This . . .
Some things have changed over the years . . . for the worse.
For instance . . . they used to make things to last a lifetime. Now, they are often made to last until Tuesday. A lot of marriages are that way.
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A specific "definately for the worse change" is the brights/dimmer switch on automobiles. When I first learned to drive (1965?) the dimmer switch was on the floor, by your left foot. It was great. So easy to switch back and forth with a tap of your foot.
Having the switch up on the turn signal is extremely dangerous.
If you have a hamburger in one hand, and a drink in the other (driving with your knee of course) how can you possibly be expected to dim your lights and stay on the road as you come around a curve into oncoming traffic? Back in the day, a simple tap of the foot was all it took.
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That . . .
Which category of eschatological interpretation are you in? If all the wrong views could be eliminated it sure would simplify things. Let me see if I can clarify.
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Here is the first question.
In relationship to the millennium, when does the second coming take place?
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An amillennial view is one that believes that the millennium is not a literal 1000 year period and that the second coming is symbolic. I don't want to think or talk about that any more.
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A post-millennial view is one that believes the church will successfully bring peace and unity to the world, and then Jesus will return to an already restored earth. I don't think so.
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A pre-millennial view is one that believes Jesus will return before the millennium to reign as "King of kings" during the millennium. This is the only view that comes from a literal translation of the Bible . . . that would be what I believe.
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Here is the second question.
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In relationship to the 7 year tribulation, when does the rapture take place?
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And a related question . . . In the Bible, do you see the rapture and second coming as two seperate events or do they take place in a single time frame?
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Some believe in a PRE-tribulation rapture and then a post-tribulation second coming (two seperate events) I can't find support of that in scripture.
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Some believe in a MID-tribulation rapture and then a post-tribulation second coming. I don't think that is right either.
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Some believe in a POST-tribulation rapture AND second coming. OK . . . now we're getting somewhere. I believe this is what the Bible teaches.
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To be more precise, I believe that the rapture and second coming take place at the seventh (last) trumpet and before the bowls of wrath.
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To summarize: I am a pre-millennial, last-trumpet-trib believer.
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This is That . . .
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And you?

This . . .
My soul longs for you . . . My soul longs for you;
Nothing else will do . . . Nothing else will do.
My soul longs for you . . . My soul longs for you;
Nothing else will do . . . Nothing else will do.
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That . . .
I believe. . . that you will come . . . like the rain . . . you'll come like the rain.
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This is That . . .
Acts 2
17 ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above,
And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
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I believe that you will come like the rain.
You'll come like the rain.
Sons and daughters . . . you shall prophecy . . . says the Lord!
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Come like the rain, God. Pour out your Spirit before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
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This . . .
Randy Bohlender is Running For PRESIDENT! He announced just this week and his campaign is turning the political world upsidedown. He is promising to be a divider not a unifier.
As a result of this major development, John Kerry has thrown in the towel. He wants no part of a debate with anyone so committed to dividing out the riff-raff.
Randy's campaign slogan? . . . "Together We Can Make A Mess".
Check out his link and get on his politcal bandwagon.
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That . . .
I would again encourage you to make Charity a daily blog stop. Her post is brief and concise and presents great daily food for thought.
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This is That . . .
I just went thru "session two" of the Omega Course - "Negative Trends, People and Events In End Times". It is not easy to briefly cover so much information, particularly after the Omega authors have already done an amazing job of squeezing 100 people into a phone booth.
I still will try to hit the high points of the negative trends the best I can.
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1. Jesus is a "Warrior King" who is going to aggressively confront sin in the earth. He is going to shake everything that can be shaken to remove everything that hinders love.
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Matthew 24:15
There will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of this world, no, nor ever shall be.
2. This speaks of the "great tribulation", coming to fullness in the last 3 1/2 years before Jesus returns. This shaking will come from four sources.
a. Rev. 14:10 The wrath of God on the rebellious - seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath.
b. Rev. 12:12 The rage of Satan who will persecute the saints thru the Antichrist's reign of terror.
c. Rev. 9:21 The actions of evil people against one another
d. Romans 8:21 The convulsions of nature (earthquakes, storms etc.)
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3. The Antichrist will be the most evil and cruel man that ever lived.
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4. The false prophet will be devoted to causing all the people on earth to worship Satan and the Antichrist.
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5. The seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls.
a. They are literal (actual events not to be explained away symbolically or historically)
b. They are future (their greatest fulfillment is future)
c. They are progressive (they increase in intensity)
d. They are numbered (released in a sequential order as they follow one after the other in sequence that we might know their order as they unfold on earth.
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6. There will be two major waves of death. Rev. 6:8 One fourth of earth's estimated 8 billion people will perish (two billion people). Rev. 9:15 One third of the remaining six billion will be killed in the second wave (two billion more) That comes to one half of the earth's population perishing.
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What is God's judgement about? What is the purpose?
All of His judgements are rooted in love.
When trouble comes people normally have one of two strong responses.
They reject God saying, "If God allows or even causes (whatever bad stuff) I am turning away."
Or they run TO God desiring to sit in the lap of Jesus seeking help, comfort and rescuing and always knowing that God is good in all His ways.
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God uses the least severe means to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest level of love without violating anyone's free will.
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It would be good to read the above statement two or nine times. It is very helpful in understanding how and why God is shaking and removing everything that hinders love. It is because of His great desire to bring His bride into unity, purity and the deepest level of love.

This . . .
We have a cat named "Put Cat" because my sister put her in my Mom's house. She completely lives up to the term "Scaredy Cat". She is afraid to come in and afraid to go out. If she's walking across the floor and I make a sudden sound of any kind, she will jump like she's seen the boogy man and then try to recompose herself and say, "that didn't scare me". She will be sleeping on Mom's lap . . . I will sneeze and she will jump up, take off, and disappear over the horizon. Come to think about it, my sneezes are pretty scary.
And then there's Jasper.

That . . .
Jasper is a really large, long haired tom cat. He has absolutely no manners and is unaware of almost everything, especially how annoying he is. He often comes in all wet, or covered with leaves and other debris and has no idea what a slob he is. He bully's Put Cat and keeps her under the china cabinet about 90% of the time . . . so I call him Bullwinkle because he is such a bully. He doesn't know how to enter a room quitely, but always comes in bouncing off stuff and making sure everyone knows he just came in. When I sneeze (really loud) he just looks at me and says, "shut up". And did I mention how big he is? A couple of days ago, I was reclined all the way back in my chair and Bullwinkle was hanging out on top of my legs clear down by my feet. He suddenly jumped off causing my chair to flip over backwards. I went sailing out of my chair and wound up face down in the kitchen. BIG KITTY!

This is That . . .
I think God created cats to be a helpful distraction from the more serious things of life. Much needed comic relief.

This . . .
As I attempt to blog thru the week while leading the "Omega Course" on the weekends, I will not be able to give scripture references for every statement. For sure, I have not even looked them all up myself - I am learning as I go. So . . . my purpose here is to hit the highlights and encourage individual study. I will do the best I can, but this is in no way intended to be a complete presentation and understand, I have way more questions than answers.
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Today - Positive trends in the last days.
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That . . .
Acts
17 ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.
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What an encouraging passage of scripture . . . full of promises of positive intervention in lives of believers in the last days. The greatest revival and outpouring of the Spirit in history will result in a victorious church full of God's glory.
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There will be a great ingathering of souls. (Possibly 1 billion)
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The salvation of Israel will occur as the church provokes Israel to jealousy by standing with them in affliction and operating in the power of God.
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The worship and prayer movement will operate in great authority.
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There will be supernatural provision of food and water.
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There will be supernatural direction and protection (pockets of mercy) by prophetic revelation as the Lord directs his people to safety . . . to be at the right place to escape earthquakes, bombs, the ambush of the enemy, etc.
The Goshen principal . . . cities of refuge . . . area's where God's people are protected from God's judgements.
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This is That . . ..
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More positive trends . . .
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Jesus will physically appear in the sky to all the people of the earth when He returns to permanenty live on the earth. The rapture of the Church occcurs as Jesus "catches up" all believers in the air from one end of the sky to the other. Jesus will sit on a Throne as king and rule over all other kings as He establishes His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
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The marriage supper of the lamb occurs in context to Jesus' coming.
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The first descent of the New Jerusalem to earth also occurs at this time.
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Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem in perfect righteousness and continual peace as he restores it to the conditions of the Garden of Eden.
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Next week . . . Negative Trends.

This . . .
Joel 2
11 For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
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Malachi 4
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
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That . . .
The good . . . and the bad . . . two extremes related to Jesus' return. Joel says the day of the Lord is good and VERY terrible.
"Who can endure it?" puts emphasis on the terrible.
Malachi calls the time great and dreadful.
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This is That . . .
In the final three years before Jesus returns, there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit that will make it a great day for those who call on Jesus' name; and at the same time, things will get steadily worse for the rebellious as sin matures into a fullness we cannot imagine.
This will be a time of the most severe outpouring of God's judgements ever seen.
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Haggai 2
6 “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;
Jesus' judgements will shake all that can be shaken on earth. The nations of the earth will experience military invasions (Rev. 13) while God's judgments are poured out as seen in the Book of Revelation with the Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls of wrath.
The question remains, "Who can endure these 'Day of the Lord' events?" This will be a most relevant question that must be answered by all, as the best and worst times are experienced by the Church and all nations (including the USA and Israel ).
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I think I might tell a joke or something tomorrow, and then get on to "The Great Day of the Lord: Positive Trends".

This . . .
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I Corinthians
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
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Take note of when this happens . . . "at the last trumpet".
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That . . .
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I Thessalonians
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
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This verse is talking about the second coming . . . when Jesus returns. That is when we who are alive and remain shall be caught up. There is no indication that there will be a first coming ie rapture and then a seven year tribulation, and then another second (third?) coming.
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It is good also to note that there is nothing secret about this event. There is a loud shout and a trumpet (presumably without a mute) and His coming will be as the lightning comes - fast and surprising, but not secret.
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Matthew
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
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This is That . . .
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Here's the deal. What I believe about the rapture, differs from the popular view that the Church will be raptured at any minute and therefore miss the coming revival and crisis in the Great Tribulation. I believed in a pre-tribulation rapture for years and even now I do not understand how great men of God have reached this conclusion. I believe it is a great deception . . . a serious mistake that will leave multitudes unprepared and offended at Jesus during the Great Tribulation.
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Matthew
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
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God is good, and this is His plan. God is love, and he knows what he is doing. This is not gloom and doom, this is the leadership of Jesus over his bride and the earth. He is a really brilliant leader and He is altogether for us and not against us. It will be the Church's finest hour.
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I Thessalonians
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

This . . .
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Matthew 24
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
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Luke 21
25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
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I Thessalonians 5
1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
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That . . .
I believe that we are in the generation of the Lord's return. My brain says, "interesting, but unlikely". My Spirit says, "Jesus is returning soon . . . for real".
What do you think?
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This is That . . .
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Joel 2:11
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
The "day of the Lord" speaks of the days leading up to His return. Similar to "The days of Noah". During this time period, the earth will experience two great extremes - the "great" and the "very terrible". Evil is going to increase to an unprecidented level. In the midst of the "very terrible" increase, God is going to pour out his power and Spirit on those who say yes to him. This is the "great" part of the day of the Lord.
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Why study the end times?
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1. It prepares the Church to be victorious in love with power during the most dramatic time in history.
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2. It prepares the Church to participate in the coming revival instead of neglecting or resisting it.
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3. It prepares the Church to rightly interpret the crisis instead of being offended at God by it.
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4. It awakens the Church to urgency in intercession in knowing their prayers can minimize evil and increase victory in specific regions. (Joel 2:13-14 & Zep. 2:3)
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5. It strengthens our confidence in God's sovereignty by knowing that He is in control and is never surprised.
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More tomorrow.

This . . .
I'm a little slow figuring stuff out sometimes, so I haven't ever had a favorite link list. Well, I finally figured out how it is done and so there you go.
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This is That . . .
It takes time and effort to blog. It takes time and effort to keep up with other peoples blog as well. But some are really worth the effort - full of mind challenging, stretching, encouraging thoughts. David Sliker is a new blogger and I am thinking this could be really good. He is a senior leader at IHOP and the author of "End Times Simplified" a book I would highly recommend. I am looking forward to digging in to what might be in his brain from day to day.
Charity is another new blogger and an IHOPPER as well. She is a part of "Fire In The Night" and so is in the prayer room every night from midnight til six. I met her thru Tarah, and what can I say? I like her alot.
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This is That . . .
Check out my "Good Stuff Links". It's good stuff.

This . . .
You can't make footprints in the sands of time if you are sitting on your butt - And no one wants to make butt prints in the sands of time. So if the skivvies fit . . .
That . . .
I got home yesterday after being gone for about a week. It was so good to sit down in my chair and just breathe for a few minutes. My mom was sitting in her chair as well with our cat "Put Cat" in her lap. After a few minutes she looked at me and said, "Is Put Cat in or out?"
Of course I answered, "She's in your lap, Mom".
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This is That . . .
The International House Of Prayer in KC has what they call the "forerunner message". Of course you can spend a lot of time digging deep, but in brief, this is it.
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Jesus loves you. He is coming back. And so . . . read your Bible, fast and pray, live a simple life, strive for holiness and give extravigantly to the poor.
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In the beginning the acronym IHOP stood for: Intercession, Holiness, extravigant Offerings and the Prophetic. It's secondary meaning is International House Of Prayer.
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I am going to be leading a course on eschatology (end times) called the Omega Course in Little Rock over the next few months. I am looking forward to learning a lot as those who come go deep into God's word to figure this stuff out. My plan is to blog a few times each week on major points as they come forth in the study.
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I would love to lead a group here in Monticello as well. If you are interested or know others who might be, let me know. jqpjames@sbcglobal.net