Wednesday of this week, East Texas Christian Academy opened its doors to its students for the fall. I’m teaching a class for senior Bible students on the 21st century and the writings of Paul. My goals as always are: 1) help my students grow closer to Jesus, 2) help my students mature as adults, and, most importantly, 3) coerce my students to watch my sermons on YouTube as many times as possible in order to drive up the number of viewings.

The first day of school, my own four kids were ready to go by 7 AM. I, on the other hand, was simply trying to prove that I was not comatose.

The Class of 2013

Tim Henderson shared with me something I found interesting. Every year, Beloit College publishes a list marking milestones and events that occurred BEFORE members of its freshman class were born. I found this fascinating. You can look up more at their website http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/
　
Meanwhile, allow me to share with you some of the more interesting items from the list.
　

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013
　　

　Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991. For these students:

1. Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The　Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
3. The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
5. Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
6. Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
7. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive. (And, I might add, he has always been retired.)
8. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
9. Rap music has always been main stream.
13. The KGB has never officially existed.
23. The European Union has always existed.
25. Condoms have always been advertised on television.
26. Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
28. The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
29. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.
33. Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
34. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
35. Women have always outnumbered men in college.
36. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
41. Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.
50. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
53. Someone has always been asking: "Was Iraq worth a war?"
56. The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
59. For one reason or another, California’s future has always been in doubt.
60. Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.
63. There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
70. Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.
　
Make you feel old?

How versus Why

I read a convicting thought this week from Charles Prince in his book THE EIGHTH DAY. He says, Christians often "fully enjoy the fruits of modern scientific endeavor, but in theory reject the methodology that produces such benefits as ungodly."

I think Prince is right. I have been saying this for years; the Bible is not a textbook of science. The Bible primarily concerns itself with answering the question of why, not how.

The fact is, throughout history, whenever scientific advancements have come outside the community of the people of God, it has been because the faith community has repressed the pursuit of scientific truth. Leaders have feared pursuing the answers to questions of how, because, by definition, these pursuits delve in realms outside of Scripture since Scripture is not essentially concerned with the question of how.

I hope we in the Christian community can eliminate the feelings of threat that we are tempted to experience. It is inconsistent to be as dialed-in to the scientific advancements as we are, and then express negativity or even hostility to the scientific community. To do so would not be unlike the Jewish leaders of the first century who used the Romans to accomplish their aims and claiming innocence, since their hands were not literally involved in the process.

I also hope we can offer scientists respect. The more I study these issues, the more I realize the strident voices of the atheists are rare in the scientific community. Many scientists believe in God, and most have respect for faith.

Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)

1. Rest in peace Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Perhaps no one in the world has ever done more for the mentally disabled than her. She was the driving force behind Special Olympics, which she founded in response to having a sister (Rosemary) who was mentally disabled. What I did not know until her death was this. She was strongly pro-life and through the years consistently challenged the pro-choice plank in the Democratic Party’s platform. I hope her political party receives many more members like her who are pro-life in the ensuing years.

2. Some of my academic buddies may choke when they hear me say this, but I have been reading THE LIFE YOU ALWAYS WANTED –. SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE (by John Ortberg), and I really like it. The reason some buddies would not like it is because it is primarily practical rather than theological. Still, we need books that tell us, in practical ways, how to live life like God. Ortberg does this well.

Chapter 5, "An Unhurried Life", is worth the price of the book, alone. Listen how Ortberg captures our contemporary culture of hurry:

At a grocery store, if we have a choice between two checkout lines, we find ourselves counting how many people are in each line, multiplying this number by the number of items per cart. If we have a really bad case of hurry sickness, then even after we get in line we keep track of the person who would have been in the other line. If we get through and the person who would've been me is still waiting, we are elated. We've won. But if the alter-me is walking out of the store and we’re still in line, we feel depressed. We have hurry sickness.

I've mentioned before books like THE HOLY LONGING for the theological. Reading Ortberg is like reading Martha Stewart—he will give you 100 ideas that will prompt your imagination and get your creative juices flowing for putting into practice your spiritual goals.

3. A special thanks to "Grumpy" Smith for coming to speak to Shiloh Wednesday night of this week. He was very down-to-earth, authentic, and did a marvelous job.

4. Watched the 1961 scary movie THE INNOCENTS last night. What was that all about?

5. Okay, while I still don't care about watching the Cowboys play in preseason, I must admit that I am curious to see the new stadium tonight.

Have a great weekend!