Sunday, October 13, 2013

Days of Noah? Doll's Life? Childish Things. Above Rubies. 72 Hours to Chaos. Canada Saved. Artmobile. Sukkot.

 

For "Scripture Sunday":

"He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice." ~ John Stuart Mill

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Are We Living in the Days of Noah?

"Recent floods remind many of the days of Noah. Incredibly, the Bible talks about the last days being like the time of Noah. Are we living in those times now?

In the past month some 21 inches of rain fell on Boulder, Colorado, destroying some 1,600 homes and damaging 20,000 more. The National Weather Service referred to “biblical rainfall amounts” that caused flooding in the Boulder area.

Yet Colorado isn’t the only area being affected by flooding. The U.S. Northeast was pummeled with rain and floods this past summer, and just recently the Pacific Northwest was hammered by rain. A series of flash floods in northern India and Nepal claimed more than 1,000 lives in June. Europe has been the hardest hit with flooding, and the costliest natural disasters around the world this year have been floods.

When Jesus Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago, He said that just before His second coming, the world would be like it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39). Almost everyone associates the account of Noah with a worldwide flood. But was Jesus Christ referring to a future time of destruction—or was He referring to much more?

The world at the time of Noah

Many know about the story of Noah and the Flood. But how many know why the Flood came, and why Noah was saved from that worldwide disaster?

Notice what God says about the condition of the entire world in Noah’s time: “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” (Genesis 6:5).

Does this sound like our world today?

Let’s review some of the major acts of evil we have seen in headlines throughout the past year:

  • Senseless murders. Just this year two teenagers killed a man just to know what it was like to kill a person. People enter public places to gun down and blow up innocent people.
  • Sexual immorality. Young women are kidnapped daily and used as sex slaves all around the world. Premarital sex is encouraged, and same-sex relationships are not just approved of but glorified in the news.
  • Sexual and violent entertainment. Movies and video games viewed and played by millions are violent and often pornographic. Celebrities—widely followed by impressionable, young people—dress and perform lewd acts in music videos and on television.
  • Theft. All around the globe hackers steal people’s identities and rob them every day.

While all the above are shown front and center on the news and in the media, almost anything associated with God and the Bible is hidden or labeled intolerant.

Yes, this is the world we live in. And such was the world Noah lived in.

That should concern you and me, especially when we consider the words of Christ about the condition of the world just before He returns."    More at:  http://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/blog/are-we-living-in-the-days-of-noah/    by Tim Groves - October 2, 2013

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Are You Wrapped up in a Doll's Life?

"Have you drifted spiritually and lost your way into the forest of consumerism?"

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Putting Away Childish Things

"Can you imagine if people in our nation started making spiritually mature decisions? What would this look like?"

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Above Rubies

An Amazing Fact: "Ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone. Chromium causes the color red, and a ruby’s value is determined by the four C’s: color, cut, clarity, and carat weight. The Smithsonian received as a gift one of the world’s finest and largest ruby gemstones—a 23.1-carat Burmese ruby. Known as the “King of Gems,” rubies have sometimes been priced seven times higher than diamonds.

The beautiful gemstone in the Smithsonian was mined in Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1930s and was donated by Peter Buck in memory of his late wife. It displays a richly saturated red color along with exceptional transparency.
Rubies and sapphires come from the same family. The red ones are called rubies, and the others are called sapphires. Like many gemstones, rubies are often heat-treated to improve their color. A well-cut ruby can come close to the brilliance and sparkle of a diamond.

As early as 200 B.C. there is record of rubies being transported along the North Silk Road of China. Rubies have been held as very precious in Asian countries for centuries. They were used as jewelry and as ornaments on armor. Some were even placed underneath the foundations of buildings as good fortune. They are extremely hard, only slightly softer than diamonds, and have a melting point of 3,711 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Bible says this about rubies. “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10). When you study how rubies are measured for value, you see how the description applies to the character of a good wife. Her beauty is more than exterior. It comes from the clarity from within.
Perhaps even the most valuable rubies, which are rich in a red color, might describe the value we can have in Christ when our sins are covered by His blood."

KEY BIBLE TEXTS
She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. - Proverbs 3:15

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The program on WGN TV this morning:

72 Hours to Chaos

"How thin is civilization's veneer? What could cause average people to steal or turn violent? Learn how not to fear such chaos."

Transcript at: http://www.ucg.org/beyond-today-program/christian-living/72-hours-chaos

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On this Day:

Sir Isaac Brock saves Canada, Oct 13, 1812:

"During the War of 1812, British and Indian forces under Sir Isaac Brock defeat Americans under General Stephen Van Rensselaer at the Battle of Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara frontier in Ontario, Canada. The British victory, in which more than 1,000 U.S. troops were killed, wounded, or captured, effectively ended any further U.S. invasion of Canada. Sir Isaac Brock, Britain's most talented general in the war, was killed during the battle."

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World's first traveling art museum opens in Virginia, Oct 13, 1953:

"The world's first art museum on wheels—an "inspiration for the nation," says a representative from the Smithsonian--opens today in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was called the Artmobile. At the dedication ceremony, the state's governor declared that the project "initiates something new in the cultural and spiritual life of the Commonwealth which has never been done before anywhere.

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It took the staff of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts almost five years to get the Artmobile up and running.  A $20,000, 34-foot-long air-conditioned trailer with museum-quality lighting and walls that hinged out to create a lean-to-esque exhibition space around the vehicle. imageThe trailer was pulled around the state behind an enormous blue truck; at the wheel was William Gaines, the retired registrar of the Virginia Museum.

Visitors entered the Artmobile in small groups and were free to look at the art on display for as long as they liked. (Admission was free for schoolchildren and members of local women's clubs; everyone else paid 25 cents to get in.)  Meanwhile, a 15-minute mini-lecture explaining the significance of the works in the exhibition looped in the background. The lecture was very informal and was usually narrated by a local radio personality, so most visitors felt right at home.

For its first tour through the state, the Artmobile carried sixteen paintings by 15th- and 16th-century Dutch and Flemish "Little Masters": Bosch, Brueghel, Cuyp, Jordaens, van Rhysdael and Terborsch. The museum had borrowed the paintings, worth about $500,000, from the collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (Chrysler, an art collector and theater producer whose father founded the Chrysler Corporation, had an estate near Warrenton, Virginia.)  In all, the Little Masters traveled 20,000 miles in their first 53 weeks on the road and had 60,000 visitors, mostly students who had never been to the brick-and-mortar museum in Richmond.

image The Artmobile was so successful that other states began to plan similar projects. By 1965, there were four Artmobiles in Virginia and a handful of others in places like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Today, there are dozens of Artmobile-inspired museums on wheels in cities and towns across the United States and around the world."

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Yesterday:

Wendy and I had our usual Saturday morning phone call.  She told me that they were in the process of buying the land next to their lake house at Lake Somerville, so that they can build a new house.  They have sold their house outside of Houston, moved to their little lake house, and decided that the country life is for them. 

An alarming thing happened to their small dog, she managed to get in a ripped seam in a sleeping bag, burrowed along, trying to get out, and nearly suffocated.  Wendy only just managed to revive her.

image At church we had the song service and then readings from Deut. 33 and 34, and then Joshua 1, about observing God's laws. 

This church will be celebrating The Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-21) next week. Apparently, the date depends on if you count from before or after the new moon in the Spring Equinox.  Sometimes it is called Sukkot, or The Feast of Ingathering or The Festival of Shelters (Lev 23.33-43).   Sukkot is celebrated by a number of Christian denominations that observe holidays from the old testament. These churches base themselves on the fact that Jesus celebrated The Feast of Tabernacles (see John 7:1.)   http://www.ucg.org/bible-faq/why-should-christians-celebrate-feast-tabernacles  As it is also to celebrate the harvest, it is better to have the festival after all the harvest is gathered in.

The sermon brought up some interesting points. That it was about 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham, and about 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus, and it is about 2,000 years since then.

The potluck was great and we all had a good time sitting around, eating and chatting. The sun was shining all morning, but after I returned home, it started to rain.

The little kitten was let out of his cage for the first time since his surgery, so he inspected the Grooming Room, but he will have to be kept in it again this morning, as I am grooming Muffie today.

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