Biological Engineer

Easy intructions for building a human being!

Lord, You created me and everything in me.

You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.
All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.
The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.

Selection from Psalm 139, my paraphrase.

God opposes the proud

“We are all that, plus a bag of chips!”

“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”  Genesis 11:7.

We cannot say for certain how high the Tower of Babel was, but however tall it was, it never exceeded the size of the egos that planned it.  They were going to build a monument to themselves.  They believed that they could reach the stars without God. The scene reminds us of a mound of busy ants building their home higher and higher.  Even a small child can easily kick down the mound and sent the entire colony into confusion.

God did not bring down the tower, although He could have toppled it with a word. In this case He chose to end the project in a unique way.  He thwarted the one thing that held them together, the essential element that they took for granted:  their ability to communicate. And so, the various languages of the world were born, and the people of the earth were scattered. They would never again work together as one on a project designed to prove their superiority over God (until building the Titanic).  God resists the proud.  God chooses seemingly small things to deflate huge egos–the jawbone of an ass, for example. Apparently He finds pride offensive, and frankly, so do I (except when I’m feeling proud of myself).

He remembers

God remembered us! YES!!!

“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that  were with him in the ark.”  Genesis 8:1

God “remembered.”  We must be careful not to interpret this statement in human terms.  It does not mean that He was busy doing  something and suddenly “remembered” Noah, having completely forgotten him.  It means rather that God never forgot Noah. Despite all that Noah was going through, God never left him or forgot about him.  In fact, the word implies that God remembered Noah with an intent to act, to change Noah’s situation. Imagine yourself, if you can, in that ark with all those animals for months and months.  No windows.  Tossed about by the waves of the sea.  To know that God is about to do something to change your situation is great news.

In this fast‑moving and frantic world, it is easy to  feel lonely and forgotten.  Many believe that the world is forgotten of God.  If God were like a man, this might be possible.  Men forget all sorts of things, especially the needs of others. Even Christians sometimes forget about the God Who thinks about them  constantly.  It is a wonderful thing to know that God remembers me.  In the storms of life, He has not forgotten me.  His memory is flawless.  Though I sometimes doubt it, the Bible teaches that He is always thinking about everything that concerns me. It is a frightening thing to consider that He knows and remembers sins, but thank God that He has chosen to forget mine.

Wonderful Counselor

The high price of free will

“And the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:6‑7.

God knew what was coming for Cain; He could read his heart. But the same free will given to Adam and Eve was given also to Cain.  The Master of the Universe has chosen not to master us against our will.  But God knows that sin will attempt to master us without our permission.

In this passage, God questions Cain.  He asks him a series of questions, but not because He needs information from Cain.  He wants Cain to answer the questions for himself.  Notice that the questions are not complex or obscure but simple and direct.  There is a note of prophecy in His advice, but His counsel is always clearly prefaced with “if.”

God still counsels today, but few receive His wisdom.  He still calls us to choose, but few choose Him.  It should be obvious that the wicked path leads to death; however, only a small number ever find life in Him.  He is a Wonderful Counselor, but His wisdom is without value to those who ignore it.

Dust + the breath of God = a living soul

May not be strictly biblical, but it is a pretty cool picture

Michelangelo’s way cool version

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed  into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  Genesis 2:7.

All things were created by God out of nothing, with one exception:  Man.  Man was special in that he was “formed” from the dust of the ground, not spoken into existence. With the discovery of DNA, such a notion doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched (nor the idea that Eve was formed from a place in Adam’s side). When God breathed into the chemical Adam body, it wasn’t just oxygen. It was a life-giving wind, powerful and mystical,  suggesting a process far beyond our ability to comprehend. Once created, Adam and Eve were further empowered to reproduce other human beings, as we have done to this very day.

Our “soul” is the mysterious spark or fire of life and sense of being that He has infused deep within us.  We cannot see it or define it or measure it, but we cannot live without it; it distinguishes us from dirt.  We are smart, self-aware, and willful. Our bodies are self-repairing and self-regulating to a degree that exceeds our own intelligence and understanding. I don’t understand my autonomic nervous system, but it keeps me alive. I don’t understand how or why my brain works, but I think with it. Scientists and writers have imagined almost-human robots and androids. But who can visualize or create a soul?  Only God. That being true, what does it tell you about who God is?

“Let there be CHICKEN!” (Eggs followed)

“Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.  Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so.”  Genesis 1:20‑24.

As if the miracle of plant life were not enough, God added moving creatures over all the earth, beings with eyes and brains, having the ability to move on the ground, swim, or fly.  Even today, we are still trying just to categorize all the various species of living things that we know about.

Anyone who has ever dissected a frog for a biology class knows about the complexity even of the lowly frog.  Yes, even a frog is fearfully and wonderfully made.  All his parts are in order, just the right size and proportion; all that he needs to live in and jump around his habitat.  His environment did not create him, as evolutionists say, but rather, he was brought into existence by the living God Who imparted life to him and to millions more like him.

Faithful to His Promises

              

My faith expressed in prayer + My faithfulness to pray and “not give up” + God’s faithfulness to His promises = “All things are possible.”

God loves a cheerful giver because…

God’s gifts, the Holy Spirit, Faith, Hope, and Love

“God loves a cheerful giver,” 2 Corinthians 9:7. This passage is often quoted just before the offering plate is passed, but I was thinking this morning about other kinds of giving. God loves a cheerful giver because He Himself is a cheerful giver. He needs nothing but created everything just to give it all away. We might say He is an extravagant Giver. He enjoys it, He delights in it, He takes pleasure in giving “good gifts” to His children. He gives His Spirit to those who ask. “He delights in showing mercy.”

Jesus “loved me and gave Himself for me.” If you don’t understand the giving nature of God, you have missed one of His core attributes. He has been generous to me to a degree that is beyond my understanding. If I am to be like Him, I need to do the same, especially that mercy part.

God is My BFF!

The other day I was feeling inadequate as a Christian, and I said to the Lord, “You should expect more from me.” His reply, “You should expect more from Me, your Best Friend, because I am.” God is so good. God is only good. God is always good. (It just takes us a while to see it, sometimes a long while.)

There is evil in the world, but it doesn’t come from God. The sad part is that so many people have only experienced evil, but they have never experienced the goodness of God, nor as His child have they ever watched Him work everything together for good. God is not evil and cannot be tempted by evil, and there is no darkness in Him.

God’s Love Paid the Price

“It is finished!” Greek: Tetelestai – “The debt is paid”

Worth is measured by “market value,” how much someone is willing to pay. Now, apply this principle to Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” How much was it worth to Jesus to redeem me from Satan’s Slave Market? He paid the price, a ransom, with His precious blood, shed for the remission of my sins. He died my death. I received His Life. My worth to God is immeasurable.

Whereas I was once in Satan’s Slave Market marked “FOR SALE-REDUCED-CHEAP,” I am now seated in the Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus marked with a seal “VALUABLE-BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AT A HIGH PRICE.”