Splinters of Silver Scripture declares that the Words of God are pure, as silver tried in a furnace [Psalm 12:6], that God proves us as silver is tried [Psalm 66:10], and refines us as silver is [Zechariah 13:8-9]. I pray through this blog, not my words but, through the reading of the scriptures, through the presentation of thoughts and of comments, splinters of silver may prick and stay with us throughout our lives. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 2 1147 48 8906

Articles from Splinters of Silver

Baptist Faith and Message: Mistakes or Changes 2007-06-05 09:33:00 At one of the blogs I sometimes visit they ask the question of why the wording of the Baptist Faith and Message has been changed regarding the condemnation of persons regarding fallen man.Here is the different wording:1925:He was created in a state of holiness under the law of his Maker, but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and in bondage to sin, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors.1963:Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence; whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action become transgressors and are under condemnation.2000:Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his po ...

How Dare You Repent 2007-06-04 12:57:00 Most likely we have all heard of the story of Jonah in Scripture. We learn from the book of Jonah that God told him to go to Nineveh and to preach against its wickedness. Jonah eventually went after gleefully submitting to God?s will and preached ?Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown?.To Jonah?s surprise, I?m sure, ?the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them?.What further surprised Jonah was that ?God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not?.So we have a preacher preaching to sinners that they need to repent or be destroyed by a holy God. We have the sinners repenting and praying God will spare them. We have God accepting their repentance and changing His mind in that He would now not destroy them because they had repented of their wickedness instead of staying in it.What did Jonah think about all of this? ?It displeased Jonah exceedingly, an ...

What Motivates Me As A Christian 2007-06-01 10:27:00 What really motivates me as a Christian to witness and do the things of God. Hmmm?[1] I believe that at conversion, God instilled a desire in me to do that which is well pleasing to Him. I believe through the power of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit my conscience is pricked toward obedience. True I may not always ?feel? like witnessing and I am something lead astray to sin, but even in these times the Spirit hints and urges me that what I am doing is wrong and that I need to be about my Father?s work. Although I may not always submit, I feel his voice is constantly present to lead and turn me. I just wish I obeyed more often even when I don?t ?feel? like it. Remember obedience is doing that which we know we should do and not doing that which we know we should not do.[2] I believe because of regeneration I now have a love for God that compels me to do what is right. When I consider the things that Christ had to endure for my sinful sake, so that I may be made righteous and for ...

"Is Christianity Good for the World?" 2007-05-31 12:57:00 ?Theologian Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens, authors whose books are already part of a larger debate on whether religion is pernicious, agreed to discuss their views on whether Christianity itself has benefited the world.?View the May 2007 debate:Christianity TodayPart 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5 ...

Whose Doing All The Preaching Anyway 2007-05-31 12:16:00 Interesting article:Pop Culture Prophets and Media Messiahs ...

I Say It But Don?t Believe It 2007-05-31 09:30:00 I was pondering this thought the other day, so I figured I would post it here.I was wondering how secure people are in their thoughts of God, Scripture, Christianity, and what they believe. I realize as Christians we do not know everything concerning these topics, but I am speaking of the things that each individuals claims to know and believe.Are people merely hypocrites meaning they say they believe something but in the quietness when they are alone they really ponder the thoughts that they in fact do not believe things they tell others they do?My belief is that if you do not believe something, question it, admit you don?t believe it, and do some study to find out why you should or should not believe it. I don?t think that we should say we believe something simply because of pressure from others that do believe it and/or fear that you will be hackled for believing or not believing something. Most likely you will find people on both sides of every issue.It does a person no good to cla ...

Moral Behavior Encoded Into Humanity 2007-05-30 09:22:00 Science may again be catching up with the Word of God.Scriptures declares that everyman has a conscience.John 1:9, That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.The conscience is: the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action.Scriptures declares that this conscience can be corrupted into not working correctly.1 Timothy 4:2, Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;In a recent article from the Washingtonpost.com, the claim is ?If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural?.?Grafman and others are using brain imaging and psychological experiments to study whether the brain has a built-in moral compass. The results -- many of them published just in recent months -- are showing, unexpectedly, that many aspects of morality appear to be hard-wired in the brain, most likely the result of evolutionary processes that began in other species.?Notice the ?most likely ...

Creatures Desire To Be The Creator 2007-05-29 10:39:00 Science (are at least the article writer) has almost gotten it right about creation in a recent article talking about making synthetic humans for the future.?It last happened about 3.6 billion years ago a tiny living cell emerged from the dust of the Earth. It replicated itself, and its progeny replicated themselves, and so on, with genetic twists and turns down through billions of generations. Today every living organism?every person, plant, animal and microbe?can trace its heritage back to that first cell.?The reason I said ?almost gotten it right about creation? is because they do admit that creation came from the ?dust of the Earth?. Scripture teaches, ?the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.? [Genesis 2:7]Where they miss it is that it was not just ?a tiny living cell? that emerged all by itself, but entire fully developed mature creations by God.It is no wonder that DNA is similar throughou ...

Cheated By Evolution 2007-05-29 10:07:00 An article located at msnbc.com has claimed that there has been found a type of lizard that has no limbs like a snake.?While modern snakes and lizards are derived from a common evolutionary ancestor, they belong today to two entirely separate groups of animals, or orders. Snakes, over millenia, gradually lost their limbs and developed their characteristic forms of locomotion. But modern limbless lizards are not snakes, Dutta said.??The other limbless lizards belonging to different families have been found in India's Nicobar island, in the northeast, and in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states, he said.?So apparently what we have is over millions of years a single species developed into two separate species namely snakes and lizards. Then over millions of years lizards kept their limbs, where the snakes lost them (of course scripture says snakes were cursed and lost them). Now we find that some lizards have lost their limbs.I just wonder how they feel about Mother Nature doing that to them ...

Do We Practice Discriminatory Witnessing 2007-05-25 12:34:00 As Christians, how is our burdening for the lost world? I mean really deep down inside of us. Are we discriminatory in our witnessing? You might ask what do I mean by discriminatory in our witnessing.What I mean is this. What are your initial thoughts of the gospel of Jesus Christ unto salvation and your desire and/or action of witnessing when you see a ?hot? looking guy/girl, what about an ?ugly? looking guy/girl, what about a ?clean cut? looking guy/girl, and what about a ?heathen? looking guy/girl?When we see a person do we find ourselves instinctively without thought placing people into different categories based on preconceived ideas we have already generated in our minds? Does this affect our desire and how we witness or whether we witness to them?Take the ?War on Terror? of today, can we see a Middle Eastern person today and witness to them the same way we witness to an American of our own racial, ethnic background? We should, but do we?Are we consciously or subconsciously pract ...

Greek Mythical gods Brought To Life 2007-05-25 09:14:00 Apparently the UK is going to allow animal-human hybrids. The article claims ?THE government yesterday bowed to pressure from scientists to allow the creation of hybrid animal-human embryos for stem-cell research.?National Review Online had an article in 2002 speaking of this same issue of the mixing of human and animal DNA which it labeled as ?transhumanism: a nascent and explicitly eugenic philosophy that advocates taking control of human evolution through gene modification.?. Some of their beliefs presented are ?they hope will eventually lead to public acceptance of genetic manipulation ? not just to improve health, but to change our very natures.? And ?They claim humans should not merely be allowed to metamorphose themselves through surgery, cybertechnology, and the like, but should have the right to control the destiny of their genes by means of progeny design and fabrication.?In 2005 there is an article by the Associated Press of MSNBC speaking of ?a flock of about 50 smelly shee ...

Do We Want To Abstain From Abstinence Classes 2007-05-24 08:58:00 Abstinence education as defined in Section 510 of Title V of the Social Security Act:"an educational or motivational program that:A. Has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;B. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;C. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;D. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;E. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;F. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;G. Teaches young people how to reject sexual adva ...

What Do We Know Of Religious Persecution 2007-05-23 08:23:00 Here in American we have a lot of religious freedoms that around the world do not have.In an article from www.bpnews.net it reminds us of some of the things people actually sometimes go through because of religion preference.In Pakistan there is a draft of a new bill being brought before a committee.?Pakistan's National Assembly would require men who leave Islam to be put to death. Women convicted of "apostasy" would be sentenced to life in prison.??Under the Apostasy Act 2006, the testimony of two adults that another person has left the Muslim religion ?- or a confession by the accused -? is all that would be needed for conviction if the bill is adopted into law. The accused would be given up to 30 days to renounce the decision and return to Islam, yet even then still could be punished by up to two years in prison. All property belonging to an offender would be forfeited to Muslim relatives as well as custody of their children.?The article continues with other persecutions of Christi ...

Your Great Great Granny Was A Chimp 2007-05-22 08:00:00 I was recently sent an article Chimps are human, gene study implies (2003) that claimed ?The new study found that 99.4 percent of the most critical DNA sites are identical in the corresponding human and chimp genes.?Did you read that? I mean really read it? ?of the most critical DNA sites? ? This does not mean 99.4 percent when totally comparing all of man?s DNA with chimps DNA.Of course, conveniently I ran across another article Greater than 98% Chimp/human DNA similarity? Not any more (2003) stating that the number has dropped to only 95 percent. And remember this is not matching 100 percent of human DNA to 100 percent chimp DNA.The following is from the article: The 98.5% similarity has been misleading because it depends on what is being compared.Specific examples of these differences include:1. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while chimpanzees have 24. Evolutionary scientists believe that one of the human chromosomes has been formed through the fusion of two small chromosomes ...

Evolution: Bunches Of Micros Equal A Macro? 2007-05-20 20:31:00 On an older posts concerning macro and micro evolution I received a new comment I thought interesting. I figured I would created a new post since most probably do not revisit old posts including myself.I was told:Under most circumstances, evolution of species is a long, painstaking process. Of course, occasionally, genetic mutations in animals and plants (microbes mutate much faster) may give rise to inherently newer, related species, but generally speaking, the simplest microevolution requires decades, which is a pretty long time. For a new species to develop, a few scenarios is possible: Cross breeding of similar breeds (Liger = Male Lion parent & Female Tiger parent), subtle, random mutations in the general population which favor natural selection, and possibly a genetic random mutation that suddenly emerges in a general population. The truth is, evolution does not guarantee immunity from extinction. Nor does it automatically throw in raw species to make up the numbers.And another t ...