Water Closet for February 13, 2015
[pullquote]”Ice cake jumping was fun if one remained dry; the most daring and foolish of jumpers would later boast of their feats.”[/pullquote]The other day the old Closeteer received this message via e-mail. “Last night under a waxing moon, a friend and I snow shoed out onto the frozen Newbury/Rowley marsh from Rough Meadows, Greenbelt property on Route 1A. Intrepid explorers, we crossed several frozen low tide creek beds. It was barren and surrealistic. So beautiful. Next hike I hope to do Nelsons Island (near Parker River National WildlifeRefuge, Newbury) under a full moon”. Alice Twombly1
The salt marsh that Alice and friend enjoyed is in the center of The Great Marsh, Essex County, Massachusetts.2 Wide salt marshes stretch southward behind barrier beaches from Rye, New Hampshire, to the Annisquam River in Gloucester. Swimmers and sun bathers may be more familiar with the beaches: Hampton, Seabrook,
Lenses have Choate Island left looming above the marshes of Ipswich and Essex. Note the rough ice on salt marsh stirred by tide and wind. Bufflehead ducks fly by in foreground. – Judy Schneider photo
Salisbury, Plum Island, Crane, and Wingaersheek. This wet terrain west and south of a 25 mile arc of ocean from the rocks of Boars Head to those of Cape Ann is a marvel of diverse habitats, plants, and animals under bird migration flyways. The tides twice daily ebb and flow in the rich estuaries, the birds in fall and spring go south and north and the anadromous fish enter and leave the rivers in spring. Above the tidal flats the water rises and falls eight to twelve feet depending on the phases of the moon. The rivers north to south are: Hampton, Merrimack, Parker, Plum Island, Rowley, Eagle, Ipswich, Castle Neck, Essex, and Annisquam. The whole area where land intermeshes with the sea is alive with moving water, at times rain and snow form above, runoff from the uplands of Rockingham and Essex counties, and sea water from the Gulf of Maine. The Merrimack River brings fresh water all the way down from the White Mountains and from the headwaters of the Concord River watershed. Henry David Thoreau and brother John built a skiff and famously explored the Concord and Merrimack rivers and some of their tributaries.3 The naturalist, as hundreds have since, marveled in the area’s abundance. An abundance the Indians probably enjoyed tenfold for three plus millennia before the English. The natives set up camps on the estuaries each spring and spent the warmer months swimming, canoeing, fishing, clamming, and picking up lobsters, crabs, and snails. The women and children planted corn, beans and squash in the Merrimack sandy loam soils sloping toward the marshes and in bottom lands along the rivers. With fall’s cold they returned inland to winter villages to hunt and to fish through the ice.
The Indians are long gone but salt marshes, flats, beaches, dunes, and surrounding uplands are still here now covered with snow and ice. The ice on the marshes and flats is not the hard clear stuff we who live more inland know. The old Closeteer who received Alice’s eloquent message remembers the winter marshes with fondness. In a half-mile hike from his family’s farm he was on the wide open salt marshes in their cold winds every chance he could escape from chores and school. Boyhood friend Richard Currier, hunter, naturalist, and bird
Salt marsh covered with thick layers of ice. Choate Island, a high drumlin, is to the left; the town of Essex is seen in the distance. – Judy Schneider photo
carver, often accompanied him. Dick is dead but his memory is very much alive in the waning recollections of the old Closeteer who often speaks of him. They and winter-staying ducks usually had the 2000 or so open acres on the north side of the Merrimack from southwest Salisbury to the ocean to themselves outside of duck hunting season. Every few winters snowy owls down from the north would visit, greatly adding interest and excitement. The boys thought this perfectly flat expanse must be like the owls’ home on the tundra. Whittier described the summer salt marshes as “low green prairies of the sea”. They are usually whites and grays with snow and ice much of the winter.
What makes the ice so different are the salts in seawater and the twice daily rise and fall of the tides. Snow, rain, brisk winds and waves at high tides are also important variables as seawater freezes and rids itself of salt. Ice from salt water in not as transparent or translucent as that from fresh water often is. It is more brittle, crumbly, and air filled. Words quickly run out when trying to describe its many forms. “High- runner-tides”4 cover the marsh with up to three feet of water at highs accompanied by strong northeast winds. If the air is very cold as the water subsides some freezes and is left resting in plates on the short salt grasses. When walked on it shatters and clatters with not quite the sound of glass. At rare times it freezes pretty hard and smooth and if thick enough allows more or less safe passage until cricks are encountered. Children used to lug sleds and pieces of cardboard or thin plywood to the frozen marshes. They would sit on sleds holding their sails and glide, often very fast, until rolling off before descending into low tide cricks like those Alice climbed in and out of. WARNING: Don’t hike or sail on the winter salt marshes at high tide. The Closeteer and friends learned this the hard way. Man-cut mosquito and drainage ditches5 and small natural cricks are often hidden under thin ice. A plunge into below 32 degree water will long
Man on ice floe wearing snowshoes is enjoying a night visit to The Great Marsh. The thick floe is one of many from nearby river that was raised up by tide and dropped on the marsh. – Photo courtesy of James Kennedy
be remembered. Another thing not to do is engage in a sport called “ice cake jumping”, called “poldering” in Colonial Salem. The Closeteer says this was usually engaged in on dares. Participants at half to three quarter high tides would run and jump from floating cake to cake. Small cakes would start to sink while leaping to another. Cakes, some very large, are formed when the tide goes up and down and the ice breaks into rafts as it descends into almost empty crick beds. Ice cake jumping was fun if one remained dry; the most daring and foolish of jumpers would later boast of their feats. The part the old Closeteer remembers most vividly were stiff legged runs home or once to a nearby house in pants quickly freezing up like stove pipes. Another piece of advice: don’t go out on the salt marshes in winter alone. Do as we say not as we did.
Actually the times alone on the marsh stalking ducks that were hunkered down out of the wind in low tide cricks or walking away teenage worries under a big sky in all weathers were those the Closeteer most happily remembers. After crawling on hands and knees on ice to the edges of cricks at low tide, he’d get very close to the ducks he hoped to see. While trudging over the vast mix of ice, snow, and grasses the Closeteer imagined hunting with the Inuit around Hudson Bay or suffering with Shackleton and his men in Antarctica.
Visit the marshes this month off Jeffrey Neck Road to the Ipswich Necks, along Argilla Road to Crane Beach, from the refuge road on Plum Island, or west of the road to Salisbury Beach State Park. Stop, walk out on the edges of the marsh to feel and taste sea water ice. Step out a few feet and walk on it, or better still after a new snow before a high-runner-tide has consumed it venture out at low tide with a friend on skis or snowshoes under a full moon as Alice plans to do.
1 Alice Twombly was Skipper of the Rings Island Rowing Club. She is now head of the Waterfront Education Program at Lowell’s Boat Shop on the Merrimack in Amesbury.
2 Google The Great Marsh for maps and photographs. Better still visit every season. .
3 Read Henry David Thoreau’s classic A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
4 Folks around the estuaries of the Merrimack called spring tides, those when the Moon, Earth and Sun are in line at new and full moons, “high-runner-tides”. On higher spring tides the marshes are covered and appear as bays between beach and upland.
5 In the 18tth and 19th centuries farmers cut straight ditches in the salt marsh peat to drain low areas so salt hay would grow. In the 20th century these ditches were maintained and added to to drain large shallow puddles called pannes where mosquitoes breed. This was done along with spraying DDT for the comfort of beach goers. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
WATER RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION INFORMATION
FOR MIDDLETON, BOXFORD AND TOPSFIELD`
| Precipitation Data* for Month of: | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | |
| 30 Year Normal (1981 – 2010) Inches | 4.55 | 4.12 | 3.40 | 3.25 | |
| 2014 – 2015 Central Watershed Actual | 4.60 | 8.45 | 3.67 | 4.2 as of 2/10** | |
Ipswich R. Flow Rate (S. Middleton USGS Gage) in Cubic Feet/ Second (CFS):
For Feb 10, 2015 Normal . . . 64 CFS Current Rate . . . Unavailable
*Danvers Water Filtration Plant, Lake Street, Middleton is the source for actual precipitation data thru Jan.
**Middleton Stream Team is source of actual precipitation data for Feb.
Normals data is from the National Climatic Data Center.
THE WATER CLOSET is provided by the Middleton Stream Team: www.middletonstreamteam.org or <MSTMiddletonMA@gmail.com> or (978) 777-4584
Whether or not you believe in God, read this message!!!
Throughout history, we can see how we have been slowly conditioned coming to this point where we are on the verge of a cashless society. Did you know that the Bible foretold of this event almost 2,000 years ago?
In the book of Revelation 13:16-18, we will read,
“He (the false prophet who deceives many by his miracles–Revelation 19:20) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
Speaking to the last generation, this could only be speaking of a cashless society. Why so? Revelation 13:17 says that we cannot buy or sell unless we receive the mark of the beast. If physical money was still in use, we could buy or sell with one another without receiving the mark. This would contradict scripture that states we need the mark to buy or sell!
These verses could not be referring to something purely spiritual as scripture references two physical locations (our right hand or forehead) stating the mark will be on one “OR” the other. If this mark was purely spiritual, it would indicate both places, or one–not one OR the other!
This is where it really starts to come together. It is amazing how accurate the Bible is concerning the implantable RFID microchip. Here are notes from a man named Carl Sanders who worked with a team of engineers to help develop this RFID chip:
“Carl Sanders sat in seventeen New World Order meetings with heads-of-state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the C.I.A. to discuss plans on how to bring about this one-world system. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a microchip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world—a microchip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle (a quick, convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society).
Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by tax dollars, took on this project and designed a microchip that is powered by a lithium battery, rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible (Brother Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one-and-a-half-million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the microchip inserted.
Guess what? These researchers found that the forehead and the back of the hand (the two places the Bible says the mark will go) are not just the most convenient places, but are also the only viable places for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The microchip is approximately seven millimeters in length, .75 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, criminal record, health history, and financial data can be stored on this chip.
Brother Sanders believes that this microchip, which he regretfully helped design, is the “mark” spoken about in Revelation 13:16–18. The original Greek word for “mark” is “charagma,” which means a “scratch or etching.” It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is “chi xi stigma,” with the last part, “stigma,” also meaning “to stick or prick.” Carl believes this is referring to a hypodermic needle when they poke into the skin to inject the microchip.”
Mr. Sanders asked a doctor what would happen if the lithium contained within the RFID microchip leaked into the body. The doctor replied by saying a terrible sore would appear in that location. This is what the book of Revelation says:
“And the first (angel) went, and poured out his vial on the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore on the men which had the mark of the beast, and on them which worshipped his image” (Revelation 16:2).
You can read more about it here–and to also understand the mystery behind the number 666: https://2RUTH.ORG
The third angel’s warning in Revelation 14:9-11 states,
“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.'”
Great hope is in our midst, and is coming in a mighty way–the greatest revival for Jesus in the history of the world where we will see the most souls come to Him of all tribes, tongues, nations, and peoples (Rev. 7:9-10); for we have this promise in God’s Word in the midst of these dark times:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years (not literal–rather a spiritual label for time spent in eternity); and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while (when the Antichrist and false prophet will rise up and God will test the world).” (Revelation 20:1-3)
“The coming of the lawless one (the Antichrist) is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)”
Who is Barack Obama, and why is he still around?
So what about his name? The meaning of someone’s name can say a lot about a person. God throughout history has given names to people that have a specific meaning tied to their lives. How about the name Barack Obama? Let us take a look at what may be hiding beneath the surface.
Jesus says in Luke 10:18, “…I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
The Hebrew Strongs word (H1299) for “lightning”: “bârâq” (baw-rawk)
In Isaiah chapter 14, verse 14, we read about Lucifer (Satan) saying in his heart:
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”
In the verses in Isaiah that refer directly to Lucifer, several times it mentions him falling from the heights or the heavens. The Hebrew word for the heights or heavens used here is Hebrew Strongs 1116: “bamah”–Pronounced (bam-maw’)
In Hebrew, the letter “Waw” or “Vav” is often transliterated as a “U” or “O,” and it is primarily used as a conjunction to join concepts together. So to join in Hebrew poetry the concept of lightning (Baraq) and a high place like heaven or the heights of heaven (Bam-Maw), the letter “U” or “O” would be used. So, Baraq “O” Bam-Maw or Baraq “U” Bam-Maw in Hebrew poetry similar to the style written in Isaiah, would translate literally to “Lightning from the heights.” The word “Satan” in Hebrew is a direct translation, therefore “Satan.”
When Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 10:18 that He beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven, if this were to be declared by a Jewish Rabbi today influenced by the poetry in the book of Isaiah, he would say these words in Hebrew–the words of Jesus in Luke 10:18 as, and I saw Satan as Baraq O Bam-Maw.
Malie and Natasha are the names of Obama’s daughters. If we write those names backward (the devil does things in reverse) we would get “ailam ahsatan”. Now if we remove the letters that spell “Alah” (Allah being the false god of Islam), we get “I am Satan”. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
Obama’s campaign logo when he ran as President of the United States in 2008 was a sun over the horizon in the west, with the landscape as the flag of the United States. In Islam, they have their own messiah that they are waiting for called the 12th Imam, or the Mahdi (the Antichrist of the Bible), and one prophecy concerning this man’s appearance is the sun rising in the west.
“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.'” (Revelation 14:6-7)
Why have the words of Jesus in His Gospel accounts regarding His death, burial, and resurrection, been translated into over 3,000 languages, and nothing comes close (the Quran about 110 languages)? Because the same Spirit of God (YHVH) who created all people likewise transcends all people; therefore the power of His Word is not limited by people; while all other religions are man-made, therefore they tend to primarily stay within their own culture. The same God who speaks to all people through His creation of the heavens and earth that draws all people around the world likewise has sent His Word to the ends of the earth so that we may come to personally know Him to be saved in spirit and in truth through His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus stands alone among the other religions that say to rightly weigh the scales of good and evil and to make sure you have done more good than bad in this life. Is this how we conduct ourselves justly in a court of law? Bearing the image of God, is this how we project this image into reality?
Our good works cannot save us. If we step before a judge, being guilty of a crime, the judge will not judge us by the good we have done, but rather by the crimes we have committed. If we as fallen humanity, created in God’s image, pose this type of justice, how much more a perfect, righteous, and Holy God?
God has brought down His moral laws through the 10 commandments given to Moses at Mt. Siani. These laws were not given so we may be justified, but rather that we may see the need for a savior. They are the mirror of God’s character of what He has written in our hearts, with our conscious bearing witness that we know that it is wrong to steal, lie, dishonor our parents, murder, and so forth.
We can try and follow the moral laws of the 10 commandments, but we will never catch up to them to be justified before a Holy God. That same word of the law given to Moses became flesh about 2,000 years ago in the body of Jesus Christ. He came to be our justification by fulfilling the law, living a sinless perfect life that only God could fulfill.
The gap between us and the law can never be reconciled by our own merit, but the arm of Jesus is stretched out by the grace and mercy of God. And if we are to grab on, through faith in Him, He will pull us up being the one to justify us. As in the court of law, if someone steps in and pays our fine, even though we are guilty, the judge can do what is legal and just and let us go free. That is what Jesus did almost 2,000 years ago on the cross. It was a legal transaction being fulfilled in the spiritual realm by the shedding of His blood with His last word’s on the cross crying out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
For God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). This is why in Isaiah chapter 53, where it speaks of the coming Messiah and His soul being a sacrifice for our sins, why it says it pleased God to crush His only begotten Son.
This is because the wrath that we deserve was justified by being poured out upon His Son. If that wrath was poured out on us, we would all perish to hell forever. God created a way of escape by pouring it out on His Son whose soul could not be left in Hades but was raised and seated at the right hand of God in power.
So now when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14), where God no longer sees the person who deserves His wrath, but rather the glorious image of His perfect Son dwelling in us, justifying us as if we received the wrath we deserve, making a way of escape from the curse of death; now being conformed into the image of the heavenly man walking in a new nature, and no longer in the image of the fallen man Adam.
Now what we must do is repent and put our trust and faith in the savior, confessing and forsaking our sins, and to receive His Holy Spirit that we may be born again (for Jesus says we must be born again to see and enter the Kingdom of God in John chapter 3). This is not just head knowledge of believing in Jesus, but rather receiving His words, taking them to heart, so that we may truly be transformed into the image of God. Where we no longer live to practice sin, but rather turn from our sins and practice righteousness through faith in Him in obedience to His Word by reading the Bible.
Our works cannot save us, but they can condemn us; it is not that we earn our way into everlasting life, but that we obey our Lord Jesus Christ:
Jesus says,
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
“And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” (Hebrews 5:9)
“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’
Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’
And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'” (Revelation 21:1-8)
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