Are humans unique among the living creatures of the earth? Of course, the Bible answers that question with a holy "Duhhhh!"
Genesis 1-2 explain the creation of the world, including animals and humans. It reveals two important facts: 1) We are the only living creatures said to have been created in the image of God, and 2) we are the only living creatures said to have been given mouth-to-mouth from God to jumpstart our kind (Genesis 2:7).
The Psalmist wrote that God made man a little lower than the angels and gave humans dominion over everything on earth (Psalm 8:4-6). In Matthew 6:26, Jesus used an example of how God takes care of the birds to show that God certainly cares for us humans, too. Then He asked a follow-up rhetorical question, "Are you not of more value than they?"
Since there are readers of this blog who feel their intelligence rises far above those of us who believe the Bible, let's ask some more questions. If you honestly look at humans compared to all other species, you will not find one of them that does the stuff we do. So, here we go...
Besides humans, who else does all this stuff?
1. Wears clothes.
2. Builds everything from dog houses to enormous football stadiums, skyscrapers, and outer space apartments.
3. Invents everything from singing birthday cards to nuclear missiles.
4. Sings karaoke.
5. Videotapes themselves singing karaoke.
6. Forces their family and friends to watch the videotape of themselves singing karaoke.
7. Flies through the air in a metal tube called an airplane.
8. Reads.
9. Clips their own toenails.
10. Wipes their own.........nose.
11. Provides for the well-being of other species.
12. Buys and sells goods.
13. Offers warranties on purchases.
14. Hides loopholes on warranties.
15. Commits suicide. (Okay, so maybe lemmings are an exception here. But do they KNOW they are committing suicide? Or do they just keep re-electing dumb leadership and follow blindly? Isn't it possible that the lemmings last words are, "Oh, snap!")
16. Digs up bones of other species, as well as their own, to examine and analyze them instead of gnaw on them? (Ribs at the bar-b-q place are not dug up)
17. Performs surgery.
18. Cooks food before eating.
19. Cries when slicing onions.
20. Slices onions.
21. Can't find keys.
22. Has keys they can't find.
23. Smokes.
24. Blushes. (Or, at least, once had the capacity to do so).
25. Gets goose bumps. (Makes you wonder if other species get people bumps).
26. Bothers with tombstones and cemeteries.
27. Puts "Humans aren't the only species on the planet...they just act like it" magnets on their refrigerators.
28. Has refrigerators.
29. Replaces parts that quit working: Dentures, glasses, knees, hearing aids, spouses, etc.
30. Comes up with lists of their own uniquenesses.
31. Posts blogs and articles on the internet in an attempt to refute the uniquenesses of humans.
I find that last one fascinating. There are actually websites with articles and blogs piously pointing out that there are no uniquenesses that separate humans from other creatures. Yet, what other creature posts blogs or writes articles? I love the fact that "moron" finishes off the word, "oxymoron" in this case, don't you?
Face it. Humans are unique. You can trust Wikipedia or you can trust the Word of God. You can trust the most recent opinions of humanity's collective brilliance (which keeps changing every month) or you can trust the unchanging Word of God that has stood the test of time.
God created you with a purpose. You're not a lemming. You're not a cultured ape. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by a Creator who loves you and wants you to take a few honest steps in His direction.
I'm not a preacher because I figured out something smart by observation. I'm a preacher because I've found something real by application and participation. When I gave my heart and life to God through Jesus Christ, He changed my life.
32. Has his or her heart and life completely reborn through a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Perry Crisp
Showing posts with label creationism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creationism. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Delivery Repealed
A friend of mine baked a nice hot pie and delivered it to the house of a grieving family. She was surprised no one came to the door when she knocked, but assumed the family was at the funeral home making arrangements, so she let herself in and left the pie on the breakfast table.
As she drove away from the house, she passed the house where the grieving family ACTUALLY lived. It dawned on her: she just walked into a stranger's house and left a fresh baked pie!
Faced with such a dilemma, most of us would have kept that a secret, gone back home, baked another pie, and delivered it to the right house. But not DeAnna.
She went back to the "wrong" house where she left the pie. This time, she didn't even knock. She walked in and went to the breakfast table to get the pie.
But it was gone! She panicked. Was she in ANOTHER wrong house? No. THIS is the table she left the pie on. She began looking around without ever deducing that the missing pie was a strong indication that someone in this house was HOME!
The oven was on. The little red light was glowing. She opened the oven and found her pie! Someone in the house found the pie she left and put it in the oven to warm it up! Did they question how the pie got there? Did they search the house for the Pie Fairy?
Just then DeAnna heard a toilet flush. Though most of us would not be in this position to begin with, we certainly at this point, would run like the wind...right? Not DeAnna.
She grabbed the pie...and, with dignity and grace, walked out as if she were returning to her own home for a set of forgotten keys. She got back into her car and out of the driveway before any crazed residents came running out the door.
DeAnna successfully delivered the warm pie to the right house straight from the wrong house. On her way home, she began thinking about the poor soul who came back for a pie that was no longer there.
A verse of Scripture comes to mind: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away..." (Job 1:21).
Put yourself in the house slippers of the old man who lived alone in that house of the appearing and disappearing pie. You get out of bed, walk into the kitchen, grab the milk from the fridge, and saunter over to the breakfast table. There sits a freshly baked home-made pie. You rub your eyes and it's still there.
There's no note. No one else is in the house. No cars are in the driveway. No one you know would make you a pie, enter your house, and leave it on your table.
What are your options? You could question your sanity, deny the existence of the pie as a figment of your imagination, and go back to bed. Or you could tally the existence of the pie up to a cosmic accident where a series of tasty molecules collided and burped out a pie.
Or you could believe that the existence of the pie meant the existence of a pie maker. Even though you don't see the pie maker or know who the pie maker is or where she came from, you know that she exists. You don't know who to thank or how this delicious gift got here, but by golly, it's a pie and it's going in the oven!
Which option makes the most sense? Even if you didn't know DeAnna's story. Even if all you knew was what the owner of the wrong house knew. You would still believe someONE caused this to happen, not that someTHING just randomly happened. The existence of a pie means the existence of a pie maker.
The world we live in is ten billion times more intricately designed than the best pie. There cannot possibly be a design so magnificent without a magnificent Designer. Yet no matter how much sense that makes, we can't teach it to our kids in school.
As for the second half of the story...if you are that same old man who found the pie and you put it in the oven to warm it up while you ponder the mystery of the pie in the "thinking room" of your house, and then come back to find the oven empty --- then it would be pretty easy to convince you that there's a devil, too! But that's another story...
Knows Who to Thank,
Perry Crisp
As she drove away from the house, she passed the house where the grieving family ACTUALLY lived. It dawned on her: she just walked into a stranger's house and left a fresh baked pie!
Faced with such a dilemma, most of us would have kept that a secret, gone back home, baked another pie, and delivered it to the right house. But not DeAnna.
She went back to the "wrong" house where she left the pie. This time, she didn't even knock. She walked in and went to the breakfast table to get the pie.
But it was gone! She panicked. Was she in ANOTHER wrong house? No. THIS is the table she left the pie on. She began looking around without ever deducing that the missing pie was a strong indication that someone in this house was HOME!
The oven was on. The little red light was glowing. She opened the oven and found her pie! Someone in the house found the pie she left and put it in the oven to warm it up! Did they question how the pie got there? Did they search the house for the Pie Fairy?
Just then DeAnna heard a toilet flush. Though most of us would not be in this position to begin with, we certainly at this point, would run like the wind...right? Not DeAnna.
She grabbed the pie...and, with dignity and grace, walked out as if she were returning to her own home for a set of forgotten keys. She got back into her car and out of the driveway before any crazed residents came running out the door.
DeAnna successfully delivered the warm pie to the right house straight from the wrong house. On her way home, she began thinking about the poor soul who came back for a pie that was no longer there.
A verse of Scripture comes to mind: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away..." (Job 1:21).
Put yourself in the house slippers of the old man who lived alone in that house of the appearing and disappearing pie. You get out of bed, walk into the kitchen, grab the milk from the fridge, and saunter over to the breakfast table. There sits a freshly baked home-made pie. You rub your eyes and it's still there.
There's no note. No one else is in the house. No cars are in the driveway. No one you know would make you a pie, enter your house, and leave it on your table.
What are your options? You could question your sanity, deny the existence of the pie as a figment of your imagination, and go back to bed. Or you could tally the existence of the pie up to a cosmic accident where a series of tasty molecules collided and burped out a pie.
Or you could believe that the existence of the pie meant the existence of a pie maker. Even though you don't see the pie maker or know who the pie maker is or where she came from, you know that she exists. You don't know who to thank or how this delicious gift got here, but by golly, it's a pie and it's going in the oven!
Which option makes the most sense? Even if you didn't know DeAnna's story. Even if all you knew was what the owner of the wrong house knew. You would still believe someONE caused this to happen, not that someTHING just randomly happened. The existence of a pie means the existence of a pie maker.
The world we live in is ten billion times more intricately designed than the best pie. There cannot possibly be a design so magnificent without a magnificent Designer. Yet no matter how much sense that makes, we can't teach it to our kids in school.
As for the second half of the story...if you are that same old man who found the pie and you put it in the oven to warm it up while you ponder the mystery of the pie in the "thinking room" of your house, and then come back to find the oven empty --- then it would be pretty easy to convince you that there's a devil, too! But that's another story...
Knows Who to Thank,
Perry Crisp
Monday, January 26, 2009
Work of Art
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13 NIV).
Womb memories are hard to come by. Try as I may, I cannot remember anything of those nine months in my mother's womb. Am I alone or does everyone suffer from amniotic amnesia?
There is One who remembers. God remembers. He has never forgotten our nine-month incubation process. He remembers piecing us together, bit by bit. It's quite a remarkable thing God did when He created you and me. He weaved sinews and nerves, organs and arteries, flesh and bones into a masterful creation.
You probably already receive more compliments than you know what to do with, but may I add one more? You are a masterpiece! Even those of you whom I have never seen -- I know it's true.
How do I know? Because God is a magnificent creator. You and I are His handiwork. We are something to behold. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is.
The Psalmist recognized the involvement of God in the invention of people. He described God as a master weaver whose knitting needles work miracles.
God is quite familiar with you. He created you with purpose and design and has a specific purpose and design for your life. What it may be, I do not know. But I know you are an original, created for something special. And I know God wouldn't go to so much trouble to create such a masterpiece as you -- and then hide His purpose from you. Ask Him. Keep asking Him. Keep believing that He will show you.
The more you realize the significance of your identity, the more caution you will use in the conduct of your life.
Would you hang a famous work of art over a pig pen? No. Would you drive a $100,000 sportscar in a demolition derby? Never.
Then be careful with the masterpiece that is YOU. Keep it away from slop and destruction. Originals are hard to come by.
The One and Only, (did I hear you say, "Thank God!"?)
Perry Crisp
*This Morning With God devotional books are still available. We have about 25 left. You can click on the following link to order your copy ($30 plus shipping): http://www.lakeforkbaptist.org/perrybook.htm
Womb memories are hard to come by. Try as I may, I cannot remember anything of those nine months in my mother's womb. Am I alone or does everyone suffer from amniotic amnesia?
There is One who remembers. God remembers. He has never forgotten our nine-month incubation process. He remembers piecing us together, bit by bit. It's quite a remarkable thing God did when He created you and me. He weaved sinews and nerves, organs and arteries, flesh and bones into a masterful creation.
You probably already receive more compliments than you know what to do with, but may I add one more? You are a masterpiece! Even those of you whom I have never seen -- I know it's true.
How do I know? Because God is a magnificent creator. You and I are His handiwork. We are something to behold. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is.
The Psalmist recognized the involvement of God in the invention of people. He described God as a master weaver whose knitting needles work miracles.
God is quite familiar with you. He created you with purpose and design and has a specific purpose and design for your life. What it may be, I do not know. But I know you are an original, created for something special. And I know God wouldn't go to so much trouble to create such a masterpiece as you -- and then hide His purpose from you. Ask Him. Keep asking Him. Keep believing that He will show you.
The more you realize the significance of your identity, the more caution you will use in the conduct of your life.
Would you hang a famous work of art over a pig pen? No. Would you drive a $100,000 sportscar in a demolition derby? Never.
Then be careful with the masterpiece that is YOU. Keep it away from slop and destruction. Originals are hard to come by.
The One and Only, (did I hear you say, "Thank God!"?)
Perry Crisp
*This Morning With God devotional books are still available. We have about 25 left. You can click on the following link to order your copy ($30 plus shipping): http://www.lakeforkbaptist.org/perrybook.htm
Monday, August 25, 2008
More Power
"I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works" (Psalm 145:5).
The power of God is bigger than we figure. Of all that we know about the world around us, we still don't know half of all there is to know about the world around us.
Some braniacs say there was no God involved in the creation of the world. It just happened. It evolved. Yeah, right. And Michael Jackson never had cosmetic surgery. He just morphed into his current confusion of self.
God is the creator behind all creation. The designer behind the design. The lawmaker behind all law. God is the supreme fact of history, science, and philosophy. Take God out of any of those things and you're just a babbling idiot. There will always be a job for you at a major university...but you're still a babbling idiot.
Taking God out of your worldview is like an ant standing on the F1 key of a computer keyboard thinking that the F1 key is all there is to the computer.
Apparently, when our heads swell with knowledge, we can't imagine anything bigger than us. We strain to contain all the knowledge we have of this vast universe. So to think of a super-sized God looming over the unfathomable might be a bit too much for an overstretched cranium.
If the biggest river you've ever seen is the Mississippi, and you've never heard of a place called South America, then it might be hard for someone to convince you of the size of the Amazon.
If you've studied the Niagara Falls and been overwhelmed by its raw power and majesty, and you've never heard of the African continent, you might scoff at a South African who says he's seen falls five times greater than the Niagara Falls. You would doubt that such a river as the Zambesi exists that could be two miles wide and take a 400 foot plunge. Your mind could not fathom the 35 million horsepower of the Victoria Falls compared to the 7 million of Niagara that your mind already has trouble wrapping around.
That's a place you've never seen and a power you've never experienced. But because you have neither seen nor experienced it, does that make it untrue? The same is true of a believer who speaks of the power he or she has experienced in God.
Thank God I learned to be a believing man before I ever became a thinking man. Thank God I listened to the testimonies of those whose souls were saved by a super-sized Savior named Jesus Christ. Thank God I learned that there is power in the blood.
God is bigger than we figure. And I'm not finished with this. Stay tuned.
Perry Crisp
The power of God is bigger than we figure. Of all that we know about the world around us, we still don't know half of all there is to know about the world around us.
Some braniacs say there was no God involved in the creation of the world. It just happened. It evolved. Yeah, right. And Michael Jackson never had cosmetic surgery. He just morphed into his current confusion of self.
God is the creator behind all creation. The designer behind the design. The lawmaker behind all law. God is the supreme fact of history, science, and philosophy. Take God out of any of those things and you're just a babbling idiot. There will always be a job for you at a major university...but you're still a babbling idiot.
Taking God out of your worldview is like an ant standing on the F1 key of a computer keyboard thinking that the F1 key is all there is to the computer.
Apparently, when our heads swell with knowledge, we can't imagine anything bigger than us. We strain to contain all the knowledge we have of this vast universe. So to think of a super-sized God looming over the unfathomable might be a bit too much for an overstretched cranium.
If the biggest river you've ever seen is the Mississippi, and you've never heard of a place called South America, then it might be hard for someone to convince you of the size of the Amazon.
If you've studied the Niagara Falls and been overwhelmed by its raw power and majesty, and you've never heard of the African continent, you might scoff at a South African who says he's seen falls five times greater than the Niagara Falls. You would doubt that such a river as the Zambesi exists that could be two miles wide and take a 400 foot plunge. Your mind could not fathom the 35 million horsepower of the Victoria Falls compared to the 7 million of Niagara that your mind already has trouble wrapping around.
That's a place you've never seen and a power you've never experienced. But because you have neither seen nor experienced it, does that make it untrue? The same is true of a believer who speaks of the power he or she has experienced in God.
Thank God I learned to be a believing man before I ever became a thinking man. Thank God I listened to the testimonies of those whose souls were saved by a super-sized Savior named Jesus Christ. Thank God I learned that there is power in the blood.
God is bigger than we figure. And I'm not finished with this. Stay tuned.
Perry Crisp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)