I would like to express opinion on the topic of skepticism. It seems that our society is steeped in the idea that you are a wise person if and only if you doubt everything that you hear or read. Not only should you be skeptical, but you should be sarcastic toward the other person’s opinion as well. Our media is ripe with some very wealthy people who have done nothing but scoff at anyone and anything that they find on their radar....
Our society holds as one of its core beliefs that there is no such thing as objective truth. Many people also hold tightly to the idea that there isn’t any grand overarching purpose and meaning of life. They believe, rather that life is merely a long string of vignettes that you perceive and align to your own individual perspective in order to create meaning. So, the idea that something is true for you, but not for me, is woven into the fabric of secular culture....
My hope and prayer for all people is that we are awake to the Gospel of the good news about Jesus. Yes, we are secure in our salvation by faith in Christ alone. The question is not about whether or not we are saved, but the question to be answered is… Are we awake or lethargic or sleeping about the gospel?...
In the movie titled The Water Boy, Adam Sandler is often quoted as saying “now that is some high quality H20.” Today I would like for us to consider H20. Let’s look this in the context of the field of Astronomy and see our consuming desire to try to find water on other planets....
Recently I have been reading the book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society By Lesslie Newbigin. The book is the second installment in a two-book series; the first book is titled Foolishness to the Greeks. The works were written in the late 1980’s I am amazed at how poignant his work is today. For today’s post, I would like to lay out some of the groundwork displayed in these two volumes. I would say that if you like to read, both of these books are highly recommended....
One of the important questions for people to ask is about faith and reason. Are they opposites? Does a person need to sacrifice one in order to believe the other? Is it possible to be a thinker and a Bible-believing Christian at the same time? There are some people who do not think this is possible....
What about Creation by chance? Today I would like to look at some of the history behind the naturalist viewpoint that the Universe and everything in it is the product of chance....
Many are familiar with the New Age movement. The hallmark of their thinking is to search out the god that is within you. It’s there, you just have to find it. Explore the power that is at your disposal, tap into your own god consciousness....
The debate goes like this. Is man made in the image of God? Or is God a manmade image after his likeness, made in order to console himself? The Christian will hold the first opinion, the Atheist will conform to the latter. There is a very distinct difference of perspective based on worldview....
Recently I watched a very interesting video featuring Dr. James Tour and J. Warner Wallace. These two men are among my favorite Christian Apologists. The topic of focus is based on the idea that there is so much historical evidence for Christianity integrated in differing societies through out the world, that even if we did not have access to the New Testament, we would still have enough evidence to make the case for the truth of Christianity....
Much of the information found in todays post is from the same title in a book authored by Alister McGrath. Kudos to him for such an excellent work....
You have probably heard the story about how the church thought that the earth was flat during the middle ages. This usually comes in the form of a scathing attack to attempt to show how antiquated and out of date the myth of religion is....
So, this sounds like a rhetorical question, right? Who doesn’t want to love God more? Today I would like to look at this subject more deeply. I think some of the ideas about this may surprise you....
A good question this is. Often you can get very different answers to the question depending on who you talk to. More importantly, there are multiple layers of depth of understanding, some simple, others quite complex....
Last week we talked about the difference between natural theology and revelation theology, and how they can work together to form a more complete Christian world-view. Today I would like to look further into how natural theology can play an integral part of being salt and light to the world around us....
I have been looking at these two dynamics, and how they connect with each other. I hold a viewpoint that these are not in conflict with one another, rather they can integrate seamlessly together in a beautiful harmony....
“Here comes the Sun, here comes the sun, and I say ... it’s all right.” These words, made popular by the Beatles form the basis for this instillation of the Strong and Courageous Christianity blog today. We are talking about the Sun. This magnificent star is situated just perfectly right and is the size and intensity to fuel all life. Without it… well, you know....
We have discussed at length, how complex DNA and RNA are. They are information systems that provide the blueprints or instruction manuals for how proteins are formed and transported to their proper location in the cell. Today I would like for us to look at how the right blueprint is used to make the proper protein....
I am so encouraged to discover with you the reliability of the information found in the book of Acts. You see, Acts is a historical book recounting the events that took place in the early formation of the Church....
Today I would like to look into some of the significance of Jesus’ prophesy of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem....
As we are entering into the holiday season, I would like to write to you today about the subject of being thankful....
The subject is sugar… more specifically the D- glucose sugar that is present in DNA and RNA. This is a bit technical, but the numbers are so unlikely to have happened by chance that it is amazing....
The focus on this blog has been primarily based in the idea that God created the cosmos. The evidence of this should send the atheistic natural man’s mind spinning. Today I would like to look at another discipline that further validates the truth of the Bible. The subject is archeology. While this is not my personal strong suite, non the less, there are growing examples of discoveries that are proving the validity of the scriptures....
Continuing the theme from last week’s entry, I would like to look further into the question is atheism dead? Eric Metaxas, in his new book describes how science is doing more to bring vast amounts of evidence to validate a universe designer. Over time, the information keeps mounting up higher and higher that a naturalistic perspective of random chance being responsible for origins can’t possibly be true....
For today’s post. I would like to direct you to a video on youtube by Eric Metaxas titled Is Atheism dead? This video truly encapsulates my heart and vision for what this blog has been all about over the last 3 years....
Much of this post comes from the book titled Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortland. What is the meaning of everything? What is the telos, the aim, the macro reason and goal for our small, ordinary lives? We are on solid footing, both biblically and historically, if we answer: “To glorify God.”...
I watched an interesting show on T.V. recently titled Secrets of the Universe. They were talking about being on a quest to discover extraterrestrial life....
I have been doing some research on times of revival and renewal. Historically, it is interesting to me how God has set certain times in history where the power of the Holy Spirit is on display in a very dynamic way. The methodology has varied from time to time, however, there are some common denominators in many of these movements....
This is not a household word; however, it is good to spend some time thinking about this in light of creation of the universe....
Recently, I have been reading a book written by Frank Damazio titled The Vanguard Leader. He develops how our culture has taken on many similarities to the Babylonian culture at the time the book of Daniel was written in the Old Testament....
Strong and Courageous March 27, 2018 Meaning and purpose in life. We have been talking recently about aspects of a person's worldview. What is the overarching narrative of how someone lives out his or her philosophical views? Not only in the aspect of theory, but how we actually live out the need for consistency in the laboratory of life itself. Often times, a person w...
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Strong and Courageous March 23, 2018 Retraction I need to make a retraction today about last week's blog post. I usually post this blog on both our church website and on Facebook. So on the Facebook page, I received a comment from a good friend about some of the information that I had posted about how complex single celled organisms are. The comment spoke about other m...
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Strong and Courageous March 16, 2018 Is there any such thing as a simple cell? One of the main teaching points found in the Darwinian explanation for evolution is that life sprang up from non-living matter as a simple single celled organism. Then as time elapsed, this simple cell morphed in complexity, becoming more and more elaborate until we have complex multicellular...
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In Psalm 105 and 106 David was recounting Israel's history and some of it was pretty bleak. In verse 47 of Psalm 106 he says 'Save us, O Lord our God' and that exactly what He did!...
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Strong and Courageous March 9, 2018 How Good is Good Enough? This is the question of the ages. Am I good enough to make it into heaven when I die? If you were to survey the average person on the street and ask this question, a large majority of the responses would be yes, I am a pretty good person. Well at least I am as good or better than so and so. In other words...
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Strong and Courageous March 2, 2018 By Design or by Chance? Was our universe the result of design or chance? A very big question this is. It certainly has grand implications on how a person forms their worldview. Following are some quotes from some well respected non-Christian scientists. "As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics a...
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