July 8
Psalms 98-102, 104
On vacation time slows down. There is more time of reflection and more time to pause and appreciate God’s creation. As I look from my balcony I see the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean that lap onto the seashore, but there are limits to how far they move in. I see the blue sky in the day dotted with a few puffy white clouds. At night the moon appears and the sky is covered with stars. There is green vegetation all over along with flowers of many colors. The birds and fish go about their activities. Yes, from this vantage point you can’t miss God’s creation. During the typical day at home it is easy to miss this as we rush through our schedules. When we drive our eyes are focused on the road and the clock. At work or school our focus is in our tasks. Of course, we must function in our daily lives and not just walk around admiring our surroundings, but it is sad that we often choose to ignore the beauty that God has enveloped us in. The intricacy of creation and its variety screams of our Creator. That evolution has been put forth as a leading theory to explain away God is deplorable. If one simply stops for a moment it takes more faith to believe that everything that we see came about by chance in some purposeless fashion than under the eyes of an all powerful Creator God.
Read some of the psalmist‘s observations on God’s creation in Psalm 104. We read in Psalm 104:2-3, “ You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot;”. In 104:5-8, we read “ You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved. You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away. Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed.” We read further in 104:10-12, “ You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains. They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees.” He goes on in 104:24, “ O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.”
In school I was taught evolution. When I entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior over thirty years ago, I was already a physician. I didn’t simply abandon all my former ways of thinking overnight because I had to. Doing things for God because you have to is religion. But in this new relationship that I embarked on, I spent time being washed with His Word. Understand we are all brainwashed. We can either allow the world, the media, the educational system, etc. to wash our brains, or we can allow God to wash our brains. As God’s word consumed me, the fallacies of my previous way of thinking and reasoning became apparent to me. We read in John 8:31-32 (NKJV), “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Yes, be free! Open your eyes, open your ears, and experience the beauty of God’s creation every day.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: