Why Do I Need Religion When We Have Technology?

As one of the guests at the forums of http://www.ted.com/, Billy Graham speaks on technology and faith. "As a clergyman, you can imagine how out of place I feel.  I feel like a fish out of water:"  Billy was preaching in San Jose several months ago and a friend of his brought several CEO's and leaders from Silicaon Valley to have breakfast with him.  He was fascinated by their conversation. It was an eye-opening experience talking about where our world is going through technology and science.   

"Some of you may be wondering why they have a speaker fromt he field of religion."  Some years ago, Billy was on an elevator in Philadelphia at a conference.  On the elevator, this fellow told another that he had heard that Billy Graham was staying at the hotel.  The other man said, "Yeah, he's right there."  So the man turned around, looked Billy Graham up and down, and said, "Man what an anticlimax!".  After some laughs, Billy says, " I hope that you won't feel that these few moments with me is an anti-climax after all these talks you've heard".

Billy was on an airplane in the East some years ago and the man sitting across the aisle was the founder of the Belk stores and mayor of Charlotee, NC; John Belk.  And there was a drunk man on the plane near the two.  He was obnoxious, yelling and pinching the stewardess every time she walked by.  This was making everybody upset.  Finally, John Belk said, "Do you know who's sitting here?  Billy Graham!"  The drunk responded, "You don't say."  Turning to Billy, he said, "Put her there", while holding out his hand. "Your sermons have certainly helped me."  Billy thought to himself, "I suppose that's true with thousands of people". 

Speaking to a group of men who have been peering into the future, Billy says that he would like to live in that age and see what is going to be, but he knows he likely won't be around because he is 80 years old.  "...and I know that my time is brief... I have Phlebitis in both leges... I also have Parkinson's disease...and some other problems that I won't talk about".  Billy points out that this is not the first time we have had a technological revolution.  We've had others and there's one he addresses.  In one generation, the nation of Israel had a tremendous and dramatic change that made them a great power in the Near East.  A man named David came to the throne.  He took power and King David became one of the great leaders of his time.  He had the favor of God with him.  He was a brilliant poet, philosopher soldier and writer.

About two centuries earlier, the Hittites had discovered the secrets of smelting and of processing iron.  Slowly, that skill spread, but they wouldn't allow the Israelites to have the technology.  But King David changed all that and introduced the iron age to Israel.  The Bible says David laid up great stores of iron.  Now, instead of crude tools of sticks and stones, Israel had iron plows, cycles, hoes and military weapons.  In the couse of one generation, Israel was completely changed.  This was much like the microchip of our generation. But despite the advancements, David found that there were many problems that technology could not solve. He saw that there were three problems that still remained and those problems are still with us today.  His question, which is the same as ours is, "How do we solve these three problems?"

The first problem is human evil.  How do we solve it?  Over and over again, you hear about it what is said to be the greatest book in the Bible; Psalms.  David says, "He restoreth my soul."  Have you ever thought about what a contradiction we are?  On one hand, we can push the frontiers of technology. We go to the bottom of the sea and we see into the galaxies, but on the other hand, somthing is wrong.  Our soldiers are ready to go to war with Iraq.  Why do we have these wars and revolutions?  We can't get along with other people.  Racism, injustice and violence sweeps our world.  Even the most sophisticated of us cannot break this.  How do we change man so that he doesn't lie and cheat and so that our newpapers aren't filled with it?

The Bible says that it is within us because we are separated from our Creator.  We need to have our souls restored and only God can do this.  Jesus said, "Out of the heart comes evil thoughts...murders, sexual immorality".  The British philosopher Bertrand Russell was not a religious man, but he said, "It's in our hearts that evil lies and it's from our hearts that evil must be plucked out."  Albert Einstein, when Billy was speaking at Princeton, said he didn't have a Doctorate's degree becauese no one was qualified to give him one.  But he once said, "It's easier to denature plutonium than to denature the spirit of man".  Many of us have pondered that. 

You've seen people take beneficial technological advances and twist them into something corruptive.  Brilliant people construct viruses to take down whole computer systems.  The Oklahoma City bombing was simple technololgy horribly used.  The problem is not technology.  It's the persons using it.  David said that he knew the depths of his own soul and he couldn't free himself from committing murder and adultery.  But David repented and sought God's forgiveness saying God could restore him. 

The Bible says we are more that a body and a mind.  It says we have a soul; a soul that yearns for God. Your soul is that part of you that yearns for meaning in life.  Our yearning is really a yearning for God.  Billy has spoken at many universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and Harvard.  At these universities, without fail, he has always gets questions like; Where did I come from?  Why am I here? and What was I brought here for?  Thomas Edison once said, "When you see everything that happens in world of science and in the working of the universe, you cannot deny that there's a captain on the bridge."

Once at a White House dinner, Billy sat beside Mrs. Gorbachov.  Billy had been to Russia several times under Communist rule and he knew the Russian ambassador.  So, beforehand, he went to the ambassador and asked what he should talk to Mrs. Gorbachov about.  "Talk to her about religion!" was his answer.  So, he and Mrs. Gorbachov did.  Afterwords, she said "You know, I'm an atheist, but I know there's something up there higher than we are."

The second problem Kind David knew we could not solve is human suffering. Writing the oldest book in the world was Job, who wrote, "man is troubled and the sparks fly upward."  In a few months, Billy will be 80.  He is currently going to the medical clinics to treat his aging body.  He actually hasn't spoken in several months before this talk because as he's gotten older, he has gotten rusty thinking.  At this talk, where he usually would ad lib, he now uses a podium and a script.  Even among the TED attendees, you see aging bodies.  In the most advanced society in the world, we have poverty, families that self destruct, friends who betray us and worries that bear down on us.  Why do we suffer?  It's an age old question.  Yet David said he would turn to God.  "The Lord is my shepherd."

The final problem we have is death.  Many commentators have said that death is the forbidden subject of our generation.  Most people  live as if they are never going to die.  Technology projects the myth of control over our mortality.  We see celebrities on screen like Marilyn Monroe. On the screen, she looks so wonderful that many kids think she is still alive!  But death is inevitable.

Last year, Billy  spoke to a joint session of Congress.  They were meeting in the Statue Room.  Roughly, 300 people attended.  Billy told them, "There is one thing we all have in common, Repulicans or Democrats;  we are all going to die... We have that in common with all of the great men pictured on these walls."  It's often difficult for young people to understand that.  The ancient writer of Ecclesiastes said, "There is every activity under Heaven.  There is a time to be born and a time to die." 

Billy has been at the bedside of famous people who were in the agonizing final moments of life.  He has talked to them when they were scared to death  Yet , only a few years earlier, death never crossed their minds.  He talked to woman who's dad was a famous doctor.  Her dad never thought about death or believed there was a God.  But on his deathbed, he asked for the chaplin and finally began thinking about the inevitable. Is there a God?  A few years ago, a student asked Billy the question, "What is the greatest surprise in your life?"  Billy answered, "The greatest surprise is the brevity of life.  It passes so fast!"

Wernher von Braun, in the aftermath of World War II, concluded that "science and religion are not antagonists.  On the contrary, they are sisters."  He even put it on a personal basis as Billy knew him very well.  Dr. von Brahn said "Speaking for myself, I can only say that the grandeur of the cosmos serves only to confirm a belief in the certainty of a creator....In our search to know God, I've come to believe that the life of Jesus Christ should be the focus of our efforts and inspirations.  The reality of this life and His resurrection is the hope of mankind!" 

Billy has spoken in 105 countries and he was invited one day to speak with Chancellor Adanauer, who was sort of the founder of modern Germany.  He asked if Billy believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He then told Billy he would write a book on the why Jesus rose and why it is important to believe that when he eventually was to leave office.  In one of his plays, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn depicts a man dying.  The man says to those around his bed, "The moments when it is terrible to feel regret is when one is dying."  So how should we live to avoid this?

Blaise Pascal, the architect of modern civilization, a brilliant scientist and mathematician and the man believed to be the found of the Probability Theory and creator of the first model of a computer (now with a computer language named after him.), was astounded at the phenomenon we are talking about.  People can achieve extraordinary heights in science, the arts and human enterprise, yet they are also filled with hypocracy, anger and self-hatred.  Pascal saw us as a remarkable mix of genius and self delusion. 

On November 23, 1654, Pascal had a profound religious experience.  He  wrote in his journal, "I submit my self absolutely to Jesus Christ, my redeemer.  A French historian wrote, two centuries later, "Seldom has so mighty an intellect submitted to the authority of Jesus Christ."  Pascal believed that the love of Jesus Christ could bring us back into harmony and He could forgive our sins.  It was Pascal who penned the well-known words "the heart has its reasons which reason knows not of."  Equally well-known were his words, "if you bet on God and open yourself to His love, you lose nothing even if you are wrong, but if instead you bet that there is no God, then you can  lose it all in this life and the life to come."  To Pascal, science paled in comparison to God and Pascal was ready to face God when he died at the age of 39.

King David died at the age of 70 and said, "Even though I walk theough the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me."  This was David's answer to the three dilemmas and it can be your answer too.  When Billy was 17 growing up on a farm with all the responsibilities of the farm.  Trying to keep up with studies and chores at the same time, he didn't make good grades until college.  One day, he came face-to-face with Christ, who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."  Jesus was a liar, He was insane or He was what He claimed to be and Billy had to make the decision of what he would believe.  Billy chose to believe by faith.  His heart was changed and now he is ready when he is called to go before the presence of God. 

How Can I Work on Improving My Marriage?

In Part II, "Remodeling", of his "Staying in Love" series, Andy Stanley. Falling in love requires a pulse, staying in love requires a plan. Falling in love is about attraction while staying in love is the right action.

The Juno question from last week was, "Is it possible for two people to fall in love and stay in love forever?" When some of us hear that question, we think it is possible even though it is against the grain of society. That's God's thumbprint on us to want that. Remember that, in order for us to stay in love we have to make love a verb and we have to "do" love. Then, remember, that Jesus said to love one another the way that He loved us.

In Phillipians 2, we find a letter from Paul who is summarizing much of what he saw in the way that people who knew and witnessed the life of Jesus responded. In verse 3, it says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit".  In essence, if you want to stay in love, don't compete. The next verse is the heart of the message and what Andy believes is key, "but in humility consider others better than yourselves". Value others above yourself. Literally, act like that person is more important than you. Make decisions as if he or she is more important than you.

Have you ever been around anybody who is more important than you? Have you ever been to a wedding where everyone stood in line to see the groom or bride but no one noticed when you walked in? It's the same way when you go to the boss's company party or when you are somewhere that honors a national hero. So, if we think about these people, how do we treat them? We often defer to them. We don't correct them. We laugh when they're not funny. In that moment, the key is respect. We pay attention to what we say and how we say it. That's how Paul says we have to treat our spouse. Every day, all the time, we have to treat them like they are more important.

Think about your most valued possession. You keep it clean, cared for and you watch out for how others treat it. There's a sense of awe in it. When we first met our spouse, this was what we had for them. We were awed and in love. So, we know we know how to do it.

Yet if this weren't enough, verse 4 says, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Andy says that this is particularly hard for him and us because we are naturally interested in certain things and not naturally interested in some of the things that our spouses are interested in.

Recently, Sandra has put Andy to the test because she is very interested in growing a garden. "Part of the reason I'm not interested in gardening is because she doesn't want to plant anything that I want to eat....I don't know where this goes and all of the sudden I'm feeling threatened." So, Andy said it's a decision he has to make, although not a big decision. It's not a decision about who is going to garden when the other can't or is Andy going to eat what she plants. Rather the question is; Will he find a way to become interested in the garden and express interest?

"It's funny when I ask women what their husband's do...I remember asking this one woman and her answer was 'I don't know but it has something to do with wires.'...That's about all she knew. She really needs to come up with a better answer or learn to be interested in what her husband does!"

We need to get out of our comfort zone. We know how to do this. When we first fell in love, we'd say things like "Oh, I love to run, I'd love to go fishing or I'd love to meet your parents." All of this is so ideal and we might say, "Yeah, Yeah...I got all that", but at this point, Paul takes us to the part where Jesus says love one another the way I have loved you. He points out the fact that the model isn't our parents' example, but Jesus' example. verse 6 & 7 say, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

In essence, Jesus, although He was God never leveraged his position as God. He never commanded people to move at the dinner table even though He was the most important. Every time he came into the room, He was the bride, hero, writer, boss or president, but He never used His position. Rather, Jesus "emptied himself". Jesus decided to place Himself under us. He subordinated His own will to us.

Did He humble himself by coming home early for dinner, by paying attention in conversation, by staying within the budget or by picking up the kids from school? No, of course not. What He did was, He submitted Himself even to death. Now, Jesus inherently had a dilemma. He could either maintain His rights, the respect due Him, His correctness in all situations, getting all that He truly deseverd on earth or He could fulfill His purpose on earth. But He couldn't do both. Jesus put our greatest need ahead of what He rightfully deserved. He put our salvation ahead of His glory. He opted for relationship over respect.

We can't have it both ways either. That one thing that God has given us a desire for requires that we die a little to it. We've had relationships before, but they didn't require the same things. We can't kid ourselves and think we can do a long term relationship any other way. The key for us is in God's Word.

The other day, after their kids' baseball games, Andy and Sandra were heading back to the car. He and she heard a woman telling her husband, "and get the chairs...get the bags...". She turned to Andy and said, "I can't imagine talking to you that way." Everything the woman said was true, but it was demeaning. It sounded like an awful marriage. You can spend the rest of your life being right, winning the arguments, getting them in shape, but you will not be in love at the end of your journey. Thank God Jesus did not come into the world to be right. He could have walked around calling everyone sinners and condemning them, but He didn't. He loved us.

Find me two people who've decided to treat each other more importantly than the other and I will show you two people who will be in a marriage that lasts. It's hard, but it's a lot easier than a bad marriage.

What Does the Bible Mean By "Fear the Lord"?

"Guys, I was watching the news the other day...anybody made the mistake of doing that lately?...I think they are required to depress you...somebody got shot...people are getting poisoned...a puppy was burned...the bird flu is coming..." There's so much fear floating around isn't there? Beginning his series, "Know Fear", Johnson Bowie addresses our perceptions of fear.

If it's not Satan, it's our parents or others. They should just start out the news saying they're surprised we made it through another day! We've even named our fears. Johnson looked up a few; acrophobia - fear of heights, arachnophobia - fear of spiders, aeriophobia- fear of flying, ecclesiaphobia- fear of church, dentaphobia- fear of dentists, glossaphobia - fear of speaking in public, turnaphobia - fear of being tickled by feathers. Aren't we all surprised to have made it through Y2K?

A lot of people carry around fear. Fear of death, rejection, harm, bankruptcy or of being single forever. We're on this journey of trying to recover our ancient path, but one of the humongus hurdles for us is fear. Fear is the prison of the heart.  2 Timothy 1:7 talks about how God did not create us to be afraid. We have power, love and a sound mind. God doesn't want us to be afraid, but to be more than a conqueror. We are to live life to the fullest. But so often, fear steals that away from us. We have to know the fears that are in our lives or we are going to be knocked down again and again. We can't always sleep with the TV on to kill the night time noises. We can't always drug, medicate or counsel our fears away. We have to call our fears out to a high noon and then whoop their butts.

For every thought plaguing our mind, God has a Word against it. He has a plan for our lives that is a billion times better than Satan's. More than 60 times in the Bible, God says, "fear not". If someone thinks they have no fear, they are called to help others not to have fear. God wants to drop kick our fears away. BUT....Not all fear is bad. God wants just a little fear in us; the fear of the Lord. In Proverbs, it says that the fear of the Lord is "the beginning of wisdom". Many of us have heard that before, but how many of us really understand it? Why is it that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom? Johnson doesn't presume to answer that for all of us, but he wants to try and share what he feels God is showing him. If fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then shouldn't we spend a lot more time on it? If we don't know the fear of the Lord, then where are we? At square one? If we can step back a little from how we're accustomed to viewing God, then we can see a little better.

Who are we to be in His presence? After God set the Israelites free from Egypt, He led them to Mt. Sinai. He gives Moses the Ten Commandments and then it says God came! This wasn't a stretch limo, God came down with trumpets, lightning and thunder, earthquakes, fire and smoke. The people were terrified, but Moses tells them to "Fear not". But, in the same sentence, Moses tells them to fear God! As the people stood in the distance, Moses approaches the black cloud. But doesn't it seem to be contradictory that he told the people not to fear but to fear the Lord. The word for afraid here is "yah rae" which means "to dread or to be frightened". But the word used for fearing the Lord is "year rah" which means "reverence". So, Moses is saying not to fear because God is testing them so that His reverence would be with them to keep them from sinning. He separates the fear of the Lord from being afraid of God.

The love of God is for us. There's a differernce. Being afraid of God makes us draw back from Him, but fearing God makes us press into Him. Sin cannot stand in His presence. God has two unchangeable attributes. 1 John 4:8 says God is Love, but Hebrews 12:29 says God is a consuming fire. God is love, but God will burn your socks off!! The God of all creation loves us, but He is also an absolutely terrifying inapproachable light. Yet He says that if we will draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. Philippians 2:12 says we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He is wonderful and terrifying at the same time. We can't truly love God if we don't fear Him. These are two things that go hand in hand.

Johnson went to the Grand Canyon not expecting much. But when he saw it, it was amazing. It was a little bit like what God might be like. Or maybe God is like what you see in the Hubbell telescope. Every time we invent a new telescope, we see more stars. It keeps going... Revelation 20:11 says God is so terrifingly great, but there is no where for anything to hide from Him. He weighs the oceans in his hands.

Johnson was in Nicaragua last year and he took a twenty minute drive to the top of this volcano. When he went to the top of it, it was amazingly huge. Steam was coming up from the middle and there was a sign that said, "Warning, this volcano can erupt at any time." This sign said to hide under his car if it erupted!! But that's the last thing he would do. He would speed to the bottom! Looking at the volcano, he knew he was in the midst of something that could destroy everything within many miles, but here he was looking into it. He wasn't afraid, but he was respectfully awed. This was probably a glimpse of what it is like to be before God.

St. Augustine wrote many books and one of the first autobiographies. Over 1,000 years ago,he lived and there is this part in his autobiography which describes his death. He was slowly dying in his bed and his relatives were watching him peacefully drift off. Then he sits up and shouts, "I've seen the Lord. All that I have written is but straw." In Revelation, it talks about this massive throne with terrifying seraphins circling and shouting the holiness of God. The entire throne is shaking. Revelation 1 talks about how John is describing a terrifying God, with a sword in his mouth and fire in his eyes; a man holding stars with white hair.

Jesus is the terrifying, but loving son of God. This is the same God where people would not even write His name or speak it in ancient times. In Exodus 3, when Moses saw the burning bush, God asks him to take of his shoes because he is on Holy ground. Then He sends Moses back. Moses asks who he should tell the people is sending him and God says to tell them that "I AM" has sent him. This comes from four letters in Hebrew "YHWH". It's the inefible name.

Orthodox Jews won't even spell "God". They write G-d out of fear of Him. When men would write His name in the Bible translations, they would throw the pen away every time. Exodus 20:7, God says that we should not us the name of God in vain. Profaining the name of God means to make common. It's as simple as saying, "Oh God!" Take "I swear to God" out of our vocabulary! Why do people do this with God or Jesus? Why don't we say, "Oh Buddha?" In Matthew 6:9, Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray and one of the first things He says is, "Hallowed be thy name". This translates to "May your name be kept holy". His name is not holy in many of our minds. We pay money to hear people defame the name of God in movies or to comedy acts! This is the same God with the seraphins crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy". The fear of the Lord is what keeps us from sinning.

Some people think that delayed judgement means there is no judgement. Where is the fear of the Lord? Sometimes, it seems that people think that Jesus came to make God less scary and less intimidating. But what Jesus did was, he became the door to give us access to this amazing God. This is the same God of the Old Testament. Don't fear men, fear God. We're called to realize that God is love and a consuming fire. 1 John 4:16 says God is love and that He can wash away all of our fears. He is for us and not against us. If our sins have been forgiven, then there is no fear of judgement. If there is no fear of judgement, there is no fear of death. If there is no fear in death, what do we have to fear in life? This is the beginning of wisdom. Fear God.