Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Denver Metro Transformation
Last night I attended a Bridge Building Barbecue for Denver Metro Transformation. This is a fairly new organization whose goal is to bring a revival to Denver by breaking down walls among Christians and building bridges. There will be a city-wide event on August 12th at the Civic Center Park from noon to 8:30 PM.
The DMT group has a ministry where they will send a Prayer Team to your business to pray over your practice. I just recently saw a quote that brought me up short. It said that it is evidence of how weak our faith is, when we are surprised that prayers get answered.
Pray for DMT. They announced that worldwide, many cities are transforming. For example, Cali, Columbia, formerly drug central, is doing much better after the churches started cooperating. One of the speakers said the count was up to 1000 cities. Another story was mentioned in Elk River, MN. There are many hopeless, nihilistic, lost people out in our community. They need what we have and it's free. The challenge is how to show Christ's love to them, through our lives. They're watching and they're hungry. May we not give them a reason to move to the next offering in the Spiritual Smorgasbord!
The DMT group has a ministry where they will send a Prayer Team to your business to pray over your practice. I just recently saw a quote that brought me up short. It said that it is evidence of how weak our faith is, when we are surprised that prayers get answered.
Pray for DMT. They announced that worldwide, many cities are transforming. For example, Cali, Columbia, formerly drug central, is doing much better after the churches started cooperating. One of the speakers said the count was up to 1000 cities. Another story was mentioned in Elk River, MN. There are many hopeless, nihilistic, lost people out in our community. They need what we have and it's free. The challenge is how to show Christ's love to them, through our lives. They're watching and they're hungry. May we not give them a reason to move to the next offering in the Spiritual Smorgasbord!
Darwinian Irony
So let me get this straight. According to evolutionary theory, the successful members of a species are those that leave the most viable offspring.
Those educated in American and European schools are highly likely to believe that the theory of evolution explains their existence.
Upper middle class Europeans and Americans have birth rates below replacement. On the other hand, Evangelicals and Catholics are having multiple children and raising them reasonably successfully.
So, the secularists are acting as if Darwinism was not important, while those they disdain are living as if Darwinism was true.
Hm.
Those educated in American and European schools are highly likely to believe that the theory of evolution explains their existence.
Upper middle class Europeans and Americans have birth rates below replacement. On the other hand, Evangelicals and Catholics are having multiple children and raising them reasonably successfully.
So, the secularists are acting as if Darwinism was not important, while those they disdain are living as if Darwinism was true.
Hm.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Interesting article on embryonic stem cells from MIT
Dr. James Sherley from MIT gave an interview to Mercatornet after Harvard decided to privately pursue embryonic stem cell research. He does a good job of encapsulating some of the practical problems of embryonic stem cells (like causing malignancies, surely a problem.) He also does not dodge the ethical issues. Good short article, recommended reading.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
End times
I admit it. I read the entire Left Behind series. Most were on airline flights or in hotels at meetings. Ever since my first science fiction story, end of the world stories had fascinated me. One of my favorites was Lucifer's Hammer, where a comet strikes the earth and wreaks havoc. Another classic was Earth Abides, where the end came via plague.
And last night we all sat in our living room and watched Independence Day and cheered when the big headed kid from New York gave a computer virus to the big headed silver eyed really mean aliens. That's apocalyptic.
Oh, I almost forgot the classic H. G. Wells book War of the Worlds. The 1950's sci fi movie adaptation is terrific, by the way, way ahead of its time.
After I became a Christian the whole book of revelation thing suddenly became a reality. I began to recognize 666 as something other than three times 222. DenverDocWife told me about Left Behind which I found in a hotel bookshop in Chicago at a meeting. Great theology? Nah. Complex literature? Nope. Good mindless read on an airplane at midnight? You betcha.
Somehow I got hooked up with another series, the Christ Clone Trilogy. In this one, scientists examining the Shroud of Turin find...viable cells! They clone them up into a young man, and the story goes from there. The writing is more complex than Left Behind, and the author is a better science fiction writer. The sequence where a large asteroid grazes the earth, removing Denver, Montana, and a large mountain in South America before heading back out into space, was riveting. Also appealing, of course, is the fact that there are only three books in the series; the link is to the first one.
This past vacation, I picked up an interesting twist on the idea in Father Elijah. Father Elijah is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who moves to Israel and rises high in politics. He marries, but his pregnant wife is killed by a terrorist bomb. He goes into shock and finally emerges in a monastery where he becomes a Catholic priest. His mission? Preach the gospel to the Antichrist! This is by far the most complex of the Armageddon books I've read. As a non-Catholic, it gave me some additional respect for Catholic traditions. The characters were complex and often unpredictable, sort of like real life. It's a thick book, too. There are apparently some more in a loose series by Michael D. O'Brien.
This past week on the Rofters (Readers of First Things) discussion group, there was a link to more apocalyptic writing by a Canadian. It is reasoned, not hysterical, and ultimately gives one pause.
I do know that even Jesus said that only the Father knows the day and time. If Jesus didn't know then I feel perfectly OK about not knowing for sure what's going on. I'll try to keep my oil jars full and be prepared all the time.
And last night we all sat in our living room and watched Independence Day and cheered when the big headed kid from New York gave a computer virus to the big headed silver eyed really mean aliens. That's apocalyptic.
Oh, I almost forgot the classic H. G. Wells book War of the Worlds. The 1950's sci fi movie adaptation is terrific, by the way, way ahead of its time.
After I became a Christian the whole book of revelation thing suddenly became a reality. I began to recognize 666 as something other than three times 222. DenverDocWife told me about Left Behind which I found in a hotel bookshop in Chicago at a meeting. Great theology? Nah. Complex literature? Nope. Good mindless read on an airplane at midnight? You betcha.
Somehow I got hooked up with another series, the Christ Clone Trilogy. In this one, scientists examining the Shroud of Turin find...viable cells! They clone them up into a young man, and the story goes from there. The writing is more complex than Left Behind, and the author is a better science fiction writer. The sequence where a large asteroid grazes the earth, removing Denver, Montana, and a large mountain in South America before heading back out into space, was riveting. Also appealing, of course, is the fact that there are only three books in the series; the link is to the first one.
This past vacation, I picked up an interesting twist on the idea in Father Elijah. Father Elijah is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who moves to Israel and rises high in politics. He marries, but his pregnant wife is killed by a terrorist bomb. He goes into shock and finally emerges in a monastery where he becomes a Catholic priest. His mission? Preach the gospel to the Antichrist! This is by far the most complex of the Armageddon books I've read. As a non-Catholic, it gave me some additional respect for Catholic traditions. The characters were complex and often unpredictable, sort of like real life. It's a thick book, too. There are apparently some more in a loose series by Michael D. O'Brien.
This past week on the Rofters (Readers of First Things) discussion group, there was a link to more apocalyptic writing by a Canadian. It is reasoned, not hysterical, and ultimately gives one pause.
I do know that even Jesus said that only the Father knows the day and time. If Jesus didn't know then I feel perfectly OK about not knowing for sure what's going on. I'll try to keep my oil jars full and be prepared all the time.
