The following post is over a year old:
I have a few peripheral fascinations in life and one of them would be the Titanic. I never saw the James Cameron film. Oh I did pay for a ticket and sit in one of the comfortable seats with every intention of watching the movie but I walked out about a half hour into the film as its message started to unfold. I watched the 1958 black and white A Night To Remember when I was a child.....and I watched it again for the umpteenth time last night.
With a little research I came up with this quote from the main female character in the Cameron film..."....there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me...in every way that a person can be saved." It reminded me of a real life quote from the sinking of the Titanic. I've written about this before. John Harper was a British Baptist pastor and passenger on the Titanic. He was headed to America as a guest preacher and possibly to accept a call at a famous American church. He was travelling with his six year old daughter for he was a widower. After he placed his daughter in a lifeboat it is reported that he shouted "women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats."
It is also reported that as he swam up to other people, and as hypothermia was setting is, he challenged them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a meeting of survivors in Ontario, Canada a few years after the disaster. One man stood up and testified how John Harper swam up to him twice as he was holding on to debris and said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John Harper with no life vest for he had given it to another sank to his death. The man giving this testimony was rescued by a returning lifeboat. He told the gathering this..."I am the last convert of John Harper." Yes, I walked out of Cameron's film and will never view it.
I believe that the sinking of the Titanic was a message to Britain and to America. Everyone thought that the great ship was unsinkable. Two world wars followed. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew...male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American...Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the breakup of the Challenger are still hard to look at.
We don't seem to learn from disasters but we do sometimes learn when we are in them and this world has disasters ahead of it. May the church include preparation in its everyday duties and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship... only as they point to eternal life...."Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship."
My wife and I made our annual pilgrimage this past Saturday to to an Ohio craft show.....a three week-end event that is attended by thousands. It was elbow-to elbow at times and I spotted a man with a t-shirt that read.....MAKE AMERICA GRATEFUL AGAIN. I took the time to tell him that I agreed with the message. The following post is from last month:
We Don't Want To Hear It.....It's As Simple As That
We don't want to hear about God judging America. We just don't want to hear it. It's as simple as that. We are a people that want to get for ourselves what we want for ourselves....what we feel that we deserve. The old days where Americans actually felt some kind of thankfulness not only for those who worked and sacrificed for centuries to give us the nation that we once had but thankfulness to God for blessing this land with spacious skies and amber waves of grain....that's no longer us. Half of us....or at least close to half of us....can no longer think through existential issues....our progressive educational system having insured that we are to be followers and not leaders....producers and not thinkers.
We cannot grasp the problem of a now twenty-one trillion dollar deficit. If we ignore it it will go away. Go to usdebtclock.org for an up-to-the second accounting. Give the terrorist what they want and surely they will be happy and let us alone. Communism is just a name from the past....and whatever it was.....it doesn't really exist anymore. In fact if any threat to America does grab our attention for more than a few days we just go full-steam into our entertainments....that's where reality is....cable TV shows and professional sports and celebrities....or on our side we could just go to Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh....and if we want evidence that we are all right all we have to do is check the Dow Jones Industrial Average....and then go outside for a walk....the birds are still chirping....the squirrels and rabbits still play and chase each other around....and no one seems overly concerned.
I can see the total lack of vigilance in the long-term decisions that younger people make. There's no room in those plans for emergencies.....or for war....or even for another Great Depression. They don't show the slightest concern that the world governments have emergency plans to change the entire structure of money and the way that we buy and sell....that is if this emerging New World Order even lets us have all of our money. Although I admit that whereas we used to laugh at such suggestions of a New World Order....today many don't laugh....they know that the plans are real....they just relegate the possibility to years down the road.....and they won't take the time to read up on it.
On our side of this mess we search for churches that exude happiness in a world of turmoil. A giant church with a latte bar and exercise classes does the trick. Don't believe me? Go and read their church websites. There is little to no mention of repentance on them for that would be church growth killer. Their listed 'beliefs' are given about as much weight as directions to the church....and their sermon titles are charmingly unobtrusive. Ask them about the omission of any warnings and they will tell you that you just have to trust God! You mean like trusting Him when He give us warning after warning for decade after decade?
God sent Jonah to Nineveh with a warning. The Ninevites repented. A century or so passed but God then sent Nahum to the same people. This time there was no offer of forty days or even four years. It was a proclamation of imminent judgment. God sent Jonah after Jonah to America for the past half century....all the warnings were ignored....and the message of Nahum is to us now....read it if you will at your leisure.
This is a time of preparation.....physically but more importantly spiritually.....but you won't hear that message in too many of our pulpits....why....as I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.....we don't want to hear about God judging America....we just don't want to hear it....it's as simple as that.
I have a few peripheral fascinations in life and one of them would be the Titanic. I never saw the James Cameron film. Oh I did pay for a ticket and sit in one of the comfortable seats with every intention of watching the movie but I walked out about a half hour into the film as its message started to unfold. I watched the 1958 black and white A Night To Remember when I was a child.....and I watched it again for the umpteenth time last night.
With a little research I came up with this quote from the main female character in the Cameron film..."....there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me...in every way that a person can be saved." It reminded me of a real life quote from the sinking of the Titanic. I've written about this before. John Harper was a British Baptist pastor and passenger on the Titanic. He was headed to America as a guest preacher and possibly to accept a call at a famous American church. He was travelling with his six year old daughter for he was a widower. After he placed his daughter in a lifeboat it is reported that he shouted "women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats."
It is also reported that as he swam up to other people, and as hypothermia was setting is, he challenged them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a meeting of survivors in Ontario, Canada a few years after the disaster. One man stood up and testified how John Harper swam up to him twice as he was holding on to debris and said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John Harper with no life vest for he had given it to another sank to his death. The man giving this testimony was rescued by a returning lifeboat. He told the gathering this..."I am the last convert of John Harper." Yes, I walked out of Cameron's film and will never view it.
I believe that the sinking of the Titanic was a message to Britain and to America. Everyone thought that the great ship was unsinkable. Two world wars followed. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew...male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American...Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the breakup of the Challenger are still hard to look at.
We don't seem to learn from disasters but we do sometimes learn when we are in them and this world has disasters ahead of it. May the church include preparation in its everyday duties and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship... only as they point to eternal life...."Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship."
My wife and I made our annual pilgrimage this past Saturday to to an Ohio craft show.....a three week-end event that is attended by thousands. It was elbow-to elbow at times and I spotted a man with a t-shirt that read.....MAKE AMERICA GRATEFUL AGAIN. I took the time to tell him that I agreed with the message. The following post is from last month:
We Don't Want To Hear It.....It's As Simple As That
We don't want to hear about God judging America. We just don't want to hear it. It's as simple as that. We are a people that want to get for ourselves what we want for ourselves....what we feel that we deserve. The old days where Americans actually felt some kind of thankfulness not only for those who worked and sacrificed for centuries to give us the nation that we once had but thankfulness to God for blessing this land with spacious skies and amber waves of grain....that's no longer us. Half of us....or at least close to half of us....can no longer think through existential issues....our progressive educational system having insured that we are to be followers and not leaders....producers and not thinkers.
We cannot grasp the problem of a now twenty-one trillion dollar deficit. If we ignore it it will go away. Go to usdebtclock.org for an up-to-the second accounting. Give the terrorist what they want and surely they will be happy and let us alone. Communism is just a name from the past....and whatever it was.....it doesn't really exist anymore. In fact if any threat to America does grab our attention for more than a few days we just go full-steam into our entertainments....that's where reality is....cable TV shows and professional sports and celebrities....or on our side we could just go to Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh....and if we want evidence that we are all right all we have to do is check the Dow Jones Industrial Average....and then go outside for a walk....the birds are still chirping....the squirrels and rabbits still play and chase each other around....and no one seems overly concerned.
I can see the total lack of vigilance in the long-term decisions that younger people make. There's no room in those plans for emergencies.....or for war....or even for another Great Depression. They don't show the slightest concern that the world governments have emergency plans to change the entire structure of money and the way that we buy and sell....that is if this emerging New World Order even lets us have all of our money. Although I admit that whereas we used to laugh at such suggestions of a New World Order....today many don't laugh....they know that the plans are real....they just relegate the possibility to years down the road.....and they won't take the time to read up on it.
On our side of this mess we search for churches that exude happiness in a world of turmoil. A giant church with a latte bar and exercise classes does the trick. Don't believe me? Go and read their church websites. There is little to no mention of repentance on them for that would be church growth killer. Their listed 'beliefs' are given about as much weight as directions to the church....and their sermon titles are charmingly unobtrusive. Ask them about the omission of any warnings and they will tell you that you just have to trust God! You mean like trusting Him when He give us warning after warning for decade after decade?
God sent Jonah to Nineveh with a warning. The Ninevites repented. A century or so passed but God then sent Nahum to the same people. This time there was no offer of forty days or even four years. It was a proclamation of imminent judgment. God sent Jonah after Jonah to America for the past half century....all the warnings were ignored....and the message of Nahum is to us now....read it if you will at your leisure.
This is a time of preparation.....physically but more importantly spiritually.....but you won't hear that message in too many of our pulpits....why....as I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.....we don't want to hear about God judging America....we just don't want to hear it....it's as simple as that.
