If you want to find true happiness . . .

Acknowledge PERSONAL Sin

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Believe PERSONAL Promises

“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3).
“He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” (I John 3:5).
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (I Peter 2:24).
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Accept PERSONAL Salvation

“That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Realize PERSONAL Freedom From Sin

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Jesus said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32).

Experience a PERSONAL Change

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Some folks are tall and “spindly” like August cornstalks. Others are short and compact.

Some scurry along as if they were late to some important engagement. Others act as if they have nothing to do and nowhere to go.

People’s personalities are different too. A few will smile and greet you. Most, however, seem to be wrapped up in the world of their own thoughts.

For all their differences, though, most people are basically mimickers of others. Most noticeable to the casual observer is what people wear.

There was a day when people slavishly followed the latest dictates of the prominent fashion houses. Nearly everybody copycatted whatever was “in.”

Now things are different. You see just about anything. You observe maxis to minis, “muscle” shirts to faded, torn jeans. People dress as they want.

For all their pretended independence and nonconformity, most of our modern self-made fashion designers only copy. Maybe it’s the latest fad or the garb of the newest rock or country group.

People still seem to be helpless slaves to any novel idea. Somehow it’s easy to do what one’s peers are doing—to be swayed by the crowd. Few seem to be stable enough to think for themselves.

What about Christians? Are Christians tempted to just imitate others, without really thinking through what they do, without knowing why they do the things they do?

Do we dare to stand up for a principle when the easiest way is to sheepishly follow the crowd? Few of us are born leaders. Most of us, especially young people, are followers of someone.

Take the way we dress. Do we follow any whim or do we let Christian principles guide us? Do we ask first, “What will God have me to do?”

The Bible is not silent regarding what we wear. You would expect the Bible to speak to something so basic to our lives—and it does speak.

Adam and Eve were the first people to have problems with dress. After they sinned, they made some makeshift clothes out of leaves-sounds almost as flimsy as some modern “clothes”! God, from whom they were trying to hide, wasn’t satisfied. He made more substantial clothing of animal skins—these protected and covered.

Here is God’s first principle of dress. Clothing should be modest, covering the body well. Through the Bible and through history “undress” has been associated with immorality and decadent societies.

Dress—plenty of it, that is!—offers us double protection. It protects us from the elements. It also helps protect us from becoming victims of sexual abuses and temptations.

Man’s sexual drives are aroused by “undress.” These drives are God-given, good and right, in marriage. But they mustn’t enter “public domain.”

Someone has said, “You are what you wear.” I don’t quite agree with that, but I’m sure this restatement is true: “What you wear reflects what you are.”

People’s dress patterns seem to reflect the spirit of the age. Humankind in general are not sure about many things. They don’t really know why they are here or where they’re going.

The Christian has a stable guide—the Word of God. He knows his purpose in life. His dress will reflect his inner stability. The Bible clearly defines the Christian’s priorities, not just in dress, but in every area of life.

“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

What must guide every part of our lives? The perfect will of God. What is that perfect will? “Be not conformed . . . but transformed.” How? By the “renewing of your minds.”

Has Christ renewed our minds? Are we living the transformed life? Let’s take up the standard of modesty.

-by Roger Berry

A morally confused age is producing a lot of people who do not know their own worth in relation to their pets and other living things. Are you one of them?

Apparently, Senator Joe Lieberman likes to eat salmon. Recently, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) was trying to persuade the senator to cease eating these fish. And of special concern, according to Summit Ministries Journal, March 2005, PETA dares to compare the barbequing of millions of chickens to the extermination of millions of Jews in World War II.

As we know, Hitler and his henchmen could, in cold blood, eliminate millions of their fellowmen, not for crimes they committed, but merely for being in the way of German ambition. Most of the world abhorred what Hitler did. You see, in world opinion, the human race was set apart from the animal kingdom, and genocide was wrong. Even in war, there are supposed humanitarian minimums for treatment of the enemy. Civilians are to be spared, if possible, and prisoners of war “humanely” treated.

However, I am proposing that Hitler was wrong, not because of world opinion, but in an unchanging, absolute moral sense. In the basic sense of truth versus error, or good versus evil, Adolph Hitler was wrong.

This absolute sense of right and wrong is an example of what the courts in American history used as a common reference point to determine what is just. It crossed all ethnic lines and held all people accountable to certain moral absolutes. It was sometimes referred to as “natural law,” encompassing a morality commonly understood by the people. Courts still make judgments of insanity, if an individual commits a heinous crime yet fails to comprehend the wrongness of his deed.

“Natural law” is just another way of saying that morality is not invented by the courts, but is a commonly recognized rule to which all people are responsible. This is not unlike saying that the locomotive did not invent the tracks, but that it is doomed apart from the tracks.

From the Biblical standpoint, natural law is readily understood. The “tracks” by which we are to be guided come from the same source we come from—the Supreme Being, the Creator God. The Bible also shows that the human conscience is indeed agreeable to the law of God— Romans 2:14, 15. (Where this is lost, justice is perverted, and a culture of sociopaths follows.)

Natural law reaches down (I say “down” in the deliberate sense), to a right regard of the animal kingdom. There is an intended insurmountable chasm between the man and the animal by creation. It is God who appointed the man (made in God’s image) as overseers and steward of the animal kingdom (not made in the image of God). Yes, this includes fishing, and barbecuing chickens for food.

Men may rightly be indicted for cruelty to animals. However, animals cannot be charged with cruelty to men. Moral judgments cannot be applied to animal behavior. Animals can only operate on instinct, including the law of tooth and fang. Thus, a dog cannot be sentenced to prison for mauling a child. However, nuisance animals can rightly be destroyed. This explains why the laws of the land made distinction between killing a man or killing an animal (a line that is being blurred in our day).

Take a good look in the mirror. What you see reflected there is not on a plane with barbequed chicken—nor mink, rats, deer, eagles, or salmon. Neither is it like your favorite lovable pet. If that reflection in the mirror were merely a chance collision of chromosomes, I would have nothing to say about what Hitler did, or what PETA promotes. But neither would anyone else (including PETA). A chance arrangement of molecules cannot validate any position on any subject.

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).

Fringe organizations seem blissfully unaware that the “track” is being undermined. One could suspect that some of them would deliberately derail the train. Interestingly, organizations that shun the very idea of absolute morality from God have no qualms about imposing their own ideas as absolute morality. In the meantime, fringe ideas become more mainstream. The one-time editor of our local weekly claimed that a “crime” against a dog should carry the same consequences as a crime against a man. (Translation? Shooting a dog is like shooting the mayor!) In recent controversy over the propriety of shooting stray cats, the governor made it clear that we don’t want to be known as a state that kills cats.

Before you say we have just given the chicken, or the cat, equal rights with people, let me remind you that we have not. We have merely degraded people to the level of the animal. The young men who released thousands of mink from Midwestern fur farms don’t have a clue. They have merely taken another swipe against true morality. Equating animal life with human life does nothing to improve the lot of animals. It does, however, degrade people. The London Zoo recently proved this degradation by the volunteer caging of nearly naked young men and women next to their “primate cousins.”

Sadly, the locomotive is derailed already. While we have a fringe insisting on Caving chickens (saving from what remains to be seen), true moral standards are falling by the way. Fifty years ago, babies could not be aborted, but mangy strays could be shot. With this entrenched legal “right” to kill millions of babies, gay rights and gay marriage are now driving the train. The government of Canada has recently caved in, as has the United Methodist Church—a position their president deems “courageous.” Can we claim to be a civilized nation while shock proofing ourselves on gay issues, and opting for the lives of chickens and stray cats over our own unborn babies? Do we wonder why an ever-increasing segment of the younger generation exercises no constraint with immoral and violent behavior?

Is the increasingly jealous love of animals displacing human responsibility to make marriages work, to love and to bring up children, and to conduct ourselves with duty, integrity, and responsibility toward God and our fellow-men? (Afterward, we can then properly care for animals.) This is the hallmark of a morally upright people. Pets, however dear they may be, exert no moral or character challenge over their owners. In other words, the affection of cat or dog is no measure of your character or morality.

Sadly, today we would remove all memory of natural law. Would we rather deface or remove the reminders of moral absolutes engraved on historic monuments and buildings, than to admit that perhaps God would have valid input for the affairs of men? Ironically, God doesn’t seem to be especially threatened. He, Himself, respects the free will of people. Not so an atheistic, evolutionary culture. In such a context, there is no plausible reason to be arbitrarily dogmatic. One would expect that those who reject moral absolutes would cease to believe in anything. Wrong! These people arbitrarily invent a new set of absolutes, no matter how harmful or illogical.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28).

Whereas one nation under God produces order and harmony, one nation without God feeds strident discord and moral chaos.

-by Lester Troyer

Do you know the things you really ought to know? “Whadda ya know” about this old world and what it’s coming to? about God’s plans for the future? about God’s plan for you? What do you know about that? “Nothin’ much?” The outcome of life is either heaven or hell, joy or pain, saint or sinner, God or the devil. Let’s think soberly and ask the question the way it ought to be asked, “What do you know about God and His plans for you?”

First, you need to know that God must punish evil, inasmuch as He is holy and righteous, and all evil is a transgression of His will. “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. . . . And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man [more precious] than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9-13).

Second, you need to know that the goodness of God planned a way of escape for all who cease to be His enemies: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. . . . There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. . . . The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46:1-7).

Now, what do you know about the way to become God’s friend? You may say you don’t dislike God, you thank Him often, you even go to church and may be a member of a church. But the question is: Do you love Him? Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Do you know enough of Jesus and His Word to know His commandments? Do you know what kind of Person He is, and that He wants you to be like Him? And do you know that such likeness is impossible without first being humbled, penitent, emptied of sin and self, “loving all, forgiving all, confessing all” in response to the Holy Spirit’s work in your heart? Of all this, “What do you know?” And of all that you may know with your head, how much of it do you know by heart experience?

Nothin’ much? If that is your answer, you are in a tragic state—far worse than if you had terminal cancer. To be “dead in trespasses and sins” and not to know it; to already bear the sentence of death and consignment to hell and not to know it; and, worse yet, to stand eligible for a free pardon from Almighty God and not to know it—ah, friend, it’s high time to “wise up” and turn from a lighthearted view of life that knows “nothin’ much” and cares little more. Turn to the things that do matter.

When the “great and terrible day of the Lord” comes “as a thief in the night,” then you will wish you had awakened out of sleep.

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:14-18).

“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Seek Him. Search His Word, the Bible. Read God’s Word. Begin with the Gospel of John or the Book of Romans which tell us how to be saved. “Those that seek me early shall find me” is His sure promise.

-by Harold Brenneman

A miracle is a happening that contradicts the natural laws of science. It is evidence of a power beyond this world and is used by many movements, both occult and Christian, to validate their cause.

However, Jesus Himself refused to perform miracles just for show as false leaders do (Luke 4:9-12; 23:8, 9). Jesus rather performed them to relieve the effects of sin and human suffering such as restoring life to a withered hand (Luke 6:6-11) or raising the dead (Mark 5:35-43). He often commanded the recipients not to tell anybody. He did not want people to follow Him for the “loaves and fishes” but out of a commitment to His message of righteousness. (John 6:10-15). Under Jesus’ ministry, “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5).

Secularists Disagree!

These Bible accounts along with any claims of divine intervention are of course challenged by secular scientists today. World Book Encyclopedia says, “Devout members of a religion believe in miracles and consider them a divine sign. Others have an equally firm belief that there is no such thing as a true miracle. They feel that all so-called miracles can be explained through scientific or psychological knowledge. Thus, secular materialists attribute all unnatural phenomena to ignorance and superstition and believe that with close scrutiny a natural explanation can be found sooner or later.”

God is not a crutch
for what we don’t know,
but the cause for
what we do know.

This unbelief, of course, also needs proof to be valid. With an increasing knowledge of our phenomenally complex and ordered biosphere the burden of proof lies with the secularist to show how inert elements could self organize themselves into complex life. Without this proof, they have a baseless faith.

Established scientific laws show the rule of entropy in our world. All material things disintegrate and wear out with time. The second law of thermodynamics states that in our universe all energy moves to a less usable form. This is in harmony with the Bible statement that “the earth . . . shall wax old as doth a garment” (Hebrews 1:10-12).

With the decoding of the human genome, five billion bits of information (more or less) were found to determine all the features and functions of our bodies. Nothing constructive just happens. There is a cause behind it. Masses of constructive, orderly information would need to be added to the genome for a fin, a leg, or a wing to “evolve.” Mutations are always compromises of this original complex information. Reproduction of copying mistakes in the genome can duplicate (six fingers, for example). It can block information (no horn, for example). Or it can corrupt this information which can bring deformity or death. However, in observational science, there is no evidence of an increase of orderly information added to the genome.*

The evolutionist has no cause for the writing of the original perfect genetic codes that this points to. The Christian has that cause which is outside the natural laws of science—the one true and sovereign God.

God is not a crutch for what we don’t know, but the cause for what we do know! In light of the poverty of naturalism to explain the complexity in nature, even respected scientists in the evolutionary community have resorted to the paranormal. Stephen Gould proposed “punctuated equilibrium” stating that evolution happened in spurts too fast to see in the fossil record. (Since no true transitional fossils can be found but are according to kinds [Genesis 1:25]). Another theory proposed is that life was seeded on earth from outer space. Thus, the media popularized a meteor rock they thought was from Mars that appeared to have a bacteria in it. (This was later disproved.) So-called scientists can manufacture an issue for anything they want to believe for the moment. This is so often the nature of the historic “evidences” for evolution.

Evolutionists require miracles for what they believe but allow for no miracle worker. The Christian, believing his Bible, can see farther than the scientist looking into his microscope or telescope.

Kinds of Miracles

Miracles that over-rule or suspend natural laws are the most evident forms of divine intervention. Such miracles include:

• The waters of a sea standing up as walls while the children of Israel passed through (Exodus 14:22).
• When Jesus walked on the sea (John 6:19) or when solid iron floated (2 Kings 6:5-7).
• When the earth’s rotation stopped and the sun and moon stood still for a day (Joshua 10:12-14).
• When water changed to wine in an instant (John 2:7-11).
• When dead bodies were raised to life (John 11:43, 44; Acts 10:36-41).

Of course God who established all the laws of creation (Hebrews 11:3) and now “upholds them by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3) can also suspend them at His will.

More common supernatural events are miracles of time and place. Although these happenings are according to natural laws, they defy all odds of happening when asked for. Such are:

• A cloud formed and rain came during drought when Elijah told Ahab it would. (1 Kings 18:41-45).
• An earthquake opened prison doors when a prayer meeting was held for Peter’s release. (Acts 12:5-19).

The Christian sees God’s providential hand in answers to prayer and protection from danger. These cannot be understood by a skeptic but “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This is the Christian’s peace to know that the greatest power in the universe oversees our lives and “tempers every wind that blows,” whether good or bad, for our ultimate welfare.

The Greatest Miracles

The greatest creative miracle, of course, was the origin of the universe from nothing. “The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). Therefore, the earth was hung upon nothing and all the biodiversity of plants, animals, and man came into existence.

The greatest miracle of circumstances within the laws of nature was the destruction and re-creation of the earth in the global cataclysm of Noah’s flood. This upheaval of nature was when human grief and suffering had reached an intolerable peak because men had filled the earth with violence and wickedness. “And the lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7).

Lying Wonders

Christians are not the only believers and recipients of miracles. Many occultists, spiritists, and professing Christians claim daily miracles also. They make the area between reality and imagination very foggy. The Scriptures show that evil men and seducers will use the miraculous to ensnare people. The test is if they use their dreams or wonders to lead people after themselves or away from the true God. (Deut. 13:1-3).

Jesus said false christs will come in the last days who shall show great signs and wonders to deceive Christians. (Mark 13:22). Such miracle workers may have occult power but usually use trickery. Houdini and other magicians had trick boxes and the like which were later exposed.

The greatest false miracle worker will be a beastly personage who arises out of the sea of humanity in the culminating events of the world. (Rev. 19:19,20). Paul foretold this “man of sin” who comes with “lying wonders” in 2 Thessalonians 2:9.

Reality Miracles

By maintaining a loyalty to God’s word and practical applications in Christian living, we can divide the true from the false. We see the true marvels of God all about us. (The monarch butterfly migrates to the same valleys in Mexico that its ancestor visited five generations before. The genetic instinct information placed there by God had to pass through numerous eggs and caterpillars to the final host).

As we live daily in tune with the God who is real, we experience His providential care. It is a privilege to move the hand of God in prayer relating to physical and spiritual needs of ourselves and others. This is a fact understood by faith in His promise. It cannot be proved by science and will only be fully understood in heaven. This saving experience is through the regeneration in a man’s heart and is based on the miraculous resurrection of Jesus bodily from the grave!

“Jesus of Nazareth, [was] a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know“(Acts 2:22).

Resources for study: *Not by Chance by Dr. Lee Spetner; Miracles by Henry Morris.

-by Elvin Stauffer