Jurrasic Park for Real????

Extinct 'tiger' DNA implanted in mouse cells
Last Updated: 1:01am BST 20/05/2008

Scientists have taken a gene from an extinct creature, the Tasmanian tiger, and made it work in a mouse embryo, writes Science Editor Roger Highfield.

The pioneering work shows how researchers can investigate the biology of an extinct species by putting its genes in a living organism.

DNA from a Tasmanian tiger, which was hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s, has been made to work in a mouse. They say that the prospect of cloning the tiger, the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times, remains distant.

The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in Hobart Zoo in 1936 after being hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s. Fortunately, young and adult tissues were preserved in alcohol in several museum collections. Using century-old specimens from Museum Victoria in Melbourne, researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Texas extracted a gene from the creature, isolated DNA, and inserted it into mouse embryos. The DNA showed a biological function in the developing mouse cartilage, which will later form the bone.

"This is the first time that DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism," said Dr Andrew Pask at the University of Melbourne, who led the research.
"As more and more species of animals become extinct, we are continuing to lose critical knowledge.
"Up until now, we have only been able to examine gene sequences from extinct animals. This re-search was developed to go one step further to examine extinct gene function in a whole organism."
Prof Richard Behringer, of the University of Texas, added: "This research has enormous potential for many applications including gaining a better understanding of the biology of extinct animals." "At a time when extinction rates are increasing at an alarming rate, especially of mammals, this research discovery is critical," says Professor Marilyn Renfree, the University of Melbourne's senior author on the paper. "For those species that have already become extinct, our method shows that access to their genetic biodiversity may not be completely lost."

Some have hoped that modern biology methods could help revive a thylacine, perhaps by cloning. But she says it is "probably an impossible dream. Our study was aimed at developing methods for examining the function and evolution of genes from extinct mammals. "We chose the thylacine because it is such an icon in Australia as well as giving us some new information on the function of the thylacine genome."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/05/20/scitiger120.xml

Koinonia Institute's Strategic Perspective Conference 2008

It's about midnight and I just got home after dropping my brother off at his place. We went to Chuck Missler's Strategic Perspectives Conference 2008 on Friday evening and all day today. It was incredible!

It was kicked off by Dennis Agajanian simply put, attacking his guitar. Chick introduced the first speaker, Joseph Farah just after 7pm on Friday night. He talked about the history of sun worship from the tower of Babel days and how this 'Humanism' is destroying us today. He talked about how he feels that homeschooling our children is the first step in reclaiming our nation.

Then Chuck Missler spoke on technology in the bible. He went way over most people's heads, but it made sense at the time. He talked a lot about quantum physics and how atom structure and function is discussed in the bible even though it was written a few thousand years ago.

This morning's lectures began at 9:30 with Joel Rosenberg. His career is very interesting. He prayed for the promise mentioned in Jeremiah 33:3 and decided to start writing fictional novels. God made his stories come true. His first book was about the events that took place on 9/11. Joel's second book was about the U.S. fighting a war with Iraq to get Sadaam. The books were written PRIOR to the events taking place.

Then we listened to Paul McGuire. He's a radio host on KBRT. He talked about how today's clergy likes to dance all around the bible without touching it, instead of standing on it's promises.

Dr. Tim LaHaye was up next discussing why it's important to study prophecy. He stated that God is the ONLY one who knows the end from the beginning and His fulfillment of scripture is proof He exists. I ended up buying one of his books called, "Charting the End Times" and can't wait to take some real time to sit down & go through it.

Ray Comfort was up next. He comes from Way of the Master Radio and empowered all in the evangelizing arena. Ray started out stalling for time because people were coming in late. So He made a whole bunch of lame jokes to grab people's attention. He was actually very funny. He told the same time of lame jokes that anyone's grandfather would tell. I really enjoyed Mr, Comfort's lecture.

Dr. Bob Cornuke told us and showed video of his explorations in search of Noah's Ark, the ark of the covenant, Paul's shipwreck, the rock at Mount Hebron, and the real Mount Sinai. He touted himself as a real life Indiana Jones. The moral of his talk was you might think you're ready to tackle the mountain, but it's the pebbles that will trip you up every time.

General Shimon Erem returned from Israel today, just in time for his lecture of the "Way it Is" in Israel yesterday and today.

And we wrapped up with Walid Shoebat discussing the many differences between the One True God, and Allah. This was fascinating.

I ended up buying the materials for Koinonia Institue's Bronze Medal course. I have to complete four classes to get my Bronze. They are the Old Testament (Berean), the New Testament (Berean), Prophecy 101 (Issachar), and the Spiritual Disciplines (Koinonos). Then I might try to move on to the Silver after that. But we'll just see how this one goes for now.

If it wasn't for God moving in the hearts of my in-laws to invite my girls to the SASCO picnic again this year, I would not have been able to attend.

Thank you God. I pray that you will use what I've got, for your glory!

Christian's Soap

We have this menatality that Christ died for all our sins up until now, but from this point on we're gonna get our act together. WRONG! That's just an invitation to take a big spill. That's not a license to sin, it's just an incorrect thought. You need to ask yourself, how many of your sins were future when Christ hung on the cross? The answer is ALL of them were. Christ died for ALL your sins - past, present, and future. What you do when you sin (and the time will occur), is say - Praise God, the flesh is just what you said it was and you quoted it. Then you get on your knees and grab the Christian's bar of soap (Chuck Missler said this in one of his recent podcasts and I thought it was pretty great).

If you abide in Him you can clean up your life when you muck it up with sin. I John 1:9 is the Christian's bar of soap. It reads, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness." That's not a figure of speech, that's a promise. Being cleansed from all unrighteous makes you righteous in God's eyes once again. Randy Alcorn made a statement in his book titled Heaven, that "God is in the restoration business." He will do just that.

There will be consequences for your sin, but we can and should be thankful for those consequences because His discipline is yet more proof that He loves us.

A New Leaf

He came to my desk with a quivering lip,
The lesson was done.
"Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher?
I've spoiled this one."
I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted
And gave him a new one all unspotted.
And into his tired heart I cried,
"Do better now, my child."

I went to the throne with a trembling heart;
The day was done.
"Have you a new day for me, dear Master?
I've spoiled this one."He took my day, all soiled and blotted
And gave me a new one all unspotted.
And into my tired heart he cried,
"Do better now, my child."

(Anonymous, “A New Leaf,” James G. Lawson, compiler, The Best Loved Religious Poems (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1961).)

Former Atheist Quotes a Former Agnostic

As another put it, this is a quote from a former agnostic writer (Malcolm Muggeridge), quoted by a former atheist turned Christian apologist (Ravi Zacharias). I hadn't ever put those two together before. That makes this quote all the more powerful to me.

"We look back upon history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulated and wealth dispersed. Shakespeare has spoken of the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow over the moon.

I look back upon my own fellow countrymen of England, once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world. Most of them convinced in the words of what is still a popular song that the God who made the mighty, shall make them mightier yet. I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years. I’ve seen an Italian clown saying he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I’ve seen a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than a shokah. I have seen America more wealthy and in terms of military weaponry more powerful than the rest of the world put together. So that had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquest.

All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. All gone - gone with the wind.

England, part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin is a forbidden name in the regime he helped form and dominate for over 3 decades. America is haunted by fears of running out of the precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring and the smog settling, and the victory of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charge the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. All gone - gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of the fallings of our solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists, lies the gigantic figure of one person; because of Whom, by Whom, in Whom, and through Whom mankind may still survive. The person of Jesus Christ.

The nature of sin… the nature of suffering… the nature of salvation… the nature of reality…
The person of Jesus Christ.

I have bent my knee to Him and I found in Him, everything."

The American's Creed

This quote is from Steve Turner who brilliantly summarizes North America's position on Religion. I originally heard this quoted by Ravi Zacharias in his Podcasts ("Let My People Think" and "Just Thinking"). Ravi also uses this quote in his book entitled, "Can Man Live Without God?"

Creed
by Steve Turner

This is the creed I have written on behalf of all us.

We believe in Marx, Freud, and Darwin.
We believe everything is OK
As long as you don't hurt anyone,
To the best of your definition of hurt,
And to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy is OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything is getting better,
Despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in
Horoscopes, UFOs and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man
Just like Buddha, Mohamed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher.
Although we think His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same
At least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
Creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens, they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
Then it's compulsory heaven for all
Excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth
Excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.
We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

P.S.
If chance be the Father of all flesh,
Disaster is his rainbow in the sky.
And when you hear:

"State of Emergency!"
"Sniper Kills Ten!"
"Troops on Rampage!"
"Whites go Looting!"
"Bomb Blasts School!"

It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

The News is Both Bad and Good

The Bad News - We're All Sick
When God created the world one specification of His design was that all living things reproduce each after their own kind. Before the fall of man if Adam & Eve had reproduced they would have produced sinless children. However, they didn't have children until after they sinned and were cursed. Therefore, since they had a sin nature prior to reproducing, Adam & Eve's "own kind" was a human with a sin nature - a sinner.

The bible says that if anyone says they are without sin, the truth is not in him. Since God is just and cannot dwell with us due to our sin, He must deal with us justly and hand down the punishment for sin. The bible says that the wages of sin is death... This is speaking not only of a physical death, but also a spiritual death - or to be eternally removed from God. The absence of God exists only in Hell.
Fortunately for all of us, it doesn't end there. That same verse goes on to say ...BUT, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life is living forever with God (just as He intended when He created us). This is the exact opposite of eternal death (the absence of God in Hell).
So if you now find yourself asking "What gift is the bible talking about?" The answer is simple. We have established that God is a just judge and therefore must deal with our sin justly by handing down the punishment for sin. We deserve Hell, as we choose to reject God and continue to be "Children of Wrath" who are at war with God. The required price (eternal death) is impossible for us to pay.

The Good News - There's a Cure
God's free gift to us is that He sent his son who knew no sin to step down off his throne in Heaven, come down to Earth as a man, live a sinless life and therefore not being deserving of Hell as we are, and then to pay our fine for us. Jesus did that for us. The bible says that God loved the world so much that He sent his only Son to die in our place and pay the required price for our sin, so that WHOEVER believes in Him will not have eternal death, but will have eternal life (Paraphrased by FP - Ref. John 3:16). This act of Jesus paying our price satisfied the just nature of the God in that the price required to be paid for our sin was paid in full at the death of God's son.
But Jesus didn't just die. He went on and overcame the power of death once for all by not allowing death to be his end. Just as He said he would before He died, He rose again on the 3rd day. The price for our sin was paid in full by His Son's undeserved death and acceptable by God as proper and complete payment for our sin. All we have to do is to receive Him (accept His free gift) and He comes into us and makes us a new creature. At the split second that this happens, we are justified, and all of Heaven begins to rejoice as the new Christian's name is written down in the Book of Life.
The bible says, it says to as many as receive Him, to them He gave the power to be called the sons of God. Once we have received Him, we are joint heirs with Christ. That makes us sons of God. When each of us dies, we will face God (the just judge) on judgement day. God will look at the Christian, and He will see His Son in us, because we have been justified which means God looks at us "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned at all. He will open the Book of Life and find the Christian's name written in it.

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."