October 12, 2007
Deuteronomy 7: 1-4
I was reading through some of my old sermon notes tonight and as I came across one of the most memorable and interesting (in my opinion that is) set of notes, I thought it might be nice to share what I was taught with you, my friends. So here goes.
This lesson is based on Deuteronomy 7 ” 1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations–the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you– 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
These seven nations actually represent seven different and distinct stumbling blocks (sins, temptations, mindsets, habits etc.) that we face during the course of our lives that we must defeat and destroy totally. Here’s how it breaks down:
The word Hittite means literally ” mountain dwellers”, one who is broken or fearful= fear.
The word Girgashite means “one who arrives from a pilgrimage.” It represents having no roots, being transient.
Amorite means “bitter, rebel, babbler” and represents bitterness, pride and arrogance.
Canaanite means “peddler, trafficker, determined to stay.” It represents the lust of our eyes and flesh.
Perizzite means “unwalled villagers”= false security
Hivite means “lifegiving, living place, wicked” and it represents the rewards of the world.
Jebusite means “trampled on” and represents condemnation, guilt and shame.
Now see how that verse takes on a much deeper meaning in relation to our lives today?
June 20, 2007
25 Reasons to Doubt the Theory of Evolution
(With acknowledgment to Dr. Walt Brown, Center for Scientific Creation)
1. It is an established scientific fact that life cannot originate from non-living matter (the Law of Biogenesis).
2. The chemical evolution of life is impossible. No scientist has ever advanced a testable procedure by which this could occur. The Miller-Urey experiment, still shown in many current textbooks, has been proven to be irrelevant.
3. Mendel’s Laws of Genetics limit the variations in a species. Different combinations of genes are formed, but not different genes. Breeding experiments and common observations have also confirmed that genetic boundaries exist.
4. Acquired characteristics cannot be inherited. For example, the long necks of giraffes did not result from their ancestors stretching their necks to reach high leaves, nor does a man in a weight-lifting program pass his well-developed muscles on to his child. No mechanism exists whereby the altered behavior of an organism, in an attempt to adapt to its environment, will produce a genetic change in its offspring.
5. Genetic mutations have never made a creature more viable than its ancestors. Mutations are almost always harmful, and many are lethal. More than 90 years of fruit fly experiments, involving 3,000 successive generations, give absolutely no basis for believing that any natural or artificial process can cause an increase in complexity and viability.
“A mutation is a random change of a highly organized, reasonably smoothly functioning living body. A random change in the highly integrated system of chemical processes which constitute life is almost certain to impair it – just as the random interchange of connections in a television set is not likely to improve the picture.” James F. Crow ( past Professor of Genetics, University of Wisconsin)
6. Natural selection (or “survival of the fittest”) actually prevents evolutionary change, it does not encourage it. Since mutations almost always contribute to a decrease in viability (survivability), the mutated animal quickly becomes part of the food chain.
7. Mutations cannot produce complex organs such as the eye, the ear, or the brain, much less the intricacy of design found in microbiological organisms. These organs are not even imaginable, much less viable in a partially developed state. The principle of “irreducible complexity” demonstrates that a wide range of component parts and technologies must be simultaneously existent for these organs to function. In a partially developed state, they would become a liability to an organism, not an advantage. Moreover, most complex organs have interdependent relationships with other complex organs which enable proper functioning. These relationships must also be simultaneously existent.
8. The most complex phenomena known to science are found in living systems. Detailed studies of various animals have also revealed physical equipment and capabilities that cannot even be copied by the world’s best designers using the most sophisticated technologies. Examples include the miniature and reliable sonar systems of dolphins, porpoises and whales; the frequency-modulated radar and discrimination system of bats; the aerodynamic capabilities and efficiency of the hummingbird; the control systems, internal ballistics and combustion chamber of the bombardier beetle; the precise and redundant navigational system of the arctic tern; and the self-repair capabilities of practically all forms of life. All evidence points to “intelligent design,” not random processes.
9. All living species are fully developed, and their organs are fully developed. There are no living lizards with scale-feathers, leg-wings, or 3-chambered hearts. If evolutionary processes were the norm, these intermediate forms of development should be observable throughout nature. Instead, they are non-existent.
10. All living creatures are divided into distinct types. There should be a myriad of transitional, un-classifiable creatures if evolution was the norm. There is no direct evidence that any major group of animals or plants arose from any other major group.
11. Created kind are only observed going into extinction, never coming into existence.
12. The fossil record contains no transitional forms of animals, only extinct forms. The fossil record has been studied so thoroughly that it is safe to conclude that the alleged “gaps” or “missing links” will never be found.
13. The so-called “evolutionary tree” has no trunk. In the earliest part of the fossil record (generally the Cambrian sedimentary layer), life appears suddenly, complex, diversified and fully developed.
14. Insects have no known evolutionary ancestors.
15. Many different forms of life are completely dependent upon each other (symbiotic relationships). Even members of the honeybee family, consisting of the queen, workers, and drones, are interdependent. If one member of each interdependent group evolved first, it could not have survived. Since all members of these groups have survived, they must have come into existence simultaneously. The only possible answer for their existence is “intelligent design”.
16. It is impossible to conceive of an evolutionary process that results in sexual reproduction. Complementary male and female systems must have completely and independently evolved at each stage at the exact same time and place. The millions of mechanical and chemical processes, as well as behavioral patterns and physical characteristics, would all need to be compatible. Even leading evolutionists admit they cannot explain this.
17. Human speech and languages did not evolve – in fact the best evidence is that languages “devolve”. Speech is uniquely human. Furthermore, studies of 36 documented cases of children raised without human contact show that speech appears to be learned only from other humans. Apparently, humans do not automatically speak. If so, the first humans must have been endowed with a speaking ability (intelligent input). There is no evidence that speech has evolved.
18. Codes and programs (DNA and the genetic code) are produced only by intelligence. No natural process has ever been observed to produce a program.
19. The existence of similarities between different forms of life implies a common designer, not a common ancestor. One would not, for example, assume that a submarine evolved into an “amphibious” seaplane, which in turn evolved into a passenger airliner. All might have common features such as propellers, internal combustion engines, and metal frameworks – but this is simply an indication of a common intelligent designer (man), not a common ancestor (the submarine).
20. Many single-celled forms of life exist, but there are no known forms of animal life with 2, 3, 4 or 5 cells, and the forms of life with 6 to 20 cells are parasites. If evolution occurred, one should find many forms of life with 2 to 20 cells as transitional forms between one-celled and many-celled organisms.
21. As an embryo develops, it does not repeat an evolutionary sequence. Although it is widely known that Ernst Haeckel, who popularized this belief, deliberately falsified his drawings, they are still used in current biology textbooks.
22. No verified form of extraterrestrial life of any kind has ever been observed. If life evolved on Earth, one would expect that at least simple forms of life, such as microbes, would have been found by the elaborate experiments sent to the moon and Mars.
23. Ape-men never existed. It is now acknowledged that “Piltdown man” was a hoax; the only evidence for “Nebraska man” turned out to be a pig’s tooth; Eugene Bubois conceded forty years after he discovered “Java man” that it was just a large gibbon; the skulls of “Peking man” are now considered by many to be the remains of apes; the classification Homo erectus is considered by most experts to be a category that should never have been created.
24. The earth’s sedimentary layers were deposited rapidly, not slowly over millions of years. There is no evidence of erosion between layers. The existence of fossils dictates a sudden deposition of sediments. “Polystrate” fossils (those that span multiple strata) can only be explained by rapid burial in multiple sedimentary layers that were liquefied or soft at the time. The “millions of years” assigned to the geological strata and the evolutionary tree is based entirely on unfounded assumptions.
25. Radioactive dating methods are based on a number of untestable assumptions that produce “old age” results. Past atmospheric conditions, solar activity, volcanic activity, state of the earth’s magnetic field, decay rates of radioactive elements, and other factors are simply unknown. Most dating techniques actually indicate that the earth is “young”, not “old”.
June 6, 2007
Hello friends!
Well, I have just completed my first month as the executive secretary at the church and I love my job! Let me tell you, Deena really left some big shoes to fill. I can only imagine how greatly she is missed here. All of the work she did truly laid a great foundation for our team and this ministry. God bless her and everything she puts her hands to!
Here are just a few things that are going on in the office:
Mother’s Day Photos:
I still have a few photos from the slideshow we did for mother’s day last month. Please stop by and pick them up if you have not already done so.
Prayer Requests:
Carol Britton has asked that we pray for healing in her knees. Please be sure to keep her in mind as you pray today and believe that she will indeed be healed in Jesus’ mighty name.While we are on the subject of healing, I just thought it would be nice to share a few points with all of you that will hopefully help us as a body as we pray for one another in this area.
When your body is suffering from an ailment of some kind, you can pursue the healing you need most effectively by combining medical treatment from God’s natural world with prayer that releases God’s supernatural power.
Here are some principles to help you as you seek healing:
1. Get as much information as you can on the nature of the illness, then use it to pray specifically for God to heal every element of that physical problem. For example, if you have arthritis, you could pray that the cartilage in your joints would become more pliable and elastic, and that the inflammatory cells that lead to swelling and pain would be removed from your joints.
2. Ask God to reveal the specific pathway He intends you to take for healing, so you can discern what you can do to foster your healing (such as changing your diet, taking certain medications or undergoing certain tests). Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you throughout the healing process, trusting that God will give you all the wisdom you need for every step.
3. Realize that Jesus bore all infirmities in His own body on the cross, and because of His sacrifice, He made healing possible for you in the spiritual, physical and mental realms. Ask God to manifest that healing in your body.
4. Confidently use your authority as a believer to command evil forces to stop attacking your body, and ask for God’s spiritual protection over you.
5. Envision yourself healed. Trust in God’s power to heal you and anticipate your healing to the fullest extent of His will.
6. Speak healing over your body. I’m big on this one. God created us not only in His image but also in His likeness. many people believe this is one and the same. Not so. We are made in His image meaning His form, appearance or semblance but “likeness” is the state or fact of being like. This means that we are like Him. Just as He created the heavens and the earth and all of life itself, we also have the power to create. Now think about how did God create all things? The bible says that God said “let there be light” and there was light. See, he spoke it into existence. Paul talks about this in Romas 4:17″…God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things that do not exist as though they did. ” We as believers have this same authority. We can either bless or curse with our words. So when your body feels sick and tired, instead of saying “I feel terrible, I am always sick” it’s time to change your confession. Call your body healthy and whole. When your finances take a hit and you feel a worry coming on, call yourself successful and prosperous. Call those things that be not as though they were and give life to the dead parts of your life!