Can we know God exists?

By Jim Mettenbrink

Can we know God exists? And if so how can we know? Yahweh, God, the author of the Bible indicates that God revealed Himself on two levels: General and Specific.

General revelation is by observation of the material creation. Although the notion of the evolution of everything from non-existence become something by itself to non-life becoming alive by itself and non-intelligence becoming rational intelligence begs the question – How? Briefly stated, the struggle to steps from nothing to becoming a rational being is one huge leap of fantasy, an illusionary delusion! Yet people believe it. In an attempt to “rationalize” this evolutionary idea, time has been injected, yea billions of years have pumped into the theory. Over the last 60 years the time required has increased from one billion to 4 or 5, up to 11 billion years. And it is what it is–theory!

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Lazarus, Sleep, and Death

By Dan Jenkins

“Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to wake him up” (John 11:11). You know this story and understand what Jesus meant, but His disciples failed to comprehend it. Lazarus was so sick that his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus. Judging by their words which both of them spoke—“Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died”—the message was sent as a plea to Jesus to come to heal him.

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Smart (???) Phones

By David Phillips

Technology. What did we ever do without it? I’ll be the first to admit that I depend upon it incessantly, and would be very foolish indeed if I refused to acknowledge all the benefits it has brought into my life. It would be difficult indeed to think of a field of endeavor that has not been helped, made faster or in some way streamlined by advances in technology. From widgets to warfare, no matter what we’re into, there’s probably an app for our handheld device that will make it easier to accomplish. But is this really making life better, in all respects? I’m not about to throw mine away, but in the interest of seeing the whole big picture, consider some of the DISADVANTAGES that I believe can be associated with our smart phones and handheld devices. And I’ll freely admit that the following words are directed as much to me as to you. To put it another way, I’m writing not as an innocent bystander, but as a guilty party.

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WISDOM – PERSONIFICATION – VALUE

WISDOM
Tom is about to begin a series of Wednesday evening lessons from the book of Proverbs. In connection with that, I’d encourage all of us to do some reading in that book, at least a chapter a day. That way, you’ll be through it in a month. If you’ll do that, you can’t help but notice the frequent mention of the word wisdom as it makes an appearance at least 29 times (KJV) in the first 11 chapters. Must be important, right?

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Higher Ground

By David Phillips

Everybody knows that Heaven is up, right? While that fact is not exactly stated in Scripture, we generally think of Heaven as being up in the sky. Actually, there is some terminology in the Holy Book that leads us to that general conclusion. For example, note how many times the word “up” occurs or is implied in the record of Acts 1:9-11: And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” On more than one occasion, Bible writers express the prayer for God to look down from Heaven… (Psa.80:14, Isa.63:15). I’m not so sure that God’s word intends to give us a specific location for the Heavenly abode as much as it seeks to impress us with the idea that Heaven is away from this earth.

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THE VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

By David Phillips

“You’re the ones who don’t believe in the Old Testament, aren’t you?” How many times have you heard that unfortunate mischaracterization of the Lord’s church? Usually, the accusation arises whenever we try to teach the fact that the law God gave to His people through Moses is not the law for God’s people to follow today. The New Testament clearly states that the Mosaic covenant has been replaced by the Law of Christ, and even goes so far as to state in Colossians 2:14 that concerning the Mosaic law, Jesus … has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. But we all need to understand that there is far more in the Old Testament than just the Mosaic covenant, often referred to in summary fashion as “The Ten Commandments”. “But”, they say, “it is so old!” Sure, the Old Testament does reach far, far back in time, describing events, people and places that are sometimes strange and far removed from our modern times. So, is there really much value in studying the old volume?

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Finishing the Race and Receiving the Crown

The Bible uses many figures of speech to describe our journey to heaven. The parables of Jesus often take ordinary events to illustrate the nature of the kingdom and the part each of us plays. We are workers in the vineyard, sowers of the seed, merchants seeking a pearl of great price and many others. The writers of the New Testament add another one which the world understands. The Olympic games which involved running originated in ancient Greece. They vividly remind us that like those participants in those races each of us is a spiritual athlete running in our spiritual race.
race olympics

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First step – Acknowledge God as the Sovereign

Restoring the Foundations begins with You. First step – Acknowledge God as the Sovereign

By Jim Mettenbrink

Last week we considered that in order to restore the destroyed foundation of our society will actually be a rebuilding of the foundation. And that to establish a nation of real tolerance and liberty, requires theists to have an unwavering commitment to God in the depths of their spirit. That this is a perpetual war to establish righteous nations and for your eternal destiny (heaven or hell) between God and Satan has always been evident. The current battle in the USA has been ongoing for over 100 years – Biblical faith vs Secular Humanism (man made himself his own god).

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Dormancy

By Dean Murphy

Lots of things experience dormancy. Many species of plants for example. Look out your window at the deciduous trees (the ones that have lost their leaves for the winter). They are dormant. Many animals also experience dormancy, and it comes in a variety of forms. Hibernation is a sort of dormancy. Dormancy means that an organism stops growing, stops developing and largely ceases activity. Dormancy results when adverse conditions occur and a plant or an animal recognizes that to survive, it must cease normal “life” and put the brakes on growth, development, and activity. Dormancy comes in a couple of ways. Predictive dormancy happens when the length of days shortens, temperatures lower or water is limited. The organism reacts to signs like these and goes dormant prior to adverse conditions. Consequential dormancy happens after the fact. After unpredictable environmental conditions worsen, the plant or animal reacts by going dormant.

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Human Free Will and God’s Providence

By Jim Jonas (The Centreville Journal)

There are two forces at work in this world that are difficult to reconcile: human free will and God’s influence. On the one hand, those who accept the sovereignty of God believe that He can both foreknow and determine the result of any situation He desires. Scripture is full of examples where God has revealed ahead of time a particular outcome: Jacob’s supplanting of Esau; Pharaoh’s resistance and eventual release of Israel; David’s enthronement; Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity and recovery; Cyrus’ reversal of exile. The list goes on and on.

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