The Chilean Earthquake and Feast of Purim

When the big earthquake measuring 8.8 hit Chile on February 27, 2010 a friend of mine asked me whether I think the earthquake had anything to do with the Feast of Purim celebrated in Israel and among the Jews on that day. My initial reaction was that the two events have no relationship at all.  However, recent research uncovered seems to point to a linkage after all.

The Feast of Purim    is celebrated each year on the 13th day of the 12th month (Adar) - Esther 9 and this year the feast day started at sunset on February 27 and ended at sunset on February 28. The feast was in commemoration of how God rescued the entire Jewish race from extermination at the hands of Haman, a wicked descendent of the Philistines who was the prime minister at that time in the Persian. His evil plot was uncovered by Mordecai, the adopted father of Queen Esther (he was actually an older cousin of hers) who then got the Queen to go to the king to negate the royal decree (the full account of how the plot was overturned is in Esther 9). In the end the tables were turned - Haman was hung and the Jews turned and got rid of all the supported of Haman and they scored a major victory. So the Jews to this day would celebrate the Feast by giving gifts that symbolizes life.

Chile hosts the LARGEST community of Palestinians outside of Israel. This community is located between Concepcion (the epicenter of the Chilean earthquake) and the capital of Chile, Santiago, which lies north of Concepcion. According to wikipedia, Concepcion has a "twin city," which usually means a sister city in some way, such as through trade agreements or partnerships. Concepcion has listed as a "twin city," Bethlehem in Israel.

  
The Chilean earthquake at 8.8 was the 5th strongest on record. THE strongest earthquake ever recorded was in Chile in 1960 and is called the Valdivia earthquake because the epicenter was near Valdivia. Here is an interesting bit of synchronicity: Valdivia was named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and Valdivia also founded Concepcion and Santiago.
And we all know the recent Palestinian riots in the West Bank of Israel arising from the Israeli government declaring the Tomb of Rachel which is in Bethlehem as an Israeli heritage site. Bethlehem is in the West Bank and governed by the Palestinian Authority. And we also know the intent of the Palestinians - to 'wipe out the State of Israel' - as stated by its late leader Yasser Arafat (sounds familiar as similar words were spoken by another leader of Philistine descent).

According to your faith...(Part 2)

Yesterday I shared about the degree of healing that comes along with our faith and today I want to continue on and share how the Lord provided for me according to my faith. About six months ago I met up with one of my principal business partners who started having doubts about my loyalty with what I was doing even when I kept reassuring him that my commitment to what we were doing had not waned or diminished and that he had my full support all the way.

Anyway, in spite of all my assurances, he still went ahead and recruited additional people into the business and so I did not feel comfortable with the situation and I sent him an email releasing him of his commitment in my case and also assuring him categorically that my Lord Jesus Christ WILL supply all my needs and WILL send me other business opportunities.

No sooner had I sent the email than the Lord actually sent me a number of email introductions for which I did follow up and believing the Lord that these will turn out to be actual ongoing projects. Also the Lord is gracious in that a potential client whom I met in August 2009 and whom I had sort of placed on the back-burner did call me up for a meeting in late January 2010 and after two meetings, have signed my engagement contract and I will be starting work this week. All glory to the Lord.

What I have learnt over the past few months is that the Lord did give me spiritual insights (some people label this as 'sixth sense') to know the outcome way before the actual results are made known. Over the past few months I noticed that there were a number of potential projects for which I did not have a good 'feel' at the initial meetings and these never went past the first meetings. On the other hand there were a few instances where I had very strong feelings of the business coming into fruition and I kept believing and indeed these materialized into actual contracts.

Likewise I had similar experiences even in my equity investments - there were a number of stock counters where I felt a lot of peace to invest in and these turned out profitable - the Lord even gave me levels to liquidate to lock in profits and trust me, the levels given to me were rather interesting levels which even my remisier initially thought were impossible levels but by now she had learnt not to doubt.

Indeed, I am now running with this commission from the Lord, "according to your faith, be it done unto you"!

According to your faith...(Part 1)

My daily devotion this morning brought me to Matthew chapter 9 and I was especially drawn to the healing miracles of Jesus. In chapter 8, we read that everyone who came to Jesus were healed - from minor sicknesses all the way to major ones like raising the dead and cleansing from leprosy.

But what amazes me was Matthew 9:29 where the Holy Spirit recorded for us the miracle of healing of sight for two blind men. You see they came to Jesus and asked Him to healed them; when Jesus asked them whether they believed that He is able to heal them and they said in the affirmative, He gave them their sight "according to their faith". Probably the two blind men only had healing in their hearts and minds and nothing else and so they kept their faith simple.

In Luke 17:11-19 we read that ten lepers came to Jesus and asked for healing; Jesus pronounced them healed and instructed them to go and show themselves to the priest that their leprous condition had been cured. On the way to the priest, one of them, a non-Jew, realizing what had happened turned back to thank Jesus and worship the Healer and Jesus did something more for him - Jesus made him WHOLE. I believe that meant that the stubs on his hands where his fingers used to be began to grow back into fingers and likewise his toes were re-created in an instant.

Today Jesus invites us to come to Him and to draw from Him. What level of faith do we have? According to our faith whatever we are believing Him for, we will receive - if a miracle is what we need, a miracle we will get. Which leads me to an interesting observation. More than twenty years ago I had a very severe attack of spondylitis of the 4th and 5th lumbar. I recalled asking the Lord for a miracle of healing but deep down I kind of was not willing to be completely healed for a simple reason - that condition gave me a passport to the army medical board and 'guarantees' me a downgrading of medical fitness for the balance of my reservist liability. I cherished the thought that finally I could have my NS liability reduced or even have a prematured termination. Even when it became painful, I endured it and found ways to alleviate the pain and this went on for a while (honestly I could not remember when the pain stopped when they finally did) until I received my official medical downgrade to PES C2 which meant no more strenuous exercises or even field deployments.

So what am I saying? that I could have enjoyed my complete healing on the first day itself but because of my level of faith, there was no instant healing in my case. Having learnt from that incident, I will now believe upon Jesus that His finished work gave me divine health and that is what I have been enjoying for some time now. My last major sickness (besides an irritating cough and cold) was more than 10 years ago and I have not even gone for any medical examinations since 1998 when I went for a pre-employment medical checkup. In fact I would say that Deutsche Bank actually saved a lot of money from me not having gone to the doctors throughout my 8-1/2 years there.

According to your faith... what is your level of faith for your healing?

The Sign Of The Cross In The Heavens?

A few weeks ago NASA's Hubble Space Telescope picked up a very interesting phenomenon in the heavens 90 million miles from Earth. Apparently one interpretation was that two asteroids collided and the impact produced a trail of space dust with a cross formed as the head.

Is this a sign from Daddy God that His return for the Church (the Rapture) is fast approaching?

"And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory."(Mark 13:25-26)

Please read this article and you draw your own conclusions

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125439

Rest In Our Work

Indeed the title does sound like an oxymoron - work and yet rest; how can that be? Certainly it sounded difficult, if not impossible, at the beginning of the year for me but I was glad that the Lord prepared us for it through the messages preached for five Sundays by Pastor Prince.

The Lord reminded us that Abraham was not perfect when the Lord called him and He blessed him and since the Bible exhorts us that we who are of faith in Jesus are being called sons of Abraham (Gal 3:7) and daughters of Sarah (1Peter 3:6), we too can enjoy His blessings on our lives as well. It is not about what we do but it has all to do with what He had DONE for us on the cross. As so since Jesus had already done all that needed to be done to secure our position of righteousness with God in Him, there is not even one more iota to be added.

And since Jesus had accomplished ALL, we need to simply rest on the knowledge that His completed work on the cross was all that was required and henceforth our positions in Him are secure. And so, because of this established fact, we can now step out in faith to face 2010 with gusto and not be overwhelmed with whatever the devil tries to throw across our paths.

He Who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. That, in itself, gives me great comfort!