It’s worth checking out the new website for the English Standard Version of the Bible. It has some excellent features:

1) Audio Bible. You can look up any passage and click ‘play’.

2) Note-taking function. You can write your own thoughts and reflections on a passage and they are stored there for future reference (providing you register).

3) Study-Bible notes. If you own an ESV Study Bible, you can access all the notes on this new site, providing you either put in your reference number (which came with your purchase of the Study Bible), or if you have already done that on the old Study Bible website, then wait a couple of days and the ESV team will recognise your email address and make the Study Bible notes available on the new website.

Here is the link: www.esvonline.org

There’s no way I can condense what I’m about to write, so please do bear with me.  It’ll be worth it.

When you’re considering the debate over evolution and creation, there is a rather large problem for the evolutionists; how did life originate? How did molecules organize themselves into the first self-replicating organism?

People try to imagine what life might have looked like back then. But it’s important to bear in mind that they’re just imagining; the simplest life-forms we know of that are capable of autonomous survival are not exactly simple, and we have no reason to think that they ever were simple. In fact, the simplest life-forms still require about 1000 different proteins to survive, these being single-celled organisms (like e. coli).

With this in mind, read the following excerpt. It’s written by Dr John Baumgardner, giving us some straight-forward calculations on the probability of life arising by chance. It’s certainly worth the effort to get your head around what Baumgardner is saying:

“Let us first establish a reasonable upper limit on the number of molecules that could ever have been formed anywhere in the universe during its entire history. Taking 1080 [the number 1 followed by 80 zeros] as a generous estimate for the total number of atoms in the cosmos, 1012 [the number 1 followed by 12 zeros] for a generous upper bound for the average number of interatomic interactions per second per atom, and 1018 seconds (roughly 30 billion years) as an upper bound for the age of the universe, we get 10110 as a very generous upper limit on the total number of interatomic interactions which could have ever occurred during the long cosmic history the evolutionist imagines. Now if we make the extremely generous assumption that each interatomic interaction always produces a unique molecule, then we conclude that no more than 10110 unique molecules could have ever existed in the universe during its entire history.

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Crowds are fickle, but oh how we love a crowd.

There is an obsession in the world today with getting popular approval, mass support, and adoration.  I sometimes wonder just how much this desire has infiltrated the church.  Some pastors (not all) want big churches because big churches mean big popularity.  Some church members want their church to be big because that means we look credible and impressive in the eyes of the world.  It’s nice to tell your friends or colleagues how many hundreds or thousands of people are at your church.

I’m not against big churches or the very deliberate effort to grow churches.  On the contrary, I believe that is the very definite plan of God.  I’m convinced the Bible predicts a very, very impressive picture with regard to the future of the Church.  As one preacher put it, “Jesus is coming back for a massive bride…” (an unfortunate turn of phrase, I’ll admit.)

However, despite this very definite trajectory that the Church of Jesus Christ is set on – unstoppable growth – it is nevertheless equally true that the crowds we call churches may be deceptively big.  Not everybody in a church is necessarily in the Church.

What do I mean?  It’s obvious when you think about it that size does not equate to success in any direct sense.  If it did, then the Catholic Church is clearly doing quite well… Jesus isn’t interested in gathering crowds if the individuals in that crowd can get the wrong idea that they’re part of Jesus’ Church, when in fact they’re not.  There may be a feeling of safety in numbers that actually stops people getting saved.

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On Sunday I mentioned the wonderful book Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison.  In that book Powlison helps us to uncover the idolatrous motivations of our hearts – the hidden reasons that lurk behind your every action. I was considering typing up all 35 of the questions (as I only gave 7 of them in the sermon). I wasn’t really sure about copyright and all that, but thankfully, there are plenty of people on the internet who seem to have done the job already.

I thoroughly recommend you work through these 35 questions, and journal your answers. I have found this process very helpful. It doesn’t provide a quick-fix solution, but at least it sheds light on those dark corners of your heart that rarely get attention. This, in turn, helps you to repent and change.

So, to see the questions, check out this blog post by Scott Thomas.

Times of feasting are mandated in the Bible.  So as you approach Christmas, remember that there is a good way to feast and a bad way.  A right way of enjoying festivals is defined by a couple of principles.

First, take all of God’s gifts with thanksgiving.  There are plenty of people who feel guilty enjoying rest and food.  That’s sad, because God has given them to us.  It’s worse than sad when they try and put their guilt on other people – in fact, it’s downright wrong.  Paul knew this, and that’s why he described such people as devoted to the doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1-2).  In contrast he tells you, Christian, to enjoy everything God has given with thanksgiving.  ”For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5).

Second, maintain discipline even in your feasting and your resting.  It’s very obvious as you look at the festivals for the Israelites in Leviticus 23 that they involve much enforced rest, but their feasting also contained rhythms and rituals designed to draw the worshipper’s attention to God their Redeemer.  So also at Christmas, I encourage you to rest well and eat well, but also to take up the opportunity to worship well, and to approach God daily in prayer and listening to his Word.

There are bad ways of feasting which involve the extremes of either pious legalism (and its accompanying false guilt and self-righteous pride), or flabby licentiousness (leading to the New Year blahs and a long recovery process).  As you seek to feast well this Christmas, take God’s gifts with thanksgiving, and return to him daily for the true rest that he alone can bring to your soul.