December 29, 2011 … Christ Is The Creator

Passage of the Day: Colossians 1: 16 [see highlight verse in bold/underlined in the context of the entire passage] … 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 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. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, …

My Journal for Today: I think we’ve all, on a clear night, have looked into the night sky, being awe struck by all the stars we see. And then to think that there are billions of galaxies, each of which have millions or billions of stars that we can’t see with the naked eye. … Wow!

And the Apostle Paul, through the message of today’s passage to believers at Colosse, wanted to make it clear to Christians who had been exposed to heretical teachings about Jesus that it was Christ who had created all we see in the heavens. However, MacArthur writes something we all need to keep in mind, “Even more amazing is, not that man [sees the stars] or has gone into space, but that God came to earth. In Christ, the invisible God who created everything and everyone became visible to man. How sad that while man looks into space, he refuses to look at the One Who came to earth.” … To any Christian who reads this, do I sense an “AMEN?”

Certainly the lost – i.e., those who refuse to worship the God-Man - reject the One Who became our Savior. But I’m afraid that even Christians all too often do not worship God with the awe Christ, our Creator, deserves. For those who reject or humanize Christ’s deity, such ignorance of worship is understandable; but we who call Him “Lord” should come to our Savior, before His throne of grace, absolutely and utterly in awe. Think of it! We are able, because of God’s grace, to come to the very Creator of the universe with our any/all of our needs and to petition the exalted Lord Himself, anytime, anyplace. Is that not the most awesome deal there ever was?!!

And yes, in these waning December days there will be a little more opportunity to learn and to meditate more about Him; so, as I’ve said each day this month, “Stay tuned!”

My Prayer Today: O, Lord, please forgive my pitiful worship. You are the Great I AM; and I bow before You this day. May I live for You as well. Amen

2010 – May 5 – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Study from God’s Word… Psalms 139, 145, 148, and 150 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 139: 13 – 16 … NIV 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

My Journal for Today: David’s exposition and expression of God’s truth about who we are as humans was truly amazing. Writing the words we focus on today in my devotional journal, David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals truths that went way beyond man’s ability to see the reality of our existence in this world – and even more so with our immortal souls living onward into eternity.

I have stood by as an autopsy was performed as Dr. Smith reflects in his devotional today; and I have marveled at what I was viewing. The human body truly was/is ”fearfully and wonderfully made;” and it is an insult to human intelligence for any atheist to declare that all of what we know of as our physical bodies was knit in the womb of a woman by some accident of evolution. In fact, in my days 30+ years ago, when I tried to hold on to my open antagonism for Christians and Christianity, I could not hold to the ridiculous premise that evolution could be posited as truth. It took far more in blind faith to try to believe and support evolution than it did to hear the arguments from the Bible from Christians for God’s wondrous and purposeful creation.

But as “fearfully and wonderfully” made is our body, which is finite in death, what about the even more wondrous nature of our soul, which is infinite? And in the pre-scientific world and times in which David wrote Psalm 139, isn’t it wonderful how God led this very human and fallible man to reflect upon the human spirit, which is even more “fearfully and wonderfully made” than is the body. The latter is mortal; and the former is immortal; and taken together – our body and soul – they are truly, fearfully, and wonderful made!

And as I’ve said before, “awesome” is a word we have denigrated in our times by its casual and prolific use; but truly AWESOME is who we are as we were created by the mind of God, as Psalm 139 reflects, before all recorded time was measured out. Yes, WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!”

My Prayer for Today: Lord, here is another one of those moments, as I choose to come to You, when all I can muster in prayer is to PRAISE Your Name and to say, “HALLELUJAH” for the creation of my body and soul. May they become a reflection of Your handiwork as I choose to be a witness in this world to/for Your glory. Amen

2010 – April 29 – A Blurred Cosmology

Study from God’s Word… Psalms 8, 9, 19, 21, and 24 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 8: 3 – 5 … NIV 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

My Journal for Today: F. LaGard Smith, my devotional “shepherd” in the book he has authored, which I’m using for my morning times with God, asks a very pertinent question to today’s world. He asks, ”When was the last time [you] looked with wonder into the night sky and knew that [your] significance was in God alone?”

If you’re reading with me here today, you’ll have to answer that one for yourself; but each year for the past 15 years or so, my wife and I have been going with a group of adults from our church who attend what you’d likely call “Sunday School,” to a retreat on Kentucky lake, which is a lake which was created in 1811 when the New Madrid earthquake split the earth so wide that the Mississippi river ran backwards and backfilled an immense crater, creating beautiful connected lakes in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee.

And there is a place, a point near the resort where we gather for our church retreat; and on that point there is a sitting bench; and each year I go out to that point and watch the sunrise in that place while I’m doing my morning devotionals. And when I get there, often the air is crystal clear, I can see the stars twinkling down from the heavens; and then on many of those mornings in that place I’ve been treated to wondrous and awesome displays of God’s beauty. [See Ken-Lake Photo above] And in those moments, enveloped by the AWESOME majesty and beauty of God’s creation, I feel so insignificant … but so, so loved.

You know, I agree with Dr. Smith that the word “AWESOME,” which I just used above, has been devalued in our current day. It’s used far too often as a “catch-all word to express giddy and youthful excitement,” and so, when you see something truly “awesome,” … something really “awesome,” fashioned by the hands of God – as this scene I’m sharing here – the word, which is right to describe God’s awe-inspiring handiwork, has lost its edge for us when used to describe God’s creation in His display of His glory.

But, when I’ve seen those scenes, up there at Ken-Lake, I know of God’s “awesome” nature; and I realize that only a loving and caring God could paint such a picture for my sight to behold. And it’s like He’s telling me, “Bill, if you think this is my beauty, you haven’t seen anything to what I’m going to show you in glory;” … and I come away with such great hope and feeling so love by my Creator God. I hope you have seen such “awesome” displays from God through His nature, … like the displays out there in the deserts which I’m sure inspired King David to write words like those which God shared with all of us through David and His word, … the words in Songs like this one highlighted today.

My Prayer for Today: LORD, You crown me – yes, me! – with Your glory and honor; and occasionally You show Yourself in Your creation. Thank you, Lord, for these brief, but beautiful, reminders of Your glory. Amen