World is Broken Beyond Repair? Feast of Trumpets. Busy Bees. Update.

 

For "Scripture Sunday":

Is The World Beyond Repair?

In spite of our unquenchable optimism, the solution to our brokenness is out of reach. It’s going to take far more than elbow grease to fix the mess we’ve made.

IN MY EXPERIENCE, THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF BROKEN.

There’s the kind of broken where the damage is largely superficial—where the only thing that’s really needed to get things back up and running is some tender loving care (and maybe some elbow grease). This is the kind of broken I prefer to encounter, because it’s fixable. Sure, it might mean getting your hands dirty or cracking open a manual, but it can be done.

The other kind of broken is a little less forgiving. This isn’t the kind of broken where you open the hood of your car only to find your engine has kicked the bucket. It’s the kind of broken where you open the hood of your car only to find everything is on fire and about to explode. The solution to the first scenario might be rebuilding your engine; the solution to the second is diving for cover and looking out for shrapnel.

The world is broken

Not many people are willing to argue that the world isn’t broken. The real debate is over what kind of broken we’re talking about. Ideally, it’s the first kind—the kind where, if we all just work hard and do our best, we can clean things up and get everything in tip-top shape. This is the world people tend to believe in when it comes time to elect leaders and officials—a world where we can get things right if we just get the right people into the right positions.

I don’t think we’re dealing with that kind of broken. I think we’re looking at the flaming innards of our combusting car and trying desperately to convince ourselves it’s not as bad as it looks.

But it is.

Maybe part of the problem is that we tend to talk in generalities. Sure, there are wars. Sure, there is moral relativism. Sure, there are genocides. Sure, there are riots and political unrest and poverty and corruption, but those are all so vague and intangible. They happen … somewhere … to some people. But what do those things even mean? They’re bad words that represent bad things, but they’re too fuzzy to mean anything significant.

So let’s talk specifics. Let’s talk nitty-gritty. Let’s talk about the uncomfortable things we like to ignore because, deep in our hearts, they make us wonder if we really can fix things.

Let’s talk about:

1. Terrorists kidnapping, torturing and raping children.

Complete article at: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/end-times/beyond-repair-3-things-too-broken-for-us-to-fix/

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The churches are getting to enjoy God's Feast Days next week.

Seventh Seal Reveals Seven Trumpet Plagues

Revelation 8:1-2

When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

"The book of Revelation describes seven seals on a prophetic scroll. At this point in Revelation the first four seals (also known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), the fifth seal and the sixth seal have all been opened. Now Jesus Christ opens the seventh and last seal to reveal seven angels and their trumpets. In succession, these seven angels blow their trumpets to announce seven terrible end-time events.

• First trumpet: Trees and grass struck (Revelation 8:7).
• Second trumpet: Seas struck (8:8-9).
• Third trumpet: Fresh waters struck (8:10-11).
• Fourth trumpet: Sun, moon and stars struck (8:12).
• Fifth trumpet (first woe): Symbolic locusts torment people for five months (9:1-11).
• Sixth trumpet (second woe): A 200-million-man army kills one-third of humanity (9:13-21).
• Seventh trumpet (third woe): Announces the return of Jesus Christ and the seven last plagues (11:15-19; 16:1-21).

These trumpets are tied into the meaning of the fourth of God’s festivals, the Feast of Trumpets.

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The return of Jesus Christ!

"The Feast of Trumpets depicts nothing less than the return of Jesus Christ to the earth to establish the Kingdom of God! The book of Revelation reveals a sequence of earth-shaking events heralded by angels sounding a series of seven trumpet blasts. The seventh angel’s sounding of the last trumpet signifies that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15, English Standard Version). The Bible foretells that at this time Jesus Christ will at last return to the earth. Of all the prophecies in the Bible, this one surely heralds the most exciting news possible for this weary, sin-filled world!"  From: The Feast of Trumpets - United Church of God

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Food for All

"An Amazing Fact: Bees are very social insects, and mutual feeding seems to be the order of their existence. The workers feed the helpless queen, who cannot feed herself. They feed the drones and, of course, they feed the young. They seem to actually enjoy this social act. One bee always seems ready to feed another bee, even if that bee is from a different colony.

The bee has been aptly described as busy. To produce one tablespoon of honey for our toast, the little bee makes 4,200 trips to flowers. A worker bee will fly as far as eight miles in search of nectar. He makes about 10 trips a day to the fields, each trip lasting 20 minutes and covering 400 flowers. To produce just one pound of clover honey, the bee must visit 56,000 clover heads. Since each head has 60 flower tubes, a total of 3,360,000 visits are necessary. In the end, that worker bee will have flown the equivalent of three times around the world. And they never sleep!

The impact of the honeybee on your food goes beyond honey. This little wonder of God’s creation is responsible for 80 percent of all insect pollination; if it didn’t do its job it would significantly decrease the yield of fruits and vegetables.

Psalm 145 is a song of praise to the Creator. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). As we look at the amazing honeybee, we can join David in saying, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works” (v. 5). When we consider the immense number of flowers it takes to make one pound of honey, it seems an impossibility, yet the Bible says, “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (v. 15, 16).
Thank God for the honeybee!
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Give us day by day our daily bread. Luke 11:3

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We cannot delay action any longer.

Take action today and help us ensure that these pesticides do not become the final straw for bees."  Take action!

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Update:

Monday or Tuesday morning, I hurt my right hand when I was pulling nails out of used lumber with a crowbar.  I don't know how or when I did it.  Tuesday afternoon my hand swelled up and it hurt like crazy.  I had to do everything with my left hand….. very clumsy!  Even putting my hair up was awkward with one hand and left-handed mousing is very awkward!  That is, unless you are left-handed.  I didn't have any frozen peas to put on it, so I used Brussel Sprouts.

We didn't work on the guest house on Wednesday morning, as I went for my 6-month check-up at my cardiologist and he said my heart was fine and called in a prescription for my hand.  He said that it was 25 years since he was in general practice and that if my hand didn't get better to see another doctor. 

On Thursday morning while we were working it hurt so much, had turned red, and swelled up even more, so I did go to see my doctor.  She called in a prescription for antibiotics as it was so red, and ordered an X-ray. That showed a cracked bone, but the meds started to work, and I can now use the mouse with my right hand again.

Thursday, Friday and today Jay and I have been installing the new front door on the guest house as the old patio door had one layer of the double pane glass broken.  It is easier to have a real exterior door rather than a sliding glass door for a front door anyway.  We also installed these new windows on the sides of the door. It is a long narrow living room, so they will give it more light. We still have to install the house wrap, board insulation, and blue vinyl siding.

Jay wasn't feeling up to going to church as he hadn't slept well.  We might have to go back to the other church which is in the afternoon. 

The Bible readings were Deut. 26:1-29:1, and Isa. 60:1-22.  We have two hymns at the beginning and several more after the Bible readings and prayer requests. Then comes the Teaching, but it was so cold in the chapel that I went into the dining hall and tried to listen to the Teaching in there.  But I couldn't hear it because others had the same idea, and were talking.  So I don't know what the Teaching was about.  Why do they have the AC in the chapel so cold??  It's not a doctor's office.

The food was all great at the potluck. I made a spinach quiche, and there wasn't a crumb left after the first 15 minutes.  I meant to make two, but wasn't up to it.

Once I warmed up, it was a very great day.