Maker of Heaven and Earth

Maker of Heaven and Earth

Hebrew 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Because God created us to find great pleasure in us and our faith is what pleases Him most, He relentlessly forces the faith issue.

Hebrew 11:1
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

God is secure in who He is, there is no doubt.

Isaiah 45:18-19
For this is what the Lord says- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited- he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness, I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

I like this analogy:
In the remarkable and reader-friendly book The Source, authors John Clayton and Nils Jansma make one of many cased for creationism by gross improbability of planet Earth’s possessing all of the necessary conditions to support life by chance. They explain how probabilities are figured, using the example of a deck of cards. The chances of drawing a specific card from a shuffled deck are obviously 1 in 52. If the card is reinserted into the deck and the deck is reshuffled, the chances of randomly choosing the same card becomes 1/52 x1/52, or 1 in 2,704. Applying the same kind of math probability, Clayton and Jansma offer the following “Estimated Odds of Selected Variables Vital to an Earth-like Planet Occurring by Chance.”
Being the right kind of galaxy 1 in 100
Being in the right place of the galaxy 1 in 150
Having the right kind of star 1 in 1,000
Being the right distance from the star 1 in 10
Having the proper planetary mass 1 in 10
Having the proper planetary spin 1 in 10
Having the proper planetary tilt 1 in 10
Having comet-sweeping planets 1 in 40
Not being near a black hole 1 in 250
Having a large solitary moon 1 in 10
Possessing a magnetic field capable of shielding 1 in 10
TOTAL ODDS 1 IN 150,000,000,000,000,000

I like the way Clayton brings his point home: “If I offered you a billion dollars (tax free) to jump out of an airplane at 10,000 feet without a parachute, with the proviso that you had to live to collect it, would you accept the offer? No? Well the odds of there being an ‘accidental’ planet hospitable for life using only the few parameters we have considered are 15 billion times less likely than surviving a free-fall from an airplane.”

Incidentally, John Clayton is a scientist and a former second-generation atheist who “came to believe in God while attempting to prove that the Bible contradicts known scientific facts. Instead of disproving the Bible, he found it to be absolutely reliable.”

Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. 24 Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.
25 "To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. 26 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.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God"? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Something for Nothing

The foremost fundamental of faith is believing that God is who He says He is. It is foundational to all other areas of faith.

Shield of Faith-Pledge of Faith
1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.
5. God's word is alive and active in me.
This is our shield of faith. "I'm believing God"

Psalm 139:7-10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, it I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Faith is complete engagement with God: holding on to God and His promises because we know He’s holding on to us.

GOD THE CREATOR- In the beginning, God created. That is where we came from.

According to Scripture, God created (Hebrew word: BARA). He created by speaking/commanding. The Hewbrew word BARA represents an act only God can accomplish. It is the solely divine act by which God creates something from nothing.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

According to Scripture, God formed (Hebrew word: YATSAR). He formed can represent a thing formed from previously existing materials.
Genesis 2:7
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Interestingly, both BARA and YATSAR are used in reference to the process by which God brought forth man. First He spoke us into existence (in spirit) and then formed us by the dust of the earth. The spirit part of us is what most reflects God’s image.

JOHN 4:24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

God formed our very own bodies with his own hands. He engaged beyond words and actually physically engaged in the process. We are to worship him in spirit but we must also physically engage in our faith and relationship with him.

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Interestingly, in Psalm 51:10, it uses the word create (BARA) for a new heart. This would mean that we can do nothing to make our own hearts clean and pure. God created clean hearts from nothing (BARA). God creates pure hearts from nothing in response to our sincerest repentance and desire to be pure before Him.

AN EXERCISE……………

Calculate the risks involved in believing or not believing God. Faith can seem like risky business. We take certain risks if we choose active faith and immeasurable risks if we don’t.

WHAT ARE YOU RISKING IF YOU DECIDE TO SURRENDER TO A LIFE OF PRESENT-ACTIVE-PARTICIPLE BELIEVING IN GOD??

WHAT ARE YOU RISKING IF YOU DON’T??