Sinking Sand of Epic Proportions

Sinking Sand of Epic Proportions

By Rev. Mike Dana

I was contacted this last year to recommend a product for the repair of concrete pipe seams and the sealing of the joints. Normally this would be no big deal as my secular job is a consultant for a polymeric company and I have been involved in this type of repair a number of times.

However, this client was looking for material for a dam structure that has recently been in the news and is of some great concern and was at the center of controversy at its origin. The Mosul Dam, located in the middle of Iraq.

The Mosul Dam is the largest Dam in Iraq and is on the river Tigris (Hiddekel). It has biblical significance as one of the four rivers leaving the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis as well as the location of Daniel while receiving the vision with prophetic words concerning the end of time in Daniel chapters 10, 11, and 12.

The (E-T) Euphrates-Tigris river basin is changing fairly rapidly according to HARC research.¹ The dams on these rivers are causing high buildup of sediment in the reservoirs they create, and there have been record reductions in surface run off feeding the rivers. This information makes me wonder about the bowl poured out on the river Euphrates by the Sixth Angel mentioned in Rev. 16:12. The effect of this “bowl “creates a dry river for the army to cross beginning the battle of Armageddon. We are not told the details of this dry section of land and its specific physical result, i.e. cataclysmic dam failure, washouts of river sections, a widening of the river or release of large amounts of sediment… only its spiritual origin.

I don’t doubt our repair material would perform well and maybe even shift the bigger problem to a different result. You see, the Mosul Dam at its inception was advised against being built. The project was built by Saddam Hussein, and it was known then that there was no bed rock to place a satisfactory structure that would safely hold back the kind of flows that the Tigris River can see. The resulting construction of the dam revealed the very problem that was warned about.

The lack of foundation for this dam is forcing continual reactive maintenance in the form of pumping grout under the dam structure to slow the effects of erosion. This grouting effort seems to have no end and has an annual budget equating to some of the recent lottery values. It is said there are more lives at stake in the event of this dam failing than that of a nuclear bomb!

What do you do?

·       The builder had reliable advice and warning.

·       He built it to try to improve status in the world and gain resources and control.

·       At the risk of loss of life.

Saddam’s decisions ultimately cost him everything. But the consequences of his actions will have a profound effect on a lot of others as well.

The parting questions I share are these of Christ…

Mark 8:34-38 (NKJV)
³⁴  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.
³⁵  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.
³⁶  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
³⁷  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
³⁸  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."

Matthew 7:24-27 (NKJV)
²⁴  "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
²⁵  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
²⁶  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
²⁷  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

 If you have read this article and realized that you have not been seeking Gods will, but your own, and would like your soul to be under the direction of Gods spirit and will, its time right now to surrender to the will of God.

Maybe you have asked Jesus to forgive you, and come into your heart and life, but have turned away and gone back to trusting yourself, or maybe you have never asked Jesus to be Lord in your life and heart…

Take the time right now to ask Jesus to forgive your sins, and come into your heart and life. I invite you to visit The Meeting Place Billings that we may equip you to know Him better. If you live outside the greater Billings Montana area give us a call that we can help you find a place of fellowship and discipleship with other believers.

¹HARC Research paper – Euphrates-Tigris River Basin Report

How To Make Your Vote Go Further

by Pastor Mike Dana

In a time when, those who care about our country, are reeling and not sure about its future and feel helpless to do anything about it, even though this election is emotionally charged, there is a way to swing the election in a favorable direction with your vote! And this vote tampering is still legal!



I have seen and read articles by a number of pastors encouraging all to get to the polls and vote. Though the restrictions of our land upon the church draws some lines making it hard to be politically driven one way or the other as a spokesperson of the church.



(This article will not get into the submission of the church to the perceived constitutional separation of church and state or the dictates of the government entities who misuse that constitutional element and its intention.)



It will however cover how “the church”, under this separation of church and state, will make its vote a representation of its values, its sincerely held religious beliefs and even take advantage of the “vote multiplier” made available for its vote!



I am ordained through an organization with a principle directive around voting which is “Vote if you can vote with a clear conscience”. So that does not say get to the polls and vote! In fact in an election year like this it may even keep people from voting! This however would be sad as in times past the representation of the churches voice has been too silent from the results of a small percentage of evangelical Christians going to the polls.



Before I lose you, know that a clear conscience does not necessarily mean that you have decided there aren’t candidates worth voting for. In fact, knowing who to vote for is a much more complicated task for the church! As our souls are to be under guidance of the Spirit of God and not free to act upon our own volition, our decisions should be based upon a prayerful outcome and not our emotions.

Romans 13:1 (NKJV)
¹  Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

God appoints leaders... Then you say why vote at all?



Because God will use you the believer to vote, and your Prayers to multiply that vote!



God also knows what we will pray prior to our act of faith in praying but so desires us to bring that petition to Him that He may honor it.



You see historically God has hardened the heart of leaders to accomplish His will, he has caused leaders to be humbled to accomplish His will, and He has changed the course of a country by the prayers of a nation.



1 Timothy 2:1-7 (NKJV)
¹  Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
²  for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
³  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
⁴  who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
⁵  For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
⁶  who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,
⁷  for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle--I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying--a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.



Because the outcome of the vote depends more on our condition than the candidates!

 

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
¹⁴  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.



But God knows the heart of which candidate he can use, and our prayers can affect weather God will have mercy on this nation or turn it over to its own sinful ways as a judgement upon it.



Therefore ask God to have mercy on our country and ask God who you should be voting for that in prayer He will act and put the correct candidate in office. That will multiply the power of your vote because God will hear from Heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land.



 If you have read this article and realized that you have not been seeking Gods will, but your own, and would like your soul to be under the direction of Gods spirit and will, its time right now to surrender to the will of God.

Maybe you have asked Jesus to forgive you, and come into your heart and life, but have turned away and gone back to trusting yourself, or maybe you have never asked Jesus to be Lord in your life and heart…

Take the time right now to ask Jesus to forgive your sins, and come into your heart and life. I invite you to visit The Meeting Place Billings that we may equip you to know Him better. If you live outside the greater Billings Montana area give us a call that we can help you find a place of fellowship and discipleship with other believers.

In keeping with recent events...

Dividing Lines

by Pastor Mike Dana

About 25 years ago I sat with a small group of men and listened to a self-proclaimed “Historian”. I believed what he was predicting/prophesying for the future. He spoke of a definite time coming when there would be a revolution in the United States. He referred to, “birth pains” as it were, of the looming time. History is a great teacher, and does, in a sense, repeat itself. Likely because of the predictability of human nature.

I saw the two recent slayings of citizens by police in this country as well as former ones, and I was quickly reminded of this meeting with the Historian. I knew in light of the recent events in this country’s history that there would be reactions. I mentioned to my wife that police everywhere had better start watching their backs as I knew the emotions of the people feeling injustice could not be controlled indefinitely.

Before you react and think I have generalized all police in the same category you can dismiss that Idea! I have worked with police on a few occasions where they were compassionate for terminally ill children and had a very good cause. I have been in trainings for public service chaplaincy learning all about the “blue humor” and coping mechanisms police have for dealing with their work environment. Like the reactions we are seeing in this country right now, these police can get over-emotional about issues, which can lead to the coping mechanisms getting out of balance.

I mentioned this to my wife knowing that the justice department appears to have not reacted equally with these injustices that have occurred. People in our society have come to expect swift and sure results, which has not happened with these situations of citizens being brutally killed. Therefore there was coming a reaction from the public trying to achieve a justice, in the hands of the people, i.e. vigilante justice.

I find my ability to have overall peace about this in knowing there will be a day of reckoning. It is called the White Throne justice. The difference of what we see and perceive now, and that day, being people will be judged by their hearts not by what we see, and by a Judge that truly knows the heart.

I further predict that the people who want gun control will over-react, and keep trying to take away the checks and balances of this country. There is a right to form a militia in our country, yet when it happens the government “of the people” overreact and punish those forming it, rather than investigating the cause or cleaning of their own house. I do not believe those acting in Texas against police officers acted correctly. They too were carried away by emotions and took the life of people.

There are a whole slew of “what ifs”, but I believe if this one escalation of injustice by a few police would have not happened, the government of the people would still have those trying to implement gun control. The lack of self-control of some individuals with guns in Texas has escalated the whole problem making it a more tangled web now than before. The thing that is drawing Dividing Lines is that behind the scenes there are those trying to defend the rights given them and others who are trying to take back rights already given.

Easy for me to correct the problem on a keyboard, but it is far beyond the time for the justice department to clean their house, and the representatives of this government of the people to respect the rights of we the rest of the people. If there needs to be some lines drawn, they need to be highlighted between the branches of government. We now have a court system making laws, our intelligence agencies trying to judge peoples intentions (refer back to White throne judgement) the justice department mixing lines by having trials and sentencing on the street leaving out the jury by peers.

An election coming up in our Country draws a very thick line as we see emotions getting taxed.

I must say that generally the press has escalated the tactics of promoting fear as their paying subscribers sit on the edge of their chairs biting their nails like they paid for a suspense filled thriller. News, just the facts please.

The most important thing regarding Dividing Lines has a much greater impact than these things. America is not alone when it comes to drawing lines. The whole globe is covered with it. We see Russia slipping back into the Cold war and isolating itself. A union of countries breaking alliance with the recent Brexit. Hatred around the globe…

    

     But, in a place, maybe not too far from your heart, is a sense that this can’t go on much longer, it must be coming to a head. That sense is correct, it won’t go on much longer. It is coming to a climax. Is peace coming? Not yet, in fact it will wax worse, and the Dividing Lines will be etched even more profound, the things we see have already been known. Emotions will make it humanly impossible to sway someone from one side of the line to the other. We must not be swayed by emotions in such a critical time as this. The times coming will cause people to want to retreat to a comfort zone and not take a stand, as the opposition may very well become fierce. I believe the times will not allow a comfort zone, as people will need to choose a side. I have already seen emotions on two opposing sides cause people to act irrationally. There will be a time, and that time is now, to make a decision as to what you believe in. To make this decision based on emotions only can cause dire consequences. Like any cause or option, you will find those in that group who do not represent the group’s beliefs very well. Don’t base your future on other people’s mistakes, base it on the truth. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No matter where you stand today He is wanting you to accept Him. He isn’t biased, and doesn’t ask a resume’. He came for the whole world, and He knows your heart.

Romans 2:16 (NKJV)
¹⁶  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Jesus goes on to say that no man comes to the Father except by Him.

There comes a time, very soon I believe, that if we have not professed Jesus as our Lord and Savior that all of our sins, all of our failures will be judged by God. You say well that sounds like preferential treatment, how can that be justice? It sounds like what is happening in our country. You know someone so you get off without a penalty, but it is not like that, our fine needs to be paid.

Let me try to explain, from the beginning of time God has wanted a relationship with his creation. His laws are the laws written on everyone’s heart. You and I have sinned and failed and broken His laws. We should be judged, after all these are Gods laws, and a penalty must be paid.

Well, a penalty has been paid! He set the penalty of death as the sentence in the book of Genesis. The paid penalty is being offered to you, Jesus being beaten and mocked and crucified in our place is that offer. The payment of death has been offered already for our sin by Jesus. That’s how much God wants a relationship with us, but a Holy God cannot have a relationship with unholy people so our sins have to be removed. It is being held out to you right now with His nail scarred hand. You only need to step across a dividing line of a life with sin, and take hold of it. The law of God will not change, if the fine Jesus offers to pay is not accepted, there will still be death required. That death being eternal separation from God.

So there is the line. There is the offer. I encourage you to step over the line and take hold of it.

 Matthew 10:32-33 (NKJV)
³²  "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. ³³  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

If you want to accept this offer you only need to pray (talk) to God and ask him for it. Just tell Him you realize you have sinned and ask Him to forgive you. That you accept the sacrifice Jesus made in your place and want to follow Him and serve Him from now on.

I accepted that offer and realize it was the most important decision in my life and am so thankful I made it.

If you accepted His offer you can profess Jesus before men by contacting us at The Meeting Place in Billings, MT.

We are here to help you get on the path of knowing God better. Let us help, call or email us tell us about your decision.

What happened on that date?

                             Why BC and AD Timeline?

                                                         By Pastor Mike Dana


While watching a program my wife and I heard one of the speakers refer to a date as being from the year such and such “BCE”. Never hearing of the term “BCE” I turned to a google search and learned that a common theme now is to refer to our dated timeline as either being BCE or “Before Common Era” and CE or “Common Era”. I also saw an article by a man titled “Why Christians Should Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”.

Being somewhat of a relic now, I had no idea that the “BC and AD system “Before Christ and After Death system” was even being challenged. It is easy for us to just assume something will stay the same once it is as much as a standard like a timeline system. I do not hear of Greenwich Mean Time changing, or the unit of an hour or minute or even a second being changed. Of course if someone in the Greenwich Village made a worldwide commotion about the way people have fallen away from their creator, and it offended them, then they may try to change the name of that standard as well, rather than their way of life. It would sure be easier.

Now I suppose as with many things in history the story gets changed. We have all heard of certain words that have changed over time, pronounced differently and so on. A couple of terms created that come to mind and reflect on the ability to squirm around an uncomfortable situation are “politically correct” and “cautiously optimistic”.

I am sure a large target is on the “Christians” back as they are the trouble makers, questioning authenticity of carbon dating, and the “standards” used in modern day science, defending absolute truth and that sort of thing. There was a time when science proved things by reproducing the exact occurrence in a laboratory. But there would be only a few acclaims or notoriety given away to scientists if they had to recreate what The Creator has done. It is easier to change standards and convince people over time that theories you studied in school should be accepted as a law. 

There is a high standard in keeping the word of our Creator from changing over time. Quite a bit of time has passed since the events written in scripture. Early transcripts found have verified scriptures accuracy. There is a reason Christians don’t like to have standards change that reflect on their Creator. Watered down versions of any story loose integrity when you aren’t able to believe in it. You might say there are a large group of folks who still don’t believe in it, but I would say there are a large group of folks who choose not to believe in it. There is a difference.

I debated about writing this article, after all God needs no one to defend Him. Yet as I contemplated it I realized God does use people to speak for Him. It was no coincidence that my daily reading of scripture that was on a preprinted reading plan had Deuteronomy chapters 5-8 for the day and the day after I heard this speaker refer to “BCE”. Moses was one that God used to speak for Him because the nation of Israel was afraid to get close to God it tells us in Deuteronomy 5:5. Deuteronomy 8:11 warns us not to forget the Lord and for the rest of the chapter we are told why. So one of my Google search results brought up the title of “Why Christians Should Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”. I believe we should be thinking “Why Christians Should Not Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”.

We are warned to not forget the Lord. But you say that having a world dating system that refers to Jesus Christ, his virgin birth and resurrection from the dead is offensive to other religions and belief systems, i.e. not politically correct. Other religions worship man made philosophies, creation itself, tombs that still have bones in them, manmade images, and self. Ask yourself why one might want to drift away from truth.

We know that Gods’ grace for His creation has gone on much longer than we deserve. As the world works at putting shades of grey around the history that is well documented, in not only scripture, but history books as well. We as Christians should not roll over and let history be rewritten because we are afraid of offending someone.

If a relative of yours was put to rest and an “era” was engraved in place of their birth and death I think you might struggle with that for your offspring and their offspring. More importantly should we refer to such a historical timeline as a Creator God coming to earth to walk in our shoes, suffer and die in our place and offer eternal life with God as an era?
Why did the dates in history change and start going a different direction?
What marked this “era” change?
Let’s call it as it is.

Maybe you were reading this and for some reason you realized you are not where you should be in relationship with Christ. The Meeting Place is here to help! You can be in right relationship with God!

Romans 10:9-13 (NKJV) 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

That sums it up pretty well. If that’s you and you feel like “I am not able to be right”, let alone with a Holy God, (you couldn’t be further from the truth) the price has been paid for you with a once and for all- eternal- Holy- sacrifice- -Jesus- - on the cross. Just simply talk to God right now, he already knows your heart, let Him know that you know you are a sinner, ask Him to apply Jesus’s sacrifice to your sin and to forgive you. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and be your Lord and your Savior.

If you’ve done this, give us a call at The Meeting Place and profess Jesus is your Lord with your mouth. We would like to help you get to know Him better.
www.themeetingplacebillings.com
The Meeting Place 406-544-9179