Thoughts from Mt. Carmel - Day 1

This is a statue of Elijah killing one of the prophets of Ba'al. When I came to Mt. Carmel I was reminded of how powerful this event truly is. It is about a man who was the only prophet of Yahweh left in the land of Israel. He challenged all the prophets of Ba'al to a contest of sorts in order to show once and for all that Yahweh was the one, true and only God.

Both Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al had to sacrifice a bull on the alter and call out to their God. Whomever's God answered the prayer by consuming the sacrifice with fire from heaven would demonstrate whose God was the real God. As you may know, the prophets of Ba'al cried out to him all day long and got nothing. Elijah, on the other hand, cried out to God once and He answered not only by consuming the sacrifice but the entire alter and water that was thrown on it as well!

God had made His point. The LORD alone was the true and living God.

This caused me to think about our current day and age. We live in a time of plurality and relativism. There is no room for objective, absolute truth. This statue reminded me of Elijah's response to God's demonstration... He rounded up all 400 prophets of Ba'al and killed them. 

We don't do that much today. I mean that figuratively more that physically of course. Today we are in a culture very tolerant of "other religions", "other ideas of truth", etc. We no longer take an active stand against these things. We simply say (to ourselves of course), "Well I respect your opinion but I have a different one and that's O.K. too." We may very well take a personal, private stand and believe what we know is true. But to willingly challenge these ideas and belief systems to a duel is not part of mainstream Christianity in the United States. There are a few brave souls but they are definitely not the everyday believer.

Maybe Elijah's approach is not the best method for demonstrating the truth of God's existence to our culture today. Still, I can not help but think that the spirit of what he did is exactly what we need in our culture today! Someone to draw a line in the sand and say, "Whose side are you on? No more riding the fence!"

But how do we translate that into our world? It is something I am thinking about.

Israel bound!

My wife and I will be headed to Israel for a 2 week visit. We will be leaving in a few weeks and I am looking forward to the trip. I have been challenged to keep a daily entry on my blog to act as a 'spiritual diary' of sorts. I have agreed to take up this challenge and hope you all will find it encouraging to your spirit.

Let me begin with a confession. I am looking forward to going but am not nearly as excited as some of my other friends who are going. I wonder if I should be more excited than I am about it. I think it will be a good trip and I am very thankful to be going. I have always hoped that I would be able to go visit the land I read about in Scripture. Now I get to do that!

I think the excitement will build the closer we get and the longer we are in Israel. I would appreciate your prayers. I would love for God to meet me in a special way there. 

Its always the little things

Many of you may know that I have a daughter that has Autism. It has been a long road and there seems to be many occasions where I feel as though it will never end. 

Lately, however, it seems as though there is light starting to shine at the end of this long, dark tunnel we have been in. Usually change in our daughter comes so slowly that we never notice it. It usually takes someone that has not seen her in 6-12 months saying how much she has grown since the last time they saw her. 

Well, in the last couple of months I have begun to see a change in my daughter. She is more vocal and using words to try and communicate. She is starting to tell us hi and bye, I love you, and call us by name. She is also starting to use full sentences when asking a question or telling us what she is doing.

The big thing right now is she wants to dance. So she is always asking me or her brother to dance with her to the Christmas music that is playing. It has been very special to see, for the first time, some glimpses of the person within begin to emerge. 

I have a lot! More than I deserve. I am truly blessed! But there is nothing more satisfying to me than to see the many 'family memory moments' created by my children. With all the things that are on my Christmas list this year, I am finding the ones that bring me joy cannot be purchased in any store.

Why do we get lost in the temporal things? Why is it so easy? Sometimes I wish I was not such a sucker. Sometimes I wish I could remember...

It's always the little things!

Sorry I've been out for a while!

you know, since my discovery of facebook i have done a very poor job of keeping up with my blog.

sorry about that.

life certainly has a way of getting away from you when you are not looking.

something wonderful happened to our family over halloween. Delaney went trick-or-treating with us and did really great!! she stayed with us the whole time and didn't wander off. she did not try and go her own way and kept up with her brother at getting candy. there were no meltdowns and she did not throw herself down on the ground and pitch a fit. she was all smiles and said, 'thank you' to those who gave her candy.

it was the most 'normal' Jennifer and I have ever felt as a family in public. that seems strange to say but unless you have a child with special needs you would not understand if I explained it to you. not that your stupid or anything, it's just that I would rather explain to a woman what it is like to give birth than to explain what I mean by feeling 'normal'.

how about you? what is your fondest Halloween memory?

The Importance of Being Certain

You know... it seems to me that the acceptable thing with 'spirituality' these days is to be in process, still searching out and trying to discover what is truth. It is good to be investigating what truth is out there. To be a seeker is to be part of a large and even distinguished group of people who are finding truths to be all over the place. To be a seeker is to be a tolerant and open person who is willing to accept whatever truth may be out there.

The taboo of our day is to claim that you have finally discovered it.

For reasons that go beyond my understanding... once you claim to have found the truth you immediately go from being 'open and tolerant' to being 'narrow-minded and ignorant'. You are scoffed at by the tolerant who label you arrogant. It is as if there were no way truth could be found - and how presumptuous of you to claim the contrary.

Yet God calls us to be certain of truth. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." On the surface this certainty may seem empty and shallow. After all how can we be certain of what is hoped for and unseen? With out doubt this is a stumbling block to those intellectuals who need something tangible and testable in order to know truth.

But for those who believe, we have experienced some immeasurable things that are unseen - nor are they see-able. We have the inner working of the Holy Spirit who is the deposit which guarantees our inheritance. We have had our conscience cleansed by Him, our soul washed clean and our spirit regenerated. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we have been redeemed; adopted as sons and daughters of the living God. We can feel His presence and hear His voice. There is no method available to the world to record and observe this work of the Spirit. Nothing testable or verifiable to say to the skeptic this is how I know I have found the truth. Nothing that says, "This is a picture of my soul before the Holy Spirit and this is my soul after the Holy Spirit does His work."

Yet, once you have experienced this work of the Spirit in your life you cannot help but say, "I have found the truth!" Our proof is in the transformation of our lives. Without living a transformed life the world will always doubt our truth claims. Holy living, love for the world, grace, mercy and justice become our tangible proof of the certain truth of the Gospel. There is nothing left for them to deny when they see Christ in us.

So do not be afraid to be certain of the work God has done in your life. Moreover, do not be afraid to live out that work in your life with certainty!

Book Review

I am currently reading a very cool book titled "The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions" by David Berlinski. Dr. Berlinski is an agnostic and a scientist/ philosopher. In his book he challenges his peers to their own objections to issues of faith. His main thrust is that no conclusion can be drawn from current scientific evidence that says "God does not exist." There are too many questions that are not only unanswered by science but that also are unanswerable by science. Berlinski's affinity with the idea of God is mild contempt at best. Nonetheless, he comes to the defense of those who have faith in God and gives his apologetic as to why faith is not simply the plight of the ignorant but rather a force that needs more than name calling to prove it made-up-nonsense. He uses wit and scientific knowledge to challenge, if not completely debunk, his scientific brethren. Very well written and delivered. I highly recommend it.

Biology Without Ideology

The following is the next installment of Dinesh's blog. I have picked this one to examine how atheism is using the authority of science to make metaphysical claims; i.e. 'There is no God who made the universe. It is just a natural phenomenon.'

Enjoy!

http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/04/08/biology-without-ideology/