Only One

In John 6:65-69 Peter makes a very profound statement, although I'm not sure that he intended it to be profound when he made it.

"And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” "

We need to remember that the Disciples really didn't understand the mission of Jesus at this point. That really didn't happen until Pentecost. It must have been very discouraging to the remaining disciples to see so many walk away due to something they couldn't accept. And I'm not sure that even Peter was fully embracing the message of Jesus as it was intended. After all - Peter was still filtering everything based on the concept that Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom. So his statement was probably generated out of desperation tied to his well-known stubborn streak. 

But it happened time after time in the Bible where people said things that were very profound and they had no idea that they were saying something very important. The statement by Peter is really one of those instances. 

"Lord, to whom shall we go?" He is the only one - the only source. We don't have the words of life, nor our parents, Elders, preachers, or friends. There is NOWHERE else to go. And so many people are looking in so many other directions and finding absolutely nothing. Now Satan the great deceiver is creating mirages and people think there is something there, but just when they think they have a hold of it, the mirage disappears.

But Peter did do one thing that we can learn from. He had a seed of belief, and even though he didn't fully understand, he held onto that seed with all his might. And then one day (Petecost) he understood and by all acounts was never shaken again. So when things happen to shake your faith, or discourage you in your Christian life, just hold onto that seed with all your might. That there is nowhere else to go except to hold onto Jesus as the only means of survival. The money, the big house, the expensive car, the promotion at work all hold no salvation. They are mirages. Hold onto that log you are floating on out in the ocean with all your might. If you kick away from the log for that island in the distance, it will disappear. Hold on and one day you will find yourself on the shores of Heaven.

Dinosaurs

Our Bible class teacher this morning was talking about dinosaurs for a bit. He mentioned that he did believe that they existed. Good thing since there are so many fossils. There are some members of the Church who don't believe that dinosaurs ever existed because they think that equates to also believing in trans-species evolution. Sad but true.

He also stated that he wasn't sure about some of the artists conceptions of what they looked like. While it may be that they were pink. or blue with yellow polka dots, it would not be the norm for reptiles as we know them today. And I think that the overall lay of the skin that they propose is pretty well proven science. When the forensic artists put features on a human skull it's pretty amazing as to how close they get to the actual persons looks.

He also said he wasn't sure that they were as big as what scientists say they were. Well just think aout this. What animal is smaller than its skeleton? Only animals with exoskeletons - like lobsters and crabs. And even at that their inner mass fills the shell. All the really big dinosaurs had endoskeletons and that means their skin was on the outside of their bones. And most of us have seen the fossil skeletons - and some are huge. So either the fossil skeletons are faked - or they were as big as the artists draw them.

But maybe he's just never stood next to one of those things.