FAVORITE PSALMS
PART SEVENTY
I love the Lord because
He hears my voice and my
supplications
Because He has inclined
His ear to me,
therefore I shall call upon Him
as long as I live.
The cords of death encompassed
me,
And the terrors of Sheol came
upon me,
I found distress and sorrow.
Then I called upon the
Name of the Lord
"O Lord, I beseech Thee, save
my life!"
Gracious is the Lord, and
righteous
Yes, our God is compassionate
The Lord preserves the simple,
I was brought low and He
saved me,
Return to your rest, O my soul
For the Lord has dealt
bountifully with you
For Thou hast rescued my soul
from death
My eyes from tears,
My feet from stumbling,
I shall walk before the Lord
In the land of the living
I believed when I said
I am greatly afflicted
I said in my alarm
"All men are liars."
What shall I render to the Lord?
For all His benefits toward me?
I shall lift up the cup of
salvation
and call upon the Name
of the Lord.
I shall pay my vows to
the Lord.
Oh, may it be in the presence
of all His people,
Precious in the sight of the
Lord
is the death of His godly ones
O Lord, surely I am Thy servant.
I am Thy servant, the son of
Thine handmaid
Thou hast loosed my bonds
To Thee I shall offer a
sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call upon the Name of
the Lord
I shall pay my vows to the Lord
Oh, may it be in the presence
of all His people
In the courts of the Lord's house
In the midst of you, O, Jerusalem
Praise the Lord!
next post 14th July
PRAISE POST
7
Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God,
Thou art very great. Thou art clothed with glory and majesty.
Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment. Who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain. Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters. Who maketh the clouds His chariot. Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
Who maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire. Who laid the foundations of the world, that it should not be removed forever. Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled: At the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away.
They go up by the mountains. They go down by the valleys unto the place which Thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over. That they turn not again to cover the earth.
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heavens have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth the hills from His chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy works.
He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth. And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted; where birds make their nests. As for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies. He appointed the moon for the seasons: The sun knows his going down.Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth.
The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God.
The sun ariseth; they gather themselves together and lie down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
next post 13th July
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
(one)
(copied from Y- Jesus.com)
We all wonder what will happen to us after we die. When a loved one dies we long to see him or her again after our turn comes. Will we have a glorious reunion with those we love or is death the end of all consciousness?
Jesus taught that life does not end after our bodies die, He made this startling claim :
"I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again."
According to the eyewitnesses closest to Him, Jesus then demonstrated His power over death by rising from the dead after being crucified and buried, for three days. It is this belief that has given hope to Christians for nearly 2000 years.
But some people have no hope of life after death. The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, "I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my own ego will survive. Russell obviously did not believe Jesus' words.
Jesus' followers wrote that he appeared alive to them after His crucifixion and burial. They claim not only to have seen Him but to have eaten with Him, touched Him and spent 40 days with Him.
So could this have been simply a story that grew over time, or is it based on solid evidence? The answer to this question if foundational to Christianity. For if Jesus did rise from the dead it would validate everything He said about Himself, about the meaning of life and our destiny after death.
If Jesus did rise from the dead then He alone would have the answers to what life is all about and what is facing us after we die. On the other hand if the resurrection of Jesus is not true then Christianity would be founded upon a lie.
Theologian R.C. Sprout puts it this way:
"The claim of resurrection is vital to Christianity . If Christ has been raised from the dead by God, then He has the credentials and certification that no other leader possesses."
All other religious leaders are dead but according to Christianity, Christ is alive.
Many skeptics have attempted to disprove the resurrection. Josh McDowell was one such skeptic who spent more than 700 hours researching the evidence for the resurrection. McDowell stated this regarding the resurrection:
"I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men OR it is the most fantastic fact of history. "
McDowell later wrote his classic work, The new evidence that demands a verdict, documenting what he discovered.
So, is Jesus' resurrection a fantastic fact or a vicious myth? To find out we need to look at the evidence of history and draw our own conclusions. Let's see what skeptics who investigated the resurrection discovered for themselves.
next post 12th July
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY 5
Mark Cahill's
book
Many people don't believe that a God created the universe because they can't imagine a being that is eternal. Surely God must have had a beginning, they think. Where did He come from? Who made Him? If they don't have satisfactory answers, then they refuse
to believe.
I find it interesting that, before coming up with the "big bang " theory, scientists believed that the earth was eternal.
They couldn't explain how it came into being by itself, so they claimed that it simply always was - it had no beginning.
Scientists now proclaim that the universe began with a big bang. But that provides more questions than it does answers. There had to be something to go "bang."
Where did the matter come from? What energy force caused the bang? What was the catalyst that set the matter into motion to form the universe? How could order have come from disorder?
Think about that. If you believe that matter existed for all eternity , and it had the ability to spontaneously start up the universe, and it was powerful and intelligent enough to put our immense universe together with order and precision and beauty - haven't you just defined God?
He is not as difficult to believe in as you may have thought. You might not understand Him, but that's no reason to believe that He doesn't exist.
As I came home late one
evening I turned on the
TV and I saw the David
Letterman show was on. His guest was an 80 year old scientist from England, who had just won the Nobel prize. I love the British accent, so I was drawn to listen to the conversation.
The scientist made the statement, "David we have reached the point in science where we know for a fact that there was a beginning to this universe. "
Letterman suddenly straightened up in his chair and looked with surprise at his guest . He said, "Wait a minute, Wait just a minute, if we know that there is a beginning to this universe, doesn't that imply ..."
How would you have finished that sentence if you were speaking? Some people might say "...doesn't that imply that there is an end to the universe?"
But Letterman continued, "... doesn't that imply that there must be a Beginner to this universe? " As you can see, our mind logically leads us to conclude that if there was a beginning there must be a Beginner to this universe - someone to set it all in motion.
The scientist's response was amazing. He stared at the floor for a moment, then looked at Letterman and replied, "That is a place we don't like to go in science. "
What an incredible admission! He was stating that, because he was a scientist, he didn't want to even think about it. We can choose to turn off our logic in our search for truth as we journey through life, but I don't think it is a very wise thing to do. Like Letterman, we know intuitively that beginnings require Beginners.
Next post 11th July
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY 4
Mark Cahill's book
Nobel prize continued
I was talking with a man one day in downtown Atlanta, and I asked him a question about spiritual matters. He replied that he was an atheist and that there was no way to prove that there is a God.
We were standing between tall buildings , so I pointed to one of the skyscrapers and said, "Prove to me that there was a builder for that building." He answered, "That's easy. The building itself is proof that there is a builder."
He was 100% correct. We know that you don't just gather some concrete, pipes,
windows, paint, wires, etc., then turn around and look back to suddenly find a building. A building requires a builder.
I said, " Exactly. The building is proof that there is a builder." I then added, "The sun, the moon, the stars , the oceans, the sand, each unique snowflake, the 3 billion pieces of your DNA that are different from mine, are absolute proof that there had to be a Creator of this universe. "
He looked at me. I could see the light bulb flash behind his eyes, and then he glanced away. As he thought about that statement, he realized he had provided his own proof.
The fact that you can't see, touch, taste smell or hear the builder of a skyscraper doesn't mean that such a person doesn't exist. You don't need any amazing faith to believe there was a builder of a building you can see; you just need to look at the evidence and make an informed decision. And the best piece of evidence you could have is the work that builder left behind.
The same holds true for the God of this universe.
The evidence left for us to look at is all the evidence we will ever need in order to know that our universe has a Creator.
Something from nothing.
Imagine this scenario:
Billions of years ago a dark substance began to evolve from nothing. It came out of nowhere. Then there was a big bang. We don't know what caused the bang, or why, but it happened.
As many millions of years passed , this substance developed a fizz to it and became sweet. Millions of years later some aluminium molecules formed from nothing, gathered together and wrapped themselves around this liquid in the perfect shape of a cylinder. The aluminium then formed a pop top on the cylinder.
Forty or fifty years ago, some red and white paint molecules fell onto the can forming the words "coca cola," an expiration date, and a complete ingredient list. Wow! That is amazing.
This example given by a friend of mine, describes an absurd way of thinking. It would be an insult to your intellect if I insisted that the above scenario were true. This universe is infinitely more complex than a can of coke - yet for some reason people are content to believe that it just came out of nowhere - that something came from nothing. But if a coke can and its contents couldn't happen by random chance processes, how could something as orderly and intricately designed as our universe have been assembled merely by chance? Logically we know that is impossible.
One night I noticed a youth football practice going on across the road from where I was speaking, so I went over and began a conversation with a man who was there to watch his son play. As we chatted he told me that he was Jewish. We talked a little about the Jewish faith, but he mentioned that not only was he not practicing his faith, he was actually an atheist. I found a Jewish atheist to be a very interesting combination.
It was a beautiful night, - nice and chilly, with a bright moon and a canopy of stars . I asked him, "when you see this beautiful creation on a night like
tonight , doesn't it make you think of the Creator Who made this place? " He admitted, "That's what I'm struggling with." He was struggling because he knew when he looked at the sky, that this awesome creation had to come from somewhere. Someone created it, but the question is "Who?"
Next post tomorrow 4th July.
TWENTY SEVENTEEN - PART FOURTEEN
Hello folks,
It is now 8th March - Ruth does not go to town as expected. She keeps cancelling her doctor's appointment for various reasons but mainly because she is not well. This results in my hearing aid not being serviced and my technical problems at Vodacom not getting sorted.
Andy phones, he wants us to do internet work as he is battling to maintain us. Feeling more pressure. When it is all going to end? Will it ever end?
When Ruth is ill she is not an easy person to live with (but God is changing her and molding her and pruning her just as He is also doing with me) I shed more tears seen only by God.
My INR reading is now too high 4.41 and so now I have to have another blood test on Saturday the 11th - more strain.
Thursday 9th - Ruth unpacks some more boxes and our frying pan has now been found among other necessary things which were hidden away in the boxes. We have now been in the cottage for 43 days and still have lots of things to find and don't know where to find them.
Friday 10th March - Ruth has still not seen her doctor. She and Charmaine unpack some more boxes but there is still a long way to go.
Bi polar has been back for a while now. Life is not easy.
Saturday 11th - getting ready to go for blood tests. Benjy is so jittery he claws two holes in my right hand. I cover them with "transpore" - I had decided to tell Ruth not to take him with us as he is too highly strung in the car but decide against it. Don't wish to stir the pot.
I am now in the car with the two small dogs - Benjy and Harry - waiting while Ruth locks up the cottage. Benjy is so wound up he claws a long cut right across my right wrist..
I have now had enough and refuse to take him with us and when Ruth sees the damage she agrees. She takes him back into the house and brings the "transpore."
We leave and find Lucia (Amanda's domestic) and her daughter on the road and give them a lift into town. I remain very quiet - I have now decided to only speak when spoken to. Ruth seems to be in a brighter mood today.
It is quite a mission to get back into the house without
Benjy clawing me again.
I wait for the lab to send my INR blood test reading and it doesn't happen. At around 7pm I send them an SMS but get no reply. Ruth has been sweet and kind all day.
Sunday 12th - still no results from the lab. I send another SMS and still do not get a reply. Probably because it is the weekend and they are closed.
My trust is in the Lord, my God, He will give me the strength and the comfort to get through these trials.
next post 9th July
EVOLUTION
PART 11
(Copied from
Mark Cahill's book
One Heartbeat Away)
Probability
As we have already seen, the law of Biogenesis proves that evolution is not possible. And the complete lack of fossil evidence supports that conclusion.
Another fact that led me to reject evolution was the Law of Probability., which also shows the impossibility of life rising from non-life.
According to Distinguished British astronomer Sir Frederick Hoyle, the number of trial assemblies of amino acids needed to give rise
to the enzymes needed for life, and their
discovery by random shuffling turns out to be less than 1 in 1 X 1040,000. Just to give you an idea how astronomical this number is , one trillion is only 1012 . And it is estimated that there are only 1080 electrons in the entire universe! So, 1040,000 of anything is almost impossible even to imagine.
Mathematicians say that any event in which the chances are beyond one in 1050 is impossible. It is an event that we can state with certainty will never happen, no matter how much time is allotted and no matter what conceivable opportunities could exist for the event to take place.
Recall that Hoyle said the probability of an enzyme arising spontaneously was less than one in 1040,000, - which is an incredibly lesser probability than the 1 in 1050 that makes an event impossible.
Dr Harold Morowitz, former professor of biophysics, at Yale University, estimated that the probability for the chance formation of the smallest, simplest form of living organism known, is one chance in 10340,000,000.
And the famous astronomer and evolutionist Carl Sagan,
estimated that the chance of life evolving on any single planet, including Earth, is one chance in 102,000,000,000.
Do you realise how huge that number is? It would take 6,000 books with 300 pages each just to write this number out . So, if ever anything were impossible, spontaneous generation would have to be it.
According to the Law of Probability then, the odds of life arising from non-life are far beyond the realm of possibility . And that is just for a single molecule to come to life. How would you explain the complexity of life forms or the formation of the extremely detailed DNA code?
Human DNA, for example, contains three billion pieces of information - literally tens of thousands of pages worth. Did that information develop and evolve one page at a time ?
How could undirected , random chance have
created complex
information such as this?
It boggles the mind to think about it. It certainly does not indicate chance but rather design.
A man once posed this question to me: If you lined up a computer, a robot, a 474 Jet, and a lowly worm, which one would a scientist say was the most intricately designed of those four?
I thought it would be the worm. He told me I was right, and that is also what scientists say. When you examine the function of a digestive system, or any least physical system, you begin to appreciate the highly ordered inner workings of that system.
We know for a fact, that the computer had a creator and designer; we know the robot had a creator and designer; we know that the 747 Jet had a creator and designer; but somehow we think the worm happened by luck and by chance over time? That just doesn't make sense.
If the inanimate objects needed a creator and a designer, not only would the complex living, self -replicating worm have to have had a creator and designer, but it would have to had a much greater Creator and Designer than those inanimate objects. And if this is true even of the "simple" worm, imagine what it would take for something as amazingly complex as the human brain to form.
Even Carl Sagan admits : "The information content of the human brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among neurons - about a hundred trillion, 10" bits. If written out in English, that information would fill some twenty million volumes - as many as in the world's largest libraries. The equivalent of twenty million books is inside the head of every one of us. The brain is a very big place in a very small space.... The neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy , the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans."
If humans cannot devise something as astonishing as the brain, Who can - and Who did?
World renowned crusader for Darwinism , Professor Richard Dawkins states;
" We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully "designed " to have come into existence by chance."
next post 8th July
FAVORITE PSALMS
What shall I render to the Lord?
