Taking a Vacation: Vacating the Premises

Vacations are important times in all of our lives. They allow us to get away from the daily grind of our busy lives and spend some much needed time in rest, relaxation, and recreation. Whether it is time spent with family, enjoying some new adventure or activity, or just staying home and recuperating from life’s toil and tear; it is an absolute necessity. Even Jesus took time off to rest and reenergize.

That being said, a vacation from the weekly wrangling of life doesn’t justify a vacation from daily Christian service and devotion. Many clock out of work to leave for vacation   and also vacate the household of Christ. After a long winter and spring in which I completed five full-time college classes in addition to all the other responsibilities I have, and a week at camp with fifty-eight teenagers, I need to get away. However, I want to share with you some of the things in which I will not be taking a vacation from:

I will not be taking a vacation from daily Bible study. I will be spending time each day searching the scriptures (Acts 17:11). I will be studying the Word of the Lord in order to better understand His will for me in my life.

I will not be taking a vacation from daily prayer. Jesus spent most all of His restful time in prayer with the Father. Daniel and David made it a habit (Daniel 6:10; Psalm 55:17). I need to remember that praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) includes while I am on vacation.

I will not be taking a vacation from assembling with the saints. I want to worship God and deem it a great privilege to do so. I will be in Bible Study and worship with fellow Christians Sunday and Wednesday because I need to be with my spiritual family for edification through fellowship.

I will not be taking a vacation from creating opportunities to share the gospel of Christ with others. As Christians we are to be seeking to share the gospel with all that will listen, both with our words and our actions (Matthew 28:19; 1 Timothy 4:16).

I will not be taking a vacation from encouraging others (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14).

I will not be taking a vacation from helping someone in need (Galatians 6:10).

I will not be taking a vacation from the physical, mental, and spiritual responsibility I have toward my family.

In short, I will not be taking a vacation from loving my God. I will put Him first in my life every day (Matthew 6:33). I will not be vacating the premises of the household of Christ.

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Three Areas of Concern Today

1.         CONCERN FOR THE SINNER:

There are many people today that reside in the world of sin. One of the kindest things that one could do for one of these that are living in sin, having never believed and obeyed the gospel, is to show them  that without becoming a Christian they will ultimately be lost.

James 5:20, “let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (ASV).

Peter 4:18, “And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear” (ASV)? Today we see occasional  opportunities to discuss with one of the unconverted their condition before God and we ought to take advantage of those occasions. Remember this, God has no voice but our voice to speak the Holy Words of Truth today to these lost ones. Let us be, as Jesus says; about our Father’s business.cf., Luke 2:49, “And He said to them, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” (NKJV)?

CONSIDER THIS: Indeed, those of us that are Christians need to busy ourselves in the area of personal evangelism. Unless Christians today shoulder the responsibility to teach the lost they will never be taught, let us go, and teach. We will never be sorry that we tried to teach another.

2.         CONCERN FOR THE BACKSLIDER:

Not only must we be concerned about the alien sinners in our world today, we must also be concerned about those that we know that no longer serve God faithfully. There are many people in the community here in Hilliard that at one time attended services faithfully but they have drifted away and into sin. We need to reach out to these and encourage them to return to the faith that they have abandoned.

Galatians 6:1-2, ” >1 Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ASV

CONSIDER THIS: Yes, we need to extend our outreach to the lost including our backsliding brethren, too. Many time once a Christian leaves the church we do not seek them out and try to get them back, this ought not to be. As we can see  from the passage here in Galatians 6, we ought to try to restore them to Christ.

James 5:20, let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins. ASV

3.         CONCERN FOR THE FAITHFUL:

Yes, we ought to be continually concerned about our brethren who are faithful. Yes, we ought to encourage them to continue in the good works that they are pursuing. We must constantly be prepared to join in every worthy effort that the faithful are pursuing. We ought to pray for the faithful ones and seek out their companionship so that we might interact with them and so strengthen our ties as brethren together.

1 John 3:11, For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another:

1 John 3:18, (My) Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth.

Romans 12:9-11, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectionate one to another; in honor preferring one another; in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; ASV

BE CONCERNED ABOUT OTHERS!

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Greater Than Greatest Born of Woman

Think of all the individuals who lived before Jesus died and how amazing they were. If you had to pick the greatest one who would it be? Obviously, to think about this, you would have to exclude sinless Jesus, but who would you pick?

What about Abraham, the father of all of those who walk by faith? It is in his life, above all others, where we see faith defined by his actions. Perhaps you might think of Joseph and his devotion to doing right in his teens while living in a foreign country. Then, there is Moses the amazing servant who delivered the Ten Commandments to the Jews and gave to us the first five books of the Bible.  Joshua would have to be in that listing somewhere for his unwavering obedience to God from the time the Jews left Egypt until they possessed the Promised Land.

Who could surpass the greatness of David, the great king of Israel? Only one man in the entire Bible is described as a man after God’s own heart. Then, to read the lives of other men of old also brings them into this picture—Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Nehemiah and Ezra.

Think of the greatness of the prophets. What about the first prophet, Enoch, who walked with God and his faith was rewarded by escaping death? Would you not at least have to give great consideration to Elijah and Elisha who served God during the time of Ahab and Jezebel and their evil influences? What about Isaiah who volunteered his service to God saying, “Here am I, Lord, send me”? The steadfastness of Jeremiah and Ezekiel who encouraged the righteous remnant and rebuked the ungodly as Babylon carried Israel into captivity? Would you think that Daniel might be that person, who, as a faithful youth, was taken to Babylon and refused to eat the king’s food? What about his faith years later when at 80+ years of age he was in the lions’ den?

So have you picked one as the greatest individual, with the exception of Jesus, who lived before the death of Jesus? As strange as it might seem, none of those listed above would be the right answer. Hear the words of Jesus, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11). If you struggle to understand this, just consider the unique work he did as the forerunner of Jesus.

However, there is someone greater than John. Hear the rest of Jesus’ words. “But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Who is greater than the greatest? It is you!  What a blessing it is to be a Christian!

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Absolute Truth, Absolutely Exists, According to Christ!

Absolute Truth. Black-and-white, “it’s wrong or it’s right,” eternal, exclusive, and unending truth (Psalm 119). The sin-warped world in which we live seeks to seduce us into accepting that such absolute truth simply does not exist today. Or, if it does, they claim we cannot know it. But we who know Christ, know better! Jesus Christ clearly and consistently told us the truth about the truth. To deny it, is to deny Him (Jn. 12:48)! He defined truth for us in John 17:17 when He said that God’s word is truth. To reject it as such, doesn’t change it from such (Jn. 6:60-69).

Many today want to tell us that “truth” is relative; that is, that whatever you believe to be true is true for you, and whatever I believe to be true is true for me, and even if our two so-called “truths” are both diametrically opposed to each other and God’s standard, we’re both still somehow okay with God, and our completely opposite views are both still somehow “true.” They call that “relativism;” I call it “ridiculousism.”

For example: The authorities have determined that the speed limit on your home-town Main Street is 25 MPH. If your “truth” states that it ought to be 50 MPH, and your teenagers’ “truth” states it ought to be 75 MPH, that isn’t going to avail either of you one whit when the blue lights of authority start flashing behind you. The all-authoritative and exclusive standard of well-established truth is what you’ll be judged by. The same is true in Christianity (Jn. 12:48; Acts 13:46). Although some well-educated religious peoples’ so-called “truth” says, “salvation is by ‘faith only,’” “once saved, always saved,” and “baptism doesn’t save you,” God’s all-authoritative and exclusive truth says just exactly the opposite (Jms. 2:19-24; Gal. 5:4; 2 Ptr. 2:20-22; 1 Ptr. 3:21; Acts 2:38).

Jesus told us that we were truly His disciples only if we would abide in His word, which is the truth. He also said that we could know the truth (which millions of misled minions of Satan today constantly claim we cannot), and that knowing His truth was the only thing which could set us free (Jn. 8:31-32; 1 Jn. 5:10-13).

Jesus also said that we must worship God in spirit and truth if we truly expected our worship to be accepted by God (Jn. 4:23-24; Matt. 15:7-9; 1 Tim. 3:15). For those who say that absolute truth either does not exist or cannot be known, I say, how could we worship God in spirit and truth if truth were not knowable?

Christ additionally told us that it would be the truth of His Word which would ultimately judge us all on the last day (Jn. 12:48-50). Psalm 119:89 is still true too: God’s truth has no expiration date, and needs no expediency mandate, or politically-correct update. God fully meant every single word of truth He ever conveyed to His creation (Matt. 4:4; Rom. 3:4); always has, always will.

We who comprise faithful congregations of the church of Christ (Romans 16:16) today, still absolutely believe that. We take God completely “at His word.” That word is what our weekly Bible Classes, Worship Services, and very life’s practices had better all be about exclusively: God’s truth. “Book, chapter, and verse” answers from that which will ultimately judge us all on the last day, because God’s word also makes it abundantly apparent that some are in for quite a surprise come that day (Matt. 7:21-27). We who comprise faithful churches of Christ certainly don’t want to be amongst the thus surprised, nor do we want any of our friends and neighbors to be. Therefore, our plea is quite simple. We know that many people around us every day in our own social circles have salvation questions which might not have ever been thoroughly, scripturally addressed. We would love the privilege to seek to do so, straight out of God’s book, the bible, with “book, chapter, and verse” answers. Doesn’t that sound refreshing? And if you, like us, believe that the Bible is the exclusive truth of Almighty God, then we invite you to please join us in person this coming Sunday for Bible study and Worship “in spirit and truth.” “…And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (Jn. 8:32).

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Hoaxes of Evolution

The apostle Paul warned his young protégé Timothy, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called(1 Tim. 6:20, emp. SW). The term “science” refers to knowledge (as other translations translate), and some commentators believe that it refers to the body of inspired knowledge. Regardless, that which Paul warns deals with a body of truth for which some have created contradictions or hoaxes.

One of the staunchest supporters of Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century was German scientist and noted atheist Ernst Haeckel, who used fraudulent material to promote evolution. Even evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould conceded as much when he wrote,

Haeckel’s forceful, eminently comprehensible, if not always accurate, books appeared in all major languages and surely exerted more influence than the works of any other scientist, including Darwin…in convincing people throughout the world about the validity of evolution…. Haeckel had exaggerated the similarities [between embryos of different species] by idealizations and omissions. He also, in some cases—in a procedure that can only be called fraudulent—simply copied the same figure over and over again….Haeckel’s drawings never fooled expert embryologists, who recognized his fudgings [sic] right from the start. [“Abscheulich! (Atrocious!),” Natural History, March 2000, 42-44]

Unfortunately, much of his noted inaccuracies have become permanent fixtures in many standard biology textbooks, of which one noted educator numbered at least fifty!

Embryology is certainly one area where the strains of evolution are pronounced in science books all over the land. Dr. Jonathan Wells wrote of the time when he was working on his doctorate in cell and development biology,

The textbook I was using prominently featured drawings of vertebrate embryos–fish, chickens, humans, and such like–where similarities were presented as evidence for descent from a common ancestor. Indeed, the drawings did appear very similar. But I’d been studying embryos for some time, looking at them under a microscope. And I knew that the drawings were just plain wrong. I re-checked all my other textbooks. They all had similar drawings, and they were all obviously wrong. Not only did they distort the embryos they pictured; they omitted earlier stages in which the embryos look very different from one another. [“Survival of the Fakest,” The American Spectator, December 2000, Vol. 33, Issue 10, 18-26]

He admitted that most of these very drawings came from Ernst Haeckel. He has since written a book, Icons of Evolution (2002), exposing these misrepresentations and hoaxes of science.

While he barely mentioned the topic of human genesis in The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin later wrote extensively about it in his later book, The Descent of Man, when he said, “My object is to show that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties” (1871, p. 34). In other words, as the materialistic philosophers of ancient Greece, he believed that humans are nothing more than animals, but during his day, he lacked the evidence (fossils) to prove such.

However, evolutionists thought they had arrived at such in 1912 when Charles Dawson found part of a human skull and jawbone in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England. Nevertheless, forty years later, scientists proved that the “Piltdown man” was not the intermediary fossil, but a modern human skull and a jawbone of a modern orangutan, with the jaw being chemically treated to make it look as if it were a fossil, and its teeth deliberately filed down to resemble human teeth. Such was a forgery for sure!

Dr. Harry Rimmer details the infamous “Nebraska Man” hoax in his book, The Theory of Evolution and the Facts of Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1946, pp. 118-123). In 1922, Mr. Harold Cook discovered a fossil that was supposed to prove once and for all that evolution was factual, but it turned out that the single tooth he found was not even human—it was from an extinct pig.

In the November 1999 National Geographic was published an article (“Feathers for T. Rex?”) detailing its discovery of Archaeoraptor—the missing link between birds and dinosaurs. In the issue, it appeared to be a large feathered bird with the tail of a dinosaur. However, closer examination by experts shows the specimen to be two fossils stuck together with strong glue!

Luke Harding reports that Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten was a professor of anthropology at Frankfurt University for thirty years. However, in April 2004, the University forced his resignation when they discovered that he falsified dates on many “stone age” fossils, including a skull fragment that supposedly linked humans and Neanderthals, passing off fake fossils as genuine ones. In addition, the University caught him attempting to sell his department’s complete chimpanzee skull collection to the United States (“History of modern man unravels as German scholar is exposed as fraud,” The Guardian, February 19, 2005).

Why are not more scientists speaking out on the forgeries and hoaxes within their field? Douglas Futuyma’s Evolutionary Biology describes the situation best when it informs students that Darwin’s theory of evolution, Marx’s theory of history, and Freud’s theory of human nature together “provided a crucial plank to the platform of mechanism and materialism,” and Oxford Darwinist Richard Dawkins stated more bluntly, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist” (The Blind Watchmaker, New York: Norton, 1986, pp. 6-7).

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