If you have a heart for the spreading of the Gospel in India, I urge you to look in to the ministry of Dr. Samuel and Susan Mathai, Good News for the Nations. (It appears the web site hasn’t been updated in a while, but based on the print newsletters I receive occasionally, the ministry is doing well.)
Dr. Mathai was a mentor of my friend Francisco (aka the FranX) while the latter was in college. I have had the blessing of meeting with Dr. Mathai and his wife, and having lunch with them on more than one occasion. It is encouraging to see their faces light up as they talk about the school the ministry set up, for any children who wish to attend, not just for those who have accepted Christ, as well as the growing number of house churches. The latter is especially important, as in the words of Dr. Mathai, “The house church is the answer to the true evangelization of the extended communities of India.”
Christians are heavily persecuted in many areas of India, and even if you cannot help the Mathais financially, please add them to your prayer list. They are people wholly in love with God, and seeking to do His will in spreading the Word.
C.S. Lewis:
“Non-Christians seem to think that the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity. But of course it implies just the reverse: a particular demerit and depravity. No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician. Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.”
I am admittedly non-committal about accepting the current incarnation of ID theory. Whether it is sufficient as an explanatory research program or whether it will morph into a more fruitful line of inquiry remains to be seen. What should appear obvious, at least to anyone who hasn’t built a plausibility structure that excludes design explanations, is that a design inference is the best possible explanation for a systematic and coherent explanation of the physical universe. From the creation of the universe to the development of consciousness in humans, the role of a designer seems to be readily apparent. All it takes is a willingness to look at the evidence objectively.
Naturalism, on the other hand, is a plausibility structure for the near-sighted. Only by squinting, focusing on details, and ignoring the periphery can it be considered an adequate explanation. Pay close attention to microevolution but ignore the origins of life. Examine random fluctuations in astrophysics but don’t ask what was behind the Big Bang. And whenever the anthropic principle or the language-like structure of the genetic code is pointed out, wave hands wildly to distract attention. Is it any wonder that purely naturalistic explanations are losing their credibility with the general public?
Nick Takayama has another Bible-related widget for Mac OS X Tiger users: BibleSearch 1.0. It ties in to Bible Gateway, so you have all of the translations at the site available. Very handy for when you don’t feel like launching a browser or your Bible software.
The biggest complaint thus far appears to be the inability to select text for copying and pasting in to another application, but this is only a 1.0 version, so give Nick a little time.
If you are a Mac user and have recently upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, be sure to check out the Dashboard widget Daily Verse by Nick Takayama.