The $4 million question

According to ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4310991 Oxford is spending $4 million (that's 6 zeros) to find out why people embrace God.

WOW! Have we really come that far? Is our society so depraved that we cannot understand one of our most basic human instincts; the need for God? According to Roger Trigg "...religion is the default position..." of most people. So they feel it's important to spend all of this money to try and figure it out. We are talking about all of the "ologists" in the world coming together to study this great mystery.

But is it really a mystery? In an attempt to lend a helping hand and save the school some money (unless they want to just send it to me) I'm going to give a basic answer to this trivial concern.

Allow me to start by asking a question: Why do children of adoption seek to know their birth parents? Could it be that there are things about themselves that they cannot figure out on their own? Why do they react to certain things the way they do? Why do they look nothing like their adopted parents? It comes down to the most basic question we have asked since we were old enough to ask; "WHY?".

Proverbs 25:2 tells us that it's the glory of God to conceal a matter but the honor of a king to search it out. However, God has never concealed Himself. God has always chosen to reveal Himself to mankind. He came to Adam & Eve in the garden. He revealed Himself to men like Abraham, Job, Moses, Noah, Daniel, etc. When He wasn't speaking to someone directly he often spoke through prophets. He even used a donkey once to reveal His plan.

My point is in all of this that God has always been involved in His creation. We - as a part of His creation - long to know our Creator. Why do people who have "no faith" hate lying, stealing, or murder? According to Romans 2:15 God's law has been written upon our hearts and our conscience bears witness to this fact. Maybe people embrace God because it's written upon the DNA code of every man. God has placed His signature upon every one of us which makes us long to know Him.

Another reason could be because of what the psalmist reveals. According to God's Word, the heavens declare the glory of God and His righteousness (Psalm 19:1, 50:6, 97:6). In other words everytime I step out of my house and look up at the sky, everytime I lay under a starry sky there is something that shouts to me "GOD did this!".

The Good News in all of this is that God can be found. This does not mean that He was ever lost. We are the one's that are lost. But His Word promises us in Jeremiah 19:13, "You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all of your heart." That search, if you will, is what leads many people to go to church, read the Bible, pray, etc. That search is something that God initiates in our heart when we realize that all of creation and even our own actions tell us that there is a God and we need to know Him.

The reason people embrace God is because He has given us life. We understand that He is the Creator of everything. But to take it a step further we embrace God because He has given us eternal life. Sin separated us. Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sin. When we accept Christ, we embrace God. It's that simple. You see - it doen't take $4 million dollars to figure this out. All you need is a Bible and the Holy Spirit.

Look at it this way: Maybe when Oxford finishes it's study the people involved will "find" the one true God in all of this and accept Christ's death on the cross as atonement for their sin as well. I'm just trying to save them a little money. What God did is free to all!