Another woman presumed missing from Colorado flooding;
Capsized cruise ship to be righted;
Thousands of bridges raise safety red flags;
Alabama church bombing remembered.

"The Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board released guidelines last week stating that chaplains endorsed by NAMB 'will not conduct or attend a wedding ceremony for any same-sex couple, bless such a union or perform counseling in support of such a union, assist or support paid contractors or volunteers leading same-sex relational events, nor offer any kind of relationship training or retreat, on or off of a military installation, that would give the appearance of accepting the homosexual lifestyle or sexual wrongdoing.' The guidelines, updated in response to the military's repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and the U.S. Supreme Court's abolishment of the Defense of Marriage Act, further prevent Southern Baptist chaplains from participating in jointly-led worship services 'with a chaplain, contractor or volunteer who personally practices a homosexual lifestyle or affirms a homosexual lifestyle or such conduct.' ... The new guidelines require chaplains to minister in harmony with Article XVIII of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which describes marriage as 'the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.' They remind SBC chaplains that 'responsible pastoral care will seek to offer repentance and forgiveness, help and healing and restoration' for the sexually immoral. ... The new guidelines formalize what NAMB leaders told chaplains in a 2012 memo after an Associated Press article was published about a 20-year Air Force chaplain who attended a same-sex wedding performed on his base."

(Associated Baptist Press, Sept. 4, 2013)

Agreement reached on Syria's chemical weapons;
Rescuers reaching Colo. residents after flooding;
Dozens injured in Ohio bus crash;
Tropical Storm Ingrid strengthens near Mexico.

For the second time since 2011, Charles Stanley's In Touch magazine has featured an article written by contemplative prayer promoter Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, an "ordained Baptist minister" who practices the Roman Catholic "Saint" Benedict's rule of life. In his book The Wisdom of Stability, Wilson-Hartgrove promotes the writings of Thomas Merton (a Catholic Buddhist who believed that God is in all men) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Catholic priest who believed in evolution and whose "cosmic Christ" is in every human being. Wilson-Hartgrove spoke at the 2011 Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, a "four-day revival camp featuring music, yoga, liberal talk and embracing of gays and lesbians." We agree with the following assessment: "The fact is, anyone who is drawn to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as Wilson-Hartgrove is, has got to be following a different spirit and another gospel or at the very least greatly deceived. ... If the mystics whom Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove gravitates to are right, then Jesus' words that He is the only Way to the Father are wrong. You can't have it both ways. The opposite view--the contemplative--is that God is in all things, including all people. This is what all mystics believe, across the board. And if that were true, then the need for a Savior would vanish, and there wouldn't be any need for 'one way' to God because man is already indwelled with God and a part of God" ("Sad News about Charles Stanley's In Touch Magazine," Lighthouse Trails, July 25, 2013). Most of the popular evangelical leaders, are promoting contemplative prayer, and few things are more spiritually dangerous. For more about contemplative prayer and those who are promoting it see Evangelicals and Contemplative Mysticism, a free eBook available from www.wayoflife.org.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2013, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Flooding evacuations underway;
Kerry calls Syria talks productive;
NJ fire investigated;
Dina Lohan arrested for DUI.

Kerry calls Syria talks productive;
NJ fire investigated;
Flooding evacuations ordered;
Yom Kippur begins.

The male wood duck (or Carolina duck, Aix sponsa) in his breeding plumage is one of the most beautiful of birds. Its crested head is iridescent green and purple with white stripes; its chest is burgundy or chestnut with white flecks; its sides are light brown; its back is purple and black with white stripes; its belly is white; its bill is black, white and red; its legs and feet are yellow; and its iris is red. Unlike most ducks, the wood duck has strong claws that allow it to perch on branches. It can also fly through wooded areas, its short, broad wings and broad tail providing great maneuverability. The wood duck builds its nests in trees and can produce two broods in a single season. The ducklings jump out of the tree and make their way to water only one day after they are hatched, responding to the mother’s call. They can jump from heights of up to 60 feet without injury! They stay with the mother for eight to ten weeks until they can fly. The wood duck was hunted nearly to extinction in some places in the late 19th century due to the popularity of its plumage for the ladies’ hat market in Europe, but it recovered after being placed under government protection in the 1920s. While flying, the wood duck bobs its head, something that no other duck does.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

1 Corinthians 2:7
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory...”

You don’t have to watch a drama very long or read too far into a book before you find what is hidden being revealed. The Bible often talks about truths that are hidden because of unbelief.

A scientist was recently studying insect-eating birds in an oak tree that was in bloom. He was surrounded by male flowers called catkins. Suddenly, one of the catkins began walking away. The surprise that he had discovered was a species of caterpillar that feeds on catkins and ends up looking just like a catkin – even having fake pollen sacks. In this way, it escapes the notice of feeding birds.

The scientist then found that the members of this caterpillar species that hatch in early spring and feed on catkins end up looking like catkins. But members of the same species that hatch later and feed in oak trees end up looking like oak twigs. This observation was a complete surprise because it means that it is the caterpillars’ diet that causes the difference in appearance.

When things are hidden, reality is always different than we expect. While the Gospel is clear, Scripture often mentions that unbelief causes the clear to be hidden to the unbeliever. It is helpful for us to understand this as we see the popularity of belief in evolution and a world without God.

Notes: I. Wickelgren. “Caterpillar Disguise: You Are What You Eat.” Science News, v. 135, p. 70.
Photo: Courtesy of Didier Descouens. Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Secretary of State John Kerry meets with his Russian counterpart in Geneva; Colorado flooding leaves at least 3 dead; the US budget deficit shrinks; and Voyager 1 leaves solar system.

Kerry goes to talks on Syria;
Research institute says North Korea re-starting reactor;
Dallas rape suspect arrested;
September Eleventh monument vandalized.

It appears that there is a contradiction between 1 John 4:18, which says there is no fear in love, and other verses, such as Hebrews 12:28, which exhort us to fear God. As in most other cases of seeming contradictions in the Bible, a close examination of the context solves the problem. John is talking about fear of God in the sense of being under His eternal condemnation. That is the context. See 1 John 4:14-17. The writer of Hebrews, on the other hand, is talking about fear of God in Christian living in the sense of being afraid of His displeasure and chastisement, like a son fearing a father’s loving but firm discipline. That, too, is clear in the context. See Hebrews 12:5-11.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Job 26:5
“Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.”

Does the Bible mention fossils? Before you answer too quickly, you need to know that fossils are not a modern discovery.

Long before the time of Christ there were Greek philosophers who knew about fossils. They said the fossils were evidence that simple life forms had developed into complex life forms during the long history of the Earth. This explanation relied upon natural processes and did not require a Creator God they could not see. We recognize this today as evolution.

Fossils are produced when a plant or animal dies and is covered by water or air-carried material before it has a chance to decay. We would naturally expect that the Genesis Flood would have produced most of the fossils. While Job 26:5 is a difficult passage, it seems to be talking about fossil formation when it speaks of “dead things forming under the waters.” Even the 1837 edition of Matthew Henry’s Commentary suggests that Job is here talking about fossils. The commentary even includes a drawing of a plesiosaur fossil. Most of the modern commentaries and Bible translations take an evolutionary view or ignore the subject.

While we cannot be absolutely certain that Job is talking about fossils, we do know that the Bible does have much to say about the material world – and when it does so, it is always accurate!

Photo: Plesiosaur skeleton (Meyerasaurus) in the Museum am Löwentor, Stuttgart, Germany. Courtesy of Ra'ike. Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

No timeline on Syria;
Arkansas girl infected by Amoeba goes home;
September 11th anniversary
Quintuplets born in Arizona.

9-11 memorials held;
UN negotiations over Syria begin;
NYC hold Mayoral primary;
Three astronauts back on earth.

Melissa Harris-Perry, who hosts her own news program on MSNBC, says life begins whenever parents decide it does. On the July 21 edition of her show she said, “When does life begin? I submit the answer depends an awful lot on the feeling of the parents. A powerful feeling--but not science” (Breitbart, July 26, 2013). This is moral relativism in the extreme. By such thinking, not only do my feelings determine right and wrong for me, but they even determine the right to life for others. This opens the door for authority figures to determine when a life is worth living. It is the thinking that has created the modern culture of death with its abortion and euthanasia “rights.” Since evolution rejects the doctrine that man is made in God’s image, human life in an evolutionary culture is not inherently valuable; it is only valuable as it is deemed valuable by society. Life is cheap in the culture of death.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2013, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

1 Corinthians 15:39
“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.”

Nova, the TV Science program aired on public broadcasting stations, presented an argument that human evolution is proven by the fact that, chemically, humans and apes are 99 percent alike. That argument has appeared many times, although very seldom in print. Dr. Duane Gish of the Institute for Creation Research answers it by pointing out that since a cloud is 99 percent water and a watermelon is 97 percent water, the watermelon must have missed being a cloud by only 2 percent!

Actually, the argument that there is only a 1 percent difference between man and apes assumes that we know a lot more about man and apes than we really do. And some of these comparisons can be very misleading. Some people have to take insulin, but does that come from our supposed distant cousin, the ape? No, beef cattle supply the nearest match to human insulin. When you have to have a new heart valve, does that come from the ape? No, it comes from the pig, the nearest match.

The old saying that statistics can be used to prove anything certainly applies to this evolutionary argument. The real reason that similar creatures often have similar chemical structures in their bodies is that creatures with similar bone structures tend to have similar needs and so have been given similar chemistry by the Creator.

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

President Obama looks at two-track strategy to deal with Syria;
Senators re-work resolution on Syria;
Fewer jobs advertised in July;
Bermuda prepares for Tropical Storm Gabrielle.

Obama to speak about Syria;
Tropical storm approaches Bermuda;
Zimmerman's wife won't pursue charges;
Nadal wins US Open.

“A female Army chaplain’s assistant recently came forward, telling conservative commentator Todd Starnes that she was reprimanded for posting a message on her personal Facebook page. In it, she called homosexuality a sin and spoke out against pastors who support same-sex relationships. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the 26-year-old told Starnes that, as a result of her post, she was accused of creating an environment that was both hostile and antagonistic. But the boldest claim she makes is that her commander gave her a choice: Either take the message down or be knocked down in both rank and pay. As an evangelical Christian, though, she’s refusing to remove it. ‘I haven’t taken it down and I won’t take it down,’ she told Starnes. ‘It is frustrating that people are trying to silence me--for something that I believe in. We fight for the freedom that I can’t enjoy right now. That’s not right.’ The unnamed soldier apparently posted her message online after watching a documentary about a pastor who endorsed same-sex marriage. Frustrated by what she saw, she did what millions of other Americans just like her do: She aired her opinion openly on social media. ... The woman, who has served in the Army for six years, believes she was targeted and reported by people in her unit. She was purportedly sent to her commander’s office and given the aforementioned ultimatum after the post was discovered. ‘I have a good record. I've never gotten in trouble for anything,’ she said. ‘And there’s nothing hostile or antagonistic in the post.’ The unnamed soldier refuses to be silenced and is willing to go to court if need-be to defend herself.”

(“Army Chaplain Assistant,” The Blaze, Aug. 6, 2013)

Ephesians 1:7
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

Blood is one of the most miraculous of all creations. It carries oxygen and energy to our cells, and carries off wastes. It is also a communications pipeline, using powerful hormones to provide communication between various parts of the body.

Hemoglobin is the substance within the blood that enables it to carry oxygen to your cells. Many different kinds of creatures, including lobsters and spiders, all have some type of blood with hemoglobin in it. Some creatures even have transparent blood. Hemoglobin, all by itself, testifies to a Creator. You see, so many different and obviously unrelated creatures have hemoglobin that evolutionists could only account for this by saying that hemoglobin must have evolved many times in many different creatures. This explanation worked when scientists thought that hemoglobin was a relatively simple molecule.

But now we know that hemoglobin is a very complex, eight-helix twisted molecule of about a hundred atoms, all arranged in just the right way around a central atom of iron. There is a zero chance of this complex molecule happening accidentally even once, much less the many times suggested by evolutionists.

Blood is a wonderful creation of God. He wants us to realize this so that we look for a relationship with Him, which is possible for us through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Photo: Courtesy of Richard Wheeler. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

U.S. to take hard look at Russian Syria proposal;
New poll reveals most Americans oppose military strikes on Syria;
Man who survived months in Andes fleeing sex abuse charges;
Van Gogh painting found.

Obama to make Syria case;
Assad denies Chemical weapons use;
New reports about NSA surveillance;
Amusement ride accident.

“A Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, prompting a state investigation, shut its doors. On Sunday, KGW stopped by Sweet Cakes by Melissa and found the bakery completely empty. All counter tops, display cases and decorations were gone. Hanging in the window was a sign from the Oregon Family Council that read ‘Religious freedom is under attack in Gresham.’ As first reported in Willamette Week, Sweet Cakes by Melissa posted on its Facebook page, ‘This will be our last weekend at the shop we are moving our business to an in home bakery. I will post our new number soon.’ In January, Laurel Bowman said Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to sell her a cake after learning it would be for a same-sex wedding. In August, the Bureau of Labor and Industries said it was conducting an investigation to determine if the bakery violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, which protects the rights of LGBT Oregonians. Aaron Klein, one of the owners of the ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa,’ refused to sell the cake to one of the brides-to-be because he said marriage should be only between a man and a woman. Bowman later filed a complaint with the justice department, which Klein’s attorney Herbert Grey responded to. In his letter, Grey says the couple ‘elected not to participate in an event that is not even officially recognized under Oregon law when doing so would violate their constitutionally-protected conscience and religious beliefs.’”

(“Gresham bakery that denied same-sex wedding cake closes,” KGW.com, Sept. 1, 2013)

Genesis 7:21
“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man.”

Does oil really take millions of years to form from buried dead matter? Many people believe that because that’s what they have been taught. On the other hand, creationists believe that oil was either created by God at the formation of the Earth, or that it was formed after the burial of living things during the Genesis Flood only a few thousand years ago.

But is the idea that oil can be formed so quickly really believable? A commercial process for doing just this has been in use for over 25 years in Halifax on the east coast of Canada. The commercial processing plant was built at a cost of $196 million, and it converts half a million tons of sewage into 700,000 barrels of oil per year. The process is essentially the same as that which formed current oil reserves but takes only 30 minutes! This helps demonstrate that living things buried beneath the rapidly deposited sediments of the Flood 4,500 years ago, and subjected to heat, could easily have produced today’s oil deposits.

The Apostle Peter wrote about the End Times when he pointed out that people would deny that there was ever a worldwide Flood. The truth is that they do not want to believe that God judges sin, but we know that through His Son, Jesus, we can be saved from the consequences of our sin.



Notes: Fred Raaflaub. “Sewers Hold Oil Fortune.” The Calgary Sun, July 27, 1988, p. 33.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

White House tries to round up support for Syria strike;
Kerry says Americans need to connect with Syrian victims;
Israel readies defense system;
China opens cliffside skywalk.