Faith Faith Faith

Have you ever heard of the Fermi Paradox? This is the problem that science has when they look up into the night sky, see all of the stars and constellations up there, and wonder if we are really all alone in the universe. Surely there must be other living beings out there somewhere. Surely there must be another life supporting planet out there somewhere. And if they are there, why haven't they noticed us here?

Could it be that in their wisdom and knowledge they have put too much emphasis on something that God created as a clock and a calendar for us to keep track of times and seasons? Could it be that they chafe at the idea that in all of the universe, we are not only alone, but that we as humans are unique?

This is why it all comes down to faith. God does not set the bar at knowledge or wisdom. He makes the mind boggling things easy to understand by faith. I have no problem believing that God created the natural world and the laws of nature in 6 days. Science cannot or will not believe that. There must be something more they think. Kind of like alien life, there must be others out there. I see a pattern here.

God did not create the big bang. He created the universe as it is right now today. And one day this universe that puzzles brilliant minds will be recreated  and again it will be for us.

Could this be one reason why we are called to preach the gospel to the poor, who are rich in faith? 

We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith believes what science rejects. Faith is easy, science is hard. Fermi was wrong.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Rom.1:22

"Who exchange the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." Rom.1:25

Some Things Are Different

 Here are a couple of differences between pastor Mitchell and my pastor now. 

Pastor Mitchell was a topical preacher. He took a subject, searched the scripture, and crafted a message on that topic. My pastor is an expositional preacher. He lets the Bible speak for itself. He tries to expound on a text and only adds outside information to make his point. They accomplish the same thing. But they are two different approaches.

Pastor Mitchell used to use weddings as a reason to preach on marriage. Some pastors see all of the visitors and they view the wedding as an evangelistic opportunity. The Holy Spirit can use a wedding sermon to convict sinners. Focusing on evangelism makes you miss an opportunity to support marriage.

Pastor Mitchell got tired of people leaving right after the marriage ceremony was over so he moved the wedding until after the sermon. Here people tend to stay and we still do the wedding festivities before the sermon.

There are things that are carved in stone in our faith. How to preach a sermon and how to run a service are not things to fret over. God leaves a lot up to us.

You Must Be Born Again

"Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3

Truth is a mystery received by revelation. It does not come through education or learning. It does not come by traditions or practices. The new birth is the gateway to knowing and understanding all that the kingdom of God contains. Revelation is God, by the Holy Spirit, opening our eyes to understand truth that previously we did not even consider.

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Mat.16:17

Jesus used the metaphor of being born again. Nicodemus understood what being born entailed. He said it is impossible by natural laws of birthing to re-enter your mother's womb. Jesus told him that it was a spiritual birth, not governed by the laws of nature. Being born again has a time, a place, a circumstance. It is not a course that you take or a book that you read. It is an event that changes your life forever.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2Cor.5:17

Being born again is not natural, it is supernatural. It is a miracle. What is impossible to man is possible to God.

I was born again on December the eighth, 1973. At that moment the trajectory of my life changed. I understand it all better now, but it did not depend on me understanding it, I just had to believe it.

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John 3:19-21

Science tries to rob God of His glory by cheapening His work with human intellect. God is not mocked. It is time for men to repent and believe the Gospel. My prayer is the the Light will shine in the darkness. Jesus said that until you are born again you cannot even see where you are going.

Science Gets It Wrong

 What if accepted science is all wrong? What if, in their zeal to avoid God, science has created this exotic idea of how the universe came to be? The Bible has one message concerning creation. God did it in six days. The laws of nature which science frets over are simply the laws by which the universe works, not the reason for it's existence. No one know how long God spent planning creation. The actual work only took six days.

Science makes it's biggest error when it views the laws by which the universe works as the laws that brought the universe into existence. Also, science spends a lot of time on the universe, but very little time on planet earth.

Another thing. The Bible says very little about the universe. Maybe the stars and galaxies are not that important. Maybe studying black holes is a waste of time. Maybe cosmology is majoring in something minor.

It takes faith to believe in evolution, not wisdom. It takes faith to believe in the big bang, not wisdom. It takes faith to believe in God, not wisdom. But, only one of these belief systems has power to save your soul.

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea." Rev. 21:1

Long after the universe is replaced by something new, people will still be in the mix. People are more eternal than the planet. Christians will be in the New Jerusalem, the rest in the Lake of Fire. You decide now where you spend eternity.

God makes the important things simple and easy  to understand. Pride makes things complex and dark. Only Jesus is the light of the world.

The Benefits Of Growing Older.

 There are benefits of getting older that only other older people will understand. I no longer get excited by drama or by pending disasters. I no longer get stirred up by things that I see or hear, even in church. I no longer find myself striving to get married. I no longer find myself striving to get sent out. I am content where I am and who I am with what I have.

I have heard enough sermons to judge the good ones from the not so good ones. I have Bible study tools to find out about things in the bible or that I heard in a sermon to see what it really says. I pray enough. I have my daily devotions and I read God's word daily. I go to church more than I need to. 

Marriage is a fundamental human relationship. I think everyone needs to get married. Except me. I was married. I stayed married. Death did us part and I am not looking to get joined to a new wife. I support marriage and all that it stands for. But not for me.

I support our vision for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. I give towards it. I pray for workers. That is all I can and will do about that. Old men dream dreams. Young men see visions.

There really is a benefit to growing older (if you do not act like you are still young).

Blind Leaders Of The Blind

When you reject the truth you condemn yourself to endless wandering; searching and never finding answers to your problems. You begin the fruitless and unsatisfying time of wandering and thinking that you are going somewhere.  This is the problem that modern science finds itself in today. Study the natural law and natural structure of anything and you will bump into God. God is the creator and sustainer of the natural world. Math works because God designed the world to work. The universe is not a chaotic jumble of unregulated matter and energy swirling around hoping for order to emerge. It is perfect and ordered and structured so that brilliant scientists can spend their entire lives studying it.

"Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." Mat.15:14

If you are traveling and unsure what route to take, getting directions from someone who doesn't know where you are or how you got there or where to go is foolish. No matter how confident they seem or how strong their argument seems to be they are more lost than you because they think that they know where they are.

"...If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Mat.6:23

The bible is a rich resource of truth and light. By only focusing on one thing we miss so much of the richness of God's self revelation contained in the Bible. Truth is made light through the church. We need light, not a laser beam, to guide our way through the darkness. Between three services a week and adult bible study we have ample opportunity to learn more than we currently know.

"...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48

Pastor, turn your office into a study. Turn your office from a travel agent into a place to study and read.

All Science Points To God

 On the surface, the creation story in Genesis reads like a children's Sunday School lesson. Very simple and easy to understand. And yet, beneath the surface of this simple story are depths of wisdom and engineering that boggle the mind.

"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Heb.11:3

First, it takes faith to understand the creation story. Not intellect, not learning, not even wisdom, but faith.

Second, God is the architect and the engineer for creation. His idea, His plan, His design. It is His.

Third, creation appeared on the scene fully formed. God did not create a big bang. He created a fully formed and fully functioning universe. He did not mold it like clay, or mix together existing elements. He spoke, and the universe appeared just as we see it today. The big bang is science trying to rob God of His glory.

Science discovers natural laws that God set in place to govern how the universe works and how life on earth is sustained. All science points to God. It is dishonest for science to not tell the truth. Once you reject the logical answer, you are condemned to searching and never finding any more answers.

Adam and Eve were never babies. They were created as adults. The Garden of Eden was a real place designed by God just for man. The Garden was destroyed by the Flood. Sin robbed humanity of their dominion and their dignity. We will not see that level of rulership again until after the second coming of Christ.