Ada Brownell's Blog, page 7

Holy Rollers: CHARACTER: WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL SELF?

10. IMAGINE ENTERING THE FUTURE AT YOUR BEST
An excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You
By Ada Brownell
E-book, paper and audible. Read or listen to first chapter free! Great narrator.
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO
What is your best like?
In my teens, I worked in a peach-packing shed. All day long I stood beside a conveyor belt sorting beautiful peaches from those with split seeds, bad spots, wormholes, and other undesirable markings.
At the end of the conveyor belt all the “good” peaches went through a defuzzer, then were packed in wooden boxes. By the time I was off work, hundreds of boxes of beautiful peaches stood ready for market, and I was covered in sweat, dirt, and itchy peach fuzz. Peach fuzz makes you miserable. How wonderful it was to go home and wash all the misery away!
We’d all be filthy if we didn’t take baths frequently—and we’d smell, too.
A bath is one of the first things done after a baby’s birth. And that’s the first thing God does for us when we are born again. All our sins are washed away and we become so clean we’re said to be “new creatures.”When you’re clean you get pretty close to being your best on the outside and God can make you beautiful inside as well. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from every sin.Do you doubt that God can change people?
A university psychology professor decided to stage a religious meeting supposedly to expose the deceitful “psychological” techniques used by ministers to persuade people to become Christians. Each student was to contribute something to the meeting.
One Christian student accepted his assignment with horror and rushed to his pastor’s home.
“What am I going to do?” he asked the pastor’s wife after he explained the situation.
She chuckled as the Holy Spirit dropped something into her heart.
“Tell your teacher you’ll bring a derelict from skid row, and the pro­fessor can change him!”
She reminded the student of the people in their church whose lives had been changed instantly by the power of God.
The staged revival meeting was canceled when the student made his offer. The professor knew he couldn’t change anyone. But Jesus can. In churches I’ve attended were people who had been drunkards. There were former wife beaters, thieves, child abusers, adulterers, and one who had seriously contemplated murder.
I admit churches still have people who claim to be Christians who commit horrendous sin. John wrote, “He who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.’”The church used to sing songs of testimony where the composers told how their lives were changed such as, Since Jesus Came into my Heart, Joy Unspeakable and He Set me Free. That’s the reason there was so much loud singing, clapping, dancing and shouting of praises to God that some dubbed the people  “Holy Rollers.”
In my youth I was called a Holy Roller. Our church, right in the middle of our small town, almost quaked with the music. People would peek in windows and often come inside and go to the altar to accept Jesus.
Truth is, I only saw one person roll in church in my life, and that was in another denomination. He was a teenager who became so joyful when he received the Holy Spirit he rolled all over the place, even under the pews!
Usually such an experience changes the person’s life. If I remember correctly, this youth was called into the ministry that night.
WHAT DO YOU NEED GOD TO DO FOR YOU?
First, you need to think some about who you are.
Below is a little profile I did of myself, and you can create a similar one for you, pointing out why you are the person you at least think you are.
1. I’ve been known to be a little scatterbrained. For instance, I once turned off the water that my husband kept running in the bathtub to keep the water pipes from freezing. I forgot to turn the water back on after I took a bath. I threw a big coat over my nightgown and went out to thaw out the pipes (my husband was working out of town). The door froze shut and I was locked outside in 30-below freezing temperatures at 2 o’clock in the morning.
2. I’m fun loving. I’ve always loved games. I play board and card games like Rook, but my favorites are action games such as tennis, volleyball, badminton, swimming, baseball. I even enjoy walking, jogging, swinging.
3. I have a sense of humor. In high school, I won a trophy for being best actress in a one-act play contest. A judge took me aside and told me I could go to Hollywood as another Lucille Ball. Was she thinking talent or red hair?
4. I enjoy working and seeing things done, everything polished and organized. I used to say turning a kitchen from messy to clean is like creating a piece of art. After marriage, a clean nicely decorated house is connected to my self image.
5. I’m a germ-o-phobe. In my mind there’s no need for people to be ill with colds and flu, especially if there is a disease like asthma in the house. Wash those hands. Sanitize. After writing on the medical beat for seven years also I believe in using bleach on everything after preparing meat in the kitchen, or after a person with a cold visits our house. Guess that brings up bacteria-o-phobe. No rare meat, especially hamburger--and chicken juices should run clear when cooked. No red or pink anywhere. I always have grilled chicken heated twice when eating out. I came down with salmonella from grilled chicken about a half dozen times from restaurants. No more. Heat it twice, or I order deep fried. Grease is better than germs.
6. I’m a seeker of knowledge. I’ve been a student of the Bible since I was about 14, and prayed for wisdom all my adult life. I enjoy picking people’s brains, in-depth research, and anything that keeps me filled with truth.
7. I love romance. To me the most romantic words ever spoken are “I love you. I want to marry you and I will love only you until death parts us.” My husband and I made that vow and kept to it now for many decades.  I read squeaky clean inspirational historical romance books with a lead character I like and sympathize with who has a big problem that needs solved.
I could go on and on. This will give you some idea of how to probe who you are. Think about it and write down what pops into your head, then review and rewrite to get to your core.
Ask yourself: What or who do I fear? What do I value? What is most important to me? What do I cry about? What makes me laugh? What have I done that I enjoyed? What have I done that I’m proud of? What is the one thing I would like to do before Jesus comes or I die? When I am sad, who do I talk to? Who would I like to help? Who have you helped that you didn’t have to?
What do I know that I would like to share? What would I like to learn? Do I want God in my life? How has not knowing or knowing Jesus affected me?
IMAGINE YOU TOMORROW
When you’ve answered all the questions or others you choose, write a description of who you are now. In another column or on another page write what sort of person you would like to become and how you plan to accomplish this change.
If you don’t know Jesus, think about how He showed His love for you by dying on the cross so you could live forever. Have you experienced the floods of joy that the writer of Since Jesus Came into My HeartLike Lazarus, whose body had been lying cold, still, and stinking in the tomb, then at Jesus’s command came alive, the sinner awakens to new life.
Baptism is a testimony to the whole world that you have experienced that spiritual resurrection. The newness of life comes through our Redeemer, who is the only One who can rescue humans from sin and death. Peter said it right after Pentecost, “Neither is there Salvation in any other; for there is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Acts 4:10–12KJ

WHY WE NEED JESUS

9. IMAGINE WHY BELIEVING IN JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHINGAn excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You

E-book, paper and audible. Read or listen to first chapter free! Great narrator.
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO


By Ada Brownell

Why we need Jesus

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things you can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 15:17NLT).
We only need to listen to or watch the news to know we need Jesus.
So many worrisome things are occurring, even beyond economic problems, unemployment, staggering national debt, terrorists’ bombings and nations who hate America accumulating nuclear bombs.
I worry about the spiritual state of our nation, where it seems everyone—even those who claim to be Christians—use the Lord’s name in vain for every emotion under the sun.
 Furthermore, secularism (yes, it used to be listed among religions in encyclopedias) has become the religion of the United States, and freedom of religion is in danger.
Where will you fit in these perilous times?
The Bible describes the future this way:
 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
IMAGINE “BEAMED UP” WITH THE CHURCH
Do you love God? Do you believe Jesus will be involved in your future as prophesies about His catching away of the church and the second coming indicate?
From 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:  “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 
His first coming certainly impacted the world.
When I think of Jesus and his sacrifice to come to earth, I think of the big, husky evangelist who was a dinner guest at a home the same time we were eating there. The man piled his plate high with delicious food and then started de­vouring it.
“When you look at me now,” he said between chomps, knowing we all watched, “it’s hard to realize I was once helpless and flat on my back.”
“You were?” someone asked in amazement.
He grinned. “Yes. I was a baby once.”
It is even more amazing to realize the Lord Jesus Christ—who was there when the universe was created (the verse above and John 1)—gave up all his supernatural strength and wisdom to become a baby.
Last Christmas when I pondered with amazement the thought that He would become completely helpless—with his whole existence dependent upon humans—I realized it wasn’t so amazing after all. Jesus, as God the Son,He also knew parents’ love is so deep they want to see their offspring tenderly and adequately cared for.
IMAGINE EVENTS THAT AFFECT YOUR LIFE FORETOLD
But how do we know Jesus was no ordinary baby?
If you have studied religion at all, you know many religions recognize Jesus as a prophet, but deny He is God. Only Christians recognize Him as God’s son and our Lord. Almost anyone will tell you He was a good man.
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis proclaimed, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
 Some religions try to give you another Christ, which the Bible calls an antichrist, a false prophet, and false god. But the Bible says, “There is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
One way we know Jesus was no ordinary baby is God the Son fulfilled prophecy written hundreds of years before He came.
IMAGINE EVIDENCE THAT IMPACTS YOU
Josh McDowell, in his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict,Among these prophecies are his virgin birth, his ancestry, his birth­place, his presentation of gifts from the East, the massacre of infants by Herod, his name, the flight into Egypt, a messenger would precede his ministry, his ministry would begin in Galilee, he would teach in the temple, he would teach in parables, he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, he would be a stone of stumbling to the Jews and light to the Gentiles, he would have a Resurrec­tion, and he would ascend into heaven.
The events of his trial and events preceding his death were foretold. He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed by a friend. The money would be thrown in the house of the Lord. The silver would purchase a potter’s field for burial. False witnesses would accuse him, and he would not answer them. He would be mocked, wounded, bruised, smitten, and spit upon. The weight of the cross would be too much for his beaten body.

His manner of death was foretold, as well as the piercing of his hands, feet, and side, but no bones would be broken.
Here is the scripture from the Old Testament about the piercing: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:10).
When John related the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, he wrote, “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the Roman soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.…For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’” (John 33:37NKJ).
When the soldier decided not to bother to break his legs, he had no idea he fulfilled prophecy.
The darkness that fell over the land at noon when Jesus died also was foretold by prophets hundreds of years earlier. The burial in the rich man’s tomb was predicted.
But was Jesus actually the Son of God and God the Son?
IMAGINE JESUS BLESSING PEOPLE TODAY
 Emilie Griffin, in her book Turning,“I wanted to know who Jesus was, what he actually said, and how that made people willing to die for his sake,” she explains. Her own starting point was whether one might believe God acted in history and Jesus was in any real sense His Son.
She read the New Testament and saw the Gospels had a firmer historical validity than she had been led to believe. The Book of Acts and the Epistles opened her eyes.
“Paul lived at the same time as others who knew Jesus,” she writes. “Paul was acquainted with men and women who witnessed the events of the Crucifixion and who insisted upon the fact of the Resurrection. I began to feel these letters were either a true account—or the most extraordinary fabrication ever concocted.
“By this time I was reading straight through the New Testament, and it was affecting me deeply. I could not get over the conviction that Jesus was real.”
Those who study the New Testament soon see Jesus claimed to be God, his claims were confirmed by others, and other indirect claims say He is God the Son.
WHAT A FUTURE! IMAGINE NEVER DYING
Who do you say I am?” Jesus asked Peter at Philippi.
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Peter answered.
“You are blessed, Simon, son of John,” Jesus told him, "Because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.”Jesus claimed to be God at other times in his ministry. When Jesus told the Jews that if they kept His sayings, they would not see death, they were outraged.“Now we know you are possessed by a demon,” they said. “Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say that those who obey your teaching will never die? Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Are you greater than the prophets, who died? Who do you think you are?”
Jesus answered, “If I am merely boasting about myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who says these glorious things about me. You say, ‘He is our God,’ but you do not even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But it is true—I know him and obey him. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it, and was glad.”
“You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you’ve seen Abraham?” the Jews asked.
Jesus answered, “The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!”
Then they took up stones to throw at him.
Later, at his trial, Jesus acknowledged his divinity.“Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”“I am,” Jesus said.
BUY THE BOOK:
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WHY FAITH IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR FUTURE

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH
By Ada Brownell
Excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You

God prevents people from proving He exists Because faith is necessary for salvation. The Bible states, “Without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”In another scripture the Bible says, “All who believe in God’s Son have everlasting life.”If God’s existence could be proved, there would be no reason for faith!
When the whole matter of man’s existence on Earth is questioned, there is nothing to settle it—but faith. So why not believe in God? It’s the only thing that makes sense.
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, said he has never seen a single individual who has honestly considered the evidence who was unable to believe in God. But he has seen some who are unwilling to believe.Belief is a matter of the will. God created man with freedom of choice. We aren’t forced to serve or obey him. Adam and Eve had that choice from the beginning, and so do we. We can serve false gods, Satan, or ourselves if we choose.
It is only when we choose to believe in the Creator that we begin to build our life on the Rock where the hurricanes of life can’t destroy us.
God’s love was demonstrated when He sent His only Son to die, arise from the tomb, and be the Savior of sinful men. Belief in God the Father is not enough, however. Devils believe and tremble (James 2:19). We also must believe and confess Jesus Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9) and obediently follow Him and His Word.


CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007. 2 Corinthians 517Hebrews 11:6KJJohn 3:36Josh McDowell, Foreword, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers Inc., San Bernardino, CA, 1979).

EVIDENCE FOR FAITH

Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future YOU
IMAGINE EVIDENCE FOR FAITHBy ADA BROWNELL


It is not difficult to believe in God. Archaeology has found evidence for many decades to support much of the Bible’s historical information. Cities mentioned in the Bible have been discovered. According to the Biblical Archaeology Society, on July 18, 2013, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported in a news release: King David’s Palace was uncovered in the Judean Shephelah.
The Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed a blind man was discovered after excavations in the Jerusalem. From reports, another pool was thought to be the Pool of Siloam, but when this one about the size of two football fields was discovered along with a series of steps leading down to the pool. The pool was uncovered by a Jerusalem utility crew. Work was halted and archaeologists took over.
The pool is at the end of an amazing aqueduct discovered in 1838 by American biblical scholar Edward Robinson. The tunnel was far more spectacular than anyone imagined, hewn out of solid rock and 1,750 feet long. Skeptics claim the tunnel must have been created more recently than 1,700 years ago, but analysis of the ancient writing found in the tunnel, carbon 14 dating of the plant life disrupted by the tunnel, and uranium-thorium dating of stalactites and stalagmites that grew after completing of the tunnel, support a date of around 700 BC, the date given in the Bible.
Why did Hezekiah build the canal?
At about that time, the Assyrian Army led by King Sennacherib conquered nearly every prominent town in the southern kingdom of Judah. Israel lay in ruins. Sennacherib’s strategy was to cut off all food and water outside the fortified city walls, then when the people inside were near death from thirst and starvation, begin the siege.
When King Hezekiah heard what was happening around Jerusalem, he sought the Lord, and built a tunnel, a canal, from the springs outside the city through solid rock to bring water under the wall and to the people. You can read about it in 2 Kings 18-20 and 2 Chronicles 32.
There is much more archaeological evidence to support the Bible.  Ancient writings also have been found that verify people mentioned in scripture lived at the time described.
 Archaeologists have found so much evidence for the Bible accuracy it takes books to tell it.
 Fulfilled prophecies also show the Bible is something on which we can depend. The Jews returning from being scattered over the earth after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and Israel becoming a nation in 1948 fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the valley of dry bones. You may remember the song about the “dry bones” connecting.
 Fervent study of scripture reveals many fulfilled prophecies.
IMAGINE EARTH THE WAY GOD MADE IT


Anyone who will look with an open mind will see that creation is “programmed” the way God designed it. Species reproduce only after their kind. The body returns to dust—from which the Bible says it came.
If we look at creation, there is too much perfection to be attributed to chance. 

It is with awe toward the Creator that we see not one but two kinds of humans, animals, insects, reptiles, birds, and fish—which keep reproducing to populate Earth. Doesn’t it take too much faith to believe two kinds evolved so per­fectly so as to join together and have the capacity to create others just like them?
Any part of the human body or any other part of cre­ation defies explanation outside of the design of Almighty God.
 More evidence for faith surrounds us. The power of God at work in the lives of men and women today is a great testimony. First, a personal relationship with God is the only thing that really satisfies the soul of man. Even if we have access to everything the world has to offer, if we don’t know God, we have emptiness.
IMAGINE WHY FAITH IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR FUTURE
Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of Why We Believe What We Believe, says our brains seem to have a special place for faith. He has tracked how the human brain processes religion and spirituality. It's all part of a new field called neurotheology.Newberg says the frontal lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in prayer and meditation. The parietal lobe, located near the back of our skulls, is the seat of our sensory information. He says this place in the brain is involved in that feeling of becoming part of something greater than one’s self. The limbic system, nestled deep in the center, regulates our emotions and is responsible for feelings of awe and joy.
Newberg says similar areas of the brain are affected during prayer and meditation. He suggests brain scans may provide proof that our brains are built to believe in God. He says there may be universal features of the human mind that actually make it easier for us to believe in a higher power.
 I believe people search for God because of the “God-shaped void” within. If they haven’t heard the Gospel or reject it, they worship the earth, an idol they know is nothing but a figure humans created, or devise their own religion—even making unbelief into doctrine.
IMAGINE GOD GIVING YOU JOY AND PEACE
Besides satisfying the longings deep within us, we can see other results of the Lord in the lives of men and women today. When people accept Jesus Christ as Savior, their lives are changed for the better. They won’t be perfect, but they will be much better individuals than they were before they came to know God.
Parents who neglected their families begin to care for them. They clean up their lives and become solid, dependable individuals. The Bible says they are “new creatures in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold all things become new.” If someone claims to be a Christian but doesn’t turn from sin, however, he probably didn’t submit himself to God. By the same token if they say they know God, and no longer walk in obedience to Him, they are not Christians.
In addition to changed lives, if a person gets to know a Christian well he will learn of many answers to prayer. In most Bible-believing churches, all you would need to do is ask, “What is the greatest answer to prayer you’ve experienced?” I’ve done that and discovered many wonderful testimonies: God turning a forest fire from a home; a man with a head injury from a motorcycle accident back to work in six weeks—after doctors said he probably would never work again; a slowly dying child healed; God keeping a rainstorm behind a highway paving machine for three days so a man with a large family could work. 
We’ve experienced miracles in our family—a daughter thought to have multiple sclerosis totally healthy years later; a son where tests showed he had only 40 percent kidney function, but later tests determined his kidneys worked perfectly. Our six youngest grandchildren are miracles, four because of pregnancy issues of their mothers, and the last two loving gifts of adoption.
God doesn’t always work the way we wish. We lost a daughter to cancer, but the Lord was our Comforter and gave peace. He does great things in answer to prayer.
In the church, especially, one can see the work of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promised He would send when He went away, drawing men and women to salvation, filling them with power, and teaching them.
When all information for belief in God or all information for belief in atheism is given, however, there is still room for doubt.
Why would God leave room for doubt?The answer next time.

IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU By Ada Brownell
A GREAT GIFT FOR TEENS OR FAMILY WORSHIP. This motivational Bible study will help youth discover evidence for faith; how to look and be their best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into the brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity, all mingled with true stories that bring a smile.
E-book, paper and audible. Read or listen to first chapter free! Great narrator.
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06 ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO

NEW EVIDENCE SHAKES THEORY

By Ada Brownell
http://ow.ly/TY6uO
New evidence makes it necessary to continually revise the theory of evolution. In fact, according to US News and World Report, the theory is radically being revised.

*Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the future You http://ow.ly/TY6uO

How deception leads to atheism

HAVE YOU BEEN DECEIVED BY YOUR PROFESSORS?
By Ada Brownell
 (Excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You)



In the camp of atheism, we even have deception. Among attempts to “prove” evolution, we have the Piltdown Man, which for forty years was acclaimed as the “missing evolutionary link.” In 1952 it was proved to be a hoax designed by Charles Dawson. The skull actually was the cranium of a man and the jaw of an ape. The specimen was believed to be a million years old before it was discovered to be a fraud. The teeth had been filed and stained to suggest age.
Among other attempted deceptions was the Solid Muldoon, which ap­peared to be a petrified giant with a tail about three inches long at the base of the spine. The figure was dug up in 1877 near Pueblo, Colorado.
The Solid Muldoon was exhibited by W. A. Conant, the “discoverer,” and George Hull, who planned to show the figure with P. T. Barnum, the showman. But scientists were skeptical because Hull exhibited another “petrified man” known as the Cardiff Giant. Hull later confessed he and a stonecutter carved the “giant” out of stone and buried it for “discovery.”
Hull finally admitted that, in an attempt to make the Solid Muldoon appear authentic, he made it from pulverized stone and bones, clay, blood, plaster, and dried eggs. He pounded the “skin” with a needle-studded mallet to give it “pores.” Then it was fired in a kiln for two weeks.
Now, even a person who rejects evolution must admit there are few blatant decep­tions such as these in the scientific realm today. But that is not to say you can rest your future and eternal destiny on science.
IMAGINE NEW EVIDENCE
New evidence makes it necessary to continually revise the theory of evolution. In fact, according to US News and World Report, the theory is radically being revised.An article several years ago by William F. Allman says, “The branches of the human family tree are being given a thorough shaking.”
One of the recent shakings, Allman said, concerns Lucy, a primate thought by evolutionists to walk upright and represent the oldest known human ancestor. But he said a number of distinct creatures, and possibly ten different species of upright, large-brained ape-like creatures, have been discovered, changing thought about Lucy’s species being the evolutionary link. Some creationists discount Lucy entirely because pygmy chimps wander about upright much of the time in rain forests today.
One of the most hotly debated issues among experts on human origins concerns Neanderthals—stocky, primitive hominids thought to be a direct ancestor of modern humans.
Researchers recently recovered DNA from a Neanderthal fossil and decoded it to see how closely it resembles human DNA. The Neanderthal DNA differed from human DNA in twenty-seven places, while human DNA differs from person to person by an average of just eight variations in genetic sequence.The author of the article in US News and World Report concluded the DNA tests showed Neanderthal men died out and were not the ancestors of modern humans.
The “prehistoric” models used by evolutionists also are sometimes built on a very few bones and often rely on artists for fossil reconstruction. For instance, Science Magazine showed a half whale and a half land animal on its cover on April 22, 1983, and according to Dave Nutting of the Alpha Omega Institute in Grand Junction, Colorado, the picture was reconstructed from teeth, a small fragment of the jaw, and one bone at the back of the skull.



IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
By Ada Brownell
Will you be the person you dream of becoming, or the person in your nightmares?
Ready or not, you are headed into your future.
Would you like to achieve your dreams of being all you can be inside and out? Would you like to deposit good information in your brain you can spend and invest in your future?
Read or listen to Ada Brownell’s book, Imagine the Future You.
This author, who taught church youth for more than 30 years, spent a good hunk of her life as a journalist interviewing successful people who achieved great things, but also met and wrote about those whose lives had become so entangled with baggage they needed a miracle to turn them loose. In addition, she has picked brains and studied how to believe in yourself and things greater than you.
You need this book.  E-book, paper and audible. Great narrator.
Mom: Our teenage daughter loves this book!
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO

DECEPTION, IGNORING NEW EVIDENCE, HELPS MAKE YOUTH INTO ATHEISTS

HAVE YOU BEEN DECCIEVED BY YOUR PROFESSORS?
By Ada Brownell
 (Excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You)



In the camp of atheism, we even have deception. Among attempts to “prove” evolution, we have the Piltdown Man, which for forty years was acclaimed as the “missing evolutionary link.” In 1952 it was proved to be a hoax designed by Charles Dawson. The skull actually was the cranium of a man and the jaw of an ape. The specimen was believed to be a million years old before it was discovered to be a fraud. The teeth had been filed and stained to suggest age.
Among other attempted deceptions was the Solid Muldoon, which ap­peared to be a petrified giant with a tail about three inches long at the base of the spine. The figure was dug up in 1877 near Pueblo, Colorado.
The Solid Muldoon was exhibited by W. A. Conant, the “discoverer,” and George Hull, who planned to show the figure with P. T. Barnum, the showman. But scientists were skeptical because Hull exhibited another “petrified man” known as the Cardiff Giant. Hull later confessed he and a stonecutter carved the “giant” out of stone and buried it for “discovery.”
Hull finally admitted that, in an attempt to make the Solid Muldoon appear authentic, he made it from pulverized stone and bones, clay, blood, plaster, and dried eggs. He pounded the “skin” with a needle-studded mallet to give it “pores.” Then it was fired in a kiln for two weeks.
Now, even a person who rejects evolution must admit there are few blatant decep­tions such as these in the scientific realm today. But that is not to say you can rest your future and eternal destiny on science.
IMAGINE NEW EVIDENCE
New evidence makes it necessary to continually revise the theory of evolution. In fact, according to US News and World Report, the theory is radically being revised.An article several years ago by William F. Allman says, “The branches of the human family tree are being given a thorough shaking.”
One of the recent shakings, Allman said, concerns Lucy, a primate thought by evolutionists to walk upright and represent the oldest known human ancestor. But he said a number of distinct creatures, and possibly ten different species of upright, large-brained ape-like creatures, have been discovered, changing thought about Lucy’s species being the evolutionary link. Some creationists discount Lucy entirely because pygmy chimps wander about upright much of the time in rain forests today.
One of the most hotly debated issues among experts on human origins concerns Neanderthals—stocky, primitive hominids thought to be a direct ancestor of modern humans.
Researchers recently recovered DNA from a Neanderthal fossil and decoded it to see how closely it resembles human DNA. The Neanderthal DNA differed from human DNA in twenty-seven places, while human DNA differs from person to person by an average of just eight variations in genetic sequence.The author of the article in US News and World Report concluded the DNA tests showed Neanderthal men died out and were not the ancestors of modern humans.
The “prehistoric” models used by evolutionists also are sometimes built on a very few bones and often rely on artists for fossil reconstruction. For instance, Science Magazine showed a half whale and a half land animal on its cover on April 22, 1983, and according to Dave Nutting of the Alpha Omega Institute in Grand Junction, Colorado, the picture was reconstructed from teeth, a small fragment of the jaw, and one bone at the back of the skull.



IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
By Ada Brownell
Will you be the person you dream of becoming, or the person in your nightmares?
Ready or not, you are headed into your future.
Would you like to achieve your dreams of being all you can be inside and out? Would you like to deposit good information in your brain you can spend and invest in your future?
Read or listen to Ada Brownell’s book, Imagine the Future You.
This author, who taught church youth for more than 30 years, spent a good hunk of her life as a journalist interviewing successful people who achieved great things, but also met and wrote about those whose lives had become so entangled with baggage they needed a miracle to turn them loose. In addition, she has picked brains and studied how to believe in yourself and things greater than you.
You need this book.  E-book, paper and audible. Great narrator.
Mom: Our teenage daughter loves this book!
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO

Outdated Textbooks

Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book Imagine the Future You

IMAGINE OUTDATED TEXTBOOKSBy Ada Brownell


One psychology professor openly ridiculed Christians in one of my university classes with more than seventy students. As the instructor made sarcastic remarks about Christians in the news and preached his atheistic ideas, I wondered why no one challenged him. One day I raised my hand.
 “You said this textbook will be outdated in ten years,” I began. “So what you are saying today might not be true in ten years?”

The questions flowed.
“Can you prove evolution? Isn’t it true you accept it by faith? Are you aware that many scientists have thrown out missing links because they couldn’t find them? Did you know scientists are even putting forth the idea that man might have fallen from outer space?
“How did creation turn out so perfectly without a Designer? Why aren’t monkeys turning into hu­mans now?”
He admitted that, yes, the textbooks and the theories and knowledge in them would soon be outdated; that he didn’t have all the answers; and, “Yes, we do accept some things by faith. But when something is universally accepted, we treat it as fact.”
I should have asked, “Then because the God of creation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are universally accepted, that should be treated as fact?”
A few weeks later, I asked a science teacher if the first and second laws of thermodynamics violated evolution. The teacher had opened the class on the environment by stating everything would be based on evolution.
No more than thirty-five pages into the text, Living in the Environment, by G. Tyler Miller Jr., the class was studying the law of energy degradation, also known as the second law of thermodynamics. The law states that matter, if left to itself and undergoing physical or chemical changes, will always change in the direction of decreased order and decreased energy content. The entire universe obeys this law, and this includes every chemical reaction.
In words plain and simple, the law means anything left to itself will slowly fall apart. Every time you see an old barn with the roof sagging and the walls falling in, you see demonstration of this law. Despite galaxies thought to be expanding (are they expanding, or are we increasing our knowledge?), scientists will tell you the entire universe is slowing down, growing old, and, as the saying goes, is running out of steam.
The second energy law also tells us energy tends to flow or change spontaneously from a compact and ordered form to a dispersed and random, or disordered, form.
“No one has ever found a violation of this law,” Miller states.When the teacher read that, I put up my hand. “Isn’t evolution a violation of this law?”
In order for evolution to occur, many complex chemical changes must take place, and they must all be in the direction of in­creasedorder and energy to move from the simple to the com­plex.
The teacher paused a moment, cleared his throat, and said, “Well, evolution is the only violation.”
The theory of evolution also violates the first law of thermodynamics, which simply says energy (or matter) neither can be created nor destroyed.I interviewed a anthropologist professor, and we discussed changed in a fruit fly that can be observed. "What did you have then?" I asked.A fruit fly, he admitted.A Christian sociologist pointed out to me that any species where changes have been observed is still the same species.
A story goes that God and Satan were having a discussion.
“I can do anything you can,” Satan said, stretching his puny body so he looked taller.
God smiled. “OK. Make a man.”
Satan bent over and began scraping up dirt.
God grabbed his shoulder. “Use your own dirt.”

G. Tyler Miller Jr., Living in the Environment (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.), 34–43.

A Tribiute to my wonderful brother Everette

By Ada BrownellNote: My brother, Everette Nicholson's funeral was March 15.

Everette always called me his Baby Sister, usually at an octave above his normal speech tone.
He had lots of sisters, --five us, and two brothers.
Something happened in our family that had an impact on us all when the family moved from Kansas to Colorado. The pastor in a church in Fruita heard a big family was moving to town and asked the congregation to pray for us.  We got settled in, and my oldest sister, Marjorie, got an invitation to go to church with her. Mamahad a fit. "That's the 'Holy Roller' church!Daddy said, "Let her go. I heard they teach children to obey their parents there."So Marjorie went, and soon God sent a friend to the other older children: Virgil, Clara, and Everette, and they all accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. But soon my parents, and eventually all of us became born-again Christians.
Being the baby of the family, I was privileged to have great role models. I was seldom punished, because I learned from the examples of seven siblings – saved,following the Lord, workaholics and achievers. I wanted to be just like them. What a blessing they were!
Everette was one of the six red heads in our family. Only Joe and our oldest sister Marjorie escaped. The fact red heads are always thought to have a temper, seemed to bother Everette. That might have been because our red headed mother frequently reminded  us of the scripture, “Be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.” I only remember Everette losing his temper once in my life. He believed in self control.
But Mama used to tell the story about Everette having an encounter with a bull when he was a kid. The bull came up behind him and charged. Everette, still a child, got up, grabbed a board and faced the bull yelling, “Knock me down, will you?” The bull turned and thundered the other direction.
Mama was so proud of Everette. He was a pastor. In Mama’s mind you couldn’t have a better calling than being a pastor or a teacher, and all her sons fulfilled that, although she died before they reached all they would achieve.
SINGING
Because Everette and Elinora pastored in Colorado after I was married, we ran into them at fellowship meetings where they were scheduled to sing. Each time they insisted that I join them because they liked trios. Everette was a great tenor, and he could sing lead OR harmony. Elinora and I would go over the song with him a couple of times, and we were good to go.
When we moved to Missouri, I sang trios with them at Maranatha, at Praise Choir concerts at Central Assembly, and at Strafford Methodist Church where Everette, since he was retired, taught a Sunday school class and sometimespreached when the pastor was gone.
Everette was a great support with my writing ministry. He read through my book, Swallowed by Life, two or three times and told me how it blessed him.  He had read Confessions of a Pentecostal, years ago, other novels,. A couple of weeks before he went to heaven he told me he enjoyed my new fiction book, Love’s Delicate Blossom, where some of my characters are based on our extended family. He wondered why I didn’t use their real names.
“I read every word of it,” he said.
That was nearly 90,000 words. And with eyes 91 years old.
What a sweet, wonderful brother Everette was to me. I’ll miss him. But we sorrow not as those who have no hope for Jesus said, “He that lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26). We’ll praise God for that blessing throughout eternity.

RARITY MOUNTAIN'S SECRETS

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
James 4:8 (KJV)
Walk with Him
By Sara L. Foust

It’s been a hard day. Maybe you can relate. It seems here lately, all the days are hard. Filled with doctor visits and snarky pre-teens who don’t want to listen, and heaven forbid they actually do anything I ask them without arguing. My days start early. I never get a full 8-hours. I can’t remember the last time, really. There have been a lot of tears lately too. It seems I held them behind a huge dam, and now that it has burst, the floodwaters pour a whole lot more freely than before.
There are two ways to get through these hard times, I’ve found. Alone and together with God. I’ve done a lot of those days alone, fighting through each minute depending on my own failing strength, my own sense of justice, my own ideas about what’s right and wrong. It’s amazing how we humans, created by God, for God, think we are so tough and infallible sometimes. And one of the wonderful things about our Father is that He never forces us to behave differently.
But I can imagine Him sitting up there, shaking His head and maybe even lovingly chuckling at my fallacies. I can imagine Him saying, “She’ll come around. Just a few more minutes or hours and she’ll remember where the real power lies.” I am so thankful that He never gives up waiting on me and never forgets about me. And mostly, I am thankful that when I do finally look up and remember Who’s really in charge, He’s right there.
Now for those together-with-God walks. They are so much better. Not always easier, mind you. But always better. When I give Him control and don’t waste my time wrestling Him over what is His anyway, things just seem to go more smoothly. That’s the kind of wonderful God we serve. He wants to help me. He doesn’t want me to struggle needlessly or lose my way because of unnecessary stops and turns. Those extra problems all come from me trying to make decisions without consulting Him first.
The hard days aren’t so hard when I let God show me each move to make. And the tears don’t feel so wasted when I let Him hear the causes behind them.  I don’t tell you any of these things to gain your sympathy or for you to feel sorry for me, but rather to remind whoever it is out there needing some encouragement that God is with you, every minute of every day. When you feel up. When you feel down. When you feel crazy in between. He is waiting for you to look to Him and ask Him to lead. I promise, it’s so worth it.
Author Bio:
Short, short bio:


Blurb:
When their current careers are yanked away, they are left scrambling to pick up the pieces. A reality television show falls into their paths, offering a life-changing opportunity that tests their resolve and their faith.
These two unlikely partners must battle to survive for thirty days in the untouched wilderness of Rarity Mountain with only a handful of survival items and a director who is out for drama, no matter the cost. With their lives and their carefully guarded skeletons on the line, they will discover how far they are willing to go to win the million-dollar prize for Survival Tennessee.


Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1130715034?ean=9781945094743