The Political Season has Begun

The fire was lit beneath the political cauldron last November. It came to a boil with the President’s "State of the Union"address. It will doubtlessly continue to cook until the next election. It smells like the same old thing they cook every time.

I didn’t want this Blog to be a political diatribe. I still don’t. But I have been hearing my friends worry about "where the country is going" now that so many of those who’s moral agenda is different from our own have finally found their way into office.

As I hear this I can’t help but reflect on some interesting things I have been reading in the book of Daniel lately. No, I am not going to predict the rise of the Antichrist and the end of time (although I never really want to rule that out). I am thinking more along the way that God and His people interacted with the pagan kings and governments in Daniel’s day.

You’ll remember in the book of Jeremiah, God referred to king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as "my servant" whom He would use for His purpose "until his time is up" (Jeremiah 27: 6-7). In Daniel we find that young Daniel came to prominence during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Because he remained true to his faith, God raised Daniel up to represent Him before Nebuchadnezzar on several occasions. This usually ended up with Nebuchadnezzar praising God and recognizing His sovereignty (Daniel 2: 47; 3: 28-29; 4: 34-37). This was then followed by the reign of Darius, in which occurred the famous story of the Lion’s den, which also ended in king Darius’ recognition of God’s sovereignty (Daniel 6: 26-28).

Please do not misunderstand me! I am not suggesting that we are in the hands of pagan rulers! There have always been and continue to be committed Christian men and women serving in our Congress. As far as godliness is concerned, the current congress certainly is no worse, and probably no better than the previous ones that have supported Biblical moral values for political reasons if no other.

What I am trying to say is this: God is on the real throne and is orchestrating history according to His purposes (see Romans 8:28 & 13:1).

Second, if we remain true to our faith as Daniel did, God will raise us up and use us in the way He intends to to have us represent Him to our world, regardless of who is "in power."

Thanks for spending this moment with me today!

Putting Christ back in Christmas?

Well, another Christmas season has come and gone. As usual, there were an ample number of Church signs that reminded us to "put Christ back in Christmas", or "Jesus is the reason for the season." I am sure that an adequate number of pulpits echoed this sentiment as well. I certainly have no quarrel with that sentiment, but I have noticed a disturbing trend over the last couple of Christmases, that is that several Churches, especially those of the variety that emphasize the Bible as God's word are cutting back on the number of worship opportunities they offer on either Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. This was probably more apparent last year and this year because Christmas fell on Sunday last year and Christmas Eve was on Sunday this year.

For example, Summit Church, which I wrote about earlier, cut back from the usual three, to one service on Christmas Eve Sunday. I mention this not because it is unusual but it seemed to be the norm. As I searched several Churchs' websites, I found only one near where we were staying in the Little Rock area that had a worship service in the evening on Christmas Eve.

Contrast this to Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls who had three worship services on Christmas Eve, and one on Christmas day. Admittedly this is a large congregation that can pull off three worship services in one evening, but that is beside the point. The point is that we, as the Body of Christ need to take our celebration of the birth of our Lord more seriously as a spiritual celebration, rather than a gift giving time, or simply a family event.

An important first step in "putting Christ back in Christmas is for every local Church to resolve to have a worship service on either Christmas Eve or Christmas day to celebrate Jesus' birth and what it means to us. I can remember how meaningful these services were back in the past of my "wandering period" as this was one of the few times in a year that I actually went to Church. And I don't believe that we need to worry about how many will attend. "If we build it they will come." If they don't, at least those of us who are there will be making a statement about what the day means to us.

Another step we can take is to make the Christmas story a part of our family celebrations. One of the things I found meaningful in Christmases past was that just before we opened our gifts as a family, we read the Christmas story as a recognition of the best Christmas Gift of all. This Christmas, for the third year in a row, we managed a Holiday Gift Center for See's Candies, so we were right in the thick of the commercial aspect of Christmas. This year, and last year, to balance this out, I gave each of my employees a gift of a New Testament, along with the suggestion that they make the reading of the Christmas story a part of their celebration with their families. This gift was very well received. I think that every nominal "Christian family" and certainly every believer family should incorporate the reading of the story of the birth of our Lord into their celebration of Christmas.

Putting Christ back in Christmas begins with us. If we who are redeemed by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ are not giving Him His proper place in our Christmas, how do we expect the world to do anything else?

Thanks for spending this moment with me today.

In the Beginning, God . . .

Let me tell you about an interesting place that I visited on the way back north last spring: the Creation Evidence Museum. It is located in Glen Rose, Texas, just southwest of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

I first learned about this museum when I saw it's founder, Dr. Karl Baugh, on TV one night. His program, "Creation is the 21st. Century" airs at 6:00 PM CDT, Tuesdays, and 11:30 PM CDT, Fridays on Trinity Broadcast Network. Rather than the usual image of presenting science and the Biblical account of creation as being irreconcilable miles apart, Dr. Baugh gives the impression of being a serious and credible scientist who is advancing reasonable, believable alternatives to the typical Darwinian fundamentalism that you and I were taught and that our grandchildren are still being taught in public schools.

I first visited their website http://www.creationevidence.org last spring, and after viewing that site, I made up my mind that I just had to go and make a personal visit.

The museum is located just north of the town of Glen Rose, along the banks of the Paluxy River. It is just a little way outside of Dinosaur Valley State Park. This park claims to have in it's borders, dinosaur fossils that are 225 million years old. Or was that 225 billion? Oh well, what's a few million (billion?) years!

This area of Texas is apparently very rich in fossil evidence, and has been studied by scientists for many years. Dr. Baugh and associates have themselves made several significant excavations in the area, and the expansion plan for the museum calls for a walking trail along the river that will highlight many of the dinosaur tracks found there.

I was surprised when I arrived at the Creation Evidence Museum. It was much smaller than I expected from the impression I had gotten from the website and the set on the TV program. It is currently housed in a double-wide mobil building with about 1/3 of the building dedicated to a crowded, but very well organized room that displays the various exhibits, and a gift shop that sells Dr. Baugh's books, among other things. The remaining 2/3 of the structure is apparently dedicated to storage, and administrative office space. The exhibit area, in spite of it's size, is very well organized, and it is easy to see the artifacts and exhibits around the room as you are seated, watching the excellent video presentation that is played once each hour throughout the day. Also, on the first Saturday of each month Dr. Baugh himself conducts the "Director's Lecture Series" in which he discusses some topic relevant to Scientific Creationism. I intend to make my next visit coincide with one of these.

There is also a new building under construction that is much more in tune with Dr. Baugh's vision of what the CEM should be. Don't wait until the new building is finished though. It may be a few years away, and the exhibits currently on display are not to be missed!

Two items in particular are outstanding to me that I would like to tell you about:

Dr. Baugh espouses what he calls the "Young Earth" theory to explain the seeming differences in the age of the Earth as claimed by the Bible, versus the theories of the Darwinian fundamentalists. In part he relies on Einstein's Theory of relativity. I had just seen a biography of Einstein the evening previous to my visit, and the basic idea here (keep in mind that I'm no scientist) is that time is relative to when and where it occurred in the universe. Also, Dr. Baugh believes that the Earth's atmosphere was different before the Flood of Noah, causing things to age and grow at a different rate than at the present. To this end, Dr. Baugh has constructed the world's first hyperbaric chamber to conduct experiments to prove this point. This has drawn attention from NASA scientists, which fact lends credibility to Dr. Baugh's efforts. The current hyperbaric chamber resembles an old fashioned "Iron Lung" from the 50's Polio epidemic. A newer, walk-in version is being build in the new building which should be able to house more significant experiments.

The second thing that got my attention is the human footprint within the dinosaur footprint. That means that the dinosaur and the human walked on the same spot at the same approximate time. As I said, I'm no scientist, but this is pretty convincing to me! And that fossil came from this part of Texas, not from the other side of the world! Part of Dr. Baugh's theory, indeed it was in part the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation, is that dinosaurs and humans co-existed in this part of Texas in "prehistoric" times.

One argument I have stayed away from throughout the years is that of what occurred "in the beginning". Contrary to what my children think, I wasn't there at the time, and after having attended a somewhat liberal (at that time) Christian college, I am acutely aware that there are many serious and dedicated Christians who espouse Darwinian fundamentalism, or some form thereof. I have always thought that it was an empty argument to try to insist that every Christian should believe in Creationism. "Intelligent Design" is a no-brainer for a Christian, but as long as we believe "in the beginning, God created . . ." I respect anyone whose opinion differs from my own. Having said that, I must say that if you have serious doubts about either Creationism or Evolution, or just want to learn more about it all, the Creation Evidence Museum presents credible scientific investigation into an alternative view to the Darwinian fundamentalism into which we have all been immersed.

The town of Glen Rose is located on US Highway 67. Take exit 26A off of I-35W, south of Ft. Worth. Go through Glen Rose to FM 205 and turn right. The CEM is located just past the Paluxy River bridge on the right. There is plenty of parking in it's gravel parking lot. There is room to park your RV during your visit, although it looked as though the lot could get a little soft during rainy times. The CEM is open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. Admission costs $2 per person, or $5 for immediate families of three or more.

There is an RV park just east of Glen Rose itself, as well as sites in Dinosaur Valley SP. We opted to park the motorhome in one of the many parks south of Ft. Worth, and drive the dinghy to CEM. See your favorite Campground directory for more information.

Thanks for spending this moment with me today.