This week on June 21 the Summer begins on the Summer Solstice.

Astronomically, the Summer Solstice is the day when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky over the northern hemisphere. It is also the longest day of the year. The opposite solstice, the Winter Solstice, is the day when the sun is lowest in the heavens and the night is longest. The other seasonal markers, the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, occur when the sun is at mid point and day and night are of equal length.

These important calendar dates are important in God’s religious calendar. The first three Hebrew feasts, pointing to Christ’s death and resurrection, occur near the Spring Equinox, while the last three feasts, picturing the second coming of Christ, occur near the Fall Equinox. The Spring and Winter are associated with the appearance of Christ in Hosea 6:3, and the story of Christ’s advent begins with the conception of John the Baptist which is believed to have occurred near the Winter Solstice in 7 BC. Summer is associated with the second coming of Christ, as we are told that the Summer is near when the fig tree (Israel) comes to life. (Matt 24:32). You may have a free download of our book The Stars of His Coming at www.dropbox.com/sh/qa0m17n2q1f6gvv/AAAil7jgo8QIJHAmaHZEdbtya?dl=0 for more information.

Sadly these important spiritual times were hijacked by the ancient followers of the religion of the False Messiah, the Pagans. The Winter Solstice came to symbolize the birth of the False Messiah, and structures like New Grange in Ireland are aligned with the sun on the Winter Solstice. Pagans celebrated the Spring Equinox as the beginning of the year, as it was in God’s calendar, and celebrated the harvest at the Fall Equinox. The Summer Solstice, when the sun is highest, marked the power of their Pagan False Messiahs, and temples like Stonehenge were aligned with the sun on the Summer Solstice.

In modern times, the believers in the New Age, or Godhood religion (i.e. we are all Gods), have latched onto the Pagan calendar in an attempt to get in touch with the spirits behind Paganism. They have also tried to revitalize the ancient Pagan sites with their New Age religion. They can be seen at Stonehenge, New Grange, Chitzen Itza, Angkor Wat, Chaco Canyon, and other sites trying to bring back the demon spirits which dominated these civilizations. And, of course, the High Holy Day for many is the Summer Solstice.

As Christians, we need to pray for those poor New Age souls who are falling into demonic bondage. We also need to remember that dates like the Summer Solstice were created by God for His glory, and we can celebrate them as part of God’s prophetic calendar.

Yes, the Summer is near, and we should be telling folks the real meaning: the return of Christ is near.

Thirty years ago, on the night of June 3, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party murdered thousands of democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. It is an event which resonates even today and needs to be remembered.

Compared to the 35 million deliberately starved to death in the 1950’s and the millions killed in the Cultural Revolution of the 1970’s, the number of victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre hardly registers. Yet by 1989 the Chinese Communist Party had put on a kinder, gentler face and many expected them to begin moving toward democratic rule. But we were wrong. Instead, the winds of Freedom which were blowing through the Soviet Empire terrified the rulers in Beijing. The democratic demonstrators were crushed by the Red Army in one bloody night.

The Communists had survived 1989, but another terror gripped them in 1991 as they watched the American Army effortlessly destroy the best military technology in the Communist Block during the First Gulf War. The Red Army was no match for the Americans because, like the Russians and Iraqis, China could not match American spending on defense and technology. To compete, China had to become richer, but the Communist/Socialist economic system produced only poverty. The solution came from leader Deng Xiaoping, who put China on a path to adopt a modified version of the Capitalist System.

First, Deng went to the Red Army and got them to agree to Capitalist reforms it they got more funding. Then he went to the coastal city governors and got them to agree to fund the Red Army in exchange for supporting Capitalism. Finally, Deng won support of the Communist Party by promising to use the Red Army and the increased Capitalist wealth to keep the Party in power. Deng redefined Socialism to be any economic system that worked, i.e. Capitalism, and popularized the saying “To be rich is glorious.”

Deng’s plan worked beyond his wildest dreams. By removing the dead hand of Socialism and allowing people to own property and keep the fruits of their labor, Deng ignited the greatest economic boom in human history. Hundreds of millions of people have moved out of poverty and into the middle class. China has become an economic powerhouse and is the second largest economy in the world.

But as the Chinese economic miracle unfolded, the world forgot about Tiananmen Square. Once again the world began to believe that China would move toward democracy. Once again, we were wrong.

We failed to notice the success of the rest of Deng’s plan. The Red Army, enriched by its own Capitalist companies and higher taxes, has built a modern Air Force and Navy. And, embodied by its new power, the Red Army has taken over the international waters in South China Sea, threatening its neighbors and American power in East Asia.

Thanks to China’s Capitalist prosperity, the Communist Party is more entrenched in power than ever. Worse, one man, XI Jinping, has succeeded in amassing power as Mao Tse Tung did. And, like Mao, he is determined to crush all other competing organizations in China. The Church, which may grow from 100 million to 250 million over the next 20 years, is one of his main targets.

Some churches have been put under control of atheistic Party members and those which refuse are under attack. Thousands of churches have been closed and over a million Christians suffered persecution last year alone. The state forbids Christian education of children and Christian teachings are banned even in many churches. And advanced technology such as facial recognition is used to identify and persecute Christians.

Yes, sadly the Chinese Communist Party is back to Tiananmen Square style repression.

So remember Tiananmen Square and remember to pray for Chinese Christians like Early Rain Church pastor Wang Yi. After he and his wife were arrested, Wang Yi said “The rulers have chosen an enemy that can never be imprisoned – the soul of man. Therefore they are doomed to lose their war.”

Amen.

Wedding Season is upon us again.
It’s a great time of life but it comes with many financial challenges. Some thoughts:
1. Marriage is the world’s best antipoverty program. Two really can live better, if not cheaper, than one.
2. Don’t skip the marriage vow. It honors God, honors your spouse, cements your commitment, saves you taxes, and makes you eligible for your spouse’s medical and other benefits.
3. You will make over $1,000,000 each during your lifetime. If you start saving ten percent now you can earn enough to retire with the same income in about 40 years.
4. Homeownership will provide you with about half of your minimum retirement needs. Start now, when interest rates are at historical lows.
5. Learn to live beneath your means. It’s no good to have an expensive sports car if you can’t afford the gasoline.
6. Don’t miss a blessing by waiting to have children until you can afford it. You never will afford them, but somehow people find a way to get by anyway.
7. You can safely use debt for affordable cars and houses. That’s because, even with the debt, you’re better off with a car and a home.
8. Avoid consumer credit. Use a debit card instead and save the interest, or just pay cash.
9. You are in a race to build your life, not repay your debt. Our role model, Abe Lincoln, got married, had children, and bought a home while he was still in debt.
10. Financial problems end many marriages. You can get new things easier then you can get a new family, so stay united and forgive each other when you make mistakes.
11. After you have children, one of you should consider finding work you can do at home. You can have the same net income with lower gross income because of the savings you’ll receive in taxes, child care, gasoline, eating out, and clothes.
12. Life is uncertain. Have a will and get $500,000 of cheap term life insurance if you want to be fondly remembered.
13. Yes, you should have health insurance with maternity coverage. Get the highest deductible you can afford to pay out of pocket to minimize your costs.
14. Try to live on a budget, but leave a little room for frivolity. If you’re not having fun you’re not doing it right.

God made us male and female because He is in favor of romance. Don’t let financial fears steal the greatest blessings in life.

Next Monday, Memorial Day, the U.S. pauses to remember those who gave their all in our defense.

Warfare is one of the oldest activities of mankind. Beginning with Nimrod in Babylon, rulers have used force of arms to subjugate their enemies and, often, their own people. The great empires of antiquity, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome rose and fell to the cadence of armies on the march. And the people suffered from the plagues of death, famine, and disease which followed the armies.

Into this world of brutal warfare God sent deliverers to his people. Abraham rescued Lot, Moses freed his people from Egypt, Joshua defeated the Canaanites, and the Judges fought to save the Israelites when they repented of their disastrous turns away from God. God built a great Kingdom on the victories of King David, but the people repeatedly fell into sin and many of their Kings moved in the oppressive spirit of Nimrod. The horrors of warfare came upon God’s rebellious people, and the Israelites became slaves in the Promised Land (See Nehemiah 9:36, 37).

Christ came into a world ruled by the sword, but He refused to build His Kingdom by the sword. Instead, He established His Kingdom within the hearts of believers, giving them the inner strength to overcome their real enemy, Satan. Jesus was the greatest revolutionary of all time, bringing millions out of the Kingdom of Darkness. Even the mighty Roman Empire finally bowed its knee and surrendered to Christ.

Alas, the plague of warfare was not eradicated even in the Christian Lands. The Church followed the path of Israel, falling into sinful periods and suffering divisions. New Nimrods arose, some from the Church itself, to subjugate their people. And, as with Israel, God sent deliverers, some with a Bible, like St Patrick who converted the Irish, and some with the sword, like Charles Martel who saved Europe from an Islamic Invasion.

God has also raised up deliverers for our country, whose sacrifice we remember on Memorial Day. Jesus said “Greater Love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:14). As the Lord commends them for their love, so should we.

Let us then pray for our defenders as we honor those who showed the greatest love by sacrificing their lives for us.

This year on the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 2, we are asking for prayers for Christian Unity.

Jesus himself started the Christian Unity Prayer Movement when He prayed that the believers would be united in Him and united with each other so the world would know that God sent Him (John 17:20-23).

Almost since the beginning of Christianity, believers have quarreled about Christian doctrine and church government. The first Jerusalem Council served as an example of a favorably resolved dispute (Acts 15). However, other disputes resulted in division and treatment of opponents as non-Christians. For example, some Protestants who believe in salvation only through faith will recite many doctrinal differences with Catholics, claiming those make them un-Christian although Catholics share their belief in salvation only through faith. The critics have forgotten the words of the apostle Paul, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you” (Rom. 15:7).

Instead of myriad doctrinal tests, the apostle Paul tells how to know if we are in Christ:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. —Romans 10:9–10

In other words, those who are justified by faith and say so are in Christ. If you are in Christ and those with whom you disagree are in Christ, you are united with them in Christ whether you admit it or not.

Although our unity comes through Christ, many denominations and doctrines create a great diversity within the body of Christ Protestant. Lutheran theologian Oscar Cullman said, “Unity in the church . . . is unity in diversity . . . recognizing others in all their variety as true Christians.” Catholic Pope Francis has said, “Unity brought by the Spirit can harmonize every diversity.” Unity in diversity recognizes the contributions of other streams of Christianity and blends them together in a symphony of harmony. It is a unity of the Spirit, not in doctrine or church government.

The church has come a long way since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when being a Protestant in France or a Catholic in England could be a death sentence. The French Edict of Nantes, in effect for less than a century, and the English Act of Tolerance were important steps toward Paul’s admonition to accept brother Christians. The revivalists of the Great Awakening and the second Great Awakening made appeals which transcended their denominations, achieving a forerunner of unity in diversity. The Charismatic movement brought about spiritual unity, as Christians across many denominations shared in the same experiences and often worshiped together.

Even so, much remains to be done to bring together the body of Christ. Today one of the worst schisms in the American church has arisen between the social gospel and the evangelical gospel, and the accompanying politicization of faith. We must come together to care for the poor and needy while reaching the lost with the love of Jesus. We must also transcend politics, guiding both of our political parties to embrace Christian policies.

After the Pope sent a video of reconciliation to Kenneth Copeland in 2014 many national and international church leaders have joined together in Christian unity. However, the urgent need to unite the body of Christ now must be communicated from the national leadership of movements and denominations to the local churches. The city fathers must become champions of unity, bringing the body of Christ together to impact their communities.

The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is not only about unity. It is for unity with a purpose,

“So that the world may believe” (John 17:21).

Let us join with Jesus in His prayer for unity on this National Day of Prayer.

Together we can bring Christian transformation to our nation.

As Jesus hung on the cross, struggling painfully for each breath, He uttered seven short, powerful statements showing who He was and what was happening, and encouraging those who would follow Him. It was His last sermon.

1. “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus is not only practicing the forgiveness He preached (Matthew 5:44), He is asserting His divinity as God who forgives sin (Psalm 103:3). Beyond that, however, He is announcing the beginning of the New Covenant under which our sins will be forgiven (Jerimiah 31:33, 34).

2. “I tell you the Truth, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43)
Jesus’ promise of life to the criminal on the cross tells us that He has authority over Heaven (Psalm 115:16), He will conquer death (Psalm 16:10), and through Him we also will live (John 14:19). He is the priest of the New Covenant because of His indestructible life (Hebrews 7: 16, 17).

3. “Dear woman, here is your Son… here is your mother” (John 19:26, 27)
Jesus took time to entrust His mother into the care of the beloved Disciple John, fulfilling the Scripture at Psalm 69:8 that He was estranged from His brothers and showing us that God expects us to honor our family (Mark 7:10-13). We are also reminded that Jesus was the “Seed of Woman”, the Savior born to a virgin promised in Genesis 3:15.

4. “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Mathew 27:46)
Many of those who heard Jesus, and many commentators since, have failed to understand that Jesus is quoting the Hebrew title of the 22nd Psalm. Jesus sends us to Psalm 22 to show us that 1000 years earlier it was prophesied that Jesus would be mocked (Psalm 22:6-8) and even prophesying the very words of His mockers (Mathew 27:41-43). In one sense, He was mocking His mockers. The crucifixion is also described, as His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:16), His clothes were divided by casting lots (Psalm 22:14), and it was difficult to speak (Psalm 22:15).

Yet Psalm 22 is not a picture of forsakenness or despair, but is instead a declaration of victory. God did not despise the suffering of Jesus (Psalm 22:24). Rather, God used it to purchase eternal life (Psalm 22:26) and promised that all nations will come to Jesus (Psalm 22: 27, 28). Jesus is telling us that He knew the price and gladly paid it.

5. “I am thirsty” (John 19:28)
This is another fulfillment of prophecy (Psalm 69:28), when the suffering Savior is given vinegar for His thirst. Yet in the midst of His pain and distress, Jesus used Psalm 69 to tell us that those who seek God will live (Psalm 69:12), and the God does not despise the suffering of His people (Psalm 69:33). There is also the promise that His people will rebuild Judah (Psalm 69:35, 36), an apparent reference to His promise to return.

6. “It is finished” (John 19:30)
To fully understand this statement, we believe that we need to look to the prophet Daniel. He foretold the coming of the Anointed One who would come 483 years (69×7) after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (458 B.C.), or 26 A.D., and then be “cut off” in the midst of the next 7 years (Daniel 9:25, 26). Jesus is telling us that He has fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy to finish transgression, put an end to Sin, atone for wickedness, bring eternal righteousness, seal up prophecy, and anoint the Holy One (Daniel 9:24). This is the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

7. “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 43:46)
The last words of Jesus on the cross are taken from Psalm 31. He is telling us that we can take refuge in God (Psalm 31:1-4) and that we can trust God with our life (Psalm 31:15). Our times are in His hands (Psalm 31:19-22) and He preserves the faithful (Psalm 31:23, 24).

With His last sermon Jesus told us what He was doing even as He was doing it.

Can you join Him in saying “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit?”