Blaise Pascal, an influential French mathematician who lived in the 1600's was credited with the following quote. In it, He explains his reasoning for belief in God:

"If you believe in God, and you're right, you have gained everything. If you believe in God and you're wrong, you have lost nothing. If you don't believe in God, and you're right, you have gained nothing. If you don't believe in God, and you're wrong, you have lost everything"

On the surface this sounds like a wise and insightful statement. But with all due respect to Mr. Pascal, this is a dumb reason to believe in God.

Let's think about what he is saying here. Mr. Pascal is arguing that it's wiser to believe in God than it is to not believe. Why? Because it's less of a gamble. The odds are in your favor if you concede the existence of a supreme being. After all, if you go through your life believing God exists and find out at the end that you were wrong, what have you really lost? If you don't believe in Him and at the end of your life find out that you made a critical error in judgment it's too late. You're stuck. Doomed to burn for eternity. In other words, belief in God is good fire insurance. You may never have to make a claim, but just being covered gives you peace of mind.

The problem with this type of "belief" is that it is really not belief at all! Biblical faith is placing your whole life and being in the hands of God. That's a much bigger commitment than simply acknowledging that God exists so that if in fact he does he will not be mad at you.

Also, Pascal's quote seeks to take all the power out of faith. If my faith is simply a theory that won't be tested until I die, it's not much of a belief system. What a waste it would be to go throughout life serving God only to find out at the end that it was for nothing. The apostle Paul alludes to this in the book of 2 Corinthians when he states, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men". If believing in God just makes us feel better right now but is not based on reality, what a useless faith it is!

In contrast, the proper reason for a belief in God is simple. It's the same reason that I believe the law of gravity will pull me down if I jump off a cliff...It's true! We just finished celebrating Easter this past weekend. The joy and power that come from the resurrection of Jesus are present because it was a real event! It actually happened! It's not a theory!

Belief in God and His son Jesus should not be a backup plan designed to save us some grief. It should be a response to the absolute truth of the Bible! God really exists, He really sent His son to die for our sins, and that son really rose from the grave, defeating death and sin! That is why I believe in God!

Last night I had the opportunity to use one of our wedding gifts. It wasn't the Kitchen Aid mixer. Nor was it the punch bowl with matching glasses. Not even the cool cutting board from the Maine state prison showroom. Nope, the gift I used last night was much smaller and more portable: My AAA membership card (Thank you Ira and Sarah!).

I was driving home from a friend's house just as the weather was beginning to turn nasty. Not a quarter of a mile from his home, I took a corner just a little too fast and ended up sliding directly into a 3-4 foot deep ditch. It was one of those slow motion moments, in which I had plenty of time to contemplate my fate as I veered toward the ditch. I tried in vain to regain control of my car, all the time muttering "no, oh please no, Lord, please..."

Thankfully, the only thing wounded was my pride. I was frustrated and mad at myself for not driving slower. How could I be so dumb? I live in Maine for goodness sake! I've driven patiently through whiteouts and Nor'easter without blinking. How could I have been so reckless as to take the turn at normal speed? I think I know the answer...

As we have all experienced this past month, the weather has been just plain weird. Until the present storm, we haven't seen any accumulating snow for a few weeks. Also, there have been a couple of days that have felt more like spring than mid-February. As a result, I think I let myself forget that we are still in the middle of a Maine winter, and my driving habits have made this clear. I certainly haven't been driving recklessly, but I also haven't been as careful as I normally would during this time of year. Because of this, when I set out to drive home last night, my mind did not warn me to drive a little bit slower. I had become complacent.

I think this happens in our relationship with God quite often. Consider the Israelite people in the Old Testament. They were constantly seeing God provide and work amazing miracles, yet after a few days they would almost completely forget about it. One day He would part the Red Sea, the next day they would be complaining that they were hungry.

We do the same thing all the time. Maybe we hear a stirring message on Sunday, but how are we doing in our spiritual walk by Tuesday afternoon? We might see God work in an amazing way on a missions trip, but do we have the same passion to serve Him a month after we come home? It's so easy to become complacent and forget about God in our day to day routine. When we don't see Him in some tangible way, we tend to forget that He is there. Are you guilty of this? I know I am.

In the same way that I should have been paying more attention to the road we need to be on the lookout for God every day. If we are seeking to connect with Him on a daily basis, we will be less likely to become spiritually complacent. He will meet us in our day to day routine if we simply open our eyes and look. Continued connection with God is a sure way to stay off the slippery slope of forgetfulness. After all, how can you forget about someone you just talked to a few minuets ago?

So don't be like me. Don't let your circumstances lull you into complacency. Seek ways to connect with God throughout your day so you don't slip away from Him. He is always waiting to meet us if we simply acknowledge Him.

P.S. - I did get my car home safely and I'm not hurt...well, except for the injury to my ego of course.

Hello everyone! I just thought I would post a little note letting you know that I have not dropped off the face of the blogosphere! It's been a busy few weeks which has kept me from posting regularly, so here is a bit of an update.

On January 30th my wife and I returned from our Dominican Republic missions trip. It was a cool experience to finally go on a missions trip together. We had many memorable experiences as we worked on building a hospital, packaged food for Haiti, and visited sugarcane plantations to help dispense medications. As many of you know, we were part of a team comprised of 4 from Bean's Corner (Ira, Dave Ellis, myself, and Charlene) and groups from several different churches. As soon as we get our pictures and information all together, we will be doing a presentation about our experiences in church. Stay tuned for a date and time. There are way too many stories to even begin sharing them all here. Thank you all for your prayers and support as we traveled and ministered in the Dominican!

Here at home there are also some exciting things going on! What a joy it was last Sunday to be able to use our new building for Sunday School! I'm extra excited now that Adult Sunday school is downstairs because it means that we can have access to the coffee maker! But seriously, praise the Lord for his provision in this area! Let's continue to trust Him as we look to phase 2 of our building project!

I'm also really excited about the sermon this Sunday. Ira and I are trying something completely new to both of us - team preaching! Don't worry, that doesn't mean the sermon will be twice as long! But we will be sharing the message, going back and forth in a conversational manner. We are both very interested to see how it works out. What I think will be neat about this is that it will be a public reflection of the relationship Ira and I have. As we follow the Lord's leading about what to preach we meet, pray, and even study together. Many times we find ourselves sitting in Irving's or another restaurant preaching to each other. We have joked that we should record these sessions and burn them on a DVD to be the "special features" or "deleted scenes" from our sermons. I've been so thankful for the relationship that Ira and I have both personally and professionally and I am in hopes that this Sunday will give you a glimpse into what our cooperation looks like. Whatever the case, it certainly won't be boring to watch!

On a totally unrelated note, the last season of LOST has started up! Every Tuesday night you can find my wife and I over at the Halls as a bunch of us get together to watch the best show on TV! If you're a fan, come on over and join us. If not, at least you will know what some of us are theorizing and obsessing about for the next few months!

Hope to see many of you this Sunday!

On my way to meet a friend today, I noticed a bumper sticker while sitting at a red light. It read: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience". Judging by the other stickers on the car, I don't think this quote originated with a Christian, but it did get me thinking. As Christians, this world is not our eternal reality, it is only a temporary stop on our way home.

Unfortunately, we tend to get wrapped up and distracted by the concerns of this life. Now don't get me wrong, we are called to be faithful and responsible with the lives that God has given us. But we need to remember that this "human experience" is not our final destination. The things that we do (and don't do) in this life have an impact on eternity.

If we live with our eternal destiny in mind, it will drastically affect the way we conduct ourselves. Everything we do will be influenced by the fact that one day we will be with our Savior. Living like that might seem pretty crazy to the world (as believers, we can actually look forward to the day when our human life ends...how's that for crazy!), but it's where we will find our true satisfaction. After all, we have been created to relate to and serve God, so it's no wonder we feel truly alive when we are doing just that.

So...which life are you living for?

Sometimes doing a Google search can be really depressing...

The other day I had an online conversation with a friend about the movie "Avatar". We were talking about what we thought the message of the movie was, and he shared a link with me that gave an interesting perspective. This sparked my interest, so I did a Google search to see if I could find more Christian reactions to the movie. What I found through this search distressed me.

In trying to think of a phrase that would help me search, I decided on "Christians Against Avatar". I figured that combination of words would lead me to the most extreme opinions about the movie. I'm sure that strategy would have worked, but I never ended up finishing my search because of what happened next. I typed the words "Christians against" in the search bar and before I could finish my query, the automatic drop down feature (you know, that thing that tries to predict what you are going to type before you type it) confronted me with this list. I haven't changed it at all, I am going to simply copy and paste it here for you:

Christians Against Avatar
Christians Against Hall oween
Christians Against Gay Marriage
Christians Against Twilight
Christians Against Obama
Christians Against Homosexuality
Christians Against Christmas
Christians Against Harry Potter
Christians Against Islam
Christians Against The Death Penalty

This list stopped me in my tracks. It was both amusing and upsetting to me that Google had assumed that I would be against all those things. Actually that's giving Google to much credit. All it was doing was reflecting the available information on the web about all the things Christians are against.

The reason I was so upset by this is that it reflects a major problem we have as Christians in this culture. We are primarily known for what we are against, not what we stand FOR! It seems like we are always on the attack. Whether the arena is politics, entertainment, or holiday celebrations, we are always upset about something! Is it any real wonder that the world doesn't want anything to do with us? If I yelled at you and told you that you were wrong every time we interacted, would you want to hang out with me for very long?

I think it's about time we changed our strategy. We need to start sharing the things we are about, not just the things we are against! The gospel is about restoration and love. Let's start sharing those things with the people around us! Approaching someone in love is going to get you a lot further than shouting at them about their wrong beliefs. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take a stand for God's truth, but we need to do so in a way that does not alienate the people around us. What good does it do attack the very people we are trying to reach? Just something to think about...