Here’s a list of 10 Unbelievably Beautiful Places You’ve Probably Never Heard Of?
Jamie and I used to say the place we most wanted to visit was Switzerland. I think the Lauterbrunnen Valley will always be our favorite place. But some of of these locations are beautiful.
Which would you like to visit, if not in this history, then on the other side (Revelation 21:3-5)?
Have you visited any of them?
Dan Phillips is on to something with his assessment of the most offensive thing in the Bible:
. . . I brought up the subject of secular talk shows and how they like to try to beat up on Christians of any size, shape, and significance about whatever topic they think is most embarrassing and controversial. Of course, at the moment it’s “gay” “marriage,” or the topic of homosexuality at all.
In the course of the lesson, I remarked that I think — from the comfortable quiet safety of my study — that I’d take a different approach.
When Piers or Larry or Tavis or Rosie or Ellen or The View or whoever tried probing me about homosexuality, or wifely submission, or any other area where God has spoken (to the world’s consternation), I think I’d decline the worm altogether. I think instead, I’d say something like,
“You know, TaPierRosEllRy, when you ask me about X, you’re obviously picking a topic that is deeply offensive to non-Christians — but it’s far from the most offensive thing I believe. You’re just nibbling at the edge of one of the relatively minor leaves on the Tree of Offense. Let me do you a favor, and just take you right down to the root. Let me take you to the most offensive thing I believe.
Discover the most offensive verse in the Bible here.
There are few pastors about who can interact with the physics of the Higgs-Boson discovery. However, my UK friend, Pastor Roy Summers has a PhD in physics and is up to the task. He writes:
What is the Higgs Boson?
Over the 20th century, physicists discovered a whole zoo of elementary particles and a few forces along the way: particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos, along with some very exotic elementary particles that lasted for a moment in time, plus the forces of electromagnetism, weak force and strong force.
Now, the human mind is not happy with a disparate set of forces and particles. Something within us believes that there must be order and simplicity (where does this come from, I wonder?) and so physicists began to develop a “model” – a consistent theory – which would explain how all these particles and forces relate to each other. What emerged was “The Standard Model”, depicted in terms of the particles and force carriers, in the diagram.Everyday stable stuff around us is made from the first generation of matter (I in the diagram), with protons and neutrons made up of up and down quarks.
Unfortunately, the maths of the Standard Model, did not allow matter to have mass – a wee problem, considering our daily experience requires mass be accepted as a reality.
In stepped Peter Higgs, a clever Englishman who suggested a way out the mathematical quagmire of the early Standard Model. He suggested that if the whole universe was bathed in a field (the Higgs field) then particles could acquire mass as they passed through and interacted with this field. The maths worked too.
It is worth click through to read his conclusions. Read the rest here.
HT: Dane Ortlund
Justin Taylor:
Reformed theologians historically have held to a “covenant of works” (or covenant of creation) between God and Adam. Many evangelical scholars today deny that such a thing existed. I believe that it does.
This following questions and answers cannot do justice to the relative complexity of the debate, but perhaps it will be helpful for the theologically inclined to see why some of us do believe that the Bible teaches there was such a covenant with Adam.
Was there a covenant between God and Adam?
A fruitful way to answer that is by examining the two most common objections to the presence of a covenant in the garden: (1) The Hebrew word for covenant isn’t found in Genesis 2-3 (it doesn’t show up until Genesis 6:18); (2) Covenants have to have either explicit oaths or ratification ceremonies (like animal ceremonies in Genesis 15:7-21), but this is not found in Genesis 2-3.
Read more here.
My wife, who followed the eagles on her Ipad, and whose teenage children will presumably fly away in the approaching years, will like this story of eagles circling back to the nest:
DECORAH, Iowa – She’s back. After a four-month, 900-mile tour of Minnesota and Wisconsin, D1, the world-famous, wired Decorah eagle, has returned to Decorah. “Who would have ever guessed? Not me,” said Bob Anderson, the raptor expert who fitted her with a satellite transmitter this summer.
Satellite data confirm that D1 roosted Wednesday night in a tree just north of Palisades Park on the east edge of Decorah. “She is so near to my house that if the transmitter was turned on I could get a beep from my doorstep,” said Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, whose nest-cam website has been visited more than 213 million times this year. Anderson said he picked up her signal near the Yellow River in Allamakee County on Tuesday morning but was unable to track it to the bird herself.
On Wednesday morning, Anderson and a friend returned to the area and picked up a weak signal, which grew in strength as they traveled toward it on gravel roads. . .
Read the rest here.
Gunny recently pointed out that a Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist has Resigned Over Global Warming and he has additional some additional thoughts on the “conclusions” of modern science.
Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 8:1
HT: Laughing Squid
Randy Alcorn:
When I think of the first glimpse of Heaven, I think of the first time I went snorkeling. It was absolutely breathtaking. There were thousands of fish of every shape and size and color, and just when you think you’ve seen the most beautiful creation, here comes another one. It’s endless. (I’ve included a couple pictures I’ve taken while snorkeling.)
I remember after days of snorkeling walking way out and jumping off the rocks into water that was sixty feet deep. The water was so clear I had the sensation of falling, and I could see fish and shells on the bottom as if just a few inches away. For most of my life I had seldom thought about that other world under the water. But I fell in love with that other world, and often find myself thinking about it even now.
Here to read the rest and see a really breath-taking video.
This photo essay from, “The Big Picture,” about a team visiting the rim of a volcano in Africa is like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Click here to see more.
