Gaining The World

Today’s Blog: Gaining the world. In an earlier post, I likened the accessories in life to Internet Browsers. I feel compelled to comment further on this. It is a given that wanting the newest item distracts us. But it does so much more. It goes deeper to the point where it actually robs us of love. We put our love in these things and it takes away from our love from God. There is a saying that says kids spell love T-I-M-E. I believe God spells love the same way. After all, how can you love something or someone if you don’t spend time with it/them? So, when we over accessorize, they rob us of our time which essential robs us of our love for God. This amateur music video is an honest attempt to show this with the help of Toby Mac’s song “Lose Your Soul”. It comes complete with the verses I feel I wanted to share. Enjoy!

The song mentioned something that kind of stood out. It said “Forgive us because of the things that compete for our love and PASSION.” (Yes, I know, I paraphrased). It was the word PASSION that stood out to me. Why have we let things become our passion? I could blame it all on T.V. but even sitting here typing this, I am hit with an ad or two for something. Then we see ads on the freeway and ads in the newspapers. Now, even our rides at amusement parks have sponsors.

It’s clear that Satan has done an excellent job at diverting our attention from important things. Satan knows that he can’t separate us from God’s love. But, he can interfere with our time for God. He can distract us with little things that aren’t evil or bad but do just enough to divert our time away from things that we should focus on. Remember Matthew 5? We should hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should seek God. He should be our passion.

Christ is knocking. Have you let Him? Or worst yet, have distractions taken you somewhere that you aren’t even home to answer the door and something else has taken up residence?

Tonight, I leave you with this passage that I believe sums up the song:

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:34-39 (ESV, Emphasis Mine)

The Laws of Science and God

An ongoing discussion I’ve been having with a Christian gone Atheists has proposed that Science proves there is no God and that there is no room for a God in Science. Obviously, I disagree as there are a few laws of science that can allow for God. Granted, it may not necessarily prove just the existence of the Christian God, but it does give a scientific argument for Creationists that secularists can’t argue with. View the following video and then read my continuing thoughts.

We know that the statement “Nothing creates Nothing” is true by looking at science. Have you ever seen a tree appear out of thin air? Do adult humans just suddenly appear or are we born first? We came from somewhere. So if nothing can create nothing, where does “something” come from? Since science confirms that the first law of Thermodynamics is true and can be tested, we are FORCED to believe that “Energy can not be created or destroyed.” So, it MUST have always existed. As the video suggests, it’s either some dumb, unthinking entity or an intelligent Creator that designed the universe the way it is.

One could argue (an Atheists generally do) that more than one energy source is responsible for the matter we have in our universe.  This poses a problem. Do all of these intelligent energy sources have the same idea in mind about what to create and how it should work? And, if they are multiple unintelligent sources, how did all this come about without causing utter chaos?

If Science holds true to their own theories and laws, then there are a lot of questions it has to answer for. This means things like miracles would not be impossible even if they fall outside the laws of nature. Wouldn’t the originating energy source be more powerful than the laws of science it created? So, science would by default have to acknowledge either “God” or a powerful Entity outside of our realm of thinking and testable sciences.

This of course would not force an individual to run and seek God and love and worship Him which He desires. It does make it harder to deny His presence and hand in the universe. It just appears to me that Science has stumbled across proof that God exists but our own stubborness as imperfect humans causes us to be blind to the truth–even if we created our own truth that proved the real truth, we still refuse to believe it.

Psalm 14:1 says: “The fool ^[a] says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.” (NIV, Copied from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2014:1;&version=31;)

Sometimes knowledge gets in the way of truly worshipping God. We are so obssessed with knowing all we can that we sometimes learn to much. That was the whole idea behind the tree in the garden. God knew that by eating the fruit, we would gain more knowledge than we know what to do with. Look around. How many useless gizmos and gadgets do we have? How many do YOU have? This is all based on our pursuit of knowledge.

I think the beauty of God is that He doesn’t require you to know everything about Him. He only desires that your heart is to seek Him. By staying close to Him and reading His words, He will fill us with knowledge as we show a hungry heart. After all, we were told by Christ that “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV) We don’t have to have all the answers, we just have to be willing to allow God to reveal His truths to us. Where do you find your knowledge?

I leave you with these words from “The Message”:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this.

-Proverbs 3:5-12 “The Message”