Resurrecting America

On their trek through the wilderness, the Israelites got pretty impatient with some of the hardships they faced. They grumbled about the food, the lack of water and spoke against God. God had brought them out of so much and now they were giving up on him.  

The King James Version says 'that the Lord sent fiery serpents' that bit and killed many Israelites. The area that they were traveling through was known for snakes, it wasn't God sending them. God was not trying to punish them, they brought it on themselves when they didn't look for deliverance and complained. Once they realized this, they went to Moses and asked him to pray. God told Moses to fashion a brazen serpent and elevate it on a pole and when they were bitten by a snake to look at the fashioned serpent and they would live. God didn't take the serpents away, he brought the solution. Deciding to do what they were asked brought God back into the forefront of the Israelites minds for those who did what Moses said.

Human nature hasn't changed much. There is lots of fear flying at us through the digital airwaves about the coronavirus. Politicians are bickering and showing their true colors: fear, greed, manipulation and we have mass media exploding it in front of our eyes. Our culture today has been so primed by an adversary that can move in, terrorize and deceive at a moment's notice. Many people fall right into the trap. The world is not an easy place to live, but God has provided us with the ultimate example in Jesus Christ, his son and man to show us the way.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:14-16

Keeping our sights on Christ and his purpose and what he means for our lives, preserves our clear-eyed vision of who we are and our relationship with the God who loves us. So many events in the Old Testament foreshadow the coming of Jesus Christ. As we look at his life and along with the added lens of the holy spirit in the New Testament, we are never in the dark about what is going on.

Atheism

Atheism is a religion. Religion is what man believes about God.  Ideologies (the science of ideas) and religion both emanate from the mind. Religion and ideology both can be quite self-centered in elevating how we use our brains rather that how it was designed to function.

I am quite humbled by at the construction and detail of the human mind. In ancient days, a blob on the beach did not just happen to start reorganizing and eventually develop into a higher organism. The design and functions of the brain are amazing and show incredible love. Man did not design the brain, man uses it. It is an important distinction to make.

The Oxford Dictionary defines 'reality' as: "1. the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. 2.the state or quality of having existence or substance." I am a biologist and I like to know how things are designed in the living world. A tree has existence as does a human being, or a flower or a bird.  I also like geology which is the study of the non-living world. The earth's crust, tectonic plates, mountains, oceans and stars also have existence and substance. How this ecosphere operates is a beautiful miracle. It is reality and it teaches us many lessons. Some of the greatest researchers in history were godly men and women who respected God and his design of the human body. Some of the greatest physicists were deeply humbled as they dug  into the physical world and its motions.

The design of the universe is more than breath-taking. In addition it is quite humbling. God has installed so much around us to comfort and delight us forever. It does us good to get our heads out in God's beautiful creation, not just because it is gorgeous, but because it is confirming and added assurance of his unfaltering love. Everything I look at that God has fashioned, builds believing and strengths in my heart. Religion didn't do that for me, it is God who does that.

I used to call myself an agnostic. It is not that I didn't believe in God,  I just wasn't sure. I didn't know where to start, but I decided I wanted to to know the truth. So I asked God and and was willing to look at sources to help me. God provided and I found the greatest resource was the Bible and I was willing to think about what I read. Of course I had all the same questions everybody has about this book but somehow as I continued those questions were answered and in many different ways. The more I learned and relied upon what I read, the more I saw results. One verse I ran into literally changed my life:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth (cast blame) not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5

I found it to be true.

Power, Love and a Sound Mind