Evolution and Intelligent Design

After more than century of vigorous debate, the theory of evolution has gained the upper hand in the scientific community and for millions of believers all around the world, for whom there is no conflict between faith in God and scientific findings about the evolution of the world and the evolution of species.

The reason I share this with you is simple: there are people of faith who have pushed forward some very bad science: Intelligent Design - in an effort to "prove" their creation ideas - mistakenly thinking that they're defending the truth and standing loyal to God. 

Sorry.

Lots of folks have thought they were defending the truth and standing loyal to God - just ask the folks who brought us the Inquisition.

I stand, and have always stood, with the scientific community on this one, without one moment of conflict between my faith in God and the findings of science.

I happen to believe in something called "theistic evolution" - sort of a fancy term to simply say: "Evolution is the observable processes of life in all forms and on all levels, and God is the energy, the love, the grace, behind it and through it all."

Theistic evolution reflects a beautiful verse from the Bible, Hebrews 11:3, "By faith, we understand that the universe was formed by God's command." By faith, it says, not by observable means. 

To read more, please click HERE ... a fine article by Michael Zimmerman, Butler University.

Blessings ...

Tom

God is found upon many, many, paths, God be praised, but not every path leads to God. Greed and cruelty lead only to dust.

Basic Decisions

Life is possible only because of basic decisions.

Like setting the alarm clock and getting up and going to work … or checking our email to stay in touch … washing our hands often … looking both ways before we cross the street … paying our bills … getting our car oiled and lubed … saying “please” and “thank you.”

Basic decisions keep life headed in the right direction and on track.

Basic decisions are hardly remarkable or exciting, but essential to our well-being.

The Christian Life consists of basic decisions – none of which are exciting or dramatic, but all of them are essential.

Basic decisions productively move the Christian Life along the track of time.

What are some of the basic decisions of the Christian Life?

The first is so simple and basic it hardly needs mention: like drinking water when you’re thirsty, or taking a shower after a day of gardening in the hot sun.

The First Basic Decision: worship in your community of faith. Worship is like the first step on a Saturday morning walk, or the first leg of a trip. Here is where the Christian Life begins – in community, singing God’s praises and hearing the Word of God read and proclaimed. Sitting next to friends and strangers, and drinking coffee afterward, handling a bulletin and saying corporate prayer. Pretty basic stuff!

The Second Basic Decision: read God’s Word regularly and pray often. Scripture and Prayer are the means by which God feeds the soul. And we all know how crummy we feel if we’re really hungry. There are lots of folks who feel spiritually crummy because their soul is hungry. Sadly, if the soul isn’t fed on God’s good stuff, we’re likely to eat junk food, and there’s plenty of that around. But junk food doesn’t satisfy; it only bloats. We need good food, and the best food for the soul: Bible reading and prayer, done regularly. If you need guidance, check with a pastor. And if your church offers Bible study or courses on prayer, sign up for them. Just do it!

The Third Basic Decision: read solid books written by solid Christian writers. If you have questions about this, check with your pastor.

The Fourth Basic Decision: have fellowship with other Christians. Hang around with people who are moving along the same way you are. Talk with them and pray with them., break bread with them and have some fun. Engage in projects with them. Go to a soup kitchen. Clean up the beach. Go on a hike. Visit a nursing home. Grow vegetables for a community food pantry.

The Fifth Basic Decision: know what’s going on in your world. Pay attention to your politicians and read the news (print edition in a good paper or on-line). But pay attention and ask yourself, “What does God’s Word have to say about this? What are other Christians saying about these things? Are my thoughts shaped by Christ?” This requires some real thinking and learning, but it’s vital to our Christian Life. We don’t live in a vacuum, and it’s God’s world after all.

Sixth Basic Decision: invite others to worship with you. Pick them up; have lunch afterward. Stay with it. Do it again. Help them grow. Who knows, you may be the one God uses to bring them into the love of Jesus Christ. This usually takes a lot of time. Months, even years. But persevere in your purpose. It’s your mission. And it’s vital!

Seventh Basic Decision: give faithfully and given proportionately of your income to God! This means sitting down with pencil and paper and figuring our what your income is (Uncle Sam helps us do this part of it) and then determine what percentage you can give. The standard is 10 percent. It’s not a law, but it’s a guideline. I recommend the half-tithe, or five percent. It’s a good place to begin and it’s real. And then say to God, “I promise to give this much to you and to my community of faith.” Giving to other charities is another matter. Don’t substitute charity for faithful giving to your community of faith. And, please, don’t try to substitute time for money. Time-giving is good, but it’s no substitute for money – try going to your favorite restaurant and tell them, “I won’t pay for this meal, but if you’ll let me wash dishes, I’ll eat here.”

There’s more to the Christian Life then the above, but these basic decisions keep us on track with Christ and enable us to live a productive and satisfying Christian life.

Just like looking both ways before we cross the street.

Back in the Saddle Again

Good morning and much peace to you.

After a delightful weeks of travels, I’m back in the saddle again.

Felt good to lay it all down for awhile, and it feels good to pick it up again. I’m eager to preach on Psalm 30 this coming Sunday, with an eye on Revelation 5:11-14 – the message is titled, “The Other Side of Sorrow.”

Now that Lent and Easter is behind us, we enter a period of time wherein we ponder what it means for us to live because we know that Christ is risen from the dead. We know this in a deeply spiritual sense, as the Holy Spirit of God testifies to us in the deeps of our being – “He is risen, he is risen, he is risen, indeed!”

We can never prove any of it, of course, and there’s no need to prove any of it, thank God!

It is ours only to live – to live a grateful life, because the stone was rolled away and Christ is risen from the dead. In so living, there is no greater witness to our world than our gratitude, deeply felt and thoroughly lived, even when the chips are down and the sun has set.

As the Psalmist so wisely notes, sorrow lasts but for the night, and joy comes in the morning!

See ya’ Sunday in God’s House, Covenant on the Corner – on the other side of sorrow, the sunny side of the street!

Glad to be back in the saddle again!

Using a Sermon for Spiritual Growth

Growing Into Christ, and Christ Growing Into You.

Did you know that the weekly message from Covenant is almost always available in print the following week and usually posted to the internet by Sunday afternoon, and sometimes the prayers, too?

Take advantage of these offerings and grow into Christ, so that Christ can grow into you.

That reading should be one of the principle avenues for spiritual growth comes as no surprise. Words are at the center of the Christian faith.

By words, God created the heavens and the earth.

By words, God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and via the many words of theTorah, God shaped his people into a nation.

When Jesus came to us, he was and is the Word of God.

With words, Jesus healed and helped and challenged and chastised; with words he offered comfort and guidance, counsel and wisdom.

With words, he invites fishermen to become disciples.

With words, he infuriates the temple officials.

With words, he gives us God!

Words, words and more words.

We are a creature of words. By words, we understand our world, and with words, we shape our world.

With words, we tell someone, “I love you.”

And though we might show our love a thousand different ways, the beloved longs to hear those three magic words.

We are creatures of the Word.

So, by the Word, we grow into Christ and Christ grows into us.

One of the simplest avenues of growth is the preaching of the church.

Hearing the Word of God read and proclaimed.

And in many a church, the message of the day is available.

As in our case, in print or via blogsite.

Other churches offer video or audio.

Take advantage of these resources to keep on growing in Christ.

Pick up the message the following week or go to the internet, and print it out, if you can.

Read the Scripture of the day and then read the message.

Read it aloud if you can.

Use a pen to underline.

Talk to it, question it, ponder it.

And if you want, call me, talk to me. I’m always game for a cup of coffee or a hamburger!

Some churches have study groups around the Sunday message.

Think of it as an outreach tool.

Invite people into your home to study the message of the day.

Read Scripture aloud to one another and ask questions.

It’s a tool to grow into Christ so that Christ can grow into us.

Most preachers, including this one, work pretty hard to produce a good message. Some Sundays are better than others, no doubt, but every message reveals the heart and the soul of the preacher and the preacher’s desire to say something important about God, and what God means for us.

So, keep on growing into Christ, and Christ will keep on growing into you.

Encouragement

Encouragement is oxygen to the soul.

~ George M. Adams

All of us remember those magical moments when someone believed in us! Oxygen, indeed. Our chests swelled with hope as we breathed deeply, and we walked down the sidewalk with a kick in our steps. Someone believes in us, and we can climb Mt. Everest, barefoot!

Question of the day: Is there someone in your life who needs an oxygen boost?

Who or What Are We?

Who are we?

Notice, I didn’t ask, “What” are we?

As for the what, there’s a lot of pressure on us to be a what. A consumer! And sadly, so many Americans wear that label proudly. That we refer to ourselves as an “American Consumer” is, or so it seems to me, a contradiction in terms.

Would Washington or Jefferson have nodded in agreement with this?

Or Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Would Jesus?

1957 Cadillacs were consumers, and so are garbage disposals and slot machines.

But people?

The boys and girls in charge of consumerism don’t want us to think about this. They want happy spenders digging themselves deeper and deeper into a financial hole, living for the day and ignoring tomorrow. When 9/11 happened, we were told to go shopping, when we might better have been told to take a few days for family prayer and reflection, or study-up on the Middle East or seek out a Muslim neighbor and find out how they’re feeling.

We used to be a nation that saved.

We paid for things in cash.

We bought stocks for their long-term dividends.

We were slower and more relaxed.

Our homes were smaller and so were our cars.

We ate out less and spent more time with our children.

The gap between top and bottom was smaller.

People sat on their front porches and knew their neighbors.

Kids played in the neighborhood and every adult was their parent.

We were not consumers. We were people.

Our Founding Mothers and Fathers worked hard and sacrificed for us to be people.

And to be people is how God created us, and the reason why Jesus paid us a visit.

He died, of course, because the powerful and the wealthy in Jerusalem were afraid of the people figuring out how badly they’d been duped.

Yet when Easter came, we knew the truth.

We are people! 

What Is Lent?

Lent isn’t supposed to be easy, but who said life is easy anyway? 

Nor should Lent be silly, like giving up chocolate for a few weeks, or broccoli – talk about triviality. 

What is Lent? 

It’s a time to think deeply about Jesus, and why he said what he said and did what he did, and why some folks thought they’d be better off if he were dead. Lent isn’t for sissies, but then neither is life. 

Lent is for deep thinking and quiet pondering and soul-searching and a time to say, “I’m sorry”-  to God, to the world, to family and friends – to creatures great and small, and to the farthest star, for whatever pain or sorrow or hurt or shame or sadness or distress or stupidity we’ve brought to our world. 

It’s the sheer honesty of Lent that makes Lent so important, and behind all of Lent, woven into it like a golden thread, the safety of God for those who are honest. “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Honesty and safety – powerful elements in our journey through Lent!