20 January 2011

“The Deadly Silence”

Snip. Snip. Snip. Imagine taking a newborn baby, just delivered, maybe 1-3 months premature, and cutting into the back of its neck and cutting its spinal cord…and watching it die.

That is exactly what Dr. Kermit Gosnell did to probably hundreds of babies. Just click here to read it.

I read that story last night before going to bed. That was a very dumb thing to do. I simply could not go to sleep. I kept thinking and asking God what in the world I could do or say to get people to open their eyes and stand up for babies and against abortion. Then I read Del Tackett’s blog today…evidently, he felt the same way and could not sleep. He wrote what I was thinking, and what I wanted to write but just couldn’t find the right the words or how to say it. I thank God for people like Del, who state the truth no matter what the worldly consequences, who don’t worry about offending the world.

You can read Del Tackett’s blog here. In his blog is a link to the full report on this heinous story.

Abortion is wrong. Abortion is murder. As they say, abortion is not a choice, it is a life! It is a life that God made and knitted and that He loves with a love that absolutely cannot be completely known and certainly cannot be matched. Taking that life in any way is nothing less than murder. Do not believe the lies of the world. And don’t fall victim to its silence. Speak out about abortion—silence does not make it go away. Be a voice for babies. Don’t vote for liberal candidates who support abortion! And above all, pray.

Men and woman, first, do not have sexual intercourse outside of marriage. If you do, and also if you’re married and do not want children, protect yourselves! Please use birth control…two of them if you must! If you are a woman who finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy, please give the baby up for adoption so someone can love it the way it should be loved. Just don’t kill it. If you’ve had an abortion and are suffering from any kind of mental anguish, there is help for you (watch the video embedded in Del’s blog), and you are certainly in my prayers.

Let’s make some noise.

In His Name,

Niki

08 January 2011

“God Created Adam…and Bob? And Mark? and Joe?”

People cannot, or simply refuse, to take the Bible at its word. People say that there is no way Adam and Eve alone could have populated the earth as God commanded (Gen.1:28). Therefore, they say, God had to have created more humans other than Adam and Eve…after all, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say He did not. As briefly as possible, we’re going to take a look at how this thinking is worldly and how the Bible does in fact say He created only Adam and Eve.

This seems like a strange spot to start, but…: One thing skeptics question is who Cain was speaking of when he says, “whoever finds me will kill me” (Gen.4:14). Adam and Eve would have had more children by this time. Therefore, those who would kill him were his brothers, sisters, nephews, etc. 

Skeptics also wonder where Cain got his wife (Gen.4:17). Obviously, Adam and Eve had daughters and other children, who in turn would have had children. Hence, Cain’s wife was his sister, or niece, etc. 

This leads us to the argument or observation that, in order to populate the earth, there would have had to be incest. Yes. There was. At this time, incest was the only way to populate the earth, and God had not yet deemed it to be against the law (Lev.18:6). All of God’s creation was good (Gen.1:31,4,10,12,18,21,25,31). “Good” is defined in relation to God, not God in relation to “good.” God is good in that He is perfect. His creation was nothing less than perfect in every way. Adam and Eve had no genetic abnormalities, and neither did their children, and their children, and who knows how many generations later. Eventually, the effect of sin that came through Adam would take place and bring about genetic problems.

These observations still leave skeptics to wonder how Adam and Eve could have had enough children to “populate the earth.” Because Adam was genetically perfect, with no health problems or genetic disorders to speak of, Adam lived 930 years (Gen.5:5). (Can you imagine!?). We can easily presume that Eve would have lived an equally long amount of time. 930 years leaves many, many years of childbirth! Giving them 700 years of childbearing, at, say, one (1) child every four (4) years, would give them 175 children! And their children lived hundreds of years and had children…. Amazing.

Now we’ll look at Scripture references that point to Adam and Eve being the only humans created.

When skeptics say God could have created other humans, they don’t usually tell us when He would have created them. Would it have been before the fall of man (Gen.3:1-7), or after?

First, God put the “man,” not the “men,” in Eden (Gen.2:8,15). Throughout the rest of Genesis chapter 2, God speaks of one man (Gen.2:16,18,19,20,22,25). This alone makes it clear that there were no other humans created prior to the fall. Also, think about it. If there were more than one (1) perfect created man in Eden, then every single one of those men would have had to have been involved in the Fall; all the men would have had to sin, otherwise it would have been only Adam’s line that would have been under the curse of sin. However, Scripture tells us that it was indeed by one man, and one man only, that is Adam, that sin came, and with it death, to all men (1Cor.15:21-22). We are also told that we all are from and bear the image of the “first man” (1Cor.15:47-49). Also, in chapter 3 after the Fall, God speaks to the “woman” (v.16), to the “man” (v.17), and makes several other references to only one man and woman, including verse 24 where God “drove out the man” from Eden (vv.21,22,23, emphasis mine).

This would lead skeptics to suggest that God created more humans after the Fall and after Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. This, however, is completely impossible. For God to have created humans after the Fall, He would have had to have created them, not only imperfect and with sin, but also bearing Adam’s genes, since all men are from Adam. Yes, humans in Adam’s gene pool, so to speak, could have been created by God, since He can create anything in anyway. Except imperfect. All of God’s handiwork is “good” to align with His nature, which is perfect. God, being perfect and holy, cannot sin and cannot look on sin with favor, and certainly would and could not create something that is corrupted with sin.

People also forget that all mankind, except for eight people, were destroyed on the earth (Gen.6:9-8:19, Lk.17:27, 1Pt.3:20). Therefore, the earth had to be populated once again, this time by Noah and his sons (Gen.9:1,7). The method was the same, except this time there were four couples, all from Adam, and all blessed by God.

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve. And that’s it. Saying anything more is both adding and taking away from Scripture. Scripture will always support Scripture. And I love it! Have a wonderfully blessed day.

In His Wonderful Name,

Niki Black Sheep 

04 December 2010

“The First Step”

I attended a birthday party recently for one of my stepdaughter’s school friends.  A man told a Bible story at the start of the party.  At the end of the story (which didn’t include the gospel), he made everyone close their eyes and say the “sinner’s prayer.”  Afterward, he asked for how many of us was that the first time we “asked Jesus into their hearts.”

I have a big problem with that.

Salvation is NOT a prayer.  Salvation is nothing we do.  The only reason we have salvation is because Christ shed His blood and died on the cross, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day.  Nothing else on this earth can give us salvation.

For one to be saved, the very first thing that must happen is that they must be called by God (Jn. 6:44, 65; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Pt. 1:3; Jude 1)This is the absolute first step.  Salvation can not be obtained without first being called by God.

When God calls someone, He sends the Holy Spirit to work in a person to convict them of their sins; to bring them to the realization that they need Jesus Christ and that He is the only one who can save them and give them hope (Jn. 16:8-11; Acts 4:12).

The person then has a decision to make: they can either accept the calling of Almighty God by giving their lives to Jesus, by accepting Him as their Savior and Lord through faith [faith is both a mind and heart condition—faith includes believing the truth and all the facts about Christ, plus trusting Christ and obeying His word] (Jn. 14:21), or they can foolishly say, “NO!” to the calling of God thereby accepting their destiny in hell—knowing they may never get another chance.  For, although God is a loving and gracious God, He may not call a person twice.

Salvation is free, yes.  Salvation is easy, yes.  But one cannot be saved by words or deeds or emotions—one can be saved only by having a repentant heart, through faith by grace alone (Eph. 2:8-9)I hate to think how many people are in this world believing or proclaiming to be followers of Christ because they simply said a prayer, when in fact they never experienced a change; the Holy Spirit never entered them and transformed their hearts and minds; they were never born of God (Jn. 1:12-13, 3:3)I hate to think how many professors of Christ are out there who live lives consistent with the Devil—whatever it may be (whether it be drugs, alcohol, lying, homosexuality, swearing, adultery), any life lived in sin is a life inconsistent with the Christian life (Jn. 3:20, 8:12; 1 Jn. 2:4, 3:4-10)A false Christian can live a life seemingly consistent with Christ, but they will always eventually turn back to sin because they don’t have the Holy Spirit and they never had true faith—think of Judas Iscariot (none of the disciples knew he was the betrayer [Mk. 14:18-19]).  I know there are many of these people. I’ve seen them.  I’ve heard about them.  These are the people who at judgment will be told by Christ, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Mt. 7:21-23).

Do not be fooled by false messages of salvation.  And do not teach false messages of salvation.  Know the Word, know the Truth.  Teach the Word, teach the Truth.  It’s only by Christ’s blood and God’s grace that we are saved.

Niki

image