-
-
Hall of Famers
Hebrews 11:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented–
38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
English: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Scan of the original photograph. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Frank Thomas choked back tears, Joe Torre apologized for leaving people out of his speech and Tony La Russa said he felt uneasy.
Being enshrined in the Hall of Fame can have those effects, even on the greats.
Thomas, pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, and managers Bobby Cox, Torre and La Russa were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York Sunday, and all paid special tribute to their families before an adoring crowd of nearly 50,000.
“I’m speechless. Thanks for having me in your club,” Thomas said, getting emotional as he remembered his late father. “Frank Sr., I know you’re watching. Without you, I know 100 per cent I wouldn’t be here in Cooperstown today. You always preached to me, ‘You can be someone special if you really work at it.’ I took that to heart, Pop.”
Ever the diplomat as a manager, Torre somehow managed to assuage the most demanding of owners in George Steinbrenner, maintaining his coolness amid all the Bronx craziness while keeping all those egos in check after taking over in 1996. The result: 10 division titles, six AL pennants and four World Series triumphs in 12 years as he helped restore the luster to baseball’s most successful franchise and resurrected his own career after three firings.
“Baseball is a game of life. It’s not perfect, but it feels like it is,” said the 74-year-old Torre, who apologized afterward for forgetting to include the Steinbrenner family in his speech. “That’s the magic of it. We are responsible for giving it the respect it deserves. Our sport is part of the American soul, and it’s ours to borrow — just for a while.”
“If all of us who love baseball and are doing our jobs, then those who get the game from us will be as proud to be a part of it as we were. And we are. This game is a gift, and I am humbled, very humbled, to accept its greatest honor.”
It is a wonderful feeling to be honored for your life’s work, or in this case play since baseball is after all a game. Nonetheless baseball is as American as apple pie so the saying goes. Joe Torre in his acceptance speech expressed a deep appreciation for the game and humbly accepted the honor of being included among the elites of the game.
Being accepted into the Baseball Hall of Fame is an honor reserved for very few of the many who have played the game before. Those who are honored in the hallowed halls of Cooperstown have shown and above average talent for the game. They have demonstrated spectacular performance on the ball field and from this day forward shall be enshrined forever among the greats of the game.
As Joe Torre expressed in his remarks it gave him a sense of pride to pass on the game to the next generation and give them encouragement and a love of the game. He took his honor to heart.
Being an example for others, and offering encouragement for those who come to the game after us is certainly something that should be remembered and having a Hall of Fame to honor these great men is certainly right.
In our Christian walk we too have a record of the Hall of Famer’s found in Hebrews chapter 11. These are those who although they had obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, because God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. The list is long of all those who are listed in God’s great Hall of Fame including David, Moses, Samson, Elijah, Joshua, Rahab, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau. And let us not forget Joseph, Noah and Abel. The list is too long to include everyone here but you can visit God’s Hall of Fame found in the pages of scripture.
In order to walk among baseball’s finest you must take a trip to Cooperstown and visit the Hall of Fame, but to walk among the biblical elite on God’s Wall of fame you simply have to turn to scripture.
Like Joe Torre emoted, these men, who have played the game already, have left a legacy for others to follow. They have set an example of what can be accomplished when you are fully dedicated to the game of baseball. So too have the heroes of our faith set forth an example for others to follow. Let us follow their examples and get in the game, perhaps we too will one day find ourselves in the hall of fame.
Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV)
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Related articles
-
When Faced With The Choice, Who Would We Choose?
When the crowd is agitated, and corralled by political pandering and ideological propaganda, they unite in one voice to enslave themselves for a mere sense of self-gratification. If left to mob rule, the mob will always cry out for the release of the rebel rouser and the imprisonment of the peacemaker. They will even go so far as to elect and reelect a community organizer as their leader.
Apparently history teaches that the wielder of the sword generates the greatest respect, while the minister of peace is silenced.
-
Science Discovers Biblical Oceans Buried Deep Under Earth’s Surface
Genesis 7:11-12 (NIV)
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah‘s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month–on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.The public’s view that science and religion can’t work in collaboration is a misconception that stunts progress, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 Americans, scientists and evangelical Protestants. The study by Rice University also found that scientists and the public are surprisingly similar in their religious practices. The study found that nearly 50% of evangelicals believe that science and religion can work together and support one another. That contrasts with the fact that only 38% of Americans feel that science and religions can work in collaboration. This is not surprising because of the way science-religion relationships are portrayed in the news media. Most of what is seen in the news are stories about these two groups being at odds with each other. The news media likes to emphasize the controversial issues like teaching creationism in schools. Actual findings from the Rice study shows:
- Nearly 60 percent of evangelical Protestants and 38 percent of all surveyed believe “scientists should be open to considering miracles in their theories or explanations.”
- 27 percent of Americans feel that science and religion are in conflict.
- Of those who feel science and religion are in conflict, 52 percent sided with religion.
- 48 percent of evangelicals believe that science and religion can work in collaboration.
- 22 percent of scientists think most religious people are hostile to science.
- Nearly 20 percent of the general population think religious people are hostile to science.
- Nearly 22 percent of the general population think scientists are hostile to religion.
- Nearly 36 percent of scientists have no doubt about God’s existence.
So it really comes as no surprise when a story about science matches up pretty well with religious teachings found in the bible. That is the case with the latest scientific discovery of vast oceans of water found beneath the earths surface.
Geophysicists say they have discovered an immense water reservoir deep below the Earth’s surface—a find which Christian scientists say could be an affirmation of a verse in the biblical Great Flood account.On Thursday, researchers with Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico announced the discovery of a vast underground ocean several miles beneath the Earth’s surface. Though the scientists cannot immediately verify their claims, they remain confident about their conclusions.
Water is part of Earth’s very definition as a planet. Clouds of water fill its atmosphere, oceans cover most of its surface, and groundwater is found everywhere underground. For the last century, geologists have traced the influence of water deeper and deeper into Earth’s interior. During the last year, whole oceans worth of water have been found in the mantle, hundreds of kilometers below the crust. And a paper in today’s issue of Science traces water’s influence all the way down to an important boundary inside the Earth, the top of the lower mantle.
“Northwestern geophysicist Steve Jacobsen and University of New Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt have found deep pockets of magma located about 400 miles beneath North America, a likely signature of the presence of water at these depths,” explains a press release from Northwestern University.
If the scientists’ calculations are correct, the amount of water beneath the Earth’s surface could dwarf the amount of water in our planet’s surface oceans.
“If just one percent of the weight of mantle rock in the transition zone is H2O, that would be equal to nearly three times the amount of water in our oceans,” the press release states.
The results of the study will help scientists understand Earth’s water cycle, and how plate tectonics moves water between the surface of the planet and interior reservoirs, researchers say.
The Earth’s mantle is the hot, rocky layer between the planet’s core and crust. Scientists have long suspected that the mantle’s so-called transition zone, which sits between the upper and lower mantle layers 255 to 410 miles (410 to 660 kilometers) below Earth’s surface, could contain water trapped in rare minerals. However, direct evidence for this water has lacked, until now.
To see if the transition zone really is a deep reservoir for water, researchers conducted experiments on water-rich ringwoodite, analyzed seismic waves traveling through the mantle beneath the United States, and studied numerical models. They discovered that downward-flowing mantle material is melting as it crosses the boundary between the transition zone and the lower mantle layer.
“If we are seeing this melting, then there has to be this water in the transition zone,” said Brandon Schmandt, a seismologist at the University of New Mexico and co-author of the new study published today (June 12) in the journal Science. “The transition zone can hold a lot of water, and could potentially have the same amount of H2O [water] as all the world’s oceans.” (Melting is a way of getting rid of water, which is unstable under conditions in Earth’s lower mantle, the researchers said.)
A complete explanation of the testing process and what laboratory experiments have produced can be found here
According to Genesis 7:11, “the fountains of the great deep” were broken during the Great Flood, leading some Christians to believe that the underground ocean discovery sheds light on the biblical account. Brian Thomas, science writer for the Institute for Creation Research, told Christian News Network that the findings could potentially be related to the scriptural reference.
“It is of course possible that water found below Earth’s crust could be what remains from the waters ‘of the great deep’ that burst as fountains to Earth’s surface to initiate Noah’s year-long Flood according to Genesis 7:11,” Thomas said. “I would not refer to this news as a ‘significant verification’ of the Genesis Flood since some may suggest other explanations for the water, but it is consistent with Scripture’s general reference to waters deep beneath the earth.”
However, Thomas added, the very existence of water on Earth presents a problem for secular scientists.
“Secularists faced a tough enough challenge in trying to explain how Earth’s ocean waters came from rock,” he noted. “They imagine hydrated minerals from space rocks collided to form Earth. But the heat from those collisions would have pushed out the water. Now they have to explain this newly discovered deep water, too.”
The biblical account, Thomas continued, is much more consistent with the scientific evidence, since the Bible says God initially created the world as a watery sphere.
“Unlike secular thinkers,” he stated, “biblical scientists do not arbitrarily discount miracles, being open to the possibility that God built Earth with water like He said.”
Related articles
-
What’s Melting the Antartic Ice?
First there was this headline:
Melt of Key Antarctic Glaciers ‘Unstoppable,’ Studies Find | Climate …
According to the story sea level rise estimates are going to need to be revised upward: A portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is home to some of the fastest-flowing glaciers on the continent appears to have entered a state of retreat and melt that is “unstoppable,” two new studies have found.
In another report we read these words of alarm: the retreat of ice in the Amundsen sea sector of West Antarctica was unstoppable, with major consequences – it will mean that sea levels will rise one metre worldwide. What’s more, its disappearance will likely trigger the collapse of the rest of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which comes with a sea level rise of between three and five metres. Such an event will displace millions of people worldwide.
The article continues with this: there is no red button to stop this process. Reversing the climate system to what it was in the 1970s seems unlikely; we can barely get a grip on emissions that have tripled since the Kyoto protocol, which was designed to hit reduction targets. Slowing down climate warming remains a good idea, however – the Antarctic system will at least take longer to get to this point.
Unabated climate warming of several degrees over the next century is likely to speed up the collapse of West Antarctica, but it could also trigger irreversible retreat of marine-based sectors of East Antarctica. Whether we should do something about it is simply a matter of common sense. And the time to act is now; Antarctica is not waiting for us.
Get the whole report http:/
/ www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/ 2014/ may/ 17/ climate-change-antarctica-glaciers-melting-global-warming-nasa This should make us all stop what we are doing and immediately start to cut our carbon footprints so as not cause global flooding. The problem is there is an entirely natural explanation for all this sea ice melting and it has nothing to do with “global warming.”
BREAKING NEWS: Mantle Plumes Cause of Antarctic Glacial Melt …
A new study finds subglacial volcanoes and mantle plumes are melting Thwaites Glacier, a major river of ice that flows into Antarctica’s Pine Island Bay. Areas of the glacier that sit near geologic features thought to be volcanic are melting faster than regions farther away from plumes, said Dustin Schroeder, the study’s lead author and a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.
The melt caused by mantle plumes could lubricate the ice sheet from beneath, hastening its flow toward the sea. To understand how much the supper-heated viscous rock contributes to this flow and what that means for the future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – glaciologists and climate scientists will have to include the new finer-grained findings in their models. Schroeder and his colleagues also plan to expand their study to other glaciers in the region.
In other words volcanic activity beneath the ice is what is causing them to heat up and melt. So you can take a deep breath and exhale that CO2 into the atmosphere without the fear that you are causing polar bears to die and glaciers to melt.
>
Related articles
-
“Not Letting a Crisis Go to Waste” Led to a World War
History has a way of repeating itself,
therefore it would do us all well to learn from it.
After World War I, Germany‘s economy suffered from depression and a devaluation of their currency.
On January 30, 1933, Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany by promising hope and universal healthcare. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? But wait there is more.Less than a month later, on February 27, 1933, a crisis occurred – the Reichstag, Germany’s Capitol Building, was suspiciously set on fire.
Hitler was quick to use this crisis as an opportunity to seize emergency powers, suspend basic rights, and accuse his political opponents of conspiracy. Not wanting to let any crisis go to waste Hitler’s propaganda machine leveraged it for political gain.
He ordered mass arrests followed by executions, even ordering his SS and Gestapo secret police to murder rivals, as during the Night of the Long Knives. On the dawn of a new election in America Obama sent his IRS hit men to obstruct his political rivals.
Hitler confiscated guns, forced old German military leaders to retire, and swayed the public with mesmerizing speeches. He was a great orator and could move a crowd with great speeches. Just speeches, just words or the soothing song of the siren of death? He spoke of great things while plotting the destruction of many lives. He came preaching peace and safety only to reign over sudden and utter destruction.
Using diplomatic intimidation, deception, and Blitzkrieg ‘lightning’ attacks, Hitler’s National Socialist Workers’ Party proceeded to take control of:
Austria, The Sudeten Region, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, France, Monaco, Greece, The Channel Island (UK), Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia and more. He was leading Germany to total world dominance.The National Socialist Workers Party operated over 1,200 concentration camps where an estimated 4,251,500 people lost their lives. Today in America more than 1200 abortion clinics operate around the clock killing millions of innocent lives yet unborn. This is a modern-day holocaust. Lives considered not worthy to live are being snuffed out as the world turns a blind eye.
Church leaders who spoke out in opposition to Hitler were arrested and executed. As it was then it is still today, religious leaders who are vocal about their opposition to todays genocide are often arrested and prosecuted. We have not yet gotten to the place where those who oppose America’s holocaust are killed, that day may soon arrive.
Something had to be done to stop this madness. Who or what was going to intervene on behalf of all the lives lost during Hitler’s bloody rampage?
In his D-Day Orders, JUNE 6, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower sent nearly 100,000 Allied troops marching across Europe to defeat Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party:“You are about to embark upon a great crusade… The eyes of the world are upon you.
The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you…You will bring about…the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe…
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely…And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
Over 160,000 troops from America, Britain, Canada, free France, Poland, and other nations landed along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast of France.It was the largest amphibious invasion force in world history, supported by 5,000 ships with 195,700 navy personnel and 13,000 aircraft.
America heard the news from a transatlantic radio-telephone hookup from Supreme Headquarters to all major press services and broadcasting networks in the U.S.
A dramatic 10-second pause preceded it. Colonel R. Ernest Dupuy, General Eisenhower’s public relations officer spoke:
“This is Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. The text of Communique No. 1 will be released to the press and radio of the United Nations in ten seconds.”
The seconds were counted off… “One, two, three…:”
“Under the command of General Eisenhower,” Dupuy read slowly, “Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France…”
An extremely rare ringing of the Liberty Bell was heard across the country on national radio as Philadelphia Mayor Barnard Samuel tapped it with a rubber mallet and proclaimed, “Let it proclaim liberty throughout the land, and the return of liberty throughout the world.”
In the larger cities, people flocked to cathedrals and synagogues. Across rural farmlands, they stopped what they were doing and headed to church.
The invasion did not happen speedily, and it was not without great loss of life. Americans were already making great sacrifices and mourning their dead, but they were about to be sent reeling with news of corpse strewn beaches a world away.
Today, 70 years ago, the sea along the heavily fortified beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword and Pointe du Hoc ran red with the blood of almost 9,000 killed or wounded. All that bloodshed led to a major turning point in World War II. The blood of those brave men who stormed those beaches that fateful day in 1944 would soon bring to end the brutal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich.
Eleven months after D-Day, the war in Europe ended with an Allied victory on May 8, 1945.
-
VA More Concerned with Removing Religious Symbols From Chapels then Healing Vets
See on Scoop.it – Eagle Views
The Department of Veterans Affairs may be embroiled in a healthcare scandal — the severity of which led to the resignation of VA head Eric Shinseki — but pockets of the VA health system seem to be focused not on improving healthcare for veterans,…
EagleWings‘s insight:With the sorry state that the VA is in they need all the prayer they can get, but once again the PC police as struck with a vengeance against Christ and his followers. Not wanting to offend the small minority who might take offense to seeing Jesus on a cross or a statue of Mary, the VA as put in place regulations that shield the small but vocal minority who may cry foul.
I am really growing weary of these cry babies whining everywhere they go and complaining about religious symbols in places of worship. If you do not want to be confronted with the cross then stay out of the church and the chapel. But if you enter a church or a chapel right-minded individuals would expect to find Christ there.
There are a million and one places you can go if you want to avoid any mention of Christ, but if you venture into a CHRISTIAN facility you will be presented with a CHRISTIAN MESSAGE in word and symbol. and if that offends you then do not attend such places.
Why are there chapels in VA hospitals you may ask? Because many vets and families of vets like having a place to go pray to their Lord. If you are not of the Christian faith and want to have a place where you too can go to pray to your god or goddess get to work on setting up a place of your own or perhaps even ask the Chaplin nicely if he/she will allow you to use the chapel and he/she may even VOLUNTEER to cover-up any offensive symbol, but REQUIRING Christians to remove symbols of their faith is not INCLUSIVE and COMPASSIONATE nor is it TOLERANT.
See on www.theblaze.com
-
America is going to “pot” literally.
See on Scoop.it – Eagle Views
“Reflecting growing national acceptance of cannabis, a bipartisan coalition of House members voted early Friday to restrict the Drug Enforcement Administration from using funds to go after…
EagleWings‘s insight:You would think that there is absolutely nothing else to do in this world but to try to figure out ways to promote drug addiction. I guess our political leaders have figured out that a doped up society will keep voting these imbeciles back into office.
When will this insanity end?
Beam me up there is no intelligent life left on this planet.
Eagle Out!
See on www.youtube.com
-
Michelle Obama tells lawmakers to keep their hands off her school lunch program
See on Scoop.it – Eagle Views
First lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday chided congressional Republicans for attempting to roll back her school lunch standards, calling the effort “unacceptable” and accusing lawmakers of playing politics with the health of young students.
EagleWings‘s insight:If you like your lunch program you can not keep it but do not try to take away Michele’s school lunch program. Your child’s lunch can be tossed into the nearest waste bin but you better not lay a hand on Michele’s bag lunch program. If you happen to like your school lunch, and you want to keep it, you can not since Michele knows what is best for all students everywhere. Michele has become the SCHOOL LUNCH MONITOR and she is going to be checking out every child’s lunch to see if it meets her standards.
Now her kids on the other hand are treated to chef prepared meals every day at the Sidwell Friends school her daughters attend. No one is going to be allowed to touch her kids meals, but yours is up for grabs.
You see folks if you like something and the government thinks that you should not have it, they will make sure you can not have it and if you try to take it back you are told to keep your hands off.
There is not a government program that is EVER cancelled but you can be sure that if you like your health insurance, or your child likes his or her lunch, that will be cancelled. None of the elites will have any of their stuff cancelled or confiscated, since they are a privileged class. Only the commoner among us most be told what they can or can not have, or what their child can or can not eat. The elite will do anything they darn well please and don’t you dare try to tell them no.
So shut up and eat whatever it is the government shovels out for you. And if it does not taste very good consider the source, the party in power’s mascot is after all a jackass.
Now that is the way I see it what say you?
See on www.washingtontimes.com
Related articles
-
Unions, employers square off over ObamaCare costs in collective bargaining
See on Scoop.it – Eagle Views
Disputes between unions and employers over paying for new costs associated with the Affordable Care Act are roiling labor talks nationwide.
EagleWings‘s insight:In Philadelphia, disagreement over how much workers should contribute to such health-plan cost increases has stalled talks between the region’s transit system and its main union representing 5,000 workers as they try to renegotiate a contract that expired in March.
Roughly 2,000 housekeepers, waiters and others at nine of 10 downtown Las Vegas casinos voted this month to go on strike June 1 if they don’t reach agreements on a series of issues, the thorniest of which involve new ACA-related cost increases, according to the Unite Here union.
Flight attendants at Alaska Airlines voted down a tentative contract agreement with management in February, in part because it didn’t provide enough protection against a possible surge in ACA-related costs, union members said. They are still without a new contract.
Labor experts on both sides say the law doesn’t take into account that health benefits have been negotiated by employers and unions over decades, and that rewriting plans to meet new requirements can affect wages and other labor terms. Oh boohoo. Those of us in the private sector who are non-union had health care plans we liked as well and were promised that if we liked our healthcare plan we could keep it. We couldn’t and neither can you. But we did not want it you all did.
“It’s been a challenge for even some of the stronger unions to maintain the quality health plans that they have offered over the years,” said Daniel Murphy, an attorney in New York who represents employers in labor talks. Hey tell us in the non-union world that. We all know this all too well.
Among the earliest supporters of the health-care law, unions have unsuccessfully tried to win concessions from the Obama administration on some issues now involved in the labor talks.
Oh yes let us not forget that these very same labor unions were all in favor of Obamacare and fought to have it enacted. Now they are seeing the error of their ways and I am sure they are going to cry foul loud enough and promise to withhold enough financial support that Obama and the Dems will come through with some sort of taxpayer bailout, to cover the increased costs being imposed on them by the very party they support.
What started this whole health care debate in the first place was the legacy costs of union healthcare plans being provided by the unions, many of which operate in the public sector. State run health plans were causing state budgets to bust so the thought of Obamacare was to shift the cost of these public sector union contracted healthcare costs to taxpayers to pay in the form of subsidies. The states would then dump their legacy costs into the OBAMACARE exchanges and avoid the costs of health care.
However they were planning on the plans to be the same lavish plans they were offering their employees not these bloated mandated care plans being forced on them by Obamacare.
If you lie down with dogs you are going to get up with fleas. Let this be a lesson to all. You can not make deals with the devil and expect to come out a winner in the end.
See on www.foxnews.com
Related articles
