I listen to a lot of the UCB Christian radio station. It is normally on almost all day at home, as well as in whatever vehicle I am driving. There are some excellent songs, and I appreciate the joy and message that these Christian artists bring. It is such a blessing! However, there are times, when I really get annoyed with the station.
At certain times of year, the fund raiser is in full gear for a week or so, and there are ‘kick starters’ to the fund raiser for a week or two prior. Even at other times, there seems to be all too frequent requests for funding. They are considered an ‘encouragement’ to donate, but it really is a request for money. Typically there will be up to a dozen requests for money each hour, and on occasion I have heard three requests in a period of about 5 minutes!
I get it; it takes money to run a radio station, and advertising helps but is not enough, especially as the radio network is working to expand its coverage to almost all of Canada. Kudos for UCB in pushing ahead to accomplish that. And I put a significant part of the responsibility onto Christians. If Christians took Malachi 3, vs 8 seriously, we would make sure that we would be giving our tithes to God-honouring organizations such as UCB radio faithfully. If we don't we are robbing God!
I have been tithing ever since my youth, and Marie and I continued throughout our marriage. She has been, and still is, a treasure and a gift!
Hiking at Zion National Park
I won’t say conclusively that we gave the full 10% of our total income
every year, but certainly in recent years we have exceeded it. The results over the years have
been quite amazing! We have been blessed in so many ways, including our
finances, our residential purchases, our vehicle purchases and our numerous vacations,
etc., etc. We never went to things like Disney World….they were not only quite
expensive, but they put the wrong emphasis on what is truly worthwhile in life.
So even in relying on essentially a single income, which most families haven’t
done for many years, we feel we have been blessed. We try to make sure we are
not robbing God, as everything we own belongs to Him, and He has blessed us exceedingly
well.
In addition to the annoyance of frequent pleas for money, I especially find some of the Christmas music for the final month or so of the year, to be anything but inspiring. Sure, it is ‘Christmasy’, but far too many secular songs are heard. Things like Holly Jolly Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Dreaming of a White Christmas, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Let It Snow, Frosty The Snowman, Marshmallow World, etc., etc. are all seasonally appropriate, but when I sometimes hear as many as six secular Christmas songs in a row before a faith-based song comes on, I feel like I am listening to a secular radio station. To add to the annoyance, these songs are frequently interspersed with requests for money and it isn’t even an official fundraiser!
There are times when I just turn the radio off, and some days it is off more than it is on, or when it is on, it is on quite low and treated as ‘white noise’. Instead, I enjoy the quiet, or listen to some Christian CDs that have been great to have available, that both Marie and I enjoyed in the past. It brings back pleasant reminders of Marie, as well as providing some inspiring Christian music. I know of other regular listeners who turn the radio off at these annoying times as well. And on one occasion as I was listening to a church service of a local evangelical church, the pastor distinctly stated right in his message that at some of these times he turns his radio off also! And that is exactly what Satan would like, for people to turn off what should be a joyful, uplifting and God-honouring and inspirational time. UCB is falling into the devil’s trap!
It was almost a year ago when I had the local Christian radio station turned off for these reasons, and just for a change, I checked out a Christian radio station that Marie and I listened to when we arrived in Chatham back in 1988. It was WMUZ from Detroit, and since UCB radio had arrived in Chatham slightly more than 20 years ago, we hadn’t listened to it since.
And here is the blessing that I am convinced God wanted me to know: the Detroit station had a special speaker being featured, and it was very, very special. The speaker was John Burke, and he was speaking about Near Death Experiences (NDEs). He grew up as an agnostic, but when he was visiting his father who was dying, noted a book that someone had left, discussing NDEs. As a professional engineer, who always liked to investigate things thoroughly before accepting them at face value, he read it and became intrigued. And over the years, he researched the topic in great depth. He has listened to, or read, well over 1000 accounts from people who had an NDE. In some cases the person was just clinically dead for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, but recovered, and were never the same again. They were definitely changed, and in such an inspiring way. What people experienced, especially about the love of God and the fantastic beauty of the heavenly realm, makes living in or exploring some of the most beautiful places on earth seem pale by comparison. Will an area that we normally think of as picturesque look pale.....
...rather than more vivid?
In many cases, people had a hard time expressing what they experienced, as the language we use just cannot describe it adequately. People from many different professions, different religious backgrounds, different ages, had an NDE and Burke was amazed at the commonality of what he found out. In almost every case, people having a NDE did not want to return to earth due to the incredible love of God and beauty they experienced. Here is a photo of his most recent book.
This topic deserves a lot more discussion, and I intend to do that in a future post. I have read several books on the topic, including two by John Burke, and reading them is so inspirational about what the heavenly realm will be like. It is important to remember that our earthly bodies are relatively short-lived….maybe seven to eight decades more or less. It is our soul that occupies our earthly body, and that is the real person who we are, that will live on eternally in another, heavenly dimension once our earthly body dies. The descriptions and personal experiences of people who have had a NDE are so uplifting and result in such wonderfully positive emotions just in the reading. Oft times I only read a few pages and am so inspired and thankful to God that I just have to stop and praise Him!! It triggers some wonderful emotion about God's perfect love for each of us. I can’t imagine what actually having a NDE would be like.
No question that this book, or one similar, will be one of the most important books you could ever read if you are interested in your after life!!! God's word in the Holy Bible is of course irreplaceable, but as one author said it is the black and white version, whereas the things that those who have had an NDE, provide so much colour of the reality of heaven trying to describe in human terms what is indescribable.
I plan to delve into this topic on this blog in more detail before long!
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