What’s so amazing about ‘Grace’?

Mountain lake & campfire

It’s been a long time since I read the book, What’s So Amazing About Grace(.?) by Phillip Yancey

Now, I’ll tell you my two opinions. Why two? Because “Grace” is a double-edged sword.

For instance, in the first, the book had a good effect on me, because it taught me that Grace is not always peaches and cream, milk and honey, and good weather. Nor is it always “A Wonderful Life.” The book also convinced me that Grace is one of the most intricate and incredible concepts relative to God’s attributes, His Plan, His mercy, etcetera. Grace affects—impacts—every single aspect of every life, flora, fauna, Human!

Does Grace mean “…and they lived happily ever after…”? Hell no, it doesn’t! One of its meanings is: “It could have been worse.” And you know what, that is (almost) always true. I’ll get back to this meaning shortly.

It also means: Some desire of the heart is, eventually, given to you (Proverbs 13:12). Some days bring a wonderful surprise. A child is cured of (fill in the blank). Medical personnel accomplish Grace every day, for the most part. Maybe a fetus survives to full term. Maybe a fetus survives, period. Maybe two airplanes crash into the world’s most famous twin towers and kill only 3,000 people—when they could have killed twice that number on a different day. Grace is there every time a prayer is answered, and sometimes when prayers are not answered.

Grace is God saying, This is Who I Am, when a life or lives are uplifted, when lives are saved. Isn’t Grace when souls are saved?

Yep.

But is it Grace when lives are lost? When souls are not saved? Is it Grace that starts wars? Or, is it Grace, Who ends wars?

Yep.

Which part of Hurricane Harvey is Grace? The rain, the wind? The rescued? The dead? MSMBC and CNN and any MSM coverage? Fox News (yeah, still MSM)? Rescuers being shot at by looters? Donald Trump coming to Texas? 70 Young Democrats protesting POTUS coming?

Which part of Hurricane Irma–Wait! That Cat-5 bitch was coming right at me. Prepped, sort of, for four days. Then she wasn’t. But now i prayed for the west coast of Florida, where family lives. Irma spread out, but reduced. Still, she sure screwed up even the east coast–and my house. Is that Grace?

Yep.

I’ll tell you what Grace is not. It isn’t people who hate Blacks, whites (not supposed to be capitalized), Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, nor anyone who doesn’t follow a particular religion—nor anyone who hates all—religions. It isn’t scientists, academia, politicians, celebrities, or intelligentsia, who only desire to keep their jobs or their egos.

It is easy for people in a good, solid, financially secure position in life to sublimely offer advice to other people less than themselves. (Believe it or not, I’ve actually been there, done that.) It’s not so easy for people who worry, weekly, daily, or hourly, how they are going to survive the week, the day, the hour. (Been there.) It’s easy to be a person who has obviously been blessed by “God’s Grace.”

Now, I’ll try to tell you what Grace is:

However, something, a minor thing, happened today, and I’m not in the mood for espousing about the wonders of Grace. I’m not in the mood for what I call, “La-La Land Christians telling me that they will pray for me. Neither am I in the mood for morons who think I should become an atheist. And I damn sure am not in the mood for Socialist/Communist/Progressive/Democratic/Antifa/Nazi/any-supremacists/any-only-our lives-matter, or Juan Williams, Geraldo Rivera, Sheppie Smith, Karl Rove, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wolf Blitzer, Carl Kapernick, Alec Baldwin, Putin, or the Pope, telling me what they think is right and what is wrong. Morons!

What happened? It doesn’t matter. It could have been worse.

Make no mistake, I don’t know everything. Hell, I don’t even know much. But I will, occasionally, get really pissed off at God. I even cuss! And, God’s answer?

He… You mad, dude? Get over it.

Grace?
Yep, it could be worse.

Dear Neil deGrasse Tyson – Mother Nature exists, but God doesn’t?

 

Most scientists say that there is no evidence that “ GOD “ exists, including Albert Einstein, whose many statements regarding God have been documented. I truly respect what Einstein has contributed to our collective (a yucky word!) knowledge of the Universe. But anyone who thinks that he was a believer is uninformed. I won’t clutter this article with his quotes. However, I might quote other true and also alleged scientists.

For instance, a tweet from a modern day progressive science-hero, Neil deGrasse Tyson:

“Mother Nature has been genetically modifying organisms for nearly four-billion years. Farmers for ten-thousand years.”

Really? Can Mother Nature be seen with a telescope? Microscope? Oscilloscope?

[“Sure! Mother Nature can be seen in everything.”] But, God can’t?

Mr. Tyson, according to Patheos, a progressive secular humanist web site, in a “CBS web exclusive”:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/05/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-no-evidence-gods-existence/

Neil deGrasse Tyson Finds No Evidence For God’s Existence

            Tyson replied:

The more I look at the universe, the less convinced I am that there is something benevolent going on…

… I look at disasters that afflict Earth, and life on Earth: volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, disease, pestilence, congenital birth defects. You look at this list of ways that life is made miserable on Earth by natural causes, and I just ask, “How do you deal with that?”

So philosophers rose up and said, “If there is a God, God is either not all powerful or not all good.”

I have no problems if, as we probe the origins of things, we bump into the Bearded Man. If that shows up, we good to go! Okay? Not a problem.

There’s just no evidence of it.

And this is why religions are called “faiths” collectively. Because you believe something in the absence of evidence. That’s what it is! That’s why it’s called “faith”! Otherwise we would call all religions “evidence,” but we don’t, for exactly that reason.

Watch the full segment in the video below:

This is not the first time Tyson has gently and diplomatically denied the existence of God. Indeed, Tyson has made an art form out of quietly denying God’s existence while never outing himself as an atheist.

Oh, really? “…quietly denying God’s existence…? “…while never outing himself as an atheist…? Does CBS actually think that Christians and Jews do not recognize atheistic, humanist, and anti-God speech and journalistic bias? How about the Huffington-Puffington Post?

In an interview with Huffington Post in 2014, while promoting his then new television series Cosmos, the celebrated scientist gently argued that there is no evidence for the Judeo Christian god. At the time Tyson gave a remarkably similar answer to his recent response to CBS:
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/05/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-no-evidence-gods-existence/#ytwYoetbmPlK7J3u.99

Tyson’s “remarkably similar” response is also remarkably similar to the beliefs of another popular expert on science—who really isn’t a scientist:

Bill Nye On Belief In God: Explains How And Why He Is Agnostic …

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/bill-nye-on-belief-in-god_n_4645891.html

Jan 22, 2014 – Host Josh Zepps relayed a question from a community member that asked Bill Nye if he believed in God. Watch the video above to see Bill …

Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”, is not a believer. I, personally, hope and pray often that there is a God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus Christ Yeshua Ha-Mashiach –

I wouldn’t mind seeing proof of “MOTHER NATURE’, but she isn’t mentioned in The Bible, the Pentateuch, or any other ancient documents, as far as I know. Does she fit into the physics’ Standard Model? Where is she, Mr. Tyson?

Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, seems to constantly speak in the kind of generalities favored by astrologers. Scorpio: Today you will have an opportunity to make an enemy or a friend. Your attitude may be the deciding factor.

No kidding? I’m in trouble, then.

I prefer physicists who talk about classic and quantum mechanics, and non-locality, because they’re the ones who will never say that God doesn’t exist. They are incredibly intelligent people, but they will admit that there is a whole bunch of stuff (technical term) that remains outside observable qualia.

As I have previously stated, my research for my third novel, Spectrum and Principalities, led me into the venues of physics, neurology, anatomy, philosophy—and, theology, of course. I already stated that “Science” has convinced me that there is no observable-measurable evidence of spirits, paranormal events, miracles, near-death experiences, a survivable soul, or of, in Mr. Tyson’s words, “The Man in a Beard.”

Does “Mother Nature” have a beard? Mustache? Regardless, here’s a preview of one of the premises in my #4 novel:

If God doesn’t exist, then what is the value of a man’s life? George Washington has many statues—which may be destroyed by those who hate our country and its history. But, I digress. If there is no survivable soul, no eternal resurrection, and only ashes, dust, and worms’ meat, then what good are statues? How does Mr. Tyson and history judge George Washington’s next door neighbor? (What was his name?) George’s pets? His slaves? The first soldier lost under his command? The last one?

I appreciate statues honoring history, including those of Dr. Martin Luther King and Thomas Jefferson. Their lives had and have meaning. I also believe that the only way their lives have eternal meaning is if there is an eternity. Are the lives of unknown soldiers, unknown neighbors, unknown pets, and all unknown deceased human beings without eternal value?

If this life is all there is, and if Mother Nature has the final say, then why…? I can’t decide what question to ask. What difference does it make? Oh, maybe that’s the question.

Nope. There has to be a question which either proves God’s existence or proves otherwise. I need to find that question. Any suggestions?