Why Did God Let Them Die?

I was a US Navy sailor on board the USS Goldsborough, DDG 20.  On December 19, 1972, we were making a night time gunfire strike off the coast of North Viet Nam, when we found ourselves being the target.
I was an operations specialist and my post during our gun strikes was in Combat Information Center (CIC), at a table covered by a sea chart.  Petty Officer Taggert and I plotted our course on the chart, and read range and bearing to the target for input into the computer.  Once the computer could calculate where the target was on its own, the guns would be fired. 
That night the Commodore and Executive Officer were there as we fired upon our first target of the night.  We were with two other ships as we made a run in towards the shore further north than we had ever been before.  It was the first mission of two we were scheduled to do that night.
After firing upon our target, we started to receive counter-battery fire.  We steered in a zig zag pattern and fired chafe.  Instead of losing them, the explosions increased.  The shore batteries had targeted the center ship, the Goldsborough.  The explosions could be heard outside of CIC as shrapnel fell on the metal walls and deck above. 
We kept trying counter measures but nothing worked.  We fired at suspected artillery sites, but nothing seemed to diminish the shells falling down around us.  We heard a shell explode fairly close to us.  Taggert looked up at me.  “We’ve been hit.”
He was right.  One of the shells had struck the ship on the 01 level killing HTC Donald Dix and BM1 Robert Dow instantly, as they sat directly below the explosion in the After Chief’s Quarters.  Six others were wounded and one of them, HT2 Gary Boyce, died later at the Air Force Hospital at Clark AFB in the Philippines.
We finally were able to get out of range of the shore battery, to attend the wounded and begin repairs on the ship.  Thankfully, we were only lightly damaged but, after being struck by the artillery shell, we did not go on to our second mission of the night.
My best friend on board was a Christian, who questioned God about the deaths.  Why would God allow three of our shipmates to die?  He had prayed for protection of the crew.  He had called upon God to post Angels at the bow and the stern of the ship to protect us, but he said that God had failed and allowed the three men to die.
Why had God allowed them die?  Why does God allow death to occur even when we pray and believe that He will answer our prayers?  Doesn’t God care?  Isn’t he capable of protecting us?  I am sure He does care, and that He does answer prayer.  Let me tell you how I think God answered my Christian brother’s prayer that night.
After we had been hit the ship went out further from shore where a helicopter came and picked up two of the crew that had been badly hurt.  We were at General Quarters for hours as we pulled ourselves together again in the aftermath.
As I stood there waiting with everyone else in CIC, one of the senior petty officers pulled back the chart we had been working on and showed me what was underneath.  There was the chart for our second mission.  It showed our planned course and targets.  I stared at it in shock.  Our next mission had been to make a run on Haiphong Harbor.
What would have happened if we had attacked Haiphong Harbor?  We knew about missile boats being there.  I am sure that if we had struck the North Vietnamese there, shore batteries and Migs would have been after us as well.  The likelihood of us being hurt worse, than we had been on that first mission, would have been extreme.  I am no expert about such things, but if we had done the second mission, there is a good chance we may not have come back at all.
If we had been hit on the first mission and no one had been killed, we would most likely have attempted the second one.  I firmly believe that those three men were sacrificed to save the rest of us.  I cannot  prove that this was what God did;  however, I believe it was not God’s desire for those men to die, but He was willing to lose them so that hundreds of others might live.  It was sinful man’s decision to put men’s lives in danger, not God’s.
There are times in our lives when God allows disaster to happen, and we wonder, “Why God?  Why did you allow this?” Can God really be  a God of love and still allow such things?
He does not desire tragedy in our lives.  He wants us to have an abundant and fruitful life.  Man, however, works his sinful will in this world and brings death.  Man, not God, is the author of death and pain.
Whatever tragedy is in your life you can trust one fact absolutely.  God is there with you.  He cries with us and tries to comfort us if we will let Him.  When man causes adversity God will sometimes allow such misfortune to occur so that something far worse would not happen. 
Rest in Jesus and know that He loves you.  Trust that whatever happens in your life, God allows it for good and not evil.  We may not know why a tragedy occurs in this life, but God does, and we can trust in His love.

Technorati Tags: war, death, tragedy, Nam, Navy, destroyer, Goldsborough, battle, God, Jesus, Christianity, sorrow, , pain, wounded,

The Most Spectacular Artist Quiz

My father was an art teacher.  My mother enjoys painting.  My favorite class in High School was Art.  I guess art is something that is in my blood.  I always enjoyed creating something different from what anyone else would create.  I was sitting at my computer this morning when a thought came to me.  Who is the most spectacular and imaginative artist?
This is probably a pretty easy quiz, but one that I think you will enjoy.  Just click on the name of the person you think is the most spectacular artist and view some of his work.

Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
God

So which artist is the correct answer?  All three go to a video showing a small portion of some the artist's greatest works.  I know whom I choose.  I chose the one whose canvas is the universe.  He is the also the same one who is the designer and builder all we see in nature.  Oh yeah, He is also the designer of Michelangelo and Leonardo De Vinci.  Anything they did was because the Master Artist fashioned it within them.
God also designed you for a purpose.  A purpose which can be eternally more beautiful than Michelangelo's or Leonardo's works.  What great wonders has he implanted within you to accomplish?

Photo Credit: Artist Studio by Seem-ing Lee
Video Credit: In The Land of the Northern Lights by Ole Christian Salomonsen

Technorati Tags: Art, quiz, God, Michelangelo, da-Vinci, creator, creation, painting, nature, Christianity,

Jehovah-Jireh

I remember the first time I saw God provide to someone who was crying out for God to provision.  I was in the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  It was 1972 or 73, and I was a young Christian, who was just learning about God.  I had never heard about God’s name, Jehovah-Jireh (The Lord, who provides).
One night, at a prayer gathering, a young man named Scoop asked that we pray that God financially provide for him.  Scoop believed that God had called him to fly to California, and witness to someone he knew about salvation through Jesus Christ.  Everyone gathered around Scoop and laid hands on him and prayed.
God said He wanted to talk to me.  I turned around, walked away from the group praying for Scoop and out the door.  I stood at the top of a wooden deck and looked out at the starry sky and listened.  God told me He wanted to provide for Scoop through me, and I agreed to obey Him. 
I didn’t have any money at that time but the next Saturday night, I went to a Christian coffee house where I knew he would be.  Going up to Scoop I asked if I could talk to him in private.  We walked outside and I handed over to him $140.  The amount God had told me to give to him. 
For a moment, he just stood there in shock as he looked at the money in his hands.  Scoop then leaped into the air with a shout.  He praised God and thanked me.  He was not only overjoyed with receiving the money but astonished at how God worked so precisely.
He explained that just the day before his landlord, who was a Christian, handed Scoop two dollars.  “I don’t know how two dollars are going to help much with buying that airline ticket but in my quiet time I felt God telling me to give it to you.”  Scoop took the money and praised God for providing the two dollars.
Scoop looked excitedly at me as he explained. “My ticket will cost $142.”
That was my first experience with Jehovah-Jireh, but it was not my last.  God does provide and he does it perfectly.  One of the wonderful and exciting things about God is that he does things His way and in His timing.  When we are doing his will, He will not abandon us.
If God tells you to go to college, don’t make excuses that you don’t have the money.  Jehovah-Jireh
If God tells you to start a ministry.  Jehovah-Jireh
If God says to give to someone in need.  Jehovah-Jireh
Trust Him.  Rest in His Love and His promises.

Photo credit: Starry nighttime sky in my backyard by slworking2

Technorati Tags: God, Jehovah, Jireh, provision, money, help, prayer, Jesus, Christ, ,

An Imaginative God

“The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.” Revelation 21:21

Everyone talks about the streets of gold, but how often do you hear about a gate made from a single pearl?  This has to be one huge pearl.  This chapter is talking about the New Jerusalem and says it is about 1400 miles by 1400 miles in area.  The walls are 200 feet thick.  There are only twelve ways into this city and each way in is through a gate made of one pearl.  I don’t know how much traffic is going in and out of the city, but since there are only 12 ways in and out there has to be a lot going through each gate.  So these gates have to be huge and the pearls just as big.

I think seeing those gates will be impressive, but what I really want to see are the oysters that grew those pearls.  I want to go diving into the crystal sea and hunt out those oysters and marvel at how huge they are.  If the pearls are just 200 feet in diameter (the thickness of the walls) than the oysters have to be at least a couple thousand feet across.

This picture is a small version of what must live in the crystal sea, in Heaven.

I look around at what God has created in this world and how imaginative He must be. It helps make you realize how awesome our God really is.  When we get to heaven I believe there will be even greater sights, and even then we will only begin to understand how imaginative He really is.  He can create such huge oysters just for building gates.  There is nothing beyond His imagination or His ability. 

When I look at problems here in this world, personal situations or worldwide  problems, I see huge obstacles standing in the way of what I believe is a good resolution.  Health issues, financial problems, marriage conflicts, and any other problems we might have in our lives are infinitesimal situations to God.  He is all powerful, all knowing and has an imagination that has created a universe of trillions of galaxies with billions of different wonders in each one.  Never doubt his imagination to find the right solution for your problem.

Serving God for Whose Sake?

Some day, and not too far in the future, I will get to see Heaven.  I will walk through those gates, which are each made from one single pearl.  Coming from the gate, I enter  that eternal city and stroll down those streets of purest gold. I will open a large blue door and with a smile enter  my new mansion. 
My mansion will be so marvelous that human mind could never have imagined such beauty and workmanship.  Exhibited, for all to see, will be trophies and crowns awarded to me by God for my good works.  I will have angels serving me and bringing my messages.  I will eat from the tree of life and visit anywhere in the universe I desire.
There will be no sickness, no sadness, no death and no fear.  Anything I want, will be provided to me.  I will have God’s power at my beck and call.  Miracles will be normal.  All knowledge will be but a thought away.  How much greater can life be?
Nothing, absolutely nothing, which I said above is about heaven.  It’s only about a place which actually exists and where someday I will live forever but all those things do not make Heaven truly Heaven.  Streets of gold do not make it Heaven.  Mansions do not make it Heaven. Even doing miracles or living forever does not make it Heaven.  The only thing which is important and makes Heaven, Heaven, is that Heaven is where God lives.
If God is not there, Heaven is not where I want to be.  You can keep it all.  If God is on some barren rock out in cold space, I want to be there.  If He gives me a corner of a shack to live in and He is there, than I have a mansion and I want to be there.  I don’t care about anything else.  Keep your rewards, keep your gold and mansions.  Just give me Jesus.
Even eternal life is not worth living without Jesus.  What would be the purpose of living if I did not have Jesus in my life?  Andrae Crouch wrote a song which says, “If heaven was never promised to me, neither the promise to live eternally, it's been worth it just having the Lord in my life.”
I would rather live a few short years in this life and know Jesus, then to live all of eternity and never meet him.  He is my reason for living.  He is the reason I do anything which is good.  My next breath is a waste of energy if somehow my life does not bring him glory.
Someday I will get to Heaven, and I will live eternally as God has promised.  I will be given lavish rewards, but they are all dross compared to simply getting a glance of my saviors face.

Are you a Samson?

Samson was one of the most renowned judges of Israel.  His long hair, immense strength and his encounters with the Philistines are legendary.  He was also infamous for his lustful desire of foreign women.  In the end, that desire for a woman brought him down.  God did, however, bless him in spite of his short comings.

Have you noticed anything strange about pictures of Samson?  Take a look at the picture below and think about what he would have looked like.  If you had been in Israel during his day, what would you have seen?  Would this be a good representation of the person you would expect to see?

Nope, that is not the person I would expect to see as Samson.  Look at him!  This guy has muscles.  He has a lifetime pass to the Gold’s Jerusalem Gym.  You would find him everyday in the weight room pumping iron.  This guy is has enough muscle to make two of me.  Ok so that wouldn’t be hard to do, but still, he has huge muscles.

“Well duh!” You say. “Samson was strong!  He carried the city gates, and their two post, on his back up to the top of a mountain.  He killed 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.  He knocked down the temple of Dagon and killed 3000 Philistines.  This guy has some muscle.”

I don’t think so.  Samson was not strong.  Not saying he was a weakling, but I doubt that he possessed a lot of muscle.  He probably looked pretty much like anyone else.  He didn’t walk around bare chested and flex his muscles for the women to oooh and aaah over.  If he did look so muscular why did everyone wonder about where he got his strength?

Judges 16:4-5 “⁴ Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

Would you be asking where Samson’s strength comes from if you could see huge muscles bulging out everywhere?  Of course not.  It would be obvious where he got his strength from then.  He must have looked pretty normal but still exhibited great strength.

Has God called upon you to exhibit great strength?  Maybe He called you  to tell a neighbor about him or to lead a Bible study.  Did God call on you to do something which you did not have the talent, knowledge or experience to do?  You heard the call but answered, “Oh Lord, you know I would love to do that for you but ….” and you gave him a list of why you were too weak to fulfill his call upon you.

Samson could not perform any acts of strength on his own.  His power was manifested in him because God was his strength.  There was nothing physically special about Samson.  NOTHING!!!  What was special was that God used him.  God was the power within him, who gave him that great strength.

God is the power within you that gives you the great strength to fulfill the plan He has for you.  If He calls on you to be a preacher of the Gospel then rest on His strength.  He will make you strong enough to fulfill His work of you becoming that preacher.  He will lead you in the training, the wisdom, and the power to be what He calls you to be.  There is nothing too big that His power cannot overcome. 

Be a Samson.  Let people wonder how someone so ordinary can do such extraordinary things.

Jehoshaphat Fasted

Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.
Andrew Murray

The first thing Jehoshaphat did, upon learning of the impending attack on Judah, was to call upon a national fast.  He did not call upon them to pray but to fast.  Shouldn’t he have appealed to the people to pray?

I use to think of fasting as the magic ingredient that somehow changed God to be more benevolent and give me what I sought after.  If I desired something bad enough I would express that desire by fasting.  Wrong!  Fasting does not change God.  Fasting changes me.

When fasting, we are putting aside our flesh and allowing God to work on our spirit.  We are crucifying the old man and letting him die, so that Christ can live and control us.  As we become more Christlike by fasting, we are allowing the power of God to flow through us in a more powerful way.

By proclaiming a fast among the people of Judah, Jehoshaphat was calling upon the nation to draw nearer to God.  He knew that in order for their prayers of salvation to succeed, the flesh had to die, and God’s righteous lifestyle must be manifested.

God desires to work in your life.  He wants to do great things with you and through you.  He has great plans for your life but, unless you are willing to be like Christ, he cannot  move within you as he desires.  Fasting helps to kill self and allows God that opportunity of working His power in and through you.  Because of the nation of Judah fasting, God could move within the people and fight for them.  He can do the same with you, if you’re willing.