All posts filed under: z86

Alabama Crimson Tide home field Credit: Mike C/Flickr/Creative Commons

Did God anoint Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa?

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“First and foremost, I’d just like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. With him, all things are possible. That is what happened tonight.” Those were the words spoken by Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, 19, in a TV interview after his team the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in the College National Football Championship in Atlanta on January 8, 2018. Alabama was losing 13-0 at halftime in arguably the most important college football game of the year. With the team’s starting QB struggling, Alabama head coach Nick Saban sent in rookie back-up QB, who up to this point had no significant playing time other than a few reps in games with the score well in hand. Tagovailoa led Alabama to what some have described as a miraculous 26-23 overtime victory. With 28.4 million viewers, ESPN reported that it was the second most watched college game since the NCAA instituted the playoff format four years ago. According to AOL, Tagovailoa was born in Hawaii, where he attended his uncle’s church, Navali Ole Filemu …

Selena Gomez Credit: Mikey Hennessy/Wikipedia

What does it mean to be a child of God?

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I was reading an interesting testimony given by pop star and actress Selena Gomez, 25, at a Hillsong conference recently held in Los Angeles, California in 2017. She shared her testimony in the form of a letter to herself. She spoke of the day that she finally understood God’s love for her and realized she was a child of God. “On your 23rd birthday, Jesus will become real to you. More than a nightly prayer, more than the strength of your friends, more than the name in a devotional, He will become real. “Selena, you are enough! Not because you’ve tried hard, not because you have loved hard or put on your best face. Not because you have been given a large platform and not because others tell you ‘you are enough,’” she declared. “You are enough because you are a child of God who has been pursued from the very beginning. You are enough because His grace has saved you and covered you.” From her testimony, Selena seems to have grasped that she is …

Wailing wall in Jerusalem Credit: Neil Howard/Flickr/Creative Commons

Small, 2,700-year-old clay seal punches above its weight in Jerusalem

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A small artifact has made a huge impact on the history of Jerusalem. While working in an area referred to as the Western Wall Plaza in Old Jerusalem, archaeologists discovered a small clay seal that belonged to a former governor of the city. The seal, the size of a small coin, is 2,700 years old and depicts two men wearing striped robes facing each other. Its inscription reads “Belonging to the Governor of the City.” According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the seal was either distributed by the governor of Jerusalem as a souvenir or it was included with a shipment of goods. Whatever the case, it establishes that Jerusalem as Israel’s capital well into the First Temple period and reveals a strong administrative center that was already producing what was essentially a souvenir item. Speaking on behalf of IAA, Dr. Shlomit Wekler-Bdolah director of the dig said: “This is the first time that such an impression was found in an authorized excavation. It supports the Biblical rendering of the existence of a governor …

Roof of booths set up in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles Credit: Yoninah/Wikipedia/Creative Commons

Converging end times prophecies of Orthodox Jews and Christians

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Breaking Israel News (BIN) has always been a source of interesting articles. Published by a group of Orthodox Jews, I find that they have much in common with Christians. They believe the Old Testament is the inspired Word of God and though they reject Jesus as the Messiah, they nevertheless are looking ahead to the coming Jewish Messiah. And while we look at events taking place on earth as a sign of Jesus second return, they interpret many of those same signs as evidence of the Jewish Messiah’s coming. Recently BIN published an article listing five Biblical prophecies fulfilled in 2017 that pointed to the soon arrival of the Jewish Messiah. In her article, Eliana Rudee the first one she discusses is: “Jerusalem as a place of assembly for non-Jews.” There were a number of Old Testament prophecies that spoke of the gentiles pouring into Israel at the end of the age. In her article, Rudee cites a verse out of Zechariah: 16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the …

Credit: Justine Sanderson/Flickr/Creative Commons

What impact will skyrocketing unwed pregnancies have on society?

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A report written for the US Senate, entitled Love, Marriage and the Baby Carriage, states that 40% of births in America today are born out-of-wedlock. This means that a significant percentage of kids are now being raised in single-parent families and in most instances it means they are without a father. According to the report, at one point in American history, couples understood the responsibility of raising children. Stats showed that in the 1960s, 43% of couples married if the woman became pregnant. Today, only 9% are willing to do this. Some of this is due to the unwillingness of men to take responsibility for what has happened, and the other is women thinking it is fine to raise a child alone. You add to this percentage the number of children also living in single-parent homes due to divorce or separation and we must ask ourselves what kind of effect is this having on society. There have been a number of studies over the years that have looked at the impact that single-parent families (either …

Credit: Kifty/Flickr/Creative Commons

Clinging to hope through trials and suffering

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Many believe Job is the oldest book of the Bible and he lived in the period before Noah’s flood. The book reveals how we are to deal with suffering, and it is not a message that many of us want to hear. Job was a wealthy and righteous man who lost his children, wealth and even his health. When we encounter trials and suffering believers find themselves standing on a thin balancing beam with a choice to fall one way or another. Job’s wife who for the most part was equally affected by what happened became embittered by the tragedy that engulfed them, telling her husband to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). However, Job chose a different path continuing to hope and believe God through all that was happening to him: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” (Job 13:15 NASV) Hope was Job’s life line. But if I am honest with myself, I tend to follows his wife’s example, more than I do …

RNA strand Credit: Vossman/Wikipedia/Creative Commons

Blinded by a theory?

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It has been a problem that has haunted evolutionists for years — how did ribonucleic acid (RNA) evolve? According to the RNA Society, “Ribonucleic acid, or RNA is one of the three major biological macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life (along with DNA and proteins).” It is a required cog for producing enzymes. However, there was a major evolutionary problem. Since RNA requires its own enzymes to replicate, it was impossible for RNA to evolve without enzymes. It was the old what came first — the chicken or the egg. Since the enzyme could only be created by RNA and it could only replicate with the enzyme, both had to spontaneously appear at exactly the same time for it to evolve. It sounds more like creation than evolution. But in 2016 Nobel Prize laureate Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School,  wrote a paper stating he had discovered how RNA replicated without the required enzyme paving the way for its evolution. It was a ground-breaking announcement that fell in …

Franklin Graham Credit: cornstalker/Wikipedia

Politicians demand Franklin Graham be banned from entering England

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In September 2018, Franklin Graham, 65, the son of famed American evangelist Billy Graham is scheduled to speak at the Lancashire Festival of Hope in Blackpool, England. The event is being sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and a number of local churches. With a population of 150,000, Blackpool is located on the Northwest coast of England. Shortly after the announcement, some left-leaning MPs began petitioning the government to ban Franklin Graham from attending the rally. This included Labour MP Afzal Khan who stated in an interview with The Guardian that Franklin Graham’s “views are not welcome.” He along with a couple other MPs including one Cabinet Minister wrote letters to England’s home secretary Amber Rudd asking her to not issue a visa to Graham preventing him from entering the country. Franklin Graham has publicly opposed Islamic extremism and gay marriage and expressed concerns about immigration. Graham also supported Donald Trump in his campaign for the American presidency and stated that God had a hand in Trump’s victory. Though Graham’s criticisms are considered …

Snowstorm in Chester, England Dec 8, 2017 Credit: Terry Kearney/Flickr/Creative Commons

Blame the sun, not SUVs

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It was -29C when I woke up this morning and that is good news, because it was colder last week. It’s a sign things are warming up. I had to stick a battery charger on my SUV the day before Christmas when it decided not to start. Thankfully we were able to get it going without calling a tow truck. Ironically, many activists love blaming SUVs and oil consumption generally on the global warming hitting the earth. Yet despite claims by man-made global warming alarmists that the science is settled, in 2017 there were 120 research papers written that concluded global warming has very little to do with man’s activity (oil and CO2 emissions) but more to do with the sun. No one is arguing that the earth has recently gone through a warming trend, what is being questioned is the cause. According to Kenneth Richards at NoTrickZone, the 120 papers published in several scientific journals reported there is a correlation between the earth’s heating and cooling trends to two things — sunspot activity and …

Credit: Michael Kappel/Flickr/Creative Commons

How good will you be in 2018?

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So how good will you be in 2018? There is not much competition on that side. Yesterday I helped someone; and every detail in this story matters for the conclusion. I have a bad cough, the kind that won’t let me sleep at night, and this morning I drove to the drug store in the Mall, where I don’t usually shop. I don’t know why I chose the mall, and that store. Also, the weather is cold today, – 30 C or – 22 F. I walked out of the wrong door at the Mall, so I had a long walk to my truck, at – 30 with bronchitis. That is a bad combination but I don’t think hard when I’m at the mall. Somehow it all felt right. As I walked, on my right I saw a small old truck, a Ford Ranger, which is usually a poor man’s ride. The driver turned the key and I heard “Click Click Click.” In subarctic weather, that means your battery is low, and that means the …