October 2008

Welcome Back

After a long break from the world of blogging... I'm back with a new looking site. It is still under development but please look around to get a sneak preview of what to expect. The content will be updated on a regular basis... so stay tuned.

Matt

Forget Reality TV... Live A Reality Life

Large Hadron Collider - the world’s largest particle accelerator

All photographs provided courtesy of CERN

One of the great questions that plagues mankind’s search for meaning and origin, is the question “Where does life come from?” Did you know that the answer can be found in the Bible. John 1:4… “In him was life…” In him… Jesus, the Word… the creator of the universe, who was with God and who is God… in him was life.

In other words… in the beginning, before there was anything else but God… there was life. Think about the implications of that for a moment. The first is that life is actually a personal attribute of God. There is not God on one hade and life on the other… as if God brought the two together when he created. God is life. He is the author of life and the sustainer of life. Secondly, and contrary to what scientist are trying to prove with their new $16billion particle accelerator, physical matter did not give rise to life. Life gave rise to matter.

And so we have this great divide between the atheistic worldview and the Christian worldview. For the atheist, everything begins with inanimate matter and energy. According to them… and it’s just speculation…matter and energy were just there. And then suddenly, with no creator, no intelligence, no design, no purpose, and no plan… mindless, lifeless, random matter and energy combined to make life.

For the Christian, it’s the other way around. First there was life, then there was physical matter and energy. In the beginning was the Word, and in him was life.

Rotten Inside

I went to the dentist today because i have had a tooth ache all weekend. The short version of events is that i had a root canal (with two more to come) and as you might well know... it is not fun. The dentist showed me the dead nerve that he pulled out. It was so small and thin... such a tiny thing to cause so much pain. Kind of reminded me of the stuff in our lives that seems small and insignificant, but left unchecked will cause us so much pain and suffering. Speaking of small... I might just pop up to the bank and organize a small loan to cover the cost!

Morally Pure

There are many examples in the Bible of men who displayed Godly character. Now of coarse, none of them were perfect… with the exception of Jesus. But there is one man who stands out from the others. With out a doubt, Job fits the category of a Godly man. Over the next few months, I will be posting a series called Man of God, which will be a snapshot of Job, his character and his attitudes toward life. He is described in Job 1:1 as one who …was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Even after all the testing that he had to endure, he remained faithful to God.

Job 31:1-4… Job Is Morally Pure

It would appear that Job had not only avoided committing the great sin of adultery… but that he had not even taken the first step toward that sin, by looking at a woman with lust. To be honest with you… my first reaction to this claim is something along the lines of… “Yeah Right! Never looked at a girl longer than he should have? Never thought about the possibilities? Never dreamt about the perfect woman?” Remember when King David was walking out on the roof of the palace, when his eyes suddenly came across the sight of a women bathing? David’s downfall came when he look too long… and then desired to find out more about her.

But not Job. He had determined before hand that if he ever found himself in that situation, that he would look away. Now I don’t think that we can say for sure that Job never sinned… only that as far as God was concerned, he was blameless. For sure Job was tempted, just like you and I are tempted… but Job overcame that temptation and lived a righteous life. How?… Job was a man who knew how to think pure thoughts. Philippians 4:8 encourages us to do the same…

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Job’s motivation for living a life of purity can be seen in verse 4…

Does he not see my ways and count my every step?

It is a sobering thought to remember that God sees everything that we do… right down to the thoughts we have.

Justness and Honesty

Job 31: 5-8… Job Is Characterized by Justness and Honesty in all matters.

Job is a man who understands what God requires of us. The Prophet Micah spoke about this in Micah 6:8…

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

I like the way Job invites God to weigh him in honest scales. Job is not boasting here. He is in fact showing us that he values honesty and justice because he knows that God himself is honest and just. I wonder how many of us could so boldly invite God to weigh us, to see how honest and just we are?

This is big issue today... justness and honesty. For a start… what does it mean to be just? In the technical sense, to be just means to be fair, honest and moral. What it means to be honest speaks for its self. To be an honest person means that you speak the truth all the times. In many ways… justness and honesty go hand in hand. Men of God are men who speak the truth, are fair in all their dealings with people and who conduct themselves in a moral way… all the time… even when no one is looking.

Job was an honest and just man.

Quote:

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.