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JERUSALEM - A biblical wall that has eluded archaeologists for years has finally been found, according to an Israeli scholar. A team of archaeologists in Jerusalem has uncovered what they believe to be part of a wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah.

The discovery, made in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, came as a result of a rescue attempt on a tower which was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig.

Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah, according to Mazar. Scholars previously thought the wall dated to the Hasmonean period (142-37 B.C.).

The findings suggest that the wall is actually part of the same city wall the Bible says Nehemiah rebuilt, Mazar said. The Book of Nehemiah (chapters 3-6) gives a detailed description of construction of the walls, destroyed earlier by the Babylonians.

"We were amazed," she said, noting that the discovery was made at a time when many scholars argued that the wall did not exist.

"This was a great surprise. It was something we didn't plan," Mazar said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071129/ap_on_sc/israel_jerusalem_dig_1

No doubt there will be the requisite debate and dust up concerning the finding of Nehemiah's wall in archeological circles, but this discovery continues a trend that is hard to ignore.

Skeptics, armed with the preconceived notion that the Bible can't be true (after all, we know miracles can't happen, right?), boldly declare the Bible is wrong or merely mythical.

Archeologists in the field discover evidence confirming the Scriptural account.

Skeptics quickly change the subject.

Consider a classic example of this predictable pattern in action. For years, the notion that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah actually existed was considered laughable in academic circles.

Then excavations at the ancient site of the city of Ebla in modern Syria produced highly sophisticated records of trade transactions that mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain of Genesis 18 -19.

Furthering the issue, a recent guest on Scott Richards Live, Dr. Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University has conducted extensive research on the site of Tall el-Hamman on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. The relics and structures unearthed there (including pottery samples flash fused into glass) indicate Sodom and Gomorrah have been found.

Why does this matter?

The Bible doesn't begin with the words "Once upon a time" or "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". It claims to be the record of how God has interacted with man in history. This record can be evaluated by evidence on the ground. And the evidence consistently points to the fact that the Bible can be trusted.

Jesus put it this way:

How wonderful it is to live in times when discovery after discovery strengthens our faith in God's message of life!

Teddy Teacher Charged In Sudan

Updated:19:11, Wednesday November 28, 2007

A British teacher has been charged with insulting religion and inciting hatred after allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Gillian Gibbons

Gillian Gibbons faces 40 lashes - and the British Government has shown its anger by summoning the Sudanese ambassador in London as a "matter of urgency".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said: "We are surprised and disappointed by this development."

Ms Gibbons has been charged under Article 125 of the criminal code, the Foreign Office confirmed.

The case will go before a court in Sudan tomorrow and the 54-year-old from Liverpool is expected to appear.

If convicted, Ms Gibbons faces 40 lashes, six months in prison, or a fine. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1294838,00.html

So what is scourging really like? A fascinating first hand account was posted today on the London Daily Mail web site.

'My whole back felt like it was on fire': As a British teacher faces 40 lashes, one man speaks out

Just what is it like to be lashed? In 1993, Gavin Sherrard-Smith, a computer expert from Cheltenham, received 50 lashes with a bamboo cane in a prison in Qatar.

He was accused of breaking an alcohol ban while living in Doha, the capital - something that Mr Sherrard-Smith, now 47, has always denied.

This is his astonishing account of how the brutal punishment was carried out, and how he endured it.

Punishment: A flogging in Iran, which also follows Sharia law

 

The lashing started immediately. One, two, three - in quick succession. I buried my head into my forearms, gritted my teeth and concentrated on not breaking down.

The man lashing me was the tallest and biggest of the three policeman.

He was supposed to have a book - usually the Koran - under his arm to reduce the swing and stop him from lifting the cane above his head, but there was no sign of it.

Four, five, six, seven - they kept coming thick and fast. At first the pain wasn't too much and I could feel where he was hitting me.

The blows were raining down on my body, from the shoulder blades to the calves, then back up again.

But with each blow, the skin softened and the pain grew and grew to the point that my whole back felt like it was on fire.

Soon it was unbearable, but they kept coming, mostly on my left shoulder and calf. I had to summon up all my control not to move.

I didn't realise the human body could generate and tolerate such pain. I had never felt anything like it before, and I hope I will never feel anything like it again.

At about 20 I lost count because I was in too much pain, but someone else was counting each stroke out loud in Arabic.

I had to grit my teeth even more and screwed up my eyes.

I was determined not to make a sound and to lie perfectly still.

Only one of us would leave this room with their dignity intact - me.

After a while I had no idea where he was hitting, even though my clothes were getting torn. The last ten strokes were agony, bloody agony.

I thought I was going to pass out.

Then just as quickly as it started, it was over. Thirty to 40 seconds was all it had lasted. I was left to stagger to my feet and walk out.

The first person I saw was the prison governor. He said: 'You are still alive then?' I replied: 'Yes, I'm fine.'

I was shaking uncontrollably, but just glad it was all over.

Although I'd been given a medical check before I was beaten, there was nothing afterwards.

A fellow inmate counted the marks on my back and there were scores of weals - blue and black, surrounded by yellow swellings and extremely painful. Any movement set them on fire.

I couldn't lie on my back for days and, two weeks later, I was still in pain.

Today, the scars have healed, but I will never forget the ordeal." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=496844&in_page_id=1811

A horrendous experience? To be sure.

But nothing compared to the experience Jesus had with scourging. Consider this excerpt from the Journal of the American Medical Association article "On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ".

Fig 2.Scourging. Left, Short whip (flagrum) with lead balls and sheep bones tied into leather thongs. Center left, Naked victim tied to flogging post. Deep stripelike lacerations were usually associated with considerable blood loss. Center right, View from above, showing position of lictors. Right, Inferomedial direction of wounds.

Scourging Practices

 Flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution, ²⁸ and only women and Roman senators or soldiers (except in eases of desertion) were exempt.¹¹ The usual instrument was a short whip (flagellum) with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals (Fig 2).⁵,⁷,¹¹ Occasionally, staves also were used. ⁸, ¹² For scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to an upright post (Fig 2). ¹¹ The back, buttocks, and legs were flogged either by two soldiers (lictors) or by one who alternated positions.⁵,⁷,¹¹,²⁸ The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lictors and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. ⁸ After the scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim.¹¹

Medical Aspects of Scourging

 As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim's back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and Subcutaneous tissues.⁷ Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.², ⁷, ²⁵ Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock.¹²The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.⁸

Scourging of Jesus

 At the Praetorium, Jesus was severely whipped. (Although the severity of the scourging is not discussed in the four gospel accounts, it is implied in one of the epistles [1Peter 2:24]. A detailed word study of the ancient Greek text for this verse indicates that the scourging of Jesus was particularly harsh.³³) It is not known whether the number of lashes was limited to 39, in accordance with Jewish law.⁵ The Roman soldiers, amused that this weakened man had claimed to be a king, began to mock him by placing a robe on his shoulders, a crown of thorns on his head, and a wooden staff as a scepter in his right hand.¹ Next, they spat on Jesus and struck him on the head with the wooden staff.¹ Moreover, when the soldiers tore the robe from Jesus' back, they probably reopened the scourging wounds.⁷

 The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a pre-shock state. Moreover, hematidrosis had rendered his skin particularly tender. The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state. Therefore, even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus' physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical.

http://the-crucifixion.org/

The modern Islamic practice of scourging is done with bamboo canes or a leather whip. In Jesus' case it was done with the infamous "Cat of Nine Tails", a whip with nine strands, studded with rocks, glass and bone fragments.

If Gavin Sherrard-Smith felt his back was on fire, how do you suppose Jesus felt after the 39th blow?

This incident sheds a profound light on a prophecy made about the crucifixion written 700 years before the event.

All that suffering Jesus endured for you and me.

This also puts another Scripture into sharp focus.

Salvation is a free gift for us, but it literally cost God everything.

This is just a slight glimpse of how much God loves you and me.

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2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon

November 3, 2007
New York City, N.Y.

Brian Sell, Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein

All the chatter about the resurgence of American distance running came to fruition in powerful fashion, with Ryan Hall leading Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell onto the 2008 Olympic Team. Competing at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon in Central Park, Hall tamed what had been thought of as a slow and very difficult course, breaking the Olympic Trials record with his winning time of 2:09:02. Ritzenhein was second in a personal-best time of 2:11:06, with Sell third in 2:11:40.

How interesting that when Ryan allowed God to achieve an inner victory in his heart, an outer victory soon followed.

Perhaps that is the secret Paul was pointing to in this famous portion of I Corinthians.

Golan Heights shrugs off peace talks

AP Photo: Tourists look towards Syria from an outlook on Mount Bental in the Israeli controlled Golan.

 

JERUSALEM - Syria's decision to attend the Annapolis summit on Mideast peace has raised the prospect of negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights.

But Israeli settlers say they are not worried the strategic plateau may return to Syrian control, pointing to a long history of failed attempts to settle the dispute.

Syria agreed to send its deputy foreign minister to the Mideast conference Monday after the United States said Damascus would be free to bring up the Golan Heights, which Israel seized 40 years ago.

Syria has said peace would require Israel to return the Golan, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signaled he is ready to do so.

Israeli settlers living in the territory doubt anything will change soon.

"This is a ritual that repeats itself and never leads to anything," said Sammy Bar-Lev, the mayor of Katzrin, the largest Jewish town in the Golan, with 7,500 residents. "We're not dealing with this at all. If they (Syria) want peace, they will have to get used to the fact that the border is not changing." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_syria;_ylt=AocqzSZtDPrCxn92MLvn7oFBXYh4

As we have pointed out in this space, the Palestinians are not even willing to concede the fact that Israel, as a Jewish state has the right to exist. This is as reasonable as beginning negotiations for a new car by asking the dealer "How much will you pay me to take that car off your hands?"

No matter how much Israel has been willing to give to make peace, it only seems to encourage her enemies to demand more. Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert's single digit approval ratings are a strong indicator that the Israeli people have had enough of this approach.

In short, it would take supernatural intervention to bring about a solution to this mess.

Interestingly, this is precisely what the Bible tells us will happen.

In fact, it will be a Middle East peace plan that will catapult a yet as to be identified diplomat to international prominence and acclaim.

Speaking of the rise of the Anti-Christ in the last days, the book of Daniel gives this interesting prediction.

The Anti-Christ will accomplish the seemingly impossible.

He will gather many nations together for a peace conference.

He will conclude a treaty that not only creates guarantees of peace, but will allow the Jews to rebuild their temple on its historic site.

He will get even implacable enemies to sign on the line. The predicted cry of "Peace and safety" will be heard around the world.

But a deadly double cross awaits those who put their trust in this false messiah.

So watch the news reports coming out of Annapolis this week. I believe we will see another meaningless set of "purpose statements" and "commitments to a roadmap to peace", but nothing of substance.

Another attempt to say "Peace! Peace! Where there is no peace." will come and go.

And the world will be just a bit more dangerous.

And the world will be a bit more ready to receive, as the historian Toynbee put it, "a new Caesar who will promise the world prosperity and peace."

Racing to a virtual dead heat, laboratory teams in Wisconsin and Japan reported success in experiments that enable ordinary human skin cells take on the purpose-shifting powers of embryonic stem cells.

The "direct reprogramming" avoids the ethical, political and practical obstacles that have complicated attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos. The White House said such research is what President Bush was advocating when he twice vetoed legislation to pave the way for taxpayer-funded embryo research.

Dr. Lanza likened the development to "the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers' first airplane," but cautioned that medical benefits are far off.

One complication: At this point, the technique requires disrupting the DNA of the skin cells, which creates the potential for developing cancer. So it would be unacceptable for the most touted use of embryonic cells: creating transplant tissue to treat diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injury.

But experts said the DNA disruption is just a byproduct of the technique- and believe it can be overcome. http://origin.mercurynews.com/businessupdate/ci_7516801?nclick_check=1

There are those who grumble that the resistance of those who argued against embryonic stem cell research has "slowed progress down by years".

But when we are dealing with such dangerous ethical and moral territory shouldn't caution be our first priority?

In our brave new world of exponential growth in knowledge and technology we are increasingly faced with this stark and demanding question - just because we can do a certain thing, doesn't necessarily mean we should.

Those who have stood for principle over pragmatism or popular culture have now seen the pay off. Here we have a new line of research that can deliver all of the promise of stem cell therapies without the blatant disregard  for the most defenseless and voiceless among us.

And that is a good thing.

The moral of the story is pretty simple. God's people need to stand for what is right, not necessarily what is popular. Because ultimately standing for what is right leads us to what is good and beneficial for all, not just a few.

Desiring to see science pursue cures that will alleviate suffering, but not at the price of trampling on the rights of the defenseless, sounds an awful lot like the compass heading for life the Bible gives us in the book of Micah.

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Scott's Blog - 11/20/07

Who's Your Daddy?

"In the bit of rock we got back, some biological compounds have survived," said project leader John Parnell from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Preliminary findings suggest that it's possible simple organisms could arrive via meteorites, he said.

"Of course, at the moment we don't know of life on another planet, but this experiment is an intriguing test of an interplanetary version of an old ecological question."

David Morrison is a senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute in Moffett Field, California.

The theory that says interplanetary organisms seeded life on different planets, such as Earth, is known as panspermia.

If panspermia explains the origins of life on Earth, astrobiologists believe that Mars is the most likely source.

The project lends credibility to the idea that meteors from outer space can give rides to hitchhiking microbes.

Whether exchange of life has ever occurred following the meteorites' impact is a more complex question, but "we should be open to the possibility that there is microbial life on Mars that shares a common ancestor with Earth life," he said.

"It may not be likely, but we cannot exclude the possibility that we are, in effect, all Martians." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071112-space-rock_2.html

Here we see illustrated one of the biggest problems facing those who attempt to explain the rise of life without a Creator.

The more science reveals the extraordinary complexity of even the simplest building blocks of life, the less likely the popularized origins myths of the white lab coat set become.

The conditions on the early earth were simply too inhospitable for life to have arisen we are told.

Do we revisit the notion that all life is one great accident? Or do we merely move the process to another planet where we can make up any kind of conditions necessary to keep our myth alive (and conveniently unverifiable)?

Talk about a leap of faith of galactic proportions.

But no matter where we move the so called happy accident, we are still left to contend with the hard facts.

Whether one places the rise of life on Mars, Earth, Venus or Planet Hollywood, the odds are the same. God has stacked the deck and rated the game.

The tortuous lengths some will go to escape the hand of the Creator only magnifies the reality of His presence.

For The Jerusalem Post “all this is mind-boggling. … The Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state suggests that all their solemn and myriad expressions of Israel’s right to exist did not mean anything.”

Wakey, wakey! http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=85

One of the toughest lessons we learn in this life is that people are sometimes not who they pretend to be. We learn that the wisest path through life is to follow the advice of an old Russian proverb, "Trust, but verify."

And what nations are learning in the collapse of the Annapolis summit, we need to apply in our day to day lives. Especially in our spiritual lives.

There are cult groups who will knock on your door and say with a straight face, "We are Christians, just like you."

Fine print: Aside from the fact we believe we will be God over our own planet someday.

There are churches you can attend who put on their statement of faith "We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God". It sounds good, but in reality the leadership believes that the Biblical authors made mistakes and allowed their own prejudices to taint their message.

Fine print: This way we can pick and choose the passages we agree with, and toss out the ones that challenge or convict us.  

There are false teachers who will say, "We are saved by grace, but you'd better be baptized by us in order to really get to heaven."

Fine print: If you buy into a good work to get you saved, wait till you see all the good works we have lined up for you to keep you saved!

Trust, but verify.

In any spiritual deception it takes two to tango - the deceiver and the deceive-ee.

The secret of life?

Read the fine print. Your soul might be at stake.

Image by Mysid wikipedia.com

This latest tragedy is surely yet another ‘wake-up call’ to those who say that the creation/evolution ‘controversy’ is only of academic interest. As the high school shootings in Finland and at Columbine demonstrate, what a person believes about origins can be devastatingly destructive—not just to their own life, but the lives of people around them.

From childhood, Harris, Klebold and Auvinen had been taught that man is just an animal and that death and violence are a natural part of life. In fact, from an evolutionary perspective, one could argue that death is a good thing, for without the selection pressure of death removing the weak, man would not have evolved. So death and violence become, in the eyes of those willing to logically apply Darwinian principles to the real world, natural evolutionary mechanisms that have operated with chance processes over millions of years to produce today’s life-forms—including man.

Evolutionists will object that these extreme actions in no way are representative of the vast majority of those who believe and teach their doctrine.

True.

But it is not inconsistent with their world view. "Survival of the Fittest" requires the lack of survival of the "Unfit".

As Darwinism captured the imagination of Western culture in the late 1800's, a man named Herbert Spencer advocated applying its principles to society.

He argued that charitable acts toward the sick and homeless were immoral as they would only keep the unfit alive to reproduce and weaken the gene pool for future generations. Let 'em die. The species will thank you for it later.

Even his fellow evolutionists found Spencer's ideas reprehensible. But they could not show how they were inconsistent with the world view they embraced.

So is there an alternative?

As we pointed out after the Columbine massacre, the only way to de-fuse the evolutionary ‘walking time-bombs’ in our societies is to teach the true account of our origins, found in the Bible. That enables young (and old) people to understand that death is not a ‘natural evolutionary mechanism’ but a consequence of sin. And they can also understand that God so loved the world that he provided a ‘rescue package’, in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins (see Good News!). The Bible makes it clear that we are not rearranged pond scum but descendants of the first man and woman, made in the image of God, and that through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour we can know that our lives have meaning—and purpose.

History shows that people with that in mind (i.e. those who love the Lord with all their mind, as per Matthew 22:37), do not have a mind to become a killer. (See also What good is Christianity?) http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5435

Ideas do have consequences.

When we tell people the truth about Jesus lives are in the balance.

That is why Paul expressed his job description in this significant way.

See Comet Holmes Tonight!

In mid-evening, face northeast and look high for these constellations.

The spiritual implications of this are significant. The modern scientific establishment has fallen into a love affair with a concept called "uniformitarianism". This is a fancy way of saying everything around us can be explained by gradual process over long periods of time.

The Grand Canyon? A mid size river called the Colorado carved it out over millions of years.

Human beings? Start with a nice collision of some carbon based molecules, add a few billion years for random accidents to modify the mix and you get you and me.

But every now and then we are confronted with examples of things that don't seem to play by the slow and steady rule book.

Comet Holmes is one of them.

A comet that brightens 500,000 times?  To go from a tiny dim snow ball to a mass larger than the sun? It would take eons for that to happen, right?

Apparently Comet Holmes didn't get the memo.

The Bible tells us of a similarly radical change in reality - so pervasive it effected the entire universe, so rapid it took 6 days to accomplish.

My question to those who find Pullman convincing is simple - Why do you believe the speculations of men, rather than face the historical facts surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? What if Jesus is more than "just a good story"? Wouldn't that change everything?

The Golden compass will no doubt serve as a sort of literary "gateway drug" for many to buy into Pullmans half anti-theism/ half occultic world view. We need to be prepared to meet these distortions with the light and love of God's truth.

The A&E network has pulled its top-rated show Dog The Bounty Hunter indefinitely after the show's reality star used a racial slur several times in a private phone conversation that was posted online.

On Friday, network officials said the program, which follows bounty hunter Duane (Dog) Chapman and his family as they hunt down bail jumpers, will be off the schedule "for the foreseeable future."

"We hope that Mr. Chapman continues the healing process that he has begun," said a statement released by the network.

"Pending an investigation, we have suspended production on the series. When the inquiry is concluded, we will take appropriate action," said a statement posted on the show's website.

The National Enquirer tabloid posted a phone conversation on Wednesday between the 54-year-old Chapman and his son, Tucker, in which he used the N-word frequently about his son's black girlfriend.

Two advertisers have pulled out from the show and civil rights groups are calling for its cancellation.

Although Chapman is continuing on a series of media appearances where he has apologized and offered to make amends, the incident has brought to the forefront an undeniable truth. Racism and the pain it produces are alive and well in our society.

So what can be done about it?

I believe the core of the problem is spiritual.

When we fail to understand that "all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights", prejudice inevitably follows in the wake.

When God's view of people is excluded in favor of personal pride, it is only a small step to look down on anyone who doesn't talk, act or look just like we do.

But when we learn to see people the way the Lord does, evaluating them "not on the color of their skin, but the content of their character", racism loses its power.

This principle is beautifully illustrated in an incident recently related to me by my friend Dr. Geoffrey Smith.

Bibles Banned at 2008 Beijing Olympics

CBNNews.com

November 5, 2007

CBNNews.com - Organizers for the 2008 Olympics in China have released their list of items banned from the Olympic village where the athletes will stay. Among the "prohibited objects" -- Bibles.

The Catholic News Agency reports that the committee behind the Beijing games cited "security reasons" for the ban.

Athletes are also prohibited from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities. The ban seems to undermine comments released by the country's top religious affairs official. Last month, Ye Xiaowen acknowledged that he expected large numbers of religious faithful among the athletes, coaches and tourists to be swarming into the officially atheist nation during the Olympics. http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/264115.aspx

The claim that somehow the Bible poses a security risk seems pretty threadbare when we consider that books of religious significance that some might consider directly associated with global instability such as, oh, say the Koran did not make the Chinese communist no-no list.

Imagine what could happen if Olympic athletes were allowed to bring their Bibles with them to Beijing. Why, random acts of righteousness might break out during the games!

So what do you do if you are a Christian athlete under these circumstances? Some are already calling for a boycott of the games to shine an exposing light on the religious persecution that is a way of life in China.

But I believe there is a better response. The most ingenious form of "Bible smuggling" ever devised is revealed to us in the book of II Corinthians.

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;  clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. (II Corinthians 3:2-3)

The Chinese authorities and their institutionalized atheism have a lot to fear if the power of God's Word gets turned loose in their country. They can search athletes' belongings to make sure the physical object we call a Bible doesn't get in.

But they can't ban the truth hidden in an athlete's heart.

It is my prayer that those competitors who love Christ will take it upon themselves not only to memorize the Scriptures and hide them in their hearts, but also look for opportunities to share that transforming truth during the games.

That is the ultimate race worth running, with the ultimate reward waiting at the finish line.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (I Corinthians 9:24-27)

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Scott's Blog - 11/06/07

The Big "D"