Jul 23, 2021 | Culture, Gratitude
That will depend on what our eyes and brain have been programmed to see, whether it is by the secular culture in which we daily swim, or God’s word. If it is the former, we’ll see a pretty butterfly, beautiful colors that amaze us, and that’s it. If it is the latter, we’ll see God! If it is the culture, the beauty will point to nothing beyond the beauty. If it is God’s word it will point to God! How could it not? If this butterfly doesn’t reveal God, what does it reveal? Chance? How does one explain where such exquisite and intricate beauty comes from? If there is no God, then the only explanation can be chance. How persuasive is that? Not very. When you understand that God is the consummate eternal all powerful creative artist, everything in nature compels you to worship so great a being that could create everything, including this very butterfly. We need to commit the words of Paul in Romans 1 to memory, and teach them to our children, and share them with everyone we encounter:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
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Jul 21, 2021 | Culture
If you don’t know what a Loki is, neither did I until six weeks ago. He’s a character in the Marvel cinematic universe, and an unsavory character; he’s not referred to as the god of mischief for nothing. My son, our youngest at 19 and a keen observer of culture, called me into his room to tell me I had to watch something. He showed me a scene from the first episode of the new Disney+ TV show (unfortunately; I now officially hate all things Disney, but that’s for another post) called, you guessed it, Loki. The scene had Loki, played by British actor Tom Hiddleston, and the wonderfully phlegmatic Own Wilson playing Agent Mobius. Given the main “character” in the show is time itself, that leads to some interesting conversations given none of us have a clue about what time is, and it always perplexes and amazes us. The little dialogue my son showed me had me hooked. (more…)
Jul 18, 2021 | Apologetics
I had an interview recently about my book with a website that has special meaning in my Christian journey, Apologetics315. God, as he often does with his children, made this uniquely special for me as I’ll explain.
When I became a Christian at Arizona State University back in the fall of 1978, those who introduced me to the gospel were not much into apologetics. The focus was on “spiritual” things, so reading the Bible, prayer, evangelism, church, etc. The goal of discipleship was building your relationship with Jesus, and sharing that with others. That is of course good and necessary, but it is not enough, as I found out in my junior year when I came across Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who is There. It was an amazing discovery for me because I learned that God’s truth applied to all of reality, not just so called “spiritual” things. Contrary to a narrow view of spirituality, he helped me to understand that the spiritual was so expansive that it addressed all of reality. That includes art, politics, law, literature, architecture, education, movies, business, you name it. (more…)
Jul 9, 2021 | Truth
This is blog post number two (here is #1) from the book Cultural Apologetics by Paul Gould. This sentence caused me to sit up and wonder:
The first step toward reenchantment is to reawaken within ourselves and others the deeper desires of the heart for truth, goodness, and beauty, which in turn will arouse the heart’s deepest desire—a desire and love for God.
I will explain why this struck me, but first I need to explain the word “reenchantment.” The first part of the book deals with the disenchantment of the modern secular world. This world, it doesn’t surprise us, is de-spiritualized. It is portrayed as merely material, and if matter is all there is, then matter is all there is. There can be no such things as transcendent concepts of, for example, truth, goodness, and beauty. In other words, those concepts don’t actually exist. In a purely material universe they can only be subjective projections of human thoughts or feelings because matter can’t be true, or good, or beautiful. It can only be matter, stuff, atoms in motion. Truth, goodness, and beauty don’t exist “out there,” objectively in nature, they exist only in our minds. There is no way to refute this simple fact if materialism is the nature of things. (more…)
Jul 4, 2021 | Gratitude
I’m currently reading a book that gave me ideas for two blog posts on two successive pages, which means the author gave me some pretty amazing insights. Before I get to my thoughts . . . For those who know me they will be aware of my annoying habit of always telling them to . . . . Read More! My kids have born the brunt of that abuse most of their lives, but friends and other loved ones get it too. One reason, among many, that everyone should read more, is that human beings are made in God’s image, and as such they are revelations of his being. The thoughts of other people who grapple with reality can help us better understand the nature of things as God created them to work. There is much deep wisdom outside of the Bible that helps us better understand God’s special revelation in the Bible. I would go so far as to say that those who read and study outside of the Bible can better understand what’s in it than those who only read the Bible. So if you really want to grow more in wisdom, understanding, prudence, insight, discernment, judgment, etc. (which are all basically different facets of wisdom), you will read more (books)! What this means practically is that the puzzle pieces of life will fit a whole lot better when you make extra-biblical reading a consistent habit of your life. Enough lecturing, and now on to those thoughts. (more…)
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