Intelligence And Faith

There is a 'truth' that I keep bumping into in the debate that rages on between theism and atheism that I have to say gets my ire up. I am tired of reading that atheists are more intelligent than their religious counterparts. This half-truth is used far too often as a bard to attack those of religious belief, and as a refrain to keep atheists in line. An article titled Why Atheism Will Replace Religion: New Evidence written by Nigel Barber published July 14 2011 in Psychology Today is just dripping with this same slop.

I think it is high time that we challenge this very sloppy line of reasoning.

The End The Beginning

Well I hadn't intended to wait this long to write this Tidal Impact wrap up blog, but somewhere between late nights, driving home, church duties and family time I've made it to Wednesday. Oh well with a little more sleep under my belt I am bound to make more sense anyway.

Friday and Saturday were days of mixed emotions for me. On the one hand I was looking forward to going home, seeing my wife and children and sleeping in my bed. And yet I felt a profound sense of sadness. The past week had been a holy time. It was a time where we all felt God move in different ways and in different places. It was a time of ministry and service, a time of growth and stretching, a time of team building and friendship enriching. Like I said it was a holy time.

But eventually even Moses had to leave the burning bush in the distance.

Serving In Weakness

It's Thursday and we are tired. You could see the lack of sleep on everyone’s face this morning. Without a doubt every one of us wanted a few more hours in bed.

But we didn't have a few more hours. 7:15 breakfast, 8:00 team meeting, 9:00 children's ministry. Extra sleep was nowhere to be found. So we did our best to rise and shine and give God the glory glory.

And as we stepped out in faith to serve God, God honoured our action.

First let me say the youth lead the kid's program very well. The highlight of the morning had to be watching the teens lead songs games and the bible story with little help from myself or the other leaders. They nailed it.

The second highlight for the day for me was the food drive. Tonight everyone in Tidal Impact participated in a food drive.

And what a drive it was. Between set up, collection and sorting we took about three hours to do this project. Three long energy intensive hours. To make matters worse the air was humid, the rain came down from time to time, and the area we had to cover was large with houses well spread out.

Last night was all about serving Christ when the Spirit is pumping you up and God's energy is flowing through you. Today on the other hand was all about serving Christ when you may not want too. When you are not feeling the Spirit's power, and you much rather curl up with a book or the TV.

Today was about serving out of weakness.

The youth proved they were up to this task as well. Along with their wonderful morning ministry I am happy to report they collected food with smiles on their faces.

And collect they did. Tonight we collected roughly $3000 worth of food, or roughly one ton of food.

Tonight we made a difference in people’s lives, even if all we wanted to do was sleep.