How do we separate chance from the specific, detailed plans of God? Chance or God's Plan? Don't the laws of probability tumble our lives like dice?  But if God wants what’s best for us, how could anything be left to chance?  Wouldn’t His plans involve every little detail of our lives?  Wouldn’t everything be set in place by His design, worked through our freewill anticipated by His omniscience? Honoring our freewill while working Ultimate Good through every choice we make? Life isn't Read more [...]

For most of my life the existence of evil was “proof” that the creator of space, time and matter didn't care about us. He either had no heart, or it was cold and reptilian. He was the ultimate “Dead-Beat Dad" abandoning us to fend for ourselves in a hostile universe. Since God wouldn't eliminate evil, it was up to me to stave off the evil of the world as best I could, for myself and my family. But after 46 years of going it alone I was driven to my knees in defeat. That was when I saw Read more [...]

We often think of philosophy as being a lofty subject studied by dreamy thinkers locked (from the inside) in a room the top floor of an obelisk, their feet far from the ground.  But philosophy is an integral part of everyone's life whether they know it or not.  The philosophy of the scientific method is the foundation of all the sciences, but the same philosophy is played out every day throughout the day in everyone's lives.  If not, we couldn't survive.  We are continually accessing data with Read more [...]

Moving forward through time is really all we have.  Face front; eyes forward.  Footsteps in the present to the future beyond. Many thoughts audition to guide those footsteps.  The common, worn and failed ideas of the past need not apply.  They are the silt, the sand and the mud to the prospector looking for gold. Why settle?  Because you’re in a hurry, and being at a standstill is no fun?  But going backward even less. So, don't blink when your resolve is tested!  Don't settle for fools Read more [...]

There has to be a personal God.  My heart tells me so.  My mind tells me so. But first it was my heart that knew. My mind had to catch up. My heart is thankful it did, because the heart that knows God is in trouble without support of the mind.  Yet the mind that knows God without support of the heart resides in a cadaver.  Although the role of each is entirely different, both are designed to compliment and strengthen the other. Before the "Age of Reason" the heart's faith was perhaps Read more [...]

58 percent of those who call themselves Christians don’t believe in the resurrection of Christ. They don’t believe He rose from the dead. As Paul puts it, the resurrection is the cornerstone of our worldview. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead we’re all still in our sins and Christians are the sorriest people on the planet. Why do we allow ourselves to be bamboozled by Satan’s deceptions? Why would we accept his explanations without thinking? Why do we sometimes indiscriminately soak-in Read more [...]

“Each square in the concrete sidewalk is a step. Well, for grownups it is, but for me -two steps. How many steps from school to home? I lose count. Each time I try. I can’t do it. No matter how hard I try. There’s always something that gets in the way and the whole plan collapses. A dog, a honk, a runaway shopping cart, the crossing guard. I’ve stopped trying. It doesn’t matter anyway. I used to think it only matters if I think it matters, but then I discovered it wasn’t just me -it really Read more [...]

Life is crazy busy.  It's hard to keep up with so much going on.  Many things are going right, but those going wrong set back progress with those going right! It often seems as if there were a malevolent intelligence behind the setbacks, because it's just not natural for so many things to go wrong in succession from so many multiple angles of attack.  If they happened by chance they would be scattered and random, yet instead they often appear focused on a particular target. Now how can that Read more [...]

Giving an Answer is a command. Yet it usually feels like a privilege and a joy -not a command. It’s everyone’s job, yet I usually don’t see it as a job because I love speaking with people about the reasons for the hope that I have. It’s my passion! Most of the time... I do encounter resistance.  External resistance yes, but also internal resistance. There is always something “more important” and “more urgent” and “more pressing” and “more realistic” that should take Read more [...]