God – Page 14 – Changing the Face of Christianity

Man Made or God Made?

November 1, 2009 By R. Brad White Leave a Comment

As a former Atheist, I can appreciate the attempt to logically explain everything. However, where Christians excel is in our ability to look at something very simple and come to the logical conclusion… “That’s GOD!”

Many people come to such an epiphany when camping out in nature… and experiencing God’s creation outside of the man-made cities we all live in. They look at the moon, and stars and heavens and just stare in awe of God’s majesty.

So, here is a simple argument for the existence of God…that even an Atheist would have difficulty explaining with a non-God answer:

1) Look around you for a moment. Can you identify anything that is man-made…something that obviously God didn’t make? Take that house for example. Did God build it? No…an architect and a construction crew did right? How about that car? The good folks at Ford or Chevy built it right? Ok…here’s a tough one…how about those sneakers you are wearing? Did God make them, or did Nike make them? OK…it’s pretty easy to identify things that are man made right? We just KNOW by looking at them, and from our experiences during our lives we just KNOW that man made them.

2) Now, look down at the ground. Did man make the dirt? No. Now look at the sky. Did man make the sun, the moon, and the stars? No. Why do we just KNOW that man didn’t make them? Why do we not need a scientific method to prove that man did NOT make those things? Maybe it’s the good old common sense and experience that helped us know that our car was made by man. It’s just plain as day…man did NOT make the heavens and the earth.

Now, if we didn’t know for a fact that man made the house, the car, and the sneakers…we would probably start looking for a creator and eventually find someone who could be caught in the act of creating them. But we don’t need to….we just know.

Well, the same is true for the heavens and the earth. Man is simply not big enough, powerful enough, or resourceful enough to create ANY of it. But if man didn’t create them…then who/what did? Where did it all come from?

Now, some might say that the Big Bang created it all. Let’s assume the Big Bang theory is true. Did man create the Big Bang? I know that’s a tough one…but again, NO. So who/what did? What caused the Big Bang? Just keep going back far enough in time, and guess what? Man still didn’t have a finger in creating it. It’s 100% God. God did it…all of it. And then God created us humans and absurdly some of us say… “there is no God.” How laughable.

God is Preparing You for Greatness

August 2, 2009 By R. Brad White 1 Comment

“Joseph labored in obscurity for a season of his life…” before he finally arrived at his God given purpose of saving the Egyption and Israelite peoples from 7 years of famine (Read Genesis 37-41 for the full story). I read the first part of that quote recently in John Maxwell’s book “The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leaders Day”. My first thought was how many of us struggle through life feeling the same way…like we are toiling in obscruity, not sure of our God given purpose. Often, we’re not sure if we are making a difference.

Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. We can learn several lessons from the story of Joseph. 1) God expects us to live faithfully and obey His commands… even if we don’t know where and how He’s using us. 2) God’s timing is MUCH different than ours… God works in decades and lifetimes… not days and weeks like we want. 3) Our toiling in obscurity is preparation for the day when God will use us to accomplish His purpose for our lives.

When we live in God’s will, and God’s timing, using our God given talents… our eventual greatness will bring glory to the One who deserves it… God.

Holy Ostracism…Not So Holy

May 5, 2009 By R. Brad White 7 Comments

I recently read a blog article about Holy Ostracism. It was asking the question if we should isolate ourselves…or otherwise refuse fellowship with homosexuals. There are biblical references to not fellowshipping with “sinners” that people rely on to support this view. However, here is my response.

I think we Christians, to our discredit, place much too much importance on the issue of homesexual sin. Outsiders view us a haters, high and mighty, pompous, etc… Is homosexuality a sin? yes. But remember that ANY sin is just as sinful as homosexuality to God. God teaches us to take the plank out of our own eye before we look to take the speck out of another person’s eye.

Should we practice holy ostracism because someone is homosexual? absolutely not. That only feeds the negative perception…that “we won’t associate with those sinners”..and that we are somehow better than them.

The fact is that we are NOT better than them. Even if we are Christian, and they are not…we are still NOT better than them. God is better…and it is Him who redeems us.

Would you ostracize someone who drank excessively? How about someone who was prideful. How about someone who lusts after someone who is not our spouse? How about someone who (insert any other sin you’ve ever heard of)?

Unless you are going to ostracise everyone (for all sins), I wouldn’t recommend ostracizing anyone for simply being homosexual.

Instead, associate with them. Share your love with them. Engage with them and let your life influence them positively. Let them know that even though God considers their behavior a sin…that we ALL sin, and God still loves us. Then encourage them to seek God and ask him into their life. Homosexuals don’t need to be “fixed”…they need to be loved. God will take it from there.

All One Body

April 26, 2009 By R. Brad White Leave a Comment

My wife and I spent the weekend out of town and visited the church of our in-laws. It was interesting to note how different their church was. In fact, without close inspection it would be easy to ONLY see the differences. The music was different. Songs we sing…they sing differently. Their communion was different. The sermon style was different. The bulletin was different. In other words, it was a completely different experience. OK…then what was so profound that I should write about it?

It was the same! Christians devoted to Christ, praising and worshiping him. The people loved God although they expressed it differently than I was used to.

In this life, it’s so easy to look at how we are different than other people. It’s harder, but so much more meaningful, to focus on how we are the same. We are all in need of a savior. We are all imperfect. We all have hurts and doubts, but our God covers them all. We all have a God who loves us and makes us complete. We all have a God who deserves our worship and praise. How you and your church congregation expresses that is up to you.

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