sola gracia

Was totally out of breath…lol

Greetings and Merry Christmas! Here is our humble little update for the year! Joe continues to work for NxGen in Whitefish as Vice President of the I.T. department. What a blessing to have a job in these difficult times! Kelly continues to stay at home with the little ones and has begun the venture in home schooling this year. Nilla turned eleven this winter and is in the fifth grade. It was a big transition from the elementary school to the middle school in Whitefish, but she adjusted quickly. She is enjoying piano lessons and looks forward to expanding her skills as an artist. Isaac turned five and began Kindergarten at home. He and Abigail are enjoying Bible Study Fellowship with mom this year. Abigail turned four in the spring and is now learning alongside her brother at home with mom.
Our adventures this year were of the traveling kind. Early in February led Kelly and the little ones to eastern Montana as her grandpa Engstrom had heart trouble. Then in March, Kelly’s grandma Hiatt died unexpectedly and that led Joe and Kelly to drive the two day trip to Oklahoma. In April we traveled as a family to Billings, MT for Joe’s mom’s family Easter gathering and great-grandma Ruth’s 80th birthday. When July came around, we loaded the van to the max with all five of us plus Joe’s parents and headed for Wisconsin. There we celebrated Joe’s Uncle Dick and Aunt Linda’s 50th wedding anniversary with all of the Swenson clan. On the trip home we stopped in eastern Montana to visit the Engstrom family. In September, we were visited by Aunt Erin Engstrom. In October, Kelly took the kids back out to eastern Montana and then traveled on to Iowa with her aunt and uncle for medical treatment. Lastly, we had a surprise visit from Kelly’s brothers for her birthday in December.
Overall, it has been a big year full of travel and we are ready to plant our feet at home for the next five years at least. May the chill of the season bring your hearts ever closer to the warming hearth of the Lord’s unfailing love!
~Joe & Kelly Swenson

“Let  me explain the problem science has with religion.” The  atheist
professor of philosophy pauses before his class  and then asks one of his
new students to  stand.

“You’re  a Christian, aren’t you, son?”

“Yes  sir,” the student says.

“So  you believe in God?”

“Absolutely.  “

“Is  God good?”

“Sure!  God’s good.”

“Is  God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”

“Yes”

“Are  you good or evil?”

“The  Bible says I’m evil.”

The  professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible! He considers  for a
moment.. “Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a  sick person over  here
and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help  him? Would you try?”

“Yes  sir, I would.”

“So  you’re good…!”

“I  wouldn’t say that.”

“But  why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if  you
could. Most of us would if we could. But God  doesn’t.”

The  student does not answer, so the professor continues. “He  doesn’t,
does he? My brother was a Christian who died of  cancer, even though he
prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is  this Jesus good? Can you answer that
one?”

The  student remains silent. “No, you can’t, can you?” the  professor
says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on  his desk to give the
student time to relax.. “Let’s start  again, young fella. Is God good?”

“Err…yes,”  the student says.

“Is  Satan good?”

The  student doesn’t hesitate on this one.. “No.”

“Then  where does Satan come from?”

The  student falters. “From God”

  “That’s  right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there  evil
in this world?”

  “Yes,  sir.”

  “Evil’s  everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything,  correct?”

  “Yes”

  “So  who created evil?” The professor continued, “If God  created
everything, then God created evil, since evil  exists, and according to
the principle that our works  define who we are, then God is evil.”

Again,  the student has no answer. “Is there sickness? Immorality?
Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist  in this
world?”

The  student squirms on his feet. “Yes.”

  “So  who created them?”

The  student does not answer again, so the professor repeats  his
question. “Who created them?” There is still no  answer. Suddenly the
lecturer breaks away to pace in front  of the classroom. The class is
mesmerized. “Tell me,” he  continues onto another student. “Do you
believe in Jesus  Christ, son?”

The  student’s voice betrays him and cracks. “Yes, professor, I  do..”

The  old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to
identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever  seen Jesus?”

  “No  sir. I’ve never seen Him.”

  “Then  tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”

  “No,  sir, I have not.”

  “Have  you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your  Jesus?
Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus  Christ, or God for
that matter?”

  “No,  sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

  “Yet  you still believe in him?”

  “Yes”

  “According  to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable  protocol,
science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you  say to that, son?”

  “Nothing,”  the student replies. “I only have my faith.”

  “Yes,  faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem  science
has with God. There is no evidence, only  faith.”

The  student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a  question of
His own. “Professor, is there such thing as  heat?”

  “Yes.

  “And  is there such a thing as cold?”

  “Yes,  son, there’s cold too.”

  “No  sir, there isn’t.”

The  professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.  The room
suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins  to explain. “You can
have lots of heat, even more heat,  super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited
heat, white heat, a little  heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything
called “cold”.  We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no
heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no  such thing as
cold; otherwise we would be able to go  colder than the lowest -458
degrees. Every body or object  is susceptible to study when it has or
transmits energy,  and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit  energy. Absolute  zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat..
You  see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the  absence of
heat.

We  cannot measure cold.. Heat we can measure in thermal units  because
heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat,  sir, just the absence
of it.”

Silence  across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom,
sounding like a hammer.

  “What  about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as  darkness?”

  “Yes,”  the professor replies without hesitation. “What is night  if it
isn’t darkness?”

  “You’re  wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the  absence
of something. You can have low light, normal  light, bright light,
flashing light, but if you have no  light constantly you have nothing and
it’s called  darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define  the
word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you  would be able to make
darkness darker, wouldn’t  you?”

The  professor begins to smile at the student in front of him.  This will
be a good semester. “So what point are you  making, young man?”

  “Yes,  professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is  flawed to
start with, and so your conclusion must also be  flawed.”

The  professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time.  “Flawed? Can
you explain how?”

  “You  are working on the premise of duality,” the student  explains…
“You argue that there is life and then there’s  death; a good God and a
bad God. You are viewing the  concept of God as something finite,
something we can  measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.”
“It  uses electricity and  magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully
understood either one. To view death as the opposite of  life is to be
ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist  as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life,  just the absence of it.” “Now tell
me, professor. Do you  teach your students that they evolved from a
monkey?”

  “If  you are referring to the natural evolutionary process,  young man,
yes, of course I do.”

  “Have  you ever observed evolution with your own eyes,  sir?”

The  professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he  realizes
where the argument is going. A very good  semester, indeed.

  “Since  no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work  and
cannot even prove that this process is an on-going  endeavor, are you not
teaching your opinion, sir? Are you  now not a scientist, but a
preacher?”

The  class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the  commotion
has subsided. “To continue the point you were  making earlier to the
other student, let me give you an  example of what I mean.” The student
looks around the  room. “Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen
the  professor’s brain?” The class breaks out into laughter.  “Is there
anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s  brain, felt the
professor’s brain, touched or smelt the  professor’s brain? No one
appears to have done  so.

So,  according to the established rules of empirical, stable,
demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no  brain, with all due
respect, sir…” “So if science says  you have no brain, how can we trust
your lectures,  sir?”

Now  the room is silent. The professor just stares at the  student, his
face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an  eternity, the old man
answers. “I guess you’ll have to  take them on faith.”

  “Now,  you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists  with
life,” the student continues. “Now, sir, is there  such a thing as
evil?”  Now uncertain, the professor  responds, “Of course, there is. We
see it every day. It is  in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man.
It is in  the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the  world…
These manifestations are nothing else but  evil.”

To  this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at  least it
does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the  absence of God. It is
just like darkness and cold, a word  that man has created to describe the
absence of God. God  did not create evil. Evil is the result of what
happens  when man does not have God’s love present in his heart.  It’s
like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the  darkness that
comes when there is no light.”

The  professor sat down.

PS:  the student was Albert  Einstein

Albert  Einstein wrote a book titled God vs. Science in  1921…

(I can’t vouch for the validity of this story as it was sent to me in an email. The Einstein portion is garbage. He never wrote a book titled that.)

When I received my Spring TEACH magazine, I glanced at the theme, “Marriages Made Marvelous”. My first thought was, oh no they’re going to show me how I’m failing at my marriage! I was reluctant to read anything past the cover, but since I was on a 26 hour driving trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma I figured it was the best time.
As I was reading through I found much more encouragement and less scolding than I expected and was excited to read the next article or story. A particular favorite, if I had to pick one, would be the story “The Long Goodbye”. As my husband drove us through the long stretch of flatlands in Kansas, I asked him if he’d mind turning off the music and listening to a story I was reading. So, we both shared the wonderful story of a husband battling Alzheimer’s disease while his wife devoted her life to caring for him until he died. It was a story of great hardship, but a story of commitment.
Here is a quote made by the wife that really sums up the entire story,
“Decades ago I vowed I’d be there for him whether he was sick or well. It wasn’t always the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing.”
It is so moving to hear stories of marital endurance like this one. With the way our society is painting marriage so many people believe it to be an optional commitment instead of a lifelong one.
So, thank you Lord for that long road trip and the Teach magazine that was tucked in my purse. It was a joy to read stories of encouragement and words of wisdom from other daughters of the King!