The Crossroads

It is hard to read anything now in the news without being warned of the dire straits we have put our earth into. We are told that if we do not take action now the world will be sent into impending doom. We as Christians, often go down two paths when we are faced with such predictions. Some of us may be tempted to listen entirely to the warnings of doom and fling ourselves fully into the effort to save the world. It is very easy to fall for this as we scroll through emotionally tugging images of receding glaciers and shrinking forests. But we are not to look at the world through the lenses of a secular scientist. God's Word comes first and foremost in every area of life. And that brings us to the other alternative, which is on the other end of the spectrum. Instead of heeding the warnings, we may want to ignore the predictions all together and not do anything about it. After all, God told us to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28) so why should we care at all?  

I remember a discussion I once had with a friend who declared adamantly that science proved the Bible wrong. This is the mindset in so many people today. Science is glorified as the ultimate truth. If any stream of knowledge appears to contradict it, it is dismissed as backward and superstitious. We as Christians are looked down upon because we hold to the Bible - because we say the truth is found in a 2,000-year-old book. Some of the most important issues Christians face today in relation to the secular world have to do with the field of science. Over the next few days, I will be exploring different areas in which science is often portrayed as coming into conflict with the Bible. But the underlying question for us as Christians is: What place, if any, does science hold in Christianity? I've struggled with this myself as I take larger steps into the real world. Some ideas seem to be so appealing when backed up by so-called science that we may b

Recently, I was reading a passage in Matthew 12 when I across this verse: But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (verse 12, KJV) Rarely does a verse jump out at me with such force as it did that night. Words are something I often treat flippantly like they don't matter. Here, however, we are presented with a very different picture. Our words do matter. Not just in this life, but in the life to come. Words have power. They have the power to build up or tear down. With them, we can bring whole hosts of people to Christ or we can create rifts in society and destroy relationships.   James 3:9 describes this dynamic perfectly when he discusses the tongue and its power: With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. (ESV) In today's world, much conflict is conducted through the medium