Understanding People

John 14:27 “27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (ESV)

I recently attended a class at church. We were asked to share our greatest fear. Mine is the fear of not understanding what people say or sign. Why? Since I am hearing-impaired, almost deaf, I struggle to understand people. I am challenged with understanding the signs of my Deaf friends. I am also challenged with understanding my hearing friends or family. I am not native Deaf and my primary language is English. Somehow, being bilingually fluent escapes me. I am not like people who can be fluent in many languages. I am often afraid and without peace. Continue reading

Love Your Neighbor

Luke 10:27 ‘And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”’ (ESV)

Be Strong and Brave

Joshua 1:6-9 “6 Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them. 7 Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. 8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. 9 I repeat, be strong and brave! Donʼt be afraid and donʼt panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” (NET)

God gave Israel a land where other people lived. He gave them the land to conquer. God promised them the land. God said Joshua will lead them. It will be hard and dangerous work to conquer the land. The people will need to completely follow God’s plan. The Israelites are at the edge of the Jordan River. The people are ready to enter the Promised Land. God told the Israelites to conquer the land, and to kill all people living there. Continue reading

Love Me, Obey Me

John 14:21 “The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” (NET)

rosegarden892

September 15, 2017

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Please pardon the dust around here.  I’ve been busy with cleaning up the blog and changing to another “blog theme” to use.  Twenty Twelve, which I like, is a WordPress blog theme created, most likely, in 2012. 😊  Continue reading

Moving Forward

Becoming a believer. Knowing Jesus as Lord. Living life for God. These are all parts of my new life as a deaf Christian. The desire to serve God continues to this day in my life. Becoming active in a local church is one part of my new life. When we moved to Florida, my wife and I looked for a Deaf Church. My wife is now deafened like some others in her family. A hereditary condition. Being late Deaf means she needed to learn Sign Language. So did I also learn Sign Language to communicate with my wife. Continue reading

Decision Time

It was after attending my future wife’s church a few times that I came to a decision, or a fork in the road, of my life.  I understood what believing in Jesus was all about.  I knew that God loved me just as I am.  Indeed, God created me just as I am, deaf and hearing impaired. There are few decisions which are life altering, but believing in Jesus is one of them. Continue reading

Storms

My wife and I live in an hurricane prone state.  We live inland so most of the time we only get glancing blows.  Harvey was devastating for Houston.  While they recover with help from government and charities, Irma hits Florida.  The challenge with predictions is they keep changing. First predictions were for Irma to hit Miami and the East Coast. Then predictions shifted towards the Gulf Coast.  Then Irma “wobbled” and moved back inland. Continue reading

Mars?

Schiaparelli Hemisphere Enhanced

The planet Mars is in the news fairly often.  NASA, if not some private enterprise such as SpaceX, or a host of other countries, apparently will someday get back to the Moon and/or go to Mars.  It seems strange that my generation, in its youth, reached the moon and planted the American flag.  That was almost 50 years ago.  Since then, no one has gone beyond orbiting the Earth.  You can blame it on politics or lack of vision, but it’s awfully slow going.  We have the technology, but not the will.  At the rate it’s going, I won’t be around to see people from Earth getting to Mars!  I’ll have to watch it from Heaven.

Yes, I’m curious about Mars.  Most likely it has been a dead planet, void of life ever since it was created by God.  But, it’s part of His creation and that makes it a wonderful piece of real estate for whatever reasons.  Permanent bases, resorts, hotels anyone?  The science fiction triology about Mars by author Kim Stanley Robinson covers the possibilities.  For the most part, Mars becomes a second Earth, copying all the issues and problems of Earth.  The triology is a visionary piece of fiction about a future Mars we colonize and terraform.  So much for science fiction and one man’s viewpoint.

A popular acronym made from the letters in the word BIBLE is “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”.  Of course, that acronym only works in English.  It has some meaning for English speaking Bible believers, but the acronym is, in of itself, only a happy happenstance of the English language.

However, what if we take that in another way of “leaving”?  Bible believers would tell you they’re going to Heaven.  But, if you’re talking science fiction, or in our case, actual possible future science, what about leaving Earth for Mars (let alone the Moon and a whole bunch of other places in our Solar System)?  What does God have to say about that?  Nothing.  But then, God says nothing about all of our technology.  Technology is a two-edged sword.  It is what we do with it that matters.  It can be used for good or bad.  As long as it’s used for good, technology can be fruitful, Kingdom work.

God says believers go to Heaven after they die.  But I ask, before they die, they can move to Mars, right?  I’m assuming that Rapture, which is when Jesus returns to gather up His believers, will work the same from Mars as from Earth.  Also, if Deafness is not cured by then, there will also be a Deaf Church of Mars and Deaf people worshipping God among all the other churches.  So, how wide, how long, how high and how deep is God’s love?  (Ephesians 3:18)  As big as His entire Creation, the Universe!