A Fitting Present

A Christmas devotion for this special day.

A Fitting Present

Read: Matthew 2:11-15

Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
ROMANS 12:1

A little boy was somewhat perplexed by all the exchanging of presents on Christmas morning, for he had been taught in Sunday school that it was the birthday of the Savior. Finally, after a long period of silence, he asked, “Mommy, when are we going to give Jesus His present? I thought it was His birthday!”

Strange, isn’t it, that most of us give gifts to everyone but the One whose birthday we celebrate. A good question we might ask ourselves is this: What am I going to give to the Lord Jesus this Christmas? If you have never trusted in Him as your Savior, the thing He desires most from you is a believing heart. Why not put your faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross so you can be saved from your sins?

If by faith you already know Christ as your Savior, then the most wonderful thing you can do this Christmas is to present to God the one gift He most desires to receive from you—your body (Rom. 12:1).

Our bodies are to be used for God’s purposes. Because we have accepted the gift of salvation from Him, it’s only reasonable that we should present ourselves to the Father. When we give ourselves, we give the one Christmas present that truly fits the occasion! —Richard De Haan

What shall I give for Christmas
To Him who gave Himself for me?
To Him I give my life, my love,
For time and for eternity. —Anon.

Give your all to Christ; He gave His all for you.

Do Living Things Show Evidence of Design?

The late Isaac Asimov (an ardent anti-creationist) declared, "In man is a three-pound brain which, as far as we know, is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe." It is much more complex than the most sophisticated computer ever built. Wouldn't it be logical to assume that if man's highly intelligent brain designed the computer, then the human brain was also the product of design?

Scientists who reject the concept of a Creator God agree that all living things exhibit evidence of design. In essence, they accept the design argument of Paley, but not Paley's Designer.

For example, Dr. Michael Denton, a non-Christian medical doctor and scientist with a doctorate in molecular biology, concludes:

It is the sheer universality of perfection, the fact that everywhere we look, to whatever depth we look, we find an elegance and ingenuity of an absolutely transcending quality, which so mitigates against the idea of chance...

Alongside the level of ingenuity and complexity exhibited by the molecular machinery of life, even our most advanced artifacts appear clumsy. We feel humbled, as Neolithic man would in the presence of twentieth-century technology...

It would be an illusion to think that what we are aware of at present is any more than a fraction of the full extent of biological design. In practically every field of fundamental biological research ever-increasing levels of design and complexity are being revealed at an ever-accelerating rate.

Dr. Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, has become one of the world's leading evolutionist spokespersons. His fame has come as the result of the publication of books, including The Blind Watchmaker, which defends modern evolutionary theory and claims to refute once and for all the notion of a Creator God. He states the following:

We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully "designed" to have come into existence by chance.

There is no doubt that even the most ardent atheist concedes that design is evident in the animals and plants that inhabit our planet. If Dawkins rejects "chance" in design, what does he put in place of "chance" if he does not accept a Creator God?

The Christian Colors

After a refreshing break from the blogging world, I have decided to let you all know what I have been doing. In the past three weeks I have changed jobs. I now work at a local Sherwin-Williams paint store. It has amazed me how God has moved through this whole situation.

The Humane Society was a very good first job for me. It required me to have a quick, expedient work ethic, and to have a pleasant attitude towards the public at all times, no matter how irate whoever you are speaking with is. All these traits are so necessary to a job well done at Sherwin-Williams, it now seems that, looking back on everything, I was being prepared for this job while working at the Humane Society.

My job at Sherwin-Williams came to me quite by surprise. I was happy with my job at the Humane Society, and wasn't looking for a job elsewhere. A friend of mine told me about an opening at Sherwin-Williams, and said I should apply if I was interested. At the time, I wasn't. I prayed about it, however, and felt Gods leading to pursue the job further. I applied, and in the end, as you know, was eventually hired.

As I was being trained, I noticed how much color matching we have to do. People bring in an item that has a color they want to use as a paint, and we patiently work and tweak the paint base with pigments to achieve a perfect match.

That process of color matching reminded me of the Christian life. We, as Christians, are to attempt to become a perfect match, or imitation, of Christ. We must patiently work and tweak our habits and personalities to imitate Jesus' until the world cannot tell the difference between Him and us. We don't change our habits all on our own though, we use love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Gal. 5:22 - 23).

Also like the color matching process, we don't start from scratch, just guessing at what to do, in our Christian lives. At the store, we use color cards and a color matching computer. In life, Christians use, first and foremost, the Bible, and the writings and experience of other more mature Christians.

And finally, in the same way the color doesn't matter until the paint is well shaken and put upon wall, our Christ-like habits don't do us any good until they are tested and put into practice every day.

Written by: Zachary J.

Hurry Sickness

A devotion for today.

Hurry Sickness

Read: Philippians 3:7-16

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on.
PHILIPPIANS 3:12

"Hurry up!" "We're late!" "You're too slow!" How often do impatient words crop up in our speech, revealing our fast-paced life? If we're not careful, we become people living in the fast lane, demanding quick arrivals and instant results. Stress experts call this "hurry sickness."

In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul's testimony of lifelong growth reminds us that Christian maturity can be encouraged but not hurried. In his book Overcomers Through the Cross, Paul Billheimer says that just as God takes time to make an oak tree, He takes time to make a saint. Christian growth is a life-long process.

Billheimer writes, "An unripe apple is not fit to eat, but we should not therefore condemn it. It is not yet ready for eating because God is not done making it. It is a phase of its career and good in its place."

Are you feeling impatient over your spiritual growth? Remember, God is not finished with you—nor does He expect to be until He calls you home. Make sure that your goal is to know Christ and to become more like Him. Then slowly but surely, under blue skies and stormy, He will bring you to maturity. It's His sure cure for "hurry sickness." ~Joanie Yoder

O God, make me one of those rarest souls
Who willingly wait for Thy time;
My impatient will must be lost in Thine own,
And Thy will forever be mine.
~Bowser

There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity.

How Do We Recognize the Evidence of Intelligence?

Why do scientists become so excited when they discover stone tools together with bones in a cave? The stone tools speak of intelligence! The scientists recognize that these tools could not have designed themselves - they are a product of intelligent input. Thus, the researchers rightly conclude that an intelligent creature was responsible for making these tools.

In a similar way, one would never look at the Great Wall of China, the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., or the Sydney Opera House in Australia and conclude that such structures were formed after explosions in a brick factory!

Neither would anyone believe that the presidents' heads on Mt. Rushmore were the products of millions of years of erosion! We can recognize design! We see man-made objects all around us - cars, airplanes, computers, stereos, houses, appliances and so on. And yet, at no time would anyone ever suggest that such objects were just the products of time and chance. Design is everywhere. It would never enter our minds that metal, left to itself, would eventually form into engines, transmissions, wheels and all the other intricate parts needed to produce an automobile!

This "design argument" is often associated with the name of William Paley, an Anglican clergyman who wrote on this topic in the late eighteenth century. He is particularly remembered for his example of the watch and watchmaker. In discussing a comparison between a stone and a watch, he concluded:

...that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.

Paley thus believed that just as the watch implied a watchmaker, so too does design in living things imply a Designer. Although he believed in a God who created all things, his God was a Master Designer who is now remote from His Creation, not the personal God of the Bible.

Today, however, a large proportion of the population, including many leading scientists, believe that all plants and creatures, including the intelligent engineers who make watches, cars, etc., were the product of an evolutionary process - not a Creator God. But is this really a defensible position?


Sign of Design: Real science depends on measuring or watching something happen, and checking it by doing it again.