Category: Devotional Thoughts

Easter Sunday is quickly approaching. It’s the time when we think more about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I’d like for all my readers to reflect on the cross as God’s ultimate revelation of love to us.

Let’s think about this whole concept of revelation.  Here’s what it means: we would not know God completely unless He chose to reveal Himself to us.

We can know some things about God by simply observing the universe in which we live.  Paul talks about this in the Book of Romans:

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 
-Romans 1:20

But these general observations (called “general revelation” by theologians) can only take us so far.  We need more information to know who God is and what He is like.  This is where the Scriptures come in: they teach us about a holy, loving God whose character is nothing like ours.

The apex (high point) of God’s revelation comes in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the Cross.  The Bible describes it this way:

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
-Romans 5:8

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
-John 15:13


Here is our problem: we often look to the wrong place to “see” God’s love.   Sadly, this is true of believers and non-believers alike.

Here’s what I mean–we tend to ask questions like this:

“If God loves me, why did this happen to me?”
“If God loves me, why am I in so much pain?”
“If God loves me, why isn’t my life going the way I want?”

Do you understand the problem?  We will always be disappointed if we simply rely on our life circumstances as “proof” of God’s love.  It would go something like this:

*I had a good day today.  God must love me.
*I’m heartbroken.  God must not love me.
*I got a pay raise.  God must love me.
*I got stuck in traffic.  God must not love me.

It reminds me of the “he loves me, he loves me not” game that children play with flower petals.

Please don’t misunderstand me here–I know that disappointment with God is a very normal human emotion.  God understands these feelings, and even allowed them to be recorded in Holy Scripture (the Psalms, for example).

But disappointments in life do not change what Jesus has done on the Cross.  Do you want to know how much God loves you?  Don’t look at your difficulties.  Look instead to the cross!  Jesus has already proven His love through his sacrificial death.

I’m a man of faith–I believe in the authority of Scripture. But I must confess, I used to have a little bit of trouble with the whole “Creation vs. Evolution” thing. I’ve always loved science, and most biology textbooks present Darwinian evolution as a fact–a foregone conclusion.

My high school biology textbook, for example, had one page about “creationism.” Just one page—that should give you some idea as to how seriously the authors took any other theories on the origins of life.

I’ve since realized just how much scientific evidence exists to challenge (if not completely debunk) Darwinian evolution.

Darwin’s theory came before modern microbiology, so he assumed cells were fairly unsophisticated. But nothing could be further from the truth. We need look no further than the humble bacterium to see what I’m talking about.

One of the microscopic wonders of the world is the bacterial flagellum. This structure propels the microorganism with incredible efficiency. It is a microscopic, organic propeller—a true marvel of nature.

Michael Behe, a biochemistry professor, developed the Irreducible Complexity theory based on such organic systems. Such intricate systems, he argued, are “composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.” In other words, you can’t remove one small component without the entire system shutting down. This would make it impossible for such systems to evolve.

Behe’s theory, if accepted, deals a serious blow to the theory of evolution. Consider this quote from Darwin himself:

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.”

Those who believe in Darwinian evolution have rejected Behe’s theory (no surprise there). But Irreducible Complexity expresses (in scientific terms) something I’ve always believed: life, even at the microscopic level, is just too marvelous to be an accident.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.
  Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.
-Psalm 19:1-4

Note: This post was inspired by The Case for a Creator, a documentary by Lee Strobel.