We went for a walk this morning and one of the neighborhood streets was so trashy that Susie wanted to come back with the car and clean it up.  So we got some gloves and some trash bags and headed out.  Did the job in short order.

This afternoon I spent a lot of time welding up an Owl.  It is made out of a shovel, 2 lower ball joints from my Jeep, some curved metal from a shelf bracket, and some RR jamb washers.  It turned out pretty nice.  I found out that it is hard to weld a ball joint onto a shovel.

Tonight I spent all evening trying to order custom tee shirts online.  It ain't easy.  Not if you want a his and hers match that is NOT unisex.  Female Tee's must be fitted not just a potato sack with a logo.  Then you have to match color, font, design, etc.  When you finally go to purchase, then the surprises hit.  Amazing how it goes from $12.95 to $24.95.  That was 3 hours spent.... not very well.

Christmas Decorations

Today we finished up placing out all the Christmas Decorations including the large nativity scene in the living room.  I decided to change out the standard light bulbs that are in each piece and replace them with new LED bulbs from Ace Hardware.  That was an expensive quest....$22 bucks for 6 bulbs.....yikes.

It was sunny for a short while today so I used a bit of that time to paint a couple of welded "Ants" that I had made out of some wire and large RR bolts.

We had some soup for supper and I played D2 this evening while listening to an audio book.

Change your mind about Repentance

They are out there. You see them now and then if you are watching. I’m referring to people

carrying signs about repentance. Is that what God wants us to do....

carry a sign?

I rarely use the word repent because traditionally it has come to mean to “turn from sin.”

Repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation . Luke 24:47 says, “repentance for

forgivness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.” (NASB) But does it mean

“turn from sin?” If it does, then how many sins would one have to turn from to be saved?

Some? Most? All? Maybe only the sins you know about? How do you turn from something

that is inside of you? That is where sins dwells (Romans 7:20).

If you say that the word repent always means to turn from sin, then you will have a problem

in the Old Testament because you will find that God often repents. (Genesis 6:6 KJV) Does

that mean he turns from sin? No. God is not a sinner.

In the New Testament there are 3 Greek words that are translated repent or repentance,

metanoeo, metanoia, and metamelomai. The basic meaning of all three words is to “change

your mind,” to think differently. You must look closely at how the word is used in its context

to determine the precise meaning of each use.

To be saved, a person must change their mind about what they were trusting in previously

and trust only in Jesus Christ to save them. To believe in Christ means to realize that Jesus

paid for all your sins on the cross and rose again. Believing always involves a change of

mind, that is why it is not necessary to actually say the word “repent” when you tell someone

the gospel. It is included in believing. The stated purpose of the Gospel of John is to produce

faith in those that read it. (John 20:31) Yet, the Gospel of John does not contain the word

“repent”, not even once. That makes perfect sense if the word repent means to “change

your mind.”

If you are honest, you will admit that you have not really turned from ALL your sin. If turning

from it were a requirement for salvation, all would surely be lost. Sin, to one degree or

another, will be right there inside of you until the day you die. (Romans 7:24) Part of our

daily warfare as a Christian is to resist it, turn from it, flee from it, overcome it, and not yield

to it. It is a battle.

When God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), He is not telling them

to turn from sin, He is telling them to change their mind and trust in Christ to receive eternal

life.

DNA Evidence for God

 DNA evidence is often used in criminal proceedings to prove whether or not a suspect was at

the scene of a crime. It is also used to prove that certain convicted criminals were actually

innocent. This can be done because DNA contains unique, meaningful information about the

person from which it came. Coded information.

Meaningful information must come from an intelligent mind, especially if the message is

coded or encrypted. For example, the following pattern is just a random bunch of 1’s and

0’s. It means nothing and it conveys no message at all.

00010100 10001110 10010010 01001001

11101010 01010011 00010110 11010100

00001101 11101001 01100010 11101010

01010111 01101101 10101110 10010010

01110010 00011110 10010110 10100100

01101101 00100100 01111010 10100100

On the other hand, the next pattern is a meaningful binary code.

01001001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101110 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110100 01101000 00101110 

It doesn’t look much different but this set of 1’s and 0’s can be decoded and it has a specific

meaning that can be read and understood. It says, “In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth”

What is the difference? The first pattern was made by senseless random tapping of the ONE

and ZERO keys of my computer. The second pattern is a string of numbers, actually in

groups of eight, and they were generated by a text to binary converter. The converter was

designed by a programmer and can be used to code and decode information. This pattern

contains a meaningful message that can be read and understood. It required intelligence to

write the conversion program and it required a human mind to compose the message and

convert it to binary using the converter.

The DNA molecule is a complex set of chemicals. It seems impossible that it could

accidentally come into being by chance. But suppose it did, would it do anything? No it

would just be a complex molecule in a pool of primordial soup. Before it could do anything, it

would require some support structure to go with it. But even more important, it would

require some information encoded in its structure, some meaningful information. Where

would this information come from?

DNA contains a code similar to a computer code. Computers uses 1’s and 0’s intelligently

arranged in meaningful sequences by programmers using various languages and code

compilers.

DNA contains 4 chemicals abbreviated ACGT that are used to code information. These

chemicals are arranged in a meaning code comprised of base pairs. This code describes the

particular life form that carries the DNA in every cell. The very simplest life form has about

500,000 base pairs of coded information within its DNA. Human DNA has about

3,000,000,000 base pairs of coded information. This code can be read and understood by

scientists who study DNA. They have even learned how to modify the code to bring about

“beneficial” changes in some plants and animals. This is called genetic engineering.

If the DNA code was just a random pattern of chemicals there would be no message, no

meaning. It would not describe a living being and would not function. Just like the simple

binary code shown above required a human mind to lay it out in a meaningful pattern, a

super intelligence (God) was required to create the information contained in the DNA

molecule.

When you look at the DNA molecule, you are looking at concrete evidence that God exists

and that He created the heavens and earth as he said. Meaningful information must come

from a mind. The DNA molecule with its complex code of life came from the mind of God.

Easy 13 Question Quiz

 National Anthem Quiz…

1.  What was the original name of the poem  that became the national anthem

a.  Star Spangled Banner b.  Wave Old Glory

c.  Defence of Ft M’Henry d.  The Battle of New Orleans

2.  What year was the national anthem written

a.  1776 b.  1812 c.  1778 d.  1814

3.  Who wrote the national anthem

a.  Ben Franklin b.  France Key 

c.  William Beanes d.  Major George Amistead

4.  How many verses does the national anthem have?

a.  4 b.  3 c.  2 d.  1

5.  Who made the flag that inspired the writing of the national anthem?

a.  Betsy Ross b.   Rebecca Young

c.  Mary Pickersgill d.  Caroline Armistead

6.  The flag that inspired the national anthem had:

a.  13 Stripes and 13 Stars b.  15 Stripes and 13 Stars

c.  13 Stripes and 15 Stars d.  15 Stripes and 15 Stars

7.  How large were the stars of the now famous flag.

a.  6 inches b.  24 inches

c.  12 inches d.  8 inches

8.  During the night of the now famous Battle, how many flags few over the star shaped fort.

a.  2, but not at the same time b.  14, including one for each colony

c.  5, one at each point of the star shaped fort d.  Just One flag

9.  The final assembly of the large flag took place in what building?

a.  St. Jude’s Church b.  Johnson’ livery stable

c.  Claggett’s Brewery d.  Baltimore Courthouse

10.  How many Americans died in the Battle that fateful night

a. 409 killed, 1200 wounded b. 4 killed, 24 wounded

c.  24 killed, 400 wounded d. 12 killed, 49 wounded

11.  What popular tune became the tune for the national anthem

a.  Greensleaves b.  Sheep may safely graze by Bach

c.  To Anecreon in Heaven d.  Our God a shelter from the storm

12.  What year did the national anthem become the National Anthem?

a.  1778 b.  1814 c.  1896 d. 1931

13.  For what  work was the author of the Anthem also known?

a. Writer the Pledge of Allegiance b.  Founder of Baltimore Flag Company

c.  Co-founder of American Sunday School Union d.  Founder  China Inland Mission

Mowing and Raking

 Today, after a rather laid back morning with breakfast of waffles, Susie and I headed to the church to do some lawn care.  I jumped on the Bad Boy mower and used it to rake all the leaves in various parts of the campus.  Susie spent a lot of time cleaning up the area in front of the church entrance.  She wanted more time so I proceeded to mow the whole campus lawn except for the ball field.  After mowing, Susie still wanted to clean up the cedar tree droppings around the machine shop parking area, so we did that too.  It was a hard afternoon of work.

This evening we relaxed and watch two episodes of The Mandelorian.  Afterward, Susie played some video games while I worked on my blog.  We listened to a couple of short stories in the form of audio books.

Books and Lectures of H. A. Ironside

We have posted some of the works of H. A. Ironside in Blogger format for your enjoyment and edification.  If you do not know who he was, you should check out his BIO on Wiki.  It is interesting and will not be repeated here.  This format is hopefully more readable that some that are available and we will have pop up reference verses for your convenience. 

Full Assurance

Lectures on Galatians

Holiness the False and the True