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Monday, September 26, 2016
Friday evening we took Ester to the Lancaster Convention Center where she worked at a Newsboys concert. We moseyed about the city and had dinner together before walking over to pick Ester up after the concert. It's an impressive sight, the way they made our Convention Center, maintaining a portion of an abandoned department store.
"The Tech Manual Of Life"
Friday evening we took Ester to the Lancaster Convention Center where she worked at a Newsboys concert. We moseyed about the city and had dinner together before walking over to pick Ester up after the concert. It's an impressive sight, the way they made our Convention Center, maintaining a portion of an abandoned department store.
"The Tech Manual Of Life"
Message Summary: Every one of us live in a world of need and will confront people with need. Let us faithfully share of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and point people to life's tech manual!
Listen to this
message on your
audio player."You have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).
We regularly visit with a variety of engineers in the course of our chaplain service. Due to the nature of what our companies produce we see mostly mechanical engineers but we also see electrical and agricultural.
General Electric has a series of short video ads titled "What’s the Matter with Owen?" in which Owen, a young engineer right out of college, goes to work for GE. He tries to explain what he does to his parents and friends, who just don't understand the value of his work. His parents can't understand that he won't be using a hammer (video) and his friends consider his work unexciting (video), especially compared to another young man who works at "Zazzies" which makes an app that places digital hats on animals (video)
We sure appreciate the work of engineers and realize how crucial their work is for modern life. This week we want to share about some of the engineers we've met in the course of our ministry and some lessons from engineering concepts and how they apply to the Bible.
Tom, a chaplain friend, told me about an engineer he met who had gone from "riches to rags" due to a series of difficult events in his life. One morning Bob, the engineer, was so despondent that he was unable to go to work. The next day he went to work wondering if he would even have a job but the owner of the company expressed compassion and this led to the chaplain's involvement.
Tom began sharing Biblical truths with Bob, who previously had no interest in spiritual things. He shared the plan of salvation but Bob wasn't yet ready to make that decision so Tom gave him a Bible identifying it as a "tech manual", a rather clever way to connect with a secularized engineer.
Sometime later Bob left a voice mail for Tom indicating that he had asked Christ into his life. He thought the chaplain would be pleased to know this. And I can tell you for sure that Tom was very pleased!!!
Have you ever thought of the Bible as a "tech manual"? In engineering, the tech manual is prepared by the engineers who actually design the product and covers underlying design issues. The tech manual is much more detailed than the owner's manual, which deals mostly with function. The Bible is both a tech and owner's manual.
The word technical comes from a Greek word technitēs found in the New Testament. The most interesting occurrence (to me anyway) is in Hebrews 11:10 regarding the city of faith "whose architect and builder is God." In fact you can see the word "tech" in architect. Of course an architect is at the very heart of any building program and the blueprints provide the detailed directions for construction.
In the daily text the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy of "the Holy Scriptures". We are all fearfully and wonderfully made but sin has broken us all. Yet God has provided a tech manual, the Holy Scriptures. This "data", by far, is the most important type of wisdom we need.
Have you accepted the directions in the tech manual of life which are "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus?" Please do so today.
Every one of us live in a world of need and will confront people with need. Let us faithfully share of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and point people to life's tech manual!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father,
Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. There is
nothing You will ask of us that Your Word does not supply guidance,
reassurance, and courage for us to follow. We thank You for the great
examples of Biblical characters who model godliness for us. We are grateful
also for the rascals in Scripture who remind us of the negative
consequences that come to those who walk in disobedience to Your
manual.
Help us to read it, follow it and share its truths with those whom You
put in our path. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.Tomorrow's message: Just how much can mankind ignore the tech manual and still go on. Just how much fault tolerance has the Master Designer built into His created order? Fault tolerance is an engineering term describing the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components.
The Newspaper Reader by famous sculptor J. Seward Johnson. I was reading the 1812 edition of the New York Times while glancing over this bronze man's shoulders Friday evening! It's taking him a long time to read since he was sculpted in 1975 and still has the same page open:) I was also impressed with his intricately designed tweed jacket in the life-sized sculpture.
This long window flower box on a building on King Street catches our attention!
The Fulton Opera House built in 1852 is the oldest working theatre in the United States.
These Amish girls are apparently avid Newsboys fans and stood on their chairs to get a better view (thankfully, it was the back row)! The Newboys have been around since the mid-eighties. We heard the final song on Friday, "God's Not Dead" as we waited in the lobby. Concerts are a lot different than when we were young with strobe lights, fog, even a drummer on a spinning wheel (see video)!
Yesterday we visited a church near Harrisburg, PA where we served a six month role as interim pastor ten years ago. We like to periodically get back and visit the folks and are pleased to see the work continuing. We saw that many of the same folks are in the church, including several who read our daily encourgement messages, so they've stayed up with us. Lee and Tammy, hamming it up with Ester, invited us out to lunch after the service. For many years Lee did engineering and design type work for a connector company and has several patents.
Red passed on to his eternal reward in 2010. He was on board a ship, the USS Hornet (CV-8), during World War 2 that was sunk and he survived for seventeen days clinging to a piece of timber before he was rescued. While we were there that small church had four living WW2 vets who saw serious action and very dramatic stories. They are now all with the Lord.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"He Reigns" Video Newsboys
Finally today:
Eric is a young engineer in one of our companies. He and his wife are expecting their first child and this is their photo announcement. Eric is an avid hunter and often has photos of his hunting dogs. They have chosen not to know the sex of their child till birth which is the way it used to be for all expectant parents! You just made the choice to be happy and love him or her no matter the sex - either are gifts from God!
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Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. © 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the King James Version.
Personal Mission Statement: "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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