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new ford

7/30/2019

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 New Ford …       

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11
 
THIS SCRAP PILE REMINDS ME OF MY SCHOOL DAYS IN 1952 in Chattanooga. President Truman was about to be replaced with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The economy had tanked to a recession and to earn some school money after classes and lunch, I worked in a junk yard, welding clothesline posts from scrap metal pipe. A lot of people still hung out their wash in the back yard. I had some thoughts about where all that scrap metal had come from.
 
TODAY, IT REMINDS ME THAT BEAUTIFUL, NEW CARS or Boeing 757 airplanes don’t leap out of scrap metal piles. (They’ll lock you up if you go around telling people you saw that happen.) Everybody knows that a beautiful new Ford Thunderbird must have a Thunderbird designer and maker. But a lot of money is being spent to teach our kids that the earth and the universe made itself. (Who should be locked up?)
 
IT'S TRICKY HOW OUR SOPHISTICATED SOCIETY knows that tooth paste and all the stuff at Walmart must be made, but to be progressive, it nods its head that the earth and the universe “just showed up.” Einstein was not an atheist and it irritated him that journalists kept saying he was. (He knew that creation had to have a maker. He just didn’t know who God is.) When he came to America about 1929 and gazed through the Hubbell telescope, he was impressed.
 
WHEN THE ASTRONOMERS NOTICED THAT THE GALAXIES ARE MOVING away from each other, they concluded that they previously made up one big heavy ball and that it blew apart. That’s why they call it “the big bang.” The only problem with that is that it was held together by an awesomely powerful magnetic field, and nobody has suggested where the power came from to blow it apart. (Are you awake?)
 
FOR BY HIM WERE ALL THINGS CREATED, THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, AND ARE IN EARTH, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (by Him all things hold together)  (Colossians 1:16-17) (See Strongs: G4921)
 
“A GUIDE TOOK A GROUP OF PEOPLE THROUGH AN ATOMIC LABORATORY and explained how all matter was composed of rapidly moving electric particles. The tourists studied models of molecules and were amazed to learn that matter is made up primarily of space. During the question period, one visitor asked, “If this is the way matter works, what holds it all together?” For that, the guide had no answer.

BUT THE CHRISTIAN HAS AN ANSWER: JESUS CHRIST! Because “He is before all things,” He can hold all things together. Again, this is another affirmation that Jesus Christ is God. Only God exists before all of Creation, and only God can make Creation cohere. To make Jesus Christ less than God is to dethrone Him. (Wiersbe)

A LOT OF CHRISTIANS ARE CAUGHT IN THE TRAP OF BUILDING THEIR HOUSE beside the foundation. They are living a compartmental existence. Sometimes they live in one room and then move into another room that makes them feel comfortable.
 
THIS IS THE DAY OF: "SCIENCE SAYS!" It’s a scam, but it sells a lot of toothpaste, laundry powder, food products and over-the-counter remedies. Science says the earth is billions of years old, so some Bible publishers include that when they print Genesis. My Scofield Bible did that in 1909. (Genesis 1:1-2)

The Bible doesn’t say that. Evolutionists say that. Some Bible publishers and some church leaders want to be seen as “progressive.” Don’t be deceived. Believe God. He and Moses were good writers. Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 31, 2019 - WEDNESDAY 
 A.M. Psalm 62-64   P.M.  Romans 1
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verses to Memorize:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)

Song for Today:
Give Me Jesus (2:59) (Calvary Mem. Church – So.Pines.NC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpv4jsIlcM

Discussions by the Ph.D’s On Darwin & Creation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noj4phMT9OE  Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution with Berlinski, Meyer, and Gelernter 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyxUwaq00Rc Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pk9oDrpf6k  Stephen Meyer, God and the Origin of the Universe
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THE BUCKING MOTORCYCLE

7/28/2019

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 The Bucking Motorcycle…   
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  (Psalms 8:3-5)
 
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11
 
THE CARR FAMILY OF SIX WAS IN A 1956 CHRYSLER WINDSOR, (same color as picture), moving south in heavy traffic out of Jacksonville, Florida. The year was about 1962 and the four children were a set of stair steps in the back seat. The seat belts in the front seat were add-ons from Sears and none in the back. Traffic was close and moving 45-50 mph. We were behind a big Harley motorcycle, (Nothing sounds like a Harley)
 
ALL AT ONCE THE BACK WHEEL OF THE HARLEY began to bounce (he must have encountered some loose gravel on the pavement). The man and machine separated, the Harley scooting on its side and the man on his back, sliding feet first - at least 40 mph. (You can lose a lot of skin, sliding on concrete).  
 
I YELLED: "LOOK AT THAT!" AND LOCKED THE BRAKES ON THE CHRYSLER to avoid running over the man on the road. We stopped 5-6 feet from him. I glanced in the rear-view mirror to see if the car behind me was stopping. All the cars in the line-up had screeched to a stop without a pile-up; a lot of tire squalling!
 
I SET THE HAND BRAKE, PULLED ON THE BLINKERS, AND JUMPED OUT OF THE CAR, running toward the man lying on his back, unconscious on the highway. The Harley had scattered some of its hardware and died. I suddenly realized: “I don’t have a clue about what to do to help this man except drag him onto the grass.” Second thought: “Doesn’t the law allow a victim to sue you if you move an injured person?” Another thought from somewhere: “The Samaritan Clause” in Florida law provides that “Well-intentioned aid to an injured victim is immune to liability.” I looked around to see if anyone was running up and shouting: “I’m a doctor!” No one!
 
WITHIN A FEW SECONDS, A MEDICAL PERSON DID SHOW UP AND, IN A MINUTE OR SO, there was a man with a badge, wearing a gun. I was never so glad to see these people!
 
THE OFFICER TOOK NOTICE THAT SOMEONE WAS ATTENDING THE INJURED MAN and glanced around to make sure there was no moving traffic nearby. He called for a backup officer to come and direct traffic around the injured man and his motorcycle. Then he started asking people if they had seen the accident. He had to write up a report. His report was not just about the damage of the accident. His report had to tell how it happened. He needed eyewitness testimony for that.
 
MY WHOLE PURPOSE IN WRITING ABOUT THIS SCENE IS TO GET TO THIS POINT: The officer could evaluate the damage he saw, but he could not write about how the accident happened. That’s why he asked: “Did you see this happen?” We might remember that when someone says the Grand Canyon is six billion, or maybe seventy billion years old. (Who cares how many billions if its “science” talking?)
 
THE OFFICER AND MEDICAL ATTENDANT WERE ANGELS OF MERCY but were also acting as lawful “scientists” to examine and record the facts for others to read the next day or the next year. It happens all the time. The scientist can examine the facts before him/her but cannot determine how it happened. There must be first-person witnesses or first-person testimony of the victim. God asked Job: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.  (Job 38:4)  
 
WHEN I HEAR PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE EARTH BEING BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD, my first impulse is to ask: “Were you there watching it happen?” In a court of law, hearsay and second-hand testimony are unacceptable. A scientist is bound by long-established rules of determining truth. In short, the scientist can only examine what is before him/her. An inquiry into the past is at best, a feasibility study.  “…understanding how something works is not the same as understanding how it came to be.” (Michael J. Behe – Page ix Darwin’s Black Box)
 
ACCORDING TO SEVERAL GOOGLE SOURCES, THE GRAND CANYON is between 70-million and 6-million years old. (Which one is the scientist?) The volcano at Mt. St. Helens (1980) flowed 10 miles and now the rock strata formed from it look like the Grand Canyon.  
 
WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT SATAN'S APPROACH TO EVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN WAS: “Yea, hath God said?” It worked. It still works and Satan still uses that approach. If he can get people to print it in Bibles, the satanic lie is even more effective. God said: “Six days.” Men say: “millions of years” with no proof. Bible publishers say: “Wow that sounds great! We’ll put that in the Bible!”
 
PLEASE LISTEN TO KEN HAM'S PRESENTATION OF: "DOES IT  MATTER?"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oBle1KH7QU   Please push the red timeline bar back to the left…back to the beginning. Thank you!

KEN HAM WAS A HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER IN AUSTRALIA who read the Morris/Whitcomb book: The Genesis Flood (published 1961). Ken Ham came to America as a missionary and ended up building the life-size Noah’s Ark in Townsend, KY. Land and ark cost $100-million and thousands of people are coming to see it. A group went from our church in Flat Rock, AL, recently.

Read Through the Bible in a Year
JULY 29, 2019 - MONDAY 
A.M. Psalm 56-58   P.M.  Acts 28:1-15
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verses to Memorize:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)

Song for Today:
Give Me Jesus (2:59) (Calvary Mem.Church – So.Pines.NC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpv4jsIlcM
 
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days in the bible

7/26/2019

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                 Days in the Bible… 
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11 
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.  (Joel 2:31)
 
TODAY WE ARE LOOKING AT HE WORD: "DAY." The word “day” occurs 1,741 times in the King James Bible. “Days,” occurs 868 times. They don’t always mean the same thing. The word “day” can refer to the portion of time when the sun is visible, as well as to the whole period of twenty-four hours composed of “evening and morning” (Genesis 1:5). Sometimes biblical writers used “day” to describe a longer period of time in which God accomplishes some special purpose, such as “the day of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:12) or “the day of judgment” (Matthew 10:15). (Wiersbe)
 
WIERSBE CONTINUES: “When we speak about spiritual things, it’s important that we use God’s dictionary as well as His vocabulary. Words carry meanings and giving the wrong meaning to a word could lead to serious trouble. It would be fatal to a patient if a physician confused “arsenic” with “aspirin,” so, medical people are careful to use accurate terminology.” We should look carefully at how “day” and “days” are used in the Bible.
 
THE WORD: "DAY" IN GENESIS 1 MEANS A 24-HOUR DAY because it is preceded by a numerical adjective, (1st Day, 2nd Day, etc.) It is framed with the words “evening and morning.” A plain reading of these verses yields a 24-hour day. From the time Moses wrote Genesis 1, people of the Jewish tradition have understood the words should be read plainly, without forcing any other meaning into them. When Christians began to read those same words about A.D. 30, the words meant the same as it did for the Jews.
 
A GENERAL STATEMENT: One writer pointed out that when God brought the Jews out of Egypt and the mud pits and their bowed backs, they had no background for who they were or how they got there. They had heard bits and pieces that were passed along among themselves but had nothing formal or authoritative to define them. They were influenced somewhat by what they saw of the gods of the Egyptians.
 
GENESIS GAVE THE LITTLE NATION OF ISRAEL A BRIEF STATEMENT in plain language they could understand of how things, including themselves, came to be. The primary purpose of the writing of Genesis was to communicate with those people who heard it first, what God wanted most for them to know. Therefore, any complicated or hidden meaning in the text would have been, at best, secondary.
 
GENESIS HAD TO BE WRITTEN AND READ IN ITS PLAINEST MEANING for these untaught people of God. That kind of writing has also served the world’s millions of people who have followed and read it and pondered its meaning. The meaning of Genesis did not have to wait until the Enlightenment and Darwin’s book came along to show them and us how to read Genesis. Therefore, for us today, to feel any obligation to the apostles of spontaneous, evolutionary generation of life is out of the question! In light of that reality, the Gap Theory is inappropriate and unreal.
 
WHEN THE ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD BEGAN IN EUROPE, evolution was being embraced and the stage was set for the theory of evolution as espoused by Charles Darwin’s book: The Origin of Species in 1859. The theory of an old earth came out of that period and church men began to look for ways to coexist with “an old earth.”  Moses didn’t change Genesis. Jesus didn’t change Genesis. The apostles didn’t change Genesis. The European Enlightenment provoked church leaders to change Genesis from what it had been for over three thousand years.
 
THE PUBLISHING OF THE SCOFIELD BIBLE IN 1909 PAVED THE WAY for Bible-believing people to embrace an old earth without knowing their Bible had been changed. The Bible text was not changed. A little footnote let people change their own Bible as they read it. I used a Scofield Bible for several years before I discovered the tiny small footnote for Genesis 1:1 “The first creative act refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all the geologic ages.” Today, I had to look hard to find it. It’s hidden away as a footnote in the small print.
 
THE "GEOLOGIC AGES," MENTIONED BY SCOFIELD, LEFT A LOT OF BONES BEHIND, death long before Adam was born. Millions of years of death bones of animals. Massive death before Adam was made, before Adam sinned.  What about Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  (Romans 5:12)
 
THE "GEOLOGIC AGES" MEANS "BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD." Then Scofield brings in the judgment of angels and a general wrecking of the earth. The Bible doesn’t say that. Scofield says that. That’s a pretty “handy” thing to say…if you don’t have to prove it. It amounts to adding a scrambled egg to what God wrote.
 
WHEN I WAS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL, FALL OF 1951, I went to school a half-day and worked in my father’s sawmill a half day. I boarded with a Baptist deacon in Stevenson, Alabama. (He has long been gone but the house is still there.) He showed me his new Scofield Reference Bible. Not long afterward, I heard a Baptist preacher tell everybody: “Sell your shoes and buy a copy of the Scofield Reference Bible!” So, my next paycheck, I bought my very own copy. I read it every spare minute I had for several weeks.  It was a classic and a valuable study tool. But concerning the book of Genesis, not good.
 
AT TENN.TEMPLE, WE HAD GOOD TEACHERS AND HEARD SOME OF THE BEST guest speakers for Bible Conferences, and chapel, but I never heard anyone expound the Gap Theory. I heard later that perhaps J. Vernon McGee was involved with Gap, but I don’t remember his getting into it.  I have McGee on my computer, and it is evident that for many years he maintained a keen interest in creation and evolution. His collection of newspaper and magazine clippings on that are impressive and very entertaining to read. I agree with McGee on there being only two basic possibilities about creation: 1. The Genesis simple account, and 2. Speculation. (Speculation abounds)
 
MY POSITION IS SIMPLE. I am going to go with the simple statement Moses made in Genesis without adding anything to it or twisting it to make it fit into somebody’s speculation. There is a growing body of reasonable, intelligent, God-fearing men and women who are writing and speaking out for a plain reading of Genesis, that Genesis is reliable history. These websites are going good work. https://answersingenesis.org/  and https://creation.com/
 
 DR.HENRY MORRIS'S INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH has a membership of over two thousand scientists who believe in a six-24-hour-day creation of the earth and universe. He is accepted by friend and foe of being the father of the modern young earth, creation movement.
 
PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON ENLIGHTMENT AND GAP. https://www.google.com/search?q=enlightenment&rlz=1C1TSNF_enUS610US610&oq=enligh&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j69i59j0l4.5031j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
 
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+old+is+the+gap+theory&rlz=1C1TSNF_enUS610US610&oq=how+&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i59j0l3.4389j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JULY 26, 2019 - FRIDAY 
 A.M. Psalm 47-49   P.M.  Acts 26
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verses to Memorize:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)
 
Song for Today:
Wonderful Peace (3:25) (Dick Anthony’s 16 Singing Men)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szc9mWHNwN4
 
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...iN sIX dAYS

7/23/2019

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                 …in Six Days         

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, a nd rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11)
 
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.  (Exodus 31:17)
 
IF WE ARE GOING TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT the creation of the earth, we will have to settle for faith in the Word of God or faith in the word of some human being that claims to know how it was done. It is beyond the ability of scientific inquiry to prove the history of the beginning of the earth; whether the earth is old or young. Carbon-14 dating? It has its supporters and its critics. Its shortcomings have been creeping out from under the rocks for many years. (Pun intended.)
 
AFTER THE ERUPTION OF MT. ST. HELEN in the state of Washington in 1980, some of the two-year old strata from the mud tested over 350 million years old. (Video: Is Genesis History) His critics charged that he didn’t do it right.

​https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4146  But skeptoid indicated that both sides had some valid points. One of the valid points against it is that Carbon 14 dating is a very shaky way of determining age and the slightest human flaw can render the test useless. So, we must not only test the age of the rock but the agility of the human tester.
 
WHERE DID THE FIRST SPOONFUL OF DIRT COME FROM? If we were going to make a spoonful of dirt from nothing, how long would it take us? How long would it take God to make a spoonful of dirt from nothing? If God can make the earth, why would it take Him a billion years to do it? Is God omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing)?
 
ONE SCIENTIST, WHO IS A CHRISTIAN, pointed out that God could have made the whole thing in a minute and that he wonders why God took six days to do it? Then he answered his own question and said, “Probably to teach us the importance of a six-day work week and one day to worship God and think on Him.”
 
THE WIDESPREAD BELIEF THAT THE EARTH IS BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD did not come from the Bible. The belief came from outside the Bible. Darwin’s version of an old earth was dragged into the Bible since 1859 to make the Bible agree with him. Dr. Henry Morris says: “Darwin was not the first to embrace evolution by any stretch of the imagination. He was preceded by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Lyell and by the growing popularity of “naturalism” among the social elite of Europe.
 
“PRIOR TO THOSE RELATIVELY RECENT THINKERS, there were literally millennia (thousands) of pantheistic and polytheistic philosophers and religionists espousing mythology of every stripe and description. Atheistic evolution in one form or another has been recorded in history from ancient Babylonian days.”
 
(DR. HENRY MORRIS - formerly chairman of the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Virginia. This dealt with bodies and streams of water.) (I met Dr. Morris in his home at Blacksburg, VA about 1961 and bought a copy of his first book: “The Genesis Flood.” Written by Morris and John C. Whitcomb.) Ken Ham a high school science teacher in Australia, read that book. He came to America as a missionary to America and ended up building a 100-million-dollar Ark in Kentucky.)
 
JEWISH TRADITION AND LATER, CHRISTIAN TRADITION, has held for thousands of years that the creation days were 24-hour days. They believed that God spoke to them in plain, ordinary, normal language to tell them about creation. Were they wrong to believe that?
 
WHAT DID JOSEPHUS, THE RENOWNED JEWISH HISTORIAN believe about it? https://creation.com/josephus-says-genesis-means-what-it-says After Alexander the Great established Greece as the dominate world power, the Jews ended up translating their Old Testament Bible into Greek. It was known as the Septuagint version. Not only so, the Greeks were producing many books and used them to spread Greek culture.
 
I carried Greek vocabulary cards around all the time for several months because….the New Testament was written in koine Greek. Many church buildings, university buildings and government buildings are made of brick and enhanced by tall white columns. Greek columns!
 
THE RUINS OF ROMAN BUILDINGS ARE MARKED BY SKELETAL WHITE COLUMNS. The buildings are gone but the columns are still there. Greek columns. The Greeks excelled in the development of philosophy. When I studied philosophy, it was the study of Greek philosophy. This overwhelming, overriding presence of Greek “everything” was a painful thorn in the side of Jewish historian, Josephus. (See the link above). He didn’t want others messing up the Jewish scriptures. Greek books, Greek architecture, Greek philosophy. The elite Jews became soaked in Greek stuff. They were called Hellenistic Jews.
 
AN ONLINE DEFINITIONT OF HELLENISTIC IS: “The relating to Greek history, language, and culture from the death of Alexander the Great to the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Antony by Octavian in 31 BC.” During this period Greek culture flourished, spreading through the Mediterranean and into the Jewish life values of the Jewish scriptures, Josephus was upset about it.
 
PAUL HAD AN OPINION ABOUT THE INVASION OF THE CHURCH: O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:  (1 Timothy 6:20) The same problem is with us today. Dragging “science, falsely so-called” into the Bible is a problem.
 
A GROWING NUMBER OF SCIENTISTS ARE SEEING THE PROBLEM and are acknowledging that the Grand Canyon was not cut into the earth slowly by the river that runs through it. A better explanation is that the Grand Canyon was formed by the flood God sent upon the earth in Noah’s day. He sent the flood because the people of that day were so wicked that God killed them, every one, and started over with Noah and his family.
 
ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, MY SON, DAVID, GAVE ME A COPY OF THE BOOK, “In Six Days.” It contains the written testimony of fifty scientists with earned degrees who embrace a Six Day Bible Creation. I recommend that you find a used copy on Amazon and read it many times. Let your young people read it. There are now several thousand scientists who believe that God created the heaven and the earth in six days as we know them today and that Adam and Eve were real people, that Genesis is history and not allegory.
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 24, 2019 - WEDNESDAY   A.M. Psalm 41-43   P.M.  Acts 24
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verses to Memorize:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)
 
Song for Today:
lessed Assurance (4:54)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6cOOLTDAaQ
 
 
 
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Was without form and void

7/21/2019

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    Was Without Form and Void…
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)
 
THE WORD: "WAS" IN TODAY'S TEXT is perhaps the most controversial word in the Bible. The earth was without form, and void;….  I have two commentary writers who want to say that it should be “became.”  
 
BEFORE WE LOOK FURTHER, WE NEED THIS VERSE: And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,  (2 Timothy 2:24)
 
I SPENT TIME LOOKING FOR THE BEST MATERIAL in the fewest words to fit into Morning Minute. If we don’t put down a good foundation in building a house, we are going to spend a lot of money propping it up and repairing it. Genesis has been neglected in Christian education in families, churches and schools. Well-taught Jews knew where they came from and how it all came about.
 
CHRISTIANS LIKE STORIES AND TEND TO TEACH THEIR CHILDREN WITH STORIES. That’s good, really good, but it may not go far enough. They also need to be taught from Genesis all the time they are growing up. Children tend to be easy prey for the world and Satan.  The three questions are: 1. Where did I come from? 2. What am I doing here? 3. Where am I going?
 
IF THE EARTH WAS WITHOUT FORM AND VOID, it means that God was finished with creation up to that point. It has yet to be formed and filled. The rest of the verses tell how God finished creating the earth into a finished state, complete with the many forms of life.
 
IF THE EARTH BECAME WITHOUT FORM AND VOID, it means that creation had previously been in a finished, perfect state but had then deteriorated into a bad state of “without form and void.” The verses following verse 2 would then depict a re-creation of what had previously been perfect but had become ruined. So, was and became are the difference between a very old earth and a young earth.
 
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITION, held to a young earth for many centuries, based upon “the Genesis historical record.” It changed when Christian scholars began searching for a way to reconcile the views of Jewish and Christian tradition with the views of the promoters of the Enlightenment, Darwin’s evolution in particular. The change in Genesis came from outside the Bible and not from inside the Bible. Commentators began imposing outside ideas onto Genesis and thus corrupted Genesis.
 
"THE ENLIGHTENMENT, ALSO KNOWN AS THE AGE OF REASON, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17thand early 18thcentury (late 1600’s and early 1700’s). Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and culture after the "dark" Middle Ages. (Google)
 
CHARLES DARWIN'S BOOK: The Origin of Species (1859) communicated a practical tool to the masses by which they might get rid of the moral and structural authority of the Bible. Darwin’s system needed billions of years to enable changes to come about in the earth and its life. So, trusted Bible scholars panicked and began looking for a way to accommodate Darwin’s dream of evolution.
 
WE HAVE THE RESUL OF THAT EFFORT EXPRESSED IN SCOFIELD'S STUDY BIBLE of 1909. Scofield is only one of several Bible scholars who would not allow themselves to be seen as unscholarly and behind the times. But all Bible scholars did not bow to the philosophy of evolution (which has turned out to be philosophical and religious--not scientific).
 
DR. BROWNLES, MY OLD TESTAMENT PROFESSOR at Tenn. Temple, was known for his matter-of-fact approach to the Old Testament. He had earned his doctor’s degree at Louisville Seminary and had to know Greek and Hebrew to get his degree. Our assignment was to read the Old Testament as it is in the King James Version and our class discussion and testing followed our reading. When it came to Genesis, it was never mentioned that “was” might be translated: “became.” The King James Version of the Bible was used in all Bible classes in the Bible School, College and Seminary. Other versions could be used as complimentary references. We never gave evolution the time of day.
 
THE TRANSLATION OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE says in Genesis 1:2, “…the earth was without form and void.” The translators could have used “became” but they did not. The translators of this Bible were selected from the most elite Bible mechanics in England to make the translation. Dr. Ian Paisley of Northern Ireland wrote a book: “My Plea for the Old Book” in which he lists the names and scholarship abilities of 54 men who were highly professional in Greek, Hebrew, Latin and several other languages (pages 30-39)
 
THEY WERE DIVIDED INTO SIX COMPANIES and a part of the Bible was assigned to each of the six companies. Two companies were to meet at Oxford, two at Cambridge, and two at Westminster. They worked for three years to provide a new translation. After finishing their assignment, each company had to defend their work before the entire group of 54 language experts. No other Bible translation has ever endured such scrutiny of process. Certainly not today. The list of men, their qualifications, and the Scriptures assigned to them, is preserved.
 
THIS BIBLE TRANSLATION SAYS IN GENESIS 1:2, “…the earth was without form and void.” This article is not about the King James Bible. I mention it because it is a trustworthy vehicle to establish “was” in Genesis 1:2. It is estimated that over one billion copies of the King James Bible have been sold.
 
THE COMMENTARY OF THE KING JAMES STUDY BIBLE: has been my main reading and first-source study Bible for many years. It was commissioned by Liberty University and has a list of 13 contributing editors. On page 5 there is an entry for Genesis 1:2:
“Without form, and void (Hebrew: tohu wabohu, “unformed and unfilled”) describes the condition of earth after the initial act of creation. It does not describe a chaotic condition as a result of judgment. Thus was (Hebrew hayetah) is correct and SHOULD NOT (emphasis added) be translated became. How the earth became formed and filled is described in verses 3-31.”
 
THE COMMENTARY OF THE SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE (p.3) “The first creative act refers to the dateless past and gives scope for all the geologic ages.” “Jeremiah 4:23-26, Isaiah 24:1 and 45:18 clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as the result of divine judgment. The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of such a catastrophe. There are not wanting intimations which connect it with a previous testing and falling of angels. See Ezekiel 28:12-15 and Isaiah 14:9-14, which certainly go beyond the kings of Tyre and Babylon.”
 
(NOTE: I USED A COPY OF THE SCOFIELD BIBLE SEVERAL YEARS before I found the above quotes. I retired my “trusty Scofield” to my bookshelf and used it occasionally for other studies. I no longer respected the objectivity of the footnotes on the book of Genesis. To me, Scofield was engaging in fiction in order to reconcile the Bible with the 18th Century Enlightenment and Darwin’s Origin of Species.” That was in 1909. Why did they do it?

SOME RESPECTED MEN ARE LISTED AS HIS SUPPORTING EDITORS, such as James Gray, Arthur T. Pierson Arno C. Gaebelein, and William I. Pettingill. They surrendered to Darwin without firing a shot.)
 
THE MAC-ARTHUR Study Bible: Genesis:1:2 “Without form and void.” This means ‘not finished in its shape and not yet inhabited by creatures. (Cf. Isaiah 45:18,19; Jeremiah 4:23) God would quickly (in six days) decorate His creation. (1:2-2:3)
 
THE WYCLIFFE BIBLE COMMENTARY (1962), edited by Pfeiffer and Harrison, published by Moody Press, comments on Genesis 1:2, (I highlighted this in pink fifty years ago) “He describes the earth in its unfinished state. There was plenty of material on hand for every work God planned to create, though in chaotic state---waste, void, dark. Six full creative days were to make phenomenal changes. God’s purpose could not be satisfied until his miraculous touch had made something of this chaos.”
 
THE NEW DEFENDER'S BIBLE (Dr. Henry Morris – former chairman of the Hydraulics Dept. of University of Virginia.) Genesis 1:2 – was without form and void. The verb “was” in Genesis 1:2 is the regular Hebrew verb of being (hayeha) and does not denote a change of state unless the context so requires. It only rarely is translated “became,” as the gap theory postulates here. Neither does the phrase tohu waw bohu need to mean “ruined and desolated,” as the gap theory requires. The King James translation “without form and void” is the proper meaning. (page 8)
 
I’VE BEEN OPENING BOOKS AND CHASING LINKS ONLINE FOR SEVERAL DAYS, preparing for this article. Almost all the commentators I have access to, believe that creation is well-explained to us in the Bible in, normal, everyday terms; that Genesis is history, rightly stated and is not allegory. Adam and Eve were real people, not allegorical figures.
 
JESUS SAID THAT GOD MADE MAN AS MALE AND FEMALE AT THE BEGINNING of creation.But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; (Mark 10:6-7) Adam and Eve were made on the sixth day of creation; at the beginning of creation. They were historical figures and not allegorical, made-up story characters.
 
GENESIS IS A BOOK OF HISTORY. There was no evolution! The earth is not billions of years old. If you want to believe the earth is billions of years old, you will have to do it by faith. There is no science to back up an old earth.  The earth is only a few days older than Adam and Eve. We could say that Adam and Eve were almost as old as dirt. Ω
 
THIS ARTICLE MAY TEST YOUR FAITHT. By faith you can believe the Word of God about creation; or by faith you can believe what some people believe who say they are scientists and need billions of years to accomplish their beliefs.  
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
JULY 22, 2019 - MONDAY 
 A.M. Psalm 7-9   P.M.  Acts 17:1-15
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Good Verses to Memorize:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)
 
Song for Today:
Praise Him, Praise Him (3:15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_nIRLD_5gE&list=RDBB27OjUFZjs&index=4
 
 
 
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in the beginning...

7/18/2019

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       In the Beginning… 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  (John 1:1-3)
 
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)
 
IN OUR DAILY BIBLE READING AND STUDY, Barbara and I have come to the Gospel of John. Our method is to read and then read commentary and perhaps discuss. Sometimes it is easy and fast and sometimes we may have to tie the horses to a tree and stay a while. This is one of those “stay a while” places. We’ll give credit to John because, first thing, he reverts all the way back to Genesis 1:1. We can’t study John without going back to Genesis.

THE REASON JOHN GOES BACK TO GENESIS 1:1, is that he is about to write about the one who was the co-creator of the earth and universe with God-the-Father. It bears heavily upon us that God wants us to include the Old Testament in our Bible study. To yank the New Testament story of salvation out of the Bible as an independent subject, is to do what God never intended.

WITHOUT GENESIS, JOHN IS INCOMPLETE. Without Genesis, the root and foundation of the Bible is missing. So, the first words of the Gospel of John, are also the first words of the book of Genesis. In short: the book of Genesis is history and not a made-up story; not an allegory. Without Genesis, there’s no need for the four Gospels or the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

THE NEXT FEW DAYS, WE WILL BE LOOKING AT GENESIS, the foundation of the Bible. Two themes are prominent: God’s creation of the universe and earth, and the world-wide flood and Noah’s ark. Then, there is the vast array of an infinite variety of life forms that explode upon the earth. Did God create the earth and its life, or did it create itself? The enormous variety of life forms on the earth demand an explanation of how they got here! Thomas A. Edison, who gave us the light bulb, thought that the presence of a blade of grass was complicated enough to demand an explanation.

DID GOD CREATE THE EARTH IN SIX 24-HOUR DAYS, or did He take billions of years to do it? How can we know? What did ancient Jewish tradition believe about the creation days? Is Jewish tradition reliable? What do the Bible writers believe about creation? What did the Jewish historian, Josephus (37A.D.-100 A.D.) believe about the days of creation?  Who changed the ancient established meaning of “six-day creation” and why was it changed?

HOW OLD IS A ROCK? How were rocks formed? What do the Grand Canyon and the 1980 explosive earthquake at Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington have in common?
Was there a worldwide flood? Why would an Australian, high school science teacher (Ken Ham) come to America and spend a hundred million dollars building a big boat in Kentucky? Not only so, but why are thousands of people driving to Townsend, Kentucky to visit he Ark? God willing, we will be highlighting the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis.

THE FOLLOWING LINK WILL GIVE YOU FREE ACCESS TO SHORT CLIPS of the set of videos done by geologists and historians as they discuss: “Is Genesis History.” We have reviewed the full set and it is worth the time spent. https://isgenesishistory.com/free-videos-is-genesis-history/

IN 1961 A SOUTHERN BAPTIST PROFESSOR (Elliot) WROTE A BOOK ON GENESIS that caused an uproar in the rank and file Southern Baptist churches. I remember it well. Here is a link that will give you some substance of what Mr. Elliot wrote and why it eventually resulted in his resignation. But, the themes of the controversy are alive and well today, 60 years later. http://www.bpnews.net/41095/1961-controversy-over-the-message-of-genesis-gets-baptist-historians-reflections

THE BIG QUESTION ABOUT GENESIS CAN BE STATED IN THIS QUESTION: “Is Genesis History?” Today, we, as a people, cannot have a world and its life forms that were made by a God. We cannot have a God that defines unacceptable behavior to the point that He would drown everybody on earth except eight people in an ark designed by Him.
We cannot hear about Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed because of one of the favorite sins of today.

THE ARK WAS BUILT BECAUSE OF THE VIOLENCE ON EARTH. (Genesis 6). We, as a people, cannot have a God who would frown on the slaughter of millions of babies in the womb. If Jesus should come to earth again riding on a donkey, would He be killed again? We cannot have a God who would burn the earth to purge it of sin (2 Peter 3:10-12).
 
Our new thing is that if we were born with an urge, it must be OK to practice it because “we were born with the urge to do so.” Does that cover it? God will have the last word. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  (Galatians 6:7)
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year      
JULY 19, 2019 - FRIDAY
 A.M. Psalm 7-9   P.M.  Acts 17:1-15
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A Good Verse to Memorize:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.  (Luke 24:44)

 Song for Today:
There’s A Great Day Coming (2:26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxNZKfGLJ98&list=RDMxNZKfGLJ98&start_radio=1

 Health Hint:
Cross-linking of tissue cells. Part of the aging process is caused by what is called: “cross linking.” When your windshield wiper blades harden and begin to bounce and make noise on your windshield, it is caused by cross linking. When the flapper in the tank of your commode will no longer close off and stop the flow of water, the flapper has hardened and will have to be replaced.

AS WE AGE, CROSS-LINKING OCCURS IN OUR BODIES in various tissues. It causes practical problems and our first reaction to it may be to learn how to compensate. Our lips are a prime target for cross-linking. This results in slurred speech and drooling because the lips do not close well to make a seal. It may or may not happen all over the body at the same time. It can make swallowing difficult. It may cause tablets or food to clog up in the esophagus. I have had my esophagus stretched because of a closing up of the esophagus and will probably have it done again sometime when needed.

CROSS-LINKING CAN STIFFEN THE FOCUSING MUSCLES of the eyes. Raising the chin slightly may help. If the head is tilted downward, the eyes must offset that tilt and requires more action from the eye muscles in order to focus.

CROSS-LINKING MAY PLAY A ROLE IN CONSTIPATION OF THE BOWEL, and malfunctioning of the valve that controls gas. Cross-linking may be involved when the bladder leaks for several reasons, like stepping in a low place, getting up from a sitting position, laughing, sneezing, coughing. etc.

CROSS-LINKING IN THE ARTERIES MAY INCREASE BLOOD PRESSURE and that’s not something to ignore. Not long ago, I discovered I can no longer whistle. In my younger days I played trombone and did a lot of whistling. I especially enjoyed whistling “The Whistler and His Dog.” It’s a feisty number I heard somewhere and picked it up to entertain myself. It sounds a lot like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” (I whistled that one too.) You can listen to it through the link below. The Whistler and His Dog (3:32)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk1n2Df701M

I HAVE READ NOTHING THAT INDICATES A WAY TO REVERSE CROSS-LINKING of body tissue. Slowing its formation is the best approach. Some writers blame the American intake of sugar as a causing factor. You may want to spend some time with Google and type in a variety of phrases that will open websites for you. Look for prevention, minimizing, reducing and accommodation.

Here’s a link for further reading on cross-linking https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=age- related+cross+linking+of+tissue&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart                                                   
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the turkey

7/11/2019

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                  The Turkey   
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and
 
honour.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!  (Psalms 8:3-9)
 
VIDEO OF WILD TURKEY HEN AND EIGHT CHICKS. (Please watch the video now.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3a19ujBq-Q  (You may have to press your CTRL button before clicking on the link.) The video is only 3.28 minutes. I found it this morning and thought about it all day. Please watch the video and come back here.
 
THIS TURKEY HEN HAS BEEN EQUIPPED BY GOD to know what kind of sound to make that will communicate “danger” to her chicks. The chicks, only a few days old, know by instinct, the “danger” sound of their mother. In the video,before she makes a warning sound, she talks to them in a normal way as she and the chicks are picking up particles from the road. (These particles go to the gizzard and are used for grinding up food that is picked up later.)  
 
WHEN THE MOTHER HEN HEARS A DANGER SOUND, she raises her head up high and remains motionless. Then she starts making a different sound that alerts the chicks. Whereas the chicks were gathered around their mother before the alarm, now they quickly leave their mother and rush into the tall grass beside the road to hide themselves. The mother hen knows how to send a warning. The baby turkey chicks know the warning sound and know what to do in seconds. Isn’t that amazing?
 
THIS IS AN AMAZING DEMONSTRATION OF HOW GOD BUILDS INTO HIS CREATURES what they need to know to protect themselves. The word is: “precision.” The mother hen has been programmed by her Creator with a very precise procedure and a very precise language to use in the face of danger. The hen does not have to look up anything in the Hebrew or Greek language and consult commentators about the finer points of meaning. She has complete necessary knowledge of what to do…instantly!
 
BARBARA AND I HAVE REACHED THE BOOK OF JOHN in our “together” daily Bible reading. The book begins with: “In the beginning.” The book of Genesis begins with: “In the beginning.”
 
WE NEED TO CONNECT THE BOOK OF JOHN TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS because of the “In the beginning” phrase. God put the phrases there to connect the books together. The turkey hen and her chicks have a lot to say about how we interpret the book of Genesis. So, I’m asking you to please watch the turkey-chicks video in preparation for what comes next. The question is: “Does God speak more precisely to turkeys than He does to human beings?” God also tells birds how to build their nests according to His plan. Different birds build different kinds of nests.
 
THE DIRT DAUBERS ARE BUILDING A HOUSE ON OUR FRONT PORCH. They do it every year and sing while they build it. They've never met their mother but they will build a house exactly like their mother built a house last year. They put the kind of mud in their house that will be strong and hold together after it dries. The wasps are also building a nest on our front porch; a paper construction and no mud. They do it every year.

DOES GOD SPEAK MORE PRECISELY TO DIRT DAUBERS AND WASPS than He does to human beings? God wrote that He made the heaven and earth, etc. in six days. For over two thousand years Jewish tradition held that those days were literal, 24-hour days. Jesus said Moses was a prophet and quoted Moses in His preaching, especially out of Deuteronomy.
 
IN THE 1800'S, CHARLES DARWIN CAME ALONG and said in his book that the forming of the earth took many millions of years. So, in order to look “up-to-date and scientific,” the Scofield Reference Bible said in 1909 that between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 there was room enough for all those years. This was sudden! Christian leaders who wanted to look intellectual jumped on the band wagon.
 
THERE'S A NEW PARADE IN TOWN. Moses and Jesus didn’t get it right. Isn’t that amazing that a mother turkey hen gets it right in one second and her chicks get it right in one second, but none of God’s people will know what God said about the days of creation until Charles Darwin comes to town and tells everybody that we’ve had it wrong for over two thousand years. Turkeys are instantly smart and informed, but many generations of God’s people are dumb as a rock until Darwin comes along to “teach” us how to read the Bible.
 
AH, ME THINKS THAT THE DEVIL IS STILL PEDDLING HIS LIE OF "HATH GOD SAID?" Remember when he pulled that stunt on Eve in the Garden of Eden? So, according to the “up-to-date” thinkers, God makes it clearer to wild turkeys and their chicks than He does to His own people all over the world. God writes carelessly and lets His people think for thousands of years that He made the earth and universe in six 24-hour days when actually, it took him many millions of years.
 
THIS IS WHAT GOD SAID HE DID: 
 
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested (ceased to work any more) the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11)
 
THE CHOICE IS CLEAR. EITHER YOU BELIEVE GOD BY FAITH, or you believe evolutionary scientists by faith. There’s a growing crew of Christian geologists who are trying to set the record straight. Many scientists today, who are also Christians, believe God made the earth in six 24-hour days. Don’t let the word “science” fool you. Science cannot determine the age of the earth. In only a few years, Carbon 14 dating indicated that the mud that came out of the earth in the earthquake at Mount St. Helen in the State of Washington in 1980 and made layers of rock like the Grand Canyon, was over 300,000 years old. Carbon 14 dating has been disappointing to geologists.
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JULY 11, 2019 – THURSDAY        
A.M.  Psalms 4-6  P.M.  Acts 16:16-40
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Good Memory Verses:
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  (Psalms 8:3-4)
 
Song for Today:  
This Is My Father’s World (3:56) (Collingsworth Family – Acapella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yt3woAYOBQ
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The mother of this family is the well-known Gospel pianist, Kim Collingsworth. I am assuming that she wrote the arrangement of close, modern harmony for this old song. It gets above my preference on the harmony, but there’s no doubt that they truly believe: “This Is My Father’s World.”  They have recorded it several times and it appears to be their theme song.  

HEALTH TIP - HOT WEATHER. Some of the best health tips I read are reminders of what I already know. We are in July and it is easy to bring on a heat stroke, heart attack, or a call for an ambulance to cart you off to the emergency room. Know yourself. There is no “one size fits all” in dealing with heat.

I SPENT MANY DAYS IN THE HOT SUN when I was young. Not good. A broad-band hat is helpful. If you are at the beach, an umbrella is a necessity. If you are not allergic, high-grade sunscreen should be applied on your face and neck. Wear long sleeves. Wear best-grade sunglasses for outside work and for driving.

 DO OUTSIDE WORK IN EARLY MORNING and late afternoon. Avoid overhead sun. We don’t need to darken our skin in the sun to look like models. Avoid tanning beds, period! A loving attitude toward others can make us more attractive than wowing people with our suntan. I lived in Florida for eight years and watched people bake themselves to death in the sun so they would look good.
 
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A DESPERATE WOMAN...

7/7/2019

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                A Desperate Woman…   
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
 
And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 
 
And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.  (Mark 5:25-33)
 
IN 1953 I FOUND A BOOK OF SPURGEON'S SERMONS on a fast-sale table and took the book home. In it was a sermon: “Tell it All” preached June 14, 1863.  I was greatly impressed by it and I am still impressed. I have read the sermon several times through the years and published this article a couple of years ago. I misplaced the book, so I looked it up on the Internet and read it again. (You can read the sermon here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons09.xxviii.html) (This sermon has been accessed more than 82,226 times since June 1, 2005) 

THERE ARE SOME BOOKS THAT I TRY TO READ ONCE A YEAR and this is one of the classic sermons that wears well after many readings. Briefly, Jesus had just cast demons out of a naked, demon-possessed man who came toward him out of the graveyard. (Afterward, the man was clothed and in his right mind.) Jesus was asked to leave so He got into a boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee.

AS HE GOT OUT OF THE BOAT, the ruler of the local synagogue approached him about coming with him to heal his little daughter who was at the point of death. Jesus went with him and a crowd moved along with them.
 
AS JESUS STARTED ON HIS WAY TO HEAL THE LITTLE GIRL, a Jewish woman pushed through the crowd toward him. She had been bleeding for twelve years and had spent everything she had on doctors. She had heard about the Jesus preacher. She decided if she could get close enough to Him to touch his clothes she would be healed. She wouldn’t have to touch his hand. She wouldn’t tell anyone she was bleeding, because under Mosaic Law she was considered “unclean” and should not touch anyone. She did not want to make him unclean (Leviticus.15:25).  So, she followed with the crowd that was walking behind Him.

IN DESPERATION, SHE MOVED THROUGH THE CROWD TOWARD HIM. Can you see her stretching her trembling hand trying to reach him? No one knew her or that she was bleeding and unclean. Finally, she was able to touch the hem of His outer garment. That’s all she could do, just the hem, not the sleeve nor the waist.

MARK WROTE: And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?  And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?  (Mark 5:29-31)
 
THE DISCIPLES WERE JUST LIKE US. They fashioned their reality out of what they could see, and the pieces of the puzzle did not fit. Jesus did not ask about who touched Him to find out who had touched Him.  He knew exactly who had touched Him. He asked the question to begin communication with the woman. It’s like when God called to Adam: “Where art thou?” God knew where Adam was. Jesus knew who had touched Him.
 
And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.  But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.  And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.  (Mark 5:32-34)
 
THE WOMAN KNEW IMMEDIATELY THAT SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED INSIDE HER.  In a burst of strength, she probably drew back and stood up in amazement! Being full of strength was something new for her! It had been twelve years since she had had such strength! Weakness of the body tends to cause the body to slump forward. But now, she could stand up straight! 
 
SHE WAS BEHIND JESUS BUT SUDDENLY HE TURNED AROUND TOWARD HER. She was not an educated woman, but she knew more than the puzzled disciples at that moment. Her response was fear and trembling. She had better get everything out in the open.   She fell to her knees in front of Him and began to sob and blurt out her story to Him in front of the startled crowd.
 
McGEE MAKES THIS OBSERVATION: “The disciples thought it was a very peculiar question since the whole crowd was pressing in on Him. But only one touched Him in faith for healing! The situation is the same today. I think we have a lot of folk around who use the name of Jesus freely. They are running around saying that it is Jesus this, and Jesus that, and people think they certainly know Him.

“SURELY, THEY KNOW HIM, BUT THEY HAVE NOT TOUCHED HIM as the crowd touched Him—not like this woman touched Him, for she touched Him in faith for healing.”
The crowd was all around Him and they certainly had been touching Him but only one woman touched Him by faith and did business with Him. When we come to church we may get into the routine of things. Our habit of worship takes over and we sing without thinking about what we are singing. We go through the motions but have no real connection with the Lord. We can do better than that. Let’s reach out to Him with determination.

THERE ARE TWO WAYS WE CAN REACH OUT TO THE LORD like the woman with the issue of blood. We can come to him out of desperation (as she did).  Or, we can come to him in quiet surrender to everything we know He wants of us. God works through desperation of His saints and He works through His quiet persistence. We can have the thunderstorm or the quiet, steady rain that goes all night and waters deeply.

THE BIBLE DOESN'T SAY THIS, but I believe that God put in her heart what to do to get results.  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18) The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.  (Psalm 145:18)  
 
WE DO NOT "BUY" GOD'S GRACE AND ANSWERS TO PRAYER with a broken heart or a contrite spirit, but we do remove the barriers that hinder Him from doing what He would otherwise do. It is important to remember:” … God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”  (James 4:6) Peter says the same thing: (1Peter 5:5)
There’s a warehouse full of gold in the story of the desperate woman. She told Him all. Let us tell Him all. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JULY 8, 2019 – MONDAY        
A.M.  Job 38-39  P.M.  1Acts 15:1-21
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Memory Verse This Month:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.  As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.  (Hosea  4:6-7)

Song for Today:  
Sweet Beulah Land (3:47) (Carrol Roberson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J15I85hESTg&list=RDjHBzI_Jb-o4&index=4
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Health Tip: 
YEAR 'ROUND we should drink plenty of water, but now that we are in the summer months, it’s even more important. We can get water from all kinds of drinks, but nothing is as good for us as plain ‘ole water. We seniors must be especially careful to drink water because many of us lose our sense of thirst. That happened to me several years ago. We can dehydrate easily and this can have serious consequences.

WE SHOULD DRINK AT LEAST A QUART OF WATER a day, plus our normal “other” liquids such as coffee, tea, cokes, (did I say “cokes?”) etc. Less than that will almost certainly bring on the beginning of dehydration. Many people run on mild dehydration all the time and it messes up many things in our bodies. It will make the urine strong enough to burn and irritate the kidneys and tubes. The irritation will make you want to ‘go” when you don’t need to. (A doctor set me straight on that many years ago.)

WE NEED "NICE URINE" ALL THE TIME. Your car needs enough water to keep the engine cool. Your body needs water for cooling and for several other things. If you are taking blood pressure medicine that is diuretic (makes you go), then you will need to drink water but not a lot at one time. Keep water close by and drink a little every few minutes.
 
THE STANDARD ADVICE IS TO DRINK A HALF-OUNCE of water for each pound of body weight and at least a half-gallon. That’s 64 ounces, the amount of water for one who weighs 128 pounds. I never drink a half-ounce ounce for each pound of body weight, but I do try to goad myself into drinking at least a quart, 8 ounces at a time.

I KEEP WATER BY THE BED, BESIDE THE COMPUTER, IN THE CAR, beside my reading chair, and at the kitchen bar. Some people eat when they really should drink some water. They are not hungry… they are thirsty but don’t know it. (It’s the doctor thing again; I didn’t think this up.) So, how are you doing on your water?
 
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the timbers in the ark

7/2/2019

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Picture
   The Timbers in the Ark 
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.  (Genesis 6:14-16)
 
AS I MENTIONED TUESDAY, twenty people from our church in Flat Rock, AL visited the Ark replica in Kentucky, called: “The Ark Encounter.” Today, I want to talk about the timbers in the Ark. For those who might want to see the Ark, I’ll repeat a bit of information. We spent the night in a local motel and were ready to begin the tour the next morning. The Ark is located at Townsend, KY, on I-75 between Lexington, KY and Cincinnati, OH. Property and construction cost $102 Million. One million guests visited last year. On busy days, between 7,000 and 8,000 people visit the park. Attendance has been growing since the park opened two years ago. The picture above was taken by Juley White.
 
THIS LINK OPENS A NEWS STORY. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2018/08/02/kentucky-ark-encounter-visitors-sink-lower-than-projections/878239002/ The article is negative toward the Ark Encounter but has some good information in it. The Morning Minute article today will mix a few new things with the previous article. It is vital that our children and young people be exposed to the Book of Genesis. The Ark Encounter project in Kentucky is one of the best teaching tools that has ever been developed. Seeing it and studying it is well-worth the cost of making the trip.
 
MELVIN WHITE, RETIRED LOGGER, pushed me in a wheelchair. He and I discussed the construction of the Ark. It was big! We were both impressed by the size of the vertical timbers in the Ark. The vertical timbers were full-size logs with the bark removed. We had a lot to talk about since he was a logger and I had some sawmilling behind me. The upright timbers were whole trees, at least 24” in diameter. The horizontal beams that rested on top of the uprights were at least that big.
 
THE ARK ENCOUNTER PROJECT DOES NOT CLAIM TO KNOW EXACTLY how Noah’s Ark was constructed or how big the various parts were inside the ark. They assembled people who knew the most about the Bible and about the early culture described in the Bible. Then, they assembled engineers who could figure the weight and stress points of such a large wooden structure and built it accordingly. They used plenty of steel plates and steel bolts to assemble the big wood parts. (They also have books that explain what they did.)
 
THE HORIZONTAL TIMBERS WERE SQUARED TO MAKE A UNIFORM SIZE end-to-end. There were many big angled wood braces throughout the structure. I’m sure Noah didn’t use the big threaded iron bolts. He must have used wood pegs. They probably made holes for the pegs with chisels and hammer since there were no augurs at that time. It’s obvious that the Ark we saw was put together with some top-notch engineers and craftsmen. It is STRONG.!!!!
 
NOAH'S ARK WAS BUILT BY NOAH AND HIS THREE SONS: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I looked at the big logs in the ark and my mind immediately began to imagine how they “man-handled” those logs. I’ve rolled some logs myself with the aid of a cant-hook. But when the log was big, I had to get someone with another cant-hook to come and help me. I don’t think the ark builders had a cant-hook for rolling their logs. How did they get the logs to the building site? How did four men lift one end of a log that big to stand it on its end? 
 
THEY HAD TO HAVE SAWS FOR SOME OF THEIR WORK. Metal working was going by that time. And, anyway, as in the building of the Tabernacle, God gave them the knowledge. They had 120 years to get it done. It is pointed out that some parts of the Noah’s Ark were exposed to weather for a hundred years while the ark was being built. God told them to cover the ark outside and inside with pitch (tar). This preserved the early construction of the ark while it was being built.
 
NOAH'S ARK HAS FASCINATED ME since I heard the story as a boy. It also fascinates me that God would lay his hand on Ken Ham in Australia to come to America and build an ark like that. How would you gather $102 million dollars and get everybody together to build it?
 
MELVIN WHITE, THE LOGGER, told me that a few years back, he had taken a contract to go up in Tennessee and cut some long logs that had to be 36” at the small end.  He shipped them to Kentucky. He doesn’t know what they were used for; maybe for railroad bridges. But it was all their big diesel log loaders could do to get those logs loaded onto the trucks.
 
THE OVERALL MESSAGE OF THE ARK ENCOUNTER is true to the Bible. Clearly, the Ark was built for Noah and his family and the animals that God sent to the Ark. God had warned: And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.  (Genesis 6:3)
 
 THE METAL TOOLS ARE INTERESTING and the means they may have used for feeding the animals and keeping the ark clean of animal droppings. Plenty of food in bags and clay jars.
 
THE WORLD AT LARGE DOES NOT LIKE TO TALK ABOUT GENESIS CREATION, about Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, or about a coming day of judgment and the burning of the earth with fire in preparation of a new heaven and earth.
 
THE BIG QUESTION FOR TODAY IS: “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.  (Exodus 32:26)
 
MY FRIEND, THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND. You are either on the Lord’s side or you are on the world’s side and the devil’s side. Where do you stand today? Another day is coming. God will have the last word. To read the account of Noah’s Ark and the sin on the earth that caused it (the level of violence) it makes us wonder how that day compares to the wickedness of America.
 
THERE IS NO GREATER VIOLENCE ON THE EARTH THAN THE DELIBERATE MURDER of a child in the womb. (Tearing the arms and legs off a living, conscious baby is not violence? Sucking the brains out of the skull of a living baby in the womb is not violence?) We should remember why God told Noah to build an ark and why God covered the earth with water and drowned every human being on the earth who was outside of the ark. Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
 July 3, 2018 – WEDNESDAY 
 A.M. Job 26-28   P.M. Acts 11
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
  
A Good Verse to Memorize:
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  (Genesis 6:13)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize. That’s the way Abraham Lincoln did it.)
 
 Song for Today:
Come unto Me (4:31) (Van Burren, ARK. 1st Assembly)                               
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL4tKXv8A6w

I came across this group, very unusual with their black robes and lively rendition of this old Southern Gospel song. I learned it from the Chuck Wagon Gang (78rpm record) in my early teens. It was one of my daddy’s favorite songs. He played it over and over. It would be hard for me not to know it, not to love it. I’m guessing that the pastor here has been there a long time and built the music program from scratch. A lot of older people here, singing and playing several kinds of instruments. They believe in what they are doing.
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    Author

    Dan Carr is a "retired" pastor, writer, teacher and continues to write at this website. This blog and other articles are e-mailed free to anyone who wants them. Go to: 
    http://www.biblewalking.com/
    contact-us.html.  

    Dan and Barbara live 
    at Flat Rock, AL between Chattanooga, TN and Huntsville, AL. on Sand Mtn.
    We enjoy gardening, reading, church, family and friends.

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