Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Will This School Year be the Death Knell for Mass Public Education?
Jul 27th, 2020
CommentaryTYLER DURDEN/ACTIVIST POST
Categories: Warning

School districts and counties across the US, including counties in COVID-resurgent Texas this week, have mandated that all public and private schools not start their school year until after Labor Day (Sept. 7).

Even after that fall start date, some areas witnessing the current resurgence of cases, such as in California, may not return in person at all or at least go to a half-capacity scenario while offering online options for those families in a position to allow their children to stay home.

Bottom line is that school-wise it's a time of extreme uncertainty and anxiety for families across the US. And then there are the difficult questions of assuming the moment a 'normal' school year actually kicks off - will masks be required through the day? will younger students really be able to practice social distancing? will a school shut down completely again the moment a student or staff member gets coronavirus? will on-campus schooling be safe?

Due to these and other lingering questions, homeschooling is set to explode across the US, despite elites at places like Harvard doing their best to push stereotypes of "insular conservative homeschoolers" and the supposed "dark side" of homeschooling as somehow "detrimental" to societal progress.

Regardless, all kinds of 'alternative' and hybrid stay at home schooling programs are now popping up organically amid continued pandemic and 'shutdown' fears. The Wall Street Journal presents hard numbers illustrating the trend in a lengthy report aptly titled: Amid Coronavirus, Parents 'Pod Up' to Form At-Home Schools.

Recent polls show up to a third of Americans are "not at all" comfortable sending their children back to in-person schooling given the COVID-19 risks and 'unknowns'. And likely this figure is higher.

The Wall Street Journal describes of the recent polling:

A recent poll of 1,341 families by Pittsburgh-based consumer-research firm CivicScience found that more than one-third of parents with children ages 3 to 17 said they are "not at all" comfortable with a return to school in the fall.

In a recent Axios-Ipsos poll of 219 parents of children 18 and under, 71% said they felt sending them to school in the fall presented a moderate or large risk to their household's health and well-being. Not all families can afford to design their own education program. Some households will see their income decline if one parent works fewer hours to manage academics.

And further, the report details, "In the past three weeks, the National Home School Association has referred about 3,000 parents to local home-schooling groups--compared with a handful, if any, in a typical three-week period says Executive Director J. Allen Weston."

One observable trend taking place across the United States includes families and students gathering in 'pods' to conduct their own small-scale schooling. Neighbors or families who already have connections and trusted friendships with children similar in age plan to gather in small groups of 5 to 10 students at people's homes or even local churches.

Within the homeschool sub-culture these are akin to what's often referred to as "co-ops". This involves a homeschool group teaching children at home for most of the week based on a common curriculum, but coming together as a 'campus' at an outside location (such as a church or rented building, or in a residence) for one or two days of the week.

This also takes the form of community field trips or nature outings. It essentially allows for highly independent schooling, yet while maintaining a broader "structure" and interactive social life.

Interestingly, as the WSJ underscores, parents are actually seeing in the set-back of coronavirus shutdowns and delays of traditional campuses..."an opportunity".

In a revealing section on the state of mass public education today, WSJ writes:

Home-schooling experts say the approach isn't just logging in to school virtually. Instead, parents and students seek educational opportunities in everyday life, from reading food labels to learning about nature as they walk through a park, Mr. Weston says.

"Schools steal this joy from children," he adds, and escalating pressure to meet benchmarks on standardized tests hasn't helped. Not all states require home-schoolers to take those tests, he says. Across the U.S., about 4 million K-12 students are home-schooled, Mr. Weston estimates. He believes that figure will rise to at least 10 million by the end of the 2020-21 school year.

The report gives an example of how pods of new homeschooling communities are popping up organically in response to the crisis:

Myra Margolin, a full-time mother of a newborn and preschooler in Washington, created a Facebook group for families interested in forming home-schooling pods. She expected about 30 families would join and exchange ideas.

The group, which launched July 6, has more than 850 members. "People are freaking out," Ms. Margolin says, with interests that range from convening free-form play groups to hiring teachers for more structured learning environments.

And other alternative programs like 'homeschool nature programs' and outdoor focused learning programs, and small scale Montessori environments, as well as Charlotte Mason style and classical learning are also soaring in terms of interest.

All of this begs the question: given that even before the rise of the pandemic, public school districts in many cities were already in a state of crisis - academically, financially, culturally, and otherwise...Could the 2020-2021 school year (or lack thereof) be the death knell for mass public education?

Revelation 10: 1-6 - Exploring Revelation
Jul 27th, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Book Study;Prophecy

As we come to chapter 10, and we remind you that we are in a parenthesis, a pause in the story line. Chapter 10 is a declaration by God that He is now about to wind up the affairs of the godless nations and reposses the earth. Chapters 11-14 are also a parenthesis, they tell us what God has been doing and what Satan has been doing during the blowing of the trumpets.

Here in chapter 10, in the middle of the storm, the clouds open and the sunshine breaks through. Christ lays claim to the earth and declares that He is now about to quickly finish the final judgments on the earth and on men and retake total possession of the earth. Satan had temporarily been given a limited control over the earth. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

We are daily witnessing Satan's utter failure to govern the earth successfully. Our world is a chaotic mess and it is growing more chaotic with each passing day. By the time Christ returns to reign, our world will be in ashes, a vivid testimony to Satan's folly in thinking that he could ever rule this world in place of God.

Our world of men and women today say their is no God, the earth was not created by God, men are not accountable to God. Men believe the fate of the world is in their hands. God's word has no claim upon them, they can do as they please. Men in there rejection of God are left in confusion, frustration and deception. Here in chapter 10, in the midst of the judgment of God, Christ is about to assume His proper place at the center of His creation. He will restore this world to the condition God intended and do what Satan could never do.

In verse 1, we are introduced to the mighty angel, now in verse 2, we see the actions of the mighty angel. "And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth." We know that the earth and the sea stand for the sum total of the material universe. The Lord is here claiming the sea and the earth are His. Christ is proclaiming that He is abut to retake possession of that which is rightfully His. Satan has been usurping Christ's right to the earth for some 6000 years now. The earth is Christ's by right of creation in the same way that all men everywhere are God's by right of creation and are accountable to Him.

The little book that was open is the same sealed book we were introduced to in Revelation 5, that book represented the title deed to the earth. Now the seals are broken,  the contents of the book reveal the jugdments which return the earth to Christ.

In verses 3-4 we hear the assertion of the mighty angel and the Lion of the tribe of Judah as He roars. The roar is the warning of imminent judgment. "And when seven thunders had uttered their voices", evidently those seven thunders sounded forth an awesome message. John was forbiden to write the message, it is foolish and forbidden to speculate as to what this awesome message was, someday we will know. This is the only part of the Revelation that is sealed and not revealed to us.

THE MESSAGE OF THE MIGHTY ANGEL, verses 5-7. In verse 5-6, it says that the angel lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever. This angel is speaking for God, what an awesome thought that men and angels can speak for God. Let us not misrepresent God when we speak for Him.Let our lives speak forth the truth about God.

Look at the message, "that their should be time no longer": or, that there should be delay no longer. Time would not end for another thousand years. Christ is saying that there will be one more series of judgments and they will be exercised quickly. Now the last half of the trbulation period will unfold quickly.

Time is an incident in the process of eternity, a bracket. There was a moment when time began, there shall be another moment at the conclusion of the millennial age when it shall cease, but God's people will live on forever.

However in our text sin's day is about to end! The final hour has struck to put an end to earth's long night. What a day that will be when the millennial kingdom begins.

Let the Headlines Speak
Jul 27th, 2020
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

For The Full Story Click on the Individual News Item

Louie Gohmert Urges House to Ban Democratic Party for Supporting Slavery
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced a privileged resolution on Thursday that calls upon Congress to ban the Democratic Party for supporting slavery and the Confederate States of America, Breitbart News has learned exclusively. Therefore, Gohmert argued, that because leftists now demand that the country must eliminate “entities symbols, and reminders” of America’s past, then the Democratic Party must change to recognize its “loathsome and bigoted past.”

Abbas: Sovereignty will eliminate any chance for peace
Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday warned that the implementation of the Israeli plan to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria will eliminate any chance of achieving peace and lead the region to chaos and violence,

Mike Ditka: ‘If you can’t respect our national anthem, get the he– out of the country’
However, Ditka said he wouldn’t change how he felt about this issue. “You don’t protest against the flag and you don’t protest against this country who’s given you the opportunities to make a living playing a sport that you never thought would happen,” Ditka told TMZ. “So, I don’t want to hear all the crap.”

Massive explosion at Iraqi base linked to Iranian-backed militias
According to Iraqi sources the area of the base affected was ammunition dumps linked to the Federal Police, which are part of the Interior Ministry. The Interior Ministry in Iraq has been infiltrated deeply by elements of the pro-Iranian Badr Organization. The claims that it was a Federal Poilice ammunition storage was to allay concerns that the explosion actually hit areas where the pro-Iranian militias, called Hashd al-Shaabi, have ammunition.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign names Jewish donors to her main opponent
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has once again found herself mired in controversy after her campaign sent out a mailer identifying three Jewish donors who support her Democratic primary opponent, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported Thursday. “Can We Trust Antone Melton-Meaux’s Money?” the campaign literature, first obtained by Vice News, reads.

Here’s the latest on the tropical disturbance in the Atlantic
The tropics are relatively calm, however, one disturbance, in particular, has caught the eye of many Floridians. The tropical wave is said to likely become a tropical depression or tropical storm within the next 2 or 3 days and has a 90% chance of cyclone formation over the next five days.

Secret source for anti-Trump Steele dossier is revealed as US-based researcher on Russian politics
THE secret source behind the infamous anti-Donald Trump dossier has been revealed as a US-based Russian politics researcher, Mark E. Schamel, an attorney for 42-year-old Igor Danchenko, told The New York Times that his client provided the information to Steele, a former British spy. Danchenko was an ex-Brookings Institution senior research analyst in Washington, DC and was not based in Russia. Nevertheless, the FBI utilized Steele’s dossier to obtain wiretaps of former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. “Igor Danchenko has been identified as one of the sources who provided data and analysis [to Steele],” Schamel confirmed.

Hurricane Warning in effect for Oahu, Kauai County and Maui County
Hurricane Douglas is within 50 miles of Kahului and 100 miles east of Honolulu, maximum sustained winds remain at 85 mph with higher gusts. Winds are expected to ramp up Sunday night.

Why This Year’s Locust Invasion Is Setting Off Global Panic
As if 2020 hasn’t thrown enough curveballs already, desert locusts are setting off a global panic. From Kenya to Pakistan to, most recently, Argentina, locust swarms have been on the move. The infestation is most advanced in East Africa, which is experiencing the worst locust outbreak in generations. There’ve been six major locust plagues in the last century, one of which lasted nearly 13 years, according to the U.N. But the current infestation in East Africa is technically an upsurge,

Trump wants an ‘alliance of democracies’ to oppose China. It’s starting to take shape
Not since 1989, and the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, have Chinese leaders looked out at the world and seen so much hostility. From Britain to India, Japan to Australia, and even among the usually deferential nations of Southeast Asia, China’s aggressive expansionism, trade warfare, alleged espionage, cyberattacks and COVID-19 propaganda have provoked a growing pushback against President Xi Jinping’s ambition to build the world’s next superpower.

Fugitive Chinese military researcher arrested in San Francisco after hiding in Chinese consulate
A member of the Chinese military who was posing as a researcher at the University of California – Davis has been taken into U.S. custody over visa fraud on Friday after hiding in a Chinese consulate, … the Chinese researcher had left the San Francisco consulate and was arrested by law enforcement, according to a senior Justice Department official.

EU crisis: Showdown with Turkey sparks military fears as Erdogan mocks Macron’s threats
Emmanuel Macron has called for punishment against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as tensions between the EU and Turkey continue to intensify. The tensions erupted this week after Greece accused Turkey of undermining its sovereignty by threatened to send ships to take natural resources within Greece’s territorial waters. There are mounting fears that this crisis could spill over into naval clashes between the EU member-states and Ankara. Turkey reacted by ridiculing these threats, saying “the statements of Macron have no value for our country”.

Explosive Pentagon Report Mentions RECOVERED HIGHER ENTITIES “Off-World Vehicles Not Made On This Earth”
And one consultant to the agency has briefed Defense Department officials of some highly unusual discoveries ― including items retrieved from “off-world vehicles not made on this Earth,” the newspaper said. The Pentagon has claimed it disbanded its UFO office, but it actually simply changed names and moved. A Senate committee report suggests it will be expected to make some information public every six months.

Court lets state seize ‘pay for slay’ funds from terrorist prisoner
The Defense Ministry announced on Monday that a court has endorsed its seizure of “pay for slay” funds to a prisoner who aided a terrorist killer of six Israelis in 2005. The Tel Aviv District Court decision was handed down on Sunday but announced on Monday, ruling that a new 2016 anti-terror law permitted seizing the funds in order to deter terrorism.

In North, Gantz warns that Israel will meet tests with strong response
As tensions remain high between Israel and Hezbollah, Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited IDF Northern Command…warning that Israel will continue to protect its security interests…“We believe there can be [security] events on the border. We are prepared for all possibilities,” Gantz said.

Turkey faces threat of double sanctions
Turkey is facing fresh threats of sanctions from its Western allies as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan moves the country further away from the West’s orbit, but analysts say it is unlikely he will be convinced to change his foreign policy trajectory. The threats of sanctions come on a tumultuous week for Turkey on the world stage as it holds the first Muslim prayers in the historic Hagia Sophia…

South Texas drenched by cyclone amid surge in virus cases
A day after roaring ashore as a hurricane, Hanna lashed the Texas Gulf Coast on Sunday with high winds and drenching rains that destroyed boats, flooded streets and knocked out power across a region already reeling from a surge in coronavirus cases. Downgraded to a tropical depression, Hanna passed over the U.S.-Mexico border with winds near 50 mph (85 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

First Arab country acquires new Chinese missile system
China has started exporting the third generation of their Red Arrow-12 anti-tank systems, also known as the HJ-12. According to the China Defense website, Algeria has become the first Arab country to obtain the upgraded Chinese anti-tank system. Not surprisingly, the Algerian military has long-standing relationships with the Chinese military-industrial complex.

U.S. Republicans to unveil coronavirus aid proposal as time runs out on jobless benefits
U.S. Senate Republicans…are expected to unveil a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package hammered out with the White House, a starting point for negotiations with Democrats as unemployment benefits…are set to expire. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters…the plan just needed a few clarifications before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could unveil it on Monday afternoon.

AIPAC praises Congress for $3.8 billion Israel aid package
The American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) praised U.S. lawmakers after a bill including $3.8 billion in defense assistance for Israel cleared both chambers of Congress. The funding comes as part of the National Defense Authorization Act which was approved in the House of Representatives by 295 to 125 on Tuesday and in the Senate with 86 in support and 14 against on Thursday.

Israeli drone crashes in Lebanon amid tensions with Syria
Israel said a military drone crashed in southern Lebanon on Sunday as regional tensions ran high, days after a series of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Syria and the killing of a Hezbollah militant in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital. The Israeli military issued the statement shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with army brass near the country’s northern frontier.

World’s religions embracing AI ‘God robots capable of performing miracles’
Religions around the world are evolving as technology progresses, and now some faiths are relying on “god robots ” to spread the good word. Back in the Middle Ages, Christian “robots” of a kind were fashioned to perform the religious pageantry of the Easter and Christmas rituals. In the 16th century, a mechanical monk was created by a Spanish clockmaker that incredibly remains fully functional to this day.

Russia rolls out 6,000mph ‘ship killer’ missile and issues chilling warning
Russia has carried out successful tests of a hypersonic missile that can supposedly travel at speeds of 6,000mph, state media reports. The Zircon missile was fired far from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the far north of the country this morning. Vladimir Putin’s defence ministry confirmed testing had been completed after being fired from warship Admiral Gorshkov.

Bill Gates says ‘final hurdle’ to distributing a Covid-19 vaccine will be convincing people to TAKE IT
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates lamented the US is ‘not even close’ to doing enough to fight the pandemic, before warning that the vaccine he wants to inject into every human on the planet does require their consent first. Speaking to Anderson Cooper at a CNN town hall on Thursday, Gates insisted the US was “experiencing a rebound” in Covid-19 infections even accounting for the increase in testing.

Spain Second Virus Wave Swells, Fuels Concern Across Europe
Spain is scrambling to stay ahead of new outbreaks of the coronavirus that prompted the U.K. to impose a quarantine on travelers returning from the country, dealing a new blow to its tourism-dependent economy.

Agricultural Warfare? People Are Receiving Mysterious Unsolicited Packages Of Seeds In The Mail From China
“Look’s like it’s all across the country…”

America’s Biggest Retailers Now Walking Back Mandatory Mask Policy
A gap is emerging between the rules as they are written and the ones that are lived out at the entrances of major American retailers.

Dead doctors, nagalase and vaccines: What’s the connection?
Autism has now skyrocketed to ONE IN 45 in this country. That means if you walked down your street right now, it’s highly likely you wouldn’t even have to go a full block before you will have passed a home with at least one autistic child living in it. What you are about to hear may be why.

Demons Frolicking At Large In Lockdown’s Empty Churches
Locked out from the churches that so many are longing to get back into, how many wonder what is going on inside shuttered churches during the pandemic?…The Gospel of Christ has been hijacked by social justice.

Rutgers University Declares Grammar ‘Racist’
If you’re looking for peak idiocy from academic institutions who are falling all over themselves to kowtow to the mob’s notions of “social justice,” look no further…

MUST SEE: Yugoslavian woman issues warning to all Americans – unfolding events are following a scripted pattern of invoking hatred and violence to bring down America
A Yugoslavian woman has issued a powerful warning to all Americans, eloquently describing how all the events you see unfolding in America right now are scripted, emotionally-charged events designed to turn citizens against each other to invoke a deadly civil war that will bring down the nation.

The Chinese Floods Will Change the Balance of Power On the Planet
All of the Chinese-manufactured protective equipment is now underwater. China’s next harvest is almost 100% destroyed. China could soon have 400-500 million refugees. How many young men will be eager to join the Chinese military just so they can eat? Massive famine, both in China and around the world will soon be realized.

REPORT: Red Flag Gun Confiscation Included in U.S. Defense Budget?
Nancy Pelosi is trying to get federal gun control passed by sneaking it into the national defense budget. The National Association for Gun Rights sent an email to supporters, warning:

BREAKING: Rioters launch ‘EXPLOSIVES’ ‘MORTARS’, Throw rocks and more at Seattle PD, officers INJURED, Precinct ablaze 
“SEATTLE IS A WARZONE!” said Seattle political activist and citizen journalist in a tweet just minutes ago from Oregon.

Virginia, Utah residents report receiving unsolicited packets of seeds in the mail reportedly from China 
Virginia residents have been advised not to plant any unsolicited seeds they may have received in the mail, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VADACS) has advised.

Mike Pompeo: US intelligence shows the head of WHO was ‘bought by the Chinese government,’ according to reports
Mike Pompeo has said that the World Health Organisation ‘s director-general was “bought by the Chinese government.”

Spot Gold Soars To Record High As Dollar Freefall Accelerates
“I think what we have is a monetary moment that is unprecedented and therefore calls for extreme caution and great humility on the parts of all of us.”

Kenya could introduce abortion up to birth, under radical Bill pushed by international abortion organisations
A Bill backed by major international abortion organisations, including Ipas and Planned Parenthood Global, which would introduce abortion up to birth, is currently progressing through Kenya’s Senate.

Israel & Hezbollah Prepare for Next Round of Conflict
Jul 27th, 2020
CommentaryYOAV LIMOR/JNS.ORG
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

Israel and Hezbollah are again embroiled in a perilous dynamic of escalation. How things unfold, as always, depends on the degree of self-restraint and level-headedness on both sides, and just as importantly on luck.

Hezbollah plans to perpetrate a terrorist attack in the coming days. Hence the Israel Defense Forces dispatched reinforcements to the Lebanese border last week and raised alert levels.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in the past that he would retaliate from Lebanese soil for any harm to his personnel, even if they were wounded or killed in Syria. Such was the case last September, following the assassination of a Hezbollah drone cell in the Syrian Golan Heights; and such is the case now as he seeks to avenge the death of a Hezbollah operative in an airstrike on Damascus International Airport last Monday, which has been attributed to Israel.

We can assume that, if Israel was indeed behind the attack, Israeli officials didn't know the Hezbollah operative was present at the targeted site. Efforts are usually made to avoid casualties, which increase the likelihood of a counter-response.

But from the moment the (relatively junior) operative was killed, the situation took on a life of its own: social-media sites in Lebanon erupted, with users mocking Nasrallah for failing to back up his words. It seems he initially couldn't decide whether or not to retaliate, but the IDF's recent measures indicate the decision has already been made in Beirut.

Nasrallah does not want a war. He is in unprecedented distress. Lebanon is in tatters economically, on the verge of insolvency. Unemployment numbers are through the roof. Because it is a part of the government, Hezbollah is perceived as being part of the problem. The terrorist group has not avoided the vitriol of the masses, not least because many of the problems stem from the economic sanctions imposed against it, which heavily burden Lebanon's financial systems.

This distress is also palpable among Hezbollah's rank and file. Iranian funding has dried up considerably because of the Islamic Republic's own economic hardships in the face of crippling U.S. sanctions. Nasrallah has to maneuver to survive.

A war that will wreak havoc on Lebanon, and mainly on the country's Shi'ite population, will give him nothing. He plunged Lebanon into a war with Israel in 2006, for which he eventually expressed his regret. "Nasrallah is a Shi'ite, but he isn't suicidal," a senior IDF officer said this week.

Responding, but on a small scale

We can expect Nasrallah to try walking a tightrope. He'll look to retaliate, but to the most minimal degree possible. If he could kill one IDF soldier, an eye for an eye, so to speak, he would take it and close this chapter. He'll likely look to hit an easy target from inside Lebanon, with an anti-tank missile, sniper or roadside bomb.

The IDF, as stated, is preparing accordingly, and since Friday night forces have reduced their visibility. IDF vehicles are banned from using roads in the northern sector, which is exposed to Lebanese territory. Civilians can go about their daily routines, on the assumption that Hezbollah wants to kill a soldier, but military units are under stringent restrictions so as not to give Hezbollah a convenient target.

Past experience tells us however that a target will eventually be found. Inevitably, the enemy will make contact. Such was the case last year when an army ambulance violated security protocol near Avivim and was attacked with anti-tank missiles.

Miraculously, all five soldiers inside the vehicle survived. Although the IDF at the time presented the incident as a success, mostly because it was part of a deception exercise, it could have ended in abject failure. It was only by dint of fortune that a more serious incident was avoided, which would have assuredly triggered a grave, unpredictable escalation.

This is precisely the current situation. If Hezbollah harms soldiers, Israel will have to respond. To that end, reinforcements were sent north and additional outfits (mainly in the air force) were placed on a heightened alert footing. Hezbollah will then have to exact a price after Israel retaliates, and so forth. The downward spiral, at that point, will depend, as stated, on the leaders and luck. Although neither side wants a war, they can afford not to respond even less.

Bracing for an Iranian response

Supposedly, Hezbollah could have mitigated this risk by responding from the Golan Heights sector. The IDF is preparing for this, too: The Israeli helicopter attack on Friday--in response to errant Syrian anti-aircraft fire that landed in Israeli territory--was exploited to destroy observation posts on the Syrian side of the border.

There's another reason for the heightened readiness along the Syrian frontier--Iran. In Tehran, regime officials are determined to retaliate for the significant damage at the centrifuge production facility at Natanz, which has been attributed to Israel. The belief is that this response will come from Syrian territory, and will be separate from Hezbollah's response over the death of its operative in Damascus.

This state of affairs means IDF forces will remain on high alert, at least over the coming days. Last September, it took Hezbollah a week to respond. This time around, it might want things to happen sooner, perhaps before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on July 31.

What happens next will depend on the outcome of the Hezbollah attack. If it is deadly, heaven forbid, Israel will strike back. At that point, the path to full-blown war is exceedingly short. Israel and Lebanon, both buckling under the weight of the coronavirus and their struggling economies, could find themselves caught in an unwanted tailspin.

Anyone on either side searching for conspiracy theories can rest assured: These tensions and the heightened alert are quite real. This scenario appears in every briefing the Military Intelligence Directorate has presented in recent years, certainly due to the scope of Israeli airstrikes in Syria, alleged and otherwise.

We can only hope that both sides exhibit the same level of judgment that has guided their actions since the Second Lebanon War, and end this current spat before the situation dangerously spins out of control.

Doth not the Ear Try Words? and the Mouth Tast His Meat. Job 12:11
Jul 27th, 2020
Morning MeditationF.B. Meyer
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational;Book Study

THERE is no appeal from the verdict of our palate. We know in a moment whether a substance is sweet or bitter, palatable or disagreeable. Now, what the taste is to articles of diet, that the ear is to words, whether of God or man. More especially we can tell in a moment whether the fire of inspiration is burning in them. This is the test which Job proposed to apply to the words of his friends; and it would be well for all of us to apply the same test to Holy Scripture.

The humble student of the Word of God is sometimes much perplexed and cast down by the assaults which are made on it by scholars and teachers, who do not scruple to question the authorship and authority of large tracts of Scripture. We cannot vie with these in scholarship, but the humblest may apply the test of the purged ear; and it will detect a certain quality in the Bible which is absent everywhere beside. There is a tone in the voice of Scripture, which the child of God must recognize. This is the interesting characteristic in the quotations made in the New Testament from the Old. All the writers in the later Revelation detect the voice of God in the Old; to them, it is the Divine utterance through holy lips. Hearken, they cry, "the holy Ghost saith." God is speaking in the prophets, as He spake in his Son.

It is one of the characteristics of Christ's sheep that they know his voice, and follow Him, whilst they flee from the voice of strangers. Ask that the Lord may touch your ears, that they may discern by a swift intuition the voice of the Good Shepherd from that of strangers; and for grace to follow immediately He calls you.