“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15
Our car went into the garage for work so we were given a ‘loaner’ for use today. We have no title to this car, it’s not ours, it has only temporary usefulness for us. We are responsible to drive it safely and return it in good condition at the end of the day.
If only we looked at all the things in our lives as ‘loaners’. In many of our churches we regularly affirm belief in “God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.”
An aerial view of a flooded area of Sanghar in 2011. Climate-related disasters have …
Climate-related disasters have displaced more than 42 million people inAsiaover the past two years,the Asian Development Banksaid Tuesday in a report calling for swift action to avert future crises.
"Asia and the Pacificis the global area most prone tonatural disasters, both in terms of the absolute number of disasters and of populations affected," said the report launched in Bangkok, which was itself affected by flooding last year.
About 31.8 million people in the region were displaced by climate-related disasters and extreme weather in 2010 -- a particularly bad year -- including more than 10 million in Pakistan owing to massive flooding.
A further 10.7 million were forced to flee their homes last year, it said, warning that such events will become more frequent with climate change.
"While many of those displaced returned to their homes as conditions improved, others were less fortunate, struggling to build new lives elsewhere after incurring substantial personal losses," ADB vice president Bindu Lohani said in a foreword to the report, released at an Asian climate forum.
The bank says Asia has six of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change, with Bangladesh and India in the top two places on a list that also includes Nepal, the Philippines, Afghanistan and Myanmar.
"The environment is becoming a significant driver of migration in Asia and the Pacific as the population grows in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying coastal zones and eroding river banks," Lohani said in a separate statement.
"Governments should not wait to act. By taking steps now, they can reduce vulnerability, strengthen resiliency, and use migration as an adaptation tool rather than let it become an act of desperation."
The report, titled Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific, said governments in disaster-prone Asia-Pacific countries must enact a range of measures to stave off future crises.
Among other things, it recommended greater investment in urban infrastructure and basic services to accommodate the anticipated increase in migrant flows to the region's megacities.
"By taking actions today, governments can reduce the likelihood of future humanitarian crises and maximise the possibilities that people can remain in their communities or -- should deteriorating environmental conditions make that impractical -- that they have the real option to relocate to a more secure place with livelihood options," it said.
The ADB says the Asia-Pacific region needs to spend about $40 billion a year through 2050 to "climate proof" against the impact of global warming.
First you have to stock up on the appropriate gear, ammunition, food and shelter to survive a nuclear meltdown, asteroid, earthquake, solar flare or some other catastrophe. Then there's acquiring the materials you'll need to rebuild a community after the dust settles.
The bottom line: Some self-described "preppers" are plunking down hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So far, Patrick Geryl estimates he's already spent more than $130,000 on his survival preparations.
Author of "How to Survive 2012" and eight other books about a catastrophe destined to occur this year, Geryl believes that a shift in the Earth's poles is going to result in solar flares, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that will throw the world into a nuclear meltdown. The dreaded event will occur on December 21, when the Mayan calendar allegedly ends, he said.
Geryl plans to survive the turmoil in a small wooden bunker far from the nuclear radiation in South Africa, where he can live off the grid for about a year and rebuild a community with other survivors.
In order to do so, he has spent years stocking up on nearly 100 survival essentials, including guns and ammunition, water purification tablets, waterproof matches, a drafting table for charting stars in the sky -- even condoms to use for carrying water.
Books with survival tips, like a guide to edible plants, herbs and mushrooms, are also crucial, because he won't have access to the internet when disaster strikes, he said. He's still accumulating all of the necessities he'll need and is constantly adding more items to the list. [Check out his survival list here]
To get to South Africa from his home in Belgium during a worldwide catastrophe is another issue. Geryl said he is currently considering sailing there in an "unsinkable yacht," which is made by a company called Etap in Belgium. However, he said the yachts, which have double walls and are insulated with foam so that they are supposedly unable to capsize, cost more than $100,000, so he doesn't know if he'll be able to afford one.
Robert Bast, 46, is a prepper who works in Internet marketing during the day and runs an online community called Survive2012.com when he's off the clock. Bast, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and three children, has spent more than $350,000 preparing for "the end of the world as we know it."
The end of the world, he says, could come at any time and result from any type of disaster.
"What is certain is that in my lifetime, there is a strong likelihood that there will be a catastrophe of some kind -- the sun destroying power grids, a flu pandemic that kills millions, an asteroid or meteor or comet striking earth or a magnetic pole shift," said Bast.
Bast has spent about $5,000 on stockpiles of food and water, and $11,000 on equipment including gas cookers, generators, batteries, water purifiers and solar power. He also purchased roughly an acre of land that's a 75-minute drive from Melbourne and 1,500 feet above sea level (in order to stay high and dry in case of a flood or tsunami). He has built a house there, as well as a bunker to serve as his "safe spot" in the event of an emergency. Together, the land, buildings and bunker have cost him a total of about $330,000.
He's also spent $10,000 on an 8-year old Toyota HiLux pickup truck to drive to his safe spot.
To afford all of this, Bast has been saving money from his job for years. He has a mortgage on his primary residence, and he took out a second mortgage for the home he built as his safe house.
Phil Burns, a co-founder of the American Preppers Network and the subject of "Meet the Preppers" on Animal Planet, is preparing for all types of disaster scenarios.
Among the more ominous: A natural disaster or economic collapse that causes mass starvation, causing people to become so desperate for food and shelter that they lose their minds and resort to violence. In the preparedness world, these people are often referred to as "zombies."
To ensure his survival in the event of a disaster like this, Burns, 38, has been prepping for years. He now has a year's worth of food in storage, including 4,000 pounds of wheat, beans and rice that cost about $5,000. He even has 20 bottles of different food flavorings, so that "one day I could have vanilla rice and the next I could have orange rice -- because just plain rice gets old."
He also has an RV and trailer to use as a "bug out vehicle" to get to his "bug out location,"which is a fully-stocked 40-acre retreat tucked away in the mountains of Idaho.
To protect himself from any attackers and to be able to hunt for food as a family, he has purchased several guns for each of his eight children (who learned how to shoot at age 4). Burns declined to disclose the number of guns he and his wife have, nor how much money they have spent on them.
While Burns has spent a pretty penny on his own preparations -- about $20,000 on food and guns alone -- he says that preparedness is a lifestyle and doesn't believe everyone should start spending huge amounts of money getting ready for the end of the world.
Instead, Burns advises beginning preppers to start by setting aside up to 20% of their income for preparations -- whether it goes toward supplies, emergency training classes or shelter.
Anyone can become a prepper if they are willing to dedicate the energy and resources to it, he said.
"A lot of people say preppers are paranoid, scared, pessimistic, always believing that there's going to be a disaster," said Burns. "But if you look at it with open eyes, we're actually optimists -- we're saying, 'I don't care what you throw at me, I can survive it.' "
Are you concerned that a disaster is imminent? What are you doing to prepare? E-mail blake.ellis@turner.com for the chance to be included in an upcoming story on CNNMoney.
(AP) WASHINGTON - Global warming-fueled sea level rise over the next century could flood 3.7 million people in 544 U.S. cities temporarily, according to a new method of looking at risking of rising seas published in two scientific papers.
The cities that have the most people living within three feet of high tide — the projected sea level rise by the year 2100 made by many scientists and computer models — are in Florida, Louisiana, and New York. New York City, often not thought of as a city prone to flooding, has 141,000 people at risk, which is second only to New Orleans' 284,000. The two big Southeast Florida counties, Miami-Dade and Broward, have 312,000 people at risk combined.
"Southeast Florida is definitely the highest density of population that's really on low coastal land that's really most at risk," said lead author Ben Strauss, a scientist at Climate Central. Climate Central is a New Jersey-based group of scientists and journalists who do research about climate change.
The studies look at people who live in homes within three feet of high tide, whereas old studies looked just at elevation above sea level, according to work published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research and an accompanying report by Climate Central. That's an important distinction because using high tide is more accurate for flooding impacts, said study co-author Jonathan Overpeck, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Institute of the Environment. And when the new way of looking at risk is factored in, the outlook looks worse, Overpeck said.
"It's shocking to see how large the impacts could be, particularly in southern Florida and Louisiana, but much of the coastal U.S. will share in the serious pain," Overpeck said.
Sea level has already risen about 8 inches since 1880 because of warmer waters expand, Strauss said.
Sea level rise experts at the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration who weren't part of the studies said the results make sense and were done by experts in the field.
"All low elevation places in the many urban areas along the coast will become more vulnerable, like Boston, New York City, Norfolk (Va.), New Orleans, Charleston (S.C.), Miami, Washington, D.C./Alexandria (Va.)," said S. Jeffress Williams, scientist emeritus for the USGS, who wasn't part of the studies. "More people and infrastructure will be at increasing risk of flooding."
Study By: Bob DeffinbaughNow we come to a very powerful and pivotal point in the passage at hand. This verse, in fact, is the climax of the Sermon on the Mount. This passage asks the all-important question, “Who are you serving?” People often think they can have the best of both worlds – both here on earth serving themselves with riches and living it up, and later down the road in the future, which would be heaven. In this passage, Jesus states: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Jesus tells us here that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve money and God; we cannot serve popularity and God; we cannot serve ourselves and God; we cannot serve our families and God. We can have only one master. Jesus is once again challenging us to look at the whole Sermon on the Mount, challenging us to repent, to change our minds about earthly treasures, about the things that we formerly served, and to serve Him only. You cannot do it no matter how hard you try. One or the other will lose out, and in most cases, it will be God. Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells this story:
A farmer … one day reported to his wife with great joy that his best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. He said, “You know, I have been led of the Lord to dedicate one of the calves to him. We will raise them together. Then when the time comes to sell them, we will keep the proceeds that come from one calf and we will give the proceeds that come from the other to the Lord’s work.” His wife asked which calf he was going to dedicate to the Lord, but he answered that there was no need to decide that then. “We will treat them both in the same way,” he said, “and when that time comes we will sell them as I have said.” Several months later the man entered the kitchen looking very sad and miserable. When his wife asked what was troubling him he said, “I have bad news for you. The Lord’s calf is dead.” “But,” his wife remonstrated, “you had not yet decided which was to be the Lord’s calf.” “Oh, yes.” he said. “I had always determined that it was to be the white one, and it is the white calf that has died.”198
James Boice comments: “It is always the Lords calf that dies – unless we are absolutely clear about our service to him and about the true nature or our possessions.”199
I would like to point to an example of someone who had the right perspective on what this meant. Many of you may know this example. It is actually one of my favorite passages of Scripture, one that challenges me greatly every time I read it.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
The Apostle Paul was in the religious sense a man who had it all. He was circumcised the eighth day; he was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning the law, he was a Pharisee; concerning zeal, he persecuted the church. Concerning righteousness, which is in the law, he was blameless. Paul had it all, but he gave all that up because he saw all this as rubbish, as “dung,” so that he might know Christ and the power of His resurrection. He was serving one Master, and that Master was Jesus Christ, and Him alone. The things of this world and the things this world had to offer did not appeal to him anymore because the Father had changed his heart and made him a new man. In his life, Paul had a change of mind – he repented and until his death, Paul followed Christ. He saw the significance of laying up treasure in heaven, and he laid aside those things that might have appealed to his flesh so that he might live by faith in the unseen and lay hold of the reward at the end of his life – the salvation of his soul.
What about us? What is Christ asking of us? He is asking us to do the same – we are not to serve two masters, but to serve Christ and Christ alone. Below are a couple of passages that illustrate this point. We are to count the cost, because it is either Him or self in our personal pursuits, whatever those might be.
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34-38).
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:25-33).
God is calling us to a radical life of service to Him as our Master. As I said at the beginning of this message, there is such huge importance in realizing that God is our Father, and we are His children. God will take care of us and provide for all of our needs as He sees fit. But the temptation to hold onto earthly things weighs heavy on us and tempts us to trust our riches instead of our heavenly Father. In the passages of Scripture quoted above, we see an incredible call to serve our Father, as His children and as His disciples. There are some pretty strong statements in these passages; if you don’t hate your father and mother, etc., you cannot be My disciple. This call is radical in that we are called to give up ourselves completely and to place our complete trust in our Father and to follow Him. We are called to deny ourselves, which means that self no longer has any rights. We are called to take up our cross, which means that we are to take the same path Jesus took, being willing to lay down our lives for His sake and His gospel. And we are called to follow Him. We are called to imitate Jesus in all that He did and to follow His example.200 Jesus wants all of our heart. He desires that we have an intimate relationship with the Father as He does. We cannot serve God and the riches on this earth; it just does not work. One is either despised or hated, while the other one is loved and followed. Whichever one you serve is the one that is your master. If it is riches, those riches are your master, and they have control over you. If it is the Father, He is your Master, and He has control over you. Who are you serving?
Conclusion and Application
(1) In conclusion, I want you to realize that God is not condemning us for being wealthy or rich. The question is, “Are you serving those things and committing idolatry by having them be your god?” Money is not bad; it is the love of money that is the root of evil. “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1Timothy 6:10).
Command those that are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on to eternal life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
The example of Demas comes to mind: “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica …” (2 Timothy 4:9-10).
(2) The temptation to lay up treasures is a real temptation that we all face from youth to adulthood. I was in Chicago recently, and many times throughout the weekend, I thought, “Man, if I only had a little more money, I could do this,” or “I could have a house on Lake Michigan,” or “I could own that sweet car.” We were down on Rush Street and looked into this Bentley store with all kinds of elaborate cars from red and yellow Ferraris to Aston Martins to Porsche 911’s to Bentleys. I thought to myself that it would be so awesome to drive one of those things home; what would people think of me then? The temptation is real, and it is not just in things like cars and big houses; it comes down to clothes, and X-box gaming consoles, and jewelry, family, power, popularity, hypocrisy etc. This temptation is real, and we need to put on the whole armor of God to combat it. Our enemy wants nothing more than to distract us with these temporal pleasures and things of this world so that we do not have an intimate relationship with our Father.
(3) Where is your treasure? I ask the youth students this each week. I don’t know where your heart is or what your heart is longing for or serving. Only two people know that, you and God. I know that if you are serving yourself by storing up wealth or popularity or whatever it may be, that will come to an end. It is only temporary. But if you are serving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you will not be disappointed. There is an inheritance waiting for you when you go to be with the Lord. I am calling us to repent of those things and to change our minds and our behaviors. I am calling us to repent on a daily basis, as this is a continual battle we face day in and day out. We have seen the power of the gospel and repented; that must continue every day. We must see the grace of the gospel in our daily lives and its effects day in and day out. We must live by that grace, through faith, in what is to come.
I conclude with an excerpt from the story of a missionary woman who has been a huge encouragement to me. Darlene Deibler Rose lost everything but gained so much more.
“Mrs. Joustra came to our barracks and asked if she could talk to me [Darlene Deibler Rose] for a few minutes… “I came to tell you that your husband in Pare Pare has been very ill… .When I saw her eyes fill with tears, I grabbed her shoulders and cried, ‘Oh, Mrs. Joustra! You don’t mean he’s gone!’ ‘Yes’, she said. ‘Some three months ago he died in the camp in Pare Pare.’ I was stunned – Russell is dead. He’d been dead three months already! It was one of those moments when I felt that the Lord had left me; He had forsaken me. My whole world fell apart. I walked away from Mrs. Joustra. In my anguish of soul, I looked up. My Lord was there, and I cried out, ‘But God…!’ Immediately He answered, ‘My child, did I not say that when thou passest through the waters I would be with thee, and through the floods, they would not overflow thee?’”201
Here is a woman who lost everything, including her husband. She was in a prison camp during World War II, yet she found God faithful in all of this. She found that giving her life to Jesus Christ was of far greater value than anything she could obtain here on earth, and through these awful, dreadful years, God used this woman in a mighty way amongst the other prisoners of war, as well as with her so-called enemies that were holding her captive. As Jim Elliot wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Where is your treasure? How is your vision? And who are you serving? I pray that you are serving the Father and Him alone.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15
Enlarge Photo
An aerial view of a flooded area of Sanghar in 2011. Climate-related disasters have …Climate-related disasters have displaced more than 42 million people in Asia over the past two years, the Asian Development Bank said Tuesday in a report calling for swift action to avert future crises."Asia and the Pacific is the global area most prone to natural disasters, both in terms of the absolute number of disasters and of populations affected," said the report launched in Bangkok, which was itself affected by flooding last year.