The Radial Engine

     In High School I studied aircraft engines as an elective class, then a little more after H.S. in an A & P school in Inglewood Calif. The Army had fixed wing cargo planes w/radial engines during the Viet Nam campaign. The “radial” is actually quite antique in design, but amazing in many ways. It has an ODD number of cylinders with the top being the “master” cylinder.  The remaining cylinders – 4, 6, or 8 of them are placed around the circular design for maximum cooling airflow. Inside you have a crankshaft with only one throw. The master rod serves the master cylinder, then the rest of the rods (articulating) connect around the base of the master rod. Since all the rods connect to the master, there is more heat in the master cylinder. Now the radial engine is a LOW-SPEED engine which Christ has also been in the world. “Though the mills of God grind slowly. Yet they grind exceedingly small. Though with patience He stands waiting. With exactness grinds He all.” Longfellow
     Now there are some other parallels in this ANALOGY with the spiritual world. The radial engine is the power of God in action. The master rod & Cylinder is J.C.  He has taken a lot of heat especially since being born as a man at year 1 AD, predicted 600 years earlier by Isaiah the prophet (and others); “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6  The articulating rods & cylinders are the assistants & helps such as Apostles, prophets, angels, the Word, direct miracles, etc., that all connect to the “master”.  All of this is enclosed by God which compares to the crankcase. Inside the crankcase the oil (the Holy Spirit), is flowing intensely to lubricate the crankshaft or action of God that pulls the aircraft through the air.
   The “aircraft” is the church which transports believers in Christ from the point of evangelization & rebirth (John 3:3), to that point where they pass into God’s eternal kingdom. Now of course this “aircraft” is often ignored by unsaved folks on the ground, who don’t always know or care that God’s church is passing “over” or by. It’s sad because in a legitimate church you have a Salvation factor which brings much good & blessing even to this temporary earth life. See “What’s In It For Me?” link 28. For those who hear the “aircraft” & it’s “engine”, they can freely climb aboard & “fly” with confidence.
-- Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with           wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
-- John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast           out.”
-- Romans 3:23-24 “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his           grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
-- Colossians 2:9-10, 12 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to             fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. . . and you were buried with him in         baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him       from the dead.”
    Choose Jesus and His Church, they are alive. And as the Radial Engine clatters & thumps through the air, we can be included, and enjoy the adventurous ride. . . See also “The Take Off” link 22.

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