Author: Rev. Charles Pugh

Following up on my last blog article (“Taken For Granted”), I have been thinking about all of the uncertainty that exists in the world. Officials and people from Norway are dealing with a terrorist bomb attack and campground shooting that to date has reportedly killed at least 76, with many more wounded. A high-speed rail train accident in China has killed at least 39. Lockouts in sporting events, like the current situation with NFL football leave many wondering whether these games will go forward this fall (though word today is that the conflict there is resolved). Millions of people in the U.S. and around the world are wondering and seriously worrying about what will happen with the debt obligations that America has and how this will impact each of us in the coming days, weeks and years (the recent record breaking gold prices reveal this economic concern as well). The U.S. Stock Market and other economic markets around the world react to all the latest news and world events, leading to volatility in the markets and much loss in investments. What can we really count on? How do we know if we will be able to continue in our current way of financially living or even be at peace from further crimes and terrorist attacks? Perhaps we should be more cautious about what we often take for granted. Perhaps, and most certainly, we should be careful to qualify what we say and do by recognizing our dependence upon GOD. Our attitude should be, “Lord willing!”

Indeed, we are often a proud and even rebellious people (c.f. Psalm 78:8). While we do maintain a measure of control over things in our life, we ultimately control very little (see my 05-01-08 article “It Is ALL about CONTROL!”). We should not be so sure that things will always be the way we think they will be. Yes, we can plan and we should, but our plans are subject to the Sovereign Hand of Almighty God, Who Created this Universe and Who has Control over it! We must acknowledge the problems in this world and in our own lives. We must learn to say or at least have the attitude that if the Lord is willing, we will be able to accomplish a particular goal or see a certain thing come to pass.

You might ask, just what is the Lord willing to do? After all, look at the mess that the governments around the world are in. Look at the number of earthquakes and natural disasters that occur around the world every day. Look at the way people suffer from hunger and physical pain or oppression. Why doesn’t God do more to intervene? Many come to think that God is either not so good, in that He allows all kinds of suffering and tragedy, or else He is not so powerful, in that He does not fix all of the problems that we have. Some even resort to a more Deistic philosophy and say that while it is clear that some Higher Being Created us and this Universe, this Being must not be too involved in His Creation. This is another way people become derailed in understanding the meaning of life and God’s will for their life. I discuss this problem of evil and suffering with much greater detail in the second part of my book detailing my personal tragedy stemming from the 04-16-07 Virginia Tech Tragedy and the lessons we all need to be learning. God willing, 😉 I will see Him use this and my own life story to bring about much good as I have petitioned and am trusting Him to do!

Friend, please seriously consider God’s will and what the LORD is willing to do in your own life. Do not fall into the trap of thinking somehow that the world revolves around you or even this great Country of America. Consider the sobering words of Christ’s Apostle and the early Church leader, James, in James 4:13-16: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” The Lord is willing as you will!

Do you ever take something for granted? Think about it. Are there things in your life that you accept to be patterns that will continue to occur day by day? Can you depend upon the sun to rise and shine each day and the moon to be displayed to varying degrees every month? Can you depend on gravity to keep your feet on the ground and help your vehicle stay on the road and all your other things from blowing around or just floating away into space? Well, unless you’re in the middle of one of those tornadoes in this record breaking year and unless you plan to help NASA build another Space Shuttle or some other private group take more things into space (where other laws are at work), you can count on certain laws here on this earth to help give you stability in day to day living. You can count on or grant that those laws will continue to work. What about human behavior? Can you count on people or organized governments to always to do the right thing? If our governments were that dependable, would our Country and all others in this world be in such economic distress? Upon reflection after the recent 235th Anniversary of America’s Independence, I have been thinking more about things that are taken for granted.

In an age of constant changing and sometimes overwhelming information, it is a comfort and blessing to know that there are some things in life that we can depend on happening and being true! In fact, the many scientific, medical and technological advances in our society are only possible because of the continuing research on our University campuses and within companies around the world that depend on certain laws to be true. Think about that for a moment. If constant change were indeed happening, as is taught through the theory of evolution, then you could not do good research, because the laws would be changing. The fact that we can and do take certain natural laws for granted indicates that there is a consistent and sustaining Power in the Universe, not an ever-changing, evolutionary force.

God has made natural laws to be so dependable, that we even tend to take things and people for granted. We take it for granted that we will have food to eat, health to enjoy life, have a place to live, have a car to drive, have a TV (or multiple ones) to watch and be entertained, have a computer to work on and access the Internet, and even have a cell phone to talk on or text whomever we want, whenever we want to do so. Younger people (and even some older) take for granted that they will have the strength and health to do what they want and comfortably function. We believe that family and friends will always be there for us, until something happens and they’re not. In America, in particular, we often take for granted that we will have the freedom to do what we want and even worship God the way that we want. Sadly, it is often not until we lose something or someone that we are taking for granted, that we come to fully appreciate it or them.

Friend, what or whom are you taking for granted? Do you appreciate all that you have and enjoy or are you caught up in the natural world and materialism to the point that you take your lifestyle and all the things that you have for granted? Yes, we can depend on the daily blessings and the Mercy and Grace that God extends to us, but we dare not take these things for granted. The LORD God will test us to see if we will still trust Him, even in difficult times and situations. If we ever take for granted what we have and fail to thank Him and appreciate the blessings of life, He may even see to it that we come to lose them. Remember that God Is the Source of our blessings and HE is Sovereign over every beat of our heart and every breath that we take. God will one day make all things right and let perfect Justice prevail. We must remember that HE is not mocked and will even let us reap what we sow (good or bad) as Galatians 6:7-9 reminds us. Please do not take HIM and HIS Grace for granted!

This is The REST of the Story! I’ve read the end of the book and I know Who wins and how it all turns out! 😉Perhaps this is your experience with any summer time reading? Perhaps this is your desire–to rest or have a vacation time—from your typically fast paced and busy life? Perhaps you are not satisfied with any time away or anything that you are listening to, reading or watching? Playing off this summer time of the year, when many do take a vacation from normal activities and try to read and relax more or even visit places outside of their normal daily routines, I will take this opportunity in this blog article to focus on The REST of the Story!

In our fast paced culture and way of living in this information age today, we often find ourselves wanting to get away from the daily grind—wanting a break from work and normal responsibilities—a time of Rest! There is so much needing to be done—the responsibilities with children and/or other family, the many activities and events with friends or groups you are in, the obligations to work and financially try to keep up with our lifestyles and make ends meet. The pressures in life might drive you to drink or depend on other drugs or even come to other places of compromise in an attempt to cope. Truly Resting is often nothing more than an elusive dream!

Resting is not the same thing as sleeping, though our bodies should be able to rest when we sleep. When you think about it, sleeping (and at least some type of resting) does take up a major portion of your life. If you average spending about eight hours sleeping every day, you will be spending one third of your life asleep. That means that if you live to be about 75 years old, you will have spent the equivalent of 25 of those years sleeping! Just take your current age and divide by three to see how many years you have been sleeping. Most of that time should include resting as well. We need good rest to survive and to thrive. Actually, with the frequent breaks that we take from our regular routines and work, we spend a lot more of our time resting than working. So, do you really need another break or vacation as desperately as you may think? This is interesting to consider from this greater perspective. Since we typically do not function very well without sleep and rest, it is obvious that sleeping and resting are very important parts of life!

GOD intends that at least for now we have frequent times to rest and sleep. This does not mean, however, that any authority should step into our life and demand that we sleep a certain amount every day or even at a certain time. This issue is very personal for me as it was this reason—not getting normal or “proper” sleep and rest—that led to all of my personal tragedy since 04-16-07. Though I was doing nothing to harm myself or any other person, authorities came and took me away to try to make me sleep and rest. Sadly, their doing this and forcing me into the mental health system actually delayed my getting some needed sleep for several more hours! What they did not know or properly care to find out then is that I had been resting, though not sleeping as much as usual, due to all of the ministry I was leading. I was also able to stay awake more then, because I had been having trouble getting proper rest when sleeping, so I was able to more easily discipline myself to sleep less in order to stay awake and do what I could to help as many as possible in the aftermath of that terrible tragedy. It is because GOD was sustaining me then and because I have continued to rest in HIM that I have not broken down, but instead have been able to overcome all of the things forced upon me and all of the ongoing tragedy in my life. This is the REST of the Story that I talk about in my book! 😉

Friend, I trust that you can have an enjoyable vacation time this summer, but even more than this, I trust that you will learn to Rest in HIS REST! You can find that Rest that you often long for and even try to fill with busyness. You can come to Rest in Him and find Rest for that part of you that is so often neglected—your soul. Imagine what that would do for your schedule and for the health of your body! Consider the call of your Creator, Jesus Christ, as found through His own words Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Let this be the REST of your story!

I couldn’t help but think further about a recent particular comment from one of the Weather Channel anchors as she reported on all of the utter devastation from the record breaking year of tornadoes. On at least two occasions, while reporting of the numerous leveled buildings, houses, and trees, along with all of the vehicles and personal belongings smashed and scattered among the splintered wood, and as she told of so many who had been injured and hundreds who had even lost their lives, she echoed the sentiments of so many in this year of unusual weather extremes: “Mother Nature, we need MERCY!” I will resist the urge to further address the problem of simply addressing “Mother Nature” (you can review one of my earlier articles—the 04-22-08 entry entitled, “Mother Nature vs. Father Creator!”). I have also written much about the fact that GOD controls the weather and has His way in it, as indeed HE should. HE is the ONE Who Created it all! The Creation does presently exist in less than an ideal state and is groaning even more, just as every woman does when in the travail of labor while waiting for the joy of the birth of a new life (see Romans 8:18-25). Indeed, today and every day we are in need of Mercy and not just mercy, but Just Mercy!

Isn’t it interesting how people think they know so much better than their Creator GOD? In our incredible age of knowledge and greater scientific understanding, there is that increasingly visible trap that many continue falling into—placing one’s self into the position of GOD. How often do we go around judging people and things as if our knowledge is perfect and our way is the best way for everything to be? Are we not all guilty of this, at least at times? Certainly, we all have some idea of relationships and situations that could be better; we are not living in the ideal world that GOD originally Created! It is not a problem and is indeed quite appropriate for us to see what needs to be fixed or improved, yet it does become a problem when our attitude comes across as if we are the ultimate judge of what is right and best. We should want and work toward what is right (or just) and best, yet we should also be people who love and exhibit an attitude of mercy! After all, are we not all fallible people and in need of mercy at times?

Justice is a wonderful thing and it is satisfying to see something being done right or even the appropriate judgment and punishment given to someone who has done wrong. We do not always want to only see mercy, which is “a withholding of judgment.” Consider some glaring and even recent examples: What about 09-11-01? That was the day when the United States and our way of life and freedom was directly attacked, immediately killing 3,000 people and leading to many more injuries and destruction of property and way of life. The self acclaimed mastermind of this horrific day—Usama Bin Laden—was a man who continued to foment hatred and look for ways and even encourage others to kill people and destroy their ways of living. Was it not just that this man was taken out of this life when he was recently discovered and failed to surrender (you may wish to even revisit my interesting testimony about this in a more recent 05-02-11 entry entitled, “Human Intelligence?”)? What about this high profile example of Casey Anthony, who is currently on trial for the murder of her two year old daughter, Caylee, who went missing nearly three years ago and was later found dead? Would it not be just for the life of one who has done wrong in taking the life of another to have their own life taken away or at least their freedom to continue living however they want? What if the mass murderer who perpetrated the 04-16-07 Virginia Tech Tragedy—Seung-Hui Cho—had not taken the cowardly way out and had survived? Would it not have been just that he be convicted and have his life ended or forever incarcerated by authorities? Would a mental health condition qualify such a person for some kind of mercy? There is not room to develop that further here, except to just get back to Just Mercy! 😉

Friend, do you not understand that it is through the Mercy of a Holy and Just Creator GOD that each of us are not thoroughly consumed (see Lamentations 3:22)? Consider what the Psalmist said in Psalm 130:3: “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Surely, we each need forgiveness when our lives are compared to the perfectly just standard! Forgiveness is available for the one willing to access this through the Person and Work of the Creator, Jesus Christ! The one accepting GOD’s means of forgiveness is then responsible to have a merciful and even forgiving attitude toward others (c.f. Ephesians 4:32). He or she should remember that in a world of perfect justice, no fallible, sinful human being could survive! We should examine the mandate that GOD gave to the prophet Micah in Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”

Just mercy or Just Mercy!? 🙂

How ironic it is that at this pivotal point in human history there is record flooding along the great Mississippi River! Water levels at some places in Mississippi and Louisiana have never been recorded to be so high (at least in modern written records). You may have seen some of the pictures of island like houses protected by personal levees with a sea of water surrounding them. You are likely aware that for the first time ever, since a great flood in 1927 led to a system of locks and levees being built to protect against future damage, all three flood control systems were unlocked at the same time to prevent greater flooding in major cities and population areas, such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Having some control over the waters of this flood does give more relief to some people, yet it has also led to many interesting political and economic decisions that have been made. Playing off this historic flood that will have repercussions in our Country for many months and perhaps years to come, I am writing about an even Greater FLOOD of far more wide reaching impact than any other catastrophic event in history and a related Flood of influence that particularly began some 50 years ago and continues to have wide reaching impact around the world today.

It was when the late Dr. Henry Morris was serving as the Chairman of the Civil Engineering Department at Virginia Tech, that he, having scientific expertise in hydraulics and the power of water, and a humble and still living preeminent theologian, Dr. John Whitcomb co-authored the ground breaking and most influential book in the world of Academia: The Genesis Flood. Just as these humble and godly authors wrote about and published 50 years ago, it was indeed the great “Mabbul” or catastrophic deluge of a worldwide FLOOD in the days of the biblical man known as Noah, that has had the greatest influence and impact in the world! It is this global FLOOD that has provided the vast majority of the scientific, fossilized specimens that we can observe today. It is this global FLOOD that provided the pressurization of carbon based life that has created the reservoirs of the black gold of oil that we all daily depend on to live and order our lives. It is the global FLOOD, as specifically recorded in Genesis 6-9 and repeated in hundreds of less reliable historical records archaeology has since discovered around the world, which best explains all that we find and can scientifically observe around the world today. What a FLOOD of influence!

Certainly, these areas that are now being flooded along the Mississippi River and its tributaries are likely to produce conditions that will even allow for fossilization of some creatures. In time, discoveries from the upheaval of sediments tossed about in the flood areas will reveal some creatures that were rapidly buried and then fossilized for future observation. Imagine how many fossils would have been formed by a global flood. Well, you don’t have to imagine this because what we observe in the world today is best explained by a flood of waters all over the world! We find fossils in sedimentary rocks. The majority of these are marine fossils. Marine fossils are even found on the tops of mountains and in mountainous regions all over world! These rocks (sedimentary) are not even the type of rocks that can be dated by the radioisotope dating methods used to determine ages. Therefore, any age given to fossils is inferred by an academic geological assumption that the earth is millions of years old, with lower rock layers representing older ages. It is all circular reasoning at best. Room will not allow me to expand this further here, but you can look this up and study it for yourself! You might find that you will come to understand the world in a much different way than how it is popularly understood and how you have likely been taught. The FLOOD of the greatest influence would then come to influence you as it should!

Friends, we live in fascinating and historic times. A flood of conditions in nature and politics and economics should be enough to prove this to you. What will your response be? Let this flood along the Mississippi River and the ongoing effects from it be a reminder to you of what the power of water can do. Let this spur you up to reevaluate your priorities in life and be certain that you are living in tune with your Creator! Please consider and be thankful for the great advances in science and technology, but remember that it was the first global judgment of the Creator GOD that brought about the greatest FLOOD of influence that has so vastly changed the conditions on the earth and Who will soon (though not tomorrow 😜) bring a particularly rough Tribulation judgment on the world. Consider the great and seminal, influential work of Dr’s Henry Morris and John Whitcomb—The Genesis Flood—that gives reasonable scientific and biblical evidence for a global FLOOD. If this fountain of truth then arises in you, it will become a flood of influence to all around you!