Category: Bible

December 10, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 2:12-29 continues the message to the seven churches, church three and four: Pergamos, a church that looked good but compromised itself, and the church of Thyatira, a corrupted church, but with hope of repentance. These can be seen as seven historical churches; which they were, but also as seven types of churches as they exist today and throughout history. They can also be taken as seven states of the individual believer. Whichever way you take it, there is something in it for every believer, even today.

Habakkuk 1 begins with the prophet’s first complaint and the LORD’s reply. After that the prophet poured out his second complaint.

Habakkuk 2. The LORD answered the prophet to his second complaint. It contains this gem, just as valid today as it was then: “The just shall live by his faith“.  On the other hand God promised more woes to the wicked.

December 9, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 2:1-11 begins the message to the seven churches. The first two are: Ephesus; the church that lost its first love and Smyrna; the church that stood firm even when it was persecuted;  These can be seen as seven historical churches, which they were, but also as seven types of churches as they exist today and through history. They can also be taken as seven states of the individual believer. Whichever way you take it, there is even today something in it for every believer.

Proverbs 26 is a collection of more proverbs of Solomon collected after his death during the reign of Hezekiah.

Psalm 145, a Psalm of Praise, of David. In an acrostic fashion David praised God for his fame, glory and for His goodness; for his kingdom and His providence, and most of all for his saving mercy.

Psalm 146 is the first of the five final songs in the Book of Psalms, known as the Hallelujah Psalms. This one gives praise to the Lord for creation, for what He is doing and will do forever.

Daisy World, The Gaia Hypothesis and the real story of Creation. Part 5: “Day 4:” The creation of the Sun, Moon and Stars completed.

It has always puzzled me that God said “let there be light” on “day one” of creation, but did not associate it with the sun. This, in a strange way convinced me that the story of creation came from God and not from man. If it were from man they would of course have started with the sun to explain night and day as a 24 hour period.

In 1927, Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest published a paper that provided a compelling solution to the equations of General Relativity for the case of an expanding universe. This was confirmed in 1931 by Edwin Hubble, and the expanding universe became widely accepted, and the Big Bang hypothesis, where the whole universe could be explained by having started by a singularity. Without being able to explain how a singularity could possibly happen, it was a convenient way to explain away God, And after the Hubble telescope was launched nearly all astronomers agreed it was so, and the universe was 13.88 Billion years old. This lasted until the Webb telescope was launched, and much of what had been accepted as true was not so, for instance they found galaxies that were over 14 billion years old. In addition they found that intergalactic water was found in mass earlier than the Big Bang theory had predicted that water could form. The earth and the Solar System were in a state of chaos until about 4.6 Billion years ago. This was in the middle of “day 3”. Our solar system is formed as a result of earlier supernovas having generated all the natural elements in the right proportions for life to be possible. The mixture of hydrogen and all elements finally formed a disc, and hydrogens got concentrated into a cloud, and the 10 planets, including earth making clouds at their proper distances from the center. The Earth got fully formed, but the Sun concentrated all its gasses as a protostar for another 10 to 50 million years until the core temperature reached 15 million degrees Celsius so fusion could really begin and stabilize. Therefore it states in Genesis 1:14-19: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

The Moon was formed later. One theory is that about 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized protoplanet named Theia collided with the young Earth and separated from it.

With the Sun warming up fully, the algae and other plants really started growing, so God was then in a position to create something to consume the carbohydrates and all that plant life produced. It also helped that in the young earth the CO2 concentration was more than 10,000 ppm, or more than 50 times what it is today. It also happened that the Sun produced just the right amount of heat, and the Earth is just at the right distance from the sun to produce an ecosystem that produced the ideal temperature range to sustain organic life.

Next installment: The birds and the fishes.

December 8, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Revelation 1. The final book of the Bible begins with an introduction and promises a blessing to all who read it and take it to heart. It sends a greeting to the seven Churches followed by the most wonderful vision of the Son of Man.

Nahum 3. The prophet Nahum ended with a “woe to Nineveh.”

December 7, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

Jude. Greetings from the half-brother of Jesus Christ to the called ones. Jude told the followers to contend for the faith for there had crept in apostates in the church, and since they lived in the last days he urged them to maintain their life with God and give all glory to God.

Nahum 1 speaks of God’s wrath on His enemies, in this case the coming destruction of Nineveh.

Nahum 2 is a prophesy of the coming fall of Nineveh.

December 6, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

3 John. The Apostle sent a greeting to Gaius, who was commended for his love and generosity, and urged to follow good people like Demetrius, but to avoid bad people like Diotrephes. The letter ends with a farewell greeting. That’s it.

Proverbs 25 is a collection of more proverbs of Solomon collected after his death during the reign of Hezekiah.

Psalm, 141, of David. A short Psalm telling that confession without compromise comes before God’s protection and victory over evildoers.

Psalm 142, of David. When all strength fails “The LORD is my only refuge.”

Psalm 143, of David. There is hope, even in the deepest despair.

Psalm 144, of David. He is a man of war, but gives praise to God with a new song, for God is the one who grants victory.

December 5, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

2 John is a very short letter, greeting the elect lady with joy that she and some of her children walk in Christ’s commandments, but also warning her to beware of Antichrist deceivers.

Micah 5. The promise of the coming Messiah: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  But first, God promised punishment of Israel’s injustice.

Micah 6. The LORD laid out His a case against Israel and how He will punish Israel’s injustice. One remedy: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?“

Micah 7. The prophet expressed deep sorrow for Israel’s sins, coupled with the hope that the nation will rise again and that God will forgive Israel.

Daisy World, The Gaia Hypothesis and the real story of Creation. Part 3: Prepare the ecosystem.

We find this in Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV) And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. But God did NOT say: “It was good”
The creation story is interesting reading. God takes a whole day out His busy schedule of creation just to form an environment with water in all its forms in what we call the atmosphere or “sky”. He has yet to create life. Could it be, that water in all its forms are necessary to form and sustain life, so a sustainable ecosystem had to be prepared first?

God created the earth too be just heavy enough to hold on to water vapor, and water is unique because its melting point and boiling point is within the range of bring able to participate in sustaining life. It also has the second (after ammonia) highest specific heat capacity of all known substances. To melt 1 gram of ice takes 80 calories, to heat it takes 1 calorie per gram and to boil it at ground levels takes 539 calories. (The calories you eat are actually kilo-calories). This makes water the ideal substance to moderate and regulate climate. Water vapor evaporates from the ocean, cooling it down and water vapor, being lighter than air rises and condenses as clouds form. The clouds are the most important temperature regulator, much more important than all other greenhouse gases combined. Clouds transport heat from the equator to the temperate areas and to the poles. Without this the equator temperature would be in excess of 145 F. In addition clouds have a high reflection of incoming sunlight, reflecting incoming heat back into space. The earth has never been to warm to sustain complicated life, nor is there any danger of overheating unless clouds disappear. In fact, the next major climate change is the next ice age.

The picture above shows the friendly earth we are living in today. On the second “day” of creation situation was quite different. The sun was not fully created yet, and the earth was still in its chaotic state. All God did was to prepare the ecosystem. The earth was still cooling down from creation, and water evaporated and formed a cloud that covered the whole earth. This is why God did NOT say “it was good” on the second day, it was just the preparation.

Next: The creation of life.

December 4, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

1 John 5. Being born of God and believing in the son of God means exercising obedience by Faith. The certainty of God’s witness is : “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” There is  confidence and compassion in prayer, We must follow the true one and reject the false. And so the letter ends: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

Micah 1. The prophet told of the coming judgment on Israel with mourning for Israel and Judah.

Micah 2. The prophet proclaimed woe to evildoers and lying prophets. After that Israel will be restored.

Micah 3. There was wicked rulers and wicked prophets. Micah still had full confidence in God.

Micah 4 speaks of the LORD’s future reign in Zion and Zion’s triumph.

December 3, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; with comments.

1 John 4. Test the spirits. There is the spirit of God, and then there are many spirits of the Antichrist. Remember: “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” We know God through love and we see God through love, “We love him, because he first loved us.”

Proverbs 24 completes the sayings of the wise, and begins some more sayings of the wise. The two last verses are notable: “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:  So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

Psalm 137. When the Jews were exiled into captivity they were forced to sing songs on their way. So somebody wrote a psalm about it. Compare that to when Paul and Silas were put in jail, they voluntarily sang songs of praise to God.

Psalm 138. David, as psalmist reminds us that God will honor His word and perform it to completion.

Psalm 139, of David. God knows everything, and He knows me much better than I know myself. Fittingly, the Psalm ends up with a song: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Psalm 140, of David. A heartfelt prayer for deliverance from evildoers.