One Thing To Do As You Prepare For Christmas.

Your Christmas card list of contacts may have gotten longer over time, still including those who you haven't talked to in years. Don't miss this opportunity to express Christ through your cards, letters, family pictures or gifts. You have a perfect opportunity to share Christ, so why not use it for the furtherance of the Kingdom?

Do you desire to speak the Gospel in a setting where most people will be friendly to what you say? Christmas is the time of the year when you can do just that. While you may offended some, most people are not only undisturbed by Christ during the Christmas season, but expect you to present the subject.

That method is with Christmas cards.

If you're not a creative card maker, seek out cards that contain the essences of Christ's coming. If you enjoy making and designing cards, make something special with the Kingdom message. Knowing were to start can be a problem for some. The main principle for your text and graphics is that it should be deep and meaningful in content to help others think about Christ. However, it also needs to be persuasive while not preachy. Bible verses, parts of Christmas Carols and creative, but meaningful, thoughts can jump start your card captions. You can also gather ideas from past Christmas cards you have received. Lastly, to help start your “mind juices”, feel free to use or get ideas from any of the following card captions.

O God our loving Father, help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men. May Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake, amen.
—Robert LouisStevenson
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Jesus is God’s promise fulfilled.
May you take great joy in Him and the celebration of His birth.
______________________________
From the cradle to the cross:
What the Child has done for those who receive His pardon…
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Nailed to the top of the cross of Jesus’ was a “certificate of debt” to Caesar, a public display of Jesus’ crime: “King of the Jews.” When punishment is complete, Caesar’s court will cancel the debt with a single Greek word stamped upon the parchment’s face: “tetelestai.” Finished. Paid in full.

Being king of the Jews is not the crime Jesus pays for, however. Another certificate as nailed to to his cross that day: ours. In the darkness that shrouds Calvary from the sixth to the ninth hour, Jesus gave his life as a ransom so we can be free from the shackles of sin and Satan.

At the last, it is not the cross that takes Jesus’ life. When the full payment is made, when the sin debt melts away, when the ransom has been paid, freeing us from our own wrong doing and slavery to sin, Jesus simply dismisses His spirit with a single Greek word that falls from His lips: “Tetelestai.” It is finished. 

Colossians 2:13-14
John 19:30
John 8:34
Romans 6
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Christmas Blessings…
…with a prayer that you come to a quiet place of reflection on the simplicity of Jesus’ birth and the magnitude of His purpose.
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Christmas is not about giving, it's about a gift. May the gift of forgiveness and freedom through Jesus, our Lord, fill your heart this year.
Merry Christmas
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Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name “Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
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The God of all creation humbled Himself to become a human being—our Savior, Christ the Lord.  Because Jesus was born He could die, bringing the abundance of life we enjoy through Him.  May each of you rest in the Babe whose birth we celebrate this day.
______________________________

What creative cards have you seen or made over the years? Do you have any more ideas you could add below for others to use?

These captions either came from or were based off of the following source: Koukl, G. (Mar 12, 2013) http://www.str.org/articles/christmas-card-captions#.VHUEl5-c3Qo

The Amazing Cell!

A couple of years ago, I came across a presentation given at one of the TED conferences by a Drew Berry. If I would have a guess, many non-biologists would be really bored with a talk on cell division, right? But no, not this one, it was most interesting, using computer animation, he exposed the cell division process in great detail - and made it breath taking for everyone!

You see, attached to sister chromosomes is something called the "kinetochore" which contains around 200 types of proteins but thousands in all. This little structure acts as an anchoring site for microtubules, part of the cell scaffolding. Microtubules help pull the two daughter chromosomes apart.

But the interesting part is this, the kenetochores are sending out little chemical and motor signals to indicate when the cell will divide! In fact, Drew called the kenetochore a "signal broadcasting system."

The implications of this structure alone are astounding. Along with many other types of epigenetic information within the cell, these attachment sites hold one of the most illustrious keys to the mysterious dividing cell. One can see a designer's creative abilities at play with structures like this. It's mind boggling that such an elegant structure, such as this, doesn't kindle more awe responses from people towards an amazing creator!

I would encourage you to take a look at it for yourself!

Image credit: Flicker/Mehmet Pinarci

What Is The Difference Between Shannon Information and Specified Complex Information? And why it's important.

Information is interesting, here I want to specifically discuss Shannon Information verses Specified Complex Information. I know, you may be saying "so what, it sounds boring to me." Maybe so, it may even zip over your head, in that case duck so it will hit the person behind you! While being of an esoteric philosophical nature, I think it's significant because of its implications.

The Difference Between Shannon Information and 

Specified Complex Information

There's a view that information in DNA and biological systems contain just Shannon Information - this is not true. Yes, biological systems do contains Shannon Information, but it is more specific than that - it contains Specified Complex Information. Let me first define the two and then tell you why biological systems have Specified Complex Information and why this discussion is so important.

Shannon Information verses Specified Complex Information

Shannon Information is only concerned with the improbability or complexity of character strings. In other words, it's just mere complexity or it has information-carrying capacity. Specified Complex Information on the other hand, is complex, but also has patterning significance. This is functional information that carries meaning. 

Let me put it this way, all Specified Complex Information is Shannon Information, but not all Shannon Information is Specified Complex Information (see bottom half of the meme). For example, Shannon Information just means that a string of characters are complex and improbable in their arrangement, but it does not define if this string carries significant meaning. Again, Specified Complex Information is specified and always carries meaning.

For example, this is Shannon Information:

“dfsad sdaf oije .zvsdlkfjas sdlfj” and also can be “Learning about information is fun!” 

However, Specified Complex Information always carries meaning: 

“Learning about information is fun!”

“dfsad sdaf oije .zvsdlkfjas sdlfj” is not specified functional information - at least as far as I know, it holds no meaning to an English speaker!

In case you did not get that, let me put it this way. Consider a key and lock. You can take a key blank and file down any pattern on the key blade - that is Shannon Information. However, if you want the key to fit the lock, you have to cut the key blade to specified sequences, shapes and depths for proper key-lock fit. Now that is Specified Complex Information.

Biological Systems and Text on the Page

Now both the text you are reading and DNA are improbable and complex. However, both carry meaning. The text you are reading is telling you something in English. DNA contains information that transcribes to RNA that gets translated to protein. In fact those sequences must be in a specific order else the organism will not produce the correct protein, a protein that does not function well or maybe none at all! The organism's enzymes must be able to transcribe it, if there is no correct sequence, there is no transcription.

Why Know the Difference?

Oh, by the way, just so you know why this distinction is so important, Specified Complex Information is only generated from a mind. In fact, that is the only source we know of that produces this type of information! Think of the text you are reading now, it has come from my mind. Thus this leads to the conclusion that life's specified informational core is grounded in intelligence - an intelligent mind!


Have you heard materialists say the "DNA is just Shannon Information" so it can arise by chance? What do you think, have you gained a new level of respect for "Information theory?"

FALSE: Adam Did Not have One Less Rib Than Eve

Introduction to Anatomy & Physiology, professor lecturing - I can still picture it even though it was back in the first year of the new millennium. “Men and women on average have 24 ribs” he said. And then he said: “no, men don’t have one less rib”, he want on “that was only Adam.”

First I was kind of surprised he would even bring up a biblical account, many have gotten in trouble talking about anything biblical in a science class, not counting more or less the part of the creation account. However, something else hit me, raising my hand I said “Maybe Adam did have a complete set of ribs, I understand that the rib is the only human bone that can regenerate sections after removal.” “No” he said, “bones don’t grow back, they can heal, but not grow back.”

As the years slid forward, that interaction never left me. A few years later I set out to track down the truth, was I correct? That’s when I ran across an article by Dr. Carl Wieland who told of a previous accident that caused the loss of some of his bone. To replace the missing bones, his surgeon used sections from his ribs - because they regenerate (1)!

As a born and raised thinker and researcher, I went deeper. After searching online, I came across and contacted a few surgeons around the world who seemed to have some knowledge in this area. Over and over I heard the same, yes they use bone from the rib and it regenerates back (2). Even recently researchers also confirmed this same action with rib cartilage (3).

You see, when a surgeon removes the a section of the rib bone they leave a surrounding tissue, called the periosteum, in place. Stem-cells are abundant in this tissue and they regenerate new rib bone.

So, did Adam have one less bone than Eve? Did God know what he was doing when he picked the bone he did to make Eve? Maybe the same God who made him really did know what he was doing, surprise, surprise!

What are your thoughts? Has an experience like this ever happened to you? Have you been told that men are less a rib compared to women? 



 
Sources:
(1) Wieland, Carl. "ADAM’S RIB: CREATION & THE HUMAN BODY." https://legacy-cdn-assets.answersingenesis.org/assets/pdf/radio/adamsrib.pdf

(2) Personal email correspondence with a number of surgeons, one was Dr. David Pennington whose name was mentioned in the article that I came across. Also, see this site: http://www.scoliosis.org/resources/medicalupdates/ribthoracoplasty.php

(3) Healing power of 'rib-tickling' found by researchers. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140913141423.htm?

Srour, M., Fogel, J., Yamaguchi, K., Montgomery, A., Izuhara, A., Misakian, A., Lam, S., Lakeland, D., Urata, M., Lee, J. and Mariani, F. (2014). Natural large-scale regeneration of rib cartilage in a mouse model. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, p.n/a-n/a.

3 Powerful Principles so You can Change the Nation

As a Christian going to the polls, you must make wise judgments. Many questions can be raised such as: who do I vote for and what should you do when both candidates are not desirous? However, first we must elucidate our foundation as Christians by stepping back to see the big picture then I would like to answer the two questions above.

What About The First Christians?

We already talked about Christians and voting (click here). A glaring omission from that post is the fact that during Christianity's first few centuries, Christians did not desire political office nor did they assume national leadership positions. They had a bigger goal, the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom knew no national border, it was cross culture with citizens established worldwide and whose king was Christ. With this approach they were able to change the world within a few hundred years!

Modern Times

Fast forward to modern times, many nations once held many professors of Christ and some even tried to erect a “Christian” state. Compromises were usually made that came at the cost of following Christ. In the end they failed.

Many have also become disillusioned by nominal Christians - living hypocritically and abstaining from Christ’s teachings. Both non-biblical and un-biblical rules have taken center stage. Other times Christ’s teachings are waved as being for a different time. Progeny have fallen away and now are anti-Christian because parents and churches have have not trained them. The focus was not the Kingdom of God, but rather their own lives, their own preoccupations and their own frivolous enjoyments and many times sins.

Our Primary Step

To change the state, nation and world, we must first disciple followers of Christ everywhere for a closer walk with God. If we just apply the Scriptural precepts we understand, we’ll have a busy occupation indeed. We all understand that we are to love God with everything and our neighbour as ourself. If we love all, we will not steal, lie nor commit sexual immorality.

Legislating morality is the business of the government. If all professors of Christ were focused on the Kingdom of God, for many areas the legislation of morality would almost be a silly. Our greatest potential for changing a nation and the world is for each one of us to put Christ back on the throne as king.

Christ and the apostles never taught that we need to be all distressed about leadership – again they had a bigger and more important goal. Remember, Christians weren't originally in national and state governmental leadership. A non-Christian leader is not abnormal - the early Christians changed the world without even one position of senator or emperor. They changed it by their lives and obeying Christ!

Pick The One Who Can Do The Greatest Good

With that as our grounding, let’s switch gears to the topic of voting. Should we vote for one who does not hold to all the proper views? Consider this dilemma, there are two main contenders who we disagree with, in fact both are atheists and believe the same except on the issue of abortion. Abortion, the unjustified taking of an innocent human life, is murder and sin. With the responsibility for action, your best choice is obvious, the one who supports sanctity of life.

Chose The One Who Has The Best Chance

What if three candidates are running for an office, one is outright opposed to good, one who is mediocre but much better than the first and the last is desirable in almost every point. In addition, the the real competition is between the first two, either could obtain the seat. The third has only very low polling results.

Just like in many other situations in life, perfect can sometimes be the enemy of good - diminishing returns is increased when we hold out for the best. The best usually never comes, may not work and itself may have intrinsic failures when we mortal beings are involved. A vote for the perfect potential who has no hope of attaining the post would be squandering our lot to the one who holds the most evil position.

A Call To Action!

So how do we change a nation? First it starts with us, our family and our Christian fellowships. We need biblical grounding, a life that is prayer bound and holiness in our life. We need a drive to share with others. When we live in a land where we are given the responsibility to vote, do it with joy and justice. Wisdom, knowledge and judgement are key so we can live in freedom and peace. This enables us to worship God according the Bible and so we can spread the gospel. But always remember, we have a bigger cause, a bigger vision, a bigger kingdom – The Kingdom of God!


What do you think? 


Image source: Compilation from image from Flicker/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Should A Christian Vote?

"Britain’s official education inspector has informed an independent Christian school that it is out of step with “British values” prescribed by the government and must invite someone from another faith, such as a Muslim imam, to lead assemblies or it risks being closed" (1).

News stories like this are seemingly becoming more common - strange and anti-Christian. It seems that some in national leadership have been taken in by the cry for tolerance, but uphold intolerance to Christians.

How do we decrease this type of rhetoric? There are many things that come to mind, like engaging both society and our progeny for Christ. We aught to be living as Christ taught and obeying him. Pray for the leadership as Paul instructed in 1 Timothy 2:2-4 so we can “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” The reason Paul gives is so all men may be saved and know the truth. When people in society are saved and know truth, this type of activity will be greatly diminished.
 

Should we vote?

So what about voting? Some Christians feel we should not vote - others feel we should. One group says we should just pray, the other asserts prayer with voting.

However, the new testament writers say nothing on the topic of voting - nothing at all. One can’t make a lucid case based upon a command from Scripture, in other words one view can’t be more biblical than the other in this regard. To me, it is suspect when one tries to make a hard biblical claim on this when the Bible does not even talk this subject. If this topic was so important, why didn't Christ and the apostles talk about it? While voting may not have been like today's, God is omniscient, he would have talked about it if he wanted. On the other hand, from the perspective of precepts and principles, the Bible does speak.

In the thirteenth chapter of Romans, Paul states “Wherefore ye must needs be subject [to leaders], not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.” We see a responsibility to be subject to state leadership, paying taxes (Jesus also says this in Matthew 22:21) and respect them. Many governments not only give the freedom to vote, but also tell us it is our responsibility. When we vote, we aren't trespassing any biblical command, so this is not a case of “obeying God rather than man,” since God has not specified a command in this area.

Actions with prayer

James, in the second chapter of his book, verses 14-18 says this: “ What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

Just as we see that being a Christian takes more than just faith, such as our actions and obedience, so one can make a case for prayer and actions when it comes to governmental leadership. When we vote for good leadership, we have a chance to do good, so we should. We have the opportunity to make a difference, a positive one, let’s jump at the opportunity.

What about being of this world?

But, I hear some say “aren't we supposed to not be of the world”? speaking in this sense of being part of a earthly government. While that is a good question, it is a different one and needs to be answered at a different time, that question has nothing to do with what we are talking about here. For example, while at one college, I walked past a table where one could vote for a new school logo. Even though I really didn't care, I picked the one that I liked and moved on. However, I was not part of the school government nor even leadership at the school.

Our greater focus

However, on the other hand, I'm concerned for some, they worry and stress over this, even when there's nothing else they can do. We are taught to not worry in Philippians but rather we need to focus on the kingdom of God. We can get caught up in politics and miss people, miss living a righteous life and being a godly example. We need to be out doing good for others and telling them about the Kingdom.

By default, we are "temporary citizens" of our country of birth, and have responsibilities because of it. We need to pay taxes, obey the laws and vote because the leaders ask that of us. However, getting caught up in the rhetoric, slandering and backbiting should be far from us. Nor should we get absorbed in the concerns that take all of our time. Like elaborate houses, expensive cars and extravagant vacations, it's a wrong focus. Excessive involvement in sports such as hunting, fishing, football, and golfing can also take us away from following Christ. We have a greater calling, a heavenly Kingdom, and heavenly work to do!



(1) http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/christian-school-told-to-have-muslim-imam-lead-assemblies/

Should Christians Bury Their Head in the Sand?

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of banned books by the Roman Catholic church from centuries ago. It included two notable books: Johannes Kepler's Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae, which was on the index from 1621 to 1835. The second notable book was, in various editions of the index, some translations and editions of the Bible. Now I’m not going to judge them for what they did at that time, however, looking back, it must be an embarrassment. For us, we too have some who want to "ban books." However, instead of "banning books", maybe a stronger approach would be to educate people on truth, wisdom and common deviations from the truth. This will help arm the common follower of Christ prevent deception.

To build a foundation, I want to note that in a previous post I gave some steps to deflect brainwashing - including knowing truth and intentionally building a broad background in different works (click here). When one puts undue faith on one or even a small group of men or women for opinions, there is impending disaster. In another post on technology, I noted how to bolster oneself against online deception - knowing truth and understanding good sources (click here). Lastly, I noted in a training post that one needs to disciple oneself, or others with, what I called, inoculation (click here).

Just as some parents have concerns about diverse perspectives attacking their children, some leaders of Christian fellowships have the same concern -- for real reasons. However, just as in my previous post on inoculation, isolation is not the key to growth. It makes one much more vulnerable to deception. Isolation is not the key to purity in teaching, but rather it’s the road to a weak or an absent spiritual immune system. Knowing truth and having wisdom is like having a healthy body and nutritious food. When a healthy body is inoculated the body prepares for the defenses. When arguments do present themselves against truth, one will already have heard and been prepared to succinctly and efficiently counter the arguments -- in both one's mind and verbally if needed.

When I hear about Christian leaders insisting that only limited texts and literature is advised, or that one should not read things outside of a certain gathering, red flags raise and concerns accumulate in my mind. This is for two reasons. Just like in III John, we read of one Diotrephes who loved dominance and control or as it is put “preeminence”, it seems that some in our time may desire the same.

Another is that one will not be prepared for the attacks that are increasing every day, they are coming closer to even the sheltered believer. Many types of literature help give rejoinders against the bad arguments that attack the follower of Christ. After one knows the truth and has a strong mind, one needs to sit down and compare what is being said in society to the truth. This can’t be done if one positions one’s self in a vacuum. In addition, not knowing also hampers ones ability to answer the skeptic.

Why would we allow ourselves to be sidelined by weak arguments when we have good sources and arguments to demonstrate they these fail? Maybe we ourselves will not succumb, but what about our children and grandchildren?

The Bereans, in Acts 17, were praised when they listened and then searched out whether or not the Apostles were speaking truth. It's not if one will be presented with dubious arguments against their faith, it's when. The best time to form rejoinders is when one has time to read and think. In this case, the best defense is a good offense, not hunkering down with the "head in the sand".

You will not want to miss the next posts. If you found this one helpful, you will want to keep an eye open for others. The best way is to click here, because you can get them straight to your inbox so you don’t miss out! (Click here.)

What do you think? Can you give any examples when you were prepared the give a defense in your own mind or to another? How did you prepare?


Image source: Flicker/Peter