Walking through Corinth

2 Corinthians 1:1-2

    The letters of Paul most always follow the normal greeting found in the letters of his day.  This greeting consisted of 1) the name of the sender 2) the name of the recipient or recipients, and 3) a greeting or blessing. 
    This example can be found in many Greco-Roman letters such as the one composed in Acts 15 by the apostles.
   
    Paul does modify the greetings to his letter by adding his title (apostle), by mentioning Timothy and by substituting the word “grace” for greetings.  He keeps the Hebrew greeting shalom which is in Greek irene and translates as “peace.  This peace is that which is from God.

    Some scholars encourage readers not to be too caught up in the greeting of a letter, or to read to much into its details.  But there are many things here which the believer should notice.  The first is that Paul is not apostle by “choice” but apostle by “calling.”

    Apostles were those who had seen the risen Christ.  We are not apostles, or at least I am not, for I have not seen my risen Lord.  Whenever Paul thought of himself being called he was always no doubt brought to that startling moment when all that he had believed about himself, the world, and about God was proven to be false.
   
    The calling of Christ was none of Paul’s doing.  And as believers today, it is not to our own merit that we follow Christ, but rather to His glory.  The Christian should never think to his or herself, “I am saved, how wonderful am I!” but instead, “He saved me, he gave me even the faith to believe, how wonderful is He.”
   
    It is only by daily reminding of one's salvation that one can truly be humbled.  And it is only by humility, that one can be magnified through Christ.  We see our model of humbling and magnification in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And this humble promotion through the blood of Christ by “grace” grants the believer true “peace.” Who can take away the peace which God gives, or can give peace that abides in the “One who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev. 1:4)?


 
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. - C. S. Lewis

Defending the Validity of Scripture

Science Can Not Explain Everything

Polkinghorne on Science and God.......

I am not a scientist. But most scientists are not theologians, either.  Fortunately, in John Polkinghorne God has provided His kingdom with both!

In his book Quarks, Chaos, & Christianity Polkinghorne discusses the relationship between God and science.  Of course, from his perspective they are intricately interwoven.

Polkinghorne states that "The need to mix fact and interpretation, to survey the world from a chosen point of view, makes science more daring, and more precarious, than people often realize."

Later on he writes that he believes science "never succeeds in telling us the whole truth about the physical world - there are some new things to find out - but, surely, it tells us some of the truth."

To illustrate this Polkinghorne uses the example of a road map.  Scientifically, the map is merely a collection of atoms and molecules that make ink and paper.  But a map is more than than merely molecules and atoms.

In the same way, science can tell us that our bodies are made of quarks and gluons, but it can not tell us more than our physical properties or how they arrived.

Some modern atheists such as Dawkins, Hitchens, and others say that evolution has disproved God entirely.  These arguments should not even cause a moment's hesitation for the Christian.  Not only because evolution might not be the best possible explanation found by scientists in the future, but because this claim can not be postulated by science at all.

 The claim that "God does not exist" must be made on the basis of one's interpretation of the facts of science.  And this interpretation is subject to the criticisms of philosophy, theology, sociology, and other methods of knowing.

One can not look at a cake and say, "Ha, I have discovered the ingredients and formula for mixing the ingredients, therefore a baker never existed!"  You can not observe your cake, and lay theological claim to it as well.

Apologetically Yours...

I'm a minister to students. I love my job. I love my job because I love my students. And I love my students because of who God has made them to be, for who they are.

The reality today is that many students in Jr. High, High School, and college are losing their faith. Student ministry isn't like it was even ten years ago. The lives of students are not like they were ten years ago.

Students are losing their faith in Jesus for several reasons, but among the most important is the fact that we do not do a good job of equipping them for life. This is because although we teach them how to regurgitate phrases such as "God loves you.", "lost", "sin", and "Savior", we do not teach them how to know truth.

There are a lot of things outside of your families and your homes competing for you. A lot of things that are said to be true. That Jesus is the Son of God, that He is God, that he lived to reveal who God was, died on a cross and rose from the dead is just one out of hundreds.

So, how do you know it is true?

I remember that it was not until I was 19 and in college when it first really dawned on me that I believed that Jesus was still alive. I was sitting in my bed reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" and I got to the part where Aslan the lion cracked the table and came back to life.

I just sat there saying, "Dead things don't raise from the dead." I said it over and over again. Me saying Jesus died and came back to life was crazy. It was almost like saying "Elvis lives".

How did I know that Jesus was alive? For that matter, how did I know that the Bible was true and that all of that stuff really happened? How do I find truth at all?

You might struggle with theses questions. Maybe you don't, but I gurantee you that others around you do. And some of them who don't believe in God wonder why you haven't thought of it before.

What would you say to someone who says, "Science proves that God doesn't exist." or "The Bible was made by a bunch of guys that wanted to start a new religion." or "How do you know Jesus rose from the dead?"

If you have ever had those questions.,I want to give you some things to say. There is evidence for belief in Jesus. There is a way of knowing what is true.

Jonathan