’s the place where God rescues us.  The wilderness is a place of uncertainty, loneliness, uncomfortableness, yes, but it is also a place of salvation. 

God consistently shows us all through the bible in wilderness areas, where there is a not water, no food, where the enemy is all around when people are desperate, when there seems to be no hope, that’s where and when God shows up. 

He doesn’t rescue us from the wilderness, he rescues us in the wilderness, to provide for them and to sustain them.  He delights in saving His people in the wilderness, not from it.

Moses was the mediator (go between) for Israel and God.  God was using Moses so they would have a category for another Mediator who would one day come.  He used it to foreshadow our need for someone to come between us and a holy God.  Someone to talk to God on our behalf and plead our case and take our guilt and to split the waters for us.   Between life and death, heaven and hell.  God knew we needed someone who could split the waters and make a path for us to walk on to the other side. 

We have to let God lead us into the wilderness.

We will never cry out for rescue until your own resources are exhausted, until your pride breaks.  Until you have come to the end of yourself.  Until you are in the wilderness of your own soul, you’ll never admit you can’t make life work apart from God, Salvation, healing and rescue. 

Put our eyes and gaze upon our salvation.  On the finished work of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ who shed his blood for our sins, not our circumstances.

 We cannot work for our salvation; we just have to believe and trust and see the salvation of the Lord.

EXODUS 15:22-27    Marah introduces themes prominent in the wilderness: Grumbling, testing, and the need for attention and obedience to God’s Commands.

Paul tells us that wilderness years were for our own benefit.  The wilderness is the season when life isn’t working, when life is pressing upon us, when there is pain and loss, when life conspires to make us question, God are you good and faithful?

God’s purpose is not to pluck us out of the wilderness, it’s to save us, sustain us, guide us, restore us and help us in the wilderness.

Just like a college orientation which shows you how to live and survive the next 4 years, this God’s wilderness orientation for his people.  You miss a class or get a lower grade if you’re not paying attention during the orientation at school, in this orientation, you miss what God has to say and it can cost you your life. 

In Exodus 15 we see the song of Moses where they were dancing in the street.  This chapter is set in 3 stages:

• No Water: They went 3 days into the wilderness and had not water.  God previously told Moses to tell Pharaoh let my people go, (how far?) 3 days (so that they can do this…) worship me.  They expected to be 3 days in and worshipping God and they are 3 days in and dying of thirst. 
• Bitter/Sweet Water: They grumbled against Moses “what shall we drink?”, so Moses threw a log into the water and it became sweet and made a statute for Israel.  If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord and what is right in his eyes, and give ear to the commands and keep his statures, I will put none of these diseases on you.  Bitter Waters of Marah:  It is water but is undrinkable. 

God is saying, If you want to survive the wilderness, this is how you live: 

 “Diligently listen and give ear to God’s voice and commands and what you hear him say, then do it, keep it, keep my commands”. 

These are the ground rules for the wilderness.

Obedience brings blessing.  Disobedience brings judgement. Obedience does not mean however that you will be excluded from experiencing the fullness of this world.  God led them to the bitter water to give them those statutes but also to test and prove them.  Just like smelting metals to remove impurities in order to reveal something. 

• Springs of Water: They then came to Elim where there were springs of water.

This shows a picture of redemption and salvation which happens in 3 parts:

• Justification
• Sanctification
• Glorification

Lesson:  Life in the wilderness is bittersweet.  Our whole lives are lived in the wilderness theologically.  We are not home yet.

 JOHN 16: ₃₃ I have told you these things so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows but take heart because I have overcome the world.

  JAMES 1: ₂ Count it joy when you meet trials of various kinds. 

God used the bitterness of Marah to reveal the bitterness in their hearts.  Their circumstances had changed but not their heart so when their expectation is not met, they grumble.

He must prepare his people for their promised land and shape their hearts for their eternal future.

Hardships, disappointments, the bitter waters of life, test us and show us what’s in our heart.

That’s true for the Israelite’s as well as for those who follow Jesus. God works in the wilderness to reveal the bitterness in our hearts, that we might more fully experience the grace in his. Moses lived out his faith, listening to and obeying God’s voice, and when he did, the bitter waters, became sweet.  By Jesus obedient faith, the bitterness of life, becomes the sweetness of God’s grace and forgiveness of our sins through Christ.  Jesus and his finished work is what makes the bitter sweet.

Christ in us, is that which helps us, help others who are tasting the bitterness of the wilderness.

EXODUS 16:1-31 BREAD FROM HEAVEN 

He does not lead us into the wilderness to deprive us of what we need, the opposite is true.

• Exodus 16:1-3 The Grumbling of the people
• Exodus 16:4-7 The Glory of God

This is the juxtaposition and context through which we see him provide bread from heaven.  They were grumbling about water, now they are grumbling about food.  We should always read with one on the text and one in the mirror because it’s talking about us.  When we don’t see a way out, we don’t naturally look back to remember God’s faithfulness in the past to hold us in the present.  Grumble, grumble, grumble, Moses intercedes (over and over).   

PSALM 78:₁₈ They stubbornly tested God in their hearts demanding the food they craved. 

The problem will never be our hunger, thirst, or circumstances.  The problem is always in the heart.

There is a difference between groaning and grumbling (whining).  Grumbling is a heart attitude and accusation against God.  God showed Israel His glory when they grumbled by showing his glory and providing way they needed.  The food they are craving is not the food that will satisfy their could and hearts.  They are craving the food of Egypt.  When we crave anything other than God, we are craving the meat of Egypt. 

God takes them into the wilderness to change their appetites, so that we would be weaned from the food of Egypt and find our satisfaction in bread from heaven.

He doesn’t take us into wilderness to deprive us, he takes us there to give us himself and to satisfy the deepest needs of the heart.

God instructs them to Get and homer’s worth of mana every day which is about ½ gallon.   Each person had nothing left over and no lack.  Exactly what you need in the moment.  You could not store or save the manna.

The life of faith is just like “just in time” inventory which revolutionized manufacturing.  It’s never going to be early and it’s never going to be late.  It’s going to be just in time and all you need and there is an endless supply.  Love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, hope life, cannot be stored.  God is each of these in limitless supply, and he is always there.  Trust God in your now.

In verse 18 they are craving what they want and in verse 19 they spoke against God saying “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?”, which is like a child asking their parents if they love them.  And so God rained down bread from heaven.  Jesus said “I am the bread of life and whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes on me shall never thirst.  He is talking about the cravings we get from things that don’t satisfy.

Israel lost sight of the promise while in the wilderness.

The story never ends in the wilderness, remember this is nothing our God cannot do to bring us home.

 EXODUS 17:8-14  BATTLE WITH AMALEK

God’s lessons for Israel in the wilderness is that He consistently provides what they need, not more than they need, and when they need it, and he uses the hardship of a wilderness to shape his people.

In the broad context God is using the wilderness to form a nation They did not know God in Egypt.  God starts doing some miraculous things on their behalf.  He plagues the Egyptians and frees the people.  He then uses the wilderness to shape and form a nation.  The very first battle Israel fought as a nation was with the Amalekites.  Initially they weren’t ready for war (ex 13) but now probably 6 weeks later they are prepared to fight.

The battle: The action of the battle followed the hands of Moses.  Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, whenever he lowered his hand because of weariness, Amalek prevailed.  Why were his hands so important?  Only because he was holding the staff of God.  The movement of Moses hands represented Israel’s’ dependence on either God’s power (hands up) or their own power (hands down).  The power was not in Moses.  He literally had to bet propped up.   The focus of the actions is on the hill not the battlefield.  Because it came down to, would God’s people depend on Him or their own ability, so their true battle was not physical, it was spiritual.  It’s not the enemies around your it’s with the idolatry in our own hearts. 

EPHESIANS 6:12 We do not wrestle with flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, over the present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.  Put on the full amour of God. 

The battle rages closest in the sacred space of our own hearts where 2 powers are fighting for control

The Lesson:  Victory in the wilderness comes through God’s strength as we act in dependence upon Him.  In everything we have been called to do, we must depend on his strength, not ours.

“I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing”. 

EXODUS 20:  THE LAWS OF LIFE

Guidelines for our own good.  In the wilderness, Israel faced scarcity, lack of food and water, war, being attacked by enemies, which God used to shape His people more and more.  God uses circumstances of the wilderness to shape us more and more.  After fighting with the Amalekites in Chapter 17, they continue their journey to Mount Sinai (Horeb) for a year, where they received the 10 commandments. 

To misapply the Law is catastrophic.  When you misunderstand the purpose of the law, you will live in bondage, even though you have been delivered from Egypt.  Your life for you will be making more bricks with less straw.  Properly understand the law and though the world and wilderness seem to crush and hem you in, you will live with the freedom of heart and flourishing of life that God intends.  To not understand the law is to not understand God’s purpose and plans.  What’s at stake is life and death, whether we truly understand why the law was given and how it applies.

The one thing we know definitely about the 10 commandments is that we have broken one of them, and if you have broken 1, you have broken all 10. We have all broken the whole law.

Let’s look at why the law was given from a 30, 000-foot view:

They were delivered from bondage, taken into the wilderness, and then God gave them the 10 commandments.  If we want to understand the purpose of the commands, we have to understand the preamble.  God had promised Abraham, you are going to be a great nation, and you were going to have a land, and you were going to be a blessing to all nations.  They were slaves roaming in the wilderness, and now God is forming them into a nation.  Every nation requires a constitution.  The laws essentially tell Israel How to run the nation.  There is a preamble to all ancient covenants: 

EXODUS 20:1-2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Slavery”. 

God declares:  You are my people, I have redeemed you, you are mine.  They did not have to keep the 10 commandments to be delivered from bondage. 

GALATIANS 3:19 Why then the law?  It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come, to whom the promise was made. 

The law was added to define what sin is.  If you are riding in the county going 55 mph and you then you come across a sign that says 30 mph, that sign says you are a law breaker, but you really didn’t know it until you saw the sign.  The fundamental purpose of the law is to show us our sin. 

Martin Luther:  “The principle point of the law, is not to make people better, but worse, that is to say, it shows them their sin, so that they may be humble, terrified, bruised, broken, and by this means, may be driven to seek comfort and to come to that blessed seed.”

In showing us our sin, the law becomes our schoolteacher, our tutor.  The law teaches us that these are God’s standards and we don’t meet them on our best day, and that we can’t keep God’s standards.  Why did God give Israel a law that they can’t do?  To bring them to the place, where rather than try to keep the law in self effort, they would cast themselves at the mercy of God, who would do for them what they could never do.  Grace is free but what is free must be wanted.  Our fallen hearts will never want grace, they will always revert to self-effort and righteousness, and the law comes along and crushes that notion.  When the law has done its work as our schoolteacher we are left totally depleted of self-effort and we open ourselves to the grace and mercy of God.  I need you God to do what I could never do.  I need a perfect law keeper because I am never going to be it, which is the seed that was promised.  The law was not given to deliver us from bondage.  God in His mercy & grace brought them out of bandage.  The law shows us that we could never deliver ourselves.  The law was given to crush any pre-conceived notion that we could achieve righteousness by our own self efforts.  The law as given to show us our need for Jesus.  Until we come to the place where we say I can’t, we will keep trying.  When the holy spirit takes the law of God and convicts us of our sin, it shows us we cannot keep his standard.  Then we ask God, will you meet the standard for me.  This is the Good news of the Gospel.  When we truly understand the law, it compels us and our mission as a church, to help people find wholehearted life in Christ.  The law shows how deep our problem is within our heart, not our behavior.  The lesson of the law is that the heart is fallen. 

(Bible Project) Throughout the Torah, there is a pattern of rebellion, more laws given, rebellion, more laws given, rebellion, more laws given, and finally in Deuteronomy, before Israel gets to the promised land, Moses says to Israel, “I know you are not going to follow all his laws, you have proven to me that you are incapable.  Moses said that their hearts were hard and they are going to need new transformed hearts if they are ever truly going to follow God’s Law.   He was right and they continued to rebel in the promised land.  Ezekiel told Israel if they were ever going to follow God’s law, they would need new transformed hearts.  Jeremiah said that’s when obedience to God’s commands would happen, and it wouldn’t be a duty.  Isaiah promised a future Messiah who would lead all the people in obedience to the Law.  Jesus came and taught that the default setting of our hearts is opposed to God’s Law and that he came to solve that problem and to fulfill the law.  He said that the law can be condensed to love God and love others.  He also showed that love is far more demanding than we think and narrowed down the intent of each command.  Don’t murder was refined down to don’t even hate, or be angry with someone, or resentful.  True love should extend even to our enemies.  It shows our hearts are not equipped to fulfill even this basic command from God.  Where Israel failed, Jesus brought the story to its fulfillment and showed what God is truly like through compassion, mercy, and love.  After his death, he sent his spirit to transform our hearts, so we could follow him and fulfill the purpose of the Law, which fulfills the story of the Law and prophets.

The 10 commands expose our sin and failure, but thankfully our sin and failure aren’t the end of the story.  It is in Jesus work on the cross.  We live our life now by faith in the one who gave his life for us.

Jesus power stands in the place of my inadequacy and weakness and now he is where I get my identity, not by my own ability or will.  Thank God, Jesus is the substitute for my failures. 

Confession of sin is always flowed by assurance of pardon: “Jesus, you are the fulfillment of the law I could never keep.  I am forgiven.  I am redeemed.  I am the righteousness of Christ”.

The fundaments foundational less of life in the wilderness that God was teaching Israel, was that God was present, He’s there.  He is present because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  With a proper understanding of the law you will meet people who are striving to do the right thing.  The text tells us, only in Jesus, so may we carry that good news to everyone we interact with.

EXODUS 32:1-6  THE GOLDEN CALF

Life on this earth is a wilderness journey while we are waiting to go into the promised land.  While we are wandering in the wilderness we are learning, what will he tech us, how will he shape us and form us in these wilderness years. 

The next few weeks will be discussing the most important weeks in the history of Israel.  Right after the giving of the 10 commandments, something just as important happened, in a terrible way.  If we track down the rabbit hole of this text, down in this place is something critical to each of our relationships with Go as we wrestle through the concept of Idolatry and what it is and what it means for us. 

Exodus 20-23 is the giving of the 10 commandments and Law.  He also gave them essentially a constitution that consisted of civil laws and religious laws.  In EXODUS 24 the covenant is confirmed through a wedding ceremony.  God said this is what I will do and they said we will uphold our part.  They celebrated and had a meal.  The 70 elders went up and had a meal with God.  Then Moses goes up higher on the mountain and the 70 elders come down and he is gone for 40 days, which is EXODUS 25-31, in which God is giving him instructions about he tabernacle, worship, ark, and priests. 

In their thirst for gods to go before them is actually a replacement for Moses.  It was Moses that they were looking to visibly and it speaks to the condition of the human heart to always need to have something you can see and touch to lead you.  It wasn’t enough to them to be led by an invisible God.  They needed a physical manifestation.  They had just made the covenant 40 days before!  This is equivalent to being unfaithful to your spouse on the honeymoon.  The promise was just made, how could they do this?  By the way, they got the gold from Egypt.  God gave them the gold from the Egyptians because he knew a new nation was going to need a treasury and resources.  They took the wealth God gave them and made into a false idol. 

The Bull represents strength and fertility.  They were considering Moses as a sort of God, then they made a calf, and still they were trying to call on Yahweh, what a mess!  They have already created a polytheistic mishmash of what God had just delivered them from.  The 1^st 2 commands were both broken right after they were committed to. 

EXODUS 32 is one of the most important and awful chapters of the entire bible.  This was the moment in Israel’s history where they started to unravel and it’s so early in their covenant relationship with God.  This slippery slope of Idolatry began on this day and it never left the people until they were ultimately displaced and exiled.  Over and over again it is the one thing that pulls them away from their life source.  It was the dominant sin they would struggle with for 1000 years and results in them being conquered and exiled and displaced.  Turning from God, to idols was a step down the path of self-destruction. 

So why is worship so important to God?

God wants his people to live in accordance to what is true.  An idol is lifeless and has no ability to respond to a person’s needs.  With nothing to give in contrast, the God they are leaving has everything to give and offer.  He is the source of life itself.  Israel’s Idolatry led them into a 3-step destruction:

1. They became like other nations
2. They were eventually overpowered by other nations
3. They were finally scattered among the nations

They were called to be holy, separate, set apart, distinct.  They are engaging in things with the other nations that are not only foolish but ridding them of life and God say’s “I want this nation to be separate from that”.

Now what is modern idolatry?

Most of us assume idol worship is a relic of the ancient past but it is still alive and well, the only thing that has changed is the objects of worship.  To understand idolatry, you have to understand worship because idolatry is worshipping something that is not true, that can’t give you life.  Worship is ascribing ultimate value to something.  Worship comes from the old English word “Worth-ship”.  That thing is worthy of my praise and affection. 

We are natural worshippers, music, food, sports, celebrities, technology, sex, power, politics.  All of these things can become objects of our ultimate worship.  Enjoying these things in their proper context is not worship.  Ascribing ultimate value and worth to them is worship and the difference is very subtle because it is in your heart.  2 people can be doing the same thing outwards with their choices, 1 is worshipping a false god, a1 is enjoying something to the praise and glory of the true God.  The difference between what you enjoy and what you worship is what you think that thing can offer you.  If you put all you hope and dreams, there.  Ie I have got to have this thing to be ok, in order to live, whatever that thing is can become an object of your worship because at the deepest level we all long for the same thing, fullness of life (happiness, meaning, etc). 

You quest for fullness of life explains every decision you have ever made.  God made us this way.  He put that longing in us, knowing we would seek and catch on the whatever hold’s life for you.  He made us to be a worshipper, but he did not make us worshippers without also giving us an ultimate object to worship which is himself, which is the only thing that is good and satisfying and right.  The only thing worthy of worship.

PSALM 16:11 you make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fulness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forever more. 

David is saying, you God are life to me, fullness of joy is with you, in your presence.  Do you see where David was seeking for life.  He found in God the ultimate object of his quest.  The ultimate life source that God designed us for is Himself.  Our problem is that we think that the things we think and touch and feel are what we need most, which is the essence of idolatry, and grieves God because it robs us of life.

[IDOL]:  An idol is anything apart from your creator, you look to for fulness of life.

Whatever you think holds the secret of life (if I could just have a family, get married, have kids, have the career I want, success, wealth, leave a legacy, etc), you will chase and build your life around that thing. 

“Our hearts are idol making factories” ~ John Calvin

Just like in ancient times we are committed to going to whatever source we think will give us what we most desire.  Whatever you believe will give you what you ultimately want, you will center your life around that person or thing.  You will make sacrifices to it, or you will sacrifice yourself for it…you will find yourself worshipping it.  The reason we display trophies is because we are trying to convince ourselves that we are ok, that we have some ability, that were not just a bum.  Here is my skill, here is my accomplishment, my reputation.  A good thing made into an ultimate thing is an idol.  These thing s were given to us a gift so that our hearts would overflow into the worship of the one true God, the giver of gifts.

[IDOLATRY]: The elevation of something, someone, some pursuit, some practice to a higher place of loyalty and devotion in our heart than God.  In our moments of sin, we say to God, “I want this more than I want you.  I need this more than I need you.  I love this more than I love you.”  We craft idols…We attempt to satiate our thirst out of our own resources.  But we are all still thirsty ~ Barry Jones

It speaks to the idea that behind every sin, is an idol in your heart, because it is a choice to disobey God in order to grab something that you want more than God at that moment.  Ie Choosing to lie in order to save face, watching something you shouldn’t watch because having that craving fulfilled smore important than obeying God and giving to what he says is true.  Behind every idol is a lie which is something other than God can satisfy you.  That moving further and further away from God could lead you to more and more life.  Behind the idols of wood and stone in ancient times was something spiritually dark grabbing on to these men and women. 

Do you think its any different for us?  Our idols ensnare, entrap, bind, enslave, and consume us.  Because that demand to be place 1^st in our lives.  It will start to dominate your thoughts, emotions, desires, and choices and we ultimately end up serving and sacrificing to them.  Someone pays the price.

When you are courageously real enough to expose the below the line levels of your heart, you’ll come to realize these things have been affecting you life in ways you weren’t even aware of, and until you address what is unseen, the parts of the heart that motivate you, until you address these parts, you’ll never chance the behaviors permanently.  To transform into finding wholehearted life in Christ you must identify the idols in you heart.  Then allow Jesus Christ to displace those things.  It takes faith to believe that Jesus is more.

Where do I think I will find fullness of Life?  The answer to the that question will lead you directly to the idols of you heart.  Once you recognize these things, then you have hope, by confessing to God and turning your worship to the one true God.

THE GOLDEN CALF (pt. 2)         Exodus 32:7-14                                        (Shadrach)     8/2/2020

This pandemic is creating tremendous difficulties and yet it is also presenting us with the opportunity of a lifetime.  There is a deep angst of uncertainty everywhere, and we have the most certain and hopeful news for every person on the planet.  We get to speak the gospel into this plowed up ground.  Hard soil has been made soft.  Let’s not let the pandemic guide our decisions and look at it as a problem to be managed, but as an opportunity to be maximized.  This will pass so let’s take advantage of the opportunity to speak and to live the gospel.  To lead as many people as we can as safely as we can to whole-hearted life in Christ.  The opportunity of a lifetime must be taken in the lifetime of the opportunity.  May we steward our gifts in ways that maximize the opportunity we have.  We ask the Lord to multiply our gifts in ways that bring you glory, that expand your kingdom.

The lessons learned from Israel in the wilderness were written for our benefit for our wilderness, and so we too would respond in faith, and in so responding, God actually shapes our hearts more and more into the image of Christ.

The people get impatient and restless while Moses was up in the mount and told Aaron to make them a god, that we may worship.  We make idols when we put our trust in something other than God for ultimate satisfaction.  God put in us the longing for what is eternal, for what matters, for what is significant.  The fall did not take that longing ways, it make us go to things not eternal to satisfy an eternal longing.  Our hearts are idol making factories and the production line has never been disrupted.  While Israel was as the bottom of the mount worshipping and playing they think that is what they were made for but nothing could be further from the truth.

In god’s conversation with Moses we actually get the lesson and we get the ground of our hope, and we come to understand that which alone can satisfy our deepest longing.

1^st part- God’s invitation to Moses (Ex 32:7-10)  

7And the LORD said to Moses, Go, get you down; for your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be your gods, O Israel, which have brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 9And the LORD said to Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff necked people: 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of you a great nation.

God is so determined to redeem humanity through a person.  He is going to bind himself to another human being to achieve the redemption.  God said they have quickly turned aside in contrast to the people saying God is so slow, and in their anxiety make an idol.  Behind every sin is a sin behind the sin.  Behind the sin of making an idol is the sin of impatience.  Impatience is rooted in unbelief and anything not rooted in faith is sin.  Abraham went into Hagar because of impatience and produced a nation that is a thorn in Israel’s side to this day.  Samuel told Saul to do this battle then wait for 7 days then I will do the sacrifice.  Saul got impatient and made the sacrifice and He lost the kingdom because of it. 

ISAIAH 41:31 They that wait on the lord will renew their strength.

PSALM 27:14 Wait for the lord, be strong and let your heat take courage, wait for the lord

To wait on the lord is to trust his character and his promises more than the circumstances around me.  To be patient is ultimately about giving up control.  God is not delayed. 

In verse 10 we see the invitation, God says this not to be left alone, but actually an invitation to Moses to step into his role as a mediator more fully, who stands in between the 2 opposing parties.

2^nd Part – Moses Intercession (Exodus 32:11-14)

11And Moses sought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why does your wrath wax hot against your people, which you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.

Moses steps in between the holy God and sinful people and intercedes based on God’s character, saying if you destroy them then your name, character and glory will be diminished by the Egyptians, and then he based his intercession based on the promise, saying God you made a promise to Abraham and in that promise you through him would make him a great nation and that you would give him the land of Canaan.  It is impossible for God to break his promise. 

Several thousand people did die during this but the whole was not wiped ou.t

Moses said take me and God says no.  Sin deserves death.  It must be penalized to make atonement, ie At-one-ment.  God and humanity were at one then sin broke that so now there is 2 and so something has to be done to make at one again, which is forgiveness of sin.  All sin must be paid for and Moses is saying let me pay for it but God says no and he tells Moses that once a year you will slit the throat of an unblemished male lamb and its blood is going to pour out because life is in the blood and rather than destroy all the people I will cover over their sins and I will accept the blood of that unblemished lamb for a year, but you will do it again next year.  It was called the day of atonement.  If God would have said yes to Moses he would have been separated eternally from God.

The reason God says no to Moses is because He is not a sinless mediator.  What they didn’t realize at this time Moses tells them in Deuteronomy.  The Lord will raise up to you a prophet like me from among you, listen to Him.

Moses was the shadow.  Jesus was the substance.  God’s wrath was satisfied upon the cross.  It was paid for in full.  Why could Jesus rise from the grave?  Because he was sinless.  God being just and righteous.  He wouldn’t be those things if he allowed death to hold a sinless man. 

In every wilderness of life, we need a greater Moses and he has come in the person of Christ.  God’s wrath is rolling down upon us like a giant bowling ball, not to just take out the pins but the whole bowling alley.  It is coming down on those who are sinful.  You can choose to take the penalty yourself and be eternally separated from God or you can put your trust in Christ and who took the wrath for us.  He took it all.  There is now no more condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.  He died for our sins and rose again from the grave.

The Holy Spirit: Wind, Fire, Gods Presence

God meets Moses in the wilderness after he had murdered an Egyptian and had fled to Midian, in the midst of his fearfulness, shame, and insecurity.  He appeared to him in the form of fire and tells Moses to go back to Egypt.  By faith, knowing God was with Him, went back and confronted Pharaoh.  Apart from his presence, Moses could not do anything.

Likewise, the apostles the apostles trembled in fear after Jesus was crucified but when they received the Holy Spirit, which came from heaven and sounded like a mighty rushing wind, divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one them.  They then went out and spoke in other languages as the spirit gave them utterance to spread to the gospel to the nations that had been scattered at the tower of Babel, reversing the judgement that occurred in Genesis 11.

Before the Israelite’s were led out of Egypt into the wilderness in the Exodus, God spoke to Moses at Mt. Horeb out of the middle of the bush that was not consumed,

EXODUS 3: MOSES AT THE BURNING BUSH 

¹Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.  ²And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ³And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. ⁴And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. ⁵And he said, Draw not near here: put off your shoes from off your feet, for the place where on you stand is holy ground.   

The page from JOEL found in Gatlinburg in 2016 (which preceded the sign in the heavens) was burned through verse 17 which was right in the middle of the page, but it was not consumed.   The 17th letter in Hebrew means “mouth”, from one which speaks/voice and from which His commands come from.

“Diligently listen and give ear to God’s voice and commands, and what you hear Him say do it.”   “My Sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me”.  Israel wandered in the Wilderness for 40 years because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

PSALM  29: THE VOICE OF THE LORD

7The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire. 8The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

Moses then led Israel to Mount Sinai (Horeb) while in the Wilderness.

 DEUTERONOMY 4: AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE  

  10Specially the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb ^[h2722] , when the LORD said to me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.  11And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire      to the middle of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12And the LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire     : you heard the voice of the words but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice.

 13And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. 14And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

IDOLATRY FORBIDDEN

15“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 21Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. 23Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire   , a jealous God.

25“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

THE LORD ALONE IS GOD

32“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other,  whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. 36Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire    , and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire   . 37And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them^c and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”

When Israel left out of Egypt and were stationed in the Wilderness, all of Rachel’s descendants were stationed in the West and known as the “Camp of Ephraim”.  Rachel means “Ewe” (lamb).   

“My Sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me”.

• Ewes (lambs) have estrus cycles about every 17days, during which they emit a scent and indicate readiness through physical displays towards rams.

• The United States is 3^rd in the world in the production of Sheep’s Wool at 17%

• Joseph (Rachel’s Firstborn)was sold into slavery into Egypt at the age of 17 for 20 pieces of silver.   Ephraim was born to him 17 years later (from book of Jasher).   Joshua, from the Tribe of Ephraim, who led Israel into the promised land, is first mentioned in Exodus 17:9
• Esther is the 17th Book (which foreshadows the bride of Christ)

• REVELATION 17: VICTORY FOR THE LAMB
• 1st 2 dates given in the bible fall on the 17th of the month:   
  • Date of flood: 2/17
  • Ark Rested: 7/17

All of Paul’s Missionary Journeys, who was from the Tribe of Benjamin (Rachel’s son), established all the churches “west” of Jerusalem.  

If you were to go onto google maps and drop a marker on Jerusalem
and one in Alabama, the arc made would be right along the path

of Paul’s missionary journeys.

The Sun (Son) rises in the East and Sets in the West

REVELATION 4:5

5And out of the throne proceeded lightning and thunder and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

REVELATION 3: MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA

7And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things said he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens; 8I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name. 

The anagram for “Alabama” is “Lamb” and looks like door in between Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee.  “I am the door of the sheep.”

I believe this shows overwhelming evidence that this is the place God has prepared for his bride and where he feeds his sheep for 1260 days…in the “Belly of the Beast”

There will be another total solar eclipse passing through the US on April 8, 2024.

All the       occurrences fall under where the 2 paths cross.

.

The woman (Virgo), which

represents the Bride of Christ.

 is depicted holding a sheaf of wheat.

A sheaf of wheat fits perfectly

in the outline of these occurrences.

  ZECHARIAH 12 

⁶In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. ⁷The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. ⁸In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. ⁹And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 

The layout of old Jerusalem

even fits perfectly within outline

The verse that was burned through in Joel is verse 17 says:

     JOEL 1: A CALL TO REPENTANCE (Amos 5:4-15; Zephaniah 2:1-3; Luke 13:1-5)

17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

• The seed (grain) is rotten (dried up, shriveled) under the clods.
• The garners (storehouse) are laid desolate (numb, astonished, appalled),
• the barns (place for keeping grain) are broken down. 
• The corn (grain, wheat, increase) is withered (dried up, confused). 

Joel warns the people to wake up from their wine induced stupor because:

• locusts have laid waste His field and vine.
• The field is wasted, and the land mourns. 
• The corn is wasted, and the new wine dried up.
• The oil languishes. 
• The harvest of the field has perished. 
• The vine is dried up. 
• The fig tree languishes. 
• Joy is withered away from the sons of men.

 The fruit that comes from abiding in Christ and keeping His commandments Has dried up and withered away.

Hebrews 13:

5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

I believe this shows overwhelming evidence
 that the 7-year period from 2014 – 2021
marks “Jacob’s Time of Trouble”
and the “Tribulation Period”

• https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/26/2017–a-year-of-disaster.html
• 8 days after the sign on 9/23/2017 was the deadliest mass shooting in history.
• 2017 was the most destructive hurricane season in history and the most destructive wildfire season in history until 2018.
• 2018 was the deadliest & destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California with smoke reaching all the way to Europe
• We are in the middle of a global pandemic in 2020

   2 CORINTHIANS 1: THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT

3Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. 5For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. 6And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation.

Israel didn’t wander into the wilderness, God led them into the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and fire.  Where he leads, he goes.

God uses the wilderness to humble and prove us,

To know what is in our hearts, whether we will

Walk and in his ways and keep his commands, or not.

God gave Israel instructions and ground rules
 for surviving the wilderness.

“Diligently listen and give ear to God’s voice
 and commands, and what you hear Him say do it.”

 The 17th letter in Hebrew פ

Pronounced (“pe”) means “MOUTH”,

from one which speaks/voice.

JOSHUA 5:6

 6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: to whom the LORD swore that he would not show them the land, which the LORD swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land that flows with milk and honey

EZEKIAL 37 : The Vision Explained

11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14And shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, said the LORD.

One Nation with One King

15The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 16Moreover, you son of man, take you one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions: 17And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in your hand. 18And when the children of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these? 19Say to them, Thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. 20And the sticks where on you write shall be in your hand before their eyes. 21And say to them, Thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, where they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 23Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelled; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the middle of them for ever more. 27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yes, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the middle of them for ever more.

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