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Commentary on "Releasing Into Ministry"
Day 2: Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Shared Responsibility
Scripture tells us that God’s words have already gone out to the ends of the earth, and to support his point, Paul quotes Psalms 19:
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Psalms 19:1-4
First of all, the heavens declare the glory of God. We often take this for granted as Christians, and simply say that the stars are glorious reminders of our insignificance and God’s greatness. Most have only a vague idea of what God’s glory is, and our understanding of scripture and our witness suffer for that lack. Both Paul and David have directed us to look to the skies and learn of Him. There is something deep and fundamental about God’s glory that the stars teach us, and we would do well to listen. But specifically, what attributes of God’s glory are meant? In Romans 1, Paul speaks of those who have exchanged the glory of God for lesser things:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19, 20
From these texts, we can see that God’s glory contains these attributes:
His Eternal Power
- The stars tell us of vast distances, sizes, and energies that have existed for a long time. Merely understanding the immensity of a single galaxy gives some idea of eternity.
- Stars have immense power and longevity, and they are forming all the time. The universe is apparently expanding at an accelerating rate, and we don’t know why.
His Divine Nature
- God is just. The stars show us that His universe operates by laws, and these same laws operate everywhere, at enormous distances, and in ourselves. The deeper we look, the more we see that the universe has one origin. His law rules it all. Natural law tells us that He is just in everything He has made, and He will be just in dealing with us.
- God is faithful. He stays by His creation, maintaining it, and “He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). He loves to make everything stay in its orbits. He is exuberant like a little child, making the earth rotate and orbit the sun again and again. Because of His joyful faithfulness, we are able to do good science because we can take for granted the faithfulness of God’s natural laws and constancy. For those who trust Him, the joy of the Lord is their strength.
- God is infinitely wise. Our earth was created in a habitable zone that supports liquid water and is friendly to life. This is controlled even by the type of star we orbit and our position in our galaxy. Many factors must be right for earth to be habitable, and these reveal the wisdom of our Creator. Only His wisdom could create life and make a home for it like ours.
On the other hand, the impersonal brutality of nature constantly reminds us that we need something much greater on which to hang our hopes than natural law. Natural laws without God are not our friends, for the universe is a place of death. The doctrine of karma believes that nature will ultimately give us what we deserve, and that makes “everything good.” If karma rules Nature and us, although it may seem just, it offers no hope, but condemns us all to death. The cruel justice of Nature eventually grinds us all down into powder.
Being shown all this by Nature, we have no excuse (Romans 1:20). Nature points away from itself to its true End, and if we are listening, we will find that Something greater is already here. We desperately need something that is contrary to Nature, something that is intentional and will finally overpower all else. We don’t need karma, we need grace. Are we listening?
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised May 26, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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