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Discover the Mysteries of Life |
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On your vacation to the beach, you decide to spend some time poking through some of the nearby gift shops. Some of them are filled with lots of cheap, trinkets but some of them are stocked with the wonderful creations of local artisans: sculptures, paintings, bronze and glass and stone. You marvel at the intricacy and creativity of some of the pieces-as well as at their price tags! You find one piece you especially admire and ask the shop owner the name of the artist. "Oh, nobody made that," he says. "Nobody made anything in here. We had an explosion in the building a while back, and when we came in afterward, we found everything you see here just as you’re looking at it." And instantly, you suspect the owner is insane. Because you know that when you see a beautiful creation somebody had to create it. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Napoleon and his army were on their way across the Mediterranean Sea to conquer the Egyptians. One starlit night, a number of Napoleon’s soldiers, products of the French Revolution and its rejection of God, were trying to outdo each other in giving reasons why they knew there was no God. Napoleon, in his characteristic manner, was pacing back and forth on the deck listening to their reasoning, when one of them asked him what he thought of what they had said. He thoughtfully responded, "Very good, but if there is no God, then who made and sustains all of those?" And he pointed upward at the stars looking down on them. That is a good question. Who made this world and the billions of stars, and who charts their course and keeps them in that course? Many gods have been worshiped by people through out the ages. And people worship many different gods today: Buddha, Shinto, Satan, the gods of the Hindus, and others. Their followers each claim that their god is the only true and supreme God in the world. And many have been taught that God is not the Creator of all that we see. They believe instead in what Darwin taught --a theory called evolution, that teaches our children that the world and the cosmos came into being through a series of changes that took place over billions of years. This theory of origins teaches that once the first cell was formed, that through many biological and geological changes, the marvelous universe came about. Blind chance and miraculous changes account for the intricate universe that we see about us. Can all of this miraculous universe be simply a product of changes in nature, not guided by any supreme intelligence but just happening randomly here and there? As we examine the intricate design of almost everything we see on this earth and in this universe, we must conclude that there is an intelligence at work in the creation and sustaining of life on this earth. The whole world was excited to see the amazing feat of the first space shuttle flight. They saw the rocket ignite, and then the supporting mechanism fall away as the mighty power of the engine lifted the vehicle heavenward. We listened with keen anticipation to regular reports on the capsule’s progress as it separated from the shuttle and continued on its way through space. Radio messages from the astronauts and their detailed descriptions reminded us of the years of research and planning that had been necessary to build and launch the Columbia, thrusting it into space and safely returning it to earth. Had anyone watching the Columbia during her flight declared that the whole project was the result of blind chance, he would have been labeled insane. As we look at the heavens and realize that the numberless stars above are guided in their assigned orbits with such precision that astronomers can predict the exact location of each heavenly body years into the future, we begin to realize that a Master Intelligence obviously has been involved with the design, creation, and control of the complex universe in which we live. That Master Designer is God! Let’s find out more about Him. Where should we start in this search for the handiwork of God? Let’s see what the Psalmist had to say about the way man was created: "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works." Psalm 139:14 The design of the human body demands the existence of a Designer. Have you ever wondered about all that is involved in the simple act of seeing? Scientists tell us that the delicate engineering of the eye’s cornea and lens make the most advanced camera seem like child’s toy by comparison. The tiny rods and cones in the eye change light into electrochemical impulses through processes even the most sophisticated laboratory can’t reproduce. Brain cells transform these electrical impulses into the miracle of seeing-something no high-tech computer can come close to doing. Darwin once stated that the thought of the eye, and how it could possibly be produced by natural selection, made him ill. And here’s why: The human eye could not have evolved over long periods of time, because it is absolutely useless unless complete. The lens, which focuses light, would be useless without the retina, which senses light. Vision involves a complete system of organs, all interrelated, all thoroughly designed. That’s the way the human body is. All parts perform incredibly complicated tasks. No wonder the Psalmist said we are fearfully and wonderfully made! You probably remember what God had to say about the origin of man: "... Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." Genesis 1:26 It was an all-wise, caring God who gave man those two eyes to help him in seeing the wonders of His Creator. Adam and Eve did not just evolve or just happen. The Bible states that God designed our bodies in His image. He is the Great Engineering Intelligence who designed us and then brought us into being! Man is very complicated and could only have been designed by a very wise Designer, but what about this universe? What evidence do we have that the God of design was at work in creating the entire universe? Another prominent scholar, Dr. Phillip Johnson, professor at Berkley University, says this about Darwin and evolution: "It has been 140 years since Darwin
introduced his theory to the world, and what do we have to show for it?
For all the brave talk about evolution as an established fact, much of the
evidence actually seems to run against Darwinisn, as, for example, fossils
that don’t show creatures gradually changing but rather staying the same.
Yet Darwinists so want the theory to be true they obscure the evidence. .
. . Just when and where will Darwinists demonstrate that one species
typically becomes something completely different?" "Is there
any evidence," Johnson asks, "that what they say must have happened did in
fact happen?" Isaiah the gospel prophet challenges all of us to take our eyes off the little things in this universe and focus them on what God has done in the sky. "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; Not one is missing." Isaiah 40:26 Before the invention of telescopes, man counted the stars he could see with his naked eye and concluded that there were exactly 5,110 stars. No more! But for centuries the Bible had stated, "The host of heaven cannot be numbered." Jeremiah 33:22 Today as we swing our giant telescopes toward the heavens, we discover that many of those tiny dots of light twinkling in the sky are not just stars, but whole galaxies made up of millions of blazing suns like our own. And surrounding these innumerable suns are numberless planets, traveling through space together. As you look at the Milky Way, you are looking at the edge of our own galaxy-a star system shaped like a saucer. Astronomer Fritz Conn says, "Our home in the universe is a spiral of 200 billion stars, a unit of suns whirling through space like a fiery pinwheel." Wonder Worlds, Chapter Two. Every 24 hours our galaxy travels a million and a half miles through space at more than 66,000 miles per hour. Feel a little tired? "The huge 200-inch Hale reflector on Palomar Mountain...can see as many as a million galaxies inside the bowl of the Big Dipper alone!"-National Geographic, May l974, p.592. And the super Hubble telescope has been able to make even the above statistics obsolete! The discoveries made by this telescope have cast serious doubts on the scientific guesses made in past years. Scientists have now detected light that started on its way through space 38 billion light years ago, which only proves that just as time is endless, space has no limits! Inconceivable? So it seems! Yet God gave an illustration that helps us comprehend a little better the immensity of it all. God once took Abraham outdoors and challenged him to count the stars. God said, "...Look up at the heavens and
count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Recently an astronomer said that if you could count all the grains of sand on all the seashores in the world, you would have approximately the same number of grains of sand as there are stars in the heavens. The next time you are at the beach, try counting a bucketful of sand. Better allow plenty of time! Is it any wonder that King David said, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou
hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?..." Have you ever wondered if a powerful God who rules and sustains such a vast universe is actually concerned with man and his problems here on Earth? Yet Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls to the ground that God does not notice. "So don’t be afraid," He said. "You are worth
more than many sparrows." And to emphasize even more God’s love and care, Jesus said, "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Matthew 10:30 What a God! What right does the God of the Christians have to claim that He should be worshiped by everyone exclusively? The God of the Bible and Christianity claims that He is entitled to our worship and devotion because He is the Creator-God. If He is what He claims, and He is the Creator, then He does deserve our worship. When John the Revelator was in vision on the Isle of Patmos, he was shown a scene in the heavenly throne room. Notice what he saw: "The twenty four elders fall down before Him who
sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast
their crowns before the throne, These elders before the throne of God are praising and worshiping Him because He is the creator. This is the same reason we should worship the God of heaven above. He is the one who made the world and all of us. But, you say, what evidence do we have that He is the Creator? God Himself tells us that there is evidence all around us that He is our Maker. Romans 1:20. "His eternal power and deity has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made." Since creation there has been evidence in the creation that God is the maker of all of these things. When Robinson Crusoe discovered fresh footprints in the wet sand, he knew there was another person on the island, even though he had not seen the person. "If one print of a bare foot in the
sand is absolute proof of the existence and presence of a human
being, what are we to think when we see the
prints of the Master’s shoes, as John Bunyan calls them,
covering the whole world?" The Father was not alone in His work of creation. The Bible tells us about His partner. "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. And the Word was
God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, This was Jesus as He cooperated with the Father to create everything. Ephesians 3:9 says: "Of the mystery which from the beginning of the ages
has been hidden Every good and perfect gift that man has ever had or will ever have came into being as these two united to give the human race all of the blessings available. Not only did God make man in His image and give him a beautiful universe to live in, but He is also mindful of man’s needs: "The eyes of all look to you, and
you give them their food at the proper
time. You open your hand and satisfy the
desires of every living thing." Let’s take a look at just a few of the ways God cares for the needs of His creatures. Consider the water you drink. It is older than the pyramids-as old as the hills. Water may be polluted by chemicals or wastes, but let the sun evaporate or lift it into the atmosphere, and it becomes clean and usable again and again, distributed by the rain, dew, or snow. What a tremendous water system God designed! And there is God’s great power plant in the sky-our sun! Think for a moment: If the sun were a little bigger or a little closer to Earth, our oceans would boil away. If the sun were just a little smaller or a little farther away, our atmosphere would freeze. Either way, life could not exist on Earth. But God not only created all things-He sustains all things! The air we breathe is a gift of God: The Bible says, "In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10 God designed the universe, and He knew just the right formula for the air we breathe to sustain life and health on Earth. He knew the right amount of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide to mix into the atmosphere. That certainly couldn’t just happen! God didn’t create this beautiful world and magnificent universe in vain. He created it for beings who could appreciate and enjoy it. That is what the Bible means when it says, "... He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18 There is no end to the wonders in our natural world-no end to God’s care for His creatures. Think of the migration of the birds, one of the greatest puzzles of nature. How can birds weighing less than an ounce navigate thousands of miles nonstop to a destination they have never seen? How could fish find streams where their lives began l,200 miles across featureless oceans? How did they learn to know when and where to go? Who taught the honeybee to make the honeycomb-which is such an engineering marvel-and with a brain no larger than a pinhead? Who is the Mastermind behind it all? Job tells us: "But ask the animals, and they
will teach you, or the birds of the air, Yes, God did it all! In fact, our duty and privilege to worship God is based on the fact that He is our Creator, and to Him all things owe their existence. "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." Psalm 100:3 God knows our needs, and He has the power to supply those needs! Jeremiah says, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17 Doesn’t it give you peace of mind to know that God can handle everything in the universe and in your personal life? No problem is too small to bring to the God of the galaxies. God knows everything-He even knows it all ahead to time. He says, "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." Isaiah 46: 9, 10 What peace and confidence we can have-knowing that nothing can happen to us that is too hard for God to take care of. But best of all, "God is love." 1 John 4:8 Jesus Himself said, "The Father himself loves you." John 16:27 Does it surprise you that the mighty God who created and sustains such a colossal, complete universe could be concerned about you? It is staggering to contemplate God’s unlimited power, His inscrutable wisdom and His ability to be everywhere. But love is something we can understand. And there is nothing in all the world that can separate us from God’s love! "I am convinced that neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons, God loves us when we are lovable-but also when we are unlovable. He loves us whether we are black or white, male or female, beautiful or ugly. There is nobody else like that! But most important, He loves us forever! "...Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love...." Jeremiah 31:3 David wrote: "The Lord is good and His love endures forever." Psalm 100:5 And as if there still might be some doubt in our minds about His love, God explains it in such simple terms that we can easily understand: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?", He asks. "Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands... " Isaiah 49:15, 16 God tried to demonstrate His love to man, but words and messages sent by prophets and angels were not enough. We didn’t get the message. So God sent His Son. Jesus was the perfect revelation of the personality and character of His Father. He said, "... He that hath seen me hath seen the Father..." John 14:9 If we really want to know what God is like and how He feels about us, we need to study the life of Jesus. He took our nature, that He might reach our needs. He preached the good news of salvation to the poor. He healed the brokenhearted and gave sight to the blind. He fed the hungry and ate with the people in their homes. He forgave their sins and gave them hope for the future. His face was the first face many saw-His voice the first many ever heard. He spread life and joy throughout the villages and towns where He walked. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. As we see the shame, the insults, and humiliation He endured-His death at Calvary and His broken heart-we begin to understand a little bit of the love of God for His children. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life," John 3:16 Yes, God gave His Son to a planet in rebellion. What more could He do to show His tender love? Christ died in your place and in mine. He suffered the cruel lashing, the thorns driven into His forehead, the nails driven through His hands and feet, without protest. He could have called ten thousand angels to set Him free, but He could not save Himself and others too. This was the ultimate gift of a loving, caring God for guilty man-for you and me. His bruised and bleeding body hung on the cross, He prayed, "...Father forgive them; for they know not what they do...." Luke 23:34 That is what God is like! And listen, friend, the suffering of God did not begin and end at Calvary. Ever since man chose to go his own way, God has suffered. He feels the separation, the pain of loneliness, more deeply than we, because He loves more deeply. God longs to restore Earth’s inhabitants-His children-back to His family. He is pleading right now, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22 What a God! "He’s big enough to rule
the mighty universe, Dear friends, wouldn’t you like to just lift your hand and say, "Lord, I open my heart to your love right now. Thank you for creating me and redeeming me. I give my life to you right now."
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