Precious Metal Detecting

                A man came up to our door a few days ago with a request. As the day progressed I got to know him a little.....he's a man with a number of very interesting hobbies.....one of which was that he used a very elaborate metal detector to search historic areas for artifacts.....coins or relics or anything from the past that may have lay hidden for even more than a century. He asked if we might give him permission to use his metal detector in our yard. Yes he would dig....but then restore the sod. 
                Well I'm interested in artifacts also.....things that other people find. One of my prized possessions is a small cross that was found long ago on Pickett's Charge on the Gettysburg battlefield. I've often just looked at it and wondered about that scene where the small cross was either dropped or ripped off the man's body.
                So I watched the metal detecting process....and listened as he explained how it all works.....even wondering if I should get my own detector. Actually I already have one from long ago but it is not nearly powerful enough to find anything not laying in the grass. So he did find about a dozen coins....pennies a dime and a nickel....and a button....and an 1883 Indian Head Penny....(Awesome!....as our son described it)....which he cleaned up and is giving to us! So it was a good day....with a new friend made.
                 I have my hobbies....most of which involve reading. The JFK assassination would be one. I have never gotten over the implications of that day. The Titanic would be another....and the Civil War another....and Vietnam another....there are more.
                 All of these hobbies are recurring....one after another....year after year....decade after decade....wherever my mind might go....but none of them....not all of them combined....come anywhere near my....on a daily basis....pouring through the written helps of others....on the treasures that are literally everywhere....detecting them myself.....sifting and cleaning....and putting under a magnifying glass....the gold and silver and precious metals found....not in a yard....but on a battlefield....the history of man and this world....written for us to find....by the Creator of the universe Himself....and put in a book....the Bible....or the....Holy Bible as it has so accurately and wonderfully described!
                 This isn't what would be called a hobby....no more than breathing or eating would be called hobbies....but I want to share one thing that I found. Oh others have found the same thing....but I found it also. It had been lying deep in the ground until God wanted it to come to the surface....for use. When you first find it....it's hard to even recognize what it is....and has to be put under a magnifying glass....and be gently cleaned up and polished....and then there it is in pristine condition!
                  Let me digress just a little bit. One of the headlines at the top of the Drudge Report right now.....concerning the horrifying tornadoes that ripped through Nebraska and Iowa yesterday....is....WARNINGS WORKED! I sat in front of The Weather Channel last evening....for the radar is so exact that these experts could tell what small community might be hit....and in so many minutes! May I remind all of us that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees....this in Matthew 16:3...."You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."
                  Folks....just as the science of meteorology has become more precise....so are the veils being lifted on God's Word. The warnings are now easy to see and discern if we would but look! The whirlwind is here....and gaining intensity. The debris is flying everywhere....but here is a problem embedded deep within man....that needs to be detected and warned of....as we might watch a video of a funnel cloud....(as I did this morning)....destroying whatever is in its path....and then the funnel dissipated....and we go about our day as usual. The coming whirlwind of God's wrath is not something that we will watch go by and dissipate!