ANOTHER YEAR - ANOTHER 365 DAYS

Man has been observing and recording time since God created humans with our special intelligence. The devices for doing this have changed over the years, but their accuracy from the beginning is very impressive.

Days are easy to understand – sunup and sundown mark them. Months are determined in part by the moon phases. Years also can be established by the sun’s position in the sky. And seasons are indicated by natural changes in animals and plants and the weather.

Weeks however, were given to us directly from God. He created the earth and life in six days and rested the seventh day – the Sabbath. He knew that we would weaken and run out of energy without a day of rest.

The time frame that causes confusion is the EON. This is primarily a geological term for a long range of time divided into eras and periods. Sometimes the fossil record gives a clue to the period in question, such as the Jurassic made famous by movies with that name in their titles. However, this is a completely hypothetical, man-made-up time with no natural or observable frame.

The attempt to date fossils and rocks with Radiometric Decay methods is not without error and assumptions. The range of the assumed ages of these items is sometimes a factor of millions or hundreds of millions of years. Fifty year old lava has been dated from 133 million to 3.9 billion years old.

The science seems pretty straightforward. Simply put, over time Potassium becomes Argon. If you measure the amount of Argon in a rock you can tell how much Potassium was there to begin with, since all natural rocks contain Potassium. By measuring the Argon you should be able to tell how long it took to produce that amount.

But here are the assumptions and unknowns. What was the condition of the rock forming? How many Potassium atoms were there originally? Was there any outside contamination of the Argon from water or other chemicals? Has the decay rate been constant? These all point to unprovable theories regarding Radiometric Decay dating. After all, the only one around more than 6.000 years ago was God Himself.

COPYRIGHT 2018 BY CARL E GUSTAFSON

WORSHIPING THE LORD IS A BLESSING

The music may be bad, the preaching less than perfect, but being in church on Sunday morning is a blessing. This is because just by making the effort to get up and attending with other believers to worship God together is a blessed activity.

Greeting brothers and sisters with a smile and a pleasant word encourages both you and them. Singing along as best you can is healthy both spiritually and mentally. Learning from the sermon is uplifting to mind and soul. Listening to the Lord is enlightening to our total being.

Giving is also a part of worship; knowing that we are advancing the Kingdom both locally and around the world. All we have comes from God, so we are simply returning a portion of it to His work.

But we need not worship only on Sunday. We carry on throughout the week by reading our Bible, listening to Christian music, [and singing along] and talking about Jesus to others with whom we come in contact.

And doing good for others is an extension of our worship. Our good works glorify God and demonstrate our love for our fellow man. This enables them to see God in us and through us. And together we praise God in our hearts and vocally too.

So, plan on attending a good Bible teaching church; plan on singing and greeting everyone with a smile; plan on giving to the church and other good causes; plan on listening to Christian music all week long; plan on reading your Bible – either the bound edition or on your phone; plan on talking about the Lord to others; and plan on doing good whenever and however you can.

And the more you do all of these things you will be both giving and receiving greater and greater blessings day after day.

COPYRIGHT 2018 BY CARL E GUSTAFSON