Evidence for Seekers 

   Does God provide insufficient evidence, as atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell once claimed? 

   Marvin Olasky, himself once an atheist, of Jewish birth, offers a few history lessons for anyone looking for God - in human activity.

1. Thirty Years War. Catholics and Protestants fought each other, using Christian claims to pursue their subjective tendencies.

2. Enlightenment. It produced the French Revolution, exchanging God for the religion of Reason, which led to the guillotine.

3. American racism. Slaves were brutalized and 600,000 or more Civil War soldiers died. Northerners abandoned ex-slaves in 1877 and we are still paying for the sins of our patriarchs.  

4. 20th Century. Germans, Russians and others adopted the teachings of Darwin and Marx. Consider the Holocaust and Stalin's mass murders. Humans treated as products of material forces. Knowledge without wisdom. 

5. Atomic bombs. Never before in history has a potent new weapon not been used again. God, perhaps? Pray that Iran and North Korea don't join the club. 

6. Jewish nation. What are the odds that Abraham's few descendants would reassemble in Palestine amid enemy nations, after 2,000 years, and after 6 million murdered? 50-1. God keeps his promises. Stay tuned!  

   Olasky adds, of any similar population, Israel has had far more Nobel Prize winners, chess champions, and other leading intellectuals ... even more comedians.

   Blaise Pascal, he writes, was wiser than Bertrand Russell. He understood that God establishes Biblical objectivity while respecting man's subjective liberty: 

"God is willing to appear openly to those who seek him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from him with all their heart. God so regulates the knowledge of himself that he has given indications of himself which are visible to those who seek him, and not to those who do not seek him. There is enough light, and enough obscurity."

Sound Minds

Paul understood the chaos of human minds.

He warned Ephesians about "the futility of their thinking."

He told the Roman church - as for those who suppress the truth - 

God "gave them over to a depraved mind...

to sexual impurity... to shameful lusts..."

God desires that our minds are filled with life-giving thoughts.

Paul didn't tell the Romans to transform their minds.

He wrote, "be transformed by the renewing of your minds."

To Timothy: "God has not given us a spirit of fear;

but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

We can invite God to be present in our mind.

Or we can close the door to him.

- John Ortberg

Mental Chaos

The normal state of mind is chaos.

Absent demands or attention, the mind is basic disorder.

It follows random patterns.

Entropy is the normal state of consciousness.

People are naturally eager to fill their minds with something.

This explains why so much time is invested in watching TV.

- John Ortberg

GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Tomorrow: God has a better idea.

Hope for the Lukewarm                                          

        Laodicea, in Turkey                    

   Decades after Jesus arose, he appeared in such brilliance John fell as though dead. But the Lord revived him, giving his old disciple messages for seven churches, truth for the ages. 

   The church in ancient, wealthy Laodicea received a "wake up or else." Church members were lukewarm - worse than cold, Jesus said, because they thought they were doing okay, but were not. 

   In Revelation 3:18-19, the Lord urged attendees to buy from me gold (faith) refined in the fire (no impurities) so you can become rich. He added, white clothes (righteousness) to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness ... and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see (truth and help from the Spirit).

   Eye-salve was one of the products Laodicea was known for. 

   Come...you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? - Isaiah 55:1-2

   Jesus was harsh, but he offered hope. 

   Here I am! he told John to write to the Laodiceans. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me. - Rev. 3:20-21

   To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Imagine! 

   So, we open the door and keep overcoming, despite problems, battles and difficulties. When we need to confess, we can trust in his forgiveness and cleansing.

Source: the late Dr. Stanley Horton

   

Lukewarm Coffee Isn't Our Thing 

   Neither is a lukewarm dinner, or lukewarm friendship.

   Consider "we the people," free to excel if we are able, within the law. 

   We Americans have many goods and possessions, some of them in storage, laid up in the attic or in the garage. We just run out of room for it all.

   God has no objection to wealth, especially if someone helps the poor and supports missionaries. 

   Then again, he considers some of the rich to be, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. - Rev. 3:17. Ouch! 

   Some early churches formed and grew hot. Blessings! 

   Some turned cold. Scolding!   

   Some were satisfied to be lukewarm. What could the Lord do with them? 

   Lukewarm churches or individuals don't respond to the Holy Spirit's enablement. Or to Jesus' instruction: Follow me! We're not cold enough to see our lostness. We don't think we need to repent.

   For those of us living comfortably, prosperity might crowd out faith. Multiplied possessions can possess us, even though we take communion.

   Jews long for the Messiah to come. Do we long for Jesus to return, or are we quite satisfied where we are? 

   Paul wrote to the Philippians (4:12-13):

 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, 

whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Continued tomorrow: A center of commerce

The Mind is Never Still

We are having thoughts at such a staggering rate 

that we don't even remember the vast majority of them.

Each thought carries a little spiritual power...

a tug toward or away from God.

Every thought is either enabling and strengthening us

to live a kingdom kind of life,

or robbing us of that life.

Every thought to some degree is God-breathed,

moving us toward love and joy and peace and patience.

Or God-avoidant, leading to death.

 

GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK            

God's Silence

God's primary concern for me is not my external situation.

It's the kind of person I'm becoming.

God's silence does not mean his absence.

There are things we can do to make our minds

increasingly receptive to his presence in our thoughts.

God is never more than a single thought away.

"The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."

Romans 8:6

"Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

Romans 8:8

- John Ortberg