Sep 14, 2017 | Gratitude
Having moved to Florida a few months ago, I wasn’t exactly expecting to experience a hurricane so soon, especially given that where we moved (the Tampa area) hasn’t had a direct hit since 1921. I guess we’re just good luck! Of course I don’t believe in luck, but in the sovereign, providential hand of Almighty God. But we didn’t get to experience the hurricane because we chickened out and left the state to environs well north to stay with family for a few days.
The word gratitude is a strange one to associate a “natural” disaster, unless the disaster was somehow escaped. I put the word natural in quotes because the basic assumption of people who live in the 21st century secular West is that the universe, and nature, is a closed system. In other words, even if they admit a God into the picture, he/she/it is a God similar to what Enlightenment Deists believed about God. He was to them an all-powerful Creator who built the machine, got it up and running, and let it do it’s thing based on “natural” laws. Orthodox, Bible-believing Christians know of no such God.
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Aug 20, 2017 | Explanatory Power, Gratitude
In case you’ve been in a cave somewhere without this Internet thing, or access to any TV, Radio, the regular or short wave kind, you likely know there is going to be a total solar eclipse tomorrow across much of America. This doesn’t happen very often so it’s kind of a big deal. It’s also awe inspiring for reasons that don’t need explanation, and that makes it a big deal too. I’ve seen several headlines in previous weeks similar to this one in the Washington Post: “The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming. To some, it’s an act of God.”
Such a headline is indicative of the naturalism and its assumptions that pervade secular Western culture. Naturalism simply means that whether there is a God or not, the universe was set in motion, and natural laws are what keep it going, no God required. The Deism popular around the decades of America’s Founding was a form of naturalism. God’s a clock maker, he made the clock, and now it runs on its own.
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Jan 21, 2017 | Gratitude
For 220 plus years in America, the peaceful transition of power has happened every four or eight years. Whether from the Federalist Party to the Anti-Federalists, or the Democratic Party to the Whigs, or the Republican to the Democratic Party, in the history of the world there has never been such a continuous succession of peaceful power. Wherever one stands in the current political environment, it is a thing to behold. It is also fascinating to behold the difference between those who were on the losing side eight years ago, and those on the losing side this time. Like everything (literally) in life, there are lessons here to teach our kids about the biblical view of reality.
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Nov 24, 2016 | Gratitude
This is my first post for this re-purposed blog, and Thanksgiving Day is certainly an appropriate day on which to do it. I say re-purposed because I initially focused on the intersection of Christ and culture, something that is still near and dear to my heart. But about a year and a half ago I decided to write a book, and my orientation changed, which is reflected in the title of this blog and the name of my book.
The thing I am most grateful for in my life, second only to my salvation through Jesus Christ, is my wife and kids. They are the only dream in my life that has ever come true. I’ve always been a big thinker, but all those big thoughts over the last 30 plus years have crashed on the shoals of reality before could ever got to shore. Not so Sarah, Gabrielle, Adam, and Dominic. (more…)
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