Thoughts on God After Hearing the Tuesday February 1, 2011; Kepler

Discovery -NASA Science News Conference

On March 6, 2009, NASA launched the Kepler Space Telescope to among

other things, "Determine the abundance of terrestrial and larger planets in or
near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars." It actually monitors over
150,000 stars to determine if habitable planets are common. If they are
common it should detect hundreds of them. If not it should detect few.

Does this worry you? Does it shake your faith? I know it does many, for many
think if these are discovered or if life is discovered on them, then the Bible
must be false. I'm not sure if the Bible teaches that there can be no life in
the universe besides what is mentioned in the Bible, but I know many believe
so, and this scares them!, or they just ignore it and say the Bible will be proven
correct!, so who cares. Either response is fruitless and allows inroads for the
devil, besides who says life on other planets has to be discovered to make this
exciting stuff!

Well the news is in:

Tuesday February 1, 2011; Kepler Discovery -NASA Science News

Conference

Many were hoping for spectacular news but few expected such great results
as scientists operating NASA's Kepler space telescope acknowledged that
they identified 1,235 possible planets in orbit around other stars, saying it
could easily lead to a quadrupling of the number of known planets.

Fifty-four of these planets are in habitable zones, not too hot or too cold,
that is, they are able to have liquid water. Actually about twenty were shown
to have very earth like temperatures, with the possibility of many of the other
planets able to have earth sized moons with habitable temperatures.
They alluded to the thought that the results should be 80%-90% accurate but
it would take at least until 2012 to confirm the candidates as planets and to be
able to find one which closely resembles the earth. To date 15 have been
confirmed, so anyone can guess what the actual number will be. Also this is only
the first step in determining if they could be or were inhabited.

Bill Borucki stated the Kepler telescope surveys a section equal to only one
four-hundreth of the Milky Way. (at least to a certain distance). If we could
survey the whole thing, he stated, “we would see 400,000 candidates.” That
would mean at least 17,490 planets in Habitable zones. Add to this that the
Huble space telescope has reportedly found over 100 billion other galaxies:
and it becomes mind altering!

While it is a fantastic start, they did caution that new discoveries will lesson
with time. Of course they are all hoping for living things to be found on some
other planet.

While 2012 may seem like a long way off remember these results come from
analysis of only the first 4 months of data. Wow! I mean Wow!

We need to get excited about this, because it is amazing and God did create
it. Now, the the atheists will pervert the discoveries whatever they end up.
They will say either, "look the earth is not so unique and possibly neither is
life!" if planets are found to be habitable or even inhabited, or they will say,
"look with so many billions of chances how could life not have evolved!" Either
way it still will not come close to proving God does not exist. Science can not
discover the past nor the origins of life. For we can always look at it noting
that it proves that the foundations of the earth and universe are secure. It
proves that if something had to be great to create the universe as we knew it
500 years ago then that something must be even greater than we had
previously imagined. And if this earth is on the edge of destruction and
running out of resources, what better plan could God have developed than to
provide his people with a way to be salt and light to the world, a city on a hill
and provide all people with another chance to find salvation in Jesus Christ,
for we know he does not wish any to perish. For whether you believe it or not,
deep space travel can not be that far off, and this opens up so many
possibilities and unlimited resources it again becomes mind altering!

So maybe it is time to consider again the God sized universe we live in. To
consider how truly awesome our God is, and be ready to provide an answer for
the hope that lies within us! Will you be able to give that answer to your
friends, neighbors, and enemies when they throw Galileo and passages like, I
Chronicles 16:30, Psalms 93:1, Psalms 96:10, Psalms 104:5 and Ecclesiastes 1:5,
at you? Read them. Will you be ready to lead them from disbelief to Christ?
God expects you to and has given you the spirit of power and not timidity for
just this purpose! God has put you in this life for such a time as this! And while
it is true, that if not you, he will raise up someone else, let us not consider
what he will think of us if we choose not to do his will, but let us encourage
each other in the opposite direction!

Listen to these passages:

Come let us sing with joy to the Lord!

Let us sing as loud as we can to the rock who saves us!
Let us come before him with thanksgiving,
and praise him by singing songs as loud as we can!
For the Lord is the Great God,
the great king above all gods.
In his hands are the deepest depths of the earth
and the mountain peaks belong to him
the ocean is his he created it
and he made the dry land with his own hands.
Come, let us bow down and worship Him!
Let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
He is our God, and we are the people he cares for,
 his sheep that walk by his side.
Listen to his voice today:
"Don't be stubborn, as you were at Meribeth,
as you were at Massah in the desert.
Your ancestors doubted and tested me,
even after they saw what I could do!
I was angry with them for forty years.
I said 'they are not faithful to me.
They refuse to do what I say.'
So in my anger I made this vow:
'They will never enter my land of rest.' "
Psalms 95
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, it cannot be made
salty again. Salt is useless if it loses its salty taste. It will be thrown out
where people will just walk on it. You are the light that shines for the world to
see. You are like a city built on a hill that cannot be hidden. People don't hide a
lamp under a bowl. They put it on a lamp stand. Then the light shines for
everyone in the house. In the same way, you should be a light for other people.
Live so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in
Heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16
But don't forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord a day is like a
thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow
in doing what he promised--the way some people understand slowness. But God
is being patient with you. He doesn't want anyone to be lost. He wants
everyone to change their ways and stop sinning.
II Peter 3:8-9
Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope
you have. But answer them in a gentle way with respect. Keep your conscience
clear. Then people will see the good way you live as followers of Christ, and
those who say bad things about you will be ashamed of what they said.
I Peter 3 15b-16
The spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. He is our source of power and
love and self-control! So don't be ashamed to tell people about our Lord Jesus.
And don't be ashamed of me--I am in prison for the Lord. But suffer with me
for the Good News. God gives us the strength to do that!
II Timothy 7-8
Then Esther's message was given to Mordecai. When he got her message,
Mordecai sent his answer back: "Esther don't think that just because you live
in the king's palace you will be the only Jew to escape. If you keep quiet now,
help and freedom for the Jews will come from another place. But you and your
father's family will die. And who knows, maybe you have been chosen to be
queen for such a time as this!"
Esther 4:12-14
Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter God's kingdom. The only people who
will enter are those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On the last day
many will say to me, 'You are our Lord! We spoke for you. And for you we
forced out demons and did many miracles.' Then I will tell those people clearly,
'Get away from me, you people who do wrong! I never knew you!'
Matthew 7:21-23
We should think about each other to see how we can encourage each other to
show love and do good works. We can do this by meeting together as some
have stopped doing. We need to keep encouraging each other. This becomes
more and more important as you see the Day getting closer.
Hebrews 10: 24-25
Sing a new song to the Lord!
Let the whole world sing to the Lord.
Sing to the Lord and praise his name!
Tell the good news every day about how he saves us!
Tell all the nations how wonderful he is!
Tell people everywhere about the amazing things he does.
 The Lord is great and worthy of praise.
He is more awesome than any of the "gods."
All the "gods" in other nations are nothing but statues,
but the Lord made the heavens!
He lives in the presence of glory and honor.
His temple is a place of power and beauty.
Families and nations, praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord's glory and power!
Give the Lord praise worthy of His glory.
Come, bring your offerings into his courtyard.
Worship the Lord in all his Holy beauty.
Everyone on earth should tremble before Him.
Tell the nations that the Lord is King!
The world stands firm and cannot be moved.
He will judge all people fairly.
Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be happy!
Let the sea and everything in it shout for joy!
Let the fields and everything in them be happy!
Let the trees in the forest sing for joy when they see the Lord coming!
He is coming to rule the world.
He will rule all the nations of the world with justice and fairness.
Psalms 96
be God's
jonathan