Blog note: And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11). (Emphasis added). Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. This verse from Luke is one of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains that occur in greater severity, frequency, size and duration prior to giving birth. End of note.

Sat 20 Oct 2018 07.00 EDT. The Guardian.

‘We never used to have fires like this’: the human cost of California’s wildfires. Part 5

Photographer Gideon Mendel documents the residents of Shasta county as they return to their fire-ravaged homes. Interviews by Federica Armstrong.

Dianna and Mike Dorn

Dianna: The original house was built in 1979 and my husband and I got married in 1996, so we added on to it. My husband works for the post office and he’s a musician, too, so half the shop was a music studio. We lost a grand piano from the 1800s. It was pre-civil war – that piano had history going all the way back to Abraham Lincoln.

The first time we were allowed to come back, my daughter Helene and I were up on the edge of the foundations and she noticed something on the ground from a book of the Bible. It was from Psalms, and it was two verses. Everything around it was charred but those two verses. We thought that was very significant. It was a beautiful gift from God to leave that there for us.

Mike: We haven’t decided whether to rebuild. I’m only about two years from retirement and it takes a lot of effort to maintain 10 acres – maybe we should get a smaller lot. Your life can turn on a die. One day you go to bed thinking you’re going to wake up and go to work at the post office; the next morning you find yourself in the middle of a disaster and living on the other side of the county. So we’re all vulnerable.