Podcast: “Her Faith Inspires” hosted by Shanda Fulbright w/ Guest Lance Cashion

by | Sep 1, 2021 | Christian Apologetics, Christianity, Culture, Current Affairs, God, Jesus Christ, Philosophy, Podcasts, Theology, Wisdom, Worldview

Podcast: Her Faith Inspires with Shanda Fulbright & guest Lance Cashion

There’s a difference between knowing how to think versus being told what to think. But how do you know the difference?

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Last month I had the privilege of being a guest on Shanda Fulbright’s Her Faith Inspires Podcast. We had a fantastic conversation. I definitely recommend adding her podcast to your list.

Link: Episode 91 “Do you know how to think or are you being told what to think?” With Lance Cashion

Summary from Shanda’s Episode Page:
There’s a difference between knowing how to think versus being told what to think. But how do you know the difference? We also discuss brainwashing, freethinking, and what the Bible says about trading your mind to think correctly.

For additional context, here is a link to my original blog post from 2013 here…

Please check out Shanda Fulbright’s website here…

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*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Race Redeemed – We Are One

by | May 6, 2021 | Christianity, Culture, Education, God, The Church, Theology, Wisdom, Worldview | 5 comments

Race Redeemed - We Are One

Recovering biblical anthropology and the true meaning of race

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The word and concept of ‘race’ has been distorted over the last 150 years.

Christians have adopted a concept of race that is completely antithetical to God’s definition in Scripture.

The consequences of this redefinition have been devastating to our societies, culture and Christian witness. When those who claim to uphold biblical truths and live by them adopt foreign man-centered definitions and concepts and then import them into their theology, massive worldview implications ensue. Ideas always have consequences and bad ideas have victims.

The Bible is clear, there is only ONE race – the human race.

Race, Not Races:
The Bible is also clear that the one human race takes on a variety of beautiful physical features and expressions. The Bible speaks of tongues, tribes, peoples and nations. It speaks to the prismatic qualities of the individual and the diverse qualities of different people from different places. Like fields of flowers or oceans of fish, the world is full of the human race in all its fullness, variety, and beauty.

Nations – Ethnos:
Recovering the language and meaning of the truths rooted in scripture is extremely important. Words and meaning form and shape how we understand and interact with reality. The word ’Nations’ in the Bible comes from the Greek, “Ethnos” which is where we get the word ‘ethnicity’ and ‘ethnicities’. We are ONE race but many nations or ethnicities. That is the language of the Bible!

The Christian must understand that the modern concept of race does not find any foundational support in the Bible. ‘Race’ does not mean different ’nations’ or ‘ethnicities’ as modern Christians might assume. It actually is rooted in the (bad) idea that the human race is made up of many species of humans. We must ask, is that true? And what are the ramifications of a false premise or presupposition? How do meanings of words impact reality and our lives?

The language of the Bible is clear and unifying all humans are of one race. To argue otherwise is to introduce foreign secular sociological and anthropological concepts into biblical theology, sociology, and biblical anthropology. The consequence is that this importation of foreign concepts distort the meaning of the Bible and our worldview. This bad idea ends up creating moral confusion and division among people. We are witnessing this in this cultural moment.

Races – Samuel Morton, Scientific Racism and Craniometry:

“Samuel George Morton is often thought of as the originator of “American School” ethnography, a school of thought in antebellum American science that claimed the difference between humans was one of species rather than variety and is seen by some as the origin of scientific racism.

Morton argued against the single creation story of the Bible (monogenism) and instead supported a theory of multiple racial creations (polygenism). Morton claimed the Bible supported polygenism, and within working in a biblical framework his theory held that each race had been created separately and each was given specific, irrevocable characteristics.

Morton claimed that he could define the intellectual ability of a race by the skull capacity. A large volume meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. He was reputed to hold the largest collection of skulls, on which he based his research. He claimed that each race had a separate origin, and that a descending order of intelligence could be discerned that placed Caucasians at the pinnacle and Negroes at the lowest point, with various other race groups in between.” (source)

 

“Morton was heavily influenced in his thinking by the 19th century practice of phrenology (the now abandoned field of study which used the shape of the skull to determine personality traits) and the theories of hereditarianism (a school of thought that saw heredity playing a major role in determining traits such as intelligence and personality) and polygenism (a school of thought that saw human races as created separately and unequal).” (source)

Morton’s theory had an influence on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution in “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” Darwin bought into Morton’s presupposition that some species of humans were superior to others. The ramifications of this type of thinking continues to be seen in our current day.

In the final analysis, the modern concept of ‘race (races)’ is divisive at its root. Even when people of goodwill speak of ‘races’ in a positive light, the term is divisive. Why? Because the modern concept of race was created to divide humans based on physical qualitative attributes. Everything that flows from the presupposition made by Morton and Darwin divides and destroys the unifying vision of one race established by God. Therefore, terms like racism, racist, etc. divide even when used to call out evil. Modern science has proven that there is NO scientific / genetic basis for different races (see National Geographic Article here)

Biblical Words – A Better Way:
In order to clear up confusion and bring unity, we must recover the language of the Bible. Words matter. Words and language are important to God so they must be important to us. After all, God’s primary revelation is His Word (the Bible). By design, human culture and society is structured around language. When language is confused or the meaning of words are distorted, chaos ensues.

Meaning Matters – What do you mean by that?
If by ‘racism’ you mean ‘ethnic hatred’ or ‘ethnic prejudice’ then the Christian can ground a distorted concept of race in truth and bring it into the full light of God’s word. The Bible states, hatred of any kind is a sin equivalent to murder. We must understand that ‘racism’ as a modern concept is foreign to the Bible. The Christian must recover and redeem words – grounding them in the Christian worldview.

Moving Forward – Reordering Disorder
I’ve been attempting to use the language of the Bible to clarify conversations and public discourse. This is not been without difficultly because I have imbibed the language of modern culture as well. However, I have found that using biblical language like ‘ethnicity’, help people think clearly and move dialog into a unifying direction. The implication of biblical language clarifies things like ‘ethnic superiority’, ‘ethnic prejudice’, ‘ethnic bias’ and ‘ethnic hatred’ as all forms of the sin of hatred.  I stay away from using modern sociological constructs and language like ‘races’, ‘racial superiority’ and ‘racism’ because those words and concepts obscure the full meaning of what people are trying to communicate. Based on my background in anthropology, study of sociology and my analysis of culture, it is clear that many academic activists intentionally obscure meaning and redefine words. So, beware and be discerning.

The thinking Christian must understand that the fall and sin have disordered the world and culture. Then, we must reorder things back to God’s original vision (recovering and restoring)

Recovering A Biblical Anthropology and Meaning:
The Christian vision begins with a Biblical Anthropology of what it means to be human – what it means to be created in the image of God (image bearer) – what it means to be male and female – what it means to be a fallen (sinful) image bearer in a broken (sinful) world – what does it mean for every human being to have dignity and value. What would this world be like if every human looked the same – if no ethnicities existed?

By design, human beings search for meaning in life. When we attempt to create our own meaning or identity outside of God’s vision of human life, we end up creating massive problems individually and culturally. However, when we ground our identity in God’s design as His image-bearers, we see human flourishing. We experience unity in the diversity of individual image-bearers as one race – the human race.

Again, the Bible speaks to the prismatic qualities of the individual and the diverse qualities of different people from different places ALL made in His image. Though we live in a broken world, we see God’s goodness and glory through frosted glass but we see it nonetheless reflected in the multifaceted human race of image-bearers.

Race is a unifying vision of all human beings – wrought by God and born of one womb.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,” Acts 17:26

The Bible declares that all people of all ethnicities (nations) in all of history in every place on earth bear the image of God.

We are ONE race – the human race. That is the truth.

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*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Untended fires

by | Jan 7, 2021 | Beauty, Creation Theology, Encouragement, Friendships, God, Jesus Christ, Personal Growth, Prayer, Relationships, Wisdom | 2 comments

From a Christian perspective, I believe the primary fire we must never allow to die out is our relationship with God.

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Have you ever sat by a campfire on a cold winter night?

I’ve always enjoyed a good campfire, particularly on cold nights. I love the warmth, watching the flames release smoke like plumes of silk into the air. Fires bring warmth, light and stir something deep within my soul. There is a connection to our past. Before the smartphone, electricity and stove, there was the campfire. Man has been staring into flames for thousands of years – a campfire in some ways embodies a kind of essence of primordial humanity.

Every campfire eventually dies out if left untended and without fuel. On a cold night as the flames have ceased and embers are fading, darkness and cold encroach the once warm space. The faces of those sitting around the fire grow dark as the light fades and the chill in the air creeps through your neck and back as cold advances on the area once claimed by warmth and light. At this point, you have a choice… Let the fire die out or tend it to bring it back to full flame.

It takes discipline to leave the tent in the cold of winter to stoke the fire. But, the fire is what sustains our warmth and comfort. Tend it, stir it and care for it. A fire is either growing or dying out. At no moment does it remain static.

You and I can learn a lot from a campfire.

Because of the gift nature of creation, even a campfire has meaning and significance beyond itself. In other words, fire has an essence infused into its existence that is much fuller than its utility. I think thats why most people find enjoyment, wonder and contemplation beyond the light and warmth of a fire.

My good friend Dr. Doug Cecil once said in a seminary class, “Untended fires soon die out and become a pile of ashes.” Think about that statement for a moment. If you’ve been around a fire, you know its absolutely true. Fires die out without tending and fuel. To sustain a warm fire, it takes commitment and time. The flames must be stoked and renewed with fuel.

Now let’s apply this ‘untended fires’ idea to our relationship with God and others because I believe we can learn deeper truths about reality and relationships from a simple campfire. When our relationship with God is neglected, that relationship grows cold. The same goes for our relationships with others.

I have old friends I have not spoken with in 20 years. I don’t know where they are or how their lives have turned out. Why? Because with the passage of time the relationship has grown distant and cold due to a lack of attention and tending. Are these relationships a dead pile of ashes? Perhaps. But perhaps not. The only way to find out is to reach out to that old friend and see if there is a hidden ember beneath the ashes. Then, I can fuel that ember and possibly bring the fire back. Given, there are some fires that must be allowed to die out and become a pile of ashes. Those are unhealthy relationships. However, for the most part a good stoking and tending of an old friendship can bring light and warmth into our lives.

From a Christian perspective, I believe the primary fire we must never allow to die out is our relationship with God. By stoking and fueling my communion with my God and creator, I am able to stir a kind of eternal flame in the lives of others (potentially). For my fellow Christians, it will be the flames of fellowship, encouragement, exhortation, challenge, comfort, joy, rest, peace, love and following Christ. For those who do not know the love of God in Christ Jesus, it will be the flames that shed light on sin, awareness of darkness, cold and judgement but also the inviting warmth of God’s goodness, grace, forgiveness, rest, love and peace. Notice how the fire and warmth for both end up pointing to a loving relationship with God.

What fires need to be tended in your life?

Want to know God better?
Spend time with Him in His word – the Bible. By reading and meditating on scripture, you are renewing your mind and stoking the fire of your love and knowledge of Him. The more time you commit to fueling your relationship with the God who loves you and saved you from sin the more you will experience Him as a growing reality in your daily life. The result will be the deep enjoyment of rest, joy, love and peace regardless of how cold and dark the circumstances of life become.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

“I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8)

Want to see God transform the lives of other people and the world?
Pray and intercede for others. Reading and meditating on God’s word reside also with prayer. If reading and meditation are the fuel, prayer is the oxygen required to bring the flames alive. Like warmth radiated by a fire, the result of prayer is the transformation in the world around you – particularly those standing close to your fire. Therefore, we tend fires through prayer.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,” (1 Timothy 2:1)

Want to experience the fullness of Christ?
Serve Him by serving others and sharing your hope in Him. Nothing ignites or reignites a fire in ourselves and others like hope. One way to share the hope you have is through serving others. Meeting the needs of others and protecting the vulnerable take you further into the Kingdom of God and draw you closer to His heart. There is also a blessing in the action of ‘doing ministry’ (John 13:17). Serving others is where what we believe intersects with our will to act. The toil can be tiresome even painful at times but you will experience a fullness and deep joy through serving and sharing. So, we can tend fires through serving and sharing.

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:17)

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” (Proverbs 11:25)

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

My hope and prayer is that you and I will attend to our relationships with God, each other and folks around us. May we remember that untended fires soon die out and become a pile of ashes. You’ll never look at a campfire quite the same again. Perhaps, you’ll see your relationship with God and others in a different light as well.

(Comment and share your thoughts below)

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*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Deposing the Tyranny of Fear

by | Dec 16, 2020 | Culture, God, Personal Growth, Politics, The Church, Theology, Wisdom, Worldview | 4 comments

Deposing the Tyranny of Fear

2020 has been the Year of Fear

If you were to ask me how I would describe the year 2020, I will tell you plainly, “2020 has been the Year of Fear.”

I can see it in people’s behaviors, I hear fear in people’s words and I feel a spirit of fear in the air. Fear has become a currency in our culture. All media, including social media, newspapers, books and talk radio from both sides of the political spectrum fuel fear- and the government is happy to protect you from what the media tells you to be afraid of.

Fear renders humans vulnerable to manipulation and silencing – and dare I say thought control.
Fear is a tyrant!
People are flat out afraid.

If this life is all there is and this world is all there will ever be, then fear is the best idol available to most people. Unless of course, you are an oligarch or an elite, then power is your idol – and fear is the friend of those in power.

Why then are most Christians and churches responding just like those who believe this temporal world and this life is all there is? Why are Christians responding to circumstances like godless pagans who have no eternal vision of reality.

The answer is, we Christians have adopted the idols of the world and imported them into our theology. Whether we want to admit it or not, we have created idols of safety, autonomy, affluence, personal preference, comfort, politics, social issues, self, compromise, immediate gratification and list goes on. Many Christians in America have to some extent adopted a theology of “live your best life now.” I admit, I am guilty of this as well. Humans can’t live in a culture and not imbibe their culture to some degree. And since the Church long ago decided to give up on redeeming, reforming and shaping the culture in which they lived, the modern Church reflects the culture, it’s values and it’s idols. I’m afraid our forbearers would not recognize our modern form of Christianity.

Don’t believe me? Take a few moments and reflect on the last ten months. COVID, lockdowns, mask mandates, social unrest, political battles, the destruction of small businesses, and closing churches reveal things about us. When people are fearful, they will do pretty much anything to ‘feel’ safe. They will even run into a ambush or accept bondage. When the Church is fearful, the light is hidden under a basket. What happens when you hide a light? Darkness invades the room.

“When the Church is fearful, the light is hidden under a basket. What happens when you hide a light? Darkness invades the room.”

Like mushrooms on a pile of dung, fear thrives and grows in the darkness.

When will the mask mandates and lockdowns stop you ask? “When it is safe,” they say.
When will it be safe? My answer is “Never.”

Until the Church stands up to the spirit of fear, the current trend will continue.

Why? This is all rooted in basic human psychology of cost vs. reward and incentives – and human sin nature.

There is no benefit or negative consequence for those in power to stop coercing people and exercising unlawful control. Zero. In fact, there are incentives for the powerful to exert control over you and me.

The thinking Christian must recognize 99% of those in power do not share our worldview. They believe that matter, chance and power are all there is in this life. Why would elites cease trying to control people when there is no incensitve or negative consequence to cause them to? Particularly when free people acquiesce so easily when fearful. For these elites, it’s all about POWER.

Think about it. There is no incentive or risk for those in power to cease and desist mandating shutdowns of small businesses. However, there are big incentives and rewards when those in power designate massive companies like Amazon as ‘essential’ while ordering small businesses to shutdown. Why? Because small business owners are not the big donors or influencers that politicians care about. Politicians care deeply about companies like Amazon, Google, Target, Walmart, Facebook, etc. donate large sums of money and help influence political outcomes that benefit politicians. Does COVID cease to be dangerous inside a crowded Walmart vs an uncrowded mom and pop shop? Absolutely not! Tyranny is always rule by arbitrary edict.

Laws and restrictions only apply to others, not the elite ruling class. That’s why we see tyrannical governors and mayors on media ordering people stay at home, wear masks, requiring businesses shut down and churches closed one moment – then you see them out and about, dining with friends and enjoying other activities the next.  While many Americans can’t work or gather to worship God, the elite ruling class is free to live and move about however they want – without wearing a mask. It’s almost like they rub it in our faces when they ‘get caught’. That is called tyranny – and those clowns use fear to control everyone else. In addition, it’s not hypocrisy as much as it is arbitrary because there is no hypocrisy in a worldview that is rooted in matter, chance and power. Whoever has power can arbitrarily impose their will on others – hypocrisy does not exist in their worldview. This is why I tell people to replace the word ‘hypocrisy’ with ‘arbitrary’ when talking about these ideological tyrants and their arbitrary rules.

The current situation will get worse until it is disrupted and challenged.

Those in power must be forced to see their benefits and reward system is at risk. The world system has always been bent on tyranny and bondage (sin nature of man). Read your Bible and learn history. The world before Christ was a world where most of the population was in servitude or slavery. Only in the last 300 years has that changed significantly. I digress.

The Church (those redeemed by the blood of Christ) is the ONLY institution on the planet that can disrupt the trend toward tyranny. Political parties do not have the moral fortitude or mandate to achieve this. Only the Church has the theological equipment, moral conviction and spiritual power to recover, reclaim, redeem and restore that which is quickly decaying.

Consider the following…
Fear is NOT the fruit of the spirit.
Our fears reveal our idols. In other words, we worship what we fear and vice versa.
This is a spiritual battle first and foremost.

“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7

“If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.” 1 Samuel 12:14

How then shall we (Christians) live in this historical moment?

Get ready for what is coming… Embrace the opportunity.

We must begin with prayer and repentance. Pray for renewal, obedience, courage and that God would forgive our idolatry and fearfulness. We must consider his Word and commandments with a renewed commitment to the revealed truth of the Bible and what it says about total reality. We must be prepared and ready to respond, stand our ground and resist appropriately. We must act using our prophetic voice, bearing witness to the truth, sharing the Gospel and working to redeem and restore all institutions – beginning with the church. Finally, we must trust God and leave the results to Him.

I am convinced that individual Christians and the Church need to get ready for what is coming next in America. There is a head-on collision between two completely incompatible worldviews occurring in our nation that are diametrically opposed to each other. They cannot coexist. That is impossible. They have two completely differing visions of reality and what it means to be human. We have two different constitutions and we’re two different nations.  We need to get ready for the coming conflict. Unless God intercedes, there will be violence.

The Christian must first look for peaceful alternatives. But when faced with threat, he must take a defensive posture but not a passive posture. This is why every Christian must have a sound theology of resistance – knowing which authorities we must submit to and when to righteously resist.

The church must stand up for truth, goodness and righteousness and stop cowering in fear. Or, the church will be shut down. I’ve said it before, “If we do not exercise our First Amendment rights, we will lose them.” And rightly so, as we don’t deserve good gifts that are not appreciated and used. Atrophy is the fruit of apathy and laziness.

Never Quit

On October 29, 1941 Great Britain was in the throws of war with greatest evil of the 20th century, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Winston Churchill addressed the boys at the Harrow School.

Churchill stated, “This is the lesson: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Imagine being the leader of a tiny island nation as a German grey giant loomed over everything you loved, threatening your family and countrymen with total destruction and subjugation. The United States had not entered WWII yet. So, it was one man and one tiny nation staring down one of the strongest most destructive armies in history.

Say what you will about Churchill, but the man never quit. Think about the abolitionist William Wilberforce, he never quit. He fought for freedom for African slaves his entire adult life – the British slave system was abolished three days before he died. Wilberforce never quit. Think about our Savior, Jesus Christ. He came to this earth on a mission to redeem and restore sinful man and the world by dying on a cruel Roman cross. God became flesh and dwelled among us – he was born to die. The Bible says, Christ’s face was ‘set like a flint’ as he marched toward Calvary. Even death could not hold him. Jesus never quit. If our King didn’t quit, why should we?

Enough is enough. It’s time for men of faith to be called to greater faith. It’s time to stand up and prophesy against the zeitgeist. It’s time to depose the tyranny of fear.

Never Quit means that you won’t wake up one morning ten years from now wishing you had done something. Never Quit means that you won’t have to look your children and grandchildren in the eyes with shame and regret about the world they inherited. Never Quit means that church gatherings and unmasked faces will not become memories of how things once were.

Never Quit means that you will obediently take a stand and push back against the darkness. Never Quit because Christ is worth it, the church is worth it, your wife and children are worth it and your nation is worth it.

“I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.” – Revelation 3:1-2

Your move….

(Comment below)

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906 - 1945

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Over the last few months I have been diving deep into history in the area of Christian resistance to forms of tyranny. I’ve learned that we moderns don’t have a clue of how our forbearers thought and responded the world around them. They were far more sophisticated and theologically adept than we are. We believe that just because we have a vast array of technological advances and chronological distance, we’re somehow superior. We need to humble ourselves or history will do it for us.

“More often than we think, our unconscious presuppositions and unquestioned axioms influence our theology. Each of us has a set of theological, cultural, and emotional “filters” that affect our perception and interpretation of the things we see and experience. We seem to be caught in a vicious circle: our experience influences our theology, and our theology influences our experience.” – Ken Boa

This moment may be the biggest opportunity the church has experienced in 200 years. Please don’t let this moment pass because you are afraid. Remember, fear is not a fruit of the spirit. (Comment below)

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Ambling among the stars

by | Dec 9, 2020 | Beauty, Christianity, Creation Theology, God, Theology, Wisdom

Ambling Among the Stars

Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways…

Last weekend I spent two full days at the ranch.

My only company was Drake (our dog). It was beautiful and cold. And I was on my quest to bag one of those elusive bucks. One morning, I left the house for the deer blind two hours before sunrise. – the temperature was in the low 20’s. The sky was diaphanous and the moon was full, making her way westward. The gelid air was perfectly still. I had no need of artificial light as the celestial hosts were sufficient to illuminate my way.

A delicate dusting of ice crystals covered the landscape. The glittering frosty sheet under foot and all around shattered and reflected the bright full moon and stars above. The ground below appeared as the expanse of sky above. It was quite disorientating for a few moments as my perception of the beginning and end of earth and sky were thrown off in a dizzying display of tiny lights.

All was quiet – no breeze – no crickets – no birds or distant cows moaning. One could feel the stillness all around. The silence was only broken by my own heartbeat, my breath and the crunch of frost beneath my footsteps. I halted my progress to behold the beauty and stillness. A lone man, in a lone field, on a lone planet – under the vastness of the heavenly lights – encircled by exquisite crystals reflecting the exquisite night sky above, I stood breathless, in wonder.

In the quiet deepness of the moment bound among the delicate and the magnificent, God displayed His majesty. And I heard a still and quiet whisper, “Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways: And how small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:14)

As I beheld God’s thundering power in frozen silence, I held a little Thanksgiving service in that field as I remembered who God is… In remembering Him, I was reminded who I am. To know Him is to see His glory in surprising ways.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

There is nothing mundane in God’s manifold creation. One of man’s biggest failures is his love affair with Modernity. Modernity is marked by mundane flattening of all of reality with an impingement of over-skepticism. Wonder is swept away as childish when modern man twists multi-faceted creation into a one-dimensional travesty of meaningless chance and matter.

Don’t confuse ‘child-like’ wonder and awe with ‘childish’ immaturity and selfishness.
To recapture child-like wonder is not at all childish. On the contrary, wonder actually allows the imagination to experience the inner consistency of reality. The gift-nature of creation always speaks and points to something beyond itself – to the Creator God who infused everything with meaning, purpose and goodness.

Read Genesis 1 and 2. Allow the truth of God’s great story to become a growing reality in your life as you play your role in the great story.

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