A sheep in wolf's clothing.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
( Psalm 42:7 )
Why were there no Cherubim or flaming swords necessary on the North, West and South of Eden? Eden was surrounded on three sides by unscalable cliffs over which four rivers flowed as waterfalls.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 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. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
( Genesis 1:9-13 )
Genesis 1 and 2 are not contradictory, they have different narrative style. People who think that they conflict are looking for an excuse to dismiss the truth, because they don’t want the truth.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
( Isaiah 46:10 )
Science has rationalized that there is no hell and no great gulf of open space inside the earth, because science is trying to be your antidote for guilt, the fear of of judgment and eternal torment.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. ( Romans 8:18-25 )
The discipline it took to get through this month deepened my understanding. My earnest expectation is that if I apply the same discipline to writing in February as I did in January then my understanding will deepen more.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
( Romans 8:18-25 ) KJV
January is about to end. For me this has not just been the beginning of a new year, but the beginning of a new way of life. I had a change of circumstances two weeks before Christmas 2017. It was a time of uncertainty but also of earnest expectation.
The month ended and all the bills were paid. Not only that, but I published a blog post every day, which was what I set out to do before my circumstances changed.
It’s more than posting to be posting though.
Discipline in writing is more effective than inspiration. Inspiration is important, but if you only write when you are inspired you may never write. Or what if you are inspired when you can’t write, like when you’re driving a car?
A lot could be said about the passage that I chose for today, but the creature that was made subject to vanity is us. We had to be made into human beings and put here on planet earth to endure it. The general idea is that we are able to endure it patiently because we know what is coming after. What we will experience after this life is over is going to be more than worth everything that we suffer here on earth.
As we prepare to move into February I have anticipation and excitement. Earnest expectation. The second day is when God created gravity. This has enormous implications for science and allows us to understand why it appears, superficially at least, that science and the Bible are in conflict. They aren’t, that’s just the place where human wisdom took it to and left it.
The discipline it took to get through this month deepened my understanding. My earnest expectation is that if I apply the same discipline to writing in February as I did in January then my understanding will deepen more.
The work of faith is like climbing a wall, imagine a climbing wall that has big hand and foot holds bolted onto it. The goal is to get to the top of the wall. That can only happen if we reach out to the highest hand hold we can reach, put a foot on a foothold then pull our selves up. We’re not on the ground any more. We are now able to reach hand and foot holds that we couldn’t reach when we were on the ground, so we move up again. The ground is further away, we might experience a quickening heart beat and the adrenaline of excitement. We are closer to the top. We can now reach hand and foot holds that are closer to the top of the wall, so we move up again.
A long time ago it occurred to me that the light on the first day of creation was created by the fusion of Hydrogen atoms that were present in the deep. It took quite a while but we moved up the wall to understand that the deep is Jesus Christ the Word of God, the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
It also was a long time ago that it occurred to me that the creation of a firmament in the midst of the waters, separating the waters above from the waters below, was caused by the creation of gravity.
Let’s start climbing that wall tomorrow.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. ( Psalm 90:12, 17 )
If we commit to fulfill God’s minimum expectations, and He promised to meet our needs, then whatever work meets our needs and allows us to fulfill his expectations is the work he established for our hands.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. ( Philippians 4:8 )
By the grace of God I am intellectually and physically free. I get to think about whatever I want and decide how I spend my time. There are few constraints. I should be mindful not to squander this freedom.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. ( Psalm 90:12, 17 )
Do you understand the world and your place in it? What is the point of life?
Is the point of life to be successful at life? What is success? Who decides if we are successful or not? Do we decide? or is it decided by other people or organizations?
Maybe that’s too vague.
Success is used as the measure of success. But what is it? Is it meeting the needs of our family? Is it doing well at work? Is it having the acclaim of a community? If we let the world tell us what success is, then we only have the world to measure ourselves against to tell if we have been successful. We all know what that leads to: keeping up with the Jones’. What happens when the Jones’ are more successful than we are? Does that mean that we’re not successful any more? We were successful but now we’re not? What if we thought our success was due to our standing in an organization, but now we are no longer with that organization? Are we not successful now?
I have been contemplating the last line of the passage that I chose for today: “establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” What if we were to measure success by how we carry out the task that God has given us? Do we even know what the task that God has given us is? How do we find out?
It is possible to deduce, by means of a living experiment, what God has established for us to do. We can use a process of elimination: learning from our mistakes, but we have to have a context of the work ethic described for Christians in the New Testament.
Let’s lay out the experimental procedure for deducing what God has established for our hands to do:
The first step is commitment. We have to make the choice to be committed to do whatever it is that God has established for us, even if we don’t know what it is yet. This is what you might call a leap of faith.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ( Romans 12:1 )
We have to be willing to work at whatever it is that God has established for us, not shirking our responsibilities or being lazy.
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. ( 2 Thessalonians 3:10 )
We have to do everything we do to glorify God, and this may be as simple as mentioning to someone who you care enough to go the extra mile because you want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. ( 1 Corinthians 10:31 )
We should be diligent students of the Bible. This means read it. Don’t read what other people say about the Bible. The best kind of Bible are the ones that are plain text, like the ones that the Gideons put in Hotel rooms. They don’t have any footnotes or study guides. These are merely a distraction and they are as often wrong and unhelpful as they are insightful and helpful.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. ( 2 Timothy 2:15 )
We should be faithful members of a local church which operates according the New Testament guidelines. These kind of churches are becoming harder to find, there are so many cool and progressive churches now that you may have to really search.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. ( Hebrews 10:25 )
We should be caring for the vulnerable in our community. To fathers: you can’t be making fatherless. Which is to say, if you have children you should be providing for them at the very least, but you should be participating in their lives. I don’t see how a man who has children who he doesn’t see or provide for can have any kind of testimony as a Christian. Caring for someone else’s children is not an excuse for abandoning the ones you made.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. ( James 1:27 )
Whatever we earn we should be returning a portion to God as an offering to the church where we are faithfully serving.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. ( 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 )
Does that seem like a lot?
Is that onerous?
Consider what the world does when it is trying to prove a point: science is so determined to shore up its rationale of godless existence that it will spend billions of dollars building Superconducting SuperColliders, or sending billion dollar telescopes into space. Think about how many people it takes to run NASA, or the science laboratories at CERN. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have devoted their lives to advancing a cause that wants them to believe that they will cease to exist when they die.
If we already know that we are going to go to heaven when we die, because we have faith in Jesus Christ, then we should have peace in our heart and not worry about worldly success. We should be measuring our success on whether or not we are meeting God’s minimum expectations for our lives.
Here is the conclusion of the matter:
If we commit to fulfill God’s minimum expectations, and He promised to meet our needs, then whatever work meets our needs and allows us to fulfill his expectations is the work he established for our hands.
It’s very simple really.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
(Philippians 4:8-9) ESV
By the grace of God we’re intellectually and physically free. We get to think about whatever we want and decide how we spend our time. There are few constraints but we should be mindful not to squander our freedom.
Continue reading “Think on These Things”
Alex Knapp Forbes Staff I write about the future of science, technology, and culture.
Read original article here.
We already knew this folks. Assuming that radioactive isotopes decay at a constant rate the the first step in establishing the technique of radiometric dating.
Radiometric dating that can produce dates older than the actual age of the earth is necessary to build the scientific backing for the theory of evolution.
Since the earth is only about 6,000 years old and evolution is not the origin of humanity, then it is obvious that radioisotopes don’t decay at a constant rate.
It’s simple logic.
Matty (Headwind) 