Humorous anecdotes, stories of the dark woods, and country commentary
Author Archives: Mike K
Turned 66 in August of 2019, a little over a year into retirement. Now live on my farm in southern Missouri Ozarks. At this point I have 4 daughters and 8 grandchildren and 3 dogs.
Though many of us knew it was coming; we couldn’t realize the ferocity that would be unleashed. As we looked into the sky at the approaching darkness with trepidation, prepared as we felt necessary, we understand now that the vicious gale blows against our very souls, thus many of us realize just how ill-prepared we were. We did not expect to face the darkness it would bring.
A solitary lighthouse stands on a prominent rock in the midst of an endless sea, its mossy stones carefully laid one upon the other over the years of its building. It was erected by the Master Builder to withstand such storms as now assail it and on this night of the expansive dark storm, each successive frothing breaker is more violent than the last. A great wave of hatred lashes a tremendous explosion into the psyche of the structure, always followed by another – often one of near-uncontrollable anger which threatens to undermine the very foundation supporting the tower. Then out of the impenetrable darkness roars yet another – this time a gigantic mountain of inconsolable fear, perhaps the most threatening of the whole lot. Oh, how these merciless waves take hearts away and destroy men who do not seek the Light!
Once in an unexpected while and blessed, there comes a peaceful, serene occasion between the violent upheavals. A precious time in which the stalwart lighthouse finds itself standing tall and still lighting the way for travelers upon the malevolent waters. It is during these interludes that the keeper understands, yea, and renders gratitude to the One where the strength to endure the storm resides. It is the Foundation – the Rock upon which the whole structure stands marvelously undamaged. Through all of its years, because of the wondrous Light possessed, it has ever gained victory over storms of hate, jealousy, anger, vice, and all other malevolent depredations – because it has been built upon the Rock.
The wise keeper gathers his strength, understanding that the gale will inexorably return, ever in greater fury than in pastimes. He knows his lamp must be kept burning, even and especially amid each emerging tempest which threatens to extinguish its light of hope; he also has been given to understand that the sea is not the enemy. The sea is stirred by, and at the mercy of, the fearsome and malevolent storm. Those gigantic and terrible breakers of hatred, anger and such are the real threats, to be endured, withstood until that Day upon which an unimaginably peaceful and serene expanse of calm and joy shall arrive and prevail. Brilliant, snow-white beaches will reflect a new Light which shall forevermore put away darkness and fear. On that Day, though worn and bedraggled, the good keeper will be restored and rewarded for sharing his light – by the Maker of the sea and by whose mighty hand the lamp was lit at its beginning.
May the majestic light of Jesus shine before you on your voyage across the stormy sea.
I did a post recently about a plane crash up in the Yukon for which people have been searching for over 70 years. The post is at Not Hidden – Obliterated – Folk Potpourri. Several pictures taken from the satellite imagery are in that post and are not included in this one. I sort of get the feeling I’m searching alone in this area and would very much like to get others interested in looking at this site. Younger, sharper eyes might find things that these old 70-year-old eyes don’t see.
I’d be happy to email the coordinates if queried in the comments. Although the coordinates direct you to a specific spot, there’s actually a fairly big area of debris all around it. Again, I remind the reader that there is very little recognizable wreckage there – you gotta study it. Readers who might like to practice sleuthing will likely find other things that these posts have missed. Here’s a few pictures of some more imagery with some items that are man-made:
Look closely in the blue box, I’ve marked what I think is a gutted piece of fuselage with some kind of antenna attached to it. Sharp pointed black object upper left pointing to ten o’clock. There are no trees on top of this mountain so it’s unlikely to be a limb, and rocks don’t grow like that. Sharper eyes than mine might well see other things in the pic that I missed. Like whatever that piece in the bottom right is, it’s not a rock.
In this image, if you study it carefully, you’ll see several man-made objects including the basket-shaped piece in the lower left under the “h” in Google Earth. Inside the red circle is a curious piece with what looks like light colored stripes on the end. For some reason, this piece in particular seems to scream at me every time I scan it. It’s like, “Hey! Look at me – figure out what I am and you’ll be able to solve this puzzle!” Almost looks like the end of a propeller blade, but who knows? From the amount of debris in this immediate area, I think this is very near the point of impact – or at least the main impact. See how the earth is kind of shoved up into a pile in places with shadows behind (above)? These areas are devoid of the natural distribution of rocks too.
This is another picture I picked purposely so you can zoom in and look among the smithereens for man-made things. There are many. The circled object looks like some kind of gearbox housing with a circle of flange bolts broken out of what appears to be a thick casting. You can spend a lot of time finding odd-shaped objects in this one. For instance, there’s a bunch of pieces of torn and crumpled sheet metal scattered all around. Even though the color is close to the natural terrain, if you look carefully, you can tell slightly off-color objects from the rocks. Also looks like a lot of lichen covering everything, but some of the metal pieces are a tan off-white color and for some reason, some don’t have much lichen on them.
This pic also has several objects of interest, but in the red circle (again, need to zoom it) is an interesting piece of wreckage with what looks like some kind of insignia – the light-colored spot with dark petal-shaped forms around it. Note the straight lines and sharp right-angled corners of this piece – definitely not a natural rock formation. Again, several more objects of interest in addition to the marked one.
So far, although there appear to be some things that look like insignias of some kind, I haven’t found anything to confirm that this is the C-54 wreck. I don’t know of any other large aircraft that have gone missing it that neck of the woods and there is a lot of wreckage here, so if this is indeed a big plane wreck, it stands a good chance of being 2469 – the plane in question. This site is only a couple hundred yards off a straight line between Snag and Aishik. This picture is from imagery at the top of the ridgeline and there is debris strewn down both sides of the mountain from the ridge.
The method that works best for me doing is finding things that look peculiar and copying the image and reopening it with editing software – you can adjust contrast, lighting and color saturation to see it better. All of the pictures posted have been lightened up and color enhanced.
I really need help with this project. Even if someone could find evidence that this is not what I think it is, it would help to alleviate my frustration, but until it is disproven, I’m going to keep looking here. I think I have the comments settings fixed where it’s easier to leave comments, so by all means, even if you think the old grandpa is off his rocker, let me know what you think.
Keep in mind that there’s a good reason this thing hasn’t been found for 74 years. It’s not easy to see. If it was, it would have been found already. This search definitely needs to go to another level of scrutiny, and man I would love to go there and see in person all these little bits and pieces and what they actually are. I’ve spent many hours poring over this wreckage.
One of the best contemporary artist/poets working today who can be found over at poemimage.com gave me inspiration to post some of my amateurish artwork, so without further ado, here are a few:
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As with everything else in my life, I only tried painting for a few years and gave it up.
There’s a lot of discussion going on nowadays about things that are happening in the Middle East and I supposed that’s fitting since that’s where things are prophesied to wind up at the end of this age. Seems as though everyone has some interpretation or the other about what we should believe or how we need to behave to be on the right side of things going into the last days and I guess I’m no exception.
I am a Christian, not a Judeo-Christian, not a Christian Zionist, not a Christo fascist, I don’t even know what an Evangelical Christian is, but I don’t like the sound of it, I’m just a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ and what He came to tell us. His message on how we need to believe and behave is way too simple for most, so there’s this tendency for some to pull out the Old Testament and see how much of it can be interspersed into the new covenant, but that always turns out to be an irresponsible distortion of the message of Jesus and makes it much more complicated than it is intended to be. He said He meant for His teachings to be simple, so simple people like me could understand them. He also warned us about something He called the leavening of the Pharisees that also tends to over complicate His message. He said a little leavening leavens the whole loaf, but I’ll leave that concept for now.
In case the reader is wondering, I’m not a preacher, just a person who reads his Bible and seeks God’s help in understanding it. As with all things in the spiritual evolution of a human being, we all have a lot more to learn. There are things that aren’t that hard to understand though, and it appears a lot of well-intentioned people are missing them, and that’s the reason for this post – people, a lot of people, are misunderstanding, or misinterpreting God’s word. Whether the faithful are doing this on purpose or not, it’s not possible for a human to know. God certainly doesn’t give us that kind of insight into the hearts of others, but by reading the Bible and comparing what’s in there to what is being disseminated by the leaders of some churches, it becomes fairly easy to see that there a lot of are false teachers out there.
One of the primary and most glaring inconsistencies you can look for as it applies to a Christian ministry is the financial status of the minister. This is the very easiest way to tell the false prophet. For example, Jesus Christ conferred absolute leadership of His ministry on the disciple Peter. He said He would build His Church upon this rock (Peter) and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. There is an obvious difference in Saint Peter’s wealth and that of the charlatans who would have you believe they are appointed leaders of the flock today. The ones who run the mega churches are all filthy rich. That should be the very first and most obvious clue as to whether they follow the actual teachings of Jesus. Jesus adamantly warned us that for all practical purposes, rich guys aren’t going to heaven. Are you comfortable sitting in the pews listening to a wealthy preacher who takes in millions after Jesus Himself tells you this guy isn’t fit for His Kingdom.
A perfect example is when Peter and John encountered a crippled beggar asking for alms. The disciples – true disciples of Christ – told the beggar that they couldn’t give him any money because they didn’t have any. They were able, however, to heal him where he could walk. Remember this is Peter, to whom was assigned by Jesus Himself, complete authority over the church. He was given the keys to the Kingdom and told that he had the authority to lock and unlock the very gates of eternity. But he had no money. None of Jesus Christ’s followers were wealthy – not one. Jesus Himself had to send a disciple to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth so He could pay His tax. Jesus, Who in time would inherit all things on heaven and earth, had no money! Judas Hagee has millions of dollars, but he nevertheless arrogates to himself the status of a minister of Jesus Christ’s church. Maybe he thinks he is more deserving of a wealthy and decadent earthly lifestyle than Saint Peter deserved, it’s hard to tell. There are others, but Hagee’s ministry is particularly heinous for several reasons, not the least of which are his incredibly false teachings.
Jesus also said the way is wide that leads to destruction and a lot of people would go through it, and the way of salvation is narrow, and few would find it. So, imagine the thousands of people watching the sermons on TV as well as the hundreds or thousands of “faithful” in their luxurious cathedrals, and compare that to the mental image of peasant worshippers in a mud hut back in the first century, trying to keep their practice hidden from the authorities who would have certainly persecuted them for their faith. They were willing to risk their very lives for their belief in our Savior Jesus Christ, and many of them indeed were martyred. The parishioners of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio aren’t risking very much, are they? Such blasphemous covens are completely safe from any government interference, because he who leads this world (to destruction) is in charge of governments of the world and he obviously doesn’t see these groups as a threat to him. I wonder why?
The same government – controlled by Satan, and as proof of its control by Satan, is supplying bombs to murder thousands of innocent people overseas. They indiscriminately bomb hospitals filled with sick and injured people and Christian Churches. This same Satan also has governmental authority over the mega churches in this country but does not bother them. Does that make sense – it’s the same devil? As long as those churches are preaching a message that is no threat to him, why should Satan bother them? They are right where he wants them to be, hearing the messages he wants them to hear. The gate is wide indeed! The millionaire Hagee preaches that the members of his twisted version of “christianity” should support said murderers. He sends tons of money to a nation whose religious leaders teach that Jesus Christ is in hell burning in human excrement and teaches his parishioners that in order to please God, the Father, they should automatically and without compunction, support this nation. Jesus Himself told us all very clearly that regardless of what they claim, these people are not even Jews – they are blasphemers who are a Synagogue of Satan. Satan controls every aspect of the United States government, especially the blasphemous whores who populate the congress – now do you see why the equally blasphemous mega churches are able to operate with impunity in a country that tortures prisoners of war and imprisons journalists for telling the truth?
One of the seminal concepts that these charlatans preach is the part where God promised Abraham, of some impending blessings to his descendants. There were reasons for this which I will avoid because they do not apply to this post. Back in Abraham’s time, he and his descendants were indeed God’s chosen people, because of faithful men like Abraham. The promise was that if people and nations blessed Abraham’s descendants, God would bless them. Conversely if people cursed Abraham’s descendants, they would be cursed, but here’s where the false preachers get it all wrong. Although that promise is still in effect today, descendants of Abraham are a different people from those who claim to be, thus the false prophets are trying to confer the promise onto the wrong people. He said nations that did not know Him would call Him their God and He would call them His people.
If one reads the scriptures, especially the New Testament under which we are living, he finds a place and time when John the Baptist, a man who has some pretty incredible spiritual credentials (and he was also quite poor), warned the Pharisees that they shouldn’t think too highly of themselves just because they were descendants of Abraham because God could raise up sons to Abraham from the rocks they walked among. Let that one sink in, you followers of false teachers, because that’s exactly what God has done! He has raised up sons to Abraham from places where they would not have been expected. Abraham has adopted sons, millions of them as promised, who are his offspring by having accepted Jesus Christ. We are Abraham’s spiritual offspring – therefore, receivers of the promise to Abraham, not some nation of evil murderers who passionately hate Jesus. Christians have assumed the mantle of God’s chosen people, and only Christians.
How can anyone possibly listen to rich villains who denigrate Christianity teaching blasphemy? By rejecting Jesus Christ, the people who live in the occupied territory– even if they are genetic sons of Jacob (which they are not) – give up their share of the promise to Abraham, regardless of what Judas Hagee preaches. He is a liar and a blasphemer – good people need to get out of his church while they still can inherit their share of the promise. Same for those who follow Osteen, Copeland, and all the other rich jet-set false prophets.
The Zionists in Israel and the United States hate Jesus Christ. Therefore, the latter part of God’s pledge to Abraham falls on them – the curse part – and it falls on anyone who curses the followers of Christ. Not the first part, the blessing part is reserved for all – Jew and Gentile – who believe in and follow Jesus Christ. These would be the people who find their way through the narrow gate – those who are willing to risk it all for Jesus, not the ones who sit fat and happy, amening the lies of false prophets in cushy churches where there is no threat to them whatsoever – for whatever twisted beliefs they espouse. They leave the church and climb into their luxury cars to go home to their mansions, smug in the belief that those bucks they put into the offering, bound for rich people who despise Jesus (also for the good reverend Hagee’s fat bank account) – will buy them into heaven.
When a person compares the teachings of Jesus Christ to what is disseminated in the mega churches, it would almost appear that true Christianity more closely resembles what Islam believes than it is to what the liars in the big churches put out. In fact, I admire the Muslims for their dedication. They pray more times in one day than a lot of so-called Christians do in a month, in many cases, longer. They also believe in Jesus, but they think He was a prophet – He was a prophet – an honorable title but far short of all He actually was. I believe and pray that our Islamic brothers take the leap of faith that brings them to the realization that Jesus was the Son of God.
One misunderstanding is that Islam believes that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are considered in Christianity to be separate Beings instead of three different manifestations of the same Being. It’s a difficult concept to grasp and none of us can wrap our heads around it, but most of us agree there is only One God. If all who believe in God, or Allah, could accept that Jesus is the Son of God, that would put a lot of people in the world on the same page. God is everywhere, so He can be in the form of Jesus, in an Imam, in a priest, or in you or me or in a burning bush, or in the air, but He is still the same God. I think I’ve read somewhere that Muslims believe Jesus is coming back some day to render justice, and all Christians believe that too, but I’m not sure Muslims believe He is coming back as the Almighty King of Kings to rule the world.
True followers of Jesus should make every effort at every opportunity to read their own Bibles and follow His teachings. And turn away from rich preachers – every one of them is corrupt and rotten to the core. You can take the Words of Jesus Christ on that. He really didn’t have much good to say about the wealthy of this world.
Who is Robert A Woods? What kind of person is he? I don’t know much at all about him, but I do know he is the deputy ambassador to the United Nations from the United States. He’s the guy who cast the vote to veto the call in the Security Counsel for a cease-fire in Gaza, a vote that might have ended up saving tens of thousands of lives of innocent people – women and children, mostly.
Obviously, Robert A Woods had marching orders to vote as he did. I wonder what would have happened if he’d gone against those orders and voted for the cease-fire. Would the vote have been binding on the council, or could someone higher up have rescinded it? Whatever might have happened, Robert A Woods missed out on his chance to be a genuine hero to probably 95% of the whole world – he would have instantly become adored and supported by hundreds of millions of people. He might have even instilled some faith by the world that there are still a few people of conscience in the United States. He could have been Aragorn on the world stage, but he chose to be Gollum.
Robert A Woods determined not to befriend anyone in the wide world and raised his hand at one of the most pivotal opportunities in all of modern history and voted down a chance to show a modicum of human decency. Even if he could somehow undo that despicable vote today, it would not help the thousands of Gazan peasants who have been martyred since his vote. They are dead now, thousands of them, and he did his part to ensure it would happen.
Although he slavishly did their bidding, he did not befriend anyone in control of the United States government as a result of his merciless action. None of those people have any friends. They do not know what friendship is, regardless of what Robert A Woods might believe. If Robert A Woods was out in the arena at the Roman coliseum of old and a gladiator had a sword to his throat, those people up in the stands he so faithfully served would all be standing with their thumbs pointed down, even though he did their bidding. He has no idea how much they hate him.
Robert A Woods is one of hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the United States government whose service to his country has morphed into service to something else – something entirely evil. Sadly, for Robert A Woods, he might not even be aware of it, although I’m pretty sure he is. Why wouldn’t he be? There’s money to be had in service to Satan, that’s why the most despicable den of vipers in the world have all of the money. Hatred and dishonesty are their calling cards, and Robert A Woods got himself on the receiving end of an unbelievable amount of that hatred when he smugly raised his hand in his rendition of those thumbs-down fans of the coliseum. Robert A Woods voted to kill thousands of innocent children with that simple gesture. And billions of eyes of the world were on Robert A Woods. If voting to slaughter all those innocent people wasn’t despicable enough, Robert A Woods followed up his vote with one of the most pathetic lies imaginable, also in front of the world. Everyone, including Robert A Woods knew he was lying, but isn’t that Satan’s native tongue?
Billions of people the world over watched with incredulity as Robert A Woods made a colossal spectacle of himself. The picture of him with his hand in the air, arrogantly condemning tens of thousands of women and children to death at the hands of psychopaths – will be forever etched into history, and nothing Robert A Woods can ever do will erase it. The relatives of every person killed since that historic vote will remember Robert A Woods casting that repugnant, despicable vote. If ever a time comes when Robert A Woods and his ilk happen to be in a situation where their staunch protectors are no longer able to staunchly protect them, will the people in charge of their fates show mercy? Which way will the thumbs point then?
Lot of good guys are emerging these days, as well as repulsive orcs like Robert A Woods. How about Josh Paul, who resigned from his job at the State Department rather than trade in his dignity for supporting genocide? How about all those guys who had previously been successfully vilified, but now that we realize we’ve been inundated with lies by the usual suspects, they are getting a second look. Seeing the people we believed to be the good guys having turned to stark-raving lunatic murderers with their blatant lies now exposed, now we have no choice but to go back and look at those who they had us convinced were villains and who may not be on the wrong side after all. Guys like Nasrallah, Raisi, Erdogan, Haniyeh, Saree from Yemen – all looking a lot like world heroes now. Same with groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and PMU guys in Iraq. Personally, I always liked General Soleimani and thought his was a despicable assassination. He was truly a hero and his enemies were terrified of him.
While I’m on the subject, I have always liked and respected Vladimir Putin. I say that as an American Navy Veteran along with many like-minded vets I’ve spoken with. The US would be so much better off with a morally upright, honest and patriotic leader like Mr. Putin. I also like ex-president Medvedev. And why can’t we field diplomats like the inestimable Sergei Lavrov, with all his wisdom and tact? Or Maria Zakharova – what a national treasure for Russia?! No, we get the likes of Nikky Haley, Jake Sullivan, John Kirby and Madeline Allbright and Robert A Woods to be our public faces. The Russians have us outclassed across the board.
Don’t forget Robert A Woods and that historic image of him with his hand in the air consigning all those innocent people to be murdered, because I’m pretty sure that will be exhibit A at his judgement when God weighs his culpability in this shocking evil in the middle east. Even though it wasn’t his own decision to veto, no one made him cast the vote, so now to the whole world, he is the smug face of the United States in its arrogant plunge into the abyss of evil. Way to represent us and make friends, Bob. You should repent and ask God’s forgiveness, it would be a long, uphill climb for you, worth it in the end, but that picture will always be out there.
I’d just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from the Ozarks. We used to decorate this little cedar tree out in the woods.
People passing by on the dirt road could see it out back – they must have wondered. I’ve seen deer out there in the night standing close and looking at it.
It’s close to the time of year we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and thoughts of believers naturally excurse to Heavenly subjects. It’s amazing to try and imagine what goes on up there and how it affects us. There’s so much to learn, so much more to know. It’s interesting to compare what we do know from the scriptures to what is happening in the world, in science, and how they might correspond.
For instance, one of the interesting things, at least to me, is that our scientific community thought it would be prudent to build a complex detection system to try and detect what they call gravity waves from the universe. Some weird deflection system was built in a desert that would sense distortion of space supposedly caused from terrifically violent events out there somewhere. Sure enough, they picked up some kind of disturbance they attributed to a couple of supermassive black holes colliding many light years away. Wow! Now, these waves are thought to have derived from the physical cosmos, but what if they came from heaven?
I’m as far from being a scientist as you could imagine, but I have my own ideas. There are proposed notions of interactions between this physical dimension where all “laws” of physics neatly operate, and other dimensions, for lack of a better description. For instance, a lot of people believe the large hadron collider on the border of France and Switzerland was developed to institute a portal between ours and other dimensions. I don’t know about all of that but considering the absolutely mad and in-your-face evil running wild in the world lately, they actually may have succeeded in finding the key to that place – the bottomless pit – from which demonic monstrosities come into our world to take over the populations and especially the leaders of several nations. Considering the absolute depravity, evil, and madness of some of the world dignitaries right now, who knows? It’s not like the evil is hidden as they once tried to keep it.
Back to gravity waves. There are references in the bible about a time in heaven when the angels were at war. We’ve all seen Hollywood depictions of epic violent and catastrophic events, but as far as I’m concerned, they only reveal the limit of human imagination when it comes to real apocalyptic happenings. In fact, even with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), Hollywood’s as pathetic at trying to imagine, as they are at depicting such things. Let your imagination go nevertheless and remember the Creator who makes things like galaxies and supernovae, who knew all things related to nuclear power eons ago, also created angels and gave them unimaginable power. He also created those supermassive black holes, quasars, pulsars, magnetars, gamma rays, and other phenomena, probably many of which are yet to be discovered. Now, what kind of absolute mayhem might have been afoot during that battle?
I believe whatever cataclysmic events took place in that heavenly war, when the archangel Michael and his angel army defeated Lucifer and his army, was far beyond the imaginations of mortals. It must have been quite the battle! What kind of space and time warping weapons did they have at their disposal? For lack of a better description, this undoubtedly would have been the greatest and most epic battle event in all of creation, and you know what? From the way it reads, the most powerful Being of all did not even participate. He obviously knew Michael and his angels could deal with the cosmic insurrection. We can’t even begin to imagine what actually did happen, much less what might have taken place if the Creator Himself had taken an active part. Maybe in some way He did, but as with all else heavenly, we wouldn’t be able to understand it.
I can’t even find words to begin to describe what that awesome monstrosity of a battle must have been like. And we think our puny nuclear weapons are fearsome. The angels took “shock and awe” to a whole new level! We’re talking about beings who could no doubt destroy entire galaxies! There probably are things way more phenomenal than galaxies, after all that realm is where the Creator of all things has His throne. Jesus told us we couldn’t even imagine the joy that we would experience when we get there and I’m quite sure there will be other things, entities, events, that we cannot imagine either, at least not from this side.
It’s important to remember though, that even with all of the unfathomable powers of spiritual beings, there are a few things we know of that cannot be destroyed. Among those things that were created to be indestructible is the human soul. Wow! Imagine that! God was so thoughtful when He made us (for His fellowship) that He gave us a soul that could never be destroyed – other than by His own hand! (Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.) Not even those powerful angels can destroy the soul, even if they had a mind to. The notion of an indestructible soul can (and was intended to be) a very, very good thing, but it also has a potential downside. You see, while we are here on this earth, He gives us opportunity to choose whether we would like to get to know Him and be in His presence – to go with our soul to exist in that place of unimaginable joy for all of eternity, or allow ourselves to get caught up in all the distractions of this brief, fleeting physical world where we exist during this time set for choosing, and thereby consign our souls to a place of eternal damnation – a place where the very indestructibility of the soul dictates that if torment is where it ends up, it will be forever, but again, that was not the intent when the soul was created, that turns out to be instead a consequence of our bad choices.
That creature that was kicked out of heaven was, unfortunately for us, sent to the earth where we also must dwell for a short while. He obviously made it his purpose to try and thwart God’s plan to enjoy fellowship with His beloved human creation. As part of doing so, he got us kicked out of the paradise of Eden and to this day continuously presents temptations and distractions to keep our focus away from God’s love and mercy. Sadly, for so many of our kind, he has been highly successful. Especially when it comes to luring and corrupting people with riches and decadent lifestyles, his greatest weaponry. He evn tried tempting the Lord Jesus with that, but it didn’t work. People don’t realize they are trading an eternity of incomprehensible joy which exists in God’s presence – indeed as a consequence of His presence – for a few fleeting days of fame, wealth, and immorality which brings no real joy at all. Regardless of what it looks like to the peasantry, rich people are not happy. They trade the joy of having friends who love them, for throngs of adulating people who just want to be close to their money. Even their own families circle like vultures waiting to pick their bones when they pass on. The lifestyle they experience is empty and unfulfilling, therefore they mindlessly, slavishly, and continuously seek more of whatever they already have. In fact, their whole existence is caught up in greed such that they never experience meaningful satisfaction. There is no mortal love in their world.
The bible says that when the former heavenly “luminary”, Lucifer, and his angels were kicked out of heaven after that epic battle, the phrasing the scripture uses is that no place was found for them in heaven anymore. Wow! Let that sink in. Can you even begin to imagine the implications? What were they thinking?!! Eternity is such a long, long time that even the concept of time itself is meaningless. When the soul – which is indestructible, and as mentioned, will exist forever – and the human consciousness with which it was graced, finds itself in an outer darkness so complete and overwhelming that not even a distant star will ever be seen again – forever* – it will be a sad realization indeed. Especially when that soul is forever cursed with the awareness that there is a place somewhere, a kingdom of which God gave them a glimpse – they will never see again, a place where there is an unimaginably joyful heavenly gala and the souls of those who were pragmatic and sought Him enjoy eternal bliss in the company of The Father and the Lamb and glorious angels singing with unimaginably beautiful voices in a place of unfathomable joy, peace and love. In eternal torment, that unfortunate soul who chose to go the other way will finally and forever understand that no matter how much earthly wealth and popularity they attained for that ridiculously short time, they are now alone – forever alone and in darkness – and worse, forgotten by all, including the Creator Himself. They were invited and turned it down – this was their own choice – what a dismal realization to carry in torment for all eternity in a very dark and lonely place where among other unpleasantries, there will undoubtedly be pain and horror – probably like a nightmare from which one can never awaken, eternal thirst without water, and no rest!
Heaven is a spiritual place, a spiritual dimension. We are admonished that while we exist in this life, we are to attain to this spiritual premise, and as possible, reject the physical, worldly aspects of existence. We can only achieve this by putting our complete trust in Jesus Christ, there is simply no other way. Those who choose to stay engaged in the physical world and reject the spiritual will ultimately find their souls stuck in the physical dimension they so desired, with no longer any opportunity to ascend into the spiritual dimension. Though the soul is indeed spirit, the person’s desire for satisfaction in the physical world might just be granted to them – it is in this sense that their spirit forever may remain in the lonely physical realm of the damned – while those who chose to seek Jesus in the spiritual dimension will have found their way there. Will this be the final – and eternal state of our being?
God loves His human creation so much that He even sent His beloved Son to live among men and provide us the way to reconnect with Him, the Father, with Whom a formerly blessed couple shared a truly divine fellowship in Eden. Jesus Christ, the Son of God Whose birth we celebrate during this season, is our Invitation to that great eternal reunion in Heaven. The bible refers to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and every human with a God-given soul who has ever existed got a chance at an invitation. That opportunity is before all of us living now, in the Words of the humble Son of a carpenter born in the diminutive town of Bethlehem in Israel long ago, ever knocking on the door of our hearts. We must not take this Invitation lightly; our RSVP will absolutely determine the future of our souls! The great battle of good vs evil has been fought and decided in heaven, but it’s still going on down here and the time for us to gain our own victory is getting very short – on which side do you choose to be? We all have to remember – there is no third choice, nor is anyone merely an onlooker. Like it or not, we’re all part of this great war – in fact, our eternal souls are what the war is all about!
If this makes sense to you, then by all means go find a for real preacher and get yourself baptized and start learning about Jesus Christ Who loves us – even though we’ve been sinful – enough to have suffered and died a horrible death to save our souls from that horrible, eternal damnation and at this very moment offers us something unimaginably precious! If you already know of Jesus, don’t make the mistake of listening to the false prophet millionaire evangelists – none of those charlatans know Him. They will lead you astray. Break out your own Bible and READ IT! Knock and it shall be opened. There are like-minded folks around you who would love to accompany you on the journey. Get in touch with them. Repent and pray for God’s forgiveness for pursuing that worldly life and its attendant evils. We’ve all been there.
As for gravitational waves being from the angelic battle, I don’t know. But it’s something to think about. Maybe those who wind up out there in the black nothingness will experience them once in a while.
*Astrophysicists believe that space is expanding and that somewhere in the distant future, there will be so much space between everything that even molecules will be so far separated as to never encounter other molecules again with any notion of light being but a distant memory, but it’s conceivable the human soul could still be out there forever alone and forgotten in that bleakness. An understanding of how scientists arrive at the belief the scientific part in this possibility can be found at youtube journey to the end of the universe It’s a thirty-minute documentary that is very interesting but at the end it gives you pause to think about how science can arrive at a scriptural concept without actually admitting, maybe not even realizing it. This post tries to connect this spiritual possibility within the context of science, and the biblical concept of “outer darkness” fits perfectly.
Some two millennia ago, was born a king into the world, a king like no other. The throne He would inherit is an everlasting throne, the realm is the whole of the earth. His birth would engender a covenant with those who would become His subjects that even the simplest of minds could comprehend, yet the collective knowledge of philosophers, scientists, and purported theologians through the ages has wrestled with its meaning, its substance, its significance.
It’s hard to imagine what must have been going on in Mary’s mind and heart on that night as others arrived to welcome the Savior, this newborn babe, into the world. She would have remembered the visit by Gabriel and the significance of what he told her concerning the importance of the baby she carried. This would be the beginning of what must have been a special relationship indeed with her Son. Upon this simple daughter of one of the sons of Aaron was bestowed an unimaginable blessing – to be the earthly mother of this precious child! Even though the angel told her that hers was a special blessing, how could she have known or understood what this birth would portend? After all, the love of God is a concept we simply cannot fathom. We are told in scripture that it is extremely powerful, and it is so profound in so many ways that our minds cannot begin to grasp it, yet here was a woman with a new baby that she held which was in essence the full expression of that Love! A blessed woman indeed! Holding the newborn Son of God to her breast!
You have to wonder what Joseph was thinking too. He had been visited earlier by the angel and told to accept Mary because the baby she carried was from the Holy Spirit, so he had to know this was something very special. He undoubtedly shared that special Godly love for this newborn and understood the blessing bestowed upon his wife – and himself – to be able to claim earthly parenthood of this child. He would’ve likely been ecstatic in his praise of Jesus’ heavenly Father. After all, God chose him for this event. Still, on that quiet, peaceful night in Bethlehem he could not have had any idea of what would ensue.
And what of the visitors? Simple peasant shepherds were approached by some of the very angels of heaven to give them the greatest tidings that ever were to befall mankind in all history of the world! In our worldly minds when we imagine historic events, we naturally consider things like press conferences, presidents, prime ministers, the goings on in Washington DC, or London, Malta, Appomattox, or Rome, but on this night out in the remote, starlit pastures of rural Israel, some lowly shepherds were so blessed as to have been personally invited by no less than heavenly spirits to attend what would prove to be the beginning of the most significant event in all of history. And they had opportunity to look upon Him! Shepherds! Oh, we’ve probably all wondered at one time or another, but they left their sheep in good hands.
There were wise men from the east who came bringing gifts. They obviously understood prophecy because they were prepared – they knew where to go – for on that night Bethlehem would be the nexus of the event that would shape the experience of humankind for all of eternity. How far did they travel in their determination to get there and see Him? The bible doesn’t say, it just says that, following a star, they got there. All the while, the inquisitiveness of the ruler Herod must have been on their minds, because they eventually figured a way to complete their mission without giving Him away. Herod had, after all, heard of the birth of a future king and determined to kill the Child if he could find Him.
I’ve often wondered about the animals in the manger too – did they understand anything about the events they witnessed? I think they probably did since there are places in the bible that speak of things happening where animals are aware of God. They probably crowded around just to get close to Him. Yes, Glory to God, even the lowly animals were blessed that night. There was kinship of a kind – He is after all, called the Lamb of God.
Never has there been a more debated and divisive subject proposed to mankind than the purpose and intent of Jesus Christ in His short tenure as a human being. There are well-intentioned people in the world who believe He was a prophet, but He was so much more. Some claim to believe He is indeed the Messiah, but mistakenly believe His authority and pre-eminence only exists as far as is allowed by another, prior covenant. Many people in the world choose either not to believe He ever existed, or that He was just another human with no special relevance to the world. Only God the Father, in His infinite wisdom would have known the significance to humanity that night portended. But now we all know, or at least we are given the opportunity to know.
We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ during this season. To all who celebrate, remember Him. Remember His great love for us. In our world as it is now, we have never been in a greater time of need for Him, His compassion, wisdom, and mercy. Pray for peace and compassion in the world, and keep in mind that it all starts with us being peaceful and compassionate ourselves.
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Note: Discussion settings are revised now – it’s easier to leave comments.
Somewhere in this remote mountainous terrain lie the remains of a tragedy.
There was a plane that went missing back in January of 1950. It was a military Douglas C-54D, number 42-72469, on a route from Alaska to Montana with 44 people on board. Last anyone heard from it was a radio call from near Snag, Yukon. Most likely a progress call-in to update flight status and location. The next call-in was supposed to be when they got over Aishihik, Yukon, southeast of Snag, but that call never came and no one has heard from the flight since. If I remember correctly, the flight crew reported some icing taking place during the Snag report – a piece of the overall puzzle that might have played a big part. Icing is when there’s a build-up of layer of ice, especially on the leading edges of the wings which dramatically interferes with airflow, hence lift, of the wing. There have been numerous crashes of planes over the years due to icing.
Since it was a military plane with military personnel aboard there was an intensive search for it, but the January snow both impeded the search and covered up any crash evidence. At first the weather was horrendous. Some planes involved in the original search crashed while searching in the bad weather, but it seems everyone survived those. The official search gradually tapered off and a couple of years into it, other events of higher priority concerning military aircraft occurred rendering the search for 2469 pretty much terminated, but relatives of the missing and other interested parties continued to search and follow up tips, and they have done so to this day. There was a documentary a few months ago about a revived interest in the search. Seems like the new search is dubbed Operation Mike, after the name of the pilot. That might have been the name of the original search too.
There are blogs out there where people post whatever information they might have, and some swap out stories of eyewitness reports, conspiracy theories, and so forth, so for sure, the search has become a thing once again. In fact, sometimes it seems the search itself has overtaken the thing being sought.
The implications of finding this aircraft are not to be taken lightly. Thousands of people have been searching for scores of years. There has grown a veritable cult of people from all walks of life, commenting on social media with tips, speculation, mundane technicalities, of typical interactional traits. There are arguments, insults, lots of one-upmanship, and to tell the truth, sometimes it seems that “The Search” and its inherent camaraderie has found a life of its own seemingly divergent from the objective of finding the object sought. Individuals and organizations purporting to be professional searchers seem to have found sustenance in the search for this airplane. Things will change for a lot of people if it is found.
I became interested in the search, (not so much “The Search”) as lots of other folks have, not least because it’s understood by all of us that everybody deserves a proper burial. Being a veteran myself, it’s unsettling to think those guys were in the service just like I was and they’re MIA – still are after all those years. Somewhere up there enduring those long, dark winters in icy cold, lonely mountains, the bones of some boys that were serving their country during peacetime still lie, but it was a time when a horrific war was still fresh in everyone’s memory. Bones of those boys and those of a lady with a young child who were traveling with them. There must be relatives of the missing personnel who are still around and who’d like to have closure too.
People are searching using Google Earth. Most of the imagery is blurry up close and when you zoom out far enough to get good resolution it’s usually from too far up to see what you’re looking for. Still, it’s what’s available, and until they come up with some way to achieve better resolution, it’s all we have. You can get to a point looking at it where you get goofy, but it is possible to make out some things. The area of wreckage this post discusses is located a scant few hundred yards off a straight-line path between Snag and Aishihik, Yukon. Takes some dedicated searching. You just have to keep telling yourself that those souls are waiting to properly be laid to rest and the wreck is out there somewhere.
Regardless of the possible negative impact it might have on “The Search”, I made the decision to share pictures of the things I’ve found. There’s some interesting stuff in that mountainous area of the imagery in the opening picture of this article. Up close, the stuff in the area of interest looks like it could be wreckage, but it would help if a person was familiar with parts and pieces of a C-54, to make sense of any of it. Besides, if this is wreckage, it would appear that the aircraft smashed into that mountainside pretty violently and there are very few large pieces. A person looking for an intact aircraft carcass would be sure to miss this wreck. You have to zoom in till it gets almost blurry to see things, in fact at first glance without really looking closely, you won’t see much of anything.
If what this post describes is the wreckage everyone is looking for, it is disappointingly pulverized. As mentioned, there are few big pieces of a recognizable plane, but wreckage is there, you just have to study what you can see. But then, that’s the hard part. It takes determination and tenacity to pore over the imagery at the level required in order to find something.
It seems there are other missing planes in that part of the world, so the possibility, however unlikely, exists that the wreckage found here might be from another crash, but even if is, it’s still wreckage. The picture below illustrates just how difficult it is to make out things from the available imagery.
As you can see, there’s hardly anything discernible. Especially from this far up. To the left of the yellow pins are things that have been identified by zooming in and in many cases editing the lighting, contrast, color saturation, etc., to be able to see the things a little more clearly. The areas with the circles drawn have literally piles of debris in them. In fact, it was the area in the circle on the left that initially drew my attention to this site, but the circle wasn’t there then. Lots of interesting objects. The ever-so-slight color variation in that area is from what might have been a fire from long ago.
All around this site you can find items with symmetry and shapes that do not occur in nature. Circular objects, mangled sheet metal, flat pieces that leave shadowing noticeably different from that of rocks, pieces with perfectly straight lines and right angles, etc., but you have to zoom in, and in most cases edit lighting to be able to see them.
To gain a better understanding of why everything is so hard to discern, consider this: What remains of the craft appears to have undergone an extremely violent collision with the mountainside, leaving little of the craft large enough to recognize and/or identify. The large area of the scattered debris indicates there was probably a big crash. There have been 70+ years of rain, snow, mud, possible avalanches, high winds to blow around lighter pieces, and probably years of high intensity sunlight to bleach coloring. Aluminum, from which the fuselage is predominately constructed, oxidizes and takes off-white, grey, and greenish colors of the proximate environment, making it more difficult to see. There was a devastating 9+ magnitude earthquake back in the 60s not far away in Alaska which would have undoubtedly shaken things around, especially anything that might have been precariously clinging to a steep mountainside. Some of the items appear to be half buried in what may have been mud from rains. On top of all of this, you have to use grainy, pixelated imagery to be able to try and figure out what it is. Don’t really mean to complain so much about the imagery, it’s probably better than psychics and crystal balls.
To illustrate the difference between the original imagery and what things look like after editing, the following pictures from the imagery are shown:
The above picture is from original satellite imagery unedited. Looks like nothing but rocks.
This lower picture is approximately the same image after a bit of editing lighting and color, no object in the image has been altered. It looks to be the front of an engine in the red circle. The yellow lines point to what look like cowl flaps and the blue line could be a propeller blade, bent up (bent to the viewer’s right) in the 10 o’clock part of the circle. If you Google Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp engine, you can find not destroyed engines to compare to this image. The level of detail needed to positively identify this as the P&W engine, unfortunately is just not there.
The next image looks like part of an aircraft tail section in the center red circle. Is it from a C-54?
The next image is what looks like a cargo door in the larger circle. If you look closely, protruding outside the left side of the circle might be the accompanying cargo door (I believe there were two doors together that closed onto each other), but it’s not as discernable. Whatever that is in the smaller circle is unidentified. I call it the bird cage. It is definitely man-made, so what is it doing out here on a mountain top in the middle of nowhere miles and miles from the nearest road? Although size scale is near impossible with the fuzzy imagery and uneven terrain, this object would still be way too big to be something a hunter could have lugged up that mountain. If you have any idea, please leave it in the comments.
The image below is somewhat harder to make out, but it appears to be an engine nacelle still attached to a part of a wing. There are corroded cowl flap plates in the roundish area on the right of the center circle, and on the left side of that object and still in the circle, there is a nice black, symmetrical curve with a greenish coloring inside the arc. That curve looks to be the leading edge of the wing and the greenish part would be the inside of the wing, possibly a fuel tank bulkhead. It’s hard to discern whether the thing is right side up. To the left and overlapping the wing piece is a rather large round piece of crumpled sheet metal. Some of that piece is outside the circle. This whole section of debris is likely to have been some of that which tumbled down from the impact area.
This last picture is of a basket-shaped object lying on its side, maybe it’s something out of the plane’s cargo bay. Maybe it’s a piece of the plane. It’s near the ridgeline at the top of the hill, so whatever it is it must be pretty heavy to not have been blown off the hill for almost 74 years:
