I am fully vaccinated. That’s the statement of the season. Recently, I got my fourth vaccine shot—that’s right, four. Why four, you ask? Because I am participating in a vaccine trial.1 Back in January, I received two shots which may have been the vaccine or a placebo. In April and May, I got two more, the opposite of what I got …
I caught a little wasp recently while on vacation. It was on the beach of a Minnesota lake, right up on the fringe where the adjacent grass invades the sand. It hopped and clambered about rather than flying around like a “normal” wasp, and it was very small—only four millimeters long. As an entomologist, I find insects that pique my interest in many places. There were numerous individuals of this wasp species along that stretch of sand, but we beachgoers had not noticed them before this. I …
What lessons might we, as Christian stewards of the creation, take from this story of the ozone hole?
Could it be that, compelled by our culturally-ingrained tendency toward pragmatism, reductionism, and bravado, we outwardly praise the clever functioning and data-described achievements of our technological creations, yet inwardly we sense that there is something more soul-stirring and more consistent with the good stuff of which we’re made, and more reflective of the beauty of our Maker?
The first thing we know about God and His character—before anything else—was that He created, profoundly speaking the very existence of something into being without canvas, brush, paint, wood, metal or even clay for that matter.
Everyday liturgies shape and form us. Howard Schaap explores the simple, and surprisingly profound, liturgy of pet ownership.
How do we avoid the temptation to pit science against faith and, in so doing, risk diminishing faith to nothing more than a series of propositions and claims and distorting science into an endeavor to prove or disprove the existence of God?
The tension between Scripture’s description of the beginning of creation and the description provided by contemporary science can be particularly troublesome, but it does not have to be.
Harari assumes a God-of-the-gaps approach to science and progress generally; he assumes that, because we now know how things like disease, weather, and war arise and function, we can no longer chalk these things up to God’s Will. Though this is a faulty assumption—just because we know about the biochemistry of sickle cell anemia doesn’t mean it cannot be part of God’s plan—it is not an uncommon one, especially in scientific humanism.
What if the use of our hands is directly connected to our worship, our praise, our giving thanks to God?
The nations surrounding Israel can praise Yahweh not because of any suffering, pain, or judgment they are currently experiencing, but because of what God has done with Israel—and through repentance and faith and the ongoing plan of God, what God can do with them as well.
It means awakening from the cold, dead winter, and rising with the cherry blossoms, the lilies, the daisies, and the sunshine to make a joyful noise to the Lord, with all the earth.
It is National Poetry Month and I want to celebrate the month with a little essay about the poet Richard Wilbur and his poem “October Maples.” At ninety-six years of age, Wilbur is probably our oldest, living, major American poet, and in my opinion, he has been the pre-eminent Christian poet writing in English in the latter half of the twentieth century.
A higher view of God’s sovereignty over nature holds that God is at the root of all activity—that he controls the quantum fluctuations of every sub-atomic particle in the universe, from the big bang (or before it, if that makes any sense) to the end of time.
Springtime is a great reminder of God’s faithfulness to his creation.
Preparing for God’s new creation starts with loving God’s creation as we know it.
If I observe that it’s sunny outside, but I know that it’s winter and I see snow on the ground, I will likely conclude that it’s cold out and put on my coat before I walk out the door. If I see my son with chocolate on his lips and cookie crumbs on the counter, I might conclude that he probably snuck a cookie from the cookie jar.
With all the brokenness in the world, is the study of the mathematical aspects of Creation worthwhile? Are we right to pursue the beauty of pure mathematics, or should we focus our energy on studying “practical”‘ mathematical concepts which have immediate, obvious application to solving the world’s pressing problems?
Because of God’s covenantal faithfulness, there is no reason to fear. It is God who saves and brings life, not some magical power performed by ourselves.
Physics is humankind’s attempt to understand how physical aspects of the Creation work.
I sometimes wonder how I ended up as a translator. Biology definitely has its own language, terminology, and culture, but that isn’t really what I am talking about.
As a professional astronomer and a Christian, I feel God has called me to share these wonders with the church. Many times, these new discoveries are presented without any mention of God, and sometimes in a context of overt atheism. I want to share these things with you in a Christian context, with God as their creator.
Can we embrace the Biblical teaching that Christians can do all things, and that nothing is to be rejected? It might be time to stop trying to say what other Christians can and cannot do, and instead help each other negotiate the complicated task of living faithfully as individual sinners in a fallen world.
It seems to me that this distinction between knowing about and knowing relationally applies to more than just the nonhuman creation (or nature, if you will). It also applies to our relationships with others, with ourselves and with God.
My reasons for academic study are many, but to see my academic study in light of and in response to God’s grace in my life has been the most freeing.