Did you see
the eclipse? We drove five hours to watch it. It was partly cloudy when we arrived
at our viewing area. Would we be able to
see totality?
Waiting for Totality
A friend
pointed his six-inch telescope at the sun. No one could look through the
eyepiece. The light coming through it was hot enough to set wood on fire. So he
projected the eclipse onto a whiteboard. It took two and a half hours for the
moon to completely cover the sun.
Telescope Setup for Eclipse
The clouds
gradually cleared as we waited.
Sunspots Projected on Whiteboard
Then totality
– the sun and moon praising God in concert! There was sunset from horizon to
horizon. For two minutes we gazed at the sun, spell bound by its beauty. Hushed
silence, cheering, and song …
Praise God from whom all
blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures
here below
Praise Him above, ye
heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost
My Smart Phone vs. Bob's Nikon
We cannot gaze
on God now. But someday we will. He will eclipse all else. What song of praise will we sing when we see him
in all his glory? From the album “The HymnBook” this video is scrolling
playback of the song.
Mine has been
a hot, dry September. But not as hot or as
dry as the summer of 2012 …
It was hot.
The air above wore a fur-lined hunter’s cap, earflaps down, trapping the heat
instead of allowing it to rise and escape.
My ferns, usually vibrant green in June,
were as brown
and crackly as these in today's September heat.
It was dry. The cracks in
in the hardened soil were over two inches deep. There
were strict restrictions on watering.
That summer more
than 95 percent of Illinois experienced severe drought. Where we lived the
drought was “only” moderate. I couldn’t keep my ferns alive. But I could write
music. There was no joy in gardening. Would there be joy in composing? I
started writing a song about ferns dying in the heat. But then the third verse
morphed into something else, something more personal. Perhaps that’s why I never
arranged the song, but left it as a lead sheet – melody, guitar chords, and simple
drum beat.
From the album
“Paper Book Colors - Songs from Nature” this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
You can get print
(PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for A Good Rain.
Was there sufficient
evidence to indict for vehicular manslaughter? If so, the driver would be
brought to trial. Then a Trial Jury would decide if the evidence proved the
guilt of the driver beyond a reasonable doubt. But to indict, the Grand Jury used
a lower standard of proof – probable cause.
The State’s
Attorney presented the case, telling us when and where it happened and that the
cause of death was injuries sustained from the accident. The investigating
officer testified and answered our questions: the driver did not leave the
scene of the accident, was not speeding, and was not under the influence when
it happened. There were no eye witnesses to the collision. Then they and the
court reporter left the room so we could discuss the evidence and vote. It
would take nine yes votes for a Bill of Indictment.
This was only
one of a dozen or so cases we heard each week. Up until today the State’s
Attorney and investigating officers had presented sufficient evidence. Not
today. A youth on a bicycle and a car had collided; the youth, gravely injured,
had subsequently died. We were asked to decide if the driver should be brought
to trial. But it was unclear who had the right of way. No one had witnessed the
accident. We weren’t there when it happened. How could we decide after the
fact? In this kind of accident, we reasoned, the car would be damaged. Was it? We
weren’t told.
The Grand Jury
has the right to subpoena witnesses and documents. We issued a subpoena for
photographs of the accident and the next week examined them closely. Except for
the passenger’s side, the car looked brand new. The passenger’s door had fresh
scratch marks and indentations that corresponded to the damaged bicycle. It was
clear to us. The driver was not at fault. Sadly, the youth had failed to stop
for the car. We voted “No Bill.”
Pictures
provide evidence when eye witnesses cannot be found. For centuries men believed
that the universe was eternal. Not so! said the Bible, the universe had a
beginning. What standard of proof finally convinced scientists that the Bible
got it right?
Probable Cause
1931: Edwin Hubble's pictures of stars in distant galaxies were at odds with Albert Einstein's eternal universe.
Proof beyond a Reasonable Doubt
1992: It’s
‘like looking at God’! (Images taken by the satellite proved that the universe
had a beginning.)
Proof beyond a
Shadow of Doubt?
2012: WMAP all-sky
picture of the infant universe revealed how many years ago the universe was
created.
The heavens
declare the glory of God! From the musical The
Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here to
download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.
Click here to read
how WMAP turned the study of the origin and structure of the universe into a
precision science.
Click here to
read about the duties of a Grand Jury.
You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™)
sheet music for A Prayer.
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 know something
about tents. I sewed a tent. And it almost destroyed our marriage!
Forty years ago
motel rooms were out of our price range. We vacationed in an inexpensive tent.
When it rained water puddled in the fabric above our heads. In a down pour the
roof held a gallon of water, the fabric bowing under its weight. We could reach
up from our sleeping bags and touch the ball of water above us.
We were
excited! The Frostline Trailridge II backpacking tent kit was in our price
range.
All I had to
do was assemble pre-cut pieces. It was easily until … the back door. The
waterproof door was supposed to be the same size and shape as the screen door under it. It was not! Bob was upset, sure I had sewed the pieces together wrong. I
could not convince him otherwise. We were at an impasse. Angry and frustrated, I
took the pieces apart. We laid them on the floor. The screen door pieces were not
the same shape as the waterproof door pieces. The company sent a replacement.
The last seam
was done and we grabbed the corners, pulling them apart so we could see what
our tent looked like. When we let go, it collapsed into a shapeless heap on the
floor. Tents need tension, continual stretching, to have structure, to be
livable. We set it up outside using the stakes, poles, rope, and rope
tensioners that came with the kit. It was beautiful – waterproof floor,
breathable sides, cross ventilation, interior storage pockets and clotheslines,
waterproof vestibule entry, separate waterproof fly, room for two adults and
two small children. We used it happily for many years.
Thousands of
years ago Old Testament writers said that God stretches out the heavens like a
tent. Six years ago three astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize for their
1998 discovery that the universe has a self-stretching property. This property
is exquisitely fine-tuned, the most extreme fine-tuning problem in all of
nature. If its value were a little higher or lower, the universe would lose its
structure and order, just as tents lose their structure when they are not
stretched out.
From the musical
“The Majesty of the Maker!” this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here to
download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.
Click here to
read the October 4, 2011 Nobel Prize press release.
Click here to
read the startling implications of dark energy.
You can get print
(PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Fingerprint.
Why is a
biblical worldview so disturbing? Disturbing to those who adhere to the Bible.
Disturbing to those who do not. Could it be because, in a biblical worldview, things
that are true match what is real? And reality can be deeply disturbing. We want
truth to be the stories we tell about the world and about ourselves. But what
if our stories contradict what is real? And what if reality makes headlines?
God made headlines!
The paper is a little tattered, but you can clearly see the April 24, 1992
Chicago Tribune headline: NASA satellite discovery is ‘like looking at God’. Measurements
made by COBE confirmed that the universe had a beginning, which kind of
beginning, and that galaxies could form after the beginning.
However, the headline is disturbing because it contradicts two stories we tell about
the world:
·The
story that we don’t need God to explain the universe.
·The
story that God created the universe six to ten thousand years ago.
Space and time itself had a beginning! And the
space-time theorems show that all universes that expand on average (including
the multiverse) must have a beginning. But, whatever has a beginning must have
a cause. Whatever caused the universe to exist must be infinite, powerful, and
lie outside of space and time, or, according to the headline, it’s ‘like
looking at God’. This reads like the first verse in the Bible, “In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” COBE measurements also helped
to determine that the universe is over 13 billion years old. Then the WMAP
satellite, launched in 2001, gave even greater precision to the age of the
universe, 13.77 ± 0.059 billion years!
The satellites
measured reality. What do we do when reality contradicts our stories?
Kathy
Connections, from the album “Apologia,” was written in honor
of Darwin’s Day 2009. This video is scrolling playback of the song.
You can get print
(PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Connections.
Incidentally,
the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the
right to life, liberty, and security of person.”) has been criticized as a
secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Click here to read why.
The Psalmist said the moon is God’s faithful witness in
the sky and the heavens declare the glory of God. According to the Apostle John
that glory is full of grace and truth.
The heavens declare the glory of God!
A universe declaring the glory of God will radiate truth.
The assumption that the universe can be accurately measured flows out of a
biblical worldview, then, not a secular one. Scientists are fallible, but the
universe they measure cannot lie.
What does this mean for radiometric and other scientific
dating methods? The count of layers in tree rings, ice cores, and varves
truthfully gives their ages. Tree rings take us back 11,000 years, ice layers
in Antarctica 740,000 years, the Green River Shales (varves) 6 million years.
Tree ring chronology correlates with carbon 14 dating. Known volcanic eruptions
left dust layers in the ice core layer matching the year of their eruption. The
100,000 year pattern in the ice cores and varves closely matches the 100,000 year cycle in
the earth’s orbit around the sun.
God’s Word made astonishing claims about his World that were amazingly
confirmed thousands of years later: the universe had a beginning, has undergone
constant expansion, and is exquisitely fine-tuned for life. Scientists have
been able to confirm these claims because both God’s Word and his World radiate
truth.
Since God’s Word got it right about Creation, it is worth considering what
it says about the Creator. He loves us so much that he became a man, died in our
place, was buried and raised from the dead, and has the power to create his
life is us. The Creator
claims his promises are just as reliable as his laws governing Creation. What
the Creator promises is guaranteed because his Creation radiates truth.
God’s promises
are A Sure Bet. From the musical The
Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here to
download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.
You can get print
(PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for A Sure Bet.
November 22,
1963. I approached the check-out counter of a Ma and Pa grocery store. The cashier
looked stunned and frightened. I could hear a voice in the background. When I
looked around I was relieved to see that we were the only people in the store.
In a trembling voice he said, “The radio. President Kennedy has just been
shot.”
Five years
later a different voice on the radio was singing this about Kennedy:
“Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed lotta people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone”
The song,
“Abraham, Martin and John,” became a folk-pop standard worldwide. It was so
significant that, forty years after it was written, historian Ace Collins included
it in his book, Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind
America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs.
What were
people saying about Jesus five years after he was crucified?
Critical
scholars consider ancient documents as historical if they have a historical
setting and the author is named. Based on those two criteria at least six of
the Apostle Paul’s letters are considered authentic by skeptical, liberal, and
conservative scholars. When you trace the timeline of events in these letters,
you discover that four to six years after Jesus died, people were reciting this
creedal statement about him:
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
He was buried
He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
He appeared to Peter …”
The creed was
so significant that twenty years later, Paul included it in his letter to the
Corinthians, a letter skeptics consider as authentic.
Jonathan
Morrow lays out the timeline of events in his book, Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority.
Five years
after the assassination the song said JFK was gone. Five years after the
crucifixion the creed said Jesus is alive.
Happy Easter! He
is risen! He is risen indeed! From the album “Main Street” this video is
scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy
Click here to for “3 Startling Truths about the Early Church from the Pre-New Testament Texts.” You can get print
(PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Gospel Creed.
