For Scripture Sunday”:
DNA: God’s Information Code
“DNA in living creatures shows strong evidence of a Creator. It carries information that cannot have occurred by natural forces but came from an intelligent being.
Many people around the world do not believe that God exists, classifying themselves as atheists. Others believe that God exists, but they haven’t proven His existence. Still others, the agnostics, aren’t sure whether He exists or not.
God has something to say about those who do not believe He exists: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
This scripture applies to all humans who have ever lived. From the beginning, people could see the things that were made by God and the incredible complexity and orderliness of the creation. But for thousands of years, mankind wasn’t aware of a magnificent part of creation that lies hidden within the cells of every living creature: DNA.
In 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick became the first scientists to formulate an accurate description of the DNA molecule’s complex, double-helical structure.
Since the discovery of DNA, it has been a fascinating area of research. Scientists began sequencing the human genome in 1990, and a working draft was completed in the year 2000.
On June 26, 2000, President Bill Clinton congratulated those who completed the human genome sequencing, and acknowledged DNA as God’s creation. He said, “Today we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift.”
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, followed the president to the podium, stating, “It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.”
What is amazing is that within the tiny space in every cell in your body, this code is 3 billion letters long!
But just what is DNA? If it is truly the creation of an intelligent and all-powerful Designer, we would expect that it would be accurate, optimally coded and an efficient method of storage. We will address all of these aspects and then discuss what impact understanding this incredible molecule should have on our lives.” Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/is-there-a-god/intelligent-design/dna/
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Christian Priorities, God Must Come First.
“German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe grasped the importance of priorities. He said, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
Stephen R. Covey in his bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People put it this way: “As a longtime student of this fascinating field [of life and time management], I am personally persuaded that the essence of the best thinking in the area of time management can be captured in a single phrase: Organize and execute around priorities.”
He also wrote: “One of my favorite essays is ‘The Common Denominator of Success’ written by E.M. Gray. He spent his life searching for the one denominator that all successful people share. He found it wasn’t hard work, good luck, or astute human relations, though those were all important. The one factor that seemed to transcend all the rest … [was] putting first things first” (1990, pp. 148-149).
Setting the right priorities is vitally important for success.
And, it turns out, not just for material success.
The Bible sets priorities that lead to eternal life
The Word of God tells us that it is vital to put our priorities in the right order and then carefully cultivate each one with zeal and enthusiasm.
Consider three of the most important eternal priorities.
When God gave the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai, He thundered these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
God does not want us to place anything before Him. His desire is that we worship Him and Him alone. He must come first in our lives.
The Bible tells the story of two sisters, Mary and Martha, who were loyal friends of Jesus Christ. When Christ visited them, they wanted to serve Him in the way each considered was most important. Let’s pick up the story:
“A certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’
“And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:38-42).
Serving others is highly commended in the Bible, and it is certainly not wrong to serve. But in this instance priorities were an issue. Listening to Christ’s teachings was even more important than food preparation.
How do we demonstrate that we truly love God and want to put His teachings first?
The apostle John provides the answer: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). The evidence that we love God is our striving to keep His commandments.
“He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him” (1 John 2:4-5, emphasis added).
We have to be honest with ourselves. Are we putting our personal relationship with God first, or are we allowing other aspects of our lives to come before the worship of the true God?”
Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/change/christian-conversion/christian-priorities/
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Update:
Well, after a week with two unexpected trips into Conroe, two into Willis, and many stops and starts, the van has not acted up again. It has started each time, so Elliots fixed it. That’s a relief, not having to worry that it won’t start every time I stop somewhere.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings, Zack and I tackled the water leak. It was coming from the washing machine box in the garage, on the other side of my bedroom wall. We moved the furniture from that side of the room, pulled up the carpet, cut out the wet padding, and left the carpet up on things with a fan blowing on it and the floor, too. But after a couple of nights I was tired of almost standing on my head to see the TV from the bed, so I was so glad when it dried out and we finally got some new padding down and the carpet and furniture back in place.
On a whim, I bought some leeks to make in an organic potato soup. (Regular potatoes are one of the “Dirty Dozen, ttps://secure.ewg.org/images/EWG_PesticidesInProduceGuide_Print_C01.pdf ) Pesticides are linked to cancer: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2231435/ So I only eat the organic potatoes. It tasted so good that I froze some for later instead of taking it to the church potluck!
So I cooked some Nolan Ryan beef, ground it up, added some veggies and a tasty gravy, and took it to the potluck in a crock pot. There was also a roast, lasagne, chicken fingers, chili-mac, Japanese sweet potatoes, (they are white, not orange), lots of differnt veggies, cakes and cookies. No one ever goes hungry at the church potluck.
As the potatoes were organic I made some vegetable stock with the peelings plus some other peelings, like carrot, onion, leek, and celery. I just let it do it’s thing in a crockpot full of water for a day, and then strain it. It makes a good nutritious base for cooking most things.
The Bible readings were Exo. 25:1-27:19, God’s specs for builing the Ark, 1 King, 5:12-6:13, God’s specs for building the Temple, and 2 Cor.9:1-13. The Teaching was about “The Natural Calendar”, and why some feasts have floating dates due to the cycles of the moon.
It was lovely weather on Saturday, but today, Sunday it has been raining hard and there have been flood warnings all day.
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