Question the Mainstream; Consider the Creation - September 20, 1994 

Please... do not read this any further.

Well, if you have read this far, then you're the type of person I want to talk to. Hello. I'm glad you are the type of person who can hear a statement, question it, and make a decision to move forward nonetheless. Good job. Keep questioning. Keep moving forward.

Can I tell you my story? When I was 16, I sat in my car, in neutral, in my closed garage, with the very real intent to kill my own life. I had it all planned. My dad left for work at 8am, my mom by 9, I'd hit the garage by 10am and I'd be dead before lunch.

Here's what happened. My dad came home unexpected ten minutes after 10. Ten minutes after I had been in the car. If he had hit just one extra red light, I would have been dead.

Do you know what it's like to hate life so much you want to die? I'm a senior now, and I've tried a lot of things to fill my life with meaning. I've talked to a lot of people. Many have had circumstances like mine. Many have had pain and wondered why. - Why?

So lets talk for a few moments about what you might learn at UNH.

Step into the classroom with me if you would. "Hello, I'm your teacher Dr. Reality. Look around students. See the night sky? See the beautiful stars and the clock-work precision of the universe? I'm here to teach you that it's all random. After all, we're learning from 'reality' here. And let's look at you. You have neurons and biological functions all working together in homeostasis, all fine tuned for the job ahead. Just a coincidence. And hey, see the earth. Wow, isn't it great? It's just pot luck. We're in 'reality' here. Oh, I have plenty of questions students, but absolutely no answers."

Now for a moment please step out of that classroom. Now walk with me through college woods. See the metal on the ground? Go ahead, pick it up. Why, it's silver. In fact, it fits nicely into your hand if you hold the long flat part. And look at the smoothed-out concave part. What's that imprinted? It reads: 'Silverstone.' Why, it's a spoon! You've found a spoon. You know when you lift it up and down you have quite a simple lever going. Neat physics."

Now if I told you that spoon was formed accidentally by chance and time you'd put me into a straight jacket. You'd call me insane. And you'd be correct because a spoon cannot form on it's own. - And neither can you! You, like the spoon, are molded specifically for the job, smoothed out, with the lettering of your Maker.

Let's look at us. We have many more complicated levers in us than a simple spoon. We have taste buds and ligaments and amino acids and yet you just may learn that we were formed by chance - hot chance.

Be smarter than that. Question that. Move further than that. Don't take pop classes in atheism. And please, for your own good, question what everyone else is doing.

Pretend with me that you're having a party. Everyone is coming: your roommate, your elderly aunt, your mom, everyone. And at that party a home movie is going to be shown. What home movie? Well, it's going to be of every single moment in your life - every moment. If you're honest, you'd probably admit there would be scenes you wouldn't want any one to see. I know in my life there have been and still are lots of things that I do that I'm not proud of. To put it simply, we are accountable to God for those times. The truth is that we deserve punishment for breaking God's law. But God is not looking for a way to punish us, he wants to forgive us and he found only one way to forgive us.

So what did he do? He was looking for a way to forgive us and the only way was by having himself come as a man, live a perfect life and then take the punishment that we had earned. The truth is that there was a man 2000 years ago who died on a stick of wood. He died to fulfill thousands of years of Hebrew prophecy, to add meaning to the sacrificial system God had set up in the Old Testament. You see, it was not just a man who died that day, but it was God. And as his word says, "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). But he didn't just die, but rose again to prove that his sacrifice was acceptable. Wow, this excites me so much and I'm so thankful for what God has done in my life.

This may shock some people, I'm sure. But if it's true, then you could have God as your Father and Heaven for your future by inviting Jesus into your heart. And if you think that's hard to believe, or would like to discuss that, please e-mail me at: mes@christa.unh.edu, or call me at 862-8427. Hey, I was a skeptic too. I didn't believe. But I did research and I found many Biblical and non-Biblical reasons to trust the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'd love to hear what you think about it. I'll hear you out if you hear me out.

The truth is that your are important, there is a point to this whole world, and God is calling people to trust him. I know it's hard to believe. I remember it being difficult for me too, but God is so willing to meet you where you are. Hear his voice and say "yes." He'll do everything else.