October 28, 2001 Volume 2 Number 43
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God Bless … We have recently been hearing the phrase God Bless America just about everywhere we turn. Even baseball games have replaced the famous “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” with “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch. It has been a wonderful demonstration of patriotism that has been sorely lacking in our county. Children are once again reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and the ACLU is upset, what could be better? A lot of things could be, but I thought I would use the opportunity for a laugh. Among those things that could be better is the realization among God’s people of the opportunity to spread the gospel that exists during this time. We should realize the opportunity at all times but the conversations most of us are having with co-workers, friends and family revolve around God. After our Lord’s deep discussion with the Samaritan woman (John 4) and her recounting of the discussion with the people of the city, in turn, they come out to see Jesus. His response to this sight and lesson for his disciples and us was this recorded in verses 34-36, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.” In Matt 9:37-38 we read, “Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Our Lord’s words were true then and they are true now. What will our response be? As God’s elect we must heed His commands. In Mark 16:15 we are instructed, “And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” In order to do this we must “…sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Pet 3:15). Opportunities abound now---take advantage of them. Questions are being asked --- prepare yourself to answer. In fact these opportunities need to be bought up. Paul writes in Col 4:5, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.” To redeem the time is to buy it up, figuratively “to rescue from loss” (Strong’s). This too does not occur by accident we must prepare ourselves for the opportunities that come our way. Paul goes on to say in verse 6, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” We must learn to control our speech and learn to say the right things at the right times. Souls are at stake and we must respond. In order to travel the road to heaven successfully we must bear fruit. Jesus tells us, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matt 7:19-20). This lesson is also taught in the Parable of the Sower. Matt 13:23 says, “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." How do we feel about these things? They form the very heart of our goal and responsibility as Christians. We want to be wise enough to win souls. In Proverbs we find these words, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise” (11:30). These are goals we want to have. We want to be good at it. We want God to feel that he can open up doors of opportunity to us and that we will be able to take advantage of them. The Other Side… There are also those who because they have not made good use of their time and opportunities are still unprepared to teach. Though this is not a good situation to be in, most of those to whom the Hebrew letter was addressed were guilty of it. “of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:11-14). Let’s be honest with ourselves brethren. Which side most accurately describes us? Are our senses exercised to discern good and evil, or do we still need to have someone teach us the rudiments? Do you understand the basics? Can you teach them to brethren and unbelievers? There is time, but we must make the time!
Fisherman? Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, and the other was not. Everytime the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back. The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing this man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?" he asked. The inexperienced fisherman replied "I only have a small frying pan." Sometimes like the fisherman, we throw back the big plans, big dreams, big jobs, big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small. We laugh at that fisherman who did not figure out that all he needed was a BIGGER FRYING PAN yet how ready are we to increase the SIZE OF OUR FAITH. Whether it's a problem or a possibility, God will never give you anything bigger than you can handle. That means we can confidently walk into anything God brings our way. You can do all things through Christ. (Philippians 4:13) Nothing is too big for God. Stop telling God you have BIG problems. TELL YOUR PROBLEMS YOU HAVE A BIG GOD! The Power Of One One song can spark a
moment The Bombardier
Beetle The following description of one of God's fascinating creations was found in a book called The Collapse of Evolution by Scott Huse. Creatures like the bombardier beetle cause evolutionists to have cold sweats! Many other such examples are found in nature. They are reported in various books which critically investigate the evolutionary hypothesis. The bombardier beetle is a small insect that is armed with a shockingly impressive defense system. Whenever threatened by an enemy attack, this spirited little beetle blasts irritating and odious gases, which are at 212 degrees F. out from two tail pipes right into the unfortunate face of the would be aggressor. Dr. Wermann Schildknecht, a German chemist, studied the bombardier beetle to find out how he accomplishes this impressive chemical feat. He learned that the beetle makes his explosive by mixing together two very dangerous chemicals (hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide). In addition to these two chemicals, this clever little beetle adds another type of chemical known as an inhibitor. The inhibitor prevents the chemicals from blowing up and enables the beetle to store the chemicals indefinitely. Whenever our beetle friend is approached by a predator, such as a frog, he squirts the stored chemicals into the two combustion tubes, and at precisely the right moment he adds another chemical (an anti-inhibitor). This knocks out the inhibitor, and a violent explosion occurs right in the face of the poor attacker. Could such a marvelous and complex mechanism have evolved piecemeal over millions of years? The evolutionist is forced to respond with a somewhat sheepish "yes," but a brief consideration of this opinion will reveal its preposterous nature. According to evolutionary "thinking" there must have been thousands of generations of beetles improperly mixing these hazardous chemicals in fatal evolutionary experiments, blowing themselves to pieces. Eventually. we are assured, they arrived at the magic formula, but what about the development of the inhibitor? There is no need to evolve an inhibitor unless you already have the two chemicals you are trying to inhibit. On the other hand. if you already have the two chemicals without the inhibitor, it is already too late, for you have just blown yourself up. Obviously, such an arrangement would never arise apart from intelligent foresight and planning. Nevertheless, let us assume that our little beetle friend somehow managed to simultaneously develop the two chemicals along with the all- important inhibitor. The resultant solution would offer no benefit at all to the beetle, for it would just sit there as a harmless concoction. To be of any value to the beetle, the anti-inhibitor must he added to the solution. So, once again, for thousands of generations we are supposed to believe that these poor beetles mixed and stored these chemicals for no particular reason or advantage until finally, the anti- inhibitor was perfected. Now he is really getting somewhere! With the anti-inhibitor developed he can now blow himself to pieces, frustrating the efforts of the hungry predator who wants to eat him. Ah yes, he still needs to evolve the two combustion tubes, and a precision communications and timing network to control and adjust the critical direction and timing of the explosion. So, here we go again; for thousands of generations these carefree little beetles went around celebrating the 4th of July by blowing themselves to pieces until finally they mastered their new found powers. But what would be the motivation for such disastrous, trial and error, piecemeal evolution? Everything in evolution is supposed to make perfect sense and have a logical purpose, or else it would never develop. But such a process does not make any sense at all, and to propose that the entire defense system evolved all at once is astronomically improbable, if not impossible. Yet, nature abounds with countless such examples of perfect coordination. Thus, we can only conclude that the surprising little bombardier beetle is a strong witness for special creation, for there is no other rational explanation for such a wonder. (Scott Huse, The Collapse of Evolution, pp. 78-79) The Spirit Expressly
Says ... The Bible Is The Voice of God "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" Hebrews 1:1,2. The passage just quoted reveals several facts about the Bible:
The Bible is the voice of God. Food For Thought Self-Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. The best way to be in control of ourselves by escaping the pull of evil is to consistently pursue good. Beware of saying, "I haven't time to read the Bible, or to pray"; rather it's, "I haven't exercised self-control to do these things foremost." -- Oswald Chambers If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy! Everyone has patience, for most everyone has learned to put up with themselves. We
hope you find this bulletin useful in your Bible study. 2
Sam 22:31
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