faith vs. science?

So I’m sitting in work at lunch reading El Reg and I come across an article on the Pope calling a meeting on evolution. It sounds like a meeting I’d love to attend and the article has me really interested… and then the stupid idiot of an author finishes her article by saying:

In his inaugural speech, however, Pope Benedict did say that humanity was not the “accidental product, without meaning, of evolution”, which suggests that he might not share his predecessor’s support for science.

I hate the way people set science and faith against one another… I have faith and I support science. I don’t believe you can defend a position that doesn’t support science. Grrr…

(This is just a rant.)

morals / ethics

Is there a difference between morals and ethics? Without thinking too hard, I think morals are to do with good and bad whereas ethics are concerned with right and wrong… or is it the other way round? Are “good” and “right” synonymous? I know it’s a random question, but it’s well past my usual bedtime… and I’ve a thought stirring. Perhaps I need to go pick up C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity of my bookcase – the big lad always has the answer to that sort of question.

I’m guessing there is a difference because immoral people can be ethical. For example, and this obviously depends on what you consider moral: the woman who sleeps around can be completely opposed to abortion. What makes abortion an ethical and not a moral question? (Or the other way around.)

movements: God’s and mine

The most recent portion of modern history in my little bubble of life has been filled with movements. I’ve just moved into my new house here in Antrim. It’s nice to have my own space to decorate, to bring people to, to fill with memories. I still have plenty of decorating to keep me busy (until 2019) but I can take my time now that I’ve got the living room more or less finished.

I’ve been reading “Red Moon Rising” recently and it’s very challenging and making me think. Towards the end of the book, the author talks about the missional drive of the 24-7 prayer movement (and links it to the emerging church). The author suggests that we spend less time inviting God to our meetings and instead respond to His invite and attend His meetings. (His meetings are with the hurting, the lost, the lonely, the single mother struggling to make ends meet, the bullied student seeking revenge, the young teenage couple experimenting with substances and each other.)

I digress… kinda… but I think can see that my moving here is totally God: The night before I slept here I met my next-door neighbours for the first time. They invited me round at, like, 10:30pm to sit out in the garden and just chat for a few hours. We got talking and eventually the conversation moved to spiritual things. They know I’m a Christian and they said they were too, but they have so many questions. I’m really looking foward to talking to them again and having them over for dinner and stuff.

How good would it be to see God move in this wee cul-de-sac of mine? Flippin’ awesome, I say!!!

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suffering 2

Perhaps another reason that God wills that we suffer is that it can be for our own good. (This kinda goes alongside Ormo’s comment under suffering.) Take a look at 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 where Paul is talking about the thorn in his flesh that was given to him. It appears, to me at least, that this thorn was a demon actively working against Paul’s body… not merely some benign physical disability, like a limp or something. Paul’s thorn tormented him…

… but it was for his own good; it was so he wouldn’t become conceited [v7].

24-7 reflection : persistence in prayer

I’m in the middle of reading Red Moon Rising. It’s tag line says it’s “the story of 24-7 prayer”. The book is stirring me to do something and I’ve already talked to two people about it, both of whom seem excited. But that’s for another post…

Let me share with you one of the Deeper thoughts from Chapter Ten:

Daniel, we are told, would get down on his knees and pray three times a day. One day, as he read the book of Jeremiah, God showed him that the exile would come to an end after 70 years. Taking God at his word he “turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). Daniel humbled himself and took it upon himself to confess the sins of his nation, interceding for mercy and forgiveness. He prayed passionately and with perseverance because he believed the firm promise of God. Three weeks later we find Daniel still persevering in prayer, fasting from meat, wine and even body lotion! Eventually an angel appears and tells him, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days” (Daniel 10:12-13).

Here we have a glimpse of the spiritual dimension that explains the need for persistence in prayer. It is not that God is slow to act, or that we are trying to persuade God (for prayer is laying hold of his highest willingness). Prayer requires persistence because it is also an act of warfare against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Such prayer reverses the Fall, in which Adam asserted his independence. In it we say, “Not my will, but yours be done.” We fight with God to liberate enemy-occupied territory, knowing that while the victory is certain, the length of the battle is not.

(Red Moon Rising, Pete Greig and Dave Roberts, Survivor, 2003)

Prayerful persistence is required because the length of the battle is not known. This excerpt convicts me. Prayer is a longrunning struggle for me and I often find myself merely uttering a trite prayer before bed, but that is not persistence; that is not fighting.

I want to pray persistently, passionately, humbly. I want to carry the spiritual war further than just my own soul. But, strangely, this doesn’t seem like something I can do by myself.

dancing matt

I just came across this great video.

You know, nothing is said about the video – it just is what it is. I remember reading somewhere that something that isn’t said is stronger than something that is. Because it actually isn’t articulated, it develops a whole subconscious potency. It becomes whatever the person wants it to become – it becomes what is most important to them.

What does dancing Matt say to you?