Posted in contemplative prayer, discernment, john macarthur, mind, renew the mind, speaking in tongues, transformation

"Spirituality involves more than the mind, but it never excludes the mind"

Posted on by elizabethprata

The title of this blog essay is a quote from John MacArthur in the New Testament Commentary, First Corinthians. It refers to the verse below.

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14: 13-19)

Even in Corinth during the early church, believers had a tendency to lust after the more showy Spiritual gifts, particularly tongues. Tongues were actual languages believers could spontaneously utter, not having studied or having any knowledge of the language at all, yet could speak it perfectly. This was a sign to unbelievers, a fulfillment of a prophecy given in the Old Testament. (Isaiah 28:11).

However today, tongues are seen to be a babbling gibberish that comes directly from heaven and falls out of the mouth, (to the edification of no one) thereby bypassing the mind. However this is not correct.

“Spirituality involves more than the mind, but it never excludes the mind.”

There are many spiritual activities today that directly exclude the mind. Contemplative prayer (or centering prayer) excludes the mind. How can this be? We are told to contemplate the Lord, (2 Corinthians 3:18, Psalm 48:9), so contemplation is good. We are told to pray, (Matthew 6:9-13), so prayer is good. How can both terms together not be doubly good? In the words of the inimitable Inigo Montoya,

THIS is how the unstable twist truth to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16). Putting together two commonly understood words but using them in a different way than is commonly understood is a bible twist. For example, praying mindlessly. Putting words together that are commonly understood but creating a different context for them through continued spiritual activity is another way that the truth is twisted. For example, babbling mindlessly.

So the “modern version” of tongues bypasses the mind, and contemplative prayer bypasses the mind, and neither are valid spiritual activities grounded in biblical truth. Another activity where the mind is bypassed is what the Southern Baptist Convention calls a ‘private prayer language‘ AKA modern gibberish tongues uttered in the closet while praying. The notion is that when a person prays, God will sometimes utter gibberish that the speaker knows not the meaning of but is a direct communication between the Spirit indwelling the person and Jesus up above. Private prayer languages were explained (or attempted to be explained) back in 2006 when the SBC originally banned potential applicant missionaries if they confessed to speaking in glossolalia either public or private:

IMB board of trustees chairman Tom Hatley said that during candidate interviews, those who practiced a private prayer language gave differing explanations of it, varying from an angelic language to a “revelatory” gift of the Holy Spirit.

Thinking is what
clicks ON the Light

So, they don’t really know what it is, only that they do it. All the more reason to refuse to accept it. Unfortunately last week the SBC re-accepted the applications of potential missionaries who pray in gibberish. Sad. Tongues being gibberish isn’t supported by the Bible, the transformation of the biblical gift of tongues from a known language to today’s gibberish in modern times isn’t supported by the Bible, either. Possessing a Spiritual Gift and only using it for personal use isn’t supported by the Bible. Employing a Spiritual gift through the heart or body only and not the mind also, isn’t supported by the Bible. A Christian’s walk uses the mind AND the heart.

Let’s see what the Bible says about the mind.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2).

and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, (Ephesians 4:23).

Gill’s Exposition explains that after salvation/justification, the “progress and carrying on the work of renovation, the renewing of them day by day in the spirit of their minds,” i.e renewing the mind obviously includes the mind.

but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:23)

Gill’s again, says that “the new nature in us, the principle of grace wrought in his mind, is called the law of it, because it was the governing principle there;” Our transformation begins in the mind.

The heart is transformed, surely, but the governing principle is the mind. The new mind is equivalent to the new inner self. We have the mind of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Whenever you encounter an activity that exults in the fact that the mind is emptied, bypassed, marginalized, or in any way not fully engaged, it is a wrong activity. Because God’s transformation of us begins in the mind, bypassing the mind is actually choosing to bypass His sanctifying efforts in us. Not only will we not increase in sanctification through contemplative prayer, speaking in gibbering tongues, uttering private prayer languages, walking prayer circles or labyrinths, chanting mantras, barking holy laughter, doing “holy” yoga, seeking visions in trances, any of that which denies the mind is actually denying the mind of Christ. These activities exalt the self because you are indulging the fleshly mind. (Colossians 2:18).

Back to the title, which is a quote from John MacArthur. The Bible shows us that sanctification involves more than the mind, but it never excludes the mind. Beware of activities that sound spiritual, but aren’t. You will know they aren’t healthy for you if they exclude the mind.

His mind is too precious to waste.

Posted in church, end time

The reality of the first century church

Posted on by elizabethprata

We’re often reminded that the early church was powerful, pure, and to be emulated. And certainly, the following verse is weighty on our consciences, and it’s truly to be emulated. This was the church in its earliest days:

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, (Acts 2:42)

This was the church in its early weeks.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. (Acts 4:32)

But that purity was fleeting if it ever truly existed. In its earliest days, remember, Ananias and Sapphira were killed for lying to the Holy Spirit in front of the church. Though sin had always been present, because people were present, Ananias and Sapphira’s act was the first overt, discoverable perfidy. Yet the myth of the pure church persists.

Now we look at the Church at Corinth. Paul had strongly admonished them, he’d used sarcasm, and he soundly chided the members who had gotten drunk at the Lord’s Table, had divided into factions, had sought the ‘better’ spiritual gifts, had done all manner of things unbecoming to a believing church. And now the worst of all:

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:12).

Some Christians were even denying the resurrection! The book of First Corinthians was written in about 55 AD, a mere twenty years after Our Lord’s death and resurrection. Paul even mentioned in verse 6 many brethren who were still alive at the time that Jesus appeared to the 500! Yet some in “the early church” denied the verifiable fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! A “pure” church? Hardly.

When we read that the earliest church in its earliest days were all “of one mind” I think we would be startled to see how fleeting that was. From almost the very the beginning, sin and falsity lurked.

A parallel to this picture of sin crouching at the door can be seen in the Millennium Kingdom. After the Tribulation and Jesus’ Second Coming, He sets up a kingdom in fulfillment of His promises to His people Israel. He personally rules on earth, with a rod of iron. The Temple is cleansed and sacrifices are ongoing. People come from all quarters of the earth, finally funneled down the Kings Highway to worship Jesus in person. The Church Saints are given tasks to perform, ruling and reigning with Jesus. Satan and his demons are locked up in the abyss. Ahhh, perfection.

Not so fast.

When satan is let out of the abyss at the end of the 1000 years, he gathers sinful people to his side in a rebellion that starts so fast it makes the head spin. All that while, when it seemed that people were at peace with Jesus, they weren’t. They were sinning greatly in their hearts. All it took is the serpent to draw that poison out of them and he uses it to foment a revolution.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, (Revelation 20:7-19).

Sin!

So the point is that man’s sin, even with satan’s influence a total unknown to the people born people in the 1000-year kingdom, thus with satan’s temptations completely absent from their lives, sin still lurks strongly in the heart of man- hiding. It’s there, just as it was in the earliest church. Ananias and Sapphira tell us this, the believers at Corinth questioning the resurrection tell us this.

Here is Pulpit Commentary on 1 Cor:12-19. Bold & italics are mine.

The resurrection of Christ is the basis of our faith in the general resurrection. Verse 12. – Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. St. Paul sees that if One has risen from the dead, the fact of that miracle, taken in connection with the rest of the gospel, furnishes Christians with a sufficient proof that they shall rise. “For,” he had already said to the Thessalonians, “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (see the same argument in Romans 8:11).

“That there is no resurrection of the dead”. These deniers of the resurrection are usually called “the Corinthian Sadducees.” After the state of social and moral laxity of which we have been reading, we can scarcely be surprised at the existence of any disorder or anomaly in the Church of Corinth. Yet it comes with something of a shock on our paralyzed sense of astonishment to read that some of these Christians actually denied a resurrection! The fact at once proves remarkable truths, namely,

(1) that the early Christian Church had none of the ideal purity of doctrine which is sometimes ecclesiastically attributed to it;

What does this tell us for today? Well, if your church is in disarray, as the church at Corinth was, you’re in good company. Secondly, if we stop comparing our church with an idealized first century church we might be a little more content with our own. Third, being disaffected by or leaving our church for shallow reasons is really bad. No church is perfect, not even the first century church. It still astounds me that there were resurrection-deniers in the same generation witnesses as when Jesus was actually resurrected!

The pure church to emulate is the one where people sometimes sin, sometimes waver on foundational doctrines, love the word, love each other, forgive where necessary, repenting always, submitting to their elders, and worshiping together in in Spirit and in truth. Like the first century church did. 

Posted in God, god is a gentleman, sovereignty

Is God a gentleman? The illusion of a Gentleman God

Posted on by elizabethprata

Facebook, blogs, and Twitter are interesting to me as a Christian. They are forums where I can read which doctrines fellow believers are thinking, saying, accepting and promoting. These forums afford me greater exposure to the believing, professing church than I ever would be exposed to otherwise. And it works in reverse too, anything I post will also be transparently exposed for other professing, believing church members to see and either accept or reject.

In one way it’s great to see and experience the wider church, and in another sense it’s sad. It is great for the obvious reasons. We tend to become myopic in our local assemblies. Visibly experiencing the wider church keeps us linked. It’s a pure comfort to share the victories and Godly successes of others, even at a virtual distance.

On the sad side, I read abominable things. Many people believe and profess in “another Jesus”, an altogether different Savior than the One revealed to us in scripture. Other people say ridiculous things on social media. That is the focus of this essay. People say the strangest things with a straight face. One of the ridiculous things I’m reading more and more often now is the following:

“God is a gentleman. He would never interfere with our free will.”

People who say this obviously never read their bible much. On the face of it, this wrong-headed statement is easy to refute. God is certainly not a gentleman. He is God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:5). He drowned the entire world for sin. (Genesis 7:21). He killed Uzzah for touching the ark. (2 Samuel 6:7) He Threw Jonah into a fish. (Jonah 1:17). He killed Ananias and Sapphira on the spot in front of the church, for lying. (Acts 5:5, 10).

In the less visible example, it is still easy to refute. Our minds are blinded.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Worse, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13).

We cannot freely “choose God”. We should be grateful that He doesn’t politely stand aside, never interfering with our free will, otherwise no one ever would be saved!

I searched for a credible and doctrinal essay to make the point about God not being a gentleman. I found a great one in Robert Bernecker’s wonderful book, “Who’s Your Father: Returning to the Love of the Biblical God.” His Chapter 2 especially makes the point, gracefully, biblically, and firmly. PLEASE read the entire essay!!

For now, here are a few excerpts.

The Illusion of a Gentleman God
by Robert Bernecker

We sing songs such as the popular “Our God Reigns” with great enthusiasm and joy, and then we turn right around and teach that God does not in fact reign over the wills of humans, perhaps even in the very same church service. Do we believe he reigns or do we not?

From Genesis to Revelation, God freely interferes with human will to accomplish his own eternal purpose. Even the great sinful rebellion seen in Revelation 17 is said “to carry out God’s purpose” (v. 17). In regards to the choices and actions of the ten sinful, rebellious kings described in this passage, we are told explicitly that “God put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose” (v. 17), which in this case will be his inevitable conquering of these rebellious kings and people (v. 14).

The collective preponderance of these many Scriptures thoroughly dispels the notion that God is somehow a “gentleman” that is either unable or unwilling to turn the hearts and wills of humans (and thereby their choices) to accomplish his own purpose. In fact, Psalm 33:10 (NASB) teaches us the exact opposite: “The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.” We do not read that the Lord honors the counsel of the nations and carefully respects the plans of the people. Instead, we are told, “The Lord reigns, let the people tremble!” (Psalm 99:1). We should learn from Jeremiah, who declared his awareness of this glorious truth in Jeremiah 10:23: “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”

Contrary to much popular teaching of our day, our Father clearly can and regularly does interfere with human free will. To our great loss, we have drifted far from the historic confession of God’s sovereign involvement in every facet of his creation. In fact, Augustine made no effort to conceal his disdain for any such suggestions that would artificially limit God’s ascendancy, and he wrote bluntly that it was “blasphemous” and “foolish” to assert that God does not change the wills of men whenever and however he chooses.4 We must repent of such foolishness, and we should instead praise our God that he does change our will! Many who profess that “God is a gentleman” have probably never considered the consequences of a world where God, for whatever reason they may assert, did not actually influence, change, and interfere with humanity’s fallen will. How horrible indeed that would be!

Posted in boaz, field, kinsman redeemer, ruth, shepherd

The Most Important Field

Posted on by elizabethprata

For a lot of guys (and gals too I guess) the football field is the most important field. They pay attention to what happens on it. They diligently keep stats, wanting to know all the minutiae regarding their team, or their favorite player. In season, the football field dominates their life.

For moms, oftentimes the soccer field is the dominant field. In season, the soccer field is ground zero to which all her activities point. The main thrust of the day is to get the child to practice or to the game on time. To be present at the field to cheer on the child. To comfort the child in what happens on the field that may have upset him or her. And to celebrate what happens on the field in victory.

There are lots of meaningful fields in people’s lives. The field where he first proposed. The field where you won your first game (for me, the field hockey field). The field where you bring your beloved dog to play in pleasant past-times. The field where you had picnics with your father, and where they dug it up, to your horror, to put up a parking garage, or a subdivision.

However there is only one field of importance. Shepherds Field.

Source: Images of the Holy Land

‎Black goats glean the remains of the yellow grass at the end of a long summer in the surroundings of the Shepherds’ Field. This primeval landscape was the background of many of the events related in the Old and New Testament. Rachel died and was buried nearby, Ruth met Boaz, a meeting which was to lead to the birth of King David, and the shepherds first heard from the angel about the birth of Jesus nearby in Bethlehem. “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

Jesus is the treasure. It was a privilege for the angels to announce Him to the inhabitants of the earth, initially, the shepherds in the field. And here is a beautiful picture of the coming Savior, who will open His field to the Gentiles, redeem them, feed them, and protect them.

Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. 4And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” 5Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”

8Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.” (Ruth 2:1-13)

We serve an incredible Jesus, who was announced to lowly shepherds in the field.

Posted in gethsemane, mighty, sword

What a Mighty Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

[From the Archives: Five years ago this month:]

The scene in Gethsemane usually focused on is the sweet scene where Jesus is praying, alone. It touches the heart to see the beginning of the emotional and physical travail our Savior endured for our sakes. But John’s Gospel alone has the scene where Judas arrives with the soldiers and the soldiers approach Jesus. Jesus asks the soldiers whom they seek:

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. (John 18:4-6)

This is a picture of what will happen in Armageddon. Both the Old and the New Testaments are replete with passages that at once depict live events, events that are partial fulfillments of the near future, and are complete fulfillments of things that will happen in the far future. One example comes to mind, the destruction of Sodom for sin, and how Peter advised us that what happened at Sodom is an example of what will happen to the ungodly in the future.

As Jesus spoke, his very words (almost) slew the soldiers, and they fell onto their backs. This is a picture of Rev 19:15, 21

The Coming of Christ
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

And to confirm, Isaiah 11:4;

But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

THIS is the mighty God we serve! He speaks, and the wicked fall. He speaks and worlds are made. He speaks, and angels fly. He speaks, and billions are redeemed. He is mighty and wonderful! No matter what comes upon us in this world before the Tribulation happens, He will see us through it, and then as we fly to Him and meet Him in the air, so we shall be with Him always!

Posted in absolution, jesus, pope, prophecy, sins

Pope’s powers have expanded to forgive abortions. Sweet!

Posted on by elizabethprata
Source

Did you know that priests in the Catholic Church are called alter Christus? It means another Christ. They have been granted certain powers by the church to forgive sin. This is called “absolution.” According to the Catholic Encycolopedia,

Absolution is the remission of sin, or of the punishment due to sin, granted by the Church. (For remission of punishment due to sin, see CENSURE, EXCOMMUNICATION, INDULGENCE.) Absolution proper is that act of the priest whereby, in the Sacrament of Penance, he frees man from sin.

It’s nice for the priests to have the powers to be “another Christ”, including being able to remit sin. Did you know that though priests can forgive run-of-the-mill sins, there are some sins so heinous that only the Pope can absolve?

[S]ince 1179, a Vatican tribunal has met in secret to evaluate sins so grave that they can be absolved only by the Pope. The sins in question involve defiling the Eucharist; attempting to assassinate the Pope; a priest abusing the confidentiality of the confessional by revealing the nature of the sin and the person who admitted to it; a priest who has sex with someone and then offers forgiveness for the act; and a man who directly participates in an abortion – even by paying for it – who then seeks to become a priest or deacon. Only the Pope can lift the excommunication incurred by these sins,

The Pope is called ‘vicar of Christ’ which means Christ’s substitute. The Catholic Encyclopedia again,

the title Vicar of Christ is more expressive of his supreme headship of the Church on earth, which he bears in virtue of the commission of Christ and with vicarial power derived from Him.

Wow, so nice of Jesus to bestow some of His powers to the pope so that the pope can be Christ’s agent on earth. In his “powers” the pope decided last week that the heinous, pope-forgiving-only sin of abortion can now be forgiven by priests and will not necessarily include an excommunication from the Catholic Church. How terrible for the Catholic Church to withhold what Jesus freely offered.

Pope Francis has decreed that priests may absolve women of the “sin of a procured abortion” during Holy Year next year. In Catholic teaching, it is normally only bishops or the Pope himself who may absolve the faithful of the sin of abortion, which leads to excommunication from the Church. In keeping with his ministry of mercy, however, Pope Francis has extended his powers of forgiveness to those “missionaries of mercy” priests who will visit Catholic dioceses and parishes during Holy Year.

Of course, all the above is nonsense. Any believer is the same as any other believer, we are all priests of the faith. (1 Peter 2:5-9). The pope does not have special powers from Jesus and charged by Him to act in his vicarious stead on earth. The pope is not the head of the church. The Catholic Church isn’t even IN the church.

That news headline came at a time when I was feeling burdened for the many, MANY people who refuse the truth. Who are lost in their sins and not ready for the imminent return of Jesus. I was saddened for the many, MANY who are straying from the faith, perhaps at the given moment to reveal by their going that it was not an unfortunate temporary drift, but a permanent going out from us, proving they never were of us. (1 John 2:19). It feels like fiery agony to watch all this.

It truly feels like the sins of the world are piling up to heaven, and that the outcry of the saints are  reaching top volume. What is being done in the name of Jesus, as the Pope claims his special powers for example, is tremendously burdensome. I hate my own sin and I hate the sins of those who do terrible things in His name. It’s holy torment.

The Pope cannot forgive the sins of others.

And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:20-21)

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” (Luke 5:24)

The sins of the cities was so great the people cried out. I wonder as the sins of those four cities of the plain were so heinous that the outcry reached heaven, what does the outcry today sound like since all the world is just as heinous as they were then?

Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:20-21).

Matthew Henry says of this verse,

Though God long forbears with sinners, from which they fancy that the Lord does not see, and does not regard; yet when the day of his wrath comes, he will look toward them.

The sins pile up, the outcry grows greatly, God deems the time to be right, and judgment cometh-

[Babylon]for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:5)

We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies. (Jeremiah 51:9)

They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10)

Though what is done in His name is heinous, and though sins have grown putrid in their excrement, I remember that Holy and Pure Jesus came DOWN to earth and lived among all that. He lived with sin all around Him, to seek and save the lost sinner. Me.

It makes me love Him all the more. Grace, Mercy, Patience, He is the very definition of those things. I long for the day when my sin-anguish ceases via His glorification of my body and mind. However I also know that when the day of the rapture glorification comes, it means doom for those who reject Him, for the judgment will have begun. In one sense, I can’t wait for the pope to be judged. He does terrible things in the name of Jesus, bringing reproach onto Christ’s Spotless Name by his continual blasphemies. Uzzah was smote for less. On the other hand, I plead in prayer for the pope to be given the gift of repentance and conversion to the faith, so that he also will benefit from a relationship with Jesus that is no longer at enmity, but is in friendship.

The burden of the heart is surely a trial in days like this. I know the outcry against Sodom has come from my own lips in this little apartment. ‘Lord, how long?’ contests with ‘Lord, a little longer so that he or she or they may come to the faith…’ In all, the Lord’s gracious timing and perfection in providence will carry the day, and my outcries at last will still, with the next breath shouting hallelujahs and hosannas to the Lord face to face in praise and adoration. What a day that will be. Soon, I hope.

Posted in discernment, glory, perilous times, prophecy, self-worship

Ultimate selfie: man edits himself into one-man orchestra playing every instrument (and conducting)

Posted on by elizabethprata

A man played each part in a 70-piece orchestra and cut it into a one-man show

A man from Hull in the UK has taken the concept of the one-man band and run with it. Ben Morfitt, 24, spent a month creating a video of himself playing the parts of a 70-piece orchestra in his bedroom and posted the bizarre result to YouTube. He filmed an empty concert hall in the city’s Abermarle Music Centre as the basis for the clip, before then taping himself playing each instrument in front of a green screen and slowly building the orchestra, the Hull Daily Mail reports. It took a full month to film,” Morfitt said. “I used about three-and-a-half hours’ [worth of] footage for the final piece, and there’s about ten times that in outtakes.” He had to edit out his cat every time it wandered into the shot. The whole thing ends with 70 versions of himself turning to the camera to give it the finger.

Because…why? Why waste that much time? Energy? Talent? After reading 6 articles about Mr Morfitt, the only clue I could glean regarding his employment is that he makes a living from composing work. He actually did play each of the nine instruments depicted. He is talented and creative…but to spend that much time on one’s self, seems to me to be just ridiculously inward. And flipping the bird at the end, that’s over the top crass.

The Bible says,

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,(2 Timothy 3:2)

The Strong’s Lexicon explains the word ‘lover of self’ in the Greek. it is only used once, here in 2 Timothy 3:2,

phílautos (an adjective, derived from 5384 /phílos, “lover” and 846 /autós, “of self”) – properly, a lover of self, describing someone preoccupied with their own selfish desires (self-interests).

Preoccupied with self and one’s own desires. The young man who took such an inordinate amount of time to film himself in every orchestra position, then gave the finger to the audience at the end of the piece, seems to fill this scripture perfectly.

It takes a selfish desire and a heavy preoccupation with one’s self to do this. It is a gross idolatry. Matthew Henry says of the 2 Timothy verse:

Even in gospel times there would be perilous times; on account of persecution from without, still more on account of corruptions within. Men love to gratify their own lusts, more than to please God and do their duty. When every man is eager for what he can get, and anxious to keep what he has, this makes men dangerous to one another. When men do not fear God, they will not regard man.

Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God, preached Puritan Thomas Watson. He wrote,

Here are two ends of life specified. 1. The glorifying of God. 2. The enjoying of God.

First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

When we speak of God’s glory, the question will be moved, What are to understand by God’s glory?

Answer. There is a twofold glory: 1. The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the “God of glory.” Acts 7:2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature’s honour is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God’s glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa. 48:11, “My glory I will not give to another.” God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honour; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another. King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen. 41:40. “Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ’s glory, as mediator upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; “in the throne he will be greater.”

2. The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him. 1 Chron. 16:29, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” And, 1 Cor. 6:20, “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.” The glory we give God is nothing else but our lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others. Phil. 1:20, “Christ shall be magnified in my body.”

Please click on the link to learn more of what it means to glorify God.

There are only two occupations for man, to glorify God, or to glorify self. This viral video which the social media proclaims is so clever is an object warning for myself. As I approach the end of school and begin to look forward to 8 weeks of staying at home, I can easily slip into the same kind of mind-set as Mr Morfitt- navel gazing, indulging selfish desires, and being preoccupied with my  own glory and not the Great God whom I serve.

I must remember to submit to the Holy Spirit in yielding up my old man, and focus on the new man. I want to use my time well and glorify God in what I do. I can use the time to study, minister, pray, read the Bible more, disciple, and grow. Lord, help me this summer remain diligent in seeking YOUR glory, and avoid resting in any false laurels I build up in myself. I desire to redeem the time. Summer is glorious for me because of the time off, yet the lure of the leisure life can easily descend into too much personal work, introspection, and just plain silliness (like Mr Morfitt)… and leave no room for the purpose of my life: the glorification of God

EPrata photo

Prayer

At times I feel I could bear any suffering, but how can I dishonour this glorious God? What shall I do to glorify and worship this best of beings? O that I could consecrate my soul and body to His service, without restraint, for ever! O that I could give myself up to Him, so as never more to attempt to be my own! or have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to His will and His love! But, alas, I cannot live and not sin. ~Valley of Vision

Posted in bible, jonathan edwards, repentance, revival, sinners in the hands of an angry god, valley of vision

Marks of a True Spirit-initiated Revival

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Book of Acts is such a wonderful book to study. I’m fascinated by what the Spirit brings to mind each time I read through it. On Wednesday night we were studying the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of 14. I was thinking about Acts chapter 13, verse 42. Here are the rabbit trails I went down after I got home and in the succeeding two days 🙂

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. (Acts 13:42)

Antioch. From Wikipedia

I focused on the word “begged”. Isn’t it wonderful that the people BEGGED to hear more of the Word. Begged to hear more of the Good News. It seemed important. Begged.

I started thinking of the reaction of people to the Gospel that Acts shows us. Shortly after the verse 42 was this one in v. 44

The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

What a wonderful work of the Spirit! To ignite an entire city’s heart so that almost all of them turned out! I know that among the crowd would like be some rubber-neckers, others would be sent to spy on them (Gal 2:4) but still, almost an entire city eager and begging to hear of the Gospel. It blesses the heart and refreshes the mind to even think of such a thing happening today.

That thought brought me to another city that turned out to hear the message from God, this time, not Good News but Bad News: impending Divine wrath. Jonah preached only one day into a three-day walk sized city and immediately they were repenting already. (Jonah 3:3-4). Again, another amazing move of the Spirit.

Turning from those days to Enfield CT when Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I was thinking of the Spirit’s lack of move in Edwards’ own congregation. He’d preached the same sermon to his own people but it fell like a lead balloon. When Edwards was invited to preach at Enfield, it had an immediate impact, the historically verified one we know of today.

The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines revival as

The soveriegn activity of God whereby he renews his people individually and corporately in vigour, affecting both sincerity of belief and quality of behaviour.

What seems to be the marks of a real revival? In looking at Antioch, Nineveh, and Enfield CT the same things are present:

–an immediate response (eagerness to hear more of God’s word, repentance)

–widespread impact (in the case of the Woman at the Well, her individual conversion resulted in telling the Good News to the town, which all showed up asking Jesus to stay and tell them more as per John 4:40. In the case of the corporate conversion, the people at Antioch wanted to hear more and all showed up the next week to listen to Paul.)

–demonic opposition (angry Pharisees, plots, riots, rejection. Even as Edwards was lauded for the sermon and people begged to hear it over and over from different pulpits to which he was invited, after a several-year fight he was dismissed from his own pastorate for trying to lead them away from the liberalism and compromise in the Half-Way Covenant).

It’s so strange to think of the Spirit’s move in masses of people. In Nineveh, widespread repentance. In Jerusalem, widespread rejection of Jesus and His followers. In Antioch, widespread acceptance (at least, a curiosity without rancor). In Lystra, they drove Paul out and stoned him. In June 1741 in Northampton, Edwards’ sermon was received without murmur. A month later in Enfield, they tore their clothes and begged to be saved.

It seems that after repentance, the very least one should see in a genuinely converted or revived person or corporate entity is eagerness to hear the Word preached, to study it, and proclaim it. After that, one should expect to see lives that align with the repentance they professed, in the form of a personal hatred of sin and progressive sanctification as their old man dies and the New Man is growing in them. Last, one should expect to see perseverance of the saints. The genuinely revived or converted will not fall away

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Matthew Henry wrote,

The Spirit sends his influences where, and when, on whom, and in what measure and degree, he pleases. Though the causes are hidden, the effects are plain, when the soul is brought to mourn for sin, and to breathe after Christ.

The Faithlife Study Bible Commentary says,

3:8 wind The Greek word pneuma can mean “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit.” John uses the metaphor of the wind as a power that is felt but unseen to explain the power of the Spirit of God. This echoes God’s Spirit hovering before His creative works began—providing credence for the Spirit that Jesus initiates among all believers being one with God the Father as well (1:2). The creative act of God will enter people, becoming the source of their transformation back into God’s image.

The Holy Spirit’s work in salvation individually or corporately, is a wondrous strange thing.

Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable, to live for Thee and not for self, to copy Thy words, acts, spirit, to be transformed into Thy likeness, to be consecrated wholly to Thee, to live entirely to Thy glory. Valley of Vision

Posted in colton burpo, end time, NDE, near death experience, prophecy

Is the growing acceptance of both secular and "Christian" near-death experiences one of the prophesied lying signs?

Posted on by elizabethprata

FMI on Raymond Moody

The 1970s and 1980s were funny decades. The Free Love movement of the 60s gave way to Age of Aquarius, Eastern Mysticism (thanks, Beatles) and Near Death Experience movement. The 1970s for some reason was a breakthrough decade for study in NDE. For the first time the phenomenon was studied seriously. Books galore came out and the adults around me ate them up. I remember seeing Raymond Moody’s Life After Life, a seminal book for the decade that broke open the study of what happens after we die. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross‘ study of death and the five stages of grief was another that fascinated the adults around me. Then came all the philosophical books from New Age promoting spirituality and mysticism based on “discoveries” reported from NDEs such as those from Carlos Castaneda, (A Separate Reality) and Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull).

As a side note, adults, if you think the books you read and put on your bookshelves go unnoticed by your kids, you’re crazy. Growing up and as a young adult, I was hugely impacted by the books the adults around me were reading.

As far as NDEs went, I became fascinated by the fact that all these people nearly died or did die, and came back and reported the same thing. They all talked of beauty in another place or dimension, a tunnel, the light, peace. There had to be something to it, I thought! From the vantage point of today, of course I know these to be satanic deceptions perpetrated on unsaved people deluding them into thinking they are going to “that place”, “into the light” without repenting of sins or knowing Jesus.

Those 1970s NDEs are no different in their high deception-factor than are the ones from today by “Christians” like Colton Burpo (Heaven is For Real) or Alex Malarkey (The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven).

But when I was a young adult noticing all these New Age books talking about peace and light after death, it made sense to me. It was by the grace of God only that I didn’t stop there and came to know the real Light and can read the only book that reports what it is really like “over there” – the Bible.

The “Christian” books 90 Minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper; Heaven is For Real, by Colton Burpo and his dad; The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, by Alex Malarkey; 23 Minutes in Hell, by Bill Wiese; Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander; To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, Mary K. Baker’s A Divine Revelation of Heaven and other such books, exploring ‘the other side’ from a Christian perspective, have been enormous best-sellers. As each “Christian” NDE book has been published, they have grown in popularity…and acceptance. By the time Heaven is For Real came along people applauded the book, trusted the four-year-old’s account of rainbow horses and homework in heaven, and made a movie out of it. The Burpos are considered evangelical.

There have been great inroads that the testimonies of Christians who claim to have had a personal encounter with Jesus or angels at near death have become mainstream, a path that the 1970s NDE books started, which at that time were looked upon as paranormal quackery.

In this recent article in The Atlantic, the convergence of the “Christian” NDE and the New Age NDE appears to have been finalized.

The Science of Near-Death Experiences

Yet even these skeptics rarely accuse experiencers of inventing their stories from whole cloth. Though some of these stories may be fabrications, and more no doubt become embellished in the retelling, they’re too numerous and well documented to be dismissed altogether. It’s also hard to ignore the accounts by respected physicians with professional reputations to protect. Even if the afterlife isn’t real, the sensations of having been there certainly are.

There is something about NDEs that makes them scientifically intriguing. While you can’t rely on an alien abduction or a spiritual visitation taking place just when you’ve got recording instruments handy, many NDEs happen when a person is surrounded by an arsenal of devices designed to measure every single thing about the body that human ingenuity has made us capable of measuring.

And that’s exactly it. That is what intrigued me as a teen and young adult there are too many stories of NDE, they’re too similar, and in this age of technology they are too scientifically confirmed to simply ignore. What the people don’t know, however, is that simply the fact of the cumulative existence of thousands of NDE cases doesn’t confirm that they are sent from heaven.

Yes the NDE occurred. No, it doesn’t mean it was heaven. Satan is a deceiver and a liar, and he can perform lying wonders, (Matthew 24:24, Revelation 16:14), can appear as an angel of righteousness, (2 Corinthians 11:14), and alter the physiology of a targeted human. (Mark 4:3-4).

The fact that it occurred is not the proof. The world believes the NDE occurred but they never stop to think that the NDE itself may be real but is a deception. Satan counts on this.

I’d had a conversation with a young person, age 7. He was fervently trying to convince his mates that Bigfoot is real. Here is his argument.

I KNOW Bigfoot is real, because I had a dream about him…and DREAMS ARE REAL!

He made me laugh, and his argument was a circular but internally consistent logic that made it hard to argue against. I got to thinking about his argument though a little later. It’s the same argument that evangelicals make about Jesus, and when they do, it isn’t so cute or funny any more. But it is the exact argument that people who have had NDEs (or visions or dreams of Jesus) claim.

I had a dream/vision/near-death experience of heaven. Dreams are real. Therefore Heaven is for Real.

Too many Christians fall prey to this also. They blindly believe that simply because a supernatural event occurred that it must be from heaven. But more likely in this day and age, it is from hell.

Some don’t believe that satan is capable of deceivingly presenting a false heaven to people. However remember that angels are powerful. Satan was the most powerful angel of all, dwelling immediately next to the Most High in the heavenly realms at His throne. He was capable of showing all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus! (Matthew 4:8). The magicians were able to replicate Aaron’s and Moses’ sign from God by the power of their secret arts, turning their own staffs into snakes as Moses and Aaron had. (Exodus 7:11-12).

Do not overlook the many cautions and warnings in the Bible about satan’s lying signs and his power to deceive. The lying sign serves several purposes. They lead people astray. They confirm man in his error – for example, emphasizing Gods love toward the unrepentant sinner and the unrepentant sinner’s presence in heaven. Lying signs thus encourage people to rely on the sign and not the word of truth which would set him free.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. (Revelation 13:14)

Satan has the power to deceive the entire earth. Do we not think he can deceive one unfortunate car accident victim lying in a state of drugged unconsciousness?

In The Atlantic article it’s stated,

Whether you saw a divine being or your brain was merely pumping out chemicals, the experience is so intense that it forces you to rethink your place on Earth.

The secular person and sadly the ‘Christian’ nowadays put faith in the experience and rate its credibility based on its intensity. Yet Theologian John MacArthur stated,

Studying mystical accounts of supposed journeys into the afterlife yields nothing but confusion, contradiction, false hope, bad doctrine, and a host of similar evils.

In my opinion, the fact so many “Christian” NDEs are occurring it is in itself a prophesied lying sign. A further sign is the convergence of Christian acceptance of (lying) wonders with with New Age (false) wonders. Another sign is the fact that evangelicals are accepting the New Age/Spiritual NDE instead of the Bible’s word on the matter.

Convergence almost complete

Conclusion point #1: Stay in the Word so that you will not be deceived.

Conclusion point #2: A supernatural wonder is not necessarily from God. Satan is supernatural, too.

Conclusion point #3: The world’s fascination with life after life is not only unabated since breaking through to the mainstream in the 1970s, but it’s growing. Christian booksellers are helping this along, partnering with New Age thought, and blending the two so that one is virtually indistinguishable from the other.

Yet even then, the positive outcome of this is that we have the knowledge of the truth, and can share with any person who is similarly fascinated with near-death experiences, as I once was before I was saved. Intrinsically, I knew life didn’t end at death. Eternity is written on our hearts. Share Revelation 21 and 22 with friends or family who want to know more. It is a beautiful future ahead for those who believe. Try to bring as many as possible along with you.

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Further reading

Heaven is Real: Hallucinations are not

Posted in created, creator, physics, universe

Mystery radio signals that baffled astronomers for years came from the staff microwave

Posted on by elizabethprata

I saw that headline and I just had to laugh.

I love science and study physics when I have the chance and have a somewhat clear head to tackle the subject. What holds the universe together and what makes it tick is an endless fascination to me. Of course, coming from a Christian perspective, I know that Jesus holds the universe together by His word (Hebrews 1:3) and He sustains it (Colossians 1:17). Anything I might learn about the universe’s workings is going to be based on that fact and through Him.

APOD: May 12, 2015. Left, Marseilles France, Earth.
Right, Elysium Planitia, Mars

So while on the one hand I respect physicists and astronomers highly, on the other hand it seems that ultimately they are like ants chasing a phantom trail, always learning about the universe but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. At least, their truth, whatever man-made theory they adhere to as to the origin of the universe. Their seekings and learnings are all like the elusive dark matter they also speculate exists, the invisible space in between other visible objects that can only be detected by the effects the theorized dark matter has on other things. Seeking to know about how the universe works without knowing Jesus, brings to mind the famous quote attributed to Gertrude Stein regarding Oakland CA: “There’s no there there.” Christians know the there there is Jesus. Not knowing Jesus but seeking to know His mind as Creator (which is what physics is all about) will only bring endless theories, surprising discoveries, and an ant trail of eternally frustrating length.

There was this in 2009. Frustrating to them, amusing to me: The Case of the Mysterious Baguette:

Sometime on Nov. 3, the supercooled magnets in sector 81 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), outside Geneva, began to dangerously overheat. Scientists rushed to diagnose the problem, since the particle accelerator has to maintain a temperature colder than deep space in order to work. The culprit? “A bit of baguette,” says Mike Lamont of the control center of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which built and maintains the LHC. Apparently, a passing bird may have dropped the chunk of bread on an electrical substation above the accelerator, causing a power cut. The baguette was removed, power to the cryogenic system was restored and within a few days the magnets returned to their supercool temperatures.

While most scientists would write off the event as a freak accident, two esteemed physicists have formulated a theory that suggests an alternative explanation: perhaps a time-traveling bird was sent from the future to sabotage the experiment. Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, have published several papers over the past year arguing that the CERN experiment may be the latest in a series of physics research projects whose purposes are so unacceptable to the universe that they are doomed to fail, subverted by the future.

However, that isn’t the whole story. The baguette was not found above ground in the snow damply getting mushy within a few moments of time. The baguette was found inside a cooling building. That was locked. That was surrounded by high-voltage wires. That was guarded. That is why the esteemed Japanese physicists speculated that it was a time traveling baguette. They were confounded as to how the bread got in there. I’ve been laughing about the Baguette Incident since I wrote about it in 2009.

And then there’s something like this from last week.

Mystery radio signals that baffled astronomers for years came from the staff microwave

Beginning in the late ’90s, once or twice a year, astronomers operating the telescope at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia would pick up mysterious radio signals. These signals were known as perytons, described in a recent report as “millisecond-duration transients of terrestrial origin.” The researchers believed the perytons were linked to atmospheric activity such as lightning strikes, and they held this belief for around 17 years, until this year, when they installed a new receiver to monitor interference, The Guardian reports. The actual source of the perytons? A microwave.

Peryton? Another proposed, theorized particle to explain another proposed theory of how the universe works? I remember when they discovered strings and thought they’d nailed it. That was back in the early 1980s.

1984-6 – A series of important discoveries in string theory leads to the “first superstring revolution”, and it is first realized that string theory might be capable of describing all elementary particles as well as the interactions between them. (source)

Cut to 35 years later and not so much. Not only haven’t they described all the particles, they keep discovering new ones, much less be able to delineate all their interactions with each other. They are still seeking, learning, attempting to explain the whole, without the There there.

Rabbit trail factoid:

Artist’s rendition of imaginary peryton

Did you know that a peryton was a mythological creature?

The Peryton is a mythological hybrid animal combining the physical features of a stag and a bird. The Peryton was created and described by Jorge Luis Borges in his Book of Imaginary Beings, using a supposedly long-lost medieval manuscript as a source. The Peryton is said to have the head, neck, forelegs and antlers of a stag, combined with the plumage, wings and hindquarters of a large bird, although some interpretations portray the Peryton as a deer in all but coloration and bird’s wings. (source)

Peryton. Beautiful Bird, lovely plumage. Physicists certainly have a vivid imagination. They have to, in attempting to learn about the creation sans a Creator.

When I look to the heavens, I see God in His creation. I worship the Creator, not the created. (Romans 1:25).

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1)

Physicists will continue to study the universe and for that I’m glad. Astonomers will continue to bring us magnificent photos of dep space and explain what we’re seeing, and I’m glad. However, never forget Who created it all, and give Him glory for his incredible Mind, His wonderful handiwork, and His power to speak a word and the existence of the universe and everything in either entered reality or will be snuffed out (Gen 1:1, 2 Peter 3:10).

And chuckle at the childish antics of the men in the Physics Lab break room heating up a Lean Cuisine in the microwave while the others at the telescope believe some breakthrough is happening because the microwave is pulsing out some kind of signal. But it’s just lunch, and their minds will never match the Mind of the One who looks down at his wayward people and laughs, because they saw His majestic work and denied Him.

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)

 
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Further Reading

Watch earth live from the vantage of the International Space Station

Physics Timeline

Hubble Telescope Site 

NASA’s APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Hiesenberg Uncertainty Compensator Explained

How William Shatner Changed the World

William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the “Star Trek” TV series have influenced and inspired today’s technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.