Mark 2:17
"When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

God has given your body incredible powers of healing and repair, and you could almost say that we carry our very own doctor and pharmacy inside us.

When testing new medicines, one group of patients gets the medicine and another group gets a placebo. The placebo does nothing, but no one knows who gets it. However, doctors have known for years that a "placebo effect" sometimes takes place. For example, if the body thinks it is getting aspirin for a headache but is actually getting a placebo, the body expects the medicine to work, and the headache will often disappear. Studies over recent years have shown that the body does produce its own painkillers. It has been found that one of these pain-killing chemicals made by the body can reduce pain as effectively as 8 milligrams of morphine or 80 milligrams of Demerol!

Studies on the body's built-in pharmacy have, so far, confirmed that the body is also able to treat coughs, anxiety, high blood pressure, depression, asthma, colds, arthritis, ulcers, high cholesterol, and even warts. Often, the medicines we take simply give the body "permission" to do its own healing by giving us the belief we are going to get better.

Medicine is often the study of how the body solves problems – in other words, a study of the work of the Great Physician Himself!

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

A YouGov poll conducted in August-September 2014 found that 17% of Anglican clergy in England do not believe in a personal God. Only 24% describe themselves as conservative in theology. Only 28% say that Christianity is the only path to God. When asked “what you most rely on for guidance,” only 12% said the Bible, while 33% said conscience or reason. Retired Church of England clergyman David Paterson said, “I preach using God’s terminology, but never with the suggestion that God actually exists” (“Anglican Clergy Don’t Believe,” Breitbart, Oct. 28, 2014).

(Friday Church News Notes, November 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

No matter where you live, it is likely that a wondrous creature is, right now, at work in or near your lawn. This creature has more ability to sense the things going on around him than a sophisticated space probe. It can even hear earthworms chewing beneath the ground.

This wondrous and misunderstood creature is the mole. But let's start by dismissing the myth that the mole is blind or that he is crippled. Although his eyes are tiny, he is not blind, and his front feet have specialized claws for digging; this causes him to walk on his knuckles.

The mole's nose and tail have vibration sensors that are more head sensitive than any that man's science has been able to make. These sensors are composed of thousands of parts and allow the mole to hear and locate the grubs chewing on the roots of your lawn – even through several feet of soil! In one year's time, a mole can eat almost 60 pounds of grubs – more than enough grubs to kill a fair-sized lawn.

Every one of God's creatures has a purpose, whether we understand it or not. Although you might not like the little trails that moles leave in your lawn, the trails are quite harmless. The thing to remember is that there is a mole on patrol in your yard.

Photo: Courtesy of Kenneth Catania, Vanderbilt University. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Psalm 111:10
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever."

In many of our Creation Moments programs, we have shown that animal intelligence is not a result of evolution but God's gift to His creatures. While animals are limited to a much smaller area of specialty, some can perform feats of intelligence that even man cannot accomplish.

For example, at the Japanese Deer Park in California, pigeons have been trained to sort electrical parts. They can do this with greater efficiency and accuracy than humans. People usually get quickly bored with such work and lose their concentration.

But then there is the mystery of migration. The Golden Plover migrates between Alaska and Hawaii. Yet, the parents never teach their youngsters the route. When migration time comes, the young are usually old enough to fend for themselves, but too young to fly the thousands of miles, non-stop, required by the route. So the parents leave them in Alaska and head for Hawaii. A little later when they are stronger, the young plovers follow the same route without error, even though they have no guide.

Intelligence is not the result of mindless natural forces, for how could mindlessness produce intelligence or even genius? Christians should not be surprised, as are evolutionists, to find many examples of intelligence in the animal world because intelligence is the gift of God, the Creator, to His creatures.

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

“Suspected Islamic militants have hacked to death a university professor in Bangladesh, several years after he led a push to ban students wearing full-face veils. Police were questioning two people over the murder near Rajshahi University in the west of the Muslim-majority country where the victim was a professor of sociology, a senior officer said. The victim, Professor Shafiul Islam, followed the folk sect Baul, popular in parts of western Bangladesh, whose members call themselves followers of humanism rather than a particular religion. Teachers and secular students protested by blocking roads and boycotting classes in Rajshahi city shortly after hearing the news of the murder. ‘We are working on several possible motives behind the killing,’ Rajshahi police commissioner Mahbubur Rahman told AFP, but the ‘main focus’ was that the murder was carried out by Islamist militants. A previously unknown Islamist group calling itself the Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2 claimed responsibility for the killing. ‘Our Mujahideens have today murdered an apostate who had prohibited female students from wearing veils in his department and the classrooms,’ a posting said. ‘Beware all the anti-Islamic apostates and atheists!’”

(“Bangladeshi professor hacked to death,” news.com.au, Nov. 17, 2014)

Genesis 1:16
"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."

Space probes have now reached the farthest points of our solar system, and we have learned more about the outer planets in 24 hours than astronomers learned in the past century.

For example, we have learned that all four of the outer planets are surrounded by rings. Apart from being quite beautiful, planetary rings are truly a wonder. The rings are only inches thick and comprised of dust and ice in neat bands; it is a very unlikely and unstable structure. Every astronomer knows that the forces of the solar wind, of gravity, and the unavoidable laws of physics should have destroyed a planetary ring in less than a million years. But at the same time astronomers believe that the solar system is billions of years old. How can this be?

To save the situation, astronomers have theorized that there must be small "shepherding satellites" which help hold the rings together for long periods of time. They have found satellites around Saturn and believe they may be the shepherding satellites. But now an exhaustive study of Voyager 2's data from Uranus has shown perfect rings without any "shepherding satellites." This is held to be a real mystery.

Yet, there is no mystery if the Bible is an accurate history of the entire creation, starting at the beginning, not billions but only thousands of years ago.

Photo: Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared image of Uranus showing cloud bands, rings, and moons. (PD)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Matthew 6:26
"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"

All toads are not fat and ugly. The golden toad, which lives only in a few square miles of the cloud forest of Costa Rica, is a trim and slim toad with garishly bright orange coloring.

The golden toad offers even more surprises. After the first heavy rain of the year, as many as 20 to 30 males congregate around a pool of water. They sit motionless, waiting for the first female to arrive. Before long, the females begin to arrive, and a week or so later the entire population of golden toads, now numbering in the thousands, disappears back into the jungle to remain almost invisible for another year.

This breeding strategy shows a great deal of wisdom and understanding and ensures that there are plenty of golden toads in the next generation. Toads have many enemies in the jungle, but by all getting together at the same time, they can produce far more young than their predators can victimize in a single week.

You don't have to be a college graduate to know that toads are incapable of the kind of planning and ability to change their physical natures necessary to carry out this strategy. Evolutionists would say that no one thought of this strategy. But the clear answer is that there is a Creator, and He cares about all of His creatures.

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

On November 14, 2014, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., which is part of the Episcopal Church of America, hosted a full-fledged Islamic service. It was co-sponsored by Muslim groups with links to terrorism such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The Muslims were kept out of view of crosses, since they are not allowed to pray “in view of sacred symbols alien to their faith” (“National Cathedral Holds Friday Muslim Prayers,” Voice of America, Nov. 14, 2014). The liberal Episcopal Church has demonstrated that it views Muslims more favorably than traditional Episcopal congregations that hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. Larry Provost reported the following: “In Binghamton, New York the Church of the Good Shepherd broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York over the issues of Biblical inerrancy. The Church of the Good Shepherd continued to thrive despite not being able to keep the church property they had once worshiped on. After some time the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York put the church property in question up for sale. The Church of the Good Shepherd was interested in buying their old property and offered the Diocese of New York $150,000 dollars for the property. The Episcopal Church refused to sell the property to the Church of the Good Shepherd. Instead they sold it to a Muslim group. The Muslim group offered only $50,000 dollars for the property; $100,000 less than the Church of the Good Shepherd offered. The Episcopal Church was not done; a clause was added that the property could not be sold to the Church of the Good Shepherd in the future. Apparently the Bible believing Church of the Good Shepherd is more offensive to the Episcopal Church than Islam. Congregations that choose to remain with the Episcopal Church, often tied to our national soul, tend to shun the whole Bible yet have a particular fondness for accommodating Islam” (“Islamic Services in National Cathedral,” Townhall.com, Nov. 14, 2014). The National Cathedral also hosts “same sex marriage” ceremonies, and in June a “transgendered” Episcopal priest preached there in recognition of gay pride month.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope Francis said that the Bible is not incompatible with evolution. He said, "When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so. He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment. And so Creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. … Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve" ("Pope Contradicts Genesis Account," Christian News Network, Oct. 27, 2014). Theistic evolution has long been the position of the Roman Catholic Church.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 7:20
"Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered."

If there was a great worldwide Flood, as described in Genesis, such a catastrophe certainly should have left obvious evidence of itself all over the world. Scientists who believe in creation say that we are surrounded by these evidences. Many of them also believe that some of the features associated with glaciers can be better explained by a catastrophic flood. While evolutionary scientists scoff at the biblical account of the Flood, they continue to run across evidences of what they take to be huge floods. Now further evidence has been reported of a continental flood.

The September 1989, issue of Geology, a scientific professional journal, carried an article about drumlins in northern Saskatchewan. Drumlins are hills that are traditionally associated with glacial activity. When viewed from the air, they resemble eggs lying on their sides, all pointing in the same direction.

Over the last few years, some scientists have proposed that drumlins were formed by large quantities of water running in the same direction. The article in Geology offers yet more evidence for large quantities of water moving over the continental land surfaces. One of the scientists remarked that, "There's nothing in recorded history that matches the size of these floods."

If we consider Genesis to be recorded history, rather than ancient and ignorant myth, there certainly is an historical record of a huge Flood!

Photo: Drumlin at Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field National Natural Landmark, Washington state. The glacier flowed from left to right. (PD)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Matthew 7:7
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:"

Many animals love to eat frog tadpoles. If that situation was not difficult enough for the frog, some frogs live in areas where their pond is dry most of the time, preventing them from ever laying eggs.

The African foam-nesting frog has been given a unique solution to these obstacles by the Creator. During the mating season, a group of female frogs will climb to a branch that overhangs their pond. They then secrete a mucus on the branch. As many as forty of them will join in kicking madly until they have worked the gooey stuff into a foam that sticks to the branch. Once the foam nest is complete, the frogs lay their eggs in it and return to their pond. The nest not only hides the developing young, but as it hardens on the outside, it seals moisture in with them.

These young frogs hatch quickly and after only three or four days the young frogs are already wiggling their way through the shell of the nest and drop into the pond below.

The intelligent strategy of this arrangement shows us how the Creator cares for the needs of His creatures. To explain this amazing survival behavior by evolution really takes a huge leap of faith. What frog would be clever enough to think of such an ingenious plan?

Photo: Courtesy of DuSantos. (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

John 1:3
"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

The idea of fish with lungs sounds about as strange as elephants with wings. The difference is there really are fish with lungs.

In fact, there are many varieties of lungfish found in Australia, Africa, and South America. In Australia, they live in quiet pools of water that become stagnant in the summer. Because there isn't much oxygen dissolved in the water, these fish need lungs in order to breathe air just as we do. Lungfish in the South American swamps spend their time resting in burrows when the swamps dry up in the summer. In a similar way, the lungfish in Africa spend the dry season burrowed in the mud with a breathing tube to the surface.

Evolutionists have suggested that the lungfish is left over from the time when sea creatures were adapting to life on land. But their theory doesn't hold water, so to speak. Lungfish show little interest in moving to land. Besides, they lack important biological features that would make that move possible. What's more, the lungfish we find in the fossil record are exactly the same as those living today. There is absolutely no evidence of evolution here.

While the lungfish is an unusual creature, it is a testimony to the creativity and wisdom of the Creator and offers no support at all for evolutionary speculations.

Photo: Courtesy of Opencage. (CC-BY-2.5)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

"Jackie Hill-Perry considers herself not merely an agent of change, but its embodiment as well. A Christian spoken-word poet from Chicago, Ms. Hill-Perry professes to be a former lesbian--a change she ascribes to God. God, she says, 'not only changes your affections and your heart, but He gives you new affections that you didn't have.' Now married to a Christian man, the 25-year-old poet is pregnant with the newlyweds' first child, which is due Dec. 13. ... Ms. Hill-Perry's experience runs counter to pronouncements by gay rights groups that exclaim sexuality as an inherent, immutable characteristic. ... But she remains steadfast in her belief that anything is possible with God as she meets criticism--and outright contempt--for speaking out about her experience."


("Rapper Jackie Hill-Perry comes out as ex-gay firebrand," The Washington Times, Oct. 27, 2014)

Acts 17:26-27
"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:"

Tsi-zun-hau-kau was a nineteenth-century Winnebago chief. A portrait painted over a hundred years ago shows him posing proudly with a stick in his hand. That stick is now at Michigan's Cranbrook Institute of Science where its carved markings have been under study.

The carvings on the four-and-a-half-foot stick are now known to be a record of the waxing and waning of the moon over a two-year period. Scientists have learned that Winnebago astronomers knew that the number of days in a lunar year turned out to be eleven days shorter than a solar year – and they knew this even before they ever saw the white man's calendar. To correct their lunar calendar so that it would match the solar calendar, the Winnebagos added an extra month every three years. As sophisticated as this calendar is, its structure shows that it is related to prehistoric calendars of the Mayas, Incas, and some of the ancient Siberian cultures.

Man's need to measure time, which predates other written records, shows that man is very different from the animals. The accurate and sophisticated calendars of the ancients deliver a fatal blow to those who picture ancient man as a simple, unintelligent brute who was halfway between animal and modern man. And this higher view of man fits perfectly with what the Bible tells us about man.

Photo: Members of the Winnebago Indian Tribes dance team, perform authentic Native American ceremonial dances. (PD)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

A federal judge in Oregon has declared "secular humanism" a religion that should be afforded equal protection rights under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution ("Federal Court Rules," Christian News Network, Nov. 4, 2014). The ruling supports the right of atheist Jason Holden to form a study group on humanism in a federal prison. The American Humanist Society co-filed the case with the prisoner. The logical result of this decision should be that humanism will not be allowed to be taught or promoted in public schools, but don't hold your breathe waiting for that common sense ruling.



(Friday Church News Notes, November 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Exodus 8:19
"Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said."

The relationship between the beaded lacewing larvae and the California termite poses a real problem for those who believe there is no Creator.

The lacewing larvae enter termite nests in order to finish their growth cycle. Later, they leave as adults. The problem is, termites are often still at home when the larvae enter the nest. The termites, 30 times the size of the larvae, pose a serious threat to the larvae. But if you watch the larvae enter the nest, they wave their abdomen to an approaching termite, and the targeted termite immediately falls over. Upon further study, scientists have learned that the tiny larva releases a chemical that totally paralyzes the termite. Studies have also shown that the chemical works only on this particular species of termite.

The evolutionary explanation is that for millions of years lacewing larvae crawled up to every sort of insect, madly waving their abdomens at them – and were promptly eaten! One wonders how the larvae survived at all and why it was that their chemical protection just happened to work on those termites that made nice safe tunnels for them to grow in.

To believe that the lacewing's defense developed just by chance is nothing more than blind faith. It's not science. And it is a very opposite kind of faith from those who believe in a Creator!

Photo: Courtesy of Charlesjsharp. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

After Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah visited the Temple Mount and declared Jerusalem the eternal capital of Palestine, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following statement: "We will continue to develop seaports in order to lower the costs of goods. We will continue to pave highways and build railroads in order to join the Negev and the Galilee to the center of the country. We will continue to build in Jerusalem, our eternal capital. We have built in Jerusalem, we are building in Jerusalem, and we will continue to build in Jerusalem. I have heard a claim that our construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem makes peace more distant. It is the criticism which is making peace more distant. These words are detached from reality. They foster false statements among the Palestinians. When Abu Mazen incites to murder Jews in Jerusalem, the international community is silent, and when we build in Jerusalem they are up in arms. I do not accept this double standard. Just as the French build in Paris and the English build in London, Israelis build in Jerusalem. We will continue to build in Jerusalem and we will continue to build in here in Ashdod" ("Netanyahu Hits Back," BreakingChristianNews.com, Oct. 28, 2014).

(Friday Church News Notes, November 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The following is excerpted from "Gay Marriage Bans in Four States Upheld," USA Today, Nov. 6, 2014: "The same-sex marriage movement lost its first major case in a federal appeals court Thursday after a lengthy string of victories, creating a split among the nation's circuit courts that virtually guarantees Supreme Court review. The 2-1 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reversed district court rulings that had struck down gay marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. More important, it gives Supreme Court justices an appellate ruling that runs counter to four others from the 4th, 7th, 9th and 10th circuits. Those rulings struck down same-sex marriage bans in Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, leading to similar action in neighboring states. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, one of the Republican Party's most esteemed legal thinkers and writers, issued the 42-page decision precisely three months after hearing oral arguments in the cases, with fellow GOP nominee Deborah Cook concurring. He delivered a rare defeat for proponents of same-sex marriage, who had won nearly all the cases decided from Florida to Alaska since the Supreme Court ruled against the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013. Sutton argued that appellate judges' hands are tied by a one-sentence Supreme Court ruling from 1972, which 'upheld the right of the people of a state to define marriage as they see it.' Last year's high court decision requiring the federal government to recognize legal same-sex marriages does not negate the earlier ruling as it applies to states where gay marriage is not legal, he said. The same reasoning was used by a federal district court judge in Puerto Rico last month. 'When the courts do not let the people resolve new social issues like this one, they perpetuate the idea that the heroes in these change events are judges and lawyers,' Sutton said. "Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way.'"

CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BROTHER CLOUD: I am convinced that in this time, instead of throwing our hands up and saying, "It's all over," we should fall on our knees and beseech God for His mercy and miracle-working power. It's not all over until God says it's all over. Ultimately, the reigns are in His hands, and He is a prayer-answering God! When Israel was dancing naked with the golden calf and God had determined to destroy them and start over, one man prayed earnestly and saved them. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

(Friday Church News Notes, November 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Speaking in October at Lausanne III: Congress on World Evangelization, the head of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) called for a new era in Evangelical/Catholic relations. Addressing his comments to "Pope Francis and distinguished representatives of the Roman Catholic Church," Geoff Tunnicliffe said: "Evangelicals are a very diverse group that includes peoples and churches from Pentecostal traditions, Reformed, Baptist and independents. ... As we seek to obey Christ, we see this time as a new era in Evangelical/Roman Catholic relations. ... The World Evangelical Alliance, its senior leadership and staff are eager and committed to building collaboration with organizations and institutions of the Roman Catholic Church at all levels. We do this out of obedience to the Gospel and as a concrete response to Jesus' prayer that through our witness the world will see our mutual love, and through our love, the world will see Jesus" ("To Pope Francis: A New Era," The Christian Post, Nov. 6, 2014). This shows just how far the "one-world church" has progressed in the past 40 years since Billy Graham chaired the first Lausanne conference in Amsterdam in 1974. It shows how spiritually blind "evangelicalism" has become. Christ did not pray that His people would join hands with unbelievers, idolators, and those who hold a false gospel, a false christ, and a false spirit. How can such a nutty thing be "obedience to the Gospel"?!

(Friday Church News Notes, November 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)