DAILY DEVOTIONAL – June 1, 2024 Weeping in the Night By Jim Cymbala God was going to make a man who would change his nation. Where did this man come from? He came from one of the most heartbroken women and from a very, very dysfunctional family. Let’s look at how his story began.  “On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb”(1 Samuel 1:4-6, ESV). This is a terrible, fractured situation.  Hannah didn’t give up on God or quit going to worship, though. She never said, “What’s the sense in worshipping? Look at me! I have no children. I have a terrible rival who mocks me for having no children in the middle of the worship services. What’s worse, she’s my husband’s other wife. I wish she’d just drop dead.” Hannah got vexed and heartbroken, but she kept her eyes on the Lord, and God said, “That’s the woman I want to be the mother of my future prophet.”  When she had her son, Samuel, she dedicated him to God. She returned to that temple and told the priest,  “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:26-28).  Maybe that son or daughter or person you’re praying for is a complete mess. You’ve wept through the night over them. Right there is where God wants to show his power and do extraordinary things. Charles Spurgeon used to give an illustration in his sermons about a jeweler; when the jeweler brings out his best diamonds, he puts them on black velvet so the darkness will show the gem’s luster. That’s how God is.  Out of the worst situations, God does his best work.  Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson. Read and Listen OnlineForward to a Friend

Your Gift Makes a Difference Give a gift today, impact lives eternally. Your generosity is changing lives throughout the world. Give Now

The Altar of Our Hearts How do we express heartache to God? In this book, Gary Wilkerson, pastor and president of World Challenge, examines the first twelve psalms and how each is a unique invitation to authentic prayer. Get Your Copy Now

The Mantle of Elijah Second Kings 2 contains one of the most spectacular passages in all of the Old Testament. It tells the miraculous story of the aging prophet Elijah and his younger servant, Elisha.  Read Now   The Parable of the Good Samaritan Gary Wilkerson and Joshua West emphasize the importance of loving others with genuine compassion that flows from a heart transformed by God's love. Watch Now   Sermon Podcast David and Gary Wilkerson as well as other speakers share their knowledge of the Bible and walk alongside you through the scriptures. Listen Now

You are welcome to make copies for FREE distribution or retransmit the devotional via e-mail, but all devotionals must be copied or retransmitted in their entirety. However, devotionals may not be posted on any website, printed, or used in any media without written permission from World Challenge, Inc. Each request is considered on a case-by-case basis. Please contact World Challenge, Inc. using our online contact form or by calling (719) 487-7888. © 2024 World Challenge, Inc. Transforming Lives Through the Message and Mission of Jesus Christ

PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION

 

PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION,

A HAUGHTY SPIRIT BEFORE A FALL.

(Proverbs 16:18, NIV)

This Passage from God’s Word,

Is prophetic for America,

As she Looms Toward Destruction,

As she Flaunts God’s Word

And Celebrates PRIDE Month;

Celebrating her FALL, her own Demise.

Companies Tone Down June Pride Month Plans To Escape Backlash

It wasn't that long ago that the mainstream media mocked conservatives for trying to flex their consumer muscle. Not anymore. A year removed from the Bud Light fiasco that sparked a thousand boycotts, even USA Today is admitting -- the grassroots strategy worked. LGBT Pride, at least as a wholesale business concept, is dead. For companies brave (or foolish) enough to test Americans' outrage in 2024, one thing is for certain: there's no pot of gold at the end of this June's rainbow.

To most CEOs' surprise, the wave of national fury over trans activism hasn't just remained steady over the past 14 months -- it's exploded in strength and scope. The firepower that consumers have unleashed against brands like Target, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Disney, Planet Fitness, and others have put companies on defense at a time of year when they're used to passing the Left's annual test of LGBT loyalty. 

Now, thanks to painful pushback that's crashed stocks and sales, the conversations in those corporate board rooms have dramatically changed. Instead of, "How can we maximize our visibility on Pride?" the question has become, "What can we do to show our support without burning consumer bridges?"

The result, USA Today's Jessica Guynn points out, is a much more muted June than years past. "Expect fewer rainbow logos for LGBTQ Pride Month," she warned. Strategists like Matt Skallerud of Pink Media, who's entire job is helping brands reach the LGBT demographic, says he used to be "pretty busy working on Pride projects." "I can tell you for myself," he admitted, "I have not been -- and I think it's across the board." If the goal was to make "Pride" toxic for brands, as conservative Matt Walsh urged, then mission accomplished.

Even Skallerud concedes that displays like Target's "tuck" swimwear and chest binders are a thing of the past for now. "Nobody in the media, marketing, and advertising world wants to admit how heavy and hard this has been," he said. "Ever since Target and Bud Light had their fiascos last year, a tremendous number of brands have decided it would be much better to sit on the sidelines and let this sort itself out." 

This modest approach to Pride Month probably won't sit well with the architects of sexual radicalism. Already, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has witnessed a stunning drop in the number of companies who earned 100% on their Corporate Equality Index. In 2023, after Dylan Mulvaney's corporate partnerships poisoned the profit well, 297 businesses scaled back their LGBT advocacy, losing their perfect score. Now, GlobalData's Neil Saunders told Guynn, brands are in a pickle.

"If you promote Pride, some people will be unhappy with it. If you don't promote Pride, some people will be unhappy about that. It's not a battle you can win completely, which is why some retailers and brands are taking a middle-of-the-road approach and keeping it moderate," Saunders pointed out. "They are doing some promotion but they are restricting it to things that they think are palatable and acceptable for most people." And that's not going to change any time soon, he warned. "Retailers and brands will be more cautious about how they promote issues and causes."

Of course, there are those, like the pigheaded Levi Strauss, who'd rather fall on their rainbow swords than give an inch on their political agenda. "This year's Pride collection marks ten years that the Levi's brand has been celebrating Pride with products, marketing and a $100,000 USD donation to Outright International, a global organization working to advance human rights for LGBTQ+ people all over the world. We are excited about this year's collection and our plans to engage consumers," they announced.

Woke Wells Fargo joined their suicide mission, stubbornly declaring, "Our plans this year are not scaled back; we have celebrated Pride Month in the past and will continue in the future." Even Walmart, who should've learned from Target to leave well enough alone, tweeted its excitement about the company's new Pride collection.

According to polling, they're in for a bumpy ride. The latest Axios/Harris survey of U.S. businesses uncovered a huge swing in how left-leaning brands were viewed. "Nearly two-thirds of the companies in this year's survey saw their total reputation quotients decline. That figure," Axios explains, "represents how a brand ranks across seven attributes: trust, character, ethics, vision, citizenship, growth and products and services." Forty-four percent of Americans said their overall opinion of companies fell -- especially those "overly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion."

On the other hand, brands that stayed out of the cultural controversy or "traditionally conservative-leaning brands" saw "sizeable gains in corporate reputation." Businesses like Hobby Lobby, Subway, the Trump Organization, Fox Corporation, and others got a big bounce in approval from a country fed-up with leftist politics. Clearly, Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema said, Americans "are more picky this year and holding companies to account."

"Washington Watch" guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice is thrilled that corporations are finally counting the cost of their social extremism. Watching brands like Target walk back their in-your-face extremism this summer shows that grassroots Americans are winning. "There's been significant backlash -- not only on a personal level of consumer boycotts," he pointed out on Wednesday's show, "but states [have] even divested from funds like Blackrock" over their woke ESG agendas.

That's a significant sea change, 1792 Exchange President Paul Fitzpatrick agreed. "As we know, historically, corporations had close relationships with Republicans and the Right, kind of working for lower taxes and favorable regulations. And that happened for a long, long time." But for the last 20 years, there's been "the marriage of Wall Street's desire to make money, and the Left's desire to use corporations to impose policies on the American people that they can't get passed legislatively." 

For a while, he pointed out, "it worked well. Everybody got what they wanted. ... Wall Street folks were making a lot more money. The activists were getting policies forced down the throats of customers and employees and manipulating capital markets from corporations -- a lot of it coming from the big asset managers Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard. And they really were kind of running unimpeded."

But by 2021, states started pushing back. "You saw state legislatures coming in and saying, 'We are not going to do business... with companies that are boycotting our core industries [like fossil fuels].' ... That has forced the big asset managers to change their tune. They're not talking about ESG in the same way they were. Many of them are calling it a dirty word. In essence, Larry Fink of Blackrock, who's really the godfather of pushing this [is backing away from that messaging]. ... And so it's been encouraging to see people wake up."

Now, thanks to Bud Light and so many other casualties of excessive Pride, Americans have started to realize how much power they have to change the corporate landscape. Eighty percent of marketing executives are now nervous about how to play these divisive issues, Vox reports. And they should be. Only 20% of the country is now "interested in corporations taking a stand on political issues or current events." The arc of consumerism is back to a Switzerland mentality, where woke advocacy is too great a risk, Michael Serazio insists. "Activism ain't selling like it used to."

And look, Fitzpatrick pointed out, "We want American corporations to be very profitable, but we want them to focus on producing good products and services, not on political [advocacy]." As Doug Zanger, an industry expert told Vox, "These are thorny, real-life issues that I honestly don't think [companies] need to take a stand against. If I'm a brand manager that's selling soap, I don't know why I would bother."

At the end of the day, consumers aren't asking for a lot. This isn't about Starbucks selling MAGA hats or Doritos clamoring for a border wall. All Americans want is neutrality. The assurance that when they shop for mouthwash, they aren't hit over the head with an agenda that wants to neuter their children or groom them for RuPaul's Drag Race. In a world where even fast food has become a middle-class luxury, the only political cause every family cares about is inflation. Maybe now, brands are recognizing what they once did: value -- not values -- is what matters.

Originally published at The Washington Stand

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=6933

Is The Stage Being Set For The Global Food Crisis Prophecy Of Revelation 6:6?

Will we soon see a major prophecy in the  Book of Revelation be fulfilled?  Global food prices have been skyrocketing and hunger has been spreading like wildfire all over the world. 

We desperately need 2024 to be a year of good harvests, but unfortunately weather patterns are not cooperating at all and bad news about harvest forecasts just continues to pour in from many of the planet's most important agricultural regions.  

Global food supplies just keep getting tighter and tighter, and the agricultural price spikes that we are witnessing right now are definitely quite ominous.  

Could it be possible that the stage is now being set for the global food crisis prophecy of Revelation 6:6?  In that verse, we are warned of a time when food prices will soar to absolutely frightening levels...

Then I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not harm the oil and the wine."

We certainly haven't reached that point yet.

But are we on the way there?

In this article, I would like to share what has been going on with a number of our most important agricultural commodities recently.

For example, poor harvests in Brazil have caused the price of orange juice to approximately double over the past 12 months...

Prices of the breakfast staple have been climbing rapidly in recent years, partly driven by declining output in Florida -- the main producer of orange juice in the U.S. -- and climate-fueled extreme weather in the main orange producing areas of Brazil.

The South American agricultural powerhouse is the world's largest producer and exporter of orange juice, which means it plays a hugely influential role in shaping the global industry.

The benchmark frozen concentrated orange juice futures, traded on the Intercontinental Exchange in New York, closed at $4.77 per pound on Wednesday. That's nearly double the price registered a year ago.

Prices have gone so "bananas" that some orange juice producers are actually "considering turning to alternative fruits"...

Orange juice makers are considering turning to alternative fruits such as mandarins as wholesale prices have "gone bananas" amid fears of poor harvests in Brazil.

Prices of orange juice concentrate reached a new high of $4.95 (£3.88) a lb on futures markets this week after growers in the main orange producing areas of Brazil said they were expecting the harvest to be 24% down on last year at 232m 40.8kg boxes - worse than the 15% fall previously predicted.

The price of coffee is also going haywire.

So if you love coffee, I would stock up now while you still can.

Thanks to extremely dry conditions in Brazil and Vietnam, coffee prices were up "sharply" this week...

Coffee prices Tuesday rallied sharply, with arabica jumping to a 1-month high. Coffee prices soared Tuesday on concern that excessive dryness in Brazil and Vietnam will damage coffee crops and curb global production. Somar Meteorologia reported Monday that Brazil's Minas Gerais region received 5.3 mm of rain or 69% of the historical average in the past week. Minas Gerais accounts for about 30% of Brazil's arabica crop.

Last Wednesday, coffee trader Volcafe said Vietnam's 2024/25 robusta coffee crop may only be 24 million bags, the lowest in 13 years, as poor rainfall in Vietnam has caused "irreversible damage" to coffee blossoms. Volcafe also projects a global robusta deficit of 4.6 million bags in 2024/25, a smaller deficit than the 9-million-bag deficit seen in 2023/24 but the fourth consecutive year of robusta bean deficits.

Wheat is specifically mentioned in Revelation 6:6, and Bloomberg is reporting that a confluence of factors has pushed the price of wheat to the highest level in 10 months...

Wheat briefly touched the highest in 10 months, as cold and dry weather in major producers and the ongoing war in Ukraine deepen supply concerns.

Futures climbed as much as 3.3% in Chicago, before paring some of the gain. Analysts have been cutting production estimates for top exporter Russia in recent weeks, while Ukraine is headed for its driest May on record. Historically low rainfall in Western Australia is also adding to nervousness.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

I am entirely convinced that the price of wheat will soon go far higher than it is right now.

So if you think that the price of bread is high now, just wait until you see what is coming next.

Meanwhile, the price of beef just surged to another brand new all-time record high...

Beef prices skyrocketed to a new record high this Memorial Day weekend as industry experts warn costs could continue to rise even higher if current regulatory and economic conditions remain unchanged.

Recently released data shows that "all fresh beef retail value," a composite value based on choice beef, other beef, and hamburger retail prices, shot up to $794.90 in April, according to the Economic Research Council, the highest price on record.

The size of the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest that it has been in decades, and one rancher named Shad Sullivan recently warned that beef will soon be a luxury that only the wealthy will be able to afford on a regular basis...

"We are seeing prices at an all-time high, and it is getting close to that point when the consumer is going to say, I can't do this anymore; it's just too costly," said Mr. Sullivan.

"They (officials and regulators) are trying to push these high prices as a new norm where meat is only a treat for the wealthy. That is where they are pushing us, and that is where we are going."

You may be thinking that if beef gets too expensive you will just eat more chicken and turkey.

Sadly, chicken and turkey prices are poised to go a lot higher thanks to H5N1.

A fresh wave of the bird flu is sweeping across the nation, and Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds just declared a state of emergency in one county in her state due to an outbreak there...

Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds signed a disaster proclamation on Tuesday for one of her state's counties as public health officials prepare to euthanize more than 4 million chickens exposed to a highly contagious bird flu.

The order comes after a case of avian influenza was confirmed among a large flock of egg-laying chickens in Sioux County on Tuesday by state and local agriculture officials, according to a report from CBS News.

As a result, the animals will be destroyed and their remains will be isolated in an attempt to prevent the further spread of the contagion.

In total, some 4.2 million chickens will be put down.

Just think about that last sentence for a moment.

What do you think that losing 4.2 million chickens will do to egg prices?

To make matters worse one of nations largest producers of free range eggs just experienced a devastating fire killing millions of Chickens.

Farina Farms Inc. Poultry Farm was engulfed in flames Wednesday evening and has resulted in millions of chickens being killed, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.

Firefighters worked more than 12 hours to put out the fire at Farina Farms after a building caught flames Wednesday evening. 

The general manager of the farm told FOX 2 as many as 30 fire departments from across the region helped put the fire out. He said 1.3 million chickens died in the fire and said it is a significant loss for the family-owned business.

Everywhere you look, there are signs of trouble.  Unfortunately, this is all happening at a time when foreigners have more control over our food supply than ever before.

Foreigners now control more than 43 million acres of U.S. farmland, and this should deeply alarm all of us...

A recent map has revealed the alarming trend of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) acquiring vast swaths of American farmland, raising serious national security concerns.

Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land expanded to approximately 43.4 million acres in 2022, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

According to the USDA, Chinese investors' ownership of U.S. agricultural land has skyrocketed from merely 13,720 acres in 2010 to an astounding 346,915 acres by 2022 out of the 43 million acres.

Chinese entities hold ownership of farmland across 29 of the 50 U.S. states.

I have been warning for many years that global food supplies would get tighter and tighter.

Now it is happening right in front of our eyes, and hundreds of millions of people are going to bed hungry every single night.

I wish that I could tell you that things will soon get better, but I can't.

We really are living in the end times, and the things that are written in the  Book of Revelation really will take place.

Originally published at Economic Collapse Blog

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=6934

ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER DAILY

 

12 See to it, Brothers and Sisters,

That None of You

Has a Sinful, Unbelieving Heart

That Turns Away from the Living God.

13 BUT ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER DAILY,

As Long as it is called “TODAY,”

So that None of You

May be Hardened by Sins’ Deceitfulness.

14 We have Come to Share in Christ,

If Indeed we Hold our Original Conviction Firmly

TO THE VERY END.

15 As has just been said:

“Today, if you Hear His Voice,

Do Not Harden your Hearts

As you Did in the Rebellion.”

16 Who were they who Heard and Rebelled?

Were they not All Those Moses Led out of Egypt?

17 And with Whom was He Angry for Forty Years?

Was it not with those who Sinned,

Whose bodies Perished in the Wilderness?

18 And to Whom did God Swear

That they would Never Enter His Rest

If Not to Those who Disobeyed?

19 So We See that they were Not Able to Enter,

Because of their Unbelief.

(Hebrews 3: 12-19, NIV)

YOU ARE WORTHY, OUR LORD AND GOD

 

9 When ever the Living Creatures

Give Glory, Honor and Thanks to Him

Who Sits on the Throne

And Who Lives Forever and Ever,

10 The Twenty-four Elders

Fall Down Before Him

Who Sits on the Throne

And Worship Him

Who Lives Forever and Ever.

They Lay their Crowns

Before the Throne and Say:

11 “YOU ARE WORTHY, OUR LORD AND GOD,

To Receive Glory and Honor and Power,

FOR YOU CREATED ALL THINGS,

And By Your Will they were Created

AND HAVE THEIR BEING.”

(Revelation 4:9-11, NIV)

SONG -- GOD OF HEAVEN, GOD OF EARTH

 

GOD OF HEAVEN, GOD OF EARTH

(The Inspiration for this song came from 2 Chronicles,

When Israel was Surrounded by a Vast Enemy

And God Delivered them, as He Delivers Us.)

GOD OF HEAVEN...GOD OF EARTH

TO YOU ALONE...DO WE LOOK

WE DO NOT KNOW...WHAT TO DO

BUT OUR EYES...ARE FIXED ON YOU...LORD

YES, OUR EYES...ARE FIXED ON YOU

WE'RE SURROUNDED BY THE ENEMY

WITHOUT HOPE OUR FATE IS SEALED

BUT A WORD FROM YOU CHANGES EVERYTHING

WHEN YOUR GLORY IS REVEALED

YOU'RE THE FIRST AND THE LAST

THE BEGINNING AND THE END, O' GOD

YOU'RE THE LIGHT AND THE GLORY

THE WHOLE OF THE STORY, O' GOD

AND WE WILL PRAISE YOU

WE WILL PRAISE YOU NIGHT AND DAY

WE WILL PRAISE YOU

TILL YOU COME TO TAKE US AWAY

TAKE US AWAY…TAKE US AWAY

https://studio.youtube.com/video/VyiNiJSSyrA/edit

Lyrics and music by Tom Haeg

For more songs by Taste&See

Go to – youtube.com/tastesee423

Subscriptions are appreciated.