Don't Wait To Say, "I Love You"
Passengers on board a Delta Air Lines flight were left fearing for their lives after their plane plunged almost 30,000 feet in just seven minutes. Flight 2353 was traveling from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale in Florida when the incident occurred, prompting passengers to text loved ones in preparation. One passenger tweeted: “I texted my wife and dad that I loved them. I told my mom I love her and hugged my son.”
This incident brought to mind what happened on 9/11. When passengers aboard the hijacked 9/11 jets and also the people in the Twin Towers realized they wouldn’t survive the ordeal, many reached for their cell phones and quietly dialed their loved ones. If no one answered, they left recorded messages with their final words: “I love you.”
They could have said: “Don’t forget to pick up the groceries.” Or, “Make sure you feed the cat.” But, of course, they were focused on their personal relationships. They desperately wanted to say, “I love you.”
Let us not wait until we are dying, or we think we are going to die, to give someone a hug and tell them that we love them.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34).
Stick With The Kitty-Litter
Megan Geuss, with arstechnica.com, reports:
The Los Angeles Times is estimating that an explosion that occurred at a New Mexico nuclear waste dumping facility in 2014 could cost upwards of $2 billion to clean up.
... The 2014 explosion apparently occurred when engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were preparing a drum of plutonium and americium waste—usually packed with kitty litter (yes, kitty litter)—and decided to "substitute an organic material for a mineral one."
"The new material caused a complex chemical reaction that blew the lid off a drum, sending mounds of white, radioactive foam into the air and contaminating 35 percent of the underground area," the LA Times wrote. The dump's filtration system, which was supposed to "prevent any radioactive releases," subsequently failed.
... That means that WIPP cleanup, including indefinite housing costs for nuclear waste around the country that was to be shipped to WIPP, could rank among the costliest nuclear waste cleanup efforts in US history, on par with clean up after Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island disaster in 1979.
You can purchase a 25 lb bag of premium Kitty-Litter at Walmart for less the $5, but because these engineers chose to disregard the tried and the true, the cleanup will cost taxpayers 2 billion dollars! They should have stuck with the Kitty-Litter!
Sometimes we’re tempted to think there’s a better way than God’s way. In a world always searching for something new and exciting, Christianity may not seem very enticing, even though its principles are tried and true.
Nevertheless, the world prefers moral and social experimentation. Rather than appreciate the gift of God's wisdom, they choose to rewrite the rules of what marriage and family should be. Only time will tell what the cost will be for the cleanup.
Although the Kitty-Litter worked every single time, they said, "Yes, but let's try this instead!" Likewise, built on the foundation of a Judeo-Christian heritage, we became the greatest nation on earth. Nevertheless, our world says, "Yes, but let's try this instead!"
Don’t allow anyone to persuade you to abandon the simplicity that is Jesus Christ.
“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
Taking Care Of Your Jerusalem
Diana first learned about photography from her dad, who once owned his own studio. Her interest continued even after her mother and father divorced. But sadly, as her father's mental health deteriorated, the family lost touch with him.
Meanwhile, Diana had became a photography student and began to use her photography to draw attention to the needs of the homeless. One day she was in Honolulu photographing Hawaii’s forgotten homeless, when she made a heartbreaking discovery--her father was one of them.
Despite her best efforts to help him, he was often unresponsive to her. Sometimes she spent days searching for him with no success. She was told “not to bother,” but she persisted, attempting to reach him through the other end of the lens.
But all of that changed in October, 2014, when he suffered a heart-attack. Finally, he agreed to let her help. Along with the treatment for his heart, he began to receive treatment for schizophrenia and is doing much better today, even interviewing for a part-time job.
(Follow link above to see pictures of Diana with her father)
One of the dangers of ministry is that we can get so caught up in helping others that we fail to see the needs within our own families. Pastors, ministry leaders and those who take their faith most seriously are especially vulnerable to this. There are people who need encouragement in the church, but there are also people in our families who need a word of encouragement. There are lost people in the world who need to be reached with the Gospel, but there are also lost people in our families who have the same need. Make sure you take care of your Jerusalem before you worry about your Judea or Samaria.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).