Silly Road Signs

From bloggingthechurch: Have you ever noticed how silly some of the road signs are that we see on highways around the country?

For instance: FRESH OIL; LOOSE GRAVEL. The street or highway department sprays oil and tar on the road or shoulder, than they cover it with chat which sticks to the tar like flies on a no-pest strip. When this is done in town* (see explanation below), it seems everyone is upset and grumbles and gripes about it because it messes up our cars. On the highways in particular, in the right circumstances, it can be dangerous and wrecks can happen as cars slide around on the loose chat. The sign is warning us of a possible hazard ahead.

Or, DON’T DRIVE INTO SMOKE. January 1978 was my first experience on the Will Rogers Turnpike as I drove into Oklahoma. As I was heading toward Vinita, Oklahoma, I see these signs with a peculiar warning, “Don’t Drive Into Smoke.” I’m think, “What? What a stupid sign. This is a highway. Where would smoke be coming from on a highway?” My limited intelligence, experience, and imagination could not figure a good reason for the warning. When it was explained to me by an Okie, I finally understood. Sometimes, people burn off their fields near the highway and the highway department burns off the shoulders of the road and the smoke may roll onto the highway obscuring your vision. It could hide the danger of a slower or stopped truck or car. The sign is warning us of a possible hazard ahead.

Or my favorite, BRIDGE MAY ICE WHEN COLD. I’ve seen these signs mostly in Arkansas and Louisiana. The first time I saw one of these signs I began to imagine the bridge with a mind of its own and the highway department is warning drivers to beware. I could see someone driving across a bridge in the winter when the bridge decides to ice over and cars begin spinning.

In Louisiana, I saw a couple of bridges with the signs on the exit side of the bridge, as if some demented highway employee is playing a joke on drivers. The bridge ices and you start spinning. As you spin past the bridge and see the sign, you yell out, “O yeah. . .thanks. . .for the. . .warning!!!!!” But, ice on bridges when the road is clear is a very real danger. The sign is warning of a possible hazard ahead.

The Apostle Paul says, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes“ Ephesians 6:11. The devil is a liar and a deceiver. He plots and schemes ways in which to trap you in sin. The Bible warns us about the devil and his tricks. Beware, the devil has a trap ahead, around most every turn in life, just over the rise each day may be one of his tricks.

•He may trip us up, and cause us to stumble: FRESH OIL; LOOSE GRAVEL.
•He may hide behind a smoke screen of grumbling of some sort: DON’T DRIVE INTO SMOKE.
•He may change the conditions quickly to cause you to slip up: BRIDGE MAY ICE WHEN COLD.

By knowing God’s word and way, we can, with the help of God’s own Spirit, see the road signs and dangers and YIELD AND STOP, keeping us out of danger. Beware, the devil is a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He may be around every corner trying to snatch you away from God.

* Many small towns such as in northern Missouri pave their roads (and on some two-lane highway shoulders), tar and oil is spayed on the road surface and chat spread to cover and adhere to the tar and oil and it makes a sort of pavement type surface and until it settles in, cures or whatever the correct term is, the dust and the tar mess up your car.

(reposted from BloggingtheChurch, October 19, 2011)

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Please sign the Call for Mercy petition for Asia Bibi

Asia Bibi, was arrest and imprisoned in June 2009 in Pakistan for her Christian witness. In, November 2010, Asia was convicted of committing blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad and sentenced to death. At press time, she was still locked in an eight-by-ten prison cell near Lahore, Pakistan, awaiting the results of her appeal.

Please sign the Call for Mercy petition on her behalf (http://www.callformercy.com/). Thousands have already done so.

"Pray for us," her husband Ashiq asked. "Pray for Asia so she may soon come back home, and she can say thanks to the entire world when she comes home. Muslims say all she has to do is make a proclamation of Islam and she will be released, but she's faithful and she will never deny her faith."

(excerpted from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, December 2011)

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So what! Since evolution is true, I know you are wrong...

Many people with the evolutionary mindset refuse to listen to any evidence presented against their position. Here are some basic truths that simply cannot be refuted, as given by Tim Stout in his pamphlet How Science Shows There MUST Be A Creator.

1. Biological chemicals fall apart much faster than they could ever spontaneously appear! This behavior is the outworking of the laws of chemical equilibrium. Therefore, for a person to believe in a natural origin of life, he needs to reject the laws of chemical equilibrium.

2. Consider the very common enzyme, succinate dehydrogenase, which is comprised of a string of over 1,100 amino acids. The probability of getting this particular amino acid sequence, by chance, are 1 in 10^1,100. (that's a 1 with 10 thousand zeros after it).  Natural selection would be useless in gradually bringing about its initial formation, because natural selection does not choose between the better of two failures. Therefore, to believe in a natural origin of life a person needs to ignore the laws of statistics.

3. A living cell is essentially an information-driven machine. must have all. All of the components of a cell must performing properly right from the very beginning, not gradually over time. Otherwise, it does not work, period, end of story. This is the exact opposite of a gradualistic evolutionary processes. Therefore, to believe in a natural origin of life, a person needs to reject basic principles of information-driven machines.

The evidence is so powerful that anyone can see it who is willing! We can present the evidence, but only God can make it take root and grow (1 Corinthians 3:7). Because of these truths, we need to be relying on God to work in the hearts of those to whom we speak, to make things clear, and not to rely on our own efforts.

(based on Timothy R. Stout, Responses to the Testimony, published in Creation Matters, a publication of Creation Research Society, Volume 16, Number 5, September/October 2011, to appear at http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/pdf/2011/CM16%2004%20low%20res.pdf)

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Bible Receptions into the Red Zone...of the Columbian civil war

Russell powers up his Cessna 170 and accelerates down the runway for takeoff. He distributes Christian literature and Bibles in Colombia's red zone by dropping them from his airplane in bags suspended beneath
small parachutes.

Russell also meets directly with FARC guerrilla leaders. Recently, his daughter Alethia traveled with him to a guerrilla camp, where she met about 10 female guerrillas. The women had become Christians through Russell's ministry, but they could not tell the other guerrillas and kept their Bibles carefully hidden.

"They love Christ and are members of a violent movement," Alethia says. "It is hard to reconcile. But they just don't know another way. If they leave the guerrillas, they will be killed. My father has taught me not to judge them, just to love them and be a witness and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit."

(excerpted from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, December 2011)

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Human Rights Lawyer jailed in Iran for defending Christian Pastor

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2011 for "actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime." He is co-founder and spokesperson for the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), was sentenced by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court on 3 July, to nine years in prison, a ten year ban from teaching in universities, a ten year ban from practicing as an attorney, $300 in fines, and five lashes. Dadkhah’s charges were, “cooperation in the soft overthrow of the regime,” “propaganda against the regime,” “interviews with some media outlets,” “distortion of members of the regime,” “dark portrayal of the state of cultural heritage,” and “compiling the book ‘Writing and Reporting’”, which was published by the DHRC. For more about this brave Iranian human rights lawyer see International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's web page.

What finally drove the Iranian regime to punish a lawyer so severely? Dadkah had the audacity to defend Iranian house church Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Nadarkhani, who has remained in prison since his arrest in October 2009, was convicted of apostasy for converting from Islam to Christianity and for encouraging other Muslims to convert to Christianity. Nadarkhani was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2010 afi:er a regional court in Rasht convicted him of apostasy.

Iran's Supreme Court reviewed the case on appeal in July 2011 and ordered the lower court to reinvestigate the apostasy charge. The lower court ruled that Nadarkhani was Muslim at birth and ordered him to "repent" of his Christian faith. The pastor replied, "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?" The judges said, "To the religion of your ancestors, Islam." Pastor Nadarkhani then replied, "I can not." At press time, he remained in prison.

Iranian Christians say the government has targeted Pastor Nadarkhani because of the rapid growth of his house church, which now includes more than 400 believers. Pray for Pastor Nadarkhani as well as his wife, Fatemah, and their two sons. Pray that our Iranian family will be encouraged and emboldened by his witness. Pray that lawyer Dadkhah would be released, and that God would raise up other brave lawyers in Iran to defend the defenseless, followers of Jesus.

(excerpted from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, December 2011)

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