Newsletter 90
from Maurice
Sweetsur
Contents.
T.T. 60 - God's Diary.
T.T. 61 - How old is the earth?
Why do vast numbers of teens leave the
church?
Prayers from children.
God's
Diary.
Diaries can be very useful. We can use them to
record things we have done that we might like to remember, or as a way to remind
us of future important dates like birthdays or holidays. We would all agree,
however, that some events in our lives are more important than others. I think
that is also true for God. I think that if He had a diary, six events would
stand out as being the most important of all in his relationship with us. By
talking about these, we can give a summary of the entire Bible
message.
As you talk about each event, you could show a
simple 6-page book, entitled "God's Diary, each page having the name of that
particular event written on it.
1. Creation. In the
beginning God spoke and the earth was formed. (You could illustrate this with a
thumb tip (Object Lesson 77, Newsletter 89). The earth was perfect, and people
were God's greatest creations made in His own image and for friendship with him.
But the very first people disobeyed God, and that act resulted in sin coming
into the world and spoiling it all.
2. God became a man.
God still loved the people of the world, and so He became a man Himself. We
called him Jesus. By doing this, God was able to more fully reveal his nature to
us and demonstrate how passionately He loves us. While Jesus was here on earth,
he was totally human. For example, he could only be in one place at a time and
got tired, hungry, thirsty, etc, just like us. He was still God, but left his
divine (Godly) qualities behind in heaven. Jesus did heal the sick and perform
miracles, but through the power of the Holy Spirit (See Newsletter 80 - "Can
Christians perform miracles?).
3.He died for us. Jesus
didn't die of a disease, accident or old age. No. He died as our Substitute. He
allowed Himself to be crucified by wicked men so that He could pay the price for
our sins by being punished instead of us. (You could illustrate this by telling
the story of the Judge and his friend "A free pardon", Newsletter
41).
4. He rose again. On the third day,
Jesus rose victorious from the dead, demonstrating that He had beaten the power
of death, sin, sickness and every form of evil. The good news is, He didn't do
it for himself. He did it for us, and invites us to share in His victory.
The difference between Christianity and other religions is that
our Leader is alive! Moslems or Buddhists, for example, could take you to the
graves of their leaders and tell you that great or good as they were, their
bones ore now rotting away under the ground. On the other hand, Christians could
take you to a cave just outside Jerusalem and say "Our leader, Jesus died and
his body was placed in that cave. But He is not there now. He rose from the dead
and is alive for evermore!"
5. He returned to heaven. Six weeks
after he rose from the dead, Jesus returned to heaven. That's where he is now,
praying for us and preparing a home for us. However, He still works through His
followers to carry on his work of defeating evil and making this earth perfect
once more. The good news is that in this war against evil, WE WIN - because the
decisive battle has already been fought and won by Jesus when He rose from the
dead.
6. He is coming back again. This is the
only one of the six major events in "God's Diary" that is still to happen. But
as God knows the future and always keeps His promises, it is just as certain to
take place as the first five. One day, Jesus will return to earth for all his
followers. He will instantly change us by giving us a new spiritual,
everlasting, body that will never get hungry, thirsty, tired, sick, etc. And
then He will take us to be with Him in heaven for ever. What a wonderful future
we have to look forward to!
Expiry date.
Just as our diaries have an expiry date on them (Usually
December 31st.), so does God's. One day, God will say "Time up" and the world as
we know it will come to an end. That is why it is so important to make sure that
we are trusting in Jesus, and to tell others that God offers them a free pardon
and eternal life through Jesus Christ. (You could conclude the lesson by telling
the story of George Wilson, and how a free pardon must be accepted, Newsletter
36).
How
old is the earth?
The only way that anyone could know
the age of the earth would be if they were present when it was being formed. As
only the Creator Himself was present, He is the only one who could tell you when
He made it. Although the Bible doesn't tell us exactly when the earth was
created, by a careful reading of its recorded events and time spans between
them, we can conclude that the earth is about 6,000 years old. It may possibly
be slightly older than this, but not by much.
Contrary to what some people
believe, Science cannot tell us how old the earth is This is because scientific
experiments can only be performed in the present, and not the past. Therefore,
as no human was present when the earth was first formed, we cannot look to any
human to give us a definitive answer.
There are, however, numerous ways in
which people can try to estimate the age of the earth. (For a more
detailed revue, see the Creation Ministries International web site).These
estimates vary from just a few thousand years (which are close to the age
derived from the Biblical record) to about five billion years! However,
all these methods depend upon many assumptions, mainly that the change
processes that we can presently observe happening on the earth having
always occurred at the same rate. No-one can know this.
The fact that different methods of
estimating the earth's age, and indeed different scientific laboratories using
the same method, come up with very different answers, suggest that conditions on
the earth have not always been the same and demonstrate how unreliable such
findings are.
Which earth age-estimation methods a
person chooses to believe will depend on their world view. Biblical Christians
will obviously accept the "young earth" estimates, whereas Evolutionists will
choose to accept the "old earth" estimates. That is because for evolution to be
even remotely possible it would require aeons of time for all the necessary
changes to take place as we evolved from chemicals to a living single cell, and
then into man, not to mention all the many different life forms we find
today.
Most of these methods actually
conclude that the earth is "young", usually giving values of between about 5,000
to 1 million years. The only earth age-estimation methods that give answers of
billions of years are the radiometric dating methods in which the rate at which
one type of chemical element is changed into another is measured. For example,
if we know that element A in the earth is slowly changing to element B, then by
measuring the present rate of change, and the amount of A and B presently in the
sample, we can calculate how long the process has been occurring, and thus how
long ago it was first formed. However, apart from assuming that the rate of
change has always been constant, we need to assume that there was no "B" present
at the beginning, and also that no "B" was leached out of the sample over the
supposed billions of years that this was taking place. This no-one can possibly
know!
Does it really matter whether we believe that the
earth is "young" or "old"?
I believe it does because if we
doubt the accuracy of the very first part of the Bible, what justification have
we foe believing other parts of it, such as when it talks about the resurrection
of Jesus and the means of obtaining eternal life through Him?
Why do vast numbers of teens leave the
church?
I am sure that we are all concerned about this. The following
thought-provoking article, which was recently published on the Creation
Ministries International web site, attempts to answer this question.
What percentage is acceptable to you?
The average Christian family prays at the dinner table. They go to church
together and the children are in Sunday school. Maybe they read Bible stories at
bedtime and pray together when the children are tucked in. The children go to
Christian camps each year, attend the youth group each week, and the family even
attends the mid-week service at church. This is an active Christian
family.
Whose youth are leaving the church?
You have likely heard the statistics, such as 2/3 of children raised in
Christian homes are leaving the church and other ‘studies’ claiming a
rate of exodus as high as 88%. Regardless of the accuracy of these statistics,
few Christians would deny the alarming departure rate they have witnessed not
only in their churches, but in their own families. Yet the ‘active’ Christian
families described above are exactly the ones that are dealing with the
heart-wrenching loss of their young adult children departing the faith. And most
times the parents are oblivious as to why this has happened.
So, here’s the rub. Are these statistics just about “somebody else’s”
children? If this portrait reflects reality across the wider church, what
percentage would be acceptable to you and your family? Would even 25% be
acceptable?
When CMI speakers are on the road, it is common after the presentation for a
Mom or Dad to approach us with a painful expression and tell us about how one,
or more, of their children are part of the youth exodus statistics mentioned in
our talks. It’s quite sobering to discuss. Even though this abandonment of faith
comes as a surprise to many parents, it’s actually easier to understand when you
consider what happens even before they leave the nest.
Many parents might think that college or other influences their children
encounter when they leave home are the main culprits in this scenario. However,
the process of this waning faith starts long before that, often times undetected
by parents. Barna research says 2 out of 3 have already made their minds up
before they leave home. And one of the major reasons is that all we ever hear is
the evolutionary story of billions of years of deep time being presented as an
accepted and irrefutable ‘fact’ of science. Whether TV programs, textbooks,
magazines, school, books, documentaries, even Saturday morning cartoons, our
children are saturated with a story that directly opposes the “Bible stories”
they hear in church. The take home message the children actually hear is “The
Bible is not true!” And the solution can’t merely be more “Bible
stories”, church time, camps and youth groups to somehow drown out that worldly
challenge. You see, our children are smart. If the science teacher presents the
evolutionary story as the real history of the world supported by ‘science’, what
would you reasonably expect if they are not adequately presented with the
alternative explanation that better accounts for the facts and science
supporting the Bible’s historical record? Unfortunately, this very important
aspect in defending our faith is absent from the teaching presented in most
churches and thus most homes.
The solution
So what can a parent do? We get constant reports that when a person is
equipped with "Creation Magazine", our "Fundamental resources" and a consistent
diet of our Bible-affirming resources", not only is their faith built up, but
they become confident with a defense against the onslaught of evolutionary
ideas. However, it might surprise you to learn that the best course of action is
not for a parent to provide their children these resources. You see,
while our children live under our roof, parents are the biggest influences in
their lives. When parents commit to equip, even saturate themselves with those
defenses that stand up against that ever-present challenge, then day by day they
are able to pepper their children’s lives with consistent truth. As parents
handle the truth and their children’s questions consistently, they will be able
to discern how evolution is a counterfeit substitution of the truth.
The authority of the Bible trumps evolution
Yes, these statistics show how vitally important and powerful it is that we
address this issue head on within our families. However, as you can see, this is
not a matter of accumulating facts and evidence. Despite the consistent droning
message of being told that ‘science’ has proven the Bible is wrong, it truly
boils down to whether that authority trumps our faith, or if our ultimate
authority comes from the Word of God.
So pray, go to church, study the Bible with your family, but today, commit to
equip yourself and your family with the truth that will stand the challenges
that we all face.
Prayers from
children.
Dear God, please put another holiday
between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.
Amanda
Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for was a
puppy. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.
Joyce
Dear Mr. God, I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come
apart I had to have 3 stitches and a shot.
Janet
God, I read the
Bible. What does beget mean? Nobody will tell me.
Love Alison
Dear
God, how did you know you were God? Who told you?
Charlene
Dear
God, is it true my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his golf words in the
house?
Anita
Dear God,
I bet it's very hard for you to love
all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I
can never do it.
Nancy
Dear God, I like the story about Noah the
best of all of them. You really made up some good ones. I like walking on water,
too.
Glenn
Dear God, my grandpa says you were around when he was a
little boy. How far back do you go?
Love, Dennis
Dear God, do you
draw the lines around the countries? If you don't, who does?
Nathan
Dear God, did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was
it an accident?
Norma
Dear God, in Bible times, did they really
talk that fancy?
Jennifer
Dear God, how come you did all those
miracles in the old days and don't do any now?
Billy
Dear God,
please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year.
Peter
Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they
each had their own rooms. It works out okay with me and my brother.
Larry
Dear God, I keep waiting for spring, but it never did come yet. What's
up? Don't forget.
Mark
Dear God, my brother told me about how you
are born but it just doesn't sound right. What do you say?
Marsha
Dear God, if you watch in church on Sunday, I will show you my new
shoes.
Barbara
Dear God, I do not think anybody could be a better
God than you. Well, I just want you to know that. I am not just saying that
because you are already God.
Charles
Dear God, I am doing the best
I can. Really!!!
Frank
Dear God, I didn't think orange went with
purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night. That was really cool.
Thomas
[forwarded by Adon Brownell]
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