Tag: Amazon

Making A Way When There Was No Way

Neal Pollard

Recently, I read the 2005 book by Candice Millard entitled The River Of Doubt. It chronicles Theodore Roosevelt’s exploration of the interior of Brazil, along with Candido Rondon. Their work literally put a major tributary of the Amazon River on the map. Rondon had come across the river in a 1909 expedition to lay telegraph wire and he longed to explore it. When Roosevelt was yearning for an adventure following his unsuccessful bid for a third term as president, this appeared to be the answer. It was called The River Of Doubt (Rio da Dúvida) because no one knew how long it was, what kind of terrain it passed through, or where it ended. The journey was dangerous and deadly, very nearly killing Roosevelt himself. But the risk resulted in geographical and scientific advancement that benefits the world even today.

I have always been fascinated to read about the works of pioneers. Gutenberg and the printing press, Jenner and vaccinations, the Wright brothers and flying. Whether travel and exploration or inventions, people who went first or paved the way for us are people we may never think about but we owe so much to them. Even our highway systems, with paved roads that go through tall mountains, took people to make a way when there was no way.

In Hebrews 6:20, the writer uses a term that’s only found in that verse–forerunner. The word had a very diverse usage. It was used in athletics of one who runs forward at top speed. It was used of one who went in advance of others, like horsemen ahead of the army or guides. The ancient Macedonian army had a special corp known as forerunners. In Alexandria, Roman ships heavily loaded with grain, were led out by a small guide ship. It was used in botany of the first green shoot, tree or flower of Spring. It was used metaphorically of a precursor, like John the Baptist.

The idea is that Jesus has gone behind the curtain before us into God’s presence. We can join Him there because His death made it possible for us (Heb. 5:8-9). But we also have unrestricted access to God’s presence now because He prepared the way. The writer tells us this is our sure and steadfast anchor of hope that allows us to take refuge.

It is beautiful to think that Jesus has gone before us and paved a way for us. It is a theme the writer of Hebrews addresses throughout the book as He shows us how Jesus has done that in the past, is doing it now, and will do it in the future:

  • Our forerunner went before us in the creation (1:1-3)
  • Our forerunner went before us in salvation (2:10)
  • Our forerunner has gone before us for our eternal destination (12:1-2).

One of our songs says, “Each step I take, my savior goes before me, and with His loving hand He leads the way. And with each step, He whispers I adore thee, Oh, what joy to walk with Him each day.” He’s gone before us! The question is, “Are we following Him?”

The Will To Survive

Neal Pollard

Juliana Koepke was 17 years old when she boarded a flight with her mother and 90 other people in Lima, Peru, on Christmas Eve, 1971. The plane had a terrible service record and her father urged his wife and daughter to wait for a better one, but they wanted to be reunited for Christmas. That was the disposition of the airline and flight crew, too. So they pressed on, even as severe weather stood between them and their arrival at Iquitos. A lightning strike broke the plane apart, ultimately killing every crew member and passenger except Juliana. She survived a fall of 10,000 feet, landing in the Amazon Jungle still strapped to her seat.

She suffered a broken collar bone, deep gash in her arm, an eye injury, and a concussion. The near-sighted Juliana lost her glasses and one of her sandals. She then walked through the dense Amazon Jungle for 10 days and finally found shelter in a hut that night. Local fishermen found her and took her by canoe to civilization. She used the survival skills her parents had taught her since early childhood and combined it with her sheer will to survive. Now 70 years old, she continues her parents’ work of biological research to this day in the same jungle where she survived the crash. There were things she had no influence over that helped her survive the initial crash, and the help of others was indispensable to her survival. But being saved from death, she didn’t give up until she was ultimately rescued.

Don’t you think our circumstances are similar, in a figurative sense? We didn’t influence God’s eternal plan of salvation, but we can benefit from it. We will not be saved without the influence and assistance of others along the way. But being saved from death, we can and must endure to the end (2 Tim. 2:12; Heb. 10:36). If we do, we will experience an eternal rescue. God wants to rescue every one of us from spiritual death (Gal. 1:4). But He won’t save us without our cooperation!

Juliana today

Much information gleaned from here

Heaven’s “Start Up”: The Ultimate “Rags To Riches” Story

Monday’s Column: Neal at the Cross

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Neal Pollard

Some of the wealthiest companies, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Mattel, Google, Tesla, and The Walt Disney Company, started in the quaint, quiet haven of a garage. Often, they had little more than an idea of a product or service, but they refused to stop until they achieved success. These rags to riches stories intrigue us and fire our imaginations.

Have you thought about the “start up” that began in heaven? It was conceived in the eternity before time. A couple of millennia ago, a poor couple staying in an obscure little village laid a newborn baby boy in an animal trough. This Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him as He kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Nothing more is said about this amazing adolescent until He is thirty years old and began sharing new ideas and promising the thing every person in every place in every generation absolutely cannot afford to be without. 

Though He was executed for His radical claims, thoughts, and actions, His followers refused to keep what He had to offer hidden. Many of them gave their lives to advance this cause, they believed so much in it. Most of them were poor, uneducated, and ordinary people, but they relentlessly carried His offer to every creature under heaven. People began to describe their efforts by saying these men have turned the world upside down! 

And indeed they have. Those who heard the Man who started it all shared it with those who shared it until this ultimate hope went everywhere. Today, multiplied centuries today, their work lives on. Taking that same, original plan, written down in one Book, people of every race, color, country, and economic strata continue to start from nearly nothing and grow in extraordinary ways. 

No wonder! That newborn is God in the flesh. What He came to offer is the eternal salvation of our souls. Where He offers it is in His body He calls the church. Anyone can have it, if they are willing to give Him everything they are and have. At this very hour, there is an untold number of men, women, and young people who desperately want what He has to offer, but they need to know how to get it. That’s where we come in. He is counting on us to share His offer today, while there’s time for them to take advantage of it. If we truly believe in the power of it, nothing will keep us from getting this indescribable gift to the masses!

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The Shocking Truth Of The Alligator That Bit The Electric Eel

 

Neal Pollard

All puns aside, the event really happened in the Amazon back in 2010 and was captured on You Tube.  An unidentified Brazilian fisherman documents the rare, extraordinary event.  The electric eel can generate up to 600 volts of electricity.  A hungry caiman with a fatal appetite found this out too late to let go and live.  The best reports indicate that both creatures, intended predator and potential prey, lost their lives in the interaction (www.telegraph.co.uk).

While the fisherman had caught the eel and had gone to get a knife to cut the line, the caiman saw the eel thrashing and could not resist trying to make a meal of it.  Animals are instinctive creatures and thus such intellectual and emotional responses as lust, malice and forethought, or hostility did not drive its decision to dine.  Nevertheless, it was still a fatal food choice!

Think about the instances where we can get into even more serious, spiritual trouble than the aforementioned reptile.

  • The allure for a married person to have an affair or an unmarried person to have an illicit sexual encounter or relationship.
  • The decision to get drunk or high.
  • Provoked by the words or actions of another, unloading on the provoker with sinful anger expressed by ungodly words and/or actions.
  • Exacting revenge on someone, thinking it will be “sweet” and not “bitter.”
  • Sending that angry email without deliberating, praying, or consulting a trusted friend first.

Really, any impulsive reactionary word or act can create ramifications we cannot predict or anticipate.  So many, in a momentary heat of passion, have created longterm headaches and heartaches.  Before we give in to temptation, we need to give due thought to the consequences all the while appreciating that we cannot foresee them all or the extent of them.  Eve was the first to fail to do this (Gen. 3:6), but she was far from the last.  May we pray for and pursue the wisdom to mull before we munch!