FoxNews Science: Mystery Roar Detected From Faraway Space

This interesting story was on Fox News recently: Mystery Roar Detected From Faraway Space.

Radio waves are not sound waves, but they are still electromagnetic waves, situated on the low-frequency end of the light spectrum.

Many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, emit radio waves. Even our home galaxy, the Milky Way, emits a static hiss (first detected in 1931 by physicist Karl Jansky). Other galaxies also send out a background radio hiss.

But the newly detected signal, described here today at the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, is far louder than astronomers expected.

There is "something new and interesting going on in the universe," said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.A team led by Kogut detected the signal with a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission).

In July 2006, the instrument was launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and reached an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,500 meters), where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

ARCADE's mission was to search the sky for faint signs of heat from the first generation of stars, but instead they heard a roar from the distant reaches of the universe."The universe really threw us a curve," Kogut said. "Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted."

Detailed analysis of the signal ruled out primordial stars or any known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy.

Other radio galaxies also can't account for the noise — there just aren't enough of them.

Source: FoxNews: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477880,00.html

2 Corinthians 12:2-4
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows--such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows-- was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak."

Whether Paul was physically taken to heaven or it was shown him, even he could not say for sure; however, it's clear from this passage that he went to the place where the Lord resides, the third heaven. The first heaven is regarded by theologians as our earthly atmosphere, the second heaven: outerspace, and the third heaven as God's habitation. A paradise! I pray to see you there!

A Life Out of Control

My life is out of control......it's not as dire as it sounds, it is a blessing! I am blessed because God is in control. When I look back and ponder His providence - and knowing my own heart, with by the help of the Holy Spirit I can see the possibilities of how the script of my life might have been different. I see only emptiness which would have filled my heart and helplessness to fill my life had I not given my heart to Jesus on that fateful day of Septermber 29th, 1985.

Proverbs 16:9 tells us that "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.". That's pretty awesome when you think about it. Think of a small child who without the guidance of a more knowing caretaker would simply walk out into the highway into traffic! THAT is what our lives are like without the direction of the Lord. We can't fathom the dangers in our path nor would we understand it should we require an explanation from God! We could understand His perfect will no better than that small child would understand if someone explained the laws of physics, velocity, etc.

Equally, we until we give the Lord the reigns in our heart and life we no idea how much better life can be!
1 Corinthians 2:9 says:"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." About this passage Matthew Henry concluded and penned better than I ever could: "There are things God hath prepared for those that love him, and wait for him, which sense cannot discover, no teaching can convey to our ears, nor can it yet enter our hearts. We must take them as they stand in the Scriptures, as God hath been pleased to reveal them to us."

I can't wait for that awesome day of discovery! Maranatha!

Maranatha

Sometimes you may hear or see the term "Maranatha" used. Do you know what it means and where it came from?

To the best of my knowledge, Maranatha is a Greek transliteration of an Aramaic word meaning "Our Lord come". It may have been used by early Christians as a greeting and a goodbye, much like the Italian "ciao" or Hebrew "shalom" of today.

The word occurs only once in the New Testament at the closing of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (I Cor. 16:22): "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."

Strong's Greek Dictionary explains it as such:
G3134
μαρὰν ἀθά
maran atha
mar'-an ath'-ah
Of Chaldee origin (meaning our Lord has come); maranatha, that is, an exclamation of the approaching divine judgment: - Maran-atha.

In the penultimate verse of the Bible Jesus Himself uses a form of this word in Rev 22:20 "He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

Of this John Wesley wrote:
Rev 22:20 - [He who testifies to these things] - Even all that is contained in this book. Saith - For the encouragement of the church in all her afflictions. Yea - Answering the call of the Spirit and the bride. I come quickly - To destroy all her enemies, and establish her in a state of perfect and everlasting happiness. The apostle expresses his earnest desire and hope of this, by answering, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!