God's Power Line   

   Working for Westinghouse Electric Corp. taught me that electricity is more than flipping a light switch. 

   Heaters, AC, light, appliances, tools, chargers, radio and TV work for us at the flip of a switch. Our invisible servant comes to us on power lines.  

   Electrons - particles of atoms - exist in everything. All we need to do is excite them on wires...put them to work. 

   My tours of two generating plants were visual only. You can't hear anything but a turbine whirling at high speed supplying power, measured in voltage. Next are large transformers each with a wire coil around but not touching magnetic, steel sheets, called a core.   

   This line begins with high voltage and low current. Think of a water hose connected to an open faucet, with the nozzle closed. Miles along the way, medium transformers "step down" the voltage. Finally, small transformers "distribute" alternating-current for many uses.  

   Electric power is very reliable in America, but storms, accidents and such can interrupt connections. 

Now, do you know?
   There is a far greater power line, and we alone can interrupt it.  

   We generate prayer. If we're believers, in line for salvation, we have the Holy Spirit within us to interpret. He sends it to Christ, our Redeemer, who intercedes for us with the Father. That's what the Bible says. No mystery. 

   Whatever the response, when He begins to judge the world on the Day of the Lord, an angel will present our accumulated prayers before God. Rev. 8:3-4. Mysterious. Awesome!   

   When we have flipped our last switch, we want to hear the Lord say, I know you. 

   Don't we? 

       Jimmy

Forgotten Divers Recall It      

   Forty years ago, May 9, 1980, a freighter in fog slammed into support columns of the Skyway bridge in Tampa Bay...by the sea.   


   Robert Faioa, 33, former Marine, and Michael Betz, 26, former Navy underwater photographer, then underwater bridge inspectors for the Dept. of Transportation, had stopped for coffee on their way to work. They were scheduled to work under the bridge that morning when a call changed everything.  

   They loaded their Boston Whaler and sped to the channel. Through rain and fog they saw the freighter and a 1200-foot gap where bridge and traffic should have been. 

   High above the water a car was parked a few feet from nothingness. An Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team and St. Petersburg Fire Rescue workers were already there. After some disagreement, Eckerd divers agreed to tie up while Raioa and Betz dove for a Greyhound bus. Maybe some were alive in an air pocket. 

   The bus was upside down, its top and windshield ripped off. Passengers were upside down in their seats. The men took turns swimming into the bus to free bodies one by one. 

   Betz didn't look at their faces, but Raioa, the Marine, had seen death before. When the Eckerd boat was full, they motored to a makeshift morgue. 
Before the divers could finish, the Coast Guard told them to leave. The Marine felt deprived of his duty.  

   Their recent interview is a relatively new story among many that morning. Few people knew they were there, but the county Sheriff's Office lists them as the first two divers to go in.  

   A truck, six cars and the bus fell 150 feet that day. Thirty five people died. 

                 Jimmy

Sure Is Different 

   We all agree that life is different this Spring. There are some with a faint memory of the Great Depression, and those who experienced World War II in one way or another.

   Since then, nothing has affected our national well being like the Wuhan virus. It is the end for tens of thousands, and there is real hardship for millions economically. 

   Is there anything good about it?

   In WORLD magazine Marvin Olasky reminds us that the Civil War cost some 600,000 lives, but there was a benefit - freedom for 5 million slaves. A Southern novelist said, "The South produced many good writers ... because we got beat."  

   The Depression and World War II produced "the greatest generation." That is, those who survived.  

   Quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada once said, "Had I not broken my neck I'd probably be on my third husband, maxing out my husband's credit cards." She turned to Christ and manages a worldwide ministry/charity for the disabled.

   A Copenhagen professor analyzed internet searches for prayer in 75 countries. He found that "search intensity for prayer doubles for every 80,000 newly registered cases of COVID-19 ... Google searches on prayer have skyrocketed." 

   Olasky: "We have more time to pray, more time to read the Bible, and more time to think about our own sin." 

   Meanwhile, thousands of Americans find new ways 
to salute and support first responders, while Blue Angels and Thunderbirds make beautiful noise roaring over cities hardest hit. 

      Jimmy

Conclusion   
Who Are We?    
   
Having established our personhood and our common need of regeneration and salvation, God assigns responsibilities to us.         {Our Bible commentary} 

(1)  God created us to develop a living, personal relationship with him throughout eternity. When Satan succeeded in spoiling our perfect relationship, God promised a Savior to redeem us.

(2)  God willed that we love him above all and love our neighbors as ourselves. This summarizes his entire law (Matt. 22:37-40; Romans 13:9-10).  

(3)  God established marriage from the beginning...a monogamous, life-long relationship between husband and wife. We are to reproduce godly offspring in a family context. 

(4)  God charged mankind to "subdue" the earth and "rule over" its creatures.

(5)  We lost some of our dominion to Satan, the "god of this age." God still expects believers to take care of his world and manage it in a God-glorifying way. 

(6)  God kept his promise to send his Son. He gave believers the task of taking his message of redemptive love to the ends of the earth, and to be witnesses - light of the world and salt of the earth. 

That's who we are. 

   

Part 2 of 3   
Who Are We?    
   
Continuing with a Bible commentary on human beings and our real but damaged image and likeness of God...

   Our personhood involves spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23 and Heb. 4:12). God formed Adam out of dust (the body), breathed into him the breath of life (spirit) and he became a living being (soul). 

   God provided a "tree of life" and a "tree of knowledge of good and evil," commanding Adam not to eat of the latter. Due to Eve's and Adam's disobedience, God cursed the human race and separated the body (flesh) from spirit and soul. 

   The only remedy is resurrection of the body on "the last day." 

   The soul is sometimes translated "life," and is a synonym for "person." It is non-material mind, emotions and will. 

   The spirit is non-material life - our spiritual capacity and conscience, our principal means of contact with the Spirit of God. 

   While we are alive, believers are to stay free from immorality and evil, while dedicated to serving God. Indestructible spirit and soul survive physical death, in heaven or in hell (Rev. 6:9, 20:4; Ps. 16:10; Matt. 16:26). 

   The tree of life remains, but no longer on earth. 

Conclusion tomorrow

Who Are We?    
    
   While many of us are bidding our time, this may be an opportunity to ask: Who are we? What do we have in common? 
 

 Remember your Creator...before the dust returns to the

ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:1,7

   All seven billion of us are the most complex of all God's creatures. No others are able to learn of him and relate to him. We often forget that we are totally dependent on our Creator. 

   Essential, timeless truth is found in the Bible. Jesus is light in a dark world. We are made in his likeness, in that we can respond to him and reflect his love and holiness. He came down and declared: If you have seen me you have seen the Father.

   Adam and Eve were first to have a moral and intelligent likeness to God. They were created with spirit, mind, emotions and power of choice. 

   When the first couple sinned, the image in them was corrupted, but not totally destroyed. They passed on their tendency to sin to their children. 

   Those who choose to believe must be renewed (reborn) ... to the moral likeness of God, and apply their imperfect intelligence and love to fellowship with him.

Source: an article on Human Personhood

Continued tomorrow

The Word, 'Civilization'    
  Dr. Arnn, part 5

     "The word 'civilization' means not only peace," Dr. Arnn writes. "Civilization means that officials and authorities, uniformed or not, armed or not, are made to realize that they are servants and not masters." 
 

"Socialism or overweening State life, in peace or war,

is only sharing miseries

  

and not blessings. Every self-respecting citizen in every country must be on his guard lest the rulers demand of him in - time of peace - sacrifices only tolerable in a period of war for national self-preservation."

"Sacrifices demanded of Americans today may be necessary, but

they must never become customary.  

   The purpose of our government is to keep us alive, yes, but also to keep us living and working, as is our right." 

   "Going forward, our best leaders will eschew political gamesmanship and work to control our borders, fix our public health agencies, and end our dependence on China and other foreign countries for goods that are essential to our national health and security. We must prepare ourselves to face the next pandemic without surrendering our way of life."