Something To Read

Editor’s note: Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. His most recent book is “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”
ROCKVILLE, Maryland (CNN) — I am a scientist and a believer, and I find no conflict between those world views.
As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God’s language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God’s plan.
I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. But then I went to medical school, and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of my patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked “What do you believe, doctor?”, I began searching for answers.
I had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” “Why am I here?” “Why does mathematics work, anyway?” “If the universe had a beginning, who created it?” “Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?” “Why do humans have a moral sense?” “What happens after we die?” (Watch Francis Collins discuss how he came to believe in God )
I had always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds. My earlier atheist’s assertion that “I know there is no God” emerged as the least defensible. As the British writer G.K. Chesterton famously remarked, “Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative.”
But reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason plus revelation, and the revelation part requires one to think with the spirit as well as with the mind. You have to hear the music, not just read the notes on the page. Ultimately, a leap of faith is required.
For me, that leap came in my 27th year, after a search to learn more about God’s character led me to the person of Jesus Christ. Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God’s son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.
So, some have asked, doesn’t your brain explode? Can you both pursue an understanding of how life works using the tools of genetics and molecular biology, and worship a creator God? Aren’t evolution and faith in God incompatible? Can a scientist believe in miracles like the resurrection?
Actually, I find no conflict here, and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.
But why couldn’t this be God’s plan for creation? True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.
I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God’s majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.

Seeing Is Believing?

I was pondering the other day about how much time we as people spend being “tuned out” from the rest of the world, preoccupied with personal distraction from what’s going on around us.
We talk on our phones, text on our phones, shove ear buds into our heads allowing an iPod to sever the frail connection between us and the world. We hear what we want, when we want. We hear a lot without giving much consideration to what it is or why it is, for the most part sound is nothing more than background static we’re forced to mentally wade through each day, for the most part it’s a subliminal hum or rumble that wears against or senses. Every so often a single sound comes forth from the haze with a distinct clarity that causes us to not just hear it but to see it as well, for God has designed us to “see” what we hear. In scripture there is a huge emphasis placed upon hearing and seeing. I love teaching young people from the scriptures the spiritual concept of “seeing” what you hear. Some sound is to be ignored while others carry a huge amount of weight depending on what they are associated with, a horn honking in crowded New York traffic is easily filtered out by most who would hear it but it has a reason behind it depending on your proximity to it, it represents something.
A lot of what Jesus said and taught, and subsequently his disciples as well, was fixed around the whole concept of saying and then “seeing” what was said, proclaiming and picturing what was proclaimed, having ears to hear and eyes to see. Simply put, Jesus said, “I am the Word. He who has “seen” me has seen the Father. I am the “image” of the invisible God“
I say all this that we might give greater consideration to some of that which we are caused to “see” as a result of having heard.

I was watching a cell phone video on line which captured the scene outside a building during the shooting on the Virginia Tech campus. Now the scene itself shown on the phone was nothing at all to see, but it wasn’t what was visible to the eye that was important but rather what is “seen” in the audio; a gunman in a class room shooting and killing no less than thirty two people.

Death has a sound.

POP!
One dead.

POP!…..POP!……POP!
Three dead.

POP!
One dead.

POP! …….. POP! .. POP!………… POP!
Four.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Life has a sound.

“We declare (POP!) to you what was from the beginning (POP!), what we have heard, (POP!) what we have seen (POP!) with our eyes, what we have looked at (POP!) and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life (POP!) — this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it (POP!), and declare to you (POP!) the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare (POP!) to you what we have seen (POP!) and heard (POP!) SO THAT… you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Putting The Cost In Pentacost

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”. John 1:27

How many of us who find ourselves within evangelical circles, equate living the good christian life and being seen as righteous before God with not “doing” certain things, “abstaining” from others, or occasionally sharing the gospel with the lost in a rare (very rare) moment of boldness?
This tends to be the default setting for most who “face the front”, but is it really what God is looking for?
One area where I believe God is pleased with what we “do” is in the area of widows, orphans and the poor. Now in the above mentioned passage of scripture we don’t see the poor being addressed but there are several areas in scripture where they are, and I must say there’s a very tight correlation between living within the kingdom of God and how we treat the poor. The scriptures I am about to mention are found within the context of Jesus addressing a person or persons in regards to salvation, being a disciple, (a true follower) or practicing the love of God. Bold emphasis is mine.

Matthew 19:16

16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Luke 11:37 – 43
37 After Jesus had said this, a Pharisee invited him to have a meal with him. So Jesus went and took his place at the table. 38 The Pharisee was surprised to see that he didn’t first wash before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but on the inside you are full of greed and evil. 40 You fools! The one who made the outside made the inside, too, didn’t he? 41 So give what is inside to the poor, and then everything will be clean for you. 42 “How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! For you give a tenth of your mint, spices, and every kind of herb, but you neglect justice and the love of God. These are the things you should have practiced, without neglecting the others. 43 How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! For you love to have the places of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted in the marketplaces.

Luke 19:7
“He went to be the guest of a notorious sinner!” 8 Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Lord, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor. I’ll pay four times as much as I owe if I have cheated anyone in any way.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this home, because he, too, is a descendant of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Acts 10:1
1 Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2He was a devout man who feared God along with everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.
3 One day about three in the afternoon he had a vision and clearly saw an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, “Cornelius!” 4 He stared at the angel in terror and asked, “What is it, Lord?” He answered him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial before God. 5 Send men now to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter. 6 He is a guest of Simon, a leatherworker, whose house is by the sea.”

Acts 15:25
25 Right now, however, I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have been eager to share their resources with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 27 Yes, they were eager to do this, and in fact they are obligated to help them, for if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual blessings, they are obligated to be of service to them in material things.

Galatians 2:6
9 and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

Maybe I tend to beat a dead horse way to much, but I’m increasingly intrigued by the intimate correlation between “being God’s” and how out of that relationship we are to deal the poor, both individually and corporately.
I was in leadership at a local fellowship for over seventeen years and I know for a fact that our relationship with the poor was nominal. I saw the ledger sheet and not much was given to the poor.
Now safe to say “some” was given but that some was distributed among four to five different agencies who served the poor to some degree, so the net result to each was sparse being just enough to let us boast, “we give to the poor”. It was true but in no way could it be considered “caring” for the poor, at best it was an extended token used more to sidestep any embarrassment that might occur in a pastoral social setting when the discussion came up regarding benevolence. I would be willing to bet that the ledger columns of most fellowships would reveal a huge disparity towards the poor in regards to their mortgage payments, staff salaries, and perks. I’m not talking the multi-million dollar churches (5.1 million is the projection for the newest one in our area) this can be true for small fellowships as well, the ledger will usually show a disparity based upon ratio. Now there are some fellowships that get it and have balanced their efforts and finances towards agreement with this biblical truth.
I recently spoke with a man who attended a church here in town which supported six or seven missionaries over seas. A new “leader” took over the helm at this fellowship and decided they needed to build a new building, calculating how much money it would take the decision was made to cut the money going out to the missionaries. Really, true story. Needless to say the man I know didn’t stay there much longer nor did several others in attendance. I clearly remember having to practically wedge money out of the church budget just for missions work, those who had left home and family for the sake of serving Christ. Our entire monthly giving towards missions was one hundred dollars while at the same time we would send six to ten people to China for ten days (using their vacations days) at $1,800 to $2,400 per each, to do prayer walks in certain “key” areas. They made no less than four trips.

“..they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

Paul was going off to preach the gospel, not to trek around the hills and high places with Barnabas doing prayer walks but to preach the gospel, and along with this they were exhorted to do ONLY ONE THING, remember the poor. They could have been charged with emphasizing some deep theological issue speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, curses, deliverance ministries, conferences, summer retreats, buying land for a future church building, or denomination requirements, but they didn’t instead they focused on addressing a foundational truth, THE POOR. And Paul was eager to do this, of all the things he could have been wanting to “do” associated with being on a missionary journey this was the “eager” thing.
It’s interesting that Jesus said, “the poor will always be with you”, and I have to wonder why that is? He made the statement while a woman was pouring a very expensive jar of perfume upon him. She emptied the most valuable thing she had to offer, thus separating herself from it as a witness of her love towards and for Jesus. It kind of falls into the “we’ve given up everything to follow you” category and “what ever you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me“. It was surely a demonstrative witness of what was going on in her heart. She could have talked all she wanted about how much Jesus meant to her but the very act of pouring out the most precious earthy treasure she had onto his feet pretty much said it all. With each person the flow followed a consistent pattern, the willingness to freely give of their earthly possessions for the sake of the poor, the sake of Christ and the genuine pursuit of loving him in their heart. Each, at some point, had to make a decision that would cause them to break from the crowd, subsequently their actions would be documented alongside the life of Christ and the work of God through His church. It’s interesting to note that those who served the poor and “gave up” to follow Christ are mentioned by name, while those who didn’t were merely identified by “what” they were; young, rich, ruler, pharisees, etc.
Jesus said not to worry that the money the perfume was worth wasn’t going to take care of the poor. When he said the poor will always be with you I honestly believe he was establishing a spiritual equation for the church, the poor will always be around because who we profess to be in him will have validity and qualification in how we act towards the poor and this eternal “variable” will never cease to be part of that equation.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”. John 1:27

“So they extended to us the right hand of fellowship and required only a few things of us as we went, ‘Don’t forget to cut that ribbon, toss that first shovel full of dirt, fire up those bulldozers and feed that mortgage God has called you to in Christ’.”