Do You Believe This?

Posted on April 7, 2013 by 4Seasons2013

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”—John 11:25-26 (NIV).

“It’s a big pat on the back for our understanding of the universe.” These words came last week from a physicist, commenting on the news from the European Space Agency’s discovery of the split-second that occurred after the Big Bang. Believing our universe burst in the blink of a second from subatomic size to its now visible expanse, the think tank was celebrating what they believe as evidence of how the world began.

“What a wonderful triumph of the mathematical approach to describing nature,” said another physicist, who was not a part of this new research. “It’s an amazing story of discovery.”

Another amazing story begins with these words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The first words found in the Bible begin with a story I find easier to believe than a tiny subatomic particle exploding and creating the entire universe and everything in it. I readily admit that math has never been my strong point. I believe it takes more faith to believe in the Big Bang than it does in God.

According to a May 2011 Gallup poll, more than 9 in 10 Americans still say “yes” when asked the basic question “Do you believe in God?”

Christian author, Robert A. Laidlaw, said, “God exists whether or not men may choose to believe in Him. The reason why many people do not believe in God is not so much that it is intellectually impossible to believe in God, but because belief in God forces that thoughtful person to face the fact that he is accountable to such a God.”

As Laidlaw contemplated the perplexity of God, he said, “I have an innate conviction that God exists. No matter how my intellect had tried, in the past, to produce reasons proving He was not, or how much I had wanted to believe that there was no God, that ‘still, small voice’ came to me again and again, just as it comes to you, in the quiet of life’s more sober moments. Yes, I knew that at least for me there was a God.

“True, there are some men who don’t believe in God. But to me the problems of unbelief in God are greater than the problems of belief. To believe that unaided dead matter produced mind, that mind produced conscience, and that the chaos of chance produced the cosmos of order as we see it in nature, seems to call not for faith but for credulity.”

George Gallup, the American statistician, said, “I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone—the chance that all its functions would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.”

Would you want to base your eternal future on a “statistical monstrosity?” Maybe that’s why David said in Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Need a speaker for your event? Contact the author at carolaround@yahoo.com.

Posted in Faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Tiny Purple Flower

Posted on April 22, 2011 by 4Seasons2013

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end. He will stand upon the earth.”  Job 19:25 (NIV)

It was small and almost hidden by the remnants of dead leaves whose brown color still carpeted the cold ground. But the bright purple flower caught my attention.

It was a sign that a new season was struggling to emerge after a harsh Oklahoma winter. It was also Easter. I smiled when I saw the beauty of the flower’s fragile petals because it was a reminder of hope renewed with the resurrection of Christ.

I was hiking that chilly Sunday afternoon with my grandchildren and their parents. The sighting of the flower poking its purple head through the damp earth drew me closer to a time in my life when, like my grandchildren, all was right with the world.

My grandchildren’s delight in the beauty of the still brown and gray scenery, interrupted occasionally by patches of early blooming grass, made me pause and inhale the crisp air that cleared my head, still fogged by winter’s cobwebs. I couldn’t get enough.

As we hiked deeper into the woods and down to a stream, I was transported back to my childhood days, before I was aware that the people you loved could disappoint you and before I understood the deep, abiding love of the One who never would. As a child, I could spend hours alone outdoors. While others formed teams to play ball, I was content to sit or lie silently in the grass. Fascinated by bugs, rocks, flowers and blades of tall grass, I was completely unaware of the passing of time.

That Sunday afternoon, as I climbed the hills and then descended through the valleys with my loved ones, time stood still again. Sounds of civilization were overshadowed by the creek water as it tumbled over rocks and bounced off the banks. The occasional sound of a bird punctuated the air, reminding us that we were not alone.

We skipped rocks in the creek that had recently overflowed its banks after a rainstorm had flooded parts of the area. We studied the intricacies of unusual tree roots that had forced their way above ground, yet had withstood the weathering of time and nature. Fascinated by green moss growing on rocks and tree stumps, we touched the velvet fabric with the tips of our fingers.

My larger, time-weathered hand found comfort in holding the smaller hands of my grandchildren as we walked that day. There was no reason to hurry as we stopped to observe other mysteries, like mushrooms and that tiny flower of hope.

Hope, renewed in something as small as a flower poking its head through the brown soil of life and as basic as God’s love for us, is His promise of better things to come. It came wrapped in a simple hike through His creation to experience the true blessings of Easter, not wrapped in brightly colored foil or synthetic grass but presented unpretentiously in a magnificent way.

Posted in Faith, Holidays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment