An Invitation

If you are ever in Missouri, consider visiting "The Intelligent Design Resource Library."

If you are ever in Missouri near the end of the month, consider attending the monthly meeting at the library!

The following information was prepared by my mother, and I'd like to share it with you:

The July 2006 issue of the “Smithsonian Magazine” has an article entitled,
“Finding a Home in the Cosmos.” It is a profile of Dr. Joel Primack, a
cosmologist and particle physicist, “...an impeccably credentialed
scientist.” The author says it is surprising that this renowned
scientist is rejecting the “intellectually sophisticated” view that the
Earth and Humans are insignificant in the universe. The author even
distinguishes those who get their cosmology from the Bible as the only
people in the last 400 years who didn’t buy into the prevalent
worldview of chance beginnings for the universe.

Many thinking people are rejecting evolution. Now is the time to
proclaim truth more than ever before. We take these verses in Ezekiel
3 (18-21) very seriously:

“When I say to a wicked man, `You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling-block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself."

The National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in our
country, is voting this week on a resolution to promote homosexuality
in all our public schools. There is no way we can speak against this
kind of lifestyle unless we have a foundation of Scripture. Our
Heavenly Father established the boundaries when He created this world
and when someone is trying to step over the boundaries into danger we
must warn them - especially when it harms the innocent children of our
nation.

The Smithsonian article states that man is at the very center of the
universe but no one knows why. He knows that Man’s size and placement
on this planet is so specific, so delicate, so amazing that there has
to be an explanation other than chance. We may, the author says, “...
be participants in a great cosmic story.” Yes, indeed we are, but
unfortunately, Dr. Primack does not want to submit to the God of the
Bible. He says he, “... believes in God as nothing less than the
process of opening our personal lines of contact with the unknown
potential of the universe.” Fortunately, the author, Jerry Adler, does
not seem very satisfied with this answer but he continues to look to
Dr. Primack for a solution to this dilemma - either there is a God, a
Designer, therefore Someone we must answer to, OR there is no one but
ourselves to whom to answer.

The Intelligent Design Resource Center in French Village, MO invites
you to the monthly meetings on these important topics. Every LAST
Friday of the month there will be a special speaker and a time for
questions and answers beginning at 7:00 pm. Please invite people,
young and old, to attend with you. We serve a Mighty God and there is
much at hand for us to be thinking and doing. We love you all.

Any questions please email macihms@iquest.net or leave a message at
573-358-7909.

In Christ Jesus, the team from French Village, MO

July - John Stormer, “How Judge-made Law Has Transformed Our
Constitution, Courts and What Was Our Bible-based Culture.”
August - John Henry, “The Mechanisms (or Lack Thereof) of Evolution.”
September - Joe Beardsley
October - Fall Retreat
November - David Ihms
December - Eli Ihms????

Bursting at the Seams

I feel like a little kid with a great secret. Why? Because I've been reading Ann Coulter's most recent book -- Godless: The Church of Liberalism.

And I know just where to start expressing my exuberance: the beginning. On the first page of the first chapter, Ann includes these verses:

"They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator.... Therefore, God gave them up to passions of dishonor; for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature." --- Romans 1:25-26

With her working knowledge of Scripture and the political, educational, scientific, and moral temperature of the U.S., Ann weaves together an incredible account of the state of U.S. liberalism. And that shouldn't be kept a secret.

Why is this blog called "EdenExit"?

The title of this blog is my answer to the question, "How did we get here?"

How did we get here?
Who turned the lights on?
Who's paying the electric bill?

Currently, I am supposed to be studying some P.Chem. But, instead, I'm tapping away at a keyboard. But this important: I'm wrestling with the question of existence!

Do you ever feel like you're in the midst of a novel: one day a long ways back you opened your eyes and waalaa! you saw a world you'd never imagined. Maybe you first saw a lady's smiling face. Chances are you soon saw diapers, carpet, and lots of plastic toys. Then, at some point, some day (maybe it was in your highchair), you realized -- I myself exist. But you weren't the first to realize this. Descartes expressed his "lightbulb moment" with the words "Dubito ergo sum," or "I doubt, therefore I am." If you've not yet contemplated your own existence, get busy. If Peter Singer had his way, it would always be open season on kids until they became self aware!

But, what's the point of realizing you exist? Why are you here? How are you separate from the world you live in? What is your place in this universe? How did the universe get here, and where's it going?

The 1977 Webster Dictionary defines teleology as "[Gr. telos, teleos, an end, and logos, discourse] Philos. The doctrine of final causes; the study of evidence in nature indicating that final causes exist; an explanation of natural phenomena by final causes; the metaphysical doctrine that final goals and purposes rather than mechanical causes order reality."

For the question "How did the universe get here," there's basically 3 answers: 1) It had a beginning which came about by chance, 2) It had a beginning which came about by design, or 3) It has always been.

As others have pointed out, the third alternative is basically an evasion. How could this ever be proved? But then, the debate is raging between the first and second options!

For the question "Where are we going?" there are 2 options: 1) The universe is becoming better, 2) The universe is becoming worse. Some attempts have been made to combine the two viewpoints, with interesting results.

Some people see the universe on the upward swing, with animals becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated ever since matter popped onto the scene. Others believe that this earth is on a downward swing with a formerly perfect world becoming more and more decayed. Still others cycle between these two theories, subscribing to evolution but freaking out at every new threat of disaster (bird flu, global warming, etc.) Evidently, in this view, the universe is progressively improving, but the improvement is a function of human worry and handwringing. Oh yes, and new environmental legislation.

With so many options, how can we know what's really true?
I don't know who you trust, but I'll tell you where I'm coming from. The authority I trust is God Himself. The words He gave you and me in Scripture agree internally and have external proof as well. It's from His Word (the Scripture) that I know about the creation of the world. In six days God created light and energy; seas and atmosphere; dry land and plants; the sun, moon, and stars; sea animals; land animals and humans. Humans were His special delight because they were made in His image. He breathed "the breath of life" into the first man, Adam. Then, from Adam's rib, He created a wife for Adam. Her name was Eve, and together they enjoyed life in a perfect world. Adam was the caretaker of the garden he lived in, which was called Eden. There was millions of things to do, but only one thing they were told not to do: eat fruit from "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." God told them that on the day they ate that fruit, they would die. But one day, thanks to Satan-in-snake's-clothing, Eve was deceived into eating some of the fruit. Then Adam sinned deliberately and ate it. Through his deliberate disobedience (sin), Adam brought death into the perfect world God had designed. Adam and his wife were punished several different ways. Up until the point when Adam disobeyed, all he and his wife had ever known was LIFE. But now, their bodies would begin to age: before, their cells might have continued living forever. Now, their cells would continually die and have to be replaced. They would get wrinkles and dry skin, and ultimately they would die of metabolic acidosis. Every other living things, plant and animal, would suffer because of Adam's sin. And not only would the first human couple have to face death, they would find living much harder than before. Adam would have to fight thorns to grow crops, Eve would have pain during delivery and would desire her husband to rule over her. The snake would crawl on his belly in the dust. Plus, both Adam and Eve would be evicted from the Garden of Eden.

It's from this event that I titled my blog: EdenExit.

But if that was the end of the story, I think I'd become maniacally depressed. Before Adam and Eve left the Garden, God gave them a promise: a vision to live by. He told them that from their descendants, a deliever would come. The snake would strike His heel, but He would crush his head.

Adam and Eve brought evil into the world, but God showed how faithful He was, even in the midst of their pain and His disappointment. As Adam and Eve left Eden, they could look forward to a deliverer. This deliverer was "the second Adam." His name is Jesus, and He is preparing a place even more beautiful than the Garden of Eden. Today, even in those moments when I realize that I've thwarted God's plan, even when I see my own stupidity, I become even more aware of God's holiness. I see the divide between God and me -- I've deliberately disobeyed Him. I wonder how He can stand to look at me when I'm covered in sin.

It's only through Christ that I have any hope of being forgiven. You see, even though Jesus' first birth announcement was given out a few thousand years ahead of time, God sent His Son into the world at just the right moment (the "fullness of time"). Even though His conception was supernatural, this perfect Son was born the "normal" way ("normal" ever since that day in the Garden). Until the time He was 33 years old, He never sinned. And when He was 33, and the deliverer who was promised, He died. This was not an accident. It was not a suicide. It was the offering up Himself, so that we could be restored to God.

Ever since that day in Eden when Adam bit into that fruit, ever since the juice from that fruit trickled over his tongue and stimulated his taste buds, ever since that deliberate act of rebellion, all of us had been living in sin. Or, actually, we'd been dying in sin. The most moral person living between Adam and Jesus' time had nothing to bargain their way into Heaven with. Because of the rebellion each of us had shown, each of us deserved to die without ever seeing the place more glorious than Eden.

But remember: while Adam and Eve were still sinners, Christ was promised to come.
And: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Because I can remember Jesus Christ, I can remember God's love me. It's His love that lifts me out of my own swamp of selfishness and sin and shows me life again.

This Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. While He owns every molecule that makes up your body, He will take none of them by force. His words are, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He created you, and through His promise, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," you can know Him and start living the life He calls you to live.

I know that my life has meaning through Christ. It's through Him that I was given the gift of life, and I live for His glory. Often I struggle to obey God's commands and my parents' advice, but I realize that when my eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ, my hope is sure. Like Peter floundering in the water, I am learning to cry out to God. And I am also learning that He is the ultimate source of every joy in my life. Even on this side of Eden.

The Funnies

Mom sent me these quotes and mini-stories from Reader's Digest:

Shouldn't the Air and Space Museum be empty?
----Dennis Miller

My wife was sitting in the crockpit of my fighter jet - her head
spinning as I pointed to the myriad button, levers and switches on the
control panel.
"Do you really kinow what each one of these buttons does?" she asked
"Yep," I said proudly.
Scowling, she then asked, "And I'm supposed to believe you can't figure
out how to run the washing machine?"
----Matt Dietz



While staring at a monkey in the zoo, one of my preschool students had
a question: "What does he eat?"
The zookeeper rattled off a long list of foods that the monkeys were
fed.
"Where does he get his food from?" asked the student.
"Oh, just the regular supermarket," answered the zookeeper.
My student wasn't finished. "Well, who drives him?"
----Michelle Mueller

Pity the poor insomniac dyslexic agnostic. He stays up all night
wondering if there really is a dog.

(Photo credit: Arthur Court Monkey Banana Holder with Bowl, only $85 at images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007H5C4.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Life & Writings

A quote:
____________
“Therefore let us arm our hearts with these and similar statements of Scripture so that, when the devil accuses us by saying: You are a sinner; therefore you are damned, we can reply: The very fact that you say I am a sinner makes me want to be just and saved. Nay, you will be damned, says the devil. Indeed not, I reply, for I take refuge in Christ, who gave Himself for my sins. Therefore you will accomplish nothing, Satan, by trying to frighten me by setting the greatness of my sins before me and thus seducing me to sadness, doubt, despair, hatred, contempt, and blasphemy of God. Indeed, by calling me a sinner you are supplying me with weapons against yourself so that I can slay and destroy you with your own sword; for Christ died for sinners.

Furthermore, you yourself proclaim the glory of God to me; you remind me of God's paternal love for me, a miserable and lost sinner; for He so loved the world that He gave His Son (John 3:16). Again, whenever you throw up to me that I am a sinner, you revive in my memory the blessing of Christ, my Redeemer, on whose shoulders, and not on mine, lie all my sins; for "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" and "for the transgression of His people was He stricken" (Is. 53:6-8). Therefore when you throw up to me that I am a sinner, you are not terrifying me; you are comforting me beyond measure."
____________



Recently, my friend's blogs has made me dig deeper into the life and writings of Martin Luther. The blog entry that began my search is Catholics and Lutherans...Unite?

I am not an apologist for Luther by any stretch of the imagination! But, I want to better understand the context of some of his controversial quotes. One website that offers a look into such contexts is hosted by James Swan

Luther had some abominable things to say about Jews, and he's accountable for his statements. But some of his other statements and beliefs glorify God -- for example, the quote at the beginning of this entry, from What Luther Says, 3:1303.

(Photo credit: www.grahamdefense.org/Images/feather_quill.jpg)

The Question

If you're not the one asking, you'll be the one anwering. The questions is: "So what've you done this summer?"

Here's my anwer:

I've been bottlefeeding a filly named Susie-Q, discovering banana plants in San Antonio, and working at a kid's camp in North Webster.

How about you?