Articles that reference the book of Psalms

The fullness of joy most people seek (whether they know it or not) can only be found in a relationship with your Creator. And God IS your Creator even if you don’t believe in Him. By the Way…you WILL see your Creator later. But back to the reason I’m sharing this with you today. First, a little backstory. David, who was King of Israel, was a songwriter. Many of his lyrics, known as Psalms, are found in the Bible. And he talked and sang, a lot, about his relationship with God. He wrote, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.“ You won’t find a world of peace, tranquility, and wealth simply because you place your faith in Jesus. You won’t see the troubles of the world fade away when you look to God for answers. In fact, you might even see troubles increase. Well, at least from time to time. Gosh, Tony, your “fullness of joy” doesn’t sound very enjoyable. Yeah, but the joy I’m talking about springs from Living Water. And it flows through your spirit. In other words, your joy won’t be based on the things and people of this world. Your joy will be focused on the only One who can (and will) give you eternal life. Your “three score and ten” here on planet earth is a tiny fraction of eternity. And that puts it in perspective. I’m urging you, today, to consider your eternal potential. As a Christian, I know, without a doubt, there will be an eternity of existence for every human being. Where you’ll spend it depends on the choice you make in the here and now. Choose the Life your Creator wants to give you. Because you can exist as a bodiless, spiritless, soul forever tormented by the knowledge of “what could have been.” Or you can live in the fullness God has prepared. In a body that won’t grow old and die since you’ll be tapped directly into life. Please, choose Life and experience the eternal fullness of joy. Swallowed Up By Life I’ll be swallowed up by life That will never fade away When I leave my body here On an ordinary day. I won’t mourn the things I lose ‘Cause there’s so much more to gain And my spirit will rejoice When I leave this earthly plane. I’ll be swallowed up by life And I’ll never more know death. I will just begin to breathe When I breathe my final breath. © 2014 TF If you prefer that kind of Life, let’s stay connected. It’s super easy. Here’s how: Get Rhyme and Reason delivered to your inbox for free. It’s good stuff based on the power of God’s love. And, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away. Stay tuned, The post Your Creator that you will see later appeared first on Tony Funderburk.

For about 20 years evolutionists and the media made the silly claim that human DNA and chimpanzee DNA were about 99% the same. Now keep in mind, no one had completed sequencing human DNA. And sequencing of chimpanzee DNA hadn’t even started. Sheesh. And evolutionists like to make fun of Christians for prophecy and predictions. But I guess you gotta expect such behavior from adults who believe in fairy tales and fables. Ladies, you’re actually closer to call your man a “snake in the grass” instead of a big, dumb ape. According to evolution snakes should be more closely related to other reptiles. But a computer-based study found the genetic distance between a particular protein, cytochrome, from a snake was actually closer to the cytochrome protein from a man. Wow! Imagine the poisonous fairy tales and fables and sci-fi movies around that. And speaking of computer-based measuring of genetic distance, the number of organisms that have had their genes sequenced is doubling every year? So, that means our molecular information bank has increased exponentially. And on the molecular level, there’s no evidence to support the evolutionary fairy tales and fables of how life began. None. Now, I realize Christians are just supposed to have blind faith in “a god” we “created in our own image as a crutch.” But the Christian Faith is based on so much more evidence. And that’s important because Christians place their faith and hope in someone they’ve never seen. I say He’s the one true, living, loving Creator of the universe. And the universe of evidence backs up that claim. By the way., the Bible (bestselling book of all time and only book supported by evidence almost daily) talks about evidence and how important it is. So, don’t monkey around with evolutionary monkey business. Even though only about 4% of human DNA differs from that of chimpanzees, that 4% represents “thirty-five million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertions or deletions, and various chromosomal rearrangements.” And the differences between the males from each species is around 30%. See what I mean, ladies? Guys are not apes. Nope. We’re just as fearfully and wonderfully made as you. Even if we aren’t the eye candy you are. Hey, too much candy isn’t healthy anyway. Anyway… For more information on genetic distance and the way it relates to how we all got here, click on most of the links I just shared. They’ll take you to Dr. Walt Brown’s online book, “In The Beginning“. While you’re there, be sure and check out so many other compelling reasons to believe in the Creator rather than evolution. And save the fairytales and fables for reading to the kids at bedtime. In awe of all creation and how it all could be, The fairy tale illusions increase with every year. The wrinkled plans expand, exponentially, Until one day, perhaps, a duck becomes a deer. (yeah, right) (from my song, Fast Forward) If enjoyed this science-based shot of reality, let’s stay connected. It’s super easy. Here’s how: Get my Rhyme and Reason Daily Devotional delivered to your inbox for free. It’s good stuff based on the power of God’s love. And, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away. The form can be filled in the actual website url. Stay tuned, The post Fairy tales and fables and that book on coffee tables appeared first on Tony Funderburk.

It’s not impossible. Although sometimes it can certainly feel that way. And you definitely don’t have to accept it if you don’t want it. So, think it over before you accept or reject your secret mission. Because the fate of the world is in your hands. Well, actually, your secret mission doesn’t determine the fate of the world. But it DOES have some immeasurable consequences for YOU. So, what do you say, Ethan? Does this sound like a secret mission you’re willing to accept? Keep in mind, the “Secretary” will disavow any knowledge of you if you’re caught. But that’s no big deal compared to when your Creator disavows you. “I never knew you” are words you never wanna hear. OK, enough with the Mission Impossible references. But one last comment on that subject. I think Tom Cruise, and his team, did an excellent job of serializing the last two installments of those movies. I’m very interested to see “Dead Reckoning: Part 2.” How ’bout you? Anyway… None of that truly has anything to do with why or what I’m sharing with you this time. The following four verses, in a rhyme/poem called “Secret Mission” was started sometime last year. And as I spent some time clearing my computer’s desktop this week, I found the first two verses in an unfinished Pages document. So, I made it my mission, this morning, to finish it. And my motivation for sharing it with you, today, is that I hope it helps motivate you to share God’s love with someone else as soon as you get a chance. If so, here’s your… Secret Mission In the first ray of light there was a message That no one else, but me, could even see. And I had to squint my eyes to decipher A secret mission plotted just for me. There were no dots or dashes or impulses. No man-made codes and no neurology Could infiltrate and then translate the mission, The expedition meant for only me. Then a voice, filled with thunder, in a whirlwind, Spoke to me about peace and sanctity. And my soul realized the secret mission Is for everyone and not just for me. I appeal, with an urgency of purpose, To your heart where you’ll find eternity Written down, as a not so secret mission, To share God’s love for all with eyes to see. © 2024 Tony Funderburk Maybe you don’t know me well enough to buy something from me, yet. Well, let’s fix that. Get to know more about me and my worldview when you join the growing body of believers who’ve signed up for the Tony’s Rhyme and Reason Daily Devotional. And enjoy my daily flashes of light from the power of God’s love. Stay tuned… The post Secret mission is doable because you’re renewable appeared first on Tony Funderburk.

Guy walks up to the bar and orders, “Gimme a Helix, bartender. And make it a double.” I know you’ve heard of the Double Helix. It packs a powerful punch. But there’s no hangover the next morning. Maybe that’s because it’s filled with Deoxyribonucleic Acid. “Yeah! Don’t be stingy with the Deoxyribonucleic Acid in my Double Helix, bartender!” That’s such a tongue-twisting mouthful. Surely, there’s a quicker way to say it. Hmm. I kinda like DNA. What say we go with that? All in favor? Great! The eyes have it (yes, I meant to say “eyes”). Alright, let’s get your mind out of the bar for a minute or two. And let’s talk about how DNA is scientific proof you and I are fearfully and wonderfully made by the one, true, living, loving God of creation. Not merely carbon copies of carbon lifeforms. Even the term “carbon lifeforms” contradicts itself. But, right now I’m gonna share some tidbits of information about information I shared several years ago. It bears repeating. Because it’s inside you right now. In almost all of the 30,000,000,000,000 (that’s trillion, by the way) cells in your body there are duplicate copies of your DNA. Each human cell contains 46 segments. You got 23 segments from your mom and 23 from your dad. No one else on Earth has the same DNA as you. Cool, huh? Well, here’s something even cooler. All that information in your DNA is a blueprint for how to build the one and only YOU. The blueprint contains the information on how you’ll look, much of how you’ll act, and how every cell in your body will function during your life. And here’s some more interesting factoids. The DNA from one of your cells, uncoiled, connected, and stretched out would be about 6 feet long. It would be so thin you couldn’t see it. Not even with the most powerful microscope in existence today. The coded information found inside that cell could fill a library with somewhere around 4,000 books. And if you took all the DNA in your body and stretched it out end-to-end, you could go to the moon and back more than 165,000 times. That’s mighty impressive. But, how about this? The information found in your DNA could fill the Grand Canyon almost 30 times, if you put it in books. And yet…you could take one set of DNA from one cell of every person who ever lived, put them all in a spoon, and they’d weigh less than an aspirin. So, how could anyone actually THINK about the complex information inside us and not believe in God? I love knowing we’re created. And not just an accident that rose up out of nothing. No matter what you believe about how life started, you’ve made a choice to believe it. No one (at least virtually no one) is being forced to believe how we all got here. My question is this. Why would you want to believe you’re just the random result of trillions of mutations? Especially when there’s so much information inside you to the contrary. Because you’re an information-based life form. And that information, coded into your DNA, proves there must be a super coder. The good news is…that coder is the Creator who loves you. He made you a human being. In His image and likeness. And He allows you to choose to love Him in return. Or not. So, have another Double Helix. And choose wisely. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. There is information locked inside your cells. When you choose to discover why you’re here, You’ll find out what the information tells. And you’ll see you’re not just an accident Fumbling through the hours, and days, and weeks, and years. All the evidence is pointing out the way. Trust your Maker. He’ll erase your doubts and fears. (facts and figures from “In the Beginning” by Dr. Walt Brown) Jump on the The TRUTH and be part of the growing band of believers who wanna show the world that life has Rhyme and Reason because God made us. Stay tuned, The post Double Helix in a delicious mix appeared first on Tony Funderburk.

Your life design is unique. No one else who ever lived, is living now, or will ever live will have the same life as you. But your life is also no different from anybody else either. Here’s what I mean. And why it matters. The DNA found in every cell of your body is incredibly complex and completely yours. The odds that it exists by chance are so small, you’d be more likely to win the powerball AND get struck by lightning on 3 birthdays in a row. Yeah, your living, loving Creator gave you your life design. And He put the code inside you that makes sure no one else will be you. So, are you starting to realize how special you are? Great. But here’s the other side of the coin… You’re not so special, unique, or one-of-a-kind when it comes to how your life plays out. Because you’ll experience awesome days and disappointing days. You’ll have to go through pain. And you’ll enjoy great pleasures. You will. And so will about seven billion other people. So did countless other people throughout history. It’s life. But just because God gave you your life design doesn’t mean He designed how you’d live out your life. That’s why you’ll find forks in roads where you’ll have to choose a direction, an option, a judgment call. Because, in your life design, God gave you a brain to use. A mind to store data and make options based on using that data well. So, what’s the best way to make wise choices when you find one of the forks in the road? It depends on who you’re willing to trust for help. Do you think your best friends have the solution? How about mom? Or dad? Those can be good choices. But what if they’re not available when you’re faced with a situation that needs a “right away” answer? Who can you turn to in those times? I suggest that same living, loving Creator I mentioned before. Remember, He designed you. He formed you in your mother’s womb. And He installed that unique code inside you. He knows what makes you tick. And He’s available 24 hours a day. Every day of your life. And He’s as close as your breath. In fact, He’s closer. He’s the Spirit of Life. For you, me, and everyone who wants him to be. Without Him nobody would exist. And His word is how you get to know Him and discover His advice for those forks in your road. God’s word says you can plan your way. And it says He will direct your steps. That means He won’t make your decisions for you. And He didn’t plan your life for you. But when you trust Him, He won’t lead you the wrong way. He’ll lead you the direct way. That means you’ll get where you need to be. Here’s a challenge for you. Give up self-trust today. Read God’s word even more to understand your life design. Especially Paul’s writings, from Romans through Philemon, in the New Testament. Because Paul’s message is the most relevant part of the Bible for what’s going on right now. OK, here’s a rhyme to share with kids about their life design. Your Story Matters Inside a trillion tiny cells, Where no one’s eyes can see, A trillion times your story flies On sparks of energy. That energy is life itself, The fire to light your way, To write your story and to live And love someone today. Be thankful for your source of life And bow or smile and nod Because your story matters most, When it reveals our God. © 2013 Jump on the The TRUTH and be part of the growing band of believers who wanna show the world that life has Rhyme and Reason because God made us. Stay tuned, The post Your life design is not the same as mine appeared first on Tony Funderburk.