S   S   Today I want to read 2 articles I received this past week.  In different ways, they hopefully give you reasons to pause and think even more about the fact that we are not living in a normal, business as usual world.  This is certainly intended to make you worry but rather to shock you a bit into a greater sense of urgency of where you are in your walk with God and with living out His plan for your life, both inside your job and outside your job. Surprisingly, these articles have nothing to do with the jab, masks, Biden, Putin, Klaus Schwab, high gas prices, or empty shelves.  I figured you already knew about those things. The first article is from ProphecyNewsWatch.com and was originally written by T.W. Tramm from The Season of Return Ministries. If you're not normally particularly interested in prophecy and have a general bias against what you consider "date setters", you may be tempted to tune out during this article.  I would ask you not to do so, both for the content of this article as well as for the rest of what we're talking about during this episode.  You may justify wanting to tune out because of a verse where Jesus said we won't know the day or the hour.  I say that because I used to use that verse to dismiss those who would talk about prophecy and condemn them as date setters.  Let's read the context of that passage, Matthew 25:1-13 "“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom [a]is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour [b]in which the Son of Man is coming." 

So Jesus warned us NOT to be like the 5 foolish virgins who did not bring extra oil and were told by the bridegroom that he didn't know them.  Oil typically represents the Holy Spirit.  We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to place our relationship with our Heavenly Father above everything else in this world.  Notice what Jesus said right after that parable, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour [b]in which the Son of Man is coming".  What that tells me is that I need to be ready by being in relationship with Him AND I need to be watching.  Notice he didn't say we should be in relationship and NOT watch.  He told us to watch.  God gave us appointments to meet with Him, once a week, once a month, and throughout the year on His 7 Feasts, for us to be in relationship with Him and as dress rehearsals for His coming.  The Spring Feasts of Unleavened Bread, Passover, First Fruits, and Pentecost all pointed to His first coming.  The Fall Feasts of Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Feast of Tabernacles all point to His second coming.  With that as some background here's the article from T.W. Tramm:    https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5200   The next article is about the rise in persecution of Christians around the world.  It's called " The Ignored Pandemic: 360 Million Christians Persecuted Worldwide " written by Raymond Ibrahim and it was published on Feb. 13th at gatewoodinstitute.org https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18226/christians-persecuted-worldwide   Of course, here in the U.S. we've seen an increase in censorship and unfair treatment of Christians, but we are not persecuted...not yet. You won't hear about what's going on around the world to Christians in the mainstream media, probably no matter how bad it gets, so I think it's good for us to be aware of this so we can pray for other believers and as a sign to us of where we are on the Biblical calendar.       E   L   Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24 - ESV   A https://www.patreon.com/christianmenatwork https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/christianmenatwork   H   Jokes   What did the pizza parlour owner say to his employee during their performance review? - You have mushroom for improv