Tuesday, July 31

What is man that you are mindful of him?

While really incomprehensible, try to grasp something of the absolute power of Christ. He created everything (Hebrews 1:1-3). Some of the below is from the Moody video, "The Milky Way and Beyond," and some from another source:
* In one second, our sun emits more energy than man has been able to create since Adam and Eve.
* Our sun is only an average-size star. One star, the Pistol Star, produces 1 million times the energy of the sun and has 100 times its mass.
* Our sun and entire solar system are just a pinpoint, or small speck, in our Milky Way galaxy.
* Quasars, at the extreme edge of the known universe, some 1,000 times brighter than our Milky Way galaxy, emit as much energy every second as our sun does in 10 million years.
* There are perhaps 200 billion stars just in our galaxy.
* If our galaxy were the size of the North American continent, our solar system would only be the size of a tea cup.
* While estimates continue to rise, our galaxy is just one of more than 125 billion galaxies in the universe, many of which are comprised of 200 billion or more stars.
* Astronomers say that the total number of stars in space could equal or surpass the total number of grains of sand on all the seashores of the world, and in most cases they are separated by trillions of miles.
Through the ancient prophet Isaiah, God said, "My own hands stretched out the heavens" (Isaiah 45:12, NIV).
The psalmist pondered the wonders of creation and asked God, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4, NIV).
The Bible also reveals, "For by him (Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17, NIV).
And yet, with incomprehensible love, the Mighty Creator visited this pinpoint of a planet, in a pinpoint of a solar system, in a pinpoint of a galaxy, in the vastness of the universe. He was conceived in a virgin's womb, lived a perfect life, and died on a bloody Roman cross, just because He loves you, and me. He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and before he left, He promised not only to prepare a place for us, but that He would return to earth. In the meantime, He dwells within every believer (Colossians 1:25-27).
Only He is worthy of our worship and praise.

Friday, July 27

War...What is it good for?

I just read a very thought provoking and emotional article on war. Several soldiers, who had returned from Iraq, were interviewed. Unfortunately it's too graphic to post here. If you'd like to read it, please email me lrknapp at gmail dot com. I'll send you the link. I would highly recommend reading it.

Thursday, July 26

enmity

So much pain and suffering.

Genesis 17:18-21And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.Decisions have consequences. While our decisions may not influence nations for thousands of years, our decisions will have some influence. May we look to God's Word for our guiding principals as we strive for holy living through Christ.

Wednesday, July 25

Thursday, July 19

G-Cans Project

These are photos of Tokyo's massive underground flood control system. It consists of five underground containment silos that are over 213 feet tall and 104 feet in diameter, connected by almost 4 miles of tunnels buried 164 feet below the ground. There's also a large underground water tank that's 83 feet tall, 581 feet long, and 256 feet wide! The roof of this massive chamber is supported by 59 massive pillars.

Water is pumped from these chambers into the harbor via two turbine pumps powered by the same jet engines on the 737. These engines generate 14,000 hp each and can move 200 TONS of water per SECOND!! That's almost 48,000 gallons of water per SECOND! That means in the time it takes you to read this sentence those pumps could've moved over 100,000 gallons of water! That is simply incredible. Here are the photos in no particular order.




































































































































































































Wednesday, July 18

Have YOU heard?

Norman Borlaug We should know this man.

Pictures

I've been wanting to post some pictures of our honeymoon for a long time, and I just haven't gotten around to it. In the mean time my family went on a weekend vacation to Kentucky, so I thought I'd throw some of those pictures in too. The captions go with the picture directly above them.

















This is the beautiful setting for our honeymoon. (Naples, Florida)


















This is me inserted into previously shown beautiful setting. :-)























I don't know how well you can see it, but this is a live crab. One pincher was as big as his body and the other one was much smaller.























This is me on a part of the beach that was literally covered in shells. You can see the difference between where my feet are and where my hands are. I'm picking up handfuls of broken shells.


















This is me acting brave and getting a close look at an alligator.


















This is Heidi actually being brave and holding an alligator!

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Now switch over to our Kentucky mini-vacation. We went to the Kentucky Horse Park for the day on Saturday.

















They had an Arabian Horse competition going on in the main arena.


















This is a Paso Fino. It's gait is beautiful to watch. It has the smoothest ride of any breed.


















This is some of my family petting a Tennessee Walker. My family owned some of these back in the days when I was small (around 20 years ago).



















One of the few pictures of my adorable niece smiling for a camera!

Tuesday, July 17

Wednesday, July 11

Tuesday, July 10

Unworthy

Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:


An unknown author has written: "Longfellow could take a worthless piece of paper, write a poem on it, and instantly make it worth thousands of dollars -- and it's called genius. Rockefeller could sign his name to a piece of paper and make it worth millions of dollars -- and it's called riches. A mechanic can take material worth only five dollars and make it worth five hundred -- and it's called skill. An artist can take a fifty-cent piece of canvas, paint a picture on it, and make it worth thousands of dollars -- and it's called art. Jesus Christ can take a worthless, sinful life, wash it in His blood, put His Spirit in it, and make it valuable to God -- and that's called sanctification. The Lord is in the business of taking rough, raw material and using it -- transforming men by His power to be the extension of His work in the world."

Do we stop to think of the awesomeness of sanctification? Christ, through His shed blood, can take our worthless pathetic sinful lives and turn them into something pleasing to a holy perfect sinless God.

We are so unworthy, we can't even comprehend it. Yet God loves us beyond measure and desires a relationship with us.

Often times we are tempted to try and sanctify ourselves. We strive to somehow reconcile ourselves to God through our piety and our good works. If we work hard enough, we'll please God. If we do enough good, God will be pleased. We minimize, or forget, that it's Christ that has begun the work of sanctification in a believer and that He will continue it until the end. That's a promise.

Praise Him.

Monday, July 9

Wednesday, July 4

Life's Not Fair!

Putting 'Unfair' in Perspective

Have you ever caught yourself complaining, "It's not fair.." about something that actually was pretty trivial? For example, "It's not fair that my kid doesn't get to start on his tiddlywinks team." It's not fair that that couple was waited on before us. We got to the restaurant first."
Sometimes the cry of "unfair" is over a more significant issue. "It's not fair he got the promotion I deserved." It's not fair they lied about me and got away with it." "It's not fair that my loved one has cancer at a young age."


OK, so there's a recurring theme - life's not fair. Here's a handful of perspective though about how unfair life is.


It's not fair that I get to sleep in a comfortable bed every night free from the fear of attack while people in other parts of the world live in fear. It's not fair that my kids get three square meals a day while children are starving elsewhere. It's not fair that we have medical options to help cure virtually every health problem there is when somewhere there's a person living in pain with no recourse for relief. On and on that list could go.


Are we as disturbed by how good we have it compared to the less fortunate as we are over the inequities we think we've suffered? I would suggest to you that reflecting on what the Lord has done for us serves as a wake-up call to sensitize us. No one who has received the "indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15) of salvation in Jesus Christ can justify the pathetic refrain of "It's not fair...."


Christians are those who are kept from being punished for their sins due to God's Son having accepted the penalty for them. The sinless One suffering on the cross - that was unfair! It takes a lot of nerve for us to expect that but then be so adamantly opposed to any subsequent inconvenience in our lives.


Forget for a moment all the advantages the majority of us have in the western world (to which we feel so entitled) compared to deprived people elsewhere. That's enough right there to rebuke our self-pitying for a lifetime. When you add in the benefits of eternity though, for those who are heaven bound due to having received Christ by fair and thereby being forgiven of their sings, any complaining truly becomes outrageously inappropriate.


Redirect the energy you'd otherwise use to pretest your own grievances toward appreciating all you have, and toward bettering the lot in life of someone else who is genuinely in need. In so doing, your gratitude will grow. Then, Thanksgiving won't be limited to an annual holiday. It'll be a daily reality.


"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For you with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Luke 6:38)


"And be thankful" (Colossians 3:15)

Monday, July 2

Wedding Pics

They're low resolution, but they're something. I'll post several here in case you don't want to browse through all 441 on the website.

oh, and Sandarella...not only did I not know you were going to be there, I didn't even know there was a birthday party. Your comment was the first I knew about it.

Sorry. :-(