Matt Farina - Tech / Faith / Life

Gender seems to be a hot topic these days. It's something everyone has an opinion on and there are a lot of opinions. Some of the debates range around the question, is gender part of who we are or just something society has put on us? Is gender something that is only in our sex organs?

Despite science findings that show men and women are different beyond the sex organs this debate rages on. One example of the difference is how the part of the brain that processes emotion hooks to the other parts of the brain. They connect to regions that do different things. According to livescience.com:

One of the questions I have seen bring on the most passionate debates in the church is the one of numbers. Some argue that God wants us to reach as many people as we can. Others argue that numbers don't matter but the people that are reached are what matter. So, I ask myself what is the deal with numbers. Does God care about numbers?

God has expectations for his people. Is the number of kids we try to have an expectation he has for us? I have been asking myself this question all week. Let me try to paint the picture how I came to this question and why I think it is really tough for us to personally answer.

This past week I was on a road trip with a couple coworkers and since I am getting married they wanted to share some of their wisdom with me. Part of that had to do with having and raising kids. One of them told me that he only had two kids because if he had more he couldn't spend enough time with any one of them. This seemed to make sense at first. But, as my mind wandered on this I started to ask myself questions. How much time is enough time? If you have things in life should a kid be one of them or that Thursday night softball game? (We have a work softball league) When someone thinks about how much time is enough time are they being selfish? Would I be selfish if I were in that case? What does God command us to do?

It's time for us all to pray for our government. I don't say this because of who is being elected but because those who are being elected need the hand of God on them. I write this not yet knowing who has been elected or what it means. But, I think it's time for us all to pray for our government.

Have you ever watched an apocalypse movie and wondered what it would be like to live in a fallen world? Or, ever talked about what it would be like if society as we knew it crumbled? Ever thought about how you would treat others if you survived into this world? If you saw people falling apart and dying because of this fallen world. How would you help others if there wasn't enough medicine or if people were slowly dying from radiation poisoning from some bomb? Now, what if I told you that were are living in that post-bad-thing-happened world.

God created man. At least that's what Genesis 2 says. The way Genesis says God created man has some pretty large implications on who we are and what our lives mean. After Genesis quickly covers creation it slows down for man and gives some more detail. Let's take a look at what it says.

One of the things in the Bible that sticks out for me is when God took that day of rest after completing the work of creation. In my mind I pictured God constantly doing things and never resting. This is in stark contrast to that idea. At the same time, I find myself constantly doing things and never taking a day of rest. Yet, God tells me I should take a day of rest every week. Looking at what the Bible teaches and what we have seen in the world that day of rest, known as the Sabbath, can have huge implications in our lives. Here are a couple that I see.

The book of Genesis not only teachers us about creation and where we came from but about how God brought order to His creation. This order can be seen in the order of creation and how creation work was divided up. At the same time, God said creation was good, not morally neutral.

Let's take a look at what he did.

We are a society that has unhealthy relationships and marriages that end in divorce. To most people this is just the world we live in. Where 40% of first marriages end in divorce and the numbers go up in second and third marriages. Many marriages that don't end in divorce are still unhappy and people suffer through it for the kids. Marriage seminars are everywhere and couples counseling seems to be something a lot of people have gone through. So, when I read what the bible says about marriage this morning in a pastors blog I was a little put back, shocked, and felt uneasy. It made me uncomfortable and would make most of my friends feel the same way. Let me try to explain why.

Digging into controversial issues brings up a number of soul searching questions. Not about the topic at hand but about how we are going to approach the topic and how we are going to look at the information at hand. This is especially true when we deal with things like creation vs. something else, where no person can show you, or will ever be able to show you, definitive proof that any of the theories posed is the truth. So, who wants to ask some tough questions of ourselves???