March 20-21: Created or Evolved?

Does nature and the complexity of organisms point us toward a creator? Or did everything we see in the world come from Evolution?
"Evolution" can have two meanings:
"micro"evolution refers to changes or variations within species. Example: parents with blond hair can have a child with dark hair; certain tendencies for diseases can be "carried" in certain people; short parents can have kids who grow up to be tall...BUT two parents with arms will not have a child who has wings.

"macro"evolution refers to the change of one species into another. This is what is often meant by "evolution" as a way of explaining where all life came from...that it started simple and then became more and more complex.

From last week: if a certain species evolved into (branched off into) different, other species, we would expect to find lots of "in-between" fossils in the ground - we don't.

Let's say all of the complex life we see today came from one, simple, single-celled creature...which evolved into higher and higher forms of life: the question still has to be asked - Where did that first living thing come from?

Two scientists - Miller and Urey - set out to answer that question by combining a mixture of gases in test tubes and sending an electric charge through them. By doing this, they produced amino acids, which strung together make proteins. They said this simulated what happened at the beginning of the universe. But - did they use the right chemicals? Were the gases they used really the ones present at the beginning of the universe? And in what amounts? If you use different starting products, you get different results. (For instance, many models of the early earth contain cardon dioxide and nitrogen which would form nitrates, and nitrates destroy amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.)

But suppose the amino acids did form that way...couldn't they have come together to start life? NASA has found that the simplest protein that could be considered "life" is a string of 400 amino acids in a specific sequence. So, to come together by accident would be like blindly drawing the numbers 1-400 out of a bag, one by one, and getting them in perfect order.

Moreover, there are structures in complex living things that couldn't have evolved. (This is called the problem of "irreducible complexity".) One example is your eye. Every part is necessary - missing one structure, the whole eye fails. Think of your eye as being like a mousetrap: without any one of the parts, the mousetrap is of no use. For eyes to have evolved piece by piece would have meant some creatures had useless eye-parts-that-would-become-eyes...so these parts would have evolved (because they were necessary) - even though they were worthless.

Where did cells get the information to "know" what to become? Cells have "information" in them that tell them how to function and what to be...where did this "intelligence" come from if the first single-celled organism came together by accident?

Does all of this point to a Creator?
We can't "prove" that God was the originator of life. But neither can a person who believes evolution is the answer "prove" that life came from non-living things, or that one species turned into another, or that amino acids arranged themselves into proteins, which led to cells, which led to organisms...anytime someone concludes that something "probably" happened, it's a statement of faith.

Where will you put your faith? In the idea that living things all came from chance, randomly as chemicals came together, and that all living things we see today, in all their variety, started out as the same single-celled creature? Or that living creatures came from the mind and will of God?

March 13-14: The Beginning - Investigating the Theory of Evolution

Where did the world and everything in it come from? It's natural for people to be curious about this and to try to form answers.

Charles Darwin was a zoologist who traveled the world and observed different species of animals. He observed that most animals had similar body types. He also believed that animals adapted to their different environments, in ways that helped them survive. Those that couldn't adapt didn't survive. He called this idea, "Survival of the fittest."

But, he also believed that all living things could be traced back to one common ancestor. When we talk of "evolution", this is what is usually meant - that one type of animal turned into another type of animal.

However, the Bible says that God created living things "according to their kinds". The variety of species that we see today is not the result of one species turning into another. Why?

For one thing, it would've taken a very long time for all species to have evolved from the first organism (or "common ancestor"). How long? No one knows, because evolution takes so long it cannot be observed. If it can't be observed, it can't be studied in a lab. But, it could well have taken longer than the earth has even existed.

For another, you would expect to find lots of fossils representing the "in-between" forms of animals - the "ancestor" of the two modern animals. But you don't see that. What you see instead is a number of new species showing up, fully formed, in the fossil record at one time. Remember that Genesis says God created living things "according to their kinds".

March 6-7, 2010: The Beginning - Theories

A theory is an educated guess about how something happened or happens.

A theory is a combination of two things:

• Things we know to be true
• Things we suppose to be true.

In this way, a theory is kind of like a brick wall: we "build" our conclusions on facts and educated guesses. If the "bricks" of our wall are weak (or the facts we're using are wrong), the wall won't hold.

The Theory of Evolution is a theory about how the world came to be and where nature - plants, but especially animals and humans - came from.

The Bible teaches that God made the world and everything in it. Before God moved, the earth was without form and empty. (Gen. 1:2)

January 2-3, 2010 - Paul goes on a missionary journey

History of Skateboarding - it started in California, when surfers put wheels on the bottom of planks of wood and rode down the street - "Street Surfing". But, it was a fad...it died out by about 1965.

Three big things happened to bring it back:
1. The invention of polyurethane wheels, which replaced unsafe clay wheels
2. A drought in California in 1976, which led people to drain their swimming pools. People discovered they could skate in them - the beginning of vert skating.
3. Invention of the "ollie" - a jump trick - in Florida. The ollie spread to California when its founder visited California and the trick took off.

Skateboarding went from a died-out fad to a revived sport that spread around the world; the spread of Christianity is similar.

By Acts chapter 12, Christians were being persecuted; James had been killed (the second Christian martyr, after Stephen). Some of the "big things" that happened in Christian history were:
1. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
2. The miracles performed by the apostles
3. The conversion of Paul
4. Peter's vision showed that God intended to offer salvation to everyone
5. The sending of Paul on missionary journeys

Acts 13 - Paul and Barnabas are commanded by the Holy Spirit to take the message out.

At Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, they encounter a proconsul (government official) who wants to hear about the Lord, and a false prophet who opposes them. By the Holy Spirit's power, the false prophet is blinded. Paul had words & a message, but the Holy Spirit supplied the power to change and to convince the proconsul that what was preached about was real.

If God was going to send us out from NCCC, where would he send us?
He may send us to a far-off place; but he also needs us to take the message right here, to where we live: our schools, our neighborhoods, etc.

But - God's intention is not that we receive the message and keep it - it's that once we go out, we will return - with ourselves and others.

We have 5 Big Events this year that are great to bring friends to:
1. "Believe It With Your Own Eyes"
2. Kids Games
3. Summer Camp (July 5-9)
4. Christmas Party & Sleepover (December)
5. Next year's Winter Camp

November 21-22, 2009: Peter's Vision

"I saw something that looked like a large sheet. It was being let down from heaven by four corners. It came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth. There were also wild animals, reptiles, and birds. Then I heard a voice speaking to me. 'Get up, Peter,' the voice said. 'Kill and eat.'"

Peter's vision happened in Joppa, a city on the coast of Israel.

In the Old Testament, people were either Jews (followers of God), or Gentiles. Among the Gentiles, some were believers in God ("god-fearers"), but they could not become Jewish.

Foods were also divided into "clean" and "unclean" - but the meaning of this was "acceptable, special" vs. "common".

In Acts 10, two men receive messages from God: Cornelius & Peter.

Cornelius - God told him to send some men to Joppa to get Peter and invite him to his house.

Peter's vision was of a sheet being lowered onto a roof, filled with clean and unclean animals. Peter protests: I will not eat what is unclean. The voice answers: do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.

Peter is brought to Cornelius' house. Normally a Jew would not enter the home of a Gentile, but based on Peter's vision, he knows that God does not show favoritism and that salvation is for the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

What does this story teach us about God? In God's eyes - everyone is equal. That is, no one has special status because of their skin color, past, family, money, religious background, or anything like that. What if we really believed that?

This does not mean we are all the same. Rather, that differences don't make people any less.

Think about the people you associate with. Then think about who you don't or wouldn't associate with. We often draw distinctions for pointless reasons.

When Peter takes the story back to Jerusalem, that he has shared the gospel and had fellowship with Gentiles, the disciples believe he's done a bad thing (violated the Law) until Peter explains his vision. How many of us would have that courage if we were confronted about hanging out with the wrong sort of people?

When you can look at all sorts of faces - colors, rich vs. poor, disabled vs. normally able - and see dignity and value in each one, you have the mind of God.

November 14-15, 2009 - Saul's Conversion

Saul (who would become Paul) stood by at the stoning of Stephen. He was a good Jew, who kept all of the law. In other words, he was an enemy of the early Christians.

This made Saul an unlikely choice to be God’s messenger!
Abraham Lincoln was raised in a log cabin, his mother died when he was 9, he didn’t finish high school or college, he lost 8 of 13 elections in his life. Yet, he was elected President of the United States.
In a similar way, God used someone we wouldn’t expect in a very important way.

Video: “Peter & Paul - Saul’s conversion”

Saul had to overcome his reputation as a man dangerous to Christians and regain their trust: first, with Ananias, then with the disciples in Jerusalem.
At the same time, his own standing among the Jews took a hit: he had to escape from Damascus, and then angered the Jews in Jerusalem. The apostles sent him by ship to Tarsus.

Paul would go on to suffer greatly for standing up for Jesus - see 2 Corinthians 11.

Paul had great knowledge and kept the law - but it was his encounter with the living God that actually changed him.

Nov. 1 - Stephen and Persecution of Christians

In the book of Acts, we see the gospel message spreading - and like a trick birthday candle, whenever attempts are made to extinguish it, it just keeps coming back:

The Jewish leaders told the disciples to stop speaking...Peter refused
They threw the apostles in jail...an angel let them out
They threatened and whipped the apostles...the Holy Spirit made them bolder

Acts 6-7 tell the story of Stephen...Stephen was chosen as one of seven who were to oversee the church's distribution of food to the needy. "The Body is a unit, made up of many parts....so it is with Christ." In the church, we divide responsibilities because no one person can do it all - yet everything that is done is important and necessary.

Stephen was arrested and accused of speaking words against the Jewish religion, specifically teaching against the laws of Moses and the temple.
To the Jews, three things were important:
1. Living in the land God had promised them
2. Following strictly the law God gave through Moses
3. Building and maintaining the temple, the house of the Lord

Stephen, in his defense, says the Jews are missing the point, which is the Messiah - God promised him through the prophets, but the prophets were ignored. He calls them "stiff-necked" (stubborn) people, who rejected and killed the Messiah. This makes them angry and they stone him to kill him.

Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr - someone who is killed for an idea

There are still martyrs today - "closed" countries in which practicing the Christian faith is dangerous or illegal. (See www.kidsofcourage.com for some great information on where persecution is happening)

After Stephen's martyrdom, the believers are spread, but the threat of death doesn't kill the movement, it makes them bolder!

Standing by at Stephen's death is Saul, who will shortly become Paul, the great Christian missionary.