Reading Ravi Zacharias’s “Slice of Infinity” today was truly inspiring.  Ravi has a way of summarizing and nailing the essence of what it means to be a Christian in ways I marvel at all the time.  In today’s Slice, Ravi speaks of the hunger we all have for God.  Even people who never experienced God, have within their hearts a God-sized hole that only God can fill.  Whether it is in the darkest hour for us and the deepest pain we can experience, or in the times when we think we have achieved the ultimate pleasure, we seek God.  As Ravi said, we seek God in pain for an answer and a reason for our suffering, and we seek God in our pleasure for a purpose.  I encourage everyone to read this Slice of Infinity. 

The link is:  http://www.rzim.org/resources/read/asliceofinfinity/todaysslice.aspx?aid=11105

 I was watching, this morning, a debate that took place last April at Notre Dame University between Dr. William Lane Craig and Sam Harris.  The topic for the debate was, “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?”.  Dr. Craig laid out a compelling case that, if God exists, there are strong foundations for objective moral values and duties.  Secondly, he affirmed that if God does not exist then there are no foundations upon which objective moral values and duties could exist.  I encourage anyone to view the debate on www.reasonablefaith.org .  Part of Sam Harris’s argument, which was more a lesson in semantics than in logic and philosophy, was that the purpose of the Christian life is to avoid hell and make it to heaven for a pleasurable eternal existence.  Although I would agree that going to heaven is better than going to hell, I do not think that this is the goal or purpose Jesus had in mind for his followers.  Heaven is not a reward for our actions here on earth.  Eternity with our Creator is a gift freely given to us by God and paid for through the cross.  In order for us to achieve righteousness and justification in God’s eyes we must accept the gift of Christ’s sacrifice for us.  Actions here on this earth, although not insignificant, are not what earn us the eternal pleasure of communion with God. 

However, I do think that our life here on earth is significant and does have meaning and purpose for God.  It is indeed through Him that we discover this purpose.  C.S. Lewis stated, “To have faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says.  There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.  Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him, but trying in a new way, a less worried way.  Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already.  Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

Think about it.  When someone comes to Christ and He becomes the center of their life, a transformation begins.  Paul talks about it in Romans 12:2 when he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  This renewing of the mind is the essence of followership of Jesus.  As I referred to in my last posting about Ravi’s talk at Trinity, the foundations of our life are what are important and those are what change in this transformation.  We see things differently and I think we see things more clearly.  We develop an answer for the fundamental questions of  existence.  What is our origin, where does morality come from, what is our purpose, and where are we going?  Without the Christian worldview, the answers to these questions are incoherent and in conflict with reality.  That is why we hunger for an answer.  Unfortunately, many look for the answer in all the wrong places.