Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to the greatest Father one can know, our Heavenly Father. We had a great time as the church in Hurdle Mills, Clement Baptist Church, gathered and testified to His goodness, grace, mercy, and loving-kindness. Multiple brothers and sisters testified to what they had learned about the "Fatherliness" of our Heavenly Father this year. How about you? What have you learned? A few of my observations:

1) He, in His fatherliness, sustains His children. Kimberly and I have faced multiple changes this year from building a new home, adopting two children (one with FASD), discovering Caleb has a minor case of Cerebral Palsy, and He took "Mama B" home to see the beautiful face of her Savior. In the midst of all the changes and heartaches, He has faithfully sustained us.

2) He, in His fatherliness, places others in our lives to encourage, instruct, support, and comfort in life changes. He has given Kimberly and I three Dads who are always available, encouraging, and supportive - Thanks HL, Ted, and Dave! You are wonderful to us, and though we were not able to spend time with either of you today - know that you are loved and appreciated. 

3) He, in His fatherliness, has given to us a loving and supportive church family. Praise Him for placing us in a community of faith that seeks to glorify Him!

My celebration of Fathers Day included - teaching Sunday School and Corporate worship, eating a quick lunch, taking a hearty nap, replacing a leaking outdoor faucet, installing an underground drain pipe for the AC unit, washing dishes, and drying clothes. O how good the Father is to us! Marvelous are His ways! Thank you Father for your goodness and mercy! 

No more leaking faucet!

Hopefully the water will now run underground 

Science and Religion

Want to read a well written, well informed article, on Science and Religion? You can find one I highly recommend here. Stephen M. Barr speaks way over my scientific understanding; however, he does a superb job at utilizing scientific discovery to debunk the materialistic philosophical argument against religion. 

Instructive Read

Gene Veith in his book God at Work provides helpful and exhortative insight as to how God is at work in every vocation. Followers of Jesus in every vocation are being used by the Father to glorify Himself. Many feel "less useful" to God due to their vocation seeming unimportant in His kingdom; however, such is far from true. God does just want to use you in your vocation, but He sees your vocation as eternally useful for His kingdom purposes. You can find this easy and informative read here.

The Bible and Art

As a follower of King Jesus, I hold that He created all things "good," pleasing to Him. Though man, though sin and rebellion, have corrupted creation, he has not completely removed the beauty and wonder of such. Thus being said, I for many years was uninterested in the Arts and did not embrace its "goodness" in creation; however, the Arts are a wonderful part of God's good creation whereby man can exhibit his creative nature. Music, Painting, Cinema, Poetry, and Literature, to list a few, are a wonderful part of culture that God has given man the privilege of partaking in creatively. Due to such, I now argue that Christians should be love and appreciate the Arts using such for the glory of God. However, such needs redemptive direction and godly discernment. Francis Schaeffer in his book Art and the Bible provides wonderful insight as to the how the Arts exist in God's creation by His design and how the Christian can judge Art effectively and fruitfully. His insightful book can be found here. Read and enjoy.