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Some news today for you. Bible thoughts at the end.
103 Dead in Southern Russia Floods
"Intense flooding in the Black Sea region of southern Russia killed 103 people after torrential rains dropped nearly a foot of water, forcing many to scramble out of their beds for refuge in trees and on roofs, officials said Saturday." (Photo BBC)
UK hit with torrential rain, floods
"Torrential rain sweeping across much of Britain is bringing widespread flooding to homes and businesses in its wake. Some areas are expected to receive up to one month’s rainfall in 24 hours. Farmers have been urged to move livestock from low-lying fields, summer concerts have been canceled and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is facing a washout."
6.3 earthquake in Vanuatu yesterday. Some of the volcanoes have calmed down. Here is a volcano report:
"A sedate day in volcano land. The on-going volcano-seismic crisis at El Hierro (Canary Islands) while not over, appears to be on the wane. Bursts of spasmodic tremor have become less frequent and are of lower amplitude than when the crisis began last month. Tremor has dropped to even lower levels at Nevado Del Ruiz volcano (Colombia) and the once robust plume of SO2 emitted by the volcano has dwindled. A strong plume of SO2 over the Virunga volcanoes (DR Congo) which became visible (through satellite imagery) during the past few days is not evident on the most recent satellite pass. The plume was the only evidence of increased activity there. There have been no reports of an eruption in the region so far and no earthquakes associated with the plume (unlike that which accompanied plume activity there last month)."
Geologist/volcanologist Erik Klemetti has absconded to MA due to the storms in OH having knocked out his power. He writes that he is out of touch this week with volcano news but is on the way home tomorrow and hopes to get back to it this week, if power has been restored that is. Amazing how much we depend on electricity. I wonder if Edison had any clue?!
As of yesterday, officials are still scrambling to determine what the mystery disease is that is killing Cambodian children. The death toll is up to 64, and has only affected kids under the age of 7. It's been reported in 14 Provinces.
A Golden Algae bloom has killed thousands of fish in Arizona for 20 miles along the Salt River. Experts say this is a first. It is such a shame when algae blooms and environment disasters like this happen. It really makes me long for the beauty that is coming, a perfect world with untold and unimaginable wonders! (1 Corinthians 2:9).
There is a bad wildfire in Bulgaria, and Israel has offered technology and help to quell it. The temps in Bulgaria are predicted to be very high over the next few days- at least 98 degrees F. But there is now a wildfire in Israel too, that has spread into Jordan.
Speaking of Jordan, King Abdullah has summoned the Parliament to "meet in an extraordinary session for an unspecified period for the purpose of deciding matters to be specified in the Royal Decree when the summons are issued. An extraordinary session shall be prorogued by a Royal Decree”.
What a relief, the Presbyterians voted not to ditch Israel. "By a razor-thin margin, the largest Presbyterian group in the United States rejected a proposal Thursday to divest from three companies that do business with Israel. Pro-Palestinian advocates vowed to try again." It is clear we are losing the church. But not the bride! She is spotless and contains exactly the number of souls the Savior has determined since the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8).
Call me a curmudgeon but I am tired of the "positive tweeters." I'm not talking about people who aren't sarcastic or mean or who work hard at minding their tongue. All those are good things and we all need to work on them, including me. I'm not talking of either secular people who are happy to make conversation and spread cheer. Relentlessly happy people. I am talking of believers who think they are doing the world a service by ONLY tweeting positive about Jesus, the bible, and faith. Like this one:
"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. Mother Teresa"
Aside from the fact that Mother Teresa was an enemy of God rebelling against Him her whole, long life, and likely residing in hell at this very moment, I am going to be blunt here, this is a ridiculous tweet. I tweeted back,
"What if we share the Gospel in love, and tell them of sin, they get convicted, and leave UNhappier?"
A believer's language and life is not only a joyride on It's A Small World or sitting in the Friends fountain clapping happy things.
Positive tweeting is a good thing if it is tempered with the notion that not everything we say or do in Jesus makes people happy. And that we have joy, but life is not always "positive." As a matter of fact, there is a woe about people who constantly think well of you. "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." (Luke 6:26).
Expressing only what sinful man thinks is "positive" usually leaves out the talk of sin, conviction, and judgment. But those things are part of the Gospel. Our lives in Jesus are full of pain, mourning, lament, grief, and sorrow over our sins, others' sins, the end of the world, and the persecution of our brethren. That is a fact. Whitewashing it by being relentlessly and exclusively "positive" doesn't do justice to Jesus. I wonder if positive tweeters ever tweet John 11:35. Or Genesis 6:6.
We do love our enemies (Luke 6:25) but we are to be salt as well. Salt has a medicinal quality that stings when applied. Speaking only positive things and not the whole counsel of God leaves us unbalanced as only Light and not Salt AND Light. Positive tweeters want to give lemonade without the lemons. Anyway, it is a Twitter thing that bugs me. Oh, and I never got a reply to my question.
Don't forget to read the bible. Not just to listen to good preachers, or read good commentaries, or sing good hymns. All those are edifying but don't let them substitute for reading the bible straight up for yourself.
I am going through Judges. I re-read chapter 3 & 4 today before going on to chapter 5. Deborah was amazing, wasn't she! So was Jael. Here is How Judges 5 ends. It is the last line in Deborah's song:
"Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.”
His wrath will be full strength (Rev 14:10) but His glory is full strength too! Believers will not have to endure the former and will cry with joy when we experience the latter in full strength. He is most worthy to be praised.
"Intense flooding in the Black Sea region of southern Russia killed 103 people after torrential rains dropped nearly a foot of water, forcing many to scramble out of their beds for refuge in trees and on roofs, officials said Saturday." (Photo BBC)
UK hit with torrential rain, floods
 |
| Sky News, Pic: Graham Ross |
6.3 earthquake in Vanuatu yesterday. Some of the volcanoes have calmed down. Here is a volcano report:
"A sedate day in volcano land. The on-going volcano-seismic crisis at El Hierro (Canary Islands) while not over, appears to be on the wane. Bursts of spasmodic tremor have become less frequent and are of lower amplitude than when the crisis began last month. Tremor has dropped to even lower levels at Nevado Del Ruiz volcano (Colombia) and the once robust plume of SO2 emitted by the volcano has dwindled. A strong plume of SO2 over the Virunga volcanoes (DR Congo) which became visible (through satellite imagery) during the past few days is not evident on the most recent satellite pass. The plume was the only evidence of increased activity there. There have been no reports of an eruption in the region so far and no earthquakes associated with the plume (unlike that which accompanied plume activity there last month)."
Geologist/volcanologist Erik Klemetti has absconded to MA due to the storms in OH having knocked out his power. He writes that he is out of touch this week with volcano news but is on the way home tomorrow and hopes to get back to it this week, if power has been restored that is. Amazing how much we depend on electricity. I wonder if Edison had any clue?!
As of yesterday, officials are still scrambling to determine what the mystery disease is that is killing Cambodian children. The death toll is up to 64, and has only affected kids under the age of 7. It's been reported in 14 Provinces.
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| Source |
There is a bad wildfire in Bulgaria, and Israel has offered technology and help to quell it. The temps in Bulgaria are predicted to be very high over the next few days- at least 98 degrees F. But there is now a wildfire in Israel too, that has spread into Jordan.
Speaking of Jordan, King Abdullah has summoned the Parliament to "meet in an extraordinary session for an unspecified period for the purpose of deciding matters to be specified in the Royal Decree when the summons are issued. An extraordinary session shall be prorogued by a Royal Decree”.
What a relief, the Presbyterians voted not to ditch Israel. "By a razor-thin margin, the largest Presbyterian group in the United States rejected a proposal Thursday to divest from three companies that do business with Israel. Pro-Palestinian advocates vowed to try again." It is clear we are losing the church. But not the bride! She is spotless and contains exactly the number of souls the Savior has determined since the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8).
Call me a curmudgeon but I am tired of the "positive tweeters." I'm not talking about people who aren't sarcastic or mean or who work hard at minding their tongue. All those are good things and we all need to work on them, including me. I'm not talking of either secular people who are happy to make conversation and spread cheer. Relentlessly happy people. I am talking of believers who think they are doing the world a service by ONLY tweeting positive about Jesus, the bible, and faith. Like this one:
"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. Mother Teresa"
Aside from the fact that Mother Teresa was an enemy of God rebelling against Him her whole, long life, and likely residing in hell at this very moment, I am going to be blunt here, this is a ridiculous tweet. I tweeted back,
"What if we share the Gospel in love, and tell them of sin, they get convicted, and leave UNhappier?"
A believer's language and life is not only a joyride on It's A Small World or sitting in the Friends fountain clapping happy things.
Positive tweeting is a good thing if it is tempered with the notion that not everything we say or do in Jesus makes people happy. And that we have joy, but life is not always "positive." As a matter of fact, there is a woe about people who constantly think well of you. "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." (Luke 6:26).
Expressing only what sinful man thinks is "positive" usually leaves out the talk of sin, conviction, and judgment. But those things are part of the Gospel. Our lives in Jesus are full of pain, mourning, lament, grief, and sorrow over our sins, others' sins, the end of the world, and the persecution of our brethren. That is a fact. Whitewashing it by being relentlessly and exclusively "positive" doesn't do justice to Jesus. I wonder if positive tweeters ever tweet John 11:35. Or Genesis 6:6.
We do love our enemies (Luke 6:25) but we are to be salt as well. Salt has a medicinal quality that stings when applied. Speaking only positive things and not the whole counsel of God leaves us unbalanced as only Light and not Salt AND Light. Positive tweeters want to give lemonade without the lemons. Anyway, it is a Twitter thing that bugs me. Oh, and I never got a reply to my question.
Don't forget to read the bible. Not just to listen to good preachers, or read good commentaries, or sing good hymns. All those are edifying but don't let them substitute for reading the bible straight up for yourself.
I am going through Judges. I re-read chapter 3 & 4 today before going on to chapter 5. Deborah was amazing, wasn't she! So was Jael. Here is How Judges 5 ends. It is the last line in Deborah's song:
"Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.”
His wrath will be full strength (Rev 14:10) but His glory is full strength too! Believers will not have to endure the former and will cry with joy when we experience the latter in full strength. He is most worthy to be praised.
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteGood word on the 'positive tweeting'. As you know, I love to tweet Bible verses and there are some verses that I cringe over because they sting. All of God's word is applicable to us not just some of it. So when I tweet about woes or judgement I pray and ask the Holy Spirit to go forth with God's word and let the impurities in the reader surface and be convicted of the depth of the love of God.
Praying for all who are suffering from these floods.
Blessings,
<><
Hi Child of God,
DeleteExactly! Our witness has to be balanced. I have spoken with several of the people I had in mind. Sweet people, but in one case, they take Mars Hill as the example of how we must accede to the culture to reach people, because Paul did. This is a totally incorrect interpretation of what Paul did there. And in another case, that positive ONLY tweeting will endear us to Muslims, who think we are all dour and judgmental. Again, a wrong motivation. So it's about balance, motivation, and a discernment about what comprises positivity versus negativity.
I made my father angry when I witnessed to him, but I hope that anger simmers to a conviction and then to salvation. In that caste the so-called "negativity" would be eternally worth it!
Mother Teresa an enemy of God? You need to exercise some self-restraint now and then..
ReplyDeleteMother Teresa upheld false doctrines all her life, accepted a man as a substitute for Christ (the pope), was vocal about not "trying to convert" anyone, lived a works based faith, was possessed of a demon and underwent an exorcism, (CNN, 2001), worshiped Mary, and believed a Muslim or a Jew or a Hindu would go to heaven if they just loved enough. What of that is NOT an enemy of God?
DeleteI understand she was nice. We all can understand a wrathful God judging the not-nice Hitler. But our mind cannot accept that our works and our niceness are also dust and nothing and filthy rags in the face of a Holy God.
You need to open your eyes to the requirements of God for faith and not of man now and then
LOL, here someone said it less bluntly, But the same thing: (Christian Courier) http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/415-teresas-exorcism
Delete"Second, it is acknowledged that this respected lady was dedicated to her profession at an admirable level of self-sacrifice — perhaps more so than that of many others who profess to follow Christ. Nonetheless, the careful Bible student knows that a superabundance of good works and self-deprivation are not substitutes for humble submission to the conditions of the Lord’s plan of redemption (Eph. 2:8-9). Jesus is not the Savior of those who merely pile up charitable deeds; rather he is the author of salvation to those who obey him (Heb. 5:9). This will include compassionate acts, but such kindnesses are not sufficient within themselves. Upon this truth each of us must keep our attention riveted."
Well said. And true.
I gladly grant you whatever you said, but I see your 'devotion' towards God comes down to ACTION eventually, and exactly in this lies your self-defeat! Do you not see? Blogging through a blinking textbox on the internet is one thing, saving souls in real life, on the streets of Calcutta - completely another! You cannot possible be on the same level as Mother T by blogging about what you think Scripture says while she privately escorted the dying to the Kingdom of Heaven in sacrifice of her own life. Not in a 1000 years you can come close - the comfort of your living room does not allow it! admit defeat!
DeleteI can never claim defeat when I have the victory in Jesus (1 John 5:4).
DeleteNow as to your comment. You make an assumption that I never leave my living room. That I do not engage with the world, minister in church and out, or in any other way share the testimony of Jesus as a witness to a lost and dying world. You made a straw man argument there, sorry.
Second, even if I never EVER left my living room and only blogged my short salvation years, and Teresa ONLY ever lived in Calcutta in self-sacrifice all of her 87 years, it still would be a fail. She was not leading the lost to Christ. She, by her own words, says she did not try to convert anyone. She was an enemy of God, apart from His light, and as such, all her works are dung. This is not me being mean talking, it is what the bible says:
Philippians 3:8- "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,"
Paul is saying any work outside and apart from Christ is nothing more than poop, like his was before he knew Jesus.
Isaiah carries that thought too, about our works, if they are apart from God: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)
You know the translation for "filthy rags"? Used menstrual rags. Yup.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Therefore if Teresa of Calcutta was saved, her works would be an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord, the same as any of ours, that none of us may boast in our own self-righteousness. (The parable of the workers in the vineyard applies here, Matthew 20:1-16). If she was not saved, it is dung in His eyes anyway.
And I have no clue what you mean by "On the same level." We are all one in Christ. Even the lost are made in His image.
I am speaking as to how the Lord sees works. Teresa of Calcutta was acknowledged by all the world, and by me too, as a embodiment of sacrificial helps, personal generosity, and tireless concern for the poor. But remember, our standards are not God's.
DeleteAll of "Mother" (big clue) Teresa's work was to no avail if she depended on anything other than the blood of Christ to make her acceptable to God.
ReplyDeleteSee how the Fuel Projects video on Roman Catholicism measures against the truth of the scriptures. She was a devote follower of that system. Lost indeed.
And anonymous, you would do well to heed the Word of God.
I agree with you. Believe it or not I know many people who honestly believe that the USA is about to turn the corner and house prices will be up, jobs, life will be normal. Hmmmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteAs for Mother Teresa, I never followed her but did read some of direct quotes and they seriously do not align with the Bible and gospel. Just saying.
Shalom