He says, "The mark of God's people is not incapacitating fear, but rather contrite courageous confidence in God. That's the main point of Isaiah 41:14."
Isaiah 41:14
Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I pray this for myself and fellow Christians.
"That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs."
- From A Challenge to Women by John Piper
Why do I want to enter full-time ministry? Because 'billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day'. Life is short and nothing matters more than making Christ known, even as I know Him myself.
Note: From the Serious Time Update. To enjoy a free e-mail subscription to the Serious Times Update, log-on to www.serioustimes.com
Science and Religion: No Place for God
The National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most eminent scientific organization, produced a book on the evidence supporting the theory of evolution (and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science classes) in 1984. It published another in 1999. This month, they produced a third, but with a twist, for it is intended specifically for the lay public. Further, it devotes a great deal of space to an explanation of the differences between science and religion, maintaining that the acceptance of evolution does not require abandoning belief in God.
Barbara A. Schaal, who is a vice president of the academy, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University and a member of the panel that produced the book, said to the New York Times, “We wanted to produce a report that would be valuable and accessible to school board members and teachers and clergy.” Titled “Science, Evolution and Creationism,” the 70-page work asserts that “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.”
I would agree. While I am not convinced of much that has been suggested under macro-evolutionary theories, and even less those pertaining to hominoid evolution, I have no problem with those who hold to various forms of theistic evolution. If, in the end, it is demonstrated that this is the method God chose to use, so be it. The Genesis narrative does not speak to how God created, only that God created. The Christian has nothing to fear from science because the God of the Bible is the God of creation. All true scientific discoveries simply illuminate the world God has made.
But this is not what is meant by the report’s desire to diffuse the tension between science and religion. Faith is upheld by trivializing it, reducing it to the likes of a favorite color, or preferred style of music. As the report phrases it, science and religion deal with two different kinds of human “experience.” There is the experience which can be validated as fact (science), and there is the experience that can only be embraced in faith (religion). So believe what you want about God – that is your prerogative – just don’t treat it like you would a scientific reality.
It is to be granted that modern science is based on empirical evidence and testable explanation. One cannot put God in a test-tube and determine His existence. But there is more at hand here than science doing its job, and knowing its limitations in regard to matters of faith. It is about limiting what religion can say about science. The working idea is that we can maintain our religious faith and our scientific discoveries not by seeing both as operating in the realm of public truth – to be jointly engaged and interpreted accordingly – but by seeing them as separate categories altogether that should never be allowed to intertwine. If you wish to believe in God, fine; just don’t posit that this God actually exists as Creator, or that He could actually be pulled out to explain anything.
As Ronald Numbers has written, “Nothing has come to characterize modern science more than its rejection of appeals to God in explaining the workings of nature.” Hence the report’s categorical rejection of any and all forms of creationism, including intelligent design - calling such positions devoid of evidence, “disproven” or “simply false.”
At issue here is the larger cultural current of privatization. As I wrote in Serious Times, privatization is the process by which a chasm is created between the public and the private spheres of life, and spiritual things are increasingly placed within the private arena. So when it comes to things like business, politics, or even marriage and the home, personal faith is bracketed off. The process of privatization, left unchecked, makes the Christian faith a matter of personal preference, trivialized to the realm of taste or opinion. Yet faith does not simply have a new home in our private lives; it is no longer accepted outside of that sphere. More than showing poor form, talk of faith has been banished from the wider public agenda.
So the National Academy of Sciences is happy for religion to exist, and does not want anyone to see a conflict between science and religion. But do not think this means that those with religious conviction should pursue science with a religious worldview on equal footing as those who engage it with a naturalistic perspective.
No, science and religion are encouraged to co-exist…as long as religion knows its place.
Which is no place at all.
James Emery White
I couldn't resist lifting this from the Desiring God blog...
"You can be so interested in great theological and intellectual and philosophical problems that you tend to forget that you are going to die." - Martin Lloyd Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. 193
Ouch. A good thing to keep in mind.
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes...
There are enough left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week--
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted--quite unsuccessfully--
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away...
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension...
“Do you really want a solution or is the constant refrain ‘why’ a way of escaping the responsibility of the answer?”
When we cry out “Why?” in the midst of the unthinkable violence of our time, our predicament, I believe, is the same. There are some clues we already have--enough to bring correctives within our reach. But do we really want the truth?
- from 'Miltons in a Weary Land' by Ravi Zacharias
For anyone who reads blogs (and does not yet use RSS) => Better Blog Reading from Desiring God Blog
I have got to read this. Regularly.
"If we can discover how God conceives of work and why he wills it, then that huge portion of our lives that may seem so separate from religion and faith can be just as God-focused as our more religious acts."There are four other articles by John Piper related to this one:
I remember when I was in seminary, the dean of our seminary came to school this one day...
He pulled up at the seminary and he was walking with a bounce to his step. And I said,
"Dr. --- , you look particularly pleased with yourself today!"
He said, "I am, Jerry!"
He said, "I finished my Bible, today, devotionally, for the 200th time."
I said, "Wow.
Then he corrected himself, "I don't count the number of times I've read it in Greek and Hebrew, I mean the times I've read it devotionally."
I said, "Well sir, you've sailed your ship a little further on this sea than I've sailed mine. Are you still finding anything new in it?
He said, "On every page... on every page."
- Encoded from "C.S. Lewis' Approach to Apologetics" by Dr. Jerry Root.
"One encounters a self-effacing humility and honesty in his writing; he is not at all condescending in his apologetic work. Brilliant as he was, his arguments do not set him apart from his audience, but place him on the same road with his listeners as a fellow pilgrim. Furthermore, Lewis was a master at the use of the imagination; he was able to develop images and metaphors in order to help his audience grasp difficult concepts. He used analogies as an artist uses his brush. Lewis had a first rate mind and a poet’s power of expression."
Read the outline or listen to this lecture by Dr. Jerry Root at bethinking.org
I like this article I found about John Stott in the New York Times (from way back in 2004). What a breath of fresh air!
Thank you, David Brooks, for pointing out the unfair representation we often get.
"This is why so many people are so misinformed about evangelical Christians. There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them. Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored."
John Piper read Ayn Rand. In fact, he says he went on an "Ayn Rand craze" back in the seventies, and even sent her an essay (critique) 3 years before her death. Rand is still so popular that I hadn't realized she lived nearly a century before me.
I'm enjoying my stay at Shelfari, a social networking site for booklovers. My shelf's still a mess, but getting more manageable. I'm making friends, getting book recommendations, discussing my thoughts with others and even occasionally writing book reviews. It's the first SNS I've actually participated in, and I really like the people I've met so far.
Finally, God's answer to my request for a book club of some sort. This is fun! I wonder why I never joined the booklover's club back in school...
"The hardest part I'm always told, is letting go..."
I am secure because God secures me.
Safe and sound"The greatest part now I know, is letting go."
just knowing that You're big enough to wrap around my heart completely
Safe and sound
just knowing that You know me.
I really like MercyMe's Coming Up to Breathe album. I'm posting favorite lines I want to remember.
At the top of my list is "Where I belong", which talks about the universal search for life's meaning and purpose, and the incredible experience of one who has found these in Jesus. "Where I belong" and "I would die for You" are the theme songs of my year 2006. :-)
This excerpt from "Where I belong" -
Everybody tries to find the purpose for their lifereminds me of another song I like ("More than fine" by Switchfoot) that goes
and hopes that one more day is justified
But once you truly see the very reason why you breathe
It becomes so much more than getting by
More than fineGoing back, the chorus is spectacular. I would love to sing this together with a congregation that is just amazed, delighted, and humbled before God.
More than bent on getting by
More than fine
More than just okay
So I raise my hands
and shout Your name
To praise You with my song
My dreams at hand
I've found my place
the place where I belong
Wait, I can hardly wait
To look into Your face
When the world disappears into Your eyes
Wait, I can hardly wait
To bow down at Your feet
Kiss the scars
that bore my sins away
Breathe, I can hardly breathe
In anticipation
Waiting for the day to come
When You will shine on me
- Favorite lines from "Wait" by The Afters.
I spent much of this day reading book reviews at Discerning Reader, and emerged with several books to add to my ever-lengthening wishlist (Wish I could/will read these):
I found an excellent article by Abraham Piper called "12 ways to love your wayward child". I'm NOT a parent (;p), but I loved Piper's treatment of the subject. I like this short article far better than the ~30-hour seminar on basic life principles I'm currently attending, but that's another story. Though no one will understand this comment, I'm learning to appreciate people like Pastor Gary Gilley a lot better because of the seminar. (Thank You, God.)
Back to the article, its best feature is its blatant God-centeredness, for which I greatly rejoice! This is characteristic of most, if not all, Piper resources, and is the reason why I visit desiringgod.org regularly and love John Piper so much. Oops, I forgot to mention, Abraham is John Piper's son. :)
I especially liked insight #4 "Don't expect them to be Christ-like". Quote: " If your son is not a Christian, he’s not going to act like one." So true -not only of non-Christian sons and daughters, but also of non-Christian parents, friends, colleagues and so on.
I've printed out copies of this article to give to Christian parents I know. It presents a very timely reminder about the whole point of reaching out to your wayward child:
"It’s not so that they will be good kids again; it’s not so that they’ll get their hair cut and start taking showers; it’s not so that they’ll like classical music instead of deathcore; it’s not so that you can stop being embarrassed at your weekly Bible study; it’s not so that they’ll vote conservative again by the next election; it’s not even so that you can sleep at night, knowing they’re not going to hell.
The only ultimate reason to pray for them, welcome them, plead with them, email them, eat with them, or take an interest in their interests is so that their eyes will be opened to Christ.
And not only is He the only point—He’s the only hope. When they see the wonder of Jesus, satisfaction will be redefined. He will replace the pathetic vanity of money, or the praise of man, or the high, or the orgasm that they are staking their eternities on right now. Only His grace can draw them from their perilous pursuits and bind them safely to Himself—captive, but satisfied."
