Good day dear friends.
Please remember to pray for the Shuttle as it returns home this morning. We pray for their safe arrival home. As shared yesterday please lift up Doug Carson in prayer. We await a good report from his blood sample on his leg yesterday.
We talked about the 3rd myth about Christianity: Science is in Conflict with Christianity. You can hear the sermon online at www.fumcsm.org. Please allow some time for the sermon to download on some computers.
What are your thoughts about science and faith? Here is our study guide for today to help us:
Monday: In Exodus 7:8-25, we find the first two of the plagues sent by God to convince Pharoah to let God’s people go. Please read these few verses to see how the “scientists” of Pharoah’s court go up against the power of God. You know the “rest of the story” and how many of the plagues are replicated by these men. What do you suppose that was? How does this speak to your faith?
Here is this passage from Exodus 7:8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a miracle,' then say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a snake." 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'" 19 The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'--and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars." 20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. 22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. 25 Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.
Most Old Testament stories that involve the unexplainable usually boil down to God being involved and working in the lives of the Israelites. In some, such as this passage, it was God versus Pharoah. God told Moses to use the powers given to him to show Pharoah just Who he was up against. In this passage you see that in most of the plagues, whatever Moses did, the magicians of Pharoah could match. It wasn't until the next plague, the plague of gnats that the scientists failed to match that or the ones that followed, leading up to the passover of the Angel of Death. That one was the one that finally allowed Pharoah to see he could not match God.
Science is not in conflict with Christianity. Our faith is a big picture of the questions that science cannot and tries not to answer, such as "Why am I here?" "Why was I created?" "What is my purpose?" Science tries to explain or make sense of things found in the natural order. Sometimes it can, sometimes it cannot. The Christian faith affirms God's role in all things, as do the top scientists of faith. There are some things that cannot and may never be explained, other than to thank God for God's involvement in our lives.
I love science and have been blessed by what I've been able to learn through it. My faith is stronger because of it. I've seen God's handiwork in all things.
PRAYER: Creator God, speak anew to my heart in all things. Allow me to enjoy the beauty of the earth as well as to appreciate that which You continue to reveal through the men and women dedicated to discovering new things. Bless them in their work and let me be the stronger in my faith because of it. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
