West Main

Friday Night 6:00-9:00 (childcare and refreshments provided)

Saturday Night 5:30-9:00 (dinner and childcare provided)

Sunday AM- morning class

In the conclusion to this study we will look at the institution of marriage. We will look at the question of how the church can address the homosexuality issue in our culture. We will look at God designed gender distinctions. We will look at the way society sees it versus how God sees it. We will discuss ways to re-frame the debate for a non religious world. We will discuss the sanctity of marriage and what God intends it to be.

It is our hope that you can all be part of this event. We look forward to seeing you there.

-- Pannell

WHEN CONTINENTS CAME APART

A casual look at the shape of the eastern coastlines of the American continents will see how they form a jigsaw “fit” to the western coastlines of Europe and Africa.  Ancient magnetic fields, frozen in coastal rocks of the counterpart continents, confirm that they were once connected together, but have now drifted apart from a single super-continent (Pangaea) that once existed.

Earthquake measurements have further defined the resulting “plates” that now form the separated continents and have given birth to the science of Plate Tectonics that describe the ongoing dynamics of continental movements.  Since these writings are dedicated to pointing out the grace of God as seen in our physical surroundings here on Earth, we now ask our oft repeated question, “How has man been served by the many separated land masses?”

As I write this paper, Pacific sea breezes are cooling the air outside.  Since my home here in North San Diego County is only thirty-three degrees north of the equator, normal daytime temperatures might well be in the low one-hundreds.  But because the heat capacity of water is so much greater than that of land, sunlight heats land much more quickly than water.  As a result, heated air rising over the land climbs upward, leaving a void that is filled with in-rushing cool air from the ocean.  This effect builds up each day and makes life more pleasant, while folks across a mountain range some one-hundred miles to the east are hiding inside air conditioned homes.

With the many continental land masses today, coastlines are distributed over the whole Earth.  As a result, our benefit here in Southern California also occurs in many other areas.  Similar temperature moderation takes place nearer the poles of the Earth, i.e. Seattle, where cold climates are made warmer along the coastlines.  As a consequence, much more of the Earth is livable because of the various coastlines bordering the many continents.

Since the ocean food chain begins with aquatic plant life, shallow coastal water with penetrating sunlight are ready feeding grounds for small fish.  Nutrients for plant life are stirred up from the ocean floor by breaking waves that are in turn energized by tidal forces.  As a boy, surf fishing was a favorite pastime, and was best as fish came shoreward with an incoming tide to dine on sunbathed plants in the shallow waters.  Since fish is the source of protein for so much of the Earth’s population, famines would likely be much more common without our numerous shorelines.

Ocean freight is much less costly than freight by land.  Earth’s ocean waterways have greatly reduced the cost of food and goods that can be shipped by water.

Even peace among warlike men has been aided by the separation of the continents.  Only in recent years have men been able to wage large scale war across vast oceans.  We have finally been allowed to forge the moats that protected us for so long, and do our brothers in.  Even so, we thank our loving Father for every detail of his protective creation.

– James Gibbs