Yes!

Tonight I went with my family to buy groceries at Costco here in Merida. It is customary in Mexico to have men standing at the Exit doors waiting to help you with your groceries and load them into your car. It is just the opposite in the U.S. where we carry our own groceries to our cars.

Here, men must work for tips in this particular capacity when in the employ of Costco. Every time I walk out of the store I never make eye-contact with them. This is an indirect way of letting them know that I don't "need" help. But, in every instance, if they don't pay attention to my body language and ask me if they can help me, I always say "yes." I never tell them "no." The answer is almost always "yes."

"But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not 'Yes' and 'No.' For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not 'Yes' and 'No' but in him it has always been 'Yes.' For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." 2 Cor 1:18-20

God is waiting to say 'Yes' to the man or woman who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Jairus the synagogue ruler. The woman with bleeding. The Two Blind Men. All are found in Matthew 9. All refused to hear 'No'. All insisted on hearing 'Yes.' The faith of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7. She refused to hear 'No' from the Lord. She wanted her daughter healed and was willing to suffer the humiliation of being considered a "dog" as long as the one she loved was "blessed" and delivered.

Do we see this level of faith today in believers? Mostly no. We have been told to sit down and be quiet. On the contrary, I believe God wants us to stand up and wrestle with him and become undignified in the process.

Tonight when I walked out of Costco every employee assigned to help load groceries let my indirect body language deter them from getting probably the biggest tip they would get all day. All but one man that is. After I walked through the crowd of men waiting to help, none asking me for anything, one man chased me down from behind and put his hand on my basket. I told him "yes". And I gave him probably the biggest tip he would receive all day. Why? Because I had the provision to do so and because the Lord told me to in advance. Why?............He simply refused to hear "No" when I was willing to say "Yes." In fact, I never said no. I was just never asked, except by him. Does any of this make sense?

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

How bad do we want to hear "Yes"? ........He is waiting to say "Yes."

Be Blessed,

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/
jayblackshear@yahoo.com

Brethren, He wants to say "Yes."

Rations

I'll just get right to the point......Yesterday morning the Lord put the following verse in my heart.

"Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce." Eze 4:16,17

I did not know where it was in scripture yet the Lord caused me to turn right to it. Then my son Joel came and sat his breakfast down on the coffee table right in front of me and walked out of the room leaving me staring at it.

A half of a bowl of dry cheerios and a half glass of water. Looks like rations. I "noticed it". 

Ezekiel 14 outlines the manner in which God judges nations. First the staff of bread which is the economy and subsequent food supply. Secondly, wild beasts which symbolizes martial law and the coming police state. Thirdly and fourthly, the sword and plagues.

The staff of bread is being broken in America and subsequently other parts of the world right now. I'll pray about sharing more about this later.

Take these things to heart brethren. Judgment on America and subsequently the world has already started. Some people just aren't "feeling it yet."

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

The Black Swan

A new metaphor called The Black Swan Event was coined in the realm of macroeconomics by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007. A Black Swan Event is simply an occurrence of a highly unpredictable event that has a major impact on nations and/or the worlds socio-economic structure. It is a high-impact, hard to predict event that has life-changing influence on every phase of our lives.

The rise of new technologies like the personal computer and the Internet, major world wars, natural disasters like earthquakes, terrorist events like 9-11...they all fit within the definition of the Black Swan Theory. These are all types of Black Swans. And each one has a high-degree of probability of influencing entire economies, overall social structure, politics on every level and all aspects of daily living.  

We live in the hour of the Black Swan. She has been laying her eggs and they are now starting to hatch with greater frequency and intensity. The dynamic of the Black Swan has taken over.

On March 10th my wife asked me to fix a default setting on our spreadsheet that we use to keep track of  our business orders for our company. The program was giving her a hard time so when I went to fix the problem on Microsoft Windows I found that I couldn't get the cell that she was typing in to accept the "Date" setting in part of one column. Every time we typed in the date 3/9/2011 and hit the [Enter] button on the laptop it would change the date to "9-11". I tried it over and over and it simply wouldn't take my commands as I tried to fix the problem. 

I finally looked at Christine and said, "9-11 was a Black Swan Event. Maybe the Lord is showing us that a Black Swan Event is about to occur." Later in the day I took the boys out to run some errands and while in one store a man came and stood in front of me with a dark-blue soccer jersey on. On the back of his jersey was the word, "JAPAN." Below the word across the back of his shirt was the #9. Without going into all the details, the #9 has always signified "change" to me.

In retrospect, when I connect the dots, what the Lord was showing me that day was that a Black Swan Event was about to occur in Japan that would bring inevitable change. I'm not making any of this up. I was actually seeing this, albeit at the time I was so caught up with our daily routine that I didn't stop and really identify it at the time. It wasn't until the next morning when we clicked on the news that we saw what had happened in Japan with the earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that I then realized the Lord was showing this to us the day before.

Why do I share all of this with you? .....I guess for the following reason. The happenings in Japan are actually a part of a greater series of events that, when taken as a whole, symbolize a bigger picture that God is wanting to paint for us right now. Click on the following link and read the following blogpost by Joseph Herrin if you want to understand what I am referring to: The Ring of Fire.

Did you read it? If not go back and do so.

These things are the beginnings of birth pains. And the Japanese quake and the subsequent and ongoing fallout is not the last one we can expect. Read the following prophetic word to see what I am referring to:
A Big Earthquake.

Did you read it? I know I did....for about the 10th time. On March 24th, 2006, about 7 weeks after Michael came forth with that word, I walked out to my mailbox on that particular day to get the mail. On lo-and-behold the magazine pictured to the right was sitting in my mailbox. It was a brand new edition of the National Geographic still inside the plastic sealed bag, completely unopened. And the really strange thing was that it had no mailing address on it. It wasn't a neighbors piece of mail that was "accidentally" stuck in my mailbox. It had no mailing or forwarding address on it. Nothing. It just "showed up" in my mailbox. Confirmation? Absolutely.

Why do I bring all this up?......Expect more Black Swans. Quit worrying about petty things. The trivial things we allow to consume us today are going to pale in comparison to what we are about to see unfolding on the earth.

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1,2

We need to endure with JOY right now knowing that God has a plan for us and our children in spite of the sufferings of the world. God has a plan for us in this hour and we must pursue it with all manner of diligence. Pray and talk to the Lord about everything right now. Everything. Everything. Talk to the Lord. Pursue Him. Ask for Wisdom. Let us find our hearts swelling with God's voice on a level that we have never known. God is faithful. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

God is faithful.

Be Blessed
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/

Celestun

Celestun is a small fishing village on the far west-coast of the state of Yucatan. We actually made two trips there this week. I preferred making only one but was "asked" to make a second. We enjoyed both however and look forward to going back hopefully with friends very soon.

The following are pictures of our first trip earlier last week.

 La Palapa is the best restaurant to eat at in Celestun. Good prices and flavorful food and drinks.

While eating there we spotted a dolphin swimming about 100 yards off the beach near where the boys were swimming. It was neet to watch it swim by.

Sorry. I had to take the following two pictures just to show you how odd things can be sometimes down here. Just in case you don't understand proper beach "hygiene".....the local government posts signs for people to remind them to seek out a public restroom....i.e. go in the water about 20 feet out (wink wink).

On the way back to Merida we stopped in a small village and took photos of a lady making hand-made homocks (sp?). I asked her what her name was but she was too shy to tell me.

We also passed a small housing development not too far from there where we saw many newly built homes. These homes are probably only about 400 square feet....and that may be stretching it a bit on the size. The cost.....around 150,000 Pesos. That's about $12,500 USD. They built a park next door with a good track to run on, a soccer field (I love this country), and work out equipment built to withstand the weather and accessible to all. Interesting. Very peaceful low-income Yucatecan neighborhood.

That was our first trip to Celestun. We got there late in the day so we didn't get to go on a Flamingo boat tour. They recommend that you go before 2PM in the afternoon when the birds are much more settled in their natural habitats due to calmer winds and less waves on the water.

This was our second trip. My mother-in-law Merrillee was determined to not miss the Flamingos and I am very glad we didn't. Apologies in advance for the lack of resolution on some photos. The batteries were going dead in my camera and I forgot to bring backups. I couldn't zoom in on anything I was taking pictures of so we had to settle for second best here. I did get a picture of a small crocodile however.

The Flamingo tour is either one or two hours long. The two hour ride is $40 USD more and takes you to the Campeche side of the water inlet. The bridge into Celestun is near the state dividing line between Campeche
and Yucatan. THe best part of the tour is on the Yucatan side of the water inlet where all of the features of the tour are. If you ever come down for a visit stick with the one hour ride. It's cheaper and a better quality tour.

The boys loved the boat ride even though we were getting pelted with rain the first 30 minutes or so....my wife and Merrillee....not so much. You can tell Joseph was having a blast. He didn't care how much the rain pelted him in the face.

Before we were assigned a boat I prayed and asked the Lord to determine who our boat captain was going to be for the day. His name....Jesus....literally. I didn't get his picture unfortunately. He also had this sticker in his boat... Mi pais: Mexico. Mi salvador: Jesus. Translation: My country: Mexico. My savior: Jesus.

Coincidence? No way.






Flamingos. These birds are absolutely beautiful.

Part of the tour includes a ride through a long canopy of Mangrove trees. This was were we saw the baby crocodile.

You can barely see his head. Right in the middle of the picture is a crocodile head about 9 inches long with two white eyes sticking out. He has himself backed up to the foliage directly facing the boat.

Again, my batteries in my camera were going out and the zoom feature wasn't working because of it. Jesus our boat captain says that at night the crocodiles come out. Per him they grow to 2 and 3 meters (6 to 9 feet roughly.) Big enough to do damage.




Another quarter mile down the coast is a fresh water cenote that helps feed the water tributary. Their they dock your boat so you can go inland about 100 feet and go swimming in the cenote if you want. The cenote is filled with fresh water tropical fish. After seeing our crocodile, Mama Bear (My wife) decided our sons were not going swimming anywhere but on the coast. I had to agree with her. 

Sorry you have to keep cranking your neck but there is not rotation feature on the blog posting page.

After we returned from our stroll around the cenote the Lord brought another boat to the dock with Merillee's name on it, albeit it was slightly mispelled. She still got a big kick out of it and took it as a photo op. The boat captain helped her climb in the boat so we could take a picture.

The boat ride back to the main dock.

Caught a photo off this bird hanging out on a fishing boat as we were about to dock. Looked like some type of sea stork of some kind.

We saw all types of birds on this tour: Pelicans, Osprey, Flamingos, Seagulls, .....the list goes on. Great bird watchers trip.

We then hit La Palapa and the beach one more time. Good food, friends, sand, .....

The boys are slightly worn out. Too much sun. Now time for some french fries and chicken strips before heading home.











The streets of Celestun.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

God Bless,

The Blackshears in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
jayblackshear@yahoo.com
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/

Uxmal



 Uxmal is about an hour south of Merida set among rolling hills and trees. It has arguably one of the best architectural pyramid reserves in Mexico and Central America.

This was our first trip there. We would have stayed longer to do more climbing but Merrillee, Christine's mom was getting tired. We retired to the on-site restaurant where we had Chayla mixed with Orange Juice and Pinapple Juice. It was delicious. 

To eat we had panuchos and sopa de lima. Very good authentic Mayan food.

Pictures of the flamingos in Celestun are next.

God Bless,

The Blackshears

http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.