James 4:13-16 “Look
here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town
and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a
profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life
is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What
you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this
or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such
boasting is evil.”
Up
until yesterday, I read this passage of scripture as if it were telling
us not to plan ahead, because we don’t know if we’ll still be alive to
do what we’ve planned. That’s probably why I didn’t pay very much
attention to it, since I knew that Proverbs 21:5 specifically tells us
to make diligent plans for the future - “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty.” So what is it? Should we make plans or not?
I
think asking this question is beside the point. Of course we need to
make plans for our life! In two different passages in Proverbs (6:6 and
30:25), the lowly ant is considered wise because it stores food in the
summer to eat during the winter. Isn’t that planning ahead? Should the
ant give up its preparation because it doesn’t know if it’s going to be
stepped on today?
And what is our Christian walk if it’s not a plan for the future? I
don’t know about you, but my plans extend 1,000 years into the future
and beyond!
The
issue in this passage isn’t the planning itself. The issue here is,
who’s responsible for the decisions in your life - you or God? You see,
when you made Jesus your Lord - you made Him your owner, your ruler,
your boss. You no longer have the right to direct your own life anymore.
Didn’t you know this already? 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Your life belongs to God now! That means, whatever He says you do!
Psalm 37:23 shows what this kind of life looks like, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.” Romans 8:14 echoes this, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” When you truly give your life to Jesus, you’re surrendering the control of every decision you make!
Sadly,
this couldn’t be any more different from the modern American ‘gospel.’
We’re being told that God’s grace allows us to add God’s forgiveness to
whatever lifestyle we want. We’ve told Jesus to be our Savior and never
really made Him Lord. The motto of this gospel is, “Jesus died so we
could live (any way we want)!”
The fact is, Jesus didn’t die so we could live our own life. He died so we could die to our own life! 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says this: “If One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” When Jesus died for us, He gave us the power to die to our will and live in His will.
No
more of this American religion! No more calling Jesus ‘Lord’ and
ignoring what He tells us! No more hearing and never doing! Listen to
how your Lord ended His most famous sermon:
Matthew 7:24-27 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it
is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the
rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat
against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.”
“But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey
it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains
and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse
with a mighty crash.”
The
first type of man represents the people who hear (and read) God’s Word
and do it! Even though it’s tough, even though everyone says there’s an
easier way, even when it takes longer to get what they want - they build
their life God’s way. This kind of life, built on obedience to God’s
Word, stands up to the storm.
The
second type of man represents the people who hear God’s Word and go
about their own way. They know they should spend time in the Bible, but
they’ve got a busy life. They know that God loves cheerful givers, but
money’s tight at the moment. They know that the Bible tells parents to
discipline their kids, but they want their kids to like them! So,
instead of doing things God’s way - they decide that God will understand
if they do it their own way. After all - “God knows my heart!” So they
call Him ‘Lord’ and then act like they’re living their own life. This is
a life built on sand, my friend! Let a few raindrops fall, and
everything collapses!
I
know God’s way isn’t always easy - but it is always right! It’s time
for a true altar call this morning. It’s time, once and for all, to lay
down your life as a living sacrifice. It’s time to finally make Jesus
your Lord and Savior. Stop pretending like you can still do things your own way!
Luke 6:46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Monday, June 18, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
A Renegade Theory
Stop me if you’ve seen this before. A cartoon character walks up to a pile of wood and nails and puts a stick of dynamite under it. A few seconds later, the dynamite explodes and all the pieces of wood fall and form a beautiful house. It’s pretty common, right? It’s funny in a cartoon because we know that it simply doesn’t happen in real life. But there’s a belief, a religious faith masquerading as science, that is trying to force us to accept a bigger version of that scenario. It is the theory of naturalistic evolution.
Even though it’s claimed to be the cutting edge of science, there is never any new forms of the General Theory of Evolution (GTE) presented. The story that the GTE tells is this: 13.7 billion years ago, all the matter in the entire universe began to draw together. As it continued to compact, this ball of matter also began to spin. Eventually, it compacted together so much that all of the matter in the universe could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence. As this little dot was spinning, it suddenly exploded and broke apart. This is what is referred to as the “Big Bang.” The explosion spread the matter into the various galaxies, stars and planets - including this one. Earth (originally a molten ball of rock) cooled off and the oceans formed gradually. About 3.8 billion years ago, the first complex DNA molecules replicated and formed the first simple life forms. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, life evolved and became more and more complex. Finally, around 3 ½ million years ago, humans began to evolve out of the primate lineage. In the “blink of an evolutionary eye”, mankind dominated the earth.
Well...that’s the thought anyway. The GTE is pushed everywhere now: in every schoolbook, on every TV show, in every conversation about dinosaurs. The system simply demands that we accept this theory without question. It seems like the message coming from our schools is, “You don’t have to think about this, kids. We’ve already thought it through for you.”
For the believer, the GTE is unacceptable. I don’t know about you, but I believe the Bible - above anything and anyone else! And, as you know, the Bible tells a much different story about our origins. As a believer, God’s Word is always my first objection to this secular interpretation of the natural world. It simply cannot be true - it disagrees with the eyewitness account of the only One Who was there at the beginning!
Not only does the GTE insult my faith in God’s Word, it also insults my intelligence. It’s a renegade theory - it defies the laws and principles of science! For something to be accepted as a scientific fact, it must first be observed, tested, and repeated. If your theory cannot meet these criteria, it may be an interesting theory - but don’t tell me that I have to believe it!
The goal of the GTE is to eliminate the need for God in the creation of the universe. No spiritual concept is allowed into this theory. As a renowned evolutionist said, “We cannot allow a divine foot in the door.” So evolutionist are strictly confined to the natural world with all its natural laws. This is ironic, since this theory breaks so many of these laws without explanation.
Laws like:
#1. The first law of thermodynamics - Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. Matter can’t be eternal (eternity is a supernatural concept, not a scientific one), so where did it come from? Not just matter, though - how did space, time, and energy come into being?
#2. The law of inertia - Objects at rest (or in motion) tend to stay at rest (or in motion) unless acted upon by an outside force. If all of the matter in the universe was in that single dot, where did the outside force come from to start it spinning?
#3. The law of conservation of angular momentum - The pieces of a spinning object keep that spin when they break apart. In other words, if a rotor blade broke off of a helicopter while it was spinning, that blade would keep spinning in the same direction. If the Big Bang were true, all of the galaxies, stars, and planets - or at least most of them - should be spinning in the same direction. That’s not what we see! Objects in space are spinning, revolving and rotating in all different directions.
#4. The first law of biogenesis - Life can only come from other life. This law has been clearly defined since Louis Pasteur in the mid-1800s.
#5. The law of information - Information can only come from an intelligent source. This law is why we recognize the difference between an old arrowhead and a rock. We recognize the signs of intelligence. Nature has a tendency to make things random. Whenever we see non-random patterns, it’s likely to be a sign of intelligence. If we know that’s true with rocks, then why is this law ignored when we look at the cellular and genetic world? Each single cell in our body is easily as complex as a city’s infrastructure. Each cell has its own unique traits and highly organized systems - and we being told to believe there was no intelligence involved in their design?
But let’s go beyond the cell to the DNA inside the cell. Did you know that the DNA in your cells contains the blueprints for your entire body - in coded form? Not only is all of your information stored in your DNA, but the very code that your body needs to read that information is written there as well! Your DNA is so complex that a single teaspoon of it can hold 800 trillion megabytes worth of information - enough to fill 1 trillion CDs! For perspective, that’s enough CDs to lay end-to-end from the earth to the sun 750 times! And every one of them can be filled with the information that fits on a single teaspoon of DNA! This is a level of information that we haven’t even come close to yet!
Knowing this, how could someone even try to explain in naturally? That information had to start somewhere! Someone much smarter than we are had to write our genetic code.
There is no chance that this kind of complexity came about by chance!
I believe David summed this up in Psalm 139:14 - “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
Even though it’s claimed to be the cutting edge of science, there is never any new forms of the General Theory of Evolution (GTE) presented. The story that the GTE tells is this: 13.7 billion years ago, all the matter in the entire universe began to draw together. As it continued to compact, this ball of matter also began to spin. Eventually, it compacted together so much that all of the matter in the universe could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence. As this little dot was spinning, it suddenly exploded and broke apart. This is what is referred to as the “Big Bang.” The explosion spread the matter into the various galaxies, stars and planets - including this one. Earth (originally a molten ball of rock) cooled off and the oceans formed gradually. About 3.8 billion years ago, the first complex DNA molecules replicated and formed the first simple life forms. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, life evolved and became more and more complex. Finally, around 3 ½ million years ago, humans began to evolve out of the primate lineage. In the “blink of an evolutionary eye”, mankind dominated the earth.
Well...that’s the thought anyway. The GTE is pushed everywhere now: in every schoolbook, on every TV show, in every conversation about dinosaurs. The system simply demands that we accept this theory without question. It seems like the message coming from our schools is, “You don’t have to think about this, kids. We’ve already thought it through for you.”
For the believer, the GTE is unacceptable. I don’t know about you, but I believe the Bible - above anything and anyone else! And, as you know, the Bible tells a much different story about our origins. As a believer, God’s Word is always my first objection to this secular interpretation of the natural world. It simply cannot be true - it disagrees with the eyewitness account of the only One Who was there at the beginning!
Not only does the GTE insult my faith in God’s Word, it also insults my intelligence. It’s a renegade theory - it defies the laws and principles of science! For something to be accepted as a scientific fact, it must first be observed, tested, and repeated. If your theory cannot meet these criteria, it may be an interesting theory - but don’t tell me that I have to believe it!
The goal of the GTE is to eliminate the need for God in the creation of the universe. No spiritual concept is allowed into this theory. As a renowned evolutionist said, “We cannot allow a divine foot in the door.” So evolutionist are strictly confined to the natural world with all its natural laws. This is ironic, since this theory breaks so many of these laws without explanation.
Laws like:
#1. The first law of thermodynamics - Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. Matter can’t be eternal (eternity is a supernatural concept, not a scientific one), so where did it come from? Not just matter, though - how did space, time, and energy come into being?
#2. The law of inertia - Objects at rest (or in motion) tend to stay at rest (or in motion) unless acted upon by an outside force. If all of the matter in the universe was in that single dot, where did the outside force come from to start it spinning?
#3. The law of conservation of angular momentum - The pieces of a spinning object keep that spin when they break apart. In other words, if a rotor blade broke off of a helicopter while it was spinning, that blade would keep spinning in the same direction. If the Big Bang were true, all of the galaxies, stars, and planets - or at least most of them - should be spinning in the same direction. That’s not what we see! Objects in space are spinning, revolving and rotating in all different directions.
#4. The first law of biogenesis - Life can only come from other life. This law has been clearly defined since Louis Pasteur in the mid-1800s.
#5. The law of information - Information can only come from an intelligent source. This law is why we recognize the difference between an old arrowhead and a rock. We recognize the signs of intelligence. Nature has a tendency to make things random. Whenever we see non-random patterns, it’s likely to be a sign of intelligence. If we know that’s true with rocks, then why is this law ignored when we look at the cellular and genetic world? Each single cell in our body is easily as complex as a city’s infrastructure. Each cell has its own unique traits and highly organized systems - and we being told to believe there was no intelligence involved in their design?
But let’s go beyond the cell to the DNA inside the cell. Did you know that the DNA in your cells contains the blueprints for your entire body - in coded form? Not only is all of your information stored in your DNA, but the very code that your body needs to read that information is written there as well! Your DNA is so complex that a single teaspoon of it can hold 800 trillion megabytes worth of information - enough to fill 1 trillion CDs! For perspective, that’s enough CDs to lay end-to-end from the earth to the sun 750 times! And every one of them can be filled with the information that fits on a single teaspoon of DNA! This is a level of information that we haven’t even come close to yet!
Knowing this, how could someone even try to explain in naturally? That information had to start somewhere! Someone much smarter than we are had to write our genetic code.
There is no chance that this kind of complexity came about by chance!
I believe David summed this up in Psalm 139:14 - “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
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