Come to Give

There are many people in churches today who only come to receive. These people tend to be critical when no one comes to call on them when they were absent. They feel they weren't missed at all.

However, it's the people who come to church to give, not just receive, who are missed when they are absent.

Church is a place for each member to minister to others. Those who come only to receive, and who don't notify anyone when they need someone to call on them, are less likely to be missed. There are those in church who do care and do want to help, but they aren't always aware of the situation.

Evaluate your own habits. Are you a giver or a receiver?

If you notice anyone who is absent, take the time to give them a call. It might take a little effort to find their number, but your effort will be appreciated.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for Norma, who has cancer.
• Theresa Cappadona had neck surgery this week.
• Theresa's father has Alzheimers.
• Sharon Macklin had a bout with high blood pressure.
• Jerry's father Harold is dying.
• Pam's neighbor Kayli has a blood disorder, but doctors aren't yet sure what it is.
• Miho will be giving birth soon to her second child. She and her firstborn are alone while her husband is serving on a ship in the area where pirate activity has been in the news.
• Brent needs a job.
• James D. asks God for more self-control over anger.
• James B. is going through a divorce. He's living in a halfway house after being released from prison. Keep him in your prayers. He also needs a job.
• Jan's great nephew died in a house fire last week.

Praise Reports

• Doug will be returning home next week Sunday night. We're all anxious to have him back teaching class. Many thanks to Nancy for her excellent job filling in while he is absent.
• Harvey Macklin has returned home safely from his tour of duty as a Navy chaplain.
• Lisa Adams is thankful for their new pickup truck--the old one was leaking like a sieve.
• Allen has returned to work following a 3-week medical leave for an injured knee.
• Karen Herrara is back from Mongolia and had some interesting stories to tell of God's working over there.

"Did God Really Say...?"

Our guest teacher today was Lisa Lyons, who spoke on the creation/evolution issue following our viewing of the movie "Expelled."

The first lie recorded in the Bible, told by Satan to Eve, began with the words, "Did God really say...?" We as Christians occasionally fall to this lie in different forms. For example, when you doubt whether God cares for you, you are doubting what God has said in His Word.

When it comes to the creation issue, many Christians fall to this lie, not believing the straightforward truth God wrote in the first several chapters of Genesis. For the past hundred years or more, secular scientists (unbelievers) have been forwarding the cause of evolution. Unfortunately, many Christians have chosen to believe their claims, giving them almost equal footing with God's Word. The subsequent "Christian" theories of creation that have been formulated are nothing more than trying to make God's Word conform to the words of fallen, unregenerated mankind. Theories like Theistic Evolution, the Gap Theory, and the Day/Age Theory all fall short of accepting God at His Word. It's like asking the question, "Did God really say....?"

What God really said in the very first words of the Bible is that He created the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them in six days. The context of the word "day" clearly indicates that the days were literal, 24-hour days. The additions of the word "evening and morning," along with a number (first, second, etc.), cause the Hebrew word "yom" to be interpreted as an ordinary day. This is how the word is handled in every other place that it is found in the Bible.

In Exodus 20, when God gave the Ten Commandments, the same language is used as in Genesis. Beginning at verse 8, God says, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.... For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day."

These words were written by God's finger on tablets of stone, using the same language structure as in Genesis. If the Genesis days were not literal days, then this verse makes no sense.

Does it matter what a person believes about the days of Genesis? What a person believes about the origins of the world becomes a crucial point when you look at Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. In these passages, the Apostle Paul bases his argument for our redemption through Christ on the fact that sin, and subsequently death, came into the world through Adam.

If any form of evolution were true, be it Theistic Evolution, the Gap Theory, or the Day/Age Theory, then there had to have been millions of years of death before Adam was created. That means that death is not the punishment for sin, for it would have existed before Adam sinned. And if death is not the punishment for sin, then Paul's argument for life in Christ has no merit.

"For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

Death came through a man (Adam). Life comes through Jesus Christ.