How Our Brains Know God

By Peter Lundell –

If you ever want a scientific basis for connecting with God, here’s one:
Andrew Newberg, a neuropsychological researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, studies two kinds of reality: One is physical or “baseline” reality—the brain’s perception of material objects (a chair, a table) and sensations (warm, cold). In contrast, he attempts to scientifically verify the brain’s perception of spiritual reality, which he calls “Absolute Unitary Being.”

Some argue that what we think is spiritual reality—for example, God—is nothing more than neurological blips or chemistry changes. In fact that’s what happens in our brains when we experience spiritual phenomena.

The problem with this argument is that the brain experiences physical reality in exactly the same way—through neurological blips and chemistry changes. So even the most hardened atheist or scientist must either take the possibility of spiritual reality seriously or discount all perceptions of reality and conclude that we all live in a dream state.

Isn’t this fun?

Persons who engaged in Newberg’s research consistently testified that the experience of spiritual reality was more “fundamentally real” than that of physical reality. Wow.

Newberg theorizes that spiritual and physical reality are two versions of reality that may be complimentary. That makes biblical sense.

I’m not concerned that Newberg doesn’t take a Christian point of view. A person can perceive God’s existence, just as we perceive his physical creation, without knowing or submitting to Him.

The significant point is that Newberg is doing breakthrough scientific research on the ways in which God created the human mind to perceive Him, as well as His creation. He is giving us a solid scientific basis to say that faith and perceptions of God are as real as the physical world around us. That’s worth getting excited about!

PRAYER: Lord, you have made me with an amazing brain. As others learn how it works, I dedicate mine to you that I would truly have ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV).

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:14 NIV).

How Much for Your Life?

By Peter Lundell –

What would it be like to grow up without a father and your mother in jail—knowing that when you were a baby, your mother murdered her friend over twenty dollars your mom borrowed to buy you Pampers but used the money for something else?

There will soon be a boy like that. Recently in Brooklyn two young ladies ranted at each other for a few days on Facebook over twenty dollars that the teen mom borrowed and used for something other than the Pampers she said she needed it for. The one who lent the money confronted the mom, and the mom stabbed her. The one killed had just finished college and planned to go to law school. Dead in a dispute over twenty bucks.

Only now does the accused realize the absurdity of what she did. But she cannot escape the consequences.

Most people would need much higher stakes before they’d throw their lives away. But they’ll still throw them away. If the stakes were twenty million dollars rather than twenty, wouldn’t a lot of people fight or kill and risk their lives, even their souls? From God’s perspective, might that not be absurd as well? To God, would twenty dollars really be that different from twenty million? Money has no value in eternity (though we can give and use it wisely to gain a better eternity).

It could be said that from God’s perspective, anyone who chases after anything material and sacrifices his or her life in the process is ultimately committing an act of absurdity. Jesus had plenty to say about that.

Though we gasp at the absurdity of being killed over twenty dollars, from God’s perspective losing ourselves over any amount or anything in this world would be absurd. Don’t get lost!

PRAYER: Lord, knowing You is important above all else. May I never forget. And let me never give in to an opportunity, however great, that would tempt me to sell my soul.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36 NIV).

Hiding Behind Trees

By Peter Lundell –

I was walking by a junior high school physical education class and saw two boys hiding behind trees. The trees were six inches in diameter, maybe less. Anyone who looked their way would have seen these boys looking like fools trying to hide behind skinny trees. I stopped and stared at them, partly to make them nervous, but mainly for my own entertainment. Amazingly no one in the class noticed them, or maybe they did and paid no attention. The whistle blew and the boys ran out as if they’d participated all along.

Ding-a-lings. They might have felt good about succeeding in their little scheme, but I wonder if they’re taking little steps in a lifetime pattern of avoidance. I hope I’m overreacting here.

Yet it struck me that people can live their whole lives that way—hiding in the open and pretending to participate. Or not even bothering to pretend and always being spectators. Confession: I’ve done it, probably more times than I’d care to inventory.

How do we do this? By watching and listening without doing. By procrastinating on an idea until it fades. By learning and talking about something without putting it into practice. We’ve all “hidden behind trees” in some way.

My concern is that we fully engage with the life we’ve been given—rather than make ourselves comfortable and let life pass us by.

My deeper concern is that we fully engage with the spiritual life God offers us—rather than get complacent and let God’s promises and possibilities pass us by.

We all engage differently. But whatever we do, it will cost us time and energy and sometimes money. It takes effort and may involve risk. But it will be worth it. Always. And for eternity.

PRAYER: Lord, rebuke me if I ever hide behind trees. Lead me to engage in the world, to be a living temple of Your Spirit in the world around me.

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him” (Matthew 9:9, NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.

Dancing Despite Our Defects

By Peter Lundell –

I recently watched two unusual ballet dancers. The pair dances passionately, with meaning and effect. Their achievement is different from most others, though. They each had the vision and will to overcome what few of us could imagine. The woman doesn’t have an arm and the man doesn’t have a leg. Yet they have mastered ballet. I’d never before seen a crutch used so artistically.

What is your handicap? Is it a beaten-down heart? Years of being abused? Lack of ability? Failure in the past? Fear of the future? If so, you’ve got lots of company. But ask yourself: Is there anything that God has created you for that you have yet to fulfill? Something you feel called to but have held back? An obstacle you’re trying to overcome?

Too many times I’ve shrunk back from being and doing what I could because of some setback or painful experience. I didn’t fulfill the role—or dance of life if you will—that God had given me. I only wish I had. The man without a leg and woman without an arm faced their handicaps and got creative. The result has blessed millions. What could happen with you and me as we do likewise in the coming months and years?

My point is not to motivate us toward success but rather to fulfill what God has made us to be. We’ll always have obstacles. We can see them either as barriers that stop us or as hurdles to overcome—and with each one we will grow.

Who are you? Who will you be?

In this new year, what steps might you take in the dance of your own life?

PRAYER: Lord, we both know my hurts, handicaps, and obstacles. Here and now I give them to You. Do with me what You will. Show me how to turn my negatives into positives. Make my hardships the foundation of blessings.

“I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:1–3, NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters. [Go to youtube to view this beautiful dance.]

Seeing Past Paradise

By Peter Lundell –

My wife earned an all-expenses-paid trip to a gargantuan, opulent resort for a working vacation, and I got to go along. I was awestruck at the gardens, aquariums, water-park, ocean, and at the grandiosity of the architecture—the billions of dollars that must have gone into making this heaven on earth. I thanked God I didn’t have to pay.

Being so enthralled with the immensity of the place, I found myself not praying or reading my Bible as much as I normally do. Oh, my.

So I asked myself where God fit into this picture of extravagance. Since God is everywhere all the time, isn’t it up to us to determine where He fits into our lives—or more accurately, where we fit into His universe? As I surveyed this Garden of Eden, this palace of kings, I started looking beyond it. And I saw two things.

First, though it would take four days to see everything in this resort, it’s still just a dot on the planet. It would take many lifetimes to see even a fraction of everything on God’s earth—and it’s still a tiny ball in a vast cosmos.

Second, if humans could build such impressive places, what must heaven be like? Being at this resort gave me a new anticipation for how God’s eternal resort must be infinitely beyond this earthly one. Absolutely beyond imagination.

From that point I continuously found myself praying and reaching for my Bible. The change was a matter of getting a new perspective. Whether your life feels good or bad right now, here’s a promise from 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has see, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

PRAYER: Father, keep my eyes always open to see beyond the amazing man-made wonders of this world to the infinitely greater wonders You have in store for those who believe.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things,    and so they came into being?’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word’” (Isaiah 66:1–2 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.

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