Arkansas Autumn

Last weekend we made a quick getaway to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We were hoping to see some beautiful fall foliage, and we certainly weren't disappointed.  The trip up Hwy 23, known as The Pig Trail, was breathtaking.  The colors were as pretty as I can remember seeing here in Arkansas.  We were fortunate to see the colors at their peak.

We have been visiting Eureka Springs for almost 30 years, but in all that time we had never visited Pivot Rock.  The Natural Bridge and Pivot Rock have been tourist attractions in Eureka Springs since the late 1800's.  They have actually attained historic status as an attraction.  We decided that we would visit them on this trip.  The attractions are along a short but steep trail.  When we visited it was a perfect fall afternoon and the short hike was beautiful.  To see a 360 degree view of the area click here.

On this trip to Eureka Springs we stayed at Sherwood Court Cottages. We have stayed there several times before really like the quaint cottages.  It was a very relaxing weekend.  We spent most of our time simply driving around this interesting town.  For a little bit of history and perspective on Eureka Springs, click here.  The fall colors were exceptional and I had a great time taking photos.

Whenever you go spend time in Eureka Springs, you will see and experience some things that are out of the ordinary.  This weekend there was a Zombie Parade.  Many of the locals dressed as Zombies and paraded down Spring Street.  I must say that it was a unique, only in Eureka, kind of experience.

Each year we try to make a trip to Eureka Springs when the fall colors are pretty.  I won't say that this has been the most beautiful year ever for fall color here in Arkansas, but I will say that I have never seen it more beautiful.  I hope that wherever you are , you were able to see some autumn beauty.

Criticize or Encourage - The Mena Star

This is my article as published in the November 7, 2013 issue of The Mena Star

As we go through life, one of the constants seems to be criticism.  I'm sure that everyone has been the recipient of criticism and has more than likely been critical of others.  Criticism is not an effective way of solving problems.  What methods should we use in place of criticism? How about trying affirmation. During the Wednesday night prayer meeting at my church, we have been studying 1 Thessalonians. We have seen that even when Paul was addressing problems he included plenty of affirmation. It's been shown that, in order to neutralize the emotional impact of criticism, one must affirm five times.

Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, "so encourage each other and give each other strength, just as you are doing now". Are you encouraging those around you or are you criticizing?  Elizabeth Harrison, a pioneer in early childhood education in America stated, "Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize".

When I was in grade school I often heard the retort, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". That statement is not true. In fact, words may not break our bones, but they certainly can damage our spirits. In Proverbs 12:18 the Bible tells us, "sharp words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal".

When we speak words of criticism we are not following God's plan. Ephesians 4:29 says, "do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you". If we want to help someone we need to encourage them, not criticize them. I need to ask myself, "Am I encouraging others"?  God's Word certainly tells us to do so.

When we encourage and help others, we are showing God’s love. I encourage you to try it. Show someone how much you value them for who they are. Encouragement can drastically change a person’s life! I recently ran across a story written by Kathy Schultz. She said that, "pink is my granddaughter's favorite color. She had been telling me this since she first discovered colors. The other night as she chatted away, she added that yellow was another one of her favorite colors."

Kathy went on to explain why her granddaughter had added yellow as a favorite color. She said that when she asked about the new favorite color, her granddaughter began by telling her that when she went to music class, Mrs. Cooke, the music teacher told her she was a bright yellow crayon, bright as the sun.

Kathy wrote, "this is a wonderful description of my grandchild! The teacher was right. She is a bubbly, cheerful, child. Truly, she is a bright ray of sunshine." She concluded by saying, "words have such power. A small statement made by her teacher had truly inspired my granddaughter. It made her even list yellow as her favorite color. I doubt she will ever forget the teacher's kind remarks. This made me think of the words I say. Do I say kind, encouraging, inspiring words to others?"

The word ‘encouragement’ means to support. When we encourage we speak words that uphold someone to bring change for the better. By our words we need to let them know that we support their dreams, pursuits, and goals. We all tend to get discouraged from time to time and need encouragement.

Colossians 3:12 tells us, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” If we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience we will be perfectly equipped to be an encouragement to others. We will not have a critical spirit.

To criticize or encourage, the choice is yours. I hope that your choice will be to encourage others. If you do, God will encourage you!

Quadrillion

Q is for Quadrillion.  In the U.S.A. and in most English-speaking countries and Arabic-speaking countries a quadrillion refers to one thousand million million, or 1,000,000,000,000,000.  Some countries use number designations based on the long scale system where every new term greater than million is a million times the previous term.  In the long scale system a quadrillion refers to one million million million million or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  How can we understand the concept of such large numbers.

To try and get an idea of what a quadrillion is take a look at this cube.  It represents 1,000,067,088,384,000; or just over one quadrillion pennies stacked in a cube. To get an idea of the scale we have from right to left, a football field, then the Lincoln Memorial, then the Washington Monument (555 feet tall), then a cube of one trillion pennies, then the Empire State Building (1,250 feet tall), then the Sears Tower (1,450 feet tall).  The cube is roughly a half-mile wide, (2,730 feet) and would weigh an astonishing three billion tons. That's a lot of pennies.

When people think of big numbers it is interesting the things that are used as symbols of big numbers.  Matthew 10:30 in the Bible says, “but the very hairs of your head are all numbered”.  So how big a number is the very hairs of your head.  According to the Harvard university website Bionumbers, the number of hairs on a human head range from 90,000 to 150,000.  Interestingly the number of hairs is different for different hair colors.  Blondes have 150,000 hairs, people with brown hair have 110,000 hairs, those with black hair have 100,000 hairs and redheads have just 90,000 hairs.

Other symbols of a big number in the Bible are found in Genesis 22:17, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore”.  First let’s look at sand which is on the seashore.  Science writer David Blatner, in his new book Spectrums, says,  "a group of researchers at the University of Hawaii, being well-versed in all things beachy, tried to calculate the number of grains of sand.  They said, if you assume a grain of sand has an average size and you calculate how many grains are in a teaspoon and then multiply by all the beaches and deserts in the world, the Earth has roughly, and we're speaking very roughly here, 7.5 x 10 to the 18th  grains of sand, or seven thousand five hundred quadrillion grains". That's a lot of grains of sand.

What about the stars of the heavens?  To get an idea of how many stars are in the universe, let’s look at a photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Astronomers picked a seemingly empty spot in the sky. Staring at the spot in the sky for ten days, The Hubble Telescope kept taking pictures one after another for the entire exposure time, accumulating data. Astronomers put the exposures together into one final picture. Each time they added an exposure, the view got deeper, revealing fainter objects. When they were done they had the deepest picture ever taken of the heavens.

The image is of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major. It covers an area 2.5 arc minutes across, one part in a million of the whole sky. The image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. That would mean that the whole universe contains a million times 10,000 galaxies. Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, contains around 400 billion stars. How many stars are in the universe?  10,000 million times 400 billion or 4 times 10 to the 21st.  That is 4 million quadrillion.  So that makes stars the champion of big numbers, right?  Yes, the number of stars in the heavens is "an unbelievably large number, but you will find the same number of molecules in just ten drops of water.   If you took 10 drops of water (not extra-big drops, just regular drops) and counted the number of H2O molecules in those drops, you'd get a number equal to all the stars in the universe.  I can't imagine how big the number is that describes the number of molecules of water that are in the earth's oceans.

This is amazing to me. For some reason, when someone says million, billion or trillion, quadrillion, I see an enormous pile of something, great sweeps of desert sand, twirling masses of stars. Big things come from lots of stuff; little things from less stuff. That seems intuitive.  But that's wrong. Little things, if they're really little, can pile up just like big things.  So next time I look up at the sky at all those stars, I will be impressed, of course, by the great numbers that are out there. But I will remind myself that at the other end of the scale, in the nooks and crannies of the physical world, in the teeniest of places, there are equally vast numbers of teenier things.

The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs.

PET - Personal Energy Transportation

P is for PET.  No it is not an animal or bird kept for companionship or pleasure, it is Personal Energy Transportation.  PET's are heavy duty hand cranked personal mobility devices designed for use by the disabled in developing countries.

I first learned about PET's from my brother-in-law.  For over a year now he has been volunteering at the PET assembly location in Columbia, Missouri.  PET International is a faith-based, volunteer-powered, humanitarian, and world-wide organization.  PET's mission is to provide appropriate mobility for all of God’s children in need. They work with all groups, religious or secular, and seek to provide mobility first for those in greatest need and with least resources in poor or underdeveloped countries.

PET began in 1994 when Larry Hills, a missionary in Zaire, Africa, told Pastor Mel West of the great need for three-wheeled, hand-cranked wheelchairs for victims of polio and landmines. Mel contacted Earl Miner, product designer and long-time friend and mission partner, and the process of the prototype design began.  In 1995, when prototype development was ready for field testing, four were shipped to Larry Hills with the instructions to put these in the worst place you can find, and see if they pass the test. Larry did, and the PETs did.   Since 1995 PET International has grown from Mel West's one stall garage in Columbia, Missouri to over 20 assembly locations. PET's are in use in 100 countries around the world.

The PET's are assembled by an all volunteer labor force.  The Columbia, Missouri location has about 90 volunteers.  My brother-in-law works there a couple of hours a day.  Many of the volunteers work just an hour or two a week, but this all volunteer work force has produced 1470 PET's so far this year.  Since 1995, 40,000 PET's have been built and distributed.

I find the PET organization fascinating.  They focus on helping a group of people that have been neglected.  Each PET is hand built by a team of volunteers who take time out of their lives to make sure that as many people as possible are given the gift of mobility.  Even though all of the labor is donated there are lots of costs associated with the project and donations are appreciated.  Donations can be made on their website.

PET International is an amazing charity that started with one man learning of a need and giving of himself to try to fill the need.  He had one goal; making life better for the poverty-stricken, neglected, rejected and disenfranchised of the world.  Even though he knew that one man couldn't help everyone in need, he knew he could help someone.  Instead of being overwhelmed by the large numbers of people in the world who need help with mobility, an estimated 20 million,   Mel West and all of those PET volunteers are making a difference in as many lives as they can. They can help even more people with your help.

PET international works hand in hand with many charitable organizations.  PET's are provided at no cost to any agencies that will:

1. Send a preliminary request to PET MO Columbia outlining the nature and extent of the need.

2. That agency will then be sent a more detailed application and begin the communication regarding a possible shipment of PETs.

3. If the application is approved and a shipment is made PET will expect the receiving agency to arrange and pay for shipping from the USA coast to the point of need.

4. As distribution is made, provide PET with the names of each recipient and a brief comment about the nature of their need.

5. Send PET photos of 20% of the recipients.

6. Continue in communication with PET as partners in the provision of mobility.

In one of the articles that founder Mel West wrote about PET he included this quote.   “We all participate in weaving the social fabric; we should therefore all participate in patching the fabric when it develops holes.” Anne C. Weisberg


The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs.

The First Lie

Has anyone ever told a lie about you?  How did you feel?  A few years ago I spent quite a little time on a local internet forum.  I enjoyed being a part of conversations on a variety of topics.  The forum was supposed to be anonymous and it was against the rules to use people’s real names. One of the participants posted lies about me and my business on the forum.  I never knew who posted the lies.  I have no idea how many people believed them.

If you have had lies told about you, I’m sure you didn't like it. Imagine how God feels when lies are told about him.  From the very beginning, Satan’s plan has been to tell lies about God.  Speaking about Satan, Jesus said, “He is a liar and the father of lies”.

Satan told the very first lie recorded in the Bible.  In an encounter with Eve, while Satan was taking on the appearance of a serpent, Eve told him, “God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”  “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.

The very first lie that Satan told was, “You won’t die”.  Interestingly many people today believe this first lie.  We know that Satan said “You won’t die”.  Let’s see what God has to say.

Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”.  James 1:15 says, “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death”.

God says that sin leads to death but many Christians say something very different.  They say that the wicked will live forever.  What did Satan tell Eve?  Even if you disobey God, You will not die.  Does the Bible really teach that God will keep people alive forever in hell suffering torment that never ends?

Let’s take a look at God’s character.  Psalms 89:14 says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.”  Justice is the foundation of God’s kingdom.

Are we to believe that our heavenly Father hates unrepentant sinners so much that He tortures them in flames through ceaseless ages? What kind of justice is that? What kind of a person would burn someone alive and deliberately prolong the process?

Many sincere people are saying, "If the Bible teaches that God tortures sinners in hell forever, then I reject the Bible. And I reject that kind of God."

In Romans 2:5,6, the apostle Paul speaks of the “righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds.”   Surely it would be all out of proportion to torture the wicked for eternity for the sins of a brief lifetime.

God has never been a vengeful tyrant—and He won’t become a vengeful tyrant when the time arrives to punish the wicked.

The Bible teaches that there is life only in Christ. 1 John 5:12 says, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”  A person burning in hell would not have a pleasant life, but he would have life. According to the Bible, the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment.

In Psalms 37:20, David said:  "the wicked shall perish, ... they shall be consumed; into smoke shall they consume away."   In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said:  "fear him [God] which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."   In 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul wrote that the disobedient "shall be punished with everlasting destruction."

Another dilemma for those who believe in eternal torment is the measure of what it cost Jesus to ransom the sinner.  Jesus gave His life to redeem man from the grave.  Sin is a capital offense. The penalty for the unrepentant sinner must match the penalty Christ paid for sin, his life, not eternal life in hellfire.

If the wicked live eternally in hell, then they have the same thing as the righteous except in a different place. Who could give them eternal life but Jesus? John 3:16 settles this issue so clearly and simply.  I like the way it reads in the new version, The Voice.  “For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life”.

Those who do not believe in Jesus will perish. They will die. They will die the second death-an eternal death from which they will never be raised. It is everlasting destruction, an endless, eternal punishment, because it is an endless, eternal death.

And what about those who believe in Jesus and receive everlasting life?  John described their future home with these words in Revelation 21:4, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Can you find any room in those wonderful words for any suffering on the part of anybody in the whole recreated universe? God said crying and pain would be no more. Would someone in eternal torment cry? Would they be in pain? If you knew that your loved ones were being subjected to the most horrible painful torture how would you feel? Would you cry?

The most wonderful news is that nobody needs to be lost or burned in any kind of hell at all. All of us can have everlasting life through Jesus Christ, through simple faith in Him, and I hope you’ll choose to have faith in Jesus.