CREATION SPEAKS

I’ve been enjoying reading Louie Giglio’s book: I Am Not But I Know I AM.

His chapter on the cosmos reminded me again, of the magnitude of God and our total incomprehensibility of who He is. It’s almost comical watching as bright and educated men struggle, argue and make great efforts to explain how earth and mankind came into existence. These same types thought the earth was flat, even though the prophet Isaiah spoke of the earth being round (Is. 40:22). But then, what did he know!? Or should I say...Who did he know?

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. In fact, the light we see generated by the sun at this very moment, left the sun's surface and traveled 93 million miles in 8 minutes! That's a whole lot faster than I can get to my mailbox! By the way, Jesus said He is the light of the world.

Scientists have developed a unit of measure called a light year, which is how fast light travels in 365 days (roughly 5.88 trillion miles). That’s 588 and whole bunch of zeroes. A light year has become our yardstick to measure the universe.

When we are able to look at the newest galaxy that was recently discovered…yes, that’s right scientists are still discovering stuff – the light from that galaxy left that galaxy 13 billion years ago. That brings a whole new meaning to time travel.

Despite our hubris, we really have no clue how big the universe is, and we are so limited in our knowledge about it. However, our brightest and best are convinced that all of this just sort of happened. But they don't stop there, they insist we teach it as science! Now that's a step of faith.

What's wrong with this picture?

I am not,
DOM

INTELLIGENT DESIGN??

There's an interesting saying that I've heard recently: "The god you make requires your defense. The God that made you, requires no defense."

As our nation wrestles with what to teach our children in our public school classrooms, we are hearing arguments put forth by both sides - evolutionists and creationists. Science tends to favor evolution, since they can point to proven scientific research and findings that various species have evolved over time.

Currently,Intelligent Design is code for, "In the beginning God created..."
Why do we find ourselves in a position where we feel the need to defend our Creator? Why are we seeking to use code words to help people understand God? Is this intelligent? God's the designer and maker of heaven and earth, and His creation reveals just who He is to everyone! He requires no defense!

DOM

SILENT NIGHT

The final verse of my favorite Christmas carol, says it all:

Silent night, Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord at thy birth;
Jesus Lord at thy birth.

Happy Birthday Jesus! May this Christmas be all that Jesus is.
DOM

STOCKINGS

No, I'm not talking about the kind Joe Namath wore playing football. I'm talking about the one and only Christmas Stocking. Our family has a Christmas tradition of filling a Christmas stocking for each child. When we started this, the stockings were small - maybe size 10-12. We'd fill those babies with all kinds of little trinkets. Gradually the stockings grew in size with expansion panels to stuff even more goodies. Of late, we not only fill the Darko size stocking, but also place a plain brown grocery bag next to it, just to handle the overflow booty. Ahhh the spirit of Christmas...Gotta love tradition!

I'll report soon on what I received in my stocking and paper bag...

Stuck on stockings,
DOM

FAMILY AND FAITH

Christmas Day is falling on Sunday this year! What's up with that!? Are we now expected to go to a worship service on Sunday? But, we do that every Sunday, and besides it's Christmas and that's a time for family and friends. And, by the way, isn't it ridiculous how certain retailers are allegedly refusing to deliver a "Merry Christmas" greeting when we buy all that stuff for our "family and friends" time of year? I'm so appalled that these retailers, and many others, are not acknowledging what Christmas is all about! They just don't get it! C'mon! This is family and friend time. In fact, that's why we're working so hard to schedule our Christmas services on any day around Christmas, but not actually on Christmas!

But why?

Here's the responses I hear, you'll love em!
-"We're choosing to value families; people over policy."
-"In Jewish and biblical tradition, Sunday begins at sundown Saturday so we're holding Christmas Eve services. Besides, Jesus broke tradition and was criticized for it."
-"Christmas Day is a family time. We always gather and open gifts that day!"
-"Christmas began as a pagan holiday to the Roman gods, and anyway, Jesus was most likely born in January or April."
-"Jesus isn't concerned about when we celebrate His birth. He only wants our hearts!"
-"Christmas has always been time to really connect with family. Going to church interferes with that time."

Cool. So here's a great idea. Since it's not really necessary to celebrate the birth of Christ on a set day each year, no matter when it falls. Let's do the same with the other major Christian "holiday" - Easter. By scheduling Easter on Sunday each year, we're cutting into some heavy duty family connecting time. It would be so helpful if we could spend Easter with family....taking our time with the ham, enjoying more time and creativity with the Easter egg hunt, and even developing new traditions...maybe even gift exchanges. Let's celebrate Easter on Thursday, and then take a long weekend break, just for family! Besides, Resurrection Sunday could be celebrated anytime...even on another day, right? Let's not get hung up on policy!

Bottomline view from my vantage point: Christmas has become more about us than about Jesus, even though we continue to tell ourselves that He is the reason for the season. When we make decisions about putting "family time" and certain "Christmas traditions" ahead of celebrating God's gift to mankind - the Christ Child, we may just be on a slippery slope, heading toward greater secularization of Christmas, and perhaps joining forces with the secular mindset we continue to rant about and decry. A good way to react to this would be to attend church together, as a family, and worship Jesus Christ! Jesus would probably tell each of us that He is not the reason for the season, we are! He became like us, for the sole purpose to redeem us! That's Good News!

Merry Family Time!
DOM

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Tookie Williams inhaled his last breath this week when "justice" ran its course. He was executed by injection in the State of California, a liberal bastion.

There are good people who fall on both sides of this capital punishment issue. That's what makes it a charged issue. It's all about respect for life. I suppose you could say Tookie didn't respect the lives of the 3 people he executed and, therefore, was sent to death row to pay the price. In this situation, the only people who no longer have a voice to speak out about Tookie's fate, are the victims. They're dead and have been for some time. They have been denied their greatest right as God's creation - the right to life.

Does Tookie's lack of respect for human life give good reason for "the state" to disrespect his life and take it? Good question. I do know that life is precious. I only wish Tookie would have learned that earlier in his life. Tookie has left a legacy of hard as nails gang members who devalue life and create mayhem - the Crips. To his credit, in the past number of years, he has made efforts to turn young men away from gangs. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but then so was Yasser Arafat, so I'm not sure what weight a nomination should carry in the court of public opinion.

All things considered, I believe that taking any human life is wrong...and that includes the life of an unborn baby.

DOM

Interruptions

This past Sunday I listened to a great Xmas message about interruptions in our lives and what we do with those interruptions. Christmas is all about the greatest interruption of all, the insertion of the Messiah, God Incarnate, the Creator of the universe, on the very earth He created. The reason: For me and for you! We are the reason for the season!

The past few weeks, I've been dealing with some interruptions. A couple of weeks ago, a friend I play tennis with every week, passed away while hunting. Then Monday of this week, I attended two funerals, elderly women who passed away...but still an interruption for them and their families, and to a much lesser degree, for me, as I changed my routines to attend the funeral. On Monday evening I spoke to a father who had just lost his adult son suddenly after a very short illness. A huge interruption for him and his family. I can't imagine what that would be like.

Following each interruption in my life, I find myself processing what just took place. And, after each one, trying to find something that will help me understand real reasons for such interruptions. I know, there are two sure things in life - we're all born into this world, and we'll all die. But what can I learn from the pain and sorrow and this harsh interuption of death? I have found that as I grow older, my perspective of life (and death) has changed gradually. I continue to process it all...

Life is fragile.
DOM

CONFUSED

During the past few weeks I've been encouraged to boycott a number of retail establishments because they've apparently chosen to replace Christmas with other generic and pc words. I'm not all together certain that a boycott will make much of a difference beyond the surface - which is economics. Or for those of you who live in Borculo, that would be - money. Are we not called to be salt and light in our world? For salt and/or light to make any difference in this confused world, we need to be close enough to those whom we're "lighting up" or "seasoning." Salt doesn't work well at all if it's sprinkled generously on a table instead of a slab of beef tenderloin sitting on a plate upon that very table.

Bottomline: We don't need to create more walls or an "us against them" attitude. Jesus didn't call us to boycott, He called us to be world changers, one at a time.

Enough said, but here's the confusing part. I've been hearing that some large evangelical churches are cancelling Christmas Day services because people are too busy, and potential turnouts may be very small. Too busy to celebrate the birth of the Messiah on a day the church always meets? Cancelling a regular event due to the potential numbers of people who would or wouldn't show up? (I wonder how the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem would respond to this?) Is this another form of a boycott??

DOM

TALK LESS...SAY MORE

There's a popular cowboy saying in the west: "When there's nothing more to be said, don't be saying it."

Rough and tumble cowboys (checkout Clint Eastwood) talk less and usually end up saying a whole lot more. Why is it so difficult to endure "dead airtime" when we're hanging with someone?

Here's a great experiment: Listen objectively to a typical conversation between two people, then make a judgement about how long that conversation could have lasted if the conversants were talking less and saying more. Here's just a few advantages of following this cowboy philosophy:

1. You will be misunderstood less.
2. You will not have to ask for forgiveness as much.
3. You will not have to drink as much water because your mouth is dry.
4. You will not be guilty of telling the same stories to the same people.
5. You will be able to get by with a smaller vocabulary.
6. You will have more time to listen. :)
7. You will end up swallowing less tobacco juice.

Try it for a week and let me know how it goes.
DOM

PUT 'X' BACK INTO XMAS

A few days ago, I received an email from an organization seeking to gather support for boycotting certain stores who were taking the 'X' out of Xmas. Some of the stores listed included Walmart, Lowes, Costco, Kohl's, K-mart/Sears, Target and Home Depot. Apparently, they have decided that the word Christmas is too offensive and have chosen to insert a generic term in place of it...like holiday.

I'm curious, does Christmas cease to be Christmas when a number of retailers who line their pockets with the profits from Christmas, choose to not call it Christmas?

I'm not sure if I agree with such a boycott, it sounds so vindictive. Just because a store posts the word Christmas or greets big spenders with a "Merry Christmas" doesn't mean that we have restored the meaning of Christmas. On the other hand, when retailers make decisions to honor the complaints of a small minority, wouldn't a boycott by the majority get their attention and change their policy? But then...who wins?

Merry Xmas!
DOM