Welcome to Wadi Arnon…a wadi is a valley…sometimes filled with water, oftentimes dry, especially in the dry season.

While wadi’s are a source of water, wadi’s are very dangerous…especially when dry.  There’s a middle east phenomenon known as a wadi washout — these are incredibly dangerous because you do not know when they come…before you realize, it’s too late and you and everything around you is washed away.

A wadi is the context of Matthew 7 when Jesus talks about building your house on the rock or on the sand.  Sand is only found in a couple places in Israel…near the sea and in a wadi…

So when Jesus talks about building your house on the sand, it a poignant picture that people would immediately pick up on because they live with the danger of wadi’s.  You would never ever build your house in a Wadi…sure the riverbed could be dry for years, but you never know when the storm will come that will surely wipe away everything…even your life.

The picture below is a picture of Wadi Hever after a wadi washout…it literally swept everything away…

Thus, Jesus tells us to build our houses, (our families, our lives) on the rock…or, “don’t build them in a wadi”…

Are you building anything of your life on a wadi??

BABY COBB!!!

Saw this online…wow!!

National doughnut day was something made up by Bill. Their goal was to help the needy during the Great Depression, and to honor the Salvation Army “Lassies” of World War I, who served doughnuts to soldiers behind the front lines in France.

Soon after the US entrance into WWI in 1917, the Salvation Army sent a fact-finding mission to France. The mission concluded that “huts” that could serve baked goods, provide writing supplies and stamps, and provide a clothes-mending service, would serve the needs of US enlisted men. Six staff members per hut should include four female volunteers who could “mother” the boys.

(The canteens/social centres that were established by the Salvation Army in the United States near army training centers were called “huts”.)

About 250 Salvation Army volunteers went to France. Because of the difficulties of providing freshly-baked goods from huts established in abandoned buildings near to the front lines, two Salvation Army volunteers (Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance) came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. These are reported to have been an “instant hit”, and “soon many soldiers were visiting Salvation Army huts”. Margaret Sheldon wrote of one busy day “Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, 700 cups of coffee.”

A legend has spread that the provision of doughnuts to US enlisted men in WWI is the origin of the term doughboy to describe US infantry, but the term was in use as early as the Mexican-American War of 1846-47.

Thank you Wikipedia!

American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new virus.

On Wednesday April 29th, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to five on its six-level threat scale,¹ which means they’ve determined that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

Phase 5 had never been declared since the warning system was introduced in 2005 in response to the avian influenza crisis. Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way.

Several nations have imposed travel bans, or made plans to quarantine air travelers² that present symptoms of the swine flu despite the fact that WHO now openly states it is not possible to contain the spread of this infection and recommends mitigation measures, not restricting travel or closing borders.

Just What is a Pandemic Anyway?

A pandemic does not necessarily mean what you think it does, it is NOT black-plague carts being hauled through the streets piled high with dead bodies. Nor does it mean flesh eating zombies wandering the streets feeding on the living. All a pandemic means is that a new infectious disease is spreading throughout the world.

By definition, a “pandemic” is an epidemic that is geographically widespread. Fear-mongers are always careful to add the innuendo that millions of people could and probably will die, as in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed about 20 million people worldwide.

How does the death of even a few hundred equate to 20 million?

Much Fear Mongering Being Promoted

I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media’s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot – preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations.

On April 27, Time magazine published an article which discusses how dozens died and hundreds were injured from vaccines as a result of the 1976 swine flu fiasco, when the Ford administration attempted to use the infection of soldiers at Fort Dix as a pretext for a mass vaccination of the entire country.

Despite acknowledging that the 1976 farce was an example of “how not to handle a flu outbreak”, the article still introduces the notion that officials “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease”.

Fear has become so widespread that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country’s 300,000 pigs, even though no cases have been reported there.

Fortunately some respectable journalists recognize this and are seeking to spread a voice of reason to the fear that is being promoted in the majority of the media

This is NOT the First Swine Flu Panic

My guess is that you can expect to see a lot of panic over this issue in the near future. But the key is to remain calm — this isn’t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign.

Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?

Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.

However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.

To read more, click here

All in all a big thumbs up for the UNITED tour…

the band….

What do you think?  I like…

Last year, my friend Andrea sent me this video — Miserere (by Allegri) is choral chant from the 1600’s that is traditionally sung during Holy Week. The words are Psalm 51. David has transgressed and he has just lost his child, his son, as a result. The psalm is his prayer to his Father…

I want to invite you to join me in taking a few minutes this week to mediate on David’s words in Psalm 51 as we consider our sins before our holy and righteous God…as we consider his mercy to us that is new each morning…and most of all Christ’s suffering on the cross which was necessary for us to be restored and forgiven.  I pray that this will be a powerful time for you as you experience God’s presence…

Psalm 51

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.² Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

⁶ Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ^[a] ;
you teach ^[b] me wisdom in the inmost place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

¹⁴ Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are ^[c] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸ In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

If you are checking this out and are a blogger, I’d love to link with you…leave me a comment and your blog and we’ll connect!

I’ve always loved John Rutter’s composing…I’m not the serious choral buff, but the melodic lines of his music are absolutely beautiful….enjoy!