by Barry Newton

How much do you enjoy being with your children? For me, to play with my two boys, read them stories, give them a hug, tell them how much I love them or teach them how to live and make decisions are some of the most enjoyable and rewarding moments I can spend each week. I know how much I want us to have a strong relationship as they grow into young men. While they might live far from me one day, I don’t ever want our relationship to be distant or strained. Could our desire to be close to our children be a slight glimpse into how much God loves us and longs to be in fellowship with us?

God Wants to be Close to You

If the words of 1 John are allowed to sink deep into our hearts and permeate our understanding, can they not cause a tear to well up? Love is not the result of us drawing near to God, rather through his Son, God has taken the initiative and has ensured our path home.1 Can we really fathom how much God loves us and wants to be in fellowship with us?

Although we see God’s love most clearly through his giving of Jesus for us, this is nothing new. As you read the Old Testament, can you hear God’s longing to be close to his people?

“I will make my dwelling place among you, and my soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people.” Leviticus 26:11-12

“I will betroth you to me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, In love and in compassion, And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD.” Hosea 2:19-20

God Makes Closeness Possible

In order for God to dwell in the midst of his people and walk among them, they must be a holy people.2 This creates a huge problem since people are not holy nor are they capable of making themselves holy. However, through his grace God has eliminated the distance. God has acted to take people for himself and to make them holy.

One of the clear messages in the Old Testament is that God was responsible for making his people holy.3 Similarly, by giving Jesus as a sacrifice for us, once again it is God who has made it possible for us to be holy.

“ ... we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10

“For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:14

How Close to God Do You Feel?

If you are in Christ, God has brought you close to him. So how is your relationship with God these days? Is it anything like the words of this hymn?

"And He walks with me and He talks with me; and He tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there; None other has ever known"

Do you ever sing words like this wondering what it would be like to feel such a relationship with God? Don’t fret and worry, TAKE ACTION. Do what James 4:8 prescribes, ‘Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” You can be sure that God has done and continues to do his part. We need to be make sure that we are drawing close to God. Here are some practical actions we can take.

1. Belong to God

God has provided the path to belong to him and be in fellowship and at peace with him. This path is through Jesus Christ. If you have not yet relied upon Jesus but you do believe he is the Son of God, then trust in him today. Obey the gospel by being buried with Christ in baptism in order that you might trust in Jesus and his blood to redeem you.

2. Live a holy life

While God has made our relationship with him possible, he has also always called upon his people to preserve this wonderful relationship by living with holiness instead of being conformed to the sinful ways of the world.4 Just as Adam and Eve after having sinned did not feel close to God and even attempted to hide from God’s presence, so too continuing in sin can cause us to avoid drawing near to God. Repent of whatever sins might be dragging you down and go to God in prayer confessing them. Ask him to use you as his tool for greater service in his kingdom. God is faithful! God loves you!

3. Make time to communicate with God

Turn off the noise of entertainment and the never-ending distractions which consume time and tune into the Lord. Read his word everyday. Listen to his message. Spend time pouring out your heart, struggles, fears, appreciation, praise and love to him.

If you will draw near to God, scripture promises that God will draw near to you. After all, it was God who took the initiative (because of his love for you) to make this closeness possible.

1. 1 John 4:10; John 3:16
2. Deuteronomy 23:14; Leviticus 11:45; 15:31; 20:1-3; 1 Peter 1:15-16
3. Leviticus 20:8; 22:32
4. Leviticus 18:30-19:1; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Romans 12:2

by Phil Sanders

"If war is forced upon us -- and I say "forced upon us," because use of the military is not my first choice. I hug the mothers and the widows of those who may have lost their life in the name of peace and freedom. I take my responsibilities incredibly seriously about the commitment of troops. But should we need to use troops, for the sake of future generations of Americans, American troops will act in the honorable traditions of our military and in the highest moral traditions of our country." --President G. W. Bush

As our country faces war, it is comforting to know that our President takes his job so seriously. There is also going on right now a war against Satan (Eph. 6:10-13). I hope we take that war just as seriously.

Peter reminds us, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11).

Wars are not battles but series of battles, fought until one side completely conquers the other. Satan knows how to tempt and tempt again.

In Luke 4:13, after Satan had tempted Jesus, the Bible says, “And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

The devil didn’t quit because he lost this round; he went away to plan for another day. Beware of Satan! He may show up when you least expect him.

by Randal Matheny

Discipline can be learned, even when our parents didn't teach and discipline us. Consider that God brings discipline into our lives, if we are willing to learn from the experiences he brings to us (see Hebrews 12).

Here are some principles to encourage our discipline, along with some book references to whet our reading appetite.

1. See loss as gain. Judith Viorst wrote Necessary Losses, and though she lacks a biblical basis and fails to discover the true gains of the concept of loss, she gets started on the right track. The Bible has the best rule here: what you surrender to the Lord will be credited to your account. Start with losing your own life (Matthew 16:24-26). I have Evelyn Christenson's Gaining through Losing on my desk right now; it's next on my reading list.

2. Have a plan. Establish the final goal, where you want to arrive. And trace out the steps necessary to reach it. See yourself down the road, five, ten, twenty years from now. Visualize yourself as being, living, and enjoying the New You. Figure out how to get there. For practical suggestions, check out books like Reader's Digest's Organize Yourself.

3. Find a model and be a monkey. Imitate those who are doing successfully what you want to do. This is one of Anthony Robbins's big suggestions in Awaken the Giant Within. But definitely not original with him. The Bible present Jesus as the perfect model (see, for example, Philippians 2 and 1 Peter 3), and a host of other good people as well. Paul often offers himself as worthy of imitation. Check out these few words:

"Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are" (Galatians 4:12, NRSV).

"Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:9).

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1).

4. Write it down. Get a notebook and jot down those dreams, goals, objectives, and positive steps. Also identify and put to the pen those limiting falsehoods that hold you back. Telling Yourself the Truth is one of the great principles of changing your life, say authors William Backus and Marie Chapian. And the writing part is a big principle of David Burns's Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.

5. Keep it simple, stupid. I've been disappointed with most of his books, but his best one was one of the least popular (wonder why?): Simplicity, by Richard Foster. Complicated plans run greater chance of failure. Military strategists know the simple plan brings success.

6. Start today. "Today is the day of salvation." No time like the present, don't we say? Actually, there is no time BUT the present. In his second book, The Feeling Good Handbook Dr. Burns works on helping to overcome procrastination.

Discipline is the key to transforming our lives. And not only ours, but of others around us as well. This fruit of the Spirit is produced by the Lord and grows in those of us who cooperate as he works in our lives.

Parte 3: The Divine Escape by Randal Matheny

Note: Here are the first two parts: Part 1: The Divine Perspective Part 2: The Divine Character

To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time to stand and resist, and a time to run. Or, perhaps, both may be used to speak of how we deal with temptation to sin. James says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (4:7b). In other places we are urged to flee from the evil desires of youth (2 Tim. 2.22), from sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), love of money (1 Tim. 6:10-11).

In our text of 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul assures us that we will be able to withstand temptation because he "will provide a way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."

God gives us an escape route, a way out, a means to put an end (literal meaning) to temptation. We must search for it, use it, take advantage of it. For every moment of temptation, God opens a door of escape.

In the context of this verse, Paul has already offered some tips on what God provides.

First, the power of examples. The early part of 1 Corinthians 11 is dedicated to Israel's sad experience in the desert, how the people sinned repeatedly. "Now these things," says Paul, "happened to them as an example" (verse 11). We are supposed to learn from them, in order to avoid their sins.

Examples both bad and good may motivate us to avoid sin. The bad examples always include the final consequences, the result of death and destruction. Bad examples remind us God's law is inexorable: you will reap what you sow (Gal. 6:7-8).

Good examples also illustrate the principle and, more, show us in concrete terms the way to God. Jesus is the perfect example, of course, but again and again many of his disciples are held up as worthy of imitation. Paul will even offer himself as an example, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1).

A second line of escape comes from the same verse 11, "they were written for our instruction." Our best and worst examples come from Scripture. Our power to resist and win surfaces from the Bible. Many weaken before temptation's attractions because they have been distant from the Sacred Text.

Jesus answered every temptation with the phrase, "It is written." He knew this important escape route.

And, as mentioned earlier, there is, third, the escape route of fleeing, as Paul suggests in verse 14, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." Israel's big problem continued to plague Christians. Then and now. Worshiping idols is not a mere pagan problem; whatever superimposes itself on the supremacy of God is idol material.

The solution is simple, really: Just get away from it.

Victim of sexual harassment, Joseph saw no alternative than to flee, literally, leaving his coat behind in the hands of his master's wife (Gen. 39:12). God's way of escape may be as near as the closest door. Or the nearest jail.

Whatever the immediate action, we should see that God provides a way out, a way to trash temptation and revel in holiness. With his providing the way, we can be certain to overcome temptation and fulfil every good purpose in Jesus Christ.

by Barry Newton

In preparing for yet another multimedia seminar on evolution, I stumbled upon a book in the San Jose public library which amazed me. The following six quotes are from Franklin Harold’s, The Way of the Cell published by Oxford University Press in 2001, and they illustrate the actual bankruptcy behind what so many assume has been proven. While he is an ardent evolutionist, I appreciate Franklin’s candor and brute honesty about the paucity of scientific evidence to support their evolutionary tale about the origin of life and the assumed prebiotic soup from which it sprang.

“Life arose here on earth from inanimate matter, by some kind of evolutionary process, about four billion years ago. This is not a statement of demonstrable fact, but an assumption almost universally shared by specialists as well as scientists in general. It is not supported by any direct evidence.” p. 236.

“It is important to acknowledge the degree to which this field of inquiry is founded on surmise. The reasons for the general consensus are, first, the lack of a more palatable alternative; and second, that absent the presumption of a terrestrial and natural genesis there would be no basis for scientific inquiry into the origin of life.” p. 237.

“It bears repeating that we know very little for certain, and that it is seldom possible to formulate hypotheses that can be falsified by experiment; the opinions of scholars are, therefore, colored by personal beliefs about what should have happened, and even by what is meant by life.” p. 239.

“A historical theory must account for historical events, and in truth there is not (and perhaps cannot be) convincing evidence that there was ever a rich broth of organic substances, or that it played the role assigned to it by the theory.” p. 244.

“Creation myths lie at the heart of all human cultures, and science is no exception; until we know where we came from, we do not know who we are. The origin of life is also a stubborn problem, with no solution in sight … Biology textbooks often include a chapter on how life may have arisen from non-life, and while responsible authors do not fail to underscore the difficulties and uncertainties, readers still come away with the impression that the answer is almost within their grasp.” pp. 235-236.

“What is life? How we answer that question must eventually impinge on the practice of medicine and law, influence what we teach our children, nudge the direction of economics and public policy, and color our attitude to man, God, and all ultimate concerns.” p. 253.

While I object to his implication that the biblical story of creation is just another myth, I am grateful that he acknowledges the evolutionist's story of origins is myth. In view of the cascading significance of what we believe about our origin, it is tragic that so many people have falsely concluded that the weight of scientific evidence backs the evolutionist's tale about how life began. Accordingly, they are led to the erroneous conclusion that the story of a prebiotic soup is actual history. Unfortunately, this unwarranted belief has shaped values which in turn have influenced behavior. Tragic indeed.