Hello, children. Welcome to Spring Branch Academy, where we are seeking to instill wisdom and inspire worship in every student to the glory of God. I'm glad you joined me today. We're finishing our lessons on pluralism today. Last week, we considered three religions that claim Abraham and claim to have a holy book. Judaism has a holy book, but they don't believe that the book of the Old Testament points to Jesus. Islam claims to have a holy book, but it's not. And they reject Jesus just like those in Judaism do. Only Christians believe in Jesus and they believe the Bible. And so there's a lot of reasons that make Christianity different than those other religions. One I didn't mention last week is that the Bible has many prophecies in it. It's not something the Quran has. And so the Bible is a large history book. And Jesus is the great fulfiller of all that God prophesied. Today, we're finishing with two Eastern religions. In India, there's Hinduism. They have millions of gods. And in their religion, I am told that philosophically, you cannot trust what you see. and their duty is based on an unseen world. That's the reason why they have a caste system where some people are untouchables and some people are like gods. Then there's Buddhism, which I'm told that Buddha was a Hindu, but he saw all the suffering in the world, in the seen world, and it felt selfish to do yoga all by himself to try and reach some higher world. And so Buddhism is largely a religion of doing good, following certain steps and principles. Sometimes it makes Buddha a god, sometimes it doesn't. Both of these religions do not have the Triune God of the Bible and they both rely on law. duty either based in Hinduism like on an unseen world or in Buddhism on being good and Doing well in this world both of them rely on law We're actually it is by faith. It is by grace through faith It is a gift that we get to heaven and is on the work of somebody else. Not me. Therefore. It's by faith It's in Jesus In language, we're starting logic today. What is logic? It's the art of reasoning well. And what is reasoning? It's drawing proper conclusions from data or premises. Those are big words for just saying it's drawing the right conclusion from what somebody claims. There's two kinds of logic. There's formal and informal. In formal logic, you have two kinds as well. Deduction, which is drawing conclusions from premises, and induction, which is drawing generalizations from data. Induction is what science uses a lot. And in the other kind of logic, informal logic, largely, well, at least what we're going to focus on, deals with logical fallacies. they're a lot of fun. I think you'll enjoy them. So logic is the art of reasoning well. In our scripture memory, we're in the Gospel of John. Some of my favorite verses are when Jesus claims to be I Am. You remember that's the name of God in the Old Testament. Jesus says in John 8 58 truly truly I say to you before Abraham was born I am again truly truly I say to you before Abraham was born I am that's not grammatically correct he should have said I was if he wanted to speak with proper grammar, but he wanted to make a point, and the Jews got it because they picked up stones to stone him as if he had blasphemed, claiming to be God. But he is. Then he adds color to his statements. He says things like, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst, John 6, 35. He makes a statement of I am, and then he explains how that benefits you and me if we believe in him. Another statement is John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Again, he compares himself to the sun. I am the light of the world. And then he explains the benefit. You'll never walk in darkness. You will never be lost. He's the bread of life. You'll always be satisfied. He's the light of the world. You'll never be lost. Our bonus scripture is the Lord's Prayer for the next five weeks. Some call it our Father. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." There's a little debate on evil one or evil. And after considering it, I favor evil one, but it could go either way. And so, this prayer focuses on God first, His name, His kingdom, His will, before it brings up our needs. That's really important to think about in prayer. Do we put God first? Give ear and hear the words of the wise and set your heart to what I know. For words are pleasant when they arise, assembled and ready from down below. That in the Lord may be your trust, I teach you now today, I must. Have I not written to you 30 words in counsel and information that you may learn, that you may answer the truth in recitation? Number 21. Save those stumbling down to death. If you should say, we did not know, does he not know? Will he not render according to each man's agenda? Don't look at somebody in need and say, I didn't know you were in need. Go help them. And if we don't help others in need, why should we expect God to help us when we're in need? He may render to us according to our deeds. Do you remember a point, a line, a plane? Can you see them with your mind? How about a circle? Do you see the center in the middle of a circle? And the line going from the center to the edge of the circle, called a radius? Or the line going across the circle through the center, called the diameter? And the circumference is the distance around the circle. And the circumference over the diameter is always the same ratio. We call it pi. No, not pumpkin pie. the Greek letter pi. Today we're learning about triangles. A triangle has three angles, or corners. Each corner is called a vertex, and how wide or narrow it is is the angle on that corner. And of course, a triangle also has three sides, those segments of a line that are connected together. You might want to take out a piece of paper and draw a triangle. Draw another one, make them tall, make them skinny, make them wide. There's a lot of triangles in the world. We'll talk more about them in the coming weeks, Lord willing. How about the multiples of six today? If you have a song, go ahead and sing it. Here they are though. Six, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60, 66, and 72. Well, we're finishing chemistry. We've looked at molecules, which is more than one atom combined together, either with a covalent bond that shares or an ionic bond that steals. And we've considered reactions, when reactants turn into products. And five common reactions. Let's start physics. I have a good friend of mine, Dr. Hosmer, who says that physics is the study of the fundamental laws behind the hidden order of the universe. I changed it a little bit, but I learned a lot from that definition, and you can too. It is the study of fundamental laws. There's a lawgiver, God, who created this world with order and he commanded it that it be done this way. And Psalm 119 says, all things are your servants. So they, all things obey his laws. And of course, as the lawgiver, he can break his laws, suspend them, let's say, and do a miracle. The principles of physics, according to Dr. Hosmer, are conservation, symmetry, and minimization. Conservation, I think, speaks of stability in nature. Nothing is going to be destroyed nothing created like the conservation of mass and energy. Symmetry speaks to me of balance in nature, that if I see something over here, I might expect something over there, and sure enough, the physicists often find it. Minimization speaks of efficiency, how to do it with the least, you might say, waste or time involved or energy used. We'll consider more things, Lord willing, in the future. In geography and chronology, we've considered planets, continents, oceans, mountain ranges, and rivers. Ah, then we came back to the empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and where they are. Today, let's talk about the rulers. Babylon has the ruler, Nebuchadnezzar. Oh, that's a big word. Say it with me, Nebuchadnezzar. Persia has Cyrus. He issued the decree about Jerusalem and it started the process, let's put it that way. And Greece had Alexander the Great. And Rome had Julius Caesar. Now when we say the great, that's the world saying the great. Jesus said the greatest one shall be servant of all. That makes emperors pretty poor on the great scale often. And Julius Caesar lended his name Caesar to others, and we'll consider them hopefully in the future as well. Lastly in history, we're in the fifth stanza of the Bible timeline. Babylon, Daniel, Ezekiel, exile. Seventy years of Jerusalem rock pile. Hey guys, the rubble Joshua, recover. Ezra, the scribe. Nehemiah, the governor. Come up to Israel. Build up the temple. Fill up the city. Now, please, please repent. For 400 years, no prophet is sent." Those are the 400 years of silence before John the Baptist and Jesus. Well, who are Haggai, Zerubbabel, and Joshua? They're the leaders of the remnant who returned to Jerusalem. Haggai's the prophet. Zerubbabel's the governor, Joshua's the high priest, and the message of Haggai is like this. Consider your ways, consider your ways, consider your ways and obey. Why is there no satisfaction in bread? Why is there not enough rain overhead? Why do you eat but are still underfed? Consider your ways, consider your ways, consider your ways and obey. Why do you run to your house every time? Why do you panel your rooms up so fine? Why do you run past the house that is mine? Consider your ways, consider your ways, consider your ways and obey. Go up to the mountain and bring down the wood. Go up to the temple and build it up good. Go up to the Lord and fear as you should. Consider your ways, consider your ways, consider your ways and obey. And God stirred up their head. God stirred up their priest. God stirred up their hearts to obey. Well, God bless each of you children to obey as well. And may we continue to learn what he has said and examine what he has done to the glory of God. Amen.