Christianity

Apples, Tomatoes, and the Curse of God

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fruitYou’ve probably heard the story.  It’s the one about Adam, Eve, and the tree of knowledge, and it took place in the Garden of Eden.  In an act of disobedience, Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit, and they were banned from and booted out of the Garden.

The myth of that Eden experience is that Adam and Eve ate an apple, but the Bible doesn’t specifically name what it was that they ate.  I disputed the apple assertion earlier this year after I had purchased a tomato.  It had such a deep red and luscious appeal that promised a taste bud-tingling-experience.  I took it home, sliced it, and added it to a sandwich.

After I took one bite of this fine-looking tomato, I drew a deep theological conclusion.  When God cursed the Garden, He must have also cursed a certain variety of tomato.  I’ll call it the supermarket variety because they all have one dominant and pervasive feature:  They are tasteless.  There is no flavor to savor.

The dilemma of tasteless tomatoes is explained in part by author Mark Schatzker in The Dorito Effect.  According to Schatzker, for the past 70 years commercial horticulturists have been focused on yield, pest resistance and appearance at the expense of flavor.

While store-bought tomatoes are no longer tasty, manufactured flavor has been added to Doritos and your munchies, so you’ll crave more.  Schatzker says: “Synthetic-flavor technology makes bland ingredients attractive without supplying the myriad benefits of the real thing. The twin forces of flavor dilution and fake ­flavor have short-circuited the biological basis for mutable appetite . . . Our bodies learn to draw connections between flavors and the physiological responses they signal . . . We can seek out and find what we need, nutritionally, and stop eating once we get it”

Schatzker seems to suggest that it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.  I would add that perhaps we shouldn’t try to improve on the design of the Master Designer.

Psalm 84:11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Blessings: It’s Time To Take Inventory

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countWhen was the last time you paused to think about the many blessing that you have?  Have you taken the time recently to “name them one by one” as the old hymn says to do? I asked myself these questions after reading Psalm 68:19:  “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”

There are several verses in the Psalms that remind us of God’s many blessings:

  • Psalm 1 speaks of relationship: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
  • Psalm 2 speaks of faith: Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him
  • Psalm 28 speaks of prayer: Blessed be the Lord, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
  • Psalm 31 speaks of God’s kindness: Blessed be the Lord, For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!
  • Psalm 32 speaks of forgiveness: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

I’ll close with this link to the song Count Your Blessings and the words of Psalm 33:  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

Ophidiophobia: The Fear of Snakes

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Ophidiophobia: The Fear of Snakes.

Ophidiophobia: The Fear of Snakes

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snake1Ever since Adam and Eve listened to the smooth talking serpent in the Garden of Eve, and they were snake bit by listening to his bad advice, people have been wary of snakes.  Evidently a man in San Diego should have exercised a little more caution.

When Todd Fassler was bitten by a rattlesnake earlier this month, he joined the ranks of the other seven or eight thousand people who will be bitten by a venomous snake this year.  Of that number only 5 or 6 will succumb to the poison and die.

Since he was bitten, Fassler has learned that snake bites can be both painful and sickening as well as expensive.  He almost relapsed when he learned his hospital bill came to a total of $153,000.

Some snake bites can take a toll on a person’s physical health, but there is another one that is even more deadly when the discussion turns to spiritual consequences.  The snake bite of sin only has one cure and it is Jesus.

To illustrate this, Jesus, referenced an incident in Numbers 21 when he was speaking to Nicodemus:  “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. In the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up; then all those who believe in Him will experience everlasting life.”

Before you toy with temptation and tinker with sin, you may want to think about the consequences:  The price might be much higher than $153,000.

Discreetly Discrete

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character_stonesSometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with strange or random thoughts on my mind.  When this happened recently, I was thinking of two statements that Jesus made:

  • The first is an admonition to be discreet: Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
  • The second is a command to be discrete: Be in the world, but not of the world.

As I thought about these two statements, the words discreet and discrete came to my mind.  Even though these words are homophones, they are not synonyms.  Discreet implies wisdom in your behavior or speech.  Discrete means: distinct or separate.

What section of the Bible outlines a discreetly discrete Christian life?  I think it’s the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:

  • Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
  • Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
  • Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
  • Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
  • Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
  • Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
  • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
  • Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

What change can you make to help you become a discreetly discrete person?

Faldo’s Lucky Sweater

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fringe-golfDo you know what happened in the world of golf this past weekend?  If you’re a golfer, you know that the British Open was played at Saint Andrews. If you’re a serious golfer, there’s a good chance that you know that Nick Faldo was the last Brit to win the Open.

Faldo had a miserable first round as he shot a tournament-worst 83. He was able to redeem himself with a 1-under score of 71 on Friday, and he credited his success to the advice of his kids:  They persuaded him to wear his lucky sweater.

During his career, Faldo won six majors; three of them were wins at the British Open.   In each of the wins, Faldo was wearing one of his signature sweaters. When he putted for the last time on Friday, his kids had convinced him to wear the same one that he had worn in 1987 and 1990.94ccb640-2ca8-11e5-81b0-336b09534c0d_faldo-sweater

Faldo’s sweater reminds me of my years in the Air Force, and the uniform of the day.  Everyone in the squadron was required to wear the same uniform which was determined by the events of that day.

Like Faldo and the military, there is a uniform of the day for Christians.  Paul described it as the “full armor of God” in Ephesians 6:

  • The belt of truth
  • The breastplate of righteousness
  • The helmet of salvation
  • The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God

armorThe four items above are the uniform that equips us for the events of the day.  Our struggle is not found on a golf course, a baseball diamond, or a football field.  Paul said it is a wrestling match with a powerful opponent:   “This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world.  For this reason, take up all the armor that God supplies (GW).”

Paul knew that a lucky sweater was not enough to win this battle, and he knew that he needed more than just a bullet proof vest. He concluded his list for the uniform of the day by including prayer:  “With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.  Pray for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak—that I may confidently make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may be able to speak boldly as I ought to speak (NET).”

When you stand in front of the mirror to see how well your clothing fits, review this list to make sure you’re wearing the uniform of the day.

The God Question: What Can You Know?

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questions_godWhen John wrote his first letter, he said:  “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

Four words from that verse are interesting:  “that you may know.”  These four words also beg the question: “What can we know about God?”    I believe the response to this question falls into 1 of 3 categories:

  1. God is unknowable, and we can know nothing about Him.
  2. We can know everything there is to know about God.
  3. Even though we cannot know everything there is to know about God, we can know something about God.

Each of the three items above are the basis of a worldview, and your worldview is the lens through which you view reality.

Concerning item #1 in the list above, if a person knows enough about reality in order to affirm that nothing can be known about reality, then he knows something about reality, so he cannot assert that all of reality is unknowable.  Stated another way, if he knows nothing about reality then he can’t make a statement about reality. I find this to be a self-refuting position because it assumes some knowledge about reality in order to deny any knowledge of reality.

In regard to item #2, I’ve studied religions for the most part of my life, and I would never agree with this statement.

Item #3 is, I believe, the most accurate statement.  I know I cannot know everything there is to know about God, but I do know that I can know some things about God.

When you discuss the possibility of God’s existence and the potential of knowing Him the thinking of Aristotle is interesting.  In Physics, Aristotle offered some logical reasoning that concludes that the initial cause of motion must be something that is not, itself, in motion or what the philosopher called “an unmoved mover (1984, 1:428).”

Thomas Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle, and he built on Aristotle’s reasoning: “Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another…. For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality…. It is therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a thing should be both mover and moved, i.e., that it should move itself. If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover…. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God (1952, 19:12,13).”

Because God is both eternal and spiritual and not physical or finite being, He is not subject to the condition of requiring a beginning. This is a key concept in the Law of Causality set forth by Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, “everything which is contingent has a cause, which, if itself contingent, must also have a cause; and so on, till the series of subordinated causes must end with an absolutely necessary cause, without which it would not possess completeness (Kant, 2008, p. 284).”  Simply put, an uncaused Cause is necessary, and only God sufficiently fills that void.

Jeff Miller has expounded on the works of Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant:  “If there ever were a time in history, when absolutely nothing existed—not even God—then nothing would exist today, since nothing comes from nothing (in keeping with common sense and the Law of Thermodynamics, Miller, 2007). However, something exists (e.g., the Universe)—which means something had to exist eternally. That something could not be physical or material, since such things do not last forever (cf. Second Law of Thermodynamics, Miller, 2007). It follows that the eternal something must be non-physical or non-material. It must be mind rather than matter. Logically, there must be a Mind that has existed forever. That Mind, according to the Bible (which has characteristics proving it to be of supernatural origin, cf. Butt, 2007), is God. He, being spirit, is not subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics (The Law of Causality and the Uncaused Cause, Jeff Miller, Ph.D.).”

 

The Pull of the Magnetic Pole

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magnet_attractAt some time in your life, you have probably heard a person described as having a “magnetic personality.”  When you were a child, there may have been a point in time when you were fascinated by the mysterious powers of a magnet.

When Richard Feynman, a physicist, was asked to explain magnetism he said:  “I really can’t do a good job, any job, of explaining magnetic forces” in terms familiar to the average person.  Feynman did go ahead and in the simplest terms say that all the “electrons in a magnet are spinning in the same direction.”  The spinning gives birth to the north and south poles in a magnet that creates its magnetic pull.

When you think about the pull of the polls, no one seems to be able to answer the question:  Why does every electron have these polls?

Let me change the direction of this discussion from the north and south to the east and west and from poles to souls.  Because the earth has a North Pole and a South Pole, it is easy to measure the distance between the two. There is no  East and West Pole.  You cannot measure the capacity of God’s mercy and His forgiveness for the soul of His children.

In Psalm 103, the Psalmist wrote:

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;

As far as the East is from the West,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

When you fail Him, God does not push you away.  He pulls you to Himself with His mercy and grace.  The prophet Micah spoke of this when he said:

Where is the god who can compare with you—
    wiping the slate clean of guilt,
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
    to the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,
    for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
    You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sins
    to the bottom of the ocean.

Take one snippet of this verse with you as you go about your business today:  “Compassion is on its way to us.”  Let God pull you to Him, so you can bask in the warmth of His compassion.

 

The Spice of Life

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charleston_hot_peppers_white_background2This is the time of year that fresh produce is being grown in the gardens around town.  When the tomatoes ripen and the squash and zucchini are harvested, new recipes are tried as backyard chefs’ fire up their grills. The key ingredient to the success of these culinary endeavors is that special spice you add to the entrée as it simmers on the grill.

Is there a favorite spice you use when you cook?  Spices influence and change the flavor of food.  If you were the spice of life, how would your influence be experienced?

  • Would it be felt as true compassion or random passion?
  • Would you be experienced as a warming fire or dangerous and easily provoked ire?
  • Would your presence be recognized as sweet encouragement or bitter discouragement?

The difference between a good meal and a bad meal can be the difference between the right spice and a bad substitute.  If the recipe calls for sugar, you can’t expect to get good results if you substitute cayenne pepper.

The same is true will a spiritual counterfeit and a genuine servant of God.   The influence of one is positive and the influence of the other is negative.

Jesus said that you should “Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned (Matthew 7: The Message).”

As the spice of life, are you genuine or a counterfeit?

Batman is Alive and Well

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batmanDaniel Kish may not be a muscle-ripped superhero, but as an echo-locator he has bat-like abilities.  Even though he has been blind since he was 13 months old, “Kish navigates crowded streets on his bike, camps out in the wilderness, swims, dances and does other activities many would think impossible for a blind person (Discover Magazine).’

As a human echo-locator, Kish navigates his way through the darkness by using “audio cues given off by reflective surfaces in the environment (Discover Magazine).”  This is much like the technique used by bats and dolphins.

Kish’s skill as an echo-locator is an ability we all have; however, we are so visually oriented, we are blind to its presence.  To help people develop their echolocation skills, Kish says he is on a quest to help people learn to see with their ears.

Is it possible that we are so distracted by what we see that it handicaps our hearing?  There are times that we need to turn a blind eye to the visually enticing and learn to echo-locate, so we can “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Seeing what the world has to offer without hearing what God has to say can you get you into trouble.  Eve is a good example:  “When she saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate (Genesis 3:6).”

Learning how to echo-locate will help you fine tune your life, so you can hear the voice of God:  “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; The voice of the Lord is full of majesty (Psalm 29:3-4).”