The Finnish people are known to not say more than they absolutely have to.

There was this Finnish guy that loved his wife so much that he almost told her.

Many years ago I was part of a very international team that did an engineering project in a number of countries. One of our fellow engineers was from Finland. We thought it was funny so we sent him the joke. Within five minutes he sent back the message “He was drunk!

Kathy Barnette has been accused of saying that Obama was a Muslim, and that Islam itself is a false religion.

Was Muhammad “the Prophet” or even a Prophet?

“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

The quote comes from a speech that President Obama delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2012 about the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. At that time he still blamed a video.

Muslims claim, and the religion of Islam demands that Muhammad was “The Prophet”. This claim comes from what Muhammad called “the Book”, Deuteronomy 18: 17-22

17 The Lord said to me (Moses) : “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

After Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina he started to proclaim he was “The Prophet” His new followers wanted to make sure he was “the Prophet” so they asked the Jews. The Jews immediately answered “No, he is not The Prophet. The Prophet must be an Israelite, and Muhammad is an Ishmaelite, so he is an impostor”. That didn’t sit well with Muhammad, so he ordered his followers to start praying to Mecca instead of praying to Jerusalem, as had been their practice until then. His always cooperating archangel provided a convenient revelation that that was indeed so. Since then Muslims have prayed to Mecca instead of Jerusalem, and been on the warpath against the Jews.

So, Muhammad was not “The Prophet”. Was he even a Prophet?

Everything a prophet proclaims must come true for him to qualify as a Prophet. One miss, and you are out. One prophecy Muhammad claimed was that the Jews would never be a unified nation again, and that they would not be able to fight militarily against the Muslims.

“They [the Jewish people] will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.” (Surah 59:14).

The seven day war and other wars since the formation of Israel in 1948 proves this prophecy wrong. (The opposite of what was prophecised has occurred)

Logic demands that Muhammad was not a prophet.

The Muslims have chosen another explanation: Israel does not exist, will never exist,  has no right to exist and all fighting that has occurred in the Mideast can be explained by other means. There never was a genocide of Armenians, the holocaust never occurred and so forth.

After President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace accord with Israel together with Begin and President Carter, he was promptly assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is my opinion that the only solution possible for peace in the Middle East is a reformation of the Muslim faith, accepting the violent history of Islam, its slavery and oppression, abandoning all physical claims to future world dominance, separating out the spiritual claims, and abandoning their geographical dreams of physically conquering the world. There are plenty of Muslims here in the USA willing to work towards that goal, but unfortunately they are not accepted by President Obama, who still prefers to work with the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates.

This is my take on it: Judge for yourselves.

“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

The quote comes from a speech that former President Obama delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2012 about the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. At that time he still blamed a video.

Muslims claim, and the religion of Islam demands that Muhammad was “The Prophet”. This claim comes from what Muhammad called “the Book”, Deuteronomy 18: 17-22

17 The Lord said to me (Moses) : “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

After Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina he started to proclaim he was “The Prophet” His new followers wanted to make sure he was “the Prophet” so they asked the Jews. The Jews immediately answered “No, he is not The Prophet. The Prophet must be an Israelite, and Muhammad is an Ishmaelite, so he is an impostor”. That didn’t sit well with Muhammad, so he ordered his followers to start praying to Mecca instead of praying to Jerusalem, as had been their practice until then. His always cooperating archangel Gabriel provided a convenient revelation that that was indeed so. Since then Muslims have prayed to Mecca instead of Jerusalem, and been on the warpath against the Jews.

So, Muhammad was not “The Prophet”. Was he even a Prophet?

Everything a prophet proclaims must come true for him to qualify as a Prophet. One miss, and you are out. One prophecy Muhammad claimed was that the Jews would never be a unified nation again, and that they would not be able to fight militarily against the Muslims.

“They [the Jewish people] will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.” (Surah 59:14).

The seven day war and other wars since the formation of Israel in 1948 proves this prophecy wrong. (The opposite of what was precised has occurred)

Logic demands that Muhammad was not a prophet.

The Muslims have chosen another explanation: Israel does not exist, will never exist,  has no right to exist and all fighting that has occurred in the Mideast can be explained by other means. There never was a genocide of Christian Armenians, the holocaust never occurred and so forth.

After President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace accord with Israel together with Begin and President Carter, he was promptly assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is my opinion that the only solution possible for peace in the Middle East is a reformation of the Muslim faith, accepting the violent history of Islam, its slavery and oppression, abandoning all physical claims to future world dominance, separating out the spiritual claims, and abandoning their geographical dreams of physically conquering the world. There are plenty of Muslims here in the USA willing to work towards that goal, but unfortunately they are not accepted by Ex President Obama, who still prefers to work with the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates.

The second hint that Barack Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obamabrotherhood

On September 1 2014 Egypt’s largest newspaper claimed on its front page that Obama is a full fledged member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt just days after a delegation of the Islamist group’s key leaders and allies met with the State Department, according to an official statement released last week.

While the President himself did not attend (as far as we know) the State Department meeting was attended by a deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor and other State Department officials.

The Muslim Brotherhood statement also was issued just two days before a major terror attack Thursday Jan 29 in Egypt’s lawless Sinai region that killed at least 25.

“It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in the process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent in our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising jihad, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom,” the statement from the Muslim Brotherhood reads.

Jihad gesture

Then February 4  2015 ex President Barack Obama met with Muslim leaders in the East Room of the White House, off limit to reporters. We were not to know the content of the President’s message, only that it is none of our business, neither are we to know who attended the meeting, “since they are private citizens and their privacy needs to be protected”.

This does not pass the smell test.

Which leads to verse 22 of the Obama Impeachment song (sung to the tune of  “Please release me, let me go”)

I’m a Muslim Brother now,

as they declared Jihad somehow,

after White House sweet powwow.

What’s left of my bark: A weak bowwow.

And here is the whole impeachment song: https://lenbilen.com/2015/02/25/the-complete-obama-impeachment-song/

These are my opinions and I do not attribute any of them to Kathy Barnette, except that she has been accused to hold the view that Islam and Christianity are incompatible, you cannot hold both views.

Oh, and one more thing: Kathy Barnette just tweeted:

I have released all my military records. Has Dr. Mehmet Oz released released all his Turkish military records?

What does it mean to be “Ultra MAGA?”

President Joe Biden explained today in a short speech on inflation that the biggest obstacle to his program is the Ultra MAGA Republicans that has taken over one part of the Republican party rendering governing nearly impossible considering his small majorities in both the House and the Senate.

It is now one week until the Pennsylvania Senate Primary, so it is time to look who to vote for. I saw the same attribute given to Kathy Barnette. Her fatal flaw is that she is Ultra MAGA. So I took a second look at her, and this is what I found. She is Black, and is running as a Republican. She was conceived out of rape when her mother was only 11 years old. She grew up in poverty on a pig farm. She clawed herself up and got both a bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in economics. She has served many years in the Army Reserve. But she has made the most important choice in her life. She is pro- life. As it says in the Holy Bible:

Deuteronomy:30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say if President Biden believes a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being during one of her press briefings.

“Does the president believe that a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being?” a reporter asked Psaki.

“Are you asking me if the president supports a woman’s right to choose? He does,” Psaki said.

This is what a 15 week old unborn baby looks like

The two verses above was from the King James Bible.The context is that Moses, having been forbidden to enter the promised land gave his final instruction to the people before they were to finally end their desert journey by crossing the Jordan River. This is from the New International Bible.

This is one of Kathy Barnett’s commercials telling quite well what it means to be an “Ultra MAGA” person.

I live in Pennsylvania, count me in!

This video is the most … I have ever seen.

The Delta variant of the Covid-19 pandemic is much less deadly. Time to go back to normal life.

U.S. COVID-19 deaths 2020-21 by age (year)

– 30% of all deaths occurred over the age of 85

– 80% of all deaths occurred over the age of 65

– Only 15% of the U.S. population is over the age of 65

0.02% of all deaths occurred under the age of 2, too young to get vaccine

0.05% of all deaths occurred between the ages of 2 and 18, school age

0.15% of all deaths occurred between the ages of 19 and 25, college age

3.6% of all deaths occurred between the ages of 26 and 45

(Source: CDC – just updated: https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/AH-Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Age-in-Yea/3apk-4u4f )

From this CDC data I can safely conclude that it makes no sense to vaccinate school children or even college students unless they are in a high risk category and still able to take the vaccine. Even people 26 to 45 year olds should only take the vaccine if in a high risk group. For people 46 to 65 year olds the odds are that vaccine helps, and for people over 65 it should be given to all that can still take the vaccine.

The so called delta variant of Covid-19 is much more contagious, but ear loop masks are nearly useless to stop the spread. It is also much less deadly, and the European experience proves it. This is the chart from United Kingdom:

Great Britain data Feb 2020 to July 30 2021

We can see from this chart that the first wave of Covid-19 was eight times as deadly as the second wave. Now the third wave, the Delta virus wave is one tenth as deadly as the second wave. United Kingdom has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe:

How does this compare with new Covid Cases for the least vaccinated countries in Europe?

This is interesting. The countries with the least number people vaccinated shows no third wave in Coronavirus cases. It seems mostly confined to vaccinated people. The good thing is, that the vaccinated people get a very mild case, more like the common cold.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party Military in Wuhan is continuing their gain of function research in the Wuhan Lab, or else they would have welcomed an inspection of the lab to make certain this will never happen again. They have by no means developed the most efficient bio-weapon yet, so it behooves us to work to find alternate cures to what may yet come. So far HydroxyChloroQuine has shown great promise, if taken early in conjunction with Zinc (and Vitamin D) has been proven effective in countries too poor to use patent medicines. Even though they have a much inferior health system, they showed initially a much lower death rate. Now Ivermectin seems to be even more effective both as a prophylactic or as an early treatment. Remdisivir is approved and shoren hospital stays. Israel is trying out many new medicines, trying to stay ahead in this bio-warfare. What is our NIH and CDC doing? By the way, thanks for the data.

June 22, the Word for today.

Deuteronomy:30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say if President Biden believes a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being during Monday’s press briefing.

“Does the president believe that a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being?” a reporter asked Psaki.

“Are you asking me if the president supports a woman’s right to choose? He does,” Psaki said.

This is what a 15 week unborn baby looks like

The two verses above was from the King James Bible.The context is that Moses, having been forbidden to enter the promised land gave his final instruction to the people before they were to finally end their desert journey by crossing the Jordan River. This is from the New International Bible.

Why did the Michigan Governor prohibit promising treatment for COVID-19. A Limerick.

The Governor’s Trump hate in Lansing,

from science advancement distancing.

She would let people die,

valid treatment deny

to stop Donald Trump’s reelecting.

The Detroit News’ Kathy Hoekstra reports that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) has sent a letter to all physicians and pharmacists in the state warning of “professional consequences” if they prescribe or dispense hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. Hoekstra writes that “beyond the rational recommendation against hoarding as production of this medication needs to be ramped up, the letter deviates into open threats of “administrative action” against the licenses of doctors that prescribe hydroxychloroquine.” It also orders pharmacists to “ignore physician orders for this medication.”

There must have been a reason why Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued this threatening letter. She could have heard President Trump being excited about a promising study that offered a remedy, or, which is scary, she believed it was dangerous because a husband and wife ate spoonfuls of aquarium tank cleaner which contained chloroquine phosphate, and one of them died. What made this unbelievable story the news of the day in the mainstream media was the dying man’s words:  “Look, this is what Trump recommended, why don’t we try it?” Little did they know that 2 grams is a deadly dose, but it is perfectly safe to take an appropriate dose under a physician’s supervision. It has been taken safely for over 50 years to combat malaria.

So why was President Trump so excited about the french study he was shown? Here are the results:

This was a non random test of 80 people, and one person died, a 70+ year old woman with underlying conditions. They took a chance on her because she was within hours of probable death anyhow, but she was too far gone. The other 79 recovered.

This is no time for double blind large clinical trials. They sometimes take years to verify, and the enemy, the COVID-19 virus works on a time-frame of 3 days, so the only choice is to work with incomplete and uncertified data.

To make matters a little more complicated, China has stopped export of one of the ingredients in making this medicine, and they are the only source, until we have started up production of our own. We have to do it in days, not weeks.

Why did China stop this medical export? There are at least two possibilities, either they are lying through their teeth about the COVID-19 cases and they need it for their own consumption but didn’t tell us, or, which is even worse, they do want to maximize the damage in the rest of the world.

 

 

Long live the Amish! – Off the grid.

It is March 6 2019, a cold morning in Intercourse, Pa. The temperature is 19F and the snow is still deep. There it is! A recently built Amish homestead with the telltale clothesline, but also a small wind turbine and four solar panels to provide

electricity. Contrary to popular opinion the Amish do not shun electricity, they just want to be left unconnected to the “English”, in other words, live off the grid. Their desire to be independent force them to be resourceful and innovative, since they also follow the law of the land whenever possible. So it was, when the farms were mandated to refrigerate the milk before pickup they installed electric coolers. The electricity was generated by diesel generators, so bingo, they could get electricity for their workshops as well, and turn from primitive hand work to fully modern wood workshops, I know, they provided a first class kitchen for our home in Intercourse. They had a problem, federal law mandated headlights on their buggies to be street legal. The propane lights with gas stockings burned well, but were too fragile to last the bumpy buggy rides so they installed car headlights running on car batteries. They had to be charged often, and it became quite expensive, so the Amish in 2003 made the first commercially available LED headlights for their buggies, thereby extending battery life nine-fold for a marine deep-charge lead-acid battery, from six hours to 100 hours.

Even at 120 dollars a piece it made economic sense. How do you charge batteries? This is where the solar panels come in, they are used to charge the batteries. When the sun doesn’t shine the wind may blow, a reasonable backup. Now they have 12 volt electric power. The next step was to wire the house and install 12 V LED lights and provide 12 volt DC or 24 volt AC outlets for small appliances. The lights are done, the appliances are still run the hard way, diesel engines providing compressed air, which run their wells with jet-pumps and in their hand mixers they take out the motor and replace with a compressed air motor. The LED lights beat kerosene lamps any day for efficiency, and even a compressed air driven refrigerator is much more efficient than a kerosene driven refrigerator.

So if the grid goes down for an extended period of time, who is better off? The Amish are far ahead of us in preparation for catastrophes.

https://lenbilen.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/amishpanels.jpg

And the Amish do get together and fellowship for any reason, but mostly for their Sunday services, which are held in the upper room of their workshops, or in the kitchen for the women and the basement for the men. The horse-drawn pew-mobile is in the picture above, to the right. This is a tell-tale sign who has the service next time.

Invitation to Bohuslän, as sung at the funeral service of Gertie Bilén.

July 27, 2018 was the funeral service of my mother, Gertie Bilén.
She was almost 99 year when she died July 4.
She had a rich and fulfilling life, so rather than the normal sorrow it was more of a celebration, we do not sorrow as those who have no hope.
My niece and brother performed my mother’s favorite song. “Invitation to Bohuslän” It is in Swedish but describes her life  since she knew many of the places and people in the song.  Enjoy!

 

V1
Som blågrå dyning bohusbergen rullar
I ödsligt majestät mot havets rand
Men mellan dess kala urtidskullar
Är bördig jord och gammalt bondeland
Dit tränger Skagerack med blåa kilar
Och strida strömmar klara som kristall
Och lummig lövlund står med björk och pilar
Och ask och ek vid ladugård och stall
V2
Kom ut och lufta vinterdävna tankar
På stigar vindlande i berg och myr
Där vinden blåser in från Doggers Bankar
Med doft av tång och salt och äventyr
Och kom till Långevik, till sjökaptenen
Herr Johansson, som, mätt på havets skum
Nu vårdar äppelträden och syrenen
Och örtagården kring sitt Tusculum
V3
Ja kom och se vårt Bohuslän om våren
Du Rönnerdahl, som äger blick för färg
Här går på vinröd ljung de svarta fåren
Och rosa skyar över druvblå berg
Här svallar myllan lilabrun kring plogen
När Anders plöjer med sin norska häst
Och skutor med kinesiskt vitt om bogen
På golfströmsgröna svall styr mot nordväst
v4
Kom ut till oss! Här kärnar Hulda smöret
Och leghornshönsen värper ägg var dag
Här blir du frisk till hälsan och humöret
Här trivs du, Rönnerdahl, det lovar jag!
Här bygger Anders båtar och fioler
Här kan du fiska torsk och spela vals
Och tjusa oss med kullrande trioler
Ur Anders felor och din egen hals
v5
Kom ut till stränderna, de ödsligt sköna
Med slån och hagtorn, böjda djupt av storm
Med gamla båtvrak som har multnat gröna
Men än, i brustna skrov, bär vågens form
Där mellan hav och land, på sand som skrider
På tång som gungar, kan du ensam gå
Och leva i de längst förflydda tider

Och i ditt släktes framtid likaså

But God. Why evangelical Christians have hope. “How Great Thou Art”

Twenty-two years a girl was born with undeveloped optical nerves and mild cerebral palsy. She was not expected to live more than at most one year. But God had other plans for her. At age two she began to sing. Her love for singing praises to God has never ceased. And so, in God’s providence she was chosen to sing at the 2017 inauguration interfaith prayer service. And sing she did! Her name is Marlana VanHoose, a little girl, but with a voice.

Image result for the 2017 inauguration prayer breakfast how great thou art

Meanwhile, the media was busy tracking the protest rallies all around Washington that day. I watched all day and never saw it.

How did the audience that was privileged to watch react? It is worth to listen to it a second time, this time around watching the reaction of the public in attendance, notably Melania Trumps reaction.

After the song Melania led the standing ovation to acknowledge God’s grace, not only for the song, but for the whole day and for the whole presidency.

This is what give us evangelicals hope. She not only sang it, she also sang the third and fourth verses, so often omitted in public settings, especially in interfaith services. Why is that so important?

Let us look at the history of “O store Gud”, and how it came to be the most favored Hymn of at least three presidents before Donald Trump!

Clouds have always been my fascination. They come and go, form and disappear, cool by day and warm by night. But most impressive of all are thunderstorms, forming when the temperature and humidity are high, transport a lot of water vapor to higher elevations, there condensing as rain or ice, coming down, cooling and watering the earth. Clouds and thunderstorms are the thermostat of the earth. Without it the earth would respond like climate models, predicting a sharp temperature rise as carbon dioxide levels increase. The models are all flawed, since they predict a hot spot in the troposphere over the equator, but there is none. The thunderstorms in the tropical doldrums take care of that. “Settled science” instead has settled on ignoring the lack of the hot spot, for to acknowledge it would make the global warming claim invalid.

I thank God for providing us with a thermostat that protects the earth from overheating, and especially for thunderstorms!

Such was the case in July 1885, when Carl Boberg,  a 26 year young pastor of a Mönsteråsvikensmall congregation of the Swedish Missionary society was the honored guest of the ladies’ auxiliary annual picnic, held in a meadow near Mönsteråsviken, (a bay of the Baltic Sea in southeastern Sweden). The day was perfect, the sky was clear, pleasant temperatures, the cows were grazing on the meadow, the birds were singing, in short,  a pastoral idyll. Then it happened. In a few short minutes thunderclouds appeared out of nothing. There was no time to go home, so they all sought shelter in a barn close by. The rain came down hard, and lightning struck a nearby tree. Then as suddenly as it started the rain stopped and all was calm. In Sweden it turns much cooler after a thunderstorm, and the birds sing like they got a new lease on life.

They all went home, and the young pastor pondered the events of the day. He

080419-11, digital 28,8 mb RAW, 12-00 Koltrast, Turdus merula Uppland
080419-11, digital 28,8 mb RAW, 12-00
Koltrast, Turdus merula
Uppland

heard the Coalthrush singing its melodic, beautiful drill and in a distance he heard the church bells ringing from Kronobäck’s church. The bay was calm like a mirror, and inspired he started penning the song “O store Gud”. Here is the first verse:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the works Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Refrain:
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

He continued to write and write of all the mighty works that God has made and what He has given us through His word, and continued long into the night. Before going to bed he had penned over twenty verses. The next Sunday he wove the poem into his sermon. They all loved it, but that was about it. Slowly the word got around the poem was pretty good, after much editing down 9 verses were published in the local newspaper Mönsteråstidningen in 1886. Carl Boberg didn’t make any efforts to publish it further, and was surprised when he heard it sung a few years later to a Swedish folk melody (in 3/4 tempo). This was then published in the periodical “Sanningsvittnet” (witness of the truth)  in 1891.

It was translated into German by an Estonian, Manfred von Glehn. Five years later it was translated into Russian by Ivan S. Prokanoff, the Martin Luther of modern Russia. It was published in a book with the title “Cymbals”.

Later, while in the Carpathian Mountains of what is now Western Ukraine the English Missionary couple Hine heard the song sung in Russian, this time as a wandering song in march tempo. He got impressed by God’s great works in the Polish mountains, and as Stuart Hine heard the people singing it on their way to church he penned a translation. This become the second verse:

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Refrain

From now on the English version is different than the Swedish original. This is the origin of the third verse: It was typical of the Hines to ask if there were any Christians in the villages they visited. In one case, they found out that the only Christians that their host knew about were a man named Dmitri and his wife Lyudmila. Dmitri’s wife knew how to read — evidently a fairly rare thing at that time and in that place. She taught herself how to read because a Russian soldier had left a Bible behind several years earlier, and she started slowly learning by reading that Bible. When the Hines arrived in the village and approached Dmitri’s house, they heard a strange and wonderful sound: Dmitri’s wife was reading from the gospel of John about the crucifixion of Christ to a houseful of guests, and those visitors were in the very act of repenting. In Ukraine (as I know first hand!), this act of repenting is done very much out loud. So the Hines heard people calling out to God, saying how unbelievable it was that Christ would die for their own sins, and praising Him for His love and mercy. They just couldn’t barge in and disrupt this obvious work of the Holy Spirit, so they stayed outside and listened. Stuart wrote down the phrases he heard the Repenters use, and (even though this was all in Russian), it became the third verse that we know today:
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Refrain

The second world war broke out, and the Hines were forced to return back to England, but they continued their ministry. The fourth verse was was added by Stuart Hine after the Second World War. His concern for the exiled Polish community in Britain, who were anxious to return home, provided part of the inspiration for Hine’s final verse. Hine and David Griffiths visited a camp in Sussex, England, in 1948 where displaced Russians were being held, but where only two were professing Christians. The testimony of one of these refugees and his anticipation of the second coming of Christ inspired Hine to write the fourth stanza of his English version of the hymn. According to Ireland:  One man to whom they were ministering told them an amazing story: he had been separated from his wife at the very end of the war, and had not seen her since. At the time they were separated, his wife was a Christian, but he was not, but he had since been converted. His deep desire was to find his wife so they could at last share their faith together. But he told the Hines that he did not think he would ever see his wife on earth again. Instead he was longing for the day when they would meet in heaven, and could share in the Life Eternal there. These words again inspired Hine, and they became the basis for his fourth and final verse to ‘How Great Thou Art’: 

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”

Refrain

The complete song was soon published, not in England but in the Soviet Union (in English).  The famous Gospel singer George Beverly Shea got hold of it, liked it a lot, but he wanted to change two words in the first verse: Instead of works, he wanted to use worlds, and instead of mighty he wanted to use rolling. Very reluctantly Stuart Hine agreed, but only for use in the Billy Graham Crusades. It was first sung in Canada in 1955. It became so popular that in Billy Graham’s 1956 New York Crusade it was sung at all 99 events, and from there the song spread out through all the world, even back in Sweden where the new version became the popular one. One of the visitors to this Crusade was the little boy Donald Trump, who went with his Father and Mother and Brother (and Sisters?) to listen. God’s word never returns void.

God works in mysterious ways.

God works in all and through all.

God is.

 

Before the “Big Bang” was “I am”. A Limerick.

Before the “Big Bang” was “I am”.

Creation is not a big scam.

God said: “Let there be light”.

And there was: With God’s might.

Three in One: The eternal “I am”.

Political Cartoons by Ken Catalino

We are bound in time and Space. God is not.  As the Prophet Isaiah wrote a long time ago (In chapter 55)

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.