My Online Faith Journal

       The first chapter of the Bible is difficult to understand knowing what we do about what scientist say is the age of the earth.  Many christians today would say that we should not take the story of creation literally and that God did not make the earth in 7 literal days.  One of the issues that I see in this is what constitutes a day when there is no form, structure or even light in existence?  How would time even be measured?  I don't think however that it would be difficult to create the earth in 7 days.  God is all powerful and He can do whatever He wants.       Then there is the issue of the first two verses in Genesis 1.  The essential truth of these two verses is this "God created the heavens and the earth."  That is the major point.  God is creator of all things.  As such, he is owner and author and the one who sits on the throne.  The "how" is much less significant than the "who".       Many people hold to what is called the  "gap

    I know it has been a long time since I have written on this blog.  One of the reasons for that is that I just started working on my Masters in Counseling degree.  This is a big change for me since I have not been in a program like this before.  There is a lot of reading and writing and it keeps me busy.  It has been busy and stressful lately.  So, I was thinking during my quiet time about spiritual renewal.      One story that came to mind is in Matthew 12:8-14 where Jesus heals a man with a withered hand.  This is in a section where Jesus teachings are being compared to those of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Jesus heals the man with the withered man and then tells the Pharisees that it is lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath and to do good.     You might wonder what that has to do with spiritual renewal.  One thing that I think it has to do with it is that we are to learn a lesson from the mistakes of the Pharisees.  They had a rigid list of rules and standards.  Jesus didn'