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Man has always sought peace and security. In ancient times the safest place to live was in a walled fortress castle or town. Then Henry perfected use of the trebuchet and that was that.

Man tried to use natural geo-forms to protect themselves, the most extreme being the residents of San Marino. Situated in the Apennine Mountains, it is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. They were never defeated, but they never went anywhere, either. They are best known for making tiny postage stamps and being really good with a bow and arrow.

Then man made nuclear weapons, and thought that deterrence would be the peaceful way to security. Or the secure way to peace. The 1960s were rife with nuclear drills and fallout shelters. This was the time in which I grew up. The Soviet threat was real and kids understood that the specter of nuclear war as a present reality. We just expected that someone, somewhere, was going to nuke someone. Fallout shelters were De rigueur. A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. They made it seem that living in a fallout shelter was a picnic wrapped in a camping trip. Pop culture promoted this thought (Fallout handbooks saying “How You Can Survive a Nuclear War”). The Twilight Zone weighed in with a rare dose of reality with The Shelter. Watch it, the 25 minutes is worthwhile.

The Cuban Missile Crisis didn’t help the mindset, either. Then the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Republics split apart and nuclear was was passe.

Now after twenty years, there is another missile threat, this time, from North Korea. And for the first time ever, even from the bad old fifties and sixties, the headlines touting imminent nuclear bombings are appearing, and plentifully too.

• N Korea defends nuclear programme
• War book reveals how Britain planned to cope with nuclear attack
• Serbs send nuclear fuel to Russia, citing security
• Upheaval in Iran Doesn’t Change Nuclear Calculus
• Iran Nuclear Nightmare
• Al Qaeda & Pakistan’s Nukes: Apocalypse Soon?

Even the staid London Telegraph published a weird comic strip called Operation Blackjack, with no context, rhyme or reason, depicting nuclear conflagration and a new world order. With all the new talk of nuclear war, peace, and security, there is an attendant rise in interest in the topic of fallout shelters. The chart on Google trends shows a 20-fold increase in the topic in 2006 over 2005 and 2006, and that interest has maintained in 2009.

People have always and vainly tried to protect themselves from the elements, from war, from aggressive neighbors. It has never worked, and living in a fallout shelter won’t work either.

“While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3

You know what will work? Jesus. There is safety in Jesus. Not in never having to deal with a tragedy or never having your personal safety compromised. Both are likely to happen to you in living a life here on sinful earth. But living under the arms of Jesus means eternal security. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91

“The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.”Proverbs 29:25

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” Isaiah 12:2

There are so many more scriptures where God gives us His blessed assurance that whatever fallout we may be experiencing in our lives, He is with us through emotional, physical, nuclear, psychological, any fallout whatsoever. He is with us and gives us His strength and safety in His promises. As for me, I’ll take the Savior’s safety any day, over concrete bunker and stocked up peas and stale bottled water. You can have that safety as well! Perfect peace, that no matter what comes, and it is coming, you can feel free from fear and lay in the cleft of the rock under His care. Here’s how.

OK, this is fun… 🙂

Technion students get ready for Passover, the festival of freedom, and let their imagination run wild. Watch closely as this Rube Goldberg Machine created by students from the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Architecture and Town Planning relates highlights of the Passover story. Filmed in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in The Sydney & Shirley Gendel and Emanuel Friedberg Family Creative Design Student Laboratory, a Project of the American Technion Society, Cleveland Chapter

No this is not from The Onion.

From the book synopsis:

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Lakewood Church, this bible is designed for everyday use. It will be filled with years worth of Joel’s inspirational and encouraging insights. It is created to guide both new and old readers of the scriptures in how to apply the life changing principles of God’s Word to their daily lives. The eternal promises of God, combined with the special features of this unique bible will be a daily reminder of God’s purpose and plan for your lives.

Pastor Joel Osteen has a dynamic spiritual presence in the United States and is heard across the globe via the televised broadcast from Houston, Texas. Millions tune in and are able to find a closer connection to God through Osteen’s practical application of Scripture to their lives. No spiritual leader is more in demand than Pastor Joel Osteen, and his audience is hungry for the guidance this new bible will provide. This bible will feature a presentation page with the This Is My Bible statement, book introductions, reading plans, devotional inserts, purposed scriptures, and indices. The text is the New Living Translation.

Sadly, the screen shot from Amazon isn’t satire either.

Source. Splash news

Robin Williams killed himself yesterday. I’m sad about this.

I am not sad because the world lost a brilliant comedian. I’m not sad because the world lost a gifted and talented actor. I’m not only sad because a wife lost her husband or his family is in mourning. I’m sad because he rejected God, mocked Him, and failed to glorify Jesus by believing in Him.

Am I “cold” for saying this? Is my “timing” off? Am I “insensitive”? I’ve been accused of all those on Twitter. I had retweeted the following tweet that someone else wrote.

If #RobinWilliams was not truly a Christian, with life evidence to back the claim, he is damned forever. Think about it. #nosecondchance

Yet…we see a crush on social media saying “He’s in a better place now.” “He is out of pain.” “He was a wonderful man.” Some Christians even say these things. For a long time on Twitter there was a hashtag labeled #RIPRobinWilliams. There is no peace in our eternal rest unless it is in Jesus. Most people don’t mind the platitudes, even if they are wicked corruptions of the truth.  But those platitudes lead others astray.

The bible says,

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, (1 Corinthians 6:9)

And it says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God“. (John 3:18)

Everybody minds talk of judgment, hell, condemnation. It’s always an insensitive subject. Never more than when faced with the dilemma of when to bring it up. Out of the blue while on a picnic? When someone has died? Somewhere in between, like over sandwiches in the work cafeteria? You see the problem.

EPrata photo

When a death or suicide happens, there are always grieving family, friends, or in a celebrity’s case, a wider world facing mortality, discussing the afterlife, asking and searching for answers to the question of “Is there life after life?” Death of a loved one is one of the few times when people actually stop their busy lives to consider their own death and what happens afterward. It is also one of the few times people are gathered to hear these issues explained. Sometimes the gathering is at a funeral. Sometimes that gathering is on Twitter.

Christians have the hope of Jesus. We know that life in Him, though hard, offers HIS strength. There is no better strength to rely on to get through a tough time, a depression, any kind of earthly woe. We also have a perspective of eternity. Any woe or trouble we are experiencing now is but a small moment, a wisp of time, and then glory.

source

“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun…” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

In knowing that Jesus has forgiven our sin, that His wrath is not on us, that we have His help for all situations, that His word revives us, that prayer is listened to, and that we possess the future of eternal glory to look forward to, our despair is turned to hope. That is an incredible list of gifts Jesus gives us. The lost have none of those, and must rely on their own wits, intellect, and strength to get through life, all the while that blackening despair creeps in like the tide. Some are overwhelmed by it, as Mr. Williams was.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us that toil, money, possessions, acclaim, pleasures, advancement, or wisdom, are all meaningless without God. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, (Psalm 86, Isaiah 60:21, 1 Corinthians 6:20; 10:31, Revelation 4:11) and to enjoy Him forever ( Psalm 16:5-11, Psalm 144:1, Isaiah 12:2, Luke 2:10, Philippians 4:4)- Westminster Shorter Catechism).

Of course life is meaningless when we reject God.

“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

In Williams’ movie “What dreams May Come”, his character is killed in a car crash, so he becomes a ghost for a while and hangs around on earth. Yet we know that “absent from the body, present with the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 5:8). In his movie, Williams’ character left heaven to look for his wife in hell, and to take her out of there.Yet we know that “there is a great gulf fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” (Luke 16:26). In his movie, Williams’ character controlled heaven with his thoughts. Yet we know that it’s Gods thoughts that are supreme. “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” (Psalm 103:19). In his movie, Williams’ character and the character of the wife were reincarnated as children. Yet we know that “just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

All those are common corruptions of the truth, and are widely disseminated.

No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. (source)

I am aware that these were pagan doctrines in a fictional movie that Williams was portraying as an actor, but I wonder how much of it he believed. His carnal mind was burning with enmity against God. How much of all that seeped into him, as he sat contemplating the end of his life…perhaps to try and end the pain (of separation from God).

I wonder most of all, as the family gathers for his funeral, if someone will take the time to tell them of the hope Jesus offers. Hope burns brightly in every Christian’s heart, keeping the wolves of despair at bay and our woes in perspective. Christ triumphed over death, and He offers that triumph to all who believe in Him. It is the best message one could ever hear. But is must be heard on this side of eternity. There are no second chances.

Dear Readers,

A few of you have mentioned that there exists an issue of one kind or another regarding the comment form. Some of you have reported struggles with commenting- that the form in different ways inhibits comments, or destroys them, or blocks them, other things that are equally frustrating

I am trying a few different things which will hopefully remove the problems some of you are

experiencing with the comment form. Please bear with me as I try this and that. In the end, if comment issues still exist I will change the template, necessitating a redesign. I mention that because a redesign is shocking and upsetting to some. I’m just letting you know ahead of time as I experiment with the forms and template and widgets. It’s important to me that commenting be as easy as possible. This blog is for encouragement and edification and instruction, and my interaction with brethren and your interaction with me is a very important part of building each other up.

On another note, I am working on a blog entry that will be a repository for all the Beth Moore blog essays I’ve written. They will be all in one place. It will also include links to others’ essays such as Tim Challies and Mike Abendroth and Matt Slick who have concerns with her teaching. Once it’s done I am going to put a link to the essay containing all BM essays on the right menu and take down all the others. This will free some space on the side menu. If there are links or things you’d like to see on the side menu please let me know.

The changes I’ve made today on the comment template are: removing the comment verification step, and changing the form from being on the same page as the essay to a pop-up in a separate window. I’m trying the easier and simpler things first. Thanks very much for your patience. If you’d like to correspond, my email is way down on the right menu bar. Thanks again.

This photo for the new header was taken at Jasper Beach, Machiasport, Maine. This part of Maine is considered Downeast, and is remote, rural, and quiet. It’s near Canada.

It is also known for fog. The fog bank rolling by came furtively and quickly obscured the pine trees in the distance, all the while amplifying the putt-putt of the lobster boat in the harbor.