All posts filed under: z132

Tornado touches down near Elie, Manitoba In June 2007 Credit: Justin1569/English Wikipedia/Creative Commons

40 pre-schoolers sing “Jesus Loves Me” as violent tornado slams into their church

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After a tornado ploughed through Paducah, KY on Thursday, March 14, 2019, Sheriff Matt Carter told the West Kentucky Star: “The Almighty hand of God has provided safety to our community. The destruction path is approximately five miles long… This could have been an extremely high fatality rate and we’re very fortunate and blessed to only report that one minor injury.” That one injury involved a man who received a small cut when a grain bin hit his vehicle flipping it over in the ditch. But easily the biggest miracle involved God’s protection of 40 children and their teachers attending a Christian pres-school at Mt Zion Baptist Church as the tornado ripped off most of its roof. When the storm erupted, the teachers rushed the children into an inner room which in the end was the only area of the church not damaged by the massive tornado. While the children waited out the storm, they sang worship songs including “He’s got the whole world in His hands” and “Jesus loves me.” It reminds me of …

Sundial in Glasgow, Scotland Credit: AskMeAboutLoom/Flickr/Creative Commons

Was Jesus referring to another time dimension?

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I am not going to pretend for a moment I understand this, but researchers from the US and Russia claim they have reversed time. No this did not involve Back to the Future’s DMC DeLorean time machine, it was part of an experiment involving the bizarre world of quantum physics. We live in a linear world. We all chug down the same path getting older. We can’t stop that process. We can’t reverse time and get younger. But it seems that the rules that govern our world don’t apply in the world of Quantum physics involving the bizarre subatomic world inside atoms. Their experiments, published in Scientific Reports, involved “wave” study. Basically subatomic particles travel out like waves do on water when you toss in a rock. The more time that passes, the further away the waves are from their original starting point. This same rules apply to particles. However, in their experiment the group was able to reverse this process, and have the particle appear at its starting point instead of where it should …

One of tens of thousands of uses that men have for duct tape Credit: Mike Carroll/Flickr/Creative Commons

Don’t Do This!

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What is wrong with some people! I give them a thoughtful gift and I get flack for it! All you men out there, I’m going to need you to take warning here. Apparently giving duct tape to a new-born man-child is against the law! Here’s the story. A long time ago I worked with Insight for Living Ministries, a radio broadcast program. There were only a few guys and a flock of women. I’m not sure if flock is the right term here. But the women decided to host an at-work baby shower. The men tried valiantly to remove themselves from this trap but since it was at work only the quicker thinking boss managed to escape. Knowing it was a baby boy I had one of those aha moments. You know like when the clouds part and a ray of light hits you on the forehead with inspiration. Only I think the ray may have hit me a bit harder than it should have that day. “I am a man. A boy is a …

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Narcissism and Religion: PODCAST

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  Group narcissism can happen in religion; most of us are guilty. Imagine a peaceful and quiet nursery for mothers with new babies. Everyone is resting, and happy, with excellent medical care and a regular feeding schedule. Suddenly, the door bursts open and the room is filled with many, very tall, alien creatures. They take the babies from their mothers and squeeze and rub the babies, and disrupt all the peace and order in the nursery, including feeding schedules, and possibly they transmit infectious diseases from outside. Then they give the babies to the wrong mothers and leave. Imagine the crying babies and the hysterical mothers, and imagine if some of the babies died. That horror story happened recently, in England. Really. If you missed the news story, I left some details out. The nursery was a pig farrowing barn and the mothers were sows, the tall aliens were about one hundred animal-rights activists who invaded to cuddle and pet the piglets, to comfort them. And yes, some of the piglets died. RELATED: Vegans accused …

Shekel overlaid on a model of the Temple: Source Wikipedia/Juan R. Cuadra

¿Por qué Jesús pagó el impuesto del templo?

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English: Why did Jesus pay the Temple tax? Hay una historia interesante en los Evangelios que implican a Pedro y los cobradores de impuestos del templo. Se arrinconado el apóstol y preguntandole si él y su amo – Jesús – habian pagado el impuesto del templo. Bajo presión Pedro, expresó “sí” sin pensarlo ( Mateo 17: 24-27 ). ―Tu Maestro, ¿paga impuestos? 25 ―¡Claro que los paga! —les respondió Pedro—, e inmediatamente entró a la casa a hablarle a Jesús sobre el asunto. (Mateo 17: 24b-25 NBV) Los sacerdotes habían instituido un impuesto anual para el temple de dos dracmas (medio siclo). Fue modelado después de impuestos similares pagados en el Antiguo Testamento. Moisés instituyó un impuesto de medio siclo del santuario para ayudar a financiar el tabernáculo ( Éxodo 30: 12-13 ). Sin embargo, este impuesto sólo se recogió cuando Israel llevó a cabo un censo nacional. También había un tercio de impuestos siclo instituido anualmente para el templo en los días de Esdras y Nehemías ( Nehemías 10:32 ; Esdras 6: 8 ). Pero …

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The Time I Felt God’s Glory Show Up

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This past weekend I attended  a conference, Ask for Rain, in our city designed to bring churches together to create relationship and community. During these sessions I believe God’s glory showed up. Pastors, intercessors, prophets and teachers from various churches in our city taught, shared, prayed and prophesied during the planned intervals between worship sets that were two to three hours long. An hour before the two-day Ask For Rain event began, I met with a group of intercessors to pray. As I stood with them, I saw a massive wave rising up out of an ocean of waves and I saw Jesus being lifted up on the crest of this giant wave.  His arms were stretched out and He was positioned to fall upon the church. I had seen this same image many times in the past few weeks and as I stepped out and prayed what I saw, this passage came to my mind: ”Where I saw the brightness of the glory of Israel’s God coming from the east.  The sound I heard …

Byrde's whale off the coast of Thailand Credit: morningdew/Wikipedia/Creative Commons

Jonah, Rainer and the whale

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Rainer Schimpf, 51, is a diver and tour operator from South Africa who for nearly 15 years has filmed the ‘sardine run’ that takes place off the Agulhas Bank located off the Southern tip of Africa. Billions of sardines gather at this point and begin a northern run along the eastern coast of African continent. Of course, the sardines attract hundreds of predators including sharks, dolphins, birds and whales. This year as Schimpf was photographing a shark in the feeding frenzy, a Byrde’s whale accidentally swallowed him. Named after Norwegian whaler Johan Byrde, the whale can grow to nearly 50′ in size and weighs up to 28 tons, but tend to be more elongated than other whales. Because they eat fish as well as plankton, these whales gather at the annual “sardine run.” A photographer on a nearby boat caught the whale swallowing of Schimpf (see video below). Schimpf told Barcroft TV, that he knew the whale had swallowed him when everything went completely dark and he felt pressure around his hips. Schimpf said: “Nothing …

Statue of Christ at the bottom of Lake Michigan Credit: petoskeyarea.com

Why is a life-sized statue of Christ resting at the bottom of Lake Michigan?

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On top of Corcovado Mountain, overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there is a 30-meter high statue of Jesus. Called Christ the Redeemer, the 635 metric ton statue was installed on the mountain in October, 1936 and has become a cultural landmark for Brazil. And at the bottom of Lake Michigan, the second largest of the Great Lakes that straddle the Canadian-American border, there is a life-sized statue of Jesus on the cross, sitting 21 feet beneath the surface of the water. It is located about 800 feet out in the middle of Little Traverse Bay, just off shore from the town of Petoskey. The marble statue is 11 feet high and weighs 1,850 pounds. The sculpture of Christ is 5’5″ tall. Though it is nowhere near the size of Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer, when the conditions are right, it draws hundreds of people. People are only able to view the statue when Lake Michigan freezes over thick enough to walk on, as it did this year. When the conditions are right, town’s people cut a …

Credit: Nikolai Vassilieve/Flickr/Creative Commons

Does God still heal today? An Interview with Andy Becker: PODCAST

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PODCAST NOTES: Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this episode I am interviewing Andy Becker and asking the question: “Does God still heal today?” Andy is lead of Lighthouse Ministries, an outreach ministry that provides hot soup, friendship and a church service to people of the core area of Regina. He is also a writer and speaker and I’ve been wanting to interview him about a healing experience that he had in April, 2016. Dean: Welcome Andy ANDY BECKER: Thank you for inviting me here. Dean: So can you tell me a bit about yourself and what was going on before you were healed? ANDY: Sure. First perhaps a bit of background on me though might be useful to help your listeners gain some perspective. I worked as a counselor for a a long time and at one time I was an Acting Clinic Coordinator for an addictions program. Then I also worked for Insight for Living Ministries, which is Chuck Swindoll’s radio program. My last position was as Executive Director for a …

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Don’t Make Me Come Down There!

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I have a sign that reads: Don’t make me come down there! God How many of us remember one of our parents yelling that to us when we were kids? Never, ever, in the history of my life was that a good thing. Just once it would have been good to have my Mom say “Don’t make me come down there and give you treats!” That would have been cool. But maybe parents aren’t supposed to be cool. That sign always make me smile and my sister in law, Carol, taped a personal note to the back side of it tells me how special I am and that God would be pleased with me even if he had to come down here. Imagine God actually coming down here. Go ahead close your eyes. Unless you’re driving, then don’t close your eyes. So God comes down to your house or room. Would he really be pleased with you? Or would he be carrying a big stick bent on punishing you for your latest bit of stupidity? …