All posts filed under: z287

Near-Death Experiences: Is God telling us something?

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We had a small problem yesterday. It was very small. While cleaning dust on the floor, someone bumped our Wi-Fi receiver. I think that’s what the small plastic box is called. As a result, we lost all of our Internet connections, including on television, computers and tablets. Don’t cry for me, that is definitely a first world problem, as thousands are desperate to escape death in Afghanistan, and COVID is still with us. For me, a wire came loose from a plastic box; but as a result, everything in my life changed, and I lost a lot of my contact with the world around me. Imagine the sudden loss of all Wi-Fi connections. I did wonder if God was trying to tell me something. The problem ended this morning when a technician fixed the problem and restored the connection, like it never happened. I wonder if that’s what it feels like to die. The world around me is filled with big important things and I am busy, and when a “wire comes loose” and it …

Why Do People Sometimes Collapse in the Presence of God?

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By Rick Renner And when I [John] saw him [Christ], I fell at his feet as dead…— Revelation 1:17 Over my years of serving God, I have noticed that often when people have encounters with God, they physically fall. Sometimes they fall forward, and at other times they fall backward. Still at other times, they simply collapse onto the ground. I have seen this in many meetings — and I experienced it as a young man. I can tell you, the experience was real. My experience occurred the first time I ventured out from my Baptist church and attended a Pentecostal type of service. Just prior to that, I had been released from the hospital where I had been diagnosed with a kidney condition — one that I was born with — that was very serious. It was so serious that to try to correct it required surgery that was considered life-threatening. When the man praying for the sick in this Pentecostal meeting invited the sick to come forward, I went to the front to …

One prescription for mental stress

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I was watching an interesting video the other day by famed University of Toronto psychologist, Jordan Peterson, and he was talking about the mental health struggles that people go through. He compared this problem to a balloon that if you keep pumping air into it will eventually blow up. But, he noted, that this break will take place at the balloon’s weakest point. He says that the same thing happens to people. When life starts getting complicated, and things start piling up, and we are hit with multiple issues at the same time, job loss, health issues, marital problems, the death of family or friends, the pressure builds until sometimes we break at our weakest psychological point. And we are living in very complicated times, with all those issues compounded by a virus, lockdowns and growing societal unrest. So, how to we deal with stress during these anxiety-filled days? Several years back, two researchers, Joshua Brown and Joel Wong, decided to study the impact that thankfulness has on a person’s mental well-being. In their article, …

They were paid to read it, but how many did?

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The $1 trillion infrastructure bill that the Senate approved on Aug 10, 2021 was 2,701 pages long. As a point of reference, most Bibles are roughly a 1,000 pages. And before it passed in a 69-to-30 vote, Fox New’s Larry Kudlow was wondering how many senators would fully read the legislation before voting. And, if legislation written by Tom Moore, Jr in 1971 is any indication, probably none of the senators did. Moore served as a Democrat member of the Texas House of Representatives between 1967 and 1973. One of his chronic complaints is that members of the House were not reading the legislation that they were approving. And to prove his point, Moore introduced legislation on April 1, 1971 commending Albert de Salvo. Nobody even picked up on the fact it was introduced on April’s Fool’s Day. The bill was passed unanimously by the House. Like all the members of the Texas House of Representative, you are probably not familiar with the name Albert de Salvo, but you are undoubtedly familiar with the name …

Atheists have faith, 85% believe in aliens

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I recently read an interesting article published by Religion News Service that reported on a Pew survey conducted this year on the belief in alien life. While atheists enjoy mocking Christians because of our belief in God, the poll found that atheists, despite their claims of being evidence-based, also have faith, as most believe in the existence of aliens. According to Pew’s survey conducted in 2021, 85% of atheists/agnostics said they believed in little green men. But they weren’t alone, as the same survey revealed that 80% of nones, those with no religious affiliation, also claimed they believe in aliens. Though certainly not as high, overall 57% of Christians similarly claimed they believed in the possibility of life on other planets, but when broken down by religious affiliation, Evangelicals at 40% were among the lowest to hold such an opinion. And if a survey conducted in 2014 by Astronomer David Weintraub is any indication, atheists’ belief in aliens is growing. The Vanderbilt University professor conducted a similar survey for his book, Religions and Extraterrestrial life, …