Ready the Lamps

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I feel like God has laid it on my heart for some time now to begin preparations for a significant event or period of time. It feels fairly urgent. I hesitate to even use that word, but the feeling fits the definition, especially when I think of putting it off.
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1. compelling or requiring immediate action or attention; imperative; pressing: an urgent matter.
2. insistent or earnest in solicitation; importunate, as a person: an urgent pleader.
3. expressed with insistence, as requests or appeals: an urgent tone of voice.

~~ Source: http://www.dictionary.com/

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I don't feel panic or fear, or that it's going to begin in the next week or month, but soon. How soon, I don't know. I feel like we will have just enough time if we work at it bit by bit. If we put it off, we will not be ready.

Last year, even with the US economy begining to tank, I didn't really feel this way. I wish I had; however, the past is the past. I have peace that if God had wanted us to begin last year He would have made it clear then. With that said, I take more warning from this feeling now since He is making it clear to me at this time. Preparations need to be made.

I'd like to introduce my newest blog: Ready the Lamps. It will detail my research on the subject of preparedness and some of our plans. It will also include research on some of the possible situations and concerns that may arise.

Is anyone interested in taking this journey with me?
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Dream: Are We Ready?

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Last night I dreamt that I was preparing food in a community kitchen with a group of 8 to 14 people. We were sitting around chatting as we waited for the last of the food to cook. We were almost finished all the preparations we knew to make. Bags were packed, food was ready, necessities and supplies were stored up.

Suddenly I saw a plume/pillar of dark black smoke - so dark it surprised me - rising from the middle of the city. It would rise up, and then disipate a little, then rise again, then disipate again, then rise again, stronger.

Then a 'portal' opened up in the sky above it. Here, I note that it was a fairly clear, blue sky; it was daylight, in warm weather (neither scortching nor cool). The portal was round and shimmering. The area around it was a shimmering as well, sometimes oval, sometimes heart shaped. Some other people in the city noticed, and like me, looked on in wonder and 'what the heck???'

Suddenly, either the world was drawn into it, and taken back in time to the point just as the planes slammed into the Trade Center buildings in 2001; OR, the planes themselves flew out and crashed. This image appeared in the dream like a flash, or a still photograph of the planes up close and headed downward. Then we were on our bikes, racing through the city. We were more prepared than most people, but still not enough.

Interpretation:

The smoke is from the sacrifices to other gods. GOD is getting angry, and we - as a city, nation, and world - are about to be tried and judged.

I recieved this in my reading today:

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.
~~ Proverbs 11:4

Even us (either my personal group of people, or the wider Christian community, or both), who are aware, prepared, and waiting, will wish we had done more when we had had the time. We are not as ready as we think we are, and we will be caught off guard. It was implied that we had done the best we could according the the knowledge and understanding that we had. However, it was also clear that we ought to have known more, considering what resources were available to us. It wasn't held against us, but we also weren't excused. Things were not in place or missing because of our lack of understanding. This lack seemed to be with regard to an unpreparedness in action, rather than supplies; we didn't know what to do, where to go, or how to help to the extent that we ought to have, had we known more.

The final point is that war is coming. What kind of war, or by whom, I don't know; it may be spiritual, figurative, or literal. I would assume there would also be some amount of destruction; mild to severe, I don't know.
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Comfort & Courage

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Given Thursday, July 9, 2009 around 9:00 pm.
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It is not the pressure that I am under that is the issue; it is how I respond/act amidst and under it. The pressure is exactly as God intends; and He is faithful to not give me more than I can bear. But it is the trial by fire that purifies the silver/gold. And it is this kind of suffering that the Christian life (that Jesus Christ) speaks of. It is necessary and to be welcomed and rejoiced in. It is the suffering that produces character, perseverance, and hope. (Romans 5:1-5)
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Genesis 2

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Gen 2:2 > And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested...
Gen 2:3 > Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it...
Gen 2:4 > This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created...
Gen 2:5 > ... before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
Gen 2:6 > but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
Gen 2:7 > And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
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Gen 2:8 > The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
Gen 2:9 > And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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Gen 2:10 > Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
Gen 2:11-12 > 1st river: Pishon; ... skirts the whole land of Havilah; gold - good; also, bdellium and onyx stone.
Gen 2:13 > 2nd river: Gihon; goes around the whole land of Cush.
Gen 2:14 > 3rd river: Hiddekel; goes toward the east of Assyria. 4th river: Euphrates.
Gen 2:15 > Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
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Gen 2:16-17 > And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
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Gen 2:18 > And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Gen 2:19 > Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
Gen 2:20 > So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
Gen 2:21 > And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
Gen 2:22 > Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
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Gen 2:23 > And Adam said:

"This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man."

Gen 2:24 > Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Gen 2:25 > And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
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