Everything for Him alone

As I write this, the temperature

has spiked to 122 degrees and I

am overcome by the greatness of

God I see before me. I’m dockside

on the Colorado River, where the

majestic volcanic mountains tower

over the rushing green river as

carp flip joyfully toward the sun

and ski boats rumble by with their

bronzed occupants. I am reading

Charles de Foucauld (a one-time

rebellious soul): “May our only

treasure be God, may our heart

belong totally to God, everything

in God, everything for God… for

him alone.” Then I flip to my

next writing from St. Therese of

Lisieux: “I give everything I have

to God, everything, and when I

have nothing to give, then I make a

present of my emptiness… my only

happiness on earth is learning how

to please Him.”

When you read verses depicting

such stellar belief in God, in

comparison to atheistic unbelief,

ponder with me the importance

of being able to defend our faith.

Others truly can be convinced of

the beauty and reality of God.

Don’t ya think anyone who has

ever seen a shooting star, an

untamed river, a magnificent

sunset should feel and know God’s

presence? How can there even be

argument against God’s existence?

Yet sadly there are.

Epistemology (the study of how

human knowledge is obtained) is

an important aspect of apologetics

according to R.C. Sproul. This

week we explore the Law of

Causality.

The Law of Causality argues

that the existence of a supreme

being is necessary simply because

events require a cause. Sproul cites

the following: “What better way

is there to escape the demands of

a holy God than to deny the fact

that humans can know anything

about him. Christians rightly

affirm, however, that refusing

the knowledge of God only leads

to folly” (Psalm 14:1, Romans

1). He goes on to state: “If the

power of causal thought drives

people to acknowledge a sufficient

cause (God) for the things that we

recognize as effects (the world),

then what unregenerate person

would want to embrace the law of

causality? In essence, such people

want to avoid acknowledging their

Creator, for, as we learn from

Romans 1, acknowledging God

is tantamount to giving thanks to

him, and giving thanks to him is

tantamount to loving obligation

and self-denial.”

In a nutshell, this argument

about cause and effect boils down

to this point: Atheists believe

nothing caused the earth to be

created – it was created by chance.

St. Paul argues: “In him we live

and move and have our being”

(Acts 17:28).

Rationally, it just makes sense

that if we are able to define an

event as having an effect, then we

can be certain that that event has

been caused by something other

than itself. Confused? Then just

take a good look at the painting

of the sky at sunrise. Believe that

God is still causing it to happen

day after day, and echo with the

saints above, “everything for him

alone.”