Jan 2
Prayers for the New Year
There really isn't anything all that special about the calendar rolling over
to a new year. Now that January 1, 2006 is here, it's still winter out, your
troops are still deployed in Iraq, and we still have leftovers from Christmas dinner
sitting in our refrigerators.
What makes the arrival of a new year important is how we use the January 1
milestone to track the passage of time. Most people know what they were doing
5 years ago, but if you asked what they were doing 20,000 hours ago or a
million minutes ago, they would need to use a calculator to find a frame of
reference.
I use the passing of each year to reflect on what we've
accomplished with the Rapture Ready site. I also set goals for every new
year to keep us on the path of continued progress.
Becasue people normally fail to achieve the things we wished to accomplish, it's important to set goals. Most New Year's resolutions don't make it past the first week of January. Goals don't mean anything unless there is a commitment to back them up.
I firmly believe prayer is the foundation for any winning strategy. Far too
many ministries base their plan of operation on marketing tools or the
drawing power of a charismatic leader. They reserve prayer for hopeless situations when human intervention presents no possible solutions.
Rapture Ready has become an amazing success because I've always relied upon
God to bless every article posted on the site. Once you have the
Lord working in your favor, no obstacle can stand in your way.
Because the power of prayer is so vital, I would like to start off 2006 by
asking everyone to pray for the following for areas:
Rapture Ready - The site has become one of the largest and most active
prophetic ministries on the internet. With no place to go but down, it's vital that
we seek God's hand in maintaining our momentum. Please pray that the Lord
continues to draw the media to our domain. As we get closer to the rapture,
I believe a spirit of apathy is going to make it very difficult for the
press to stay focused on end-time events. The year 2005 saw an amazing
number of natural disasters, and yet prophetic interest drifted lower.
My ultimate hope is for the Lord to preserve the site for the time of the
rapture. When Jesus calls His bride, the church, home, tens of millions of people will
turn to the internet for information. It would be an eternal blessing to see
thousands come to faith because of our efforts.
Our Nation - The Bible doesn't offer any promise that America will continue
to be a great nation. It could fall into disarray, with Europe or China
taking the lead on the world stage. Because the U.S. is the main source of
missionaries, we need to pray that it remains a strong nation.
The Body of Christ - Christianity as a whole is in desperate need of
prayer. I mostly write to a target audience in North America
because of the poor state of affairs for so-called Christian nations in
Europe and around the world. I don't think the trend in Europe will be
reversed, but I think we can help stem the losses here at home.
Prayer can be the ultimate test of our motivation level. You can be sitting
in your recliner and still be interceding on behalf of the Kingdom of God. If
you reflect on 2005 and find that your productivity was not up to par,
my suggestion would be to make up for lost ground by praying all the harder
for this year.
Good News for 2006!
Recently we at Rapture Ready were accused of presenting only news of the worst kind. Never, it was charged, do we accentuate the positive. So, it is perhaps appropriate to look ahead into this new year with the hope of finding prospects that are brighter than most of the reports coming all too often from this much troubled world.
To look into the future, we, as mere mortals, must look to the past in order to determine if there will be good news during the coming year. And, although the news is predominantly always going to be not so good, the following tidbits of past offerings make us hopeful there is still good news to come. In searching for items of interest, I hit the mother lode on a site called happynews.com. Here are some items this site proposes as “happy news,” which we might consider in the hope of at least a scattering of bright spots ahead in 2006.
Please note that I’ve only got the headlines. I’m sure you will want to hurry to the site to get the full stories, which are provided there.
Norwegian Calls for Sri Lanka Peace Talks in New Delhi, India
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A Norwegian official who brokered Sri Lanka's 2002 cease-fire called on the Asian country's government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to resume peace talks urgently to avoid sliding back into civil war…(World News, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. Associated Press, DILIP GANGULY, Updated: 12/29/05).
Japanese Honor Kabuki Acting Great Hayashi
TOKYO - Dressed in kimono and hair-do, Japanese geisha women, entertainers trained in traditional dancing and singing, join in a parade marking kabuki actor Ganjiro Nakamura's succession to Tojuro Sakata. A Kabuki actor named Kotaro Hayashi is honored as one of the greatest performers in the 400-year-old Japanese drama… A beloved Kabuki actor who is considered a Japanese national treasure paraded through the streets of Tokyo on Wednesday, flanked by geishas in black kimonos and men singing traditional songs to the cheers of hundreds of admirers. The parade honored Kotaro Hayashi as one of the greatest performers in the 400-year-old Japanese drama…(Associated Press, CHISAKI WATANABE, Updated: 12/28/05).
Now… Let’s see… What else is “happy news”?…
Here’s another…
Soldiers Leave Tsunami-Ravaged Aceh, Indonesia
LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia - Indonesia started the final phase of a troop reduction in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on Thursday, a key step in a peace agreement with separatist rebels that was propelled forward by the disaster one year ago…(Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005, Associated Press, AYI JUFRIDARUpdated: 12/29/05).
More happy news from abroad…
Kenya's Hippo, Tortoise Mark Year Together
NAIROBI, Kenya - Mzee, a giant tortoise, is still with his adopted companion, a young hippopotamus named Owen, a year after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean… (Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005, Associated Press, RODRIQUE NGOWI, Updated: 12/28/05).
So much for world news… Let’s see…Ah! Yes! Here’s what we’re looking for…
Home News:
Poodle Survives Eight Days After Crash (I’ve put in the description of the photo, to present the happy reunion…You can go to the site and see it, if you wish)
ELKO, Nev.- Irene DellaSilva, of Ogden, Utah, kisses her poodle, Lizzie, after their reunion Monday, Dec. 26, 2005, at Vega Construction in Elko, Nev. Lee DellaSilva looks on at left. The poodle was spotted and rescued by a Union Pacific crew thanks to a "missing dog" poster that the owners had provided to a UP outpost…(Associated Press, Updated: 12/29/05).
And,another…
Virginia Zoo workers Try To Rescue Prairie Dogs
NORFOLK, Va.- After numerous prairie dogs' burrows collapsed last week, workers in the Virginia Zoo rescued the animals and [the animals] are being kept safe…(Associated Press).
Candy Bar Inspired By Idaho Spuds a Seller
BOISE, Idaho-Even the maker of the Idaho Spud candy bar thinks it's a little weird. But the chocolate-covered, potato-shaped Spud sells at a rate of 3 million bars a year…” (Associated Press, ANNE WALLACE ALLEN).
Sorry, but that’s about all the “happy news” I can manage for now. Maybe we can do it again at the beginning of 2007. However, we are looking for even happier news between now and then. That’s the purpose of the raptureready.com website, is it not?
Our purpose here is to point to the Lord Jesus Christ as the “blessed hope” of Titus 2: 13. Our thought is to leave behind for the left behind the message –many messages, as a matter of fact—that the “blessed hope” for the Church Age saints is the only hope for the tribulation earth-dwellers.
We think it’s serious business that we are about. This doesn’t mean that we are adverse to “happy news,” or that we don’t like to have a little fun, even when it comes to Bible prophecy. Just look at some of our articles and their titles. Todd is one of the few people in existence with the good humor and –in my view—the genius--to see God’s great humor in even such a somber study as biblical prophecy.
We present something far superior to “happy news,” I believe. We present the “good news,” the gospel message of Jesus Christ. That good news is that He came from the throne room of heaven to become both God and man, to die as a sacrifice for our sin, to be buried –taking our sins with Him into the grave—then to resurrect and ascend where He is our advocate before the heavenly Father.
Jesus Christ could come at any moment in the Rapture, and we want you to be ready for that stupendous event.
Now, that really IS good news for 2006!
--Terry
