You've got to see "inside" this book ...

If you read my blog(s), you might know that I like to visit other blogs, and then click on some of the blogs they visit. Over at Lisa Samson's blog, I clicked on a blog of a writer, and there I clicked on a picture of one of her books. I clicked on the "See inside this book" and read the introduction, and then on to page 16 of the book, the first page of the first chapter. And I think you might like it too. Check it out at the link below (copy paste, because I have no idea how to make an underlined "here" work as a link ...) while I go back and finish reading as much as Amazon will let me see ... BRB ...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801064562/justthinking-20

Well, that was quick. Next page they let me see was the back cover. LOL. Anyhow, this page in particular says a lot to me ...

And it has something to do with the "Blog Lesson" I've been writing about (and will continue to write about for a little while longer, all the while hoping I don't bore you to tears or worse [like, make you go away and not want to come back] ...) ...

Earlier today, and over the last two weeks quite often, and many times throughout my life I have wondered about the mind and knowledge of God versus the heart and love for God. Here, I find permission to have an intellectual love for God -- a "mind mind-set" (I hope you'll let me call it that) for God. My desire is to know Him, but to know all about Him -- all that I can know about Him.

I had a pastor who would say, particularly about the book of Revelations, to "get the big picture" and "don't worry about the details." But the details are where the real fun stuff begins. The allegory and the symbolism in the historical tales of the nature of God or the events of the future are so stunning when looked at in detail. It's the details that I find the most awesome, and what bring me to the realization that no act of chance pulled together the Bible or the whole of creation.

The Bible texts had many authors and then a group of men got together and decided which texts to consider "canon" and which to disregard. None of that is an act of chance or coincidence. The details reveal it.

I actually have no problem with the theory of the Big Bang. I do not find it to be contrary to the story of creation. And after I saw a program on either Discovery, Science Channel, The Learning Channel, or one of those scientifically-oriented cable/satellite stations, I have even less problem with the Big Bang theory. As they described what would have happened after that explosion, I finally heard an explanation of why there was light BEFORE there was a sun.

Can you tell I am not a young earther and do not believe dinosaurs were either a hoax or if they really did exist that they were on Noah's ark as some of my Brothers and Sisters in Christ insist must be the case? As if getting into the Eternal Kingdom depends on whether I believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old?

And, while I do not believe in inter-species evolution, think about it. To arrive at the level of complexity that we have in plants and animals, if evolution was true, it would have had to have been consciously directed. Otherwise, we would have some really unusual things out there that defy convention. Animals would not fall into two- or four-legged categories; we would probably have some three and five legged ones (well, insects and bugs have more than the standard two or four, but do any of them have an odd number of legs????).

But I digress, and fly off on a tangent at the least little provocation. Sorry.

It's not a sin to think. It's not a sin to wonder. It's not a sin to use your mind. And it might not be so bad after all to have a "mind mind-set" when it comes to God and His creation.