Saturday, March 12, 2011

Japan, Archaeology, and Time

Videos of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan are truly impressive and thought-provoking. The force of nature is so powerful! To see ships, cars, and homes be uprooted and moved miles from their original location so effortlessly makes you wonder how easily the whole world could be destroyed if it wasn't for the grace of God.

Fortunately, in a sense, this is not happening in India, or Ethiopia, or even Haiti. The loss of life would likely be in the hundreds of thousands, if not in the millions. Few countries are as ready to handle this kind of overwhelming disaster as is Japan. But only the next few days and weeks will truly tell the extent of how bad things now are and what it will take for those folk to get back on their feet again. Our prayers and whatever assistance we can give, are with them. Shintoism, Buddhism, and secularism, the religions of Japan (70% of their population adhere to no religion) simply do not have the answers for things like this. Only a biblical worldview can help decipher the truth. May God's loving Spirit work powerfully on their behalf.

In other news, we began the archaeology meetings last night at the Pioneer Memorial Church, with a good attendance, maybe 700-800 people. Before you get confused, let me explain. This is not only to help the local area gain non-SDA interests and be on the menu of community outreach activities, the weekend will be taped for production and distribution to churches and homes. The division-wide unlink will still take place from Nashville, September 14 to 18, but the five sessions this weekend will allow us to tape it and make it available for home use. We hope to have the set ready, as well as leader's guides, by May, so people can use it during the summer to engage with neighbors and friends in their homes.

God works through these meetings. It is fascinating to see history unveil and intersect with Scripture. Many archaeological discoveries have confirmed ever more clearly the validity and truth of the Bible. People leave with a sense of confidence in Scripture. Those who don't have the habit of trusting the Bible, or reading it, often decide to look into it as never before. Last night, Dr Michael Hasel and I lectured for nearly 90 minutes, and not a person moved. Today, we have a marathon. We give four presentations, two in the morning, two in the evening. They're going to have to scoop us up from the floor once we're done tonight.

Please pray for these meetings. We're using all new graphics--they're beautiful--and would like to have a good tool for people and churches to use to connect with friends and neighbors.

Pray also for the evangelism manual. All the many components--over 100 pages--were finished yesterday. I just have to do the last editing tomorrow.

And pray for the Creation program content. This is my next huge task. I spent some time working on this last weekend with Dr Tim Standish, from GRI, my co-presenter. We're excited about the prospects, but we're doing this from scratch, and there is not a minute to spare. May 4 to 8 is fast approaching.

As of this morning, 380 churches had signed up for NET 11. There is a real momentum building. Please pray that other churches wishing to implement the Evangelism 360 approach--a comprehensive lifestyle approach to evangelism--may sign before the deadline, April 1. They will receive important resources for free.

We don't have much time left in this world. Family Radio has been touting the world will end on May 21, 2011, based on some creative and wrong interpretation of Scriptural passages. The point is that more and more people are wondering what is to become of our lives. The tragedy in Japan reminds us there are no guarantees in this world, and that only a meaningful and real relationship with our Creator and Redeemer will make sense and give us real joy and security.

Let's pray that we can do what we can for the world while there is still time.

"Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be time no longer."

Revelation 10:6, 7

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