Is There a God?
Minds great and small grapple with the issue of does God exist.
Wernher von Braun, a man with the mind of a rocket scientist, addressed the subject on several occasions. For those who don’t know him, he was the German rocket scientist brought to America near the end of World War II who became known as the father of our space program. His research led him to conclude, “One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all.”
After commenting on the many scientific evidences of God, he postulated, “They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun.” The line of logic is the sun is so obvious a candle isn’t necessary to see it and the evidences of God are so obvious no scientific experiment is needed to conclude He exists.
Atheists often demand proof there is a God. Turn that. One basic law of logic is you can’t prove a negative. The negative, there is no God, can’t be proven. To prove it one would have to know all there is to know about everything and know that in that body of knowledge there is no God. Does anyone know even ten percent of all there is to know about everything? Atheists can’t prove that in the unknown ninety percent there is no God.
The eternal existence beyond death was also an object of the interest of von Braun. He avered, “Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me — and continues to teach me — strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace.”
Blaise Pascal, a 17th Century philosopher and renowned mathematician, proposed what is known as Pascal’s Wager. This genius made contributions in many scientific fields and is known for developing the schools of hydrodynamics and hydrostatics.
He described the payoff of the gamble of his proposed wager this way: “If God does not exist, then you neither gain nor lose anything from belief or disbelief. In either case, you just die and that’s the end. However, if you choose to believe in God, and you are right, then the reward is infinite: Eternal bliss in heaven. On the other hand, if you choose not to believe in God, and you’re wrong, your payoff is negative infinity: Eternal suffering in hell.”
As a sidebar, isn’t it interesting that advocates of two distinct schools of thought, evolution and atheism, both make the same fallacious claim that no scientists believe in God or creation. Countless scholars with terminal degrees from reputable academic institutions believe there is a God who created.
Reasons vary as to why people are atheists. C. S. Lewis, a well known author, was an atheist. He said that he knew that if he ever admitted there was a God he would have to admit his guilt before Him and he was enjoying his sexual sins too much to do that. Fortunately for him the day came he did make such an admission. It was also fortunate for the world of literature.
To say there is a god is little better than to say there is no god. It only really matters when you can say, “You, Oh God, are my God.”
Judgment in Kind
Not everybody has the same world view. That is, not everyone sees alike. Some have a secular world view with a spectrum ranging from a humanistic philosophy, to asceticism, to deism, and various points in between. Others hold a biblical worldview. That is they tend to interpret life in light of the teachings of the Bible. This, too, is a broad field of belief.
Within this latter school of thought is the idea expressed by Benjamin Franklin at the time of the drafting of the Constitution: “…God governs in the affairs of nations…” That is, God is involved in the human arena. He is active in lives and events. He has been so excluded in the marketplace that seldom do people try to understand things going on around them in light of this.
The biblical record reveals God judges nations in time. To say that is to call in a firestorm of criticism. Not to say it is to look the other way when confronted by reality.
He often judges in kind. Let me illustrate. As a child I disobeyed my mother and slipped to eat pickles she had forbidden me to eat. As always she caught me. I was delighted when she invited me to eat another. Then yet another and another. Based on my experience I can confirm pickles taste a lot better going down than they do coming up. I had been judged in kind.
The Bible speaks of a time when the condition of a society is such that God gives them up and to what He gives them up. It is so much of what they want they get sick of it.
Many believe God is judging America in kind. We evidenced greed was good and excess was acceptable. Individually millions of people and government entities exercised greed and our society including individuals and institutions are suffering the consequence.
Having thrown off normal moral restraints culturally we have said we want sexual freedom and an entertainment community that espoused promiscuity. If God is punishing us in kind the proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases, broken homes, undesired pregnancies, and emotional problems are the in kind discipline. He is giving us what we wanted and the unwanted consequences.
The rash of evil being suffered by our nation has its origin in individual hearts. It is a moral problem. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies… (Matthew 15:19). Check the media, even our advertisements, and see if these things are glamorized and popularized. It is this root that must be addressed to avoid the fruit.
Benjamin Franklin also said, “…all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.” Here? Is our nation suffering in kind here, that is, now?
To think of changing America one person at a time may be a great act of faith. To think of doing it any other way is an act of lunacy.
Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Stress Management – Part Three
Had any stress lately? Perhaps a better biblical concept can help you.
“If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Luke 12:28)
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day” (Vs. 16).
The Psalmist said it well: “He restores my soul…”
We often need God to bring back the springtime to our souls. And He does.
A. Aerobic exercise is expedient. When you exercise vigorously, your body produces and releases a group of hormones known as endorphins. These are natural pain-killers and mood-elevating chemicals that are associated with feelings of happiness. Put your endorphins to work for you.
B. Calm yourself by eating foods high in complex carbohydrates found in grains, beans, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables. They have a calming effect because they increase levels of serotonin, a chemical that helps you feel more relaxed.
C. Establish a quiet time during the day. A minute vacation can help clear the mind and relax the body. Close your eyes, flood your mind with Scripture promises. Simply thinking about your work won’t help.
Now some spiritual solutions.
D. Confess all the sin in your life. Make sure nothing stands in the way of a close personal relationship between you and the Lord.
E. Explain your stress to God in detail, just like He doesn’t know about it.
F. Believe that He is right now working out the answer. Don’t simply believe He is going to. Accept the fact that He is already at work on the project.
G. Search the Scripture. A doctor said to one of his stressed patients, “Go home and read your Bible for an hour a day and come back in a month.” She resented that it was all the treatment he prescribed. However she consented to take the prescription.
A month later she returned a new person asking: “How did you know that was what I needed?”
Pointing to a well worn Bible on his desk he said, “If I were to omit my daily reading of this book, I would lose my greatest source of strength and skill.”
Perhaps you have lost some of your life’s joy, have become more edgy, dissatisfied, and critical without realizing the reason to be you have gotten away from the Word. Return to reading it daily. Remember: “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).
Now comes the hard step.
H. Let go. Release your stress-causing situation to the Lord. Abandon it. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
Stress Management – Part Two
How well are you dealing with the stress causing things in your life? Indications are that most people aren’t doing so well.
Industrialists estimate that annually $75 million is lost due to stress-related illness, injuries, or absenteeism.
Jesus urged us to “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27).
Instead we tend to see the glass half empty instead of half full. Instead of speaking of traffic lights we call them “red lights.” In reality they are very often green, but we never refer to them as “green lights.”
I Corinthians 10: 13 speaks of “the way of escape.” It is a nautical term. It depicted a ship in a storm. In order for it to ride out the storm, the crew had to throw some things overboard. Inventory your life and see what you need to throw overboard. Ask God to help you relieve the stress by unloading what you should.
II Corinthians 4: 8, 9 notes states of which we experience various ones.
Are you ever “perplexed?” We all face circumstances when human wisdom isn’t sufficient. Often our minds aren’t sufficient to solve all our problems. You may be at a loss, but that doesn’t mean you have lost out.
Are you at times “persecuted?” Which means to be singled out for a personal attack is brutalizing. This may be verbal, social, emotional, or physical.
When those who would persecute us are in control, everything seems lost. However, note that little expression “not forsaken.”
Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Have you ever been “knocked down but not knocked out.” Many fights have been won by persons who were repetitiously knocked down but who got up to fight on and win. The same is true in the spiritual realm.
The Bible is replete with accounts of people knocked down but not out.
See Jonah in the belly of the great fish. He was down, but soon came up to prove he wasn’t out.
Observe Jeremiah in the pit. If ever a man seemed to be down he was, but he wasn’t knocked out.
Samson, blind and bound, appeared to be down. Placed between the posts of the temple he proved he wasn’t knocked out.
Joseph in Pharaoh’s prison seemed out. His ascension to the office of Prime Minister of Egypt proved he wasn’t knocked out.
The classic of all classics is Christ. Look at the tomb and you see Him knocked down. Look three days later and you see He wasn’t knocked out. You too can overcome your knock downs.
For what do we remember about these persons? It is that they got up. If they had never been knocked down, they would never have gotten up to become the persons we remember with admiration.
Stress Management – Part One
Luke 12: 22 – 29
Jesus said don’t “have an anxious mind” (Luke 12: 29).
Is that your personal profile? Are you stressed out?
If so, welcome to the human race where everyone seems to lose. Speaking here in America, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health of England said, “The whole Western world is under stress. It is one of the fastest growing diseases in the world.”
We must learn to live with it. Fortunately we can.
If you can’t flee it or fight it you must learn to flow with it.
Stress is a good God-given ability. Normal stress is motivating. It is a stimulus. If it were not for stress your heart wouldn’t keep beating overnight. You wouldn’t even wake up in the morning. Stress does that.
Dr. Hans Selye, director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the University of Montreal and the father of some of the most extensive research on stress said: “Stress is the spice of life.” Stress is what keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your stomach digesting while you sleep. He adds, “Complete freedom from stress is death.”
Stress is good. It becomes bad when it develops into distress. The load in life is good. It is the overload that is bad. The overload can cause anxiety, depression, migraine headaches, peptic ulcers, strokes, and heart attacks.
It is essential to know how to handle stress.
Jesus said, “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” (Luke 12:24).
Rudyard Kipling in writing about the ship “Dimbula.” Kipling wrote as though the ship had a personality. After 16 days of a stormy voyage this statement was made by “Dimbula” observed, “Now we have a great ship.”
“My master has taken me through the rough spots in which everything seemed to be coming apart, and I have become what I have been made to be.” This conclusion follows.
“Because I have a master, I am a ship.”
When you have Jesus as your Master and obey Him then and only then you can become the ship you were made to be. Then you can enjoy the benefits of stress while evading the distress.
Physically Jesus calmed the storm for His disciples. He can oo the same for you. He said don’t “have an anxious mind”(Luke 12: 29).