Signs & Wonders Blog

Many people reading this will remember what they were doing twenty-one years ago today. Previously in this blog, I shared testimonies connected with the September 11 terrorist attacks including close calls involving individuals I knew. This is another story about a man I met a year later.  On September 23, 2002, I went into a Starbucks coffee shop in Northern Virginia. There I got into a conversation with a Christian named Chuck. I later found out he was a colonel in the Army. Chuck told me he was assigned to the Pentagon and started work there the day before the terrorist attacks happened. The next day he woke up with a terrible headache. His wife encouraged him to “take it easy”, but Chuck eventually decided to come to work. That delay saved his life. The jet crashed into the Pentagon when Chuck was just two minutes away. The cockpit of the hijacked jet stopped in what used to be Chuck's office!  Three weeks later, Chuck was assigned to help clean up another damaged of...

Today is the 75th anniversary of an atomic bomb devastating Nagasaki, Japan. Three days earlier in 1945, the first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on Hiroshima. Historians have debated whether the United States was justified in using those bombs. It’s tragic how the bombings killed tens of thousands of people. However, many more lives would have been lost had the U.S. needed to invade the country that four years earlier initiated hostilities with the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Truman’s goal for authorizing the bombings was to convince the Japanese to surrender and bring a quicker end to World War II. I grew up during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Fears of a nuclear exchange were triggered by watching made-for-TV movies like “World War III” and “The Day After.” Although the USSR dissolved in 1991, Russia still has nukes as well as a few other countries. Rogue nations like Iran have made progress in developing their own weapons of mas...

Tomorrow will be the golden anniversary of a noteworthy event relating to end-time prophecy. On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched attacks on six neighboring countries that amassed troops near their borders threatening invasion. The war ended just five days later. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Israel routed her enemies and possessed additional territory including the eastern half of Jerusalem. For the first time in 2,000 years, the entire city was in Jewish hands. Since the Six-Day War, Israel has given up some of her territory in hopes of lasting peace with her neighbors. Shortly after the Gaza Strip was turned over to the Palestinians in 2005, rockets from there were fired upon Jewish settlements. The PLO’s charter still calls for the destruction of Israel. This past week, President Donald Trump delayed his promise in moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. According to a White House statement, this was done “to m...

Today on the anniversary of 9/11, many people can recall where they were and what they were doing during that tragic day. On that Tuesday morning, the Lord led me to do street ministry in Springfield, Virginia (at the time I was living in the nearby city of Manassas). The first two people I prayed with were teenaged boys on their way to school. Later while browsing around a Barnes & Noble bookstore, I overheard someone talk about a plane crash. I figured if it was something serious, I would later hear about it on the news. Not long afterward, I walked into an electronics store and noticed people crowded around a big-screen TV. It was then I heard about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (which is only ten miles from Springfield)! Increased boldness came upon me and I altered my evangelism approach for the rest of the day. First, I asked people if they heard what just happened in New York City and Washington, DC. Then I asked if they would be in ...

Romans 12:18 says we should aim to “live peaceably among all men.” However, that’s not always possible. Until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to set up His millennial kingdom, there will always be people influenced by demons who seek to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). This past Tuesday, President Obama announced a deal made with Iran that will supposedly curb their  ambitions to make a  nuclear weapon. Known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, t he agreement would give Iran 24 days (not hours) to prepare for U. S.-led inspections of their nuclear facilities. This is comparable to a drug dealer given three weeks notice before the police search his home for illegal substances. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal a “bad mistake of historic proportions.” Bible prophecy expert Perry Stone wrote on Facebook this “...may be the stupidest agreement with any nation, ever penned on paper...at least in my lifetime.” This echoes an inf...

Last November, I took a trip to Boston, Massachusetts.   I perceived the Lord wanted me there since I was getting all kinds of “Boston” signs (such as this paper cutter used at a church in Florida).   To save on lodging expenses, I stayed at a hostel for two nights but didn’t sleep well due to other guests walking in our bedroom at various times.   The next night I stayed at a house church in Haverhill, Massachusetts.   My hosts would have let me stay longer except they already had too many guests.   Not wanting to return to the hostel, I decided to leave the Boston area and travel to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where I have friends to stay and minister with.   During my time in Bean Town I did some sightseeing but not much evangelizing mainly because I wanted someone ministering with me.   Now I wish I had done more after hearing about the Boston Marathon bombings this past Monday that left three people dead and at least 170 people...

Despite my spending much time in Florida, I never experienced a hurricane there. The only time I have was in September 2003 while staying with friends just outside Washington, DC. That month, Hurricane Isabel hit the area with high winds, torrential rains, and flooding. I questioned how a storm that like could come to the nation’s capital until seeing on TV then-President George W. Bush hosting King Abdullah of Jordan at Camp David with the purpose of discussing the so-called “road map to peace." Over the last two decades, other disasters have occurred at the same time the U.S. government enacted foreign policy against Israel (for the latest information on this issue, check out www.watch.org). This week Hurricane Earl approached the east coast of the United States while President Obama met with Middle Eastern leaders in an attempt to negotiate a peace settlement. The President said from the White House, “I have the utmost confidence in him [Mahmoud Abbas - President of the...