“SEEKING A MISSING BOLT” – Jan 22

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.” Psalm 14:1

I nearly missed my first outdoor bike ride of the year.

I had set out with the intention of doing some adjustments on my triathlon bike.  I wanted to get lower and I needed a little more stretch over the front wheel.  I figured that the stem on my road bike was the perfect solution.  The stem is the part that joins the handle bars to the headset / front forks of a bicycle.  I thought it would be a quick switch to exchange the stems between my two bicycles.

I proceeded to remove the stem from my road bike, setting the cap and bolt on a nearby stool.  I then proceeded on to installing it on my tri-bike.  I carefully tightened the stem in place, inserted the bolt into the top of the forks and tightened the entire assembly into place. Now, it was time to put my road bike back together with the tri-bike stem.  I completed the assembly and reached for the bolt that holds it all together but it was gone.  I looked under the stool; it was not there.  I looked under some exercise equipment; it was not there.   I looked throughout the house but the bolt was gone and I eventually gave up.  Amid the contemplation of a return trip to the bike store, I recalled a previous experience when I accidentally removed the compression fitting that I was now trying to screw a bolt into.  That didn’t make any sense.  Why would they put bolt threads inside the exact hole that takes the wrench to loosen the compression fitting?  Doubt began to enter my recollection.

I loosened the compression fitting and pulled it from its place inside the headset tube for closer inspection.  I looked at the fitting.  The top looked a lot like a bolt with a hole in the end.  There were threads on the outside.  I looked closer at the cap.  It has threads on the inside – it is a nut.

It was then that I remembered that my road bike doesn’t need a bolt.  I don’t know why I didn’t remember that.  I have taken the stem off a dozen times.  I simply got distracted by the knowledge of how one bike worked and convinced myself that everything has to work the same way, even when I had experienced the truth.  I was foolish to search for a bolt that did not exist.

I have talked with many people who say that there is no God or that it is highly unlikely that there is a God.  They think that the guilt of religion is keeping them from happiness and enjoyment.  Often, they are truly sincere in their conviction that a deity does not exist.  Basing their convictions on observations of the physical world and being persuaded that the world is held together by the laws science.

However, we all, Christian and atheist, recognize that there are many questions in this world that science does not answer.  There are some people in a diligent search for those answers.  They spend their careers diligently searching for a bolt that they are confident exists. I argue that most who are looking for the bolt to hold their worldview together, the solution to their life of worry and sadness, have given up in either frustration or apathy.  They may pick up the search periodically but the results are typically the same – deeply unsatisfying – so they try not to think about it.

The problem with all these potential bolts is that they prove to be incomplete and unsatisfying.  Some seek assurance in science, but that is just the start of the list of potential bolts: money, status, appearance, relationships, education, popularity, pleasure; all have been tried in an attempt to hold a person’s worldview together.

I hold that people are searching for bolts that don’t exist.

There is no solution to what this world seeks to appease troubled minds and give meaning and purpose to short lives.  God is the only solution to holding our world together and He is not a bolt.

He has designed our hearts to be perfectly threaded to Him.

Most children start their lives without any difficulty in believing that there is a God.  It is typically through a lifetime of observing worldly solutions (bolts), that a person comes to the conclusion that there’s probably no God.  A close inspection of our hearts will reveal that God is not the source of our anxiety and disenchantment.  We are broken.  We cannot be who we aspire to be.  We will never be deeply satisfied even if we were to obtain every goal  we set.  A close inspection of our hearts will reveal that we were designed for something other than this world.

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. ~ C.S. Lewis

Our lives were designed to be held together by the perfect connection between the God of the Bible and the new heart that He gives us when we receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  It is only through that connection that we will ever stop worrying and enjoy life.

It is foolishness to seek a bolt that does not exist when the solution we desire is already at hand.
It is even more foolish to reject the true answer to our created desire.
All we have to do is thread them together.

PRAYER: Lord, I know that this world is held together by your mighty hand.  I know that my life is held together by your loving grace and mercy.   Father, I pray for all those who are searching for something that does not exist.  You know those whom I am specifically lifting up to You.  Show them that their particular bolts are useless to satisfy their need.  Open their eyes to your Son.  Draw them to the door of salvation and create a new life in them..  I pray this in the precious name of your Son,  Jesus Christ.   Amen.

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“DENYING THE EVIDENCE” – April 30

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” Romans 1:18-19

I like to read apologetics blogs.  However, there is a rather mixed bag in the blog-o-sphere.  There are probably more blogs of atheist apologists than there are for Christian apologists.  I recently saw one particularly condescending post from an individual who had found the key to unraveling the Christian religion.  He advocated focusing on what he called the incoherent arguments hide in the backyard of redemption.

One of these incoherent arguments was described as culpability for a sin nature that is neither requested nor avoidable. I thought that this statement encapsulates many of the arguments of secular atheists against Christ.  It is a misunderstanding of Christian doctrine sharpened into a spear.

I am again reminded of how important it is for followers of Christ to know what they believe.  We must know what the Bible actually teaches us so that we can prevent others from twisting it into something different.  This person’s twisting is a misrepresentation of the implications between a deprave nature and actual sin.  No person has ever faced the judgment of God due to a depraved nature.  People face the wrath of God due to their sin.

The culpability for the atheist and all people is the suppression of the truth that is evident by walking out our back doors and experiencing life.  The atheist, in particular, denies what their own eyes can know about God.  All one has to do is look at this incredible creation to see the divine nature and eternal power of God.

Atheism (Photo credit: atheism)

Man’s culpability comes from being able to know that there is a God but then refusing to honor him or give thanks to Him.  That is the sin for which people are culpable.  The atheist is most culpable since they typically not only fail to honor God but they actually dishonor their Creator by overtly denying that He exists.

Reading the writings of atheists breaks my heart because they so vividly reveal the fallen nature of this world.  The aggressive and egotistical nature of many of these writings is evidence to how they have become “futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  (Romans 1:21)  I am reminded of how broken this world truly is and in need of redemption.

May our hearts break for the lost.  Let us not fall into their carefully laid traps that are really mere pits of futile and debased thinking.  Let us pray that God will open their eyes and acknowledge Him and His Son as their Savior .

PRAYER: Father, I pray for my atheist friends.  I know that their sin is great as is my own.  Father, I pray that you will tear down their intellectual walls that resist the message of this universe.  The message that you are God.  Lord, I ask that you draw them back from their futile and debased thinking.  I ask that you will soften their hearts and open their eyes to see your Son and to see their need for a Savior.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.