N79 Nebula – JWST Just 2 Weeks Ago!
“For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more”
Hebrews 8:12
Hi Men:
I pray you had an opportunity to share the Good News with another person this past week, even if it’s leaving a Gospel tract somewhere. A brother in San Diego reminded me of his dear friend Mike, now with the Lord, who walked into a phone booth as a young man where someone had left a Bible tract. He read it and God used that tract to bring him into a relationship with Jesus. Mike was passionate for Jesus and never stopped using Bible tracts until the Lord took him several years back.
PHOTO
I just had to share the latest photo from the James Webb Space Telescope. Stunning! N79 is a nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) which is a neighbor to our own Milky Way galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a mystery to astronomers to this day. The width of N79 is only 1,630 light-years 😊 That width would mean you could travel back and forth from the Earth to the Sun, 51 million times! Our universe is so vast…. Here is a short YouTube of N79 Nebula (1 minute)
So why did I put the verse from Hebrews 8:12 above? As I reflected on this new image by the JWST, I flashed on who created it. Over 2000 years ago that Creator send His precious Son to hang on a cross. While hanging on that cross with outstretched arms and nails piercing Him, Jesus said the following from Luke 23:34,
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing…..”
Does that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck? It should! Besides watching football this weekend, what are you doing with this staggering gift of forgiveness you and I have been given? Let’s covenant with ourselves to set our mind on things above…….
MIM Northwest Men’s Retreat 2024 – Halifax, PA
Photos: Men having dinner and Jerry Bangert speaking on Saturday morning
I returned from Camp Hebron in Halifax, PA this week. What a great time being with these men of the Northeast. Incredible teaching and the fellowship with these brothers was a huge blessing. Over half the guys were 1st timers and young. So encouraging! As I visited with a number of these guys, some reminded me of the PBS program, “This Old House.” They are so skilled with their hands, i.e., carpentry, plumbing, etc. Thank you all for praying for this retreat. I’m counting on much fruit from this weekend. I also met a dear friend, formerly from Las Vegas, who moved to PA several years back. His name is Joe and he was part of the Friday Men’s Group in the 90’s. Amazing!
Next Retreat to be praying for: Lost Valley Men’s Retreat – March 3 to March 5th
Great is Our God!
Dan
(Gal 2:20)
Let me leave you with these profound verses from Col 3:1-4 (Good ones to memorize!!)
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Most of you should know by now, that God is 100% in control and He is good. This is what He says in Isaiah 45.7
“The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the Lord who does all these.”
Then we have Lamentations 3:38
“Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?”
Accidents, atrocities, tragedies, disasters – these are used by God to remind us of His Judgement. When people lose their life, they die in the perfect timing of God. Sometimes we forget Hebrews 9:27, “as it is appointed to men to die once, and after that comes the judgement.” There is NO SECOND CHANCE…… no place called Purgatory and no back door to heaven.
And if you think that was eye-opening, you haven’t seen anything yet. Make it a point to read Revelation this year…….
God Brings Calamity – Red Book Day 40
The purpose of these devotionals is to help you think Biblically
Solomon said, “As a man thinks, so is he”
FOLLOW ME……..
[Men: Here is a great article by our brother, Skip Tschantz]
Note from the men of R12.2:
One of the most frequent phrases, and a repeated refrain in the message of Jesus, is “Follow Me”. If Jesus thought that it was necessary to repeat this phrase over and over during His earthly ministry, then we would be well served to do some due diligence on what is meant by this important statement. Since this is such an all-encompassing topic, with far reaching implications for all believers, the objective of this short blog is simply to encourage all of us to dig deeper into what Jesus meant when He said: “Come, follow Me.”
Our dear brother from the west coast, Skip Tschantz graciously contributed the attached for our February blog. Our sincere thanks to Skip for his faithful support of this effort. As we endeavor to grow in Christ together, please give this your full attention and consideration and share your thoughts with us.
Remember, if you feel led to write a future blog, or if you have feedback on these monthly writings, please contact Arthur Corbin (acorbin@gasauthority.com) or Chris Strippelhoff (chris.strippelhoff@gmail.com).
In His name,
Arthur, Bob, Chris, and Steve
Is This Viral NFL Quarterback ACTUALLY a Christian?
Here Is A Great Video by Living Waters – (YouTube 19 minutes)
Men: This is excellent. Do not miss reading this 3 minute read! Send it to friend……..
What To Do While You Wait To Die
A friend of mine recently went to be with the Lord after enduring a long battle with leukemia. In his final weeks, as his strength slowly faded away, he told his family that he wished he could write a book titled What To Do While You Wait To Die. There would be no time to write a book, but I did tell him I would gladly share on my blog whatever he was learning along the way.
He expressed joy in the relationships God had blessed him with. As God gave him strength, he reached out to as many of these people as he could to thank and encourage them.
[I am] thankful to those who have been mentors to me. I’m young enough that many of those mentors are still alive, so I get to honor them and encourage them and just thank them so much for God’s ministry in my life.
On the other side, the Lord has given me pleasure in brotherhood and working shoulder to shoulder with men at church, men in different ministries, and that is just a great and wonderful thing. I certainly don’t deserve it, but I love it. The Lord is so kind and so good.
So, the first thing to do while you wait to die is invest in people. A committed evangelist, my friend also called as many unbelievers as he could to tell them about Jesus one last time.
He also rejoiced at how the Lord was using his disease to challenge other people and to give them an opportunity to respond with faith and love.
I’m beyond thrilled by how so many young people have come and encouraged me and my family. Oh, what a balm for these last few days. I never expected that, but what a lovely thing. I’ve told my family often that I don’t deserve that, but I am so grateful for it and I wish it. I don’t wish this disease on my worst enemy, but I do wish these discussions for all of my family and friends. God’s people can be so glorious and so kind and so gentle. It makes my bed softer. It makes the journey sweeter. I know it’s only by His goodness and His grace.
So I suppose the second thing to do when you are waiting to die is to be grateful and to look for every evidence of God’s grace.
And then he told of his deepening understanding of what matters the most in this world. A man who had been very successful in life and business, he was well-regarded by associates and ministries alike. He led companies and served on boards. Yet he realized that everything was being stripped away and he was being left with the one thing that matters.
As I graduate to the finish line, I can see quickly all of the shiny armor I thought was on me, fall and clink away as I make steps towards that final, final round. God wants me to be, essentially, free of anything in this world. What I came with is what I’ll leave with. Pretty much the exact same things. That’s nothing but Him, nothing but His providence, nothing but His mercy and grace. What a glorious shedding that has been! I’m no longer a CEO or COO or CIO or any fancy title, no longer part of a Board of Directors, or anything. I’m just a man who has to submit to God’s good and gracious will and just be faithful to Him.
When you store up treasures in heaven, it makes it much easier to leave this world behind.
The third and final thing, then, is to submit to God’s will and to rejoice that while we may leave this world as weak and helpless as when we arrived, we leave safe in the hands of a mighty God.
It was a blessing to know my friend, a blessing to see him serve the Lord to the end, and a blessing to join with so many others to honor him at his memorial service. And it will be a blessing to see him again when the Lord calls me to follow the same path.
Here Is The Link to What To Do While You Wait To Die
The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health
A Summary of the 2023 US Surgeon Report
Men: These Social Media stats are sobering! To see all the graphs, click the link below.
Click Here to see all the graphs
Camp Hebron, PA – MIM Northeast Men’s Retreat
How refreshing to walk into a room and read the verse from John 16:33. The 300+ acre camp was truly a treasure……
By the way, check out the photo I took on Saturday night above the Chapel. Yup, you guessed it, the constellation Orion with Betelgeuse (my favorite star) top center.. We have so much light pollution in Vegas, it is a blessing to be in “dark skies.”
[Note: If you want a refresher on how I use Betelgeuse: Here Is A Link]
