Missionary Update - Gordon & Cindy Wyant

Gordon & Cindy Wyant – Bible’s International
Board: BMM

• Gordon traveled to Central African Republic in January to check on a Bible revision that was not making good progress. He spent a week in the CAR and was able to negotiate with the national leadership to restart and reenergized the effort to make this revision happen. He is thankful for the help of colleagues and there is a completion date set for January 2011.
• In March, Gordon went to Brazil with daughter Becky to spent time with his other daughter, Andrea and family. They were able to celebrate Becky’s 15 year anniversary since cancer!
• Gordon’s next adventure is to Chad, Africa in June. There are 8 active translation efforts at various stages of completion.
• Continue to pray for Cindy as she helps Gordon and her mother.
• Pray for money to continue to come in for translations to continue as this economy has affecting some donations.
• The Wyant’s monthly support is only at 70%. Pray as they trust God for His supply.

Their Missionary Page - CLICK HERE

Mother Daughter Promo - Part 1

Ladies, join us for our upcoming Mother Daughter Tea on Saturday, May 9th.

A Picture of Moral Disintegration - Sunday Night

(by Pastor Osborne)

Abraham's nephew Lot had observed his uncle's success in business and in social relationships, and he'd watched him during stressful times as well as joyful times. But Lot forgot that these benefits were fruits of Abraham's relationship with God. In Sodom, Lot turned his energies to the pursuit of wealth and social status instead of to his walk with the Lord. So, Lot stayed in Sodom, even though wickedness was a hallmark of the region. Why did Lot do that? Because it is hard to lure a mouse out of the corncrib when there is corn there.

In our passage for Sunday night, Lot was in the silo feeding on the grain of finance and position while his moral life was starving. Lot, wealthy and complacent, couldn't see how Sodom had become putrid sewage to God.

The Dynamics of Prayer - Sunday Morning

(by Pastor Osborne)

Some people struggle to understand prayer especially when they feel their words are bouncing off the ceiling or simply floating in space. There may be times when you feel so self-conscious when attempting to talk to God that you simply cannot conceive of having the kind of friendship Abraham had with God. Francis Fenelon wrote the following about prayer:

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.

If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar unreserved intercourse with God.

Join us Sunday morning as we study The Dynamics of Prayer. We will learn from Abraham that as we grow in our understanding of prayer, our timidity before God will turn to humble confidence.

Birds Of The Bible - Solomon's Birds (by Lee Dusing)

And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. (1 Kings 4:29, 30,32-34)

While reading these verses lately, I began wondering what HAD Solomon written about the birds. Here is what I have found so far.

∞∞∞∞

Surely, in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird; (Proverbs 1:17 NKJV)

From John Wesley's Explanatory Notes "In vain - The fowler who spreads, his net in the sight of the bird looseth his labour. But these, are more foolish than the silly birds, and though they are not ignorant of the mischief which these evil courses will bring upon themselves, yet they will not take warning."

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Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler. (Proverbs 6:5)

If you get caught in a snare, struggle like the gazelle or bird to get free. Like Dave Ramsey said last evening on "Town Hall for Hope," if things get bad get moving and exercise every effort to fix the problem. Don't just wait for someone else to solve your problem. Don't stay in the net of no hope.

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Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life. (Proverbs 7:23)

This verse which tells of a bird being enticed into a trap, not knowing that it will kill it, comes in an illustration of a man enticed by an immoral woman. How many lives have been ruined this way. How many families have been lost.

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Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place. (Proverbs 27:8)

This seems to almost go along with the verse above.

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Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter. (Ecclesiastes 10:20 NKJV)

Now that is an interesting case of, "the little birdie told me so."

∞∞∞∞

I returned and saw under the sun that-- The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them. (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12)

Solomon in Ecclesiastes changes to more of a "all is vanity" mode. I take this verse to mean that no matter whether you are strong, wise, rich, skillful, or otherwise, that things happen to all of us unexpectedly. All of us can get caught by a tornado, hurricane, flood, tsunami, and your status makes no difference to that circumstance. Even with the best preparations, things happen that are out of our control, but not God's.

∞∞∞∞

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them": While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain; In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim; When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low. Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets. Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)

These verses remind us to "Remember now your Creator." While we are young accept the Lord the Creator and learn of Him. One day you will be old, and things slow down, and you wake early at a birds singing (most likely a Mockingbird because they sing really early) while others that are young get a full nights rest. Or, it could be that a person is so afraid that even a bird's song frightens them awake. Solomon is reminding us to keep the Creator foremost because one day we will return to dust.

All quotes are from NKJV.

Faith in the Family - Sunday Morning

(by Pastor Osborne)

J. Oswald Sanders wrote the following in his book A Spiritual Clinic:

Two families from the state of New York were studied very carefully. One was the Max Jukes family and the other was the Jonathan Edwards family. The thing that they discovered in this study is remarkable: like beget like.

Max Jukes was an unbelieving man and he married a woman of like character who lacked principle. And among the known descendants, over 1,200 were studied. Three hundred and ten became professional vagrants; 440 physically wrecked their lives by a debauched lifestyle; 130 were sent to the pen for an average of thirteen years each, 7 of them for murder. There were over 100 who became alcoholics; 60 became habitual thieves; 190 public prostitutes. Of the 20 who learned a trade, 10 of them learned the trade in a state prison. It cost the state about $1,500,000 and they made no contribution whatever to society.

In about the same era the family of Jonathan Edwards came on the scene. And Jonathan Edwards, a man of God, married a woman of like character. And their family began and they became a part of this study that was made. Three hundred became clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors; over 100 became college profs; over 100 became attorneys, 30 of them judges; 60 of them became physicians; over 60 became authors of good classics, good books; 14 became presidents of universities. There were numerous giants in American industry that emerged from this family. Three became United States congressmen and one became the vice president of the United States.

So, just how important is this institution God created called the family?

Join us this Sunday as we study this topic in both morning services.

A Debt Free Church (by Stephen Simpson)

As you know, our church is opposed to going into debt. Pastor Osborne has often told us of the strange looks he has received when telling people outside our church of our "Debt-Free" stance.

Here are some thoughts I've had about our Debt-Free Church:

• A Debt-Free church sets a good example for its members. If a church borrows money for something it wants but can't afford, what message does that behavior send to the members of that church? It encourages them to borrow money to buy things that they want but can't afford. In contrast, our church is teaching us that saving money actually works. When something is needed, we save up for it and then pay cash.
• A Debt-Free church fosters a Stress-Reduced Workplace. Guess how many staff meetings I've been to where we sat around wondering if enough money will come in to pay the mortgage payment? ZERO.
• A Debt-Free church demonstrates Godly contentment. A patient church is a content church. Our church demonstrates contentment with what God has provided. We have refused to get ahead of God's plans.

I praise God for a church that teaches me not only from the pulpit, but also through its actions. Are you thankful that your church is debt-free?

Birds of the Bible - Foundation #5 (by Lee Dusing)

The birds are now out of the Ark and on their way to becoming all the species we see today. (See Birds of the Bible - Foundation #4 for the links to the others) It would be great to know exactly which bird kinds and critter kinds came off the Ark. We know for certain that 2 kinds of birds were on board. The raven and the dove are both mentioned. (Gen 1:21, "every winged bird according to its kind") According to Birds of the World, 8th edition, there are 233 families of birds. Also Bird Families of the World from Cornell. There are studies going on by creationists who are trying to find out what the original kinds were. It is called Baraminology and comes from "bara" which means "created" and "min" which means "kind". That is "baramin" and the study of it is Baraminology. I have listed some interesting articles at the end about this topic.

We have no problem with the birds interbreeding within their kind or as some call it "natural selection." But the problem comes in with statements like this from a UCBerkeleyNews - Press Release, "Dinosaurs developed feathers some 65 to 100 million years ago and became birds, with the ostriches and emus among the first to evolve, and the ducks and chickens next. That much we know, says University of California, Berkeley, ornithologist Rauri Bowie. But when it comes to the rest of bird evolution, he adds, "nobody had any idea"- until now." I contend they still don't know, because they have rejected the Creator who says He created them.

We all have the same evidence of fossils and living birds, but the difference comes with what worldview you start with. What they are finding is very interesting because of studies with the DNA of birds. The study was by The Field Museum of Chicago, which gathered "DNA from 169 species of birds representing nearly all of the world's non-songbird families." Because of these studies, it:

• "shifts the relationships among today's birds in surprising ways."
• "For example, parrots and songbirds turn out to be each other's closest relatives, while falcons are only distant cousins of the other birds of prey, the hawks and eagles."
• "New world vultures like the turkey vulture are no longer classified with the storks, but rather, return to their more traditional placement with the hawks and eagles."
• And hummingbirds and swifts, long known to be closely related, are in the same group as the elusive nightjars and the whip-poor-will."
• "The new relationships often make a lot of sense....For example, hummingbirds, swifts and nightjars all go into torpor at night or during cold weather. It thus makes sense that they are related, rather than having evolved this trait independently."

• "Similarly, many songbirds... learn songs from their parents, just like many parrots, which are now revealed to be songbirds' closest relatives."
• "although falcons look superficially like hawks, the new data show them to be distantly related. In line with this new phylogeny, falcons are known to have traits, such as acute ultraviolet vision, that distinguish them from hawks and other birds of prey."
• "These are just simple examples of how people are going to have to rethink the behavioral characters that have evolved," he said. "The study has raised as many questions as it has helped to resolve."
• "Birds fall into three general groups: land, water and shorebirds"
• "With this study, we learned two major things,"... "First, appearances can be deceiving. Birds that look or act similar are not necessarily related. Second, much of bird classification and conventional wisdom on the evolutionary relationships of birds is wrong."

The Bold in the quotes are mine.

That is just an example of the remarkable things they are finding out. Sounds like a fantastic God created them and we are just finding out some of His Majesty.

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created. (Revelation 4:11 NKJV)

I had this article ready to go when today's mail came. There is a great article about "Speciation and the Animals on the Ark," by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D. in this month's Acts and Facts from ICR. It is a little technical, but it helps explain more of what this article is about.
Article about Baraminology from Answers in Genesis by Todd Charles Wood. Bara-What?
"Variation within Created Kinds" by Dr. Gary Parker
"Is Natural Selection the Same Thing as Evolution?" by Georgia Purdom
From Wikipedia "Baraminology"
From CreationWiki "Baraminology"

Missionary Update - Darling

From: Tim Darling
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 4:49 PM
Dearest Friends,

You guys are REALLY great! I guess I should have explained that you didn't have to do anything. FUNNY...I have laughed and laughed over some of your responses, like "Did I pass?" Thank you for your great sense of humor and for making our day. One person called my attention to the fact that everyone can see the addresses and so I was working on fixing that. I think I have managed to do that. I am sure now, that you people will let me know if I have not :-

There are some wonderful testimonies of God's work going on and some discouraging things as well. We know that God requires in his servants that they be faithful, eh? We concentrate on keeping our focus on the joy of seeing God at work. First, some of the blessings.

Remember the church, Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life Bap.Ch.), that is having classes for children in one of the schools? They now have six classrooms available to them. Twenty-two adults and youth are teaching somewhere around 170 children every Saturday morning. Not
only that, but adults are bringing their children to this activity and so, some of the workers go and witness to them! This church just had a mini-conference on marriage and the little church was packed out every night. The lights were out every night in that barrio and so a generator was used to keep the fans, the laptop and video projector going. We are so thrilled with the pastors and their motivation and at the way they are seeing the needs and responding by providing activities geared to meet those needs. Please pray for these Venezuelan pastors!

Bethesda Baptist Church has been diligent in keeping up with their commitment to witness every week. They have around 15 adults, around 15 youth and feature this, around 15 children. These children are not just accompanying their parents...they want to be there and are out to witness.

The Youth Rally was held last weekend with 167 youth in attendance. This is a one-day rally that includes, games, Bible quizzing, workshops, preaching, food and fellowship and includes some sixteen churches in the group. The workshops and preaching emphasis were on evangelism (we want all ages to get on this bandwagon!). As a result 30 youth came forward and made the decision to witness to their classmates at school. One young person received Christ as his Savior.

Life in Christ Bap. Ch. is visiting regularly on Saturday mornings and the church is experiencing quite a steady stream of visitors on Sundays. I am told that a few visitors are Pentecostals that want to know the truth. At this time, there are six people who are being discipled. Some of these want to receive teaching because of the confusion in other churches, during the course of the study, there should be assurance of salvation.

Tim visited the camp Monday and Tuesday of this week along with three other men to determine what needs to be done to get the camp in shape by August. They think it will require around $4000.00 to do the work.
Here are the projects:
- Take down plastic and wood structure for the boys bathroom and build a cement block structure.
- Finish the bathrooms for the kitchen crew,
- Rent a pay loader to enlarge the playing field (two days - $1000).
- Build a retention wall for the playing field with a fence.
- Tear down snack shack (literally) and make it into a cement block structure.
- Fumigate all the wood and varnish it.
- Paint the buildings.
- Make cement tops for the water holding tanks. (I should explain that water is very scarce on the mountain top where the camp is, water comes from below and is pumped up by means of three stations. It takes months to collect water for camp. We are limited to two weeks of camp because of the water situation.)

If any of you folks want to come as work teams to help us..."Come on down!"

The discouraging news is that we haven't seen Alberto and Katherine for three weeks. We have kept in touch, but they have not come to discipleship class nor to church. Part of the issue is lack of a car, other than that, we don't know.

Reynaldo, who is the young lawyer that Miguel Yustiz is discipling is experiencing a difficulty. Sometime before February, he wrote a letter to the president of the apartment building where he made a complaint. This man happens to be a friend of the Yustiz' and lives on the same floor. Now, this man, (ironically his name is Christian), has noticed that Reynaldo is
going to church, carrying his Bible, etc. and is quite annoyed that Reynaldo says he is a Christian, but has written a complaint. So, the Devil is busy...are we surprised? Reynaldo had received Christ before Miguel began discipling him, he attended a Pentecostal church, but stopped because his wife didn't like the strange things going on there. Now he is going to a
Baptist church and growing. The letter he wrote all happened before these events transpired. Pray for him and for Christian and his wife Mariela who are not saved, but the Yustiz have witnessed to them for years.

Tim and I will be passing out tracts in our housing development to every home. There are round 500 homes. The title is, "Do You Know Why Christ Died on the Cross?" and it has our phone number on the back. We hope that God will open up doors for us here through it.

Thanks so much for your prayers! May God richly bless you this Easter Week meditating on the Great Work that God accomplished through Christ for us on the cross, AND on the truth that Christ is living today!

Your Partners in VZ, Tim and Pam

Missionary Update- Spotos

From: Jim Spoto Jr.
Subject: We are fine and thanks for your prayers
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 3:01 AM
Dear Prayer Partners,

We wanted to write and let you know that we are fine. We are over 6 hours away from where the earthquake hit. We didn't feel anything here. We have had some movement in the past but nothing like what they experienced in L'Aquila.

I (Jim) did call my cousins who live in line and only about an hour away from where the earthquake hit and I found out that my one cousin still lives in the town where it did hit. I thought that she had moved back home because she had been studying there. But she stayed on because she had found work. I spoke to her sister and found out that she is fine and is not able to get back home because the roads had been closed. I also heard from another one of my cousins who live just outside of Rome and she said that they were really frightened because it was first time that they experienced an earthquake for so long. She said that even though the actual quake only lasted for 20 seconds, their house shook for over 10 minutes. They had their jackets on waiting to go out the door if had gotten any worse.

We as a church are going to start a collection to help the one evangelical church that is in L'Aquila. We have found out that the building where the church was meeting has been destroyed but the believers are all fine and accounted for. They have had to leave their houses for now because some of them are cracked from the earthquake and are not inhabitable. We are going to take up the collection and make sure that the donation gets in the right hands. That unfortunately is the only problem here. There are many who take full advantage of a situation like this.

So thank you for those of you who have written to ask how we are. It truly is a disaster for those that live there, and our hearts go out to those who are suffering right now and have lost loved ones. This is a great time to share the truth of what Christ has done for this through his resurrection!

Lord bless you and thank you again for your part here!

Until next time...

In Christ,
Jim, Lori and Jonathan
"those from Italy greet you" Heb. 13:24

That's My King

Here's a familiar audio clip from a sermon preached in 1976 by Dr. S. M. Lockridge (1913-2000) entitled "That's My King". You have probably heard it before, but it is well worth listening to again. Here it is with pictures and text added. Enjoy.

Convenient Giving

Are you tired of writing checks? Do you often forget to bring you checkbook to church with you? Did you know that FBC offers Electronic Automated Giving? By filling out one simple form you can have your contributions automatically sent from your bank account to ours on a monthly or weekly basis.

• How do I enroll in this program?
• Simply fill out one of two forms and turn it in to the church office. One form is for General Fund giving. The second form is for Building Fund or Faith's 100 giving. You can use one form or both forms if you like. Both forms can be downloaded by clicking on the following links
  
• General Fund Giving
• Building Fund or Faith's 100 Giving
  
• How do I stop or change my scheduled contributions once they are established?
  
• At anytime, you may stop your contributions or make a change by putting your intentions in writing and submitting them to the church office.
  
• Can I designate where my contribution is to go?
• Our automated giving program allows contributions to the General Fund, the Building Fund, and the Faith's 100 Missions fund. All other designated gifts must still be given in the offering plates or turned in directly to the church office.
  

Lessons from April Faith Day 2009 (by Stephen Simpson)

We are praising the Lord for what He did yesterday at our April Faith Day. Over $90,000 was added to the building fund!! When you add the General Fund giving and Faith's 100 giving, well over $100,000 was given in the offering plates yesterday. Praise the Lord!

Here's a breakdown of the $90,000 that was donated for the building fund:

• Over $39,000 was pledged money.
  
• Over $50,000 of new money was donated. There were two $5,000 gifts and two $3,000 gifts. The rest (over $34,000) was given through many, many checks of various amounts.
  

What can we learn from this?

• There was widespread participation in our April Faith Day. 324 checks were deposited in the bank today. God did not provide through one or two large checks. He used hundreds of people to accomplish his purposes.
• God's people are extremely generous. Even though times are tough and there is a lot of economic uncertainty, God's people still gave.

To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Birds of the Bible - Foundation #4 (by Lee Dusing)

We will continue on with the Birds of the Bible - Foundation series.

If you have not read the previous blogs:
Foundation #1, - Foundation #2 - Foundation #3

The last article in this series left the world, Noah, his family, the animals, birds and creeping things in a rough situation. All the world was violently rearranged by the global flood and all air-breathing creation was dead, except for those on board the Ark.

Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20)
But first must he (Christ-the Creator) suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:25-27)

Just as those who were saved by being in the Ark, so are we by putting our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5)

Finally, (Noah and all were in the Ark for over a year.) Noah opened the window in the ark and sent forth a raven. The raven which flew back and forth to the ark until the land was dried up. Noah, then sent out the Dove (female) to see if the ground was off the ground. Doves are ground feeders and also like to put there nests on the ground many times. She found no resting place for her feet and so Noah put out his hand and brought her back inside. Noah waited 7 more days and sent the dove out again and this time she came back with an olive leaf. This let Noah know that the waters were receding. When he released her again 7 more days later, the dove did not return. "The surface of the ground was dry." (Genesis 8:7-12)

After 7 more days: "God spoke to Noah, saying,"

"Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease." (Genesis 8:16-22 NKJV)

That is a tremendous promise and in Genesis 9, God blesses Noah and his sons and then makes some statements:

• Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
• Fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast, bird, all that move on the earth, all fish of the sea. Are given into your hand
• Every moving thing that lives shall be food. (Man is no longer just a vegetarian)
• You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood
• Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
• God makes a covenant with man and every living creature

Genesis 9:11-17 NKJV
(11) Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."
(12) And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
(13) I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
(14) It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
(15) and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
(16) The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
(17) And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

What a tremendous promise! Even though man and critters are still cursed, God will never bring another global flood.

As for the birds and other critters, we find from God's Word that there are changes for them. They now can become food for man and other critters, they now have a fear and dread of man who has dominion over them, they now become eaters of others. They are still to reproduce and spread out and fill the earth, they are promised never to be totally destroyed again by a global flood, etc. Somewhere between the Fall in the garden of Eden and this, the nature of birds and critters is drastically changed from what God originally created them to be. All because of SIN.

Some links to some informative articles about the flood:
Noah's Flood covered the whole earth
Universality of the Genesis Flood
How Did Defense/Attack Structures Come About?

Sacrificial Giving (by Stephen Simpson)

This coming Sunday is April Faith Day. Our Capital Campaign will come to a close. Most of you know that for the past three years our church has been raising and saving money in order to build and expand our facilities. You may recall the desserts that we held three years ago. Pastor Osborne gave presentations and asked us to consider making a pledge towards the campaign. One thing that stuck in my brain was the concept of sacrificial giving. Pastor explained that gifts toward the Capital Campaign were to be extraordinary gifts. They were to be gifts over and above our regular giving.

At the time of those desserts, Nicki & I were very newly married. We both worked full-time jobs. We prayed individually and together about what God would call us to pledge. God brought both of us to the same amount. We agreed on that grand total and decided to break it down into equal monthly contributions, in addition to our regular tithes. We were certain that it was going to be a huge sacrifice; it was definitely stretching our "budget."

Fast forward three years to the present time. Much has changed! We have been blessed with two girls and have moved into a larger house. Nicki went from her full-time job, to stay-at-home Mom, back to working a few hours a week. All this means our "budget" was stretched even more than planned. I'm sure many (if not most) of you have also experienced some significant life changes these past three years.

This month, by the grace of God, we were able to send in our final monthly contribution. PRAISE THE LORD!! We have been so excited to look back and see what God has been able to accomplish. We certainly could not have done it on our own! But, as I have thought about our pledge, I have thought again of the concept of sacrificial giving. I have asked myself, "Was our pledge a sacrificial gift?" What did we have to sacrifice? What did we give up in order to give more? I can honestly tell you that our pledge truly felt like a sacrificial gift. There were times when we worried about how we would meet our monthly commitment, and it felt like we were sacrificing tremendously. But, if I'm honest, I can't really look back and provide a list of the specific things that we sacrificed. We never went hungry, and we were able to pay all of our bills. In fact, we were even able to pay off some of our debts early. We never ran out of clothes to wear. We still went on vacations. There were still Christmas presents under the tree each year, and we still exchanged birthday presents.

My point is this, God has blessed us tremendously. He has provided above our needs! I don't know about you, but I feel like I have truly grown spiritually through our giving. I look forward to the next Capital Campaign because I want to grow even more. Maybe next time I'll come closer to the true meaning of sacrificial giving.