Faith vs Reason?

Does your mind naturally hold faith and reason in a symbiotic relationship?

It seems natural for us as a culture beyond the enlightenment...educated within a system based on the concept that we can test, observe and there by understand all that surrounds us to answer this question in the negative. Clearly faith is in opposition to reason and understanding.

To believe in a DEVINE reality beyond our five sense is in its very nature irrational.

However...today I share the fascinating perspective of Tim Keller from Redeemer in NYC as he purposes that belief in God and Jesus as the self revelation of that God is the most intellectually reasonable choice to make.

A choice that fully embraced can ultimately stretch our minds beyond common knowledge.

That’s so A W E S O M E !

Noah and the Reasons of Faith (download MP3)

God is LOVE

What are the first feelings, ideas and images that come to mind when you think of God? One of the earliest followers of Jesus wrote a letter in which he offered this description of God… “God is love .”

Given his description it’s seems fascinating to read the words of one of the most influential writers and follower's of Jesus, Paul... in his letter to the Church at Corinth like this.

4 God is patient,
God is kind.
God does not envy,
God does not boast,
God is not proud.
5God does not dishonor others,
God is not self-seeking,
God is not easily angered,
God keeps no record of wrongs.
6 God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
(NIV, ©2010: the word “love” has been replaced with the common name for the creator of the know world)

What do you think… how does this align with your picture of God?

Online Bible Resource (http://www.biblegateway.com/)

Referenced Passages…

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. - 1 John 4:7-9 (NIV, ©2010)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV, ©2010)

the darkness just before the LIGHT

a two-for Thursday!

Part 1: The Reason for God

In 2008 Timothy Keller wrote a phenomenal book called The Reason for God. Menlo Park Presbyterian is currently in the middle of a great series based on Tim’s book. Today I share the thoughts of Scott Scruggs on the BIG question “Why Does God Allow Suffering?”

(download MP3 here).

Part 2: Willow’s Family Series

Each year Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago has a family series as they encourage their community to cultivate and grow strong families and relationship. Today I share Bill Hybels interview with Henry Cloud as they discuss “Crafting a Healthy Family Environment”.

(download MP3 here)

The Moment Before the Moment

from Mars Hill, by Rob Bell
(Download MP3)

This Sunday’s experience at Gateway reminded me of this moment from the past. It seems to me that Rob’s thoughts on ADVENT are a great companion piece to John’s thoughts on quieting ourselves to hear God.

The bigness of the connected reality of Jesus’ communities is so beautiful to me... and I consider it such a blessing that we can hear little glimpses of what he’s up to all around us.

May he whisper clearly and directly to you personally!


Side note (if for some reason you find yourself still reading this far in)...

If you’re ever curious as to why I include links.... I carry a deep conviction that we should not just accept all information that passes our way. It seems of great significance that we should explore carefully the questions and claims that we our offered in every moment through so many sources.

more resources on hearing God

Hearing God: Developing a Conversation Relationship with God by Dallas Willard
Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond by Bill Hybels
NOOMA Noise 005 Rob Bell

Ecclesiastes – Lessons in Vapor Management

from Mars Hill by Rob Bell
(download here)

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This week Rob challenges our understanding of wisdom and traditional wisdom teaching as he introduces Mar Hill’s new series on Ecclesiastes. As we dive into a reality beyond the right and the wrong choice.

Time to Make a Change

from Mosaic by Erwin McManus
(Download MP3)

14 This is what the LORD says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I will send to Babylon
and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,
in the ships in which they took pride.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator, your King.”
16 This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
17 who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.

Isaiah 43:14-21 (NIV 2010, emphasis mine)


May we all be drawl into our future by the passion of our God,
...not propelled forward by the inevitability of our past.

the hidden announcement

Do you like skipping stones? I like skipping stones... I mean its fun and clearly you can cover a greater distance across the water.

But, sometimes I'll grab a big rock and just toss it into the water and watch as it drops straight in and creates one single magnificent explosion. I am overwhelmed by the power of that single impact and I watch as the ripples stretch toward the shore.

In my experience thus far listening to Shane Hips teach from Grand Rapids is the opposite of skipping stones. There is a deep resonate peace to prayerfully thinking deeply and critically about God's word.

This week Shane camps out on the story of Jesus' birth in the biography by Luke posing the question.

... How are we hearing God, or what kind of an announcement should we be listening for?

The Hidden Announcement

(download MP3)

May we all share the good news because we just can't contain it!