"There's Probably No God"

I thought this post from Michael Miller's blog was interesting so I'm including it here. Find some insightful comments from others at his site: http://michaeldmiller.wordpress.com/
Michael is Executive Publisher of NavPress ( www.navpress.com ).
(P.S. Michael is not related to me.)

Atheist Evangelism?

February 16, 2009,

In jolly old England, 800 buses now display the latest message from that country’s atheists. It is interesting that they did not declare that there is no God, but that there “probably” is no God. I just wonder how many commuters in London look up at that campaign slogan and are encouraged. In times of terror, fear, and lack of trust, what an empty message!

I read of a similar campaign planned for Australia’s bus service, but this one was turned down. What was the proposed slogan? “Atheism: Sleep in on Sunday Morning.”

Atheism is developing an evangelistic approach in these times? Seems rather unusual. How will followers of Christ respond to these efforts?

Be a Watchman on the Wall

I was asked recently, "What is the purpose of prayer since God knows what He's going to do anyway?" That's always an important question and I don't have all the answers, but I studied the following today:

"On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;
All day and all night they will never keep silent
You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves;
And give Him no rest until He establishes
And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,
"I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies;
Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored."
But those who garner it will eat it and praise the LORD;
And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary." Isaiah 62:6-9 (New American Standard Bible)

At this time, God has already promised the Israelites the restoration of Jerusalem but here He says they are to be like watchmen who never rest. In those days, watchmen on the top of the walls of the city were to never sleep and constantly call out about the safety of the walls (who got any sleep listening to them, I wonder?). Just like those watchmen, the Israelites were supposed to remind God of His promise and "give Him no rest" until He comes through on His promised restoration. God has already sworn what He'll do but the Israelites have to nag Him to do it. OK, maybe "nag" isn't the best word but I sorta get that idea from this passage.

So? we know one purpose of prayer is to prompt God's hand to keep His promises. Don't rest! Don't sleep! Keep it up! He wants us to plead with him in persistent prayer.

God's Heart for the Oppressed

Larry and I recently donated to www.love146.org, which is an organization primarily dedicated to stopping sex trafficking. Let me tell you why...

Reading Isaiah for the last few months has not been good for my lack of compassion about world wide oppression. God's heart for the widows, oppressed, poor, and children is stated over and over again. God's message through Isaiah is, "Stop your religious activity and take action about what I care about. That is true religion and fasting."

The Israelites ask God, "'Why have we fasted, ...and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'" (Isaiah 58:3) In other words, they are demanding that God answer their prayers to end their own oppression in Babylon.

God says in reply (Isaiah 58:6-7), ""Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood."

Then God tells them (if they do that), he will give them many blessings (vs 8-10) and answer their prayers.

A few years ago I was first really struck with the horrible sex trafficking problem when we attended our Centurions program. Larry Haugen received an award at our conference for his work through International Justice Mission http://www.ijm.org. I haven't been able to get the picture out of my mind that they showed of how little girls were used for sex slaves. What broke my heart even more was how one of the older girls begged to be taken for the next client instead of one of the younger ones. She was trying to protect the younger girl. And we're talking about an 8-year-old who already has been used and abused repeatedly.

I'm sorry this is so hard to hear about. But it's happening all over the world. God cares about those little ones. We can be praying that He will reveal the wicked people's "businesses" that are doing these despicable things. And we can give to support the organizations that fight against this evil.

We decided to give to www.love146.org because we are acquainted with one of the women on it's Board of Directors. But we recommend both that organization and International Justice Mission.

Did You Know This About the Passover Lamb?

Our pastor's sermon this morning included the fact that when God told the Israelites to sacrifice the lamb and put it's blood on the doorposts (Exodus 12), the Israelites knew that the Egyptians's main god was represented by a lamb. Every god of the Egyptians was represented by an animal and the lamb was the representation of the main god.

So...it was dangerous for the Israelites to follow Almighty God's instructions to slaughter a lamb within the Egyptian land. The Egyptians could be very upset that their "god"'s image was being harmed. So it wasn't an easy decision which I'd never understood to be dangerous about making that choice to slaughter the lamb and put its blood on the doorpost.

Pastor Marvin pointed out, "Can you imagine that one or more Israelite wives would ask their husbands, 'Honey, can we just smear the blood on the closet door?'" No, they couldn't. It had to be a public demonstration of their faith, even though they could easily think and fear that the Egyptians would be very upset with them. And their lives could be in danger.

He also pointed out that the Israelites might think, "Well, this isn't very culture friendly. We might turn off our neighbors to the Gospel by offending them." Doesn't that sound like us as we try to at times package the Gospel more attractively? Don't offend! And certainly, there could be some good reasoning into that, but in this case, God called upon them to do something that stood out and was potentially highly inflamatory--culturally thinking.

But their obedience delivered them from having their first born son killed by the angel sent by God. And then God delivered them from slavery.

Well, those points were new to me. How about you?