Water on Mars?

 

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1 Peter 5:8-9

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁸ Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. ⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

 

When the serpent (devil) tempted Eve, he had very little to go on. He used ventriloquism to make it appear that the serpent was actually talking and promised Eve that, as the serpent, had gained the ability to speak by eating the forbidden fruit, she, Eve, would gain precious knowledge by eating it. She was tricked, and all the evil in the world today resulted from her falling for it.

Likewise, the devil will stoop to any deviant, low, and mean device to capture us. Shortly after I got to high school, we had a discussion in a Friday night meeting about things to do on the Sabbath. Some students suggested that since God is love, and that he gave us love, including physical love, we should read novels about love. A lot of students thought that was a good idea.

I countered that since God is love and, in the commandment, He stated that the seventh day is the “Sabbath of the Lord Thy God,” therefore, we ought to be reading about our love for God instead of physical love. My reasoning sort of brought the discussion to a close.

Several of my fellow students approached me afterwards and told me that my reasoning was very convincing. They would appreciate it if I used it “on our side.” Their compliments fed my ego, and I began looking for places where I could support “our” side, and there were lots of places that I could. Some of those places actually supported what I considered to be the Lord’s side. On the other hand, it is also easy to use reasoning to support evil.

For example, just the other day, I overheard someone commenting that as scientists have examined some global structures on Mars, they have come to the conclusion that, early on, Mars was covered by water. Those same scientists examine the very same structures on earth and conclude that the earth was never covered by water. Why not? Because that would support the concept of a Genesis flood, and that is unconscionable.

Oh Lord, may my reasoning be guided by your Holy Spirit!

 

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[1] https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/what-happened-to-marss-water-it-is-still-trapped-there

He Endured Opposition

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 Hebrews 12:3

Common English Bible

³ Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won’t be discouraged and you won’t give up.

 

It was not in my job description, which was to teach science and mathematics. Yet, the maintenance of the entire school plant, including teacher’s homes, fell on my shoulders. I was working upwards of 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Believe it or not, I thrived under the regimen. I still found some time to read and to chat with my wife. Without a vehicle of any kind, we were stuck on the mission, so this brought no variation to my activities.

One year under a new principal, however, things came to a head. He liked to micromanage everything. He would ask me to do something. I would get my workers (students) working on the project and then go and do other pressing things. On occasion he would visit the project while I was away and demand that the workers do something different. When I returned to check on progress, I would find them tearing down what they had done. Stunned, I asked why. They would look a bit confused and then tell me the principal had told them to. When I spoke to him, he would say simply, “I want it done a different way.”

When I disciplined a student in my class, he sometimes reversed the discipline but never told me. Then in front of the class, the student would inform me that the principal had told him that what he was doing was okay. This, of course, had a serious effect on the decorum of the class.

Then one of my student helpers forgot to add more oil into a diesel engine, that powered our water pump, I was in charge of. The lack of oil severely damaged the crankshaft of the engine. The cost of a replacement crankshaft cost more than half the replacement of the entire engine. I reported our problem to the principal. He showed up the next day with a mechanic he had hired from town. He introduced him to me: “Now here is a real mechanic. You go down and see how he fixes it!”

“Good!” I said, “But no real mechanic wants an amateur looking over his shoulder.” I didn’t remind him that fixing things was not part of my job description and that I was doing this merely to save the school a lot of money. The “real” mechanic put some shims in the bearings and ran the engine. It died within eight hours. Then he told the principal, “The only way to fix the engine is a new crankshaft or a new engine. The principal was careful to never mention the event to me again. We parted as friends.

I guess I was discouraged. I gave up and turned in my letter of resignation. This scared the principal. He came to me personally and begged me to stay the two more months to the end of the school term. Then a new principal would take over, and he was going to another job.

Because I was working so much, I had not kept my eyes on the One who had suffered continual opposition and died on account of it. I did not give up but stayed on for a couple more years, until my tour of duty was over. That year was merely preparation for my final year when the opposition came not from the administration but from other directions. That time I was prepared and kept my eyes on Jesus Christ and finished in triumph.

In this current age when a raging pandemic threatens to destroy our lives and an enemy threatens to destroy our democracy, Lord, we rest our future in Your capable, loving hands!

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[i] https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im201402DL-Lister1930s-2cyl.jpg