Made by God

Very chuffed to have a brief piece I wrote published in the local Methodist magazine.

My writing was from an Apologetics angle and it was followed by a lovely piece by the Church's Minister Janet, putting it into perspective

Here is the text...

Made by God – The Wonders of our World
Many Christians express an evangelical desire to welcome people to our Faith. But how can we convince others that Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and that the Holy Spirit is living amongst us and in us? Perhaps in this world of Facebook, Twitter and ‘science explains all’ we need to play the world at its’ own game and come from an evidence-based view. This does not belittle ‘Faith’, but initial evidence-based approaches may perhaps open the door to people learning to have Faith in Jesus and to accepting the supernatural side.
 
On a purely scientific viewpoint I would include the following:
 
Something out of nothing – The Universe is expanding and hence the Big Bang Theory. But where did the Big Bang come from? If nothing existed originally, how can something come out of nothing? Gods hand perhaps. And if God did cause the Big Bang and set the formation of the Universe in action, then we can perhaps take the view that in doing this he set in motion the conditions for life itself and the Evolution process. How much guiding of Evolution once it had begun is of much debate by academics. Further evidence is provided by the finely tuned nature of the world in terms of creation and development. The odds of this happening by accident is not a feasible view
 
This whole area of discussion comes under the heading of Christian Apologetics – an area I am finding fascinating in my early Christian journey.  Christian Apologetics serves to present a rational basis for Christianity. In addition to the scientific aspect of discussion, there are also arguments supporting the historic accuracy of the Bible. Additionally, there is a philosophic side, asking questions on morals, consciousness, our inherent desire to believe in a God and much more. Early emergence of this can be seen in Apostle Pauls’ Letter to the Philippians, with latter day authors including the wonderful C.S Lewis.
 
To conclude, perhaps we should appeal to society’s rational self in order to set the scene for a belief in Jesus Christ. Perhaps in today's world the leap to Faith without evidence is a leap too far.

​Added by Janet
There are many ways of coming to the Christian faith, and scientific reasoning relating to our amazing world is one of them.  However, whichever way the journey begins, it must always reach the point where we come into a
relationship with God.
 
God the creator and sustainer of the amazing Universe is the God who knows and cares about every one of us, who hears our prayers, forgives our sins, comforts us in sorrow and fills us with joy.  

Reflections Spring 2019