Now compare these with the following examples:

• Unhappy marriage partners quit quarreling, and lusting after others, choose to love unconditionally, and together provide a secure environment for their family.
• Minds troubled by unhappy childhoods, abuse, and disadvantage come to rest and make a positive contribution to their communities. No one with whom they associate could guess what they were like before.
• Where ethnic hatred divided communities, some are born again and form a community where formerly warring clans blend to bless and enrich one another’s lives.

Obviously not all peace is the same. Jesus made that very clear when He told His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

The world’s peace doesn’t deal with the heart but only surface conflicts. Real peace in our lives and communities has to begin by making peace with God individually. And it has to be the work of Christ, not something we work out on our own. To qualify for real peace, we must believe the Gospel, repent of our sin, and totally surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Jesus’ death for our sins satisfied the demands of justice. He is now able to offer us reconciliation with Holy God in response to our faith. It is because folks don’t want to surrender to Christ that they keep muddling along with patently unsatisfactory lives, endless conflicts, mental turmoil, and unhealthy emotions-peace (?) that the world gives.

Christ came to bring “Peace on earth.” Over 2000 years later folks are still wondering whether the angels were just chanting some unreal ideal that night when Christ was born. No, your peace can be real. If you are ready to sell out to Christ, you may find it in Him, be at peace with everyone, and experience its fullness within His church.

-by Dallas Witmer

Every family needs friends. You need friends who inspire you to be true to God and to your ideals. You need friends who will not over look your faults and your mistakes, who will correct and encourage you in a positive way. “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil” (Psalm 141:5).

Friendship implies a close, intimate, open, ongoing relationship. God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). Abraham was known as the friend of God. He believed God and talked with Him. He walked with God and obeyed Him. Abraham entrusted his life into the hands of the all-powerful God and received the reward of God’s friendship.

Great men and women of the Bible surrounded themselves with close friends. A little known man named Hushai was King David’s friend. When David’s son Absalom betrayed his father and treacherously seized the kingdom from his father, God used Hushai to give Absalom advice that led to his defeat.

One of the best Bible stories of true friendship is the account of a young man named Jonathan who befriended David. Jonathan was the son of King Saul who was David’s archenemy. Jonathan was the heir to his father’s throne but willingly ceded that to David and stood with David when his father tried to kill him. This friendship lasted to the next generation. After Jonathan died, David cared for Jonathan’s son as if he were one of his own sons.

Jesus Christ, while on earth, surrounded Himself with an inner circle of close friends. Three of them, Peter, James, and John, accompanied Him on missions that witnessed the intense love, power, and struggle of the Son of God. Though these friends sometimes failed Christ, He never failed them.

The Impact of a Father’s Friends

“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not” (Proverbs 27:10).

I can never thank God enough for my father’s friends. My father was accidentally killed when I was one year old. I have no recollections of him, but his close friends made a positive impact on my life. They constantly looked out for the needs of my widowed mother and nine siblings. Not a week went by but that one of them would stop by and make sure our needs were met.

My father’s friends were godly men. They lived by Biblical principles and encouraged us to make right choices in life. They were wise men. They taught us and showed us by example, that truth is strong and that love is more powerful than hate. They taught us that self-sacrifice is more honorable than self-interest. They demonstrated the proverb that says, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).

My father’s friends provided a community of suitable companions who cared about our morals, ethics, and social behavior. As young people, we needed people to warn us of the spiritual dangers that faced us. The watchful eye of these caring friends was a deterrent to wrong living and a positive pressure to bring out the best in us.

The Influence of a Mother’s Friends

My mother’s friends were sympathetic, devout, and modest women. They conscientiously obeyed 1 Timothy 5:14, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” They did not flaunt themselves indecently or spurn their husbands’ authority. Their adornment was an inner beauty, “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4).

My mother’s friends made their home’s attractive places to visit. We felt peace, security, and contentment when we were there. Their hospitality made us feel welcome. Their reserve excited no lust or passion. Their tenderness added beauty to life. They impressed us with their marriage relationships, showing us that marriage can be pure and wholesome as God intended it to be.

My mother’s friends encouraged my mother, who had to carry the weight of raising ten children without a husband to help her. They counseled her and helped her in her heavy responsibility.

The Treachery of False Friends

Beware of the flattery and enticement of false friends. He is no friend who smiles at evil or suggests compromising principles at the expense of truth. King David’s son, Amnon, had such a friend, his first cousin. This cousin advised Amnon to commit incest with his half sister Tamar. The consequences were a disgraced Tamar, an angry father, a bitter brother, and a dead son.

The Biblical wise man admonished his son to make no friendship with an angry man(Proverbs 22:24). The Apostle Paul warned his friends that “evil communications [companionship] corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians15:33).The Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, suffered the betrayal of Judas, who claimed to be His friend. He knew the pain of such treachery.

Find Good Friends

Where can you go to find good friends? It seems that the world is full of falsehood and treachery. You can be sure of finding good friends when you accept and follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God who loves us all and gave His life for us. Even if we have few other friends, He offers a friendship that brings us peace and happiness we could never experience otherwise. When we follow Jesus Christ, we become part of a group of people who also follow Him. We become part of the family of God the Bible calls “the household of faith.” We need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and seek friendship and encouragement from His people. We need to seek a household of faith, church, and Christian friends who obey the Bible, live by its principles, and encourage and stand by each other through life’s struggles.

Be Worthy of Good Friends

“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly” (Proverbs 18:24). True friendship is reciprocal. You cannot expect more than you can give. Take time each day to be a faithful friend and pray for your friends. Write a letter of sympathy and encouragement to the friend who is hurting. Make the phone call to distant friends who need to know that someone cares. Provide a meal for a busy man or a sick neighbor.

True friendship crosses over racial and cultural barriers. It knows no age limit. Befriend the elderly and the feeble. Take your children with you when you visit them. I am amazed at the expression of pleasure in the face of an elder person when he meets an infant or child. It helps them forget their pain and focus on others.

Being a true friend is a good example for those you influence. It helps them know how to be good friends and also what kind of friends to choose. Eternity will reveal the impact of true friendship. May we be good friends and find good friends to encourage us through life. Most importantly, may we find the greatest friend of all, Jesus Christ who “is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

-by J. Luke Martin

It’s time, too, to reflect on the past year and to wonder about the future. The media will be focusing on the New Year. You’ll notice that just about everybody will be giving his two-cents-worth about making resolutions.

Economists will evaluate last year’s business and prognosticate the next year’s possibilities. Politicians will rehearse last year’s scandals and predict the future of the current political giants.

If you haven’t already, it is a good time now, well in advance of New Year’s, to evaluate yourself and your ambitions, your goals, your shortcomings, your responsibilities.

Really, we should be doing this all the time, not just once a year.

Everybody gets prepared for a new year. People tighten their belts, face life with gritted teeth, and resolve to “do better.” Needless to say, the resolves often don’t last.

Everybody will be busy turning over new leaves. But what they don’t seem to realize is they’re just working on the other side of the same old leaf!

I remember with amusement the way I used to play the “new leaf ” game every year. I once resolved when I was in school, to study at least two hours every night. That lasted about two weeks-until exams.

More than once I resolved to read my Bible through or memorize such-and-such a Scripture portion. Same flop! Of course, I was the last to admit my flop.

I Am Resolved I tried rationalizing. Like . . . I don’t need to study hard this week; there are no tests coming up . . .or . . .I’ll wait till school’s out so I’ll have more time for memorization.

Finally I got wise to thew hole thing and admitted my resolves were flops. Then I really hit on a solution. Just stop making those stupid resolutions-no use to begin something I know I can’t finish.

Glorious freedom! No more resolutions to worry about! But it wasn’t all that simple. Something was “eating” me. I knew I needed to do better in a lot of ways, resolutions or no resolutions.

“New leafing it” wasn’t the solution to my dilemma either. There had to be a more basic change-a change more significant than a mental assertion that I needed to “do better.”

I found my solution, not in life-reformation, but in life transformation.

Jesus once told about a young man who also experienced this same life-transformation. It happened this way….

The fellow was always independent. He demanded his share of the family wealth so he could go “live it up,” doing the things he never got to do at home.

Needless to say, he had a riot-till his money ran out. Then the tide turned on him. He had to stoop to get a job-imagine the humiliation! But worse . . . his job was hog-feeding. He needed the money, but this was the limit! He even got so hungry on the job, he longed to eat what the pigs left-imagine!

The Bible says, “He came to himself.” It was about time! He didn’t resolve to get a better job either, or to be a “good boy”in the future. He resolved to completely change his way of acting. Quit living a “riot,” go back to his father, repent, and live differently.

That was not leaf-turning. That was like throwing away the old leaf and the old book, too, and beginning a new book. Needless to say, his father accepted him back,forgave him, and loved him.

Each of us is like this wayward son. If we aren’t living right, if we don’t measure up to God’s standards, we have to do more than turn over a “new leaf.” We must repent of our wrongdoing and completely realign our thinking and actions to fit God’s way.

Any resolves we make must be God’s will and we must rely on God’s power for success. Nobody, not even Christians, can carry out plans alone, without help. The Christian must admit that God is right when He says, “Without me ye can do nothing.”

The Christian must rely solely on the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Trusting his own powers of reformation, the Christian will ink like Peter when he took his eyes off Jesus “just for a moment.”

If you’re not a Christian as this year draws to a close and a new year begins, begin a new book for God. If you are a Christian, begin a new chapter with renewed desire and effort to please Him who is your Life.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shal ldirect thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5, 6).

-by RLB

The complexity and order in nature from the billions of bits of precise DNA information on our genomes(Psalm 139:16) to the life cycle dependency of organisms in our ecosystem (Psalm104:14) are proof of God. But beyond that, that we find beauty in creation reveals a personality of emotion, pleasure, and goodwill (Revelation 4:11; 1 Timothy6:17). God’s predominate trait is love. “God is love” (1 John 4:16). This is not a selfish love of self-gratification but is revealed in seeking the welfare and delight of mankind. It reveals itself in nature, in beauty, designs, and miraculous innovations that could not self-organize from random chaos (Ecclesiastes3:11).

The pagan (both ignorant and educated) venerates the earth, the animals, birds, and the sun,moon, and stars. The Christian worships the cause of all this, the Creator who paints the sunsets!

Beauty and Fine Humor in Creation

A scientist born and raised under the repression of communism began to see the conflict of his evolutionary teaching with the real world. His testimony was, “I came to realize that the order, beauty, and sense of fine humor with which the world is built cannot come from chaos and randomness. I was sure there was a designer.” Often, in the absence of some quality, we begin to think about and value it more highly. So, in the somber existence under godless communism, people began to notice the cooperation, mutual dependence, and beauty in creation. This is a witness that God has invested Himself in nature (Romans 1:20).

The Personality of God Revealed

In Job 38 and 39 God gave Job a long science quiz. The implied answers reveal His sovereignty over creation and man’s weakness. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” “Where is the way where light dwelleth?” Man still isn’t sure what light or gravity physically is. “Canst thou send lightnings that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?” Can we fully understand the principles that make the telephone possible? How can electricity be used to carry voices so we can say, “Hello, here we are.” How could the intricate patterns on bird plumage appear except by an innovative God of sensitivity, emotion, and humor? “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?” (39:13).

Birds could just honk, squeak, or croak to call mates and defend territory, but they were given voices to sing beautiful songs of warbles, trills, and flute-like notes. Who thought of putting the parallel black and white lines down a chipmunk’s back? The animal doesn’t care. The colors and designs off lowers are beautiful works of art. Intricate designs are seen in nature such as the geometry in the spiral design of sunflower seeds. The closer we look, the more amazing the precision and design becomes,
down to and beyond the molecular level.

The wood duck would be an artistic achievement for any innovative person. Begin with a small duck. First divide the lower body with a vertical black and white band. Make the back part a light brown color and the front a dark chocolate brown. Separate it from the upper wing with a series of black and white curved lines. In the chocolate front put vertical rows of little white arrow dots. Give it a pure white throat with a white band going around the neck and another up around to accent the cheek.

Next do the head. Start with a prominent feather crest that curves down the back. Make it dark green with a multicolored bill-red and black with a yellow base. The eye is bright red outlined in orange. Then take a very fine paintbrush and outline the crest with a thin white line. Start at a point on the bill and follow up around the top and back down to the rear point of the crest. Another fine line returns toward the eye and ends above the cheek line. More designs can be found in the back and tail. The DNA information for all the colors on the feathers to lineup for the precise design exceeds the achievement of a color laser printer. No wonder someone has loosely defined wood ducks as “water fowl in wedding dress.”

The human body is also a marvel of design and beauty. “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth” (Psalm 139:14, 15).

The Failure of Materialistic Evolution

Evolution’s supposed mutation of genes, natural selection, and survival of the fittest is strictly a utilitarian process. Only those things that serve a purpose and help an organism survive should arise and remain. Utilitarian means “aiming at usefulness rather than beauty or style.” The scientific law of entropy would further degrade the result of naturalistic evolution. This second law of thermodynamics governs the universe and states the fact of “the dissipation of energy and tendency toward disorder” (see Hebrews 11:1). This law in evolution’s hypothetical long ages would even eliminate any designs that did not give an organism a survival advantage. This proven law of decay comes from God’s curse on creation because of sin (Genesis 3:17). The “law of sin and death” now affects all men (Romans 8:2). God also promises that this whole creation will yet be “delivered from the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21).

What we see in our world is God upholding His universal laws by His power (Hebrews 1:3) while the curse of sin brings degeneration. “They all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up” (Hebrews 1:11-12). The travail of degeneration and death was not God’s original plan (Romans8:20).

Years ago we found some “sea eggs” along the seashore in the Bahamas. These fragile calcium shells are the outside skeletons of sea urchins. The round urchin is a drab gray-green color with spines sticking out all around when it is alive. But the white calcium shell that is left when the body dies and decays is beautiful. It has rows of white dots running down around the sides in bands of soft violet. Rather than having any survival advantage this beauty could only be seen after it was dead! Such beauty and design are purposeless except for its appeal to the spirit of man and the glory of God. It does seem that it takes a touch of God in the soul to strike a note of harmony with the touch of God in nature.

The Nature of Man Exposed

God intended that order and “the beauty of holiness” (righteous living) would exist among people also. Jesus was born into the world to bring “on earth peace, good will toward men”(Luke 2:14). We have been given bodies with amazing functions and an intellect and strength to serve others. The Christian magnifies the cooperation and beauty in nature, and meekness and righteousness among men.

It’s not without significance that evolutionists glorify struggle for the top (being the survivor) which brings suffering and death to the weaker (survival of the physically fittest [most powerful and ruthless]). It’s the evil nature in man that relishes battle and supremacy. They ignore the suffering masses and their own final needs when human weakness reaches them. Instead of tolerance, and respect for life and others that make a nation strong, we see killing of the unborn, and school and workplace shootings. Growing intolerance is seen in a litigating society with animosity between welfare and well-to-do classes. Selfism brings much conflict and sorrow. To these people,the evidence of God in the marvels of this world are lost.

The danger in extremes, as with most things, gives Satan an opportunity to snare people with venerating beauty above God. When people do see natural beauty, too often they worship and serve “the creature more than the creator” (Romans 1:25). A primary avenue of leaving true faith (apostasy) is in magnifying the arts (music, painting, sculpture, poetry and other literature, and physical beauty) over obedience to the principles and Word of God. Emotional soul worship is the opposite extreme of callousness to the intimacy of a personal, born-again experience with Jesus. This “soulish” worship is warned against in the Scriptures by Jesus and others (Luke 6:46; James 2:17, 18; Malachi 2:13).

A Beautiful Life

The best manifestation of beauty in the earth is for God’s people to demonstrate His will and power in a beautiful life. The beauty of character when the fruits of the Spirit are exercised, and men, women, youth, and children are at rest with each other and with God is a miracle of grace.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians5:22, 23).

A delight to do God’s will produces the beauty of holiness demonstrated in righteousness. “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (Isaiah32:17).

-by Elvin Stauffer

From this illustration, I am proposing that the acceptance of evolutionary dogma is a disconnect from our divinely created origin. Thus we discard God’s Law to embrace shameful and destructive behaviors. We reject God, only to lose our way, mired in problems that destroy our peace and threaten our existence.

The damage is widespread. In the past century, prominent clergymen and mainline denominations confidently accepted the Darwinist theory of evolution. This philosophy imposed on impressionable minds, in schools and churches, is that people are accidental products of chance. The results clearly show that this devaluing of humanity has produced devastating losses of integrity and morality.

We learn from the lesson of the useless arm yet another reason. From it, we can show that evolution is scientifically impossible. Darwinism is a futile attempt to displace the Creator God with nothing.

To proceed with this claim, we must first understand that there are two separate systems in our existence, functioning perfectly as one.

The first is the dynamic of being alive. Greek philosophers referred to this as Logos. Logos is the living soul. Logos is the center of consciousness, intelligence, and reason. It is key to all instruction and understanding.

The second system is sarco, also from Greek, which means flesh. This is the physical body. It is the exactly matched host of Logos. A mismatch would be worse than useless. In fact, the incompatible “operating systems” between animal species rule out random selection and survival of the fittest as tools for the development of new species.

In this discussion, I will use the term sarco interchangeably with the physical body and also in illustrations of inanimate objects that play host to information. I will use Logos as a proper noun to refer to life, information, or intelligence, and consciousness.

We can illustrate Logos and sarco with the letters of the English alphabet. You could do one of two things. First, you could try to lay them out in order blindfolded. But as with ink in a pen, communication flows only from an intelligent mind. Without guiding intelligence, a word laid down by chance conveys nothing. (Call it a false positive.) The silly argument that a monkey randomly hitting typewriter keys over eons of years, would finally produce something meaningful, is folly. The communication of genuine Logos is only from an intelligent host to a recipient with a compatible system. The monkey question might as well be-how many million years would it take a solitary monkey to learn to speak only in perfect English?

A second option would be to rearrange those letters to convey an intentional message. For this illustration, the letters represent sarco and the arrangement represents the work of Logos. The letters are mere carriers of messages. There is no point in examining individual letters under a microscope. There is no inherent Logos in them. This would be like doing an autopsy on a human brain to recover the person’s last words, or taking a computer apart in search of a password.

Closer examination reveals that Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” as the mechanism of an evolutionary climb is not merely dead on arrival. It never arrives at all. Why? Because randomness has no communication with Logos. Survival works for what is already fit. It works because all the ancestors of things alive today were fit from day one. From the beginning, all animals and plants descended from ready-to-order adults. Development from DNA is confined to information already present. Randomness is like the arm without the vital nerve connection to receive intelligence from the brain. This “survival” theory is as sound as expecting a headlight to command the evolution of a battery, complete with wiring and switches to make the light functional.

Even the headlight and the alphabet were patented by intelligence (Logos), not by random chance. Millions of years of random ink spills do not make an alphabet. Even so, any imagined gain of information is quickly obliterated by the next random splash of ink.

The theorizing of many scientists along strictly materialistic lines, blinds them to the backward, unscientific nature of the evolutionary model. The science of biogenesis (science of living things), is that only life begets life. To claim that a random assembly of chemicals could beget Logos is the antithesis of science.

On the other hand, to claim that life on earth must spring from the preexisting, living God (Logos), is more than a religious statement. It is a statement compatible with true science. Evolutionary dogma bravely attempts to track human development through reptiles, birds, fish, and ape-men, even though the operating systems are incompatible.

A physical chain of evolutionary development (amoeba to man), would require a double evolution of Logos and sarco, with Logos leading the way. This fits the science of DNA perfectly, but runs off the radar of evolutionary probability.

For example, the intelligent design of a birds hollow wing structure and intricate feathers must lead the way in the development of the wing. But, the bird needs more than the sarco (the physical body and capacity to fly). It must have specialized, distinct, bird-only information, perfectly matched to what its sarco can support. Bird Logos covers a myriad of birds-only distinctions. Along with bird sarco, it includes migration patterns, birdsong, nest building, and what and how to feed its young.

So when did the “ancestor” reptiles start singing, migrating, and building nests? It is not enough for a mouse to develop bat wings. With mouse Logos, wings would hang uselessly. The mosquito must not only have the complex equipment to draw blood. It must also have the Logos to use it. Evolution would leave us with creatures hopelessly trying to use equipment they no longer have, or having equipment they don’t know how to use.

The understanding of Logos and sarco also clarifies other confusing issues. Contrary to Darwin’s day, we now know that there are no simple forms of life. Every form of life, even if microscopic, is complex beyond comprehension. What we have is a vast array of living forms, every one fit to survive. All have unique aspects in their operating systems. These are barriers science cannot span. If you thought that man is the pinnacle of evolution, remember, there are millions of things that a man cannot do. This is not lost abilities. God did not encode man with spider Logos, to spin a spider’s web, or with chicken Logos, to lay a chicken’s eggs, nor with monkey Logos,to swing through jungle trees.

The fallacy of the evolution of man from the primitive into higher races, obviously yields a darker side, that of primitive men and inferior races. Though polite society has muted prejudice against Australian aborigines and blacks, racism is both the native and natural fruit of the evolutionary tree.

The information highway of Logos to sarco is evidence for an infinitely wise and powerful Logos. Interestingly, God inspired the writer of John 1:1-4 to choose the word Logos to describe none other than Jesus Christ as Creator God. “In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him.”

Like a bird losing its nesting or navigational skills, humanity, cut off from God by evolutionary dogma, loses both purpose and moral compass. Such a culture selfdestructs, severed from the life-giving Logos which is God.

The clergy and church should never have capitulated to theories conceived in scientific dark ages, and hatched in agnosticism. If we are anchored to the love of truth, beginning with the Genesis Creation model, we can also know the reality of the love of God and the abundant life in Jesus Christ.

-by Lester Troyer