Archives for June 2014

Creation, Dinosaurs, and the Flood

To those of you new here to This Temporary Home from this morning’s apologetics class, welcome! I have compiled a brief list of resources that I would recommend you utilize to aid in your search for the truth of man’s origins, dinosaurs, creation, and the flood. I look forward to sharing more posts with you in the future.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, ESV)

If you are seeking in depth teaching and scientific data this is a textbook by Dr. Walt Brown which can also be accessed free on his website at www.creationscience.com (here).

The New Answers Book series is reader friendly and packed full of answers to today’s questions in the field of creation science. Highly recommended for its ease of reading and information-packed content.

If you are curious about the implications of dismissing the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, Six Days, by Ken Ham is a wonderful resource for consideration. Ken Ham presents a comprehensive look at the church’s departure from reading Genesis 1-3 as a historical record and hammers home the mission and message behind the ministry of Answers in Genesis (here). Additionally, I highly recommend subscribing to the Answers Magazine.

For a comprehensive look at the different worldviews prevalent today, as well as a defense for creation, and an overview of the shift from loving God with our heart, soul, strength, and minds to the heart only in church history, you will be hard pressed to find a better resource than Nancy Pearcey’s book, Total Truth.

This is a wonderful picture book packed with quick facts on creation topics for the whole family to enjoy from Institute for Creation Research (ICR) (here). ICR also produces a magazine that you can receive via e-mail or automatically after purchasing one of their products from the website. iPhone apps are available from ICR as well that have a daily devotional.

Here are links to the news articles that I referenced during class this morning. Please consider the worldview that these articles are written from and try to discern the facts from the desired truths. Remember having the childlike faith doesn’t mean we don’t ask questions; but that we have faith there are answers to our questions. 

  • China’s Dinosaur Hunter: The Ground Breaker  (here)
  • Warm or Cold? Dinosaurs Had In Between Blood (here)
  • Tannin article from Answers in Genesis (here)
  • Birds Did Not Evolve from Dinosaurs, Say Evolutionists (here)
  • No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of This Fossil (here)

Thanks again for stopping by!

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*The links are Amazon Affiliate links meaning that I can receive a portion of the proceeds from any purchases you make. However, this service primarily provides me an easy and aesthetically pleasing way to provide you with a list of resources. I encourage you to check Amazon in addition to your local library or favorite used book store to obtain these resources. Thrifted books are my favorite. Happy studying!

 

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All Hands on Deck

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This Sunday I have the awesome honor and great responsibility of teaching my first church-wide apologetics class.

I can’t make that sound as daunting and wonderful to you as I would like to. In world importance it is trifle, but in personal and perhaps lasting change it is big. First off, it is a wonderful opportunity to share some of the creation science apologetics that I have studied for 3-5 years. (Really, anytime you or I have the chance to teach it is a culmination of all that God has taught us up to that particular point in life.)  It could prompt lasting change if it encourages even one person to study in order to  enable them to defend their faith better and give a reason for the hope that they have.

Conversely, it is daunting because there is soooooo much information to choose from and therefore a great deal that I aim to communicate accurately. Additionally, our church is very blessed to have a pastor on our staff with a doctorate in apologetics. He is a great teacher who sets the bar high and I have learned a great deal from him. In other words, this isn’t the class’s first rodeo and they will spot a weakling. (Smile.)

That being the case, I had decided a month ago that for VBS I would choose a behind the scenes, low responsibility type job as it starts the Monday directly after my Sunday class. Well, as it turns out, VBS was short on Bible teachers and I changed my volunteer status to teach four-year-old Bible. Part of the responsibilities of the Bible teacher is room decoration. Also, I still needed a co-teacher as volunteers were sparse. I turned to my community group and sought out help. Wouldn’t you know that a co-teacher committed out of my group as well as three ladies to decorate the room?!

Needless to say, these are full weeks for me and I want to give a public praise to God for providing opportunities and the means to meet the demands of these opportunities.  It is remarkable that even though the three ladies decorating the four-year-old Bible room have week-day jobs and can’t volunteer for the face to face VBS time, they are able to contribute to make the classroom environment fun.

What about you? What ministry opportunities are coming your way? How can you enlist the help of friends and sisters/brothers in Christ to help meet Kingdom needs?

I am so grateful that when God calls us He also provides the means to meet the tasks.

This weekend I will post a list of apologetic resources for the participants of Sunday’s class to access. They are for you as well! The resources are geared to further equip us to answer questions about creation, dinosaurs, and the Flood. Be on the lookout for the list and for upcoming posts that will cover the teaching time.

Thanks, as always, for taking time to stop by This Temporary Home. Please read this post with grace as I am certain I have mixed tenses throughout…and yet, I am leaving it that way. Yikes! 🙂

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My Children’s Dad

Happy Father's Day

He’s the kind of man you want on your team, in your court, and beside you in battle.

He’s loyal, fun, and intentional.

He lives to please his Father.

He takes time to stoop low and teach, play on the floor, and read God’s Word.

He encourages dreams.

He works hard until the job is done then looks for ways to complete the same job better the next time around.

He makes pancakes almost every Thursday night and plays hide-and-seek like he gets paid for it.

For all of these reasons and more I am so grateful that when I married a great man, I also married a wonderful father.

Happy Father’s Day, Ron! And Happy Father’s Day to all the readers of This Temporary Home that have the honor and responsibility of being called Dad.

If you would join me in praying for Ron and his mission team this week as they are on mission in a communist country then I would be very grateful.

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Gratitude Prompts a Change in Perspective

Gratitude Prompts a Change in Perspective

Have you ever found yourself in a new place in life and completely nostalgic for the comforts of familiarity?

A few short months after Ron and I were married we moved to his childhood home in Florida. Having lived solely in Alabama for the first 21 years of my life (18 of those in my small hometown boasting two red lights and a McDonald’s) I was excited about the move, but unaware of the challenges of change.

Moving to the beach intrigued me. Continuing my studies in communication disorders at a new university excited me. However, I was unaware of the differences in culture, accent, and even socioeconomic differences that awaited.

When change happens we crave the small, steady denominators that made home home.

I missed knowing the cashiers at the grocery store, seeing people in Walmart with whom I attended school, and familiar faces at church that held common memories in time and space. It took me many years to embrace my new identity as a Floridian.

I was focused on yesterday and the hopes of one day which would bring a return move home to Alabama. I had little desire to explore the greatness of the area in which God had placed me.

Unfortunately my inability to embrace the changes in my life perhaps robbed me of a portion of present joy.

Today, almost 12 years later, I love the area I live in. My family enjoys the recreational parks, habitat preserves, the beach, and the museums and sites near our home.

Within the last three years I have often wondered why I spent much time and energy trying to make my current home more like my childhood and less like the newness of life that God had placed me in. I missed opportunities to enjoy God’s creation in my own backyard because I was longing for the backyard 500 miles away in which I grew up.

Are you in a new location be it geographical, vocational, or missional? Maybe the novelty of your experience leaves you longing for the familiarity of yesterday. Take heart my friend! There is good to be gained from every new venture. Look around you today and purpose to find a good to be grateful for. Gradually your gratitude will give you a change in perspective. Your eyes will see not as a pilgrim longing to turn back, but as one set to forge ahead to the lasting pilgrimage of the celestial city. (See Pilgrim’s Progress)

*an edited repost

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Loving Well

Loving Well

 

So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

(Ephesians 5:33, NLT)

Two links to help you love well in the covenant marriage you are in, or the one you are preparing for:

  • One great post on faithfully consummating  marital love by Sheila Wray Gregoire. (Click here.) Shelia blogs at To Love Honor and Vacuum. I frequently read her blog posts as I find them on Pinterest. Her site is packed full of biblical counsel for women in particular and couples in general. 

Satan likes a marriage without sex as much as sex without a marriage. Why does the church only condemn one of the two? ~Shelia Wray Gregoire

  • One wonderful sermon on love and lust by Timothy Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. Very much worth 30 minutes of your time whether you are single or married. (Click here.)

You’ll never be well married unless Christ is the Spouse of your soul. ~Timothy Keller

Ron and I recently celebrated 12 years of marriage and I am so grateful for a husband that strives to love me well in every way. May the content linked within this post today serve to enrich your marriage or your biblical view of marriage in general.

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