Little Bit About Life

I think a lot about what is important in life, and there is nothing more important than eternity. This is why I am more than excited that Gabriel is asking me "eternal" questions. It's important of course that Josh and I are able to provide for our kids physical needs, but it's of upmost importance that we can provide an answer for their spiritual questions. So when Gabriel asks me tough questions about God I need to know how to answer them. I'm happy that so far I've been able to answer them. I only pray that God will call him and he'll answer. You can have all the answers, but without the acceptance of a call there is nothing. Without fully relying on God and putting faith in His promises you have nothing. Nothing but an intellectual assent to Biblical truths. In Romans 10:9 Paul says, "If you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." My prayer is that all of my children soften their hearts toward God. It brings me joy that Gabriel is already starting to show interest and has serious questions. Questions like, "did God create 'bad' people too?" "Why would He create bad people?" The answer being that God gave people freewill. Yes, He created all people, but not all people care about God. Not all people care to admit that God created them and therefor has authority over their lives. So although the Bible teaches that the law is written on our hearts (which explains moral law) some choose to ignore and suppress their conscience. The next question then was about Jesus. Why did Jesus die on a cross and who killed him. I explained that Jesus died on the cross in obedience to His Father. God had a plan, because He loved us, to provide a sacrifice for our sins. He wanted us to have eternal life in Heaven, so He provided a sacrifice to appease His wrath towards sinful people (a Holy God can not be in the presence of sin). A perfect sacrifice that would only need to be sacrificed once for the sins of all people. This was Jesus. A perfect and sinless man who died for the sins of all! Who actually executed this Jesus? Soldiers who had unbelief in their hearts. A few of the soldiers, however, changed their unbelief after the events of Jesus' death transpired. In Matthew 27:54 it says, "When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

I think for most people it takes visible proof to strengthen faith, and it took an earthquake for the soldiers in the account above. I choose to strengthen my faith by not only reading the Word but also studying the natural laws around me. I see a tree and I ask, "where did that come from?" I see animals, rivers, oceans, and people and ask, "where did they come from?" Evolution doesn't answer that for me! There are SO MANY holes there that I just can not accept. I watch dinosaur shows on t.v. and they tell me my ancestors evolved ear canals that humans now utilize. Um, last time I checked species didn't change into new species. I don't care how many millions of years you throw in there we don't have evidence for this. It also defies nature as we currently know it. Horse and donkey mate and you get a STERILE mule. This doesn't leave much room for population growth and survival. There are also SO many theories out there. We evolved from monkeys, rats, and according to the dinosaur shows dinosaurs. Some how each species evolved and I guess shared unique traits. Some how us highly evolved humans ended up with all the "good" traits. We are bipedal, have highly adapted eyes and ears, and wow we just got lucky I guess. We got to "steal" traits somehow from all different species. Gene swapping anyone?! Anyway, I won't go on and on about evolution. I'll just say that the Bible answers this for me. In Romans 1:20 the Bible says, "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." When I look around I see a human that has always been a human. It was never a rat! It was never a monkey! Sure there is a large variety of humans, animals, and plants, but they all have their own distinct genome. They may create different colors, feeding habits, and so much more, but they are still humans, animals, and plants. I believe these things were created and have had the same genome for thousands of years. Obviously this is faith, but believing that natural laws of today are somehow different than they were millions of years ago also takes a "wee" bit of faith. To believe in something "unseen" is faith. Since we can not see millions of years you cannot call me any less intelligent than you. You can not say that I am utilizing more faith for my belief when you are swallowing a whole lot of unsubstantiated theories. Theories that honestly don't even mesh with one another. One theory doesn't necessarily back up another. It's incredibly confusing! But perhaps you can swallow it because it is more difficult to admit that there is a God? Anyway, this explains strengthening faith in natural law and science. I hope to pass this down to the kids. The Bible also tells us to have an answer for the hope that is within us. Sometimes this answer requires some "physical" proof or logical explanation. I certainly don't expect my children to blindly believe in God simply because I do. This will not garner a strong faith. 

I sort of went on a tangent there in the previous paragraph, but I love science "stuff!" I could have gone on and on but I had to force myself to quit since that was not the intention of this post ;). Bringing it back to the true intent I am thrilled with the conversations about A. Sinful "bad" people, B. Freewill, and finally C. The need for a sacrifice/savior! I hope they keep on coming! I hope they ask me lots of questions about Jesus. I love talking about Him too!