Tag Archives: faith

Jun29

God, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the U.S.

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Long ago, when I was a kid in college, I was a biology major. Back in those days, we had to prove our salt as budding scientists by being able to list and describe the five laws of thermodynamics (the physical laws that describe how the universe works).

I can’t remember the other four laws, but the second law of thermodynamics got under my skin and I’ve never been able to quit thinking about it. The second law of thermodynamics is the “law of entropy”. Basically, it says that “everything falls apart eventually”.

When we look around us, we can see that the second law is always at work: an acorn falls into the ground, grows into a tree, eventually dies and falls down, and becomes part of the earth again…

Even suns, solar systems, and galaxies eventually die.

Whether we attribute this to Adam’s fall or that God wanted things this side of eternity to have a shelf life is up to the scientists and theologians. All I know it that, in God’s universe, the second law of the universe is working.

HOWEVER, God gave us humans some limited ability to push back on that second law.

In my job as a counselor, I saw the second law of thermodynamics at work in marriages. Good marriages, over long periods, can fall apart. However, those who continually work at growth, creativity, and caring for themselves and others, tend to break that law. Instead of crumbling, their marriage strengthens over the years.

That doesn’t mean we have the power of eternity. We humans live in temporal bodies, which are eventually subject to the second law of thermodynamics. We will someday leave our bodies and enter eternity.

Western culture and the second law of thermodynamics

I attended a conference this weekend, which was attempting to address our national polarization by becoming focused on creating a loving community within the body of Christ and our national culture.

One of the speakers briefly reviewed the history of great empires. Each of these empires had a shelf life. Eventually, the second law of thermodynamics took over, creating chaos and ending each empire.

This speaker proposed that we are seeing the same empire-ending chaos in Western culture, particularly the U.S. He was not trying to spread despair. Instead, he was proposing that if each of us did the good that God gives us to do, that good is greater than evil (Romans 12:21).

It reminded me of the work I have done with couples. Those who are willing to work at growth, creativity, and caring for themselves and others, do well.

Nations that are willing to work at work at growth, creativity, and caring for themselves and others have a chance to survive.

I invite you to think about the second law of thermodynamics. Do you see it at work in your life? Do you feel it at work in our nation?

If so, I invite you first to pray and meditate on the instructions Jesus gave to us, starting with Mark 12: 30-31:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” (Biblegateway.com)

Then ask God what is yours to do that is creative or caring. Then start doing it. Daily.

Let’s do what we can to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves, and overcome evil with good. Maybe together we can hold back the second law of thermodynamics.

May1

Who is Profiting from Your Anger?

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These are tense times. Our nation is in a fractious and dangerous place.

Have you noticed that when you listen to some news services, or commentators, podcasters, or influencers, you feel angry?

Our American politicians, news services, podcasters, and influencers have become subject matter experts in making us angry. That may seem weird, but it is intentional.

Why would anyone try to make you angry? (I’m not kidding about this.)

Politicians want you to be angry so that you will give them money, viral-share their posts on social media, or storm capital buildings on their behalf.

News programs know that if you are angry, you’ll keep checking in for the latest updates. When you check in more often, they get more views, and more views sell more ads. You’re a money maker for them.

Podcasters, commentators, and influencers know that if you are angry, you’ll keep listening to their episodes and share them on social media. This helps them make more money by having more listeners thus selling more ads…and they feel more powerful having lots listeners that they know are feeling angry because of their words. (And sometimes, some “dark money” or other “foreign interest” is paying them to say what they are saying, so they need your continued listens in order to keep being paid.)

When politicians, news organizations, podcasters, or influencers willfully create anger for their profit, it is called “rage-baiting” or “angernomics”. It is addictive for you and wealth-making or behavior manipulation for them.

You are being manipulated into anger for the simple reason that someone wants money or motivation to do their will.

Don’t get me wrong. What these people may be saying may have some truth in it. However, when they are using anger as a tool, they are not trying to give you good information; they are trying to use you for their gain.

When we are flooded with anger, our logic turns off

The stress hormone, cortisol, floods your brain when you are angry. This prepares you to run from the lions that are about to eat you. If you are running from lions, you don’t need to waste time thinking things through.

That’s all well and good if you are running from lions. However, if you are simply being flooded with cortisol all day from one “news” source or politician, you lose the ability to think things through. When you can’t think logically, you are ripe for manipulation into doing things you would never do if you were thinking clearly.

Not only that, cortisol-flooding from anger causes you to lose your personality (because you don’t need to maintain good character if a lion is chasing you). Then, you are REALLY manipulable by those who want money from you, to sell ads, OR worse: for you to do their bidding.

For those of us who are Christians, it is difficult to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and to hang onto the fruit of the Spirit when we are angry.

And while we are at it, in the long run, cortisol-flooding from lots of anger-producing news, influencers, and politicians can give us poor health, along with anxiety and panic disorders.

What do these people care?

Face it, if someone is trying to make you angry over and over again, they do not care about you. You are an object to bring them profit or to do their dirty work somewhere in society.

What do you do about this?

Remember who you are. You are a child of God. God calls you to be angry but sin not and not let the sun go down on your anger (Ephesians 4:26). That means that there are things in our nation to be angry about, but the anger is only a starting point to remind us to stop and pray and see what God wants us to do.

Remember, as a child of God, you are a good person. God calls us to overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21. We don’t win by being angry or against something or someone. We win by being good and being for what God wants us to be for.

Turn off the news, social media, and podcasts! Don’t let them sell ads or get paid by foreign influences because of you. Let them earn an honest living, giving information in a healthy way that brings healing to our nation.

Prayer is more important than you could possibly imagine. Remember I Timothy 2:1-2:

I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. KJV

Do good and overcome evil by:

-Doing good deeds

-Educating yourself with balanced news (I like to read GroundNews.com which presents both sides of a news story.)

-Being the kind of person that brings good into the world

-Exercising your constitutional right to free speech by contacting your elected officials about things that matter and writing things that lead others to goodness and truth

-Exercising your constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate, if God puts that on your heart

-Praying about what is truly yours to do

We can stop being tricked into anger for someone else’s profit. We can work together to heal our nation.

Mar23

Knowing a Tree by its Fruit

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15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (Biblegateway.com NKJV)

Know any ravenous wolves attacking the federal government agencies these days? It felt like that recently when the Secretary of Social Security Administration Dudek made allusions to shutting down Social Security after starting the process of closing up to 47 local offices. He backed down on the threat and yesterday and sent an email to those of us who have a family member on Social Security (this is a screenshot from the email).

What kind of fruit is that? Can you imagine what it is like being elderly and depending on that monthly check and not knowing if the TRO will expire and Dudek will cut off that check?

To add insult to injury, Secretary of Commerce Lutnik, said that if elderly people expressed anger about not receiving their Social Security check, that was a sign that they were “fraudsters”. Is that simply mocking older citizens or is that a threat to them? Here’s the quote (from The Hill):

At one point in the wide-ranging, nearly two-hour conversation, Lutnick also said that if Social Security “didn’t send out their checks this month,” his “mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain.”

“She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining,” the billionaire businessman said.

“Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing,” he said. “Because my mother-in-law’s not calling, come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”

What kind of fruit is that? It certainly does not appear to be godly fruit.

This is the fruit that God wants to see growing (Galatians 5: 22,23):

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.

Praying for my nation. God help us.

Feb28

What Happened to the Original-Intent Conservatives?

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When I homeschooled my kids in the 1980s-2000s, homeschool curriculum publishers, politicians, and popular speakers talked a lot about the US Constitution. In those days, many (or maybe, most) homeschoolers were politically conservative and we listened to politicians and speakers who were conservative. The textbooks we used with our homeschoolers leaned conservative.

So, when all these folks talked about interpreting and understanding the US Constitution, they talked about the conservatives’ way of thinking about interpreting it: the founding fathers’ “original intent”.

Original intent is a way of interpreting the Constitution.

Original intent says that decisions should be made by trying to discern what the founding fathers meant and wanted when creating the Constitution.

People who believed in original intent took the opposite stance from those who interpreted the Constitution as “a living document”.

Those who took the “living document” stance felt that the founding fathers could not have known what life would be like in the future, so they left some flexibility in Constitutional interpretation.

This played out in the court system; for example, Roe vs. Wade. Original intent folks said that the Constitution protects life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They stated that abortion ends a life, thus is unconstitutional. Living document folks stated that the founding fathers had not included women in the original “general Welfare” doctrine of the Preamble. However, today the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote, implying that their general welfare mattered- and welfare included their right to make their own health decisions.

Original intent versus living document has been one of the foundational arguments between American ideologies for decades.

Now suddenly the story has changed. With the Dodd decision in 2022, pro-life Christians got what they wanted. With this decision, abortion laws were handed back to the states. At least 14 states have passed strict abortion regulations.

Christians got a taste of power and wanted more. Recently, I heard a popular television preacher who was celebrating Dodd exclaim, “President Trump is giving the nation back to us!” Drunk on the power they are feeling because of a president that gave them a Supreme Court that gave them Dodd, this branch of Christianity is thrilling over other changes. They want their hero president to place LBTQ folks under restrictions and get rid of DEI, among other things. They believe that the current president is the nation’s and their political savior.

So my Christian friends are willing to ignore power grabs by the president, unconstitutional power grabs. And the only way they can turn their backs on the Constitutionally-mandated separation of powers and checks and balances, is to pretend they do not remember “original intent” of these. But that appears to be okay because their hero-president has given them a new idea: we are suddenly, thanks to his leadership, in a “post-Constitutional” era.

You read that right: because the current president wants authoritarian-level power, what I am hearing these days from many of my Christian friends is that they are now, “post Constitutionalist”.

They say, “we don’t need a Constitution anymore, we need a powerful man who will give us the America WE want”. They don’t want the separation of powers with its checks and balances that are guaranteed by the Constitution. They want a powerful hero who gives my friends and these television preachers the America they want. SO, they do need to toss the Constitution.

I hope some of them will remember the way this works in history.

Give all the power to a strong man, he establishes his regime, and then all his supporters and underlings are pushed aside, imprisoned, forgotten, or worse. These dictators “use them and then abuse them”. Think: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Kim Il-Sung.

Remember with me, Christian friends, that Scripture has guidelines to help us figure how to save our country:

First, test the spirit of leaders, if they are not showing fruit of the Spirit by their words and actions, then they may be tricking you:

James 3: 9 With our tongue we give thanks to our Father in heaven. And with our tongue we speak bad words against men who are made like God. 10 Giving thanks and speaking bad words come from the same mouth. My Christian brothers, this is not right! 11 Does a well of water give good water and bad water from the same place? 12 Can a fig tree give olives or can a grape-vine give figs? A well does not give both good water and bad water. (Biblegateway.com NLV)

Then remember that there’s good news! We don’t need to have a “savior” in the form of a dictator. We, the believing people, have God’s instruction on how to save a nation. If we truly believe, it’s up to us to follow the instructions:

II Chronicles 7:14:

“If MY people who are called by my name will HUMBLE THEMSELVES and PRAY, and seek my face and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

That’s right, we humble ourselves, we pray, we seek God’s face, we turn from our own wicked ways. Then God will hear and forgive…and heal our land!

The guardrails

In the meantime, we have the guardrails: our contract between “We the People” and our government. This contract lasts till “our posterity”, so as long as there are posterity, the Constitution is still in force. It is the supreme law of the land that any would-be dictator must submit to.

In other words, you can’t simply wish away the Constitution by inventing “post-Constitutionalism”.

I suggest we believers return to Original Intent.

What did our founding fathers intend about the Constitution? That it would last, that it would be the supreme law of the land (Article 6, section 2), and that the powers of the government are equally balanced between executive, legislative, judicial, and we the people.

We the people need to walk within that contract!

Feb19

Render Unto Caesar

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“This is our time!” I had the opportunity to listen to a television preacher and a talk show host, both of whom were excited about the current administration. They firmly believed that the current president was a gift of God to Christians.

They honestly believe that at any moment, the president will soon turn the power of the nation over to the Christians so that they can form a new, Christian nation. For evidence they point to the new White House Faith Office (headed by the television preacher, Paula White).

Can I just point out a little Scriptural corrective?

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the most powerful human being who ever walked the face of the earth. If he had been following the Christian nationalist program, he could have cozied up to the Romans and then used his power to kick them all back to Rome, or rain fire down on their heads.

Wouldn’t it have been more efficient to take over Rome? And the Jewish temple?

Instead, what did the most powerful human who ever lived do when he was on earth?

-He fed thousands (Matthew 14)

-He healed the sick (such as Mark 1, Matthew 8, Luke 5)

-He taught people to love, serve, be humble (Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7)

While he had followers who were connected to religious and political entities, he himself refused to use his status as Son of God to insert himself into temple or governmental politics.

In fact, when the Pharisees tried to trick him into taking a political stand on paying taxes, he asked for a coin and pointed out Caesar’s inscription on it. Then he gave these instructions,

“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22)

He wasn’t asserting the ability to use his power to take over things- even though his power could have given him a quick takeover. He used his power differently.

He would use that power to preach the Gospel, show love and compassion, heal, and feed the multitudes.

My fellow Christians, could I encourage you that this is the time to exercise power, the power of Jesus’s way of doing things. You don’t need the power of a government, and you don’t need to lord power over anyone. In fact, those in power right now may NOT turn the power over to create a Christian nation. They may just use you and then abuse you. However, you have the power to change the nation through the way Jesus does things:

-He fed thousands, so now, you feed those in need

-He healed the sick, so now, you work to help people heal

-He taught people to love, serve, be humble, so now, you walk in love, serve, grow in humility so that someday you might hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Jan26

Prayer in Nature

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This year, I am participating in the Renovare book club. In the book club, we just finished Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. This twentieth-century classic talks about various spiritual disciplines that aid Christians in their ability to connect with God. One practice that Foster discussed was the spiritual discipline of time in nature.

It got me thinking about long ago, when I was a young biology major at the University of Florida. I was helping a doctoral student with his field studies of chickadees and titmice. These sweet little birds would flock together and communicate in a complex language. The grad student was recording and deciphering their calls by watching their behavior patterns. It was fascinating work.

One early dawn, we were poised outside one titmouse’s tree hole, ready to record his first call of the morning. Soon, he awoke, perched himself on the edge of his hole, lifted his beak and began to sing and sing! The grad student asked me what I thought that call meant. I knew it was not a call that was setting his territory for the day, calling his mate or the flock. He looked so happy. I blurted out, “He’s praising God!”

That moment set me on a journey. If the birds praise God, maybe God is someone I should think about. To this day, I’m grateful for the birds pointing me toward the Lord!

It turns out that I am not the only person who has been drawn to God through nature. There are lots of blogs about listening to God in nature or praying in nature. Here’s a sweet guided nature prayer meditation from Roma Downey.

Not only is spending time in nature good for the spirit, it is good for the body and soul! Researchers have found that mindful walking in nature (or “forest bathing”) can reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and stress levels. It also can improve sleep and immune function. Walking in nature can produce a wonderful feeling of awe- that feeling in our soul of wonder, of transcendence, or feeling of being part of something larger that oneself.

How do you pray in nature?

That’s easy, just go for a walk. As you walk, notice. Notice the leaves on the trees (or in the winter, the shapes of the bare branches), and listen to the birds and the sounds of the wind. Feel the coolness of the air and the warmth of the sun on your face. Then, spend a few minutes in thankfulness for all these things…and for anything else that comes to mind. Listen. See if God touches your heart or gifts you with a moment of awe.

These are good times to keep our body, soul, and spirit in a good place. Give praying in nature a try, it will help.

Feb22

A Little Twist on Faith

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A Little Twist on Faith

A Small Twist on Faith VickiTalksPrayer.com

Faith is a multi-faceted thing, don’t you think? In my many years of religious experience, I’ve had lots of opportunities to be educated about what *faith* is. Can you relate to any of these?

When I was a child, I was in a denomination that only used the word *faith* in the phrase *saving faith*.

Once I had confessed that I was a sinner and believed that God raised Christ from the dead (accepted Christ’s sacrifice), I had a saving faith. That was cool, but eventually I needed *faith* to be more than insurance against hell.

Saving Faith is one kind of faith VickiTalksPrayer.com

I had some learning time in a fundamentalist denomination where not only do you receive a saving faith but you learn that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17 KJV).

So learning the word of God (Scripture) was the way you helped your faith to come (or grow). That makes sense to me: How can I truly have a relationship with someone if I don’t know what they:

  • have done
  • do now
  • how they talk?

I learn about God from Scripture. In that fundamentalist denomination we focused on the Scripture:

2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for instruction, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (KJV)

Respect for Scripture and eagerness to learn about God through His word was strengthening to my faith, but it seems to me that faith is more than that.

Then I had some fun but name-it-and-claim-it… or *Word* churches. They took a totally different view about God. This *faith* was about God looking out for US.

In a harsh and uncaring world, I found it a great relief to know that God loves me and cares about the minutiae of my life. This kind of faith taught that Scripture knowledge was the door to growing faith so that I could know God better and be rewarded by receiving what we will.

It was sort of on the *God is a cosmic vending machine: I do my part and He’s required to do His part*. One of the big Scriptures we were taught was John 15: 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. (KJV)

Faith Comes Through Knowledge of God VickiTalksPrayer.com

After a while, I got tired of it. However, I do believe that faith is a thing that grows. It is fed by knowing who God is, by loving Him, and by time with Him. My faith tells me God cares about all the parts of my life. But I wanted more.

Recently, I was reading in Luke 17 during morning devotions. It is the story of faith and gratitude. Here is the story (thanks to BibleGateway.com)

11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. (KJV)

It seemed to me that Jesus was appreciating the leper’s gratitude. Jesus was connecting faith and gratitude and healing for the leper.

What this story said to me is that gratitude is a KIND of FAITH.

Luke 17 affirmed to me what I’ve already been experiencing. As a prayer discipline, I’ve been keeping a daily written gratitude list for about a year now. As I’ve noted the big and small things that I have to be grateful for, it has helped me calibrate my soul with the way that God does things. This has, I believe, given me a deeper and quieter faith.

I had never thought of faith and gratitude as being interconnected. It was a *twist on faith* for me.

Gratitude is offering my faith back to God VickiTalksPrayer.com

Understanding faith is a journey for me. So far I’ve learned that there’s:

  • Saving faith
  • Faith that grows as we learn about God through Scripture
  • Faith in a God who looks out for us
  • Faith given back to God in the form of gratitude

What have you discovered about faith? What helps your faith grow?

A Little Twist on Faith