The basics

1) What determined the mass and charge of electrons, protons, etc. so that matter congeals instead of a universal blob of radiation?

2) The size of the sun, the distance of our planet from the sun, the ability of our planet to deflect harmful radiation- all these factors (and more, I'm sure) simply to create a place that had the potential (not the certainty) for life.

3) What is the possibility that a bunch of atoms could be in the right place and time, under the right conditions, to merge into an amino acid?

4) What is the possibility that enough of these acids (hundreds) were created, and lasted long enough, to form into a protein chain (some protiens in our body consist of thousands of acids.)

5) How do you go from random formations of atoms to a self-sustaining, self-perpetuating single-cell creature? With nothing more than a "random" code of DNA (itself a string of thousands of proteins), how could a single-celled creature go from luck to life?

And there are probably many more layers of evidence that I could go into, but it 's late and I'm tired. Just two more thoughts:

-The Law of Entropy. If everything is slowly moving from order to chaos without intelligent intervention, how could such an amazingly complex, intelligent creature like man ever be accounted for without intelligence?

-Occam's(sp?) Razor. The simplest explanation is the most probable. Yeah...maybe we are the product of billions of lucky variables. It's possible. BUT, it's even more likely that we were created by intelligence. God does not play dice.

My conclusion: God exists. The tough part: determining the attributes of God.

Quick thought

The more I study, the more I think that all the facts I need for living the Christian life have been told to me already, time and time again. My problem is in living & applying those facts. THERE is the tough part.

Nuthin much

Saturday. Blah. Except for catching up on sleep, I've done little of anything today. Shoot, I couldn't even watch more than the first few innings of the World Series (go Astros!) before I got bored. Seems to be my MO lately- besides running/exercise, I haven't had a lot of motivation to do much of anything. Looks like I've been let off the hook with ConneXion tomorrow- Philip wants to finish up a video series, so I won't have to give my poor excuse for a sermon tomorrow. I fear though that the level of studying I had this past week is going to fall away now that the pressure is off.

-It stinks to be the quiet guy sometimes... (random thought)

I'm Back...

Ugh, back again. Blogging is low priority on my scale right now- trying to juggle work and preparing something to say this Sunday, and I'm doing poorly on the latter. I've got plenty of ideas, I just need to sort them out.

-What am I so apathetic about being a Christian? Probably a combination of doubting/questions, particularly an absence of a physical God "Lording" over me, my own sin nature (DEFINITELY). I've been reading through another section of "Mere Christianity" that's been helping me to get a better perspective.

-I've been teetering between two extremes: (1) Burning out while trying to live the Christian life on my own efforts, and (2) Not really knowing how to practice faith in God. What does faith involve? Just sitting and waiting? Invoking God's intervention through prayer? How much is God's effort, and how much effort should I be putting into following God? Where's the balance?

-C.S. Lewis related the junction of faith and effort to the two blades on a pair of scissors.

By attempting to live the Christian life on our own efforts, we will fail time and time again. But that's fine- that's part of the design of Christianity; we are SUPPOSED to fail with our own efforts! God leads us to those moments so that we might finally admit that we can't do it alone, and begin to have faith that God will work instead. Our faith will then lead us back to working for God. We'll probably never know specifically what we do for God, and what God does for us- the two should be intertwined, God working in us.

The keys are to (1) Search out enough truth so that a seed of faith can begin, (2) When we begin to exercise that faith, God will begin to root out our sin nature and self-centeredness, often by frustration of our own efforts. But we MUST be willing to go from academic, church-pew understanding of "Gospel theory" to testing it ourselves, making it "Gospel fact". (3) When we inevitably come to the end of ouselves, than we see just how lousy, sinful, worthless creatures we are. How can anything we do be seen as pleasing to God? (4) It is then that we need to say "God, do with me as You want to." In surrendering to this point, God can then finally work (until we hit the problem in #2 again, and the cycle begins again.)

There we go. I'm heading to bed.

Kaboom! -Cedar Creek Reenactment 

A good position? 

Wait a second... 

Be back later

Heading out to Cedar Creek. Pictures and a longer post to come. I was reading through portions of "Mere Christianity" last night, and I found something that really hit me. I'll elaborate later on.

Wait... what did I just say I'd do?

This past Wednesday, I was asked if I would speak for a week or two for the 20-somethings group at church in a few weeks. I've helped out the group for over 2 years now, but its just been setup, powerpoint, that kinda thing. To be honest, I had no clue where to even begin, and I was REALLY hesitant about saying yes. In fact, the exact words that I used were more of a "ehhh...well... I'm not sure...", which Casey took as a definitive "yes." Phooey.

What pushed me into this really? I know that if I take this challenge seriously, and work hard, I can learn TONS compared to sitting back and listening. I betcha you can still remember snippits of speeches or other presentations you had to give in front of the class from way back when. Learning and teaching are two completely different things. Plus, it gives me a chance to exert some faith that I've had trouble exercising lately.

Something I decieded the other day: I've spent the last month or so trying to learn about faith, and how I can't do good on my own. Unfortunately, I've been dragging that fact in the wrong direction by not trying so hard to do good and generally resigning myself to the idea that I'll never learn anything until God bonks me over the head. Where is that verse "You will find Me if you seek after Me with ALL YOUR HEART"? My heart hasn't been into it lately. Now, if I can somehow turn this into a mini-sermon...

In other news, rain stinks. I wanted to go backpacking this week, but oh well. I haven't gotten enough sleep lately anyhow. I did get a new road bicycle this past weekend, and have been putting it through the paces lately. The rides are getting especially nice this time of year.