Living a life that's totally dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ
in anticipation of His soon return! <><<><<><
- Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in
it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
Isaiah 30:21
Jesus' words:
(...look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh! Luke 21:28)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tornadoes the most terrifying of natural disasters
(CNN) -- I had to live all over the country before I realized that Americans everywhere live with some kind of fear hanging over their daily lives.
Those who live in river towns grow up with stories of floods. West Coasters joke about earthquakes to anesthetize themselves from the omnipresent reality of the real thing. Those who live in California and the Southwest can expect drought and horrific wildfires once or twice a decade, and anyone who lives a lifetime in the Gulf area must feel like they've lived through the plagues of the Old Testament. In the South and Midwest, of course, it's tornadoes.
Having experienced a flood in Pennsylvania and the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, I would argue that tornadoes are the most unsettling of all natural disasters and the most terrifying. When you have a torrential rain, you can anticipate a flood. In many cases, at least, the direction of wildfires can be predicted. Traumatic as earthquakes are, you don't have the agony of sitting and waiting for them.
But with tornadoes, there's a horrifying time span--ranging from several hours to mere minutes--when you know it may be coming, followed by the soul- wrenching knowledge that since you don't know which way it's going to turn, you can't flee from it.
Tornadoes teach us humility. For all of our scientific technology, there really isn't a thing we can do to protect those who are caught in their path. They are conscienceless killers, coldly democratic in where and how they strike.
The age of real time media has added a new and even more terrifying aspect: You can see the disaster forming then watch as it destroys. Wednesday afternoon on CNN, I watched helplessly from the safety of my living room in New Jersey more than 900 miles away as an F5 tornado almost a mile wide bore down on neighborhoods I had grown up in and where my family and friends still live.
As I saw it rip through Tuscaloosa near the University of Alabama campus, I thought, "My God, if that veers a half a mile or so, it's going to slam into the dorms." Then, about 15 minutes later, it showed up--as predicted -- in Birmingham's west end. I tried to phone several family members, including my sister-in-law, Cheryl, to tell her that I was watching on television what she could see if she had dared open her front door. I couldn't get through, of course; all phone service, land and cell, was down.
And what would I have said to her anyway? Get out? To go where? The last place you want to be during a tornado is on the open road -- unless you're in an Abrams tank.
When I was growing up, common wisdom was that you would be safe in the basement. At least you knew where your family would be. But most new houses don't have basements. It's cheaper to build on concrete slabs; as photos of the devastation reveal, in many Alabama neighborhoods, all that's left are the slabs.
As it turned out, we were very lucky. Our families and friends were all unhurt. Or were they? The more you talk to people who got through it, the more messages you send out to people you realize you haven't heard from.
Has anyone seen or heard from George MacAdams in Sheffield? How about Ken and Tyler at the Paul "Bear" Bryant Museum? Or Patricia Simon in Mountain Brook, or Brian and Mary Shaw in Homewood? Even though there were no reports of twisters hitting their area, how do we know where they were when it hit? I still haven't had all my messages returned and flinch with every e-mail and phone call. (As I write this, Tricia checked in and they are fine.)
My sister Lorrie and her husband Richard had just returned from a trip to North Carolina -- great timing --and dashed across town to pick up Richard's mother. It wasn't clear that she would be any safer at their house than in her own, but at least she was with family.
Growing up in tornado country taught me that there isn't much one can really do when caught in a twister's path. But this recent disaster taught me another thing: There's nothing to be gained by watching it as it happens. Next time I'll turn off the TV and, after I know everyone is safe, watch the reruns. •
A truck loaded with honeybees crashed on Highway 220 in Wyoming Monday, bouncing 150-200 bee hives down the road. The bees made a nuisance of themselves until protectively-suited workers eliminated the problem. Aside from the rare bee-hauling semitrailer accident, the problem with honey bees are not their numbers, but in their lack thereof. Healthy honey bee colonies are tremendously important to farmers everywhere, but Colony Collapse Disorder has been threatening these valuable pollinators since 2006. Bees are not alone. Bats face the spread of a devastating disease in 16 states, to the concern of farmers. And while bees and bats, the farmer's friends, struggle to stay healthy, the despised stinkbug returns from its winter hibernation and is expected to destroy crops throughout the East.
Bees:
Colony Collapse Disorder has troubled bee keepers and farmers for a solid five years, worrying the agricultural industry that depends on the bees to pollinate crops. Honey bees have been dying in record numbers, and it has been difficult to nail down a specific culprit. In 2007, mites and insect diseases were blamed. Pesticides, environmental change, genetically modified crops with pest control modifications, and cell phone radiation have all been accused of causing the bee deaths. Regardless, farmers know that crops won't grow unless they get pollinated. Without bees, we all starve to death.
"Farmers say they have scores of bees fly out, land on their plants and drop to the ground, dead - or they can't even fly," said Mark Schlueter, associate professor of biology at Georgia Gwinnett College. "This could jeopardize the food supply of the whole planet."
According to the USDA, colonies lost 29 percent of their bees in 2009 and 34 percent in 2010. One major problem causing a weakness in some bee populations is the lack of food diversity. When single species crops grow as far as the eye can see with no break, bees have a hard time getting the food they need.
"So many of the problems come down to one thing, and that is monoculture. The bees can't even live there, they'll starve to death. From the point of view of nature, it's insane," says Maureen Maxwell of the New Zealand Beekeepers' Association. The problem isn't just in America; bee populations are dying around the world.
There has been some hope. Colony Collapse Disorder has been a well-known problem for the past five years, and plenty of bee businesses have started up during that time. Despite the losses, honey production rose 20 percent from 2009 to 2010 for a total of 176 million pounds last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The number of honey producing colonies rose seven percent to 2.68 million colonies in 2010. While Colony Collapse Disorder continues to be a scourge to bee-keepers and farmers alike, some progress is being made in raising more colonies. Good thing.
Bats:
While most people recognize the value of a honey bee, many fewer appreciate the significance of bat populations. Forget vampires. A bat can eat well over half its body weight in insects every night and studies have shown that a colony of 150 big brown bats can eat 1.3 million insects in a year.
Unfortunately, white-nose syndrome has been wiping out bat populations from Texas to New York since its discovery in 2006. In white-nose syndrome, a fungus grows on the bats' noses and ears and wing membranes while they hibernate during the winter. The fungus itself apparently does not kill the bats, but scientists believe it wakes them from hibernation early so that they waste their fat reserves and starve to death before the explosion of insects in the spring.
Many east coast caves that are tourist attractions have been closed to the public as wildlife experts work to stop the spread of the fungus. While humans are not susceptible to white-nose-syndrome, the spores could be transported on their clothes and shoes.
Bats eat a wide variety of insects, and farmers are dependent on their voracious appetites. Among the pests they eat are cucumber beetles, leafhoopers, and stink bugs. They eat the moths of crop-damaging worms, interrupting the pests' reproductive cycles.
Researchers in the April edition of Science estimate that wiping out the US bat populations would cost farmers more than $3.7 billion - potentially up to $50 billion. People who hate pesticides should love their local bats.
Stinkbugs:
Speaking of annoying insects, the stinkbugs are rubbing their eyes and yawning and hopping out of their winter hibernation. The brown marmorated stink bug beetle appeared in America first in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the late 1990s and has multiplied into swarms that coat houses and windows every summer. The bugs have spread to 33 states, where they promise to destroy crops like sweet corn, apples, pears, grapes, berries, peaches, tomatoes, peppers and beans. Trissolcus wasps keep the stinkbugs under control in their native Japan by eating the stinkbug eggs. However, importing these tiny wasps to fight the stinkbugs may not be the best idea if the wasps also eat the eggs of other, beneficial varieties of stinkbugs.
While the price of gold and silver rise and investors scrutinize the stock markets, the very basic food needs of the United States - and the rest of the world - are under attack. Farmers face losing large numbers of their friends the bees and bats, while pests like stinkbugs reproduce in plague-like numbers. We have a constant reminder that sin - like a disease, like a pestilence - has infected the world, and all our striving will not make it go away. We also have a constant reminder that we were created in the image of God, and in our creative power we are able to find answers to many of our physical problems. Yet, with as many advances as we make, the sin remains. The blights and bugs keep coming. Thank God, we have a Savior in the heavens who has died to heal all our diseases – even the diseases faced by entire nations. •
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This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report' – Hal Lindsey – www.hallindsey.com
Today, Syria is on the brink of collapse; Egypt is beginning its descent into Islamic fundamentalism; Nigeria teeters on the cusp of a Christian/Islamic civil war; and Saudi Arabia, furious over President Obama's foreign policy ineptitude, is reaching out in frustration to Russia and China. The only way I can put these dramatic developments into the proper perspective is to say that we are seeing end-times prophecy literally exploding before our eyes. National alignments and strategic threats thought almost impossible only a few weeks ago are now reality.
That virtually screams one thing to me: the Rapture of the Church is even closer than we believed!
But, America is filled with churches and pastors who haven't preached, taught, or thought about the Rapture in years. In fact, we'd probably be surprised at how many ministers don't even believe that Christ will return to snatch away His true believers in a blinding flash.
This week, I'll answer some of the questions that many of you have about the timing and order of events leading up to the Rapture of the Church, then to that time of terrible tribulation on the earth. We'll discuss which prophecies, if any, remain to be fulfilled before these events can occur. We'll also look at the Age of Grace. What is it and when will it end? We'll discuss exactly what will trigger the end of this current Age. That moment is known only to the Father. Even Jesus in his human nature said He didn't know the hour or the day of that event. This Age began with a mystery and a miracle and will end with a mystery and a miracle.
I believe we live in the most exciting time in history. And maybe one of the scariest! That's why it's urgent that you make certain your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your co-workers have received the gift of pardon that Jesus makes available to them. The events I discuss this week could happen at any moment, even today. You do not want them to be on this earth after the Body of Christ departs! Get ready!•
On April 24th, Ben Yosef Livnat, a 24 year old nephew of Likud party cabinet minister Limor Livnat, was shot and killed near Joseph’s Tomb on the southern outskirts of Nablus, north of Jerusalem. Several other Orthodox Jews accompanying the slain man were wounded. The incident was especially grave in that it was apparently Palestinian Authority security agents who carried out the shootings (some speculated at first that it might have been terrorists dressed up as PA policemen). A PA spokesman claimed that three cars carrying the victims approached a PA checkpoint near the sacred site where Jacob’s son Joseph was buried after his remains were returned from ancient Egypt. Israeli officials said 15 observant men from the large Breslov Hassidic sect had driven to the revered tomb in three cars without prior arrangement with either PA or IDF officials. A PA spokesman claimed the victims did not stop as requested at a checkpoint, but another report said they were fired upon by a passing PA security jeep without provocation.
Orthodox Jews throughout the disputed territories and all of Israel were incensed by the PA shootings. Thousands marched to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for the young man’s highly emotional internment. Noting at the funeral that eyewitness reports said PA security personnel kept firing on the Israeli cars even after her nephew was clearly hit by bullets and severely wounded, Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat declared that the young man’s death was “nothing but cold-blooded murder.” The cabinet minister’s father, Azriel Livnat, compared the shooting death of his grandson Ben Josef to that of the first Jew executed by British forces during the Mandate period, Shlomo Ben Yosef.
However PA security forces spokesman Adnan Damiri maintained that “armed settlers” come to pray at the tomb without official permission on many occasions, especially during Jewish holidays. He complained that IDF soldiers stationed at a nearby outpost should have halted the three Israeli vehicles before they approached the PA checkpoint, which he said would have prevented PA intervention. Still, Israeli officials pointed out that American-funded and trained PA security forces know full well that most Orthodox Jews sincerely come to the sacred synagogue to pray, not to stir up trouble. Therefore the armed intervention was excessive, to say the least. Some security sources warned that it might be an early indication that heavily armed PA police forces might support any new Palestinian uprising, as most did during the horrific Al Aksa attrition war that was launched with Yasser Arafat’s approval in September, 2000. Calls for such a new violent terrorist offensive have been increasing in recent months, endorsed by a controversial page on the popular Facebook website.
A brother of one of the four wounded observant Jews told reporters that all realized they were taking a risk by not getting official permission to pray at the site. However he also pointed out that due to the Passover holidays, their rabbi who usually coordinates such visits was not free to do so. Therefore he said the young men took the risk of just showing up at the tomb. Meanwhile the Israeli police asked a court near Tel Aviv to remand in custody three members of the Hassidic sect on charges of violating a posted restricted military zone.
Israeli media reports noted that it is a known fact that not all religious Jews clear their visits to Joseph’s Tomb in advance with PA officials. Still, they note that according to the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accord, the holy site was meant to remain under overall Israeli control, and certainly open for Jewish prayers on special occasions such as during the Passover holidays (the shooting took place just before the end of the week-long festival). On top of this, they point out that the tomb was taken over by Muslims in the Middle Ages who forbade all Jewish prayer at the site for several centuries (as they did at Abraham’s Tomb in Hebron), even though it is not an Islamic holy site per se. After Israel captured the area during the 1967 Six Day War, it was renovated and reopened to Jewish prayer. However Palestinian rioters took it back again at the end of the first week of the violent Al Aksa revolt in 2000, with Israeli Jews only gaining very limited access to the ancient holy site since then.
On another, very sad terrorist note connected to the same area, Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinians during April who were charged with the brutal early March slaughter of five members of a family living in the Jewish Orthodox community of Itamar, not far from Nablus. The three murdered children—ranging in age from an 11 year old boy to a baby girl just three months old—were knifed to death in their home just hours after completing their weekly Friday night Sabbath meal with their parents, who were also slain. Police named the two terrorists as Hakim Maazan Niad Awad, an 18-year-old high school student, and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad, 19, both from the Arab village of Awarta located just over one mile south of Itamar. Police said the suspects confessed to the vicious crime and reenacted their stabbing spree. Israel Army Radio reported that the two young Muslim men did not express even the slightest remorse for their abominable slaughter, with one actually boasting that he went back into the home to stab the baby girl to death after initially leaving her alone. Media reports said the terrorists are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) group. •
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Blessings to you and yours in these unparalleled and frightening times.-Missygirl*
Location: *Rocky Mountains* U.S.A., Colorado, United States
I'm in my late 40's, I have 4 children. I'm married, & living in beautiful Colorado! I have 10 Grandchildren! (I'm so blessed!) I've been sick with MS for 18 years already. (That's difficult!) But the biggest and best thing I can tell you about me is that I love my Lord Jesus with all my heart. He's my life!
