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Noah’s Ark and Gulf Waters

For the last few days, I’ve been watching two developing news stories that are both difficult for me to absorb.

One is the disaster in the gulf that claimed at least 11 lives and now threatens the ecosystems, economy, and quality of life of our Gulf Coast. Can’t imagine what it will mean if the present estimates hold true: up to 5000 barrels of oil a day, leaking at 5000 feet below the surface, for the months that are now projected to stop the leak.

The other story that I don’t know what to make of is the suspicious claims of a group of Chinese and Turkish Ark hunters who held a press conference earlier in the week to announce that they were 99.9% sure that they had found Noah’s Ark at about 13,000 feet on Mt Ararat.

The compelling video of what appeared to be ancient wooden rooms in an ice encased environment have since been countered by warnings from others who claim to have knowledge of an elaborate hoax.

As much as I can’t imagine how the oil gushing into our Gulf waters is going to end, I also can’t fathom what these alleged followers of Christ were thinking if they they knowingly made false claims about finding the Ark.

The subject of Noah’s Ark is so important not only to the record of the Bible but also to an understanding of our future.

Jesus himself said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be…Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt 27:36-40).

Hope we can affirm together that these words of our Lord deserve our trust… regardless of the the damage we are seeing to the Gulf… and to the reputation of alleged followers of Christ…


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43 Responses to “Noah’s Ark and Gulf Waters”

  1. SFDBWV says:

    I also read the story of finding Noah’s Ark. Like most *amazing discoveries*, I will keep an open mind and watch the followup to see if there are any conformations or any news of false reporting.

    The mess in the Gulf of Mexico reminds me of just where our trust is misplaced. We normally expect the oil drillers to be able to control such events and have a contingency plan in such an event as this.

    The conversation Jesus had about the last days never confused me. However I have read and heard dozens of takes on that conversation.

    To me Jesus is saying that life will be going on as normal as it has been for centuries, when suddenly the hour of His coming is upon us.

    To thoes who make more of a study of the endtime events, they will tell you that before the flood of Noah, that the flood was predicted and fortold, a warning that no one would pay attention to.

    Just like the warning of Jesus’s return has been preached and fortold, with all of the instructions as to how to avoid the terrors of the Tribulation; the preflood people too were warned, but all except thoes in the Ark, died. So it will be for the return of Christ.

    God has once again offered an escape, but only to thoes whom are covered by the by the Blood of the Lamb.

    Are we living in the last days?…..No one knows of the day and the time…But we are given warning signs to know when that time is close. Even eminent.

    How do we *know*? The Bible gives much information about the subject. We have to read it as well as believe it.

    Steve

  2. SFDBWV says:

    A little thought provoking discussion about the *Days of Noah*.

    There were giants in the earth in thoes days and other creatures born from the union of fallen angels and women of the earth.(Gen 6:4)

    These were called the Nephlim, and when the spies seen them again in the promised land, their presence terrified the people (Num13:33 and Num 14:1).

    Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

    This too was what it was like in the days of Noah.

    Is this an indication of what to look for in the last days?

    Are we to look for geneticaly altered people? Is the goings on of day to day living saturated with evil?

    Or are we to repeat the sarcasim spoken of by Peter (2Peter 3:4)”Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beggining of the creation.”?

    As of the days of Noah, we are warned. As of the days of Noah, there is an hour coming when *suddenly* judgement comes.

    Steve

  3. Bob in Cornwall England says:

    My sympathy and prayers go out to the people of the southern states of the USA.
    We have had our fair share of oil spills along this coast in south west Britain and live next to the busiest shipping lanes in the world and we know exactly the kind of devastation that occurs. Even now our small fishing harbour still has oil buried deep under the mud after a disaster in the 1960’s.
    The economic hit is bad enough, but to see all the helpless seals, dolphins, birds and other creatures lying dead in vast swamps of oil is just too much to bear.
    My home county has lots of “nodding donkey” oil wells as well as pipelines running under the sea and across national parks. At anytime, with no warning a disaster could happen. Like Steve said, normally there are contingency plans that should be in place to cover such events, but to have a pipeline over a mile down on the sea bed that has three ruptures and cannot be turned off easily seems to me a total lack of planning.
    BP also is probably one of the largest companies in this field and should have better emergency cover.
    It shows how much we depend on oil and exactly what risks we are prepared to take to maintain this “false” economy and lifestyle we have.

    As for Noahs Ark, I knew someone back in the 70’s who went to mount Ararat and claimed to have found Noahs Ark. This seems to be an ongoing thing, like the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud.
    My guess is, from looking at the video, that the wood in the ice is genuine but the “rooms” look a bit suspect to me.
    The Bible does tell us that our understanding will increase in the last days and that truths will be revealed to us, but it also tells us to beware of false prophets etc.
    An elaborate hoax about this is the kind of falsehood that the anti christ and his followers would try on us in these days to discredit Gods Word and keep the majority of people “in the dark” and not “In the Ark”

    Mart, these seem two very different topics to put together, but are current news items and worthy of our thoughts.

    Bob

  4. Mart De Haan says:

    Thanks, Steve, for your thoughts this morning. And, Bob, I agree that they are very different subjects. Yet, maybe what we are doing to our world can be seen as a picture of what we are doing to ourselves, and therefore a reminder of why the ultimate rescue and “clean-up” of Christ is yet ahead.

  5. Bob in Cornwall England says:

    Thats a good thought Mart!

    Noahs Ark was a rescue plan by God and is a reminder to us that God had a “contingency plan” in place long before we ever sinned and knew just how to overcome the problems we would cause.

    Like Birds and animals that cannot get themselves out of the mier of the black thick sludge, we also have no way of our own to escape the disaster that awaits us and would be trapped and drowning in the thick black sludge of sin if it were not for our Saviour.
    Thank God that we are cleansed in the Blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and that He has “Capped” forever the well of sin and death.

    Bob

  6. poohpity says:

    Can you say “Greed”. It would seem the gulf disaster is from the lack of good safety measures and equipment failures. Wanting to squeeze out as much profit without putting any care into how it was done.

    The Noah’s Ark thing seems to me that people trying to prove something that creation alone has not been enough to testify of God. I wonder how much notoriety these folks will achieve and how much money they will gain to prove something which will bring glory and honor to themselves.

  7. pegramsdell says:

    Bob, thank you for the great analogy. We are barely escaping the flames, aren’t we? I thought of this song when I read your post:

    “Jesus, lover of my soul….You’ve taken me, from the mire clay, set my feet upon the Rock, now I know, I love You, I need You, though my world may fall, I’ll never let You go…”

  8. bubbles says:

    If God said something happened, then it did happen. We don’t need physical evidence (like the ark) to prove it happened. We can trust Him for all things.
    There will always be those who attempt to come up with senastionalized stories to bring glory or money to themselves.

    I’ve often wondered if God’s heart is grieved when He sees what humans do to ruin His creation. . .

  9. saled says:

    Bob mentions how much we depend on oil and the risks that we take to maintain our lifestyle. The Gulf Coast oil disaster comes on the heels of the loss of the coal miners in West Virginia. What can be done about the risks that workers take to provide our energy needs (wants)? I heat my home with wood, not oil or coal, but wood cutting is a dangerous business also, and if done incorrectly, damaging to the environment. We can all do the little things to lessen our collective need for energy. Grow some of your own food. Lessen the need to truck food all around the country.

    The ‘discovery’ of the ark really means nothing to me. Like Bob, I have heard it all before. I’m at a point in my growth as a Christian where I know the story of Noah’s ark is true; I don’t know how it all fits with what we currently ‘know’ about science, archeology, and history, but I know it’s true, evidence or not. The eruption of the volcano in Iceland led me to learn about the Mid Atlantic Ridge and the theory of how North America and Europe have moved apart. It fits with the story of the Flood, but does this kind of ‘evidence’ help produce faith? Maybe. But we really don’t need to produce the ark to prove that the Bible story is true.

  10. sbrewster says:

    I try not to become numb to these events. It certainly would be easy to do. Our planet, like the lives of many who reside on it are in peril. There is only one place where I know there is safety and that is in Jesus Christ.

    I am always very very troubled when lives are lost, like those on that oil rig or the men in the West Virginia coal mining disaster. I am troubled that we live in a world where the pursuit of individual happiness is upheld as the ultimate purpose of life.

    In the book of Judges, there is a time that is described where it says, “and every man did what was right in his own eyes”.

    We are again – perhaps more than any other time in history – living in that time.

    I don’t know why any “believer” would go through all the effort of rigging a “discovery” of Noah’s Ark or any other Biblical event. What an absolute waste of time.
    I accept the Bible’s account by faith.

    But it’s been a long time since I thought about the significance of the account of Noah’s Ark being so important to our future as the body of Christ. Thank you, Mart, for that perspective.

    When I was a new Christian, more than 20yrs ago, I was so eager for Christ’s return. It was very foremost in my mind and heart. As the years have waned on, I guess I don’t think about it as much as I use to or ought to. Thank you for the reminder that we cannot grow numb and become so de-sensitized that we forget to be watchful. Our lamps must be brimmed with oil – don’t want to be caught with no oil in the lamp on that day.

    Thank you.

  11. Bob in Cornwall England says:

    Many years ago we had a similar explosion and loss of life on one of our North Sea oil Platforms, luckily there was no great spill. It has been mentioned above about the hidden human cost of maintaining our “lifestyle”, we tend to forget what keeps our society running.
    On BBC TV in the UK at the moment they have sent a group of young people to work in Africa and other places to live and work as those who barely make a living to provide us with cheap luxury food etc.
    It brings it home just how badly our big super markets and corporations treat suppliers and keep those on the ground in poverty just so we can have cheap products.
    A shirt now cost a few pennies compared to years ago, but do we think about the human cost behind it.
    Even here in Britain farmers make a loss when producing milk because of the stringent contracts the retailers put them under.
    If we are to progress as a civilised society we need to rethink our whole lifstyle and be willing to pay the true cost so that peoples lives and livelihoods are not put at risk.

    Bob

  12. SFDBWV says:

    I read this story many years ago, I appologize for not remembering the name of the individual. It is about oil.

    An English geologist while studing the bible reasoned that if the builders of the Tower of Babel used asphalt to morter the tower blocks together, that where asphalt is found, oil is found.

    Knowing that the Tower of Babel was located somewhere in the area of Iraq, this geologist discovered the Mid Easten oil fields.

    Who knew beneath the sand and desert of this arid wasteland was oil?

    God knew, it’s secret was there to be found by reason of the scripture.

    Sir Issac Newton continues to frustrate modern science because they continue to pour through his notes and writings looking for more insight in physics.

    Only to discover that Sir Issac Newton spent 90% of his time in the study of the Bible, because he believed that the answers he looked for could be found there.

    Answers of all kinds are found there as well as warnings.

    It is another example to me as how mankind is out of place here on the earth, and how the earth is cursed because of fallen man.

    We want, and I may say at this state of our existance need, electricity. So we dig into the earth and remove coal but by doing so we destroy water sheds and pollute clean fresh water into a sulphuric killer of life.

    We poke holes into the earth to get at the natural gas and oil sealed there, but the earth bleeds a toxic waste.

    When drilling for oil and gas, deep in the earth brine is always present and has to be pumped and hauled away. Brine is deadly to all vegetation. Here in our area the brine is trucked away….to where????

    The lawyers and accountants are on alert, this catastrophy in the Gulf of Mexico will end up becoming a long range economic and ecological disaster.

    Revelation tells us of a world wide ecological disaster that will kill the oceans and the waters, the vegetation and ultimitly people….the disaster in the Gulf isn’t this spoken of event, but is a fortaste of where the world is headed.

    Noah was chosen to save mankind from extinction because the Christ needed to be born. Noah believed God and did as he was instructed.

    Found in the scripture and the Gospel is the instruction for surviving the next coming global disaster.

    We cannot prevent the disaster, neither could the preflood people. Nimrod thought that building the Tower of Babel would make for a safe haven if God were to flood the earth again….He was a reactionist polotician.

    We cannot prevent the coming tribulation, only prepare ourselves as God has instructed and warn our fellow mankind.

    Noah’s Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, our Ark of refuge is the Christ. His name, however it is spoken of by all the different languages is still Jesus of Nazareth. The Christ.

    God shut the door to the Ark, He will again….

    Steve

  13. Grace48 says:

    Reading of the two stories that Mart wrote of left me thinking on much, some of on broken promises and trust,and on the state of our environment and all the reasons for it.

    It also left me thinking of a lot of Romans 8 and especially verses 22 and 23,”For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”NKJ

    I wonder how much groaning Noah did within himself as he worked for such a long time on the Ark while his neighbors ridiculed him for believing God and obeying?
    Yet Noah chose to believe God and put his hope in God and not in what his neighbors did.

    Our hope comes in Jesus and the forgiveness we have in Him. I need Jesus as my Saviour and Shepherd in order to continue walking through such days that we live in.

    I wait eagerly, too, even if I’m groaning now or singing songs of praise to God. I’m trusting in God even yet, with God’s help,even when groaning over stories such as these and all that they say.

  14. poohpity says:

    I was thinking if Solomon in all his splendor and wisdom thought about the consequences in the future of marrying so many wives, of which he was warned not to intermarry, would cause so much trouble. He caused the loss of ten tribes from the line of his father David to be ripped from them. Wisdom without the guidance of the Lord is futile.

    Do you think that when people discovered oil, black gold, that they new it would cause nation to come against nation to obtain it or that it would cause so much destruction to our air and environment. Does the good of it out weigh the bad? Has the convenience of having faster transportation and the other uses of oil become more important than wise management? Is it an idol that has turned around, like those in Solomon’s day, our attention to need it more than God for everyday living?

    At least in Noah’s day it was God who destroyed everything to bring about good, now the human race finds it’s own way to destroy. God may be leaving it to us to bring about our own catastrophes because our wants drive us to need more and deny that there are consequences to our decisions.

  15. xrgarza says:

    Wars, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Massive oil spills, could these be the birth pains that are talked about in Matt 24:7-8 Mark 13:7-8 (NIV)

    Matthew 24:7-8 (NIV)
    7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

    Mark 13:7-8 (NIV)
    7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

    Stay on guard

    Xavier

  16. Regina says:

    Hello All,

    Mart,
    I want to share my thoughts on your topic: Noah’s Ark and Gulf Waters. I thought the remains of Noah’s Ark had already been found? I thought it was found years ago; I (vaguely) remember seeing something on t.v. about it. O.k., so Chinese and Turkish Ark hunters are claiming to have found Noah’s Ark. If they did find it, why should we be concerned about that? I’m assuming that they’ll just turn it in to the proper authorities, right? I (we) expect Christians-those who love the Lord-to do the right thing.

    However, if their claim is a hoax what can we do? What are our options in helping to rectify the situation? Like you, I can’t imagine that anyone would want to lie about something as serious as finding Noah’s Ark. I think it would be difficult to ascertain whether their claim is true or false. If it’s proven to be a false claim, will the Ark hunters go to jail? They would definitely deserve some type of penalty/punishment.

    I read (on Wikipedia) about the Exxon/Valdez oil spill because it’s being compared to the Gulf Coast oil spill. The Exxon/Valdez spill caused the death of thousands of fish, many animals & vegetation. :-( I’m pretty sure that the Gulf Coast spill has caused a lot of devastation as well. I believe that God desires us to keep the Gulf Coast situation in our prayers; trust Him to take care of the ecosystem, flora/fauna, and work it out for our good.

    I also believe that we can put total trust (faith) in what God told us in Matt. 27:36-40. He want us to “rest in the truth” of His Word, and strive to do “His” will as we go about our daily lives.

    Blessings,

  17. Regina says:

    Bob (Cornwall)- ..great insight in repsonse to Mart’s comment.

    Steve – ..great comments (insight) on this topic. I enjoyed reading them.

    Blessings,

  18. Gerald says:

    First of all, I’d like to say that I have always been blessed by Bro. Mart’s “Been Thinking” articles. I look forward to each one.

    Re the article on the Gulf Oil disaster and Noah’s Ark – first of all I also thought that Noah’s Ark had been discovered years ago. I do have a VHS recording about it. Re the Oil disaster and ALL the other things happening in the earth, I feel more and more that “The Day of vengenance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2b) has dawned upon the earth.

    May Christians take note, LOOK UP and hold more firmly to the Christ of Calvary.

    God bless you.
    Gerald

  19. pegramsdell says:

    People get ready, Jesus is coming, soon we’ll going home.

  20. Regina says:

    Mart – Thanks for the hyperlinks embedded in your comment. :-)

    Blessings,

  21. dboxton says:

    Oh! I didn’t read the rules first. I guess I won’t be posted with you guys this time. I will keep in touch though. I love the story of the Ark. What a rescue. God always comes through for us.

  22. fnikel says:

    Mart, As always, I really enjoyed your devotional. But, I think the scripture notation is wrong and should be Matt 24:36-40. Please correct me if I am wrong.

  23. SFDBWV says:

    I am guilty of watching The National Geographic Channel, The History Channel as well as The Discovery Channel.

    I am sometimes amused at how the reporting that comes from their stories are presentented as fact. Whereas They, many times, have their facts confused.

    If you know a subject well enough it is easy to point out and recognize their mistakes, if you don’t you tend to believe their stories.

    I am almost certainly upset about most any Christian or Old Testement stories they report. They twist and falsely report events that I know to be false, but their are millions of people who think the stories to be factual.

    I am sure there is a nice scientific formula for the number of people who will take the stories as a means of studying them for themselves. I guess that may be seen as a good thing, but more are misled then truthfuly informed.

    Speaking only of the subject of Noah’s Ark, I have read and seen many dozens of stories surrounding this one subject.

    According to one source, there was at one time a Christian Shrine located some distance up Mt Ararat that reportedly had pieces of the Ark and artifacts from it. This monesary was destroyed by an earthquake many hundreds of years ago. According to the author of the story.

    God does have a great sense of humor…He had Noah coat the wood on both the outside and the inside with pitch (tar). This both made the Ark more water tight as well as sealed the wood into a state of preservation.

    He then went on to tell us of the exact location of where the Ark came to rest.

    I think God knew that men would spend their lives, trying to find something *solid* they could point to to prove the story of Noah and thereby *prove* the rest of the OT stories of creation and human expansion.

    However, I also think God wants us to *Trust* what we know in our hearts to be true. To live by faith, not by clutching a piece of this world that will sooner or later decay, or be stolen from us or be lost to time.

    Noah’s Ark may indeed be found someday, but what does it matter? Believing in the saving grace of Jesus Christ is way more important…..This is the find of a lifetime…..Salvation….

    Steve

  24. foreverblessed says:

    I totally agree Steve.
    The most important part to me in these verses is:
    therefore be ready..
    And what is ready?
    That I am with Christ, that my heart is at rest in Him.
    Regardless of what the world around me is doing. I cannot change that. Only my own heart, I can choose to be with Jesus.
    That took me a long time, worrying about the wrong actions people take, (spilling oil) and the wrong examples christians give (like searching for prove of the ark).
    I would be busy to rescue the ten at my side, and the hundred at my right side. Psalm 91:7
    But at the end I can only make sure I am near my Lord and Saviour: Jesus,

    v8-10 says: You will only observe with your eyes ..
    if you make the Most High your dwelling-
    eveb the Lord, who is my refuge-
    then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

    Last topic someone mentioned Psalm 91, it is such a good psalm.
    Allthough it might seem selfish, being busy with my own safety. But we have no power over other people, God is the Lord of all, not us christians. God wants us to draw closer to Him, so that through us He can touch more people.
    So the only thing we can do is to come closer to our God, to make Him our dwellig place, and then we are ready.

  25. poohpity says:

    fnikel, you are correct. I think sometimes Mart sees if we really read the scriptures he references. LOL!

  26. JediKnight4Him says:

    Did anyone notice “a few days ago” the number one word search that day was Noah’s ark. I think any good opportunity should be a springboard to call attention to the reality of scripture and God’s existence. The flip side is what I find disturbing as if some think believers need some tangible evidence to validate their faith? Not!

  27. Grace48 says:

    fnikel and poohpity, you’re both right.

  28. poohpity says:

    Jedi, then it is not faith is it? LOL

  29. JediKnight4Him says:

    Faith is taking God at His word and if there pops up some artifact to reiterate whats already in scripture…so be it! But if this Noah’s Boat thingy is a hoax….I won’t let it rock my boat! =)

  30. pegramsdell says:

    lol….good one jedi.

    I was reading in the old testament today about a man of God sent to the king with a message from God. (1Kings 13) After delivering the message he refused to eat with the king because God told him not to eat there and to go back another way. He obeyed till an (old) man of God convinced him that God told “him” that is was alright for him to eat at his house. And then he was killed by a lion because he disobeyed.

    That stinks, but I guess he should have done what he knew was right.

    I think we all will be tested to see if we will stick to what we know is true. The bible says that maybe even the very elect could get fooled. And the worst of it, is that it can come from a fellow Christian. We really need to be on guard. Not put our guard down, like when the soldiers in Vietnam, used to sleep with their weapons loaded and ready to fire.

  31. saled says:

    Pegramsdell, I think you are probably right about being on guard. But I don’t understand why it is that way. It’s like we really have to try our hardest to be saved.

  32. poohpity says:

    I do not believe we have to try hard to be saved but to know enough about truth so that we are not led astray. I think we just have to really pay attention and hold to our beliefs. I try and always remember that satan can be disguised as an angel of light and can twist the truth just enough to sound right to lead us away from God.

  33. SFDBWV says:

    When I first read the story about the Chinese explorers finding Noah’s Ark, the story was on a national news service here on the internet.

    Of course the subject interested me so I read the news story, thinking it might be interesting…..It turned out to be a story more of skeptics and critisims. Blatent denouncements from both the scientific world and some religious groups.

    They had closed their mind to the subject long before this story hit the news wire.

    I wonder if it was this way when after thousands of years a man showed up in the Temple in Jerusalem claiming to be the long awaited Messiah? Even after He demonstrated His authority over sickness and death, they doubted, even when He could calm the storm they doubted….I wonder if the reason they could not believe is because they never believed to begin with?

    It must have been a tough story to sell to the common man, that a man was crucified, died and was raised from death 3 days later.

    However, the men who Jesus had chosen were not left abandonded, the presence of the Holy Spirit enabled them to also heal the sick, raise the dead, and show a power and presence none of them had ever had before.

    We are told to *seek* Him while He can be found. There is an hour coming when the door to the wedding feast will be closed. All are invited, we must do all we can to make sure they know it.

    Even if the Chinese explorers come forward with all sorts of items that they believe proves their claims, there will still be people who will not accept it.

    Even though we can present the Gospel to all we meet, there will be some who will not accept it.

    Should the Chinese explorers give up trying to convince a skeptical world? Should we?

    Steve

  34. SFDBWV says:

    While on the subject of skeptics, I watched an interesting story last evening on The Learning Channel.

    I had left that network out of my earlier post because they usualy don’t have much that interests me, but this subject did.

    Death….The experiances of thoes who were clinicaly dead and returned to life to tell of their experiances while *dead*, Some call it a near death experiance, as some were never actualy dead, but in a coma and could remember amazing events during this time.

    Each person who lived to tell their story were forever changed, for the good and betterment of their lives. However, the scientific world just cannot accept that there is any existance beyond what the physical brain produces.

    No matter how much asounding evidences that each person could provide to prove that their experiance and what they overheard or witnessed were true….Skeptics would just not believe that it was a result of the human spirit existing beyond the life of the brain.

    So here we are, trying to convince such people that not only does the human spirit exist beyond death, but that there is a Book that tells us all about it. As well as were we go and were we will be for eternity.

    About the trappings as well as the directions of how we can decide where we reside for that eternal existance.

    No wonder God uses calamity in a persons life in order to break their spirit, and bring them to their knees.

    No wonder God is long suffering and patient with mankind, as it takes some a lifetime to learn.

    However there is a deadline and a time, when it will all come to an end, and begin anew.

    Steve

  35. foreverblessed says:

    Amen, Steve!
    So the only thing we can do, is as you say, seek Him while He may be found.
    We speak of the Gospel, but we cannot convince people, we can only witness.

  36. phpatato says:

    Steve – My mom is one of those who “died and returned”. During her mid forties, her heart stopped during an operation… she was clinically dead for 2 and a half minutes. She related to her family how she could see herself floating above her body which lay on the table. She remembers the intense bright white blinding light. What struck her most though was a warmth that she had never ever experienced before. It filled her completely. Sitting beside a wood stove for hours would not compare. She didn’t want to leave, but she saw herself lowering to her lifeless body. It was not her time, she had many organs and pianos yet to play….

    As I sit and watch the Hornby Eagle webcam, it brings home to me the disaster of the Gulf Coast. Last evening, the male eagle – Pa Hornby as he is affectionately known – brought 3 fresh fish to the nest. They were still flapping when he laid them down. “Phoenix” the baby eaglet was fed till it no longer squeeked, full and satisfied. It saddens me to think of how the eco-system will be destroyed with the spill and how everything which depends upon that system will die.

    I am praying for strength as I see these calamities. It’s going to get worse and I am crying now. But as I watch ma eagle lay herself over her baby to shield it from the rain and cold, I am reminded of a song…

    He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
    That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
    He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
    And covers me there with His hand,
    And covers me there with His hand.

  37. SFDBWV says:

    Pat, it is just marvelous how God uses the majesty and the actions of eagles so much in His Scripture comparisons.

    It seems that much of God’s character is seen and shown by His creation, and He chose to reflect that in His discriptions of eagles.

    It is an oddity of my life that many of the near death experiances people have told, I have either experianced some of them awake, dreaming or in a state I could only explain as sureal.

    There is a great deal more to life than the 5 senses make us aware of.

    I have never read of, but would like to hear of any blind people who have had near death experiances…Blind from birth, I would be very interested to know if they *see* either the world around them or the light so many have reported seeing.

    Steve

  38. phpatato says:

    Funny how you made mention of the 5 senses…mom was born with no sense of smell. Not that that has anything to do with anything talked about, except that you are right…”there is a great deal more to life than the 5 senses” to make us aware.

  39. MikeBlitzMag says:

    The ongoing endeavors by the mass media at large to negate and/or circumvent the advent of the Gospel certainly factors into their ongoing hesitancy to give credence to stories such as the one involving the discovery of Noah’s ark.

    Indeed, even common sense would dictate that, given the high elevation of Mount Ararat, any remnants of a seagoing vessel found at or near its peak were very unlikely to have been placed there by means aside from those described in the book of Genesis.

    If indeed physical evidence is a prerequisite for belief in the Bible, then one need look no further than the nation of Israel for an abundance of material that has survived and that has irrefutably been determined to have played a role in Scripture.

  40. dboxton says:

    Man MikeBlitzMag. Who could explain that any better? Thank you.

  41. DaveSchwReno says:

    very interesting thread. Thank you.

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