There Is A Scripture
I was listening closely to a man this last week who was talking about the pursuit of knowledge regarding physical existence.
Men and women stand at a point looking up at the heavens and outward, and it goes on and on. At one time we only saw the moon and sun and a few celestial bodies but now we see so much farther and so many more of those bodies and other kinds as well.
And they look in the other direction at matter that becomes progressively smaller and smaller. A stone, dust, molecules, atoms, protons, smaller and smaller and each time we think we have found the smallest or the farthest from our point of observation, new knowledge and technology enables us to see farther in both directions. It just doesn’t stop. It keeps on going.
And he said what we are seeing, what it is all pointing at and what it all manifests, is the glory of God.
“…His invisible qualities-both His eternal power and His divine nature- have been clearly seen…” Romans 1:20 CJB
Science and scientists and the technology that enables us to see farther and deeper are making it clear and undeniable that there was indeed a beginning and that if there was a beginning, there had to be an initiator of that beginning.
“…For ever since the creation of the universe…” Romans 1:20 CJB
What many scientists and just ordinary folk have trouble with is giving God the recognition of being the Initiator and the glory for it.
“…although they know who God is, they do not glorify Him as God or thank Him. Romans 1:21 CJB
The stumbling block is the preoccupation with the physical. The prerequisite for belief becomes what we can see and measure, witness and reproduce by means of natural laws…as we understand them.
The physical world and all the activity within it that functions in obedience to the natural laws God has made in not God but the evidence of Him. Hubble scopes, electron microscopes, weights and measures only aid in seeing that evidence.
The evidence we see and collect has its origin in the Initiator’s heart. It is a product of who He is and what He wants. We see order, balance, beauty, attention to detail, faithfulness and much more in His creation and a hunger for it in His created beings, all of which points us to Him.
Who is He?
Where is He?
How do I get to know…Him?
I have a small research library. It consists of sixty-six books. Between the covers I can read of the beginning… of all things, that it all was indeed initiated and who the Initiator is.
In it Yahweh introduces Himself and tells me His Name.
In it we learn that first He created and set in motion everything we see and when it was all ready and made perfectly suited for us to live in, then, He created us and placed us there.
And science will agree, if the sun were not the size and temperature it is, if the earth was not the distance it is from it, if the planets and moons and celestial bodies in our solar system weren’t arranged and didn’t move about as they do in relation to one another, if our galaxy wasn’t situated among the other galaxies as it is, if the universe was not physically, systematically arranged, positioned and functioning as it does, all at the right time in the course of its history, we would not exist. Yet we do.
In my library I find instructions for living. The character of those instructions reflect the character of the Instruction Giver and they are for me to know and practice so that I might be like Him.
In it is an explanation of who I was, who I am and who He wants me to be, as I look inward. And as I look outward it shows me what lies ahead and the pathway to getting there that He has laid out, eternal fellowship with Him.
And He has provided a Spirit to make the words of my reference material come alive and make me understand and confirm when I am traveling in the right direction and when I have lost my way.
His Word and His Spirit are not electronic devices or artificial intelligence but living God breathing instruments for collecting data, understanding it, applying it and sharing it through some basic technology, namely eyes for reading, ears for hearing and a heart and body for doing.
They never need adjustment or give false information. It is for us to recalibrate ourselves to get back in alignment with them.
It hasn’t involved an enormous investment of money and equipment, just a Book and Spirit, time in them and willingness to accept the data they provide and with Yahweh’s strength to draw on, the commitment to live by it.
I love to hear about scientific things because it does manifest the glory of God and opens my eyes even more to how great and awesome He is.
If Science seems to contradict, hang in there I say to self. It’s just a matter of not enough data, or false data, or a reluctant spirit.
God is patient. He will help us to use these instruments skillfully, collect accurate data, interpret it correctly and use it productively. And it will all work to His glory and our blessing.
Father, we thank You so much for the vast and deep creation You have made and set in place. And we thank You for minds capable of seeing into it in a way that goes beyond what the average of Your children can see. And thank You that they show the rest of us what they find so amazing and awe inspiring and miraculous, even if some of them don’t believe in miracles or in You. We know that You are. And they are so close to knowing that too. May our praise to You and thanksgiving be instructive to them in return and may it be a measure of data they receive from us that confirms You in their minds.
You are great and mighty, and beautiful.
We love You Father.
In Yeshua’s name we pray,
Amen.
May God’s love be in us all.
Elder.