Accident?

If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents - the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else's. But if their thoughts - i.e., Materialism and Astronomy - are mere accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It's like expecting the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.
C.S. Lewis

My Argument

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?... Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
C.S. Lewis

If there is no God...

If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true , but rather because of a series of chemical reactions… … Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before. If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else.
Douglas Wilson

Tis the Season...

As long as I see any thing to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end!

... David Brainerd's Journal

This is a busy time of year isn’t it? These days before Christmas must have 15 hour days instead of 24 because I never seem to get anything done. In the past couple of weeks I have taken to forgetting things (more so than usual) like appointments, picking things up that I said I would, calling people back I said I would call, and I seem to leave things laying around where I can’t find them when I need them. I am always able to quickly blame it on being busy, and everyone who knows me knows that it is true. But, I have to wonder; busy doing what?

What work am I doing and what work am I leaving out? You see, we can be busy enough to fill a day and never get to the point where we spend the time with God that He was hoping we would. I often wake up in the morning and immediately start thinking of what I should be doing that day. Worrying even gets me moving faster because I start to think I might not get them done if I don’t get going.

What I am forgetting is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his book Life Together; “The first word in the morning belongs to God, and the last word in the evening belongs to God.” When I remember this, my priorities seem to straighten out. When I remember to give God the first and last word, I seem to have more time, I seem to get more done, and what I get done is higher work. I guess I just need to remember that; especially this time of year. If I ever forget, I can simply go to Psalm 46:10 and read: "Be still, and know that I am God.”

The Church comes to church...

The Christian Church does not want and does not need members because of a job it has to do. The Christian Church has a secret at her heart and she wants to share it. Whenever one, by repentance and forgiveness, enters this community of grace, he discovers life's end, and he too will be constrained to let this life flow out in appropriate channels. Thrilling and costly projects will come into existence, but not as ends in themselves, and the group will not become a means to [such ends]. The group will never forget that one of its primary functions is to up build the members in love. ... William T Ham, "Candles of the Lord"

I remember a night when Church came to the church.

I know, that is confusing so let me explain. I was serving a church other than the ones I am at now. We were at the very end of our Wednesday night meal when a man entered into the fellowship hall. He was a big man; he had to duck his head in order to get in the door. He stood there talking to one of our members and then they pointed me out, so I moved across the room to meet him. He was not only a very big man, he was African American, and with him standing so tall in the midst of our gathering I was reminded of how the palette of our church is so lacking in the rich colors of humanity. As I walked over many things went through my mind. I was worried that this man might be homeless, or that he might need money for gas, or food and I did not have access to any funds in our church. I started to formulate a plan in my head as to how I would be able to gather money from the congregation in a subtle enough way as to not hurt this man’s pride and still help him, but when I met him I realized all I was doing was rushing ahead of God, like I often do. I shook his hand and it swallowed mine up. He told me, in a voice as deep as James Earle Jones’ his name, and that he was here to begin work next week and that he was from New Orleans, chased out by hurricane Katrina to our doorstep. He was in his hotel room just down the street and thought to himself that some church must be having a Wednesday night Bible study so he searched and found us.

The man was everything I thought he would be as I walked across the room, he was hungry and he was in need, but it was fellowship and study he desired. He simply wanted to spend an hour or so in worship and in fellowship with other Christians. I walked with him from the fellowship hall to the sanctuary, his Gideon’s Bible in his hand introducing him to everyone we passed. We found a seat together and began our service. He paid close attention to the lesson, he laughed and shook his head, he said amen a few times and at the end when we sang I’ll fly away his deep voice rang out and mixed wonderfully in with the fellowship of believers. He asked me when we began if he could stand and introduce himself at the end, so I led him to the front. There he shared his name and where he came from, and went into a recital of a wonderful spiritual poem entitled God’s Grocery Store. We all clapped and afterward talked with him for almost a half an hour. We invited him back and I hope he takes us up on it. We sent him off with some food and he retired to his hotel room again.

Isn’t it wonderful that when you expect certain things to happen, God steps in and changes the dynamic completely? We had prepared a service last night, we all planned to be in church, and then somehow God had Church come to us. Christian fellowship, when it is cloistered and inward looking becomes stale, but when God stirs up the waters with new believers something wonderful happens every time.

Devoted to What? (Bro Jerry Miller)

It is a sad truth in our lives that we sometimes become more devoted to things other then God and His glory. It is easy to do. In the world, there are people who are devoted to movie stars. They admire them and elevate them to a status of extreme honor and adoration. People are far too often devoted to sports teams, almost to the point of reference. We become devoted to political parties, ideologies, causes, and even cars. Devotion is all around us in the world. Some of it is good and some of it is not. Good examples of devotion can be found in the love of a mother for her children and of a father for his family. Bad examples can be found in extreme devotion to cars, houses, appearance, money, and possessions. It is in our nature to become obsessed with things. Now, there is nothing wrong with being devoted to something -- unless that devotion becomes an obsession. If it does, it pushes out proper behavior and proper adoration of God. This then becomes sinful. There should be nothing that holds more devotion in our lives than the Lord. Everything else must follow far behind.

When you look at your own heart and look for what is most important to you, what you devote the most time to, what you find? To what are you most devoted? When I look inward, I become a bit uncomfortable. Though there are things that require greater amounts of time than worship and adoration to God (i.e., work, sleep), what is most critical? What is most important? I find that sometimes, that the thing I feel most intensely devoted to isn't the Lord. Yes, it is very easy to get out of sync regarding the Christian walk. It is easy, very easy, to become devoted to something so much, that it infringes on one's relationship with Christ. When we realize that, we must take a step back, reassess what is most important to us, and once again look to the cross of Christ where His love and patience abound. I'm reminded of a very important scripture. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself," (2 Tim. 2:13). And another, "What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?" (Rom. 3:3). And still, another, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord," (1 Cor. 1:9).

The priority of our devotion should always be God first. Notice the last verse above where it states that God desires we have fellowship with Jesus Christ. This fellowship is the Greek word "koinonia." It means "intimacy and communion." God wants this intimacy and this communion with us. He wants our devotion to Him because it is only in this intimacy with the Lord Jesus that we can truly know what proper devotion really is and thereby experience the wonderful joy of the Lord's grace in a great way. We need to look to the cross where we see the wonderful demonstration of God's loving devotion to us. It is there that we see a perfect devotion, a perfect devotion combined with perfect love -- that brings glory to God. Are you seeking God? Are you devoting yourself to Him? Am I? May the Holy Spirit’s voice be heard by all of us as He guides us though the Word of God andmay we follow His conviction and leading in always giving our total devotion to the Lord.

In Community

In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship. ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

A chain unconnected is a collection of links, useless for the work it was intended, and likewise a Christian unconnected is also not able to accomplish the work intended by our Savior.

A link connected in a chain is indispensable, no chain can work to its purpose without each individual link firmly in place, likewise each member of the Christian community is indispensable to the Church when connected in their place, and thus it is able to accomplish the work set forth by our Savior.

From the early beginnings of the Church the community of believers was indistinguishable from its leaders when it met in common. Each person ate from a common table, lived in a common house, and worked toward a common goal. From the very beginning we were intended to be like that community of believers so many years ago. We were charged by our Savior to be different than any other group of people today, we were to come together in common, share worship in common, care for each other through the week and lift each other up. We were to love God fiercely with all that we have in our very souls, and we were to love each other as we love ourselves. We were to be transparent, leaving our sinful nature at the door and come together in the Spirit of unity and brotherly/sisterly love and communion. This is the only acceptable fellowship for us, as it was given to us by God, anything less dishonors God’s call.

Each member, from the sister sitting in the last row in the last seat, to the preacher was to be equal in their standing in the community. We are to live and breathe in community, even if we only do it when we gather together for practice, devotion, study or worship. Each member is important, and each member has equal importance. Our community is made up of Christians at different levels of their Christian walk, some eating meat some drinking milk. We must ask ourselves; are we being faithful to each of these members, or are we being faithful to our needs and desires for how things should go? Like good ole Dietrich says above, “Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship”.

We must above all else, above the delivery of the word, above the development of the songs, above the preparation of the sanctuary remember that what we were called to do was to come together in community to love God and each other, everything else is a residual effect of that call from God.

The Trouble With Me...

I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met. (D.L. Moody)

Maybe the reason why we spend so much energy worrying about other’s walk with Christ is that we don’t want to deal with our own. After all, no one can cause me any more trouble than I can myself. Paul says in scripture, that he continues to do the things he hates. It is our nature to be sinful. This in no way gives us the right to sin boldly, but rather to constantly look to Jesus for our salvation. I believe when we finally understand that we are bent toward sin, and we realize that we are broken and useless without Christ in our lives we can begin to heal our lives and move on toward the work God would have us do. And what is that work? Well that’s easy, Jesus tells us Himself in John 6:29 “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

We might find ourselves much easier to get along with, and much easier to understand if we only focus on the one thing Christ asks of us, to believe on Him…