Grace frustrated
Spiritual blindness and dullness of hearing is a continuing subject throughout Biblical history. For instance, when we read the word of God, we sometimes automatically associate what it says to how it lines up with our human agendas. Then, we say Amen.
13 That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.
14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. (Mat 13:13-14 NLT)
In school we learned that the statement, “to have an ear to hear” means to already have an ear that attends to God’s word. The Word of God is consequently Hallowed and Blessed as it transcends all laws, bylaws, regulations, decrees, or rulings. The Word of God is not a manuscript, but a person.
CJB 1 John 1:1 The Word, which gives life! He existed from the beginning. We have heard him, we have seen him with our eyes, we have contemplated him, we have touched him with our hands! (1Jo 1:1 CJB)
When the Jews would bring the Torah into the Synagogue, the messianic Jews would kiss their Bibles then touch the outer case which enclosed the Torah as it passed through the congregation. Police escorts were called into service when the Torah was relocated into a different Synagogue.
Deu 29:4 “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.
ADONAI did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants and to all his land;
2 the great testings which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs and those great wonders.
3 Nevertheless, to this day ADONAI has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear!
4 I led you forty years in the desert. Neither the clothes on your body nor the shoes on your feet wore out.
5 You didn’t eat bread, and you didn’t drink wine or other intoxicating liquor; this was so that you would know that ‘I am ADONAI your God.’ (Deu 29:1-5 CJB)
7 For conflicts must arise, but the end will not have been reached. For nation will become aggressive against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these phenomena are the beginning of sufferings (Mat 24:7-8 MIT)
Grace frustrated
A Report from Wallops Island, Virginia – Missions flown from the 
NASA base here have documented some of the most dramatic evidence of a warming planet over the past 20 years: the melting of polar ice, a force contributing to a global rise in ocean levels.
The Wallops Flight Facility’s relationship with rising seas doesn’t end there. Its billion-dollar space launch complex occupies a barrier island that’s drowning under the impact of worsening storms and flooding.
NASA’s response? Rather than move out of harm’s way, officials have added more than $100 million in new structures over the past five years and spent $43 million more to fortify the shoreline with sand. Nearly a third of that new sand has since been washed away.
Across a narrow inlet to the north sits the island town of Chincoteague, gateway to a national wildlife refuge blessed with a stunning mile-long recreational beach – a major tourist draw and source of big business for the community. But the sea is robbing the townspeople of their main asset.
The beach has been disappearing at an average rate of 10 to 22 feet (3 to 7 meters) a year. The access road and a 1,000-car parking lot have been rebuilt five times in the past decade because of coastal flooding, at a total cost of $3 million.
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/waters-edge-the-crisis-of-rising-sea-levels/
“You’ve got to deal with the fact that it’s happening – and what are you going to do with those of us on the edge?” Grayson Chesser, lifelong resident, Accomack County, Virginia.
Scripture reflects the state of Israel and the consequences of rebellion. The Lord will not coexist with lawless corruption. Likewise, because of a moral decline, we are in danger of losing the grace and protection the believers have shared around the world.
We hear growing concerns such as the melting ice discovered at the Poles. This may not be surprising to the average person who has been keeping up with the headlines. However, some places are reporting that the seas are reclaiming land base as much as 22 feet a year. That is as high as two basketball goals on top of one another! It
seems as though the prosperity of the nations who once enjoyed God’s grace will now experience a period of calamities for the sake of bringing them to repentance.
42 “This is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them.
(Jer 32:41-42 NLT)
Too long, we have trusted in the government’s ability to solve our problems. We have trusted in man’s ability to somehow prevent terrorism. On the contrary, a television reporter recently issued a statement from the king of an Arab nation that warned of impending terrorist attacks. These threats were directed at Europe within one month and the United States within two months.
“Cursed is the man that trusteth in man.” Jer 17:5
A Report by David Cenciotti
Even though it’s not impossible, it would be at least difficult to successfully execute a 9/11-like suicide attack using one of the airliners allegedly missing in Libya.
Grace frustrated
In the last few days, media outlets all around the world have reported the news of the threat of a 9/11 type of attack posed by a certain number of civilian jet liners (“about a dozen”) seized by militias that took control of Tripoli airport.
An interesting story published on NYCAviation has already raised 
some questions about the amount of missing aircraft. What we are going to discuss here is the possibility to launch a suicide attack using one of the airplanes captured in Libya (provided any airliner is really available for such a terrorist action).
Even if a U.S. Department official is quite obviously, a reliable source and, although a missing airplane is never good news for intelligence agencies since September 11 2001, there are several things that must be considered to really evaluate the threat of a “renegade” aircraft used as a missile against a ground target. That said, we can’t completely rule out that a terrorist attack with civil planes can be carried out, as there are many unlikely (still not impossible) things that can be done to escape detection by radars, like flying in the shadow of another plane, but let’s stick to reality: a hijacked plane is, still today, a more serious threat even for the most prepared and well equipped air defense.
No Panic: Airliners went missing in Libya pose little threat of 9/11 attack
The Lord actually finds joy in blessing His people and He is able to protect us – spirit, soul and body. It’s only after we turn our backs on God and begin to place our interests in ungodly things that we jeopardize this divine security.
JPS Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the LORD: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. (Jer 17:5 JPS)
JPS Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. (Jer 29:13 JPS)
A very important aspect of God’s righteous judgment is demonstrated when Israel experienced periods of slavery as judgment for their sinful behavior.
NLT Judges 3:14 And the Israelites served Eglon of Moab for eighteen years. (Jdg 3:14 NLT)
NLT Judges 6:1 The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. (Jdg 6:1 NLT)
NLT Judges 13:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight, so the LORD handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years. (Jdg 13:1 NLT)
NLT Jeremiah 29:10 This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. (Jer 29:10 NLT)
This may shock believers, but on several occasions throughout the history of Israel, God punished them by delivering them over to serve evil nations.
2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? (Heb 2:2-3 NLT)
Maybe this is the misunderstanding that we’ve had over the years, that somehow God forgets to punish the wicked. The truth is that even when God really wants to bless us, He will not break His rules of righteous judgment.
6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.
7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.
8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Col 3:6-11 NLT)
10 For thus saith the LORD: After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will remember you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 And ye shall call upon Me, and go, and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. (Jer 29:10-13 JPS)
Perhaps, what we are experiencing as calamities around the world today is actually God’s way of speaking to a rebellious and immoral world.
41 I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.
42 “This is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them.
(Jer 32:41-42 NLT)