According to newly released statistics, the jail and prison population in America is growing at a rate of 1,000 inmates each week. The inmate population of America is presently 2.2 million, or, one out of every 136 U.S. residents. One of the fastest growing segments is among women who now make up 7% of the prison population. Does your church have a jail or prison ministry? Perhaps this would be a good time to consider starting one. Christ came for "the opening of the prison to them that are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). We thank the Lord that two men called on the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour in our own prison ministry just last week. Please pray for these men and the workers who take the gospel to them.
The Social Security Administration has released the 1,000 most popular baby names in the United States for the year 2005. Their site has some fascinating search tools for baby names that go all the way back to 1879. Names go in and out of popularity in interesting ways. In 2005, the top five boys names were Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, and Ethan. Interestingly, four of these are Bible names. In fact, 12 of the top 20 boys names come from the Bible. This does not hold for girls names. The top five for 2005 were Emily, Emma, Madison, Abigail, and Olivia. Of these, only Abigail comes from the Bible. Of the top 20 girls names, only 4 are Bible names; 5 if Grace is included.
In Isaiah 29:13, the Lord berated Israel for their false religiosity: "Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." Consider especially the last phrase. Their fear of the Lord was taught to them by the precept of men. The idea is of men taking the fear of the Lord (the key to godliness according to numerous scriptures) and remolding it according to his own precept; that is, he reforms the concept of godliness according to his earthly ideas of what it should be and not according to the direct teaching of God's word. This manmade godliness fills our churches today. God and His word are no longer the authority for godly living. Lifestyle is determined by the popular consensus of modern cultural opinions. We must get back to the fear of the Lord as taught by the Spirit of God through the word of God if we are ever to return to the faith once delivered to the saints.
You may wonder what a physicist does for fun. For one thing, he plays with string theory. No, this is not a ball of yarn he stole from his cat. String theory has been a darling of physicists since the concept took off in 1984. It is based on the idea that the elementary particles of physics are not points, but are rather vibrations of one-dimensional strings. Different particles are the same strings set at different vibrations. In order to get the string theory to work mathematically, the physicists invented 10 (of maybe 11) different dimensions for the strings to play in, though no one knows what these dimensions are or how they exist.
Although it is not so prominent today, the United States used to have vocabulary words distinctive to the different parts of the country. Years ago, what was called a faucet in the North was called a spigot in the South. I was reminded of the spigot (a word commonly used by my grandparents) last night as I reviewed some memory verses. The verse in question was 1 Timothy 2:1, wich states, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men."
The following is an excerpt from Soldiers in Training by Brother Daryl Coats.
