Praise God I Was Flooded, But No Monster Typhoon
By David J. Stewart | September 2018
Job 37:9, “Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.”
Nahum 1:3 “The LORD is
slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked:
the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the
clouds are the dust of his feet.”
I shared with my web visitors the other day an approaching storm, a typhoon named Mangkhut, approaching Guam. The storm hit Guam on Monday September 11th with wind speeds of 105 mph, gusting to 127 mph. It was reminiscent of typhoon Dolphin which hit Guam in 2015, leaving the coconut trees in front of my place stripped of any branches. Although enough to do some damage, Mangkhut was a small typhoon compared to a full scale Super Typhoon (i.e., winds 200 mph or greater). As a teenager, I was fascinated with meteorology and almost pursued a career as a meteorologist. I still love anything to do with storms and weather science.
My power went out about 9 pm Monday and my apartment got flooded, so I had to go stay in a hotel for the night. Here's a picture of my apartment Tuesday night when I came home...
ABOVE: My flooded apartment the day after typhoon Mangkhut hit Guam. It was a mild typhoon in
comparison to the big storms, but it still made its mark. Top winds reached 127 mph. I removed the top of my vacuum cleaner. The bottom holds three gallons. Using my Quickie sponge mop with a convenient squeeze handle, I sopped up 45 gallons (15 buckets full) of flood water from my floor. God is good!I was daring enough to go out walking in the hours before the storm on Monday. The winds intensified and the rain drops felt like sand hitting my face. I was fighting to stay on my feet and decided I had better get out of the elements. When my power went out, dead phone and flooded, I packed my duffle bag Monday night during the typhoon and decided to go find a hotel. The traffic lights were out and I couldn't see the markings on the road. I drove through several flooded areas. It must have been 8" to 12" deep. My vehicle slowed and the battery light came on numerous times. I put the shifter in low gear, to increase the rpms of the engine, which causes more exhaust to blow out the tail pipe to prevent water from killing the engine. Fortunately, I didn't stall. As I was driving, a fence had been blown off the posts on Marine Drive and my vehicle drove through the flying fencing. I have a bunch of scratches on the driver's side front of my vehicle. The flooded water ripped out the inner fender on both sides. The passenger's side completely tore off, which I have in back of my car now. IT WAS GREAT! I had fun, but I probably should have not gone out!
When I got to the Orchid hotel on lower Tumon, they were booked up. I had spent 10 minutes trying to squeeze my hatchback into a tiny parking space, but did it. And then they didn't have a room for me. Oh boy! So then I went to the Fiesta hotel down the street. The parking lot was completely flooded and I almost stalled. The battery light came on, I was sluggishly driving through the deep water, barely escaping. I drove toward the end of the parking lot, out of the deep water. I could barely see anything, except water everywhere. The blowing wind was ferocious! I kid you not, when I got out of my vehicle and walked toward the hotel in the parking lot, the water was so deep that it was above my knees, which is over 2 feet deep. I couldn't believe how deep the water was. I was drenched when I walked into the hotel. I would have called ahead, but my phone went dead when the power went out. The Fiesta hotel also had no available rooms. So back into the storm! I drove through another flooded area to get to the Holiday Resort Hotel. Finally, they had a room for me. They even handed me a free banana and two bottles of water for my rough night. That meant so much to me!
Earlier on Monday, I bought a really cool Milwaukee pocket flood light at Home Depot. It is super bright. I used it through the storm! I gave the one I had to a family member, so I went to buy another one at Home Depot the day of the storm. There wasn't a flashlight left on the shelf! So I went looking in carts around the store, where Home Depot often tosses a little bit of everything. To my delight I found the exact flood light I was looking for, the same one I had given away. I got the last one! Praise the Lord! It was very helpful during the typhoon.
I have never been in a super typhoon, not yet. I hope I live in a place that doesn't flood before I do too! When the big one hits, dumpsters go flying! I once saw a photo of a coconut tree sliced completely in half at the base by flying corrugated steel from a hurricane. That's amazing! Mangkhut has increased its power, becoming nearly a super typhoon after leaving Guam, headed for the Philippines...
ABOVE PHOTOS: Typhoon Mangkhut on Wednesday after leaving Guam. I am so thankful that the storm didn't look like this when it hit Guam on Monday, because this is a deadly super typhoon! Present wind speeds are 170 mph, gusting up to 210 mph! Hurricane Florence is now headed for the Carolinas, expected to hit them on Friday. Wind speeds are presently at 140 mph.
I am blessed to have missed a major typhoon, again! Praise the Lord.
On a different note, here are some photos of Jelly Fish that I took a couple weeks ago at Underwater Sea World on Guam, with some of my family. ...
I took this intriguing photo while walking...
Here are some local Guam ants interacting...
like to capture elements of God's wondrous creation. God is truly more than amazing...I
There is a veteran's cemetery and memorial up the hill at the Asan Beach Lookout. I took these photos yesterday, September 12th. The following is a memorial, a listing of names of all the U.S. soldiers killed while liberating Guam from the Japanese, between July 21st and August 10th, 1944. I particularly noticed three U.S. soldiers who had the same name as mine, Stewart...
I have been very tired lately, which is why I haven't been writing as many articles. I am simply burned out emotionally and physically. My chronic neck pain is relentless, draining my energy both physically and emotionally. My neck hurts 24/7. It is a heavy burden for me. I have been wanting to relocate back to the United States for several years, since my wife divorced me in 2006. I have reluctantly lived alone since. I tried to move in 2013, but it turned into a disaster, proving to be too much for me. I cannot find a church family on Guam who will accept me, because of my open criticism of the satanic Alexandrian Bible perversions, and the Bob Jones University Alexandrian cult at Harvest Baptist Church! Kindly, to Hell with Harvest! God will deal with their lukewarm apostasy.
Dr. Jack Hyles always said to move if you cannot find a good church. So that is my plan. I am planning on moving, God willing, to Pensacola, Florida. I really need a church family. Pensacola has literally hundreds of Baptist churches. I am already 80% packed and ready to go. One of my daughters has already moved to Florida, which is my main reason for moving there. She helped me pack my stuff before she left. My medical approval is taking much longer than I expected, which is the only reason I haven't moved yet. I have to wait and it could take unfortunately months, as I haven't found a doctor yet to accept me as a new patient. I have to take everything one day at a time. By God's grace I lost 70 pounds of weight a year ago, and have kept it off. That's a great feeling! Yet, my neck injury is permanent and afflicts me day and night. I cannot escape it. Please keep me in your daily prayers, if you are one of the few who care.
Also, I have been overwhelmed with e-mails lately. Some of my web visitors mean well, but don't understand how my medical condition adversely affects me. I can only do so much. I will be turning off my e-mail when I move. This relocation could easily turn into another failure, as it did in 2013, because I cannot handle a lot of stress. If things become overwhelming in Florida, I will simply come back to Guam and make the best of life here, as I have been doing. I am sincerely doing the best I can with God's help. I live alone, which makes things more difficult. If I don't take care of something, it doesn't get done. When you're in constant neck pain, you don't feel like doing anything. Yet, I thank and praise God for His blessings, and the health I do have, and that my name is written in Heaven!!!
I have horrible burning pain in my neck as I type. I praise the Lord for all the people who have been saved this past year through my ministry efforts. Thankfully, even when I am sleeping, people are getting saved through articles I have written on the internet, preaching the Gospel truth. It is tragic that professed Christians care so little about the accuracy of the Gospel these days. They care so little about the purity of God's Word. They care so little about taking a stand for God. They smirk, they laugh, they sneer, they joke, but they don't care! I CARE! I care and that gets me into trouble sometimes, when I meet pastors who don't care as much as I do. They should care, but they are immature or backslidden, more interested in their next paycheck than upholding the truth. The biggest problem historically has been caused by people who didn't care, who were indifferent, and who took things too lightly!
On a happier note, I have been blessed with a renewed interest in Bluegrass banjo in recent months. I used to play quite a bit 25 years ago, but then lost interest, pursuing steel guitar instead. I started learning the banjo back before the internet came out, but due to the lack of support in Chicago, I lost interest. Things have changed, because banjo players can openly interact across cyberspace. YouTube is great for learning to play a musical instrument! The internet is full of helpful resources. I love all stringed instruments! One of my favorite banjo songs is called, “The Ballad Of Jed Clampett” (Dave Hum is performing this song). I particularly am working on the way Dave Hum arranges the second half of the song, utilizing an awesome picking technique where he picks three notes on two strings. What a blessing from God it has been for me, to learn this simple musical piece! Dave Hum (1966-2012) is one of my favorite musicians, who sadly died an untimely death at age 46 of blood and bone cancer. I wish I could have personally met and known Dave Hum, and playing music along with him. I so much wish I had Dave's uplifting rhythm tracks, to play along with. Dave was a skilled musician, who knew what he was doing, and a mentor to me. I am inspired by Dave's banjo music! I hope to make some videos when I can, Lord willing, and I think you'll really love the banjo as I do. I just bought a tambourine, to mimic some of Dave's backing tracks, in which he almost always uses a tambourine too, which adds life to the music. One day at a time, as my health allows!
God bless you my friend. Please bear with me, I am doing the best that I can right now. I have many articles that I started but haven't finished, hundreds in fact. That is good, because I always have ideas for new articles and work to complete. We can only take life the way God gives it, one day at a time! I hope to move sooner than later, depending on how I feel and if things work out. Please keep me in your prayers, I am having a difficult time right now. God is more than good!
END OF ARTICLE
Helpful Things...
Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.
It takes two years for a baby to learn to talk, and 70 years to learn to shut up!!!
"So foolish was I, and ignorant..." (Psalm 73:22)
God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.
“A man doesn't get better to get saved; he gets saved to get better.”
—Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995), a quote from the excellent sermon, “Salvation
Crystal Clear.”
“God
has a special rebuke, again and again and again in the Bible,
toward those people who keep their neutrality in the work of God!”
—SOURCE: Pastor Jack
Hyles (1926-2001), a quote from the needful and precious MP3 sermon titled: “Where
Were You In The Battle?”
Religion is man trying to reach God through human effort, but Christianity is God trying to reach man by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross.
“You
don't have to fall apart just because the world falls apart!”
—an excellent
quote by Pastor Ralph “Yankee” Arnold from his awesome MP3 sermon called, “THE
CALL TO SUFFER.”
It is tragic, but true, that the true New Testament church is being driven underground in America. Faithful believers like me, who expose the Alexandrian counterfeit Bible versions, and expose false prophets like Dr. John MacArthur, and refute the false gospel of Lordship Salvation, are forced out of the churches as troublemakers. It is crazy!!! Churches are so backslidden and apostate, that they don't even realize a person who contends for the faith. It's bizarre, but Christianity is being driven underground. On the face of things in Europe and the United States, they look like Christian nations, there are plenty of churches, but when one digs deeper, when one really IS a Christian, and wishes to make a stand for the Christian faith, one quickly finds apostasy and rejection.
Brother Tom Stegall's book, Must Faith Endure:
However, many today misunderstand this marvelous truth and say in effect, “Yes, Christ can save you, but your faith must keep holding on to Christ in order for you to reach heaven.” According to this approach, Christ really doesn't save a person; they save themselves. With this approach, a person is not really saved by faith in Christ, but ultimately by faith in their faith, as they think it is their “faithfulness” to Christ which will ultimately bring them eternal life. The great Bible teacher of the past, Harry Ironside, addressed this very problem as he answered the objection: “But must I not hold on to the end if I would be saved at last?”
The Incompatibility Of False Teaching On Repentance With The Gospel Of Grace
“Repentance don't save you! Calling on the Lord don't save you!
You know what saves you? Receiving
what Christ done for you on the cross!”
—Pastor Danny Castle, a quote from the needful MP3 sermon, “WHY
THERE'S A HELL.”
There's two days you should never worry about—yesterday and tomorrow! You can't change them. Fight today's battles today! Worry is the end of faith and faith is the end of worry! The second I start trusting the Lord, I quit worrying; and the second I start worrying, I quit trusting the Lord. Worry is not trusting God. I just feel like, some of you may be just worrying yourself sick, over stuff that you can't change it a bit. You know what you need to do—put it into God's hands! Don't be guilty of the sin that most Christians commit. (awesome quotes from Pastor Danny Castle's helpful sermon titled, “The Sin That Most Christians Commit.”
“You say, 'Preacher are you worried about the depression?' No, I'm worried about the prosperity!” —Dr. Jack Hyles; a quote from the classic MP3 sermon, “You Must Go Through Arabia.”
“It's time that God's people met with God!” —Dr. Jack Hyles; a quote from, “You Must Go Through Arabia.”
“We've got churches, lots of them. We've got preachers, seminaries, and they are turning out preachers and putting them into little theological molds and keeping them there until they get cold enough to practice preaching.” —Billy Sunday, “Criticism and Criticism” (chapter 18), from his biography by William T. Ellis titled, “Billy Sunday: The Man And His Message.”
Psalms 10:4, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.”
Isaiah 35:4, “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.”
“Every Christian should be working as hard to present the gospel, as Satan is to prevent the gospel.” (Pastor Max D. Younce (from the sermon, 'THE TWO WITNESSES - PART 2').
“The
world is going to Hell 90 mph, you better jump into the arms of Jesus,
while you've got a chance!”
—by
Pastor Danny Castle, a powerful quote from the YouTube sermon titled,
“THE
END TIMES PASTOR!”
The King James Bible IS Inspired!
“The Bible is not the inspired, inerrant and 100% historically true words of God. ... If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man’s belief in the Bible.” —Voltaire (French philosopher and former unbeliever 1694-1778 - He now knows better [in Hell])
As one liberal theologian pointed out in his review of Harold Lindsell’s,
The Battle for the Bible, the only real difference between the conservative
and liberal positions on the Bible is that the conservatives say the Bible
USED TO BE inspired and inerrant, whereas the liberal says it NEVER WAS
inspired or inerrant. BOTH positions agree that the Bible IS NOT NOW
inspired or inerrant.
As brother Daryl Coats so aptly says in his article The Two Lies: "If the
Bible was inspired only in the original manuscripts, no one in the entire
history of the world has ever had an inspired Bible. The original autographs
of Job and the books of Moses had disappeared more than a thousand years
before the first book of the New Testament was written, so no one has ever
owned a complete Bible made up of the 'divine originals.' Nor, has anyone
ever owned a complete New Testament made up of 'inspired originals,' because
the originals were distributed among more than a dozen individuals and local
churches."
“There is power in this
Gospel message. Most people just don't know how to
present it...
The clarity of the Gospel is what makes it easy for them to
believe.”
—Pastor Yankee Arnold, a precious quote from the excellent MP3 sermon titled,
“WHY
GRACE CAN SAVE THE WORST MAN!”
“No one's ever saved by cheap grace, they're saved by priceless amazing grace! We have a miracle salvation provided and preserved by God Himself. Let's give out the Good News of this salvation, simply and faithfully for His glory. Salvation is not cheap. God sent His Son to pay for our sins. It wasn't cheap—very expensive—He just made it free. And when you and I try to add one work to it, we cheapen it! That's when you cheapen it, when you think that it wasn't enough, I've got to add something to it!” —Pastor Yankee Arnold, a precious quote from the excellent MP3 sermon titled, “CAUGHT BETWEEN GRACE AND WORKS!” | VIDEO | MORE HELPFUL SERMONS
Caught Between Grace And Works!
(AWESOME TRUTH! By Pastor Ralph “Yankee” Arnold |
MP3 - Please share with OTHERS!!!)
“You
cannot be saved from corrupted Scripture!”
—a quote by Pastor Steven Anderson from the awesome MP3 sermon, “Saved
By The Word.”
“Lies
don't save you!”
—a quote by Pastor Steven Anderson from the awesome
MP3 sermon, “Saved
By The Word.”
“Only
the Word of God can make you a man of God!”
—a quote by Pastor
Ralph “Yankee” Arnold from the awesome sermon, “The
Sure Word of Prophecy.”
Do you have an answer too long in coming? Wait on God; no one else sees the whole picture!
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” —George Bernard Shaw
“The problem with America is you
dumb preachers!”
—Pastor
Bob Gray Sr., a quote from the needful sermon, “Is
There A Place Called Hell?”
1st Corinthians 4:3, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should
be
judged of you,
or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.”
Florida Bible College (emphasizing the clarity and simplicity of the Gospel)
“Nothing in my future can ever affect the salvation that I have... Once you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are eternally secure!” —Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008), a quote from the classic MP3 sermon titled, “How Permanent Is Your Salvation?”
“Salvation is based upon purely what Jesus Christ has done. And if you've trusted Jesus Christ here, you're saved forever! Nothing in your life, nothing in your death, angels, principalities, nothing—nothing in your future—could ever undo that relationship that has been made when you trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. And there are many people who are confused over this whole thing.” —Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008), a quote from the classic MP3 sermon titled, “How Permanent Is Your Salvation?”
“There are many people who name the name of Jesus Christ, who are not saved, because they're trusting in living the Christian life, or in their works, or in some efforts that they're doing, in order to obtain their salvation.” —Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008), a quote from the classic MP3 sermon titled, “How Permanent Is Your Salvation?”Jeremiah 20:11, “But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.”
Scriptures by Dr. Gail Riplinger, showing, why some great men are deceived...
Hosea 7:13, “Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.”
Ecclesiastes 3:16-17, “And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
Job 32:4-9, “Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.”
Jeremiah 5:5, “I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.”
Always Have A Pure Heart...
I Peter 1:22, “Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another
with a pure heart fervently.”
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” ―Isaac Newton, physicist
“There
are lots of preachers who don't know Jesus. They know about him, but they
don't know him.”
—Billy Sunday, “Critics and Criticism” (chapter 18), from his biography by
William T. Ellis titled, “Billy Sunday: The Man And His Message.”
“Do you know the more righteous you try to live, the ungodly people are not impressed with it, don't care for it, and totally, truly, despise you for doing it! The more right you try to do, the more you're despised for doing so! There are people who want to justify sin in the world, and you and I that live right are a rebuke to them for such!” —Pastor Ralph "Yankee" Arnold, from the MP3 sermon, "As it Was So shall It Be."
Mark 1:15: “...repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
How Permanent Is Your Salvation?
(an excellent MP3 sermon by Pastor Hank Lindstrom,
1940-2008)
Salvation And The Public Invitation
(a wonderful and needful .PDF book by Pastor Max
D. Younce)
“The mark
of the child of God is that he loves everybody!”
(a quote from Pastor Jack
Hyles' classic MP3 sermon, “FORGIVENESS”)
Ye Must Be Born Again! | You Need HIS Righteousness!
