SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/15/2018
11:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Recognizing That God Is
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:22-23
Message of the
verses: “22 So Paul stood in the
midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are
very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and
examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this
inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this
I proclaim to you.”
I want to begin this SD by looking at the first verse in
the Bible, Genesis 1:1 “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Notice from this very first verse that there
is no argument for the existence of God the text simply says “In the beginning
God,” and so as we look at this text God is there at the beginning of His
creation, and always has been there and always will be there. This verse is a great problem for those who
believe in evolution, for evolution cannot say how things began, yet the Bible
simply says “In the beginning God.”
Paul admits to the people of Athens that they are very religious
for he could see “gods” in the form of idols all around the city. And I suppose that these men who worshiped
these idols may have thought that perhaps they may have missed one and so the
made an altar “To An Unknown God.” Paul
took this opportunity to show these men who this unknown God was as he begins
his preaching to them.
People who deny that God exist cannot know Him as Hebrews
11:6 states “he who comes to God must believe that He is.” They at least had that going for them.
As we read God’s Word, the Bible we can see different
passages that reveal powerful and convincing evidence for God’s existence. Here is one from Psalm 19:1 “The heavens are
telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His
hands.” Romans 1:19 says “because that
which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to
them.”
John MacArthur writes “The law of cause and effect argues
for God’s existence. Common sense
dictates that every effect must have a cause.
Yet there cannot be an endless chain of such causes. Therefore, there must be an uncaused first
cause. Theologians refer to that line of
reasoning as the cosmological argument.
(For an exposition of this form of cosmological argument, see Norman L.
Geisler and Winfried Corduan, Philosophy
of Religion [Grand Rapids: Baker,
1988i], 175ff.) An alternate form of the
cosmological argument runs as follows:
Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe must have a
cause. (For a defense of this form of cosmological
argument, see William Lane Craig, Apologetics
[Chicago: Moody, 1984], 73ff.; Francis
J. Beckwith, “Philosophy and Belief of God:
The resurgence of Theism in Philosophical Circles,” The Master’s Seminary Journal 2 [Spring 1991]: 72ff.)”
As we look at Hebrews 3:4 “For every house is built by
someone, but the builder of all things is God,” we see that the Bible acknowledges
the principle of cause and effect. A
house does require an efficient cause; as it would be absurd to put a pile of
building material, say in the path of a Tornado or a hurricane and then expect
the storm to make the building material into a house, or how about having the
unabridged dictionary be made in a print shop explosion. These things cannot happen, for God has put
order in the universe, and this certainly is not order.
John MacArthur writes the following to show that nature
also displays remarkable evidence of design:
“From the baffling complexity of the cell, to the miraculous
transformation of caterpillars into butterflies, to the precise engineering of
the earth to support life, examples of design are everywhere. Botanist Alan Radcliffe Smith cites one:
‘The Lady’s Slipper Orchid
is an example of a 2-stamen orchid. As the
common name implies, the lip is very distinctive, being shaped like a shoe or
slipper. The inside of the lip is very
smooth and this, together with the inrolled edges, prevents the easy departure
of an insect visitor by the same way in which it came. Instead, it is forced by the shape of the lip
and the nature of the surface to move towards the back, or point of attachment,
where there are two small exits. In
order to gain these exits, the insect must first pass beneath a stigma and then
brush past one or other of the two stamens, which deposits pollen onto it,
after which it is free to fly to fly off.
If it then goes to another slipper, it will pollinate it with the pollen
gained from the previous one; the second slipper will not be on the same plant
as only one flower is open on a given plant at any time, and thus
cross-fertilization is very efficiently effected…The complexity of interaction
between plant and insect is truly staggering and, for those who will see, it
clearly bears the hallmark of the all-wise creator.’”
We will continue to look at this section, God willing, in
our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that there is order in the universe, and that order comes from an all knowing
all wise God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give wisdom to different
members of our family to show us which road to take to bring glory to God as He
leads us through some trying situations.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Agur and King Lemuel.” (I have heard that King Lemuel could be
Solomon.)
Today’s Bible
question: “Curtains in the portable
tabernacle were made of what material?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/15/2018 11:51 AM
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