A Bigger Story

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 25: A Bigger Story

Opening Thought: I felt, in today reading from Zacharias’ text, that he was trying to show the tension between faith and the desire for proof. Zacharias used a metaphor about water in glasses to articulate his point, but unlike most of his writing, I found that he could have derived his point in a more simplistic manor. Regardless, the point remains the same when we look at the world it appears created. I will move from Zacharias’ metaphor, to one I have often heard before, and that I feel makes a good case. If you were walking down the street and before your eyes there was a book, you stop, pickup and read the book. It is comprehendible and it tells a story. Is there any reason to believe that the book formed itself? No, the fact that there is reason and intention in the order of the words implies that there was a writer and producer of the book. Even if you could put ink, paper, glue, fiber and the conception of written language in a blender, it still wouldn't give you a book on its own. Now just looking at human DNA we see a system of informational coding, which builds us, like how words and paper build a book. But living creatures are far more complex than just a book. So, let’s put it this way, each human being’s cells have about six feet of DNA coding in each cell, this coding make the cells function individually and collectively, each person have a approximate ten-trillion cells in their body, and that means there is 60 trillion feet of 10 billion miles of DNA inside each person, all this is a language that build a person and drives them. We know from something as simple as a book that, language does not just form out of nothing, it needs a mind to birth it. And this is just DNA there are many other examples of order, reason, and consistency all which are intertwined with a great level of complexity as well. This seems to indicate that a writer, the Writer, not randomness forms the universe and you. Christians would say that this Writer is God.

The devotional begins with: Hebrews 11:1-3,6

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Second Thought: Often people think faith is blind, I think that is only a part of what faith is. If you read the post from yesterday you know that the living water can birth in us a hunger to know God more, if you want to know God; a Being so grand that He can create a universe out of nothing, a good way to learn about God is by looking at the creation of His hands. The fact there are many ways to find “proof" for God existence, for a short list you could consider, the cosmological arguments, the teleological arguments, the axiological arguments, and the ontological arguments. There are more beyond this but if you are curious look into those first. The bigger challenge than proof is will, if a person does not want God to be real, then no matter what sound arguments you offer to that person, they will refute it blindly. Yes, atheists and agnostics can have faith in their disbelief, the hope for no God because the reality of a God existing does not bode well for their desires. Why would someone hope for a world without a God, well what is God but the ultimate wake up call. If there is a God, who made, owns, and governs all, then what we do in our lives is not solely ours to critique, the ability for everything to be subjective goes out the window. At the point we must wrestle with the fact that God equals a standard by which our lives can be measured. The person who seeks truth, will not find that terrifying or undesirable, what truth seeker would not want to spend their live dedicated to the highest levels of morality and ethics as defined by an all-knowing eternal God. The person who solely lived for themselves will find this distressful, because they will not seek the truth, but their truth, and we all know that subjective truths can get messy and are inherently corrupt.

Continual Work: Spend some time looking into Christian apologetics today. You could look at the writings of those in more historical time periods like Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Tertullian, Dun Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas or you could check out more current authors like Frank Turek, William Lane Craig, John Lennox and Robert Barron to name a few. You go some reading and listening to do!

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I start my day off every day with apologetics, it is something I enjoy, I like the debate of it, but I also love what it can do for people. Many people get caught up in the stress of church life as Christians (i.e., bills) but I find the study of Christian apologetics is a way of getting to the subtlety and interconnectivity of the Christian faith with many avenues of human existence. I will press on as I always do, gladly and praising God for giving me this interest.

Prayer for your day: God, please help those who do not have the faith to hope for You. Send them a sign, and mentor, and believer to help challenger their ways of thinking, and help them become open to truth and Your Word. Help us be the beacon of hope, love and the good news, in Christ name, Amen.

Artistic Close: Let your wisdom, knowledge and curiosity be a gift to lead you to truth and God, do not assume because there is one explanation for the universe that another explanation might also be true, water boils because heat causes the molecules to speed up and turn to vapor, but water also boils to make tea. (a paraphrasing of a comment from John Lennox)

 

A scientist using a whole genome DNA sequencer, in order to determine the “DNA fingerprint” of a specific bacterium. Original image sourced from US Government department: Public Health Image Library, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Under US law this image is copyright free, please credit the government department whenever you can”.