Dry moments such as the one David suffered in Psalm 22 have plagued the followers of God for millennia. I dare say that they are the way of life for many Christians far more than they like to admit. For some these times when God seems far away are a source of guilt for some possibly unknown offense. Others find dry times as a source of doubt in God, but there are those who choose faith over the emotional sight that we so desperately desire. The article on the front page of CNN.com about Teresa's Crisis of Faith brought to mind my own current dry spell. Certainly the woman we knew as Mother Teresa was a follower of Roman Catholic doctrine, and so it is possible that she never knew God in the first place. I personally find it difficult to believe that anyone can find God through the tools of pride that the Roman Catholic doctrine provides, but I want to suppose that somehow God did reach Mother Teresa with the truth in His Word about salvation by faith alone. Supposing that this loved woman was truly a child of God in the deepest sense is it possible for her to suffer fifty years of silence from God though seeking Him with a pure heart? I think it is.
This is a big deal because we want to experience God today more than ever, and when we don't we feel a deep sense of failure or hypocrisy. We call this life in Christ a life of faith for a reason. As believers in Christ we are ridiculed by outsiders for our stupidity, our gullibility, and our intolerance, but we want to say "I have seen Him and He is real." Unfortunately we do see through a glass darkly and that means that we cannot see the Subject of our faith, but our sight is not only that of photons perceived, but of the touch that we associate with God's presence. Our life here is incomplete. Just because we don't feel God we can't just assume that He has rejected us or that we have deep rooted sin, but we should remember that God is greater than our condemning hearts and is able to forgive and lead us to repentance.
So don't despair if you can feel God's presence. It is possible that you have to learn to sense Him in a new way, or that this is an extended time to develop your faith. My parting shot comes from First John 3:2-3 "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears [1] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."
Friday, August 24, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
As Written
We often hear in church the importance of giving a tithe of our financial income. I also feel that it is important to give a portion of my time in service to my local church. One of these forms of service that I give to my local church is teaching Sunday School, but even when I don't have time to teach because of school I find that I have time to sing on the praise team. Our church has four teams which serve every fourth Sunday during the three services. Each team generally consists of the same people, but on occasion one of us trades Sundays due to a schedule conflict. This week I swapped with a tenor on another team so that I sang with a team I don't know well. For the first time in quite a while I was singing harmonies with which I was not familiar. My alto partner kept pointing to the music saying "It's right there." In other words she wanted me to sing as it was written rather than by ear. I am not whining. It was fun rising to the challenge, but as I was working on sight-reading I recalled a Challenge that God gave me as I drove to Church this morning. The Holy spirit brought to mind a small decision I made the day before that turned into a source of conflict between my wife and I. The Lord "asked" me if I followed His Word in that decision and suddenly my self- justification in my part of the conflict deflated. While I was sitting in the beginning of the service under conviction one of the leaders quoted Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV Online) and it was as if the Holy Spirit pointed to the Scripture and said "Live this as written." If I had lived according to God's Word I probably would have experienced special harmony with my wife rather than the conflict we had. It is so easy to say "It's ok God, I got this one." He points us back to His Word and motions us to study it and live it as written.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Torture
Now I am not an expert on kids, but I do hold the opinion that children have lives that are far more stressful than adults. Think about it- they have to learn a new language while they are also expected to learn social rules, and they are expected to engage both in constantly increased complexity. Adults have to worry about money and keeping their romantic relationships intact while kids have to worry about keeping at least two adults happy while learning a language and other technically difficult tasks as their little minds develop. Then school hits them. I am witnessing this with my three dear ones as they ready for school's start this week.
My older two are incredibly tense as they contemplate their first day of school with Wonderful and myself tied up in knots for them. We met their teachers on Friday, but we don't know what being in the classroom will be like for them. It is like the first day of a new job with all new bosses and co-workers. Ladybug is starting kindergarten on Tuesday and she really doesn't have a clue, but her siblings know what it was like last year and they also know that the material in this year will be more advanced. Wonderful and I have repeatedly reminded our second-grader and first-grader that they had a lot of fun last year, but right now all they remember are the hard times.
So now we all wait as our worst fears and most sincere hopes all wait to be realised. As we wait Middlesweet and JR cope as best they can which means that the eldest is upset by things that he normally shrugs off, and his sister constantly rehashes all her fears. At this moment all we know is the torture of the wait.
My older two are incredibly tense as they contemplate their first day of school with Wonderful and myself tied up in knots for them. We met their teachers on Friday, but we don't know what being in the classroom will be like for them. It is like the first day of a new job with all new bosses and co-workers. Ladybug is starting kindergarten on Tuesday and she really doesn't have a clue, but her siblings know what it was like last year and they also know that the material in this year will be more advanced. Wonderful and I have repeatedly reminded our second-grader and first-grader that they had a lot of fun last year, but right now all they remember are the hard times.
So now we all wait as our worst fears and most sincere hopes all wait to be realised. As we wait Middlesweet and JR cope as best they can which means that the eldest is upset by things that he normally shrugs off, and his sister constantly rehashes all her fears. At this moment all we know is the torture of the wait.
Monday, July 16, 2007
System Problems
I was using Word Press, but they kept having system problems so I am back to using Blogger, my tried and true.
My last post elicited a comment from my friend Kris, and brings up an interesting point that probably should be made- Any questions I have raised in my consideration of questions regarding theology are actually questions I have raised myself. It is kind of Kris to make it seem that I have created an answer as intelligent sounding as one that a professor would have created. I do not believe myself to be a great researcher, but I do think that enough evidence exists to question certain things, one of which being the non-biblical assertion that the earth is less than ten thousand years old. It is true that debate exists as to the validity of certain dating methods, but it is also true that the Bible does not date the earth.
The question I am raising in regard to the date of the earth is not in promoting a certain age, though I tend to believe that the earth could be older than young earth creationists believe. My purpose here is to question the dogma that is based on a Biblical inference.
Let me explain it this way- If an archeologist came forward with the bones of Christ I would instantly tell my children that he will eventually be shown to be a fraud. Why? The reason I wouldn't believe this evidence presented by my hypothetical archeologist is that Scripture clearly states that Jesus Christ was bodily resurrected and bodily ascended to Heaven. Great pains were taken by the Apostles to make this point clear. Now as to the age of the universe there is no statement by anyone authoritative in Scripture that the earth is a certain age. A bit of research will show that young earth theorists believe that the age of the earth is defined by genealogies given in Scripture. While this seems to be a good indicator of the age of our current world, it does not mean that the earth is older than the first day of creation. For a hint of where I am going consider the answer to this question- During which day of creation was water created?
While it seems far-fetched consider the fact that 4 billion years could have occurred between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. God does not say as much about His creation of the heavens and the earth as He does the creation of what He put in them. One only need to read the rest of the first chapter of Genesis and then the second chapter of Genesis to see that God does not seem to care all that much about the technical details about how it all came about. A super literal reading of these two chapters makes it appear that God forgot in what order He created man and animals. A more appropriate reading of these two chapters sees that God's point in reversing the order of these creations between the two chapters probably had more to do with man's relationship with animals as the superior than an attempt to confuse the super literal.
So we return to my main point- I do not think that we should reject extra-scriptural observations simply because they do not seem to agree with certain inferences made from Scripture by those who teach Scripture. I intend to explain my concern over this in more detail in future posts.
My last post elicited a comment from my friend Kris, and brings up an interesting point that probably should be made- Any questions I have raised in my consideration of questions regarding theology are actually questions I have raised myself. It is kind of Kris to make it seem that I have created an answer as intelligent sounding as one that a professor would have created. I do not believe myself to be a great researcher, but I do think that enough evidence exists to question certain things, one of which being the non-biblical assertion that the earth is less than ten thousand years old. It is true that debate exists as to the validity of certain dating methods, but it is also true that the Bible does not date the earth.
The question I am raising in regard to the date of the earth is not in promoting a certain age, though I tend to believe that the earth could be older than young earth creationists believe. My purpose here is to question the dogma that is based on a Biblical inference.
Let me explain it this way- If an archeologist came forward with the bones of Christ I would instantly tell my children that he will eventually be shown to be a fraud. Why? The reason I wouldn't believe this evidence presented by my hypothetical archeologist is that Scripture clearly states that Jesus Christ was bodily resurrected and bodily ascended to Heaven. Great pains were taken by the Apostles to make this point clear. Now as to the age of the universe there is no statement by anyone authoritative in Scripture that the earth is a certain age. A bit of research will show that young earth theorists believe that the age of the earth is defined by genealogies given in Scripture. While this seems to be a good indicator of the age of our current world, it does not mean that the earth is older than the first day of creation. For a hint of where I am going consider the answer to this question- During which day of creation was water created?
While it seems far-fetched consider the fact that 4 billion years could have occurred between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. God does not say as much about His creation of the heavens and the earth as He does the creation of what He put in them. One only need to read the rest of the first chapter of Genesis and then the second chapter of Genesis to see that God does not seem to care all that much about the technical details about how it all came about. A super literal reading of these two chapters makes it appear that God forgot in what order He created man and animals. A more appropriate reading of these two chapters sees that God's point in reversing the order of these creations between the two chapters probably had more to do with man's relationship with animals as the superior than an attempt to confuse the super literal.
So we return to my main point- I do not think that we should reject extra-scriptural observations simply because they do not seem to agree with certain inferences made from Scripture by those who teach Scripture. I intend to explain my concern over this in more detail in future posts.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
How Old?
I am not completely ignorant as to the arguments that my friends use to support the “young earth” vs the “old earth” beliefs. Old earth theory states that the degradation rate of various atomic particles found in samples of rocks and sediment point to the fact that our earth has been around for billions of years. I have read several seemingly unrelated sources who agree in principle to the facts of this theory, though there may be some discussion to how many billions of years the age of the earth may be. My young earth friends smugly point out that these particle degradation theories cannot be shown to be true since we have no observed data older than a few decades. In the words of one young earth advocate- “Were you there?” . The fact is that both science and theology depend on the idea that present patterns should be expected to predict past and future patterns unless clear reasons are given to state otherwise.
For example, we can look at the degradation rate of certain atomic particles in certain elements to determine the exact age of something from ancient times for which we know the exact age- a dated building from ancient times, for example. The pattern of degradation for the elements in that building should be the same as any other similar element found in the earth’s crust. One simply needs to count to see the number of the particles in one compare to the number of particles in the other to determine the age. The problem is that when the number generated from element found in the earth’s crust the young earth creationists insist that the number must be in error because their understanding of Genesis says that is not true. In other words, their dogma dictates their observations. This is like seeing a creature that looks and behaves like a cat in a cage labeled “dog” and refusing to admit that the creature in the cage is a cat because the label you have accepted contradicts your observations.
Are Christians truly required to refuse to accept their observations if they don’t agree with the Bible? I find a great deal of concern here. Is it possible that our observations which seem to disagree with the Bible are actually pointing out the fact that we have misunderstood the Bible? One need not look far to find an example of this failure. The church of the Dark Ages insisted that the universe rotated around the earth due to a poor interpretation of a scriptural statement. When astronomers could not explain their observations using this poor interpretation of Scripture it was as if they had to reject Scripture in order properly understand the movement of heavenly bodies. The Church finally accepted its theology as flawed and used the scientific observations to explain Scripture better. Is this something that we can do with the creation story in Genesis? Is it possible that we have misread it?
For example, we can look at the degradation rate of certain atomic particles in certain elements to determine the exact age of something from ancient times for which we know the exact age- a dated building from ancient times, for example. The pattern of degradation for the elements in that building should be the same as any other similar element found in the earth’s crust. One simply needs to count to see the number of the particles in one compare to the number of particles in the other to determine the age. The problem is that when the number generated from element found in the earth’s crust the young earth creationists insist that the number must be in error because their understanding of Genesis says that is not true. In other words, their dogma dictates their observations. This is like seeing a creature that looks and behaves like a cat in a cage labeled “dog” and refusing to admit that the creature in the cage is a cat because the label you have accepted contradicts your observations.
Are Christians truly required to refuse to accept their observations if they don’t agree with the Bible? I find a great deal of concern here. Is it possible that our observations which seem to disagree with the Bible are actually pointing out the fact that we have misunderstood the Bible? One need not look far to find an example of this failure. The church of the Dark Ages insisted that the universe rotated around the earth due to a poor interpretation of a scriptural statement. When astronomers could not explain their observations using this poor interpretation of Scripture it was as if they had to reject Scripture in order properly understand the movement of heavenly bodies. The Church finally accepted its theology as flawed and used the scientific observations to explain Scripture better. Is this something that we can do with the creation story in Genesis? Is it possible that we have misread it?
Monday, July 09, 2007
Problems with Scripture
Tonight I read Genesis 1 to my six year-old at her request and I had to admit to some misgivings. As you know I am the member of an outspoken Presbyterian church which strongly adheres to the concept of a literal understanding of the Genesis story of creation. In other words, my church states that God created the world in six days (seven if you include His day of rest) and that the entire creation is but a few thousand years old. This is a concept that I have believed for most of my life, but I have come to seriously doubt these details in recent years. This, of course, is no less than heresy in the eyes of those with whom I fellowship and share genetic traits. So I feel like defending myself, if only for the sake of seeing how brilliant I am to myself.
In the beginning of my defense I must state that we have made a great deal of certain interpretations of the Bible as "ultra-conservative" Christians. We feel the need to defend our faith against all comers due to the fact that our faith has constantly been under attack by the "ultra-scientific" for more than three centuries. I have had some of my fellow Christians take offense at my belief that dinosaurs were real because these great lizards had been upheld as proof that evolution is true. My foray into questioning the truth of the creation story of Genesis began as the result of my father telling me that he believed in a non-evidence-based theory of health care because it is the most true to Scripture. In other words he tossed out the whole record of scientific inquiry into health care practices because its conclusions seemed to him to disagree with Scripture. Now one could debate his understanding of Scripture, but I am forced to consider the more basic problem raised by this stand. Is there any other area where science must be abandoned because it disagreed with the dogma that has become essential to some religious doctrine? In other words, is it right to throw out the observations of science because they disagree with so-called Scriptural dogma? My father and the pastor of my church say yes. I say no.
Here is the deal. God had the Bible written to guide us into His understanding of life. One can find this in Paul's statement that all Scripture is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2Tim 3:16-17) This must be acknowledged from the start to understand why the Bible exists at all, and to understand how to approach Scripture. This means that the Genesis story was written for the purposes stated above, and that it cannot be discounted in importance. We must acknowledge that God created the world the way He stated it was created. Now there is a problem. Scientific evidence states unequivocally that the creation is millions, if not billions, of years old. So what do we do with this? What do you think needs to be done with this? Do we toss this out because the rest of Scripture clearly indicates that the time from Day One to now cannot be more than a few thousand years? I want to think about it a little...
In the beginning of my defense I must state that we have made a great deal of certain interpretations of the Bible as "ultra-conservative" Christians. We feel the need to defend our faith against all comers due to the fact that our faith has constantly been under attack by the "ultra-scientific" for more than three centuries. I have had some of my fellow Christians take offense at my belief that dinosaurs were real because these great lizards had been upheld as proof that evolution is true. My foray into questioning the truth of the creation story of Genesis began as the result of my father telling me that he believed in a non-evidence-based theory of health care because it is the most true to Scripture. In other words he tossed out the whole record of scientific inquiry into health care practices because its conclusions seemed to him to disagree with Scripture. Now one could debate his understanding of Scripture, but I am forced to consider the more basic problem raised by this stand. Is there any other area where science must be abandoned because it disagreed with the dogma that has become essential to some religious doctrine? In other words, is it right to throw out the observations of science because they disagree with so-called Scriptural dogma? My father and the pastor of my church say yes. I say no.
Here is the deal. God had the Bible written to guide us into His understanding of life. One can find this in Paul's statement that all Scripture is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2Tim 3:16-17) This must be acknowledged from the start to understand why the Bible exists at all, and to understand how to approach Scripture. This means that the Genesis story was written for the purposes stated above, and that it cannot be discounted in importance. We must acknowledge that God created the world the way He stated it was created. Now there is a problem. Scientific evidence states unequivocally that the creation is millions, if not billions, of years old. So what do we do with this? What do you think needs to be done with this? Do we toss this out because the rest of Scripture clearly indicates that the time from Day One to now cannot be more than a few thousand years? I want to think about it a little...
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Living the life...
I guess I have taken a bit of a hiatus from everything that I had established as a routine. Nursing school has taken a huge hunk of my life into its talons. Even as I am typing this I am listening to a class lecture online. Saturday had been the one day that I reserved as not being a school day. In a little bit I will be making pancakes for my kids and then gathering them to make a run to the pool before any rain comes our way.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Here in the Lost Valley
Wonderful and I made it to Sedalia to visit her sister and brother-in-law at the Lost Valley Ranch last night. It is a wonderful place to visit with very friendly staff. It took "forever" to get here from Denver, but it is fun to be back in the middle of nowhere. The only vehicles one hears are the one belonging to the staff and guests of the ranch. We cannot receive phone calls on our cell phones, but they have a satellite-based-wireless internet connection so that you can read this! Being in the middle of nowhere with internet is awesome!
Remember that this is the day that we celebrate the moment that Christ died on the cross. The other day I asked the kids during a meal what it meant for Christ to die and even Ladybug knew that Jesus died for our sins. What does that mean? Middlesweet didn't really know how to explain it so let me explain it like I did to her.
Imagine that God has a book in Heaven that records everything good and bad that you do. If there is even one bad thing in that imaginary book God doesn't want anything to do with you. He loves all the people in the world, but He can't stand sin at all. When Jesus died on the cross that Friday afternoon it was like He snagged the book and marked "paid" in blood across the note about your sin so that when God looks at it he sees Christ's blood and not your sin. 
It is not about you or what you do, but Christ's blood and your trust in Him.Ephesians 2:8-9
Monday, March 19, 2007
Looking into the week and Patrick
Well, this brings us to the beginning of another week! Mom, Dad, my older sister, her husband and four kids are preparing to awaken and make their way to a Philadelphia airport to finally fly south to visit my family here in B'ham. I must admit a significantly high level of excitement when considering the fact that by this time tomorrow I shall have my parents and a sibling here with some extended family. I simply cannot wait.
Mom has been keeping me abreast of their adventures in Philly since they had planned only to stop there long enough to catch a plane and zip down to the sunny south only to have their flight stopped by an ice storm (thankfully before they boarded their flight). It seems that the King Tut exhibit was in the area up there and my parents, my sister and her family were able to see this exhibit with my younger sister and her small family. There are times when I wish we were closer to my family, but God has us here in Alabama for a reason.
My favorite thing to do with meals is to tackle certain issues of theology and Christian life with my kiddos. This past weekend we discussed Saint Patrick. As is common for those outside the Church my Middlesweet's school teacher focused on the green and leprechauns that seem to pervade the world's view of Saint Patrick's life. I couldn't just leave the meaning of the day to that so we discussed the life the man of God.
Given the fact that I was raised Baptist, a denomination that has been at violent odds with the Roman Catholic church for centuries, I never did care for any "Saint" that they designated. But as I have read of Patrick's life I realized that he was what I would consider a true man of God. There may be aspects of his ministry that cause me concern, but I question some of Martin Luther's nonessential theology as well. The fact is that Patrick returned to the land of the people who cruelly enslaved him and taught them about the One True God whose Holy Spirit powerfully used this one man to change the history of the Irish Isles.
When I explained to my kids that this one man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, changed history by being a missionary my son's eyes grew large and he questioned- "One man did all this just with God's help?" The answer was yes, but the real question that Buddy was asking was "Is it possible that I could do the same thing?" We rarely realize that our importance as individuals can be as far reaching as the man we know as Saint Patrick. One account that I have read of his life states that Patrick returned to the land of his captors after his escape to his home island to simply express his forgiveness and tell his former captors of Christ's work on the cross. From that simple beginning the story of the Irish Isles and the world has changed. One family legend has it that my ancestors were converted and forced out of Ireland because of their faith. That may mean that Patrick made it possible for me to be who I am today. You and I may not be called to be the Patricks in our world, but what about that one life full of bitterness and hurt that we reach and teach to forgive? You never know where your prayerful obedience will lead.
Mom has been keeping me abreast of their adventures in Philly since they had planned only to stop there long enough to catch a plane and zip down to the sunny south only to have their flight stopped by an ice storm (thankfully before they boarded their flight). It seems that the King Tut exhibit was in the area up there and my parents, my sister and her family were able to see this exhibit with my younger sister and her small family. There are times when I wish we were closer to my family, but God has us here in Alabama for a reason.
My favorite thing to do with meals is to tackle certain issues of theology and Christian life with my kiddos. This past weekend we discussed Saint Patrick. As is common for those outside the Church my Middlesweet's school teacher focused on the green and leprechauns that seem to pervade the world's view of Saint Patrick's life. I couldn't just leave the meaning of the day to that so we discussed the life the man of God.
Given the fact that I was raised Baptist, a denomination that has been at violent odds with the Roman Catholic church for centuries, I never did care for any "Saint" that they designated. But as I have read of Patrick's life I realized that he was what I would consider a true man of God. There may be aspects of his ministry that cause me concern, but I question some of Martin Luther's nonessential theology as well. The fact is that Patrick returned to the land of the people who cruelly enslaved him and taught them about the One True God whose Holy Spirit powerfully used this one man to change the history of the Irish Isles.
When I explained to my kids that this one man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, changed history by being a missionary my son's eyes grew large and he questioned- "One man did all this just with God's help?" The answer was yes, but the real question that Buddy was asking was "Is it possible that I could do the same thing?" We rarely realize that our importance as individuals can be as far reaching as the man we know as Saint Patrick. One account that I have read of his life states that Patrick returned to the land of his captors after his escape to his home island to simply express his forgiveness and tell his former captors of Christ's work on the cross. From that simple beginning the story of the Irish Isles and the world has changed. One family legend has it that my ancestors were converted and forced out of Ireland because of their faith. That may mean that Patrick made it possible for me to be who I am today. You and I may not be called to be the Patricks in our world, but what about that one life full of bitterness and hurt that we reach and teach to forgive? You never know where your prayerful obedience will lead.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Here is the sweetest four-year-old that exists in this moment looking at me while her soccer coach gives the devotional last Saturday during their soccer practice. I call her "Ladybug". This is her first year in soccer, and her older brother is enjoying his fourth year in Briarwood soccer. It is amazing how these kids grow up. Ladybug's older sister, who is turning six in a couple weeks really doesn't seem to care for soccer, she likes her ballet and gymnastics.All I know is that these three are a delight.
My son's Cub Scout troop was meeting last night but I opted to skip this time (our first skip since we started) just to get some time in with all of us together. This is my spring break at UAB and it is nice to have an evening when I am not at class or catching up on sleep I lost from being at class earlier in the day. We played a bit and then the three kids and I watched "America's Funniest Home Videos" that I had recorded from Sunday night. It was fun just giggling and chortling at all the antics on the screen.
Check out this month's section in flicker (http://www.flickr.com/photos/themathers/sets/72157594587271584/) to see more pictures of my sweet family. Here are some more samples.
Love ya Wonderful!!
Monday, March 05, 2007
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