WestonWilliams.com

With the new Creation Museum opening there has been a renewed controversy regarding evolution and creation. This is compounded additional attempts to combine the two in a theory called “Theistic Evolution” drawing heavy fire from both sides. While preparing for a new sermon called, “God the Creator” I was faced with a serious dilemma. What do I say? How do I handle this? Our church is in a university town and I know there are people in our congregation divided on this issue. Some of these people searching for God, might perceive as quaint the traditional Christian view on origins.
Perhaps I should state my opinion - I do believe in a literal six day creation. I think there is great research and that this theory of origins is as plausible as another. But, where I differ from many of my counterparts is that I don’t think it’s that important. I do not think that the “How” of Genesis 1 & 2 is as important as the “Why”. The important “Why Question” is, “Why are we here?” The answer, God put us here for his pleasure. The less important “How Questions” is, “How did God put us here?” The answer, “No one knows for 100% certain.”
The clearest message of the Genesis’ account is to teach us some basic principles about God and his creativity. The first chapter of Genesis reveals that God creates with order and design. There is a progression to his handiwork and a purposefulness about it. It is not a random accident enabled by time and chance. Rather creation is the beautifully designed and crafted work of God which may have taken six literal or figurative days. The truth we learn about God from the second chapter is that God creates with love. God bends down, works in the mud, and creates humanity by hand. He then breathes into us the breath of life. This is the message. Let us stop arguing and agree that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

I might have just discovered a better alternative to the traditional alarm clock and the morning cup of coffee. This inspiration came to me as I was reading about a man who woke up when a leopard jumped on his bed! Apparently he left the window open and an old hungry leopard seeing the familiy cat on the bed decided it was time to hunt. The man got up (quickly I’ll bet) and wrestled the leopard to the ground.
I wasn’t there at 3am but I don’t think this man looked at the leopard and then his wife and asked, “Can I have five more minutes?” He also probably didn’t need a cup of coffee to start his day. So, I propose that instead of alarms or coffee we install a time delayed cage with a hungry leopard in every home in America. Think of it, no one would be late (or at least only once). We would save money by not having to spend $5 on a cup of Starbucks. We also wouldn’t have to listen to that annoying beeping every morning.
I propose we call these alarm cages “Get up and Go…Or Else” or maybe the “Get’em Tiger”! They could come in different models. The base model would come with an old leopard like this man encountered. Perhaps for children we stock them only with hungry house cats. For those who want to forgo the morning trip to the gym you could get a tiger, or a lion. And for the heavy sleeper we’ll put in a pack of ravenous cougars who have been fed nothing but gun powder.
I’m taking pre-orders for this fantastic device, let me know if you’re interested and what model you’ll need.

As I attended a high school graduation party I looked at these parents and their daughter and thought, “What must it be like to have a child graduate from high school?” Later I kissed my own two children goodnight and paused on how fast 19 months have gone. I’ve been told this ride of parenting will only get faster. Soon I will be attending a graduation for my daughter and then my son. What will that be like? What do I want for them? How do I want them to remember our family? What will “successful” parenting look like in the lives of my kids?
Is it all about a good education? They should be able to get the education they desire. Is it all about good jobs? They should be self-sufficient and not in want.
But what I really want, more than anything, is that after living in a minister’s house for over eighteen years that they would love ministry and the church as much as I do. If they do, then they’ll love God and his people (the church) who his son died to redeem. It’s a tall order, but a goal that is always before me. Let our first priority to have our children love the church as much as we do. I think that as ministers we need to refuse to disqualify our ministries and life’s work, by failing at what we’ve worked for our whole lives - our families.

I just attended my first ever citywide evangelistic campaign. The Luis Palau Nashville CityFest was flawless and fun. The music was loud, hip, exciting and the sermons were compelling. But as I watched the stereotypical clean cut Christian man walk with great purpose across the path of a seasoned homeless man I wondered, “Who is this reaching out to? Surely not this man.”
The festival went on and the bands began to play, a sea of people started to move. Four artists performed and in between there were testimonials and BMX videos. This is surely appealing to a younger audience. Soon I realized that these bands were Christian bands, so these fans must be Christian fans. I wondered again, “Who is this reaching out to? Surely not non-Christian teens who have never heard this music.”
Later LeAnn Rimes took the stage and I thought, finally we have a genuine “draw” for the outside world. This is no longer a Christian ghetto block party, or was it? When Toby Mac closed the show singing, “Where my [Jesus] freaks at?” why was the whole crowd excited? Was it because these were all his freaks? What about the non freaks, just trying to get through 80,000 people to get to the Hard Rock Cafe? What were they saying, “I want to be a freak too?” Is this reaching them?
I can not fault the Palau organization for effort, or for spirit, or for love of God. But, I wonder how relevant was this event to the seeking world? My fear is that this is no longer an effective means of evangelism. Billy Graham is near the end of his life and so too is the modern crusade method of evangelism. We need to find something new. The bait and switch tactics are no longer effective and were never ethical. Christians can’t lure people in for a rock concert and sell Jesus instead. People have gotten too smart (perhaps they always were). We can only give what we have: God, his message, his gift, his love, our love.
A wise minister said, “What you win people with, you win them to.” If we win people with rock concerts we’d better have enough to last a lifetime. But, if we win them with Christ, he’ll last a lifetime. We don’t have the energy to put on CityFests every week and I’m not sure that we should.

John Locke I am not (as if there were any doubt), but I am a great admirer of his thinking especially his reflections on God. Locke desired to know God and to know that God (or perhaps just a god) existed. He wanted to know God with certainty - not just blind acceptance. His works are regarded with great esteem, especially his contribution to philosophy and thoughts regarding government. In addition Locke’s own quest to know God successfully captures the maturing process of faith, or as I will call it the ladder of faith.

Locke’s spiritual search goes something like this (click on the title link for his exact wording). Locke argues first for his own existence as a unique entity separate from another (as in a dream). He then goes on to describe how we know a god exists from a very advanced cosmological argument. After accepting the existence of a god (or perhaps simply a supernatural causative force) he reasons that as man is an intellectual being so too must man’s creator have been intelligent (a twist on the cosmological argument). Locke persuasively states that intelligence must have come from the beginning or it would never have existed.

Here in these three progressions from “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” we see the great journey of faith for all Christ-followers. I do believe in Christ as a part of a Triune God, but before I could believe that I had to first believe in God. But before I could believe in God I had to believe in a god, gods, or causative force. Yet, I couldn’t come to believe this had I not first examined my own self and come to grapple with my own capabilities and inadequacies. Each of these are steps, or rungs on the ladder of faith.

These steps are not necessarily fully completed when we rise above them. We all could wrestle indefinitely as to what is our capacity for knowledge. In this struggle a point is reached when sufficient reason is achieved to move on to the next idea - even though we may return to it. Just as in climbing a ladder our feet and hands are always at different points, supporting, lifting and joining the others.

Perhaps more succinctly stated there are five primary areas one must traverse in order to come to a relational knowledge of Christ. First we must become truth seekers, grappling with the existential questions, “Who am I?,” “What is my purpose?” and “Why am I here?” This I believe leads to a recognition of our own inadequacies causing us to seek greater truth. We become in essence God-seekers, looking for our creator to answer our questions. Thirdly we consider the testimony of nature, the essence of reason and the paths others have chosen. We come to knowledge of God and become God-followers. As we seek further truth regarding the nature and will of God we become Christ-seekers looking for a more complete picture of the divine. We fifthly become Christ-followers when we have evaluated and accepted Christ’s claims as God’s only Son and perfect revelation.

It is true that celebration runs rampant in our culture but it is hardly (if ever) thought of as a spiritual discipline. Celebrations do not normally come across as any type of discipline; there are very few who go into strict training to celebrate. But, Richard Foster in his book, “The Celebration of Discipline” includes “Celebration” as a spiritual discipline. At first this seems rather foreign but upon closer inspection Foster is proved right.

Christians often speak of parties as negative things – for those in the church “partying” is synonymous with promiscuous sex and drunkenness. This need not be the case and when Foster calls us to a “High Holy Party” we should not be afraid. Celebration is a sacred act, for the Christ follower the greatest reason to celebrate exists in Christ. Jesus himself used the “party motif” frequently throughout the gospels. Why have we let it slip away?

One incident in my life stands out above the rest as an example of a sacred party. Almost a year ago we celebrated Bailey’s first birthday. It was as joyous and pure of an occasion as I’ve ever celebrated. Being a newcomer to a small town our circle of friends was limited but the joy Jenny and I shared was too great to keep to ourselves. We had to invite some people; we could not celebrate adequately alone. Some of our family flew in but even that was not enough to celebrate the birth of our first child. So, we invited our new found friends. We joined together for a modest feast of hamburgers and hot dogs, and as we were ready to have the cake I said, “Thank you for coming to share our joy for it was too much to keep to ourselves.”

Overflowing joy, that’s the cause for celebration. Perhaps the discipline is not in celebrating but in rightly celebrating right things. Births, anniversaries, baptisms, these are events that the creator of life and love desires us to celebrate. We make big things out of small ones and light of larger issues. The discipline is in understanding what is worthy of celebration and then celebrating. We would do well to discipline ourselves in celebration. Ours is an age of a great chemical dependency on anti-depressants and a dose of pure joy is needed. We become so overcome with our grief that we share it with our doctor, why not be overcome with joy and share it with our friends. Certainly this will not solve all our emotional maladies but it is a step in the right direction.

One of the most frequently asked questions at the church is, “What Bible should I buy?” My answer is always, “The NIV Study Bible.” I recommend it for a few reasons. First, it’s the NIV which is a trusted and easy to read translation. Second, the study notes are the best out there and are constantly updated. These notes include not only textual commentary and cross references, but also introductions to the books and summaries of important Biblical events (i.e. the miracles of Jesus, the kings of Israel, etc). This study Bible is for anyone interested in scripture and has notes with more depth than your standard “Application Study Bible.” Amazon’s price makes it extremely affordable, it’s a great investment of your money. The one thing I wish this Bible had was a reading plan, so for a free one go visit the Navigators by clicking here.