"GOD'S GRACE" - PASS IT ON!

GOD'S GRACE! 

I wonder how many people will delete this without reading it because of the title. It is a shame but this message is very true. Hope you are all as blessed as I was by this story.

There once was a man named

George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak....


"I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage.. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright. I stopped the lad and asked, "What do you have there, son?"

"Just some old birds," came the reply.

"What are you going to do with them?" I asked.

"Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time."

"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?"

"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy. "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them."

The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"

"Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister.

They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!"

"How much?" the pastor asked again.

The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "$10?"

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free. Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story: 

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught a world full
of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!"

"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.

Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!"

"And what will you do when you are done with them?"
Jesus asked. "Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.

"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you.. You don't want those people!!"

"How much? He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."

Jesus said, "DONE!" Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.

I pray, for everyone who sends this on, whether to their entire address book or just a few, that God will bless them in a special way.

AN APPEAL FOR THE PHILIPPINES ON BEHALF OF MY COLLEAGUE AND VERY GOOD FRIEND DAVID HOYLE.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Contrary to my normal practice of only declaring needs to the Lord Himself, I would like to use my Blog to highlight the continuing needs of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines in the aftermath of the Typhoon Haiyan. 

David Hoyle, Chairman of the Bible Prophecy Foundation, raised and distributed a very considerable sum of money which 3 local evangelical workers used to feed and clothe those who had lost everything, some believers in the Lord Jesus and some not. Money was also used to purchase simple building materials to start the process of re-construction of homes and Christian meeting places.

At the same time as giving practical help to the people, these Christian workers brought the gospel by personal witness and by organising meetings amongst those to whom they brought relief. A very good number have professed a true faith in the  Jesus as Lord and Saviour and that work continues.

David has sent all the money which was raised from churches and individuals but the great needs remain although the pot of funds is dry. The media attention has gone, the official government help remains patchy and a number of assemblies and gatherings of the Lord's people are still without help for themselves or to share with their non-believing neighbours.

Can you help? Any amount large or small goes directly and completely to the brothers and sisters in the Philippines. Nothing is  kept back for expenses. Those doing the hard graft on the ground are committed to the End Times endeavour of urgently proclaiming the Lord Jesus as coming King and the current and only "Saviour of sinners...Saviour of sinners like me" as the hymn writer penned..
If you are able to contribute funds to continue the work please make cheques payable to David Hoyle and send to him at 39, Rydal Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 4SD. Everything you can give is greatly appreciated by our needy brothers and sisters.

With love in Jesus, MARANATHA,

Brian.

A GREAT ARTICLE BY J.N.DARBY FROM OVER 130 YEARS AGO, BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY, AS IT IS STILL SO RELEVANT TO ALL OF US!

The Bridegroom Cometh

A Word in Season

Beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, the day of the apostasy is hastening on with rapid strides, and also the day in which the Lord shall come to catch His own away.

The present moment is of so solemn a character that I feel constrained to address to you this word of exhortation. Godly men everywhere who watch the signs of the times see the moment approaching which shall terminate the present actings of grace. 

The time has evidently arrived when one must speak plainly and decisively, and ask you where you are and what you are about. You have by grace, which has shone brighter and brighter as it has approached its termination, been gathered out of the seething mass of idolatry and wickedness that now threatens Christendom and the world with an overthrow more awful than that of Sodom and Gomorrah of old. The question is whether you are adequately impressed with the responsibility as well as the blessedness of the ground you are on, and walking like men and women whose eyes have been opened. 

Believe me, there has never been in the world’s history such a time as the present, and Satan is occupied with none as he is with you, and his occupation with you is the more to be feared because of the subtlety of his operations. 

His object is to withdraw your attention from Christ, while you suppose you are on safe ground and have nothing to fear. He would destroy you with the very truth itself. For mark the subtlety: you are on safe ground, but only while Christ is your all in all. Here is where Satan is drawing some away. Interpose anything between your soul and Christ and your Philadelphia becomes Laodicea. Your safe ground is as unsafe as the rest of Christendom. Your strength is gone from you, and you become weak like any ordinary mortal. 

Some of you are young, recently converted, or brought to the right ways of the Lord, and you do not know the depths of Satan. But you are hereby solemnly warned of your peril, and if mischief overtake you, you cannot plead ignorance. 

Again I say, Satan has his eye especially upon you, for the purpose of interposing the world in some form between your soul and Christ. He cares not how little, or in what form. If you knew but how little will answer his purpose, you would be alarmed. It is not by that which is gross or shameful: such is the development, not the beginning of evil. It is not by anything glaring that he seeks to ruin you, but in small and seemingly harmless trifles—trifles that would not shock nor offend anyone as things go, and yet these constitute the deadly and insidious poison destined to ruin your testimony and withdraw you from Christ. 

Do you ask what are these alarming symptoms, and where are they seen? The question does but show what is the character of the opiate at work.

Brethren and sisters, you are being infected with the spirit of the world. Your dress, your manner, your talk, your lack of spirituality, betray it in every gathering. There is a dead weight, a restraint, a want of power, that reveals itself in the meetings, as plainly as if your heart were visibly displayed and its thoughts publicly read. A form of godliness without power is beginning to be seen among you as plainly as in Christendom generally. As surely as you tamper with the world, so surely will you drift away to its level. 

This is the nature of things. It must be so. If you tamper with the world, the privileged place you occupy, instead of shielding you, will only expose you to greater condemnation. It must be Christ or the world. It cannot be—ought not to be—Christ and the world. God’s grace in drawing you out of the world in your ignorance is one thing, but God will never permit you to prostitute His grace and play fast and loose when you have been separated from the world.

Remember, you take the place and claim the privilege of one whose eyes have been opened. If on the one hand this is unspeakably blessed (and it is), on the other hand it is the most dreadful position in which a human being can be found. It is to be at the wedding feast without the wedding garment. It is to say, “Lord, Lord,” while you do not the things that He bids. It is to say, “I go, sir,” as he said who went not. 

Beloved, I am persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak, and I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will bless Him for these few faithful words. Nothing can be more glorious than the position you are called to occupy in these closing days. Saints have stood in the breach; have watched through weary days and nights these eighteen hundred years, and you only wait for the trumpet of victory to go in and take possession of the glorious inheritance. Other men laboured, and you are entered into their labours, and yet, in truth, you are lowering your dignity to the level of the poor potsherds of the earth, who only wait for the rod of the Victor (and yours too) to be dashed into pieces. 

Oh, awake then from your lethargy! Slumber no longer. Put away your idols and false gods. Wash your garments, and get you to Bethel, where you will find God to be better than ever you knew Him, even in your best days. Lay aside your last bit of worldly dress. Guard your speech, that it may be of Christ and His affairs, and not, as you know it now often is, of anything but Him. 

Let your prayers mingle with those of other saints at the prayer meetings; they never were more needed. Neglect no opportunity of gathering up instruction from that word which alone can keep us from the paths of the destroyer. Let your life be the evidence of the treasures you gather up at the lecture, or the reading meeting, or in secret with the Lord. 

If you want occupation, with a glorious reward from a beloved Master, ask that Master to set you to work for Him. You will never regret it, neither in this world nor in that which is to come. 

Beloved, bear with me; I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. You belong to Christ, and Christ to you. Break not this holy union. Let not the betrothed one be unfaithful to her Bridegroom! Why should you be robbed and spoiled? And for what? Empty husks and bitter fruits, while you waste this little span of blessing! All the distinctions acquired here in the energy of the Spirit will but serve to enhance your beauty and render you more lovely in the eyes of Him who has espoused you to Himself. 

Can you refuse Him His delights in you? Can you refuse Him the fruit of the travail of His soul, who once hung, a dying man, between two thieves, on Calvary, a spectacle to men and angels, and for you—you who have forgotten (for you cannot have despised) this devotedness for you.

He could have taken the world without the cross and left you out, but He would not. And now will you, having been enriched by those agonies and that blood, take the world into your tolerance and leave Him out? Impossible! Your pure mind needs but to be stirred up by way of remembrance. 

Let us therefore take courage from this moment. We have lately been offering up prayers, confessing the lack of piety and devotedness. May we not take this word as the answer of our ever-gracious faithful Lord to arouse us—to reawaken our drooping energies? And then the more quickly He comes the better. 

We shall not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

John Nelson Darby

PA LEADER STATES THAT THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY WILL ONLY AGREE TO A PEACE TREATY WITH ISRAEL IF THE PALESTINE STATE IS ESTABLISHED ON THE 1967 LINES!! NO CHANCE OF THIS HAPPENING THEN!!

PA Leader: Plan To Eliminate Israel In Stages Is Basis Of PA Policy

http://palwatch.org

In an interview on Syrian TV, senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki said the PA will only agree to a treaty with Israel if the Palestinian state is established on the 1967 lines. However, he stressed that '67 lines would only be the beginning. After that, the Palestinians will continue with the stages plan:

"Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

In an interview on Al-Jazeera TV in 2011, Zaki also mentioned this PA stages plan and referred to "the inspiring idea," explaining that it means the end of Israel. He said that Mahmoud Abbas shares the goal of eliminating Israel in stages, but that the PA says it only wants a state along the 1967 borders because it is unacceptable politically to say you want to destroy Israel:

"You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."

Zaki stressed that the goal is clear-cut because if Israel were to return to the 1967 lines, it certainly could not survive: "Israel will come to an end."

This is Zaki's full statement from 2011:

"The agreement is based on the borders of June 4 [1967]. While the agreement is on the borders of June 4, the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the great goal in one stroke.

If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, if Israel uproots the settlements, 650,000 settlers, if Israel removes the (security) fence - what will be with Israel? Israel will come to an end. If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."

[Al-Jazeera TV, Sept. 23, 2011]

Expressing his refusal to recognize Israel earlier this year during a public lecture, Abbas Zaki started to refer to Israel's Ben Gurion Airport as "Israel's Airport," but then stopped himself and corrected himself:
"When Mr. Obama came to the region during his visit, as soon as he arrived at the airport of Isra... [corrects himself], I mean, the airport where the Israelis are. I don't want... [corrects himself] this whole country is ours, and Allah willing, the airport will also return to us."

These statements coming from Abbas Zaki are significant because he is a senior Palestinian official and a very close associate of Mahmoud Abbas. He was sent to Syria as Mahmoud Abbas' personal representative a few months ago and has spoken at public events representing Fatah.

Another important statement reiterating that the PA is employing a stages plan to defeat Israel was expressed recently by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in a Friday sermon in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas.

Al-Habbash, speaking after the current round of peace talks was announced, said that the PA's negotiations with Israel are modeled after the Hudaybiyyah agreement between Islam's Prophet Muhammad and the tribes of Mecca. Recounting that Muhammad signed a 10-year truce, and yet two years later conquered Mecca, the minister stated: "This is the example and this is the model."

PA TV host: "And of course we will never forget that we have land that was occupied in 1948, which will return to us one day. Remember well, children. Also [remember] to safeguard our folklore, our national games, the folklore in all its forms, our dress and our food and our games and anything that forms the Palestinian folklore - we have to safeguard it. If we don't safeguard it, then the occupation might steal it as well, as it stole our land. Right? Do you agree with me? Bravo!"

Bringing up children to see all of Israel as "occupied" territory and as "stolen Palestinian land" that will "return" at some future time are significant components of Palestinian Authority ideology that are never expressed to Western leaders or Israelis, and are denied during peace discussions. Zaki's description of the peace process as intended to lead to Israel's destruction is consistent with these messages to PA children and many other internal messages the PA leadership sends to its population.

The following is an excerpt from Abbas Zaki's recent interview:

Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient."
Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]

The following is a longer excerpt of the sermon delivered by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash comparing negotiations with Israel to Muhammad's Treaty of Hudaybiyyah:

"We hate war. We don't want war. We don't want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for others. We want peace. We say this because our culture is founded on this, and because our religion is based on this. Yes, we want peace, but not any peace. We want a peace based on justice, therefore the Palestinian leadership and the PLO have not missed any opportunity for peace...

The Palestinian leadership's sense of responsibility towards its nation made it take political steps about 20 years ago (i.e., signing the Oslo Accords). Despite the controversy, despite much criticism and much opposition by some, it brought us to where we are today: We have a [Palestinian] Authority and the world recognizes the [Palestinian] state.

All this never would have happened through Hamas' impulsive adventure, but only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it...

The hearts of the Prophet's companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said: 'I'm the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.' This is not disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation management, conflict management...

Allah called this treaty a clear victory...

Omar ibn Al-Khattab said: 'Messenger of Allah, is this a victory? Is this logical? Is this victory? We are giving up and going back, and not entering Mecca. Is that a victory?' The Prophet said: 'Yes, it is a victory.'

In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca. This is the example, this is the model."

[Official Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 2013]

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/January14/145.html#3reQmQFxr8heviID.99

A WND EXCLUSIVE STATING "AMERICANS WARNED OF IMMINENT, DEADLY METEOR STRIKES"!!

WND EXCLUSIVE

AMERICANS WARNED OF IMMINENT, DEADLY METEOR STRIKES

Famous strategy recommended to survive

Published: 12 hours ago

 BOB UNRUH About | Email | Archive

With NASA reporting a “potentially hazardous” asteroid nearly half-a-mile wide possibly heading toward earth, and some upstate New Yorkers claiming they experienced a loud boom and a bright light in the sky last night caused by a meteor, a doctors’ organization is offering some timely advice:

Just as when the American populace first prepared for the possibility of a nuclear blast, a person’s best option for surviving a meteor strike is the same “duck and cover” created during the 1940s and ’50s when nuclear weaponry was still in its infancy.

The warning comes from Physicians for Civil Defense, which issued a statement recently during a meeting of the Emergency Management Agency of Utah.

“All Americans, starting with first responders and emergency managers, need to know this basic life-saving principle: ‘Drop and cover if you see a sudden very bright light,’” said the statement from the organization’s spokeswoman, Jane Orient, M.D.

“Such a light will be followed by a deadly shock wave within seconds. Those who drop and cover will probably survive. Those who do not are likely to be killed or suffer severe injury.”

The organization’s goal is to save lives of first responders in the event of disasters, “especially terrorist attacks using dirty bombs or nuclear weapons.”

Members note that “in today’s unprepared America, the only feasible plan that could save millions of lives on very short notice is the Nuclear War Survival Skills plan, using simple, government-developed and tested technology.”

Those three-plan components include “Drop and Cover,” “Shelter in Place,” and “Radiologic Monitoring.”

Visit the Homefront department in WND’s Superstore, for items like fire-starters, emergency food supplies, a Lifestraw for water purification, disaster preparedness kits, even Faraday kits to protect electronics from the powerful impulse that accompanies some explosions.

The first features the 1951 video on how to drop and cover, protecting one’s head, neck and face, from the impact of an energy blast from a bomb, or a meteor strike.

Featured is a question-and-answer session between Orient and civil defense expert Steve Jones, who said, “Like everyone else, I was taught to ridicule ‘duck and cover.’”

But, he said, “If you examine the blast area of a nuclear device, there is a zone half a mile wide or a mile wide, depending on the size of the blast, where anyone standing would be killed, but persons who were lying down were almost guaranteed to live. Since lying down makes a difference between living and dying or receiving a serious injury, it is a very powerful lifesaving maneuver. It takes eight times the force to move a person if he is lying down rather than standing up. Of course the military taught this for years in combat situations. World War II vets came back and if they heard an explosion or saw a flash they hit the dirt. They were embarrassed because they would be walking down a city street and suddenly hit the ground.”

On the issue of sheltering in place, the doctors’ organization lists priorities: Food and water “IMMEDIATELY!”

The guide, specifically addressing the possibility of a bomb, also speaks of the material needed to protect from radiation.

The radiological monitoring step also is addressed for a bomb, and explains how to build more secure locations and monitor radiation that does invade.

On the issue of a meteor strike, Orient’s statement noted that, “During the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor explosion, a fourth-grade teacher in Chelyabinsk, Yulia Karbysheva, saved 44 children from potentially life-threatening window glass cuts by ordering them to hide under their desks when she saw the flash.

“Ms. Karbysheva, who remained standing, was seriously lacerated when the explosion’s blast wave arrived and windows shattered. A tendon in her arm was severed, but not one of her students suffered a cut.”

“Large meteor strikes are sufficiently probable that both the U.S. and Russia are working on ways to divert them. In 1908 a meteor strike flattened 800 square miles of Siberian forest,” Orient said.

And stay calm, the doctors say.

“Mass bombing of London by Hitler in World War II created a panic that did more damage than the bombs in the early days,” the site explains. “Once the public got used to the bombings the panic ended along with damage caused by it. Likewise the scientists that brought in the nuclear age understood that panic caused by a nuclear bomb would do more damage than the bomb itself.”

While there was no reported damage, there was a bright flash that illuminated the skies over Providence, R.I., on Sunday evening.

The local ABC affiliate reported, “A mysterious light flashed through the sky Sunday night, maybe you saw it? Reports of a green and white, sparking light came pouring in across New England, but what exactly was that bright flash?

“Wrigley Bynum said his friends called him crazy, ‘I had people telling me, oh, you’re nuts!’ He wasn’t sure what he saw from his Charlestown deck flying through the sky. He goes on, ‘I thought maybe it was an aircraft, a shooting star at first, it didn’t burn out at first like a shooting star, so then thought maybe it was a plane or something going down but it didn’t have flames just a long tail.’”

In that incident, Michael Umbricht of the Ladd Observatory at Brown University explained it was a lone meteor, the type called a fireball because of its brilliance, that came into the atmosphere.

Orient told WND that the message is critical, whether an explosion comes from a bomb, a meteor’s shock wave, even an earthquake.

“We’re very interested in saving lives,” she said. “Nobody knows [this information].” It’s been forgotten and the civil defense experts have retired, or died.

“This [defensive maneuver] could save the most number of lives. … If you see a flash there are just seconds.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/1950s-duck-and-cover-defense-returns/#yzXmPdcwVjwbK0LR.99

NEW INSTITUTE TO RESEARCH SOVEREIGNTY OVER BIBLICAL HEARTLAND.

A NEWS UPDATE ITEM FROM ARUTZ SHEVA:

News

New Institute To Research Sovereignty over Biblical Heartland

Ari Yashar

A new academic research institute will be founded to explore the issue of declaring Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. The decision to start the institute was made at the Forum for Application of Sovereignty, which met Monday under the initiative of Women in Green.

Among various topics, the institute intends to investigate economic implications of sovereignty in terms of real estate and industry. Similarly, the international legal framework of sovereignty will be researched, along with the media outreach efforts necessary.

The central goal of the institute will be to present the Israeli public and government with the conclusions of solid research by leading academics within a few months. Polls last April already established that 80% of the Israeli publicsupports sovereignty over the Biblical heartland.

The decision to found the institute comes as an outgrowth of previous large conferences calling for sovereignty, as well as the journal Sovereignty published by Women in Green. The second issue of the publication was released last week.

It also comes as the Israeli right wing is preparing for peace talks with the PA to end with a bad peace plan, and realizing the need to present an alternative to dangerous proposals of Israeli concessions.

Among those taking part in the decision to found the institute were Dr. Mordechai Kedar, former US ambassador Yoram Ettinger, economist Eran Bar Tal, Rebbetzin Shulamit Melamed and journalist Caroline Glick.

Regarding the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its desires to govern Judea and Samaria, Dr. Kedar, a scholar on Arab and Islamic Studies, presented conclusive data showing the vast majority of Arabs in the area see the PA as "forced upon them and even colonialist."

This opposition to the PA was demonstrated by Israeli Arabs as well recently, as MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am Ta'al) rejected Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman'sproposal to give the area currently holding 300,000 Israeli Arabs over to the PA. Tibi was accused of hypocrisy in calling for a Palestinian state but not wanting to live in it.

In terms of the US, which has been exerting massive international pressure on Israel to make concessions, Ettinger noted the balance of power in the US government limits President Barack Obama's ability to harm Israel. He also pointed out the joint interests which garner US support regardless of the PA issue.

While the current Israeli government appears afraid to say "no" to the US, Ettinger commented that prime ministers such as David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Shamir who were able to oppose the US in fact strengthened ties with it.

ARIEL SHARON DIED YESTERDAY. HERE IS A WND EXCLUSIVE FROM LAST WEEK WITH A "PROPHETIC TWIST TO HIS DEATH" RELATING TO THE "PROPHECY" OF THE LATE RABBI KADURI.

WND EXCLUSIVE

PROPHETIC TWIST TO SHARON'S IMMINENT DEATH

Israel's venerated Rabbi Kaduri predicted Messiah to come after his passing

With the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expected imminently, 

the chronicler of the life of Israel’s venerated Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri’s prophecies is 

much in demand by the media.

Why?

Because Kaduri, subject of a new book and movie, both titled “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah,” announced to his followers the long-awaited Messiah would not come until after the death of Sharon. He made the prediction two months before Sharon, still acting as prime minister, had a major stroke in 2006 that has left him in a coma ever since.

Sharon’s family is at his bedside, and he may be pulled from life-support systems at any time. His medical condition has deteriorated following kidney surgery that backfired.

Dr. Zeev Rotstein, director of the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, said Sunday Sharon’s condition is critical and life-threatening, according to an Associated Press report.

Sharon’s condition has been on the decline since being hospitalized for renal failure.

Sharon, 85, served as Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006 when he became incapacitated. During his tenure, he initiated a disengagement plan, during which thousands of Jews were deported from Gaza and northern Samaria – turning the once-fertile region over to Hamas-control.

Sharon suffered a serious stroke on January 4, 2006, and has been comatose since.

In January 2013, Israeli specialists reported Sharon had showed “significant brain activity” in an MRI scan, responding to pictures of his family seven years after the stroke.

Sharon’s death is of interest to mystics in Israel as well as prophecy buffs around the world because of the prediction byKaduri. Carl Gallups authored the book “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah” and inspired a movie on the subject of the same name in late 2013.

In 2007, Kaduri, the most famous rabbi in Israel’s modern history, at 108 years old, left a cryptic death note revealing the name of the long-awaited Messiah. Within a year after the rabbi’s death, the note was reported to have been verified as authentic by some of Kaduri’s closest followers and then placed on Kaduri’s own website.

The purported Kaduri message proclaimed that Messiah’s name was Yehoshua, or Jesus.

It shocked the religious world.

Shortly thereafter the furor began. The note immediately disappeared from Kaduri’s website. The media refused to report further on the matter.

The Kaduri family, and several others close to the Kaduri ministry, began to claim that the note was a forgery or a mere fabrication – a cruel joke.

Gallups, an American pastor and former police officer, used his detective skills to piece the mystery together in “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah: The Story of Yitzhak Kaduri and His Prophecies of the Endtime,” a book and movie combination that has reignited the controversy surrounding his prediction about the Messiah and Sharon.

Chuck Missler, founder of Koinonia House ministry, says that in the book, Gallups “explodes one of the biggest bombshells of our lifetime. The implications of these astonishing declarations from the most venerated ultra-orthodox rabbi in Israel impacts every one of us – not just those of the traditional Jewish faith. This is a must-read for anyone who takes God seriously.”

“The only prophetic utterance of Kaduri concerning Ariel Sharon was that Messiah, would not appear until Ariel Sharon had died,” said Gallups. “Within a little over two months after speaking these prophetic words Sharon was in a coma and Kaduri himself died.”

The Kaduri prophecy did not name a specific time or date in which Messiah would be revealed — only that it would not happen until after Sharon had died.

“Many who have examined Kaduri’s prophecy have interpreted the urgent feel of it to mean that Messiah might appear very shortly after Sharon’s death,” said Gallups. “This sense of urgency was strengthened by the fact that for several years prior to his death, Kaduri made several pronouncements of Messiah’s imminent return.”

Both the book and the movie look at Kaduri’s many prophecies objectively – neither affirming or denying their accuracy or authenticity. The book and the movie simply examine his remarkable story about the popular rabbi and his shocking messianic prophecy from a journalistic and biblical point of view.

Since Sharon’s condition took a turn for the worse around the new year, Gallups has been in huge demand by the media – particularly the Christian media.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/prophetic-twist-to-sharons-imminent-death/#mbRh3guDDYe788sD.99

"PEACE DEAL IS BEST ISRAEL WILL GET, SAYS LIEBERMAN", ACCORDING TO THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

Peace deal is best Israel will get, says Lieberman

Interview: Israel's hardline foreign minister shows signs of a shift to the centre as he settles into a second stint in office

Mr Lieberman, who once worked as a student nightclub bouncer, appears to be a changed man since he was exonerated in court Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND

By Alex Spillius, Diplomatic Correspondent

9:45PM GMT 09 Jan 2014

Avigdor Lieberman, the hawkish Israeli foreign minister widely regarded as a major obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, has urged his country to accept the deal currently being brokered by Washington as the best offer it will ever receive.

In a change of direction likely to shock the jaded Middle Eastern diplomatic scene, Mr Lieberman said that John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, deserved praise and thanks for his efforts to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.

“It’s the best proposal we can get and we really appreciate the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry. He has really put a lot of energy into the issue,” Mr Lieberman told the Telegraph.

In his first major interview since returning to office in November, when he was acquitted of corruption charges that had dogged his career for years, he said it was “crucial” for Israelis to maintain contact with Palestinians, no matter how limited the prospects of success.

“With or without a comprehensive solution we will continue to live together and continue to be neighbours. There are many problems on the ground, so this direct contact, this negotiation, these talks - it’s very important to keep alive and maintain,” he said.

Related Articles

• John Kerry's 'Mission Impossible' 
  03 Jan 2014
• Iran nuclear deal: Israel rages - and no one cares 
  24 Nov 2013
• Avigdor Lieberman cleared of corruption charges 
  06 Nov 2013
• Israel and the Palestinians face 'tough choices,' John Kerry says 
  03 Jan 2014

Amid numerous visits to the region, Mr Kerry has set the two sides a target of April to reach a “framework agreement” that would work as a guideline for a final peace deal.

The goal of the deal is to establish an independent Palestinian state and settle such contentious issues as the the jurisdiction of disputed Jerusalem and right of return of Palestinians displaced since Israel was created in 1948.

After 20 years of failure since the Oslo Accords placed peace within tantalising reach, few in the region are predicting success.

But Mr Lieberman’s apparent transformation from hardliner to pragmatist will boost hopes that this time could be different, and that one of the world’s most obstinate and damaging conflicts could be at last resolved.

The burly and broad-shouldered Mr Lieberman, who once worked as a student nightclub bouncer, appears to be a changed man since he was exonerated in court.

Absent, for now, is the firebrand politician who said that Gaza should be treated like “Chechnya” and who called for the execution of Arab-Israeli MPs who had met members of Hamas, the paramilitary group that runs one of the two Palestinian territories.

Gone too, is the foreign minister who in his first stint said that as a West Bank settler, he was incapable of objectivity about the peace process.

The idea of Lieberman the responsible statesman may be hard for his critics to swallow, but amid the familiar hostility in his words towards Iran, there is now a wait and see approach on the talks between Tehran and six world powers that could lead to a permanent nuclear deal.

Mr Lieberman furthermore waved away several years of hostility between the Obama White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as “differences between friends”.

Rather than diehard declarations about protecting the state of Israel, he said his biggest challenge as foreign minister was to have his country associated with issues other than “the Palestinian conflict, terror and Iran”.

He wanted, he said, to “open the eyes of international community to our achievements – to our very successful economy, agriculture, water management, science, high tech industry”.

Mr Lieberman’s opinion of Mahmoud Abbas has certainly not become favourable, but the chairman of the Palestinian Authority is no longer referred to as a “diplomatic terrorist”.

Instead, he said, there is a question mark over whether or not Mr Abbas “can deliver the goods” in the peace talks.

“You must be ready for compromise, but I am not sure he is able. But we must check [wait for] this possibility because we [Israelis] are ready to go far.”

Mr Lieberman was talking to the Telegraph in London after meeting William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, as well as Ed Miliband, the Leader of Opposition and members of the foreign affairs select committee in a trip that is part of a rehabilitation exercise.

The abrasiveness that made Mr Lieberman, who emigrated to Israel from Moldova in the former USSR when he was 20, one of Israeli’s most controversial and divisive politicians, is still in evidence.

He remains unrepentant about Israel’s right to expand settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

He declared that Arab Israeli citizens who remain in Israel must decide where their true loyalty lies – Israel or Palestine.

“They live in some kind of schizophrenia, they don’t know if they are Israeli citizens or if they are Palestinians. Even during our football games you see Palestinian flags.”

Yet, taking an unfamiliarly conciliatory tone, he admitted that it was perhaps the “mistake of leadership, of our governments - more than Arab mistakes” that has created division.

The details of the negotiations brokered by Mr Kerry have, at the American’s insistence, been kept remarkably guarded for the Middle East.

In a little noticed speech to Israeli ambassadors last weekend that first suggested at his more statesmanlike approach, Mr Lieberman said the offer supported by Mr Kerry contained “two issues important to us”.

These are likely to be Mr Kerry’s willingness to consider an Israeli or international security force in the Jordan valley on Israel’s border with Jordan, and his agreement that the Palestinians should recognise Israel as a Jewish state in a way that Israeli officials say would not exclude minorities but would prevent millions of Palestinian refugees returning.

In Israel, Mr Lieberman’s apparent shift towards the centre will be seen as partly a bid to succeed Mr Netanyahu as prime minister.

Mr Netanyahu has no obvious successor within his Likud party, which Mr Lieberman was a rising star of before forming Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home) in 1999, a secular right-wing party aimed at capturing the votes of the growing Soviet immigrant community.

The two parties worked together in last year’s election, and Mr Lieberman’s is now the second largest in the Knesset.

At 55, he has plenty of time to become prime minister. Asked if he would like the job one day, he was reasonable to the end. “It’s speculation. It’s too early. In Israel politics, four years is like 400 years in Europe,” he said, with a handshake and a smile.

"WE WANT A UNITED STATES OF EUROPE SAYS TOP EU OFFICIAL" REPORTS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

We want a United States of Europe says top EU official

Voters must decide for or against a United States of Europe during EU elections this spring, says vice president of the European Commission

In the run up to the springtime pan-European vote, the EU is gearing up to mount an unprecedented campaign for the hearts and minds of voters Photo: ALAMY

By Bruno Waterfield, Athens

5:52PM GMT 08 Jan 2014

359 Comments

A campaign for the European Union to become a "United States ofEurope" will be the "best weapon against the Eurosceptics", one of Brussels' most senior officials has said.

Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission and the longest serving Brussels commissioner, has called for "a true political union" to be put on the agenda for EU elections this spring.

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the Commission as government and two chambers – the European Parliament and a "Senate" of Member States," she said.

Mrs Reding's vision, which is shared by many in the European institutions, would transform the EU into superstate relegating national governments and parliaments to a minor political role equivalent to that played by local councils in Britain.

Under her plan, the commission would have supremacy over governments and MEPs in the European Parliament would supersede the sovereignty of MPs in the House of Commons.

Related Articles

• A conspiracy is afoot in the Lords 
  09 Jan 2014
• UK can't afford to be a friendless pariah 
  07 Jan 2014
• Europe wants to block UK wind farm subsidies 
  02 Jan 2014
• Britain is in desperate need of immigration from the EU 
  02 Jan 2014

National leaders, meeting as the European Council, would be reduced to consultative, second chamber role similar to the House of Lords.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, said that Mrs Reding had revealed the true choice for British voters to make at polling stations.

"For people in power in Brussels that is the only choice on offer, no reform just a United States of Europe. On 22 May the British people must ask themselves if they want this and vote accordingly," he said.

"I am sure people will say no to this centralist fanaticism."

Mrs Reding's comments illustrate the growing gulf between a Europe committed to "ever closer union" and Britain, which is pushing to reduce the EU's powers.

"We assume Britain's leaving the EU so we don't even bother thinking about British sensitivities at the moment," said an official.

While Britain may have been written off, concern is mounting because hostility has reached unprecedented levels across continental Europe and anti-EU parties are leading the polls in France, the Netherlands and Greece.

Senior EU figures, such as Mrs Reding, want the European elections in May to move beyond debates over eurozone austerity by embracing a grand vision of Europe.

"This debate is moving into the decisive phase now. In a little more than four months' time, citizens across Europe will be able to choose the Europe they want to live in," she said.

"There is a lot at stake. The outcome of these elections will shape Europe for the years to come. That is why voting at these elections is crucial.

This will be our best weapon against the Eurosceptics: to explain to our citizens that their vote really matters."

In the run up to the springtime pan-European vote, the EU is gearing up to mount an unprecedented campaign for the hearts and minds of voters.

Speaking in Athens, José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, signalled that the EU would use the centenary of World War One to warn that Euroscepticism, far-Right and populist anti-European parties could bring war back to Europe.

"No other political construction to date has proven to be a better way of organising life to lessen the barbarity in this world," he said.

"It is especially important to recall this as we will commemorate this year the start of the First World War. We must never take peace, democracy or freedom for granted. It is also especially important to remind this as in May the peoples of Europe will be called to participate in European elections."

The attempt by Mr Barroso and Mrs Reding to raise the stakes in the EU elections have not been well received by all governments.

"Federalist hyperbole about a United States is the opposite of helpful to the majority of countries who want a reformed EU to work better," said a European diplomat.