Happy New Year! May your new year be blessed with love, laughter and temperance in all things.

A minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great emphasis he said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he said, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river." Sermon complete, he sat down.

The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365,

"We Shall Gather at the River."

Thank you Pastor Roger for a quick reply. I will try that. Thanks!

I have a blog here http://members.christiansunite.com/blogging.cgi
I have a new email, and on my account/profile options there is not an edit button for email. How can I update that? Thanks and have a blessed Christmas. 

Woo Hoo! John the Baptist, I can see why you chose your name (and I loved this strange Biblical character). But as you can see my name is editor. I like commentaries. I read the article perhaps quite different than you did. What interested me the most was the question that popped into my mind was, "What have you done with my Son?'

He urges Christians to pour their time and energies into helping fulfil the Great Commission.

I, for one am not on the cutting edge, but I don't resent those on the front line. I listen, I contemplate, I may reject or respond. Those that are in the news, at the very least, get read from me. Message boards? Well yes, they have their place.

But yes, I read from you, "Let the stones cry out," and I heartedy agree. Still can't help myself to post news articles.  

[What a job, A4C but someone has got to do it.]

What a job, A4C but someone has got to do it.

Leading Pastor Warns Believers of 'Doomsday Distraction'
Ted Haggard says some have 'false hopes of a premature Second Coming'
 

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A leading pastor has warned Christians against spending too much time debating how close the end of the world is, rather than helping bring it about through what they do.
Some believers have been "distracted with false hopes of a premature Second Coming," says Ted Haggard, pastor of 9,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., in an article in the June issue of "Charisma" magazine, out this week.

But getting actively involved in church life might do more for Jesus' return than "attending a prophecy seminar," suggests the recently appointed president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

"Making long-term lifestyle choices that place strong believers in positions of influence might be more helpful than short-term fixes," he writes. "Constant, steady integrity might be more important than stocking your basement with dried food and canned goods."

Haggard, a founder of the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, and the Internet-based World Prayer Team, suggests that a "fixation" on Israel's place in the end times has meant Christians have overlooked Bible passages "that indicate the Second Coming is predicated on our spreading the gospel throughout the world.

"The expansion of the kingdom of God might be our best predictor of when the end will come," he adds, "and right now there are several billion people on the planet who still have not heard the gospel."

Haggard recalls how emphasis on Christ's imminent return in the past led to people making choices "that altered the course of their lives based on a misunderstanding of where they [were] on the timeline of human history."

Some rushed into marriages, or avoided college and career opportunities because they thought they only had a short time in which to share the gospel, while others bought remote properties in an anticipation of a major economic collapse, "all because they misunderstood the times."

Haggard says: "... it's time to accept the possibility that perhaps the most obvious and clearly articulated messages of Scripture are indeed or primary importance, and the secret formulas pointing to our being the 'last generation' are hidden for a reason: They do not reveal the truth and are a distraction for many in the Body of Christ."

While some say the rise of cults and secularism points to the "falling away" the Bible teaches will precede Jesus' return, Haggard contends that churches are growing more rapidly now "than in any other time in Christian history... The world is not becoming more secular... It is becoming more Christian."

He urges Christians to pour their time and energies into helping fulfil the Great Commission. "Live as if He were coming back today, but plan as if we were going to live a long, full life," he advises.

"... if we will use our resources and not become distracted with false hopes of a premature Second Coming, we will realize God's calling for us. We will expand His kingdom so that when He does come, the celebration can be bigger and greater than we had ever dreamed."

Read Ted Haggard's article, "Doomsday Distraction," in the June issue of "Charisma" magazine, out this week.

 

Just perhaps it should read that Christ & His Angels do not make known the day or the hour?

Unless one makes a lucky guess. I won't hold my breath.

But the date setters do give us amusement. Or concern.

[RAPTURE?Pat Robertson was on Hannity and Colmes radio program. He repeated his belief that 2007 may see major prophetic fulfillment. He is looking for 2007 to be Messiah's Second Coming, and if he is correct, then we are at near the beginning of the final 3 1/2 years. Pat believes Christians will go through the tribulation, and his TV network has recently established an alternate studio in Nashville, Tennessee, far away from Virginia near so many military installations. A nuke on the fleet at the Norfolk Naval Base and shipyards would wipe out the present CBN facilities in nearby Virginia Beach.]

Hello friends. For the record I am against all date setting, and as of a few days ago I believe twobombs has deleted his account so I don't know what I can contribute to this thread.

 I rejected the earthquake prophecy by Chuck here simply because of the date setting. I now present you with another date setter from Zion Prophecy News.
RAPTURE?
Pat Robertson was on Hannity and Colmes radio program. He repeated his belief that 2007 may see major prophetic fulfillment. He is looking for 2007 to be Messiah's Second Coming, and if he is correct, then we are at near the beginning of the final 3 1/2 years. Pat believes Christians will go through the tribulation, and his TV network has recently established an alternate studio in Nashville, Tennessee, far away from Virginia near so many military installations. A nuke on the fleet at the Norfolk Naval Base and shipyards would wipe out the present CBN facilities in nearby Virginia Beach.



Think of Christ before you speak, date setters and especially His word to you as reads:

Mt. 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.