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FAMILY NEWSEND OF SUMMER PICNIC: As most of you know, we postponed our picnic at Claytons' due to weather issues this past Tuesday. We will try again this Tuesday — eat at 5:00 P.M. You are invited — hot dogs, kielbasa, buns, and drinks are provided. Please bring a side dish, dessert. LADIES: If you want to go to the “Ladies Day” program at Goshen and have not told Patty, do so TODAY! SUNDAY NIGHT SERVICE begins September 12 at 6:00 P.M. We will be doing a series on archaeological support of the Bible featuring John Cooper's series about the Holy Land, and John Clayton will be leading a question/answer session after the DVD presentation. We are inviting the community to join us and we encourage you to invite visitors. SHULTS-LEWIS sent a thank you letter for the donation we sent and the commodity drive peanut butter and jelly/jam we provided. All together our donations to this ministry was $300.00. NEXT HIGHWAY CLEANUP will be the last week of September. More on this later — mark your calendar. TODAY'S LESSON
INTRODUCTION — By all reasoning, you should not exist.
A. Last week we talked about the Christian view of death vs. the atheist view.
I. THE CREATION OF THE COSMOS DENIES EXISTENCE.
B. This week let us talk about life. A. Matter vs. antimatter and E = mc2
II. THE SUSTAINING OF THE COSMOS & PHYSICS
B. Proverbs 8:23 — Quantum mechanics, Einstein, God C. John 1:1-14 — The creation came about as a miracle. D. What “banged” and who “banged it?” A. Second law of thermodynamics
III. LIFE ITSELF SPEAKS TO HOW SPECIAL WE ARE.
1. The creation speaks of wisdom — Proverbs 8:23.
B. Psalm 19:1
2. Isaiah 51:6 — Designed to sustain 1. Look up tonight.
C. What does climate change tell us?2. Go to apod.nasa.gov. 3. 2 Peter 3:8-11 — What is the future of the physical? A. Miller/Urey experiment and the origin of life.
IV. THE GOSPEL IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO HUMANS.
Can mankind create life?
B. Job 39:1-30 — “Dandy designs”C. Psalm 8:1-9 — SONG: “O Lord, Our Lord” D. Complexities of having a baby 1. Psalm 139:13-16
E. Genesis 1:26-31 — Not a physical image
2. The meaning of abortion 1. Biologically we are like every other animal.
Our brains do not make us different.
2. We can control the creation because of being created in the image of God.3. We participate in art, music, worship. a. Animals do not do these things. b. Making animals human is a big mess. A. “GOSPEL” = GOOD NEWS — 1 John 5:11-12
B. Hebrews 2:1-4 C. You are special, unique in God's creation. THE BACK PAGEWHY IS THERE SOMETHING INSTEAD OF NOTHING?The subject of this discussion is the focal point of much that is going on in philosophy today. The problem is that from an atheistic or agnostic position there is no answer. If you do not know why you exist, then you have no purpose in life. A life without a cause is a life without effect, and most of our western world is drifting around without a meaningful cause or purpose. Even Solomon struggled with this question. Read Ecclesiastes and see what Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, came to as an answer. He tried it all and ends his book saying “everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). He goes on to say “Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). As Richard has led us through a study of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles on Wednesday night, there has been a lot of head shaking going on. One king after another does stupid, destructive things as humans in power try to find meaning in life. The political situation in the world today just underlines this futile effort. We study history to learn not to make the same mistakes again, but we are poor learners. It is in the book of Job where our purpose in existing is explained. There is a struggle between good and evil which hearkens back to Adam and Eve. The serpent is still active, and Paul said, “I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). The gospel of Christ is “Good News”! We, like Job, are soldiers in the war between good and evil. Every little battle that Satan loses glorifies God, and we can all win some battles. That gives us purpose and hope. We are created with the ability to choose, and that makes our lives full of meaning and value — even though we lose a fight now and then (we call that sin). — John Clayton Our sign by the street! Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website. www.dowagiaccoc.org |
