I love to go
out and gaze at the night sky. I always have. Looking at the many stars and the
planets has always fascinated me. I marvel at the size and beauty of our
universe. When I was just a boy, I dreamed of one day going to the moon and
beyond. The thought of getting a closer look intrigued me.
Last night I
went to a friend’s house and we sat around his fire pit. Even with a blazing
fire, much like the stars we see, away from the fire there was this deep blackness.
Have you ever noticed how light seems to shine the brightest in contrast to
darkness?
As light
dulls the beauty and brightness of a starlit night, so business and sin seem to
dull the light of God, but as the beauty of a star shines through the darkness,
whether we can see it or not, so God’s light shines through the darkness of sin,
even when we cannot see it.
“I believe in Christianity as I believe
that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see
everything else.” - C.S.
Lewis
“I can see the sun, but even if I cannot
see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there – that is
living.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
When I look
into the heavens and contemplate the massive size and complexity of the
universe, I cannot help but be in awe of God. I believe that God created the
universe “ex-nihilo,” out of nothing. I know this idea seems strange to many
but is it not stranger still to assume it has always been? It had to come from
something; things do not simply pop into existence without a cause. If they
did, we would see evidence of it taking place around us today.
I know some
will say, “so where did God come from?” and that is a fair question. I could go
into more detail but that is not the purpose of this writing so I will leave it
at this, if a thing comes into existence, it must have a cause that transcends time,
space, and matter and God is that cause because God alone transcends time,
space, and matter (If you would like to discuss further, please message me).
During my
devotion this morning, I was thinking about last night’s view of the heavens
and the beauty and majesty of all of creation. Then a thought occurred to me:
in view of this marvelous creation, only man rejects God. Think about that for
a minute. My mind cannot even grasp the distance across our galaxy alone and we
think we can reject and/or judge God!
Many either
reject God’s existence or simply reject God. Some say, “if He exists, He is a
monster,” and present pain and suffering in the world, or some other notion, as
evidence.
I think this
is an arrogant and extremely prejudicial way of thinking. Many of these same
people are offended at the thought that God would dare to judge them, yet they
readily judge Him. Do they not see the hypocrisy?
God created
the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1, 2:1, 2:4) and everything that was created (John
1:3). John the disciple and apostle begins his gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were
made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines through the darkness,
and darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1-5, NKJV).
So if God
created everything, does He not have the right to set the rules?
Do you
control, or try to control, who comes into your home? Do you ever lock your
doors? If you own or run a business, do you pick and choose who to hire? Do you
expect your employees to be honest? To show up on time? To be where they are
supposed to be? To give you an honest day’s work? Do you have children? Do you
expect them to be obedient? To listen to you? To show respect?
If you
expect so much of others, I suspect you would hold them accountable for
violating your rules, how can you judge God for doing the same thing? And in
the grand scheme of things, who has more right to do so?
If you try
to judge God for doing the same thing, you my friend, are a hypocrite.
The good
news for you and me is this, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NKJV).
You see, you
and I may have difficulty forgiving others, but God does not. He loves us so
much, He is willing to forgive us for disobeying and rejecting Him. He loves us
so much, He sent His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus, to suffer and die for
everything (sin) we have done wrong (Romans 5:8). The New Testament writers
calls this act of taking the judgement for our sins propitiation (Romans 3:25;
Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2, 4:10).
There is one
caveat, to receive forgiveness, we must turn (repent) of our sins and do our
best to honor Him. We will fall short but that’s okay, if we repent. To simply
mouth the words but not truly mean it from the heart is not good enough, we
must be sincere.
Friend, if
you are tired of fighting against God and want to enjoy the fellowship with and
the blessings of a personal relationship with the Creator, tell Him so. He is
waiting patiently but there is a time that it will be too late. Please do not
wait.
May God
bless you and keep you~
.
