“Beauty as food for the soul” comes from C.S. Lewis. The theme of beauty remained a central thread throughout Lewis’s life.
In fact, Jack (C.S. Lewis’s self-chosen childhood nickname) described himself as a beauty hunter. He spent his life seeking to find that place where all the beauty came from and of course he found it, our magnificent creator God. And that pursuit nurtured his work. Beauty, for Lewis, began in the simple beauty of the landscape and transposed itself into the literature Lewis came to love and master.
The more you study Lewis and his writing, the more you find a man of simple yet robust tastes. A man who took the time to imbibe the simplicity of the beauty around him. It was no frivolous pursuit. Beauty, as it turned out, was food for the soul.
Lewis enjoyed the habit of walking the garden before breakfast in order to drink in “the beauty of the morning, thanking God for the weather, the roses, the song of the birds, and anything else he could find to enjoy.”
His brother, Warren Lewis noted:
“Jack’s mind was developing and flowering on lines as unpolitical as can be imagined. His letters of the time are full of landscape and romance: they record his discovery of George MacDonald—a turning point in his life—and his first and characteristic delight in Chaucer, Scott, Malory, the Brontës, William Morris, Coleridge, de Quincey, Spenser, Swinburne, Keats.”
When was the last time you took a walk only to pick out the beauties surrounding you, thanking God for them? If you’re anything like me, it’s been too long.
You don’t have to be a literary giant, a great philosopher, or a mystic to understand and appreciate beauty. You just have to be willing to take a walk and, as Tolstoy says, look around you.
“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Leo Tolstoy
In this video, Nelson Walters exposes the main reason why America turned from God. It started in the 1960’s when evolution was adopted by law and therefore universities and schools began teaching exclusively evolution as the means the Cosmos came into existence. God and creation were excluded from education.
In the United States, attempts to introduce intelligent design and creation science in schools led to court rulings that it is religious in nature, and thus cannot be taught in public school science classrooms.
The following two Scriptures reveal what God has to say on the matter.
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” Romans 1:20-22
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 1:24-25
There is only one claim that might be more radical than Jesus rising from the dead. It is that Jesus also claimed to be Holy God. Consider these words from Jesus Himself. He states that
“I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
This statement drew considerable anger from many of the Jews, as just a few verses later we read they tried to stone Him – in their eyes this was blasphemy.
Elsewhere in the book of John, Jesus declares that:
“… before Abraham was born, I am.” John 8:58
Here, Jesus is basically quoting God in the Old Testament when God declares Himself to be:
“I AM.” Exodus 3:14
I can think of nothing more radical than claiming to be God. Yet, this is what Jesus claimed and demonstrated. He was God. Correction – He is God. He is very much alive.
“I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
Jesus, The Only Hope for Sinners
The truth about Jesus is that He is the eternal, holy, and magnificent God. He existed in eternity past before the world ever was. In Him, creation was made. He is perfectly holy, supremely righteous, and wholly just. Being just, he must also deal with sin and evil appropriately.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:15-20
When sin entered our world through Adam, all men fell and death reigned. As the book of Romans says,
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (v. 3:23) and “The wages of sin is death” (v. 6:23).
Every member of the human race is fatally flawed and stained with sin. Because of this, we’re born evil and we choose evil. We rage war against the laws and morality of God. We lie, we lust, we steal, we hate, we murder, we blaspheme, we make idols, and we deny the very God who made us. All of us are deserving of judgment and eternal death for our sins.
Yet, from the beginning, God had a rescue plan. He made a promise to redeem His people from the guilt, shame, and judgment of their sins. Prophecies were made about a Messiah and in a mystery that was hidden for ages, God revealed that He is Messiah. Truly – Jesus is the Christ.
For sinners, such as you and me, the person and story of Jesus offer eternal hope. Born of a virgin and fulfilling every prophecy made about the coming Messiah, Jesus came to bring forgiveness, life, and hope. God took the form of man, lived a perfect life, and fulfilled the law completely. He was captured, beaten, tortured, denied, and executed by those He came to save. In doing so, He bore the stored wrath of the Holy God. He became the substitute and took the punishment His people deserve; the innocent died for the ungodly. After this, He rose from the dead and established His church.
You can have your sins forgiven if you repent of your sinful life and receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, thereby committing your life to His example and commands. Jesus’ blood spilled on the cross covers your sins and the judgment you deserve is transferred to Him. Instead of wrath, you receive life. This gospel has been preached for 2,000 years by men willing to die horrible deaths for their faith.
For those in Christ, we are credited, or imputed, with the righteousness of Jesus. Meaning, that in the eyes of God the Father, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Jesus also made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to be our counsellor, comforter, and teacher and thereby enable us to live the Christian life. Nevertheless, the effects of our sinful natures linger and will ultimately kill us in this life unless, of course, we live until the time Jesus returns to rapture, first the dead in Christ and then those who are living, prior to the wrath of God being poured out on an unrepentant world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements of Revelation 8 (Trumpet), 16 (Bowl).
Folks, today you are faced with a binary decision. You can choose to believe and trust that Jesus is everything He said He was, or He wasn’t. In denying Him, you remain under the wrath of God and judgment waits for you. Receive Him today! Trust Him! Believe in Him! The Bible tells that “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” There is no sin or evil you’ve committed that grace cannot cover. Forgiveness is available to all who seek it.
Seek Him while He still may be found.
adapted from an article by Jack Lee on April 11th, 2019 “Who was Jesus?” http://www.patheos.com
Part 1 explains that the cause of the universe is supernatural and cannot be explained by natural events. The word of God brought the universe into existence from something that is not visible, something, unlike ordinary visible/tangible matter and energy. This is consistent with the scientific conclusion that the matter and energy that comprise the universe cannot be eternal. Thus, the cause of the universe must be supernatural.
2. There are potential explanations anyway.
Christian astrophysicists have proposed various explanations as to how God might have created things in such a way that even Adam and Eve would have been able to see distant starlight. This section is a bit technical, but we have tried to make it as easy as possible to understand. The ideas are mind-stretching because they seem to conflict with our everyday experience of the world.
Time dilation models
Einstein is famous for discovering that time is not constant but is affected by movement (speed) and gravitational forces. This is known as Special Relativity and General Relativity, respectively. When an object moves very fast, time for that object slows down, or even stops at the speed of light. Also, when an object is in the presence of a massive object, which provides a strong gravitational attraction, time slows down. These effects are measurable and thus have been verified by experiment. They are so real that GPS satellites, which depend on precision clocks for global positioning calculations, must have their on-board clocks adjusted for the lesser gravity (being up in the sky) and for the speed of movement of the satellite.
Now we can try to imagine God creating the universe, “stretching out the heavens” (Psalm 104:2) on Day 4 of Creation Week. This would entail massive gravitational forces and enormous differences in speeds, both of which would change the time ‘out there’ compared to planet Earth. Thus, in one Earth day (Day 4) an enormous amount of time could transpire ‘out there’ allowing ample time for the light to travel to Earth. Various models have been proposed based on these ideas
New Model
Well, this is not so new; it goes back to Einstein’s era. Einstein’s findings of time changing with motion means that the speed of light (c) cannot be measured in one direction. It can only be measured for the round trip (two-way speed). This gives the average speed, but we cannot know if the speed is the same in both directions.
Einstein assumed that the speed of light in all directions was the same (called the synchrony convention) but he realized that it was an assumption without proof.
God calls us to humbly submit to Him and His Word.
Physicists have been wracking their brains ever since Einstein to try to figure out how to measure the speed of light in one direction. For example, we might want to fire a laser beam at the moon and measure how long it takes to get there. However, we need to place a clock on the moon that is telling the same time as a clock on Earth. That is a problem because as we fly the clock to the moon, the time changes on the clock! Putting it another way, the only way the observer on the moon can know when the light beam is sent from Earth is to be sent a message, which then travels at the speed of light. It all becomes totally circular!
There has been quite some discussion about this in recent times, including from secularists—that the speed of light might not be the same in all directions.
So, what if the speed of light towards us was infinite and the speed away from us was c/2? That would give an average speed of c, which we measure. There is no way that we can know that this is not so. And that would mean that light from distant stars would reach Earth the instant that they were created. No problem!
The Lord Jesus, the Master Designer and Programmer, ensured that the very definition of our sex is encoded onto every single one of our trillions of DNA-containing cells! I cannot imagine a more robust, fundamental way to ‘hardcode’ a static, immutable, unchangeable value, which could well be declared as a constant. This is in perfect harmony with Scripture’s clear teaching of two sexes. Sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes contained in every cell in the body. Male XY and females XX.
“He who created them from the beginning made them male and female.” Matt. 19:4
The many clear instructions in the Bible, given by our caring Creator, are motivated by love, by what is best for us. It is mandatory we follow our Creator’s instructions. If we decide to rebel against the Creator’s will in matters of marriage, sex, and gender definitions, we do it to our detriment. The Bible is the cutting-edge care instruction manual from the brilliant Super-Engineer to those of His beloved creatures created for fellowship with Him. Our every cell is in effect signed with ‘designed in Heaven’.
The Bible teaches clearly on marriage and gender in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image … male and female he created them.” Our Lord Jesus confirmed this (Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6). He quoted Genesis 1:27, the creation of the first human couple, the ancestors of everyone else who ever lived. Thus, the original and flawless plan of our Creator is clearly for every human being to be either a male or a female.
Despite the overwhelming evidence for design in the universe, Intelligent Design’ (ID) is virtually outlawed in academia. They recognise that it must mean that there is an intelligence behind the design, an intelligence outside and above the design itself; and in the context, the design of living things. The term ID is mocked at school (pupils who espouse it have been humiliated by teachers) and universities and it is dismissed in the media.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN is not really a very intelligent term, because it is tautologous: design must by its very nature be intelligent. Perhaps this can be best explained by looking at the other side of the coin. Could there be such a thing as ‘Unintelligent Design’?
It is incongruous that popular TV presenters of the “natural” world such as David Attenborough, continually make references to ‘design’. Many features are referred to as ‘a wonderful design’, or it is said that they are ‘designed to’ accomplish some specific end, such as keeping warm, attracting a mate, enabling flight, or whatever. And yet, David Attenborough is utterly opposed to any idea of an outside intelligence.
If ID is not an acceptable concept, but the fact of design is acknowledged, then the only alternative is ‘Unintelligent Design’. Now this does not mean ‘bad’ design (good design and rubbish design both qualify as design), but the absence of any intelligence behind the design.1 Let us give a little thought to what this means. Design’ carries with it the idea of purpose—indeed it is essential to the very concept of design, which must be a teleological act. If it isn’t purposeful, it is no longer design, but merely accident. If something is designed it must be the product of intelligence, whether low or high-level intelligence.
The only alternative to design by an intelligent agent is design by evolution—which, one assumes, must be ‘Unintelligent Design’. But we have already determined that design is not logically possible without intelligence, at some level. How are we to resolve the paradox? According to most dictionary definitions, evolution is a blind stochastic process, simply a description of what allegedly happened in the past without any intelligent input. A process cannot design anything, thus evolution cannot design! But perhaps evolution is more than a process? Although a non-material entity, maybe it has mysterious powers to direct and select. If so, the same powers that theists ascribe to a Creator God are simply being ascribed to evolution. This rather gives the game away. For its proponents, belief in evolution is a faith, a creed, just as surely as any other faith. We might even say that evolution has become ‘god’ as far as its adherents are concerned, able to do anything ascribed to it. The question needs to be asked. How come evolution is being taught as fact in our schools and universities?
In conclusion, if we refuse to accept the concept of Intelligent Design in the natural world, we have to conclude that our existence is merely the result of countless random events and is utterly meaningless. The presenters of popular science programmes need to take note: nothing is designed to work, and the fact that it does is just an accumulation of billions of accidents. There is one philosophical problem, however. We are creatures who design incessantly. Where did we get our concept of design if there was no such thing?
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Extract of article by Mike G Matthews published by Creation Ministries International, 8 March 2018.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 