The Uniqueness of Christianity

Very well done sir!!

The Unsaved Sinner's Poem

Here is a poem I wrote...the fate of an unsaved soul is a terrible one...please repent and trust in Christ.

Through fading shadows, we live out our lives, this fleeting world and it's pleasures, flashes before our own eyes. In one split moment, the bell could ring, your times up, this is not a dream.

Now here you stand, before the Lord's throne, there is nothing to hide behind, not even a stone. All of His glory, shine's with brilliant light, you cannot comprehend it, it's blinding your sight.

You look down and away, trembling with fear and disbelief...you say,"The stories are true! Oh how my heart is filled with grief!"

"I require an account of all your life's days, your thoughts, your actions, your wicked and destructive ways." The Lord patiently waits for you to speak, there is nothing you could say, not even a squeek. You know you're condemned, your heart tells you so, where there is one witness, there is another who knows.

All ten commandments, you find that you've broken, because God is Just, He must pay you sins token. For that token is death and eternal fire...because you loved sin, it was your souls desire.

Wishing you had a second chance, you kneel and you cry, it was already given to you, before you had died. Not one chance, or two, or three or four, He showed you the truth, many times before. The Gospel was spoken to you, the story of God's love, but you rejected His Son, who paid sins penalty with His blood.

The Lord looks down from His throne, grievingly so, "Take him away, off to hell he must go." You look up at God, for one final plea, "Lord please send my loved ones a Saint, so they don't end up like me."

The Heavens Declare

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." - Psalm 19:1

Perhaps you live in a city, surrounded by lights that pollute the night sky. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get away once in a while, to a nice dark, kind of secluded place and just stare up at the night sky and just look up. The new moon phase is the best time to do so, and usually begins at the end of the month/beginning of the next. The glory of God is displayed in His beautiful creation, the heavens declare His majesty, the stars are inumerable and attest to the greatness of the Lord!

This is the second night in a row the Aurora Borealis aka, The Northern Lights, have been out. I may have been the only person in grand forks to have noticed that the slight haze in the sky was actually something amazing, and being able to capture that moment in time...was a blessing. As I get ready to leave North Dakota, one thing I will miss, is being able to see the sights of the night sky, that many, MANY people miss out on. I just think they have forgotten.

Been A While

It's been a few weeks since I've posted. I have taken alot of pictures since then and also have been hitting a few bumps in the road. Thought this sermon titled, "Offer Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice" by Paul Washer (one of my favorite preachers) might be of interest for you to listen to. I haven't watched/listened to it yet, but by the title and the preacher, it is probably really good.

For Many other free videos visit the website: www.sermonindex.net

Archaeology and the Bible

http://bibleandarchaeology.blogspot.com/

Check out this guy's blog! Amazing stuff let me tell you. Alot of people are doubtful that people, names, and places in the Bible are real. We'll take a look at some secular sources and artifacts that provide more grounding truth to the Bible, starting off with the link posted. God is awesome, let me tell ya...

The Bible- Part 2

It's been a little while since I've posted, so I'll try to keep up with them! Now, back to the Bible, part 1 was just a little background information about the Bible, and now we will look into one of the very unique things about it that no other book has. Fulfilled prophecy.

There are two categories of biblical prophecies: Messianic and Non-Messianic. We will focus on Messianic for right now. There are over 300 prophecies in the Bible that were fulfilled concerning Jesus, like His birth place, how He would die, His resurrection... written hundreds of years before they happened. Here is a list of those prophecies: 365 Prophecies fulfilled by Christ

One professor took it into his own hands to figure out the probabilty of one man fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies, he and a handful of students (about 600) have this to say:

"After examining eight different prophecies, they conservatively estimated that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10 to the 17th power.

To illustrate how large the number 10 to the 17th power is (a figure with 17 zeros), Stoner gave this illustration. Imagine covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars to a level of two feet deep. The total number of silver dollars needed to cover the whole state would be 10 to the 17th power. Now, choose just one of those silver dollars, mark it and drop it from an airplane. Then thoroughly stir all the silver dollars all over the state.

When that has been done, blindfold one man, and tell him he can travel wherever he wishes in the state of Texas. But some time he must stop, reach down into the two feet of silver dollars and try to pull up that one specific silver dollar that has been marked.

Now, the chance of his finding that one silver dollar in the state of Texas would be the chance the prophets had for eight of their prophecies coming true in any one man in the future."

So..10 to the 17th power: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. Now imagine the probability of 48 prophecies....that's 10 to the 157th power! There are over 300 fulfilled by Jesus Christ!! There is no possible way one man could fulfill just 8 of these, no other religous text touches the Bible, the Bible should be on a shelf all by itself, with any and all other books on the shelf below it. Think about the implications. Since these prophecies are true, then there is a God, and He wants you to know who He is.... head on over to needGod.com  and take the good person test. Where will you go when you die?

The Bible- Part 1

Many people own a Bible, but that's not to say that each one of them reads it though. Most the time, their Bible sits on the shelf to collect dust, rarely to be opened. I have been and sometimes still am guilty of this, and by no means am I excusing myself. Other people think of the Bible as some "bronze-age book with fairy tales" and that since times have changed, it doesn't apply. I beg to differ. But let's take a look at some very interesting things about it, which I will attempt to break up into parts over the course of the next few posts.

Just a short introduction to the Bible:

-The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years
-Written by more than 40 authors from every walk of life (kings, peasants, military leaders, fishermen, musicians, scholars, tax collectors, philosophers, shepards, etc.)
-The Bible is made up of two testaments (66 books): the Old Testament (containing 39 books) was composed from about 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C., and the New Testament (containing 27 books) was written from approximately A.D. 50 to A.D. 90.
-Was written on 3 continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe and in 3 languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
-The Bible addresses hundreds of controversial subjects, yet from Genesis through Revelation, the writers addressed them with amazing harmony. (Try getting 10 people from the same city to agree on one controversial subject, I doubt you will!)

One word to describe the Bible, is the word "unique". Let's take a look at the definition as Merriam-Webster defines it:
1: being the only one
2a: being without a like or equal:unequaled

It is unique in its continuity, like I stated before, all the authors agree on the same controversial subjects, yet all are from different walks of life.

It is unique in its circulation and in it's translation. Selling millions of copies (in a year) and is in over 2,000 languages.

Is unique in it's survival. It has been persecuted and criticized yet withstands to this day. Many have tried to outlaw it and burn it. Interesting to note that the French infidel Voltaire, who died in 1778, said that within 100 years from his time, Christianity would be swept from existance and passed into history. 50 years after his death, his printing press was used to print bibles at his house.

It is unique in it's teachings. We will get into more of this later, but with hundreds of prophecies fulfilled, scientific facts, and it being very specific about controversial topics, it is hard to dismiss this as some "bronze age" book.

God's word has changed millions of lives over the course of history. We will end up diving a bit deeper into what the Bible consists of over the next few posts, and I hope you stick with me, as it is very thought provoking and hopefully will end up answering some questions you may have.

-Zach

Happy Late 4th

Well, yesterday was the 4th of July (Happy Late Independence Day!). It's been a while since blogging (I don't believe I have many followers (if any) haha. I was on leave down in Kansas where my folks live, and got to see my family all together in one spot for the first time in 3 years! God is good for allowing me to go on leave and see the ones I love. Enjoy the firework pics! Because I won't be taking any until next year!

Shocking Youth Message

I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with work, and also, battling against sin. The Christian life isn't easy...it's a constant battle against flesh and Spirit, and the only way to fight it, is on your knees, praying to God.

I thought that maybe this video sermon I'll post, by my favorite pastor, Paul Washer, would shake those who watch it, in hopes the Lord may bring some to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is worth watching all the way to the end.

Storm

Yesterday, the tornado sirens went off. So like any normal person, I grabbed my camera and jumped in my truck to go find one. I've seen the movie "Twister" one to many times, enough to make people want to turn it off because I say the lines before the actor does.

On my way to the most promising clouds, I get stuck in a long line of traffic held up by a train...10 minutes later (the longest 10 minutes of my life) I was on the highway, looking for a good spot to see one if it decides to pop down for a visit.

Well, many pictures and 2 and a half hours later, the teasing ended, and no tornado touched down. Right before I was done I caught this beautiful sight, the sun setting beneath the storm clouds, and above you can see how high they tower above the ground. If there had been a wide angle lens or a fisheye lens at my disposal, you could have seen the rest of what I saw, but this was just a taste. I could not help but be in awe of such beauty and give glory to God and thank Him for letting my eyes see such beautiful displays of His majesty and power.

Controversy

Why do people show so much contempt, disdain, hatred, towards the Bible and the central figure of it, God? Why do they turn their ear a different direction, close their eyes, and shut off their mind, whenever the subject is brought up?

I've come to believe people do so, because it is very convicting. They don't like the notion of being told what's right and wrong or what they can or cannot do, which only solidifies the truth of what the Bible says about man. We are rebellious, we don't want someone telling us that what we are doing is wrong.

So then, mankind invents excuses, to look for other another way out. This is precisely why Evolution was made up (along with various other worldviews), to provide an alternative means to where we have "freedom" from conviction, where we decide what is right and wrong, that there are no absolutes, and everything is relative to the person. (I will get into the topic of "relativity" later on in my blog, to show you its self-refuting nature and the problems with it)

This is a very controversial topic, in which over the course of time, I intend to break down into various subjects, and show you, that the Bible is true in what it says, that we are sinful, and that their is indeed a God whom we are accountable to.

www.needGod.com : I highly encourage you visit this site. Are you a good person?...

-Zach

Milky Way

I took this about a week and a half ago. Astrophotography isn't easy, as you can see it is a little blurry and in the larger image file you can see star trailing.  But you can make out details of some star clusters and even the star dust. Our eyes can't detect some of (or most of I should say) the colors that the stars/space has to offer, but cameras can.

In order to get a detailed picture, one needs to compensate for the earth's rotation, a mount with tracking capabilities will do the job, but...boy are they expensive...

It's a shame we have so much light pollution...many millions of people are missing out on magnificent views of thousands and thousands of stars. If you are able, find a spot away from cities, and enjoy the sight God wants us to see!

First Post

Well, I'm new to this whole blogging thing...I guess my whole objective here is to showcase photos I've taken, (which is a recent hobby I picked up late last fall (2010), and in turn, hope to glorify God through photography by capturing still images of His beautiful creation!

And also, to talk and to discuss things about Christianity, the Bible, Creation, you know...things of that sort.

Bear with me, I'm no professional, (in either area), but I hope you can enjoy!