Robert Wolgemuth wrote a book named, “Lies Men Believe.” He was on the radio the other day discussing that book. Coincidentally, just a day earlier, a friend of mine told me one of those lies. She did not mean to do it, and possibly did not even recognize that it was a lie.
She told me that she was planning to attend a family affair and would be gone over Sunday. She asked if I thought it would be okay. She was not sure if God would like it. LIE! She didn’t exactly articulate is as such, but the question was, “Do you think God will like me less if I miss church and Sunday School?”
This lie ran through my head just before she called. “May the good Lord take a likin’ to you.” With apologies to Roy Rogers, that is a pernicious lie. It implies several things. First, it could mean that God doesn’t like you, He is just neutral and you have to “tip the scales” to get on His good side. Or worse, that He dislikes and you have to make up a lot of ground. The third, and probably not last, is that whatever His attitude, you can improve it by being likable. Lie, lie, lie.
God loves you. Turn back to old faithful, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world.” That is everyone, no exceptions. How much did He love? “...that He gave His only Son.”
When I go to a garage sale and see something that I like, I ask, “How much?” If the answer is within the range of my “liking” I go ahead and get it. So far, nothing has been likable enough that I would give one of my sons. But God heard the price for me, and the price for you, and paid it! He sent His one and Only Son, to die. He died for me. He died for you.
We cannot make Him love us more. We cannot make Him love us less. He does not love me more since I “believed on Him (Jesus)” than He did before I believed. He loves each one of us with His entire being. “God is love.” ((1 John 4:8)
Having a background in science and math helps here. You cannot diminish infinity if you take something away. You cannot increase infinity if you add something to it. Infinity is infinite: No end, no limit. It is indivisible. God’s love is infinite.
I had the privilege to share that with my friend. God will not, and indeed, cannot love you more than He does. It is not performance based. It is God based. Since He does not change, His love does not change. (Incidentally, that is why God cannot hate a sin in the past and now accept it. But I digress.) If you went to church every day for the rest of your life, He would not love you any more than He does right now.
“The good Lord’s” liken’ has nothing to do with my doin’ or not doin.” We hear that lie a lot, in one form or another. Don’t you believe it!
What a story we have to tell. “God likes you.”
Friday, September 21, 2018
Monday, September 3, 2018
Random Ruminations on Rain
In the still of this morning I heard loud thumps on the roof. It sounded like hail. Just one or two, then more, then a steady drum beat, then what seemed like a cloudburst. It was not hail, but must have been enormous rain drops. And a question occurred to me.
First, do raindrops reach terminal velocity as they fall from clouds, or are they still accelerating when they hit the roof? Since they were very loud, I wondered it they had fallen from a long way up and the energy of their fall was making the loud impact sounds.
A very enlightening look at the internet yielded an article that reported that rain drops probably reach terminal velocity and that varies for the size of the rain drops. Ones that are about 0.25 of a millimeter will have a top speed of about 17 mph. Larger ones about 1 mm will top out at about 37 mph. (https://www.wired.com/2011/08/how-fast-is-falling-rain/)
You can calculate how far they would have to fall using the g=vt formula. (g is 32 feet per second squared) 37 mph is about 54.3 feet per second. So the time is 32/54.3 or 0.59 seconds roughly. So a rain drop will fall for less than a second before reaching terminal velocity. Velocity times time gives distance. vt=d The speed starts at zero and gets to 54.3 in about a second for an average of 27.2 (rounded) off so the average velocity times time, would equal about 27 feet. So after falling 27 feet, the rain drop is at terminal velocity. (All of the above calculations ignore the resistence of air.)
The answer is yes, they are at terminal velocity. And recall smaller drops will fall more slowly. Moving on, a second thought hit me. How do rain drops form? Here is an interesting thought. Water in air will condense at the dew point. So whenever water-laden air is cooled to the dew point, water will begin to condense from vapor. So how do rain drops form?
The water cannot just “pop” out vapor in liquid. Something is required to provide a nucleation spot. Steam condenses on the sides or top of a pot. On the ground, it will condense on the blades of grass or on your car or windshield. But up in the air, the only solid objects are microscopic grains of dust.
After the water “soaks” the dust, the microscopic bits coalesce into larger bits and eventually become recognizable as drops. When they become large enough to overcome the buoyant forces of air and air currents, they will fall. (Small drops remain suspended and are clouds or, on the ground, fog.) So the “miracle” of rain produces falling drops that we recognize as normal rain.
Incidentally, the idea of “clean” rain is slightly in error. Each drop has at least one speck of dirt that was the nucleus about which the original drop formed. But I digress.
The second question was, how big are those drops anyway? Or at least how do they make so much noise? And, I will probably not be able to answer that. I did find one source that said that as they reach a certain size and speed in falling, they fracture into smaller droplets. The largest ones were up to a centimeter, but that was in clouds and not falling to the ground. Air currents hold them up, almost like a glider. But eventually they overcome the air resistance and begin to fall. Here is an interesting article about all things rain. Article.http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/07/the-largest-raindrop/
Rain was unknown on the original earth. Genesis 2:6
6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
That tells us that there was so much water vapor in the air (relative humidity) that a small drop in temperature would cause the water to condense on the ground and plants. Incidentally, as water condenses, it gives off heat energy, that heat the air, raising the temperature. So once a lot of water has condensed, the temperature would rise, above the dew point, so no more water would condense. No rain. Interesting, isn’t it? God’s plan is perfectly in accord with science.
A second consideration of rain is where it goes. We know that some rain runs off of the land in brooks, streams, and rivers, eventually reaching a lake or ocean. But where else does rain water go? An interesting note in Genesis 21:19. Hagar has been evicted from her home with Abraham and Sarah and is lost in the wilderness. He son, Ishmael, is dying of thirst and the Scripture says that, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.”
But a third idea arose from this. In the past two nights, I have had dreams about people believing on Jesus, to the accompaniment of hard rain on the roof. The rain had no part in the dream, it was just present when I awoke. Perhaps the backdrop of rain, triggered the dreams.
Where does the water come from to charge a well? We are pretty sure that it does not come up from the depths of the earth. (Partially because some wells are contaminated by what we can call “surface pollutants.” So the water, rainwater, is absorbed by the soil and descends until it hits an impervious layer and becomes trapped. Without going into too much technical detail, just realize that these underground reservoirs eventually begin to flow across the landscape, and when a surface opening is produced, usually by digging or drilling in modern times, the water can be extracted back to the surface to sustain life.
The exact science of this is interesting, but more importantly, is critical to maintaining life on earth. Without wells, much of the land would have been uninhabitable in the past. Only recently have we developed the technology to move sufficient quantities of water to sustain a society in a remote, arid region. Wells have been around for several thousands of years, and probably since creation.
There is an interesting story in Genesis 21 where Abraham and Abimelech are contesting over a well. I posted that study on Facebook and you are welcome to check it out if you are interested. This is a little additional information to enhance your understanding.
Have a great day.
First, do raindrops reach terminal velocity as they fall from clouds, or are they still accelerating when they hit the roof? Since they were very loud, I wondered it they had fallen from a long way up and the energy of their fall was making the loud impact sounds.
A very enlightening look at the internet yielded an article that reported that rain drops probably reach terminal velocity and that varies for the size of the rain drops. Ones that are about 0.25 of a millimeter will have a top speed of about 17 mph. Larger ones about 1 mm will top out at about 37 mph. (https://www.wired.com/2011/08/how-fast-is-falling-rain/)
You can calculate how far they would have to fall using the g=vt formula. (g is 32 feet per second squared) 37 mph is about 54.3 feet per second. So the time is 32/54.3 or 0.59 seconds roughly. So a rain drop will fall for less than a second before reaching terminal velocity. Velocity times time gives distance. vt=d The speed starts at zero and gets to 54.3 in about a second for an average of 27.2 (rounded) off so the average velocity times time, would equal about 27 feet. So after falling 27 feet, the rain drop is at terminal velocity. (All of the above calculations ignore the resistence of air.)
The answer is yes, they are at terminal velocity. And recall smaller drops will fall more slowly. Moving on, a second thought hit me. How do rain drops form? Here is an interesting thought. Water in air will condense at the dew point. So whenever water-laden air is cooled to the dew point, water will begin to condense from vapor. So how do rain drops form?
The water cannot just “pop” out vapor in liquid. Something is required to provide a nucleation spot. Steam condenses on the sides or top of a pot. On the ground, it will condense on the blades of grass or on your car or windshield. But up in the air, the only solid objects are microscopic grains of dust.
After the water “soaks” the dust, the microscopic bits coalesce into larger bits and eventually become recognizable as drops. When they become large enough to overcome the buoyant forces of air and air currents, they will fall. (Small drops remain suspended and are clouds or, on the ground, fog.) So the “miracle” of rain produces falling drops that we recognize as normal rain.
Incidentally, the idea of “clean” rain is slightly in error. Each drop has at least one speck of dirt that was the nucleus about which the original drop formed. But I digress.
The second question was, how big are those drops anyway? Or at least how do they make so much noise? And, I will probably not be able to answer that. I did find one source that said that as they reach a certain size and speed in falling, they fracture into smaller droplets. The largest ones were up to a centimeter, but that was in clouds and not falling to the ground. Air currents hold them up, almost like a glider. But eventually they overcome the air resistance and begin to fall. Here is an interesting article about all things rain. Article.http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/07/the-largest-raindrop/
Rain was unknown on the original earth. Genesis 2:6
6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
That tells us that there was so much water vapor in the air (relative humidity) that a small drop in temperature would cause the water to condense on the ground and plants. Incidentally, as water condenses, it gives off heat energy, that heat the air, raising the temperature. So once a lot of water has condensed, the temperature would rise, above the dew point, so no more water would condense. No rain. Interesting, isn’t it? God’s plan is perfectly in accord with science.
A second consideration of rain is where it goes. We know that some rain runs off of the land in brooks, streams, and rivers, eventually reaching a lake or ocean. But where else does rain water go? An interesting note in Genesis 21:19. Hagar has been evicted from her home with Abraham and Sarah and is lost in the wilderness. He son, Ishmael, is dying of thirst and the Scripture says that, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.”
But a third idea arose from this. In the past two nights, I have had dreams about people believing on Jesus, to the accompaniment of hard rain on the roof. The rain had no part in the dream, it was just present when I awoke. Perhaps the backdrop of rain, triggered the dreams.
Where does the water come from to charge a well? We are pretty sure that it does not come up from the depths of the earth. (Partially because some wells are contaminated by what we can call “surface pollutants.” So the water, rainwater, is absorbed by the soil and descends until it hits an impervious layer and becomes trapped. Without going into too much technical detail, just realize that these underground reservoirs eventually begin to flow across the landscape, and when a surface opening is produced, usually by digging or drilling in modern times, the water can be extracted back to the surface to sustain life.
The exact science of this is interesting, but more importantly, is critical to maintaining life on earth. Without wells, much of the land would have been uninhabitable in the past. Only recently have we developed the technology to move sufficient quantities of water to sustain a society in a remote, arid region. Wells have been around for several thousands of years, and probably since creation.
There is an interesting story in Genesis 21 where Abraham and Abimelech are contesting over a well. I posted that study on Facebook and you are welcome to check it out if you are interested. This is a little additional information to enhance your understanding.
Have a great day.
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