MondayChapel Bible Companion

What is “MondayChapel”?
I teach science and math to junior high and high school students. At the beginning of the second year of my employment at a Christian school in California, my principal suggested that I speak in our 8am chapel every Monday morning with a science-themed Bible lesson. Neither of us really knew what that might look like, but I agreed, enjoyed it, and continued with the assignment almost every Monday for 9 years! I came to refer to it as one word: MondayChapel. Some of the lessons turned out to be scientific explanations of events mentioned in the Bible, some were analogies using scientific principles or something in nature, and some were simply astounded praises of God’s Creation! This is a compilation of many of those lessons.

What is a “Bible Companion”?
The first year I grouped MondayChapel talks into four themes: God Is Creative, God Is Big, God Has Rules, and God Created Us. But since that time, topics have widely varied across books of the Bible and scientific disciplines. So, how to arrange them, now? It turned out that I had taught on almost every book of the Bible, so I have put the lessons in that canonical order, with the intent that this book be used alongside your Bible reading. Let God’s created world and His revealed Word complement each other!

Of course, you can read it front to back, if you want.

Dichotomous Keys and Discernment
Give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. 1Kings 3:9

A lot of science involves putting things in categories or giving them names, so the scientific community is able to tell the difference, to discern: plants, animals, insects, clouds, tornadoes, rocks, germs, stars, galaxies, blood, fungus, soil, air, atoms, molecules all have scientific categories to them! For instance, with plants, some distinctions are easy: you can probably tell the difference between a pine tree and a palm tree. But some are a little harder. For instance, if you have these trees near you, you may be able to identify the maple, oak, or aspen trees by their leaves. But if you’re not familiar with them, maybe not. There are two kinds of plants that grow in my neighborhood, and their leaves, at first glance, look almost identical! One is called an oleander - it’s a large bush, often trimmed into a hedge or used to line the freeways. It’s hardy, has pretty white or pink flowers, and its leaves are poisonous. Another is the California bay laurel. This is also used as a hedge, it’s a large bush without flowers, but the leaves look just like oleander unless you know the difference. Bay laurels are used in cooking (ever heard of bay leaves? This plant is related to those) - you sure don’t want to get these leaves mixed up! The difference is in the pattern of the veins in the leaves. Identifying plants by their characteristics and knowing the difference is important if you want to use them for a certain purpose (especially if you want to eat them!!) There are many books, called field guides or dichotomous keys, that you can use to determine what kind of plant you’re looking at - it’s like playing 20 questions! There are even apps that tell you what you’re looking at when you take a picture. God’s Word is like one of those books. Reading it helps us discern between situations that might otherwise look identical. King Solomon asked God for wisdom and discernment, the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. Sometimes telling the difference between right and wrong is easy: should I cheat on my taxes? Other times, I need to ask God (like it says to in James 1) and I go to the Bible (my “field guide”). God is the source of wisdom and He’s written us a handbook! Just like the leaf dichotomous key helps us to discern between flavoring and poisonous leaves, the Bible helps us to discern between right and wrong.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5