New Hope promotes the Gospel and spiritual growth - via Internet fellowship

Bedouins in North Africa no longer plan their movements according to water availability, but according to cell phone coverage. Internet, social media, and other web-based tools are amazing - New Hope International is now using them to communicate the gospel and deliver ministry resources.

Our goal is not only for people to develop a personal relationship with Christ, but also to bring them into community with other Christ-followers. Sometimes this step happens online in chat rooms, but the most important step is small study groups or clubs and ultimately into a local church! Though the initial steps may be for us connecting with where the seeker is, the ultimate goal for the "step strategy" is to become part of a community of Christ followers. Connections are made and relationships built ... with life-changing results!

Pray for the New Hope technical support team, particularly in Ukraine, as they migrate and train the New Hope team throughout Eastern Europe in the use of their new websites. Pray for a short learning curve and little lost momentum during the changes. Pray that the new sites will be effective in delivering tools for ministry. Pray also for the completion of a more elaborate site for New Hope Ukraine (similar to Amazon!) where all Christian publishers will be able to make their resources available. 

(New Hope International newsletter, June 2011)

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Best theory for dinosaurs going extinct: hunted down after the Flood!

The Chinese and over 200 other cultures have detailed stories about “dragons.” Why, if such creatures were only mythical beasts?

Hunting Dinosaurs after the Flood-
probably not Science Fiction!

It is generally agreed that “the current extinction crisis is caused primarily by human impacts upon wild populations,”¹ and it is the largest, most dangerous wild creatures that are the first to go when humans move into an area. Thus, dinosaurs who came on board Noah's Ark and survived the Flood likely went extinct gradually the same way that scientists today observe extinctions.

Those who claim that dinosaurs could not have fit on the Ark might recall that the average dinosaur size was on the order of that of a large dog. Even the massive dinosaurs started out from football-size eggs, and juveniles of these groups could have easily been selected to board the life-saving vessel.

What about the descendants of the dinosaurs that stepped off the Ark after their year-long stay? Again, eyewitness evidence confirms that dinosaurs lived for centuries after the Flood.

St. George had to deal with a dragon in England. Alexander the Great’s army encountered a dragon. Marco Polo recorded dragon dealings. Flavius Philostratus provided this sober account in the third century A.D.:

The whole of India is girt with dragons of enormous size; for not only the marshes are full of them, but the mountains as well, and there is not a single ridge without one. Now the marsh kind are sluggish in their habits and are thirty cubits long, and they have no crest standing up on their heads.²

Pliny the Elder also referenced large dragons in India in his Natural History. More recently, historian Bill Cooper described many ancient news accounts of dinosaur encounters from England and Europe, which to this day contain place names that reference the dragons that were once there, like “Knucker’s Hole,” “Dragon-hoard,” and “Wormelow Tump.”³

Similar accounts have been handed down orally within North, Central, and South American Indian groups. The fact that so many different peoples told the same details authenticates their testimony. The book Fossil Legends of the First Americans relays information about anatomy, habitat, and hero tales related to “a water monster that ‘grew so huge’ (p. 29), a Pawnee giant raptor called Hu-huk (p. 189), a Yuki story of giant lizards that ‘were so huge that they shook the earth’ (p. 208), Sioux legends of thunderbirds (p. 239), and many other legends.”⁴

How did mankind handle post-Flood dinosaur encounters? Most likely, the dinosaurs were eliminated by humans trying to protect themselves. This is a common theme in the many dragon legends. 

(for the complete article, see Brian Thomas and Frank Sherwin, Eyewitnesses to Extinction, Testimonies to the Life and Death of Dinosaurs, Acts & Facts, June 2011)

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References (selected)


1. Woodroffe, R. 2000. Predators and people: using human densities to interpret declines of large carnivores. Animal Conservation. 3 (2): 165-173


2. Flavius Philostratus (c170-c247 A.D.). 1912. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, volume I, book III. F. C. Conybeare, trans. New York: Macmillan Co., 243-247. 

3. Cooper, B. A. 1995. After the Flood. Chichester, UK: New Wine Press, 130-145. Available online at ldolphin.org/cooper.


4. Thomas, B. 2010. Oblivious to the obvious: dragons lived with American Indians. Journal of Creation. 24 (1): 33. This is a book review of Mayor, A. 2005. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Revival in post-Christian Italy? Believe it!

When you can feel the earth shake beneath your feet, you know something big is happening. That's exactly what occurred in Milan, Italy the afternoon of Saturday, March 19. It wasn't an earthquake but it was something big. One man who felt the ground shaking likened it to the tremor caused by a passing train. But it wasn't a train either. It was the people of God.

For perhaps the first time in hundreds of years - maybe even the first time ever - nearly 5,000 evangelical believers paraded through the streets of this great city, better known as the fashion capital of the world, to sing praise to the living God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

In the weeks leading up to the event, 1,500 posters proclaiming the love of God for the people of that city had been prominently displayed and 200,000 pieces of literature had been prepared to invite people to a website where they could find a Bible-believing church close to them.

But no one could have predicted the power of the moment that Saturday afternoon when the procession paused near Duomo, the city's main cathedral, the third largest in the world. CrossWorld worker Nina Schaafsma described it:

Our line-up of thousands had to wait. We were going crazy singing and giving testimony. Then the believers from all over Milan and from as far away as Sicily began to sing "You are King! You are King! You, Jesus, are King!" I cannot describe to you the feeling of wonder to have a crowd like ours giving Jesus the glory as we stood in the shadow of a cathedral that was raised to give glory to [the virgin] Mary. The majesty of this building and her golden statue on the top were small in comparison to the glory that was being given to the Lord in that moment.... People were crying all throughout the day. One young man told us he cried for an hour after going home. Another new believer said he felt a joy like never before.

Things like this don't happen overnight in Italy or the rest of post-Christian Europe where the spiritual soil is some of the hardest in the world. It is the result of the long-term investment of God's truth in the lives of a few who, in turn, learn to reproduce the life of Jesus in others who do the same. That's disciple-making. That's what we're all about. And we couldn't do it without you.

I invite you to take a moment to share in the joy of those Italian believers and to pray that God might shake that city, country and continent for His glory.

Watch footage to see and hear the atmosphere of this moving experience.

You can be a part of God's movement in Milan. Radio Vita was a catalyst in gaining a local presence and breaking ground for preaching the Word of God. Within the Radio Vita broadcast zone, Punto Luce church, a daughter church from Punto Lode, and others, continue to grow.

(reposted from Dale Losch, CrossWorld, June 2011 prayer letter)

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Genesis is History, Not Poetry

“Why are you guys so literalistic about Genesis? Don’t you know that it’s just Hebrew poetry? There’s no need to treat it like real history!” This was the smug comment of a young English literature teacher at a recent Christian educators’ conference where the Institute for Creation Research was conducting seminars.

The bottom line is that Genesis is not “Hebrew poetry.” Genesis is Hebrew narrative prose. In other words, Genesis is a record of accurate, true history. Not mysticism. Not mystery. Not myth. Anyone who can read a Bible can prove that Genesis is not Hebrew poetry. And this is not a minor issue, because Paul hung his theology of our salvation in Christ upon the historicity of the Genesis record (Romans 5:12-21).

Example of Genesis history, exhibiting the format of narrative prose.

And Cain talked to Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. (Genesis 4:8-11)

There is no informational parallelism in this passage. What we read is history, a narrative account of the first instance of an unbeliever tragically persecuting a believer, a terrible precedent, a hate crime that preceded millions of later copycat martyrdoms. It’s a sad history (except that Abel went to heaven).

There is no poetic parallelism anywhere in Genesis 4, with the possible exception of the wicked “song” of Lamech the polygamist recorded in Genesis 4:23-24. Nor is there any poetic parallelism in Genesis 1, 2, 3, or any other chapter in Genesis. Why? Because Genesis is history. Virtually all of Genesis illustrates what we expect from historical narrative: careful attention to sequenced events (this occurred, then this occurred, then this occurred, etc.), as well as inclusion of time-and-space context information (when such is relevant to the narrative) and a noticeable absence of Hebrew parallelism.¹

Conclusion:

Why would anyone even pretend that Genesis 1-11, or any part of Genesis, is Hebrew poetry?

For those who know better, it is intellectual dishonesty to avoid the obvious truth that Genesis is real history. Their most likely motive is a desire to accommodate evolutionary mythology by discounting the real history of our origins, stealing credit from Christ so that a fable called “natural selection” can be credited with “selecting” (and creating) earth’s creatures.

Genesis 1-11 is easy-to-understand narrative prose. Don’t naïvely fall for the misinformation of a so-called scholar who, because he wants to rationalize his own evolutionary mythology, tries to dissuade you from believing Genesis 1-50 is an inerrantly inspired historical narrative—because that’s exactly what it is. And, as they say, “the rest is history.”

(for the complete article, see James J.S. Johnson, Genesis is History, Not Poetry, Acts & Facts, June 2011)

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References (selected)


1.Genesis 1-11, as well as 12-50, also routinely uses the vayyaqtil forms (i.e., conjunction-modified verbs that older Hebrew grammars call waw consecutives or waw conversives), an awkward Hebrew language feature that pervades Hebrew narrative prose but not Hebrew poetry. See, e.g., Practico, G. D. and M. V. Van Pelt. 2001. Basics of Biblical Hebrew Workbook. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 125-134.

Prayer for the pressed

Dear Father,

Today may we meet
the pressures of life
in the power of God.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

- (Dr. Robert A. Cook, "Walk with the King today, and be a blessing!")

Chimp chromosomes got hitched to create Humans? Sorry, nice try...

New research is now seriously undermining the validity of  the "chromosome 2 fusion" model and human "evolution" in general. The fusion model is one of the leading arguments for human evolution from a shared common ancestor with apes. This hypothetical model proposes that the end-to-end fusion of two small ape-like chromosomes resulted in the human chromosome 2, which supposedly explains the difference in chromosome numbers between humans and great apes.¹  A graphical depiction of the fusion model showing the orientation of telomere and centromere sequence was published in a previous issue of Acts & Facts.² :

This author (Jeffrey Tomkins) and Professor Dr. Jerry Bergman of Northwest State College, Ohio, analyzed the scientific literature and available DNA sequence and made several exciting findings.

The hypothetical fusion site should exhibit very little degeneracy, compared to standard telomere sequence. Telomere sequences in humans normally consist of thousands of repeats of the standard 6-base sequence “TTAGGG.” We found that the hypothetical fusion region is completely degenerate and vaguely represents anything close to intact and fused telomeres.

An earlier 2002 research report by molecular evolutionists also made note of this extreme sequence degeneracy and the obvious discrepancies it presented for the evolutionary model.²

Despite evolutionists’ insistence that the chromosome 2 fusion model supports a human-chimp common ancestor, the so-called supporting data are not present. All evidence points to man and ape as unique and separate creations.

(for the complete article, see Jeffrey Tomkins, New Research Undermines Key Argument for Human Evolution, Acts & Facts, June 2011)

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References (selected)


1.Yunis, J. J. and O. Prakash. 1982. The Origin of Man: A Chromosomal Pictorial Legacy. Science. 215 (4539): 1525-1530.
2.Tomkins, J. 2011. New Human-Chimp Chromosome 2 Data Challenge Common Ancestry Claims. Acts & Facts. 40 (5): 6.
3.Fan, Y. et al. 2002. Genomic Structure and Evolution of the Ancestral Chromosome Fusion Site in 2q13-2q14.1 and Paralogous Regions on Other Human Chromosomes. Genome Research. 12 (11): 1651-1662.

Israeli missile defense test June 22nd

Israel is preparing for a major war and in the worst case scenario, it could be attacked from all directions. On June 22nd, 2011, there will be a major test of our newest anti-missile protection system and a test of citizenry readiness for a new, this time much bigger, military conflict. We are getting gas masks just in case. Most everyone already has them, but we keep delaying to go to the mask distribution center to get those for the whole family. No one is panicking, but it is clear that things may get worse rather suddenly. All should be well, but we would appreciate your prayers for protection, wisdom, and blessing in regard to this.

(from a Messianic Jewish prayer letter, June 2011)

Here is additional info, from Israel’s Arrow Theater Missile Defense:

In a dawning age of rogue states, ballistic missile defenses are steadily become a widely accepted necessity. Iran is widely believed to be developing nuclear capabilities, and Israeli concerns were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map.” Because missile defenses are so important, states like Israel have taken steps to ensure that they have the ability to build many of the key pieces. The Arrow project is a collaboration between Boeing and Israel Aerospace Industries to produce the missile interceptors that accompany the required radars, satellites, command and control systems.

On July 27, 2010: The United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense voted to fund Israel’s missile defense programs at $422.7 million for 2011, nearly $96 million above the original White House funding request. This represents a doubling of aid for missile defense from 2010, in the wake of an emerging consensus that the CIA’s 2007 estimate of Iran’s nuclear weapons program was wrong, and underestimated Iranian progress.

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Do you feel that God has failed you?

Shattered Assumptions.... When expectations or “assumptions” are shattered, people tend to fall into a belief that God has failed them.

People, who were once confident and at ease with their surroundings, suddenly find themselves dealing with a natural disaster, an act of violence or harrowing event that has broken their sense of security and constancy. So broken is their sense of stability, that they develop what is called a trauma-worldview. They see life through lenses that anticipate bad things happening. They begin to project this into their present situations as well as their future.

Our inclination at times is to promise God’s protection from such events. We then leave individuals feeling even more shaken by the reality that God did not “protect” them from an affliction. At times we attempt to put ourselves in the position of explaining God’s ways (as if we could), thinking an explanation will erase the painfulness of the event. We are at times uncomfortable with God’s silence and lack of explanation, so we attempt our own.

How does the gospel speak into these moments? How do we have a gospel-centered hope without allowing our expectations to inform what that must look like? Hope is found not in the stability and security of life. It is not found in the positive illusions we might hold about our lives. Nor can we rely on the promise of an explanation that may possibly justify suffering. Our worldview is consistently threatened by the painful realities of existence, when it should be tied to the person of Jesus. Our goal needs to be to develop a worldview that is so bound in the character of Christ—so secure in a relationship with our Creator—that it cannot be shattered.

(selections from Julie Smith Lowe, Shattered Assumptions, Westminster Today, Summer 2011)

12 programs on national Turkish TV - the peace and healing of Jesus!

"One of our workers, Ali, is producing a series of 12 television shows that will provide Bible-based solutions to prevalent cultural problems in Turkey such as: brokenness in families and marriages, distortions of honor and shame, and abuse.

Millions of Muslims want peace - both politically and personally. They want a peaceful world for themselves and for their families. They long to speak and to act freely without fear of punishment or of retribution.

Ali is offering Turkish Muslims a cultural counseling ministry that is similar to what Focus on the Family provides: Good solid Biblical advice about all kinds of emotional and family matters.

Politics has not provided this...It can't. Jihad has not and will not provide this.

Amazingly, this program will point the way to Jesus Christ and get played on national television! As Ali presents a Biblical view exposing and confronting these hidden issues, I believe many people will discover the peace and love of Jesus Christ and be freed from shame, abuse, and fear. Broadcasts like this have opened doors to those who seek the truth and long for inner peace. The broadcasting channel has had tremendous responses from those who desire to know the truth about Jesus and need real answers. And when they discover the truth of Christ, their lives are transformed!

(from a Christian prayer letter, May 2011)

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How could genetic codes be so perfectly tuned?

This exquisitely designed system points not to a gradual, step-wise appearance from purely random events, but to creation by a living God!

Selections from from The Testimony of the Synthesases, by Timothy R. Stout.

(These selections by Marko Malyj are of the article published in Creation Matters, a publication of Creation Research Society, Volume 16, Number 2, March/April 2011, to appear at http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/pdf/2010/CM15%2006%20low%20res.pdf)

Fig. 7 A DRT (Direct RNA Template)
model for the origin of coded translation.

Michael Yarus and his team of researchers ( 2009) did an extensive survey of the results of various experiments showing how RNA strings can naturally associate with particular amino acids.

They proposed (see his Fig. 7) that an RNA string could serve as a Direct RNA Template for assembling an amino acid string, thus functioning as a crude ribosome. Further, they proposed that, in time, this direct process evolved into the fully functioning ribosome with its indirect coding (i.e., usage of tRNAs, synthetases etc.).

There is a fundamental weakness in the approach proposed by Yarus et al. They assume that one can start with a simple code and gradually, step-by-step, modify it into a new one. However, codes do not change from one mapping to another in such a smooth manner. Once a code has been established, the products of that particular mapping will be all over the place, appearing at many locations and used for many unrelated purposes.

Therefore, even if an accidental mapping change (mutation) produced an incidental, isolated advantage, on the whole its adoption would result in a large number of system-wide errors. The lethal impact of the sheer number of such errors would tend to overwhelm any incidental advantage the modification might otherwise produce. Natural selection would thus select away from modification of an established code.

This exquisitely designed system points not to a gradual, step-wise appearance from purely random events, but to creation by a living God!

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References (selected)

Yarus, M., J.J. Widmann, and R. Knight. 2009. RNA-amino acid binding: a stereochemical era for the genetic code. J. Mol. Evol, 69:406–429. http://www.springerlink.com/content/b418465308240147/fulltext.pdf

Messianic Jews may seek Israeli citizenship without discrimination

The Supreme Court of the State of Israel, on April 16, 2008, acknowledged the right of Messianic Jews (Jews who believe in Jesus) to immigrate Israel (aliyah). This landmark ruling is little known among Christians worldwide, but is a huge encouragement from the Lord that the end times are approaching!

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:25-26 that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved." Large numbers of Jews have put there faith in Jesus as the Messiah ever since his first coming. The Messianic Jewish movement of the past 150 years has helped Jews understand that when they commit their lives to Jesus, they do not stop being Jewish, but they have become fulfilled Jews.

However, Messianic Jews have suffered the persecution of other Jews within the State of Israel since its independence. This Supreme Court ruling in 2008 apparently was in reaction to violence committed on Messianic Jews, and recognizes that this persecution and discrimination is illegal. Please pray that this will opens doors for the gospel to reach more Jews in the land of  Israel!

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Here is more information, as Erin Roach reported in the Baptist Press article Israeli Supreme Court sides with Messianic Jews from April 21, 2008.

With the ruling, Messianic Jews may seek citizenship in Israel without religious discrimination, according to Jim Sibley, a professor at Criswell College in Dallas and a former missionary to Israel. Jewish believers had been excluded from the law of return by previous court rulings, including one in the 1980s declaring that if a Jew believed in Jesus as the Messiah, he was not to be considered Jewish. With the ruling, Sibley said, Messianic Jews may seek citizenship in Israel without religious discrimination.

It's really a huge ruling because the court apparently further ordered the Israeli Ministry of Interior to stop persecuting Jewish believers,” Sibley said. “Some of the very Orthodox Jewish sectors of society had taken positions in the Ministry of Interior and had been using their positions to revoke believers' citizenship, deny visas and generally harass not only Jewish believers in Jesus but also Christian workers in Israel."

The Supreme Court's decision should alleviate some of the pressure that Jewish believers and foreign Christian workers have felt in Israel, Sibley said, adding that he "can't help but believe" the ruling is related to a terrorist attack on the Messianic community that occurred in March, 2008.

In that incident, 15-year-old Ami Ortiz, whose parents are noted Messianic congregational leaders in Ariel, opened a bomb disguised as a gift delivered to his home. He suffered extensive damage to his body but is expected to recover after at least a year of treatment. Though a police investigation is ongoing, anti-missionary Orthodox Jews were among those originally suspected as perpetrators.

A Goldilocks Planet needs just the right Tides

Artist's concept of a large,
rocky extrasolar planet. 

Lots of planets surround other stars ... but the idea that we will find life when we find a planet at just the right distance is far too simplistic. Science Daily reported that “Tides can render the so-called ‘habitable zone’ around low-mass stars uninhabitable.” Astronomers at the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam studied the effects of tides on planets around low-mass stars (the most numerous stars in the galaxy) and found that the lack of seasons, the increased heat and volcanism, and synchronous rotation (the same side always facing to the star) make them uncomfortable at best, and perhaps uninhabitable.

“I think that the chances for life existing on exoplanets in the traditional habitable zone around low-mass stars are pretty bleak, when considering tidal effects,” lead researcher Rene Heller remarked. “If you want to find a second Earth, it seems that you need to look for a second Sun.”

Marko comments: You won't find another Goldilocks Planet, because God created just one! Let's see, we need just the right distance from the star, just the right distance from the center of the galaxy, just the right tides, just the right temperature for liquid water, just the right amount of ultraviolet light, just the right protection from asteroids, just the right...

Those who insist on looking for this second Sun might as well look for someone else beside Jesus to save them, too. But sorry, there is no one who qualifies.

(Based on "Habitable Zones Constrained by Tide", Creation-Evolution Headlines, February 2011)

(also published in Creation Matters, a publication of Creation Research Society, Volume 16, Number 2, March/April 2011, to appear at http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/pdf/2010/CM15%2006%20low%20res.pdf)

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What to do when another Christian hurts you... (from Dr Mike Milton)

Have you been hit by friendly fire? Are you the victim of a wound inflicted by someone you love? Genesis 50:15-21 instructs Christians on what to do when other Christians hurt them. Being a victim is not a good way to live because life cannot go forward when the clock has stopped at the point of your last betrayal. The power at work in the life of Joseph is what you need in order to get past this hurt. By embracing the pain that comes at him as a means of identification with Jesus Christ, you move from victim to victor...

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Walking Wounded

One second. One mistake. One firing of the missile in the midst of the war. The missile cannot come back. The weapon is now headed for you. And the one who fired it is on your side. It is war.

And this is not Baghdad or the Battle of the Bulge or Pork Chop Hill. I am speaking of the many walking wounded in the body of Christ who have been hurt by other believers, people who have been hit by the betrayal of a Christian

But this is no mistake. She meant to say those words. He meant to plot against you. They meant to bring you down. And you will never be the same. You will suffer with this for the rest of your life. You will not go back to any church. You will lick your wounds. Pain will possess you for the rest of your life. And over time the pain turns to bitterness.

Do you know anyone like that? Or is that your story? Are you the victim of a wound inflicted by someone you love? A victim?

It does not have to be that way. Remember the story of Joseph and how he said these words to his brothers as they stood before him:

“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them (Genesis 50:15-21).

When the Clock Stops

I once sold insurance door to door in poor areas of Louisiana. One of my clients was a family that lived in an old house on the other side of the tracks. Every month I would go to collect the insurance money, and we would sit in their living room and talk. One day I noticed that the clock was wrong. It said nine o’clock when, in fact, it was noon. I said nothing. But I saw the same thing the next month and then the next month. Finally, I said something to the husband and wife. Tears came to their eyes. “That was the moment our boy died 10 years ago,” they told me. The clock had stopped in their lives.

The pain of friendly fire is like that. It can stop the clock in your heart. This happens to Christians whom other Christians hurt and who fail to identify their pain with Christ. The clock stops. They go through life, month after month, year after year, and often church after church, but the clock stopped in their lives way back when they were hurt. Today it is popular to be a victim, but being a victim is not a good way to live ecause life cannot go forward when the clock has stopped at the point of your last betrayal.

Yet I wonder: Are you living your life with the clock stopped?

There is a Way

There is another answer. There is a way to healing. But I warn you, it will involve another kind of pain — the pain of Christ’s cross. Christ’s cross will bring resurrection, and the new life He brings will also make the clock start ticking again.

This is what we see in Joseph’s ability to forgive his brothers after they literally ditched him. Joseph identified his pain with God. In God the pain was intended to bring blessing. Being hurt by his brothers made sense. The pain of false accusation made sense. The trial of unjust imprisonment was good. The years of separation from his father were good for him. He was saying with David, “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil” (Psalm 90:15).

The power at work in the life of Joseph is what you need in order to get past this hurt. It is the power that was present in Paul when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). By embracing the pain that comes at him as a means of identification with Jesus Christ, Paul moves from victim to victor.

This is for anyone who is a believer hurt by another believer, for a loved one hurt by another loved one, for anyone feeling like a victim of another person, or maybe just feeling betrayed by life. In order for you to move from victim to victor in dealing with the pain of betrayal or suffering of any kind, drastic steps must be taken.

The hurt person, who is not embracing that pain as a means for God to do something in his life, is the person who is stuck and for whom the clock has stopped. He is not denying himself. In fact, the very thing he wants to do is feed his pain: “They hurt me, they said this about me, and I was offended.”

But Jesus says, “Take up your cross, follow Me, deny yourself, whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

We want to think about cross-bearing as physical pain, and it is. We also want to think about taking up our cross as standing up for truth and maybe taking some hits for it, maybe even being a martyr for it. Throughout church history many have done so.

But the context of the cross is betrayal. The context of the cross is the pain of being hurt by those close to us.

Zechariah 13:6 speaks of “the wounds I received in the house of my friends.” This is the pain you may feel in your heart. This may be where you are living today.

God does not call us to live in distrust, but to live by faith in Christ. It is not that I implicitly trust all men; it is that I trust God in all situations. And this makes life sweet.

Will you say, “I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may rise again”? Will you believe that though “they” meant it for evil, God meant it for good? Will you go on and live this risen life that Christ offers you right now?

(excerpted version of Dr. Mike Milton's booklet Hit by Friendly Fire: What to Do When Christians Hurt, reposted from Ministry & Leadership, Spring/Summer 2011, Reformed Theological Seminary. The full booklet can be ordered at http://mindandheart.com/ProductDetails.aspx?a=1556359284)

God provides a new building for persecuted Bible students in Vietnam

Pastor Hong
Quang
Nguyen.

On Dec. 14, 2010, 100 police and a bulldozer gathered on the property of the Mennonite Bible School in Ho Chi Minh City. Police attacked Pastor Hong Quang Nguyen, the school's leader, then bulldozed the building as the students watched. The first students to graduate from the school had received their diplomas just days earlier.

Though the loss of the building was a setback for the school, Pastor Quang and his 22 remaining students decided to complete their training. Another pastor offered Pastor Quang land for a new school site about 25 miles from Ho Chi Minh City. Just days after the attack on their school, the students were at their new location, repairing an old building on the property and clearing land to build dorms and bathrooms. Classes resumed on Jan. 3, 2011. In between classes and studying, the students passed out 3,000 tracts to their new neighbors, and eight people received Christ.

Throughout the ordeal, the students have grown in their faith. A Christian worker from the region wrote, "All are determined to study and to fulfill their responsibility to the Lord. The event has been a great test of their faith, and it has made them unite together and decide to serve God to the end."

The building for the new Bible school was finished in March. The facility can house up to 50 students. The building includes a classroom/worship sanctuary, library, kitchen, dining room, rooms and nine dorm rooms.

Pastor Quang said the experience of losing the school has taught him and his students a lot about serving Christ. "We have decided to serve and to bear the cross of Jesus," he said.

(from Voice of the Martyrs, June 2011)

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Why do fetuses have hair? Why do many scientists deny a Creator?

Why do babies grow hair before they are born which they later lose? Doesn’t this prove we have a common ancestor with apes?

This is the gist of an argument presented by Jerry Coyne. He mentions that hair keeps mammals warm, which is true. He points out that human babies have hair in the womb where they are not exposed to the cold, suggesting that this hair serves no purpose in humans. He then insists that the only way to understand this phenomenon is to believe that humans evolved from other mammals, implying the hair is an evolutionary leftover.

However, if we look closely at what this hair is, the timing of its appearance, and other related factors, this argument by Coyne is seen to be quite presumptuous.

Bystrova (2009) gives reasons for believing that this hair allows for sensory stimulation in utero that affects the growth rate of the baby. Additionally, this prenatal sensory stimulation is considered somewhat analogous to postnatal sensory input, as in a mother touching her baby, which is considered important for healthy development.

This points to a bigger question. Why do some scientists declare class warfare against anything that could possibly point to a Creator? While others are truly productive scientists? Productive scientists look at known details in living things and tend to assume that the structures and processes they observe have a function. This leads to improved understanding and medical advances. The argument by Coyne is not scientific and can be traced back to a philosophy, one intended to deny that there is a Creator.

(Excerpted from A hairy subject; Egg on our faces?, by Jean K. Lightner, published in Creation Matters, a publication of Creation Research Society, Volume 16, Number 2, March/April 2011, to appear at http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/pdf/2011/CM16%2002%20low%20res.pdf)

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References (selected)


Bystrova, K. 2009. Novel mechanism of human fetal growth regulation: a potential role of lanugo, vernix caseosa and a second tactile system of unmyelinated low-threshold C-afferents. Medical Hypotheses 72(2):143–146.

A Muslim Tribal Chief is Bringing Jesus to His People

"Like most people in my tribe, when I was a young boy I went to the madrasah (Islamic school) for training in the Quran and preparation for jihad (holy war). As I read the Quran, I noticed that it talks about Jesus in ways that are different from other prophets; I was curious and confused. I left the madrasah and went to another city. There a friend of mine introduced me to a committed follower of Jesus who taught from the Bible. I liked his stories about Jesus and saw that he prayed to God in Jesus’ name, but I didn’t really think that it was for me. I didn’t see how Jesus could be for Muslims.

A couple of years later, my school class went on a picnic outing by the sea. As part of the field trip, we went out boating, and many of the students were jumping in the water to swim. I didn’t know how to swim. But I thought, “My people are from the mountains; we are the bravest people. Why are all these other, weaker students not afraid to go in the water, but I am?” To prove my bravery, I jumped in the water, too. Because I didn’t get too far away from the boat, I was fine. Then I decided to jump in a second time. This time I jumped farther. I quickly realized that I wasn’t okay—I was sinking! I called out, praying in the way I learned as a boy, and nothing happened. Then I remembered how that teacher prayed in Jesus’ name, and I thought, “I have nothing to lose; I’m about to drown.” So I cried out “Jesus, save me!” Then I blacked out. When I woke up again, I was back on the boat. My friends said that they had seen me sink, but they knew they couldn’t reach me in time. But then they said that something had held me up until they could get to me. I knew that was Jesus.

As soon as possible, I went back to meet the man who taught about Jesus and told him what had happened to me. I said I wanted to commit my life to Jesus. I studied more in-depth about Jesus and the Bible with him for two years and even changed my religious identity. I liked my new life, but I felt like God wanted more for me. As I prayed and sought the Lord, I felt him calling me, “Go back to your own people and village to tell them about me.” I explained to a friend how God was calling me, and he agreed to pray for me. I went back to my home village, my tribe. I shared about Jesus with many in my tribe on various short trips. At first, it was hard work. Then, after I had shared many times with the tribal leader, he finally had a dream about Jesus and decided to follow him. Later, when this leader was on his deathbed, he called me to his bedside. He took off his turban from his head and put it on mine in front of everyone there, which meant that I was the new tribal leader. I was shocked. I thought the next leader would be one of his sons. But, after the period of mourning was over, the other leaders confirmed that it was me, so I accepted the responsibility.

I wanted to lead the tribe in a way that everyone could see that devotion to Jesus had made a difference in my life. So, whenever there were issues that came up, I used the Bible in my rulings. One time a woman was brought before me who was going to be stoned for adultery. I based my ruling on a passage from the Gospel, and challenged her accusers, “If any of you are without sin, you be the one to strike her down.” None of them could do anything, and the woman was saved.

Over time, the other tribes heard that I was using the Bible to lead my tribe, and that I was telling others to trust in Jesus. Some of the other leaders were very upset, and they set an ambush for me. When I walked by where they were waiting for me, they began shooting at me with machine guns. I started to run. I could feel bullets hitting my body, but I kept running until I was far away. When I stopped, I saw the holes in my shirt, and felt pain where the bullets had hit me. But, as I looked closer, I saw that the bullets had only wounded the surface of my skin. Only one had fully entered my body, into my leg. I understood that God had protected me. I was also reminded so clearly that it is only because of the God’s work in my heart that I am not violent like the men shooting me. It made me so grateful for His protection and His provision.

While I was recovering in the hospital, the men who had set the ambush found out that I had survived. They became afraid for their lives. They knew that I had the right in our tribal culture to send men after them to kill them. But I knew that the Bible teaches that you should forgive your enemies. After I had left the hospital, I called them to me and told them, “Because I follow the teachings of Jesus, I forgive you.” They were so relieved. Through this, I was able to share more with them about Jesus. Today, their tribe is one of our most passionate groups of Jesus-followers.

As I have continued leading my tribe in a biblical way and share with others about Jesus, we have seen more and more put their trust in him. There are now thousands of home groups of those who have given their lives to Jesus, with each group serving about ten families. It is my passion to see all Muslims following Jesus within Islam. Starting from our tribe, we have shared our story with many other tribes in our country, and are trusting God to continue to spread the good news about Jesus throughout the rest of the Muslim world. We want to see Jesus welcomed into his rightful place within Islam. This is my greatest dream.

(reposted from Mir-Ibn-Mohammad, A Muslim Tribal Chief is Bringing Jesus to His People, Mission Frontiers May-June 2011)

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A Sandbar in the Middle of Land? Old Earth Geologists cannot explain...

The Meridian Sandbar is a massive outcrop stretching from southwestern from Alabama to east-central Mississippi, a distance of approximately 80 miles. It is approximately 12 miles wide and up to 100 ft thick (Wermund, 1965). It is white to light gray, coarse-to-fine-grained quartzose sand.

Secular geologists would use the modern Gulf Coastal Plain and Gulf of Mexico continental shelf to explain the formation and development of the massive sandbar. However, they have never identified any of the expected components (e.g., rivers, sandy delta, and coastline) necessary to define the history of this feature!

The global flood of Noah as recorded in Scripture simplifies the understanding of its formation....

Notice that the distance from the edge of the southern Appalachian metamorphic/crystalline core rocks to the center point along the Meridian Sand is approximately 250 miles. Scientific analysis that takes biblical data into account would show that it was likely formed during the Lower Division of the Flood Event Timeframe (see Figure 2). Sand carried away from the rising Appalachians was transported and deposited onto the submerged continental shelf.

A combination of water movement and large waves likely formed the sand into the massive sandbar during the Middle Division of the Flood Event when water currents were established across the North American continent (i.e., epeiric sea; Froede, 1995a) following uplift of the Appalachians (Froede, 2006; 2009). With the loss of water energy, the sandbar was locked in place and buried by mud and clay.

Old earth geologists are stumped - yet here is another successful explanation by Creation Scientists based on evidence from the Bible!

(Excerpted from The Meridian Sandbar and the Flood, by Carl R. Froede Jr., published in Creation Matters, a publication of Creation Research Society, Volume 16, Number 2, March/April 2011, to appear at http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/pdf/2011/CM16%2002%20low%20res.pdf.)

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References (selected)

Froede, C.R., Jr. 1995a. Late Cretaceous epeiric sea or retreating Floodwater? CRSQ 32(1):13–16.

Froede, C.R., Jr. 2006. Neogene sand-to-pebble size siliciclastic sediments on the Florida Peninsula: Sedimentary evidence in support of the Genesis Flood. CRSQ 42:229–240.

Froede, C.R., Jr. 2009. From the Appalachians to the Keys: An update on the Florida gravels. Creation Matters 14(3):1–3.

Wermund, R.G. 1965. Cross-bedding in the Meridian Sand. Sedimentology 5:69–79.

High Caste Hindus who Embrace Jesus

My name is Ventakesh and my home is India. I was brought up in a strict, high caste Hindu family, and we had our own pooja room where we had daily prayers to the Hindu gods. We maintained all the Hindu festivals and were very diligent to fulfill all the requirements of our Hindu faith and religion.

My father was a highly-placed government official and very orthodox in all his practices. He treated with disdain the religion of the Christians because of their habits of smoking, drinking and dancing. He viewed them as unclean. His overall impression of the Christianity of the West was molded by what he saw in the Western movies, especially from America.

When I returned to the USA, I met another Hindu man who told me that he followed Jesus. He was not a practicing Christian who went to church, but he maintained his own Hindu culture and social habits, and he loved Jesus and read the Bible and he knew it very well. He explained to me that he was a Hindu by his first birth and was proud of this heritage which was from God and showed me Acts 17:26, where God is explained as the one who determines where and when we are born. Then he explained how he had experienced a second birth, when he became one of God’s children and a member of His kingdom. This second birth was not a physical birth but a spiritual birth and as God’s Spirit lived in us we would gradually become very attractive people who cared for others and helped them in their troubles. He showed me John 1:12 "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" - and so I decided to believe in Jesus. As a result I became one of His children and knew that my past was forgiven and that I had a great hope after I died.

Immediately I Skyped my sister in India and told her what was happening to me. She too has now experienced Jesus in her life and no longer prays to the Hindu gods. The changes in her attitude have touched my mother and father, who are now showing a lot of interest.

I have since returned to India, and I am very much part of our Hindu community. I am engaged in all the activities of our family and extended family. There are many discussions about Jesus, and I am sharing the Bible with many people in our community. Because of my academic qualifications and the good job I now have, I have a very good standing in our community, and so people listen to me. I continually explain to them that I am not trying to “convert” them to Christianity but to “convert” them to Jesus as they live out their lives in the Hindu community. Now I have quite a few friends who are also following Jesus, and we meet regularly to pray together and share the Scriptures and to encourage each other. We sense that God is going to cause many people in our community to know and love Him. We are claiming the verse Isaiah 60:22 that a little one shall become a thousand and that a small one will become a mighty nation and that God will hasten all this in His time. This is already beginning to happen.

(excerpted from K. Venkatesh, Living and Discipling in the Hindu World, Mission Frontiers May-June 2011)

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Roberta Winter Institute: fighting Satan on the battlelines of disease

"Our mission: To champion the cause of disease eradication for the glory of God."

As a result of his belief in an intelligent evil having a destructive influence on God's good creation, and in honor of his first wife who died of cancer in 2001, Ralph Winter founded the Roberta Winter Institute to advance the cause of disease eradication. Ralph devoted much of the final decade of his life to the RWI, seeing disease eradication and our response to evil in general as overlooked frontiers in mission. The institute seeks to mobilize believers to fight the origins of disease, thereby defeating the works of Satan and glorifying God.

For more info, see http://robertawinterinstitute.org/.

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Darwin admitted that Natural Selection is a false term!

After 150 years, Darwin’s sacred imposter—natural selection—is presented in most schools as absolutely true in spite of its ill-defined basis, its invisible operation, and the fact that there is no real “selector”—because attributes inherent to organisms actually do all the work. These warnings should influence creation scientists to step back and re-evaluate this convoluted evolutionary idea.

In Darwin’s 1872 edition of Origin, he responded to those calls for him to justify use of the word “selection.” Darwin admitted, like all evolutionists will when challenged, that calling the process of how organisms fit environments “selection” was not true. He confided, “In a literal sense of the word, no doubt, natural selection is a false term.”¹

The same disconnect from reality is acknowledged in recent work focused on accurately describing evolution. For example, Harvard’s leading evolutionary authority, Ernst Mayr, in What Evolution Is disclosed the same veiled truth, “The conclusion that these favored individuals had been selected to survive requires an answer to the question, Who does the selecting? In the case of artificial selection, it is indeed the animal or plant breeder….But, strictly speaking, there is no such agent involved in natural selection.”² Then in 2009, Jerry Coyne wrote in Why Evolution Is True, “And while I said that natural selection acts, this is not really accurate. Selection is not a mechanism imposed on a population from outside.”³

Though all of these authorities concede that tying “selection” to some real agent is “false” and “not really accurate,” they still minimize the magnitude of this inaccuracy through persistent use of words describing natural selection as if it really is “a mechanism imposed on a population from outside.”

But the power that selection has to captivate a mind must never be underestimated—as it is only in the mind that this kind of “selection” actually takes place. As a result, they have ascribed intelligence to something inanimate, thereby raising serious scientific and theological implications.

Those who extol the Creator must at some point reject any idea that robs God of His glory.

(excerpted from Randy J. Guliuzza, Darwin's Sacred Imposter: Recognizing Missed Warning Signs, Acts & Facts May 2011, Institute for Creation Research)

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References (selected)

1. Darwin, C. 1872. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 6th ed. London: Senate, 63.

2. Mayr, E. 2001. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books, 117.

3. Coyne, J. A. 2009. Why Evolution Is True. New York: Viking, 117.