The Nitty Gritty....

What we truly come to value in life often originates from those "what if" moments...
'What if I could do this.... What if he or she feels the same... What if this were true?"...

I've spent the last few weeks working my way through the bulk of Stephen Meyer's very well researched work, 'The Signature in the Cell', which is seeking to make a case that the evidence for the view of our existence known as Intelligent Design is actually all around us, and our cracking of DNA and the complexity of related biological processes has now furnished that data.
It's a book that certainly brings on one of those deep 'what if' moments, not least because Meyer carefully unpacks the current approaches and ideas concerning how we got here, and then seeks to show that not only do such attempts produce very few answers, but that their underlying assumptions actually substantiate that we cannot be here by chance.

I have watched how the ID arguments have shaped-up over the last twenty years. Yes, there are plenty that would like us to out rightly ignore or dismiss them, but that tends to be because time isn't being spent considering the actual state of play now reached in the thorough manner Meyer does in this work. It's pretty heavy going in places, especially when the author delves deep into micro biology (I understand why... it just makes my head spin).
All of this allows him to reach a startling point about two-thirds of the way through this study-

Having shown why ID makes the best sense (even from research generated to show the complete opposite) he concludes:
"The specified information in the cell establishes the existence and past action of intelligent activity in the origin of life. Experience shows that large amounts of specified complexity or information (especially in codes and languages) invariably originate from an intelligent source".
Now that is a major consideration, because as so many working in this and other fields have noted, this is exactly the nature of the fundamental information found in all of life.

Philosophers, Scientists, Thinkers of all kinds, have for centuries looked upon the order and structure of the universe and pondered if this "speaks" of a mind at work - the masterpiece of the greatest artist. It could well be that in our very lifetime, the true 'fingerprint' of our maker has been seen for the first time, and that signature is encoded into every cell in our body...

Strange Cures

"In this place lay a multitude of the blind, lame and paralyzed, waiting for the waters to be troubled". The pool at Bethesda in John's Gospel.

There's often debate about certain things being of any real value. Homeopathy is one such practice that immediately springs to mind, but it's fascinating how certain other 'beliefs' (of equally if not more dubious suppositions) are peddled publicly without anyone so much as batting an eyelid.

This morning, for example, I was listening to a local radio station which had a guest who works with prisoners, getting them to record bedtime stories to send home to their children. Also on the show was a chap who runs a local zoo, whose biography is about to be made into a Hollywood movie. He kindly offered to bring a 3D audio/visual venture by the zoo into the local prison for the inmates to enjoy - fine - but his reason for doing so? Well, because we've evolved from tree-dwelling primates, so we enjoy viewing other animals... it reaches us at some primal level and refreshes us there! I guess you have to resort to such 'therapy' if you believe we're just animals.

A few minutes later, I flipped channels to see what the local 'Christian' radio station was up to...
any chance they would be giving something like the Gospel of Christ a mention? They were busy on another endeavor... advocating local church unity by looking at common ways that 'all Christians' in the town can be brought together under a common goal to love God and neighbor...that's what Jesus shows us it's really all about. I felt myself groan inwardly. Yes, we apparently can skip over lots of things (as with evolutionary therapy) in our haste to find common cause...like the need for the actual Gospel (we're saved by God's merciful work of Grace, and nothing more). It's the same old merry go-round... the same old message of we can, of course, all help ourselves, but the result is at best a few cracks hidden to our eye.

Jesus approached one man at the pool in the story referred to above. So many, apparently, wanted a cure, but only one of these would actually look and listen to the true remedy to all our ills. It would seem that reality is still very much the case today.

Reaching the Horizon

"Can you imagine what is to cross an ocean...
for weeks, you see nothing but the ocean,
you live in the grip of fear...
fear... of the immensity,
so you must drive that fear down... study your charts, watch your compass,
pray for a fair wind...

and hope - pure, naked hope,

At first, it's no more than a haze upon the horizon...
So you watch...


Then it's a smudge,
a shadow on the far water,
for a day,
for another day,
the stain slowly spreads along the horizon, taking form,

until, on the third day,
you dare to whisper the word...

land.

Life.
Coming out of the vast unknown...
Out of the immensity.

That is the new world.

Raleigh to the Queen in Elizabeth:The Golden Age.

Back in 2005, I had the joy of traveling West, to find myself encountering some amazing places in Colorado and Oregon. One of the magical moments I recall is removing my shoes and socks on Canon Beach (pictured here - photo by me) to dip my feet in the ocean there, and trying to explain to the daughter of a friend that when I normally paddle in my home country, it's in an entirely different ocean.

Life's journey teaches us that there is so much more we are going to have to encounter, have to understand, and as we grow in that awareness, we begin to realize just how vital it is to have a fixed point, a focus, that allows us to navigate well through what we encounter - a sound chart and compass that not only allows us to engage with both the wonder and pain which becomes part of us, but brings us safely home so we can tell our tale and share the value of that journey.

In the person, the life and the work of Jesus Christ, we find the true fixed point amongst the vast ocean of our journey and life - the means to unravel the experiences, the confusion, the triumphs and the trials that are upon and around us. He is the one master and commander that makes this voyage of lasting value.


There is a moment coming when making the journey will truly be defined by reaching another shore...

Our World's Joy.

"We must both read and meditate upon the Nativity. If the meditation does not reach the heart, we shall sense no sweetness, nor shall we know what solace for humankind lies in this contemplation. The heart will not laugh nor be merry. As spray does not touch the deep, so mere meditation will not quiet the heart. 'There is such richness and goodness in this Nativity that if we should see and deeply understand, we should be dissolved in perpetual joy. Wherefore Saint Bernard declared there are here three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her. The last is not the least of the three. The Virgin birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become man is a greater miracle; but most amazing of all is it that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be the mother of God. She did indeed inquire of the angel, "How can these things be?"-and he answered, "Mary, you have asked too high a question for me, but the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and you will not know yourself how it happens." Had she not believed, she could not have conceived. She held fast to the word of the angel because she had become a new creature. Even so must we be transformed and renewed in heart from day to day. Otherwise Christ is born in vain. This is the word of the prophet: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isa. 9:6). This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that He is the son of the Virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours: That is where we wilt, but he who does feel it has become another man. Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in him. And this Child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through a Babe nursing at Mary's breast. This must be our daily exercise : to be transformed into Christ, being nourished by this food. Then will the heart be suffused with all joy and will be strong and confident against every assault".

Martin Luther on the Nativity.


A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The honorable quest

"Then your voice will call me, and your hands can lead me home,
like a newborn, awed and naked - bare to the bone'.

Carrie Newcomer.


As I sat watching a favorite film tonight, the words of a school hymn echoed through my mind...
When a knight won his spurs, in the stories of old, he was gentle and brave,
he was gallant and bold,
with a shield on his arm and a sword in his hand, for God and for valor he rode through the land.

Frank Martin (The Transporter) may not strike most people at first sight as such a figure, but anyone in doubt should really give Transporter 3 another viewing. Beneath all the contemporary sizzle, adrenaline chases and martial arts, the sensual sparkle and the pointed statements, there lies a very old, in fact medieval tale of honor and valor, of risking all for the love of a maiden (brilliantly portrayed by Natalya Rudakova - a young lady who was literally taken from obscurity for the role). A telling moment comes when the truly discerning Inspector Tarconi tells Frank that he had always suspected that beneath his abrasive exterior, he was a true romantic.
Contrasted with the still moment pictured above (which grants the movie a moment of true romanticism), these brief but candid expressions unmask a little of the true intent here - a modern telling of an ancient tale - one which not only takes me back to childhood, or to some favorite Victorian paintings, but to the Gospel itself.

It would be easy here for me to make numerous parallels between moments in this movie and the realities of our lives and the defining "romance" of the Gospel message, but only one really matters - that within all our fear, pain, anguish and frustration, there is also hope. When we know genuine affection, we touch something that transcends and overwhelms all that is dark and disparaging in our lives - it assures us there is more, much more, beyond the hurt.
This is so because love finds its greatest expression not in our feelings or our present relationships, however deep and true these are, but in the very nature of a person - our maker and our redeemer, a true and deeply needed person of unshakable valor, honor and total integrity. That is why His promises, His deeds, His bond and affection are sure and true, and why the 'story' truly has weight and endures...
There is a better day ahead, when the darkness ends, and the richest love will be evidenced in all things.
That's certainly worth some moments of reflection...

T h e C u r i n g

"The final outcome will be a return to the very first condition,
and the pure, unblemished resurrection,
will be the pure, undestroyed Creation". Man & the Incarnation.

"Behold, I make all things new". Jesus.

It never ceases to amaze me.

When we look at contemporary interpretations of our origins, our teetering continuing existence, and the probable ends of our species meager existence, life all becomes somewhat bleak, gloomy and, if we're honest, all pretty pointless. We can quickly compound that realism if we begin to then unpack the many woes and trails most of us face in our daily hunger to escape the pain often defined as 'the norm' of our short time here,
so, one would hope, when it comes to unpacking the marvel of Christian redemption and rescue,
surely we will find something truly wonderful - a rescue so profound that the trauma of this present agony becomes meaningful, even insignificant, in the light of that marvel.

Apparently not.

For some time now, I've wondered why, in the light of the clear teaching in Romans chapter 8, Christians are not deeply animated regarding the glorious work God is soon to bring about within creation in general.

Genesis begins with the astonishing account of the forming of the heavens and the earth, but this is but the prelude to the masterpiece which is going to appear amongst that order on the day when the full 'glory' (significance) of God's work here begins to become evident on the day of renewal, when the creature (humanity) is raised from the curse of death and creation is freed from its bondage to corruption to share in the new realm of liberation.
Well, I now know why many Christians have no spring in their step about this.
In complete concord with that venomous strain of Gnostic evil which has soured God's living word since Eden, the "way" to read such words is allegorically, not really relating to anything but perhaps some form of final 'spiritual' renewal for the few elect that make it into the distant realm of some ethereal bliss...!

I really wonder if such 'interpretations' take anything spelt out in scripture seriously.
As I've noted several times on my entries here and elsewhere, the only thing which taints and corrupts the goodness of God's handiwork in Creation is the invasion of the malady of sin, and that has truly been remedied by the precious, redeeming work of the bodily death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, so if the only impediment to Creation being 'good' again is removed, why are so many 'teachers' so ready to still expel of it entirely, seeing it as only fit for total destruction?

The only reason for such belief is that the material is inherently seen as entirely at odds with the eternal, but this is certainly untrue. The birth and life of the Lord Himself tells us how much God loves His creation, and the whole work of redemption stems from that unceasing love. It is this work which the book of Romans teaches us bears the most glorious fruit - an order truly rescued from futility and restored to forever glorify its Maker and Savior.

So, the next time you hear 'teaching' which wants to make you look far, far away for some vague, dis-embodied hope of some possibility of rescue, come back to the firm promises of God, made sure in the precious gift of His eternal Son.

In times of need...

"If the Ten Commandments were not impossible enough, the preaching of Christian behavior, of Christian ethics, of Christian living, can drive a Christian into despairing unbelief. Not happy unbelief. Tragic, despairing, sad unbelief. (It is not unlike the [unhappy] Christian equivalent of “Jack Mormons” – those who finally admit to themselves and others that they can’t live up to the demands of this non-Christian cult’s laws, and excuse themselves from the whole sheebang.) A diet of this stuff from pulpit, from curriculum, from a Christian reading list, can do a work on a Christian that is (at least over the long haul) “faith destroying.”

Dr Rod Rosenbladt - The Gospel for those broken by the Church.

I have been sorely reminded of late just how much we poor souls are in need of the balm of God's unmerited grace in our lives, especially in the context of the 'judgment' (teaching and practice) by those who are no doubt seeking to do good, but actually snuffing out the flax and breaking the reeds.
It is with such a context in mind that I am truly delighted to supply this wonderful link to all who, like me, need the richness of God's abundant grace in Christ alone for their aid...

Dr. Rod Rosenbladt on "The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church" from Faith Lutheran Church on Vimeo.