GENIUSES NEED JESUS, TOO! -- Devotional for August 21, from "Good Seeds"

You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. (Matthew 5:8)

Secular scientists feel obligated by their discipline to deny God’s existence, and therefore His hand in creating and sustaining the world. It isn’t a question of whether they would like to believe in God – they cannot. Why? Because “no man can serve two masters,” and the one they have chosen allows no room for a Creator, much less a lover of their soul. But isn’t it odd that it is only the atheist scientists who have this dilemma? There are today, as there have always been, scientists who stand as tall in their field of study as any of their secular counterparts, who not only believe in God but boldly assert it is that very belief that clarifies their observation and makes sense of their research. Of course the unbelieving men cannot allow themselves to acknowledge the scientific astuteness or intellectual honesty of their “deceived” brothers. They see religion as an offense to the intellect, and a roadblock to right thinking, a thinking that can give no credence to “Intelligent Design.” We suspect, however, that the roadblock is not the scientific process by which they live and die, but rather their worldview. But we need not trust our suspicions, for Jesus spelled out the root of the conflict when He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Why can’t secular scientists see God – see Him indeed all His deeds: in every sunset, every rosebud, every organ of the body, every newborn child? The reason a scientist cannot acknowledge God is the same reason any unbeliever cannot do it: because his heart has not yet been “put right.” Believing in God is not a mind problem – it’s a heart problem! The heart: that’s the “inside world” of a man, the sum total of his capacity to think, feel, and decide. Jesus hit the nail squarely on the head when He said to those who questioned His authenticity and challenged His authority: “If any man is willing to do God’s will he shall be assured of my teaching, that it is truth straight from God” (John 7:17). We see here that it is not a question of being able to acknowledge God (as the secular scientists assert when they say logic and science do not allow for deity), but rather of being willing to do so. And so, we need not shrink at the arrogant boastings of an unbelieving scientist; he is no different than a know-it-all teen who has the world on a string and knows he knows more than anybody else! We shrink rather at the God who someday will show Himself, in power and great glory, to these men. But by then, for them, it will be too late. “Knowing the fear of God, we persuade men” (II Cor. 5:11), including certain scientists, who may be geniuses in the study of the outside world, but are total ignoramuses in the things of the heart.