In John's gospel we find seven statements by Jesus starting with "I am." For instance "I am the bread of life." Many preachers focus on the "bread" or "the light of the world" but it is very important to focus on the significance of the "I am" because when Jesus uses this He is stating that He is God. In the story of Moses at the burning bush we find that God tells Moses His name. Moses is to tell the Israelites that "I am" has sent him to them to bring them out of Egypt. At another time Jesus said to the Jewish rulers,"Before Abraham was, I am" This looks like poor grammar to us but no Jesus is claiming to be the God who always is and has no beginning or end, or to put it another way He is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. The Jews understood what He was claiming because they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy. So if anyone tries to tell you that Jesus never claimed to be God you will know now that they are wrong.
I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...
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