The Heavenly Message

Posted on by korgrocker

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”
Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

David wrote that God created the heavens and they were so wonderful that they continually display His glory. Day or night the message of who God is, is proclaimed without sound but as a visual presentation to everyone in the world. And that is true, because wherever we live on this planet, God’s glory in the heavens is there for all to see. The message of the skies “has gone throughout the earth” David wrote. But what was and is the message?

Paul wrote a clear explanation about this message in Romans 1:18-20, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God“. But such is the sin of man that they have devised an explanation for the craftsmanship in the skies that excludes God. Instead they attribute the presence of the heavenly bodies and everything else in the universe to an event that took place many billions of years ago. In recent years the “Big Bang” theory has emerged, based on observations about how the galaxies and stars are moving. The scientists, with the aid of mathematical formulae, have worked out a theory that about 13.7 billion years ago the origin of the universe was a small, intensely dense and very hot, piece of matter that suddenly exploded. However, they fail to explain where this piece of matter came from and why it suddenly exploded. But if someone, observing the heavens in all their glory, asked such a scientist about how all the stars got there, they have a natural, Godless, explanation ready and waiting to be rolled out. And sadly, this theory is bundled together with the theory of evolution, and rolled out in our schools and places of learning as fact, not theory. 

Paul called these God-and-creation-deniers “sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness”. But why do people deny the existence of God, even when there is so much evidence about Him in the heavens, where God made “a home … for the sun”? The Billy Graham organisation claims that people deny the existence of God because of pride. People want to run their lives their own way and don’t want anyone, especially God, to interfere with the way they are living. They want to be in control of everything they do, and they know that if they were to believe in God, they’d have to change their lifestyle. Instead of living by their own list of what’s right and wrong, they’d have to take seriously God’s moral standards. But we pilgrims know the consequences of such a life-choice, because we have read the last few chapters in the Book, chapters that the God-deniers claim are just fairy tales for emotionally needy people. The first three verses of Psalm 14 read, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!” This Psalm, another written by David, is unequivocal in its conclusion that the God-deniers are fools. Of course, they have to be, because otherwise who would want to spend eternity in the company of the devil and his cohorts?

The message written long ago in the heavens, the message of the glory and existence of God, is there for everyone to observe, and one day everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives. What will the God-deniers say? Probably nothing, as the enormity of their foolishness and pride suddenly dawns upon them, as their minds try and process all their sinful and evil ways in the light of God’s presence.

But on a positive, we pilgrims look up on a clear day or night, and are reminded once again of the wonderful God we worship. He loves us and cares for us, because we have chosen to cast aside our pride and arrogance and instead live His way. We know that it was our sins that nailed Jesus to that cross, and we bow in worship to the One who has forgiven us because we confessed our sins. God now sees us as His righteous adopted sons and daughters. How amazing is that? 

Father God, we thank You today in wonder for the extent You have gone to, to save mankind from hell. Please help us endorse Your Heavenly message to those we meet, those who are heading for a lost eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The God-Deniers

Posted on by korgrocker

The wicked are windbags,
    the swindlers have foul breath.
The wicked snub God,
    their noses stuck high in the air.
Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:
    “Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”

Psalm 10:3-4 The Message

The Psalmist, presumed to be David, was having another rant about the “wicked”. We don’t know what wound him up, but, as the Message translation shows, he wrote very graphically about these unsavoury members of society. He was perplexed that, in spite of their behaviour, they seem to succeed in all that they got involved in. But in this Psalm he called upon God to punish them. No messing about in those days! 

To say that God is dead is first and foremost a challenge to God’s authority, and was very much behind the rationale presented to Eve by the serpent in Genesis 3. Not too many people would have the nerve to speak these three words out loud in a meaningful way – this would normally be the domain of liberal or radical theologians, or trendy philosophers and so called intellectuals. But at least the God-deniers have presumably assessed the implications of the thought that “God is not dead”. They will know that if God is alive, then they have some serious, life-changing, decisions to make, that is, if they don’t want to spend eternity in hell. And because a decision for God would seriously impact their whole lives they adopt an arrogant posture and choose instead to reject Him and deny that He exists, ignoring the evidence to the contrary. Those adopting a God-denying life style are very much behind the Psalmist’s rant in Psalm 10. It is a lifestyle that can be distilled down to selfishness, oppression, particularly of the less fortunate members of society, illegal acts and general wickedness. Sadly, most people choose not to consider what happens after we die, not realising that no choice is the same as the “God is dead” choice. They comfort themselves, if challenged, with the erroneous thought that “I’m a good person – God won’t reject me”, not understanding that God has a totally different expectation of what “Good” means. The Bible calls the God-deniers “foolish” (Psalm 14:1). One day they will find out how foolish they really have been.

But what about us, God’s people? We can’t just stand on the periphery, looking on as the “wicked” perpetrate their mayhem, choosing, as the Pharisees of Jesus’ day did, to keep our hands clean by not getting involved. At the very least we must pray, supporting organisations that stand up for those less fortunate than us. Organisations such as “Open Doors”, for example. And where we can we must volunteer to help in our communities – after all we are the “salt and light” that Jesus taught about in Matthew 5. And we can face down the “wicked” with God standing right there with us. Personally and individually, though, we must guard our hearts from complacency, from erosion of our spiritual lives and from the activities of the enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour (1 Peter 5:8-9). Jesus presented a radical, counter-cultural Gospel which still resonates around the world today, through His radical, counter-cultural followers. Like you and me?