HIS LAST COMMAND...OUR FIRST CONCERN
The last few days have been very busy. Our church will be involved in a Marriage Enrichment seminar Saturday and then we prepare for our 14th Faith Promise Missions Conference. God blessed this past year by providing the largest amount the church has ever given to missions, at least from what I can determine. I know many times a pastor will say things like that meaning since he has been the pastor. If our church has given more in the past before I became the pastor, I apologize for any overstatement of the facts. The $75,000 for missions had to be from God, our congregation is not that large.
With the economy in the shape that it is in, the challenge will be greater this year. Faith Promise giving is not based on outward circumstances and situations. The more difficult the times, the challenge becomes greater for people to truly rely on God, but that is what Faith Promise is all about. I fully believe that God has never asked His people to do anything that He has not promised to supply what they need to accomplish the task. In Philippians 4:19, Paul states that God supplies all our needs “according to” His riches, not out of His riches. There is a difference. In providing “according to His riches,” God has no problem abundantly supplying “all” that we need to accomplish His work. Since the context of this passage is Paul thanking the Philippian church for once again helping him financially, the verse gives assurance that God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s supply.
Some practice Faith Promise giving, others speak against it, but say what you will about the Faith Promise method of Mission giving, it has taken our church from giving $8,000 a year to missions to $75,000 and all the while our general offerings have been adequate to meet our local needs. For almost 20 years, our church has operated debt free, with the exception of a couple of years when we financed the purchase of a van. I praise God for His provision.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
(Continued from the previous blog)
When investigating a crime scene, forensic experts begin a search for evidence. Primary in their investigation are fingerprints. Just as criminal or civil investigators look for fingerprints in a systematic search for evidence, when one searches for evidence of a divine Creator, he should look for God’s fingerprints on His creation. They are everywhere. David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). What can be consider fingerprints of God?
First consider the finger print of physics. Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor? This is a principle attributed to a fourteenth century logician that in simple words states, when multiple theories vie for consideration, select the one that presents the fewest assumptions and presumes the fewest hypothetical entities. Over the centuries, men have written volumes in an attempt to explain and account for all the laws of physics that function to sustain not just a planet or even one creature with no sentient capabilities, much less an entire universe. Yet, an examination of the explanations available find that many of them are at odds with each other and cannot agree on how the cosmos came about. On the other hand, the Bible states clearly in ten English words, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth“ (Gen. 1:1). Apply Occam’s razor, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.
Consider the fingerprint of astronomy. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The late Carl Sagan, astronomer and astrobiologist, once referred to the earth as a “lonely speck in a great enveloping cosmic dark.” Sagan was a staunch supporter of skeptical inquiry and humanism. He believed the earth was merely an average, unassuming pile of rock that spins without purpose around a less than remarkable star in a forsaken part of a run-of-the-mill galaxy surrounded by, in Sagan’s words, “billions and billions” of more impressive galaxies. More than once, Sagan stated his belief that there “has to be” hundreds of thousands of planets that support intelligent life-forms. Unashamedly, he announced that to believe the Earth is unique in the universe borders on lunacy. A mere cursory search on the Internet will reveal that Sagan was not the only one holding such a view. Not a few physicists boldly assert that no reputable scientist believes in biblical creationism.
Thankfully, “The Bible stands like a rock undaunted,” and its truth remains unruffled. Lee Strobel quotes Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say “super- natural”) plan.” The earth is not a less-than-average, non-descript planet. The earth is unique in the universe with a sun that is far from average. Even its place in the galaxy is uncannily positioned for life. The earth has all the right balances, all the right cycles of air and all the proper temperature and water —a situation totally unique in the universe. With a more complete examination of facts rather relying on rhetoric and conjecture reveals the fingerprints of God all over the cosmos.
Further, there is the fingerprint of consciousness to consider. UNIVAC 1 was the first American computer produced for commercial use. UNIVAC 1 used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds and occupied more than 350 square feet of floor space. This computer, awesome for its time, was dedicated on July 14, 1951. Fifty-eight years later, computers have become unbelievably smaller and have increased astronomically in their processing ability, so much so that some robotic scientists to prophesy that by 2050 the computer’s ability to think will surpass that of man. Yet, no computer can or will be able to acknowledge God as Creator, Father and Savior.
I wrote this article last summer to address the question, “Are there ways to teach young people the truth about the existence of God and counteract the false information they are receiving concerning God and creation?” (My paraphrase of the question.) My qualifications to write such an article as well as my sources of research are limited. However, I am not at a loss. I have a source that is irrefutable, it is the Bible. I close with this observation, God's existence does not have to be substantiated by man, and neither does the Bible. Therefore, Christians do not have to rely on blind faith to refute humanism and evolutionary theories. To coin a phrase, “The truth is out there!” God said it, and that settles it regardless of whether man believes it.
When investigating a crime scene, forensic experts begin a search for evidence. Primary in their investigation are fingerprints. Just as criminal or civil investigators look for fingerprints in a systematic search for evidence, when one searches for evidence of a divine Creator, he should look for God’s fingerprints on His creation. They are everywhere. David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). What can be consider fingerprints of God?
First consider the finger print of physics. Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor? This is a principle attributed to a fourteenth century logician that in simple words states, when multiple theories vie for consideration, select the one that presents the fewest assumptions and presumes the fewest hypothetical entities. Over the centuries, men have written volumes in an attempt to explain and account for all the laws of physics that function to sustain not just a planet or even one creature with no sentient capabilities, much less an entire universe. Yet, an examination of the explanations available find that many of them are at odds with each other and cannot agree on how the cosmos came about. On the other hand, the Bible states clearly in ten English words, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth“ (Gen. 1:1). Apply Occam’s razor, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.
Consider the fingerprint of astronomy. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The late Carl Sagan, astronomer and astrobiologist, once referred to the earth as a “lonely speck in a great enveloping cosmic dark.” Sagan was a staunch supporter of skeptical inquiry and humanism. He believed the earth was merely an average, unassuming pile of rock that spins without purpose around a less than remarkable star in a forsaken part of a run-of-the-mill galaxy surrounded by, in Sagan’s words, “billions and billions” of more impressive galaxies. More than once, Sagan stated his belief that there “has to be” hundreds of thousands of planets that support intelligent life-forms. Unashamedly, he announced that to believe the Earth is unique in the universe borders on lunacy. A mere cursory search on the Internet will reveal that Sagan was not the only one holding such a view. Not a few physicists boldly assert that no reputable scientist believes in biblical creationism.
Thankfully, “The Bible stands like a rock undaunted,” and its truth remains unruffled. Lee Strobel quotes Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say “super- natural”) plan.” The earth is not a less-than-average, non-descript planet. The earth is unique in the universe with a sun that is far from average. Even its place in the galaxy is uncannily positioned for life. The earth has all the right balances, all the right cycles of air and all the proper temperature and water —a situation totally unique in the universe. With a more complete examination of facts rather relying on rhetoric and conjecture reveals the fingerprints of God all over the cosmos.
Further, there is the fingerprint of consciousness to consider. UNIVAC 1 was the first American computer produced for commercial use. UNIVAC 1 used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds and occupied more than 350 square feet of floor space. This computer, awesome for its time, was dedicated on July 14, 1951. Fifty-eight years later, computers have become unbelievably smaller and have increased astronomically in their processing ability, so much so that some robotic scientists to prophesy that by 2050 the computer’s ability to think will surpass that of man. Yet, no computer can or will be able to acknowledge God as Creator, Father and Savior.
I wrote this article last summer to address the question, “Are there ways to teach young people the truth about the existence of God and counteract the false information they are receiving concerning God and creation?” (My paraphrase of the question.) My qualifications to write such an article as well as my sources of research are limited. However, I am not at a loss. I have a source that is irrefutable, it is the Bible. I close with this observation, God's existence does not have to be substantiated by man, and neither does the Bible. Therefore, Christians do not have to rely on blind faith to refute humanism and evolutionary theories. To coin a phrase, “The truth is out there!” God said it, and that settles it regardless of whether man believes it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)