The date on a calendar

OK, I recognize the Brooklyn bridge, but what is that behind it? Some one's impression of the future, I think? But what will the future really be like and will cities really look like this? If you are looking for answers from me, you won't get any. Does the future really matter or is there even likely to be one, given the fact that there are so many countries with nuclear weapons? Frankly, given all the hate out there, it would seem unlikely that 200 years from now there will even be cities, let alone futuristic edifices like in the picture. What does the Bible say about the future, well, lets just glance at one vision, given in the far away past.
Daniel 12:1-13 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) And at that time Michael the great prince shall stand up, that stands over the children of your people, and there shall be a time of tribulation, such tribulation as has not been from the time that there was a nation on the earth until that time. At that time your people shall be delivered, everyone that is written in the book.
(2) And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and everlasting shame.
(3) And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and some of the many righteous as the stars forever and ever.
(4) And you, Daniel, close the words, and seal the book to the time of the end; until many are taught, and knowledge is increased.
(5) And I Daniel, saw, and behold, two others stood, on one side of the bank of the river, and the other on the other side of the bank of the river.
(6) And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was over the water of the river, When will be the end of the wonders which you have mentioned?
(7) And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was over the water of the river, and he lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him that lives forever, that it should be for a time, times and half a time. When the dispersion is ended, they shall know all these things.
(8) And I heard, but I understood not. And I said, O Lord, what will be the end of these things?
(9) And he said, Go, Daniel; for the words are closed and sealed up to the time of the end.
(10) Many must be tested, and thoroughly whitened, and tried with fire, and sanctified; but the transgressors shall transgress: and none of the transgressors shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
(11) And from the time of the removal of the perpetual sacrifice, when the abomination of desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
(12) Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
(13) But you, go your way, and rest; for there are yet days and seasons to the fulfillment of the end; and you shall stand in your inheritance at the end of the days.


How many people have argued over this and other "end time" passages? Countless, to be sure. Preachers have scared untold millions with predictions of what will happen and when. But, I keep remembering that Jesus said something like "an evil and adulterous generation" will look for signs. What about this passage, is it fulfilled? In my thinking, it is. Yet, I also think we are in the final generation before the return of Christ. Whether I am right or wrong really doesn't matter because God will work everything out in HIS own good time. What is important is my relationship with the creator on a daily basis and where my heart is! But are we in the "end of days"? The answer is an unequivocal, YES! How can I say that, well, we only have so many days on this Earth and then our end (and a new beginning) will come. Live each day like it is the future and rejoice in what the God of heaven has done and will do; the rest is just the date on a calendar.

"New"

Behold; a new cloud was identified in 2009. Called the "Asperatus", it is associated with storm systems. Is this new? Maybe and maybe not. I have to ask the question: New back to what date? In other words, when did records begin to be kept; 100 years or more, or perhaps 200? So, in light of this, designating this as "new" borders on the arrogant. In the physical realm, is there anything new? I like what Solomon has to say on the subject.


Ecclesiastes 1:1-10 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem.
(2) Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
(3) What advantage is there to a man in all his labor that he takes under the sun?
(4) A generation goes, and a generation comes; but the earth abides forever.
(5) And the sun arises, and the sun goes down and draws toward its place;
(6) arising there it proceeds southward, and goes round toward the north. The wind goes round and round, and the wind returns to its circuits.
(7) All the rivers run into the sea; and yet the sea is not filled. To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.
(8) All things are full of labor; a man will not be able to speak of them. Neither shall the eye be satisfied with seeing, neither shall the ear be filled with hearing.
(9) What is that which has been? The very thing which shall be. And what is that which has been done? The very thing which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
(10) Who is he that shall speak and say, Behold, this is new? It has already been in the ages that have passed before us.

Exactly, what does he mean? In this world there is nothing new, period. All of cosmology and meteorology and human existence has not changed. True, we have better ways of doing things, but we still interact with one another, we still work (often, way too hard), eat, sleep, procreate and die. Man's generic existence has not changed one bit; we are still mortal and God immortal. Having said all that.... this cloud is new to me and perhaps that is what should have been said in the first place. And, oh yes, I think this is ONE BEAUTIFUL CLOUD FORMATION. The God of heaven does do nice work, doesn't HE? I wonder what "new to me" thing I will see tomorrow?

Just one minute in the garden!

This is one very beautiful garden. I love every thing about it except for the little fence on either side of the walkway. Imagine the fragrances you might enjoy and the sheer visual delight! Communing with nature at its very best is at its worst an exciting prospect. I wonder who designed this garden because I would like to express my thanks! This feast for the senses reminds me of another garden and this one was designed by the greatest horticultural designer of them all.

Genesis 2:7-9 Complete Apostles' Bible
(7) And God formed the man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
(8) And God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and placed there the man whom He had formed.
(9) And God made to spring up also out of the earth every tree beautiful to the eye and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God made us and a place for us. Sounds simple doesn't it? Just consider for a moment, the magnificence of the design of the human body and then we can get a glimpse of the ability of the greatest designer of them all. From these verses of Genesis, the garden sounds wonderful and undoubtedly puts the picture to shame, but since I have only this picture and my knowledge of the creator of the universe to go by... WOW, it must have been fantastic!!! Then humans wrecked the idyllic creation and so we come to this; this man-made creation. Beautiful, but flawed (probably, someway, somehow). Oh, what I would give for just one minute in the garden of Eden, but that is unrealistic because I just don't look very good dressed in fig leaves anymore!

Value in life and beyond

Recently, I found myself saying and doing things Sy (pictured above) did. When I think about it, I realize how much his life had affected mine. The long and insightful conversations we had and the many things he taught me have changed me. He has been gone now about two years and I find that I think of him often. He wasn't the only person in my life, however. Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and many, many acquaintances have contributed to what I am today. I guess all this came to a head when I heard of someone who had lost a baby just short of her due date. Why would God allow such a thing? What value did that prenatal life have? I turned to the Scriptures for answers and centered in on these passages.



Genesis 3:1-4 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) (3:2) Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the brutes on the earth, which the Lord God made. And the serpent said to the woman, Has God truly said, Eat not of every tree of the garden?
(2) (3:3) And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
(3) (3:4) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
(4) (3:5) And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die!


Genesis 5:5-31 Complete Apostles' Bible
(5) And all the days of Adam which he lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
(6) Now Seth lived two hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.
(7) And Seth lived seven hundred and seven years after his begetting of Enosh, and he begot sons and daughters.
(8) And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.
(9) And Enosh lived one hundred and ninety years, and begot Cainan.
(10) And Enosh lived seven hundred and fifteen years after his begetting of Cainan, and he begot sons and daughters.
(11) And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died.
(12) And Cainan lived one hundred and seventy years, and he begot Mahalalel.
(13) And Cainan lived seven hundred and forty years after his begetting of Mahalalel, and he begot sons and daughters.
(14) And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.
(15) And Mahalalel lived one hundred and sixty five years, and he begot Jared.
(16) And Mahalalel lived seven hundred and thirty years after his begetting of Jared, and he begot sons and daughters.
(17) And all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died.
(18) And Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch:
(19) and Jared lived eight hundred years after his begetting of Enoch, and he begot sons and daughters.
(20) And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.
(21) And Enoch lived one hundred and sixty-five years, and begat Methuselah.
(22) And Enoch was well-pleasing to God. After his begetting of Methuselah, He walked with God two hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters.
(23) And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
(24) And Enoch was well-pleasing to God, and was not found, because God translated him.
(25) And Methuselah lived one hundred and sixty-seven years, and begot Lamech.
(26) And Methuselah lived eight hundred and two years after his begetting of Lamech, and begot sons and daughters.
(27) And all the days of Methuselah, which he lived, were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.
(28) And Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-eight years, and begot a son.
(29) And he called his name Noah, saying, This one will cause us to cease from our works, and from the toils of our hands, and from the earth, which the Lord God has cursed.
(30) And Lamech lived five hundred and sixty-five years after his begetting of Noah, and begot sons and daughters.
(31) And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and fifty-three years, and he died.


Satan is a liar! No surprise here! But this short list demonstrates one thing; human beings die. Whether they be good or bad, they die. Every life that is lived (no matter how short) testifies that Satan lies. Untold deaths have occurred since the first human was created and its up to us as human beings to think about our lives and ask ourselves whether we are attempting to live life as God wants us to or as Satan does. There was an old TV show called "Truth or consequences" and I think the title sums up the choice. Sy taught me what true friendship was like and the little baby that never saw the light of day showed me how much someone who we have never even met can be loved. The lesson learned from all those we have known show the value in life and beyond. I know, because I have thought a lot about that unborn child and my friend Sy lately and so their lives live on in my memory and that memory makes me smile. And even one smile is a valuable thing indeed!

Rethinking language

How did you do on this little test? I was able to do it after a little bit of trying, just as long as I went S-L-O-W-L-Y!!! I have to confess I did make a couple of mistakes though, but eventually I went through the list without mistakes. I guess we are hard-wired to do things a certain way and only with difficulty can we change. As time goes on we become more and more settled in our ways, which explains why youngsters have no problem learning a new language, but older people do. Which brings up the question: Why do we have different languages in the first place? Read on to see the answer from the Bible.

Genesis 11:1-9 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) And all the earth had one language, and one speech.
(2) And it came to pass as they moved from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
(3) And a man said to his neighbor, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was asphalt.
(4) And they said, Come, let us build to ourselves a city and tower, whose top shall be to heaven, and let us make to ourselves a name, before we are scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth.
(5) And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built.
(6) And the Lord said, Behold, there is one race, and one language of all, and they have begun to do this, and now nothing shall fail from them of all that they have undertaken to do.
(7) Come, let Us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbor.
(8) And the Lord scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower.
(9) On this account its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confounded the languages of all the earth, and then the Lord scattered them upon the face of all the earth.

Arrogance and pride are the culprits and God the corrective force. Recently, I had heard that scientists claim to have traced our current languages back to one original. Nice of them to tell me, because I have known that since the first time I read through the book of Genesis. I think its interesting that there seems to be a trend towards a one government world and that a "new" international language called Esperanto has been introduced.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

Hey, but that's just me being a little paranoid. It would be interesting to see if God would confuse a one language Earth a second time. I guess we will just have to wait for Jesus to return to find out!

Contentment

This little kitten is a picture of contentment! Happiness is written all over its face; but, I wonder what it is thinking about? Since I don't speak "kitten" I will have to guess. My best guess is that it is enjoying the "now" and reveling in its comfort. But, what do we revel in? This passage from the book of 1 Timothy is a springboard for thought.


1 Timothy 6:6-12 Complete Apostles' Bible
(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain.
(7) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that neither can we carry anything out!
(8) But having food and clothing, with these things we shall be content.
(9) But those desiring to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many senseless and harmful lusts which sink men in destruction and perdition.
(10) For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some by aspiring have strayed away from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(11) You however, O man of God, flee these things. But pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
(12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.


The acquisition and hording of money can be a bottomless pit, an obsession which is overpowering and can be the ruin of a life. Paul talks about Godliness and the pursuit of Spiritual things as the correct goal. I think he is right! The things of this world belong to this world and because we are only here for a short time, their relative value is small compared to spiritual blessing which endure forever. Think I am wrong? Look at the kitten once again; this little fellow doesn't own anything, but is just enjoying life. Maybe we should as well; and prepare for the life after life as well. Contentment forever; what a thought!

The world will be perfect someday!

This picture was chosen not because of the sunset; although it is beautiful. But because of the beautiful tree in the center of this idylic setting. At first I thought of the garden of Eden and then I focused in on the last book of the Bible and came to this passage.



Revelation 22:1-5 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
(2) In the middle of its street, and on both sides of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
(3) And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants will minister to Him.
(4) And they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
(5) And night shall not exist. and there shall not be a need of a lamp and of light, because the Lord God shall illuminate them. And they shall reign forever and ever.



This second "Eden" is the completion of all things. What was wrong has been made right, completely! God has fully restored fellowship with man and the world is right again. True, it has taken a long time and the cost was God's own son, but it has been paid in full; its done and over. And this picture reminded me of heaven's beauty and the good things to come. I was a little down today and this picture helped a lot; God always does that, HE makes a path to joy when there seems to be none. So, when I saw this picture, I felt I was there and when I read this passage from Revelation, I felt the same. Today IS a wonderful day and the world will be perfect someday!