Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
CONTACT
Several years ago, there was a movie released called Contact. The story basically went along following a young astronomer who believed deeply in extraterrestrial intelligence. She is present when a signal is beamed to the Earth. At first, they cannot decipher the signal until she realizes that the signal is actually a complex mathematical code that provides a schematic for building a machine to contact this “higher intelligence.” One memorable scene is when she(played by Jodie Foster) explains that math is the ultimate universal language. It transcends all language barriers between alien races, so to speak.
It was a neat movie except for the extremely pervasive slam on belief in God and any and all organized religion.
The reason I’m talking about this movie is because, ironically, I see a parallel between the universal language in this ultimate atheistic fantasy and my own experience in my Christian walk. Here’s is the question, “What is the real universal language?” Will we all speak English in heaven? Will we have little ear pieces that translate for each of us? Will we speak Hebrew? I don’t know, and I’m okay with waiting and finding the answer to this particular mystery. I heard one intriguing theory that music itself will somehow be the universal language. Deep….. a little too deep for me, but a really cool thought nevertheless.
Actually, what the movie and this “universal language” that it made me think of has more to do with the here and now. A couple of examples to illustrate where I’m going with this may be in order. My friends in Ghana who have endangered themselves and deal with a seemingly never ending barrage of stressful experiences for themselves and their children is one example. Another example is the Flemings family in the interior of Mexico who have spent more than thirty years of their lives evangelizing, training converts to Christ, and running an orphanage. There is also the Walkers who arrange for American churches to fund and send people down to Honduras to build churches for communities who otherwise would not be able to do this for themselves. All these examples are a testimony to the language that is, if not universal, certainly global….love. The people of Ghana, Mexico, and Honduras don’t need translation to understand the motivations of these people. It is as easy to read as the rising sun or a storm cloud announcing rain. Love speaks and IS heard!
It was a neat movie except for the extremely pervasive slam on belief in God and any and all organized religion.
The reason I’m talking about this movie is because, ironically, I see a parallel between the universal language in this ultimate atheistic fantasy and my own experience in my Christian walk. Here’s is the question, “What is the real universal language?” Will we all speak English in heaven? Will we have little ear pieces that translate for each of us? Will we speak Hebrew? I don’t know, and I’m okay with waiting and finding the answer to this particular mystery. I heard one intriguing theory that music itself will somehow be the universal language. Deep….. a little too deep for me, but a really cool thought nevertheless.
Actually, what the movie and this “universal language” that it made me think of has more to do with the here and now. A couple of examples to illustrate where I’m going with this may be in order. My friends in Ghana who have endangered themselves and deal with a seemingly never ending barrage of stressful experiences for themselves and their children is one example. Another example is the Flemings family in the interior of Mexico who have spent more than thirty years of their lives evangelizing, training converts to Christ, and running an orphanage. There is also the Walkers who arrange for American churches to fund and send people down to Honduras to build churches for communities who otherwise would not be able to do this for themselves. All these examples are a testimony to the language that is, if not universal, certainly global….love. The people of Ghana, Mexico, and Honduras don’t need translation to understand the motivations of these people. It is as easy to read as the rising sun or a storm cloud announcing rain. Love speaks and IS heard!
Monday, July 16, 2007
The Insanity of Sin
My wife, Myndall, and I were talking in the car about something she had heard recently about shepherds. Apparently, when a sheep wanders away from the flock, the shepherd retrieves it and breaks its leg. He then carries it back to the flock on his shoulders and nurses it back to health. We commented on how dumb sheep were that it took this level of pain to keep them from wandering off again in the short term, and Myndall commented on how that might be how God sees us.
I think she nailed it on the head. The Scriptures are certainly loaded with sheep analogies when it describes the “people of God.” I recently heard a philosophy professor from Boston College talk about how every morning he wakes up, and he gets attacked by a thousand “thought soldiers” screaming, “Think about this!” “Think about this!” “No, Think about this!” He said he knew that without fail if he chose to begin his day with prayer and setting aside some time in that first hour to turn his focus in prayer and worship to Jesus that his entire day will inevitably go smoother, be more efficient, be filled with joy, etc. However, most of the time he does not do that and pays the consequences of less joy, less efficiency, and a more troubled day in general. “What is that?!” He cries, and then answers himself. “We’re insane!” This is the insanity of sin.
May we all choose to cry out to God as we recognize this in ourselves in humility and brokenness. May we, by the power of His Spirit working in us, begin to tell the thought soldiers to shut up and say yes to the call of Christ each morning. I believe it was Timothy that Paul told to remember that we were not given a spirit of fear, but of “power, love and clear thinking (sound mind).”
I think she nailed it on the head. The Scriptures are certainly loaded with sheep analogies when it describes the “people of God.” I recently heard a philosophy professor from Boston College talk about how every morning he wakes up, and he gets attacked by a thousand “thought soldiers” screaming, “Think about this!” “Think about this!” “No, Think about this!” He said he knew that without fail if he chose to begin his day with prayer and setting aside some time in that first hour to turn his focus in prayer and worship to Jesus that his entire day will inevitably go smoother, be more efficient, be filled with joy, etc. However, most of the time he does not do that and pays the consequences of less joy, less efficiency, and a more troubled day in general. “What is that?!” He cries, and then answers himself. “We’re insane!” This is the insanity of sin.
May we all choose to cry out to God as we recognize this in ourselves in humility and brokenness. May we, by the power of His Spirit working in us, begin to tell the thought soldiers to shut up and say yes to the call of Christ each morning. I believe it was Timothy that Paul told to remember that we were not given a spirit of fear, but of “power, love and clear thinking (sound mind).”
Friday, July 13, 2007
New Links Page
Please check out my new Links page that contains tons of really, great links to some amazing web sites. I hope you get as much out of them as I have. Click on Web Site Links on the right side of the page and enjoy!
P.S. -- I will be adding new sites to the links page in the future; so, please click over to it occasionally to see if there are any new additions.
P.S. -- I will be adding new sites to the links page in the future; so, please click over to it occasionally to see if there are any new additions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)