I thought this 30-second clip from Wretched TV was interesting.
Jim Nabors being with a partner for 38 years in no way legitimizes homosexual marriage as a proper relationship
I wrote yesterday of the news that television actor and singer Jim Nabors, 82, married his long-time homosexual partner. I know that one thing that will strike the unbelieving world about the Jim Nabors marital news is the reported length of time he and his homosexual friend have been partners. The news reports were that they have been together for 38 years.
One thing that the non-believing supporter of homosexuality denies is the penchant for gays to hitch quick and divorce quicker, or for single gays to hop from bed to bed. Gays say that they are not defined by sexual activity, but they belie that when they fail consistently to be monogamous. Their promiscuity s legendary.
The statistics on sexual promiscuity among homosexuals are staggering. 83% of the homosexual men surveyed estimated they had had sex with 50 or more partners in their lifetime, 43% estimated they had sex with 500 or more partners; 28% with 1,000 or more partners. They are promiscuous, and rarely stay with one partner for long. (source)
So no doubt, people will be using the unhappy couple’s self-stated lengthy partnership as a legitimizer for such perverse relationships. They say, “It’s love!” or, “See, it’s the same as heterosexual marriages!” However, whether promiscuous one-night stands or a 38 year apparent partnership, homosexual relationships are still sinful.
Length of time being involved in a sin is no credit to that sin. It is still sin. Just because you have been sinning longer is not a reason or a basis to say that it is now legitimized. If someone has been embezzling funds from your corporation for 38 years, do you forgive it, saying its length of time as an ongoing event means that it must be credible by now? Of course now. Embezzlement is a crime, just as homosexuality is a crime- against God.
As a matter of fact, length of time as an active homosexual is more of a reason to say they are condemned. In the progressive Wrath of Abandonment as outlined in Romans 1, the Lord hardens the heart and gives them over to their sinful desires of the body (Romans 1:26; Psalm 81:12).
What does it mean, exactly, that God gives them over?
Because they refused to honor God, He gave them over to the vilest of devices. It shows to what depths they fall without God. They became abandoned to the last degree. The very fact that they are a homosexual or a lesbian is illustrative of the fact that they have been given over by God. There is only one further step: being given over to their depraved mind. At that point they cannot even think right. (Romans 1:18-32). It is the end of the line.
Being given over means that if a person persists in denying the sovereignty of God for a period of time, after repeated warnings, God allows the person’s sin to take them to its inevitable conclusion. In the case of Pharaoh, God gave warnings in the form of judgment plagues, and then hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
This is because Pharaoh refused to listen, and each time he refused to listen, Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex 7:22, Ex 8:14, Ex 8:19, Ex 8:32, Ex 9:7). After a certain point, God calls it. He gave Pharaoh over to his sin.
God is just. He is not a doormat nor a patsy. After a certain point of no return, He gives you over.
In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, God gave the king repeated warnings in the form of a dream. The final dream came with a dire warning. Even then, God gave the king one year to repent. At the moment Nebuchadnezzar said he built the city himself and he gave himself the glory, denying God once again, Nebuchadnezzar was struck in judgment. The difference between Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar was that when Nebuchadnezzar came out of his insanity period, he repented and gave God the glory. Pharaoh never did. Who knows how many more warnings and dreams would have been given Nebuchadnezzar, if any, but it is wise to heed His warnings the first time. God is merciful in not smiting us at birth for being sinners against Him. He is long-suffering, allowing our sins to progress until He decides to either regenerate us into new life, or harden us into spiritual death. He is patient, for example, waiting a full year for Nebuchadnezzar to repent. God is love, we are made in His image. But he is also just, and He judges us.
I am not saying a homosexual person has no chance of being saved. Any person can repent and will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God. What I am saying is that the longer you go in not addressing your sin, the more chance that God will give you over. We don’t know when that moment is. He does this with nations. It is called The Wrath of Abandonment. Romans 1 outlines the progression.
He also does this with individuals. There IS a point of no return. Homosexuality is the signal that it is very far along in the path of no return.
“[I]f we don’t confess our sins, they have a cumulative and desensitizing effect on the conscience, making it difficult to even distinguish right from wrong. And this sinful and hardened heart is tantamount to the “seared conscience” Paul speaks of in 1Timothy 4:1-2. Scripture makes it clear that if we relentlessly continue to engage in sin, there will come a time when God will give us over to our “debased mind” and let us have it our way. The apostle Paul writes about God’s wrath of abandonment in his letter to the Romans where we see that the “godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth” are eventually given over to the sinful desires of their hardened hearts (Romans 1:18-24).
A lengthy homosexual relationship might be lauded as “love” in secular (sinful) society but that is no commendation at all. It is actually a danger to their soul and eternal destiny! GotQuestions again–
“So, what then is the antidote for a heart condition such as this? First and foremost, we have to recognize the effect that this spiritual disease has on us. And God will help us to see our heart’s condition when we ask Him: “Search me O God, and know my heart…see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:2-24). God can heal any heart once we recognize our disobedience and repent of our sins. But true repentance is more than simply a resolute feeling of steadfast determination. Repentance manifests itself in a changed life.”
Hallelujah that our mighty God changes our lives away from sin and toward righteousness! He can and He does. Every day.
http://www.flickr.com/photo credit: Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via photopin cc/bestrated1/191150805/
Jim Nabors, 82 (Gomer Pyle) marries long-time gay partner
Actor Jim Nabors of ‘Andy Griffith Show’ marries male partner; says he ‘just wanted it legal’
“Actor Jim Nabors says marrying his longtime male partner doesn’t change anything about their relationship — he just wanted it to be formally acknowledged. “I just wanted it legal,” the 82-year-old actor best known as Gomer Pyle in “The Andy Griffith Show” told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Hawaii News Now reports Jim Nabors and his partner, Stan Cadwallader, traveled from their Honolulu home to Seattle to be married Jan. 15, 2013. The couple met in 1975 when Cadwallader was a Honolulu firefighter. Nabors married 64-year-old Stan Cadwallader in Seattle on Jan. 15. Nabors says they have been partners for 38 years.”
Well. That’s kinda disappointing. I guess I’ll delete my “Jim Nabors Gospel” Pandora channel now.
The national religion, homosexuality, is proceeding apace. As a benchmark behavior, it is listed pretty far along on the scale of where a nation stands as far as rebellion against God goes. (Romans 1:18-32).
Last October in his devastating sermon called “Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality”, John MacArthur spoke about the Romans verses and where America is now in terms of being on track for imminently enduring God’s wrath of abandonment:
What you see in Romans chapter 1 is the sequence of what happens when God abandons a nation. First, verse 24 says, He gives them over to “the lust of their hearts to impurity,” sexual sin, the dishonoring of their bodies among them. When God abandons a society, the first thing that happens is it becomes pornographic. It becomes obsessed with sex, obsessed with fornication, adultery, every kind of sexual behavior. We have gone through that already in the sexual revolution a couple of decades ago.
The second thing that happens when God abandons a culture is found in verse 26, “God gave them over to degrading passions…their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural…in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” At the end of that verse, “Receiving in their persons the due penalty” is the diseases that come consequent to homosexual behavior. And as you know, they unleashed on the world the horror of AIDS.
But what it’s saying here is that when God abandons a nation or a culture under His wrath, there will be a sexual revolution followed by a homosexual revolution. And we are living in this very condition.
Jesse Johnson at The Cripplegate wrote today of persecution of Christians in America. He sees it coming, a peculiarly kind of American persecution. He sees that it will be based on refusal to submit to our new national religion: homosexuality. Here are just a few of the bullet points:
Four responses to the coming persecution
–The day is quickly coming when churches will be subject to legal obstacles for their stance on homosexuality.
–It seems like only a matter of time before lawsuits targeting churches are filed if a church refuses to do parent/child dedications for same-sex couples.
–It is not far-fetched that pastors will lose their housing allowances, and churches lose their tax exempt status, unless they are willing to affirm the validity of the homosexual lifestyle.
Johnson goes on to describe how we should respond to it, and what to remember above all. It’s a good essay.
Matt Slick at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry wrote:
“Homosexuality is clearly condemned in the Bible. But, it also goes against the created order of God who made Adam, a man, and Eve, a woman — not two men, not two women — to carry out his command to fill and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28). Homosexuality cannot carry out that command. It is, therefore, a contradiction to God’s stated desire in the created order. Unlike other sins, homosexuality has a heavy judgment administered by God Himself upon those who commit it – and support it. This judgment is simple in that those who practice it are given over to their passions – which means that their hearts are allowed to be hardened by their sins.”
My heart grieves for Nabors. He is a man who appeared in several wholesome television shows as an innocent person seeing the good in all people in a chaotic world. However the truth was far from the superficial thespian presentation. If Nabors has been in a homosexual relationship for 38 years or longer, then from the verses in Romans it can be seen that God has given him over to his perversions as a judgment. Rev. Slick concludes his essay with hope, the hope we gain from Jesus:
“The only hope for the homosexual, and all people who break God’s laws, is to realize that God is holy and he will rightfully judge all who have sinned against him by breaking his law (1 Kings 8:32; Ps. 9:8; 1 John 3:4). If he did not do this, then he would be approving of wrong doing. However, God is loving (1 John 4:8) patient (Rom. 2:4), wanting people to repent (Acts 17:30) and come a saving knowledge of him so they might be redeemed. What this means is that the sinner must turn to Christ, who is God the Son in flesh (John 1:1,14; Col. 2:9), who bore our sins in his body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), died and rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-4), and made it possible for sinners to be saved from the righteous judgment of God by faith in what Jesus did on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) and be forgiven of their sins (Eph. 2:8). This is done receiving Christ (John 1:12), by believing in him and his sacrifice that is a payment for our sins to God the Father. Like any sinner, the homosexual needs to repent, receive Christ by faith, and be saved from God’s righteous judgment by trusting in Christ and the judgment that fell upon him on the cross. They need to pray and ask the Lord Jesus to save them.”
I hope that Nabors and his partner do pray to Jesus. Meanwhile, my Nabors Gospel channel has got to go…
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Note: an addendum essay was published here regarding one more thought on the issue.
A stormy day
Pretty heavy storms about to hit us here in GA. Many are already without power. If I do not post tonight, that is why 🙂
Pray for the many who have lost homes, and those who are without power and are in shelters. Buses are finishing their runs, and we pray the kids all get home safely.
Hope you are all safe too! Take care.
Ariel Sharon showing significant signs of brain activity
‘Significant brain activity’ in comatose Ariel Sharon
“Comatose for seven years, Israel’s iconic former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is showing “significant brain activity.” The 84-year-old suffered a devastating stroke January 4, 2006, and a brain hemorrhage. He was presumed to be in a vegetative state. But on Monday, a team of surprised neuroscientists and doctors said Sharon’s brain appeared to respond when they showed him pictures of his family and had him listen to his son’s voice. Doctors also used tactile stimuli to measure Sharon’s reaction. Does this mean the man Israelis once dubbed the “Lion of God” could wake? Doctors urge caution.”
I remind us that four years ago I reported his doctors said Sharon may soon wake up. He didn’t.
The End Time: Is Ariel Sharon waking up?
October 22, 2009
Close to four years after suffering a massive hemorrhagic stroke, Dov Weisglass, who served as bureau chief to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet on Thursday that the former prime minister’s medical team indicates he may emerge from his coma, soon.” “Not really explaining his words, Weisglass exhibited a measure of optimism, seemingly confident the former war hero, prime minister and architect of the Disengagement Plan will awaken from his coma. He did not address earlier reports that Sharon sustained profound neurological compromise as a result of massive cranial bleeding from the stroke(s).” (Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister of Israel, 2001-06. Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948. As a paratrooper and then officer he participated prominently in the 1948 War of Independence, becoming platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Ben Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101, the Retribution operations, the 1956 Suez War, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. During his military career, he was considered the greatest field commander in Israel’s history, and one of the country’s greatest ever military strategists. The Israeli public nicknamed him “The King of Israel” and “The Lion of God”.
So you can see that Sharon is (was) an influential figure. He looms large in Israel’s history, even having been comatose for nearly 8 years.
Suddenly, after years of dormancy, the talk is abruptly of a two-state solution again. Of a Palestinian state. Of peace talks. Here is one news article about it:
Netanyahu would agree to interim Palestinian state, ex-minister claims
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state in provisional borders, even before his conditions for a final-status agreement are met, former minister and veteran peace activist Yossi Beilin said. “I don’t think that Netanyahu, who is far from being a warmonger — he’s a very cautious person — [is ready to commit to] a permanent solution. Not because he doesn’t want it — all of us want it — but because he’s not ready to pay the price,” Beilin said Monday night. “But to speak about a provisional border with the Palestinians, this is something that I heard from him that we would be ready to do it.”
[Outgoing Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton Sees Opening for Revived Mideast Peace talks
“Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says a new coalition government in Israel could lead to resumption of talks toward a two-state peace accord with Palestinians. “I think the outcome of the election in which a significant percentage of the Israeli electorate chose to express themselves by saying ‘We need a different path than the one we have been pursuing, internally and with respect to the Middle East peace process,'” Clinton said. That could mean a resumption of stalled talks with Palestinian authorities, something that she said the Obama administration will pursue at “every possible opening.”
Just as the bonfire reaches maximum, God throws another log onto the fire…and things get hotter.
“I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.” (Ezekiel 22:21)
photo credit: Captain Kimo via photopin cc
False teachers deceive, deny, and depart: Discernment from 1 John
In reading 1 John 2, the warnings about false teachers are so vividly clear. Isn’t the bible amazing, that the readers in our time would benefit just as much from this living document, as those in John’s time, 1,900 years ago, did?
It wasn’t long before false teachers were infecting the church with false doctrine, perverting the Apostles’ teaching. Actually, they came in right away.
We are no different today. False teachers sway the unwary and pollute the church with their man-made philosophies. Humans are human. Just as there were believers and liars then, there are believers and liars now.
I love the preacher’s tendency to alliterate their bullet points from their sermon outline. Alliteration is a tactic often used by public speakers to help listeners remember the main points by making the first word of each point begin with the same letter. As a speech communication major and a rhetorician at heart, I love the alliterative device. (As long as it is not overdone). Phil Johnson is Executive Editor of John MacArthur’s Grace to You and a pastor himself. The two men were engaged in a Q&A recently and they had a loving and laughing exchange about alliteration. Phil begins:
In fact, my favorite, you did a sermon once from Matthew 27 on the miracles that occurred during the crucifixion. And you had…you had doubly alliterated every point. There were like six or seven points, I forget how many miracles there were, but I do remember your outline because it had to do with the tearing of the curtain in the tabernacle and you called that “sanctuary desecration,” and then there was the supernatural darkness and when you got to the earthquake you called it “soil disturbance.”
Well yeah, that’s the best I could with an S D for an earthquake.
If you guys use that, make it “seismic disturbance,” or something.
Yeah, well why didn’t I think of that? That’s why you edit my books.
I was reading 1 John chapter two this week. I keep going back to it. The Spirit has grabbed a-hold of my brain and grabbed a-hold of that chapter and is not letting go. So anyway I’m reading and the flow of the chapter floats to my mind in sort of a picture. A picture of a list. An alliterated list, lol.
John warns the flock that false teachers will engage in:
Deception.
“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” (1 John 2:26).
John uses the word planao for deceive. Planao means properly, “go astray, get off-course; to deviate from the correct path (circuit, course), roaming into error, wandering; (passive) be misled.”
Perhaps they go off-course like this, metaphorically speaking–
We get so involved with examining our bag of candy that we wander off the path before we know it. John was telling the flock that there were some who were trying to nudge them off the path, and they were using deception to do it. For some gullible ‘believers’, it is like giving candy to a baby.
At this stage of his life, John was quite advanced in age. He made oblique reference to this in his letter, calling the flock “little children” or “children” many times.
“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”
In speaking to them as children, John was being fatherly in his shepherd office. He was also reminding them that deception has one source: demons. The antichrist spirit is behind all false doctrine. All. Beware of their deceptions.
Denial
The second “D” that came to my mind as I read the chapter is Denial.
“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22)
Deceivers deny the Christ. Now, some undoubtedly denied Christ outright, they still do that today. But remember, John is speaking of false teachers within the church, and who were successful in leading some away. If they deny Him outright, they are very easy to spot, no? So how does a false teacher deny Christ? Perhaps by denying He was born of a virgin. Perhaps by denying He lived a sinless life. Perhaps by saying He was a really good teacher but…that’s it. Perhaps by saying that He is truth but that there is more truth to be had in visions and dreams and personal revelations. In other words, that His truth is not authoritative as spoken in the bible.
So the false teachers deny His authority. They deny His attributes; such as His sinlessness, or His wrath or His deity. (“God is love, He won’t judge…”). False teachers deny, deny, deny. And this is important: they make you doubt what you know.
The scene below is from the 1960s movie A Guide for the Married Man. It is where we got the quote, “deny, deny, deny.”
Departure
False teachers do what they do to draw you away from the center point which is Jesus. Anything they can do to divert your focus, nudge you off the path, they will do it. If they go, it proves they were never of the faith.
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19).
Some will always find false doctrine a treat, a candy sweetness they wrongly assume is as sweet as Jesus. It is not, but they still seek after it, and false teachers know this and deceive in order to draw out those who are willing to be drawn. It is one way the Lord purges His flock. John 15:2 says that He cuts off the branch that bears no fruit- He prunes.
But it is still traumatic to lose congregants who follow after the false ones. It is heartbreaking. But go they will and it is one way the Lord makes something good from something bad. The branch always buds more flourishingly after the dead weight is cut off.
Not just the congregants depart. The false teachers depart too. They see each church as a field with assets and once they strip it of all riches, they move on. How many alien movies have we seen where the alien invaders’ plan is to strip-mine the earth for all its minerals, or humans, and leaving the planet a wasteland, move on.
It is the same with false teachers. They strip-mine the weak of their money or their time or their heart, and scooping up their booty, leave with spiritual devastation in their wake.
False teachers deceive, deny, and depart. Beware. The New Testament is full of warnings about false teachers. If you study the bible, you will read and heed the warnings, because you will be getting filled with the truth! The truth is the best and only barometer of falsity. It is the sure thing.
Dark times calls for Light encouragement
I read a headline on Drudge that absolutely shocked me. I rarely read the news itself anymore, because it is, well, too shocking. I’m reduced to glancing at headlines with one eye closed and the other squinting. This morning it was not enough.
North Korea is experiencing a horrific famine. They have been for a long time. People in that closed nation are resorting to things that the world has only very rarely seen. There is a particularly hideous reported case. (The report itself is smuggled out at risk to citizen journalists, because the nation is so thoroughly authoritarian). The incident of which I am speaking is that there are reports, and not isolated cases, of people so hungry they are digging up corpses to eat them.
In other cases, parents have been murdering their children for food. In one case, a father killed his two kids while the mom was away on a short trip. When she returned, the dad said “we have meat”, but the woman refused to believe it was pork, and suspicious, called the police. They found their teenaged children’s body parts.
I began thinking, and pleading with the Lord to come soon. Because, you see, the times are so terrible. Just when I think I got over Newtown/Sandy Hook shooting, there comes reports of widespread cannibalism in North Korea. What next? I shudder to think.
Then I got to thinking, are times terrible? They are dark, and certainly getting darker by the day, that much is a definite fact. However, before I allow myself to sink into a funk, I think of two things. First, Jesus. And second, what my forbears went through. It is because of the work of Jesus we can be saved. It is because of the work of my forbears in the faith that the faith was handed down to me. I thank each and ever predecessor.
In this case today, I was thinking of Noah. Jesus said that at the time of the flood, Noah was the only righteous man left. Genesis 6:8 says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was blameless in his ways, and righteous. He walked with the LORD. (Genesis 6:9).
This is in contrast to the description of everyone and everything else. “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5). “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:11). “And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
That’s twice in a row, God saw the earth and when God saw it, it was filled with violence and corruption. God was so grieved at this, He was sorry He made man! (Genesis 6:6).
In order to bring the bible to life for me, I like to think about what the bible is saying and think of what that looks like if it was happening now. In Noah’s day, All men were evil. All flesh was corrupt. All they did was evil and when they were not doing evil they were thinking evil. The only righteous person was Noah. Of his sons, the bible doesn’t say they were righteous or unrighteous. Just that Noah had three sons (Genesis 6:10) and that they and their wives came into the ark with Noah. (Genesis 7:7). We do not know if the sons walked with God. We do not know if the sons were blameless in God’s eyes or if they were allowed into the ark because Noah’s righteousness covered them. I mean, Job used to continually sacrifice on behalf of his children’s sins to cover them. (Job 1:5). Perhaps Noah did also.
In any case, either it was a small band of humans who were righteous and did right in God’s eyes, or it was one person. Either way, that is a lonely, lonely life. Imagine how grieved Noah must have been with all that darkness around him!
When I think of how grieved I am today, the sins of the world piling up… the awful knowledge of what is coming for them…sickness over my own sins… I think of Noah. For many years, 120 certainly, Noah preached God’s righteousness and built the world’s biggest boat (the world’s only boat?) and asked people to join him. He had not one taker. They mocked and they laughed and Noah saw his neighbors and friends go further away from the LORD into their one evilness. How sorrowful he must have been?
Jesus said that right before He returns at the end of the Tribulation the days will have been like Noah’s.
“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Some take that verse to mean that the timing refers to the latter half of the Tribulation when they will have been when they were marrying and drinking and carrying on as normal. Some take the timing to mean just before the rapture, because after the rapture, when the Tribulation begins, nothing is normal.
Either way, I was thinking this morning, just how evil do the days have to get to be actually like they were during Noah’s time? Worse than they are in North Korea? What is worse than eating your children? Not that humankind has never experienced cannibalistic infanticide before. (Lamentations 4:10; Deuteronomy 28:53; Jeremiah 19:9).
We Christians have a lot on our minds. But no matter how heavy our hearts are in their burdens for other people, we need not fear.
Here are some essays encouraging us as to the reality of our position. The darkness is around us, but not in us.
Here are 13 reasons Christians don’t have to be afraid.
Here is an essay about Faith in Crisis
I started with a news reference to a hideous situation in anther country. I end with reminding us to keep our noses to the grindstone and our heads focused on working for Him who is Light. No matter how dark things got for Noah, he nailed his nails and bent his planks one by plodding one. He never stopped working until the LORD said ‘get in the boat and I shall shut the door’. (Genesis 7:13, 16). We should never stop working until the Lord calls us with the trumpet of God and the voice of the archangel and a shout, “Come up here!” Yes it is getting dark. But soon the Light cometh! Noah persevered, let us take comfort in his righteous act as our example. Noah is an heir of righteousness (Hebrews 11:7).
Here is Encouragement for Christian Laborers — J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), “Expository Thoughts on Matthew”
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” – Matthew 11:11
“Do we know what it is to work for Christ? Have we ever felt cast down and dispirited, as if we were doing no good, and no one cared for us? Are we ever tempted to feel, when laid aside by sickness, or withdrawn by providence, ‘I have labored in vain, and spent my strength for nought?’ Let us meet such thoughts by the recollection of this passage. Let us remember, there is One who daily records all we do for Him, and sees more beauty in His servants’ work than His servants do themselves. The same tongue which bore testimony to John in prison, will bear testimony to all his people at the last day. He will say, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ And then shall His faithful witnesses discover, to their wonder and surprise, that there never was a word spoken on their Master’s behalf, which does not receive a reward.”
The dead may eat the dead but the living will dine with the eternal Savior at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! Your reward who is Jesus Christ will come for His bride, and darkness for us will be no more.
Updated–Was Iran’s nuclear facility sabotaged in a devastating blast?
This has not been confirmed yet and it may never be, but it seems that the incident may indeed have happened. I waited to publish anything about it because it lacked independent confirmation, and World Net Daily isn’t the best of sole sources.
**Update**Joel Rosenberg wrote today that there finally IS confirmation: “Not a single major media outlet in Iran, Israel, the U.S. or elsewhere reported on the story at the time, much less confirmed it. Iranian officials flat out denied there had been any explosions. This led to concern that Kahlili’s report was unreliable and that this was all mere rumor. Now, however, Israeli security and intelligence officials are indicating that there was, in fact, such an explosion.”
Israeli minister welcomes report of huge blast at Iran nuclear plant
Israel’s Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter on Sunday welcomed a report that Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility had been rocked by a huge explosion. The report was published Friday on the website wnd.com, under the sensational headline: “Sabotage! Key Iranian nuclear facility hit?” It claimed that a blast deep within Fordo last Monday “destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground,” citing information from former intelligence officer Hamidreza Zakeri, who it said used to work with the Islamic regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security.The article claimed the blast “shook facilities within a radius of three miles,” that Iranian security forces had “enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles,” that the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, and that, “as of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel.” It said US officials were aware of the reported blast. There was no independent confirmation of the claims. Nonetheless, Israel’s biggest-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth led its Sunday paper with the report on the alleged blast, which it said might be “the most significant incidence of sabotage in the Iranian nuclear program to date.”
Asked about the story, Dichter said, “Any explosion in Iran that doesn’t hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome.”
Iran had been close to making a nuclear bomb. For a while in Israel it looked as though the nation was going to initiate a strike on Iran in order to stop their progress toward it. Attaining a bomb is a red line the nation’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they will not allow Iran to cross:
The Israeli people are both encouraged and weary. They are encouraged that their economy, though slowing, is still ahead of many other nations in the first world. They are encouraged that their recent discoveries of gas, oil, and gold will enable them to become self-sufficient and even an exporter. They have enjoyed relative military success with the installation and protection of Iron Dome and David’s Sling. They have enjoyed relative stability with Netanyahu, the longest serving PM in their history.
However, they are weary of the real threats to their existence. Iran’s plans to make a nuclear bomb- and use it, wearies them. Lebanon’s constant willingness to aid any and all who want to transfer arms through their country is a problem. The Gaza Strip is a conduit for the same from the south. Syria’s chemical weapons are a huge problem. Even if Assad uses chemical weapons solely inside Syria, remember, the distances are not great in the Middle East. Damascus is only 47 miles from Israel’s Golan Heights. Residents of Israel living even at the center of the nation are still not far from any potential leak-over from the warring and bloody nation of Syria. Even Turkey has asked NATO for permission to receive Patriot missiles and to set them up at their border with Syria, just in case a missile accidentally or on purpose comes their way. Those missiles are now set and operational. Syria’s conflagration spilling over to Israel is a very real possibility.
To that end, Israel made another red line promise today–
Israel vows Syria strike at any sign of chemical arms transfer
Any sign of Syria’s grip on its suspected chemical weapons slipping as it battles an armed uprising could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel’s vice premier said on Sunday. Silvan Shalom confirmed a media report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had last week convened security chiefs to discuss the civil war in nearby Syria and the state of the country’s chemical arsenal. The meeting, held on Wednesday, had not been publicly announced and was seen as especially unusual as it came while votes were still being counted from Israel’s national election the day before, which Netanyahu’s party list won narrowly.
Joel Rosenberg was interviewed a few days ago as the votes from Israel’s election were being tallied. he has context and background for what it all means. He discussed-
* the fascinating outcome of the Israeli elections, what the results were, what they mean, and what they say about the trendlines in Israeli society
* the rise of Yair Lapid and his new secular Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) political party in Israel, now the nation’s second biggest party.
* the “complicated” relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu and the nuances of U.S.-Israeli relations
* the interesting trend of Netanyahu’s interest in the Bible, including why he recently started a Bible study in the Prime Minister’s residence
* the deep secularization of the Israeli society, and the serious lack of interest in the Word of God among most Israelis (I noted Amos 8:11, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord. ‘when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.”)
* the latest status of the Iranian nuclear threat and whether Netanyahu is more or less likely to order a preemptive military strike in 2013.
It lasts a little under an hour.
In a little- reported fact, Jordan’s King Abdullah was left red-faced at a top-notch economic summit when he tried to put forward the notion that Hamas was softening on its stance toward Israel. Abdullah said that the organization has softened its policy toward Israel and would be more realistic if coming to the peace negotiations table. Abdullah was left red-faced when Hamas immediately refuted that notion and said that their only goal was resisting Israel, forever.
The military belligerence of many nations is not abating but increasing. Iran vowed that any attack on Syria is an attack on Iran. China and Japan are still boxing circles in their initial foray in the China Sea, with Japan boosting military presence where the two nations are disputing over islands. North Korea is ready for their next nuclear test with NK’s leader vowing strong action if anyone interferes with it. Turkey warns against Israel-Cyprus gas deal.
The number of headlines where militaristic leaders are “vowing strong action” or threatening retaliations is growing by the day. Jesus said that the end time would be characterized by wars and rumors of wars. (Matthew 24:6).
Anyone knows that when you make enough threats and lay enough ammunition down, at some point it will ignite. We know from prophecy, that it will (Isaiah 17, Psalm 83, Isaiah 19, Ezekiel 38-39, Matthew 24:6).
During this present time of threats and potentialities, rather than worry or crumble under the weight of uncertainty as to when it will all blow up, and whether we will be here on earth for the first part of it, we can simply pray for strength. In his interview, Rosenberg said that this is a time of purification of the church. We surely are being purified as the dross rises to the top and the Refiner removes it. We can let our worries bubble up to the top and allow Jesus to remove them, leaving us more holy and pure than before. Look at this last time on earth as an opportunity to submit more deeply to Jesus and allow Him to purify us. It will be a glory for Him to do this and a better trophy of grace for His name.
Fish tornado phenomenon photographed by Octavio Aburto
Awesome photo! Whether it is the Aurora Borealis with beach dinoflagellates photo I’d put up a few days ago, or this undersea fish tornado, the earth and the universe constantly amaze me. Our Creator is to be praised, for His intellect, creativity, and beauty. That He created man to have communion with Him and to be the worker of His garden (Genesis 2:15) is such a gift.
EarthSky.org reports, “Photographer and marine biologist Octavio Aburto captured this amazing photo of the at Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico, in the course of studying the courtship behavior of a species of Jack fish. He titled it “David and Goliath.”
The photo has left many in disbelief, though the sheer magnitude of its wonder. So Octavio Aburto has released the video of the jackfish courtship behavior to satisfy the curious and the skeptical.
The photographer hopes that your wonder at seeing “Goliath” will spark you to think more about the environment, and that is all well and good. I hope it will spark you to think more about the Creator, and His magnificent hand which created ALL that exists. And He did it in 6 days. Praise His mighty name!
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” (Psalms 145:3)
Hallelujah, we shall rise!
Watch the whole thing- the kid near the end and the baby at the end are great.
Now, as for levitate…if you ever bungee jumped, parasailed, hang glided, ultralighted, or in any other way left the earth for a fleeting few seconds, it sure feels great, doesn’t it?!
As Old Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
Born again Christians are looking forward to the moment when gravity ceases to be a reality for us, where our bodies are raised imperishable, (1 Corinthians 15:50-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:17) and we are caught up through the first heaven, the second heaven, and up to the Third Heaven, to where Jesus has prepared a place for us.
“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.” ― [J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird]
Barnes Notes eloquently describes the moment when our faith takes wing-” ‘Shall be caught up’ – The word here used implies that there will be the application of external force or power by which this will be done. It will not be by any power of ascending which they will themselves have; or by any tendency of their raised or changed bodies to ascend of their own accord, or even by any effort of their own will, but by a power applied to them which will cause them to rise. …the expression is one of great sublimity, and the scene will be immensely grand.”
