Some Day...the Son's Day    
   
   As we watch with sadness the mayhem occurring in our cities - we've seen this dance before - let's remember that some day this troubled earth will be gone, removed as easily as it was created. A new heaven and earth appears. Revelation 21.

   Those whose names are written in the Book of Life (God keeps records) will dwell there with our glorious Creator and the Son forever. 
Here, we can't see Almighty God and survive (remember Moses on the mountain?) 
There, we will live in his beautiful light. 

   The old order of things will pass away. To erase all trace of sin, the universe cannot remain in the presence of God's righteous kingdom. 

   You can read chapter 21 for yourself. We offer a little Bible commentary:
   

The final goal and expectation of NT faith is a new world.

All the redeemed will have bodies like that of 
resurrected Christ, incorruptible, immortal.

Effects of sin - sorrow, pain, unhappiness, death - gone! 

God declares who will inherit the blessings of the

new heavens and earth - the faithful who overcome.

   

~ ~ ~

   

   We were encouraged that the coronavirus may be causing people to reconsider faith. Suddenly, we are reminded that America's biblical foundation is not shared by all. Maybe it never was quite what we thought - love your neighbor...love your enemies...do to others as you would have them do to yourself...honor one another above yourselves.    

   What a contrast between two astronauts and hundreds of agitators and outright anarchists, and those who support them. 

   Can we pray for them? God is "not willing that any should perish." 

   Hell is infinitely worse than whatever happens to us in this life. Are rioters concerned about George Floyd's eternity? Or their own?  

      Jimmy

USA in Old Testament   
    
   Think we're kidding? Turn to Daniel, chapter 2.  

Background: Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (605-539 B.C.) had a dream. 
He summoned his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers. He was so disturbed he threatened to cut (them) into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble - if they couldn't interpret the dream. They couldn't.  

   Daniel and his three friends, Jewish captives now serving the king, would have been included in a massacre of "wise men." Daniel asked the king for time. They prayed. During the night God gave Daniel the mystery, which he relayed to the king. 

An enormous, dazzling statue  
   The head was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

   A rock was cut out, but not made by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay. Then all - was broken to pieces like chaff on a threshing floor. The wind swept them away. But the rock became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. 

   You are that head of gold, Daniel told the king. After you, he continued, there would be second, third and fourth kingdoms. 

   As for feet and toes, this will be a divided kingdom. Following that, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. It will endure forever. This is the meaning of the rock. 
   
Who are the four?  
   1. Babylon  2. Medo-Persia  3. Greece  4. Rome. Modern states are part of the same world system which must be destroyed (Revelation 19) before Christ establishes his kingdom. The United (?) States of America is among the feet and toes.

      Jimmy

It is finished     
    
   Jesus was talking about you when He said his last words on the cross.
John 19:30.  
  

We came across an article (dayspring.com), having printed it 

two years ago for future use. Today, time's up! 

       Before you discount that statement, remember that Jesus didn't waste words, and certainly not on the cross. He wasn't merely stating the obvious: it's over. 

   Jesus declared our sins forgiven, once and for all, price paid! We may have heard this before, but have we settled it in our hearts? 

   We can know something for years without fully accepting it as certain. We might even be coached a bit by the evil one...you know, the spirit that so easily fooled Eve.  

   Can we look into a mirror and say, Jesus was talking about me? It may be hard because we have memories, shame, guilt and mistakes gone by.

   Christ paid the price for every sin no matter how great, long before we were born. Our difficulty is accepting forgiveness, which is painful, humbling...and mandatory. (Repentance is assumed here.)  

   A pastor spoke the words - Jesus was talking about me - into a mirror numerous times until his heart had a hard time rejecting them. Truth began to win. Lies were destroyed. 

   We all can mirror talk, or write it down however many times until we believe. 
Peace and joy await our commitment to the Lord's work on the cross.

       Jimmy

Who Said It?     

1.   "The greatest miracle is turning a heart of hate into a heart of love." 

2.   ""There can't be anything more horrendous." 

3.   "The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that." 

4.   "The most effective organization in the U.S. No one even comes close in respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use."   

5.   "Tens of millions of people have no voice, no representation, nobody who even understands them or can explain what they're thinking." 

6.   "The tilt of freedom toward evil ... stems from a humanistic and benevolent concept to which man ... does not bear any evil within himself, and all the defects of life are caused by misguided social systems, which must therefore be corrected." 

7.   "The modern conception of Progress or Evolution is simply a myth, supported by no evidence whatever." 

8.   "China's leaders are skillful at using [multilateral, international organizations that are supposed to constrain her] to pursue their own interests. President Xi Jinping made it a priority to reform and lead in the global governance system, as integral to building a modern, strong socialist country." 

~

1. Ravi Zachariah 
2. U. of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, on abortion 
3. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on coronavirus cases 
4. Peter Drucker, management expert, on the Salvation Army    
5. Mollie Hemingway, explaining Trump supporters 
6. Alexander Solzhenitsyn 
7. C.S. Lewis  
8. Andree Seu Peterson  



  

A Special Day 

What's Next?   
Can't Go Back 
   
   Short term, we can go back. Leave the house, and barring the unusual, we always go back. 

   Long term, the world doesn't go back. Some cultures never went forward.

   Columnist Janie B. Cheaney, always thought provoking, writes of One Way signs throughout history. Adam and Eve couldn't go back. Generations before the Flood were cut off. Nimrod and his followers wanted to make a name for themselves. God broke up the party. Who ever heard of multiple languages?  

   Human ambitions arise, succeed and fail with regularity, she writes. 

   Our great economy? We aren't going back anytime soon - to cheap air fares, cheap consumer goods, huge sporting events, conventions, conferences, restaurant meeting rooms, traditional higher education, mega churches, jobs for anyone, and hope of life without risk.  

   Bad enough that we deal with a pandemic; we cope with politicians at every level.  
    
   Freedom anyone?

   Cheaney sees some One Way signs: more home schooling, home cooking, camping and outdoor activities, national and state parks, online/virtual everything, road travel, crafts and trades, and families rediscovering themselves. Wait a minute! Isn't most of this going back? For the better? 

   She also sees a smaller Church, but - God willing - an energized Church dependent on the Holy Spirit alone. That's all 120 believers had in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. And they never went back. 

       Jimmy

Surprises in History   

   Secretary of State William Seward broke his jaw in a carriage accident nine days before Lincoln's assassination. He was helpless in bed when an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth came to murder him. 

   Doctors had arranged metal plates that covered his throat and set his jaw in place. The assailant knifed him at least four times in the throat, but kept hitting the plates. If Seward had died, America would not have acquired Alaska from Russia in 1867. And in 1962 the Soviets would have had missiles in Juneau as well as Cuba. 

   While negotiating for Alaska, for which he was mocked, Seward filed papers to give America title to Midway Atoll, which no other nation claimed. The Battle of Midway in 1942 was the turning point in our war with Japan. 

   Theodore Roosevelt survived the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898, against the odds. He escaped assassination in 1912 when a folded-up speech and an eyeglasses case slowed down a bullet aimed at his heart. He delivered a speech for an hour with the bullet in him. 

   Franklin Roosevelt didn't know his VP, Henry Wallace, was deeply involved with the Communist Party and with an Eastern cult. At the 1944 Democratic convention, Harry Truman unexpectedly replaced Wallace on the ticket. Otherwise, we would have had a New Age communist president when FDR died in spring 1945. Wallace years later admitted he was wrong about Joseph Stalin. 

                        Excerpts by Michael Medved, talk show host.

        Jimmy

Instruments, or a capella?   
    

   Aren't you glad we can't sing these blogs to you? 
No more than we are happy with our routine 
keyboard (not a piano). 

   Growing up, we sang hymns in church while an organist played along. As an adult, we realized the music and God-glorifying words touched me like nothing else could. Around age 30, long a church attender without true faith, we began a journey toward faith. Credit the music within. 

   In this more "fundamental" church there was a piano, okay, and different hymns helped me grow in the Word. We sang bass in the choir; no one got up and left. 

   Fast forward another 20 years. Mrs. and I joined a large church with - ready? - a pipe organ. Was this heaven? At times we couldn't hold back the tears. And for an hour after service we remained "high," at no cost. The world wouldn't understand. 

   But music alone wasn't fellowship with the Lord. Outside the "temple" He expected my attention in other ways.

   Next, God provided employment in South Carolina. While Mrs. wrapped up affairs in Pittsburgh, we checked out churches in Dixie. One church used no instruments, and I thought that was strange.

   But, didn't God give us a voice to sing his praises? Do we have to surrender our voice to instruments every note, chord and stanza? 

   Now in Florida, our church has a piano, an electric keyboard and guitars. When sometimes the instruments go silent, and we just sing out, He touches me all over again.

         Jimmy

 Friday Faith    

Life is too short, the Gospel too important, 

the return of Christ too eminent to be at odds with each other. 

   If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Cor. 11:20

   If we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.  

1 Cor. 11:31

   You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest (pray), and give him no rest till he (establishes what he has declared to do).

Isa. 62:6-7 

   May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thess. 5:23

   Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

Titus 3:1 

Favorite Sports Quotes       

    

With no games to cover, some Tampa Bay Times 

writers dug up several dozen quotes from former 

sports figures in the area. We give you our favorites:

   Steve Spurrier was quarterback on the first Buccaneers team. In the stands his wife asked their 9-year-old daughter why she was booing her Dad. I don't know, because everyone else is, she replied.

   The rookie kicker said he was nervous when coach John McKay closely watched his practice kicks. After learning of this, McKay said, Please inform Mr. Rajecki that I plan to attend all games. 

   The more we drank, the more it made sense. Later, they were surprised to learn they had invested in hockey. They thought we said sake. Phil Esposito, Lightning founder, in a deal with Japanese investors.
   
   Hopefully, we hit rock bottom and from here it will change. Rays manager Larry Rothschild, who was fired the next day after a 4-10 start to the season. 

   Do you know who I am? I'm Vincent Joseph Naimoli, owner of the Devil Rays. That's my wife. From a St. Petersburg Police report. She had run a red light. 

   The only thing that keeps this organization from being recognized as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses. Chuck LaMar, general manager of the Rays who finished last in six of their first seven seasons. 

   And my No. 1:

   Asked about the execution of his team, John McKay said, I'm in favor of it. 

      Jimmy

Plagues in Perspective     
   
   How does the Wuhan virus compare with infamous plagues throughout history? Some 250 thousand and counting have died. The U.S. has suffered about a quarter of the world's total. All counts are estimates. 

   Antonine Plague took 5 million lives 156 to 180 A.D. Facts are few, but a physician recorded symptoms that resemble smallpox and measles. Armies and traders returning from Asia helped begin the fall of the Roman Empire.

   Plague of Justinian, possibly the first bubonic plague, hitting in 541 A.D., killed 30 to 50 million. Our source article says it likely arrived on fleas hitching rides on rodents. Again, data is scarce, but a historian wrote that many thought the end of civilization was near.

   The Black Death was the worst ever, claiming 75 to 200 million lives. 
This bubonic plague swept Africa, Asia and killed about half of Europe between 1347 and 1352 A.D. Fleas and lice traveling on rats had bacteria that caused blackened skin.  

   New World Smallpox accounted for 25 to 55 million deaths as explorers arrived in the Western Hemisphere around 1520 A.D. They brought smallpox, measles and other viruses. Possibly 80 to 95 percent of the Native American population was wiped out within the first 100 to 150 years following 1492. 

   The Third (bubonic) Plague took 12 million mostly in China and India in 1855. By the end of the century infected rats had carried it to six continents. 
It disappeared in the 1940s. 

   The 1918 flu (through 1920) led to 50 million deaths, 675,000 in the U.S.
Some 500 million were infected, including President Woodrow Wilson. 

   The HIV/AIDS pandemic has taken more than 36 million lives since 1981.
New treatments have saved many, but millions still succumb.

   We added up the smaller estimates of these seven plagues, 233 million, and the larger guesstimates, 408 million.

       Jimmy

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."