Ben Stein's Expelled!

I was excited to see this today. It is a trailer for a movie coming out next month. It's Ben Stein's Expelled. My heart began to soar as I watched the trailer. Stein is saying the same thing I said in my blog/column found below: That the evidence does not support Darwinian Evolution. But scientists cling to Darwin's Theory like a Holy Grail, or really, more like a lifeboat in a desperate sea.
I'm looking forward to supporting this movie.
I also want to note that not one person has commented on my anti-evolution blog. And I haven't received one email telling me how stupid I am. In the past, I would have been inundated after running a column like this. It is appearing in newspapers and on web sites across the country, but no one has even tried to refute it. Several people came to the blog after seeing it posted on Digg.com, but it disappeared almost as suddenly as it appeared. Why? Are people afraid of the truth? Are people beginning to understand that the only explanation to our existence is that we were created? The ramification is huge: it means we have to answer to God if he exists and created us. Let the fight for truth continue!

The Biggest Fairy Tale of All

Many people say God creating the earth is only a fairy tale. The evidence, they say, points to evolution. Oh really? So, there are thousands of transitional fossils demonstrating the link between early life and life today? Would you believe there are none? Not one.
And you can break down cells into parts that could have joined together, right? No, cells are irreducibly complex, which means you cannot take anything away and it still work. Yet each cell is more complex than any factory on earth.
Let’s do a reality check about what Darwinian (macro) Evolution really teaches. It holds that I am not only kin to the gorillas (which is not that big a stretch), I’m also cousins with the rose bushes growing beside my house.
Darwinian Evolution is the theory that all life began millions of years ago from a single organism. Scientists call our great grand-pappy a prokaryote, which was a bacterium. A “simple” living creature because it had no eyes or nose, or most of the systems we have, but not so simple because it was alive. How the elements made the jump to life is a total mystery that has never been solved by science. And yes, this means some bacteria evolved and some stayed basically the same for a billion years.
But Evolution’s logic gets even worse: For it to be true, plants had to evolve such that animals could eat them. The plants and animals need each other to survive and had to accidentally, independently, evolve to the benefit of each other. In other words, grass had to evolve at the same time a cow’s four stomachs evolved into a system that could digest it. But the Darwinian Theory teaches that the prokaryotes evolved into both the grass and the cow. Boy, did the grass get the short end of that stick!
All living things live in a symbiotic relationship with everything else. When we think of the sheer amount and diversity of living things on the planet, it is staggering to imagine they all evolved from one ancestor. Darwinian Evolution says every bird, fish, insect, tree, plant, reptile, flower, and mammal evolved independently of each other – but dependent on each other – by accident. This theory is so flawed, it astounds me that I am the one who is called ignorant for believing we were intelligently created. I am the one who believes in fairy tales, even though the evidence is on my side. Especially if you believe the days of creation represent eons of time.
Let’s look at how things change, according to the Darwinian Theory. A creature (which, by the way, means it was created) is born with a mutation. It’s just a little different than its parents. But, it turns out the mutation is advantageous, so it does better than its parents and passes the mutation along to its offspring. And that repeats itself for a couple million years and you have a school teacher! Or a pine tree. Or a honey bee. Have you ever observed a situation where a genetic mutation was a good thing?
And when we go way back into the fossil record, we still see complex, functioning beings, with eyesight, hearing, etc. These animals possessed the same DNA code that makes us who we are today. Have you ever heard of a computer code that wrote itself? If you believe in macro evolution, that’s exactly what you believe.
And I didn’t even mention that human beings can read columns like this. You are self-aware and no other plant or animal is. Only humans can tell fairy tales. To me, Darwinian Evolution is the biggest of all.

Temple Stone Find

Have you seen this? It's an amazing discovery in Jerusalem that, once again, proves the Bible is true. You can see the full article here: The Jerusalem Post. The archaeologist says the crescent at the top is a reference to the Babylonian god Sin. But someone wrote in and said that it is the new, crescent moon, which is when the priests would be at the altar.

The Bible is true and we might as well all get used to it.

Chaos - Mute Math

This song has sort of been my anthem this fall and winter. It talks about how God is truth when all around, the world is telling lies; how God is in control although it seems like everything is falling apart. Not only that, but it rocks!

Lost Dog

It’s an amazing saga of God’s concern for his creatures. I spent a month in Houston last week. (Yes, that’s an old joke.) I spent a week there. The week began with my having a baught with homesickness that I had not experienced since college. I’ve always battled homesickness when I moved or traveled, but I’m very much a grown man now and it surprised me when I got in my hotel room Sunday evening and felt a crushing wave of it. I couldn’t shake it and had to simply wait it out. I didn’t even eat supper Monday. I just couldn’t.
Well, it ended sharply when my brother-in-law drove my wife, Jodi, to the Woodlands Mall (just north of Houston) Tuesday to stay with me the rest of the week. Yes, I’m spoiled, but in my defense, it was Jodi’s idea and her brother-in-law volunteered to bring her. I was never so happy to see my wife and kids running through the mall to see me. We ate with the kids and with Jodi’s sister and family; then they drove back home and Jodi and I went back into Houston.
I finished my schooling (that is why I was in Houston -- more on that later) and drove home Thursday, anxious to see my kids, sleep in my own bed -- and see our beloved dog, Jello.
Everything crashed down when we opened the house and Jello was not there. He wasn’t anywhere. He was gone. It was horrible. Somehow he had slipped through the gate. He doesn’t like being alone and I think he was looking for us.
We got back in the car and drove around the neighborhoods around our house. Nothing. I stood in the cold and listened to dogs barking. Maybe they were barking at him. I barely ate or slept. I felt like crying all the next day back at work. We called the pound, the paper, the police department. No one had seen him. At least the animal control officer could tell me they hadn’t picked up his body. That gave me comfort, but where was he?
Friday afternoon, Jodi, Savannah and some friends began posting fliers around with our number and situation. A man named Jerry Hodge saw them actually posting the signs. He walked up and read the sign, then called me when he got home. He said he saw a woman stop her car and pick up a small dog right in front of our house earlier in the week. (My kids had come over and played with Jello Wednesday and he was last seen at 4:30 that afternoon.) Apparently, Jello slipped out and tried to follow them when they left. He was running up the road when the lady picked him up and Jerry saw her. Jerry thought it looked suspicious and followed her home. He even got her license plate number. He lives down the same country road as the lady who picked him up.
So Friday about 4:50, he called to tell me he had seen the flier and wondered if that could have been our pooch. Now, I was beginning to feel very hopeful. We had a good lead. I knew it was Jello. I called the police and gave them the license number. The officer reminded me that he couldn’t enter a house to get the dog -- and that if they denied having him there was nothing he could do without a warrant. Not only that, but the house was in the county so he had to pass the case to the Sheriff‘s office. This was looking like it might be tricky getting him back.
Jodi called our constable and he was checking into helping us. While I was talking to him, Jerry’s wife, Melissa, called and told me she had seen Jello Thursday running beside their road. My daughter and I jumped in the car and drove straight to that road. I saw Jello cross the road up ahead of us. I pulled up and called him. He had lost a couple of pounds, but he was alive and okay. I guess he had escaped from the woman who picked him up. We found him a mile and a half from our home, 24 hours after we got home from Houston and 48 hours after he crawled through our fence.
We praised God that our family was finally all home together again. Then we bought a gift certificate to a popular local restaurant and took it to the Hodges.
Some lessons from this? First, I think it proves that God really is watching out for us and cares about things that matter to us. He allows us to suffer for a time, but works things out in the end. That suffering makes us stronger and prioritizes us. It keeps us from getting so upset about little things that occur every day.
There’s another lesson, too. Sometimes, we get anxious about what God is doing in our lives and give up waiting for him. So, we take matters into our own hands. Like Jello, we only make matters worse when we do this. We upset God and ourselves. Jello may have spent two nights out in the cold because he didn’t wait one more day in our warm house.
Finally, I see a good message here about our response. We didn’t sit around and wait to see if Jello would come back. We did everything we knew to get him and ultimately went to get him where he was. I think God does this, too. When we “go prodigal” on him, he wants to bring us back. The father in that story saw his son a long way off and went out to meet him. The man who lost his sheep in Luke 15 went searching for it, as did the lady who lost the coin. I think God does that too.

Do Our Childen Really Belong to Us?

Every day we make decisions concerning our children. How shall we speak in front of them? How shall we act? What example will we set before them? Will we show passion toward our beliefs and compassion toward others? Or will we show apathy toward our convictions, coldness toward our faith, and indifference toward others? Our children are not only watching, they are copying us, word for word, action for action, and passion for passion.
If we continually yell at our children, we shouldn’t be surprised when they yell right back. If we are short and sarcastic toward them, we will see that reflected back. If we curse, we’ll hear cursing from them. If we entertain ourselves watching filth, we mustn’t be surprised when our children do the same.
Am I setting a high standard for parents? Of course, because I realize more than ever how high the stakes are. As we enter into this new year, I am calling for parents to be more deliberate, families to be stronger, and children to be more blessed. Parents should run the home, don’t get me wrong, because this is the privilege and responsibility we have been given. Parents should be in charge, set the rules and enforce them, and make the decisions in the home, but we should do so in a way that encourages our children to be their best and most well-rounded selves.
In our home, we love the Christmas story found in Luke, chapter two. We read it every year at our Holiday gatherings. We begin at the first verse, where we find a census being taken, thus compelling Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem. Then we read to where the shepherds return to their fields, praising God after seeing everything just as the angel said they would.
And we stop right there, but I want to point out what happens next: Joseph and Mary taking baby Jesus to the temple to present him and make offerings for him.
The offerings were two “turtledoves”. These were sacrifices made by poor families who could not afford a lamb. (By the way, the lambs the shepherds were watching in the fields may have been born to die in the temple, giving us a new layer of symbolism.)
One of the sacrifices Joseph and Mary made on Jesus’ behalf was a “redemption offering”. It was made to God to recognize that this child did not really belong to them - he belonged to God. With the blood of the dove, they were buying him back - but only to rear him in the fear of God to whom he really belonged. Jewish families are so right in their recognition of this. Our children do not belong to us, they belong to God. He is their creator. He owns everything and everyone. Even if you are not a person of faith this still applies to you because no person can ever truly own another person. We are all unique individuals. No one wants to live in the domination of another person, no matter how well-meaning.
This is important regarding how we treat each other and how we treat our children. When we realize we are only temporary stewards of them, with the privilege and responsibility of rearing them, we will do a better job. We do not have the right to mistreat them, simply because they were born to us.
Our children don’t really belong to us, they belong to God. It is good for us to recognize this. This year let us remember that our children are watching - and so is he.