Thanksgiving

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http://www.box.net/shared/f18ut92dub

You are an iceberg

Did you know that only 1/8 of an iceberg shows above the ocean's surface? That's all you can see, but obviously, that means 7/8 remains hidden in the ocean water below.*

Have you ever considered how people are like icebergs? All you can see is their behavior, and most of the time that's not much compared to the whole person. An individual has a body, a spirit, a mind, and a soul. While we often say, "You could see the wheels turning in his mind," or "the eyes are the windows of the soul," we cannot really see what really makes a person who they are.

Just as the wind, sun, and water shapes an iceberg, the elements of an individual's worldview shapes their spirit, mind, and soul. Behavior is only the evidence of a worldview, just as the body is the evidence for the inner workings of the mind and spirit.

Going from all we can see (behavior) to the rest of the iceberg, we see that a person's values reveal his or her worldview, and that the worldview is built upon what each person considers intrinsic or foundational to all other beliefs, "The Given."

"The Given" elements would be something considered universal: gravity, existence or non-existence of God.

What you believe about "the Given" then determines your worldview. Theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, and history make up your perspective of life. Put another way, a worldview is your set of beliefs or system of thought.

Your beliefs then define your values: respect for life, truth, happiness, loyalty to others. Consequently, you will act based on those beliefs.

"As a man thinketh, so is he."**

*http://www.antarctica.uab.edu/blog/204/
**Proverbs 23:7

The Face of Evil

Have you lost someone that meant more to you than anyone else in the world? Or perhaps you had the perfect job, a lovely family, hope and boundless optimism. You all thought it would last forever; heaven on earth.

Then you received the phone call that the third Tuesday of August. Your son, the captain of the football team collapsed on the field, and died. Perhaps your stock broker called you in July and told you that all your investments had been lost-everything gone.

Why was this happening to you? You tried to live according to the golden rule. You gave to charities. You never sold clients shady deals or or tried to cheat anyone. You went to all your kids' programs and often bought your wife flowers "just because."

How could a "good" God, assuming there is a God, how could he let these bad things happen to a good person like you? Where is God when everything is falling apart around you?

But wait a minute--how do you know that these things are "bad?" To assume these tragedies, and they are, are "bad," is to assume an infinite good. How is it that humans long for "good things" to happen to our families and all the people we know and love?

The truth is that God is good. He created the entire universe with a divine plan: to have relationship with each person He ever would create. He created the world and saw what He made and "It was very good." (Genesis 1 and 2) God created man to care for the earth He made. He created man with the freedom to choose God, and with that freedom mankind chose: to disobey God and suffer the consequences of that action: sin. A free choice, however leaves the possibility of a wrong choice.*

So why didn't God just make us incapable of choosing evil? Wouldn't that have saved the world the effects of a thousand wars and million famines?

Yes, He could have-God is all-powerful, but He wanted more than puppets for companions. Man chose disobedience and evil entered. Yet, keep these things in mind: If God is all-good, He can and will defeat evil. Evil still exists, and God has promised to restore the earth and defeat evil.**

"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears....Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."***

*"Who Made God? and Answers to 100 Tough Questions of Faith." Zacharias, Ravi and Norman Geisler. Zondervan, 2003.
**"Who Made God? and Answers to 100 Tough Questions of Faith." Zacharias, Ravi and Norman Geisler. Zondervan, 2003.
***Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 13: 9, 12

The Big Picture

"All I know is that the knife went in. If he hadn't been there, he wouldn't have been killed. It's just my luck I'm here on this charge."

"If the church had better locks, I wouldn't have broken in."

"It wasn't really me when I stole the car."

Theodore Dalrymple treats countless patients in Britain's prisons and explores what is at the heart of these broken lives in his book "Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass." Dalrymple states, "They describe themselves as the marionettes of happenstance," yet he contends that all actions must be evaluated in light of the worldview behind their actions or how their ideas effect their behavior.

Every individual has a worldview, set of beliefs that determine his or her actions. Those ideas have consequences--for good and ill.

So what is a worldview?
• It's the belief system that directs our decisions and actions.
• A worldview answers four basic questions:
-Where did I come from?
-Who am I?
-What is wrong with the world?
-How can those problems be fixed?

In other words, a worldview answers:
1. how the universe was created
2. attempts to explain problems
3. seeks a solution to what's wrong

How do you see the world? A victim of fate, the captain of your destiny, or part of a grand design?