Month: March 2013

Posted in bedroom, florida, tampa

FL man swallowed by sinkhole: "A loud crash, then nothing"

Posted on by elizabethprata

I wasn’t going to report on the man in Florida who was sleeping in his bed at 11:00 at night and was swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up under his bedroom. The hole swallowed all the bedroom furniture and the man. The only thing the brother found after he heard his sibling scream was a bit of the mattress sticking out.

Because after all, I’ve reported and reported on sinkholes over the years and how many times does one need to report on the phenomenon to have people understand that the very ground under our feet is not as solid as we think, but Jesus is the only solid rock?

But this event in Tampa yesterday is a bit unusual. For one thing, the house did not collapse, not even yet, a day later and the hole getting bigger. Second, the man disappeared in an instant. It is the first time I’ve really heard of a death that has resulted (Likely death, though hope is severely diminishing as the family waits for word). And the worst part of this terrible tragedy is the feeling of utter vulnerability. In bed we are undressed, unconscious and totally unable to defend or counteract what may happen. It is the one time in the day when we lay down and trust that we will wake up the next day.

Except for some people, they do not wake up. We are all unfortunately used to stories of home invasions with death through violence, or death through illness during the night. But this, this, seems beyond the pale.

Except it is not.

No man is guaranteed a tomorrow. This concept is encapsulated in the verses from James most explicitly:

Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain, (And yet ye cannot tell what shall be tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and afterward vanisheth away.) For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, and if we live, we will do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.” (James 4:13-16 Geneva).

Every moment of our lives depend on God. This goes for the saved and the unsaved.

The ground under the house is a chasm, the man said. The officials are quoted as saying:

“Bill Bracken, the owner of an engineering company called to assess the sinkhole, told the AP Friday that he “cannot tell you why it [the house] has not collapsed yet.” He added that the earth below was a “very large, very fluid mass.” “This is not your typical sinkhole,” Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill told the AP Friday. “This is a chasm. For that reason, we’re being very deliberate.”

I think of the chasm that is under every person. Jonathan Edwards spoke of it in his classic sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I am not relating this to the man in the sinkhole, but to the fact of death coming to every person:

“The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.”

“The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. — That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.”

Whether the end comes because of a normal means or whether it comes eerily like the way described by Edwards, your end will come.

“As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him. For he knoweth whereof we be made: he remembereth that we are but dust. The days of man are as grass: as a flower of the field, so flourisheth he. For the wind goeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the loving kindness of the Lord endureth forever and ever upon them that fear him, and his righteousness upon children’s children,” (Psalm 103:13-17, 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

Man is frail. We do not go on forever, notwhithstanding our lengthening years via medicine and artificial means.

“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever: and this is the word which is preached among you.”(1 Peter 1:24-25 1599 Geneva Bible)

The flesh shows the weakness of our nature.

If there is any message to be taken from the weird story of the man in the sinkhole it is that- we are going to die. Sometimes today, sometimes tomorrow. Sometimes in usual ways, sometimes in unusual ways. I wrote about that notion here- So many creative ways to die: the story of George Millet and the ink eraser.

So the ultimate point is, are we ready for eternity? Every person has one. We will live forever either in heaven with Jesus, or in hell without Him. When these weird things happen, or when a ‘celebrity’ dies (like Bonnie Franklin yesterday) the first thing I think of is “were they saved?” I hope the unfortunate man in the Florida house was saved. I hope that his grieving brother thinks on eternity now that it came to his house.

We know the Lord is everlasting,
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.” (Psalm 41:13)

But we messed up the earth with sin-

“The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5)

Therefore those who are not cleansed from sin will go into everlasting punishment. Those who are cleansed of sin through his grace, repentance and submission will go to everlasting peace-

[On Judgment Day] “Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, and say, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go into everlasting pain, and the righteous into life eternal.”

PLEASE PLEASE consider these things.

“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold now the accepted time, behold now the day of salvation.”(2 Corinthians 6:2)

THAT is the lesson of the sinkhole.

Posted in armstrong and miller, days of Noah, little flowers

Potpourri for you: Armstrong and Miller, Days of Noah, The Seventies

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is a good article. It begins this way

Noah’s Neighbors & the Moral Barometer
By Dean T. Olson

One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan in March 2011. It was so powerful that it moved the entire planet by shifting its axis over 6 inches and shoving Honshu, the main island of Japan, 13 feet to the east. The tremor was so violent that it actually sped up the rotation of the planet and shortened the length of that day. As one of the most powerful ever recorded, the Tohoku earthquake devastated the region and demolished the Fukushima nuclear plant leading to a deadly release of radioactivity. 18,000 people died or are missing. Fears of a meltdown of Japan’s nuclear power plants wrought by the damage from the quake spiked sales of iodine pills in America. At the same time, bloodshed and violence escalated in Libya and Syria and threatened to rend the shabby dictatorships across the Middle East. Meanwhile bees are mysteriously disappearing and frogs are mutating accompanied by massive die-offs of birds and fish at widely dispersed locations around the world. Mysterious sounds emanating from the heavens and the earth are reported worldwide. And the sale of doomsday bunkers continues to surge. What is going on?

I don’t know any more than you do. But I have some suspicions. To understand what is transpiring we may need to pull our Bibles from those dusty boxes in the attic. I don’t say that lightly because suggesting that we may be witnessing Biblical prophecy unfolding is to risk the sideways glances of friends and neighbors who assume that early onset dementia has blunted one’s faculties. Such prejudices are not without merit based on the folly of misguided date-setters and millenarians who perennially, and incorrectly, predict the end of world.

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I liked this one too–

Prudent people will examine their faith
By Mike Gendron

Whenever I meet Roman Catholics, I ask them if they were born into the religion or if they choose it. Almost always they say they were born a Catholic.

I then ask, “Have you ever examined your faith with the Bible to see if it is true saving faith?” Almost always the answer is, “No.” coupled with various responses suggesting “the Catholic Church is the one true church” or “how can one billion Catholics be wrong?” These responses are very troubling when we consider that people can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if they are wrong about their eternal destiny, they will pay for that irreversible mistake forever and ever! The Lord Jesus said the gate to heaven is narrow and very few find it (Mat. 7:14). This is due in part because very few look for it. Instead they follow the masses on the broad road to destruction.

God’s Word says, “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps” (Proverbs 14:15). People who are lost in religion blindly accept what man says without testing their words with God’s Word.

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How about a few thoughts on Music Worship?

Hey Church Musician, You’re Leading Worship Too!
by Stephen Miller

There are few things more confusing to me than watching a worship team standing on the platform, and seeing the face of a worship leader who has all of his being in engaged in worship of God. But then as I survey the rest of the team, I see a bass player with a too-cool-for-school scowl on his face or a guitar player with a sheepishly bewildered or bored look on his face. Or a keys player whose face is completely expressionless, glued to a sheet of music.

They are all worshiping the same God, right?

As believers, we are all leaders of worship. Whether standing on the platform or in the congregation, we are all collectively encouraging one another to enter into the kind of full heart, mind, soul and strength demonstration of adoration that our God desires.

This is magnified from the platform. As the privilege of influence increases, so does the responsibility of leadership. That is not confined to vocalists.

The “worship leader” is not the only one leading worship. Bass players… Keys players… Drummers… Guitarists… You’re leading worship too.

Here is a wonderful photo from the National Archives, series called “National Archives: Searching for the Seventies“

Caption: “Gasoline stations abandoned during the fuel crisis in winter of 1973–74 were sometimes used for other purposes. This station at Potlatch, Washington, west of Olympia, was turned into a religious meeting hall. Signs painted on the gas pumps proclaim ‘Fill up with the Holy Ghost . . . and Salvation.’ Potlatch, Washington, April 1974. (David Falconer/National Archives/Records of the Environmental Protection Agency”

Look at more photos from the 70s here.

Saw this on Challies. Armstrong & Miller is a satirical comedy sketch show on BBC One.

Posted in bible, inerrant, sola scriptura

Having a high view of scripture

Posted on by elizabethprata

Do you have a high view of scripture? I hope so! By ‘high view’ I mean do you believe it is the only authority, is the external authority of all things, given to us by God, is sufficient and is the final authority?

Today’s Christian community increasingly has a low view of scripture. They are led by feelings, mysticism, leadings and hints and intuitions. They are saying they’re receiving prophecy and revelation and hearing God in contemplative prayer. Let’s get back to the only word that we can stand on: the bible.

Athanasius, an early church father, wrote, “These are fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these.”

Look at something interesting in Matthew 22.

“But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32)

Did you notice something? Verse 31, a little nugget embedded in the flow: “have you not read what was said to you by God”? Here was Jesus standing before crowds, speaking directly to the Sadducees. The Sadducees were chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They were the lawyer’s lawyer, knowing the scriptures backwards and forwards so they could make rulings and interpretations. (Read more about the Sadducees here)

So there is Jesus, who is God, speaking truth day in and day out (because these Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes followed Jesus around and they knew what He was saying), and they questioned Jesus. Jesus did not respond by saying, “Didn’t you hear what I said last week?” No. Jesus referred them to scripture, saying, ‘did you not READ what was said’.

Jesus held a high view of scripture all His life. Remember what He told satan the three times in response to temptation, “It is written.”

Martin Luther said of feelings and leadings versus the Word,

“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God–
Naught else is worth believing.

Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.

I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”

― Martin Luther

Ultimately, the bible is the Lord GOD’s final, authoritative proclamation. If you are tempted to go forward in worship or a decision or a mission based on a mystical experience of some kind such as a dream or a voice, then I ask, does God use His Word to accomplish His purposes, or not?

Posted in atonement, cross, jay bakker, rob bell

Harlem Shake is dead but at least questioning the atonement is still cool

Posted on by elizabethprata

It’s a little rough but gets the point across:

The Harlem Shake is the latest “craze” to sweep churches that preach an emergent, soft, different Gospel. Those churches engage in social justice on weekdays and re-gather on Sundays to have rock concerts, share what dreams and revelations Jesus sent them whilst sipping cappuccino and admiring the gauge in their nose. You get the idea. There is more here from CNN about the Harlem Shake from a secular point of view, but make no mistake, the shake is sweeping churches. They have to stay relevant you know.

What was encouraging was that the Node ‘Last Shake’ video was posted to Facebook by 19-year old friend of mine. Not all youths are under the sway of the cool pastors in skinny jeans! Hallelujah!

At the blog A Twisted Crown of Thorns this is posted: “These relentless overtures to make the church more hip or more culturally savvy are in themselves a danger to any church. They downgrade the gospel, make people seek excitements as vehicles for their silliness and pander after entertainment instead of seeking Christ as a Savior for their sins. These excitements are a judgement to any church. Believers come seeking for bread and to be fed and you offer them stones! Oh brood of vipers, and you call yourselves Christ-ian (Christ-like)!”

I’m studying for the Sunday School lesson, it is from John Stott’s “The Cross of Christ.” Pretty inspiring stuff. The cross never gets old, ya know?

Except when it does. I believe the study contained in our Sunday School quarterly is timely. The cross and Jesus as the substitutionary atonement, punished by taking the wrath of God for our sins, shedding His blood, is a doctrine that’s increasingly being denied.

Just last week Jay Bakker (son of Jim and Tammy Faye) denied the atonement in his book “Faith, Doubt, and Other Lines I’ve Crossed” following up his doubt about the atonement in an interview with The Christian Post. When CP asked him to clarify, Bakker said, “Yes I am definitely questioning the atonement.” (And yes, that thing on his lip is a honkin’ lip ring.)

One would think that there would be SOME hard and fast doctrines that people would not mess with. Like, Jesus as God. Or the Virgin Birth. Or, the Atonement. But these are exactly the ones that are under attack in the last few years. The atonement is being questioned and denied with increasing momentum. Besides Bakker, other notable people who question or deny the atonement these last 5 years have been people such as Reverend Jeffrey John, a Bishop of the Church of England, who called the doctrine “repulsive.” (Rev. John is gay, by the way).  Giles Fraser, a priest of the Church of England in London,  quickly followed up on John’s assertion by saying, “No, Jesus is not a blood sacrifice to appease a vicious God.”

On this side of the pond, in 2011 Rob Bell denied the atonement in his book “Love Wins,” itself a denial of hell. In case you are wont to say ‘Oh that’s just Rob Bell, some guy who doesn’t affect me,’ think again. Time magazine named him to its annual list of 100 most influential people in the world, after making him the cover story in April 2011. Bell founded Mars Hill church in Michigan and it was considered one of the fastest growing churches in America.

William P. Young denies the atonement. Who is he, you ask? He wrote “The Shack,” a book which spent two years on the NY Times bestseller list AND was given the Diamond Award of sales over 10 million copies by the Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association!

Still think that the doctrine of the atonement is solid at your church? The influence of these men who deny it is pervasive. Did you read The Shack? You were affected by the denial of the atonement. Think on how many people you knew were reading it, offered it to you, or commented about how good it was. Another influence on denying the atonement. Think you’re unaffected by the likes of Bell or Bakker?  They have large congregations, who are media savvy and have or produce their own television shows. They spawn other men who become pastors. They have congregants who go out into the community and speak of the these ideas. They have members who move and take these ideas with them. They and their ideas are poison chaff, blowing in the wind and landing at your threshold.

Be warned: the doctrine of the atonement is being chipped away at from all compass points and no doubt in your sphere too.

Speaking of Bakker, he announced last week he is leaving Revolution Church NYC “to pursue other opportunities.” And in other exciting news, he wrote a book that is being published this week. He wrote on his website-

“In the coming months, after 6 years in Brooklyn, I will be moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have some exciting opportunities there and decided it was time for a fresh start. … [Sad that after only 6 years he feels stale…] My co-pastor, Vince Anderson, will remain on staff in his role as pastoral care minister and will continue to serve as a resource to the online community. He will be meeting with the local members here in Brooklyn, to determine how they would like to proceed. We believe that this time of transition will make for a more dynamic Revolution Church, and will help us focus and expand our scope and mission. Through this time, we ask for your continued support. Donations can be sent to our Brooklyn office, or online through Paypal. To support Revolution Church click HERE. On another note, my new book, “Faith, Doubt and Other Lines I’ve Crossed” is now out.”

I’ll sum it up: ‘I am restless, bored, and moving on, need time to tour for my book and make merchandise of you, don’t worry, the online stuff is still there because we have diluted worship to the point where ‘connecting’ in Jesus’ name means ‘liking’ the podcast, and don’t forget to DONATE DONATE DONATE. See ya, bye.’

He is going to start a Revolution church in MN. In case you don’t think that Revolution church, with its gay marriage affirming, atonement denying, liberal teachings is a big deal, there is a Revolution Church in Tuscon, Long Beach, Wilmington NC, Gainesville GA, Atlanta GA, NYC, Canton GA, Oakland TN…and the list goes on.

Anyway, the cross. The cross is central. Stott wrote, “Yet the enemies of the Gospel neither did nor do share this perspective. There is no greater cleavage between faith and unbelief than in their respective attitudes to the cross. … Why do we ‘cling to the old rugged cross’ and insist on its centrality, refusing to let it be pushed to the circumference of our message? Why must we proclaim the scandalous, and glory in the shameful? The answer lies in the single word integrity.  Christian integrity consists partly in a resolve to unmask the caricatures, but mostly in a personal loyalty to Jesus in whose mind the saving cross was central.”

Are you loyal to Jesus? Then you are loyal to the cross. Stay that way.

Posted in earthquake, end time, volcano

News round up: lots of quakes, terrible hatred in China, superbug worries CDC, culture creep

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Chinese and Japanese are still heightening their skirmishes over the Senkaku Islands. The Australian reported today on the Japan vs. China situation–

China-Japan dispute a powder keg, says US
“Territorial dispute over the small Senkaku island chain between Japan and China is a “powder keg”, according to the outgoing US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Kurt Campbell. Mr Campbell linked the dispute to what he described as an increasingly difficult and dangerous environment for Australia, and the need for Canberra to maintain a realistic level of defence spending. “In four years as assistant secretary I’ve faced many difficult diplomatic situations,” Mr Campbell said in an exclusive interview with The Australian, “but none more difficult than this. “I’ve rarely seen diplomats on both sides (Japan and China) more white-knuckled, and on both sides the sense that no retreat or compromise is possible.”

This tense situation has wrought harsh feelings on both sides. This Chinese restaurant posted the following heinous sign:

Incendiary Beijing restaurant sign triggers online fury
“A sign at a Beijing restaurant barring citizens of nations involved in maritime disputes with China – along with dogs – has triggered a wave of online outrage among Vietnamese and Filipinos. The Beijing Snacks restaurant near the Forbidden City, a popular tourist spot, has posted a sign on its door reading “This shop does not receive the Japanese, the Philippines, the Vietnamese and dog(s).” Photographs of the controversial sign have gone viral in Vietnamese-language forums and featured heavily in Philippine newspapers and websites on Wednesday.”

We are used to seeing headlines like this one about the Jews: “Turkish Prime Minister says Zionism a “crime against humanity.’ ” The pile-on of races against races and tribes against tribes is just terrible, but prophetic. Jesus said in His Olivet Discourse that one of the conditions of the Tribulation will be that

“nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24:7)

In the Greek, the words for kingdom against kingdom is ethnos against ethnos. Ethnos in the Greek means a race of people and usually refers to the Gentile world. It means a people group sharing a similar culture will be warring with each other.

I think it is interesting that though nations will rise against nations, at the very end, all nations will come together against Jesus. It seems that all Asian nations will unite and march across the Euphrates toward Jerusalem. (Revelation 16:12).

The end of the verse in Titus 3:3 says that people who were unsaved were “hated by others and hating one another.” That is how the unregenerate act. But in the last of the last days (in the Tribulation), it will be a true case of the old adage, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By the time Revelation 16 comes, the entire world (save a remnant of believers) will be enemies of God. (Revelation 16:11).

In other news, there is something fundamentalists have been saying for a long time. We have been saying that since the homosexual lobby is working so hard to normalize their perversion, other sexual situations we take for granted as evil or wrong will also soon be normalized. Polygamy or triad marriages are creeping into the mainstream, for example. But people pooh-poohed the notion that any sane society could or would normalize pedophilia. Yet, it has begun, as this writer clearly points out:

In a piece published on January 25, 2013 in World Magazine: Christian News & Views says, “On Jan. 2 the respectable Guardian published an article, “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light.” The title choice is more prophetic than intended, calling to mind Isaiah’s “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Below are excerpts, a case study in journalistic slouching toward Gomorrah.”

The article is excellent in the way is parses how the liberals are inching toward normalizing this most heinous act.

There were two 6M+ quakes today, a 6.1 in Vanuatu the and a 6.9 at the Kuril Islands. There has also been a series of quakes in Oklahoma and in Nevada. On the volcano front,

Hundreds of quakes shake villages around smoking Peruvian volcano
“Hundreds of small earthquakes have shaken the earth around the Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru over just a few days and the rumbling, along with plumes of smoke spewing up to 320 feet high, have put officials on alert to evacuate the area. Peru’s geological agency Ingemmet recorded some 536 quakes, about 20 an hour, on February 22 and 23 and periodic movement is ongoing.”

Geologist Erik Klemetti writes, “Earthquakes and Fumaroles as Unrest Hits Peru’s Sabancaya“
“The fumarolic activity at the summit is especially notable the new steam/gas plume reached over 100 meters over the volcano (although this can also be mitigated by weather conditions) — and closely followed the onset of the new seismicity.”

In terms of disease, the following warning by the Centers for Disease Control is kind of worrisome. I have been researching the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and that flu came out of nowhere and infected people at a rapid rate that is unbelievable considering the difficulty of travel and the length of time it took to get anywhere in those days. Just one day, suddenly, a new flu was born and two years later 500 million people were infected and 100 million of them were dead. Here is a news article about a superbug that the CDC is a little jittery about-

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is alerting clinicians of an emerging untreatable multidrug-resistant organism in the United States. There are many forms of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), but of the 37 forms reported in the U.S., 15 have been reported in less than a year. The CDC said the increase in CRE means health care providers need to “act aggressively to prevent the emergence and spread of these unusual CRE organisms.”

The CDC says, “Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a serious threat to public health. Infections with CRE are difficult to treat and have been associated with mortality rates as high as 40-50%(1). Due to the movement of patients throughout the healthcare system, if CRE are a problem in one facility, then typically they are a problem in other facilities in the region as well.”

These are but temporary problems that exist in artificial time on a temporary world. His word never fails and will never pass away. Let us praise Him as David did-

“When I am poor and in heaviness, thine help, O God, shall exalt me. I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than a young bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and they that seek God shall be glad, and your heart shall live. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise him: the seas and all that moveth in them. For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah, that men may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.” (Psalm 69:29-36).

I hope you love His name. All His works are wondrous! What a privilege to live in these times.