Brain Game

Last night I listened to John Lennox and Richard Dawkins debate Darwinism and Christianity. The debate was a congenial conversation between two Oxford professors, a mathemetician and a biologist. While I couldn't understand all they were discussing, it was refreshing to hear something more intelligent, polite and rational.

I tried to keep an open mind, but that's not really possible. Dawkins said he is tempted to worship when he sees nature, but that feeling should be dismissed because it has no rational basis. He also accredited that kind of worship to unthinking people. Poor Mr. Dawkins. Little does he know that God inspires everyone to have the same response.

Lennox made a passiononate argument about atheism needing faith in order to follow it.

We as Christians have become lazy in our thinking and we focus too much on our feelings. True Christianity engages the mind and the heart. In fact, true faith is only possible when the mind explores every avenue of faith. True faith asks the hard questions and doesn't accept so called truth just because the church teaches it or everyone else believes it.

Christians today have flabby brains anesthetized by too much television, the pursuit of wealth and shallow worship.

"And this is eternal life, that they KNOW you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17:3, ESV

Engage your brain and get to know the creator of the cosmos and all else that is out there!

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? ...

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:3,4,9 ESV

Farewell Big Brown Dog

Last week we said goodbye to this big brown dog. We'd been putting this off for two years but when he could barely get up in the mornings and he lost his sight it was time to say goodbye. His last morning he ran straight into the house with a loud thud. He still ran at a good pace and didn't know when something got in his way. He got into the van and watched out the back window and went down the hallway with the vet wagging his tail, enjoying the trip and being with people.

I wrote this a couple of years ago:

"Ten years ago this old dog came to us by a family who lived in the city. At the time our children were going off to college and the house was just too quiet. At first he was a little more noise than we wanted. He never has learned to stay in a crate or outside when we are around. He barks incessantly to be with us. And that's why he's so hard to let go. He's always been around begging for food, nosing his way into our rituals. We've stepped on him in the dark where he lays in the middle of the floor. He gives us a sense of protection even though he could be bribed with a little food.

I can't imagine not having his big tail thumping on the floor or not hearing his steady breathing during the night. His friendship, his steady breathing, his thumping tail is a calming influence that I don't want to be without. He's learned our habits and our words. He's more than a dog, he's a Good Dog and faithful friend."

Well, now it's been a week and there's no tail thumping in the morning when we get out of bed. There's no dog trotting around the house when we come home. He's been replaced by a little dog who stays in a crate and can't thump her tail because someone cut it off.

But here's the question, why did God create these faithful friends? I have no idea, but they sure are fun to have around and can be a distraction from living life with people, the ones who truly bear God's image.

So they are just dogs, coming and going, but not really that important.

S-I-N

I believe that God has his hand on our oldest grandson. He loves the Bible and listens to the Bible on CD everyday. With his excellent memory he remembers Bible story details that I will never be able to keep in my aging brain. It's a challenge to keep up with him. The other day I asked him why he was afraid of the dark and he spelled it out: "s-i-n." He knows that Satan dwells in darkness and he's aware that he sins. When I told him that he has the purest heart that I know he disagreed with me and confessed his sin like lying to his mom and dad. His parents' goal right now is to help him balance his fear of sin with the truth that he is safe in God.

On the other hand, most of us are too complacent in our sin, including myself. I think one of the reasons God put us with other people is to help us see the sinfulness in our hearts: the selfishness for our own way, anger when things go wrong, the desire to lie in order for others to approve of us, even the shame of being a Christian in a non-Christian setting.

John Piper's sermon this week says that, "We Are Stiff-Necked, Rebellious, and Unthankful. We should learn from this how stiff-necked and rebellious and unthankful we are. That’s why 1 Samuel 12 begins the way it does reminding the people how God saved them from Egypt and then gave them the promised land and then rescued them from evil kings. And each time they forget God and go after other things. That is not just the story of Israel. It’s the story of humanity. It’s the story of my life and your life. Even as Christians, we are not steadfast in our affections for God. We have thankful days and unthankful days. And even our thankful days are not as thankful as they should be. Just think of how joyful and thankful you would be if your heart responded to God himself and his ten thousand gifts with the admiration and gratitude that he is worthy of. So God gives us pictures of ourselves in stories like this. He allows his people to drift into this kind of ungrateful and idolatrous seasons so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable before God (Romans 3:19). "

As always, Piper cuts to the quick.

1st Car

Twenty years ago this little guy was playing and writing all kinds of creative things around our house. Now he is turning thirty and still creating and playing(only it's more than a plastic car). As his grandma says, "God love 'im" . We love you, son, even if your antics do put us on edge at times. Actually where you live puts us on edge, but God has made you who you are and we put you in his care every day knowing that he is working in your life for your good. Happy Birthday!!

Flashlightball

Flashlight ball is a game that uses 10 players, 10 flashlights, a basket hoop, a "stuffs" basketball and 2 refs.

Modern Comforts

I wish I had a pillow like that to use on my way to work.

Numbering My Days

Today I read Psalm 90 which says that someday soon I will return to dust, in fact, in about 9,125 days if I have a typical life expectantcy of 77 years. I've already lived about 18,980.

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom...Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands."

Thank God for his pity. I plead for it every day when I remember the whining that I do in my praying and the ingratitude in my heart. It's a wonder he still listens.

Thank God for his favor and that he establishes the work of our hands. I'm gratefule that in spite of my weaknesses and sinfulness God brings good out of my work.

I've been doing a lot of credit counseling for people with low credit scores and it's discouraging because we're under pressure to find qualified loan applicants. But so many of the people I've met have been young Christians wanting to change and start over. While I was ready to write off these appointments as a hopeless situations, God has other plans. So God reminds me to stop counting off the days until retirement(1460) and start counting each day of work as a means of doing good.

Puppies and Delight

For my birthday I bought this little puppy. I'm trying to figure why God created these soft, ornery little things. The Bible says that all creation is displaying the glory of God. This little girl definitely delights in just being alive and being with those who take care of her.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Partial Birth Abortion

The recent Supreme Court Decision on partial birth abortion reminds us once again why we are against the procedure. I'm convinced that many would say that this practice is cruelty to animals, if it was performed on a puppy, but for some reason many women approve of it for a baby.


You can read the opinion here.

John Piper has a sober article on the decision.

Fifteen Abortion Truths

Two Blessings

My mom was talking to Noah about wanting to be a missionary when she was seven, but not being able to go on a trip until the age of 82. Noah said, "Well, I'm going to be a missionary when I'm in my twenties. God told me in a dream."

I was reading a book on prayer and the little girl was talking about her best friend, another girl, and Noah said that he didn't want to read the rest of the book because the girl's best friend wasn't Jesus.

The littlest one is cuddley and starting to talk. The first word I understood was duck. The next time he said, "ticka, ticka, ticka."

Digging Out

My mom used to have a bumper sticker that said, "God is my co-pilot." I think God was my pilot yesterday. I know my steering wheel was turning at 90 degree angles back and forth when I tried to go through the slush and snow piled in my long lane. As the weather warms up it seems the snow gets deeper and its like driving fast along a curvy road with pylons stuck everywhere. The car went wherever the ice took it. In some places the ice is 6 inches thick and slushy.

So when I get to the curve in the lane I know I can't get through that in my lightweight energy efficient car made by foreigners who obviously do not expect it to go through snow drifts. After spending a hour shoveling my back hurts too much to continue and I leave the car glaring at the drift.

Every snow storm brings ideas of selling this rural house and moving closer to a highway as I think how will I ever cope with this when we're older. I'm also getting frustrated that my husband took the 4-wheel drive, the salt and the good shovel.

And then I get online and read a prayer request for a family who has lost an 18 year old daughter in a car accident. All of a sudden the snow in the drive is a minor problem that will surely disappear soon.

Today when I hear my daughter's voice on the phone I'm grateful and when I spend another hour shoveling away the slush in the driveway it seems like a privilege.

After the Storm

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:6-10, ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard VersionEdition: SecondCopyright: Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 2004, QuickVerse, a division of FindEx.com, Inc.

Blizzard 2/13/07 2pm

Living Will

It used to be that we didn't have so many health decisions to make. The ambulance didn't get to the house in time to save the life of heart attack or stroke victim. But now that mom is eighty-three and traveling to four states my family has to decide what to do if mom needs immediate medical care at one of our homes. Each state has a different way of looking at this and so each of us has to have a different form signed and thought through, notorized and/or witnessed by two unrelated persons which is a chore as well.

And then to sit down with mom and figure out her true wishes brings about different thoughts on different days. One day she doesn't want extreme measures to save her life, the next day she wants to live no matter what. No matter about that I know I couldn't watch her suffer in my house and let her die. That's what the hospital is for. I'd have to call the ambulance. Besides that, I don't have a clue what the law requires.

A while back my daughter and I were eating lunch out and she started choking on a salad and I froze. She wasn't breathing and I just sat there watching. I'm not good in emergencies.

A nursing home is the place for the dying and the old. It's a clean, sterile place to visit and leave behind. That way your home won't have the memory of death.

No matter how old you are it's never the right time to die and it's never easy to let go of the expectation that those we love will live forever.

Sponsor a Child

This is my sponsored child through World Vision. For $30 a month the community of this little girl receives nutritious food, health care and a Christian witness.

If the child is old enough you receive written communication throughout the year.

The Fear and The Father

We would do well to take God out of the little, logical box we try to keep him in and worship him with the awe and reverence he deserves.

In Genesis 31 one of the names for God is “The Fear” as in Genesis 31:42. A great amount of fear in regards to God is healthy for our faith.

Genesis 31:42 (ESV) 42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”

If The Fear is on your side you have nothing else to fear. This God who is to be reverenced is also desiring to be Father:

Romans 8:12 - 17 (ESV) 12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

It’s a mystery that we will never completely understand, but then those of you who have known your fathers will see some parallels on how you can be respectful of someone but also have the intimacy to call him, “daddy.”

You will be like Jacob who wrestled with God and lived to be a righteous man of faith:

Genesis 32:28 - 30 (ESV) 28Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Sports Fan and a Real Hero

I'm old enough to remember watching the first Super Bowl and I was really disappointed when the Baltimore Colts moved to Indiana because I had followed them as a kid. Growing up in Ohio we had lots of professional sports to follow and football was the sport to talk about. But when I married and moved to Indiana all we had was Bobby Knight and I didn't care much for his act.

In the meantime while raising kids I lost track of sports and the teams and where they are from. Professional sports became too much about money and getting together to drink beer and when the marching bands quit marching and the halftime became entertainment I quit watching.

However, when Tony Dungy came to Indiana every time I saw him on the news or during a game he looked like a genuine guy. And then last year when his son died I watched him from a distance and all that I saw showed a man filled with grace and humility.

I haven't watched a whole game this year, but I sat down and watched the last part of the Colts game and when I saw the coach calmly standing through all the pressure I wanted him to win. Not the Colts or Peyton Manning, but Mr. Dungy. Because he's brought a little sanity to the sport.

From the Indianapolis Star: "Dungy, 51, is a man of deep convictions, and he is not always motivated by the same things as others. He repeatedly has said that he is not a "lifer," that he does not plan to grow old as a coach, but neither has he decided when to get out, or whether the Super Bowl could be his last game.

"It's something I haven't thought a whole lot about," Dungy said. "I'll sit down with (owner) Jim (Irsay) at the end of the year and I'll sit down with my wife and we'll do just what we do at the end of every year.

"First thing, you have to make sure they want you back. I never take that for granted anymore."

Big Brother

GO COLTS!!

Global Warming and Go

I've been trying to figure out this game called Go that my son is interested in and while reading how to play one instructor said that Go cannot be simulated on a computer to the satisfaction of avid players. And that's because there are so many human choices involved and that it's nearly impossible for a game to be played twice.

So that leads me to global warming. If the creator is in charge of the atmosphere and the galaxy and our little world then what makes us think that we can create computer models to simulate the weather and the atmosphere and predict global warming. From my standpoint there are too many variables and a Creator with choices that we could never simulate.

And if the most brilliant weathermen(or women) in the world can only predict the weather for a few days at a time and many times they are close but not perfect in their predictions then how could anyone say what will happen weatherwise in 20, 30 or a hundred years?

I've been in love with rural living all my life and I respect the earth and take good care of the place I've been blessed to receive. But we're starting to micromanage the environment and it might just be that nothing we do matters because God in his plan has made the earth a little warmer.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.

From Job 38, ESV

How to be Spiritually Minded

A great sermon by John Piper on how to keep your thinking spiritual with this quote:

"Remember Jesus’ warning about what chokes spiritual life: cares, riches and pleasures of life."

Those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. (Luke 8:14)

The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4:19)

Whom or what do you love?

"Love is that powerful and prevalent passion, by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which both its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. He who loveth mean and sordid things doth thereby become base and vile, but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves. "

The young man, Henry Scougal, who wrote this died before he was thirty. You can read the entire book here.