Just an accident?!

It was our first stop in Spain, after having left Portugal.  We had stopped in Badejos on our way south, and knew that the fuel prices in Spain were considerably better than in Portugal (or, indeed, in France!).  However, there was also a large Retail Park - and my dear wife decided that she needed to have a wee look, and to purchase a couple of necessities!

We walked into the large Centre (glad to get out of the late September heat!), and walked along towards the shop in which she hoped to be able to purchase the items she wanted - Primark!  Yes, even in Spain the chain is apparently well-established. However, as we approached the entrance to the shop, our eyes were captivated by the display in the large plaza outside it and its neighbours.  It was a water and colour extravaganza that was absolutely amazing!  Please take time to watch the video.  It is a full six minutes long - yet I didn't see a repeat of one single sequence: even of those I had watched before running out to the car for my (very basic!) video-cam.  I had intended to place the video here - but the file is too large!  So, in a 'first' for me, I have uploaded it to YouTube, and you may watch by clicking on this link:

https://youtu.be/1KixHThFJEU

Of course, the most amazing thing about that magnificent display is that, according to Richard Dawkins (who just happened to be walking by - sorry, that's actually just a personal fantasy!), it was all the result of blind chance, and random mutations, that took place over millions, if not billions, of years!  Those coloured lights; the various rhythms of the water; the little fountains; the whole edifice in which they all operated; all the product of mindless chance!  Well, in my opinion, for whatever it is worth, anyone who genuinely believes that is in need of a deep reality check!  We might as well claim, for example, that the famous "Four Presidents" heads on Mt Rushmore, N.Dakota, are simply the random end-result of millions of years of wind and rain erosion!

No-one who has ever watched that display in Badejos, for more than a few seconds, would ever believe that it was not the product of intelligence.  I haven't checked but, although I am not a gambling man, I would readily bet all of my next year's pension that not just one person, but a team of persons, spent a great number of hours from the moment that the original conception was born in someone's imagination, until the putting together of the final product.  There is, I would confidently claim, a very large computer programme behind every sequence - every raising of a fountain; every change of the colour of the lighting; every movement of the downpour - a programme that was put together by an intelligent mind.  The engineering behind the display is also amazing, and must have taken many man-hours of planning, working to the finest of tolerances.  "Chance"?; "Random mutation"?  You have got to be joking!

Yet, as any reasonable, and basically-educated, person would surely agree, compared to the workings of the human mind; the amazingly complex structure of even the simplest living cell; the order of the celestial bodies; even that water display, in all of its awesome magnificence, is like something a very small child might produce from a piece of plasticine!

That is why, in one of my books, I make the claim that it takes a great deal of faith to be an atheist!  It takes a great deal of faith to genuinely believe that nothing became something, for absolutely no reason, and then produced other "somethings" - also for no reason at all!  It takes a level of faith beyond anything I have ever experienced to believe that the very laws of physics "just appeared"!

Yet that is the basic religious belief of the atheistic, humanist, evolutionist! 

My Bible makes the very simple statement: "In the beginning, God ..." (Gen.1:1). Only God is the uncreated One; the totally self-sufficient One; the One Who, alone, has the power to create.

The apostle Paul who, as the Pharisaic Saul of Tarsus may not have been an evolutionist, but was most certainly a persecutor of the early disciples of Jesus, made reference to this when he wrote to his fellow-believers in Rome: "They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For, ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, Who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved." (Rom 1:19-27; NLT).   Sounds almost as if Paul had been reading a modern newspaper - or listening to Richard Dawkins, inter al!

You, of course, must make your own choices.  However, be assured that every choice does have consequences.  Be certain to make the right choices - the consequences are eternally significant!

How to preach the Word of God.

Another bus journey, yesterday - to Coatbridge - meant another opportunity to read a couple of chapters of my current reading material on the life and work of George Müller.  This time, the topic that spoke to, and encouraged, me was that of the proclamation of the Word of God.

In my mind, I went back (too!) many years to my time at the Bible Training Institute, in Glasgow.  It was during the summer between the two academic years that I received a very clear call to pastoral ministry.  This meant that, when students gave their testimonies as to what the Lord had done with them during the long break, I had to say that I would be going to University as I was going to be a minister, here in Scotland!

There were those who were not impressed!  They were going to leave all of the comforts of home, and go to foreign countries in which they would have to learn a language that was totally alien to them, and where they would not have running water, electricity, television, and a host of other items and utilities that we took for granted in our home countries.  My response to that particular criticism was that they would also be sharing the Gospel message with those who did not know it at all, and who would be more willing to acknowledge their own sinfulness.  I would be preaching before people who thought that having their name on a congregational roll was sufficient to ensure their eternal future in heaven!  I would have to convince them of their sinfulness, and of their actual need of a Saviour!

The second criticism came from, I confess, just one of my fellow students.   Tony was a Welsh Pentecostal.  He could not understand why I needed all of this university education that I was going to undertake.  All I needed, as far as he was concerned, was a Bible, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, I still possess a book that he gave to me in order to help me to 'see the light'!

My response to Tony was simple.  I explained that, if he was going to be preaching in a Mission Hall somewhere in the Welsh valleys, then that might well be all that he would need.  He might not have, under his ministry, many who were wise according to worldly standards, not many who were powerful, not many who were of noble birth. (see I Cor 1:26).  However, if I ended up in a parish ministry, I would not only have many who were unconverted, but unaware of the fact; I would also be more likely to have the local schoolteacher, the doctor, the solicitor, and others of similar educational background.  "Now," I would continue, "if I preach Christ crucified, 'a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles' (I Cor 1:23), such a person may look, with disdain, at my Diploma of the Bible Training Institute, and think 'If you had had the sort of education that I have had, you would not believe such nonsense'.  However, if that person knows that I am standing there with similar qualifications to those possessed by him/her then, at the very least, that particular argument/excuse is removed."

I still believe that.  I know that the Lord used uneducated fishermen to preach the Gospel.  However, I know that He also used Paul who, as Saul of Tarsus, was educated in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).  Paul's intellectual qualifications were, in his day, beyond reproach!  Of course, I have always sought to remember that not everyone has had the privilege of the education that has been granted to me.  So, I have always endeavoured to use words that do not require a double doctorate in divinity and theology to be understood.  Indeed, that was the thinking behind the series of messages that I shared, in the late 1970s, with the congregation of Bellshill: St.Andrew's, and which became the basis for my first book (details at the head of the blog!).

All of this came back to me as I read these words concerning George Müller.  "He had yet to learn how the enticing words of man's wisdom make the cross of Christ of none effect, and how the very simplicity that makes preaching intelligible to the illiterate makes sure that the most cultivated will also understand it, whereas the reverse is not true." (op.cit., p.43).

May such a message be taken to heart by all of us who are privileged to minister the Word; and always, to His glory.