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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Mountains

Mountains, majestic, beautiful, challenges to some, piles of rock to others, and a symbol of truth. I think I got your attention with that last one.......

Mount Ararat is a symbol of God's divine justice and mercy. Mount Sinai is a symbol of God's Law. Mount Olivet is a symbol of Jesus' great discourse. I could go on but I think you get the idea.  God is truth.
Can you name other mountains that symbolize other attributes of God?

The kingdom of God is called a mountain in Ps 30:7. Lord, when You showed Your favor,  You made me stand like a strong mountain; when You hid Your face, I was terrified. This is definitely true when we refer to the kingdom of Christ.
Isaiah 2:2 (HCSB) In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,
Isaiah 11:9 (HCSB) No one will harm or destroy on My entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water
Dan 2:35 (HCSB)Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
What is your "kingdom"?  Who is your king?

A trial is a "great mountain" Zech 4:6-7 (HCSB) So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of  Hosts. 7 ‘What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it!’ ”

Who do you rely on for strength? REALLY?

God clearing the way Psalms 97:5 (HCSB) The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.

Do you wait for God to clear the way, or do you just charge through? If you just charge through, how can you change that?

God does not change, He is not fickle. Psalms 36:6-7 (HCSB) Your righteousness is like the highest mountain; Your judgments, like the deepest sea. Lord, You preserve man and beast. 7 God, Your faithful love is so valuable that  people take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

How is your faith? Do you believe that God will act in your best interests?  Why?


God's love is eternal. Isaiah 54:10 (HCSB) Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord.


Do you have peace with the notion of a relationship with the Lord, or does it scare you?  Why?


God provides security and protection for His people.
Psalms 30:7 (HCSB)Lord, when You showed Your favor, You made me stand like a strong mountain; when You hid Your face, I was terrified.Psalms 125:2 (HCSB)Jerusalem—the mountains surround her. And the Lord surrounds His people, both now and forever.There is nothing to fear from God if you belong to Him. Do you belong to the Father? Do you know Him and how much He loves you? How much does He love you. Tell Him how much you love Him.God provides salvation.Jer 3:23 (HCSB) Surely, falsehood comes from the hills, commotion from the mountains, but the salvation of Israel is only in the Lord our God
Psalms 121:1-2 (HCSB)I raise my eyes toward the mountains.Where will my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord,the Maker of heaven and earth.
The Hebrew word for "salvation" means 'escape from great danger'.  What danger were you in?  Who saved you and why?










Saturday, August 10, 2013

I actually wrote a whole book about lemons and their uses, connecting them to the Bible and the horrid life experiences we all face.  WinePress published it. (Yes, shameless self promotion)  However the point is that we humans manage to use almost everything in the world that God provided for us for a measure of good.
Even hard times result  in positive outcomes.  People grow, relationships strengthen, and for the rest, read the book. : )
But seriously, lemons have several uses.  Their peel helps the meringue of pies stay stiff.  The oil of the tree gives the lovely scent for furnisher polish. I always knew when company was coming because the house smelled of lemon.
When the Jews sacrificed animals in the Temple, then burnt them, the Lord always said that a sincere sacrifice was a pleasing aroma to Him. Sacrifices were offered for numerous reasons, thanks, sin offerings, and more.  But what the Lord wanted more than sacrifices was obedience.  Obeying some one is more loving than doing what you want, than making a sin offering to cover it, don't you think?
It appeared that the Jews, even though they had made the Law impossible to follow; walking more that x amount of steps broke the Sabbath or lighting a lamp broke the Sabbath (for example); did not understand the concept of a sacrifice.  It was rote for them.
Christ took them aback.  He personalized everything.  Imagine someone marching around claiming His Father would be angry. Jesus made everything real, not just a meaningless ritual. Jesus literally made these religious leaders wrinkle their collective noses, stiffen their backs and cling to their pride. They refused to acknowledge any of the prophecies. But to His Father, and to the people, He was a pleasing aroma.
This analogy goes further when you realize Jesus' death occurred over Passover weekend. The commemoration  of God saving them from Egyptian slavery. The night before the slaves left, they drained the blood from a lamb, marked their door posts with the blood to protect them from the angel of death, and made ready to leave. Pharaoh released them in the morning. It is celebrated every year.
Jesus died just before Sabbath on Passover, the New Lamb. He is the perfect lamb. He can approach the Father directly on our behalf. He was the perfect sacrifice, human and divine.
1.  Lemon Peel stiffens egg whites for meringues, Jesus helps us through hard times. How does this comparison apply to you?

2.  Are you guilty of just going through the motions? Or is your faith living and active? How?

3.  Do you agree with the idea that obedience is more loving than doing what you want, than making it up somehow?  Explain your answer?

4.  Do you understand why Jesus' death and resurrection occurred on Passover "weekend". Explain

Monday, July 1, 2013

The Bible As a Myth?

     Irish archbishop, James Ussher calculated the year of creation to the year of 4004 BC.  Scientists now add several billion years to this date.  Darwin challenged Ussher's calculations with his publication of the Origin Of The Species.   Darwin is the "founder" of the evolutionary theory.
The major debates are:
1. The age of the earth.
   a. Evolutionists say the earth is 4 billion years old.
   b. Creationists say the earth is six thousand years old.
2. The fossil record.
   a. If evolution were true, it would be seen in the fossil record.
   b. Evolutionists reply that changes must have taken place in great bursts, thus not recorded in fossils.
3. Dinosaurs and humans living together.
    a. If the earth is young, then this would have to be true.
    b. Most scientists say that this could not be possible because the fossil and geological data show that
        dinosaurs were extinct millions of years before humans.
4. The earth itself
    a. Is a result of a cosmic "accident" the "big bang", according to evolutionists. However, as I have said, where did the elements for the explosion come from?
    b. Is created by God, complete with complex ecosystems.
 5. Human Beings
    a. Evolutionists claim humans evolved from apes. If so, why have we not tamed our hostile natures? Apes frequently treat each other better than we do. Why have humans not "evolved"?
    b. Human Beings are made in the image of God. Unfortunately, they also sin.  Being made in God's likeness makes a special relationship with God, it sets us apart. Sanctifies us. It also gives us the free will that allows us to choose to sin, or not. We can try to be like Christ, or not. We, unlike animals, have choices.
Dr.  Russel Humphrey explains it this way:
   "  The Bible clearly indicates three things about God’s formation of the universe. First, the earth is the center of God’s attention in the universe. By implication, the earth may also be located near the center-perhaps so man can see the glory of God’s creation in every direction. Second, the universe (both matter and space itself) has been “stretched out”. Third, the universe has a boundary, and therefore it must have a center. If these three assumptions are plugged into the currently accepted formulas of physics, and the mathematical crank is turned, we live in a universe in which clocks tick at different rates depending on your location.
     Furthermore, the time dilation effect would be magnified tremendously as the universe was originally expanding. As the universe expanded, there was a point at which time was moving very rapidly at the outer edge and essentially stopped near the center. At this point in the expansion of the universe, only days were passing near the center, while billions of years were passing in the heavens. This is the inevitable conclusion based on our current knowledge of physics and starting with Biblical assumptions instead of arbitrary ones. Albert Einstein rejected the idea that the Bible could be literally true. He wrote that, “Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the convictions that many of the stories in the Bible could not be true.” How ironic that the most ridiculed Biblical story (about a recent, literal, six day creation of the universe) is exactly the story which Albert Einstein’s work has shown to be entirely possible." (http://www.creationtoday.org/physics-evidence/)

Friday, June 21, 2013

Why not believe?

" I think, therefore, I am"    Descartes .
Only conscious thought determines existence. 



Friedrich Nietzsche
 Nihilism: there are no values, nothing can be known or communicated.  A committed nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose except  an impulse to destroy. He spoke of the "death of God". Nietzsche desired people to  “becoming what one is” through the growth of instincts and various intellectual faculties, a plan that required a constant struggle with one’s psychological and intellectual inclinations.  The "perfect person" formed his own life with out relying on social mores or religious constraints. " You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. " " Faith: not wanting to know what is true."


"Society as the trustee of life is responsible to life for every botched life that comes into existence; and as it has to atone for such lives, it ought consequently to make it impossible for them ever to see the light of day: it should in many cases actually prevent the act of procreation, and may, without any regard for rank, descent, or intellect, hold in readiness the most rigorous forms of compulsion and restriction, and, under certain circumstances, have recourse to castration ... 'Thou shalt do no murder,' is a piece of ingenuous puerility compared with 'Thou shalt not beget!!!' ... The [unhealthy] must at all costs be eliminated, lest the whole fall to pieces."

Hitler was a follower of Nietzsche.  He believed in a "super race". He believed in cleansing Germany of those who would foul the gene pool. Hitler believed himself to be the final moral authority. One has to understand that anyone who was not blond and blue-eyed or a Christian (due to the Pope's power only, Italy was an ally of Germany. ) is in danger. Jews because of their association with Jesus and financial power, Gypsies, many Christians, and others. The world did not know of the atrocities for years, and for some they did not care. 

All of those years were evil.  If there is a God, why did He allow them?  Free will some say. That is true in some ways.  Man makes his choices. We are not pieces on a chess board. We will answer to Him.

But if conscious thought determines existence, what happens when I sleep?  Is my dog just a fantasy?

If  we lived in a world where everyone "did their own thing" what would happen?

Who determines what a "botched life" is?  At what stage of life is that decision made?

Who determines who is allowed to bear children?

If one looks at recent health care plans closely, those of us with chronic illnesses, and terminal illnesses are marginalized.  We are expensive.  Single parents are expensive, and Planned Parenthood makes a fortune from abortions and birth control pills. 

We need to look closely at our nation and pray daily for it.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Law of Causality

     This is a fancy way of saying that every limited thing is caused by something other than itself. Those who do not believe in God use this law as if everything must have some source. This definition places God in the Law of Causality. Who created God?
     BUT, God is infinite. The Law of Causality says that everything that is finite and limited requires a cause. Things that have a beginning require a cause. Including God in the Law of Causality logically makes a category error. It is like confusing vision and touch. How does a sunset feel? does not mean anything. Limited, finite things need a cause. They started, and came into existence. ( Geisler & Bocchino)
     Time isn't infinite; the beginning of time needs an explaination. Nothing that is limited to time is is able to cause the universe. The definition of time is "a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future." By definition time is that area whare cause and effect occur, and every effect must have a cause. (Heeren) An infinite being ( God ) is not confined by time and He does not require a beginning.  An infinite being mus always exist, and does not need a "cause".  (Geisler and Bocchino)
      Our skeptic may say that God is not necessary.
" If the existence of the cosmos as a whole needs to be explained, and if it cannot be explained by natural causes then we must look to the existence and action of a supernatural cause for its explaination" Mortimer Adler

Using the Law of Causality we can sum it up this way.
1. What ever begins to exist must have a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. The universe has a cause.

For the universe to be here, we have four possibilities: Illusion, Self created, Self-existent, and Created by something self-existent.
1. Illusion is "misleading perception of reality". Misrepresenting what is real. If we did not have objective reality for a comparison, we would not know what is real.
2. Self-Created violates the law of causality because we have an effect without a cause.  It also violates one of the fundamental laws of logic: the law of non-contradiction, meaning something cannot be true and not true at the same time and in the same relationship. If I created myself, I exercised causal power on myself before I existed.
3.Self Existent/Eternal Whatever begins to exist has a cause. More on the Evidence the the Universe began to exist tomorrow.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Natural selection

I am certain that as many of you drive the highways of the country, you believe that "natural selection" did not eliminate enough of the cretins behind the wheel. Why?
If evolution was successful, errors during the evolutionary process do not explain advanced forms of life, like us, and if it was successful, those with low IQ's, chronic diseases, and genetic diseases would have been bred out of the gene pool, unable to survive.
We still have no fossil record of transitional forms, ape to man, for example. Many of our organs, and our physiology show intelligent design. For example, we have two kidneys, protected by the rib cage, if one is damaged, a person can survive with one, the same with the lungs. Some of our organs are incredibly complex, the brain, for example. According to Behe, "if a protein appeared with nothing to do, mutation and natural selection would tend to ELIMINATE it. It would, at least to some marginal degree, be detrimental." Why? Our bodies are built with incredible cellular defense systems, white blood cells rush to the site, the protein causing an inflammatory response. The area would be inflamed, swollen, as more white blood cells rush in, possibly impeeding blood flow, causing more swelling and infection. You see where I am going with this. This is similar to a rejection to an organ donation, or a lethal infection.
Now, there are those who assume that we Christians, stuck in the dark ages, ( actually I am an RN, and love science, and observing how God assembled things) assume that God is responsible for everything we will not research the origin of disease, or its cures. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus himself went to the untouchables, the down trodden, when no one else would.
At any rate, if natural selection actually did occur, none of us should be blind deaf or with out speach.
All communicable disease should have died out. All genetic faults should have gone away. All chronic disease gone. We should be living in a medical paradise. BUT, we don't.
We are created in the image, I mean like what one sees in a mirror, of God. Then two ancestors of ours let themselves be conned. That set in motion a plan of redemption in which God had to sacrifice His Own Son to buy us back from Satan. Why? Because the deal between God and Satan is that the payment for sin is death, but if you believe in Jesus, you have eternal life.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The Evidence of God From Mr. Hubble.

Sorry again for the long delay. It's hard to keep this up while getting a book ready to publish. One of the Psalms speaks of the heavens and earth proclaiming the glory of God. That is more than true.

Before 1920, everyone believed that the universe did not move. Scientists really need to stop assuming, in 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe not only moved, but expanded away from this galaxy. The universe expands uniformly in all directions.  The NEW assumption became that because the universe expands with time, it must have started from literally nothing, or technically speaking, "infinite density". How? Because the universe was simply expanding from its dense start, at the very beginning a very dense tiny piece of matter expanded/exploded fifteen million years ago.
Why do I doubt this? Because this requires me, a nurse, a scientist a believer in cause and effect, to believe that our universe was born from nothing.  Nothing from Nothing makes Nothing.

The order of our universe, the earth and its placement, our bodies, etc are the witnesses for an intelligent designer.