This morning, we were blessed to have Greg Dixon, a recent International Missions Board Missionary to China speak to us. Greg spent two years in Hohot, China which is located in northern China in a province known as Inner Mongolia. Because of its international population and proximity to diverse cultures, Hohot is identified by the International Mission Board as one of the 100 Gateway Cities in the world for spreading the word of God.
Greg served as an English Teacher in China and witnessed to students and others as he worked to share Jesus with the lost. He showed pictures of baptisms taking place in the bathtub of a hotel. He shared that it is sometimes difficult to find a place to baptize so they sometimes rent a hotel room for this purpose. He showed pictures of the students with whom he worked as well as pictures of the city in which he worked. He talked about the work ethic of students in China and commented that most Chinese students feel tremendous pressure to achieve academic success and they are usually willing to commit time and energy toward this end. He also talked about the corruption, cheating, and deception that are commonly observed in a culture in which there is little or no moral direction. While we like to think that we have a significant moral compass in our country, I must admit that cheating, plagiarism, and illegal copying of materials (documents, songs, movies, etc.) is fairly prevalent in our own academic system as well. We do recognize such acts as a breach of integrity, but they continue to occur just the same.
Greg also shared several resources for learning more about missionary work around the world. The International Missions Board website has a plethora of facts and figures about mission efforts all over the globe. One may access the IMB website at the following URL: http://www.imb.org/main//news/default.asp
I spent some time this afternoon at this website and learned much about our missionaries and mission efforts around the world. For example, did you know what it costs to support a missionary? According to the IMB website the cost to support a single missionary is:
• $40,931.64 a year
• $3,410.97 a month
• $787.15 a week
• $112.14 a day
• $4.67 an hour
• $.08 a minute
This is the reason that our gifts to Lottie Moon and other Mission-related offerings are so important in sharing the love of Jesus to a lost world. Indeed, the website has much information today about the missionaries who are in Haiti and the efforts tht are being made to assist the people of that country.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about the work of God's Missionaries in a foreign land as much as I did. Everytime I hear of such efforts, it gives me a new respect for the men and women who make the sacrifice to leave home and family to serve others in a strange place.
Next week, we will return to The Truth Project. We will begin looking at world history and how it points to God. I hope you will join us. We shall look forward to seeing you Sunday Morning at 9:00 a.m. In the meantime, if I can help you or pray for you, please do not hesitate to call me personally. (979-229-6606)
Jimmy
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
SCIENCE--What is True? January 17, 2010
From where does life originate? Did the first living cell on earth come from another planet--directed panspermia? Or did living cells spring from non-living material--spontaneous generation? Or, is there evidence in our world of a grand design, of a plan that was put into place by some divine, all-powerful creator of all life? As we continued our journey through The Truth Project today, we saw evidence that almost every scientific argument that has been used to support the theory of evolution has been debunked in significant ways--even to the point of disproving such scientific arguments. The theory of spontaneous generation was debunked long ago when it became possible for man to see and understand the development of microscopic spores, eggs, and cells. The complexity of life as we know it today attests to the fact that such complexity simply could not have developed from a "primordial soup", and the fossil record of life on earth leaves serious gaps that cannot be explained by evolution.
In short, the complexity of life on this earth and the scientific record found in fossils and the current knowledge of the inner workings of individual cells as well as intricate mechanisms such as blood clotting all point to the inescapable conclusion that there is a grand design and that life was and is a product of a divine creator. Amen! Dr. Tackett made reference in the video segment today to the fact that professors who oppose the theory of evolution are often chastised in the academic world, students who take issue with textbooks or professors or teachers who support evolution are often criticized, and people in our culture who challenge the concept of evolution are often met with derisive comments. Yet, when one examines the data used to support evolution in detail, the theory is completely unraveled. There is only one explanation for life and it is detailed in the book of Genesis.
NEXT WEEK:
As I mentioned in class this week, we have been contacted about the possibility of having a missionary speak to us next week. If the missionary presentation materializes, we will return to The Truth Project on January 31. At that time, we will move from the realm of science to the realm of history. I think it will be interesting to see how history points to God just as science points to God.
PRAYER REQUESTS FOR THIS WEEK:
Please remember Bill Gutierrez's Dad this week as he is having back surgery. Also, please continue to remember the victims of the Haiti Earthquake and those who are ministering to them, including the U.S. Military.
Gena Higginbotham offered a praise this morning for answered prayer as her home-schooling efforts are going well. Please continue to remember Gena and her son and their family in your prayers this week as she seeks to provide the educational foundation that he needs.
Please do not heisitate to contact me this week if I can pray for you or if I can help you or your family in any way. My cell phone number is: 979-229-6606 and my e-mail address is: jimmycreel@suddenlink.net
P.S.
Cindy told me today that there is a movie coming out soon about Darwin and his work. The movie is called "Creation". I did a quick search to find that the movie details an inner conflict in which Darwin struggled with the reconciling of his religious views and what he perceived as "science." According to the movie public relations, Darwin also had a very religious wife who influenced his work as well. Apparently, because there was some fear that the religious conservatives of the United States would not welcome the movie, there was some problem in getting a U.S. distributor for the movie which was made in England. That issue must have been resolved and the movie is scheduled to open in U.S. Theaters in the near future. After our recent discussions in The Truth Project, I am thinking about trying to see the movie. I will let you know if I learn more about it.
In short, the complexity of life on this earth and the scientific record found in fossils and the current knowledge of the inner workings of individual cells as well as intricate mechanisms such as blood clotting all point to the inescapable conclusion that there is a grand design and that life was and is a product of a divine creator. Amen! Dr. Tackett made reference in the video segment today to the fact that professors who oppose the theory of evolution are often chastised in the academic world, students who take issue with textbooks or professors or teachers who support evolution are often criticized, and people in our culture who challenge the concept of evolution are often met with derisive comments. Yet, when one examines the data used to support evolution in detail, the theory is completely unraveled. There is only one explanation for life and it is detailed in the book of Genesis.
NEXT WEEK:
As I mentioned in class this week, we have been contacted about the possibility of having a missionary speak to us next week. If the missionary presentation materializes, we will return to The Truth Project on January 31. At that time, we will move from the realm of science to the realm of history. I think it will be interesting to see how history points to God just as science points to God.
PRAYER REQUESTS FOR THIS WEEK:
Please remember Bill Gutierrez's Dad this week as he is having back surgery. Also, please continue to remember the victims of the Haiti Earthquake and those who are ministering to them, including the U.S. Military.
Gena Higginbotham offered a praise this morning for answered prayer as her home-schooling efforts are going well. Please continue to remember Gena and her son and their family in your prayers this week as she seeks to provide the educational foundation that he needs.
Please do not heisitate to contact me this week if I can pray for you or if I can help you or your family in any way. My cell phone number is: 979-229-6606 and my e-mail address is: jimmycreel@suddenlink.net
P.S.
Cindy told me today that there is a movie coming out soon about Darwin and his work. The movie is called "Creation". I did a quick search to find that the movie details an inner conflict in which Darwin struggled with the reconciling of his religious views and what he perceived as "science." According to the movie public relations, Darwin also had a very religious wife who influenced his work as well. Apparently, because there was some fear that the religious conservatives of the United States would not welcome the movie, there was some problem in getting a U.S. distributor for the movie which was made in England. That issue must have been resolved and the movie is scheduled to open in U.S. Theaters in the near future. After our recent discussions in The Truth Project, I am thinking about trying to see the movie. I will let you know if I learn more about it.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Intelligent Design January 10, 2010
During today's lesson, we continued to explore evidence that supports an intelligent design in life, indicators that there must be a creator, and facts that cannot be explained in a theory of "primordial soup", random selection, and evolutionary design of complex life as the solution to the age-old question regarding the creation of all living things. The complex process of blood clotting was described in detail with prominent men of science admitting that the process cannot be explained through the theory of evolutionary development. The amazing role of various components of a living cell and the replication of genetic material through the splitting of a DNA molecule and the creation of a complementary copy of genetic material that occurs in all living cells was also reviewed and cited as evidence of an almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful creator who is responsible for the creation of life and the perpetuation of all life as we know it today.
I found it interesting that our discussion in class led us to a conversation about the curriculum taught in our public schools and the validity or lack of validity of much of the scientific literature in our children's textbooks. We concluded that our children need to understand that the fact that something is written in a textbook does not make it a valid truth of life. Then, the preacher made the same point in his sermon this morning as he made reference to the fact that textbooks and the material in them are prone to change every six years or so. As Brother Chris stated, there is only one book that is absolutely truthful and correct and it is the Word of God.
We will continue in our study of intelligent design next week. I hope you will join us in this awesome study of the truth of God's Word and the fallacy of the attacks and challenges against the Word of God that are often prevalent in our culture today. We shall look forward to seeing you in Sunday School next week.
P.S. It is great to be back in the United States after visiting Germany, France, and Luxembourg for the past three weeks and it is great to be back with our Christian brothers and sisters in Sunday School. We hope to be back in the saddle for a while now. Let me know if I can pray for you or help you in any way.--Jimmy
I found it interesting that our discussion in class led us to a conversation about the curriculum taught in our public schools and the validity or lack of validity of much of the scientific literature in our children's textbooks. We concluded that our children need to understand that the fact that something is written in a textbook does not make it a valid truth of life. Then, the preacher made the same point in his sermon this morning as he made reference to the fact that textbooks and the material in them are prone to change every six years or so. As Brother Chris stated, there is only one book that is absolutely truthful and correct and it is the Word of God.
We will continue in our study of intelligent design next week. I hope you will join us in this awesome study of the truth of God's Word and the fallacy of the attacks and challenges against the Word of God that are often prevalent in our culture today. We shall look forward to seeing you in Sunday School next week.
P.S. It is great to be back in the United States after visiting Germany, France, and Luxembourg for the past three weeks and it is great to be back with our Christian brothers and sisters in Sunday School. We hope to be back in the saddle for a while now. Let me know if I can pray for you or help you in any way.--Jimmy
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