INFLUENCE

“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Mat.5:13a, 14 NAS)

I really don’t like the word influence – it conjures up images of pushy salesmen, spin tactics, and certain family members who think they know better how I should live my life than I do.  But Jesus makes it plain in these verses from Matthew that we, as His disciples, are to be people of influence.  So, should we read up on the latest sales techniques and study how best to spin the Kingdom message?  I don’t think that that is what Jesus had in mind.  As a matter of fact, I don’t think He was concerned with technique and presentation at all.  Consider for a minute what He is telling His followers in these verses, “You are salt, and you are light” – not “try to be salt”, or “study up on how to be light”.  I will influence those around me by simply being who and what I am as a follower of Jesus, and that is the point that I think He is making.  Jesus was saying be with Me, listen to Me, love like Me, be filled with My Spirit – become like Me and you will be an influence to people around you.  So be salty, be tangy and add flavor where you live and where you work.  So shine, bring light and truth – your very presence as a Christ-like (Christian) person will influence your home, your workplace, your neighborhood, and your school.  Simply be who you are in Christ.  Be a person of influence.

BEWARE OF THE GIBEONITES

Joshua 9

The incident recorded in Joshua chapter 9 makes for interesting reading.  The nation of Israel has crossed the Jordan River under Joshua’s command, and they have seen the walls of Jericho fall.  After dealing with Achan’s sin, the city of Ai fell as well.  Things were going well for them.  The people groups currently inhabiting the promised land were shaking in their boots.  The Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and all the other “ites” were trying to figure how they could possibly stand up in war against a nation that had God on its side.  The Gibeonites decided to try a unique defensive tactic, deception.  They sent an envoy dressed in travel worn clothes, and equipped them with old moldy bread and tired looking donkeys.  “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the Lord your God; for we have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt.”  (Joshua 9:9 NAS)  They were so convincing that Joshua and the leaders of Israel took their word at face value, and made a covenant of peace with them.  The reality was, however, that they lived just around the corner.  They were one of the nations that God had told Israel to destroy, Joshua could not go back on his word.  The Gibeonites were spared and became a thorn in Israel’s side - all because Joshua “did not ask for the counsel of the Lord”. (Joshua 9:14b NAS) 

I’m sure you haven’t encountered any more badly dressed men on tired donkeys with moldy bread lately than I have, but I am sure that you have found yourself in a situation where a decision had to be made.  As one of Jesus’ disciples every decision is an opportunity to be true follower, or to go it on our own.  Will we bring each matter in our lives before the Lord and ask for counsel, or will we like Israel rely on our own wisdom and judge by appearances?  For a true disciple there is only one course – let Jesus call the shots in our lives.  It’s not only what a Christ follower does, it’s the smart thing.  It may save us the pain of a Gibeonite thorn in the side!

SIMPLICITY AND PURITY OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST

But I am afraid… your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” (2 Cor.11:3)

            In the previous verse Paul refers to the Christians at Corinth as being a pure virgin that he has betrothed to Christ.  And what is required of a betrothed (engaged) woman - simplicity and purity of devotion.  It is going to be a long engagement, but what a wonderful wedding it will be when all of us who belong to Jesus are forever joined with Him, never to be separated again.  The marriage of the church, the bride of Christ, to Jesus is pictured in Revelation 21as a truly glorious event which will lead right into the creation of a new heavens and a new earth.

            However, in the mean time, Jesus waits with the expectant heart of a husband-to-be, and we wait with the expectant heart of a bride-to-be.  Yes, He has given us His Spirit as the comforter; yes, we have His Word; and yes, we have each other (sometimes a mixed blessing J).  But these are all part of a long distance relationship with Jesus.  What we really long for can’t be found on this earth, because He is not here. 

            So what does all this romantic talk about us and Jesus and a wedding have to do with following Him and being His disciples?  Everything.  Being a follower of Jesus can so easily become a matter of doing all the right things, and not doing all the wrong things.  I have found that even that precious time with Him in the mornings can easily lose its glow and become a matter of duty - what I need to read, and the list of things that I need to pray about.  Life has a way of getting complicated, and it isn’t long before what is truly important gets lost.  So I try to keep going back to what Paul said to the brothers and sisters at Corinth.  I keep reminding myself that being a follower of Jesus is first, foremost, and always a matter of simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.

JUST GIVE ME JESUS

I love the words to that old spiritual:

In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, you can have all this world

Just give me Jesus

However, in the morning when I rise, in addition to Jesus I would add one thing - a cup of medium roast Starbucks coffee.  I like it best freshly ground and pressed, not filtered.  As I’m fond of saying, Jesus deserves my best, and without the coffee, He won’t get it.  But back to the song, it truly captures the heart beat of what it means to be Jesus’ disciple.  We follow Him, because we want to be with Him. 

For me that starts about 15 minutes after I leave the covers.  I make my bed, put on some old clothes, quietly walk to the kitchen so as to not wake Barb, and boil water for my coffee.  I then make my way into the living room to my recliner (we have his and her recliners), pull out my Bible, and open it.  I don’t have to read too many verses, and it doesn’t matter if they are in Leviticus or Matthew, He is there.  The Bible is His Word, a living Word, and as many times as I’ve read through it, it continues to be the voice of my Jesus to me.  Just yesterday I was reading in Psalms, “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” (Ps.5.3 ESV)  I see three parts to this verse that describe my morning times with Jesus.  Firstly, He hears my voice as I pour out my concerns:  a problem at work I’m trying to solve, a difficult person I’m trying to get along with, a decision I need to make, and nearly every day, God’s blessing and protection for my wife and family.  But the joy of being with Jesus goes beyond knowing He hears and cares about all that concerns me.  The sacrifice part of this verse regularly becomes part of our time together taking shape as an offering of worship.  How can I not be grateful for sin forgiven, for eternal life, for His loving care and protection, and for the grace and peace that are mine each day in Christ?  Then there is the third part, watching.  Watching is the quiet in my quiet time, those moments when my attention is actively fixed on Jesus, but I’m not talking or worshipping, I’m just focused on Him.  Often in the quiet He speaks to me.  That still small voice that brings direction or understanding. 

What I do may not work for you, so find your own place and time.  Just don’t miss what truly is more valuable than all the world has to offer – just being with Jesus.

A JOYOUS NEW BEGINNING

And as Jesus passed on from there; He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow Me!”  And he rose, and followed Him. (Mat.9:9)

            As recorded in the book of Matthew four fishermen have been called by Jesus to follow Him up to this point.  Now He asks Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him.  In the very next verse we see Jesus and His disciples over for dinner at Matthew’s house.  It is a joyous, even raucous occasion.  Matthew celebrates his decision to follow Jesus, by inviting all his friends over for an evening with Jesus.  And his friends are an interesting lot – other tax collectors and “sinners”.  The Pharisees, the religious crowd, are not happy.  How can Jesus possibly associate with people like that.  But Jesus tells them, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mat.9:13)  The message is clear.  It does not matter where we start, who we are, or what we’ve done.  What matters is that we make a clean break from the past, and that we give ourselves completely to a new beginning as a Jesus' disciple.

            The Pharisees were not the only ones bothered by the celebration following Mathew’s decision to become Jesus’ disciple.  John the Baptist’s disciples come to Jesus and ask why His disciples don’t fast.  It is a bit more subtle, but this is another spiritual push back.  Jesus’ brand of religion just doesn’t fit the norm.  It seems that John’s disciples thought that Jesus and His followers should be fasting (like them) and not feasting and enjoying themselves.  Jesus, however, does not give in.  Instead, He puts things in perspective with two parables.  Verse sixteen contains the first, and it is a negative one, an example of what not to do.  Don’t put a patch of new cloth on an old garment, because when it is washed, it will shrink and make a bigger tear.  The point is clear in this context.  To be Jesus disciple we have to start fresh, completely fresh, and throw out all our old religious ideas and practices.  The second parable in verse seventeen makes the same point from the positive side.  When making wine use a fresh, new wineskin, because an old one will lack the elasticity to withstand the fermentation process.  It will break, the wine will be spilled, and the skin will be ruined.  It is the same message.  Following Jesus, truly becoming His disciple, is not a matter of patching up our lives a bit here and there to make them look better, it is a matter of making a completely new beginning.  The price is high, but like Matthew, it is a decision worth celebrating.

ACCEPTING THE INVITATION

“Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Mat.4: 20 ESV)

            Peter and Andrew were already believers.  They had known Jesus for about a year before He walked up to them and said, “Follow Me”.  He was not a complete stranger.  But I still have to ask myself, why did they leave their nets and follow Him?  If I were in their sandals would I follow Jesus?

Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God.  Part of what I think appealed to them was the opportunity to be part of something bigger, something significant.  I can see them looking at Him, and then looking at the nets in their hands and weighing the options – continuing on in the same simple, safe, well-known life with their nets, or a place at Jesus’ right hand as He ushered in the Kingdom of God.  And along with this there was the personal challenge to become something more, a fisher of men.  I’m sure they didn’t fully understand what this meant, but being fishermen it must have resonated with them.  It was an offer they couldn’t resist.  There was risk, but there was so much to gain.

There was more.  They had heard Jesus speak, and it was not just your everyday  teaching from the Torah,  Good Jewish men like Peter and Andrew had had plenty of religion, but this was something different.  His teaching moved them - it had a ring of truth and authority about it.  Then there was the day He turned water into wine at the wedding in Canaan. (John 2: 1-12 )  They had never seen anything like that before.  It was no trick, no sleight of hand, this was the power of God.  Jesus was so gentle and loving, especially to the poor and the weak, but the Spirit of God was in Him.

More than all this, when they looked into His eyes they thought, “What is it about this man?  Who is He?”  He was more than genuine.  He was more than good and kind.  He was more than a miracle worker.  It took a while yet to put it into words, but they sensed it, and somewhere deep inside they instinctively knew – He was God.  They couldn’t say no to His invitation to follow.  Can I?  Can you?

FOLLOW

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.  Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Mat.4: 19, 20 ESV) 

Jesus’ call to Peter and Andrew by the Sea of Galilee seems so abrupt, and their response so extreme. If a stranger walked up to you and said “follow me”, would you do it?  Even if he was Jesus?  In reality, this event occurred about one year into Jesus’ ministry, after the arrest of John the Baptist (Mat. 4:12).  Jesus was no stranger to Peter and Andrew.  They had heard him teach, they had seen him turn water into wine, and all this happened before Jesus issued this amazing command, “follow me.” (John 2:1-12, 3:24).  They were already believers.  This was not a call to believe in him, this was a call to leave their nets and follow him - and it was a call to become something, fishers of men.

I became a believer as a pre-teen.  I dedicated my life to serve God at age 17.  I think of myself as a follower of Jesus.  I’m not sure, however, that I’ve ever truly responded to Jesus’ call to. “Follow me and I will make you (a) fisher(s) of men.”  Frankly the thought scares me, but at the same time I feel excited and I’m drawn to obey.  Jesus does not make it easy.  Following him is not something we can do part time.  It is not something we can just squeeze into the corners of our life where we might have a few minutes for him here or there in our schedule.  To move beyond just believing to truly following him we must drop our nets (all the stuff that occupies us) and give him our full attention.  Jesus, then, takes it upon himself to change us, and make us fishers of men.  Unlike Peter and Andrew we don’t have to leave home, we have to do something that may be harder – follow Jesus and become fishers of men where we live.

The family at Rockside Church is taking April and May to learn together what it means to move beyond just believing to following Jesus.  Next fall we will take two months to complete the process and let Jesus make us fishers of men.  It won’t happen quickly or easily, but through Sunday services and Life Groups in homes we will take our first steps.  Will you join us?  For more information go to www.rocksidechurch.com  or call (216) 650 6780.

FULL DISCLOSURE

To sum up the last few entries, (1) I was awakened to God, (2) since then I have practiced the science of God by coming to know Him personally, and (3) I have benefited great in coming to know Him by studying the priceless record of God’s revelation to mankind.  This priceless record, the Bible, is composed of two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Old Testament was written before the birth of Christ, and its cannon (its list of accepted works), was largely set by the time of Christ.  It was spoken of by Christ and by the writers of the New Testament as being the authoritative record of God’s revelation to mankind.  The New Testament was written by the apostles (those who knew Christ personally and were witnesses of His life, death and resurrection), and others who were directly associated with the apostles.  The cannon of the New Testament was set within a few hundred years after Christ’s death.  

So, why, you may ask, are writings today not accepted as part of the Bible?  Why is the record set?  Learning continues in every other branch of science, and scientific literature is growing at a rapid rate, so again, why limit the Bible to just old literature, and why just this old literature?

The simple answer to this question is that God has made a full disclosure.  He did that by becoming a human being and living here on earth, in a flesh and blood form that we could see and directly learn from.  God fully disclosed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Everything written in the Old Testament prepared for His arrival, and everything in the New Testament is a record of God’s full disclosure in Christ Jesus.  The author of Hebrews, one of the New Testament books, describes God’s full disclosure in this way, “Going through a long line of prophets God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries.  Recently he spoke to us directly through His Son… this Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature.” (Heb. 1:1-5, The Message). 

Jesus perfectly mirrored God’s nature.  He perfectly and completely spoke the truth about who and what God is, what His purposes are for human beings, and what the future holds.  And then Jesus did something really amazing.  He, God in the flesh, freely gave His life for us on the cross.  God, in horrific agony and pain, bridged the gap that separates us from Him.  This act of love was the culmination of His full disclosure.  It is a clear window into the heart of God

A PRICELESS RECORD

            My last few blog entries beginning with An Awakening, speak of a very personal relationship with God.  I have found that God can be known, and it is a delight to know Him.  But is practicing the science of God confined to what I can learn by direct interaction with Him?  If others are practicing the science of God, then certainly I can learn from them, and I will be anxious to learn from them.  We are all getting to know the same God, and being the eternal, infinite God that He is, there is SO much to learn.

            As a scientist I do not work in a vacuum, alone and isolated in my lab.  This last week in a meeting with a few coworkers, someone made an observation about my experimental results that I had not thought of – it was a eureka moment.  In the last few days I have confirmed his observation, and it has led us to some new chemistry that is potentially very useful.  We work as a family, a team, a community of scientists, and that community is big.  There are hundreds of other chemists within our company that I interact with and learn from on a weekly basis, and there are thousands more in universities and other companies who also practice polymer chemistry.  I spend several hours each day learning from them by reading the scientific literature (articles, patents, and books), most of which is now available on the web.  And all of us are reading and building on the work of chemists who have practiced polymer chemistry in the past.  The scientific literature, current and historic, is a priceless record. 

            The science of chemistry as we know it has only been practiced for a few hundred years, but the science of God has been practiced for thousands of years.  As God revealed Himself to those who have come before us, they wrote down what they both heard and saw.  The literature of the science of God is compiled in the Bible.  It is a remarkable collection of works that include history, poetry, letters, and biographies.  More is being written about God every day, but the works contained in the Bible are unique in their authority.  God had something to say, and He made sure that it was said in a clear and complete form – for the sake of all of us who are practicing the science of God.  The Bible is a priceless record of the science of God.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?

How do we know what we know?  I’ll try to avoid being too philosophical, but in order to know God, in order to practice the science of God, this is an important question, so here goes:  I know it is a clear day with sun and clouds as I look out the window of my office.  We have had a string of cloudy and cold late winter days in a row, so the clear weather is a refreshing change.  I’m sure none of you reading this statement doubt what I have said about the weather, but if you do it is easy to check a weather almanac (this observation was made in Strongsville, Ohio at 11:41 on Monday, February 25, 2013).  Easy enough when it comes to the weather, but how do we gain knowledge about God?  He, Himself, is of course the best source, but can we actually come to know the eternal God?  Yes.  I would contend that God is knowable, a personal being, much like us – the Bible states that we were made in His image,

I fell in love with my wife Barbara in July of 1964, but I really did not know her very well.  Now, more than forty years later I can say that I know her better than anyone else on this earth.  How did I gain that knowledge – by firsthand experience that came from constant observation, interaction, and conversation,  Through the birth and raising of four children, through all the trials and joys of life, through career changes, through financial ups and downs, through all that life brought our way over more than four decades together I have grown in my knowledge of Barb.  It is her person that it has taken a life time to come to know.  The color of her eyes and hair, her height and features can be known in a moment, but I didn't fall in love with them, I fell in love with her person, and it is the person of Barb that I have desired to know. 

The person of God can be known in much the same way.  I stated in an earlier entry entitled An Affair of the Heart that “Spiritual awakenings remain a mystery to me… God approaches us, we respond, and our hearts are engaged with his.”  It begins with an awareness that God exists, and His invitation that is extended to us to know Him.  He reveals Himself to us much like Barb over time revealed more of her inner person to me.  The knowledge of God begins with an awakening, and it grows as we pursue Him, and live our lives interactively with Him.  This is the science of God.  Books about God cannot give us this knowledge.  Practicing the science of God involves ongoing, up close, and personal interaction with Him.

THE SCIENCE OF GOD

            I have already stated that science is incapable of proving or disproving the existence of God,* so, it may appear that I am contradicting myself by writing an entry entitled, “The Science of God.”  Sorry – I just can’t resist, and I hope you will cut me a little slack with the title and read on.

            As I have stated, science is a tool for gaining knowledge.  The practice of science involves (1) gathering data in a systematic fashion, (2) formulating theories – mental constructs that fit the data, approximating reality to some degree, (3) designing and conducting more experiments to gather additional data, and (4) using this new data to perfect our theories or construct new theories.  Science is a powerful tool.  With it we have amassed enormous amounts of information about the universe, our earth, and life as we know it.  God, however, is not made of matter and energy as we know it.  He is transcendent, so science as we practice it – the natural sciences including astronomy, geology, biology, chemistry, and physics - are not capable of gathering data about God.  Simply put, He cannot be seen with a telescope or a microscope, He cannot be weighed or measured, and He certainly cannot be put into a test tube.

            But, if science is a tool for gathering information, then I do in a sense practice the science of God – and so do others.**  I have in fact made the science of God the most important field of study in my life.  No, I do not perform experiments on God.  It would be more correct to say that God performs experiments on me.  I stated in my previous entry, I live in two worlds.  I see God as truly as my eyes see this paper while I scribble out a draft of this blog entry.  As I seek a deeper knowledge of Him, He reveals Himself to me.  In practicing the science of God I do not gather data and formulate theories, I gain understanding about God as He reveals Himself to me.  My understanding about what He is like is constantly being refined.  He is what He is – calling Himself in the Old Testament “I am”.  I have not created a god to fit my needs or my expectations.  He is not what I want Him to be, and He is not what you want Him to be.  He is what He is, eternal and unchanging.  He can be known, and I am on a quest to know Him.  I am practicing the science of God.

*See my earlier entries entitled “The Artist”, “More on the Artist”, and “The Science of Biscuits”

**Karl Barth writes in his Evangelical Theology, “Theology is one among those human undertakings traditionally described as “sciences”.  Not only the natural sciences are sciences… The word “theology” seems to signify a special science, a very special science, whose task is to apprehend, understand, and speak of “God”.”

LIVING IN TWO WORLDS

Every once in a while I ask myself, “Am I sane?  Am I just imagining this awesome God who exploded into my life with light and hope?”  I feel like Lucy in C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe.  One day in an old home in the English countryside she slipped into a wardrobe while playing hide and seek and found herself in Narnia, a complete and separate world from our own.  Understandably Lucy had trouble convincing her sister and two brothers that Narnia existed – that is until several days later they too found themselves in Narnia.

J. R. R. Tolkien communicated the same sense of experiencing two distinct and separate worlds in his Lord of the Rings trilogy.  After Frodo was wounded with a Morgul knife, an elf named Glorfindel found him in the wilds.  Frodo’s fellow travelers saw Glorfindel as just an ordinary elf – elves are ordinary in Middle Earth you know – but Frodo saw him clothed with light.  Later while Frodo was recovering from his deadly wound in Rivendel he told Gandalf, “I thought that I saw a white robed figure that shone and did not grow dim.”  Gandalf explained, “Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side… for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds.”

The Blessed Realm is to elves what heaven is to us.  So, am I saying that I have spent time in heaven?  No, and yes.  No, in the sense that I have not had an out-of-the-body experience in heaven.  Yes, in the sense that I have experienced heaven, and continue to experience it, while living in this world.  What is heaven?  Simply put, heaven is God’s home, it is where He dwells fully and completely, and it is where all is ordered according to His will.  In my awakening I was introduced to God, and to this Blessed Realm.  The more I experience Him, the closer I grow to Him, the more fully I live in that Blessed Realm – all this while still living as a flesh and blood human being.  I simultaneously live in two worlds.

AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART

            This awakening, I have discovered, is something that I share with scores of people that I have come to know as friends.  But others have very different view about what God is like, are ambivalent about knowing God, or are openly antagonistic towards God.  Why doesn’t everyone find this same life and light in God – it is there for the taking?  Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life.  He also said, “Come to me everyone who is weary”.  God has gone on record as saying that anyone who wants to may come to him.  Does the fault lie with God or with us?  If God wants all to come to him, why doesn’t he make them come – but is that actually possible?  When it comes to matters of the heart, and I would propose that knowing God is a matter of the heart, no one can be made to do anything.

            If this coming to God is a matter of the heart, then maybe I should approach the question of “Why did I find God?”, or for that matter, “Why does anyone find God?” from a different angle.  Let me do this with a little bit of personal history.  My wife’s family came to our home town when I was in the first grade.  I knew who she was, because her family attended our church, but I doubt that I spoke two words to her in ten years.  Then one Sunday in June, my brother told me, “You know Barb Campbell is going to camp with us next week.”  I had just started to notice Barb.  Scared, shy, and lacking in self-confidence somehow I worked up the courage to walk over to her after church and say, “Hi, John told me you are coming to camp with us next week.”  She smiled - she actually looked at me and smiled!  That next week in the lodge at camp as well as in the cafeteria Barb would sit with her girl friends, but there would inevitably be a space open next to her.  When I took it, she would inevitably look at me and smile.  I was a goner, head over heels in love.

            Barb’s sister Nancy is nice and also pretty, so why didn’t I fall in love with her, or with any of a dozen or more girls in my circle of friends in high school?  And, who fell in love with whom?  Did I fall in love with Barb, did she fall in love with me, or was it mutual?

            Spiritual awakenings remain a mystery to me, but I think they can be best understood in this light - a mutual falling in love.  God approaches us, we respond, and our hearts are engaged with his.  Yes, we are talking about a different kind of love than my teenage love affair with Barb, but it is just as real, and just as deep, if not deeper. 

THE AWAKENING

“I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” (Jesus, John 10:10b NAS)

A love for science, or at least a love to experiment, came early.  My family can attest to the strange and often smelly concoctions that I brewed up in the basement of my childhood home or out back in the shed.  I almost burned our house down one day when I “proved” that a dust cloud of flour is explosive – I wouldn’t recommend you try this experiment unless you don’t mind singed eye brows.  And of course I had a chemistry set.  Back when I was a child they made real chemistry sets with real chemicals like sulfur and hydrochloric acid.  I hated following the directions, running “canned experiments”, it was more fun to just see what would happen if… and it still is!

We went to church as a family every Sunday.  Some of my earliest memories are of being dressed up by my mother in uncomfortable clothes that included a stiff collar complete with bow tie.  Why don’t little children have to wear starched shirts and bow ties anymore?  Actually church itself wasn’t that bad, because boring sermons were balanced by chicken barbeques, family camp out in the country, Christmas carols, and candle light services.

Then everything changed.  I had an awakening.  A guest speaker came to our church one Sunday night, and as he spoke it was as if the curtains were pulled back and a whole new dazzling world of light and color was revealed to me.  I realized with crystal clarity that God was real.  I realized that there was a heaven and a hell (and I was going either up to one or down to the other).  I realized that sin was a problem – my own sin in particular – and I needed to do something about it.  I needed to make a decision, and I needed to make it quick.  I was too shocked and scared to do anything that night, but the following week I went to a youth meeting down town with a group from our church.  There again I felt the tugging at my heart, an invitation to enter this whole new realm and to know God personally.  Again I realized that life was so much more than what we see and experience in this world.  There is hope for life beyond the grave, and more than hope, a certainty that we will live forever.  How could all this be possible?  But it wasn’t a time for analysis, it was a time for decision, so I said “yes”.  Best decision I ever made (except maybe marrying my wife Barb).  Joy flooded in, and a peace came into my life that I simply cannot describe.  I didn’t adopt a religion.  I didn’t stumble on a philosophy that suited me.  I met the living God, and He awakened me to life.

THEORETICALLY SPEAKING

Good data is a good place to start, but the practice of science is about more than gathering data.  As a scientist I am always asking myself – and those I work with – what is the data telling us?  Can we paint a mental picture of what we are studying that will help us in our ongoing work.  Scientific experimentation in every field of study is a work in progress, there is always more to learn.  With a good mental picture that fits the data we have in hand, a theory, we can go about our work more effectively.  We assemble data, formulate a theory, and then test the theory with more experimentation.  Theories are not reality, they are mental constructs that approximate reality based on the data we have in hand.  We use them as long as they fit the data, then modify them, or throw them out entirely and formulate a new theory that more accurately accounts for what we are learning.

Up to about 500 years ago people thought that the sun and the stars revolved around the earth.  At the time this was a good and useful theory – it served mankind well for thousands of years.  Then, in 1514 Copernicus put forth the heliocentric theory.  His revolutionary theory (excuse the pun) was that the sun was the center of the universe, not the earth.  The sun did not revolve around the earth, but the earth revolved around the sun.  New data that he collected about the movements of the planets and the stars simply did not fit existing theory, so he formulated a new theory.  Over the last 500 years the heliocentric theory has been refined and changed as new and better data became available.  It was discovered that the sun is not the center of the universe.  It is just one of millions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and there are millions of galaxies.  Just recently new data has proven that planets form solar systems around stars besides our sun.  Astronomers expected to find them.  This data fits our mental construct of what we think the universe looks like. We now have solid data proving that other solar systems do exist.  Astronomers, however, did not expect to find water – ice that is – on Mercury.  Sketchy data a few years back indicated that it might be there, but good data now proves that significant quantities of ice are packed in craters shaded from the sun’s heat.  Wow!  That scorched little planet so close to the sun has water – time to rethink our theories about the formation of the solar system.

I love the process of science.  I love gathering data, and I really love data that challenges our theories and forces us to think differently.  Most scientists feel the same way.  So, watch out, your pet theory that seems so iron clad today may be severely amended or even tossed out tomorrow.

THIS OLDE EARTH

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

This, the first verse of the Bible, answers some questions for me, but leaves others unaddressed.  It states that the universe is not eternal, that it did have a beginning, and that that beginning occurred when God created it.  It implies that God existed before the universe came into being (how else could he create it?).  It also implies that He is not made out of the same “stuff” that the universe is made of.  God can be said to be transcendent, that is separate from and outside of this universe, just like my artist daughter-in-law is separate from and outside of her print art*.

This verse does not tell me, however, how he made the universe or how He made living things.  Let’s start with living things.  As a polymer chemist I do not feel qualified to speak in depth about the “how He made living things” question.  There is, however, mounting evidence from the fields of biology and geology that God used a process that occurred over some period of time.  Evolution used to be a four letter word for me, but why should it be?  Later in Genesis chapter one God commands the earth to bring forth plant life, and then to bring forth living creatures.  Interesting!  He commanded the earth itself to bring forth life.  He spoke life-giving power into nature.  Does it matter how long in days as I count them – or He counts them - that it took for this to be accomplished?  If I were God I would have taken my time at it, and I would have enjoyed the creating process.  Why call forth just a few animal species?  Variety is the spice of creation.  Why not make some really interesting ones like the platypus, the hammer head shark, the ant eater, the wood pecker, and thousands of other beautiful, strange and unique creatures?  I think of God as being happy and full of life – as having really enjoyed the whole process of creating life.

Genesis also does not tell us how or when God created the universe.  The “when” question can be determined with some certainty.  Astronomers have observed that the universe is expanding, and they have measured how fast it is expanding.  Calculations based on the speed with which galaxies are moving and the present size of the universe indicate that there was a big bang over ten billion years ago - when this expansion started.  We have some “atomic clocks” here on earth that can help us to calculate the age of certain specific rock formations.  This data then helps us estimate the age of our earth.  Uranium has a half life of about 4.5 billion years.  Deposits of uranium minerals in the earth’s crust decay in a predictable way, with half of the uranium decaying to form lead and other daughter elements each 4.5 billion years.  So, by measuring the relative amounts of uranium, lead, and other elements remaining in the deposits, we can calculate the age of the deposits.  Uranium ore deposits in South Africa have been determined to be 1.7 billion years old.  Atomic clocks don’t lie.  They are not affected by heat or their environment.  Assumptions do have to be made in doing this kind of dating.  We assume that what are taken to be decay elements like lead, have not moved into or out of the deposit, but the assumptions are reasonable, and the data is compelling.

We have nothing to fear from data – all data that good science provides.  It is what it is.  Sound data provides accurate information about our world.  If reliable dating of uranium deposits indicates that the earth is about five billion years old, then God made the earth five billion years ago.  I am comfortable with good data. 

*See my previous entries, “The Artist” and “More on the Artist”.

THE SCIENCE OF BISCUITS

“And God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it;’” (Genesis 1:28a, NAS). 

Science has proven to be a very useful tool, enabling mankind to fulfill God’s commands to fill and subdue the earth.  Simply put, science uses a systematic method of gathering information to help us understand how God has made everything from atoms to galaxies.  Industry then capitalizes on the information that science provides to make new and better medicines, to genetically engineer seeds that produce more abundant crops, and to build faster computers.  But practically speaking, how does science work? What do scientists do?

Instead of describing what I do in the lab as a polymer chemist, it might be easier if I describe how the tool of science could be used in the kitchen.  Last week I made a batch of biscuits (yes, I enjoy cooking almost as much as chemistry).  Making good biscuits is easy.  Just use a pastry cutter to blend flour, baking powder, and a dash of salt with butter.  The blend should be light and crumbly, not heavy and pasty, or dry and dusty.  Then add milk all at once and quickly stir just enough to get a uniform mixture.  Spoon out dabs about the size of a walnut on a cookie sheet, and bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated 425 F degree oven.  Mmm!  I like them best hot out of the oven with honey, and I don’t mind the sticky fingers. J

Now for the science.  Why does the recipe call for three teaspoons of baking powder, and what will happen if I use two or four teaspoons?  Easy enough, I just whip up a few batches with different amounts of baking powder and see what happens.  You guessed it, with less baking powder the biscuits do not rise as much, and with more they rise more.  But how much more?  I measure the exact size of my biscuits and make a mathematical correlation between the size (volume) of my biscuits and the amount of baking powder used.  I might end up with an equation like this: 

Volume of biscuits in cubic centimeters = (rise factor) x (teaspoons of baking powder)

Once I run several more experiments to make sure that I have correctly determined the value of the rise factor, I’ll begin to feel like I’m gaining an understanding of the science of biscuit making.  However, being the inquisitive scientist that I am, I will then go on to study how biscuit quality changes with the amount of butter, flour, milk, and salt used, as well as with baking time and temperature.  It is simply a matter of systematically changing each of my variables (cups of flour, oven temperature, baking time), and then observing/ measuring results (biscuit size, color, taste).

There is so much that we can learn when science done well, like how to make the perfect biscuit, but I have found that science can be un-safe for us scientists.  The practice of science tends to produce in us a peculiar arrogance.  If I study biscuit making in great detail, I will want to publish my results in a prestigious scientific culinary journal (please bear with just a bit of tongue-in-cheek here).  I will likely then be invited to speak about my work in symposiums on food chemistry.  Within a few years I will aspire becoming known as the world’s leading expert in the field of biscuit science.  Over time I may come to identify myself so strongly with the fine science of making biscuits that I will conveniently forget that good biscuits have been made by little known cooks for hundreds of years.  It is so easy as a scientist to lose sight of the fact that I did not create the biscuit, I merely study it.

Science also has limitations.  Though it can be used to systematically study and gain knowledge about everything from atoms to biscuits to galaxies, it has marginal value as a tool to help us gain knowledge about anything that cannot be directly observed, measured, and studied in a systematic way.   How can I use the tool of science to unfold the mystery of love, beauty, joy, or truth*?  Science is powerless to probe the spiritual realm, to prove or disprove the existence of spirits, gods, or God.  Science has made great strides understanding the workings of God’s creation, even how He might have gone about making it, but science cannot tell us why He created the universe.  More importantly science cannot tell us why we were created.

*Neuroscience is capable of monitoring the chemical and electrical changes in our brains that occur as we observe a beautiful sunset, read a love poem, or grapple with moral issues, but I would contend that beauty, love, and truth are more than the measured responses of our brains to these intangibles.

MORE ON THE ARTIST

                              God    -------------->     Universe

                                                                     Matter, time energy

                                                                     Life

  

 I find that the artist analogy is helpful in understanding God’s relationship to the universe and the world.  Artists design and create original pieces of art that are a unique expression of themselves, and yet the art pieces are separate from them.  The artist is not made of the same stuff as the art.

A second analogy that can help us understand God’s relationship to what He has created is that of the architect/ builder.  For over a year my son and his wife lived in a house that was designed and built by an architect who was his mentor and friend.  During this year the architect lived in a smaller house on the same property.  My daughter-in-law likes to cook, so many nights she would cook for three, and the architect would join them for dinner.  It was his house, designed and built by him, so by all rights he could have visited it any time he pleased – but of course he respected their rights in doing so. 

This architect/ builder relationship between God and all He has created can be represented by the drawing above.  God is transcendent, that is separate from, and made of different stuff than what He has created: the universe, matter, time, energy, and life.  And yet, God is also immanent.  The Architect/ Builder of all creation is near, and He is free to enter his creation as He sees fit.  However, being free to be present only when He pleases, and being made of different stuff than His creation, He cannot be studied by science.  His existence or non-existence cannot be proven by science.  God can, however be known.