The preacher quoted Romans 1:19-21 (NIV), which says: "since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."
He mentioned how all of us, Christians, Muslims, Atheists, and every human on the planet WILL BE held accountable for our thoughts and behaviors someday, when we stand before God Almighty at our death. What will our excuse be then, for how we've lived our lives and for the good we have or have not done in this world? Perhaps we'll say to the Lord Almighty, "Well I just couldn't find enough evidence to believe in You." Or will we say, "I thought that no one could ever know for sure if You exist or not, so I didn't even bother trying to figure it out"?
Can you IMAGINE uttering those lame excuses whilst standing before God, whose glory shines so brightly you have to shield your eyes with your hand so as not to be blinded by His radiance? I cannot fathom telling God that I could not see enough proof of His existence by looking at the world He has created, but that's what people do everyday!
I see God's handiwork in a beautiful sunset over the seal-filled waters of Puget Sound; I hear His magnificence in a small child's belly laugh; I taste His delightfulness in a scrumptious Mocha Latte.
God has made everyone and everything, and all of His creation displays His glory and reflects it back on Him. Look at the vast beauties and mysterious of nature and the animal kingdom, and you can see God's astounding creativity, sense of humor, and frightening power. Look at human beings and get a taste of God's intelligent design, His attention to detail, the amazing fact that He created humans with the capacity for great love, selflessness, service, and kindness. These are all accurate examples of God Himself, shown to us everyday in our daily lives.
Look around you! This amazing and wonderful world screams out "There is a benevolent Creator who loves you with an everlasting, incomprehensable Love! See? He made all of this so you would live your life being astounded by His goodness and greatness!"
No more excuses! Open your mind and quiet all those cynical thoughts swirling around in your head. You think if you could just find the answers to your questions, like "why does God allow evil in the world, if He's supposedly so good?" then you'd be able to believe in God. But I've got news for all of you super "enlightened", "logical", and "scientifically-minded" folks: your questions will NEVER be answered to your satisfaction. They just won't. And even if you find adequate answers, you'll only come up with more questions that "need" to be answered before you can believe in God.
Only God, who is infinite, omniscient, and all-knowing, will be able to answer all your questions about eternally significant things. Until you die and meet Him face-to-face, you will NEVER be satisfied with the answers you receive on these subjects, even when you receive them from Christians, or anyone who "claims to know the truth". And here's another news flash: we Christians have some answers to some of these "though questions", but we certainly don't have them all, and we never will, because we're not God. We love and follow God, and He has made His home inside our hearts, but more often than not, we just have to trust Him wholeheartedly and be patient, knowing that someday we'll know everything.
So here's what I propose to all you doubters out there: look at the empirical evidence you have before you; all of this created world. God Himself says that, in order to see Him and believe that He created everything, all you need to do is to look at His creation. And if God says it, it must be true! So ask God to give you a 'new pair of eyes' to see His world with, and I promise you that you will see Him in all His glory! No more excuses about why you won't believe! Open your eyes that God has given you, and start looking!
Image courtesy of: Getting Down With Jesus, Sermon thoughts courtesy of 820 AM Christian Radio Station
Thank you for the post. Good work. In the last paragraph you hit on an important truth. Unless God opens our spiritual eyes, we simply cannot recognize evidence for His existence. Yes, even science points to the Creator of matter but if we resist even science when it doesn't fit with what we want to believe we're about as lost as lost can be.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, good work
God Bless
See you There!
Thanks, Thesauros for your comment! This topic is one that I could write about for a LONG time, so perhaps I'll write another post soon! Thanks for the encouragement, and God bless you too! :)
ReplyDeleteI always chuckle when cynics try to use science to convince people there is no God. Yet one of their number one laws is "matter can be neither created nor destroyed." Yet we still have all this MATTER all around us. How the heck did it get here, you ask?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: See: God.