Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Bible Belt UFOs - yeah... really? So?
Residents of a rural Texas town
are convinced they have seen
concrete evidence
that THE END is near...
Let's analyze this now:
Stephenville, Texas
is a farming community
and Our Saviour
Did Come into this world
in a cold stable
- a manger to be precise...
Thus, The Lord Would
Give A Sign, A Demonstration
to such a remote place.
It is The Lord's kind of place!
And He Loves the most humble -
not the most fastidious!
The setting is thus right
(what did you expect -
a Divine display on Wall Street?
Godly fireworks in Tinseltown?
Not the appropriate spots for it,
no!)
Alas, the "sign" itself is not.
Unidentified Flying Objects
are simply so "not pious" objects!
What can I say,
I simply don't think that
if, in this day and age,
if we were to get deemed
worthy enough to GET
a "sign",
that it would be a U.F.O.
Maybe some other
astronomical
phenomenon
- but not a cigar-shaped
allegedly "alien" craft
and not a flying saucer
shaped one either!
For the record,
I also do not believe that
in 1917, at Fatima, Portugal,
there were any U.F.O.s
either -ever- there.
NOT EVEN to serve
as a limo service
to Our Lady - no.
Not even that.
I do not entirely reject
the (remote) possibility
that there would be life
on another planet,
somewhere...
Wasn't there a recent
"earth-like planet"
discovery reported,
in fact...?
And, as Einstein said so well,
science without religion
is as lame as religion
without science
can be blind...
(I paraphrase...!
The exact words are found
on an early luminous blog
entry - as well as on
my chunk of MySpace!
But I digress...!)
Nonetheless,
alien lifeforms
are hard to "write into"
God's Plan...
There could be a role
for intra-terrestrials
to play, though...?
Extra-T's -
I dunno!
But that is not my concern
neither today
nor on this blog
(TLB Prime!)
Rather, I'll veer back
towards my ever
luminous goal
with the very name
"Stephenville"
which makes me think,
obviously,
of Stephen!
Stephen who?
Glad you asked!
After all,
it has to be someone
mighty special
to get a town named
after his person...!
(Although,
truth be told
right here and now,
I doubt it is
the same Stephen
at all...!)
Back in the years
2002-2004,
Stephen R. Clark
surveyed the
Christian communities
looking for true tales,
testimonies,
some witnessing
of the power of God
and some faithful
good souls
to also testify
of their ever-ebullient
always fervent
Belief in Christ
and The Word.
I contributed
to some of those
literary projects.
They were, indeed,
collective works
in many ways
written into the category
"Inspiration/Self-Help"
as it was to be labeled...
I always questioned
the "self-help" part,
somewhat...
For, even if it is true
that we should
"help ourselves first
and then Heaven
will help us too",
the very act of
PRAYING
is asking for help -
ASAP!
Praying can be seen
as "self-help"
(just as reading
inspirational
material
and The Good Book
assuredly is)
but it really, truly is
nothing more
than calling for
Heavenly Attendance!
Divine Intervention!
The equivalent
of dialing 911
straight to Paradise!
But enough digressions -
onwards with the goods!
In 2005,
the fruit of all that labor
was released
by Adams Media.
It was titled
"Christian Miracles"
and subtitled
"Amazing stories of God's
Helping Hand
in our everyday lives".
And, around page 230,
you'll find the miracle
that tells of both
the power of prayer
as also of the power
of FAITH
that I submitted
out of the kindness
and generosity
of my heart.
It was somewhat
shortened and reworded
most likely by
Stephen himself
(lest it was by
his literati boss,
James S. Bell)
but the basic account
remained the same
and it went like this:
Nearly every year,
Luciano Pimentel's father,
Senhor João Jacinto,
developed kidney stones.
He would suffer
excruciating pain
until he was able
to pass them.
And he regarded this
as fortunate -
for many of his
friends and kins
had to have surgery
to remove their
kidney stones.
In September of 1991,
João Jacinto
had an especially
bad round of stones.
"We found out later,"
says Luciano,
"that he passed one
of the biggest stones
he'd ever had.
He was in terrible pain
for hours upon hours.
And drenched in sweat
from this ordeal.
As hours passed,
we fully expected
to have to take him
to the hospital."
"Then, my mother,
Senhora Maria Adelina,
prayed fervently
that God would
touch Dad.
She prayed that
the stones that
he was suffering from
would pass soon,
and that he would
never again
be afflicted with
this pernicious
problem.
As she prayed,
Mom felt compelled
to put her hands
on Dad's lower back.
He was laying
face-down on their bed,
squirming and
writhing in pain."
Within minutes
after his wife's prayer,
João Jacinto got up
and went to the
bathroom.
Painfully, but finally,
the large stone passed
and relief, at last,
washed over him.
Says Luciano,
"Since that day,
Dad has never again
had a kidney stone.
Not a single one,
and this without
changing his diet
one iota.
The Lord Jesus Christ
heard Mother's prayer
and granted Father
a permanent cure
for that ailment."
Aye, I admit -
there was a slight
rewording and
embellishing
performed
right here and now
by MOI!
:)
Thus, if you pick up
the book cited above
(there are many more
miracles to read about)
the version you'll see
there will differ a tad -
just a tad...!
And now -
to my point!
This is all to say that
if we get "signs" -
they will not be"supra-
spectacular"
they will be everyday
things, such as the one
I recall right there...
Signs that God Does Exist.
Signs that Faith
sure will be rewarded.
Signs of a very
different order...
No objects in the sky.
No circles in your crops.
No missing time
or missing cattle
that turns up later
in very bad shape...
None of that
is a "sign" -
not from God anyhow,
it isn't...!
We should not expect
the End of Times
to be announced
by a bunch of UFOs!
Haven't you read
The Word, folks?
Especially you,
proud residents of
the Bible Belt
of America...!
The Word Says
(very clearly,
I might add!)
that the End shall come
like a thief in the night.
No warnings.
No fireworks.
No hoopla.
When everything is so calm
that you could hear a bug
fly...
THEN
you can consider THAT
a true "sign"...!
Mark my words
on that...!
+++
Labels: book excerpt, Christian Miracles, Stephenville
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