For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. _{Psalms 30:5 (RSV)}

And my tongue will talk of thy righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disgraced who sought to do me hurt. _{Psalms 71:24}

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,

God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,

Op’ning to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;

Drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness,

Fill us with the light of day!

Henry J. Van Dyke

Image via Wikipedia

Today was a lovely day. The sun was shining bright in the noon day sky. The air, which had been bitterly cold, felt delightfully warm. There was a freshness in the breeze. How delightful it wasto be outside on a day like today. After two solid weeks of bitter cold, snow and ice it was finally nice to have a warm sunny day.

My job requires that I spend most of the day driving throughout Western Pennsylvania, a feat that heretofore had been hazardous, but not today! Today the roads where dry and clear and the sun shone brightly in the sky. With a bright clear sky, no precipitation, and the sun shining on my back, I started the day with a new found joy that only comes after a long dark period.

Image by abcdz2000 via Flickr

I imagine that is how it must have felt for the disciples when they finally realized that Jesus was not dead but had risen! What great joy that must have brought the downtrodden disciples! They may have thought they had put their faith in a false hope that Jesus was the Messiah. It was not until he rose from the dead that the real hope of their salvation, and ours, would be realized. It was not until the cold sting of death had been broken by the rising of the Son, that they could rejoice and be glad. It is because of the risen Son that our winters of discontent are changed into a springtime of joy and contentment.

That is the message we should all grasp as we face this season of Lent. We do have to weather the storms of life and wade through the cold and bitterness of a sin soaked world, but our joy comes with the rising of the Son. Each new day brings with it the hope of a greater joy, and with each rising of the sun we have yet another opportunity to praise the RISEN SON of God!

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. _{Heb 12:2 (KJV)}

Now I do not know about you but that makes me want to jump up and shout and sing!

Mortals, join the happy chorus,

Which the morning stars began;

Father love is reigning o’er us,

Brother love binds man to man.

Ever singing, march we onward,

Victors in the midst of strife,

Joyful music leads us Sunward

In the triumph song of life.

Rejoice for He is risen!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Devotional – Hope (pjsprayerline.blogspot.com)
• Meditations on Mark 1:1-8 (highcallingblogs.com)
• The darkest hour (redletterbelievers.blogspot.com)
• Returning to Lent (bethstedman.com)
• Orderly Living (eagleviews.org)
• Pass the Salt (eagleviews.org)
• Thank God We Are Dust (triptbishop.blogspot.com)

A View from the Nest

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

Insight from the Journey across the Sky

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men” (Matt. 5:13).

Well winter has finally arrived in  Western Pennsylvania. This morning as I traveled to church, or slid along the frozen roadway, I came to a short hill along which several cars where ditched along the sides. I knew from experience, continuing along this route would not be wise. I slowed to a stop and decided on my next move. I watched as a few cars passed the ditched vehicles with caution and determined that I could move forward rather slowly and find a nice place along the berm of the road to park until the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDot) could salt the roadway.

I no sooner pulled off the road when my cell phone began to ring with messages from the church family asking how I was and how the roads where. I told them I was stopped along the road awaiting the arrival of the salt truck. Before long the phone rang again and the message this time was church was canceled and there was no need to continue on to church.

Okay at least I did not have to worry about getting to the church on time. But here I sat along the roadway awaiting the arrival of a salt truck.

Although the mixture of salty brine and de-icer wrecks havoc on a car’s finish, driving in winter in the northeast would be almost impossible without this wintertime road treatment. In fact the only time anyone wishes to be behind a slow moving salt truck, is when the roadways are hazardous and the driver knows that the salt solution being applied to the roadway is going to make their journey onward much safer. So they dutifully follow slowly behind the salt spreader, thankful for it’s arrival.

It was less than twenty minutes when the salt truck had arrived. I quickly fell in behind the truck and headed back toward home. The assurance of knowing the roadway beneath my wheels had been treated made the return trip less stressful. The closer I got to home the better the road surface became. Finally, back home, I was thankful that I was not involved in an accident and that no one was hurt along the stretch of highway I had traveled.

Anyone who lives in the frozen Northeast knows all too well the importance of proper road maintenance. We are very mindful of the road conditions once wintertime sets in. Our tax dollars are well spent in stockpiling the road crew’s depots with plenty of road salt. That is one expense I gladly pay for.

Salt’s Attributes

Image via Wikipedia

Salt has many useful purposes. For example did you know salt is essential for muscle movement, including that of the heart. It’s necessary for the digestive tract to function properly –crucial for the transmission of messages by the nerve cells, and regulated osmotic pressure and the movement of fluid to and from the cell. Salt is found in blood, sweat, and tears. Hotter climates increase the need for salt consumption. Chronic deprivation of salt causes loss of weight, loss of appetite, nausea, muscular cramps and even stunts growth.

In the food industry, it is used in flavoring and seasoning, pickling, canning, preserving, baking, dairying, curing meat and fish, and processing flour and other foods. Salt is a binder, a texturizer, and a fermentation control agent. Other useful applications include oil well drilling, and fertilizing!

And of course when applied to the roadways salt:

· Melts ice and snow

· Gives traction

· Leaves behind a residue

· Provides safe passage on the highways where applied

· Long lasting

· Proven to work at even very low temperatures

· Goes to work as soon as it is applied

So as you see salt has many useful purposes. However if salt looses those useful properties, then it becomes good for nothing.

Faith in Christ has much the same attributes as road salt, when you think about it a little. I mean faith, when applied to a life sliding along the slippery slope of life’s byways, provides sure-footedness, safe passage, has long lasting effects (it is eternal), is proven to work under the worst circumstances, starts to work as soon as it is applied, melts the sin hardened heart and thaws the coldest sin sick soul, and leaves behind evidence of it being applied to a life.

There are four “modern horsemen of the apocalypse,” according to Dr. Richard Land in remarks delivered to the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, and they are “riding forth to wreak havoc and destruction in our society.” Land listed the four as the denial of the sanctity of human life, the rise of hardcore Internet pornography, the radical homosexual agenda’s attempt to undermine marriage, and radical Islamic jihadist.

The inactive, rudderless Church

If the church of Jesus Christ, whose congregations number in the hundreds of millions in America, was doing what it was supposed to be doing (“… created in Christ Jesus to do good works”), a whole host of problems would be taken care of in short order.  Indeed, instead of focusing on the four horsemen of the apocalypse, we may do well to concentrate heaviest on the salt supply.  An inactive and ineffective church, ignoring the call to be holy, is as bad as a culture can hope for.  Faith used only within the confines of worship but remains unreleased into the world, is really not faith at all.

Let’s face it, what good is a supply-yard full of salt, if there are no trucks to spread it on dangerous roadways? What good does a truck load of salt do a stranded motorist if the salt never gets applied to the roadway they are traveling? What good does the gospel do confined within the supply yard of the local church if it never gets carried outside to be applied to slippery byways of life? What good is a full salt shaker if it only sits on the tabletop and is never used?

Although there may be a plentiful supply of salt in the world, there seems to be a shortage of salt spreaders.

When the church isn’t the salt of the earth or the light of the world, disaster awaits.

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Along for the journey

A View from the Nest
Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor
Insight from the Journey across the Sky

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

My work requires me to travel throughout Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. It is important that I get to my destinations on time every time. Therefore I invested in a GPS navigation system that I can take with me each day to make sure that I arrive on time. It has been over two years since I purchased this unit and it has pointed me in the right direction every time I called upon it. That was until this past Saturday.

Now to be fair I can not blame the unit for failing because it was working fine until the battery went dead. Even though I had the unit plugged into the cigarette lighter of the truck I was driving, I failed to notice that there was no power coming from that cigarette lighter outlet to keep the battery of the GPS unit charged. I am thankful that the battery lasted long enough to get me to my first destination at which time the CHARGE light came on and the unit shut down.

What was I going to do? How was I going to navigate from the first stop to the next stop? I had a general idea how to get to where I needed to go but I was not sure of the direction I was traveling and how to get from the first stop to the proper highway to head to the second. I had never been to the second location before so I was not sure I was going to be able to find the location without help from a map or the GPS unit which I have totally relied upon for two years.

It is amazing how dependent we become upon technology. The convenience these gadgets bring to our lives are both a blessing and a curse. I have never been known to be one who can not find my way around and it is difficult to get me lost but I have been lost on more than one occasion. It is not a problem if I am not pressed for time or being relied upon to be somewhere at a particular time and others are waiting on me. If I have all day to get somewhere then it is not as imperative that I stay on course.

Well I had to come up with a solution to my DEAD battery dilemma. It just so happened that I had another piece of technology with me on that trip, my cell phone. Being a SPRINT subscriber I had access to SPRINT NAVIGATION and I was happy to find out it worked. In fact it worked great. I was not sure it was going to work because I had all data and extra services deactivated on the phone because I only wanted it for making and receiving calls. My first thought was to call customer service and have the SPRINT navigation service activated so that I could use it to get to my second location. I called the customer service center only to find out it did not open until an hour past the time I needed to arrive at my next destination.

I simply prayed and tried the Sprint Navigation application that I had downloaded onto the phone 2 years prior and was pleasantly surprised to find it still worked. I programmed the unit for the address I needed to get to and it took me right to the location with little or no problems.

I was relieved to have had this back-up option. I really did not know what I would have done had I not had this option. This got me to thinking about other electronic devices that I own. Most I can live without’ but some I use regularly and would find life a little less convenient if they quit working. One of those devices is my computer. The computer has become such a huge part of my life and my work that it would be difficult to function without it. I use it to keep a journal, I use it for daily devotional work and study, I use it to compose letters and articles as well as maintaining this blog and others. I use it heavily for church work. And because I have used it so much I am always mindful of the need to back up often. It is only a matter of time before the computer will crash and data will be lost. If you do not maintain a backup of your work you are going to loose it.

When it comes to electronics it is wise to have a backup because all these gadgets will fail at one time or another as my GPS adventure demonstrated. Because I have been through computer crashes and dead cell phones I have learned how to deal with the eventuality of a malfunction. I have several copies of my most important files backed up and stored in several places. So far I have been able to recover from all major computer crashes without much difficulty. Although everyone who has ever had to undergo a restore knows it is not painless.

Having a backup plan for my GPS problem and having backup files for computer malfunctions is wise especially if those electronic devices are important in your day to day activities.

But what about your day to day life? Do you have an alternate plan for the times when things just do not go as you hoped or planned? I mean what do you do when you are faced with a loss? What do you do when you find yourself in a situation that you do not know how to handle? What do you do when you find yourself in a place that is uncomfortable and unfamiliar? What do you do when you find yourself at a loss for an answer to a problem, or faced with a life threatening circumstance? Do you have an emergency back up plan? What would you do? Who would you call? Where would you go for assistance?

In the world of electronics having a backup is not difficult. It certainly does require some forethought and will probably cost you some out of pocket expense but in the long run the little it costs is priceless to the piece of mind a back up plan provides.

When it comes to the matters of life however I fear that many people fail to plan for the eventuality of an unexpected disaster. They do not have a backup plan. They have no alternative to whatever life throws at them. Many live lives of quiet desperation, toughening it out without much hope of a solid solution. Apart from faith in God the world can be a heartless, cruel place. There are not many DO OVERS permitted in real life. IN fact most of us only get one chance to get it right.

There is hope however, there is a backup plan. There is a restore button you can press to get back up and running when life throws you a curve ball. There is a place you can go to get direction and navigational tips to get you back on course. That place is found in the LORD JESUS CHRIST. His word can provide comfort, hope, solace, joy, direction, instruction for daily living and even a do over when you find yourself gone astray. God’s love and forgiveness can restore a life that has crashed. His Holy Spirit can restore the broken hearted. God’s goodness can make up for life’s cruelties. He is life’s reset button.

However it is wise to not abuse God’s mercy by continuing to live recklessly. But if life throws you a curve ball and things seems to be spinning out of control, remember that He is as close as the whisper of His name.

Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved, restored, and set on the right path once again. Thank God for back-ups! Thank God for a navigational tool that never fails however it does require to be recharged from time to time. By praying and reading God’s word you keep God’s internal guidance system running at full power. Failing to plug into the power source daily weakens the navigational power of God’s Holy spirit.

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)

Along for the journey

______________________________________________________

Related articles by Zemanta

• God is With Us (eagleviews.org)
• New Zealand Says You Can’t Use Your Mobile Phone For Navigation While Driving (techdirt.com)
• With new Sirf GPS chip, location-aware gadgets will multiply (venturebeat.com)

when panic strikes you like a violent storm, when calamity strikes you like a wind storm, when trouble and anguish come to you. ²⁸ “They will call to me at that time, but I will not answer. They will look for me, but they will not find me, ²⁹ because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. _{Proverbs 1:27-29 (GW)}

Image by Coast Guard News via Flickr

As Hurricane Ike pushed a swelling surge onto Galveston Island, many Galveston residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order, phoned for rescues to no avail because emergency workers were called off the streets, officials said. Help wasn’t expected until after dangerous storm conditions subsided. “We don’t know what we’re going to find tomorrow,” said the city’s mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas. “We hope we’ll find that the people who didn’t leave here are alive and well.”

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. _{Genesis 6:5-8 (NKJV)}

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. _{Genesis 6:13-14 (NKJV)}

And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. ⁷ So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. _{Genesis 7:5-7 (NKJV)}

On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark– ¹⁴ they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵ And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. ¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in. _{Genesis 7:13-16 (NKJV)}

Image via Wikipedia

Apparently human nature, being what it is, men are slow to repent and heed warnings, even when their very lives are at stake. As it was during hurricane Ike, so it was during the time of Noah and his family.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. ² And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.” ³ But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. ⁵ And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” _{Genesis 19:1-5 (NKJV)}

So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, ⁷ and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! ⁸ See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” ⁹ And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door. _{Genesis 19:6-11 (NKJV)}

Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city–take them out of this place! ¹³ For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. ¹⁵ When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. ¹⁷ So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” _{Genesis 19:12-17 (NKJV)}

Two angels were dispatched to the city of Sodom to warn Lot and his family of the coming disaster that would soon befall them because of the wickedness of the people. In fact when these “strangers” arrived in town certain men of the city wanted to have their way with them sexually. Things had gotten so bad that Lot offered his two virgin daughters to them instead but they refused his offer because of their carnality. In fact they turned to punish Lot for his “judging” attitude towards them. When Lot told his sons-in-law about the coming disaster they thought he had lost his mind. Even Lot had to be helped out the door, being led by hand by the angels, when the time came for judgment to fall on the city. Again it would appear that even when faced with certain death our human nature wants to put up a fight. After all, we reason God is a loving God and surely He would not destroy the earth.

Like the people in Noah’s day, the Sodomites soon found out that judgment surely follows after sin.

“When the Son of Man comes again, the situation will be like the time of Noah. ²⁷ People were eating, drinking, and getting married until the day that Noah went into the ship. Then the flood destroyed all of them. ²⁸ “The situation will also be like the time of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day that Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from the sky and destroyed all of them. ³⁰ The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that. _{Luke 17:26-30 (GW)}

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. ⁷ And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” ⁸ Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” ⁹ And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” ¹² Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. _{Rev 14:6-12 (ESV)}

The Ire of Ike is nothing when compared to the wrath of God. Revelation reveals a time in the not so distant future when judgment shall befall the inhabitants of the land. Notice in verses 9-11 there is an indelible mark on the arms or foreheads of those who are destined to receive punishment. Like the rescue workers told those who refused to leave Galveston Island to mark their arms with their Social Security numbers so they could be identified after they were found dead. Those who are marked with the mark of the beast will be easy to identify when the wrath of God is poured out onto the earth.

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Related links

• Man’s wrath no instrument of God’s righteous retribution. A sermon preached at S. Mary’s, Windermere, on Sunday Evening, May 7th, 1882
• The wine cup of God’s wrath
• The Punishing God
• Rameses – Wrath of God or Man
• Disasters In America: Hurricanes
• Sodom & Gomorrah
• Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God
• Left Behind – The DVD Collection (Left Behind / Left Behind II – Tribulation Force / Left Behind – World at War)
• Kingdom Come: The Final Victory: The Final Victory (Left Behind Sequel)
• Left Behind Tribulation Forces

Related articles by Zemanta

• Modern Noah And The Ark -joke
• Galveston Braces for Hurricane Ike: Inconvenient Truth of the Day
• Freighter’s crew trapped in Ike’s path