CREATION: “Ah ha!”

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Genesis 1:1

They call it the “Ah ha!” experience. Kathy Hummel, media and production director of the National Scrabble Association says, “It comes from creating something out of nothing, you stick your hand in a bag and pull out seven random letters and build words.” The game is known as Scrabble.

In the beginning, Alfred Mosher Butts, an unemployed architect from Poughkeepsie, NY, decided he wanted to create a new game. He analyzed many games and found they fell into three categories: number games, such as dice and bingo; move games, such as chess and checkers; and word games, such as anagrams.

Wanting to create a game which would use both chance and skill, Butts combined features of anagrams and crossword puzzles. First called Lexiko, the game was later called Criss Cross Words. To decide on a letter distribution, Butts calculated the letter frequency on the front page of The New York Times.

In the depths of the Depression, Butts and entrepreneur James Brunot rented an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Conn., and turned out twelve games an hour, stamping letters on the wooden tiles.

In 1949, Brunot made 2,400 sets and lost $450. Then in the early 1950s, as legend has it, the president of Macy's discovered Scrabble on vacation and ordered some for the store. Within a year, demand was higher than supply and Scrabble had to be rationed to stores. Recently, Hasbro began selling Scrabble on CD.

I doubt it would be good to call the creation an “Ah ha” experience but, “In the beginning God” also created something out of nothing [we call it ex nihilo; Romans 4:17]. However, I believe if you and I had been there it might fairly be called the “Oh, my!” experience.

God didn’t have to reach into a bag to do it, either; He simple spoke it into existence [Hebrews 11:3]. But He did have trouble selling the idea … and still does. You see saved-man lives by faith and not by sight [2 Corinthians 5:7], while the unsaved insist on “seeing is believing.”

Also in the beginning was the Word. Only this Word was not made up of seven letters, it was made up of the Son of God [John 1:14]. And no one had to go to the front page of anything to see which words should be used in composing His Word.

Christianity, Creation,
Illustrations, Religion

FALSE TEACHING: Untrue From the Beginning!

MUSEUM OF SELF: [Romans 1:20]

In recent years, several art museums in Europe and the United States have discovered that not a few of their “masters” were actually reproductions. Apparently, in many cases, the phonies were better than the originals … which evidently attracted attention. Regardless, whether they were better or not, they simply were not from a master’s hand.

Today, secular humanists are being frustrated in their efforts to diminish God and elevate man; it seems several of their theories have fallen upon hard times after examination by their own scientists.

The fakes failed to provide the needed proof of their authenticity; they could not show the Creator’s fingerprint. Only the original work of the Creator-Master offers evidence of His hand; fakes never will, even if hung on the walls of man’s Museum of Self for centuries.

SANCTIFICATION - Our hand in His hand!

AIMING FOR THE CENTER OF HIS WILL! [Matthew 7:13,14; other topics - Walk, Way (The), Will (of God)]

In order to keep my car in the middle of the lane, I was taught (by a farmer) to “aim” the vehicle down the road.

The Christian walk is like that: God doesn’t want us veering to the right or the left; He wants us on the straight and narrow. Paul says we should focus on things above and in so doing we’ll keep right in the middle of His Way. For me the narrow gate figuratively represents “things above.”

Praise His holy name. (added 2/15/2006)


AIR SPEED! [James 4:4-10]

All winged aircraft have one thing in common, they must maintain air speed or they will go into a stall and nose-over. From time to time, our walk seems to nose-over, our forward progress being insufficient to sustain the "lift" needed. We must

1. be prepared for His presence
2. respond to his presence, and
3. experience His presence!

HEAVEN ON EARTH! [Various; Life (True), Heaven]

Heaven may be compared to the dining hall of a great king. Where, for now, we’re all outside his castle waiting to be let into the Great Hall. Everyone has received an invitation to come to the royal table and join in consuming his royal feast, only not all will accept his invitation. [Mark D. Roberts, After I Believe (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 19]

The interesting aspect is the Christian life this side of eternity future; its like the “Heavenly Cook [letting] us stick our fingers into the batter of heaven while it’s being prepared. The Christian Life happens not just in the future but right now.” (added 2/15/2006)


HUMAN BOOKCASES! [James 1:22-25; other topics - Knowledge; Word; Works]

When I was in elementary school I recall the big deal my mom and dad made over money, how tight it was. But then they bought a set of Collier’s Encyclopedias on an installment plan because they thought my sisters and I could use the knowledge.

The buyer received a complete set of books at the time of purchase, with updates coming every year. You also received a small doubled-shelved, wooden bookcase. It was designed specifically for the books.

I was about 22-years old when those books went for $10.00 at a yard sale. I don’t ever remember opening any of them; I don’t ever remember my sisters opening any of those books.

In fact, I don’t ever remember my mom or dad opening any of those books ... except the first couple of nights, to show us how they were full of facts and knowledge and other useless stuff.

Sadly, many Christians are like that little bookcase. They’re crammed full of information, facts and knowledge ... but it never gets applied.

Christianity is intended to be applied. Like those books filled with all that powerful knowledge, Christians whose heads are full of knowledge are useless, unless some of that learning seeps down into the heart, where knowledge gets applied.

MASTER BUILDER! [Romans 6:19]

A master shipbuilder steps out into his yard and looks around him. There are vast skeletons of ships in the process of completion; there are others nearing completion. But there is nothing in the scene to satisfy, nothing is as he envisions. The big hulls are at present good for nothing. A thousand hammers pounding a thousand rivets into place like a thousand woodpeckers from hell. The yard is strewn with scrap and jigs.

And a short distance is the public harbor, with its fancy and not so fancy boats, of every size and shape; and near it is the grave yard ... decaying, rotting, half-sunk craft ... abandoned and doomed to one day be taken away to a fiery pit.

Yet the owner stands content amid the imperfection. He never thinks of doubting the process he commands. In his mind he knows the ideal, the perfect ship, and he justifies these imperfect vessels by imputing to them that ideal.

God is like that master shipbuilder. The ideal servant exists in His mind. He has the Blueprint; man is jut the image of what is to be. When God looks at him He does not despair, because He knows what the Perfect Man is like and smiles at the thought of His Son.

Attribution: e-Sword Ministries' (2000+ Illustrations)

PARADOX OF CHRISTIAN GROWTH! [John 3:30; Discipleship, growth, humility]

Someone once said they knew when a believer was growing because:

1. he more and more elevated his Lord
2. he less and less spoke of himself and more and more spoke of his God, and
3. he became smaller and smaller in his own eyes … “until, like the morning star, he fades away before the rising sun.” [Bonar]

John the Baptizer understood this timeless truth when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

SPIRITUAL NAVIGATION SYSTEMS! [Romans 1:18-20; other topics - Attributes (of God), creation, discipleship, nature, revelation, witnessing]

“Get ready! You’re going to have fewer excuses for getting lost on the road.” This sure sounds like it might be from a tract on the Roman Road, doesn’t it?

No, it isn’t! Actually it’s ad copy from an Internet advertisement for “on-board navigation systems” from the automobile industry. These “NAVS,” as they are called, use GPS (Global Positioning Satellite technology) to locate a position precisely; the same technology used recently by scientists to determine the exact height of the Washington Monument.

As model years pass, more new cars are being offered with onboard navigation systems, which help you map your route to important meetings, or to that favorite vacation spot near grandma’s, or to a restaurant whose address you’ve forgotten. NAVS can even help direct you to a local automated teller machine (ATM) or nearest hospital or your next job interview.

Now there’s no real excuse for getting lost, even if you’re one of those guys who refuses to ask for directions.

God has been far ahead of modern technology. In Romans 1:19 Paul says,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

God’s plan has always been to provide man with a spiritual navigation system. In fact, Paul clearly says just that. God has given mankind all they need to know to know where they are in relationship to Him: general and special revelation - not to mention the conscience, which the Holy Spirit uses to convict us and guide us.


THE LORD’S LEASH! [Luke 15:17a; Discipleship, discipline, obedience, submission (surrender)]

Recently, I took my dog for a walk just as I do every morning. When I leave the entrance of our housing development, I always look both ways to see who else is out walking their dog. A few are pests: both owners and dogs.

Up the block, I saw the man with the golf cart and his little grey poodle; both are regulars. I noticed his dog was off the leash again, so I crossed the street and walked the other way. When I reached Foothill Boulevard, two blocks away, I crossed to the other side and headed home.

That’s when I heard an anxious voice calling a dog. I looked up and saw this vicious, bloodthirsty, 9½ lb. grey speck burning rubber in my direction, a block away, his owner in hot pursuit. I tried to scare the little speck away but he made an end-run, stood up, danced over, put his paws on my dog’s face, and bit him on the forehead. Well, my dog, Buck, doesn’t like to be bit, but he likes boy dogs even less.

I was able to pull the little dog from Buck’s mouth before he swallowed but not before the little fur ball twisted and tore the back of my hand up. As bad as my hand was, what the poodle got for his efforts was much worse.

The moral: don’t covet being off the Lord’s leash or even at the end of his leash (Parents, pay special attention: don’t let your kids off their leash until you’re certain they have the spirit God wants for them.).

Moving farther away from your Master than your Master gives you leash is not wise at all: not only might you get hurt, or killed, but you’ll certainly bring pain and suffering to others. This latter point is worthy of emphasis.

Too often, we are lulled into seeing the Leash of the Lord as “for our benefit alone,” we rarely give thought to the benefits others reap from our being tethered. Consider that my dog was on a leash and we were both minding our own business, yet we were both bitten and I’m out over $100.

Also, consider the consequences to the owner of that little beast; he’s out over $600. And my dog? He’s real upset that I interrupted his meal. And Shadow (that’s the perpetrator’s name)? Well, he is just now able to face the great outdoors.

Look back, beloved, at all the time off the Lord’s Leash and witness the devastation of that time.


THE JOY OF THE JOURNEY! [Romans 6:19-22]

George, let’s call him George, was a very busy and very successful younger man. In fact, he had done so well that he decided to surprise his wife with a trip to Tahiti over the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. On his lunch hour, he hurried to his agent’s office and picked up the tickets.

In early December George stopped at the dry cleaners on his way home to pick up his suits and was surprised when the manager handed him an envelop with two unused tickets to Tahiti. After he had purchased the tickets he had put them in his jacket pocket and immediately went back to his normal routine … he forgot the entire event.

Many people are just like George. They pray to God for forgiveness and promise to do better but immediately, they forget what they’ve done and return to their normal routine. Even some genuine believers accept a ticket to eternity, put it away, and never seem to experience the marvelous journey laid out before them.

The salvation event ought to be like the ideal marriage event, where two distinct and independent individuals agree to unite and journey through life together. Instead, far too many salvation experiences are like far too many marriages: the uniting occurs but the couple never experiences the journey’s joy, and often end in separation.

It is true that all we must do is “call upon the name of the Lord” [Romans 10:13], but God never intended the journey to end there, just as a marriage is not supposed to stop on the trip home from the honeymoon.


VOLCANO STEW!

On the isle of São Miguel, in the Azores, a powerful and popular dish, cozido, is prepared in an interesting way: mix beef, chicken, pork, sausages, and vegetables together in an aluminum-cooking utensil, place this in a cloth bag, bury it all in the ground near Lake Furnas, and let it steam naturally for approximately six hours.

The volcano Furnas created Lake Furnas when it erupted thousands of years ago; soil surrounding the lake can reach a temperature of 208 degrees Fahrenheit, providing villagers with an unique natural oven. [Adapted from National Geographic; cited in Reader’s Digest, “Notes From All Over, p.204, nd.]

God could have chosen another way to deal with rebirth, perhaps taking us up to glory immediately. For reasons He and He alone knows He decided to leave us where we were to prepare us according to His receipe and His time. Perfect in the end!

TAGS: Bible, Christianity, Illustrations, Sanctification, Sermons, Religion

APOLOGETICS - I'm sorry but your wrong!

CONFUSING, ISN’T IT? [Genesis 11:1 & 9; Babel]

Back in 1993, the Trenton Times carried a story of “a 46-year-old Massachusetts man who walked away from a car accident with an unexpected problem: He spoke with a French accent.” This, they reported, is an example of “a rare neurological problem” known as Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), a brain disorder caused by sudden head trauma. The phenomena has been documented “about two dozen times since 1907,” the article continued. [Parade, January 2, 1994]

Isn’t it amazing that the one field of study which continuously and persistently ridicules the faith of Jews and Christians is the same group which discovers and reports on phenomena (such as FAS) which tend to cast light upon the biblical stage? The Bible first says, “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.” Shortly thereafter, it says, “Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth.”

MORE THAN A FOOTPRINT! [Isaiah 7:14; advent (both), Christmas, creation, signs (as in seekers of signs)]

Sometime ago someone shared with me that Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe needed just a single footprint in the sand to convince him: 1) that a two-footed human inhabited the island with him, 2) of the direction in which that inhabitant was going, 3) that the inhabitant had come from the opposite direction, 5) that the inhabitant was a man, 6) that he was alive, and 7) that he had recently passed this way.

The Creation as well as Christ's First Advent and His soon Second Coming have more evidence than this ... still, man insists on more evidence. Norman Geisler, a great Christian apologist, was right: "Many people suffer from a terminal case of unfalsifiable bias against the truth."


WHAT A FRIEND I HAVE! [Psalm 119; bible, scripture, word]

I’ve a friend (we’ll call him Jude) who’s been acquainted with another friend of mine (we’ll call him Ward) for about five years. In fact Ward has been my best friend for over twenty years.

Jude talks to me about Ward: he says there’re many things he likes about him but, bottom-line, he couldn’t be trusted. I asked him to explain why. He gave a few vague references to some negative things he had heard from other friends. He also mentioned a few mistakes Ward was supposed to have made which these other people had seen or heard about. I told Jude I didn’t think any of these accusations had any substance. But he countered, “Why would my friends lie to me?”

I also reminded Jude that I’ve known Ward for over twenty years and that he’s never let me down. I explained I’d never known him to be in error about anything unless it was a misunderstanding. I did admit some things he’d said had the appearance of error but they were apparent only. I added I had other friends and acquaintances who had know Ward all their lives and their testimony concerning him was matchless. Jude responded that I felt that way because I’d grown too close to him. He said he preferred to be more cautious.

I challenged him to join me with Ward and go over his concerns, taking them one by one to see what he would say about each of them. “No thanks,” Jude said. “You know Ward, you can make him say anything you want him to say.”

No matter how I reasoned with Jude, I couldn’t get him to see that he possessed a bias against truth which was unfalsifiable.

Many people are very much like my friend Jude, in their approach (or lack thereof) to the Word of God. No matter how you approach them, they are more convinced by rumors, myths, half-truths, and lies … after all, why would anyone lie to them about something as serious as the Bible?

Relativism

Six of One - Half-dozen of Another [Isaiah 55:6]

A giant sea turtle, which is on the international endangered species list, has been rescued from a floating Taoist temple in Hong Kong harbor. A local magistrate said the temple violated animal protection laws by keeping the turtle.

The giant sea turtle was being kept on the floating temple because the Taoists believed it had special powers for predicting typhoons. The temple master said the turtle was calm until the weather turned bad.

What troubles me most about this story is that the animal rights activists are no better or worse than the Taoists; both are creature worshipers; one actually, the other virtually.

Storm or calm, man is to turn to His Creator; and the only right worth defending is every man’s right to know His Creator. But how will they know, if no one goes to tell them; how will they go if no one is sent. [Romans 10:14,15]

PRIDE: First sin in the Garden!

THE PARABLE OF THE WHALE! [Proverbs 16:18]

Remember, it's when a whale surfaces that it gets harpooned. Whales blow to clear their air passage of water in order to replenish their air supply.

Man doesn’t blow to get air; he blows to get attention. So, beware, if you plan to rise to the top in order to blow your horn, keep the parable of the whale in mind … that’s when you’re most likely to get harpooned.

[Neil Anderson (Practical Theology class notes); edited for publication]

Modern Man - Same Old Problem [Genesis 2:7 (11:6)]

Edie Lau, Science Writer at the Sacramento Bee, writes, “The cute and healthy-looking ones get names such as Dolly, Amy, Betty and Daisy. They get their pictures taken. But for every good-looking lamb and calf conceived in a laboratory dish, a confounding number of animals come out oversized or malformed or aren’t born at all.”

What is Lau talking about? He's talking about cloned animals. The problem is so tenacious in “artificially reproduced and genetically engineered animals that some scientists are devoting their full attention to what they call Large Offspring Syndrome.”

Lorraine Young, a research scientist at the Roslin Institute, said, “I think at the moment, (the syndrome) is the norm.”

Nowadays, animal cloning is not as impressive as it once was; chances of producing healthy young from cloning and other reproductive techniques involving genetic orchestration is quite low, ten percent at best. Scientists want to know: Why doesn’t it work more often?

Lau quotes Dr. Torben Greve, a veterinary researcher in reproduction at the Royal Veterinary Agricultural University in Denmark, “The prospect of hidden health problems troubles [me].”

Greve says, “The main problem ... is the subtle differences that nobody wants to admit to. What if life expectancy is changed?”

In discussing in vitro fertilization, the scientists note that the same technique has been used for 21 years to assist humans to conceive, with no obvious ill effects in their babies. They ask, “What is the difference?”

“It’s extremely curious,” remarked Young, noting that mice also seem not to experience the syndrome. “We don’t understand that yet. .... [But] just because it hasn’t happened in people doesn’t mean it won’t,” Young lamented. ”I would feel happier knowing (the cause),” she said.

Young said scientists believe “imprint genes” from the male promote growth because it’s in the father’s best interest to have the biggest and strongest babies. The mother’s interest, on the other hand, is best served by limiting womb damage so she can bear several babies, so her genes limit growth.

Somehow, so the theory goes, manipulations external to the body topples the balancing act. If true, Young says, the challenge will be to identify the factors controlling these genes. “I don’t think (the problem of abnormal offspring) has to be the norm,” she said. “We think we can improve it.”

Man always thinks he can improve on it: he continues to build his Towers of Babel, when what he really needs is the Ark of the Lord. Man, it seems, will go on and on trying to elevate himself to the same level of God; if that doesn’t work he will try to pull God down to his level.

As they said, “It is in the Father’s best interest.” [Adapted from “Dark side of cloning perplexes scientists,” The Sacramento Bee; Aug. 18, 1999]

Christianity, Illustration,
Pride, Religion