Dear Friends and loved ones,

May He who loves you more than human minds can comprehend, intimately commune with you and daily/hourly make you more receptive to His love.

HOMEWARD BOUND

It’s Sunday April 27 and I’m flying over Nebraska on my way home. Much of our family went to Denver for niece Jennifer’s wedding to a super young man named Nick Inay. Bob Garrett picked me up in Denver and I have been "blowing in the wind" or led by the Spirit for a wonderful week. Bob and I met with friends and various ministries in Colorado Springs and throughout Nebraska. Bob is running for Governor of Nebraska in the Republican Primary which is about a year away. We got to pray and strategise for many hours. I feel refreshed and ready to get back in the harness God has for me in Southern California.

MAY 17

The most exciting up-coming event for me is CRUSHED GRAPES DAY on Saturday May 17, at Green Oak Ranch from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. There will be worship and praise, some teaching and exhorting [mostly by me] and the ordination of ten or twelve servants of God. This is always an exciting time in the Lord, and I believe He will show up in a magnificent way. If He doesn’t come, we will pack it in and go home. Please come if you can. All are invited. See announcement on the cover.

PIN THE TAIL ON THE ANTI-CHRIST

Here is what I had written:

Receiving a few responses to the last newsletter that were negative, I must assume there were other non-verbalized concerns. The question asked is "Why are you so caught up in this stuff about the end. What is the purpose of it? What will it benefit?"

These questions mirror the thinking of most of my Christian life. The early training I received deposited in me an attitude about the last days that went something like this: "If you are busy serving Jesus, it doesn’t matter how the end-time scenario plays out. You will be okay. If the Church gets raptured out of the world before the last seven years of intense birth-pains, you’ll go right along with the rest. If they stick around through half of that time, it won’t matter to you. If the Church is to prepare the way for the Kingdom of God by establishing justice and righteousness here, you are busy about the Father’s work. If the fulfillment of the prophecies takes hundreds of years, you are on the right track. If the "millennial reign of Christ" is His rule at Father’s right hand now, then I am also there ruling with Him, and the search for significant prophetic happenings is irrelevant, or not very relevant, or only somewhat relevant to my life in the southwestern quadrant of row 735 of God’s Vineyard."

This makes good sense, doesn’t it? It sounds good, and it is good, if that is the attitude with which we approach life and service. However, my thinking was jolted by that "trouble-maker" Jesus who just wont leave things alone and talked a lot about the end. And then that guy Jesus left in charge, old Rocky, or Peter, he really screwed up my eschatological snooze with his letters, especially chapter three of number two.

Why couldn’t He leave well enough alone? That question is not relevant, because He didn’t leave it alone. He didn’t want us to be in the dark and have that day come on us unawares. He doesn’t want us to be caught without oil for our lamps, or the beautiful white wedding garments for our bodies. He wants us to be ready. He wants us to be about His business. He wants us to look forward to the day of God and speed it’s coming - whatever that means.

We’ve watched with shock, anger, amazement, and a mixture of other emotions at the unfolding of the 39 murders in Rancho Santa Fe. I know they are called suicides, but the spirit beings who inhabited the "containers" were demons from hell who led them all into the bizarre termination / evolution to their next level of higher being.

Do the signs in the heavens go beyond Comets to imagined space crafts lurking behind comets to pick up earthlings?. The Bible doesn’t say that the signs are real or rational. Practically the entire earth is aware of what happened to those cult members and why. All have heard about space beings. Human logic infers that this is real enough for 39 people to give their lives. Did you know that over 50% of Americans believe in UFO’s and space travelers? How many believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?

What those 39 needed was Jesus. He alone was their answer to every need and inner longing. Jesus is the only answer for everyone - there is no other answer, no other name under heaven. Why didn’t they embrace Jesus? Surely they had heard of Him. Did they have no authentic witnesses to His redeeming, transforming power? They became disciples, followers of a lie that led to their possession and death. Was there no one to represent Jesus and disciple them into life?

Beloved the day of the Lord is on us. It is dawning brighter and brighter / darker and darker, all the time. When Jesus returns, everyone will know it, every eye will see Him when He shines like lightning from east to west. Before that coming, however, if the Bible and six thousand years of recorded history are any basis, most people won’t have a clue about what’s going on.

When Jesus came the first time, very few recognized Him. Those who did, had revelation from God: Simeon, Anna, the shepherds, and later even Peter was told that flesh and blood had not revealed it to him, but the Father. [I can just hear one of my dear friends shouting, "See, Frank, what’s the difference? Why all this emphasis? There are enough last days kooks muddying the waters. Without that revelation, no one will know.]

My friend has a real point. All I can do, however, is what Jesus says to do. Jesus is about to break into our world, and He says, "Watch and pray that that day does not come upon you unawares." I’m watching, and praying, and trying to alert as many as possible. to reality. Reality includes the fact that this world is not our home. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word will not pass away."

We wrote in the past couple of letters about Jesus coming in His glory in the Church, and then for His Church. I’ve been asked, or challenged, "What is that supposed to mean?"

I don’t know for sure. But He is coming soon, and our Father has answered His prayer and given Him the glory that was His before the foundation of the world. Jesus will not be laying His glory down again.

In the meantime, we are to prepare: get ready, put on the white garments, get oil in our lamps, stay alert, watch and pray, hasten the day, redeem the time, etc., etc. You know what is right - just do it!

Whatever it is God calls you to do, just do it. Don’t fritter away the time. Let Him lead you and guide you, and especially rest in Him.

It may seem like a conflicting message to do the things He has called you to do, and to rest in Him, but it is not. All work must come out of rest. Biblical days are evening [rest] and morning [labor]. All spiritual service begins by resting in Christ’s finished work of salvation. This is the Sabbath Millennium.

Spend as much time as possible resting in Him, to prepare yourself for the millennial reign. Learn to hear Him and obey promptly that you might join the overcomers who with Him will rule the world with a rod of iron. He seems to be training a lot of His followers with some strange assignments. I don’t know if these assignments are for now, or are just a training tool for the seventh millennium when the overcomers will rule with Him with a rod of iron.

LIFELINE Remember Crushed Grapes is a part of Amerivision’s Lifeline. You can switch [upgrade] your long-distance service, pay less, and still cause 10% of your bill to come to Crushed Grapes by calling 1-800-800-7550 and giving them #66514. Thank you.

God bless you and use you mightily in His Kingdom during these awesome days when those who are wise do exploits for our King and shine with His radiated glory.