Lord, This Blog Belongs To You

Recently, the Lord has been leading me to surrender certain areas of my life that I have been holding on to, so I have been placing those areas under His Lordship and acknowledging that He is Lord of all parts of my life and that it is all His to do with, to use, or to discard, as He wills.

So, in church this morning I came to realize as our Pastor was preaching on The Good Samaritan, that I had never surrendered this blog to Jesus’ Lordship.  I quickly jotted a note so as not to forget and so I could let go the thought and listen to our Pastor’s message.

The Lord has been speaking to me for some time about spending more time with this blog but I never knew how I might accomplish that.  I just have never had a steady stream of ideas coming that I should be able to write more frequently.  Until today.  The Lord showed me the way, and it had only to do with His leading, and was not dependent at all on me coming up with ideas.  And it was only after that revelation that I realized that I had never truly given this blog over to the Lord’s care.  It was always my blog.  I maintained it, and I was the one responsible for the writing.

So, today I write for the purpose of dedicating this blog to the Lord.  I will write as directed by the Lord, and respond to posts in the same way.

Lord Jesus, I bow humbly before you now as I dedicate this blog to You.  From now on, may You be solely responsible for its content, and may the work that I do for it be always in keeping with Your will.  Amen.

The Progressive nature Of God’s Personal Revelation

In Acts chapter 21, Paul learns that when he journeys to Jerusalem, he will be captured by the Jews and handed over to the Gentiles.

¹⁰ After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.¹¹ Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”  –  Acts 21:10-11

Paul’s response here is very important.  He says,  “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  (Acts 21:13)  The key phrase is “I am ready”.  This tells me that Paul was already aware, at least, that something unpleasant was going to take place when he reached Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit had already prepared him for the event.  Therefore, upon learning the exact nature of the event that would occur, his response is that he is ready.

Do you suppose that if Paul had learned on the road to Damascus that he would one day be turned over to the Gentiles and eventually killed that he would have so readily followed Jesus?  That is a hard question to answer, but I have a feeling that he would not.

But over time, day by day, and bit by bit, as Paul’s faith grew ever stronger, the Lord revealed to him, a bit at a time, exactly what would be required of him, until, eventually, when he learns of his eventual demise, he is able to respond, “I am ready”.

And it is the same with us.  Our God does not reveal to us what we will be enduring five years from now, or ten.  But He does faithfully prepare us for what will happen today, tomorrow, or next week.  And as we grow in our faith, the Lord will trust us with ever larger and more specific revelations about our circumstances and what we must endure for His sake.

So, what about you Christian, are you ready?

Lord, I bow humbly before you as I seek your will for me life, trusting that You will fill me always with your Spirit so that when asked, my response will always be, “Yes Lord, I am ready!”  Amen.

Atheism, Science, Higgs Boson, And The Godhead

Last week, confirmation was given (provisionally, as far as I can tell) for the existence of the Higgs Boson, the so-called “god particle”, by CERN, France.

Since then, there has been a lot of discussion as to whether this can in any was be used to prove the existence of God.  Now, my knowledge of sub-atomic physics is nearly non-existent, but I will say this, from my perspective the arguments I have heard are shaky at best, and that is probably being overly generous.

But the controversy, if one can call it that, does serve to bring one thing to light, and that is the constant tension that occurs between Christians and atheists.  Christians will stubbornly insist that their God exists, while atheists will just as stubbornly insist that there is no god, let alone the God of the Bible.

Without sufficient scientific evidence to back up their claim, Christians are left to defend their belief based on their own personal experience.  And, as one who has had his own encounters with the Almighty, I can vouch that the experience is indeed compelling.  In fact, I would go so far as to characterize it as overwhelming.

On the other hand, there is no scientific evidence supporting God’s non-existence either.  Therefore, atheists are left with such arguments as the notion that the need for a god in their scientific model is so vanishingly small as to be insignificant.  The problem there of course, is that the lack of need is far from proof, a fact which the atheist must admit. And this leaves the atheist with a very weak argument indeed.

I feel very comfortable in saying that, given the lack of evidence supporting either position that holding either one view or the other can be done only as an exercise of faith.

Another argument that I hear from atheists on occasion is that a belief in God conflicts with science.  It seems as though to some that science itself is elevated to the point where it becomes a substitute god for those who hold such beliefs.

From my perspective, there is no conflict between God and science.  But for those who have raised science to such a high position, I can see why there is perceived conflict.

The solution is simple!  There must be a hierarchy, either science belongs at the top of the pyramid, or God does, or something else does.  All conflicts that appear with science in the top spot simply vanish if God, who is the Creator of all things, including intelligent beings capable of contemplating their origin and coming up with a system of observation and experiment  that they call science, is placed in His rightful place, simply vanish away.  All conflict that result from the confusion of what belongs in the pre-eminent position, vanish!

As far as the third contender for top spot, “something else”, untilit is named, it will be left from consideration.