By Chris Radano

Editor’s note: Chris is getting married in two days. This is the last blog we’ll post from him as a single man. Looking forward to what inspires him in marriage. Congratulations Chris!


March,1996, my bag was packed, the minivan loaded up, and the luggage secured amidst the bitter cold wind of the Pennsylvania winter. The only motivation to drag me out of a warm college dormitory was the anticipation of beaches, parties, and a scorching Florida sun. Yep, I was one of many college students off to Florida looking forward to the “traditional” college spring break experience. Now nearly a decade and a half removed from college, I found myself looking forward to a completely different spring break experience: a week spent in New Orleans with the college age ministry students of Covenant Fellowship Church to serve another Sovereign Grace Church, Lakeview Christian Center. For a week we would be doing servant outreach projects to the community in New Orleans, through yard work, distribution of Alpha fliers, and evangelism to the homeless. This is the kind of spring break that wouldn’t have even been in my periphery back in my younger days. The reflection of my college years led me to ponder a few things on a deeper, spiritual level.

First, it was a reminder of the change in my life orchestrated by the Holy Spirit in bringing repentance and transforming grace, and the sacrifice of Christ making this possible. This is no small reflection, and I don’t intend to downplay its significance. In fact, I am happily reminded of this change often. However, another interesting but less intuitive benefit of my reflection was how it provoked me to ponder the role of families in telling the gospel to the next generation. Perhaps, not an obvious direction, allow me to explain how I got there....

Being aware that many of the students with whom I spent the week in New Orleans in service spent their years growing up in church, fourteen years ago would probably place them in the first or second grade. I thought of how these students as children were introduced to the gospel, Bible stories in Sunday school and home, talking about Jesus, and (maybe!) even recipients of godly discipline. Regardless of whether or not they received Christ as Savior in those years, parents were faithful to their call and role in training their children in the ways of the Lord. Proverbs 22:6 reads “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Now, those same children are men and women leading worship, sharing words of encouragement, praying with passion for one another, and telling homeless people about Jesus. They are grown up, serving the Lord in ways perhaps their parents could only have hoped to imagine. To me, (and I hope to parents) this was another one of those living, breathing reminders of how God uniquely uses parents’ labor in teaching their children the gospel, to produce the fruit of selfless, God-glorifying service for the Kingdom of God.

The exercise of reminiscing on my college years started as a humorous reminder of my comparative age, but ended giving me a new appreciation of the fruit of telling the gospel to the next generation and the role of parents in accomplishing this.

By Chris Radano

“God is over all things, under all things; outside all; within, but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly within, filling.”  – Hildebert of Lavardin as quoted in A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy.

I don’t recall exactly when I first learned about God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence…the three omni’s as they’re referred to.  I’ve thought about them, casually talked about them, but am not often amazed by them.  This is perhaps most true of the omnipresence of God.  However, I recently became excited about God’s omnipresence in a way different than his omnipotence or omniscience.  I think generally we have little problem understanding the concept God’s omnipotence, insofar as we can easily imagine a person with bigger muscles than ourselves.  And likewise for us to contemplate omniscience as we know there could be someone out there with a bigger brain than say, Einstein, Aristotle, or even Solomon.  However, when I think of the omnipresence of God, my mind has a more difficult time grasping God’s presence everywhere, fully and not divided, at all times.  Instead, I too often think of God in one place, then quickly zipping around to another place in a microsecond, until he’s finished, brushing his hands until something worth going to comes up.  Or I think of his omnipresence as if he’s some sort of giant looking over the earth addressing multiple things at one time…like a cosmic multi-tasker.  And yet I know it’s more than that.

As I try to grasp an understanding of God’s omnipresence from the Bible, I can too easily get locked into thinking of God’s presence through chronological scriptural accounts, as if he is moving from one story to another, like an episodic television series.  I also underestimate the impact of God’s omnipresence even when it’s explicitly stated in scripture.  For me this awakening moment occurred recently while I was reading the story of Job and wondered of the relative timeline of Job in the Old Testament.  While little is known about the time of Job, speculation of it being as early as the time frame of Abraham or as late as the time of the Babylonian exile excited me.  I grew amazed about the possibility that while God was testing Job through affliction, he could have been making his promises or sealing his covenant with Abraham.  Or while God questioned Job with rapid fire-like intensity, he simultaneously may have been showing Ezekiel revelations of his departing glory from the temple.  Wow!  Now, whether or not these events did in fact overlap doesn’t really matter to me.  Initially, it revealed my unconscious tendency to limit God to doing one big thing at a time in a single location.  But as I meditated on this, I believe God provided a practical picture of his omnipresence, through scripture, to help understand what’s written about his character in scriptures like Psalm 139:7-10.  God is everywhere, fully.  These are the moments when I put down my pen and my book and worship the God that is infinitely greater than me and more glorious than any human being.  Without such a picture, God’s omnipresence looked no different to me than a busy politician going from one appointment to another.

I wonder if we experienced God in the way Job or Abraham experienced Him, that we might feel more blessed than others.  Yet to think that at the exact same time, someone else may be experiencing an equally deep and powerful personal relationship with the same God inspires confidence in the majesty of our God.  Omnipresence is still harder for me to grasp than his omnipotence or omniscience, however, by the Spirit’s continual illumination of scripture, it’s becoming easier to now imagine a God who can do all things and know all things for all people throughout the world…at the same time.

By Chris Radano

For the last 10 years I’d say that I’ve been pretty healthy, rarely getting even a case of the sniffles.  In fact, I recall my coworkers and I while in graduate school joking about wanting to be sick so we could take some time off from coming into the lab, mainly to avoid the crack of our advisors’ proverbial whip.  The 12+ hours a day in the chemistry laboratory often led to physical and mental exhaustion, but rarely did it ever turn into good old-fashioned sickness.  But…when we did get sick, we would treasure the day at home.  Nowadays, for whatever reason, getting sick is no longer hard to do.  And as a result, I have found myself considering how God has been using my sickness to grab my attention.

I first thought about this as I was recently returning home from a vacation visiting some friends.  After coming down with a head cold during the week, I was in no mood to drive ten hours on the turnpike.  Preparing for my departure home, my friends and I prayed for safe travel as well as this time for my healing.  As we were praying, I felt led to thank God for my sickness.  Sure I wanted to feel better, but I also wanted to express to God my thanks for giving me this cold.  This wasn’t meant to be a “look how spiritual I can be” kind of moment, but sincere thanks for the sickness God brought to me.  I know I’m not the only one who has thanked God for his sickness.  I’m also aware of people who praise God for their trials, carrying them during periods of chronic and even terminal illness.  But to me it seemed a bit weird to thank God for a cold which, honestly, was a real nuisance and I know would eventually go away in about four days, whether I prayed or not.

In my younger years I enjoyed the idea of temporary weakness.  After all, if being weak meant sleeping in, not going to work, and staying home relaxing then I might actually enjoy being weak more often.  What connected with me now was that I became much more excited about the prospect of eventually being healthy again.  And what began as a general hope of getting better became enjoyment of God’s promise that there will be a day when there is no more sickness and complete bodily restoration.

In John Piper’s The Passion of Jesus Christ, he describes one of the many purposes behind the atoning work of Christ’s death,

“But all this misery and disease is temporary.  We look forward to a time when bodily pain will be no more.  The subjection of creation to futility was not permanent…One day all disease will be banished from God’s redeemed creation…We will have new bodies.”

A new body, absent of disease, is definitely something to look forward to.  But this time the presence of disease in the body allowed me to reflect on a spiritual healing of my soul.  And though I’m never really happy to be sick, if the result is to refocus on God’s word, the gospel, and his promises, then I can actually enjoy it.  Even if I have to enjoy it on a ten hour turnpike drive. 

By Chris Radano

 

This past month our community group was on the schedule to go on a gospel outreach Let me admit it up front…I was pretty nervous and wasn’t looking forward to it with enthusiasm. This time, I knew I didn’t have an excuse to work late, be sick, or double book my schedule,…because, well, I’m the community group leader.  I can’t really “drum roll” the virtues of direct evangelism, send out the people in my community group while I sit elsewhere.

 

When I saw the date on the calendar, just like Moses at the burning bush, I began to tell God in my heart how slow of speech and tongue I was. And like Moses, I knew God wasn’t letting me get off the hook. You see, I have this little sin called “fear of man.” I know God wants me to overcome this fear.  Still, I became more and more fearful day by day.

 

The more I thought about the day, it became clear to me how self-focused I was becoming. As the night for gospel outreach approached, I became more wrapped up in how I was feeling, how I would do, and how the result was going to affect me. I’d missed the point of caring for the people in the same way God cares for them. Simply put, my view was inward not outward.

 

It was through a book on fasting, oddly enough, that the Lord revealed this to me. Specifically how fasting ought to consist not only the self-deprivation of food but also a desire to place that food in the mouths of the poor and oppressed. (Isaiah 58)  As I repented and moved the focus of my evangelism from self and placed it outward toward the lost, I began to see how privileged I was to be used by God in advancing the gospel, for the benefit of others. 

 

So how did the evening go? …Well for starters, the evening forecast called for rain, which tested my heart. And as I considered the option of cancelling the outreach, the Lord was kind and gave us a beautiful night. So we hit the streets and local parks and spoke to people about Christ.

 

We were able to share God’s story of salvation, our own stories of redemption, and why we enjoy telling the story to others. We were able to hear where people were struggling and share in their questions and confusions. But importantly, we were also able to point them to the solution to the problems and to the creator of their souls. I definitely wasn’t eloquent and was without question slow of speech and tongue. A couple times I was rejected. But I trusted that God could use a weak vessel like me to reveal himself to people He loves.

 

I really like how God challenges me in moments like these. It gives me assurance that He is at work transforming and sanctifying me. Even though it doesn’t seem like fun all the time (be honest with yourself), our church has provided great opportunities and teaching in direct evangelism.

 

I hope in some way my experience encourages you to go out and share the gospel with those He has called in advance; whether with your community group or even all by yourself.

 

 

By Chris Radano

March 1996 my bag was packed, the minivan loaded up, and the luggage secured against the bitter cold wind of the Pennsylvania winter.  The only motivation to drag me out of a warm college dormitory was the anticipation of beaches, parties, and a scorching Florida sun.  Yep, I was one of many college students off to Florida looking forward to the “traditional” college spring break experience.  Now thirteen years removed from college, I found myself looking forward to a completely different spring break experience: a week spent in New Orleans with the college age ministry students of Covenant Fellowship Church to serve another Sovereign Grace Church, Lakeview Christian Center.  For a week we would be doing servant outreach projects to the community in New Orleans, through yard work, distribution of Alpha fliers, and evangelism to the homeless.  This is the kind of spring break that doesn’t make for highly rated television episodes.  The reflection of my college years led me to ponder a few things on a deeper, spiritual level. 

First, it was a reminder of the change in my life orchestrated by the Holy Spirit in bringing repentance and transforming grace, and the sacrifice of Christ making this possible.  This is no small reflection, and I don’t intend to downplay its significance.  In fact, I am happily reminded of this change often.  Where would I be if God had not interrupted the life on display in college spring breaks?!

However, another interesting but less intuitive benefit of my reflection was how it provoked me to ponder the role of families in telling the gospel to the next generation.  

Being aware that many of the students with whom I spent the week in New Orleans in service spent their years growing up in church, thirteen years ago would probably place them in the first or second grade.  I thought of how these students as children were introduced to the gospel, Bible stories in Sunday school and home, talking about Jesus, and (maybe!) even recipients of godly discipline.  Regardless of whether or not they received Christ as savior in those years, parents were faithful to their call and role in training their children in the ways of the Lord.  Proverbs 22:6 reads “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”  Now, those same children are men and women leading worship, sharing words of encouragement, praying with passion for one another, and telling homeless people about Jesus.  They are grown up, serving the Lord in ways perhaps their parents could only have hoped to imagine.  To me, (and I hope to parents) this was another one of those living, breathing reminders of how God uniquely uses parents’ labor in teaching their children the gospel, to produce the fruit of selfless, God-glorifying service for the Kingdom of God.

The exercise of reminiscing on my college years started as a whimsical reminder of my comparative age, but ended giving me a new appreciation of the fruit of telling the gospel to the next generation and the role of parents in accomplishing this.

Posted by Chris Radano

 

“The heavens declare the glory of God...” - Psalm 19:1

“You are a believer in God?  But you’re a scientist...” - personal friend

 

As a research chemist, my world consists of laboratories, chemicals, funny looking glassware and unique vocabulary.  To the surprise of my friend quoted above, my faith in God and my love for science were not mutually exclusive.  As a research chemist, I constantly try to find ‘pictures’ in the chemistry lab to help me meditate biblical truths.  The use of chemistry language to describe certain theological processes can be very clarifying to me.

 

For example, there’s the process of crystallization.  Crystallization is a common technique whereby a solid substance (molecule, compound, etc) is purified from a mixture of impurities - e.g. – stuff that doesn’t belong.  The substance is dissolved in a suitable solvent and slowly cooled.  Crystals of the pure substance begin to form, becoming larger and larger, where they can be easily separated.  The impurities never crystallize, remaining dissolved in the solvent, ultimately washing away.  When I see crystallization I think about the process of sanctification.

 

Crystallization is a slow process and is a reminder to me that sanctification doesn’t take place overnight.  The process of crystallization cannot be rushed, but it is a kinetic process - meaning that the overall purity of the final material is dependent on the rate at which the crystallization takes place.  Too fast and the impurities are co-crystallizing with (i.e. attach themselves to) the substance, which means it is not becoming pure.  The slower the crystallization kinetics, the more easily the beauty of the crystals is seen.  To me, the parallel is clear - quick fixes in behavior don’t work to truly purify the heart.  They seem helpful and progress seems to be made, but it is the kinetic effect of the sanctification process over time that produces the beauty of true purity.      

 

The crystallization process happens when the chemist applies certain instruments and techniques to concentrate a chemical activity.  To me the instruments of analysis and techniques of detecting impurity are means of common grace for the scientist to work with chemical processes.  In a similar way, God has given us means of grace to work for our benefit in the process of sanctification.  For example, prayer, application of the Word of God, accountability, trials and adversity in life, the encouragement of fellowship, etc. all make a meaningful contribution to sanctification if we apply them in appropriate ways. 

 

These examples and correlations between chemistry and theology are eye-opening to me when I really sit down and consider them.  I hope that this little lesson in theological science helps you join me in marveling at the wisdom of our Creator/Redeemer.  My purpose is not to try to fit God into my world, but visualize my world as part of what God has created and speaks about in His word.