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'The Day After Tomorrow' movie is a highly entertaining collection of disasters, and its visual effects are a roller coaster ride of ruin and mayhem. One reviewer thought the movie might have been designed by some kids writing their 'wish list' of destruction scenes they'd like to see. Another reviewer said, "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart surgery."

Tornadoes roam the streets of major cities around America, enormous cracks appear in the poles, tidal waves the size of mountains roll in from the sea and snap freezing entombs millions - though strangely enough the frost moves at just the right speed to enable the heroes to outrun it - just like good old fashioned monster movies.

But it has to be said that behind all the fun and frolic is a supposedly serious message about our environment. Many scientists seriously believe the world is heading for a new ice age, which will include several 'hypercanes', expected to blow up from the Arctic in all-engulfing freezing vengeance and all the usual disasters - as depicted in the movie. The prophets of environmental doom predict these things in the not too distant future, and the blame, they say, is mainly ours. Too much burning of fossil fuels, too many CFCs released into the atmosphere, too many forests removed, too much warm water from Nuclear power plants . . . yes, its all Man's fault.

A few years ago a book came out called 'The Skeptical Environmentalist' in which a statistician looked at . . .

It was during the dark winter of 1864, Petersburg , Virginia , the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee faced the Union divisions of General Ulysses S. Grant. The war was now three and a half years old and the glorious charge had long since given way to the muck and mud of trench warfare. Late one evening one of Lee's generals, Major General George Pickett, received word that his wife had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Up and down the line the Southerners began building huge bonfires in celebration of the event. These fires did not go unnoticed in the Northern camps and soon a nervous General Grant sent out a reconnaissance patrol to see what was going on. The scouts returned with the message that Pickett had had a son and these were celebration fires. It  happened that Grant and Pickett had been contemporaries at West Point and knew one another well, so to honor the occasion Grant, too, ordered that bonfires should be built. What a peculiar night it was. For miles on both sides of the battle line flames lit up the sky in a celebration of life. No shots fired. No cursing back and forth. No war fought. Only bonfires of light proclaiming good news. 

Good Friday is like that, in the midst of the despair of sin God has caused a great burning light to pierce the darkness and proclaim a celebration of life. The amazing thing is that it not even the life of His Son that He celebrates on Good Friday, it is not some sort of memorial service for Jesus by which we remember His good deeds. No, the celebration of Good Friday that God has in mind is the celebration of your life, the coming into being of your life, the expectation He has of . . .

"Mama"--a universal word that fits us all--whether you're a mom or not, you HAVE a mom and you HAVE a need - so sit up and listen to a contemporary testimony to God's wonderful power to hear and answer prayer!

"Grace"...a lovely word, a lovely lady. Grace, in lifelong missions ministry and Peggie's "adopted mama," just had a complete knee replacement.
During the painful recovery process, she lost one of her costly hearing aids. Too sick to worry, she chided her "adopted daughter" to stop her incessant search for the mini-missing object.
"Stop obsessing, Peggie. God will take care of it," she said, "leave it in His hands."

Well, in His hands, all things are safe, including missing hearing aids in a major hospital facility! But it was no where to be found, reported to "lost and found" and you guessed it...Peg kept worrying about it--it was a needle in a haystack, perhaps in the middle of a mountain of laundry! Yesterday this worried woman got a phone call from sweet saint Grace. "Lost and Found just called me," she said. "They found the hearing aid in the LAUNDRY. I TOLD you God would take care of it."

Needless to say, I was gently chided and majorly challenged to trust God for all MY needs. You see, HE needs no hearing aid...HE hears clearly and . . .

It would seem that the more important the message the greater the means of advertising it. When the Second World War ended, allied bombers dropped millions upon millions of leaflets into cities, jungles and war zones proclaiming that a peace had been reached and that the war was over. In a similar yet greater way God declared His peace plan to the world on a day which we still call, ‘Palm Sunday’. It was referred to as the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem , the beginning of the Passion Week, yet in reality it was perhaps the greatest case of mistaken identity in the history of mankind. Though the crowds perceived this as the forerunner to an actual triumph of power, nothing could have been further from the truth. They surrounded Jesus that day hailing Him as the new political hero, a national Messiah. Within just a few days they would be calling for the crucifixion of this Jesus, so it was not the triumphal entry they thought it was, and yet… it was very much a triumphal entry in God’s eyes. This was a day that He had planned for since before the world was created. It was on His calendar, it was foreordained, appointed in time to take place and it’s significance was enormous. In the words of a real estate agent it was all about Location, Location, Location. When an agent says that they mean that the setting of a house on a particular street is often more important than if it has new rugs or fresh paint. The location is the . . .