Greetings from Manila…just arrived here from Israel….my heart is heavy with all the devastation in Haiti….wishing I could be there to help some how….but was blessed by a wonderfully warm reception from the Filipino team preparing the Epicenter conference and related events we’re doing here this week….these dear brothers and sisters have lived through their own traumas in recent months…multiple super typhoons, deadly floods, destroyed houses, deaths and injuries, and now the threat of a major volcano blowing not far from Manila….many Filipinos have been shaken by recent events and are wondering what they all mean….where is God?….is there any hope?….is there a certain way to know we can go to heaven when we die?….are we living in the End of Days?….are things going to get worse?

We will be addressing these issues this week, and offering answers from the Bible….I’m humbled to be here for my first trip to East Asia….I’m eager to see the Lord pour out His Holy Spirit in a powerful way….my prayer is that our Father in heaven will encourage true born again followers of Jesus Christ this week to “get ready, be prepared” to live holy and impactful lives in the last days before Jesus comes back, and to develop a special heart of love for Israel and the people of the epicenter….I’m also praying that the Lord will stir the hearts of those who are lost or struggling in their spiritual journey that they might come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord in a real and personal way, and in doing so that they would find forgiveness of their sins and hope for the future through Christ alone.

Each day, Lord willing, I’ll post updates on events here….upon arriving, I learned another Manila newspaper — the Philippine Star — that just published a story about our upcoming meetings here….excerpts from the article headlined, “What On Earth Is Going On?” — “One look at today’s news headlines would have even the worst skeptics’ heads spinning. Earthquakes, threats of terrorism, war, tsunamis and pestilence, a looming volcanic eruption, major financial debacles with global repercussions, global climate change, and continuing talk of the coming imposition of a new world order. All this seems to have been ripped right from the pages of the Bible because of its somewhat-apocalyptic tenor. New York Times best-selling author Joel Rosenberg hasn’t been helping the mood any, what with his penchant for assiduously following news headlines and tying them in with 2,000-year-old Bible prophecies. The mild-mannered communications strategist was catapulted onto the world stage when elements of his stories began occurring in real life just months after he had written them. Reviewers found his political thrillers set in the present day to be ‘eerily prophetic’ and ‘almost prophetically forecasting what you’ll read in tomorrow’s headlines.’ US News and World Report even called him ‘the modern Nostradamus,’ a label Rosenberg is uncomfortable with, saying, ‘I am not a clairvoyant, a psychic or a modern Nostradamus as some have suggested.’ Joel explains that all he is is an avid student of Bible prophecy, although clearly he is one with….”