Is there evidence for the big bang?

http://www.reasons.org/videos/is-there-evidence-for-the-big-bang

 

An anti-big bang article

http://creation.com/the-big-bang-fails-another-test

Soft Tissue in Mollusk Fossils and the Case for a Young Earth

http://www.reasons.org/articles/soft-tissue-in-mollusk-fossils-and-the-case-for-a-young-earth

Talking about death

Loving Our Neighbor, Neglecting Our God

from faithactually

Jesus said: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:36-40)

If loving our neighbor is, as Jesus said, the second greatest commandment, then it’s certainly vital for Christians to know how to obey it. And in order to obey the commandment, Christians need a biblical understanding of what loving our neighbor actually means.

Knowing how to love our neighbor seems like it should be a clear-cut concept, doesn’t it? For it’s true that after being pressed for answers by a self-seeking Pharisee, Jesus explained the commandment using the simple parable of the Good Samaritan, who, at his own expense, selflessly cared for a man in need (Luke 10:25-37). The Good Samaritan showed unmerited favor to a man whom others had passed off as unworthy of their love. The parable illustrates the way that loving our neighbor should mirror the nature of God’s grace to us; for it was while we were unworthy sinners that Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).

But despite the simple truth exemplified in the parable, the pure, powerful, and gospel-centered meaning of the second greatest commandment has become distorted in our worldly culture today. To love one’s neighbor has been twisted into something entirely different from the self-sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrated for us on the Cross. “Loving” others has been reduced to a flimsy paper-chain of feel-good human relationships that flutter and tear in the winds of emotion and circumstance—these relationships aren’t rooted in Godly love, but are tied together by a frail substitute.

Continue reading: http://faithactually.blogspot.com/2015/03/loving-our-neighbor-neglecting-our-god_29.html

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

from Truthbomb Apologetics

It has been awhile since my previous post but I have finished my notes for your review.  I pray you find Dr. Keller’s wisdom as illuminating and helpful as I have while experiencing my own “furnace”.

Chapter Fourteen: Praying

In order to understand what the Bible says about suffering, one must come to grips with the book of Job.  Rabbi Abraham Heschel famously stated, “God is not nice.  God is not an uncle.  God is an earthquake.”  Philosopher Peter Kreeft says “Job is a mystery.  A mystery satisfies something in us, but not our reason.  The rationalist is repelled by Job…[but] something deeper in us is satisfied by Job, and is nourished…It puts iron in your blood.”  Job conveys that the problem of suffering is both a philosophical and emotional problem.  The traditional religious answer is that the sufferer must have done something wrong.  Yet Job’s suffering is because of his goodness.  The secular answer is that there is no good reason.  A good God wouldn’t allow this, so either he doesn’t exist or is cruel.  But Job tells us that both of these are wrong.

The book opens with Satan in heaven accusing Job before God.  This raises a question, what is Satan doing in heaven?  Wasn’t he cast out?  We must remember that the Bible is quite selective about what we are told.  We must also keep in mind the author’s purpose in the details we are given.  The Bible gives us few details about the supernatural and it can be noted that Satan does not show any deference to God – he does not address him as Lord, does not bow to him, nor show him any respect.  What we are told is that Satan, which means “accuser”, is before God accusing Job of only being in relationship with God because of the benefits he receives from God.  Just think of any love relationship.  How would you feel if someone you loved left you because of a financial reversal?  Wouldn’t you feel used?  They’ve loved you for the benefits, instead of for who you essentially are.  It’s the same with God, we should love him for who he is, not for the benefits he gives us.  But how do we get there?  One of the primary ways is hardship.  Suffering affords the opportunity to focus on God in ways we haven’t before.

Read more: http://truthbomb.blogspot.com/2015/03/walking-with-god-through-pain-and.html

Why I Quit the Praise Band

http://steadfastlutherans.org/2015/03/why-i-quit-the-praise-band/

The End Times According to Islam

http://blogs.christianpost.com/confident-christian/the-end-times-according-to-islam-25074/

Our light

Praise For the Fountain Opened

From The Olney Hymns

William Cowper

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from EMMANUEL’S veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there have I, as vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r;
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply:
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler sweeter song
I’ll sing thy pow’r to save
When this poor lisping stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe thou hast prepared
(Unworthy though I be)
For me a blood–bought free reward,
A golden harp for me!

’Tis strung, and tuned, for endless years,
And formed by pow’r divine;
To sound, in God the Father’s ears,
No other name but thine.

The exchanged life

The exchanged life is not some second work of grace. It is a new awareness and appreciation for the first work of grace!

To say that you are a Christian doesn’t simply refer to the particular set of doctrinal beliefs you hold. It doesn’t just refer to the way you live. It points to what you are at the deepest level of your being. At the center of your being is Christ! He has become your very life! “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). When you received Christ, you were joined together with Him in an eternal union. He now lives in you and desires to express His life through you.

Someone has said that Jesus gave His life for us so that He could give His life to us and live His life through us. A believer has become one with Christ.

The totality of the Christian’s life is contained in Jesus Christ! The Christian life is not about Christ. It is Christ. It is God’s purpose to bring every Christian to the place where he no longer lives for self, but where Christ is allowed to live His life through us.

~ Steve McVey, Grace Walk