Unless otherwise noted, any postings here will be courtesy of me (Michael).

C.S. Lewis wrote in “God in the Dock” that for him, “Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.”  I can relate to that.  Such an impulse likely strikes me with less severity (and certainly with less frequency) than it did Lewis, but I also respond to it with less skill than Lewis, so it all balances out.

I don’t really know why I started writing because I didn’t have an audience at the time.  It wasn’t long though before I realized having a record of some of my theological thoughts and discoveries could prove to be a valuable legacy-building activity.  I plan on compiling everything one day and passing it on to my kids.  Maybe in this way I’ll be able to witness to grandchildren or later generations down the line I may not have the chance to meet or directly influence.

I only get the urge to write a few times a year, but I’ll post some of the accumulated results here in case anyone finds them interesting or useful.  Few of them are like most of the other blog postings I’ve seen on MyChurch, primarily because my intended audience is usually different than the MyChurch crowd. 

• For starters, I have a lot of unsaved family members.  In fact, I have a cousin I’m close to who is a college-educated, big-city journalist who holds most of the religious views one might expect of an educated big-city journalist.  I seldom share these exact essays with her, but she’s usually the reader I have in mind when I write anything touching upon apologetics or evangelistic issues.

• I was taught in school that evolution is a fact.  I also grew up in a church that was very light-handed in its treatment of the Bible, and had a Sunday school teacher make a point of telling us one morning that the days of creation were really eras, meaning that God used the truth of evolution to create.  I therefore spent most of my life as a theistic evolutionist.  I know young vs. old earth, creation vs. evolution issues don’t rise to the level of ‘essentials’ of the Christian faith, and I absolutely believe that one can be saved and believe in evolution, but I think the issues are more important that some give them credit for.  Here’s why…  As far as I can remember, every single doubt I’ve ever had about the existence of God was due to my belief in evolution.  On the other hand, I haven’t had a single moment of doubt in God since I came to believe the straightforward creation account in Genesis.  Not only did my recurring doubts of God depart, but so did my doubts concerning the inerrancy of scripture.  After all, if you believe the truth of all the events in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, there’s no reason not to accept the truth of every single Biblical verse.  Finally, though I always chose to cling to my faith in the face of evolution, I’ve encountered many testimonies from those who didn’t.  For that reason, I believe that embracing the creation account in Genesis and being able to logically defend it can be an important evangelistic tool to have at one’s disposal.  If nothing else, doing so will reduce the chances that you’ll plant seeds of doubt in an impressionable mind like my Sunday-school teacher did.

• As a warning, some of my posts will be somewhat technical, but I’m an engineer with an academic background heavy in math and physics.  It shouldn’t be a surprise since we worship the INVENTOR of math and physics, but some of the evidence of God one can encounter in studying these fields is REALLY cool!

• As another warning, I write more with the heart of a columnist than a blogger.  I consider my essays to be 'long' once I've hit the fourth or fifth page.

• I write when I get to the bottom of theological questions I’ve wrestled with for a long time, hoping to spare my children the time and effort it took me to learn those things and free them to move on to bigger and better discoveries.

• Finally, I write about those moments when I see God work in unique or unusual ways.  These essays aren’t written so much to communicate a lesson as to make sure that God gets more credit for His actions in question than from me alone.