Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

Many people want others to think that any positive attributes they have are things they developed on their own. It's true that they might have worked hard at something. But likely, God helped them too. Why not acknowledge God for that during prayer time? Let's look at an analogy. Suppose you were gifted a nice accessory item by a celebrity, and you wear this accessory every day. If someone compliments you on it, surely you would be proud to say "so-and-so gave this to me!"  In that case then, why not apply that same mindset to things given to us by God? We can be thankful to God in our prayer time for these things. Look, the ruler of the universe blessed you with a particular positive attribute!  It's perfectly OK (and very human) to want to work hard at something, for example to compose a musical as well as it could possibly be composed, or to paint an amazing painting. And it is perfectly OK to be happy with the result and to take some joy in that. That is not g...

In this present day, unfortunately we all hear of a lot of misinformation. I'm not going to even attempt to say which things are incorrect. Instead, I'm going to point out the importance of recognizing wisdom and discernment. This is something that only God can help us with. Do not assume that just because someone is successful in one area, that they are wise. They may have a lot of knowledge or success by societal standards, but that does not automatically mean they have discernment . Discernment is knowing what to do in a particular situation, and being able to recognize truth from lies, among other things. I see wisdom and discernment as more or less the same thing. Knowledge is book-learning, which is also important, but it is possible that someone can have knowledge without necessarily having wisdom.  Having discernment can definitely make your life a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier to see a Godly path through difficult situations. I wish I had more discernment than I...

 I was reading Deuteronomy and was struck by the following verse: The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you. There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. Deuteronomy 4: 27 - 29 This says that those living in secular societies, or in societies who worship other gods, still will find the one true God if they search for him with all their heart and soul. Note that it does NOT say that they just have to sit back and do nothing and then God will come to them. It says they will find him if they search after him with all their heart and soul . This means that God will not just ignore someone truly seeking him. He will not simply leave them to their own devices.  On the other hand, if someone isn't truly se...

One thing I have noticed in my scientific career is that those who have a religion tend not to invoke it during scientific conversations.  In contrast, those who are atheist (or at least who see science and religion as incompatible) tend to mention religion the most often. To me, that is interesting and unexpected. This topic is timely because my husband and I were watching a DVD lecture series by a prominent scientist.  Although incredibly gifted at explaining his own topic, I watched his scholar-ship fall down several times by commenting (negatively) about religion and its role in scientific history.  I was puzzled, because, although I do believe in Christianity, it would never occur to me to mention religion (whether positively or negatively) during a scientific talk.  The reason is not that I would be ashamed to do so, but rather that I take it for granted that as a scientist I am investigating the physical laws of this universe that God made. This universe ...

Good question. In the past couple of years, I've been trying to untangle some of the 'big picture' things in life. By the way, I am Christian. One of the ways I started on my recent journey of re-discovery of Christianity was by reading the Bible, starting at Genesis, and trying to have no pre-conceived notions of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and other big questions. Would I discover anything new? Would I be able to get more insight into Big Questions? The answer is that I did make some discoveries that were new to me, and wanted to record these somewhere. Hence this blog. I welcome comments and insights from others.