I believe that nature is one of the greatest proofs of God's existence, and

one of the greatest reflections of His glory. The beautiful season in which we now find ourselves, when the green leaves of summer start turning into the brilliant colors of fall, remind us of God’s creative genius. Colossians 1:16 tells us, "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." When you think about the design in nature, and the size and orderliness of the planets and the stars, and the intricacies of the human body, your thoughts can’t help but move toward God. I love hearing the illustrations that are all around us that point toward an incredible God who is not only awesome in power, but also ma g n i f i c e n t i n creativity and detail. Your human body is a work of art. We just take it for granted, but your body does some pretty amazing work every single day of your life. When the Bible says that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” that is not just a slick saying, that is a remarkable truth. Let me illustrate:

If you are an adult of average weight, here is what you accomplish in 24 hours: Your heart beats 108,000 times. Your blood travels 168,000,000 miles. You breathe 23,040 times, You inhale 438 cubic feet of air.

You eat 3.25 pounds of food. You drink 2.9 quarts of liquids. You speak 4,800 words (including some unnecessary ones). You move 750 muscles. Your nails grow .000046 inch. Your hair grows .01714 inch. You exercise 7,000,000 brain cells.

Now you understand why you feel tired at the end of the day! God has knit your body together is such a way that it is capable of a huge amount of work---work that you are not even aware of most of the time.

Then think about God’s creation in the rest of nature. There are so many things that boggle the mind. Think about the salt in your salt dispenser on your dinner table. Salt is really a wonder. It is composed of two poisonous substances. So, how is it possible that salt, which is necessary to life, is composed of sodium and chlorine, either of which, if taken individually, would kill you? Or what about the water we cherish. Its

chemical formula is H2O. That means it has two parts of hydrogen for each part of oxygen. Oxygen is flammable and hydrogen readily burns. But unite hydrogen and oxygen into water, and you put out fires with it! Or what about those snowflakes that will inevitably fall this winter. It is claimed there are no two snowflakes alike, yet all are hexagonal in shape. An eminent scientist, J. Wilson Bentley, devoted his life to the study of snowflakes. He photographed over 10,000 snowflakes. He found no two exactly alike, though all have six sides. He deduced that the entire countryside

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from Maine to California could be covered with snow a foot deep, yet no two flakes would be exactly alike. How’s that for creativity?

Let’s bring it even closer to home. We live in papermaking country. A French scientist named Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur examined a wasp's nest in 1719, and noted that it seemed to be made of a type of crude pasteboard. After further investigation, he discovered that most of the material was obtained from tree fibers. As a result of this study, the first successful production of paper from wood pulp was achieved. Yet God had instilled this ability in the wasp at the dawn of history.

The time is quickly coming when our fall temperatures will give way to the winter temperatures, and they will fall toward the freezing point. At that point, wise motorists put antifreeze in their radiators. Are you aware that many wise insects do much the same thing, according to studies by biochemist Fred Smith of the University of Minnesota? What's more, their antifreeze is glycerol (glycerin), a chemical closely resembling the ethylene glycol that is the basis for many antifreeze brands.

Working with 3 other men, Professor Smith was studying the hibernating larvae of wood-boring beetles, trying to isolate the enzymes that digest the cellulose on which the insects live. But when he ground up the larvae and analyzed the juice, he was surprised to find a considerable glycerol content. Since the active summer larvae do not contain glycerol, he guessed that the larvae possessed a mechanism that reacted to cold by producing glycerol to keep their tissues from freezing in the Minnesota winters.

To check his theory, Professor Smith experimented on black carpenter ants, which are easy to collect in quantity. Hibernating adult ants proved to have as much as 10% glycerol in their bodies, but when the ants were gradually warmed up and became active, all of it disappeared. Chilling the ants for a few days at a

temperature just above the freezing point restored the glycerol again. Ants of the same species found in warmer Maryland had no glycerol in them. But when taken to Minnesota, they did as Minnesota ants do, secreting their personal antifreeze against the cold. Who put this intuition into these insects to know how and when to do this?

Let me share one other insect illustration. The more than 1.5 million kinds of insects display a diversity that points to the wisdom of an infinite Creator. The common honey bee organizes a little city inside its hive. It builds 10,000 cells for honey, 12,000 for the larvae, and a special chamber for the queen mother.

When temperatures inside the hive become so warm that the honey is in danger of being lost through the softened wax, squads of sentinels automatically take their places at the hive’s entrance. Their fast-beating wings create a cooling system that rivals the electric fan. Now, who puts that instinct into the bees? You can call it chance, if you like, but it just seems to me that requires as much, or more, faith than to simply believe that there is an infinite God who created it all. And whatever the size of His creation, be it a huge galaxy, a human body, or a tiny insect, God has taken great care to create with perfection. And what does all this mean for you and me? If God has taken such great care to create us, and all that is around us, will He not have a plan for each one of us? And will He not protect us, and provide for us, and lead us through this life He created for us to enjoy? That’s the God that He is! And it is our privilege to know Him, and love Him, and serve Him. So, use that marvelous mind and wonderful body He created just for you, to worship this awesome God.

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Stuff the School Bus Was a Success!

With over 1,150 children served, the 2010 Stuff the School Bus event was truly a suc-cess. Stuff the School Bus was held August 12, 2010 at Veteran's Memorial Park. The heat index topped out at 99 de-grees, but the two buses were truly stuffed! Here is a listing of supplies we re-ceived that day:

• 318 reams of wide lined loose leaf paper • 284 reams of college ruled loose leaf paper • 1,802 wide lined notebooks • 616 college ruled notebooks • 3,734 folders • 404 binders • 578 backpacks • 255 packages of markers • 179 packages of colored pencils • 749 highlighters • 579 scissors • The list goes on! . Then on August 20, 2010, during the Stuff the Desk Event, 1,150 local, needy children received the school supplies they need for the school year. The event was held at Lincoln High School.

The leftover school supplies were taken to the Family Resource Center, Caring Closet and to each school.

Because each family was asked to bring a canned food donation to Stuff the Desk, 24 boxes of food were collected during Stuff the Desk on August 20, 2010 and donated to South Wood Emergency Pantry Shelf.

Thank You! The Stuff the School Bus Commit-tee would like to thank everyone who helped to make this possible: the volun-teers, the organiza-tions who held school supply drives, the individuals who

donated school supplies, our local media who aired free public service announcements, and the organizations who made monetary/gift certificate donations. Thanks to everyone working together, we made an incredible impact on the lives of local, needy children. Thank you!

Help is Still Needed... School supply donations are needed year round due to disasters (such as a house fire), when a needy family moves to the area during the school year, or children simply run out. Anybody who would still like to make a donation of school supplies can contact: Caring Closet, the Family Resource Center, or the nearest school. Call the three digit number 2-1-1 for more information. Any child who needs school supplies during the school year can also contact Caring Closet, the Family Resource Center, or talk to the guidance counselor at his/her school. Please dial 2-1-1 to learn more.

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Sunday, October 24th, 6:00pm UNQUENCHABLE

A night of worship through music and prayer…

We often talk about the value of coming together to worship the Lord, but do we even really under-stand what “worship” really is? It is easy to view worship as a set of songs we sing at church, or maybe we even view the entire service as worship, but how does this translate into the reality of our lives?

It is crucial that we view every last bit of our lives as an act of worship to God. He wants to be a part of every detail. Dan Kimball once wrote that, “worship is ‘the act of adoring and praising God, that is, ascribing worth to God as the one who de-serves homage and service.’” If this is true, then we have the opportunity to show God that we adore Him in every aspect of our lives: with our families, at our jobs, with our friends, what we do, say, or think, all of this can be worship.

My prayer is that as we continue to pursue the Lord in our individual lives, our times of coming together to “worship” will become an incredible celebration of all that God is doing in us and through us as a body of believers.

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