According to today's Wall Street Journal, the United States had its largest outbreak of measles for nine years in May of 2005. Indiana reported 34 cases in one outbreak (there were only 27 cases among all U.S. residents in 2004). Interestingly, all but one of the patients were out of the same church and 20 of these were home-schooled children. A 17-year-old girl in the church had taken a mission trip to an orphanage in Romania, had contracted the measles there, and had attended a church-wide gathering the day after she returned to the States. Most of the children who caught the measles had not been vaccinated.

Both polls and anecdotal evidence point to the same result: Bible-believing churches are losing their teenagers to the world. Teenagers who grow up in churches are leaving church and going to the world as soon as they get a chance. One statistic states that only 4% of the teens in evangelical churches stay in church. If that is anywhere close, that is an astounding figure. Churches have drawn the teens with entertainment and fun, but this will not keep them. Probably, the greatest contributing factor is the home. If the home is not solidly Christian--to the point of serious separation from the world--then the teens will learn their values from the world. We must work harder to exhort parents to be godly parents and then teach them how to do it.

In a great essay on the current path of fundamentalists, the editor of Straightway magazine, Dr. H.T. Spence, makes this greatly enlightening statement : "Though Fundamentalism has endeavored to be strong historically in ecclesiastical separation, one of its great weaknesses from its beginning has been its lack of personal separation." This can be found in the June-July 2005 issue of the magazine in an article entitled "Ask for the Old Paths."

After the flood, God gave man a fresh start through Noah and his family. Man is to replenish the earth and make another go at it. God gave Noah foundational principles of good government and promised all creation that the earth would never again be destroyed by water. But tragically, by the end of the chapter, sin had already begun to corrupt the new world.

An excerpt from the book Final Authority by Dr. William P. Grady. This chapter was written to warn the child of God of the war that has been waged against our Bible.

In the Bible, the number eight is often used as a sign of new beginnings. Here, in Genesis eight, the human race got a new beginning when Noah and his family left the ark to begin their new life on the earth. But, before they left the ark, the waters must subside. Then, after they left the ark, Noah builds an altar to God and the Lord is pleased. God has not left them without hope. As the chapter begins, God remembered Noah.

In this chapter, God sent the flood that destroyed all breathing beings on the face of the earth. But first, He ensured the deliverance of Noah, his family, and all kinds of animals by shutting them in the ark Noah had built in obedience to God

God compares Israel to a barren or a forsaken woman in this chapter. For a small moment, He has hid His face from her. But He will bless her with everlasting kindness and show mercy unto her because of His covenant with her. This chapter is full of encouragement and kindness.

The priests had already been divided into twenty-four courses in order to organize their work more efficiently. Now, the Levites who cared about the service of the temple, the porters, are organized in the same way.