Creation and Abortion

I gently rocked back and forth as I listened to the sermon and looked down at the serene face of the baby sleeping in my arms. She reminded me of how very valuable the life of a little one is and how incredibly such a small child can influence people. Currently in Texas, our state legislature has been trying to pass a bill that will put some safety regulations on abortion clinics, which would shut down many of the abortion facilities in Texas. This has brought up the hot topic of abortion in many circles, so I decided to address it in this circle as well. Those of us who believe that God created everything about six thousand years ago are also pretty strongly pro-life. This is not just a coincidence: Biblical creation and the value of life go hand-in-hand.

Evolution teaches that people are merely glorified pond scum, and that we are no different from the animals we eat. “Survival of the fittest” is a concept that depends on the strong ones building themselves up and the weak ones dying off. On the other hand, the Bible teaches us that we are created specifically by God, in His image, to have dominion over all the rest of His creation. Jesus taught us to love one another and help the poor, sick, and needy. Under evolutionary philosophy, abortion is a logical tool for weeding out the “unfit” people in society, but under the guide of Biblical creation it is wrong because it is murder – taking the life of another image bearer.

Abortion is not about women’s “rights”, but about the principles behind the meaning of life and our origins. Ernest Haeckel is well known for his drawings of human embryos that supposedly had certain stages that looked like different animals, repeating evolutionary sequence. Haeckel was trying to portray unborn babies as non-human, but his drawings were eventually proven to be fraudulent. A baby is a human, and therefore, made in the image of God, unlike any creature on earth. Knowing about our special creation gives us hope and purpose in our lives, even when things look bleak. A person does not have to be healthy or be born under ideal circumstances to be precious in the sight of God.

“For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was one of them . . . “ ~ Psalm 139:13-16

My Stegosaurus Story, Part II

My Stegosaurus Story, Part II

This is the link to the second half of my post on my work with the stegosaurus project last summer. 

In Fellowship Sweet

The harsh November wind swirled around me as I waited at the cross walk and a sports car, blaring what the driver thought was music, sped through the intersection. I walked down the street a ways until I found my favorite bench in a sunny area and sat down for lunch alone, except for the little Bible that I kept for company. My first year at a secular college was a bit lonely. Yes, I was friendly and talked to people, and even made a few friends there, but there really weren’t many other like-minded people that I ever encountered during the few hours I spent on campus each week.

Without other like-minded Christians around, it’s easy to get discouraged and sometimes feel sorry for ourselves. One of the purposes of the church is to bring like-minded Christians together to encourage, help, and pray for one another. God did not design us each to have it all figured out and under control on our own, but instead, He created us to work together and need each other. Remember that we are soldiers of Christ, strangers on the enemy’s battlefield, so having allies fighting together can help us all win the day-to-day battles.

Being a young-earth creationist out on the battle field definitely makes having “allies” important to me. However, our enemy also knows how much we need each other and how dangerous we can be when we team up against him, so he tries to break us apart with things like little disagreements or jealously. Ultimately, of course, we have to make God our number-one supporter. About a year ago, I prayed to meet other creationists and although my attempt to go to what I thought of as “creationist Grand Central Station” fell through, I have been completely amazed at how incredibly God answered my prayer. I was encouraged by finding another creationist web-site just today, called the “Virtual Creation Zoo” which is run by three brothers from ages ten to thirteen. Here is the link to their site:
http://www.virtualcreationzoo.com/

My Stegosaurus Story

My Stegosaurus Story

I did a guest post about my experience in building a life-sized model of a Stegosaurus on the blog, CreationScience4Kids.  It is a two-part article, and I hope y’all will enjoy reading it!

The Curse for Women

The sky grows dark and all the people fall completely silent as the Savior Cries “It is finished!” The earth quakes, and somewhere midst the crowd of people, a middle aged woman stands with a broken heart. He had been her Son – her first born – the child Who never did anything wrong, the One Who loved more than Mary believed possible. He had even loved those people that killed Him. Mary stood there, grief stricken, wondering why; why did He have to die? Why did she have to sacrifice the Son Who had always been so good to her? Why had Gabriel said that she was blessed among women?

Remembering Mary’s perspective recently struck me with a somewhat disturbing concept: the concept that God is constantly asking women to give up the people we love or the “good” things we want to God so that He can work out His purposes. Eve had to suffer the loss of Abel before God gave her Seth, Noah’s wife had to see her husband mocked when he was the only one doing what was right, Sarah had to be barren most of her life before she had Isaac, and Naomi had to move away from everything familiar and loose her husband and both sons before the beauty of Ruth’s faithfulness could be seen. And then there are those women that the Bible does not talk about, like the mothers, sisters, and wives of all the prophets.  What about King David’s mother? Just imagine how any mother would feel about her son battling a giant, being hunted across the countryside by the most important man in the nation, and finally becoming king. We may think it’s all wonderful looking back, but at the time, I am sure it was very hard and frightening.

That concept about women bothered me, that is, until something caught my eye about the curse for women the other day. In Genesis 3:16 God says to Eve, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception . . .” (emphasis mine), which may indicate that He multiplied our sorrow and multiplied our conception (two separate things). I’ve decided to start looking at the original Hebrew/Chaldee wording and although I have not gotten very far yet, I haven’t proved myself wrong yet either. The verse translates out to: “arbe [I am increasing] otzbunk [grief of you] uernk [and pregnancy of you]”, so that could be the case.

I found this rather depressing quote on the topic of women and sorrow couple of years ago in the book Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (definitely not a book I recommend): “Such is the nature of women. Such is the lot of women, to carry, to bear, to watch, and to lose.” (pg. 90). It is true that God is constantly asking women to give up those they love and part of the way God designed women was to be sensitive and motherly. Yes, the curse is not easy, but God uses it to work in our lives. I think that God knows how easily we, as women, can get wrapped up in other healthy relationships and almost forget about loving God. We start depending on other people, rather than the One we should always depend on, so He sometimes decides to take those people away from us. He doesn’t do it because He wants to be hard on people, especially women, but because He loves and is pursuing us individually. The world offers despair, but God offers hope and love.

Use Your Youth

The streets are lit by the synthetic glow of city lights as a group of teenagers party late into the summer night, and then stumble home in the wee hours of the morning.  Any deserted or public building is covered in vandalism.  The girls think of little besides how they look and when their next date might be and the boys run about with little respect for anyone but themselves.  Overall, the young people of our nation are selfish and have no purpose in their lives.  However, I am not writing today to complain about the dire state of American young people, who will be the leaders of the future, but instead I write to offer an alternative option and hope.

I believe that one of the biggest problems is that we do not expect much good of our youth, but actually tend to expect that young people will be rebellious and “sow a few wild oats”.   Popular television shows and books tend to portray impertinent and lazy young men as well as flighty and hateful young women as normal and acceptable.  I recently finished the novel, The Lion of St. Mark, by G.A. Henty, and was inspired by his portrayal of the main character, a teenage boy named Francis living in Venice in the 1380’s.  Throughout the book Francis encounters many perilous adventures, some by fate and some voluntary on his part, doing things like rescuing two sisters from the villain on multiple occasions, designing his own escapes as a prisoner of war, and leading sea battles when no one else could.  The hero was frequently belittled by his superiors because of his age, but proved himself in spite of it and was not overcome by bitterness.

Of course, in modern day America very few young men would have the opportunity to do things exactly like this, but it inspires the point that young men are to be heroes rather than couch potatoes.  Likewise, young women should be intuitive, kindhearted, and purposeful.  Many of the Founding Fathers of our country started their endeavors at young ages like fourteen, and many of the women of the time were responsible enough to marry and run a household as young as fourteen or sixteen.  David was a mere shepherd boy, but he was able to conquer a Giant with the help of God.  Joash was a king when he was just seven years old.

Please realize that I am not writing this as a mere distant observer, but as a young woman in the midst of the fray myself.  It has not been easy for me to try to do things with my time that really matter and age restrictions have sometimes redirected my efforts.  I cannot say that I am particularly successful, talented, or important but I do what I can to make a difference in my world today right where I am.  Another important thing that has struck me about using my youth is that I don’t know how long I have to live. If I were to die, for example, at the age of twenty, I think I would be okay with it and have the assurance that I was fulfilling my life purpose, though many people would consider a person of that age as “too young to die” because he or she generally had not started really living just yet.  Of course, I would love to live past twenty, marry, and raise kids of my own, but the point is that we need to value and use our life, especially our youth.  Life is a gift from God: it was not meant to be frittered away in useless activity, but to be used for His glory.

A Wonderful Plan???

Have you ever heard someone say, “God has a wonderful plan for your life”?  The idea of God having a wonderful plan for each and every one of our lives, filled with love and goodness, may seem logical at first glance, knowing that God is loving, omnipotent, and omniscient.  We know from passages like Psalm 139 that before He made anything else, He knew exactly what you and I would be like, and had a plan for each of our lives.  But, as nice as that phrase may sound, it is simply not true.

The truth is that although you were created with a specific purpose by Someone Who loves you enough to die for you, we live in a fallen world corrupted by our own sin.  No Christian would ever hesitate to say that Paul was an incredible Christian, and Paul himself even wrote to imitate him.  However, if you were to think of someone like Paul or Peter as an ideal Christian, please realize that their lives were a very far cry from what most people would esteem as “wonderful”: being imprisoned multiple times, stoned, mocked, beaten, derided, hunted, and finally cruelly killed.  Being a Christian is not a fun and easy ride to Heaven; rather, being a Christian in the world is a battle.  Yes, there will be a “wonderful plan” in the life of a Christian eventually, but not until we battle on rough terrain.

If you still like the phrase, perhaps using the word “amazing” rather than “wonderful” would be more truthful.  If you commit your life to Christ, it is going to be an amazing adventure, but may take many different forms.  Having an amazing life in Christ does not necessarily mean that you pack up all your possessions and move to a third-world country where make a difference in the lives of many people; instead, it could mean simply doing God’s bidding right now  and right where you are, just obeying and letting Him completely control your life.  I find comfort in knowing God and knowing that He had my life all figured out, start to finish, before He made the stars I like to look at and dream about my future. But, amazing is not easy.  Quite frankly, sometimes the daily things wear me down and keep me going long into the night, and sometimes life just stinks.  But no matter what happens in this world, I know it’s not really where I belong, but that I am simply on a mission here as a beacon of light, reflected from Christ.

***Special Local Event Anouncement***

We will be holding our first summer kids workshop at Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum on Tuesday, June 11, and we hope to see y’all’s bright smiles there!  During the “Where Do Fossil Ages Come From?” workshop*, families will have a fun-filled, practical time learning how to understand where the numbers of billions of years scientists use come from and the problems with radioisotope dating (e.g., Carbon-14 dating).  It is a very kid-friendly approach (we talk about candy, balloons, and BB-guns!) to a somewhat daunting topic, with information that every Christian should know to defend his or her faith.  Modern dating methods do not prove that the Bible is wrong about earth being created about six thousand years ago, rather, it supports the Bible.
The location is at Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton.
There are two time available, and up to 20 kids allowed each time block:
Time A ~ 10:00am-noon
Time B ~ 2:00pm-4:00pm …
There is an admission fee for kids ages 6-12:
If you pre-register BY June 10th:
$10.00 per kid
OR $8.00 per kid for three or more siblings
 If you do NOT pre-register:
$12.00 per kid
OR $10.00 per kid for three or more siblings
If you are interested in attending please contact Sara  by e-mail.
Sara J. Bruegel,
Children’s Ministry Coordinator
  *special note: This workshop may also be available for Christian school, homeschool, and other group events specifically arranged.  If interested, please contact Sara Bruegel at Mt. Blanco
 

Who Am I?

Everyone wonders who we are and what are here for at one time or another in our lives.  As young children, we talk about what we want to be when we grow up; maybe a doctor, hairstylist, paleontologist, mother, missionary, or teacher.  We want to find a place where we belong and use the things we are good at doing.  We want to know the purpose for our lives here, and sometimes we wonder if life is even worth living.  To figure out our life purpose, we have to look back at where we came from.

God created everything in six days.  He created light, land and sky, plants, the stars and planets, sea creatures and birds, and all land animals.  He could have spoken Adam into existence just like he did with everything else; instead, He chose to be very interactive in His creation of man and took dust to make Adam, breathing the breath of life and spirit into him.  Then He created Eve from Adam’s rib, right by his heart.  God created people in His image, because He wanted someone to love and to be loved by, someone He thinks is worth dying for.  Our ultimate purpose in life is to give glory to God, not to be successful, rich, or have everything figured out.  When God created man and woman, He gave us the job of keeping His creation here on earth and having dominion over it, and doing that can take a wide variety of forms.

It’s easy for us to get wrapped up in the titles of our jobs and what we are supposed to do here on earth.  I was thinking recently about what I could be called: “student”, “writer”, “seamstress”, “musician”, “geologist”, “children’s ministry coordinator”,  “friend”,  “thinker”, “creationist”,  “remodeler”,  “museum worker”, and hopefully someday “wife” and “mother”.  All of those things are great, but none of those really and truly describe my life purpose.  I’ve learned that no matter how long my life is and regardless of what will happen in the future, I am ultimately one thing, and that is “a servant of the Lord”.  My interests and roles in life have changed and will change a lot, but the one identity I know I can truly rely on for my entire life – no matter what – is my identity in Jesus.  Life is only worth living if you have something worth dying for, and Someone Who thinks you are worth dying for.

Are Guns the Problem?

Do gun laws have anything to do with the Bible, God, and science?  Absolutely.  Talking about gun laws or just guns in general can make some people very uncomfortable, but it is a very important topic in today’s world.  The reasons for our problems with mass shootings and terrorism today are rooted in the first few chapters of Genesis – both the theology and the science found in Genesis.

Before I get into guns, I’d like to talk a little bit about knives first.  It is true that knives can be used to hurt and kill people, but the more common use of knives is simply in the kitchen of a humble housewife.  A woman can use knives to prepare food for her children –  as a tool for nurturing her children  and as an instrument of love.  A surgeon uses specialized knives and blades to help him save someone’s life.  The knife is merely a tool of working out the intentions of the heart, and those heart intentions can either be bad or good.

The same concept goes for guns too.  Guns can be used to hunt for food to provide for a family, although hunting for food is not as common in America as it was about a century ago.  Obviously guns can be used to harm people, but that is not an entirely bad function; guns can be used to harm or stop someone who wants to hurt innocent people.  In addition, many people use firearms for learning marksmanship and as a way to spend time together.

Many people wonder why God created creatures with sharp teeth used for tearing other creatures apart, like T-rex.  While it is true that T-rex did eventually eat meat, it was not the way they were originally created in God’s perfect world, because those same sharp teeth could be very useful for chomping on tough vegetation like coconuts.  The difference is the fallen world dinosaurs lived in after Adam’s sin. Weapons are not the underlying problem behind terrorism and slaughter – it is the heart of the people possessing the weapons that makes the difference between life giver and life taker.  We could outlaw guns all day long, but we would still have terrorism and slaughter of innocent people, and it would probably be worse than it already is today.  The reason why we have pain and suffering at all is because of Adam’s sin, so we can’t ever count on achieving peace in this world, but we can have the hope of peace in Heaven if we accept Jesus’ offer of salvation.

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