The markets we mostly cover at BMR – Gold, Silver and the speculative Venture Exchange – have not performed well or as expected recently, but rest assured there are better days ahead. Whenever this much pessimism and negativity set in, you know a market bottom and a turnaround are near at hand. Many Gold stocks have been beaten down to ridiculous valuations. That will change – make no mistake about it. That one message of hope. And we have another.
As exciting as it is to see our favorite stock explode to the upside, or as gut-wrenching as it is to see our portfolios shrink during the most recent weakness, we should never let money or our stocks control our happiness or joy. And true happiness – lasting joy – can only be found in our view by knowing God and serving Him through His son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us on this day over 2,000 years ago. Of course, on the third day, He rose from the dead in The Greatest Victory Of All. Easter is not about the bunny rabbit or chocolates or the Easter egg hunt or enjoying a day off work. It’s about what Jesus did at Calvary – he suffered for us, and for a reason.
Nothing is more important in our view than one’s relationship with God through Jesus. He is the creator of all things and has also provided us, through His precious Word, all the guidance we need for our daily lives, even how we should approach the handling of money and investment matters. God has nothing against the accumulation of great wealth – examine the lives of Abraham, Joseph, King David, Solomon and many others. Money is not the root of all evil but the love of money is a dangerous and potentially devastating trap.
This Easter weekend is a great opportunity for each of us to put some time aside and reflect on what Easter is really all about and why we celebrate it.
We wish all of our readers a very special and joyous Easter. Below is Terry’s Easter Message.
By Terry Dyer
Have you ever asked someone a question and then also asked, “Do you want the good news first or do you want the bad news first?”
I took my car into the garage one day to have the brakes done. When the technician called me with the quote he asked me that very question, “Do you want the good news or the bad news?” He told me that the brakes were only going to cost me $500 but in the next breath he told me that my ball joints needed replacement. The good news and the bad news. This Easter we look at both.
Let us look at the bad news first. We all have sinned and fallen short in the eyes of the Lord (Romans 3:23, New International Version) and since we have sinned we are destined to die “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). We are all sinners and death is our payment for our sin.
When someone offers employment to an employee he offers him a set amount of money to work for him. Maybe twenty dollars an hour for every hour that employee works. It is a contract. It is also a contract when you break the law. If you are driving your car and you do not stop at a stop sign a police officer will write you a ticket and you will have to pay a set fine. It’s a penalty for not stopping at the stop sign. This is true in God’s world as well. When we sin we are destined for spiritual death. It is both the wage and the penalty. Sin is awarded death.
Some may ask what is spiritual death? Spiritual death is an eternal separation from God. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, we are told that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In the book of Revelation we are told that death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Spiritual death is a bad place to be in and we are told that we are all destined for this. The apostle Paul writes, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, NIV). That is the bad news. We are all sinners and by the sin that we commit we are destined for Hell. It doesn’t get any worse.
But wait – there is still the Good News. Jesus came to the earth fully man and fully God. When Jesus willingly went to the cross He carried the sin of the world, past, present and future, so that those that believe in Him will be saved from an eternity of death, pain, anguish, and separation from God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”(John 3:16-18, NIV).
Jesus paid the price for your sin, for my sin, and for the sin of the world. All you have to do is accept Him, put your faith in Him and allow Him to be Lord of your life. Turn away from the world, your old ways, and toward Jesus. It doesn’t matter what you have done with your life up until now. There is no sin too big for Jesus. All one needs to do is say with a heart of repentance, “I am sorry, Jesus, for what I have done. Today I ask you into my life. Come and make me whole. I turn toward you.”
This Easter I invite you to accept Jesus into your heart or to renew your commitment to Him. If you have never prayed to Jesus take a moment now and turn your heart to Him. If you already know Jesus but want him in your life in a greater way, then by all means pray for that too. Invite Him into your life in a bigger way.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for this day you have provided. Jesus, thank you that you willingly went to the cross for my sins, past, present and future. Jesus, thank you that you paid the price for my sin. I was destined for a life in eternal punishment and you saved me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, this Easter Sunday we celebrate your day, the day that you rose again, and the day that you defeated death some two thousand years ago. Thank you that you love me so much. You are an awesome God.
“Jesus, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that you died for my sins, that you were resurrected from the dead, that you are alive today and that you’re hearing my prayer. I invite you, Jesus, to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Your name I pray, Amen.”
From all of us here at BMR I would like to wish you a very Happy Easter. May your day be full of love and blessings. I thank you for your support of BMR as we strive to be of service to you. From my home to your home, Happy Easter.
Terry Dyer
Publisher/Owner, Langley, BC
He is Risen Indeed…
Let no one caught in sin remain*
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to him who showed great love
And bled for us
Freely you bled, for us
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bow to none but heavens will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer’s crown
No burden great can hold you down
In strength you reign
Forever let your church proclaim
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!
Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead, he’s alive! he’s alive!
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Rise up from the grave
Comment by Ed — April 8, 2012 @ 3:47 pm
DINOSAUR. please explain.
Comment by mike — April 9, 2012 @ 8:56 am
Dinosaurs and the Bible
By Wayne Jackson
Was there ever a time when men and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time? Those who subscribe to the theory of evolution unequivocally answer, “No!” The standard evolutionary propaganda line is this: “Dinosaurs became extinct about seventy million years before man evolved.”
Unfortunately, many professing Christians have capitulated to this viewpoint. One writer has declared:
If dinosaurs existed 200 million years before Adam and Eve it does not present any problem to a literal understanding of the Genesis record (Clayton n.d., 16).
But what does the evidence indicate?
Logical Considerations
If one accepts the plain testimony of the Bible, with no compulsion to harmonize Scripture with evolutionary assertions, there is no doubt but that dinosaurs and humans were contemporary, as the following considerations indicate.
All of the basic “kinds” of living creatures were brought into existence in the same initial creation week. Moses wrote: “In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is” (Exodus 20:11). This would include the dinosaurs (“terrible lizards”), and man as well.
Jesus affirmed that mankind has existed “from the beginning of the creation” (Mark 10:6); this certainly excludes the notion that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years before man appeared upon the planet.
Humanity was given dominion over all the lower creatures of the earth (Genesis 1:26). There is no reason to exclude dinosaurs from the scope of this passage.
Behemoth in the Book of Job
There seems to be a reference to dinosaurs in the book of Job. Due to his great suffering, Job criticized the working of Jehovah in his life. Accordingly, the Lord, in a devastating examination of the patriarch, illustrated his own power and wisdom (and, by contrast, Job’s pathetic ignorance) with a series of examples from nature (Job 38-41). In this connection, reference is made in chapter forty to a creature known as “behemoth” (vv. 15-24).
Though the Hebrew term can be used of “beasts” in general (cf. Deuteronomy 28:26), in Job 40 there is an obvious reference to a specific animal. The plural form of the noun, together with the fact that it is used with singular verbs and pronouns, indicates that a great beast is in view. Because the translators did not know what type of creature was under consideration in this context, they left the word untranslated, hence, the anglicized form “behemoth” appears in our common versions.
For lack of a better theory, most scholars have identified this animal with the hippopotamus (cf. ASV fn). A careful analysis of the context, however, will reveal that the hippopotamus does not fit the description of behemoth as given by the Lord. Consider the following factors:
It is believed by some scholars that behemoth is related to an Egyptian term, peheme, roughly rendered “ox of the water.” That this did not denote a hippopotamus is evidenced by the fact that the Egyptians had other words for that creature.
In Job’s narrative behemoth is described as a grass-eater that is very strong, with great muscles (vv. 15-16). He moves his tail like a cedar tree (v. 17). Even Frances Anderson, who identifies this creature as a hippo, admits: “It is hard to see how his tail can be compared to a cedar, for the tail of the hippopotamus is small and short” (1976, 276). Behemoth’s skeleton is like a massive framework of brass and iron (v. 18). He is “chief” (i.e., first in size, might) of the works (creatures) of God; so huge, in fact, that only his Maker dare approach him with the sword (v. 19).
Though the hippo weighs about four tons, some dinosaurs weighed thirty tons! Behemoth is so powerful that no man is able to capture him (v. 24). This descriptive can hardly apply to the hippopotamus for Egyptian monuments frequently picture warriors attacking the hippo single-handed. The vegetation of whole mountains is said to supply this behemoth’s food, yet the hippopotamus eats only about two hundred pounds of herbage daily, and he stays near the water.
One is almost forced to conclude that no creature on earth today fits the detailed description of behemoth in Job 40.
Modern Evidence
There is a growing body of evidence that dinosaurs and humans were contemporary. In 1970 newspapers reported the discovery of cave paintings in Zimbabwe. The paintings were made by bushmen who ruled that area from about 1500 B.C., until a couple of hundred years ago. Along with accurate representations of the elephant and the giraffe, is a painting of an Apatosaurus (brontosaurus). These art works have greatly puzzled scientists since bushmen are known to have painted from real life! (Bible-Science Newsletter 1970, 2).
About seventy years ago, Dr. Samuel Hubbard, curator of archaeology in the Oakland (California) Museum, discovered dinosaur carvings on the cliff walls of the Hava Supai Canyon in Arizona. One remarkable carving resembles a Tyrannosaurus. Nearby, dinosaur tracks were preserved in the rock surface. (For a picture of this carving, see our book, The Mythology of Modern Geology 1990, 31.)
What about the Paluxy Tracks?
When the discovery of what appeared to be human footprints, along with dinosaur tracks (in the Paluxy River bed near Glen Rose, Texas), was reported in the May 1939 issue of Natural History, it created a furor that has not subsided to this very day. For decades it seemed obvious to careful observers that this was clear evidence of human/dinosaur co-habitation.
Then, a few years ago, Glen Kuban, a computer programmer from Cleveland, Ohio, discovered chemical discolorations at the front of some of the human-like prints. This led him and others to suggest that the human-like tracks were not human at all; rather, they were simply portions of the dinosaur tracks that had been altered by mud-fill.
Those who were disposed to believe in the theory of evolution alleged that this destroyed the Paluxy evidence once and for all. Some creationists, e.g., those of the Institute of Creation Research in San Diego, adopted a wait-and-see policy until further research is forthcoming. Others were not so easily swayed. Two authors, Robert F. Helfinstine and Jerry D. Roth, recently produced a study which strongly argues for the validity of comtemporary human/dinosaur tracks.
It has even been speculated that someone may have “doctored” some of the dinosaur/human prints to eradicate the impression of “humanness.” Evolutionists, of course, desperately want to discredit the tracks as human, for as some of them have conceded:
Such an occurrence [i.e., human and dinosaur tracks in the same stratum], if verified, would seriously disrupt conventional interpretations of biological and geological history and would support the doctrines of creationism and catastrophism (Journal of Geologic Education 1983, 111-123).
Needless to say, this controversy is far from over.
Those who accept the testimony of the Bible are confident that men and dinosaurs did occupy the ancient earth at the same time. We are not dependent upon modern discoveries to confirm that for us. However, when clear evidence does come to light, we should not hesitate to accept it.
Comment by Ed — April 9, 2012 @ 9:16 am