The Joshua Victor Theory

·          What we see in creation: beauty or suffering? The positive: the case for design/creation; beauty, engineering, puzzle. The negative: the thorns, the parasites, diseases, COVID, natural disasters, death? Led many evolutionists to doubt and reject God. ·          Rom 8—creation groaning—subjected to futility. Futile: ineffective; failure; lack of purpose or success. God subjected the world to this b/c of sin—Adam’s first sin opened the world to futility and subjugation. Sin is an ongoing, thorough devastation of the whole creation, not just humans: entire physical universe. The Christian understands this from God’s Word, that sin has infected everything, and that the world is not as it was or should be, but that what we see now is the corrupted world. But others may look at the defects, diseases, and death in the world and think God didn’t know what He was doing, or that He wasn’t a good designer....

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today Jesus performs a miracle to heal a man who is deaf and mute, or unable to speak clearly. For people who are deaf or unable to speak, this passage may speak very clearly and with great comfort, to know that Jesus cared for and noticed these people—that they were included in His ministry. In everyday life, these people are often hidden, marginalized, or unnoticed by us. Did you know that only about 2% of deaf people in the United States attend church? Even today they are largely overlooked and unserved. However today’s reading shows Jesus’ compassion reached them and healed them. And in the story, it was partly because friends and neighbors brought the man to Jesus. But do you here, as hearing and speaking Christians—does this passage speak to you? You’ve probably never imagined the world of total silence, and of having to communicate through sign language, lip reading, or ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul uses the analogy of a tent to describe life in our earthly body. Not everybody loves tent camping, but for many it’s a fun, summer family activity. But even die-hard campers—have stories of the frustrations of tent-living—floods and leaks, mosquitoes, cooking problems or food issues. And mostly we can laugh about them—because tent living is usually no more than a temporary vacation for us. But for Old Testament Israel, for 40 years, a whole generation of hundreds of thousands of people lived in tents on the move. Generations of Israelites afterward were to commemorate this in the Feast of Tabernacles or “Tents”, when they would live in a tent for one week, as a reminder of how God preserved Israel through the 40 years in the wilderness. The 40 years was no “fun camping trip” that could be cut short when things got uncomfortable and they wanted to head home early for the comforts of a...