Evolution or Intelligent Design

The old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Another question: Which came first, male or female? Man or woman?

Either both man or woman evolved in the same lifetime - or, only man or only woman existed in the beginning. For them to have evolved at the same time and with such compatible reproductive capacity must have been a very "lucky" coincidence. But if only man or only woman evolved first then he or she must have the ability to perpetuate his or her kind without the other or they don't. And if one was reproducing without the other, why the need for the other? Millions of animal species have both male and female pairs. And they can't reproduce without the other.

A colossal coincidence?

Believers of creation are accused of promoting religion. But the theory of evolution is no less a religion. Renowned Nobel Prize awardee Harold C. Urey, made the following confession on the subject: "All of us who study the origin of life find that the more we look into it, the more we feel it is too complex to have evolved anywhere. We all believe as an article of faith that life evolved from dead matter on this planet. It is just that its complexity is so great, it is hard for us to imagine that it did".

In other words though hopelessly unable to prove it, scientists (and evolutionists) nevertheless have faith that evolution is true.

Lasting Friendship

The endurance of friendship rests on some bedrock foundations, particularly: mutual need (Gen.2:18), agreement (Amos 3:3), trust (John 15:15), giving/sharing and when worse comes to worst, commitment (Prov.17:17). Without them a friendship, sooner or later crumbles. This is true of nations as well as individuals.

Can You Eat Cockroach?

The common belief today is that God had "cleansed" all animals and that Peter was told to eat them (Acts 10:10f). If it is correct, then we should have no problem eating a cockroach or a scorpion today. Well, the fact is that Peter was then in a trance (v.10) and was actually seeing unclean animals and creeping things in a vision or a dream - not in actual reality. Peter was in doubt and refused to eat (v.14). While nursing his doubt, three men (Gentiles) came, and the Spirit told Peter to receive them. This was unusual because the Jews (which Peter was) do not make such kind of interaction with Gentiles. Peter later on realized that he was being shown to not anymore call or regard any man (Gentile) "unclean" or "common" (v.28) .

Written in our hearts

The new covenant states that God will "...put My law in their mind and write it in their hearts" (Jer.31:31f, Heb.8:10f). This unmistakably shows that the commandments given at Sinai was to become part of our being or consciousness in this "new testament" time. This is hardly what we hear being taught today. In fact, we hear the opposite being said about God's law. It is no wonder Paul wrote:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Awesome!

The specks in the photo are not stars - they are galaxies. The impressive image of deep space, never before observable, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (see more pictures at HubbleSite.org). Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of billions such galaxies in the deep space - each consisting of billions of stars and planets. My guess is that far beyond the reaches of the best telescopes like the Hubble telescope, are many more billions - maybe trillions or more galaxies. The numbers become meaningless to our limited comprehension and only highlights our utter insignificance amidst the immenseness of the material reality. The word awesome probably correctly describes what all these is to our helplessness.

But here's what is truly awesome: David realized this in Psalms 8. He was aware of the vastness of the heavens, yet he knew that God takes special thought of man - cares for and looks after ("visitest" in KJV) him (Ps.8:4f). David knew that not only did God give man dominion or power over the earth and its resources (v.6-8). David actually used the phrase "all things" to refer to what is being placed under man's dominion (v.6). What does "all things" mean? Hebrews 2:8 says "all things" means everything - nothing excepted. That includes all those galaxies - and the entire universe!
Incredible? That's what the Bible clearly says.

Hope

Hope keeps us going. When our hope goes, so does our resolve. An American soldier who was captured by VietCong soldiers during the Vietnam war, didn't lose hope - he refused to. He knew he could survive it. And survive he did - and came back home a free man.

Do you have this kind of hope?

Paul wrote: "...we are saved by hope..." (Rom.8:24). The fact is we who are "a new creature in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:17) have all the hope we would ever need in this life - no matter what our situation is in life. We just need to realize it and live on it - like we live on food and water. Nothing - yes nothing - not even death - can stop us on the way (Rom.8:35f, 1The.4:13f).