CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
July 27, 2008
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
www.cypresswoodchurchofchrist.com
CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR:
Our congregation and God’s will for us Various friends, relatives and co-workers
Our nation, leaders and military Our enemies and the spread of the good news to them
Happy August Birthdays to: Eddie Berry (21st) and Patsy Friday (29th)
THIS AND THAT - 2008 - no. 3
“Be very careful, then, how you live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
Archaeologists continue to find things in Jerusalem. Recently, a second quarry in less than a year has been found. The stones were believed to be of the same kind used to build the Western Wall near the Temple Mount. Some of the stones had been ready for extraction but events prohibited it from happening.
It has been all over the news. You have probably heard it. 31,000 scientists, including 9,000 PhDs, in atmospheric science, climatology, earth science, environment, and other specialties have signed a petition rejecting global warming. Haven’t heard this? Oh, that’s right; the “consensus” is that all scientists agree that humans cause global warming. Apparently the “consensus” isn’t what it is cracked up to be. The media continues to ignore those who disagree. One cannot help but think that if they do it on this issue, in reality, how truthful are they on any issue (1)?
The California Supreme Court has stated that it is discriminatory to deny homosexuals the right to marry. This ruling was in opposition to a statewide referendum of several years ago. There have been several criticisms of this ruling. One is that if a group of four judges could overrule the will of the people without legislative action, what else can they do? Some have suggested that they could then make speaking against homosexuality a crime, and then speaking about traditional marriage between a man and a woman as racism. Interestingly, Canada is headed in this direction already. Another criticism is that if this decision stands, it will be the only time in history that this has happened according to Dennis Prager, and it will mean the downfall of our culture, for it will call into question all Judeo-Christian ethics. There will be unintended consequences unforeseen by judges and politicians.
Some might be overreacting to the California ruling, seeing things that might not happen. Yet, in Philadelphia, the city council has ordered the Boy Scouts to vacate a building they built and paid for, and gave to the city and would lease for one dollar a year. Why? The Boy Scouts refuse to have homosexual leaders and several on the council see this as discrimination. Another problem is that several states will recognize California “gay” marriages, presenting all kinds of problems down the road. Unintended consequences.
As we are constantly being told, there is global warming and man has caused it. To say it another way, wherever man has gone there is global warming. But on Mars and Jupiter? That’s what scientists are saying. Both planets are warming even though man hasn’t gone there. Maybe those Martians who invaded in the late 1930s according to Orson Wells took some cars and humans back to Mars and this has caused the red planet to warm. Jupiter has had an increase in turbulence and storms according to pictures studied from the Hubble Space Telescope, and has been occurring for several years. Likewise, Mars appears to be warming as well and it is hoped that the recent probe will send back more data. Since no humans live in either place, it could be that recent Sun spot activity has been causing this all along. That means the economic efforts by politicians is a waste of time and money. It also means that there are those who allow their philosophical beliefs to dictate their view of the planet, and that might not be good. It all goes to the idea of unintended consequences, like using food for fuel bringing up shortages in food and rising prices as well.
A question is asked in the British journal, New Scientist, “Are humans unique? The answer is, well, no, we are just like many animals. Animals have language, culture, even architecture and music. Of course, this would mean that the animals then are equal to us. Who needs God? The Bible clearly states that we are created in His image (Genesis 1:26-28). We indeed are unique, far beyond any comparisons found in the animal world. Sure, there are examples of dogs taking care of kittens, even a leopard taking care of a young monkey, but that is not the norm. And yes, humans can be far more vicious than anything found in creation. That is why we need a Savior and why God has given us one.
Michael Nazir-Ali is the Anglican Bishop of Rochester in England. He grew up in the Muslim world as a Catholic and changed to the Anglican church around age twenty. What he sees happening in England greatly concerns him. It all started in the sixties when people began to rebel against religion. Multiculturalism is destroying the English society and it centuries of tradition. And the declining number of church members is leading to a spiritual void that will be filled with something. His fear is that the continual acceptance of Muslim exclusivism will eventually fill it. Some Anglican leaders are participating in this acceptance, which he sees as wrong. The same concern is raised by Natan Sharansky, a Russian who came to Israel a number of years ago. He sees Jewish culture losing its identity, and without such identity, “democracy becomes incapable of defending the values it holds most dear.” This raises a number of questions. Are we as a nation headed in the same direction? Can our belief in God turn the tide of those who want to become like the rest of the world? Does our back to the Bible plea have something useful to present to this situation?
Ted Baehr often reviews movies from a Christian perspective. Sometimes I do not agree with how he sees a particular movie. However, he does recognize that the most successful movies are based on redemptive qualities rather than the lust of Hollywood. The three big releases of the year have such qualities. Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull all contain such redemptive motifs. Likewise, the recently released to DVD sci-fi movie staring Will Smith, I Am Legend, contains such themes. While there are a lot of flops out there, it is encouraging that some realize that there are important themes for the common folk.
Have you ever wondered how we got to where we are in churches of Christ today? I have. There are two major streams of thought in churches of Christ that developed in the second have of the 19th Century and continue to do battle in various teachings. How we see God’s activity, the Holy Spirit (2), the kingdom (3), and providence are all a part of this disagreement. John Mark Hicks, a professor at David Lipscomb University has been writing on our hermeneutic and how it has influenced us. You can read about it at http://johnmakrhicks.com under hermeneutics, pattern, CEI and other categories.
Biblical humor can sometimes lean toward the sacrilegious and yet can sometimes speak of reality. Here is one to think about. This comes under the title, “Because I said So!”
After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing He said
to them was, “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Adam asked.
“Don’t eat the forbidden fruit,” God said.
“Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve! We got Forbidden Fruit!”
“No way!”
“Yes WAY!”
“Don’t eat that fruit!” said God.
“Why?”
“Because I’m your Creator and I said so!” said God, wondering why he hadn’t
stopped after making elephants.
A few minutes later, God saw the kids having an apple break and was angry. “Didn’t I tell
you not to eat that fruit?” God said.
“Uh huh,” Adam replied. “Then why did you?”
“I dunno,” Eve answered.
“She started it!” Adam said.
“Did not!”
“Did so!”
“DID NOT!”
Having had it with the two of them, God’s punishment was that Adam and Eve should have
children of their own (4).
There is a documentary called Demographic Winter which talks about the decline of birth rates throughout the world. For some this is good news. Less people less problems such as pollution and global warming. But there are unintended consequences to this. For instance, Iran’s population is aging and they might do something aggressive before that happens. Others will lose their national identity to the point that they are open to the takeover by an entirely different culture which might be more destructive, such as Islam in Europe. When nations and cultures forget or ignore God, then problems arise. Isaiah stated clearly, “For this is what the Lord says -- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18). Think God knows what He is doing?
Our neighbors to the north have something called the Canadian Human Rights Commission that investigates politically incorrect speech. Recently it has fined a minister for preaching against homosexuality a sum of $7,000 and told him to publicly apologize and then remain silent on the issue. A Catholic priest has been accused of hate crimes for doing the same. And syndicated columnist Mark Stein is on trial for writing negatively about Islam. That couldn’t happen here, could it?
A news headline in June stated that a two thousand year old church was found in a cave in Jordan near the Syrian border. Before anyone gets really excited about this, there are a number of caves in that area. Now some Christians could have fled to that area and met in such caves, but declaring it a “church” is another issue. The earliest known building would date from around 300 A.D. Most of the time Christians met in houses and other buildings before building their own. But it is fun to speculate what meeting in a cave was like.
A two thousand year old seed has sprouted and the sapling is growing in Israel. The seed was discover in the fortress of Masada. They were discovered in 1973 but in the last year or so, Elaine Solowey, a desert agriculture expert, after careful preparation, has nursed the seed to its present size. It is a date palm tree and the experts are excited about it because the current date palms in Israel come from Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. They have already noticed a difference and are hoping to find some medicinal properties. They have named it Methuselah and the hopes are that it will bear fruit in the next few years.
There is a new book called Changed and a new resource called www.abortionchangesyou.com. It is a organization that allows people to talk about the experiences and pains of abortion from various aspects including the woman who aborted to the father who does not have a child to children who do not have a sibling. It appears that there is much pain though few talk about it.
The waters of Lake Galilee are receding. While this is a concern for Israel, some discoveries have been made. Recently a marine scientist has discovered a series of mysterious stone patterns on the lake bed. Though they have not been studied, it has been suggested that they were either boundary stones between towns, some type of watchtower, or something to be used to set up fishermen’s nets.
I came across a headline that scientists have found bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol. This is happening in studies in California where very, very small bugs, a billionth the size of an ant, eat agricultural waste and produces oil. There is much more to this such as starting off as industrial yeast or E. coli bacteria and being genetically changed to produce the oil. They think that it will be about ten years before the outcome can be successfully transferred to public use (5).
Our neighbors to the north have a human rights commission. So does New Mexico. They have fined a photographer who refused to take pictures of a homosexual couple’s “commitment ceremony.” Arlington, Virginia also has a human rights commission and tried to force a video company owner to duplicate tapes promoting homosexuality. New Jersey’s Division of Civil Rights revoked a church’s tax exempt status for refusing to rent a gazebo on its property to a homosexual couple. Me thinks there is more to this “gay marriage” thing than meets the eye (6). It also reminds me of George Orwell’s Animal Farm where all the animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Holiday is a modern form for “holy days.” Obviously it has lost its original meaning over the years. There are those who want to remove “Christian” holidays and replace them with secular holidays such as Earth Day, April Fool’s Day, Darwin Day, World Environment Day, the National Day of Reason, and Yuri’s Night after the Russian astronaut who did not see God. There is nothing new under the sun, so the Teacher in Jerusalem tells us; so we are becoming more like the ancient Roman and Greek world of paganism.
Kerby Anderson refers a British anthropologist by the name of J.D. Unwin, writing in the 1930s, who studied eighty-six cultures across five thousand years and found “that when a society restricted sex to marriage, it thrived. However, he also found that when a society weakened the sexual ethic of marriage, it deteriorated and eventually disintegrated” (7). This follows Solomon when he talks about sin condemning any nation (Proverbs 14:34).
British historian, Paul Johnson, recently gave a short lecture with all the modern conveniences such as microphones and speaker systems. Before the invention of these modern technologies, when famous people spoke, they had to learn to speak loud and project. We know that some buildings were not built for such purposes but others were. But speaking outside could be a challenge. One only has to think of Jesus speaking to crowds. Various theatres were built outside in such a way so that the audience could hear the actors or speakers. While reviewing some famous speakers and their ability to speak for long periods in a loud voice, he mentions Muslim clergy preaching to vast congregations in the open. These speakers “were accompanied by a tall, barrel-chested figure with a powerful voice, who repeated fortissimo each phrase as uttered.” They were known as a Loud Speaker. So now we know from where that term came.
All that modern music has just caused so much trouble. Here are a couple of letters written concerning them to a worship leader.
“I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it.
Last Sunday’s new hymn - if you can call it that - sounded like a sentimental love
ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us
to rubbish like this - in God’s house! - don’t be surprised if many of the faithful
look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need.”
“What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to
church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last
Sunday’s was particularly unnerving. The tune was un-singable and the new
harmonies were quite distorting.”
Maybe we need to rethink singing this new stuff, what with criticisms like this. Oh, by the way, the first letter was written in 1863 about the hymn Just As I Am and the second in 1890 about What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Funny, isn’t it?
George B. Mearns
(1) See www.worldnetdaily.com 31,000 scientists reject ’global warming’ agenda, 5/19/2008 by Bob Unruh.
(2) Is the Holy Spirit active today or is He present just through the word? One preacher was said to have stated that wherever you read Holy Spirit, just replace it with scripture, a view that is prevalent but that I do not agree with.
(3) Is the kingdom the same as the church or is it something different and beyond? Church means assembly and kingdom means rule. This debate continues today and has lead to some misunderstandings of scripture.
(4) from Joke of the Day, www.beliefnet.com
(5) from www.timesonline.co.uk It was article 4133668 and I copied it on 6/17/08.
(6) from Citizen, July 2008, p. 4-5.
(7) Kerby Anderson, www.probe.org under Heterosexual and Homosexual Marriages.