Lifebythestream

I don’t usually open email forwards, but I am glad I read this one. 

{God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the ‘beginning’.’
‘Oh, is that so? Tell me…’ replies God.
‘Well’, says the scientist, ‘we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of
you and
breathe life into it, thus creating man.’
‘Well, that’s interesting. Show Me.
So the scientist bends d own to the earth and starts to mold the soil.
‘Oh no, no, no…’, interrupts God, (I love this)
‘Get your own dirt.’}

It struck a chord with me because I have been marveling at technology and what God has allowed us to control on the earth.  However, I have never lost sight of the fact that all said and done, God is still the Creator with the beginning and end in His hands.  How ignorant it is for a finite person of a humble birth outside  of his own control to presume he can start life.  One of my girls was excited to find out recently that her mom was pregnant.  We volleyed back and forth about whether her mom or God had made the baby.  She kept trying to find a loophole in my logic until we agreed that God had made the baby through the natural process of life which He had set up in the first place.  So, great, humans can take life’s building blocks, put them in a dish and create a petri dish baby.  But where do you get the building blocks.  Where did the matter that created the petri dish come from.  The matter is not, can we create something, for God made us in His image.  What seperates us from the infinite God is creating something out of nothing.  In the beginning there was God.  I am grateful for mankind’s creative expression.  I enjoy the beauty of art, the resonance of music, the lyrical meter of poetry, and the awesome power of intelligent spoken and written word.  However, I recognize also the God who shares it all with me, the God who made the notes, who made the lyric, who defined time, who put the ability to design in the mind of man, and gave him the comprehension of language.  God is very explicit about His place in the world to  Job in chapter 38. 

 ”Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
       Tell me, if you understand. 

 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
       Who stretched a measuring line across it?

 On what were its footings set,
       or who laid its cornerstone-

  while the morning stars sang together
       and all the angels ^[a] shouted for joy?

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”-2 Chronicles 16:9

The devotional for August 1 in Experiencing God Day by Day says “Life’s challenges sometimes seem impossible…Don’t give up! Keep your heart loyal to God, for He constantly watches over you, and He desires to demonstrate His strength in your life…The question is not whether God is looking for His people, but whether His people are seeking Him”

A loyal heart.  That is what I desire to have, but it stands in stark contradiction to the pull of the three-ring circus.  They eyes of the Lord are not alone in roaming the earth.  “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  1 Peter 5:8  I often feel the oppression of our enemy or my own evil desires, but I have to remember that “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9  The fact that God desires to show Himself strong on behalf of a loyal heart gives me strenth in itself.  We are nothing on our own but when we are loyal in our devotion to Him, we can say, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Cor. 4:7  Lord, demonstrate Your strength in my life.