See, it’s my conviction that we just don’t worship God enough at Christmastime.  Yes, you’re right, we probably don’t worship Him enough ANY time of the year, but our lack of worship seems especially prevalent THIS time of the year, right?  What I mean by “us not worshiping God enough at Christmastime” is that is that we don’t make space in our hearts and lives to adore, celebrate, worship, and revel in God during this Season that is supposed to be all about Him.  We’re SO busy.  We’re SO focused on getting the right gifts for people.  We’re SO focused on making sure that everyone is perfectly pampered at our meals and parties and that little Susie isn’t disappointed with what Santa brings her that we lose our focus on Jesus.  Christmastime, for so many, has descended into a mere 30-day shopping excursion instead of an incredible season of adoration of our God for everything He gave us via His Son Jesus.  And that ought to bum us out and be the impetus for pressing the “reset” button on our Christmas Season and returning these days to their original intent (adoration).  But, the angels can help us do that.

When we think of the role of angels around the Christmas narrative, we primarily see them as “messengers”, don’t we?  The angel Gabriel shows up to announce the impending birth of John (the forerunner of Christ) to Zechariah in the Temple (Luke 1:5-25).  Then, Gabriel showed up to tell Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).  Finally, the angels show up to announce that Christ had been born (Luke 2:8-14).  But “messengers” is not the primary role of angels.  The angel’s primary role is to adore God–to celebrate HIM, worship HIM, and revel in HIM–all of the time.

So, what is it that the angels can teach us about adoring God?  Three things:

1.  The adoration of God Begins With The Awareness Of The Presence of God.

You and I are no less surrounded by the presence of God than the angels are.  We too, live in the presence of God–just like the angels do.  He is right here—as close as your skin—but we forget it—the angels don’t.  It’s my conviction that if we want to “reset” our Christmas Season and restore it to its original intent and adore God like the angels do, we must live with that awareness!

God is here.  He is ever-present and always active in this unbelievable world that we live in.  He is present and active in the people we encounter.  And we are meant to see His activity and live in His presence in this world.  We are meant to see His greatness and goodness.  And in the seeing and recognizing, we are propelled to adore Him just like the angels do.

2. The adoration of God sets our lives in a posture of awe at the reality that God sent His Only Son Jesus to be humanity’s Savior.

I’m convinced that the reason that we’re capable of degrading Christmastime into a mere 30-day experience in commerce is because we’ve forgotten what exactly it was that Jesus has done for us! What DID He do for us?  Romans 5:8 NLT (the Gospel in a “nutshell”):

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

In light of THAT, we ought to be moved to live a life of adoration and worship and celebration and praise; a life in which adoring God comes before and during and in the midst of everything else, right?!?

And get this: When it comes to salvation, all the angels can do is observe it.  Angels haven’t experienced the redemption and salvation and restoration of God.  And yet they give themselves to the adoration of God.  It’s all they do!  But as human beings, we get the privilege of actually experiencing salvation—experiencing God’s redemption and restoration—which should translate into us adoring and praising and worshiping God exceedingly more than the angels do!  Forget shopping!  We ought to be blowing it out in praise and worship around the clock with our whole lives because of everything that God has done for us.

3.  Our adoration of God, then, propels us to be messengers of God’s Good News.

Bringing God’s God’s Good News to people begins with our living in a posture of adoration of God for everything He’s done for us–just like the angels do.  It’s the angel’s adoration of God that fuels their role as God’s messengers.

Have you ever stopped to consider that our role as “messengers” of God’s Good News is anemic because our adoration of God is anemic?   I believe that our capacity, desire, passion, and fervor to deliver the Good News message of Jesus to people in our world who so desperately need it would be increased immeasurably when we more fully adore God.

In light of all that: I have two invitations & challenges for you:

First, would you give yourself to adoring God more than you give yourself to anything else this Christmastime?  Would you make space in your heart and life to adore God during this Season that is supposed to be all about Him?  Will you return these days to their original intent?  Adoration over consumerism and commerce.

Second, would you ask God to use your adoration of Him to fuel your doing something about the people in your world who don’t yet know Jesus? 

Once a year the world has a day of crystal clarity, December 25^th.  Pretty much everything stops.  Families gather. Businesses stand still.  Traffic clears. And on December 25^th, even atheists think about the Baby Who was the Savior of the world.  And then, on December 26^th, the world slips back into a coma about Jesus.  Don’t waste this opportunity!

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the greatest weeks of faith-sharing opportunity for followers of Jesus all year!  More Americans are receptive to an invitation during the Christmas season than any other time of the year.  Make much of that!  Share all that Jesus has done in your heart and life with the person in your world who you’ve been meaning to do that with, but have wimped out on.  Invite them to make the same decision you made to follow Jesus with your everything.  It’s not that hard!  Get tickets to Journey’s “Christmas At The Commons” Celebrations and bring folks with you!

Before your neighbors, friends, coworkers, roommates, and classmates slip back into a coma about Jesus, step out and share with them all that Jesus has done for you and invite them to make that same choice.  Who knows? Maybe God will do something amazing in them…something only He can do.

ADORE God like the angels do this Christmastime!

I bought the audiobook (it’s read by Bell himself—a more multi-dimensional experience than the book, in my opinion) a few weeks back and listened to it in bits and pieces over the past couple of weeks.

SO, what do I think?  Not that it really matters, but I do have some thoughts (not that more of those are needed, either) that I’ll “dump out” for you that I hope generates your own questions, thoughts, and searching of the Sacred Text (The Bible).

First (and admittedly, this is an aside from the content of the book, but I think this whole conversation needs to start here), it’s my view that Christ-followers need to learn how to disagree with each other in ways that aren’t degrading.  For example, I know of a “big dog” pastor, thought leader, and author who Tweeted, “Farewell, Rob Bell” in response to early commentary from critics about the book.  Really?!?  That’s what it looks like and sounds like and is to disagree with a brother?  We must do better, Church.

Second, after having listened to the book in its entirety from “cover to cover” (and a few sections more than once), I have to admit, I’m not sure of exactly what Bell is trying to do or say.  Are you?  What I hear in the book are questions that seem to be aimed at starting a conversation around culturally accepted concepts of heaven and hell.  It is my assumption (and just my assumption…I don’t have anything to back this up…and you know what they say about assumptions…) that Bell is asking these questions as one way of inviting us to question many of our long-held assumptions and concepts of heaven and hell.

I mean, really, does anyone here on earth know that Gandhi is in hell (from the opening illustration of the book)?

It’s my opinion that the honest reader will feel Bell “pressing in” on their own propensity toward “sureness” about things that we really have no way of knowing (especially on matters which the Bible is silent, or is at least unclear about).

What is profoundly lacking in the book, in my opinion, are any statements of “here’s how I think it is…”  This has lead some people to take Bell’s probing question strategy as his doctrinal “stance”.

At the end of the day, I believe that the Sacred Text—the Word of God—The Bible—teaches, and I entirely believe, that human beings, every one of us, face an eternal destiny.  The human soul is not disposable.  It isn’t just “lights out” after this life is over.  And the Bible teaches that our eternal destiny will either be an eternal destiny with God (heaven), or an eternal destiny apart from God (hell).  It’s one or the other according to the Bible and we all have to decide what we’re going to do with that.  After all, Jesus Himself was absolutely crystal clear that He believed in heaven and hell sincerely, and invites the very same from us.

One of the most common reasons people choose to reject Christianity is what’s most often referred to as “the problem of evil”.  You can sum up the “problem of evil” this way: “How can a good and loving God allow so much evil, pain, and suffering…or does He simply not care?”  Great question.  Stinging, really.

And the more I’ve pressed into the question, the more comfortable I am living in the tension that question raises. Yes! God is good. Yes! He is all-powerful. Yes! He is keenly aware of the evil that so plagues the world.  Yes! He is going to, one day, vanquish evil.  AND (and it’s a big ‘ol “and”) it would appear that Yes. God allows very real evil in our world for a season and for a purpose—His greater purpose.

Understanding the “whys” of God permitting evil to run rampant is a quite elusive pursuit, however, there are some biblical “points of light” which help to illuminate the broad strokes for us.

Thanks to Mark Mittelberg, Peter Kreeft, and Ronald Tacelli for pointing me toward these conclusions.

1.  In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that this world is going to be full of evil, pain, and suffering—and He got that right, didn’t He?!?

2.  God didn’t create the evil that so abounds, but He did create human beings who could choose whether or not to truly love and follow Him.  We can choose to truly love Him, or we can go the other way and not love or follow Him.

3.  The by-product of a God Who created us as free beings who can choose to follow or not follow Him, is that we live in a world where people do what they want to do, which means that all kinds of sin, abuse, and damage occurs at the hands of people—leading to untold volumes of human pain and suffering.

4.  The by-product of the moral evil which has affected the entire human race is what scholars call “natural evil”, which has tragically affected the world (cosmos) around us.  “Natural evil” fleshes itself out via hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, fires, and all manner of other natural disasters—stuff the insurance industry calls “acts of God”.

5.  God’s promise to vanquish and judge evil stands—He simply hasn’t done so yet.

6.  God—especially in the person of Jesus—suffered in ways that none of us ever will.

7.  Because He’s God, He is capable of bringing good out of bad (and He often does…)
And what we must never forget is that the cross of Jesus Christ is the only thing that ultimately gives meaning to our pain and suffering, because the cross communicates loudly and clearly—“You don’t suffer alone—Jesus suffers with you!”

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”
Psalm 34:18

So while we cannot fully explain away the “problem of evil”, God has, in His graciousness, seen fit to give us some guiding principles to help us navigate the maze of evil, pain, and suffering we live in each day.

Get ready for this weekend where we’ll be tackling Sticky Question #5: Why Does Christianity So Condemn Homosexuality When It’s Clear That God Made Homosexuals And That He Loves All People The Same?

The question: Is the Bible reliable? Can the Bible be trusted? (I realize that’s two questions, thankyouverymuch).

If you came here looking for dance moves, you too, won’t be disappointed (check out this video: dance moves at Church)… but let’s move to the heart of the matter!  What will follow is not just a summary of this weekend but also some sources, links, and “extra” bits of intrigue.

Simply stated, all of this information that follows is essentially irrelevant if we, as followers of Jesus, aren’t engaging in relationships that welcome AND allow “sticky questions” that often lead to challenging conversations.  We must create an atmosphere in which it is not only OK, but applauded, when we are asked difficult, intimidating, sticky questions.

And now I humbly step off my soap box…

I’ll make this simple (or as simple as I can).  We’ll only go in two directions (following chapter 3 of Mark Mittelberg’s book, The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask: (With Answers):

1.  Alleged Gospel Contradictions

2. Objections to the Bible

First up, alleged Gospel contradictions.  Here are some of the better known Gospel “contradictions” that people come across…

Case #1:  What was really written on the cross above Jesus’ head?  Every Gospel has something different:  Matthew 27:37, Mark 15:26, Luke 23:38, John 19:19

Case #2:  How many angels were at Jesus’ tomb after the Resurrection?  Matthew 28:2 mentions one angel, Mark 16:5 says there was “a young man” in the tomb, and Luke 24:4 mentions two men clothed in dazzling robes.

Case #3:  How many blind men greeted Jesus outside Jericho?  Matthew 20:30 says two, neither is named and Mark 10:46 mentions one, named Bartimaeus.

Case #4:  How many demon-possessed men did Jesus meet in the region of the Gadarenes?  Matthew 8:28 says Jesus met two while Mark 5:2 mentions one.

Case #5:  How many donkeys did Jesus ride on as He entered Jerusalem?  Matthew 21:7 mentions two, a donkey and a colt.  Mark 11:7 and Luke 19:35 only mention one, a colt.  And this raises another issue:  Is the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 wrong because it mentions both a donkey and a colt, and therefore supports Matthew but seems to contradict Mark and Luke?

Case #6:  Did the centurion outside Capernaum ask Jesus to heal his servant, or was it someone else who came to Jesus?  Matthew 8:5 says it was the centurion and Luke 7:3-6 says the centurion sent two Jewish elders, then some friends, to speak to Jesus on his behalf.

Case #7:  How did Judas die?  Matthew 27:5 says he went out and hanged himself while Acts 1:18 tells us he fell, and “his body split open, spilling out all his intestines.”

All great questions which leads to the question, “How do we respond?”  If we remember the story of Mittelberg’s friends who died a tragic death from the weekend’s message, we’ll remember that eyewitness accounts can sometimes lack the “complete” story while still remaining true. In light of that understanding, let’s look at each case.

Case #1:  As Mittelberg states, if the sign on the cross over Jesus actually read in full, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” then the Gospels are all correct, just incomplete.  Each has part of the statement, and all of them have the primary element, “the King of the Jews.”  And get this!  John 19:20 adds the detail that the sign was written in 3 different languages.  Could some of the variation from Gospel to Gospel be on account of each recording only of the 3 translations?

Cases #2-5:  Here’s how Mittelberg explains it:

“I walk out of a room and say, ‘There’s a chair in there.’  You walk out of the same room and say, ‘There are ten chairs in there.’  Our statements don’t conflict with each other — you’re just giving more detail than I was.  Notice that i did not say, ‘There’s only one chair in the room,’ just that ‘There’s a chair in there.’  If there are one hundred chairs, we’re still both right; we’re both just telling part of the story.

Remember your first grade math:  ’one plus one equals two.’  In the story of the Resurrection, where two angels appear, there is obviously also one angel present; the text doesn’t say ‘one and only one angel.’  Matthew and Mark, who mention one angel speaking, are giving partial details; Luke adds a bit more by also mentioning another angel.  And when Mark says ‘a young man,’ he’s describing one angel’s appearance (Luke does this as well when he mentions ‘two men… clothed in dazzling robes’).  Although this kind of ‘math’ is not required to figure out the vast majority of the biblical accounts, it does help make sense of a few passages, like those mentioned in this chapter:  two blind me equals one plus one other, two demon-possessed men equals one plus one more, and so forth.  And a donkey and its colt are still two donkeys.”

Case #6:  Let me summarize… If the centurion sent delegates to speak on his behalf, then very simply, the centurion can be described as “saying” what his delegates said.  As we all know, this is common even today.

Case #7:  Up front, it’s important to know that the question of how Judas died is considered by some to be one of the greatest challenges of the Bible’s accuracy.  And this last case brings us back to the initial story of Mittelberg’s friend and the tragedy involving their mother and how seemingly “irreconcilable testimonies” can be harmonized once we learn the full story.  Mittleberg tells what could have happened like this:

Realizing that he had betrayed the very Son of God and refusing to come to God for grace and forgiveness, Judas decided to do the unthinkable. He went out to a field and found a tree at the top of a rocky cliff, hastily threw a rope over a branch, secured one end of the rope to the tree, and tied the other end around his neck.  As his final destructive act, he swung himself over the precipice.  [This squares with the account in Matthew 27:5.]  But then, whether before or after dying of strangulation, either the rope or the branch broke, and his body went tumbling down onto the rocks below, disemboweling him in the process and ensuring his demise if he hadn’t passed away already [thus explaining the record in Acts 1:18].

In all of this we find that many of the so-called contradictions could be reconciled with a fair reading of the text.  Hmmmm.  A couple sources to continue your study if you so desire:  The Big Book of Bible Difficulties and New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties.

Objections: Here’s a look at the four objections from this weekend.  Obviously, there are more objections but you’ll have to read Mittelberg’s book to get a grasp on those.  Let’s go!

#1: Up first, The Bible is very old and was written by gullible, illiterate people; therefore we can’t trust it. Here’s what Mittelberg had to say because I couldn’t say it any better myself:

“Yes, they were simpletons all right – that’s why people of that age memorized huge portions of every conceivable kind of literature; rabbis formed schools to train young men in theology, who would then pass on that learning verbatim to successive generations; ancients had detailed calendars that kept track of the movement of the planets, the changing of the seasons, and the timing of upcoming solar and lunar eclipses; the circumference of the earth had already been calculated (despite a spherical earth being a topic of debate); and people navigated land and sea without detailed maps or GPS systems – while we, in all our modern wisdom, can’t find our car keys, figure out what day of the week it is, or remember how to get to the doctor’s office!”

Also consider this:  In the years when the New Testament was being written, the church was NOT widely accepted. Many people were losing their lives for supporting Christianity for boldly professing “Jesus is Lord” while refusing to confess the state-mandated “Caesar is Lord.” Obviously, it’s true that people die believing in errors, these early Christ Followers were close enough to the events to know that what they believed was actually true.

Almost all of Jesus’ companions lived lives of deprivation and suffering, dying martyrs’ deaths, because they believed Jesus had really risen from the dead and appeared to them after the resurrection. Which begs the question – Who dies for something they KNOW is false? Nobody. Yet these early followers of Jesus kept proclaiming these truths, even as they were being fed to lions or burned at the stake or crucified upside down.

#2:  The Bible was written too far after the events actually happened to be considered reliable. I’m about to use some Scripture.  But remember, it’s not exactly going to fly to use Scripture when stating the the reliability of Scripture unless you already profess to trust in the Scripture.  However, this is worth sharing:  Let’s look at 1 Corinthians, widely accepted as as being written by the apostle Paul no later than AD 56 and he died about AD 64, so all of his writings were penned during the lifetimes of those who had walked and talked and associated with Jesus. Here’s what he says in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3-9,

3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church.

How does this support the Bible’s reliability?  Well Paul is quoting formal creedal teaching that he had received. He didn’t make up the story of the Resurrection; it was so well known that a formalized statement of it had been developed and taught to him – a primitive catechism, if you will. Many scholars believe Paul received this creed, in verses 3-7, from Peter and James while visiting them in Jerusalem three years after his conversion. That would be within in 5 years of the Jesus’ crucifixion!

In fact, historian Gary Habermas (click Gary’s name to find access to his work and don’t judge him based on his website), lists 39 ancient sources OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE that provide over one hundred facts about Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection.  Wow!

The conclusion in all of this, is that the CENTRAL message of the Bible stands strong:   Jesus lived, His activities and teachings were written down within the lifetime of those who knew Him, and the claim of the resurrection, incredible as the event seems, was made from the very beginning of the spread of Christianity. And Jesus, born a Jew, was worshiped as God.

#3:  Even if it was accurate at first, the Bible was copied and translated so many times that it surely has been corrupted. I found that the this objection was repeated so often that people don’t really think about what they’re saying.  The case they make in objection to the Bible often plays out like a game of “Telephone.” You know, where you get in a line of people, usually children and whisper a word in the first persons’ ear.  Some people have the misconception that the Bible was produced the same way… first written in Greek, translated to Latin, and then German, and then Old English and so on, until we end up with the Bible we’re reading today.  That’s not true.  All reputable versions begin with the oldest and best Greek manuscripts for the New Testament and Hebrew manuscripts for the Old Testament.  Or consider this:

Dramatically, when the Bible manuscripts are compared to other ancient writings, they stand alone as the best-preserved literary works of all antiquity. Remarkably, there are thousands of existing Old Testament manuscripts and fragments copied throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean and European regions that agree phenomenally with each other.  In addition, these texts substantially agree with the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which was translated from Hebrew to Greek some time during the 3rd century BC.  The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Israel in the 1940′s and 50′s, also provide astounding evidence for the reliability of the ancient transmission of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries BC.

The manuscript evidence for the “New Testament” is also dramatic, with nearly 25,000 ancient manuscripts discovered and archived so far, at least 5,600 of which are copies and fragments in the original Greek. Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing fragment being a remarkably short 40-60 years.

Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day. Look at these comparisons: Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph); Pliny the Younger’s Natural History (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed); Thucydides’ History (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Herodotus’ History (8 manuscripts; 1,350 years elapsed); Plato (7 manuscripts; 1,300 years); and Tacitus’ Annals (20 manuscripts; 1,000 years).

#4:  How can one religious book be right and all the others wrong? Isn’t it more likely all contain some truth, and all contain some error? Here’s what’s different about the Bible… it goes beyond giving good advice. It teaches about a Savior, about the need to rely on His righteousness instead of our own. It breaks down our pride and reminds us that we are no better than any other person on the planet. We are all sinners, we are all in need of a Savior. It tells us we cannot save ourselves, no matter how hard we try, and so we must accept God’s plan for redemption instead of constructing our own.

The Bible also has predictive prophecy, which was later fulfilled… to the letter. For instance, Isaiah 53 is clearly an amazing prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah but it was written more than 700 years beforehand. It describes in advance how Jesus “was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” However, that’s not the only thing that blows me away. What really shows the divine insights of prophets like Isaiah or Zechariah is that these words were written not only hundreds of years before the life and death of Christ but also centuries before the Roman practice of crucifixion, with its horrific piercing of the hands and feet with nails that were pounded into the wood of the cross, have even been invented! Gasp, right?!

Suffice it to say, no other religion has this kind of prophetic fulfillment.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with David’s (my friend) response:

“There’s no other book like the Bible in existence. Consider that it was written on 3 continents (Africa/Asia/Europe) over a period of 1,500 years, by 40+ authors in all walks of life. For a little context, the United States is barely over 200 years old. Despite that, it still has a central theme and unfolds into a real story. Predictions have been fulfilled within it, and archeology continues to confirm it’s historical facts. There has been no book put under more scrutiny throughout the centuries, and yet it is still holding its own and changing lives for the better.”

Boom, fist pump!

And there you have it!  If you have any questions that need further exploring, feel free to contact me:  http://www.facebook.com/christownley

However, as I mentioned during the weekend service, I believe that in the end we will all find what we’re looking for.

Here’s to looking…

Many Christians find themselves at a loss when confronted with questions like:

• what makes you so sure that God exists?
• why should I trust the Bible?
• how could God allow evil, pain & suffering in the world?
• why does Christianity condemn homosexuality?
• does heaven really exist? and would a loving God, really send people to hell?

When asked sincere, challenging, spiritual questions, do you know how to respond appropriately?

Unanswered or poorly answered spiritual questions oftern lead to doubt, frustration, even spiritual alienation. Peter challenges us, “If someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain, but do this in a gentle and respectful way.” 1Peter 3:15-16

Spiritual questions can be powerful doorways. When spiritual questions are answered well, they can bring truth & light… They are opportunities to share God’s truth with other people.

Last weekend, we moved into this series unpacking the question, “Does God exist?”

How do we know there is a God, especially when we can’t see Him, hear Him, or touch Him? His presence doesn’t register with any of our five senses…and yet many millions of people believe in Him. Why?

When presented with this question, let us consider that God is like a lot of things we may not be able to see, hear or touch directly, however we can see evidence for them. Let’s take a look at love, air and gravity.

1. Love

It is true that love is a profound reality, isn’t it? Most all of us believe in love. Love is not something we can see, hear, or touch directly. You cannot prove love. Yes, you can show people the evidence of your love, but you can’t show them the love itself. The love is invisible. You only detect love through its effects.

2. Air

Another very important thing we all believe in is air. Air is only detectable to us through its effects. None of us can see air, but we all breathe air. We move through the air. We experience air.

3. Gravity

We all believe in gravity. We can’t see, hear or touch gravity, yet we live constantly with its effects.

Unlike the things we can experience with our five senses—God is a spiritual being. He is a spiritual reality. Spiritual beings and spiritual realities are not things that can be seen with physical eyes, heard with physical ears or touched with physical hands. Check out John 4:24.

We know God exists because He is our friend, and because He has forgiven us of our sins. He speaks to us, challenges us, guides us and corrects us when we need it—always acting out of His incredible love for us which compelled Him to send Jesus to die on the cross to take our sin upon Himself so that we might know Him as our Savior.

Think of how God has changed you. Sure, those who challenge your faith, may not be able to see God, but they can see what He has done in our lives!

So, if we are confronted with the question, “Does God exist?”, we may enter conversations around these four answers:

Answer #1: The Existence Of The Universe

In the past 30+ years, there has been explosive growth in cosmology—the study of the origins, structure, and development of the physical universe, which trace the origin of the universe back to what’s called a singularity event, known as the “Big Bang”.

Einstein’s theory of relativity demonstrates that time, space, matter, and physical energy have a starting point in history. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to provide proof of Einstein’s theory, allowing astronomers to see that the universe is actually expanding. This leads to the conclusion that the universe must have had a beginning point for the expansion. The cause for the universe must be something beyond “time and space, matter and physical energy”. …“God?”, you ask.

Answer #2: The “Just So” Universe

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.” Psalm 19:1

Science teaches that the laws and physical constants that govern all the matter in the universe appear to be precisely and perfectly balanced for life to occur and flourish. This points powerfully to the existence of an incredibly Intelligent Designer who made our universe “just so”. Isaiah 40:25-26, 28 (NLT)

Answer #3: Our Morally Good Universe

Where does the the intrinsic sense of right and wrong come from?

• Did goodness arise out of the results of the Big Bang? No.
• Atheists struggle with the “problem of good”.
• Morals and values are not just the creations of human beings. They are objective—not relative.

Might it be that a Moral Lawgiver actually knit those moral standards, along with the ability to understand and operate by them, into the very fabric of what it means to be human?

Answer #4: Pascal’s Wager

Suppose the previous conversations leave the questioner feeling these answers are inconclusive… You might reference, Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Catholic philosopher. Pascal’s “Wager” asks, “Where are you going to place your bet?”

The “Wager” unfolds, if you place your bet on the existence of God, you lose nothing if it turns out that God does not exist. But if you place your bet against the existence of God and you’re wrong… If God does exist, you lose everything… God, eternity, heaven, infinite gain… all are lost to you for eternity.

The “Wager” cannot coerce belief. It can, however, be a motivating incentive to challenges our friends and family to search for God; to study and seek to know God.

Independently, each answer points to the existence of God. When taken together they provide what Mark Mittleberg calls, “strong confirmation of His existence.” This can be summed up when he says, “The cumulative case for God’s existence is more than sufficient for an open-minded person to believe that He really is there.”

Next week, our Student Pastor, Chis Townley, will be tackling another foundational question, “Is the Bible reliable?” Don’t miss it – Saturday at 6PM, or Sunday at 9AM & 11AM!

A cartoon once illustrated the attitude many Christians have toward giving their money to the Lord. In the first frame, a man was looking at a car he was interested in buying. He asked the salesman, “What are the terms?”

The salesman replied, “Ten percent down, and low payments for 48 months.”

Immediately, the man replied, “Where do I sign?”

In the second frame, the same man was looking at a refrigerator on display in an appliance center. When he asked the salesman about the terms, the man told him, “Nothing down, and no interest for 12 months.”

Once again, the man said without hesitation, “Where do I sign?”

In the third frame, the same man was looking for a house to buy. The realtor told him, “Ten percent down and 30 years to pay.”

Without giving it much thought, the man exclaimed, “Where do I sign?”

In the last frame, the same man was talking to his pastor. The pastor asked him, “Would you please sign this commitment card to give the Lord for the next three years?”

In shock and horror, the man replied, “What! And tie myself to an obligation like that for 156 weeks? No sir! The future is too insecure. I don’t want to make a commitment that I might not be able to keep.”

PS – When I was telling Sammy about Advent Conspiracy, I said, “We asked people to give shoes, tef, clean water, and wall materials for Bright Hope.” and when I said “shoes” he interrupted me and said, “Shoes?! That is our biggest [non-financial] need!” – So thanks be to God for providing that way

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The question has popped up again related to tickets for Christmas Eve, so I thought I’d take a moment to address it.

1. It helps us make sure we have seats for everyone to invite their friends and family. Crowds are bigger at Christmas, and folks tend to have preferred service times. If everyone showed up at the same time, we wouldn’t have room. It doesn’t make sense to build bigger buildings to accommodate holiday crowds. Instead, we use tickets to spread out people in in multiple services.
2. It helps us determine when we need to offer more services. If multiple services fill up, we have the flexibility to add additional services to accommodate more people.
3. It makes it easier for people to invite their friends. The number one reason people show up to a worship service for the first time is because a friend invites them. Having a ticket with all the details on it makes it easier for people to have those conversations. It also gives the impression they’re offering something with value.
4. It communicates something special is going to happen. We are very intentional about our service programming every Saturday & Sunday of the year, but certainly we give special attention to Christmas Eve services. Having caught wind of some of the elements in this year’s services, I know they going to be an incredible experiences. Having tickets helps us communicate something unique is going to take place.
5. It communicates these services are open to the entire community. This may seem obvious to church insiders, but people outside our churches sometimes don’t realize we expect guests. In fact, there are a large percentage of folks that would join us for a service, but they are just waiting for someone to invite them. Offering tickets helps us get the word out that everyone is invited.

Ultimately, more people at Christmas Eve services mean more people hearing the message and more changed lives. We’re pretty committed to life change here at West Ridge (and Journey Church), so we see that as a good thing!

Our friend, and Managing Editor of a couple of publications here in town, Alex Tenenbaum, wrote the following for the most recent (today’s) edition of Business to Business…it’s a fantastic re-statement of LOTS of the things we talked about throughout the “So, You Want To Be Rich” Message Series and I wanted you to have a chance to read it here…so…enjoy…and thanks, Alex, for sharing this with us…fantastic words!

The opportunities of wealth

My wife and I are filthy stinking rich. Don’t laugh, I’m serious.

I know, I know, we’re only in our early 20’s, and we jumped from the frying pan of college into the fire of this peachy job market — with journalism degrees, nonetheless. We might as well have studied art history or Medieval hog tossing or bong science judging by the incessant nagging of our parents: “We told you you should have gone for engineering or law or medicine, but did you listen?”

Well they can nag all the way to the bank, because their little dumplings are just flush with cash.

I should mention that neither of us are heirs to the Hilton fortune, nor did our parents set us up with cushy trust funds. They did, however, foot the bill for school so we could graduate debt-free, for which we are extremely grateful.

Still, debt-free doesn’t exactly mean loaded.

But we watch TV on an $800 flat screen, in a house all to ourselves, with pretty much all the food we could ever want. I’m talking good, home-cooked meals washed down with the fanciest of local microbrews. We even bought a dog, and not only do we pay to feed him, we buy him unnecessarily expensive toys, collars, leashes and a nail grinder for doggy spa. That’s right, we bankroll our own at-home doggy spa. Jealous?

We have not one, but two cars that were made in the last 15 years, so you could say they’re late model. And we don’t just have cars and a house, we have a house for our cars — called a garage. We are landowners, shareholders, “valued credit cardholders,” members of the elite club known as Costco, and even the IRS cares about their cut of our fabulous almost-dual income.

I didn’t used to think we were all that well off. I mean, can you imagine how little I get paid to sit in my pajamas and write this stuff? But when you look at how my wife and I live and what we can afford, we’re getting along fabulously. Especially when you consider half the world’s population lives on less than $850 per year, and real wealth in many countries means owning a car.

Even though we’re in the top 5% of global income per household, we still worry about finances. We still wish we made more, and we think, “we’re OK now, but we’ll really be rich when we make $60,000 a year.”

Did that number make you giggle?

OK, so maybe you think you’ll really be rich when your household pulls in $100,000, or $500,000. But anyone who’s already there will tell you they don’t feel rich, that they’d be more comfortable with more. Heck, when a reporter asked John D. Rockefeller how much money would be enough, he famously said, “Just a little bit more.”

And more would be nice. Maybe it would be really, really nice. But you are already rich. Filthy, stinking, fist over fist, rolling-in-it-like-Scrooge-McDuck-from-Ducktales rich.

So stop thinking for just one moment about how to get more, and instead focus on what you, Aunt and Uncle Moneybags, can do with all you’ve got. What opportunities do you have to throw your fiscal weight around for the good of your company? Your employees? Your community? The world?

“Opportunity” is a challenging word. I always thought it meant the same thing as luck, serendipity, good fortune or fate — the things people say about winning the lottery — but it doesn’t mean that. Not even close.

Opportunity is actually rooted in the Latin nautical term “opportunus” or “favorable winds.” Formed from the prefix ob- “to” and portus “harbor,” it was originally used to describe winds blowing toward the harbor or port.

The thing is, for the winds of opportunity to do you a lick of good, you have to know where you’re going. If you don’t know where the harbor is and you haven’t a clue how to get there, no wind will ever be a good wind.

I have plenty of good friends who are like this, lost at sea, and many of the businesses I’ve worked for are right there with them, laboring tirelessly at the basic functions of their lives and jobs — steering the rudder, hauling the sails — and all the while tacking hard against prevailing opportunities.

This time of year asks us to slow down, to give thanks, and to refocus on what’s really important. So do these things. Study the maps inscribed on the walls of your heart, and rediscover where your harbor is. You might be closer than you thought, or a million miles off course. But it doesn’t matter. Study the winds, give thanks for the incredible wealth you already have, and start looking for opportunities.

Maybe your skeleton crew of employees worked their fingers to the bone for you this year. Perhaps you have an opportunity to bless them. Or maybe your customers, the ones who’ve kept you afloat, could use a little help. Is there an opportunity there? Or maybe your brothers and sisters a world away are dying from diarrhea at the rate of 2 million per year, simply because they don’t have access to clean water. There is definitely an opportunity there.

The winds of opportunity are blowing all around you, and you have everything you need to harness them. The only question left for you is this: Where is your harbor?

–
Alex Tenenbaum, Managing Editor
at home
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