"As an old writer has well said, contrasting the dispensations, God in the Types of the last dispensation was teaching His children their letters. In this dispensation He is teaching them to put these letters together, and they find that the letters, arrange them as we will, spell CHRIST, and nothing but Christ" (Andrew Jukes, The Law of the Offerings). "This is God's universe and he does things his way. You may think you have a better way of doing things, but you don't have a universe" (Adapted). (Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143) Genesis 1:11 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” While we may speak of “simple” forms of life, the more we learn about living things, the more clearly we can see that no form of life is “simple.” Evolution has long theorized that life began in a simple form that over millions of years gradually became more complex. Evolutionary scientists say that the “simple” forms of life are still in existence today, and to prove their claim, they point to the “lowly” fungus. Okay, let us see how “simple” the “lowly” fungus really is. The “cap-throwing” fungus has a built-in clock and bends through the day in response to the sun’s movement. The built-in clock of the “cap-throwing” fungus waits until it is turned to the best possible angle before “blowing its top” to distribute its spores or seeds over the widest possible area. The light-sensing system in the fungus releases the spores at about nine in the morning – aiming the spores at an area that is most likely to be open so that they can be spread even further by animals. Whether the spores land where animals pass or on a leaf, they are coated with a glue to aid in further dispersion. The “lowly” fungus reminds us that there just aren't any “simple” forms of life. This fungus has been given a sophisticated way to carry out God’s command to reproduce after its kind. A slow-motion video showing the fungus blowing its top Photo: The spore discharge of Pilobolus crystallinus has been called the fastest living thing on the planet. Courtesy of F.H. Wigg.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Government to seek death penalty against Boston bombing suspect; GA Governor admits poor snowstorm planning; Ukrainian president goes on sick leave; Team USA arrives in Sochi for Winter Games. The cleanup continues after a winter blast hits the deep south, Amanda Knox awaits the verdict on murder charges, A suspected terrorist sues the NSA Justin Bieber is charged with assault. A new study has shown that acupuncture is no more effective at relieving pain than "sham acupuncture." A 2013 study published in the journal Cancer followed a group of 47 women being treated with aromatase inhibitors, a breast cancer medication that can cause hot flashes, night sweats, joint and muscle pain. Half of the women received traditional acupuncture, while the other half received "sham acupuncture," referring to the placing of needles at random places and not actually inserted. There was no significant difference between the two groups, all of the patients reporting improvement of side effects ("New Study Exposes Acupuncture as Pseudoscience," Business Insider, Dec. 26, 2013). (Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Deuteronomy 4:28 "And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." The beautiful creation in which we live is not only filled with testimonies to the wisdom of God, it is also filled with special designs that deny the possibility of mindless evolution. Consider the woodpecker. Its tongue can stretch from three to five times its normal length in order to fish bugs out of trees. Of all places, that tongue is rooted in its right nostril. Going backwards, the tongue splits into two parts, wraps around its head between its skull and the skin, passes on either side of the neck bones and then comes up through its lower jaw and exits through the beak. This gives the woodpecker a long enough tongue that will stretch far enough to do an effective job of pest control on bug-infested trees! Now, how could that happen by blind evolutionary chance? Even evolutionists admit that it’s silly to suggest that gradually over thousands of years the woodpecker’s tongue got longer and began to grow under his skin. As one evolutionary scientist said about the woodpecker’s tongue, “There are certain anatomical features which just cannot be explained by gradual mutations over millions of years. Just between you and me, I have to get God into the act, too, sometimes.” Why wait to call on God as a last resort? Why not begin with our wonderful Creator! Photo: Courtesy of Henry McLin. Licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com The National Guard escorts Georgia kids home in winter gridlock; Obama wants minimum wage hike; First round of Syria peace talks to end soon; 'Super Pope' image appears near Vatican. Boehner challenges Obama's State of the Union pledge; Winter storm strands drivers, school kids; Nuclear inspections in Iran; Doctor stitches own wounds after shark attack. New Age healthcare practices have exploded in popularity in recent decades. According to a report in the U.S. News & World Report for January 21, 2008, alternative medicine has gone "mainstream." The famous Mayo Clinic has a section at its web site on "complementary and alternative medicine." Many of these practices are rooted in idolatrous eastern religions and are based on the principle that there is a metaphysical life force energy permeating everything and it can be manipulated to maintain and restore health. Hindus call it prana; Chinese, chi or qi (pronounced chee); Japanese, ki. Terms with similar meaning are kia, huna, mana, innate, ordic, and orgone. It is purely occultic, with no biblical or biological basis, and it lies at the heart of yoga, eastern massage, reiki, feng shui, tai chi, qi gong, acupuncture, acupressure, polarity therapy, magnetic therapy, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, ayurveda, homeopathy, and the martial arts. We warn about these practices in the free eBook New Age Health Care, available at www.wayoflife.org. (Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Genesis 4:2b “And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.” According to man’s history as presented in the Bible, farming and shepherding were among the first occupations. Genesis specifically tells us that in the second generation of human beings there was a shepherd, Abel, and a farmer, Cain. Evolutionists disagree and tell us the first men were hunters and gatherers. Scientists have sometimes eagerly reported the discovery of primitive tribes that they think are not advanced enough to farm or keep their own animals. When they were first discovered in 1962, the Agta people of Luzon were introduced to the world as “living fossils.” Later, one researcher who lived with the Agta for some time so that he could study them, heard someone singing in English outside his tent one night. One of the Agta women was singing her baby to sleep with a religious song in English. So much for the innocent, primitive, “living fossil” theory! Similar long-term studies of other hunter-gatherer groups around the world have shown that the whole idea of “living fossil” hunter-gatherers is a myth. A 1989 issue of Science News carried an article on the subject with the interesting title, “A World that Never Existed.” Man’s attempts to explain himself come and go, but what the Word of God says about man will stand forever. In fact, our eternal life itself is revealed in the Word of God! Notes: Bruce Bower. “A World that Never Existed.” Science News, vol. 135, p. 264. Photo: Courtesy of FoxLad. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com President Obama's State of the Union, Olympic torch Relay passes through Chechnya, College Athletes Form a Union, Mannequin are getting Makeovers. President Obama's State of the Union; Winter storm aims for South; Ukraine's Prime Minister resigns; Pete Seeger dies. "The honeymoon was short-lived for Australia's gay couples who married in the past five days after the High Court overturned new same-sex marriage laws on Thursday, invalidating wedding ceremonies performed since Saturday. ... Around 20 gay couples had tied the knot since December 7, when Australia's first same-sex marriage laws came into force in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). ... Australia's conservative national government had challenged the law in the High Court on the grounds it conflicted with federal law. On Thursday, the court upheld the challenge and unanimously decided that the ACT law was invalid. The court said the issue of same-sex marriage was a matter for the national parliament. Laws to legalize same-sex marriage failed to pass in the national parliament in September 2012." (Business Insider, Dec. 11, 2013) Zechariah 7:9-11 “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgement, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.” Most listeners to Creation Moments know that honey bees communicate with each other through a complex dance. These dances are used by bee scouts who communicate the location, direction and distance of a new food source to other bees. Researchers have now learned that there is more to this communication than simply dance. Scientists have discovered that bees can also hear the buzzing sounds that accompany the dance. More than that, scientists have been able to mimic those buzzing sounds, but they have not yet been able to reproduce the language that bees use. In order to further study bee communication, researchers in Denmark plan to construct a tiny robot dancing bee which can be used to recruit real honeybees to food sources – if they can learn the bees’ language. In a previous Creation Moments program we spoke about the recent discovery of an ancient bee encased in amber. Scientists said that even though the bee dated back to the beginning of flowering plants, it was just like modern bees. The Lord’s message through all these lines of evidence – sophisticated bee society with complex communication and the evidence that it has existed since there were bees – is clear. If a robot dancing bee must be manufactured by intelligence, then the real dancing bees must also have been made by an intelligent Creator. Notes: “Honey Bees Listen to the Dance.” Science News, vol. 135, p. 318. Photo: Courtesy of Chittka L. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Md. Mall reopens after shooting; Arctic air grips much of Midwest; Jury selection begins in corruption trial of former New Orleans mayor; Oldest Porsche now on display. Columbia, MD mall to reopen; Fire kills two Ohio firefighters; Cruise ship sickness investigated; Grammy awards. "It happened Dec. 2, 2013, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. LifeSiteNews.com broke the story with the headline: 'Violent Mob of Topless Pro-Abort Feminists Attacks Praying Men Defending Cathedral.' The raw footage is disturbing to the extreme. ... WND summarizes the attacks as follows: '... a mob of pro-abortion feminists--many of whom were topless with Nazi swastikas on their chests and foreheads--attacked and sexually molested a group of Roman Catholic men who were praying as they stood outside a cathedral in Argentina to protect it from threats of vandalism.' ... Indeed, it's hard to watch the footage without discerning the palpably dark spirit that possesses many of the estimated 17,000 lesbian, pro-abortion and feminist assailants. Thousands of painted, topless pagans prancing a ring around the pope burned in effigy--for the chief purpose of celebrating a right to sacrifice, alive, their own children to the goddess abortion--is eerily redolent of ancient Baal worshipers dancing about the inferno and live-roasting, in burnt offering to Moloch, their own children. ... Equally disturbing are a number of comments posted about the incident on at least one award-winning gay activist blog. ... Joe Jervis, whose blog has a long history of anti-Christian extremism and violence-charged rhetoric, nonetheless permitted several of his regular posters to not only condone the feminist attacks but also to illegally call for a steep escalation in anti-Christian violence in general." ("Blogging Gays Urge Murder of Christians," Charisma News, Dec. 9, 2013) John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” What does the Bible’s teaching on creation have to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, let’s see what happens to Christ’s work of salvation if creation is untrue and God actually used evolution. Death in the animal kingdom must have come into the world long before the first man and before sin. If death is not a result of sin, why did Christ have to receive the penalty for sin by death on a cross? So, in challenging man’s origin, evolution challenges the origin of sin and its effect on man. Thus, evolution challenges the very heart of Christ’s work! The Bible tells us that all Scripture was given to make us wise unto salvation. That includes Genesis. John’s Gospel tells us that all things were created through the Word Who became flesh. We see that Word in action in Genesis One when that Word Who made us and everything is the very same Word Who came and purchased our salvation. So Genesis, right from the very first words, is actually the beginning of God’s revelation to us of the Person and work of the Son of God – our Savior, Jesus Christ. If we reject God’s revelation about His Son in Genesis One, we have only part of a Savior – and only part of Christ is no Christ at all! Photo: The Rylands Papyrus is perhaps the earliest New Testament fragment; dated from its handwriting to about 125. This portion contains the Gospel of John. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Family: Brain-dead Texas woman off life support; Police identify gunman in Maryland mall shooting; US officials probe illnesses on Caribbean cruise; US gas prices down 3.5 cents per gallon. "Open Doors USA, an organization that monitors and exposes Christian persecution around the globe, has released its '2014 World Watch List'--a report that highlights and ranks the worst nations in the world to be a Christian. Topping the list this year are countries known for brutal government crackdowns or for the uncontrolled and murderous tactics of extremist groups within their borders. The absolute worst places to be a Christian this year are: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. [The next five worse are Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen.] ... David Curry, CEO and president of Open Doors, also charged that the Obama administration has essentially declined to make the protection of religious minorities a priority, linking a failure to uphold religious freedom in foreign nations with the destabilization of some governments. 'There are many instances where the vacuum of leadership and spokesman-ship has created a real problem,' said the human rights leader. 'I would say that every significant data point on this year's 2014 Watch List is worse--and I think a factor in it is a lack of leadership from Western governments including ... the U.S. in terms of religious freedom.'" (The Blaze, Jan. 8, 2014) A gunman opens fire at a suburban Baltimore mall; Syria's government and opposition meet for the first time; Egypt's three-year anniversary of ousted president marked by explosion; Toilet protest in Brazil. The following is excerpted from "Surprising Human Hand Bone," Brian Thomas, Institute for Creation Research, Jan. 10, 2014: "A hand bone found in northern Kenya surprised researchers when it surfaced in rock layers assigned a supposed age of about 1.4 million years, making it the oldest dated human bone but still 'young' enough to challenge its age assignment. If the secular community is correct in asserting that this discovery outdates the supposed earliest accepted human fossil by almost half a million years, then the find merely illustrates how human anatomy has resisted evolutionary changes for that long. Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team described a human hand bone--a third metacarpal--matching the hand of an approximately 5-foot-10-inch tall male. They wrote, 'In all ways, this bone resembles that of a modern human in overall proportions and morphology.' ... Regardless of secularist's disjointed dating differences, the most significant news from the latest hand-fossil find should be the simple fact that the oldest, widely recognized human hand bone shows no evolutionary change. This Kenyan fossil points to man originating...as man." Concluding Note: Evolutionary dating schemes are not based on solid science but upon science used as a scheme to support evolutionary presuppositions. See the report "Archaeological Dating Methods" at the Way of Life web site. (Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143) Former Virginia governor makes first court appearance on corruption charges; Suicide follows child porn charges for top Senate aide; Syria sides to meet face-to-face; Rabbit sculpture causes stir. A 40 vehicle pile-up in Indiana; Rare rock found on Mars; Multiple explosions in Egypt kill five people; Justin Bieber is released from jail. A blizzard stretches across the mid-west; Metlife stadium empties snow in 18 hours; Ukraine protests escalate; Japanese fishermen catch an 11 foot squid. |
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