The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System was an emergency warning system used in the United States. The system was established to provide the President of the United States with an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or grave national crisis. In later years, it was expanded for use during peacetime emergencies at the state and local levels. Although the system was never used for a national emergency, it is used for civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards.
When the announcement comes on the television or radio, normal programming would be suspended with one of the following announcements:
*This is a test. For the next sixty (or thirty) seconds, this station will conduct a test of the
Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.
* This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.
This is only a test.
* This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in
voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities (or, in later years, federal, state
and local authorities) have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of
an emergency.
There were a number of variations for the second half of the statement. During the system's early days, stations other than the designated station for an area were required to shut down in the event of an emergency and the message was a variation of: "If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to tune to one of the broadcast stations in your area."
Life is full of tests. You have to take and pass tests while you are in elementary, middle, and high school. In high school while you are in your favorite class, scanning your syllabus, you see that there are going to be two major tests, a mid-term and a final. You have to take and pass tests to finish high school. You have to take a test to get into college. You have to take a test to enter a Master's Program. You have to take and pass a test to drive a car. To gain employment you have to take a job aptitude test. To obtain employment you have to take and pass a drug test. You even have to take and pass a test to obtain a life insurance policy. Did you know that life is a test?
God ordains tests in our lives, not for His sake, but for ours. God will allow trials and tribulations to come our way and He will use these trials as a way of testing us. Unfortunately, we do not get the option of choosing our tests. God has made us many promises in the Bible, but we have never been promised a life without trials, tribulations, and tests. We are promised a God that will walk with us and will give us strength during those difficult times in our lives.
We serve the same God today, that our biblical faith-walkers did in their days. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He worked for Potiphar and because of his wife's lies he was thrown into prison. God granted Joseph a very special gift, to interpret dreams. His gift of interpreting dreams elevated him to become the second highest ranking officer in Egypt. Can you not imagine the heaviness of the tests that Joseph faced? Joseph trusted the promises of God. He knew that God had a plan for his life. He endured the difficulties because of his faith in God.
Moses spent time in God's presence and God used Moses mightily. He was an instrument of God to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. But there were so many trials along the way. The Israelites just whined, grumbled, and complained. Moses was so frustrated with them he asked God, "Why pick on me, to give me the burdens of a people like this" (Numbers 11:11). Moses had enough of their whining and complaining that he told God, "If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now; it will be a kindness! Let me out of this impossible situation" (Numbers 11:15).
Job lost his houses, his wealth, his livestock, and his children, yet he chose to praise God for His goodness during his test. Job said, "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I shall have nothing when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had, and they were his to take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). The Bible said, "In all of this, Job did not sin or revile God."
There are so many other great examples of our Biblical faith-walkers who were confronted with all kinds of tests, and many trials and tribulations, but through their faith, they became more than conquerors. Scripture tells us, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-4).
Whatever your test maybe, know this, God has chosen you to take that test. Pass the test and God will promote you to the next very special chapter in your life. If you flunk the test, you will have to retake it over and over again, or be forced to settle with God's second best plan He has for your life. Our lives are being tested in so many ways. If your test is about a relationship, God has chosen you to take that test. If your test is about a financial crisis, God has chosen you to take that test. These tests reveals what is truly in our hearts. Only the tests can reveal the heart and where we stand with God. The Bible tells us:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his
ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
"A good man brings good things out of the good stores up in his heart, and an evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks
what the heart is full of" (Luke 6:45).
Taking the tests is half of the journey, because we must pass the tests in order to be made ready for our destiny, "God will bless you, if you don't give up when your faith is being tested. He will reward you with a glorious life, just as he rewards everyone who loves him" (James 1:12).
PRESSED OUT OF MEASURE AND PRESSED TO ALL LENGTH,
PRESSED SO INTENSELY IT SEEMS BEYOND STRENGTH.
PRESSED IN THE BODY AND PRESSED IN THE SOUL,
PRESSED IN THE MIND TILL THE DARK SURGES ROLL
PRESSURE BY FOES, PRESSURE BY FRIENDS,
PRESSURE ON PRESSURE TILL LIFE NEARLY ENDS.
BLESSED PRESSURE, PRESSED INTO KNOWING NO HELPER BUT GOD.
PRESSED INTO LOVING THE STAFF AND THE ROD.
PRESSED INTO LIBERTY WHERE NOTHING CLINGS,
PRESSED INTO FAITH FOR IMPOSSIBLE THINGS.
PRSSED INTO LIVING A LIFE IN THE LORD,
PRESSED INTO LIVING A CHRIST LIFE OUTPOURED.
(Author unknown)
The blessing is in the pressing and the pressing is the test. Praise God from whom all blessings flows!