Famine @ MindSay

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We will not listen to what you say in the name of the LORD. Rather will we continue doing what we had proposed; we will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our fathers, our kings and princes have done in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had enough food to eat and we were well off; we suffered no misfortune. But since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, we are in need of everything and are being destroyed by the sword and by hunger” (Jeremiah 44:18-19).

Interesting that this is found in the O.T. No matter how hard some person, or particular religion preaches, or how hard some one elses point of view is pounded in our heads, what matters most is: How does the Creator manifest in our own personal lives? It is telling , this scripture, about the life and perspectives of the people in bible times, we are led to believe that the Goddess was worshiped by the neighboring cultures, and not by the Jewish people themselves. It is also revealing that some how or other, these women and their families did see a difference in their lives ,from when they followed the Jewish G-d and when they saw their deity as female The Queen of Heaven and Earth. When G-d was portrayed as an Angry, Vengeful, hateful male deity , and when the woman was put in her place,according to the 'laws' of the "Torah" and not co equal with the man and with out anyway within the Jewish religion to have personal access to that G-d without it being through their husbands or the priest, the result was famine, not only in their land but also from within, these people were dry and parched and dying of thirst, a thirst for a God that they once knew, and they knew that they were no longer as prosperous and well off as they once were when God was seen as a Nurturing and loving, and fertile Goddess. they had finally had more than enough of this 'mans' version of God that was being force fed to them. I see this same thing being played out in our country and in other parts of the world as well, you have the fundlementalist trying to force feed their version of God to us, and trying to make all conform to what they believe is the life one needs to lead, by trying to make laws that enforced their own agendas, and their own warped idea of who God is, and what they would have us believe is Gods will and law. But what it comes right down to is ,you cannot force any one' s personal or any ones particular religious version of who God is ,down any ones throat. God , and if there is one, I believe will not and does not act in this manner. What or Who ever is God, S/he must be reveal to each individually, S/He must commune with us from within our own spirit, and any moral conduct or behavior, must come from a transformation from within. We must first be changed from the inside before any 'moral' or right or good conduct can be done on the outside. Any act we do in the name of our God must first come from a place within us , that stems from the heart, and from love and then as it overflows, it will manifest in our actions . Not acts done to 'show' how good we are, but acts done from an overflow within our spirits , brought about by communion with our God/dess and right relationship with Her/Him, it is a transformation that begins from the rebirth of our spirits when we make contact with our Maker and then pursue a relationship with Her/Him. This can not and will never be something that is imposed on us by government, or by religion. Whomever God may be, I believe that God/dess is incarnated within each of us, when we wake up to the fact that this is how it is done, one by one, step by step, a personal awakening, from the inside out.

 Yes sometimes truth does poke its head out , now and again, and sometimes you can find it within the pages of the Bible. for what it is worth

blessed be

This was a wonderful and memorable experience for me.I was glad that i have food to eat, a place to sleep,water to drink, education and more than what i could think of.

Lulu, thank you for inviting me to participate in this programme. The moment i will not forget for the rest of my life was the hours we were queuing to get water. How lucky are we today for us access to get water! Sympathy those famine and able to understand what they had.

k

When people study the Book of Revelation, they often forget the first five chapters and delve right into chapter six, because that's "where it gets interesting."  Like skipping ahead on the scene list on your DVD or something.  "Oh, skip the stuff about the churches and all those people just worshiping the lamb!  Let's get to the scary stuff!"

So here we are, in chapter six.  The beginning of what many people debate over, what books have been written about, what churches have divided over, and where some have even questioned God himself.  It's that significant.

But first, a note on seals on ancient documents.

There are a couple of thoughts on this one.  One thought is that multiple seals (there are seven, on the scroll mentioned here) were placed in a row, to a) show the document's importance and b) to safeguard it from opening should one of the seals crack.  It would look like this:


Another thought is that the seals were embedded within the scroll. I have no image of this, but it would be something like breaking the first seal and unrolling the scroll a ways, then breaking the second and unrolling it further, and so on.  A bit bulky, but this would also have its uses.

We don't know for sure what kind was used on the scroll of Revelation 6.  But we can see that something happens with each opening!

Oh, and one more word on "the interesting stuff."  Please do not take for granted that all of the events herein happen in linear order.  Remember that John was writing and explaining as best he could, in good apocalyptic tradition.  I will be teaching in the order it is all written in the book, but there are good arguments out there that show how the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls can occur concurrently at times.  Just a note for those who are interested in these things. :)


The Lamb takes the scroll, we read in chapter five.  Here, he starts opening the seven seals upon it.  And the creatures around the throne, all four of them, each take a turn in calling forth one of the riders at a time.

The first four seals are fairly straightforward, even for today's reader.  In the order of their appearance, we see a white horse and his rider, a fiery red one, and his rider, a black horse and his rider, and then a pale horse, whose rider is Death.

We know these riders.  They are conquest, war, famine, and death, and all the atrocities that go with the lust for conquering and dominance.

How bad will it be, when these Horsemen are released by the broken seals of the scroll?  Well, the famine will be severe.  Prices on meagerly available food will rise up to ten times what is normally paid, according to scripture:   


But that is not all. 


The destruction seen by John, here, is staggering. Devastating.  Some interpretations of this say that this speaks to the ravages of war throughout the history of man. This could be true, for the book of Revelation was written for churches in a time of persecution (under the reign of Emperor Domitian) as well as all the ages of people since that time. 

But I believe it also speaks to the future.  We are being taught that there will be death and famine, and food will be scarce.  Where I live, we are reminded every year to "stock up" against storm season.  Water, food, batteries, an evacuation plan.  It's sensible to be prepared. 

Perhaps it is passages of scripture like this one that remind us to be thinking ahead.  We do not know God's plan in its entirety, but a wise man does read and take heed of the warnings, even on a bottle of Tylenol. 

Over the past 33 hours (the famine ended at six), I've learned a few very valuable lessons.  Most of which are not PG-13.  But then, a few were, like a) don't try to sell girl guide cookies on four hourse of sleep, b) don't participate in the famine if you're ill to begin with, and c) little sisters can actually be good company.  Naw, I'm just kidding about the last one--I knew it before we went.  Just don't tell her I said so!