Big And Small

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. (Psalm 147:5 KJV)

Big things
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:3-4 KJV)

In the past, men used to think that the earth is flat and the sky was like a big roof over the flat earth, with the sun transversing it by day and the moon by night and stars are like little lights on the roof. Now even with the most powerful telescope, we realized that we still cannot see the edge of the universe.

Small things
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. (Psalm 139:14 KJV)

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3 NASB)

We look at the cells that made up our body. They are so wonderfully made. Everyone is a small nano-computer. Men used to think that the smallest indivisible bit of matter is the atom. Then they discovered protons, electrons and neutrons. Then they discovered smaller particles.

A Woman Named Damaris

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:34 ESV)

Yesterday, I read a sermon by C H Spurgeon entitled "A woman named Damaris". The name Damaris was mentioned only once in the Bible. Nothing was known of her, except that she believed. But her name was recorded in the Bible. This is our God. He remembers. The Bible is full of names, some of which has nothing else recorded about them. I love to read the salutations at the end of Paul's epistles. There we have the names of the saints of God. God remembers.

In a quote taken from a booklet written by A.L. De Silva, "Beyond Belief: a Buddhist Critique of Christianity", Chapter 6: A Critique of the Bible, this remembrance of names came in for criticism.

QUOTE
If the Bible really is God's word it indicates that he is a very strange being indeed One would expect that the creator of the universe would only speak to man when he had something of great importance to say and that what he said would be of universal significance. Not so. The book of Chronicles for example consists of little more than lists of names of people we know little or nothing about and who died thousands of years ago. No commandments, no ethical principles, no hints on how to live properly or to worship God - just page after page of useless names. Why would God waste his and our time revealing such things?
UNQUOTE

No, God is not strange. He remembers. He remembers the obscure, those whose work are not seen by men. He remembers Dionysius the Areopagite, the big shot. He also remembers Damaris, the obscure woman.

I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.
Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.
Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.
Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.
Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.
I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.
Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
(Romans 16:1-27 KJV)

The God who remembers an obscure woman named Damaris will also remember you.

Wait And Wait Again

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. (Genesis 12:1-4 KJV)

When Abraham was 75 years old, God told him to leave his country without telling him where to go and said that he will be a great nation when he had no children.

And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. (Genesis 13:14-17 KJV)

Again God showed Abraham the land and promised Abraham that his descendants will possess the land, but Abraham had no children.

Now the word of the LORD came to him: "This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir." (Genesis 15:4 HCSB)
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: (Genesis 15:18 NASB)

God narrowed down the conditions and state that the heir will be Abraham's physical descendant, not an adopted heir. The boundary of the promised land is also clarified.

So Sarai said to Abram, "The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her." And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal. (Genesis 16:2 NLT)
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. (Genesis 16:16 ESV)

After a long wait, Sarah decided to take things into her own hand. She advised Abraham to get an heir through her maid Hagar. After all, God promised that the heir must come from Abraham, but nothing is said about the mother.

But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. (Genesis 17:21 KJV)

When Abraham was 99 years old, God gave him the name Abraham and his wife was renamed Sarah and the promised heir named Isaac made it clear that the parents of the promised heir must be the Abraham and Sarah. God also set the timing. It will be fulfilled in a year. Abraham and all the males (born or bought) of his household was circumcised on that day.

And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. (Genesis 21:5 KJV)

God took 25 years to fulfill His promise, from His first promise to Abraham when he was still Abram and 75 years old about being father of a great nation to the birth of Isaac when Abram became Abraham at 100 years old. God worked very slowly and tested the faith and patience of Abraham and Sarah.

So the field and the cave were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham for use as a permanent burial place. (Genesis 23:20 NLT)

Finally, Abraham got to own a piece of the promised land, and he had to buy it from the Hittites.

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6 KJV)

These all died in faith without having received the promises, but they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13 HCSB)

The Dead Watch and The Living Cell

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20 NASB)

The Watch
Everyone knows that the watch cannot be evolved. No matter how many billion years you give "Nature", "Nature" cannot make a watch. The simple reason is there is no mechanism for the watch to be made by "Nature". The watch is too primitive. It does not respond to outside stimuli and cannot reproduce. Because it is so primitive, only Man, with intelligence and purpose can produce it. It is too primitive for mindless and purposeless "Nature" to make.

The Cell

The living cell can be pictured as a "large bustling hugely complicated city that is occupied by micro-machines. And these micro-machines really are the heart of life, these micro-machines, which are the envy of nano-technologist all the world over are self-directed, powerful, precise accurate devices that are made up of strings of amino acids. And these micro-machines power how a cell moves. They power how a cell replicates. They power our hearts. They power our minds." (Quoted from this TED video, "David Bolinsky: Visualizing the wonder of a living cell")

The cell responds to outside stimuli and can reproduce. Its genes adapt to its surroundings and reproduce cells that are slightly different from itself. Using this ability, cells can evolve and adapt. The original cell was made from complex carbon-based molecules probably by a series of physical and chemical processes that have yet to be correctly identified, but believed to be possible by faith. Man, with all the intelligence he possessed, cannot, until today, make a living cell (because the processes are yet to be identified). Because the cell is so advanced, only mindless and purposeless "Nature" can produce it.

Evolution - Fact and Fiction

Evolutionist believes that evolution is both a fact and a theory. The quote below taken from this website gave a very clear explanation:

QUOTE
Evolution--the process by which the genetic composition of a population changes over time--is a FACT.

• This process is all that is required to produce the diversity and similarity of all life on this planet today.
• Evolution has occurred; it still is occurring; it has been directly observed, documented, demonstrated, and described. Supporting evidence for it is overwhelming (and obtained from a wide range of scientific fields).

The mechanisms by which evolution occurs (e.g., natural selection, mutation, genetic drift) are presented as SCIENTIFIC THEORIES.

• Several theories have been proposed and debated. It is far from clear how evolution proceeds in every detail.

In summary, Darwin established the FACT of evolution, and proposed a THEORY, natural selection, to explain the mechanism of evolution.
UNQUOTE

Changes in species due to natural selection, mutation, genetic drift are obvious. In fact, humans used these to create many varieties of domestic animals and plants. However, the current observation of evolution process has always been confined within the species. The evolutionist's answer is that nobody lives long enough to observe evolution beyond a species. But given enough time, a microbe can become a human. Exactly how that can happen is the THEORY of Evolution.

Creationist called the observed facts of evolution microevolution, and the theory that all life forms basically descended from some microbes macroevolution. Microevolution is a fact, but macroevolution is fiction.

Earth's Past Records - Facts And Interpretation

There are events that definitely had left evidence, but were not interpreted correctly by scientist who were observing the evidence from the past.

Sin
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12 KJV)
So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. (Genesis 3:23 HCSB)

The whole creation was originally perfect. The lion will eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 65:25) but sin changed everything. Now we see the lion eating the ox. We have houseflies and mosquitoes. And there is death and decay everywhere. It became the natural thing. There are earthquakes and tsunamis. Surely there must be traces left for such a major transition.

The Flood
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:10-12 KJV)

A global flood that destroyed all living things on land must have left evidences. The question is, do we recognize these evidences?

The Missoula Floods refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge. Geologist J Harlen Bretz first recognized evidence of the catastrophic floods in the 1920s, which ran against the prevailing view of uniformitarianism. (Adapted from Wikipedia Missoula Floods)

QUOTE
Bretz was ridiculed until 1940, when geologist Joe Pardee described giant ripple marks on the bed of Lake Missoula. The 50-foot-high ripples, he said, were formed by fast-flowing currents and not by the sluggish bottom water of a lake. Only sudden failure of the glacial dam could have released the 2,000-foot-deep lake. The catastrophic release of 600 cubic miles of water through a narrow gap would sweep away everything in its path. In 1979, when Bretz was 97 years old, the Geological Society of America awarded him its highest honor, the Penrose Medal.

Recognition of the Missoula flood helped other geologists identify similar landforms in Asia, Europe, Alaska, and the American Midwest, as well as on Mars.
UNQUOTE
(Source: "Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They're Absolutely Enormous" Discover Magazine July-August 2012 issue)

The Genesis Flood is a cataclysmic flood like the Missoula Flood, except that it was on a global scale. We read that "all the fountains of the great deep broken up". The water not only come from the sky. It also came from the ground. The evidence is there, but it ran against the prevailing view that the Genesis Flood cannot be true.

Noah And Eve
According to a BBC news article, every male living today can trace their ancestry to a man (the Y-chromosomal Adam) who lived in Africa around 59,000 years ago and every female can trace their lineage back to a single Mitochondrial Eve who lived in Africa about 150,000 years ago. Articles had been written to explain that Adam and Eve never met and were not the only person living at that time, but just a lucky pair of guy and gal whose genes survived while the rest of their peers didn't. Whatever the explanations may be given to disprove the Biblical Adam and Eve, this fact can be interpreted to confirm the Bible. Every male is descended from Noah and every female is descended from Eve. Noah and Eve never met. Many scientist remembered Adam and Eve but forgot the flood. Now we just have to work on the time span.

Little Time Counted As Much

Israel, from the time the nation was formed, spent 400 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness and most of the time in the Promised Land during the days of Judges and Kings disobeying God and worshiping idols and was exiled for 70 years. Then they spent most of the time after the return from Babylonian Captivity practicing hypocrisy. Finally, they were exiled again for 1900 years for rejecting the Messiah. Israel spent so little time obeying God. Though Israel spent so little of their 3500 years of existence obeying God, it was enough to preserve the Old Testament, to show God's glory and mercy.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25 NIV)

Jesus only preached for three and a half years, but that was enough to lay the foundation of Christianity. We are glad that God is not demanding on us. Rather, He supplied all our needs (Philippians 4:19).

We waste most of our time doing things that do not matter for eternity. It is the mercy of God and the power of God that the little that we spend for God counts as much in His sight. He is able to use the little time to achieve His eternal purpose.

Mary Tang's Blog

On the watchnight service on 31st December 2012, Mary Tang Ji' Ai mentioned that she has a blog. I searched and found some bunnies.

Redeeming The Time

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16 KJV)
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. (Colossians 4:5 KJV)

Greek
Redeem: ἐξαγοραζόμενοι (exagorazomenoi) - redeem, making most of
Time: καιρὸν (kairon) - time, right time, convenient season, opportunity

We must make full opportunity to do God's work. We have to redeem (i.e. buy back) time, because the days are evil. There is a price to pay. Choosing wisely among the good things, the good things that are temporal and the good things that are eternal. At the end of our lives, we must make sure that our time is used wisely, to buy gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, stubble. Live, as we wish to live, when we die.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; (1 Corinthians 3:12 KJV)

"Everything is permissible," but not everything is helpful. "Everything is permissible," but not everything builds up. (1 Corinthians 10:23 HCSB)

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 KJV)

Inspired by JSM 2013 New Year's Message "The Christian Walk" preached by Dr Tan Kian Lee on 1st January 2013.

Walking The Spiritual Tightrope

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16 KJV)

Circumspectly - Greek: ἀκριβῶς (akribōs), from which we get the word acrobat.

5 Occurrences, translated in KJV as follows:
Matthew 2:8 diligently
Luke 1:3 having had perfect
Acts 18:25 diligently
Ephesians 5:15 circumspectly
1 Thessalonians 5:2 perfectly

Walk circumspectly in our Christian walk, as an acrobat walking on the tightrope, carefully, step by step, taking note of the following:

The tightrope is straight and narrow;
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14 KJV)

The acrobat must be focused, must not carry unnecessary weight, follow the principles of physics in his walk;
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1 KJV)
An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5 ESV)
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. (1 Corinthians 9:25 ESV)

The acrobat must finish his walk, from beginning to end, he cannot stop in the middle;
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (2 Timothy 4:7 KJV)
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9 KJV)

The acrobat cannot look down, but always look ahead at the end point.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 KJV)

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14 KJV)

Inspired by JSM 2013 New Year's Message "The Christian Walk" preached by Dr Tan Kian Lee.