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If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of teenagers everywhere! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, you can join Heart4Teens.com readers around the world by visiting: http://www.Heart4Teens.com/Heart4Teens

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Are You Ready for Game Day?


Well sports fans, fall is upon us, and the full array of athletic competition has been rolled out like a red carpet that leads to the stage of glory.

First there is football…


America’s love affair with the men (and occasionally women) who compete on the gridiron is undeniable. There are husbands who literally tell there wives that they will see them in January when all the High School, NCAA and NFL championships are done. There are fans who paint their bodies and act in ways that are certifiably insane, unless of course they are done in honor of their team.

are-you-ready-for-game-day-1Then on the middle and high school campus, athletes are disciplining themselves to be the best of the best. Soccer and Tennis and Cross Country contests (to name a few) are happening in every city and county in the country, where athletes taste the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Whether you’re a starter, a benchwarmer, a bleacher bum, or you despise all sports hands down, there is a huge lesson we can take away from the obsession with sports that plays out in our culture—

If we treated the Christian life like a sport, we would all be more effective in loving and serving Jesus.

That’s what the Apostle Paul thought anyway, and can’t you just imagine him sporting an authentic jersey or doing the wave with the Greeks during the ancient Olympics? That’s why he challenges us with these words:

We all know that when there’s a race, all the runners bolt for the finish line, but only one will take the prize. When you run, run for the prize!  Athletes in training are very strict with themselves, exercising self-control over desires, and for what? For a wreath that soon withers or is crushed or simply forgotten. That is not our race. We run for the crown that we will wear for eternity.  So I don’t run aimlessly. I don’t let my eyes drift off the finish line. When I box, I don’t throw punches in the air.  I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after all this, after I have brought the gospel to others, I will still be qualified to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).


Paul saw the Christian life in terms of athletic competition in two distinct ways. First, he realized that following Jesus is a competition for a prize that will last forever. To win it, we must remember that we compete against ourselves and the enemy. When we forget that, we may end up just barely crossing the finish line or even worse— disqualified—which means we don’t receive the wreath of victory. To be victorious, we must long to hear “well done, good and faithful servant” from Jesus Christ on Judgment Day as He places a victory wreath around our neck.

The athletes who were victorious in Paul’s day took a vow to train for 10 months and deny themselves anything that would get in the way of winning. Sadly, I feel like Christians today wouldn’t give up 10 minutes a day to study God’s Word, pray and share the gospel with others.

Paul also made the comparison of treating the Christian life like a training schedule. He wanted to make every “punch” count, and he woke up every morning with the determination to not let his physical body rule over his spiritual calling to “deny himself and take up his cross” (Luke 9:23).

The bottom line here is that we need to start looking at our commitment to Christ like a race and like a fight. We are racing against time and our sin nature to receive the prize from Jesus, and we are in a competition for the very souls of our friends and family.
 

are-you-ready-for-game-day-2So would you start considering yourself to be a spiritual athlete? If you and I want to see people trust Christ and THE Cause go forward, we must enter into the kind of spiritual training that makes pro athletes look like lazy couch potatoes by comparison.

Start tomorrow by getting up 10 minutes earlier to talk to Jesus about your day. Deny yourself the temptation to post a status update or tweet for the 57th time today so you can check in on the love letter God sent you in the pages of the Bible. And when the enemy tries to tackle you as you attempt to score a goal for THE Cause, straight-arm him in the face with the strength that comes from living in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Know that one day we will all give an account to The Judge for the race that we ran for Him. Visualize standing before Christ for your life recap and performance review—that should highly motivate you to run the very best race you possibly can!

But most importantly, when you consider all that Jesus has done for you, how can you do anything less than give Him your all? Let your love for Christ drive you to great levels of discipline and focus which will lead to spiritual victories for His glory and His kingdom!


Are you ready for game day?


Flashpoint

Whether or not you consider yourself an athlete, if you follow Jesus, you are a spiritual athlete who is in a competition. Think of one specific way you can train harder and compete with excellence. For example, get up 10 minutes earlier and spend time in prayer and His Word.


Accelerant


PrayFather, we commit ourselves to the kind of spiritual training that You’ve called us to so we can win the prize of Your high calling. Give us motivation and strength to see each day as an opportunity to compete for Your glory.


ReadPhilippians 4:13. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.


GetReckless…Following Jesus to the Point of No Return. Check out Zane Black’s latest book, Reckless, and explore the epic and sometimes risky adventure of following Jesus! Jesus went all in for you. Are you ready to go all in for Him?


new_sf_causecircle

      

Source: Dare2Share.org
Used by Permission

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Creation Q & A

Can You Do Science Without God?
 

Many people today insist that science can only be done by people who have a secular worldview—or at least by those who are willing to leave their religious views at the door as they enter the science lab. Several popular atheists and evolutionists have contended that people who reject the big bang and the evolution of living things are so backward that they cannot even be involved in developing new technologies.1 But is this really the case, or are these opponents of a biblical worldview simply making assertions that cannot be supported with facts and substantial arguments, having an incorrect understanding of true science?

A friend of the ministry was recently challenged by the comment that science can only be done through a purely secular evolutionary framework. We have decided to publish a response for the sake of teaching. Such statements are blatantly absurd and are a type of arbitrary fallacy called an “ignorant conjecture.” In other words, these people simply do not know the past, nor are they familiar with what science really is.

Examples of Scientists Operating from a Christian Worldview

If science is a strictly secular endeavor without any need for a biblical worldview, then why were most fields of science developed by Bible-believing Christians? For example, consider Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Johann Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, Blaise Pascal, Michael Faraday, James Joule, Joseph Lister, and James Clerk Maxwell. Were these “greats” of science not doing science? Francis Bacon developed the scientific method, and he was a young-earth creationist and devout Christian.

Even in modern times, the inventor of the MRI scanning machine, Dr. Raymond Damadian, is a Christian working with Christian principles. The founder of catastrophic plate tectonics, Dr. John Baumgardner,is also a devout Christian. And those who recently founded the scientific field of baraminology are also Christians. Also, I (Bodie Hodge) developed a new method for production of submicron titanium diboride for the materials science and ceramics industry. Professor Stuart Burgess developed a new mechanism for the two-billion-dollar European (ESA) satellite Envisat. Dr. John Sanford developed the gene gun. And let’s not forget Werner Von Braun, the young-earth Christian who was the founder of rocket science and led the U.S. to the moon. These are but a few examples of people who held to a biblical worldview and were quite capable as scientists and inventors of new technologies.

The Foundation for Science Is Biblical Christianity

Furthermore, science comes out of a Christian worldview. Only the God described in the Bible can account for a logical and orderly universe. God upholds the universe in a particular way, such that we can study it by observational and repeatable experimentation (see Genesis 8:22). Because God upholds the universe in a consistent manner, we have a valid reason to expect that we can study the world we live in and describe the laws that God uses to sustain the universe (Colossians 1:17).

In the secular view, where all matter originated by chance from nothing, there is no ultimate cause or reason for anything that happens, and explanations are constantly changing, so there is no basis for science. Though many non-Christians do science, like inventing new technologies or improving medical science, they are doing it in a manner that is inconsistent with their professed worldview. On what basis should we expect a universe that came from nothing and for no reason to act in a predictable and consistent manner? When non-Christians do real science by observable and repeatable experimentation, they are actually assuming a biblical worldview, even if they do not realize it.

It makes sense why “science” in the U.S. is losing out to other nations since our science education system now limits science in the classroom exclusively to the religion of secular humanism.

It Is Not “Science vs. Religion”

So, the debate is not “science versus religion.” It is really “religion versus religion.” Sadly, science is caught up in the middle.

The battle is between the religion of secular humanism (with its variant forms like agnosticism, atheism, and the like), which is usually called secularism or humanism for short, and Christianity. They both have religious documents (e.g., the Humanist Manifestos I, II, and III for humanists, and the Bible for Christians); both are recognized religions by the Supreme Court;2 and both receive the same 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Both have different views of origins.

Humanism has astronomical evolution (big bang), geological evolution (millions of years of slow gradual changes), chemical evolution (life came from non-life) and biological evolution (original, single-celled life evolved into all life forms we have today over billions of years) in its view of origins. In other words, evolution (as a whole) is a subset of the dogma of the religion of humanism in the same way as biblical creation (as a whole, with six-day Creation, the Fall, global Flood, and the Tower of Babel) is a subset of the dogma of Christianity. It is a battle over two different religions.

In recent times the state and federal governments kicked Christianity out of the classroom, thinking they kicked religion out; but instead, they just replaced Christianity with a godless religion of humanism. This was done as a designed attack by humanists. Consider this quote in the magazine The Humanist that outlines the plan they had already been striving toward in the early 1980s:

I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.3

An Evolutionary Worldview Equals Science?

There is a misconception that this evolutionary subset of humanism is science. Science means knowledge and scientific methodology that is based on the scientific method (observable and repeatable experimentation). However, evolution (whether chemical, biological, astronomical, or geological) is far from scientific. Consider the following facts:

  1. No one has been able to observe or repeat the making of life from non-life (matter giving rise to life or chemical evolution).
  2. No one has been able to observe or repeat the changing of a single-celled life-form like an amoeba into a cow or goat over billions of years (biological evolution).
  3. No one has been able to observe or repeat the big bang (astronomical evolution).
  4. No one has observed millions of years of time progressing in geological layers (geological evolution).

The reason some people are confused about the religion of humanism—and specifically its subset of evolution—as being science is a bait and switch fallacy. Let me explain. One of the key components of humanism is naturalism. Basically, it assumes a priori there is nothing supernatural and no God. In other words, nature (i.e., matter) is all that exists in their religion (only the physical world).

As a clarifying note, Christians also believe in the natural realm; but unlike the naturalist or humanist, we believe in the supernatural realm, too (i.e., the spiritual, abstract, conceptual, and immaterial realm). Logic, truth, integrity, concepts, thought, God, etc., are not material and have no mass; so those holding to naturalism as a worldview must reject logic, truth, and all immaterial concepts if they wish to be consistent since these are not material or physical parts of nature.

This is very important because naturalism or natural science has been added as one of the dictionary definitions of science. For example, it was not found in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary, but it was added in one form in the 1913 edition. And, interestingly, they removed the definition that “the science of God must be perfect” in the 1913 edition.

So, although many appeal to observable and repeatable science through methodology to understand how the universe operates, another definition has been added to muddle this.4 Science is now defined as “knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method5

For example, evolutionists have continued to popularize Darwin’s scientific observation of the changes in beaks of Galapagos finches as proof for the evolution of one animal kind into another. This is a great example of the bait and switch fallacy where scientists present real scientific evidence (the difference in finch beaks) but stretch the truth to say it gives validity to the Greek mythology of microbes to man evolution (the “switch” part of the fallacy). This trick leads many to believe that evolution is real science. The only real science in this example is the observation of the difference in finch beaks.

People are baited with this good methodology of science (again developed by a Christian named Francis Bacon) and then they are told that evolution is science while subtly appealing to another added definition: that of “natural science” or “naturalism.”

This is like saying another definition of science is “Nazism.” Then Nazis could say they are “scientists” and get into a classroom! This is what has happened with humanism. The religion of humanism (with its founding principle of naturalism) has been disguised as science by adding another definition to the word science. But it is not the good science we think of that makes computers, space shuttles, and cars. It is a religion. To call evolution science is a bait and switch tactic.

So, Is Science Strictly Secular?

No. In summary, science can never be strictly secular for these reasons:

  • Real science is observable and repeatable experimentation that only makes sense in a biblical worldview where God’s power keeps the laws of nature consistent. In other words, science proceeds from a biblical worldview.
  • Secular humanism, with its subset of evolution, is in reality a religion and not science.
  • Many of the greatest scientists were Bible-believing Christians whose biblical worldview motivated their scientific studies, showing that a strictly secular view is not necessary for performing science.

Final Note: Where Humanism Leads

Christians will continue to conduct scientific inquiry and invent things, processes, and science fields as we always have. If the U.S. and other places neglect our accomplishments and inventions and continue to push the religion of humanism on unsuspecting kids in the classroom (usually unbeknownst to most) by limiting its definition of science to the humanistic worldview, then my humble suggestion is that they will continue down the same road where humanism leads. That is, people who are consistent in their naturalistic worldview shouldn’t care about true science or the world, since nothing ultimately matters in that worldview.

Footnotes

  1. As an example of this dismissive attitude, Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a leading religious humanist, says, “Like other pseudosciences, ‘creation science’ seeks support and adherents by claiming the mantle of science.” (http://ncse.com/rncse/23/1/my-favorite-pseudoscience)
  2. The U.S. Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins, 81 S.Ct. 1681 (1961), stated the following: “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God, are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.”
  3. J. Dunphy, “A Religion for a New Age,” The Humanist, January–February 1983, p. 23, 26.
  4. There is also the issue of operational science versus historical science. For more, see http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee/what-is-science.
  5. Merriam-Webster Online, s.v. “science,” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science (accessed March 8, 2013).
Source: AnswersinGenesis.org

 

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Creation News

Click on the Bible above or visit the web site listed below!

http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Creation_News

This new addition to our web site will give you an article on the leading news in the
Creation/Evolution controversy each day. This section also includes a rotating
Question and Answer feature and a weekly Creation Comic strip from the people
at AnswersInGenesis.org. Be sure to come back and visit each day for an informative
article that will help you keep up to date on the latest news in this controversial area!

 

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Thought For The Day

"A great person is always willing to be little."


Verse for the Day

"But the greatest among you shall be your servant." Matthew 23:11


Kid's Thought for the Day

"Be the first to make footprints in new snow."


Parent's Thought For The Day

"A father is a thing that growls when it feels good...and laughs very loud when it's scared to death."--Paul Harvey


Coach's Thought For The Day

"The more you know about your players, the more you treat them differently." --Bob Bozied


Writer's Thought For The Day

"Writing is not hard. Just get paper and pencil, sit down and write it as it occurs to you. The writing is easy -- it's the occurring that's hard." --Stephen Leacock


Deep Thought For The Day


"How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak."


Punny Thought For The Day

"I thought I saw an eye-doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian."

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Over 375,000 people have listened to popular Chicken Soup Author Michael T. Powers' free inspirational message entitled: "Breathing Life into Others". If you aren't one of them just visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com and click on the link to listen to the free streaming audio message.

 

http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/Youth


ALL-STAR Youth Ministry
 

--The Youth Church of Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI

Check out our youth group! If you are in 7-12th grade and live in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area come check us out! Jr. High meets on Sunday mornings from 9:30 am - 10:30 am. High School age meets on Sunday night from 6:30-8:00 pm at Faith Community Church which is located at 2931 Lucerne Dr. in Janesville, WI. (About 3 blocks south-east of the Pontiac Convention Center.)

Currently we have students from Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Janesville Craig, Janesville Parker, Marshall, Franklin, Edison, Clinton, Parkview, Beloit Memorial, and Beloit Turner, Tagos, Oakhill Christian and Rock County Christian. E-mail me back if you have any questions about our weekly meetings or would like to come to any of our events that are listed below... We have way too much fun and then, most importantly, talk about issues that are relevant to you as a teenager.

 

This Week: Sunday October 6

Home Coming (The Prodigal Son -The Drama of The Elder Son)


Visit our youth web site to see our topics through 2014!

http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/upcoming_topics



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http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/Small_Groups

Teen Community Groups

6:30 - 8:00 PM Wednesday nights -- These groups are limited to no more than ten teens and are split into Jr. High and High School ages. This night is for those teens who want to dig deeper than what we do on Sundays. These cell groups will also be doing special activities with each other as the year goes on to build community.

 


For more info on our small groups, visit: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/small_groups

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