Most Amazing Prophecies for the Comox Valley

Friday, June 05, 2009

52 Days of Prayer in Victoria

(The following report comes from the Canadian Christianity newspaper site and is about a 52-day prayer rally in the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada)

52 Days: time well spent with God

By Gary Bennett

SINCE Good Friday, April 10, 35 churches throughout the Greater Victoria area have been joining together in a coordinated effort to cover the city with prayer – 24 hours a day, for 52 consecutive days leading up to Pentecost Sunday. Reports documenting the impact of this year’s ‘52 Days of Prayer’ initiative are now starting to come in.

Congregations were encouraged by ‘Passing the Torch’ – ceremonies in which a symbolic electronic device was passed from one church to another.

Most participating congregations established a prayer room in their facility, to be used exclusively by people wanting to come night or day to pray.

A father of young children, who came for prayer early one morning, exclaimed: “I haven’t been able to pray like this for years! To have one hour of uninterrupted time with the Lord was incredible.”

A middle-aged business man reported: “I could have stayed home and prayed, but usually the phone rings, or the dog jumps into my lap and I’m distracted. Having a place to get alone with God was a huge blessing.”

A married couple spent an hour praying together on their wedding anniversary.

Leaders from the various churches participating have been greatly encouraged. Jacquie Patrick, of the Victoria Citadel of the Salvation Army, reported:

“There has been a beautiful movement of the Spirit amongst the people in the Salvation Army. [Many] have made recommitments to the Lord, and there is a spirit of loving and care developing. People are looking forward to the celebration gatherings, just to be together again to worship.”

Lambrick Park Church covered the week of April 12 – 19. The experience went so well that they decided to ride the momentum. They continued keeping the prayer room open one day per week; they hope to expand to more days.

Cathy Clarke reported that Lambrick’s involvement this year far surpassed last year’s experience. She cited the critical involvement of leadership, both in promoting and extensively participating in the prayer process.

“This 52 days of prayer is such a wonderful step in the right direction of city-wide church unity; so please receive our heartfelt gratitude.” Continue here

Saturday, May 30, 2009

False Prophets-- Nostradamus

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9).

Satan has done everything possible to create a 'parallel' to true Christianity-- a fake-- a counterfeit-- of the authentic God-led path. The Bible contains prophecies that point to Jesus Christ as the Messiah who would come to earth to save mankind, and who would be crucified, resurrected, and who would return to take true disciples to live with Him forever.

What about some of the 'false prophets'-- those who deceive with their prophecies? I intend to take a look at a few of them over the next few blogs.

When I was a young woman I had a job as a sorter in the Vancouver Post Office. The work was monotonous, to say the least, but the company of my co-workers was mostly enjoyable. We chatted and got to know each other quite well during those windowless nighttime shifts. One fellow told me about Nostradamus. He was convinced that we would all be well-advised to listen to the prophecies of this particular 16th Century 'seer'.

Here is a thumbnail sketch adapted from the Teaching Hearts website.

Michel de Nostredame (1503-66), later known as Nostradamus, was a French alchemist, physician, linguist, and astrologist. He divined the future with his magical equipment: astrolabe, magic mirrors, divining rods, and a brass bowl and tripod, designed after the type used by the great Delphic oracles. In the dark evening he would go to his study where he would sit before the tripod with a brass bowl bubbling with water and herbs.

In 1550, he published his first almanac of prophecies - twelve four-line poems called "quatrains." Each poem gave a general prophecy for the coming year. The excited reception for this almanac encouraged Nostradamus to create an almanac every year for the rest of his life. His most famous work, The Centuries, was begun in 1554 and consisted of ten volumes of 100 quatrains each. These prophecies have been printed continuously for over 400 years.

In his own time as is true today, Nostradamus' quatrains have received mixed reviews by readers. The combination of French, Greek, Latin, and Italian written as riddles, puns, anagrams, and epigrams are extremely complex and demand that the reader have knowledge in a wide range of subjects. Some quatrains could fit descriptions of just about any time in the world, while others are more exact.

According to the Bible, Nostradamus is a false prophet. The prophecies that seem to be true have the effect of deceive because there is a tendancy for his adherents to want to ignore the prophecies that are not accurate. Nostradamus does what God asks us not to do: he consults the stars. Additionally, many of his predictions did not actually come about.