The Israeli government has announced that it will begin offering free abortions to women between the ages of 20 and 33. Dr. Yonatan Halevy, head of Israel's Health Ministry commission, said, "When pregnancy occurs and it is undesired or inadvertent, I think we should supply the means to end the pregnancy properly" ("Israel's Abortion Law," The Times of Israel, Jan. 6, 2014). Women will not be required to present any medical reason for an abortion. The policy means that free abortions will be available to an additional 6,000 women per year, including "single women, young women who are unable to ask their parents for the funds, or those who fall pregnant as the result of an extramarital affair but are financially dependent on their husbands." More than 1.5 million Jewish babies have been aborted since Israel formed its modern state in 1948 (Christian News, Jan. 13, 2014). The decision reminds us that Israel is back in the land, but she is in a spiritually-dead condition and will remain so until she repents during the Tribulation prior to the return of the Messiah. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zechariah 12:9-10).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Psalm 104:30
“Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.”

There are certain things in creation that people seldom talk about, including earthworms.

There are over 170 species of earthworms. Most of us are familiar with those that pop up from our lawn, but did you know that Australia has some earthworms that grow up to 12 feet long! Every earthworm has a well-developed nervous system – not a simple system as evolutionary theory would expect. The earthworm also has five pairs of pumps that serve as hearts and microscopic bristles to help it crawl through the soil. While considered to be among the lowliest of creatures on Earth, it is nevertheless very important for our soil. They prevent it from compacting, help nitrogen and water reach plant roots, help vegetable matter to decay and increase those good bacteria that further enrich the soil for plant growth. That makes earthworms important.

Psalm 104:30, mentions how God renews the creation with new spiritual life through His Holy Spirit. In the same breath He tells how He renews the soil to support material life. Earthworms are God’s small workers designed specifically to renew the soil. How wonderful to see God’s Hand everywhere we look!

Notes: Joanne E. DeJonge. Bats and Bugs and Snakes and Slugs. Baker Book House, pp. 16-20.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Panel recommends ending phone data spying;
Prosecutors issue subpoenas in Christie probe;
Virginia attorney general challenges state ban on gay marriage;
Justin Bieber arrested in Fla.

The evidence that plants engage in complex communication is growing. The first scientific studies on this were published in 1983, demonstrating that willows, poplars, and sugar maples warn each other of insect attacks via chemical signals, and nearby undamaged trees begin "pumping out bug-repelling chemicals to ward off attack" ("How Plants Secretly Talk to Each Other, "Wired, Dec. 20, 2013). These studies were quickly "shot down as statistically flawed or too artificial," and research largely stopped until a few years ago. But new experiments show that when bugs chew leaves, plants release chemical signals into the air, and 40 different studies now confirm that other plants detect these airborne signals and ramp up their production of defense mechanisms in response (Ibid.) Richard Karban, University of California professor, says the debate now is not over whether plants can sense one another's biochemical messages, but about why and how they do it. Ted Farmer of the University of Lausanne recently discovered that plants transmit information "with electrical pulses and a system of voltage-based signaling that is eerily reminiscent of the animal nervous system." Plants respond to bug attacks by producing poisonous chemicals, by reducing the nutritional quality of its leaves, by enticing predatory insects that kill herbivores, and in other complex ways. Since the scientists conducting the experiments are evolutionists who believe in blind "natural selection" as the product of alleged dog-eat-dog competition in nature, they are puzzled by their findings. "Why should one plant waste energy cluing its competitors about a danger?" they ask. The simple answer is that the facts of science don't fit the evolutionary "theory." The first question they should ask is how could all of this amazing intelligence and symbiosis between dumb plants and insects have evolved from nothing by blind chance? The logical answer to that, for those who aren't self-incarcerated in a Darwinian prison, is that it is the product of breathtaking Intelligence. There is not enough light in creation to save a man, but there is enough light to leave him with no excuse for disbelieving in God. "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Jeremiah 51:15
“He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.”

Did you know that there is a creature that can have a huge number of offspring, yet never have any children? That unusual creature is the aphid. The first aphid of spring is a female, has no wings, and hatches from an egg early in the season. After about 10 days, she will give live birth to another fully formed adult female aphid. There have been no males around. Within 10 days, the new female, too, is ready to give live birth to another fully formed adult female.

By the end of the summer, that first female aphid could have almost six million offspring! Obviously, one plant can’t hold that many aphids. So those offspring born with wings fly off to another plant to continue this mysterious process. Once cold weather begins, the female aphids begin giving birth to both male and female aphids, some with wings and some without. The winged males fly back to the original plant, mate, and this time the females produce eggs that can withstand winter so the entire cycle can start again the next year.

The word “understanding” is often used in Scripture and refers to the sense in which God created all things in such a way that they interact and react to countless situations in precisely the way He designed them. The lowly aphid is an astonishing example of this principle!

Notes: Joanne E. DeJonge. Bats and Bugs and Snakes and Slugs. Baker Book House, pp.. 39-43.
Photo: Courtesy of MedievalRich. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Obama creates sexual assault task force;
Ukraine deadly anti-government protests;
Roe V Wade March for Life rally;
China electric car rentals.

Winter storms lead to flight cancellations;
One dead at Purdue University Shooting;
U.S. Secretary of State says no Assad in Syria's future;
Floods in the Philippines.

"A judge has issued a stunning verdict in a homeschooling case in Germany, ordering that the parents cannot have custody of their children because the family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a 'concrete endangerment' to the children. Dirk and Petra Wunderlich's case made international headlines in August when 20 armed police arrived with a battering ram and forcibly took their four children from their home in Darmstadt, Germany, and enrolled them in public school. As WND reported at the time, the children, ages 7 to 14, were taken into police custody. They were allowed to return home three weeks later when their father and mother, given no choice by the federal bureaucracy in Germany, agreed to allow their kids to attend public schools despite their objection to the social and religious instruction there. ... Lawyers for the family had asked the judge to allow the parents to have custody because they had met all court demands for their children to go to public schools, and they wished to move to France, where homeschooling is legal. The judge, in his ruling, said that even though the Wunderlich children were academically proficient, well-adjusted socially and without educational deficiencies, he was horrified by homeschooling. Malkmus compared homeschooling to having the children wear a straitjacket and said he had to make sure the children remained in Germany so they would be integrated into society. He feared 'the children would grow up in a parallel society without having learned to be integrated or to have a dialogue with those who think differently and facing them in the sense of practicing tolerance.' Such treatment, he warned would be 'concrete endangerment to the wellbeing of the child.'"

("Judge: Homeschooling a 'Concrete Endangermen' to Kids," WorldNetDaily, Jan. 7, 2014)

Psalm 136:4-5
“To him who alone doeth great wonders: for His mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth forever.”

Most of us are familiar with the Big Bang theory. It says the entire universe is the result of a gigantic explosion that took place about 16 billion years ago. This explosion eventually resulted in stars, galaxies, our Earth and even our genetic codes. The problem is, we are all familiar with explosions, and no one has ever known an explosion to create anything more than chaos. Creation-scientists have been saying for years that an explosion could not have created the universe we see today.

The news is that evolution-scientists are beginning to agree. Most of them still think that an explosion could create the Earth we know today, but they are finding that the organized way in which stars and galaxies are scattered throughout space is exactly opposite of what their theory leads them to expect. One scientist has suggested that maybe they are not taking everything into account. He added that they are looking for ideas – to use his words – even “crazy” ideas “because we’re getting a little desperate.”

Of course, there is a solution to their problem. And the solution isn’t so “crazy” either. You don’t get words in a book without an author. You don’t build a house without a plan. And you cannot get a universe like ours that is literally crammed with information and information storage systems without a Creator.

Notes: “From Fireball to Galaxies: Making Late Waves.” Science News, vol. 135, p. 262.
Photo: Chaos, not order, is shown in the explosion of the USS Mount Hood on November 10, 1944.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

An arctic air mass plunges the eastern half of the U.S. into a deep freeze;
Syria peace talks stir to action;
More Olympic security concerns;
New Jersey Governor Christie sworn into 2nd term.

Storm hits East Coast;
NJ Gov. Christie's inauguration;
Explosion in Beirut;
Whales stranded off Florida.

In the past two years, the United Kingdom has taken 10 children from their parents for obesity. A social worker says they prefer to "negotiate with parents about eating habits," but in "extreme cases" they remove the child from the home ("Social workers take children" Sunday Express, Dec. 29, 2013). This is done in the name of saving the child from abuse. America is moving in this direction, with such things as Michelle Obama's "expensive, intrusive obesity-fighting programs" and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on sodas. It's not that governments actually care about people; what governments care about is money. And when the government takes control of medical care and provide a major part of its funding, it eventually determines what the people can do down the level of diet and habits. Government control of medical care is the most intrusive form of socialism, which is why the Democrats in America have been pushing for it so long and so hard, and America's Obamacare is going to prove to be a bitter pill. The government will literally determine how people live and when they die. Medical care is very, very important to people, particularly to those who have no hope beyond this present life, and when they are dependent on government to provide it, they become slaves to the government. The government that can take away your children because they are obese can take them away for any other reason it chooses.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:27
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

There is a popular idea that the biological differences between men and women are merely a “biological experiment” – and some say it is not a very good one! You may have even heard that all it takes is two sets of human genes to make a human being. This kind of thinking results from the evolutionary worldview. The Bible takes a very contrary view, extolling the unique virtues and abilities of both men and women.

In biology class we were taught that each of us started in life when genes from our father were united with an equal number of genes from our mother to produce a fertilized egg. But in 1984, researchers tried to fertilize mouse eggs with equal sets of mouse genes from other females. They got no mice and learned what Scripture has known all along – there’s more to it than simple chemistry. Scientists now know that there are very real differences between what were formerly believed to be identical chemicals produced by males and by females. For example, the male proteins on the surface of the developing fetus and placenta modify the mother’s immune response so that she does not reject the growing child.

God’s wisdom in creating male and female, with their very important differences, cannot be denied – and it’s finally being acknowledged by modern science!

Notes: Rick Weiss. “A Genetic Gender Gap.” Science News, Vol. 135, pp. 312-315.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Jailed American appears before reporters in North Korea;
Violence escalates in Ukraine's capital;
MLK honored across the country;
Obama honors Dr. King.

Militant group says it will be 'present for Olympics;
Iran says it's carrying out nuclear deal;
Two triple-fatal accidents in Ohio;
Broncos and Seahawks going to the Super Bowl.

"Oscar-nominated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has been fined 7.48 million yuan ($1.2 million) for breaching China's one-child policy, authorities say. A letter sent to Zhang by the family planning bureau of Binhu District of Wuxi City, Jiangsu province in eastern China on Thursday demanded that he pay a penalty for having two 'beyond-the-quota' children. The letter was posted on the district's official account on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service. The fine comes after Zhang apologized in an open letter for his 'excessive children' in December. He and his wife, Chen Ting, admitted to having two sons and a daughter. ... Nine investigation teams had been sent to 'collect evidence' since November. ... The filmmaker directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

("China: Filmmaker fined for breach of one-child policy," CNN, Jan, 20, 2014)

Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

As Christians, we walk by faith. But did you know that even evolutionary scientists walk by their own kind of faith?

In 1922, a tooth was discovered in Nebraska that was said to have belonged to a missing link between man and ape. What did this creature look like? The paleontologists began to reconstruct “Nebraska man.” They "reconstructed” what the jawbone around the tooth might have looked like, and then the bone touching that bone and so on. Before long, they had “reconstructed” from that one little tooth, not only what “Nebraska man” looked like, but also what his wife looked like. And they put this “proof” in museums and textbooks. Eventually, they discovered more parts of the animal from which the tooth had come. It was admitted to be an extinct pig but even that turned out to be wrong – it wasn't extinct!

Sure, anyone, including scientists, can make mistakes. But what this true story shows is how, without any evidence and only a faith that rejected God’s account of man’s creation, a pig could be made into a man. You see, even the evolutionist walks not by scientific fact, but by his own faith in a theory. We Christians should not be ashamed to admit that we walk by faith, because our faith is built on the solid statements of the uncontradicted Scriptures!

Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and a professing Christian, told the media in December that she is a longtime yoga enthusiast. Her regimen includes the "downward dog" and the "camel pose" ("Doing the Downward Grizzly," Breitbart, Jan. 8, 2014). No doubt she sincerely believes she is doing no wrong, but this only goes to highlight the confusion of the times in which we live. Having studied yoga before I was saved (as a member of Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship Society) and having lived as a missionary in a Hindu country for 22 years, I can testify that it is impossible to disassociate yoga from Hinduism. The term "yoga" means union and refers to the union of man with the pantheistic god through meditation. It is designed to overcome bad karma and end the reincarnation life cycles so that "the self reenters its original state of purity and consciousness" ("Yoga," Encyclopedia Britannica Online). "Once the aspirant has learned to control and suppress the obscuring mental activities of his mind and has succeeded in ending his attachment to material objects, he will be able to enter Samadhi (self-collectedness)--i.e., a state of deep concentration that results in a blissful, ecstatic union with the ultimate reality." There are many ways to get exercise. Why mess around with something that was clearly authored by demons? "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (1 Corinthians 10:20-21).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Philadelphia police expect another boy to surrender in connection with school shooting;
Afghan restaurant blast kills at least 21 people;
Egyptian voters support constitution;
Panda cub makes debut.

Ariel Sharon, whose first name means "lion of God," died last weekend at age 85. He had been in a coma since January 2005, after suffering a stroke. On a trip to Israel last year we were shown Sharon's house in the old city in Jerusalem. One of modern Israel's many heroes, his life was filled with adventure. Born on a farm near Tel Aviv in 1928, the son of Russian immigrants, Sharon fought in Israel's War of Independence in 1948. In the 1950s, he headed up Unit 101, which carried out reprisals for terrorist attacks from Jordan. In 1967, he led a tank battalion in victory over the Egyptians in the Six Day War. As a general in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Sharon surrounded Egypt's Third Army and led his troops over the Suez Canal. In 1981 he helped Prime Minister Menachem Begin make the decision to send fighter jets to destroy Iraq's nuclear plant. In 1982, as Israel's Defense Minister, Sharon was blamed for the death of hundreds of refugees in two camps in Beirut, Lebanon, because Israel's occupying military did not stop the carnage. He was forced to resign his position. Sharon was a staunch defender of Israel's right to the land, pioneering the establishment of Jewish communities on "occupied Palestinian land" which has been so fiercely condemned by the United Nations. He said, "That is the land of Israel and we are going to stay there forever" ("Ariel Sharon," CNN, Jan. 11, 2014). But bowing to international pressure and pragmaticism in 2004 he led the government to adopt the evacuation of Jews from the Gaza Strip. His visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, when he said, "The Temple Mount is in our hands," started the Palestinian uprising called the Second Intifada, in which some 4,000 people died. In 2001, he was elected the 11th Prime Minister of the modern state of Israel. Ariel Sharon is one of many brave men and women at all levels of society that have led Israel from victory to victory since she announced her statehood in 1948. Yet as we have often said, Israel is back in the land in a spiritually dead condition, and most of her most prominent leaders have been "secular Jews" who don't believe their own Scriptures. Israel will continue to lurch from problem to problem and will continue to be under the heel of the Gentile nations until the Times of the Gentiles is completed and her Messiah returns to establish His glorious kingdom. In fact, it will get much darker before the light finally shines, because the Bible says that apostate Israel will accept the Antichrist as the peacemaker and problem solver he will appear to be when he comes on the scene. The Third Temple will be built, but it will be occupied by the Antichrist, also called "the man of sin," who will then make the devil's final attempt to destroy Israel. But Israel can no more be destroyed than God can be destroyed. The lion of God is dead, but the Lion of Judah is very much alive (Genesis 49:9-10). In 2005, Rabbi Yitchak Kaduri prophesied that the Messiah would not come until after the death of Sharon, but the Messiah they are looking for today is no more the Messiah of Scripture than the one they were looking for 2,000 years ago, as we have documented in our book The Future According to the Bible. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) 

President Obama sets new limits over phone data;
Octomom pleads not guilty to welfare fraud;
Syria missiles hit the Lebanese border killing seven;
Animals are blessed at the Vatican.

GW Bridge traffic jam subpoenas;
CA Wildfire stops advancing;
Dozens of fires in Australia;
Slightly haunted house for sale.

The knowledge explosion began in earnest in the 19th century, increased dramatically in the 20th, and shows no signs of slowing in the 21st. My grandparents witnessed the change from the horse and buggy age to the rocket age. The rapid increase of knowledge is witnessed by the 56 years of hard drive history. IBM's cutting-edge 3.75 megabyte hard drive in 1956 weighed 2,000 pounds. It could be rented for $3,200 per month. Today an iPhone with its smallest hard drive (16 gigabyte) has about 4,000 times the digital capacity, weighs a few ounces, can be purchased for $700, and can do thousands of things the 1956 machine could not do. Had they existed, one lonely iPhone digital photo could have been stored on the 1956 IBM drive, except that commercially-available digital photos didn't appear until 1988. All of this reminds us of a 3,500-year-old prophecy about the end time. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4).


(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

We all like to live at a comfortable temperature. Excavations from the most ancient human sites show that homes and entire cities were often positioned to catch the prevailing winds in the summer or to avoid cold blasts in the winter.

In a similar way, honey bees like to keep their hives at a constant 95 degrees F, and their way of doing it is quite ingenious. When the weather is cold, bees collect at the center of the hive where they generate extra heat by increasing their metabolism through rapid breathing. Other bees position themselves around the sides of the hive to serve as insulation. If it remains cool outside, the bees at the warm center of the hive rotate with the bees at the cooler walls of the hive. If the weather gets too warm, some of the bees act as fans, circulating outside air into the hive. If this does not provide enough cooling, other bees leave the hive to bring water back that will be spread on the hive walls by other bees. Now the fanning of the other bees will actually cause the walls of the hive to cool by evaporation of the water.

The intelligence we see at every level of the creation offers strong evidence against the claim that intelligence is a product of evolution. Intelligence is a gift of the Creator to His creatures!

Notes: Joanne E. DeJonge. Bats and Bugs and Snakes and Slugs. Baker Book House, pp. 61-63.
Photo: Honey bee carries nectar back to the hive, with pollen attached. Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Dangerous wildfires in the hills around Los Angeles;
Michelle Obama says she's "50 and fabulous";
Beijing smog scare;
The 2014 Oscar nominations are out.