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When I am called upon as a minister of the Gospel to evaluate an individual’s life circumstances, there is one primary principle in the Word of God by which to measure—Matthew 6:33:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Jesus said, “seek ye first.” When this principle is truly in place, everything else—and especially your rough and dark circumstances—will work to your good. It must be so. God has commanded it. It is not optional.
Seeking the Kingdom of God is seeking the development of Christ within and promoting the marvelous, invisible Kingdom at large. It also says, “and His righteousness,” which are the attitudes and deeds that are a product of faith.
Seeking first is required in all matters. It must dictate, and yes, regulate my:
🢂 Thoughts and meditations;
🢂 Aspirations;
🢂 Church attendance;
🢂 Tithing and money matters in general;
🢂 Punctuality;
🢂 Friendships;
🢂 Employment;
🢂 Spouse selection;
🢂 Recreational events;
🢂 All interactions with the world; and more.
When a child of God gets a grip on the “Seek ye first” principle, the dark clouds part and the Son appears.
There is a very dramatic reciprocation in the born-again’s relationship with the Father. Consider Psalm 18:25-26:
25 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright;
26 With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.
If I make God first, He will make me first. If I make God’s house first, He will make my house first, and so forth. But in order to participate in such a marvelous calling, it will take a very real and very big—even colossal—miracle. Jesus calls this miracle “born again.” John 3:3:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Have you been born again? Do you yearn to have all your sin and shame washed away by Christ’s saving blood? Will today be the day when all Satan’s bondages are broken in your life—and let me emphasize ALL? Will today be the moment when you truly seek Jesus Christ first? Your time is just seconds away. Follow this simple prompt: Ready? Click onto “Further with Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
GOD SAID, Psalm 102:25-27:
25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
GOD SAID, Isaiah 40:6-8:
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
MAN SAID: Where is this “God of the Bible?” Let Him show Himself that we might believe!
Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature article 942 that will, for the 942nd time, certify the inerrancy of God’s Holy Bible. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and as weapons against the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.
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Show me God! Where is God?! Where is the proof?!! It is so ridiculous, for God is ubiquitous—literally, and I mean literally, everywhere. Psalm 19:1-3:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
The Scriptures teach that “God is light,” and light is the energy that creates all physical things. This marvelous light is laden with life and life’s information. God is light. Everywhere I look, I see God.
Job 27:3:
All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
God is the breath of life; inhale deeply and bless God. God is ubiquitous.
Consider John 1:10-12:
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
The two most established laws of science—laws that permeate every scientific discipline—are the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The effects of these laws are everywhere and in everything—they are ubiquitous. They shout YES to God, trillions of times a day, but carnal eyes just can’t see. This feature will primarily focus on the second law.
Henry M. Morris, founder of the Institute for Creation Research, discusses in detail the laws of thermodynamics in his classic book, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science. Excerpts follow.
Under the heading, “Implications of the Two Laws of Thermodynamics, Governing All Natural Processes,” Morris explains how matter and energy point to why the universe could not create itself:
The first law of thermodynamics states (in accordance with Genesis 2:1-3) that none of the tremendous energy (or “power”) of the universe is now being created, so that the universe could not have created itself. The second law (in accordance with Romans 8:20-22, as well as Genesis 3:17-19) states that the available energy of the universe is decreasing, indicating that sometime in the past all the energy (including matter) was available and perfectly organized, like a clock that had just been wound up. This shows that the universe must have been created, even though it could not create itself. The two laws thus point inexorably back to Genesis 1:1.
The first words of the Bible, and as Morris states, probably the first words ever written, are Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Morris expounds upon how the second law of thermodynamics supports the Creation Theory and the definitive beginning point of time:
The difficulty of explaining such an orderly universe by natural processes is, of course, infinitely compounded by the fact that those processes, always constrained as they are by the second law of thermodynamics, are now causing the universe to proceed inexorably toward greater and greater degrees of disorder. Leading British astronomer Paul Davies has said, “The greatest puzzle is where all the order in the universe came from originally. How did the cosmos get wound up, if the second law of thermodynamics predicts asymmetric unwinding toward disorder?” The great puzzle is easily resolved. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” These are the simplest, yet most profound, words ever written, as well as probably the first words, and certainly the truest words, ever written. The entire universe and all of its laws and processes provide clear and unequivocal assurance of this foundational fact.
The fact that time must have had a beginning point is also the testimony of the second law of thermodynamics. The universe is now dying. Time’s arrow points downward and, if the second law continues to function, the universe will “die” in time. Since it is not dead, time had a beginning. If time stretched back eternally, the universe would already be dead.
The second law thus indicates that the universe must have been created—otherwise it would be dead. But the first law indicates that the universe could not create itself, since in the present structure of nature energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Consequently, the universe must have been created, at some beginning point of time, by an external cause adequate to the task of creating a complex, infinite, eternal universe.
Thus, the first verse of the Bible states the most profound—yet most simple—and most fundamental fact ever conceived or spoken. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Both of these laws, individually and jointly, clearly contradict the evolutionary cosmogony. Evolutionists purport to describe a cosmos in which all things come into existence and build themselves up into higher, more complex levels of existence by purely natural processes in a universe that is self-contained and self-sufficient. That is, evolution is a universal principle of innovation and integration, functioning in a closed-system universe. The laws of thermodynamics, on the other hand, describe a universal principle of conservation and disintegration, functioning in a universe that must, at least in its beginning, have been an open-system universe, created and energized by a Creator/energizer transcendent to it. That is, the two universal laws of science yield exactly the same conclusion stated in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The second law is expressed in a number of different ways, all of which are essentially equivalent to each other. Again calling on Asimov (no creationist or theist, but an atheist and evolutionary humanist) for an unbiased definition, he spoke of it this way:
We can say: ‘No device can deliver work unless there is a difference in energy concentration with the system, no matter how much total energy is used.’
Asimov then went on to give another very picturesque definition.
Another way of stating the Second Law: ‘The universe is constantly getting more disorderly.’
Viewed that way, we can see the Second Law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to itself, it becomes a mess again very quickly and very easily. Even if we never enter it, it becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses, and machinery, and our own bodies in perfect working order; how easy to let them deteriorate. In fact, all we have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out, all by itself—and that is what the Second Law is all about. [End of quotes]
The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “The Mystery of the Second Law:”
Their questions are in all the right places, but no answers for the carnally "enlightened" ones. The source of all knowledge is God, and His Bible is the owner’s manual that He has given man to navigate one’s life. To reject His Words is to be placed on the sea of this existence without compass: lost, and without purpose. Such is the spirit of evolution.
In the June 19, 2010 issue of Science News, in the "Bookshelf" feature, a new book by Sean Carroll is highlighted. The title of his book is From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. The following excerpt is from the Science News review of Carroll’s book:Caltech physicist Sean Carroll’s articulate exposition avoids any pretension of solving the problem. Instead, he tells a rich story of the various attempts to track time’s arrow to its source, which clearly has something to do with the second law of thermodynamics. That law requires the amount of disorder, or entropy, in a closed system to stay the same or increase over time until reaching its maximum possible level. Time marches forward because entropy in the past was lower than now. But that explanation merely restates the problem by defining "the past" as a time of lower entropy. Explaining time’s arrow, Carroll asserts, requires explaining why entropy was so low at the Big Bang. [End of quote]
II Timothy 3:7 speaks of the wicked and reads:
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The ungodly’s questions are in all the right places, but because of their clear rejection of God’s Word—the truth—they are doomed to their fruitless search and their quest for things like the source of the time arrow.
The review of Mr. Carroll’s book highlights three issues:(1.) Tracking time’s arrow to its source.
(2.) How the second law of thermodynamics and entropy rule the world of time.
(3.) Why was entropy [disorder] so low at the theorized Big Bang?
The source of time’s arrow is a creator issue. The law of entropy is a sin issue. Why disorder was so low in the beginning is an issue of the word good. Genesis 1:31:
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Concerning thermodynamics, Jeremy Rifkin writes the following in his book, Entropy: A World View:
Now, however, a new world view is about to emerge, one that will eventually replace the Newtonian world machine as the organizing frame of history: the Entropy Law will preside as the ruling paradigm over the next period of history. Albert Einstein referred to it as the supreme metaphysical law of the entire universe. The Entropy Law is the second law of thermodynamics. The first law states that all matter and energy in the universe is constant, that it cannot be created or destroyed. Only its form can change but never its essence. The second law, the Entropy Law, states that matter and energy can only be changed in one direction, that is, from usable to unusable, or from available to unavailable, or from ordered to disordered. [End of quote]
Much confusion and debate exist in the field of science concerning the second law of thermodynamics. It is theorized that at the Big Bang there was maximum chaos, which in scientific parlance means disorder or entropy, but time’s arrow contradicts because when one travels back in time, entropy decreases. This of course is the case, and now what do we do with the Big Bang?
Or how about this statement by Don Page in Nature under the heading, "Inflation Does Not Explain Time Asymmetry:"
The time asymmetry of the Universe is expressed by the second law of thermodynamics, that entropy [disorder] increases with time as order is transformed into disorder. The mystery is not that an ordered state should become disordered but that the early Universe was in a highly ordered state. [End of quote]
They have rejected the truth and consequently, are frustrated by the obvious facts.
Science is trying to track time’s arrow to its source. For every human, the clock is the harbinger of death. We are all born with a time limit attached to our lives and the second law reigns supreme. Was that the way it was in the beginning? The Scriptures teach that Adam and Eve were created to live forever, and therefore, the life clock in regard to man simply was not ticking. Amazingly enough, the Bible declares that in the end, time will be no more. Revelation 10:5-6:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Time’s arrow, the clock, is regulated by the second law of thermodynamics, which can simply be defined as order to disorder, life to death. The Scriptures call this scientific law "the law of sin and death." Sin equals death. Genesis 2:17:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Romans 8:2:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
I Corinthians 15:56-57:
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Time’s arrow in regard to man and this earth has a source alright, and that source is sin. But for the redeemed, this impediment will soon be gone, for sin and time shall be no more.
The truth-deniers in the field of science are flummoxed. "Explaining time’s arrow,” Carroll asserts, “requires explaining why entropy [disorder] was so low at the Big Bang." Keep in mind that entropy is a measurement of death (order to disorder; life to death). Why, they ask, was it so low at the theorized big explosion when the opposite should have been the case? The answer is oh-so gloriously simple. Genesis 1:31:And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Time’s clock was just not ticking.
The second law is the law of death and it is a product of sin. In the Scriptures, it is properly called the law of sin and death. This earth and its inhabitants, according to science and the Bible, are on a one-way street to destruction. Some scientists project that when entropy reaches its maximum, the universe will explode in a consuming blaze of fire. II Peter 3:10-12:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
For you and me, God has made a way of escape. Click onto "Further with Jesus" now, and again, it will be "very good."
GOD SAID, Isaiah 51:6:
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
GOD SAID, Matthew 24:35:
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
MAN SAID: Where is this “God of the Bible?” Let Him show Himself that we might believe!
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
GodSaidManSaid, “The Mystery of the Second Law”
Morris, H, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Master Books, 2002