Category Archives: Creation

Old Wisdom

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In “When Nations Die,” Jim Nelson Black examined the common causes behind the fall of Carthage, Greece and Rome.  These powerful empires didn’t fail because they were attacked from outside; they rotted away from the inside with what Black calls “Social, Cultural and Moral Decay.”  Such decay results when the people abandon traditional wisdom and values.  People turn away from the mores and beliefs of the past and attempt to rewrite new ones, based on what they believe is new and more sophisticated thinking.   That’s what happened to Carthage.  The same process brought down the empire of Greece and then Rome.  We have seen similar attitudes and consequences in Europe and Not-so-Great-Anymore Britain.  And here.

You might think we would get the point.  That guy you just passed on the highway with his hood up?  He ignored his “Check Engine” light.  If we paid attention to history, we would see a bright, flashing “Check Engine” light on the dashboard of the United States.  But the prevailing attitude is to put tape over it and drive on.

This is more puzzling since we also see examples in history of nations that have returned to old wisdom and have prospered.  The Old Testament is full of such examples.  Rwanda is a present day demonstration of this truth.

But it’s not just any old wisdom that matters.  It’s not about hanging on to old superstitions and myths.  The old wisdom that is critical for national survival is grounded on a deep reverence for our Creator, God.  Standing in humble awe before the One for Whom quantum mechanics is two plus two.  Recognizing He just might know what works best.

1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:1-6

Just One

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If you had to pick just one rule to live by, one rule to teach your kids, which one would you choose?  Jesus picked this one:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  (Matthew 22:37-38)

God is not emotionally needy; He is not hurt or impoverished by our failure to love Him.  So what’s the deal?  Why is this the most important one?  Let’s start with this: If we could truly wrap our minds around the reality that we have personally been created by an infinitely superior Being, Who designed and created the universe, Who knows us, cares for us and loves us, if we could hold that truth present in our consciousness, our natural response would be wholehearted love for Him.  Anything less would be petulant rebellion.  

Presumably, as we obey the command to love God with our all, it has the effect of bringing us closer to the full realization of Who He is and how He loves us.  Aligned with that truth, we are more in tune with the rest of His design.

But how would such love be expressed?  A Hallmark moment wouldn’t suffice. As we are drawn into a closer relationship of love with God, it spills over and is naturally expressed in our love for others.  That is why Jesus added this:

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:39-40)

Simply put, if you could truly obey the first command, you would find yourself obeying the second, and would not need to worry about all the others.  

You Can’t Say That…

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Women are weaker than men.  Are you shocked?  Is it even legal to say such a thing?  Is it sexist?  My dictionary says that sexism is arbitrary   stereotyping of men or women, based upon their gender.  But when you describe a difference between men and women that is grounded in reality, it is no longer arbitrary.  Over the course of my life, I’ve discovered some very wonderful differences women have from men.  And, women are, in fact, weaker.  That is why they compete separately in athletics.

But does being weaker make women lesser?  Not according to this verse in the Bible:

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, …  –  (1 Peter 3:7a)

Husbands are instructed to be understanding of their wives and to show them honor as the weaker partner since, as co-heirs  of God’s grace, they are equals.  Weaker, but equal: how can that be?  Or, perhaps more to the point, why would that be?  Is it possible that women’s weakness makes them uniquely equipped for a special function?  And also, men, in their strength?

My guitar is very fragile.  It must be fragile in order to resonate with a beautiful tone.  So, I protect it with a tough case.  The case is stronger but it is not better or more important.  When I want to play music, most of the time I use the guitar, not the case.  But without the case’s protection, my guitar would have been destroyed long ago.  Which is more important?  It depends on whether you are talking about music or security.  The guitar and the case need one another and work together in their separate roles.

As do women and men. “They” say we can’t say such things.

“They” are wrong.

 

Your Maker

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Have you seen the T-shirt that says, “There is a God” on the front?  On the back it reads, “You’re not Him!”  Good reminder.  But the Apostle John would give Jesus a T-shirt that read, “There is a God and I Am Him.”  Imagine how awkward it was for John to tell people he knew a guy who actually was Almighty God.  If you were accosted in the airport by someone telling you that, you’d immediately take your leave. Running.

But John was dead serious.  Jesus, he said, is God!”  The God.  Think of the implications.  One, in John’s words, is this:

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  (John 1:3 (NASB95))

Where I live, 14,000 foot mountains dominate the western horizon.  They pulsate with dawn’s first luminescence, sparkle with ice and snow throughout the day and, at dusk, are silhouetted by astonishingly beautiful sunsets.  If John was right, Jesus designed all that beauty.  Look down at your hand: Consider the intricate workings of each of your fingers.  Jesus did that.  Think about your what makes you unique, your likes and dislikes, the sound of your voice and your special skills.  Ponder the fact that you can hear and see.  “Nothing came into being apart from Him.”  That means He made you.  Jesus.

I know adoptees who yearn to one day meet their natural parents.  What if you could actually meet the One Who designed you and created you; would that interest you?

You can, you know…

The Right Word

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The reason things seem so divisive these days, and it seems to be so difficult to accomplish common understanding, has to do with words.  if a Democrat talks about “helping the middle class” it usually means something very different from what a Republican means by those same words.  It is very difficult to draw people together from very different ways of seeing the world when the words used are “heard” in such different ways.

That’s what makes the first line of the Gospel of John so masterful.  John wrote:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1 (NIV84))

John was setting out to tell two very different kinds of people, with distinctly different views of the world, about Jesus.  So he called Him “the Word.”

  • When the Jewish people read that word (the Greek word, logos), they immediately associated it with God.  Jews believed it was sacrilegious to pronounce or write the Name of God.  In those days, sometimes they substituted the word, Logos, or Word.  The first line of their scripture read, “In the beginning, G-d….”   So when they read John’s opening phrase they naturally thought, “God.”
  • The people in the Greek culture who read John’s letter, however, interpreted logos in a very different way.  Following the ideas of some of their famous philosophers, they used logos, or word, to refer to the divine active principle that governed all of reality.  Kind of like how the “operating system” in a computer controls how all the programs work, people in the Greek culture thought of the logos as the overarching “operating system” for the universe.  In short, the mind of God.

So, with one word, logos, John drew those two, very different, groups together in understanding the identity of Jesus.  Next, he used a strong word to say Jesus was “with” God, not just nearby, but in close, intimate association and correspondence with God.  Lest anyone miss the point, John followed up with, “He was God.”  Jesus existed as God “in the beginning,” before time and space were created.

Today, when someone says, “Jesus,” he might be expressing disgust or frustration.  Someone else might be talking about a “good man” or a “prophet.”  But John?  He was talking about a Man he knew as a friend, Who had revealed Himself to be Almighty God.

Closer than You Think

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Where is God?   Cartoons show Him floating on a cloud, with one hand on the lightning bolt lever.  People reach up or look up in worship or prayer.  Nothing wrong with that – Jesus looked up in prayer – but does God reside “up there?”  Praise songs invite Him to “come.”  We call special church rooms “sanctuaries,” and design some of them as though God lived within them..  But where is He really?  According to the apostle Paul, the question might better be asked, where are we? Check this out:

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, … that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for  “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; …  (Act 17:26 — Act 17:28 excerpts)

As we used to say in the 60’s, “Heavy!”  God made us and designed us so that we would “feel our way toward him” and yet, it is “in Him we live and move and have our being.”  Although it seems to us that He is “up there” or “out there,” in reality, we exist “in Him.”  Makes my head swim, but then so does much of what I hear and read about quantum mechanics.

But so what?  Paul spoke those things to people who superstitiously believed that to find God you needed to build Him a temple and then go there.  Or, make a statue and bring sacrifices to it.  You can read the rest of what he said in Acts 17.  But His point was this:  We don’t have to do anything, build anything, pay anything or go anywhere to find God.  He made us and gave us life.  He is the One Who designed into us the urge to find Him.  It is good to “feel our way toward Him.”  But here is a hint: He is closer than we think.

Good to know, even if we don’t fully understand it.

Necessary Power

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Do you know why they yell, “Clear!” when they apply paddles to get someone’s heart going?  It is because the tremendous power needed would be dangerous if you were touching the body.  If that’s the kind of power necessary to restart a heart, how much power would be needed to bring a dead body back to life, one that had been dead for days?  We humans have never harnessed that kind of power.  We know how much power it takes to kill a person, but not to resurrect.  That power belongs to God alone.

And yet, that power is offered to everyone who will trust Jesus.  God applies His power that we might be:

“… raised with him [Jesus] through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12b- with my added explanation)

I pulled out that half-sentence from a lengthy and somewhat confusing description of what happens to those who trust Jesus for salvation, to highlight the power of God, necessary to bring dead people back to life.  Without that power applied, we all are dead.  We feel alive because our hearts are beating, but it takes much more to be fully alive.  We say someone whose heart beats but who has no brain activity is “brain dead.”  God considers us dead if our hearts and brains function but we do not have His Spirit living in our souls.  Without His living Spirit, we are missing the essential ingredient for the full life God intended when He designed and created us.  We humans lost that Spirit, that Eternal Life, when we rejected God and embraced sin.

By His power, God offers to restore us to full life.  This can only happen to those whose sin has been completely paid for and forgiven.  Because sin caused our spiritual death, the just penalty for sin is physical death and separation from God, a price we cannot pay.  But Jesus willingly paid the full price on our behalf, with His life.  God, by His great power raised Him back to life.  If you accept this payment for your sins and trust the One Who paid it, then you, too, are raised to life by God’s power.

“When you were dead in your sins … God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,” (Colossians 2:13 excerpt)

 

 

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

How Long?

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A few days ago, NASA announced they have found a planet very much like the earth rotating around a star very much like the sun.  “Kepler 452b” (that’s what NASA calls it; not sure what God does…) seems to be a planet capable of sustaining life.  Some have dubbed it “Earth 2.0” and there is a lot of excitement around this discovery.  When asked, “How soon can I move there?” the professor who oversaw the find said, “Now would be a good time to buy, before the rush.”

What if that planet is the place God has prepared to be the new earth described in Revelation?  Too unlikely?  Most scientific observations seem to confirm a “Big Bang” beginning for the universe, which neatly fits the description of the beginning in Genesis.  Is it out of the question for us to scientifically observe what Scripture says God has prepared for the end of the age?

” Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”” (Revelation 21:1-5)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

By current technology, it would take us millions of years to travel the 1400 light years separating us from “Earth 2.0.”  But suppose God could instantly transport humanity to that place and give us a fresh start.  How long do you suppose it would be before we began claiming territory for ourselves and fighting over it?  How long before we humans figured out how to make obscene amounts of money by catering to the lowest urges of some while enslaving others?  How long before we poisoned the atmosphere?  How long before that new world would resemble the one He has already given us?

In the light of the answers to those questions, you can see why, in God’s revealed plan, the new heavens and earth will be prepared “as a bride for her husband,” a place with no death or tears.  God has made it clear that His “Earth 2.0” will be be populated only by those who have surrendered to Him as their absolute King, who have submitted to be “fixed” by His Spirit.  Which is to say who have completely placed their trust in His Son, Jesus.

How long before we know if Kepler 452b is the place?  I don’t know, but this would be an excellent time to make sure you are included, before the rush.

Seeing the Invisible

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Try this: Unplug your computer monitor and then try to read your email by looking inside your computer.  Can’t be done, can it?  Even if you designed and built it, you couldn’t do it.  If you could somehow actually see all the little electronic particles zooming around in the chips and circuitry, it would still be impossible to understand what your computer was “trying to tell you.”  And yet we know the whole purpose of a computer is to communicate something to us. (Well, they also provide a handy excuse when your flight is delayed…)  That’s why they made monitors.  The monitor translates all the invisible electronic frenzy into light we can see and sound we can hear in language we can understand.

The same problem exists between us and Almighty God.  You can’t see God.  Even if you could see Him, you could never understand what you were seeing.  And yet, we know God wants to communicate with us.  He has done it through circumstances that show us He is there, has the power to orchestrate what happens, and that He cares enough to do so.  He has also communicated with us in written form, inspiring dozens of writers to put His principles and laws in language we humans can understand.  Both of those types of communication have limitations, however.

So God created a “monitor.”  He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the visible, audible and understandable translation of Who He is, a human being with Whom we could interact.  How do I know?

Jesus said so:

“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)

Paul affirmed this:

” He is the image of the invisible God, …” (Colossians 1:15a)

But He is more than a passive monitor.  When you see your monitor, you say you are seeing your computer.  Your monitor, in that sense is your computer.  Jesus, in an even greater sense is Almighty God, not simply a picture of Him.  He is God.  The rest of what Paul wrote in the previous quote says this:

” He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

Chew on that, the next time you hear someone say, “Jesus!”

Quotes:  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

A Note

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As she unzipped her suitcase, a whiff of her childhood home escaped.  As excited as she was to be out at last, making her own way in the world, loneliness was lurking among the cardboard boxes stacked around her new apartment.  She began to unpack.  Tucked underneath her old jeans was a note.  When she opened it, there were no words, just a sketch, done in her father’s hand, of a rose.  Just a sketch, but so much more, as it wrapped her in warm memories of home and a tangible connection to his love.

When Spring hits, it feels like a note from God, reminding us of His love.   As the snow finally receded out back, the remnants of our flower bed lay dead, flattened into the mud.  But then Spring pushed new life up.  Yesterday, God said, “Check this out!”  wpid-wp-1430754629587.jpg

Why do you suppose God created beauty like that?   A note maybe?  As though He is saying, “Here’s how much I love you.  Remember Me as you make your way in the world.”   I think so.

In the Psalms there is much talk of how Creation lifts praise and joy up to God.  Like this:

“Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;” (Psalm 98:8)

Have you ever heard a mountain river during Spring run off?   It does sound a lot like enthusiastic applause.  If you’ve never heard mountains sing, you need to experience the Rockies at sunrise. There is a sense in which the beauty of Creation lifts up praise to her Maker.  But there is also, in that beauty, a note from God to us.

He says, “I made this to make you smile inside, to remind you of  how much I love you.  Remember me as you make your way.”

 

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.