Visit to Museum of Fine Arts

Yesterday DebbieLynne and I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After getting permission from one of the staff I took a few photos without flash, including the one above.

The featured exhibit at the Museum at the moment is "The Secrets of Tomb 10A Egypt 2000 BC."

The treasure trove of artifacts were from the tomb of Djehutynakht, who was governor of a province in Egypt 4,000 years ago.

In addition to these amazingly crafted models retrieved from the tomb, there were also the inner and outer coffins of the governor and his wife. On the inside and outside of those coffins were detailed inventories of thousands of items which had been included in the burial chambers. Most of the valuable items had been looted centeruies ago, but extensive lists tell us much about what the Egyptians believed was needed for the trip into the afterlife.

 I was impressed by how much effort had gone into the carving,  inscribing, decorating and constructing of this tomb. An instant after death the governor knew how useless all that work and all those items were to him.

 If those who believed a false religion could put so much effort into their work, how much more should Christians demonstrate their love for the one true God who sent His only begotten Son to die for them.

Shouldn't we heed the commandment to...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  Mark 12:30  NIV

I know we fall far short of that commandment. But we need to remember that it is a commandment, not a suggestion to be considered when we find the time to do so.

Just agreeing we should keep that great commandment isn't enough.We need to seek, fervently seek, God's help to do better at loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Where Did Everything Come From?

If you look around I'm pretty sure you'll come to the conclusion that something exists. You should at least conclude that you exist because even if you decided that nothing exists, you'd be the one deciding that.

If you came to believe (or claim to believe) that nothing existed you would have to be wrong. You couldn't believe anything at all nothing was all that there was.

So, something exists. Whoever is reading this exists (you) and whoever wrote it exists (me).

Again, observing what's is around us, and doing a bit of reading, most people could conclude that the Universe exists. It's a rather big Universe, don't you think? At least in comparison to...well...you or me.

Which brings me to the title of this blog entry. Where did everything come from?

I used to love reading science books and articles. That's when I learned that for awhile some scientists figured we lived in a steady state universe that with molecules and stars and galaxies just rambling around here and there and eventually ending up back where they started before rambling off in another direction.

But as telescopes and astronomical measuring instruments got better, it became obvious that the Universe had a beginning.

Golly! The Universe had a beginning! Then that means that everything in the Universe (including you and me) had a beginning.

Well, where did everything (in the Universe) come from?

Everything couldn't come from anything that was part of the Universe because it didn't exist yet. And whatever caused the Universe to begin must be bigger and greater than anything that came into existence at the beginning or ever since then.

The only possibility of knowing how the universe began, and came to have all that is in the universe, is if whatever caused it to begin communicated that information to us. We certainly couldn't find it out on our own.

Since you and I are fairly intelligent self aware personal beings who are capable of learning and communicating, it seems reasonable that whatever caused us (and everything else) to exist must also be personal and communicating and...teaching. I say teaching rather than learning because anything we might be able to learn must already be known by whatever made everything.

If the one who made everything is personal and can communicate thdn perhaps that maker or creator has communicated in a way that we can comprehend.

If the Maker of Everything in the Universe has communicated in a way we can comprehend, what should we do about it?

Should we tell the maker, I'm not interested in what You have to say to us?

Should we just busy ourselves with other things and ignore, reject, and make excuses for not looking into or heeding what the Maker may want us to know about Himself, His Creation, and us?

There is a book that includes a lot of very interesting passages.

One of those passages says:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
(Gen 1:1) NKJV Thomas Nelson Publishers (c) 1982)

Another passage says:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.(John 1:1-3) NKJV Thomas Nelson Publishers (c)1982

It seems to me that the best word to identify the Maker of everything that exists is the word God. And there is a book that declares that "In the beginning, God made..."

Does this God want to communicate with us? Well, there is that book called the Bible where we read these things. We also read:

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"
(John 1:14) NKJV (c) 1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers

If the One made everything is called the Word, and is the One who became flesh and dwelt among us, then shouldn't we give Him as much attention as we possibly can? Shouldn't we seek to learn from Him everything He wants to teach us?

If He has both given us a Book and come in the flesh to communicate with us and we deliberately and intentionally reject Him and what He has to say to us, would he be just in judging us?

Even if we try to convince ourselves that God wouldn't be just to judge us for rejecting Him and His Word, the only ones we'll be fooling is ourselves. The Creator who made everything is the only One who has the complete right and power to judge.

That should cause all of us to have enough fear and respect for the Maker to take whatever time it takes to learn what is in the book that might rightfully be called the written Word of God.

If the Bible is not the written Word of God then learning what is in it will at least give us some insights into some incredible writing.

If the Bible is the written Word of God, then learning what it in it may have consequences that are as eternal as the Holy God who inspired it to be written for us.

I Learn a Lot from My Wife

Yes, I do certainly learn a lot from my wife.

Before she moved here from California to marry me I would venture around Boston thinking about all the things I would get to show her in such a historic and modern city.

During our first excursion as husband and wife around Boston, for every one thing that I pointed out to her, she pointed out three or more things I'd never noticed before!

She also has taught me that just because certain foods sound threatening (like arti CHOKE hearts) and look really weird, I nevertheless I should try them at least once. Sure enough I now enjoy artichoke on my pizza.

Lately she's been teaching me more about Facebook (TM). Thanks to her I now have a link to my primary website under the photo on my profile page, just under where it identifies me as the "Happy hubby of DebbieLynne."

She's also helped me learn a lot more about becoming a good husband. I'd read a book or two before on the subject before getting married, but to really learn something like that it helps to (1) be married and (2) to have a considerate and patient wife like DebbieLynne.

A Snowy Sunday At Home

Since both my wife and I have physical limitations which include hindered breathing ability, we had to forgo going to church today due to the windy, below freezing, snowy weather.

After breakfast we watched John MacArthur preach a sermon from Ephesians 5 on spiritual warfare. We would rather have been in church, but since we couldn't be there we still wanted to hear teaching from the Word of God.

After lunch I asked DebbieLynne if she felt like playing Bookwormon her computer while I sat alongside to kibitz. Actually what I most enjoy doing is watch her find great words to play and get lots of points.

After a while I had to lie down to rest. When I got up again shortly before supper she was still playing BookWorm and I watched as she made it to 1,100,000 points, level 30, which she'd never done before. I don't know which of us enjoyed it more, her doing it or me getting to watch her reach the new level. She comes up with awesome words that I never would think of. (After all, she was an English Literature major in college.)

As with most mornings my wife and I read a passage of Scripture as we began our time of prayer together. (Praying together is something I would encourage all married couples to do.)

Two verses that were read this morning were these from the Gospel of John.

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 4:39-40) (New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica)

Those words of Jesus let us know that just reading the Bible doesn't give us eternal life.

John the Baptist certainly knew the Scriptures and when Jesus came along he realized who He was and why He had come. John the Baptist said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (NIV copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica).

If we don't believe the right things about Jesus then what we think we understand about the Bible is worthless. John the Baptist knew that the sacrifices of animals in the Scripture were just to let us know that payment had to be made for sin.

Jesus is that payment. He is the only one who was an acceptable sacrifice to pay for our sins because He was everything needed to be our perfect substitute. He was sinless, He was the Son of God and therefore holy, and also the Son of Man because He was actually a real flesh and blood human being.

When Jesus was here there were some who believed in Him and learned from Him and obeyed Him as their Savior and Lord.

There were others who rejected him. The consequences of rejecting Jesus as Savior and Lord are something people should greatly fear and do whatever is necessary to cease rejecting Him.

New Free Web Host And List Builder

I came across this program today and signed up for it. After all, the price was right, 100% Free.

Here is a web hosting company that lets you make money and build your list along with hosting your website all for free.

If you are looking for a low cost web host you can't get lower than free. And if this program can also help you build a mailing list and make money, then you should give it a try.

In the coming days I'll post what else I learn about this program. Or, if you've already had experience with it, feel to post about what you've learned.