I haven't been to the Creation Museum yet, but its special to me because it's parent ministry, Answers in Genesis has been a very helpful resource in answering many questions about the Bible and science.
From my 5 years of following and supporting their ministry, I testify that these are solid, biblically-faithful, gospel-centered men and women that seek to serve God before man. They are playing a good part in building up the body of Christ in our day.
*The article doesn't support Answers in Genesis, but they are fair in reporting about the museum.
A very solid food industry documentary/propaganda (I mean propaganda in a positive sense).
The main message: trace American food back to its roots and it's profit-driven evil at its worst. By bringing the factory model to farming and meat-production, it's making us sick.
The unexpected star of the film (for me) was Joel Salitan, a sustainable philosopher/farmer in Virginia.
John McGary sent me a link to a talk that Joel did with Michael Pollan at Berkeley in 2005. If you want know what it's about watch this talk. Joel Salitan at Berkeley.
Here's a clip from a British series I saw on YouTube. It's secular--which is to say it comes from a worldview that says what it measured is real, and the supernatural is doubtful and not worth basing your life on.
That used to be my worldview.
In the clip some funny kids ask some hard questions about Jesus.
The questions are filmed as if they don't have good answers.
They do, and I wanted to take a shot at them.
Boy: Why didn't baby Jesus zap King Herod when Herod wanted to kill him?
This question needs to be made harder: why at any point hasn't God zapped all his enemies? Why not at the rebellion of Satan? or Adam?
The answer is not fully given by God. But the primary concern of God is not to minimize all-time evil in the world, but maximize the enjoyment of his glory. And there is greater enjoyment of the character of God through redeeming the world by the death and resurrection of his son than 'zapping' people before the redemption is finished.
God will 'zap' all evil soon. Girl: And besides Jesus knew that when King Herod died, God would roast him until his eye balls exploded.
While it's likely that Herod's eternal torment has already begun in Hell, I don't think it was a motivating factor for Jesus not to zap him as a 2-year old.
Boy: And why has God given 15 thousand billion years in which to live until the sun dies?
Good question, because the sun wasn't meant to die on us one day. It is an effect of God cursing the creation, that it now groans, waiting for God to finish the redemption of humanity AND restore creation to where it works (Romans 8).
We don't deserve the sun to not supernova on us today and destroy all life. That is the severity of our sin.
Also, the Bible seems to indicate that we have a lot less time than 15 thousand billion years before it is God brings The End.
Boy: Why didn't Jesus shape-shift into a Roman when the Romans were searching for him and then kill them in their sleep?
Before time began, God wrote people's names in the 'the book of life of the Lamb who was slain' (Revelation 13). The suffering and crucifixion of Jesus was planned by the Father and the Son from before time began.
So shape-shifting to avoid the cross was not Jesus' mission. If he had wanted the reward of the cross without the Father's plan, he simply could have agreed to Satan's proposal to bow down to Satan and receive authority over all the nations.
After Peter cutoff the ear of someone in Jesus' arresting party, Jesus said:
"Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
What would Jesus do if someone took a rocket up to Heaven and came up to him and punched him in the face? Would he forgive him or would he fight back and knock that man out of heaven?
A crazy hypothetical, but we have some hints as to the answer.
1) Satan rebelled against God, with (millions?) of angels and they got no promise of anything but hell and torment. (1 point for 'knock that man out of heaven')
2) I don't think it's a stretch to see myself as that man--give me a rocketship up to Heaven, I'd like to punch Jesus in the face.
Is that not what Paul thought of himself as? "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it."
But later Pauls says of Jesus, "who loved me and gave himself for me".
And "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
(10 pts for the grace of God in Jesus Christ)
So I expect the rocketship man to receive the just punishment for his offense; but never count out the explosive grace of God, recklessly declaring sinners to be 'right' in Christ.
Girl: Couldn't he find a another way like writing to someone and telling them be a bit better or something bad is going to happen?
Amazing question! That is the answer of 80% of Christendom, or Church-ism: be better or something bad is going to happen. (or sometimes the message is just, 'be better! ok?')
If 'be better or something bad is going to happen' could work, there would be no need for a bloody cross to redeem sinners.
God would be amazingly good to just give us his law and the warnings of breaking it (be better or something bad is going to happen).
But I was dead in my sins. "Be better" just brought more death because I was powerless to obey, a slave to my passions.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved meeven when I was dead in my trespasses, made me alive together with Christ—by grace I have been saved!
"Be better" was hopeless for me. I need a savior who can a) pay my sin debt and release me from it's power in my life, b) send me supernatural help to live.
Boy: While Jesus was being crucified why didn't he have God send a meteor to kill the Romans?
This has been answered. But he vicar's answer is pretty good too.
Vicar: God wanted to show us sacrifice and forgiveness by sacrificing what was precious to him, his only son, Jesus.
Girl: Then why did he kill him?
Oh, what a wondrous mystery! Why did the Father crush the Son? How is that even possible? Why am I standing here, incredible guilty but forgiven; and Jesus has holes in his hands? What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul!
Boy: What if someone stole Jesus' mobile (cellphone), would he forgive him?
I don't know. I only know that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Boy: What if he were attacked by a polar bear?
Wouldn't Jesus just say 'still' and the polar bear would become as gentle as a puppy?
I don't know the answer. But I do know that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and you can ask him on that day.
A series on how I've changed since my conversion to God (December 30, 2003) Death lost it's sting
Dudes, death is coming. It waits, and then it rips apart everything human. It's like a gloating opponent who knows he has the checkmate. "I'm going to take you down."
Death also makes this boast: Can you name your great-grandparents? No? Well you too will be forgotten from the Earth within a hundred years.
Before my conversion, I didn't think much about death. But it's existence rendered my whole life meaningless. My lifeplan was 'make the most out of these 40-70 years, because it's lights out when you die'.
After my conversion, I taunt death. "Where is your sting death? Where grave your victory?"
My savior died; and my old self died with him. My savior rose from the grave, and I'll be united with him in a resurrection like his.
I may die, but God will undo my death. I may die, but God will bring me instantly into the joy of my master.
What Adam did for me in bringing death into the world; Christ defeated for me to give me life.
A series on how I've changed since my conversion to God (December 30, 2003)
I got a wife!
God gave me a wife!
Before my conversion, I thought wives were for when you are 34 years old.
After my conversion, I had a lot of wrong thinking about women, marriage, manhood, and sexuality corrected while at the same time being in love with a Christian girl.
I believe Stephie's "yes" to marrying me is also a witness to answered prayer. She had a lot of concerns and fears about marrying me; but who can stop a God who loves to do good to his people?
A wife isn't a promise of God to new converts. But it's a great change for me since my conversion.
A series on how I've changed since my conversion to God (December 30, 2003)
The Bible went from yeah-whatever to precious
Before my conversion, it was hard to read the Bible. I didn't really get it.
After my conversion, the Bible became a source of real joy to me, because it about the real God--the same one who saved me and let me in on the great plan of all history. I liked that it was all about God--God creates, God rescues, God kills people, God gives laws, God seeks out the lowly, God makes promises, God remembers promises, God tells people "wait a minute, your army is too big, send most of them home so that I get the credit for the victory".
P.S. Bible reading still has some hard days where I don't start the day ready to dive in.
A series on how I've changed since my conversion to God (December 30, 2003)
I got weaker in some respects
Before my conversion, I didn't need any spiritual sustaining.
After my conversion, if I neglect thinking about God, praying, reading my Bible, trying to remember the gospel; I lose strength.
Sometimes I am weakened even when I haven't neglected those things.
This is speculation on my part, but I'm suspicious of this prayer, "Lord, whatever it takes, make me like Jesus" as being involved in my added weakness. I think it creates suffering which produces godliness.
I'm also suspicious of these Bible verses being involved in my new found weakness:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
It really stinks being weaker in some ways. Sometimes I despair of my life and want to fold on Christianity. I really hope that
Something serious happened to me on December 30, 2003--my conversion to God.
I'm starting a new series to document what happened.
Part 1: My major philosophy/life questions have real, verifiable answers
Some people never ask the big questions of life, but many do. And I did.
Who am I? What is reality? Is there a guiding force/destiny to it? What can I know for sure? Is there a God? Is he knowable?
Before my conversion the best answers to these questions were: take your best guess or very little is knowable for sure: study some varying view points.
After my conversion, the answers become clear! They all tie back to Jesus Christ.
Here are all the answers
Who am I? A human being, created in the image of God. I am beautiful and thinking and feeling because I am made in God's image. I am corrupt, and my life has suffering, and stuff doesn't work right because Adam (the first man) sinned and God cursed man and creation.
What is reality? Primarily, God is reality. He is the realest real. All other reality is created by God, and sustained by God, and is real because God says it's real.
Is there a guiding force/destiny to reality? Yes. Before this was a hard question, because history seemed to have an "author", but who? The author is God, and reality/history has a great purpose--to bring glory to God primarily by man's fall into sin and what God is doing in Christ to restore a sin-stained world.
What can I know for sure? I can know that God exists. I can know that I exist, and I am not God (I am a creature). I can know everything that God has chosen to reveal about himself to me (and mankind). That knowledge is revealed in creation and the Bible.
Is there a God? Yes! But because of my inherited crookedness, I'm naturally blind to God until God does something (out of his mercy) to reveal himself to me.
Is he knowable? Yes, on a personal level like I know my friend. I know God through Jesus Christ. Jesus helps me in my weakness as one who knows all my fears and faults.
Glory be to God because
I didn't think these questions were ever answerable. Mankind's greatest thinkers tried hard and failed to find answers to these questions
The answers are so good! Although my situation was a lot worse than I thought (being an unearthly monster and under God's wrath); God's initiation towards me showed me I am more loved that I dared hope! Everything I need to get all the blessings of God, God provided me in Christ.
I hope I continue this before/after conversion series.
What is the perfect microcosm of America? The place you bring a visitor that would let them sample the diverse qualities of a big place in a small, visitable place. Think Epcot World Showcase in Disneyworld.
In a big city, but not in a Big city If I were in New York or DC; those cities' importance and personalities would dominate at the expense of the rest of the country.
In a city, but in a village within the city East Nashville has the proximity to the city (jobs, stadium, venues, restaurants, services); but the Cumberland river creates an enclosed community that causes daily life for East Nashvillians to stay more local.
The schools are bad Perfect example for America.
Captures the religious flavor of the whole country Nashville will give you the ache of "Christless Christianity"-- the bad feeling you have when christians seem to be everywhere, and are less compassionate and reasonable than secularists and atheists.
All four seasons Los Angeles would be too consistently sunny, and Chicago cold too long. In Nashville each season has it's right place and comes at the right time.
The poverty is hard America has a large class of people who rely on the state for support. Poverty really sucks, and it's here in East Nashville.
The "blue state" village within a "red state" Red State = Only Alabama and Alaska voted more strongly for McCain than Tennessee. Blue State = When I was in a church meeting in East Nashville, we introduced ourselves by name and home state. The most popular home state, by far, was California. Then Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio.
East Nashville has both flavors of American zeal-- red, white and blue patriotism; and "Yes we can!" Obama optimism.
Conclusion I thought of this post idea as I was imagining living in other countries, and became thankful to God for where I do live and how it captures the diverse American experience in a small visitable place.
The Bible School of Awesomeness is our vision for a part-time Christian school.
The ministry is to serve the parents, supporting them to raise their children in the Lord. The goal is that their children would grow up to have deep taste buds for the glory of God and that they would find a satisfaction in Jesus Christ.
The method for doing this is somewhat like a home-school co-op.
The details and timing aren't clear, but we've had this vision for a couple years.
An inspiration from the scriptures
"And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had one for Israel."
But something happened.
"And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel."
I don't know when or if the Bible School of Awesomeness will come to pass, but we already have a great love for children and want to help parents be supported and encouraged to transmit a great love for God to them.
PolyFACE
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A few days ago, Josh and I watched Food, Inc. - a documentary about the food
system in America. I could get into the details about how everything is
messe...
