Ensign: It's All In The Past
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 21 October 2015
["Back to the Future Day"! That comes from a reading in an 1989 movie (which if you don't remember it, chances are your parents do) and I had planned to start Ensign with a tip of the hat to that ... then I went through the archives and found I'd ALREADY written something this year that started out with it! Figured this would fit today, thought the accident I refer two below I was in in January, not yesterday -- David]
The car FLEW?
Yeah, we had a hover conversion done on it in the early twenty-first century.Remarkable ...
Fans of the movie trilogy Back to the Future with Marty McFly ("Hey McFly!"), Doc Brown ("Weight has nothing to do with it!"), and its time-traveling DeLorean (traveling at 88 miles per hour)will let you know that this year, 2015, is the future traveled to in the second of the three movies. AND the truly devoted among them will nitpick about the lack of hoverboards -- skateboards without wheels that travel along magnetic lines -- and flying cars in half-jest, but I digress.
That's all in the past.
You mean the future.
WHATEVER!
If we are truly honest, none of us can seriously predict the future because we're the ones approaching it. For us, the future doesn't exist. Yesterday I was in an automobile accident (where thank God nobody was hurt!) which was a small fender bender for me and I cracked another car's fender and that car hit another vehicle's side, and you couldn't tell me Wednesday night that I would have been in that accident at that moment! I could have chosen to not be there then, but I didn't.
Heavy.
Weight has nothing to do with it! [after this same exchange a little later]
There's that word again, "heavy". Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull in the future?
We've shared here before about that line in the Lord's Prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" (verse 11 out of Matthew 6:9-13) and its focus on today, its focus on RIGHT NOW. Toward the end of the chapter Jesus advises us studying His Word to "take no thought [in today's words, "do not worry"], saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (verses 31 and 33, 34 below)
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
What's GOING to happen is out of your and my hands. True, you and I can act to change an outcome we don't want for ourselves, you and I can witness to turn people (and ourselves) away from sinful lives, but the prophecies revealed within Scripture itself of the coming end of the age and how all of those who take Jesus as their Savior and Lord will be raptured or taken away by Him is going to happen whether we want it to or not, whether we act on it or not. It's in the choices we make.
Okay. Okay! Relax, Doc! It's me! It's Marty!
No! It can't be! I just sent you back to the future.
I know. You did send me back to the future, but I'm back. I'm back from the future.
Great Scott! [Doc faints]
The older I get, the more I realize that having a time machine would be more trouble than it's worth! Though we can see them -- take a look at the stars some time. You can look up at them and see where they were since the light from them takes time, even at the speed of light, to get to earth (even our own sun's light takes eight minutes, so you're seeing where it was eight minutes ago) but you can't go or get back that eight minutes. See the past, learn the past, just don't live in it.
... it's all in the past.
I mean, the future.
WHATEVER!
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you all in my address book, and I hope to be encouraging too! If you find I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of that fence and throughout the world.
Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad, as well as for the opportunities we have along with the promise of new life for You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 21 October 2015
["Back to the Future Day"! That comes from a reading in an 1989 movie (which if you don't remember it, chances are your parents do) and I had planned to start Ensign with a tip of the hat to that ... then I went through the archives and found I'd ALREADY written something this year that started out with it! Figured this would fit today, thought the accident I refer two below I was in in January, not yesterday -- David]
The car FLEW?
Yeah, we had a hover conversion done on it in the early twenty-first century.Remarkable ...
Fans of the movie trilogy Back to the Future with Marty McFly ("Hey McFly!"), Doc Brown ("Weight has nothing to do with it!"), and its time-traveling DeLorean (traveling at 88 miles per hour)will let you know that this year, 2015, is the future traveled to in the second of the three movies. AND the truly devoted among them will nitpick about the lack of hoverboards -- skateboards without wheels that travel along magnetic lines -- and flying cars in half-jest, but I digress.
That's all in the past.
You mean the future.
WHATEVER!
If we are truly honest, none of us can seriously predict the future because we're the ones approaching it. For us, the future doesn't exist. Yesterday I was in an automobile accident (where thank God nobody was hurt!) which was a small fender bender for me and I cracked another car's fender and that car hit another vehicle's side, and you couldn't tell me Wednesday night that I would have been in that accident at that moment! I could have chosen to not be there then, but I didn't.
Heavy.
Weight has nothing to do with it! [after this same exchange a little later]
There's that word again, "heavy". Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull in the future?
We've shared here before about that line in the Lord's Prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" (verse 11 out of Matthew 6:9-13) and its focus on today, its focus on RIGHT NOW. Toward the end of the chapter Jesus advises us studying His Word to "take no thought [in today's words, "do not worry"], saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (verses 31 and 33, 34 below)
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
What's GOING to happen is out of your and my hands. True, you and I can act to change an outcome we don't want for ourselves, you and I can witness to turn people (and ourselves) away from sinful lives, but the prophecies revealed within Scripture itself of the coming end of the age and how all of those who take Jesus as their Savior and Lord will be raptured or taken away by Him is going to happen whether we want it to or not, whether we act on it or not. It's in the choices we make.
Okay. Okay! Relax, Doc! It's me! It's Marty!
No! It can't be! I just sent you back to the future.
I know. You did send me back to the future, but I'm back. I'm back from the future.
Great Scott! [Doc faints]
The older I get, the more I realize that having a time machine would be more trouble than it's worth! Though we can see them -- take a look at the stars some time. You can look up at them and see where they were since the light from them takes time, even at the speed of light, to get to earth (even our own sun's light takes eight minutes, so you're seeing where it was eight minutes ago) but you can't go or get back that eight minutes. See the past, learn the past, just don't live in it.
... it's all in the past.
I mean, the future.
WHATEVER!
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you all in my address book, and I hope to be encouraging too! If you find I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of that fence and throughout the world.
Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad, as well as for the opportunities we have along with the promise of new life for You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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