Ask and it shall be given unto you

When I wrote this item I was at my absolute lowest ebb. I was actually raging at God, imploring him, if I had done something wrong, to punish me and not my son. Nothing was going right for me and I felt abandoned, even by the Saviour.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I received the news that my son would be given a bursary. Better still, that his school would give me ample time to pay off what I owe this year. Although I will still struggle for a while, a massive weight has suddenly been lifted from my shoulders.

I don't think God's plan involves just awarding material wealth to anybody who asks for it. I can't see how that would benefit society, not to mention the precedent it would set. But there are occasions and circumstances in which he hears the cry. And my immediate thought now is to repay him by not being so sulky, or irritable with my family, friends and others in the community, and by reacting to the fact that I am under less pressure by increasing my physical and spiritual commitment to my Church.

First I gave thanks, now I recognise I have a duty. I guess that's the way it works.

The science of Christianity

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a good friend who considers himself to be a "scientific Marxist".

Being both scientific and a Marxist he does not believe in the existence of God, and gives me an impression of being quite disappointed that I do. However much I disagree with his views (although I have nothing per se against either scientists or Marxists), I would concede that he is very much an intellectual.

To a certain extent any attempt to counter cold science with faith, or for that matter vice versa, is fairly pointless. The two exist upon different planes. If the metaphysical could be explained by reference to a mathematical formula then it would no longer be metaphysics, and similarly God's power exists outside of scientific comprehension.

As I have stated elsewhere on this blog, infinity and eternity are two concepts that science has not been able to satisfactorily explain. Oddly my friend disagreed with this, but the evidence he used to support his case either went clean over my head or, as I believe to be the case, was not really evidence at all.

A preacher who used to visit my Church once told me about a friend he had, who was a surgeon. A man to whom, in other words, a thorough grasp of science was an imperative. The preacher relayed to me how the surgeon had marvelled at the complexity and precision of the human body, and concluded that only a divine creator could have devised such a thing.

Perhaps that's why even Darwin, having (we are told) debunked the creationist theory, never went so far as to describe himself as an atheist. My Marxist friend protested that this was only because his own (Darwin's) wife had been a Christian.

Not a very scientific argument, I thought.

We all need friends

Over the past few days I've been making some wonderful new friends on Facebook.

I say wonderful, I've never actually met any of them and I can't really say with any certainty that are all, truly wonderful. But friendship is a wonderful thing and it is nice share greetings, stories and interests even with complete strangers, especially when we are united through faith.

I hope some of my new Facebook friends will drop by here from time to time, leave comments or even submit articles (e-mail to holyjoe@live.co.uk please).

This blog is your resource, every time you leave a comment or write a piece it goes up in the search engines and more people will visit.

Please help me to build this resource and spread the Word.