Evangelicals interpret the Genesis 1 creation account in
a variety of ways, and they have good reasons for doing so. This presentation
explores those reasons then briefly summarizes six evangelical views of Genesis
1, giving some strengths and weaknesses of each view.
Evangelicals agree that God is the eternal Creator. They
disagree on the how and when of creation. The disagreements over Genesis 1 do not need to be divisive. This
thirty-minute presentation is a conversation starter.
Kathy
A three-page
PDF summary of the presentation is available.
Click here for MusicXML. (MusicXML™ is
the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files
in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML files.)
Historic Christianity teaches that the Creator God of the
Bible is Triune. The Creator is three Who’s and one What. The three Who’s are
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The one What is God. There is only
one God. A recent survey revealed that many evangelical Christians are out of
step with historic Christianity. 30% say Jesus is not God!
When I was in high school my neighborhood was homogeneous.
A friend told me that I worshipped three Gods, not one. Her church taught that
the Trinity is nonsense. I did not know how to respond.
Times have changed. Today my neighborhood is diverse. Recently
a group of us were discussing Jesus. The Muslim in our group said that Christians
worship three Gods, not one. He worshipped one God, Allah. We were snacking on
potato chips. He picked up three empty chip bags and said these three bags are not
one. Three cannot be one. The Trinity is not logical.
How would you respond? You might say that the Trinity is
a mystery; it cannot be explained, yet it is true. But that would not address his
misinformed potato chip bag analogy. It would not expose his straw man
argument. It would not satisfy his thirst to know his Creator.
Here is the
presentation I gave last month on the Trinity. At the end I share how I
responded.
Kathy
Click here for
the results of the State of American Theology Study.
Print (PDF) and/or
digital (MusicXML) sheet music is available for No God But One, a song
featured in the presentation.
(MusicXML™ is
the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files
in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML files.)
I asked her what she thought about Christianity. She said
that Christianity is a means of control. That God is a moral monster.
At one time, he told me, he had a strong faith in God. But
that faith faltered when someone close to him was suffering and God did not
answer his prayers.
I am a retired nurse. Nurses take care of people who are
suffering and in pain. Where is God when they hurt?
Pain and suffering often cause people to question God’s goodness
or his existence. If God exists, is he good? What is God’s relationship with
pain, suffering, and death? Where is God when I hurt?
I explore those
questions (and more) in this video (Part 3 of Is there a God and is he Good? – The Puzzle
of Pain). Click here for Part 1 – Evidence from the Universe and here
for Part 2 – Evidence from History. Each presentation is about 35
minutes long. Grab some food and watch them with a couple of friends. Then research
the evidence I present.
Kathy
Click here to read
why many young people are leaving the church. Want to change
that? Click here to download a 30 second promo. You can use it to invite some
struggling friends to watch the presentations with you.
Here is a study
guide with links to the sources I cite.
It was a freezing Monday morning, the day after Easter. We
were huddled together on the street corner, stomping our feet, blowing into our
gloves, anticipating the warmth of the school bus. I asked if the weather put a
crimp on her Easter celebration. She said her family does not celebrate Easter.
Jesus did not rise from the dead.
He was convinced the New Testament is a fabrication. He told
me that the Gospels were written long after the events they described. A nice
story perhaps, but nothing to do with reality.
Their views are not uncommon. Just last year I was told that
Jesus is a myth. Is that true?
Do you know that atheist
New Testament scholars and historians are certain that within three years of
Jesus’ death the primitive church was reciting a Creed about Jesus? A Creed
that claimed Jesus rose from the dead! I present this evidence (and more) in this video (Part 2 of Is there a God and is he Good? – Evidence from History). Click
here for Part 1 – Evidence from the Universe and here for Part 3 –
The Puzzle of Pain.
Each presentation
is about 35 minutes long. Grab some food and watch them with a couple of
friends. Then research the evidence I present.
Kathy
Click here to read
why many young people are leaving the church. Want to change
that? Click here to download a 30 second promo. You can use it to invite some
struggling friends to watch the presentations with you.
Here is a study
guide with links to the sources I cite.
Christianity did not make sense to her. She became an
atheist when she was five and stopped attending church when she was thirteen. She
told me, “If there was evidence for God, it would make worldwide news and win a
Nobel Prize.”
He grew up in the church. He had a crisis of faith in
college. He told our group why, “What my church teaches about Genesis does not
match the facts of nature.”
Their stories are not unique. Children and young adults evaluate
Christian claims. Are they logical? Factual? Does the Old Testament accurately
describe creation? What does that imply about the New Testament?
Do you know? Evidence for God made worldwide news and won a
Nobel Prize in physics! Genesis accurately describes creation! I present this
evidence (and more) in this video (Part 1 of Is there a God and is he Good? – Evidence from the Universe). Click here for Part 2 – Evidence from
History and here for Part 3 – The Puzzle of Pain.
Each presentation
is about 35 minutes long. Grab some food and watch them with a couple of
friends. Then research the evidence I present.
Kathy
Click here to read
why many young people are leaving the church. Want to change
that? Click here to download a 30 second promo. You can use it to invite some
struggling friends to watch the presentations with you.
Here is a study
guide with links to the sources I cite.
Remember the story of Job from the Old Testament? He lost
it all, his children, his wealth, his health, reputation, his happiness. He was
caught in a storm of pain. Perhaps you are caught in a storm of pain.
Job believed there is a God, but he questioned God’s
goodness. You may question more than God’s goodness. You may question God’s
existence. You may be skeptical of religious faith, thinking it is blind or
unreasonable.
Is there a God and is he Good? is a three-part presentation available on
YouTube, making a case for the existence of God
and showing that God is present in the storm. Each presentation is
approximately 35 minutes long. The parts build on each other, the
evidence for God accumulating from one part to the next.
Click here for
a three-page PDF study guide for Is there a God and is he Good? Grab
some food and watch the presentations with a couple of friends. Then work through
the study guide, checking the facts. What is the best explanation for
the facts?
The Old
Testament makes three astonishing claims about creation. Do those claims hold
up against images / photographs of the universe and earth? What does that imply
about the New Testament?
How can the
Creator be good when there is so much pain, suffering, and death in the world?
How can I cope with pain?
God answered
Job from the storm! From the album “This & That – A Little Bit of
Everything” this video is scrolling playback of a song based on Job38:1[i].
Kathy
Click here and here to read why many young Christians are
leaving Christianity.
Want to change
that? Invite some struggling friends to watch the presentations with you. Serve
food and work through the study guide together, checking the facts. Here’s a 30 second promo you can download from Google Drive to start the conversation.
You can get
print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Falling of the Rain.
Click here for digital sheet music. (MusicXML™
is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help
files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.)
[i]
Job 38:1 NIV: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.”
According to the BB King classic, “Let the Good Times
Roll,” good times happen when you get together, spend some cash, and have some fun.
The coronavirus smeared King’s picture of a good time.
Sara turned ten on March 17, 2020. Just four days after
her birthday her family began sheltering in place. She could no longer get
together with friends, spend some cash, and have some fun. She missed
important milestones. School functions, including her spring concert, were
cancelled. School moved online with E-Learning assignments. Her daddy was worried how this would impact her life.
She assumed responsibility for doing her own
laundry. She learned how to make pancakes from scratch. How to identify animal
bones she found near her home. She used the Internet and Legos to entertain her
out-of-state nephew. She helped build a monarch butterfly nursery. She curled
up with her parents after dinner to watch Star Trek Discovery. How will she
remember 2020?
I had written a song for each of Sara’s
birthdays, but not her tenth. I was not sure what to write. Then her daddy made
a casual statement during dinner one evening. He said these are the best years
of his life! I incorporated that phrase in her tenth birthday song. From the album “Silly or Celebratory – Songs
for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here for
BB King’s “Let the Good Times Roll.”
Print lead sheet music is available for Ten Years (Daddy Daughter Dance).
Do you teach
or play the cello, keyboard, guitar, or bass? Ten Years (Daddy Daughter Dance) is on SmartMusic, the comprehensive music practice app!
Click here to practice the music. Click here for SmartMusic help.
You can change
key and instrumentation with MusicXML – digital sheet music.
Click here
for MusicXML.
(MusicXML is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML
files.)
Christianity makes exclusive truth claims, truth claims
based on the Bible. For instance, Christianity claims that we are highly
created, deeply fallen and in need of a Savior. Jesus, and no one else, is that
Savior.
Our culture wants us to believe that these exclusive
truth claims marginalize people. Do they?
Christianity tells us that we have inherent dignity and
worth. We are created in God’s image. Even the most marginalized person bears the
image of God. But we are deeply fallen. We victimize the vulnerable. We oppress
the defenseless. So, God took special care to ensure that the most defenseless,
the most easily victimized, would be treated with dignity and fairness. Check
the original documents. God’s laws protected the most vulnerable – women, the
poor, orphans, widows, day laborers, debtors, foreigners.[1]
Our culture divides people into two groups: those who are
oppressed and those who do the oppressing. Our culture tells us that oppressed
people can better understand reality. Their “lived experience” gives them privileged
access to truth about oppression. Their special insight makes it possible for
them to free themselves and their oppressors.
Christianity disagrees. The Bible tells us that Jesus is
the truth. According to Jesus, the real story about people is that all are
slaves to sin. No one can free themselves. Jesus came to set us free. And if
Jesus sets us free, we are truly free.[2]
Christianity, not our culture, tells what is true about man. Christianity, not our
culture, tells the story of reality.
How are we to live in a culture that thinks poorly of
Christianity’s truth claims? Paul in Colossians tells us to:
Live wisely among those are not
believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be
gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.[3]
We are to take the most of every opportunity to
graciously and attractively share the story of reality! From the album “A ChorusBook” this video is
scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Our culture divides people into two groups. Click here to
read how this differs from Christianity.
Jesus died to make two groups one! Click here to read how
he does this.
You can get
print (PDF) sheet music for the Story of
Reality.
An emergency room physician in the Chicago area has
tested positive for COVID-19. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a stay at
home order effective March 21st through April 7th. We are
not on lockdown. Nor are we under martial law. We are to “shelter in place” in
order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Our homes provide physical
barriers against infection. Walls protect us.
There is another disease that is just as pandemic as
COVID-19. It is the disease of anger and resentment fueled by privilege and
exclusion. Walls cannot protect against this disease. Walls exacerbate it.
Today’s social justice movement teaches that our identity
is found in a group, either an oppressed group or an oppressor group; that individual
identity is on lockdown, inseparable from group identity. People “shelter in
place” according to identity markers such as race, economic class, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, physical ability, age, weight, etc., feeling
“safe” in their group and “threatened” when the norms, values, and expectations
of society exclude them. By resisting dominant power today’s social justice movement seeks to liberate groups
that are oppressed. Today’s social justice movement
sees Christianity with its exclusive truth claims as oppressive.
Group identities separate people. The lockdown fuels
anger and resentment. Today’s social justice movement cannot end the war
between privilege and exclusion. But a new identity can! The wall separating
people groups crumbles when people share the same identity. That’s what Jesus
accomplished when he died for us.
For
he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.[1]
Jesus won the war between privilege and exclusion. He won
it on the cross. His death ended our anger and resentment. It ended at the
cross. Jesus tore down the wall of separation. He is our peace. He made us one.
From the album
“This and That” this video is scrolling playback of a song based on Ephesians Chapter
2.
According to Isaiah, ordinary citizens were what was wrong with
the nation. They were embracing pagan customs: they practiced divination
and bowed down to the work of their hands.[1]
Isaiah prayed:
Oh, that you would rend the heavens
and come down … The nations would tremble before you; then your enemies would
learn the reason for your fame! … But we are not godly; we are constant sinners
and have been all our lives. Therefore, your wrath is heavy on us.[2]
What is wrong with the church?
According to Jesus,[3]
ordinary church goers like me are what is wrong with the church.
I am what’s wrong with the
church when I practice loveless doctrine.
I am what’s wrong with the
church when I expect to be rescued from the unjust or cruel use of power.
I am what’s wrong with the persecuted
church when I excuse sexual immorality in the church or embrace pagan customs.
I am what’s wrong with the serving
church when I think social justice requires the endorsement of sexual
immorality or paganism.
I am what’s wrong with the
church when my faith is dead.
I am what’s wrong with the
church when I don’t walk through the door Jesus has opened for me.
I am what’s wrong with the
church when my worship is lukewarm.
What’s wrong with the church?
Me! I am! I am what’s wrong with the church.
Jesus asks the church – me! – to repent.
From the album
“Sing” this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here to
read how today’s social justice movement differs from the teachings of Jesus.
“Was Jesus
just a spiritual leader like Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, and Muhammad? Or is he
something more – something else entirely?” Ken Samples evaluates these
religious leaders in God among Sages and shows that Jesus is more than a
spiritual leader. He is God himself.
Print sheet music for wind quintet and piano is available for Rend the Heavens.
Do you play or
teach a wind instrument or piano? Rend the Heavens is on
SmartMusic, the comprehensive music practice app!
Click here to
practice the music. Click here for SmartMusic help.
You can change
key and instrumentation with MusicXML – digital sheet music.
Click here
for MusicXML.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXMLfiles.)
