I was going to do a photo review of the NLT Holy Bible: Mosaic but photographer Dan Farrell has done a very nice job. There are photographs of both the hardcover and the leather editions. Notice the beautiful cover of the hardcover edition which is obscured by the cardboard cover in the promotional materials.

This is most likely my last post on any commentary on evolution as I wrote about yesterday.

I would just like to post a passage of Scripture that I believe shows that God created animals with specific characteristics right from the beginning without them needing to develop those characteristics through macro-evolution. It’s just what I believe–I’m not going to change anyone’s mind about the subject and I’m certainly not looking for a debate.

In any case I think this is a great passage of Scripture and it’s an important reminder for me.

Job 39:13-40:2
13 “The ostrich flaps her wings grandly,
but they are no match for the feathers of the stork.
14 She lays her eggs on top of the earth,
letting them be warmed in the dust.
15 She doesn’t worry that a foot might crush them
or a wild animal might destroy them.
16 She is harsh toward her young,
as if they were not her own.
She doesn’t care if they die.
17 For God has deprived her of wisdom.
He has given her no understanding.
18 But whenever she jumps up to run,
she passes the swiftest horse with its rider.

19 “Have you given the horse its strength
or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Did you give it the ability to leap like a locust?
Its majestic snorting is terrifying!
21 It paws the earth and rejoices in its strength
when it charges out to battle.
22 It laughs at fear and is unafraid.
It does not run from the sword.
23 The arrows rattle against it,
and the spear and javelin flash.
24 It paws the ground fiercely
and rushes forward into battle when the ram’s horn blows.
25 It snorts at the sound of the horn.
It senses the battle in the distance.
It quivers at the captain’s commands and the noise of battle.

26 “Is it your wisdom that makes the hawk soar
and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle rises
to the heights to make its nest?
28 It lives on the cliffs,
making its home on a distant, rocky crag.
29 From there it hunts its prey,
keeping watch with piercing eyes.
30 Its young gulp down blood.
Where there’s a carcass, there you’ll find it.”

1 Then the LORD said to Job,

2 “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Today’s picture is of purple ornamental peppers. These start out purple, then turn orange and then red. They stay purple for quite a while.

It’s amazing how God created so many unique things and most of it is just for His own enjoyment. We won’t ever see the vast majority of it.

I hope my little blog is unique and I’m thankful God has led me to my blogging friends who inspired me to start blogging. I feel like lately I’ve strayed from my original path a little. I don’t want my blog to be polemic and I have been posting some things to try to make a point where I’m not going to change anyone’s mind. The posts on evolution would be an example of this.

When I was posting a lot about translations, I decided to pretty much only post positive things about various translations and I think that was the right thing for me to do. I got positive feedback from readers about this and think it’s beneficial for them too.

I don’t like the stress and mess of getting into more controversial issues so I want to mainly stay with things I’m learning, quotes I want to keep track of, other blog posts I like etc. My stats have gone down a bit and while I don’t care about stats and it may be coincidental, readers may not like the direction things have gone lately either.

This means I won’t be posting about complementarianism. I wanted to write about being pro-female and focus on the male end of it. But so many feel that complementarianism is evil and fosters abuse and can’t deal with the subject very well. Granted, many come from horrible situations, but those situations are not complementarianism. But that’s OK because it will save me research time which I don’t feel a need to do for myself anyway. There are plenty of other things to write about. I only mention that because I had told others I planned on writing about it.

As usual there will be no politics and no pictures of our cats.

I’ve gone on too long already but wanted to write a little about what I’m thinking.

If you would like to spend some time looking at a post by Dr Jim Linville that comments on various Ardi (a “4.4 million year old [exactly] fossil homid” [sic]) posts, including mine, in the biblioblogosphere, you can go to his Thinking Shop and Tea Room to see it.

I believe that human evolution as part of Christianity is like fading paint turning into a cabbage.

Genesis 1:26-27 GNB
Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.” 27 So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female,

Some poor soul came to this blog searching for “husbands and sports, scripture”. Can anyone help them out?

Related posts:

• “I can’t follow sports too closely.”
• Sports

I heard that Christians are searching for unity. I hope they find it. I’m guessing it’s in Egypt.* These people are looking for it in Crete. That’s way way off.

John 17:23
I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

I was just thinking–Jesus was referring to believers in his prayer here, not to everyone. (I’m stating the obvious to most of you.) So I don’t know why people waste their time trying to bring unity to people of other religions. Time needs to be spent trying to convince them of their need for Jesus, not wasting time having conferences trying to find commonality or people like Brian McLaren joining with Muslims in the observance of Ramadan.

*Shallow Thoughts brought to you by Jeff at Scripture Zealot

‘Ardi’ Reverses Common Understanding of Human Evolution

When I first saw this news article, I thought they had really reversed their stance. But since they don’t believe God created everything, they only reversed a part of the equation. Instead of humans evolving from chimps, humans evolved from some other form of common ancestor that humans have with chimps. However,

‘This is not that common ancestor, but it’s the closest we have ever been able to come,’ White told The Associated Press.

They have been searching for the missing link because of their theory that God doesn’t exist so we must have evolved from some lower form of life because a big bang could never create a species as (arguably) intelligent as human beings.

“’Six months ago, we would have said our common ancestor looked something like a chimp,’” Christian preacher Ray Comfort cited White as having said. “’Now all that has changed.’ Sure has. And it will change again, and again, and again. I know, ‘that’s what real science does.’”

Evolution is a theory that many Christians hold to–some above what Scripture says. Why is this? Evolution is a religion unto itself. The Bible is very clear. God couldn’t have talked with chimps in the garden and they wouldn’t have been embarrassed about being naked.

This is Owen Lovejoy. You can tell he’s really smart because he wears his glasses on top of his head like other scientists do. Or maybe he’s the absent minded professor and puts them there so he won’t forget them. In any case he’s very smart and I don’t doubt his smartness. That’s isn’t everything though.

(Photo: Kent State University)

Dr. C. Owen Lovejoy, Kent State University professor of anthropology, stands next to the reconstructed skeleton of “Lucy,” a near-complete fossil of a human ancestor that walked upright more than three million years ago. A team of researchers including Lovejoy today unveiled research findings of a skeleton older than “Lucy,” nicknamed “Ardi.”

Related post – See comment here:
Another missing link in Evolution found – yes, another one

Robert at Inquiring Minds let’s us know of a new HCSB web site.

Related post:
HCSB Bible Translation Web Sites

What are your spiritual goals?

Here are three of mine which are in ascending order according to how long it will take to get to them:

1. Read through the Old Testament and read a commentary on Genesis and a couple of others, then do more reading of some sort on the OT
2. Learn Greek well enough to use a Greek Reader’s NT where they give definitions of the 30 least used words in the NT
3. Study Colossians thoroughly and write a Bible study to be used for small groups

Feel free to write yours here or in a post on your own blog.

Related post:
The Question of College, again at Inquiring Minds