Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[reddogs]

How God protects and keeps us from harm

This is from a prior post with a update on the latest fire..


With all the news each day of devastating tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and fires hitting the news it seems that there are many things that are happening which can quickly destroy our homes or threathen our safety, and we know these events will become more prevalent and more devastating as we come closer to the last days before Christ comes. But we must be confident and put our trust and lives in God who protects and keeps us from harm.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/feb/06/brush-fire-affecting-visibilty-i-75-collier/

We have been hit hard in florida with severe drought and now fires, and since we are in the forest I prepared and dug fire breaks at the fences, cleared brush, set up irrigation and plans for turning on sprinklers and moving the animals to safety, etc.. But when it came, it negated or went around all I had done and left us virtually helpless, truly in Gods hands.

One afternoon, my neighbors called my wife and told her the forest was in flames, and she called me to say a fire was sweeping to our farm and they were fighting it with whatever they could get their hands on. I left work and got there and the first thing, I prayed with her for God's protection and quickly set up the sprinklers and sprayed the roofs as the firefighters arrived and set up a perimeter. But it was so intense that it  was throwing huge flames and cinders all around and behind them so all the firefighters could do was retreat. Then the electric company shut off the electricity so the firefighters wouldnt be hit by sagging wires as they came under the affects of the flames, so all my irrigation pumps and sprinklers became useless and I didnt dare try to gas up the generator with all the flames coming at us. They tried to hold the flames and heat away from the house but finally it became too intense and they had to pull back to the main road and the fire surged and my house disappeared behind the smoke. I prayed again...They went to my neighbors house to set up a new perimeter, but the fire went across the road leading to their house and cut them off from the main road. It was looking very dire, when heavy eguipment from forestry arrived, bulldozing through the woods and reached the trapped firefighters and cut a fire line in front of the entrance to my neighbors house and saved it.

I went to mine and throught the smoke could see my house was still standing. The firefighters fought the fire and finally at dusk the winds died down and they let us back to our house. We could not sleep with all the infeno blazing all around but near midnight went inside to rest. My wife was awakened in the middle of the night and looked to see a bright glow in the back yard, half asleep she went to the back and openned the door to see all our bushes in flames almost reaching the roof. She woke me up and called the firefighters back, as I ran to keep it from igniting the roof......


The firefighters reach us in time and the next day the neighbors came and saw that not one bit of the house or garage, goat houses, barn had even a burn mark or had been singed and even though they dont all believe in God, they gave witness to his power........God is to be praised...

Psalm 41:2
The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.


I show everyone the extent the fire reached coming to the house so they can see Gods hand, one side of the goat pen has the plants and tree's completely burnt, the other side inside the fence of the pen, even if the same plant, is untouched. The straw under the goat houses never ignited, and the fire comes all the way to the front gates and stops, and to the rear where I fought it. But I know something awoke my wife before it ignited the roof with its flames and endangering us so I would see the power of God protecting us, not just the firefighters and the forestry divisions hard work.


 
Here is the latest news story on a 800 acre fire that swept through our neighborhood, but again God kept the members from harm even as the fire swept up to their front lawns and around them......

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/01/golden-gate-estates-fire-contained/
 
 
"...Firefighters battled a brush fire Thursday, May 29, 2008 in Golden Gate. Strong winds whipped a half-acre brush fire into a 200-acre inferno in eastern Golden Gates Estates leveling several homes and causing the evacuation hundred of residents. ..."

[reddogs]

Here is a few other pictures...

[Knight]

Yes there are the cases where there is intervention then there are other stories where a dear friend trusting in God did not buy life insurance and later dies from cancer leaving his wife deep in debt having to pay for an expensive burial expenses. Where is God then? Did this man trust in God in vain. God did not honor this mans faith but took in in the most horrible way possible. His body racked with pain and suffering for a year before Cancer took his life. Where was God then?

It seems to me that this is more the drop of the dice more than Gods Intervention. Sometimes so called miracles happen and other times it does not happen. God says in the bible the rain falls on the good and the wicked. Seems as if God does not intervene enough on this planet. And when he does it is a mockery to those who did pray for intervention and got no help at all.

[reddogs]

Yes there are the cases where there is intervention then there are other stories where a dear friend trusting in God did not buy life insurance and later dies from cancer leaving his wife deep in debt having to pay for an expensive burial expenses. Where is God then? Did this man trust in God in vain. God did not honor this mans faith but took in in the most horrible way possible. His body racked with pain and suffering for a year before Cancer took his life. Where was God then?

It seems to me that this is more the drop of the dice more than Gods Intervention. Sometimes so called miracles happen and other times it does not happen. God says in the bible the rain falls on the good and the wicked. Seems as if God does not intervene enough on this planet. And when he does it is a mockery to those who did pray for intervention and got no help at all.

You cannot judge a persons faith as only God can see a persons heart......I had a family member that had her body racked with pain and suffering and still praised God to her last breath.......here is testimony I wrote..

The Agent of Death Versus the God of Eternal Life.
by reddogs on Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:10 am

The agent of death came quickly, a small lump in the breast but the HMO said only this one local hospital and its lab could be used and the wait would be months before they could test. So they waited as it spread throughout her body and slowly corrupted or the destroyed the cells within her. When they finally tested, it showed itself as malignent and a flurry of test and retests ensued to confirm it. Then operations to cut it out, the many hours in the hospital, but it was too late and they gave her up to the grave. They told her a few weeks and it would all be over but she could try the treatment worse than the cure if she wanted, but it wouldnt help much as it had spread all over and there was no man made cure for what she had. So they anointed her, prepared her for the grave, and all were asked to pray as only God was capable of changing what death had decreed. All her friends and aquaintances, and churches that knew of her plight made time to remember her in their prayers.

The doctors came to give her the verdict of death, but something happened that wasnt on their medical charts. They said it was a miracle, they said it wasnt possible, they said they had never seen anything like is but the tests showed that death had been set back, nothing showed but a tiny little shadow where once it was all over her body. The agent of death came to do its grim reaping, but God has been with her from the start, and that was almost five years ago and she still lives. Yes, we cannot live forever but if we ask, God can give us more time to be a witness and glorify him and be a blessing to others. Still she knows we all are under the wages of sin so the miraculous reprive has been with the understanding of the eventual demands of sin unless Christ comes quickly. But she is strong in her faith in Jesus Christ and praises God for the miracle she has been given and fears not the future, as Christ assures my mom the gift of eternal life.

1 Corinthians 15:52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.reddogs
 

[Womzie]

Yes there are the cases where there is intervention then there are other stories where a dear friend trusting in God did not buy life insurance and later dies from cancer leaving his wife deep in debt having to pay for an expensive burial expenses. Where is God then? Did this man trust in God in vain. God did not honor this mans faith but took in in the most horrible way possible. His body racked with pain and suffering for a year before Cancer took his life. Where was God then?

It seems to me that this is more the drop of the dice more than Gods Intervention. Sometimes so called miracles happen and other times it does not happen. God says in the bible the rain falls on the good and the wicked. Seems as if God does not intervene enough on this planet. And when he does it is a mockery to those who did pray for intervention and got no help at all.

You are right Knight.  Sometimes - a lot of the time - the bad does fall on those who trust God.  But as I understand it, the person who puts His faith in God, doesn't necessarily expect good things this side of Heaven.  In fact, Jesus told us plainly when He was here, that if we were followers of Him, then we could expect persecution and bad things to happen.  That's called the effects of sin.  This world is at war.  We are in the middle of a cosmic conflict and in a war, there will be casualties.  It is not OUR war - it is God's war, and we are also told that we need only to stand, that God will fight for us.  The thing is, that for those who cling to Jesus, even if they do die, they awaken to eternal life.  So, even though he might have been racked with pain, a believer will die in the knowledge that this is only temporary - and what comes after is much more than we can imagine!  So, as Paul says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might."

[christined]

How can we answer Knight?  We can't.  Only when we get to heaven and can ask the why's will we understand why some prayers are answered and others are not. Our duty now is to trust, even though it seems like God doesn't care.  There is so much pain and suffering not only among the sick, but little children being beaten and abused.  That really makes my heart ache.   Come, Lord Jesus, soon and end this suffering on this earth.

[reddogs]

How can we answer Knight?  We can't.  Only when we get to heaven and can ask the why's will we understand why some prayers are answered and others are not. Our duty now is to trust, even though it seems like God doesn't care.  There is so much pain and suffering not only among the sick, but little children being beaten and abused.  That really makes my heart ache.   Come, Lord Jesus, soon and end this suffering on this earth.

Thats what faith in God is all about...

[Knight]

True Story

20 years ago a fire came up to a christian radio stations transmitting equipment and parted at the fence and went around the fence and joined on the other side. Although the power lines to the equipment was knocked out the radio station equipment was spared. A miracle was claimed.

20 years later another fire came up to that same radio transmitter and this time it did not stop at the fence but came through and burned up the equipment and destroyed everything.  No miracle this time. Why. Conservatives claimed it was because the radio station was now playing more christian rock and therefore God withdrew his protection from that radio station.  I find that logic to be vindictive and I reject that view of God but still the question remains why did God protect it one time and not the other time.

Was God asleep at the wheel? Or maybe he had better things to do at the time. People use the same logic when it comes to why God protects some people from danger and not others. Even though both are christians and both pray for protection. Yet God answers some and rejects others requests. Why?

[reddogs]

Paul puts it best saying that God shows mercy according to his will and purpose...

Romans 9
God's Sovereign Choice
 1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.
 6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 8In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. 9For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."[c]

 10Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger."[d] 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."[e]

 14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses,
   "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
      and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."[f] 16It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."[g] 18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

 19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "[h] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?