The Existence of God

I've been doing a lot of reading for summer school, and I came up with two really good quotes. The first is by John Piper, and he is commenting on a song written in the sixties called "The Times They Are A-Changing."

'How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.'

How many times can a man look up and not see the sky? There is a sky up there to be seen. You may look up ten thousand times and say you don't see it. But that has absolutely no effect on its objective existence. It is there. And one day you will see it. How many times must you look up before you see it? There is an answer. The answer, The answer, my friend, is not yours to invent or create. It will be decided for you. It is outside you. It is real and objective and firm. One day you will hear it. You don't create it. You don't define it. It comes to you, and sooner or later you conform to it-- or bow to it.

That is what I heard in Dylan's song, and everything in me said, Yes! There is an Answer with a capital A. To miss it would mean a wasted life. To find it would mean having a unifying Answer to all my questions.

Piper's commentary really nails the issue. The issue is that there is Truth, and that Truth comes outside of mankind, because mankind is fallible. For instance, just because we have laws in our country that say abortion is legal doesn't mean that abortion is right. It just means it is permissible in our country. In God's eyes, abortion is the same as murder, therefore abortion is wrong. Society and culture don't set the standard. There is something bigger than society or culture, and it is God.

Here is my second quote. It is from a poem written in the nineteenth century by James Russell Lowell, and is entitled "The Lesson."

I sat and watched the walls of night
With cracks of sudden lightning glow,
And listened while the clumsy might
The thunder wallowed to and fro.
The rain fell softly now; the squall,
That to a torrent drove the trees,
Had whirled beyond us to let fall
Its tumult on the whitening seas.
But still the lightning crinkled keen,
Or fluttered fitful from behind
The leaden drifts, then only seen,
That rumbled eastward on the wind.
Still as gloom followed after flare,
While bated breath the pine-trees drew,
Tiny Salmoneus of the air,
His mimic bolts the firefly through.
He thought, no doubt, "Those flashes grand,
That light for leagues the shuddering sky,
Are made, a fool could understand,
By some superior kind of fly.
He's of our race's elder branch
His family-arms the same as ours,
Both born the twy-forked flame to launch,
Of kindred, if unequal, powers."
And is men wiser? Man who takes
His consciousness the law to be
Of all beyond his ken, and makes
God but a bigger kind of Me?

So what is the point? I didn't really understand that poem till my teacher explained it. The important part is the firefly's soliloquy. He claims that the lightning comes from a monster firefly who is from his same part of the family tree. Of course, that is utterly ridiculous. We could scientifically explain lightning to the poor little firefly, but can we blame him? His world is fireflies, so thus, he imagines all powerful things to be fireflies. This is a comparison between fireflies and men. Men fail to see that they have been created in the image of God, and because of that misunderstanding, they make a god in their own image.

Lowell was right on, and I don't think he'd be surprised that even today, people exhibit this kind of error in making God a bigger kind of themselves.

Happy Valentines Day!!

TheRebelution.com presents the results of the survey as a big St. Valentine's Day gift from 1,600 Christian guys to all Christian girls—and I can't think of a better one!

TheRebelution.com just launched the results of their massive Modesty Survey! Over 1,600 Christian guys answered questions on everything from glitter lotion and lip gloss to swimsuits and skirt slits! For you girls, it's everything you've ever wanted to ask guys about modesty, but were afraid to ask! For you guys, it's really interesting to see what other Christian guys think!

Most importantly, the survey is presented as a resource to help Christian girls (and guys), not a list of legalistic rules, and it is accompanied by the Modesty Survey Petition (which tons of guys have signed) which encourage young women to focus on the heart, not the hemline, to honor their parents, etc.

Go check it out: www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey

But also make sure you spread the word to all your friends. We want as many Christian girls as possible to see it on Valentines Day, so you can repost this post on your blog or forward it as an email.

Guys, they are still accepting signatures for the Modesty Survey Petition, so this is an opportunity for you to still share your voice on the topic of modesty!

~Nella

Something Done By Us

"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us."

--John Stott

I'm convinced Stott was right when he penned those words! As a more common phrase says "You have to get someone lost before you can get them saved." People all around you think they are good people, probably on their way to Heaven, but upon questioning them if they have ever lied, stolen, or cheated, they are often convinced that they really need a Savior.

~Nella

Vote!

Copied from the Rebelution. Vote for Spunky!

If you are a homeschooler, listen up! SpunkyHomeschool is currently trailing Michael Bérubé and [...] for Best Educational Blog in the 2006 Wizbang Weblog Awards.

Here’s why you should care: (1) SpunkyHomeschool is the only homeschool blog in any award category, (2) IvyGate is self-described as an Ivy League College gossip and s*x blog (among other topics) and, (3) Michael Bérubé recently commented on the IvyGate blog saying, “The important thing is that IvyGate and I crush the homeschoolers.”

At the bare minimum let’s help SpunkyHomeschool avoid being “crushed” by these elitist, secular blogs and let them know that homeschoolers don’t “suck” as another polite commenter on the IvyGate blog recently said.

Here’s how to do it: (1) Vote everyday (ends 11:59pm, Dec. 15th) for Spunky. (2) Vote once a day on every available computer (just don't exceed the number of people in your family), (3) Get your friends and other homeschool families to vote for Spunky too.

In the words of Spunky (i.e. Mrs. Braun), let’s “help homeschooling and decency to shine in a depraved world.” Thank you in advance for your help: Vote For Spunky.

Unlit vs. Lit

I was thinking about Christmas lights the other day: why we do them and how they got started. I don't even know why they were started, to be honest with you. Some houses look great all decked out for Christmas. One year we visited my grandma for Christmas in Florida. Ian and I couldn't get over the fact that there was no snow and it was still Christmas time! (Just for a bit of added humor, I thought the picture below was hilarous!)

I have made an observation: Christians don't seem to get into Christmas lights. I don't put them up, and I don't know that there is anyone in my acquaintance that does either. Why do you think that is? Jesus is the Light of the World, we know, and I think Christmas lights are a cool way to remind ourselves of that. Each light is a little minature star shining in the dark night.

On a similar note, we get on a band wagon about people taking Christ's name out of Christmas. I'm not saying that's right, but I think that there are so many things that matter more at Christmas time than what people call it. How we ourselves celebrate is what should really matter. Who cares what the world does? We are to be in the world but not of the world anyway.

Frankly, I don't really care whether or not someone decorates their house with lots of lights, but I think it looks awesome. We need to light up this world with our example. Our houses should be glowing with the Light all the time, not just at Christmas.

~Nella

I began my blogging week on Think Upon These Things by sharing a testimony of a spiritual and emotional "dark ages" in my life that began two years ago. I thought it would be fitting to revisit this topic by discussing another book that became very dear to me during this time: the book of 1 Peter.

1 Peter is a little book in the back of your Bible with a powerful message. It was written by Peter to a dispersed group of discouraged Christians. I read this book like I drank water: freqently, and sometimes several times a day. Several verses were very special to me, and I wanted to discuss them today.

There are two groups of people who could potentially read this post; 1) those who have suffered, and 2) those who will suffer. Those who have suffered can be furter divided into groups. 1) Those who know God is in control and knows the answers to all their questions about why they have to suffer, and 2) those who have no hope because they have not recognized God's control of their life.

Suffering is a hot topic today. Self-help books by the million deal with the topic of pain, suffering, and what to do about it. My dad knew almost nothing of what was going on, and even less of what I was dealing with in my life when he asked me to read a small book for him that he did not have time to read himself. It was called If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain. I don't remember what I thought about it, but I do remember that I thought the title was very assuming and proud.

I still think the title is wrong. Romans 11 asks the powerful question "Who has given to God that God should repay him?" To answer it, no one ever has or ever will. God is God, and we just have to accept that.

1 Peter, though it's major theme is suffering, has many jewel-rank passages that have seemingly nothing to do with suffering. There is an excellent exaltation of the word of God at the end of the last chapter. Also, read this verse.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

You might not think that this verse has any impact on a suffering person, but believe me, it had a big impact on me. Let's take this verse apart and think about it for a while.

The title If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain implies that God can determine when suffering begins and when it ends. That is true. To most people in the world, they think that that means that God is a certain degree "responsible" for what they are going through. Hold that thought.

The verse (1 Peter 1:3) talks about Jesus' death and resurrection. It also likens our salvation to Christ's resurrection from the dead. God took a circumstance that seemed impossibly bad and turned it into something inconceivably good. Hold that thought too.

Now we're going to fuse the two thoughts together. The first thought was that God is responsible, to some degree, for the pain in the world. The second thought derived from the verse was that God takes bad things and uses them for good. That indeed is comforting, to those of you who are in the sufferers group who have accepted God's leadership.

There is just one more verse I want to share with you, and there is a story behind this verse, too. As a Lord of the Rings junkie, one day I read a story called "Above all Rewards" by my friend Eruvyweth. It was about hope, something I was struggeling to see in my sufferings. Hope was likened to the sky, which can be covered by clouds, but never totally missing, even if it is just "a fool's hope." Now, the verse. 1 Peter 1:7.

So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The reason for testing is so that we may come forth laurie, like gold... which we are far more precious than! That truly gives hope!

-Nella Sound-Out-

Witnessing With Playing Cards

I am proud to feature this guest post on Sound-Out, the first one to ever be written by someone other than me. In the past few weeks, I have been priviledged to meet Seth Hoskins. I have been encouraged greatly by his PMs and testimonies of the grace of God in his life. I found this posted on the Rebelution and asked Seth if he minded if I posted this on Sound Out. This has been used with his permission. Some formatting has been changed, and a few words, but the bulk of this is straight from Seth's pen.

~Nella

I start my witnessing with my interest in card towers. I take out a pack of cards that just happened to be in my back pocket (what a coincidence). Then I start building, explaining as I go.

The first thing I say is, "Let's pretend that the faces of the cards are the person's spiritual level. There are some people, like the twos, who don't care about God." Then I flip the card over and say, "See, you can't tell what a person's spiritual level is by the outside. They all look the same." (Cards with a solid card back, such as red, work best here.)

Then I start building the tower. I say, "Let's pretend that I am God. I am going to build this tower, which is what God plans for the whole world. He uses everyone, believers and non-believers to build this great accomplishment."

Then, I find an ace and a two. I say, "Which one looks better to you?" Then they'll usually say, "The ace."

"Right, God can still use two's just as good as aces right? But see, the two's don't look as good as the aces! He desires you to be an ace. But God won't force you to be an ace." All my energy is devoted to preventing the tower from toppling. I do not finish the tower. Instead I say, "Look at this beautiful accomplishment so far!" I point out cards that are bent and reference that even though the edges are bent, God can still use them. (This works well with handicapped people.)

I tap one of the cards. It usually all falls down, and the person I'm witnessing to looks at me like I'm crazy. I say, "That one card just ruined my whole tower! But in God's plan, you can fall over as many times as you want to. He can still use you."If you are resistant, you will have no part in God's plan. He'll just let you be. That one card will be cast aside, and another will be found. God doesn't depend just on you for His work; He can get someone else just as easily.”

I practice making towers, and by the end, I hate my cards because I get frustrated. The best part is God is never frustrated. He loves every single one of his cards no matter their rank or shape. Then I'll put up my cards and get out my Bible and explain the Roman's road.

Before trying this, I suggest you be extremely good at building towers. It doesn't work when you can't get to the last story. The illustration “I can't do it by myself” also comes across mutually as I've seen when I do my “trick.”

I hope this was helpful.

God's peace and blessings,
Seth Hoskins