the Bible – Pam Thorson

A fossil was recently found in Gilboa, New York, in sedimentary rock that supposedly dated back 380 million years. It was the fossil of a spider. What was this spider doing? Nothing new. It was making a web, just like modern spiders.

Ever wonder why a spider doesn’t get caught in its own web? It’s because each silk gland has a specific purpose. They have one to four pairs of spinnerets in their abdomens, along with seven silk glands connected to dozens of tiny tubes. Each gland secretes a substance that begins as a liquid but hardens in the air. The silk thread it produces is fine enough to make bomb sights but as strong as steel.*

If the spider evolved over millions of years, how did it and its young survive without dying in its own web until it evolved the correct glands?

This is just one of the many questions scientists have yet to answer as we explore Earth’s beginnings. The more we study nature, the more complex our world appears. It is not a random collection of organic and inorganic mass. Everything has a purpose. Every species has an unseen boundary built into. Bears always produce more bears. Spiders stay spiders. Nature seems to know its place and thrives there.

Is this chance?

I’m not convinced. If just once, a pack of wolves would have a video conference, a bear would become a beekeeper, or a roomful of monkeys could type a book in a million years, I might be swayed. If just once, a sealed can of peaches produced even a molecule of a new life form (the unsealed stuff in my fridge doesn’t count), you might have me.

But don’t show me a moth that changed its color or a snake with two heads.

Show me a Norwegian that is evolving a fur coat. Show me a youth pastor that is growing a guitar on his chest. I want to talk to a lizard that decided to improve his mind or a teacher with a finger that oozes red ink for correcting papers.

I want to see random processes produce order.

Let’s see mutations make something without using God’s dirt and God’s laws of nature. If you’re going to take God out of the picture, be fair and start from scratch, like He did.

Both evolutionists and creationists believe that all things came from nothing. The Bible tells us that He spoke the universe into being by the power of His word alone. Evolutionists believe that nothing somehow sparked a life form. Some folks believe God started the process and let evolution take over.

What do you believe? Why do you believe it?

Tonight Bill Nye “the science guy” and Ken Ham of the Creation Museum of Petersburg, Kentucky, will publicly debate the tenets of both theories. NPR has announced the debate, along with competing videos from the two men http://n.pr/1frnFz5. The debate begins at 7:00p.m. EST.

Here’s the link to watch it free online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI

Know what you believe. Listen and weigh the evidence from both sides. The truth will always withstand scrutiny.

*From “Origins Issues” by Frank Sherwin, Acts & Facts, vol. 35, #5

By PamThorson0 comments

Writing

January 15, 2014

Vulnerability: The Writer’s Dilemma

It’s the question that inevitably comes up in writer’s group meetings: Do I really have to use social media to market my book? How can I use Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites without sacrificing my privacy?

There are, of course, some things we can and should do to help protect ourselves. The world can be a scary place, and none of us should take unnecessary risks. But lately, I’ve realized we are asking ourselves the wrong question. The real one digs deeper and is more costly, revealing our hearts’ deepest fears and motives.

This is the Christian writer’s true dilemma: What are we willing to sacrifice to be God’s witnesses to the world through our writing?

Humans hate being vulnerable. It’s one reason we obsess over our author head shots and count the likes on our Facebook posts. It’s why we construct the careful public image we hope others will have of us. We want to be accepted and liked. No one wants to be hurt.

Writing is a hard enough profession on our self-image as it is. We spend countless hours bleeding over a keyboard, only to have a manuscript rejected by a succession of editors. It often takes many years and tears to get established in the publishing world. Along the way we sometimes buy into the promotional poster we have crafted. We have AUTHOR emblazoned on our chests. Cue the book trailer.

The Author of Life, on the other hand, has given us the ultimate example of vulnerability. God, the Bible tells us, is all-knowing and all-powerful. He didn’t need us. Why did He create a universe He knew would turn away from Him? Can we fathom the magnitude of the pain to which the Creator became vulnerable in order to give us life?

We pushed away God in the Garden, and mankind has mocked Him ever since. Yet, after suffering generations of rejection, God has continued to pursue humanity. He didn’t even spare His own Son for us. Jesus came to this planet knowing our rescue would mean sacrifice, hardship, pain, and death. Why did He do it?

For pure love.

He cared more about mankind than He cared about His reputation or His own welfare. He didn’t care what it cost Him, if it meant the deliverance of His beloved creation.

These are the footsteps in which we follow. The Bible, the greatest book, was written in blood by those who were willing to sacrifice their lives and honor for others; who walked behind the Master into the minefield of suffering for the love of mankind.

We who write are part of that great chain of faith. Our words may or may not cause the world to take note. But the world can’t miss the passion for others that causes us to lay down our masks of invincibility to reach a planet dying to live.

It doesn’t hurt to be wise in the ways we interact with others. God will guide us in every step we take as we write for Him. It’s time to be bold. Be courageous.

Be vulnerable.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!
Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9 NASB

Image © Dmitriy Shironosov | Dreamstime.com

By PamThorson0 comments

Christmas Devotionals

December 17, 2013

Always Living

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
-Hebrews 4:12

It had been a rough morning, the crown to a rugged week. I was feeling pretty down when I arrived at church Sunday morning. I reflected back on the events of the last couple of months. There were times when the effort of living for Christ seemed futile.

I didn’t really believe that. I just felt that way. Tired. Discouraged. Insignificant against the battle that waged around me in a world determined to dig its way to hell.

Spinning my wheels.

Then the music started. I stood with the others as the worship team ushered the church into the presence of God. I halfheartedly joined in. Midway through the first song, the ice in my soul began to melt.

The pastor stepped onto the podium and opened God’s Word. From it flowed a message that has changed my life. It was the exact message I needed for that day and that moment, preached from just three verses in Luke.

Tears welled up in my eyes and threatened to escape down my face. I wished I wasn’t in the presence of so many other people. It didn’t feel right to be sitting at such a moment. I wanted to kneel. Or get on my face. God’s Word pulled me out of my self and into a place of grateful worship.

I have been a Christian for nearly forty years. I have read the Bible through many times and studied it for decades. And yet, on Sunday morning, I heard something new and radically empowering from three simple verses.

That’s what I love about the Bible. It isn’t just a book. It’s even more than a good book. It’s a living organism. Like the Creator from which it sprang, God’s Word is infused with supernatural power that breathes out the golden air of heaven.

It speaks. It speaks at the right moment, to our exact need. In His Word, God comes to us as the Healer, the Comforter, the Teacher, the Absolute Authority.

He wants to speak to you.

This Christmas, make the holidays holy days. Resist the temptation to push aside reading God’s Word and fellowship with others as those shopping days before Christmas get shorter and shorter. Take nothing for granted and set aside time to let God communicate with you. He has something important to say.

And it’s His birthday, after all.

photo courtesy Erik Thorson/2013

By PamThorson4 comments

Tag: the Bible

Know What You Believe…and Why

Always Living