November 6, 2013
GRAVITY AT WORK -- PART 1
The forces our God has provided to hold the material world together will be the subject of the next few writings. Men have identified four of them, given them names, and have been able to describe their actions mathematically. But this does not mean that we understand them. However, our shallow insights leave us in awe of the Great Designer who spoke them into existence.
We are most accustomed to the working of the force of gravity, while understanding it the least (i.e. how it fits in with other forces). Gravity holds our Earth together and allows us to have a firm place to walk and build. Like all of the other blessings from God we take for granted, we blithely depend on gravity to hold our feet to the earth.
The roundness of the larger heavenly bodies is due to the force of gravity. The layering of the Earth's internal structure is witness to gravity's action in the forming of a once-molten body. As the universe expands, gravity is the retarding force. Clusters of stars (galaxies) are held together by it. These wonders seen in the night sky are described in the book of Job as the star-world singing in chorus.
Isaac Newton first described how all bodies with "mass" are attracted to one another. His equations have allowed us to calculate how one body, in captivity of another, will move in an elliptical path around the larger body. This verified the experimental work of an earlier astronomer, Kepler, who had observed such a pattern in the movements of the planets in our solar system. Newton's work also allowed us to calculate the optimum route to the Moon for the Apollo astronauts. This complicated three-body problem required accounting for the gravitational interactions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon using super computers and much time.
I can personally testify that ego is easily stirred in students when they are first able to make such calculations for themselves. Astronomers also show signs of intoxication today in their discovery of new planets from the gravitational wobble they are able to measure in the parent stars. They speak boldly about other habitable planets with the barest of information.
Water in reservoirs and lakes is held in place by gravity, awaiting man's use. Rivers are driven by gravity in carrying used water back to the ocean for recycling. Clouds, charged with water droplets are easily warmed by sunlight and buoyed upward like ships at sea, carrying their cargo to a thirsty earth.
Just as heat transfer causes water to have gaseous, liquid, and solid phases, so also does the matter in stars have phase changes. As stars grow more massive, internal pressure increases due to gravity with attendant heating, and triggers internal fusion energy release. This energy outflow is in the form of light and winds of particles. Matter in our Sun is now in this phase.
A still more exotic phase of star-matter will be the subject of our next writing. In all of this, God is seen to be a master of complexity, with great purpose in each happening.
-- James Gibbs
College Boxes -- The time is here once again to put together boxes for some of our young adults away at college. If you would like to help fill the boxes you may pick up a list in the foyer and return the items to the building by this Sunday, November 10. (The date has been extended one more week.) You may also give cash donations to help with the cost of shipping which is about $16.00 per box. Please see or call Denise Beeks if you need more information.
Holiness Night of Poetry -- You are invited to come join us for our first ever poetry slam this Sunday evening, November 10, at 6:00 p.m. We encourage everyone of every age (especially the teens) to enter. We ask that your poem be original and about “holiness.” For more information contact Brian Pannell.
Christmas Program Meeting -- All people who would like to participate or help with our Christmas Program on Saturday, December 21, at 6:00 p.m. are asked to come to a meeting this Sunday, November 10, after morning services. We will meet at the front of the auditorium after services. For more information, please contact Christi Olson or Wyndee Thomas.
Christian Relief Fund – It is that time of year again when we need to start collecting extra funds for our “adopted children” for their Christmas presents. Please be generous as the donation can is passed around during our class time OR you may write a check and place it in an envelope marked CRF. Thank you so much for all that you do for our children - it is greatly appreciated.
Coffee Servers are needed for November and for December 8, 22 and 29. If you can help, please sign up on the list posted in the hallway by the stairs. Thank you for all your help!
PRAYER REQUESTS . . . Diane Liles requests prayers for her father, Virgil Kivett, who will have hip replacement surgery this week and for her aunt, Darla Tompkins, who is at risk of losing her leg...For Kathy Hutsell who has shingles - prayers for her quick healing and grace to endure...For Mark Moreno who starts a new job this week...Continued prayers for healing for Lillian Casebier, Larry Denn, Marian Groth, Bob & Dorothy Trimmer, Donna York...For a friend of Glenda Rennels, Frank, who is having health problems...Meagan Delgado requests prayers for a friend’s husband who has brain and thyroid cancer...For a friend of Matthew York, Chris, who severed a finger in a table saw and cut another finger badly, as he awaits surgery...Jenny Way asks prayers for her loved ones to be kept healthy and strong and that she will be able to complete her brain book this week...Alix Spodnik that she will be able to focus in school and that God will heal her yucky stomach...Jack Spodnik asks us to please pray for the world to change so that there will be no more children in slavery in other countries and that they can be free...For our President and all of our military men, women and families.
Thank You Note . . . I want to thank you for your prayers and cards. It means so much to me. I can’t wait to see all of you and be back to church and class. Love, Evelyn Bates
OUR ELDERS -- Even though Anniversary Sunday has come and gone, we thought it would be nice to remember the men who have served as elders at West Main over the past 63 years. *If we have left anyone out, please call the church office so we can update our files.*
Former Current
Dwight Albright Charlie Anderson
Ellwood Flock Dan Beeks
Ernie Groth Larry Denn
Milt Gwinn Gerry Flock
Hal Kilburn Mel Hamilton
H.O. Martin Lance Lake
Merlin Ragsdill Truman Scott
Truman Rennels Ron Zielke
Ed Shipley
Ernie Smith
Maurice Tisdel
Bob Trimmer
Leo Vertrees
Calendar of Events
Nov 10: Christmas Program Meeting; Front of auditorium
after a.m. services
Poetry Slam: 6:00 p.m.
Deacon Budget Requests Due
