{"id":44403,"date":"2010-11-08T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/scientist-accepts-christ-upon-seeing-natures-beauty\/"},"modified":"2010-11-08T15:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:45:00","slug":"scientist-accepts-christ-upon-seeing-natures-beauty","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/scientist-accepts-christ-upon-seeing-natures-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist Accepts Christ upon Seeing Nature\u2019s Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a researcher and physician, Francis Collins' credentials and accomplishments are well-respected in the scientific community. He headed up the Human Genome Project before serving as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. In 2007 he also wrote a New York Times<\/em> best-selling book, The Language of God<\/em>, which weaves together the story of his work as a world-renowned scientist and his journey from atheism to faith in Christ.<\/p>\n\n

Interestingly, although Collins is thoroughly committed to rational inquiry and the scientific method, God also used people and nature to lead Collins to Christ. As a gifted medical student, Collins thought it was "convenient to not have to deal with God." But then, after one of his patients told Collins about her faith, she asked him, "What about you? What do you believe?" In Collin's own words, "I stuttered and stammered and felt the color rising in my face, and I said, 'Well, I don't think I believe in anything.' But it suddenly seemed like a very thin answer. And that was unsettling."<\/p>\n\n

Then after a long period of searching, which included grilling a pastor and reading C.S. Lewis, Collins finally came to Christ after watching the beauty of creation. This is Collin's description of that life-changing encounter:<\/p>\n\n

\n

I had to make a choice. A full year had passed since I decided to believe in some sort of God, and now I was being called to account. On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains during my first trip west of the Mississippi, the majesty and beauty of God's creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3369,3450,3465,3475,3517,3689,3711,3712,3713,3902,4064,4329,4369,4414,4472,4526,4541,4677,4773,4775,4877,4891,4992,5290,5297,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,397],"class_list":["post-44403","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-accepting-christ","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-awe","tax_ctp_tags-beauty","tax_ctp_tags-born-again","tax_ctp_tags-conversion","tax_ctp_tags-creation","tax_ctp_tags-creativity","tax_ctp_tags-creator","tax_ctp_tags-evidence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-glory-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-knowing-god","tax_ctp_tags-life","tax_ctp_tags-majesty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-miracles","tax_ctp_tags-nature","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-praise","tax_ctp_tags-rebirth","tax_ctp_tags-receiving-christ","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-wonder","tax_ctp_tags-works-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nScientist Accepts Christ upon Seeing Nature\u2019s Beauty - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/scientist-accepts-christ-upon-seeing-natures-beauty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientist Accepts Christ upon Seeing Nature\u2019s Beauty - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a researcher and physician, Francis Collins' credentials and accomplishments are well-respected in the scientific community. 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