Category: futile thinking

Posted in Coast Guard, futile thinking, jesus, peace, reza baluchi

Coast Guard rescues man in Atlantic Ocean trying to “run” to Bermuda in an inflatable bubble

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m posting this because I think it’s extremely odd and weirdly amazing. Here is the story:

He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. (Job 9:8)

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COAST GUARD RESCUES MAN FROM HYDRO BUBBLE EAST OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA.

The Coast Guard Cutter Bernard C. Webber arrives on scene off the coast of Miami to respond to a report of a man aboard an inflatable hydro bubble who was disoriented asking for directions to Bermuda Oct. 1, 2014. The man was later rescued on Oct. 4, 2014, after he activated his personal indicating radio beacon upon suffering from exhaustion. U.S. Coast Guard photo

An MH-60 aircrew with Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater assists a man they medically evacuated east of St. Augustine, Florida, Oct. 4, 2014. The man was rescued after suffering from exhaustion from an inflatable hydro bubble while enroute to Bermuda. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

MIAMI — A man was rescued from his hydro pod bubble 70 nautical miles east of St. Augustine, Florida, by a Coast Guard search-and-rescue crew from Air Station Clearwater Saturday morning.
Watchstanders at the Coast Guard 7th District command center received a report of Reza Baluchi, a U.S. citizen, floating in an inflatable bubble Wednesday. Baluchi was reportedly disoriented and asking for directions to Bermuda. The Coast Guard Cutter Webber arrived on scene, conveyed the dangers of his voyage and requested Baluchi terminate his trip due to the lack of supplies on board to sustain him.

On board, Baluchi had protein bars, bottled water, a GPS and a satellite phone.

After he refused to leave his vessel, the watchstanders continued to monitor his movements until he activated his Personal Locating Beacon (PLB) Saturday morning. Coast Guard HC-130 airplane and MH-60 helicopter crews out of Air Station Clearwater, Florida, were dispatched to Baluchi’s position along with the Maersk Montana, a vessel registered with the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System (AMVER).

Once the aircrews arrived on scene, a rescue swimmer from the Jayhawk crew safely hoisted Baluchi from his inflatable raft into the helicopter. The MH-60 crew transported Baluchi to Air Station Clearwater where emergency medical services evaluated him. There were no reports of any injuries.

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The man planned this. He had forethought. He purchased the bubble, bought GPS, bottled water and protein bars. His goal was admirable, wanting to get to the other side. However, his efforts were so far short of the mark that it causes one to both laugh hysterically and mourn his massive inability.

His thinking just wasn’t right. It was very wrong. He woke up one say saying, “I can do this!” But reality showed him he could not.

Kind of like our efforts to overcome sin, without Jesus. Kind of like our plans, no matter how carefully thought out or earnest, will ultimately fail in the face of the utter reality that there exists a great gulf, over which we may not come. Reza’s great gulf was the Atlantic Ocean.

Ours is our sin.

The LORD knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile. (Psalm 94:11)

For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. (Ecclesiastes 2:21)

We cannot outrun our sin, we cannot dispense with our sin. It will hinder us in all our efforts to reach the other side. We need someone FROM the other side, holy and perfect, to cauterize our sin from us, burn it out and clean us. The someone of course is Jesus. Bless His holy name.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, (Ephesians 2:14)

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More about the man Reza Baluchi, who is actually quite interesting. He escaped Iran on the bicycling team (after imprisonment and torture, and other hardships. “I was tired of having no freedom.”) Here are a few links to his story. I encourage you to read about him. He has run around the perimeter of the US once and across it twice. He has biked around the world. He planned to run up Everest. He has traveled the world for peace. The bubble was another of his efforts to bring attention to the need for world peace. Again, it is an admirable effort, and I do not believe any layperson has done more in constant and persistent effort in this goal, but it is for naught. One cannot have peace without Jesus. The world needs Jesus. It makes Mr Baluchi’s story doubly sad.

Iranian ‘Running Man’ spreads message of peace (essay)

Run Around The World with Reza Baluchi (2009 video)
I would like to introduce you to one of the most amazing athletes of our time, Reza Baluchi. He has run over 100,000 miles in the past 22 years and last year ran 11,720 miles in 202 days non-stop! He is about to embark upon an epic adventure in September of 2009. He will be the first man to run to every country in the world! Why? Check out http://www.runwithreza.org

Posted in futile thinking, romans, society

Train Runs Over Couple Having Sex on Tracks

Posted on by elizabethprata

Train Runs Over Couple Having Sex on Tracks
“Local police say a middle-aged couple in central Ukraine was run over by a switcher locomotive while having sex on the tracks. According to the country’s Interior Ministry, the woman died at the location while the man was hospitalized after losing both his legs. The victims’ names were not released, but it was reported that the man was 41 and the woman appeared to by thirtysomething. The ministry cited the surviving victim, who said that he and his girlfriend “failed to overcome their natural passion when walking home… and wanted to experience an extreme sensation near the railroad tracks.”

Pack of motorcyclists chase man in SUV, attack him on upper Manhattan street after fender bender on West Side Highway
“Alexian Lien’s Range Rover was surrounded by several bikers on the West Side Highway on Sunday. One biker apparently cut the driver off and slammed on the brakes just before the SUV bumped his rear tire. But when Lien — who was driving his wife, Rosalyn, and their 2-year-old child — stopped, several bikers began to damage his SUV. Lien fled, striking one biker. But the group caught up to him and pummeled him before cops arrived.”

Cops: Daughter, husband kill mom; dad shoots them
“A two-decade family feud came to a violent end when a man shot dead the two home invaders that killed his wife and son, not knowing the assailants included his long-estranged daughter, authorities said Sunday.”

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21)

THIS is what futile thinking is. This is what it looks like. Dr John MacArthur quoted Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse in his Romans 1:21 sermon and also in his Romans’ commentary–

Barnhouse said,

“Will God give man brains to see these things and will man then fail to exercise his will toward that God? The sorrowful answer is that both these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron and make a hammer head and nails. God will grow a tree and give man strength to cut it down and brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood. And when man has the hammer and the nails, God will put out His hand and let man drive nails through it and place Him on a cross in the supreme demonstration that men are without excuse.”

When you have a majority of a society rejecting God, and as a result not being able to think straight, there are going to be consequences. There will be evidence of it. When a tiny minority of a society or a culture rejects God, the effects can be dampened by peer pressure, or laws, or hidden from sight. Not so when a majority reject Him, and the noted consequences begin to evidence themselves. Foolish hearts and futile thinking mean people are going to act c.r.a.z.y. And they are. Our God-rejecting society is on a downhill slide in a hellish ride to nowhere, and I cold not be sorrier for the people who reject peace with God and the eternal joy that comes from it.