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a completely new relationship with God. Circumcision had been practiced by God’s chosen people ever since the time of Abraham; but Jesus Christ changed all that.

      People no longer needed to be Jewish to be God’s chosen people: now anyone could become one of God’s chosen people when they asked God for forgiveness; the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross has allowed God to forgive our sins.

      The Jewish converts to Christianity were already circumcised when they were babies; when non-Jews became Christians the Jewish converts demanded that these non-Jewish converts should also be circumcised.

      They thought they had a reasonable argument, but Paul made everything perfectly clear: ‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.’ (Galatians chapter 5 verse 6 - NIV)

      If you are a male Christian: relax.

      You do not need to be circumcised.

      We are not identified as children of God by a physical change that we make to our body: we are identified as children of God by the change in our heart.

      Jesus Christ was sacrificed so that we can all be included in God’s family; if we could include ourselves in God’s family simply by cutting off a little skin, it would mean that Christ’s sacrifice was meaningless.

      ‘When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

      For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.’ (Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 - NLT)

      Creation

      This is a tricky subject for many Christians, because we are educated at school and in the media about evolution and a natural earth history that appears to conflict with the Biblical description.

      Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 tells us that God made everything: everything on earth, and everything in the universe: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' (KJV)

      It’s quite simple when you think about it: either everything, absolutely everything including you and me, has been created by an infinite series of random coincidences, (which scientists call evolution); or everything, absolutely everything including you and me, have been created by intelligent design: by God.

      From a skeptical point of view, one theory is as incredibly amazing as the other.

      Let me describe it in another way: -

      Imagine a huge factory, the biggest factory your mind can think of. Now visualize this factory manufacturing a never ending supply of perfectly made objects; objects of infinite intricacy and engineering perfection; objects of an infinite number of designs; designs of every size and shape and form. This factory manufactures continuously, all day, every day, without ceasing.

      Can you imagine it?

      Now, what if I told you that this factory had no workers, no managers, and no owners.

      It sounds completely unbelievable, doesn’t it?

      But there’s more: imagine that this amazing automatic factory was built completely by accident; imagine that this factory that manufactures all these amazing, perfect, and intricately engineered objects, came into existence by an infinite series of random coincidences.

      It sounds utterly ridiculous.

      It’s like suggesting that a complicated mechanical wristwatch is made by putting the hundreds of tiny little parts into a box, and giving it all a really good shake until it forms into an accurately functioning wristwatch.

      By comparison, the concept of God creating everything by intelligent design is not so hard to believe.

      All the scientists in the world still cannot prove that God is not the creator. Believe me, many, many brilliant scientists have tried to prove that God does not exist, but not one of them has succeeded.

      Maybe creation began with a big bang, as some scientists now believe; well, if there was a big bang, it must have been God’s big bang.

      Explain evolution

      Evolution is not so difficult to explain; Charles Darwin called it natural selection; in simple terms it is the survival of the fittest.

      Survival of the fittest explains how some living things have adapted over multiple generations to suit their environment.

      For example, it explains why the finches on one island have blunt beaks, and very similar finches on the next island have hooked beaks: it’s because one island has no nuts but lots of berries; and the other island has no berries but lots of nuts. The breeding of successive generations of finches on each island slowly develops so that only finches with hooked beaks are born on the nutty island, and only finches with blunt beaks are born on the berry island.

      The survival of the fittest explains how all living things have survived and adapted to their particular environment, suffering ups and downs, struggles and plagues, disasters and diseases: because the less able ones do not survive, and the more adaptable ones thrive.

      Natural selection does not mean that we have evolved from pond slime and tadpoles, (which is theorizing things to extreme lengths to try to convince ourselves that God doesn’t exist).

      A hummingbird was created as a hummingbird.

      An elephant was created as an elephant.

      And humans were created as humans.

      Survival of the fittest simply means that things living now are the direct result of their predecessors’ health, adaptability, stamina and fertility.

      And there’s nothing biblically contradictory or difficult to believe about that.

      ‘Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.’ (Genesis chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 - NLT)

      Explain ancient fossils

      'On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.' (Genesis chapter 2 verse 2 NLT)

      There are experts who believe that between Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, and verse 3, there was a gap. They argue that this gap may have been millions or billions of years in time; there are others who would argue that these six days of the creation may not have been the 24-hour days that we know today, but may have been six days of immense length.

      I am certainly not an expert.

      I cannot explain creation; if I attempted to explain creation, I know that I would fail. I was not present at the creation - no one was, except the Creator.

      The Bible doesn’t provide us with details for the very simple reason that we don’t need to know - we really don’t need to know.

      Let me put it in a nutshell: -

      Moses wrote the book of Genesis some considerable time after those busy six days of God’s creation.

      Imagine if God had explained to Moses all about how creation was achieved: the book of Genesis would be absolutely the biggest book ever written, (Moses couldn't possibly have lived long enough to write it all down).

      Imagine all the science, all the chemistry, all the biology, and physics and mathematics and astronomy and geology and everything else; a book that explained creation could easily fill all the shelves in all the libraries in all the world.

      Instead

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