Days of Praise
“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34:8)
‘Frequently, Scripture uses our five physical senses in a figurative way to help us comprehend our interaction with the heavenly realm of God’s presence and power.
We can “see,” for example, with spiritual eyes. Paul prayed thus for the believer: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18).
Similarly, we are privileged to hear the voice of the Lord with spiritual ears. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). “A stranger will they not follow,…for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5).
The sense of touch is the sense of feeling, and God can both touch and be touched. We read, for example, of “a band of men, whose hearts God had touched” (1 Samuel 10:26). Of Jesus Christ, it is said that He is not a remote deity “which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15). Even people who never knew Him can perhaps “feel after him, and find him” (Acts 17:27) if they truly desire His great salvation.
We can even become “unto God a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15). To the world, the faithful Christian life and testimony can either be “the savour of death unto death” to those who refuse it, or “the savour of life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2:16).
Finally, we are exhorted actually to taste the Lord and see that He is good! His Word will be, according to our needs, either “sincere milk” (1 Peter 2:2), “strong meat” (Hebrews 5:14), or “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10).’https://www.icr.org/article/12907/?utm_source=phplist9514&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=August+18+-+The+Spiritual+Senses
“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20)
‘Whenever one begins a question with “why,” he should realize that the answer must necessarily be theological, not scientific. Science can deal with the questions of “what” and “how,” sometimes even with “where” and “when,” but never with “why”! The “why” questions have to do with motives and purposes, even when dealing with natural phenomena. (“Why does the earth rotate on its axis?” “Why do we have mosquitoes?”) Even though we can partially explain such things by secondary causes, we finally encounter a “first cause,” and then the “why?” can be answered only by God.
The wise thing to do is simply to believe that He has good reasons for everything, whether we can discern them now or not. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). God the Creator “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11), and it is our high privilege simply to trust Him, not to question Him.
On the other hand, He often asks us: “Why?” “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Jesus asked His disciples when they thought they were in great peril (Matthew 8:26). “If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” (John 8:46), He would say to those who question His Word.
Then, to those who doubt His deity, the apostle Paul, speaking in His name, asks: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). As the popular chorus goes: “God specializes in things thought impossible!” Our God is omniscient and knows what’s best; He is omnipotent, so He can do it. He is all-loving and will surely do what’s best for those who trust Him.’https://www.icr.org/article/12903/?utm_source=phplist9510&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=August+14+-+Questioning+God
It’s the Lord’s Day here in Australia. In spite of the draconian, one world Economic Forum rules, we as Christian Believers are still able to meet together for now. May the following be a blessing to you.
“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.” (1 Timothy 6:13)
Young Timothy also had “professed a good profession [same word as ‘confession’] before many witnesses” (v. 12), evidently of similar substance and quality to that in the witness of Christ before Pilate. When the Jews urged Pilate to condemn Jesus to death, their charge was that “he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). Pilate gave Jesus opportunity to deny this charge and save His life, “but Jesus gave him no answer” (v. 9). Both by His silence, when a denial of the charge could have saved Him, and by His open testimony before Pilate that He was, in fact, a King from heaven itself—indeed “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15)—it becomes clear that our own “good confession” must be a confession of our faith in Jesus Christ as Son of God, our Savior and Lord, especially when that confession is made openly before hostile witnesses.
Jesus said: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Paul said, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9); and John said, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15).
Despite the great blessings awaiting all who make a courageous and good confession of saving faith in Christ, most people will refuse until it is too late. There is a time coming, however, when “every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).’https://www.icr.org/article/12886/?utm_source=phplist9484&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=July+31+-+The+Good+Confession
As Western governments are obsessed with the China virus and what to do; on what or whom are you relying?
“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10)
‘The setting of this unusual passage is most sobering. Both the people and their priests in Israel’s northern kingdom (personified by “Ephraim”) were in gross rebellion and drunken disobedience to the Lord. They were even ridiculing God’s prophets who were trying to call them back, complaining that they were being treated like schoolchildren. In effect, they were saying: “Are you presuming to teach us as you would freshly weaned infants, going line by line, with rule after rule?”
Whereupon God replied that He would use people of another tongue to come in and teach them what they refused to learn from Him. These precepts He had been trying to teach them should have provided true rest and refreshment, but now learning these lessons would prove to be their undoing. What should have been a blessing to them would become their condemnation.
How desperately do modern Christians need to heed these same words! They profess to believe God’s Word, but they study it only superficially, compromise its doctrines, and disobey its instructions. “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12). Most Christians of today, like the Corinthians of old, are still “babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1). Thus, it really is necessary for their teachers to bring the Word of God to them “precept upon precept, line upon line, little by little.” “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God” (Hebrews 6:1).’https://www.icr.org/article/12803/?utm_source=phplist9420&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=June+11+-+Here+a+Little%2C+There+a+Little
This is the Christian testimony of Chicago gang memeber Sampson Green.
‘The 1/50-inch-long ice plant scale is the scourge of a common landscaping plant. Since this creature is wingless, it was thought to spread from plant to plant by contact. This idea has turned out to be totally incorrect. Biologists have discovered that the ice plant scale sails the wind from plant to plant. This insect not only has the ability to accurately sense wind velocity and direction but can turn itself into a tiny bug-shaped parasail.
Once the insect senses a wind velocity of 10 miles per hour, it determines the wind direction with its antennae. It then proceeds to turn its back to the breeze, rear up on its hind legs, and extend its antennae and legs. This doubles the ice plant scale’s surface area and makes it possible for the insect to be lifted and carried by the wind. In essence, the scale makes a parasail out of its body. Scientists found that even one-day-old insects are knowledgeable about flight and ready to migrate. Both the intricate design and instincts within the smallest creatures testify to programming by their Creator.’http://www.searchforthetruth.net/
‘In order to have evolution, you must first have life. Both sides of the evolution-creation debate agree that the chance of all the correct biomolecules coming together by chance to form even the simplest cell is virtually impossible. Fred Hoyle1 (an atheist) estimated the probability as one chance in 1040,000. He compared the likelihood of life originating on Earth to that of a tornado going through a junkyard and assembling a 747 airplane. Even if this improbability actually happened, one would have an inert, non-operating 747 in a junkyard rut. To operate it (bring it to “life”), its engines would have to be jumpstarted, its electronics activated, and a pilot provided to operate it.
Some evolutionists argue that life must have originated spontaneously because life exists. So, what would happen if a “tornado” actually whipped through a biological junkyard and assembled a simple cell? The answer is simple: absolutely nothing. Another “highly improbable” event is required for life to exist—the inert assemblage molecule must be elevated into a higher state.
This was shown by Nobel Prize-winning chemist and evolutionist Ilya Prigogine.2 He is famous for pointing out two aspects of life: it is dissipative and far from equilibrium. All living organisms are dissipative (constantly decaying to a lower state per the Second Law of Thermodynamics) and need a constant supply of energy to repair the decay and operate, just like a 747 needs a constant flow of fuel to fly.3
If a system at equilibrium is disturbed, physics tells us it simply decays back to equilibrium.4 A small displacement from equilibrium is not sufficient to change its state. Give a small push to a vehicle in a rut (at equilibrium), and it simply rolls back into the rut. Life needs a really big push for it to exist far from equilibrium—another near impossibility if we wait for this to happen by chance.
How impossible? Before life existed, the probability of assembling molecules into a life configuration was virtually impossible. But now, life exists everywhere! All the correct molecules are assembled in the correct order. When the living thing dies, all the required molecules are still there in the correct order, just without operating—there’s no life. If life occurred spontaneously, shouldn’t dead creatures just spontaneously spring back to life? No, because life is far from equilibrium! Many trillions of creatures have died, remained dead, and decayed.
In conclusion, life is not just the correct assemblage of molecules; life requires being in an elevated state of existence. It requires the “spark” of life, or the “breath” of life, to make the lifeless molecules operate. Otherwise, nothing happens except decay.
The next logical question is, where does the breath of life come from? Interestingly enough, Genesis, written nearly 3,500 years ago, got this right! After God performed the impossible task of forming man from the dust of the ground, man did not spontaneously spring to life. God needed to perform another impossible task: breathing life into him to make him a living being.5 The short answer is that the breath of life came, and comes, from God.
References
1. Posted on http://www.azquotes.com/author/6972-Fred_Hoyle. Accessed April 30, 2021.
2. Quotes from Ilya Prigogine are found in Morris, Henry M. 1977. The Scientific Case for Creation. Creation-Life Publishers, 21-22.
3. A 2,000-calorie diet for humans is equivalent to 100 watts. Much of this is required just to maintain life—repairing organs, replacing cells that are constantly dying, maintaining body functions like breathing, etc.; e.g., WBCs live only 13 days and RBCs 120 days.
4. Perturbation from equilibrium causes a damped oscillation (Cf. a plucked violin string).
5. Genesis 2:7.’https://www.icr.org/article/life-is-more-than-biomolecules/
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