Why Study The Bible

A lesson from the apostle Peter and my son Ryan:

From Peter:
It is a cold night in Gethsemane. The Jewish leadership, taking Jesus to be an opponent they would not want to take on physically, show up with a contingent of Jewish and Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus. They were frightened of the power of this man. In comes Peter, leading with his swinging sword, Malchus barely avoids getting his head lopped off as he ducks to avoid the sword, but his ear gets clipped. What was Peter thinking? I think he still had the words of Jesus’ prediction that he would deny him – Peter loved Jesus, he loved Jesus more than the world. Peter loved him more than his own life as this was suicide to attack a group of men protected by Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers could do one thing well - kill. Peter probably felt his critical moment of testing had arrived, and with great bravery, courage and boldness he was showing, with his sword, there was going to be no denying his Rabbi. He did not anticipate that his real test would not be from soldiers, but from a lowly servant girl.
Jesus, in complete control of the situation, miraculously stops the violence, saves his disciples’ lives by his healing touch; in what would take a surgeon, eight hours – the creator of all life reattaches the ear of Malchus. Jesus is in control of this situation – Peter did not realize this. Peter did not realize the sovereignty of Jesus and has his thinking corrected as Jesus informs him he could call 72,000 angles.
Peter’s heart was in the right place – he will do anything for his Lord, but his understanding was deficient. Peter needed to come to a head knowledge that Jesus was in control.
When the heart and mind are separated there will be problems.

From Ryan:
Like Peter, my son Ryan has a great heart; Ryan, also like Peter, lacks knowledge. After church not too long ago, before he turned three, I looked over and Ryan was in the middle of a freshly planted flower bed picking flowers. I excused myself mid-conversation and removed my son from the flower bed. He had three flowers in his hand and multiples of three are left crushed in the bed. As I pulled him from the flowers and questioned him with not the nicest of tone (although I am at church with people watching so I am on my best behavior), Ryan answered with words and with eyes that gave away his heart – “they are for mommy”. His heart was perfect, but his understanding was deficient. God wants our hearts, and like Peter we must give our hearts to him, but our understanding, our knowledge of Jesus must be there also or we can do some very foolish things. Knowledge increases our faith. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17

Expelled

Ben Stein’s movie, Expelled opened this weekend and I am interested in watching it. From what I hear it exposes the scientific elite stomping down any ideas that threaten evolution.

I recall sitting in the back row of Historical Geology class at my University and the professor yelling at me with a barrage of very foul curse words after I asked a simple question of why the fossil record, with warehouses upon warehouses full, does not reflect evolution, but reflects what we see today - distinct species.

Defeating evolution will not open up the flood gates for people to become Christians. The majority of people who have lived never encountered this theory, for the theory of evolution is new on the historical scene. A rebellious and prideful heart will not be convinced of God through the defeat of a scientific theory; they will be convinced by the grip of the gospel.

As a scientist and a Christian (not a Christian Scientist) I hate evolution, for it is bad science and it steals glory from God.

Our next SUV

A co-worker, currently working in Afghanistan, just sent me some photos…with the price of gas this may be our next family car:

Behold the Lamb

Today, April 19, is passover. Time echos to us through this holiday from an evening in Egypt: a lamb was sacrificed and eaten by each Jewish family as they prepared to leave slavery for a promised land. Blood from this lamb was applied to the entrance of each house; God passed over and did not kill the firstborn son (his wrath). The holiday has been celebrated ever since.

This year in Jerusalem, some Jewish priests sacrificed a lamb in the same manner. You can watch the video here.

Be warned - the footage is graphic, but not as graphic as every Jewish family witnessed and participated in every year. Passover pointed forward to the ultimate sacrifice.

Jesus was crucified on passover.

"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
I Corinthians 5:7

Birthday, basball and airplanes

Ryan received a pool for his third birthday. Jacob is 0.3 seconds away from a push.

Jake is a couple of weeks into little league. He has fun, but takes his role very seriously.

A couple weeks ago our windows were shaking, for the California Capital Airshow came to Mather. Jake and I had a great view from the peak of our roof as the Blue Angeles were making their rounds.

New Blog

A new blog: for family and friends who may be interested in recent photos to help us all seem closer than we are. Also, I hope to post links, articles or words that move us toward God.