September 6, 2016
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.—Genesis 1:1
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Creation speaks to us—every day, all the time, constantly shouting truths about spiritual reality. Did you hear it this morning as you got up? Did you feel any truth about God this morning as you took a hot shower? Did you taste any truth as you delighted in your morning coffee? Did you hear any divine reality as you heard a bird singing? Did you see any truth as you saw the blue of the sky? What have you actually felt, tasted, touched, seen, and heard today? The whole earth is filled with His glory. Every day creation shouts to us, God is glorious! God is creator! God is provider! God is love! God is there! ... Everywhere I look, everything I feel, hear, smell, and taste transmits the beauty of God through the beauty of creation. He is the beauty behind all beauty.—Steve DeWitt1
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“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”2 Praise the Lord for God’s creation. It all speaks to us of the Lord.
How slowly and quietly the Lord does great things such as a sunset! When the Lord puts on a light show, we ought to stop and look at it. We ought to pay attention.—Such as a sunset or a moonrise or a rainbow or the clouds or any of His great, beautiful works of art. A butterfly or a flower or a tree or a storm or all kinds of things that demonstrate the beauty and power of the Lord.
We should pay attention when He does things. He’s usually doing them for our benefit, so we ought to show a little appreciation and thanksgiving and praise; otherwise He’s like an actor with no audience. All that beauty! What a beautiful sky! I wonder how many people are looking at it and enjoying it and appreciating it and thanking God for it.
It’s so beautiful to be able to see the artwork of the Lord in spite of all the pollution and confusion. People ought to stop and admire God’s handiwork while He’s putting on such a beautiful show. They ought to stop and watch His beautiful sunsets and lovely dawns. They admire the works of art of men, but no man ever created anything that pretty. Praise the Lord! I love to sit here and watch the sunset.
Even after the sun is gone, the light hasn’t left the sky. See how pretty it is! It’s kind of like the way it is with the Lord: He left this earth, and He left the light of His Word behind to show that He still exists. It’s so wonderful to view God’s beautiful creation. It gives you such a wonderful feeling of serenity and peace and calm and power of the Lord and harmony and beauty of His creation, to know that God still lives and still controls things.—David Brandt Berg
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A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to watch out for me.—Philip Yancey
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Does God love you? You can see it and you can feel it in the beautiful world He’s given you to live in. Just to look around you at the beautiful creation is to see the love of God! Just look at the world and you’ll know that God loves you. His love is obvious from all that He’s made for you to enjoy.3
Look at the patience and mercy of God. To every man ever born He has at some time sent His light to enlighten his darkened heart with the love of God, to show him His love!4 He showers all this beauty and blessing not only on the just but even upon the unjust who really don’t deserve His love and His mercy. He still sends them sunshine almost every day, and rain to make the flowers grow, the beautiful trees, the grass, the sky, the clouds, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, God’s wonderful creation.5
If you don’t believe God loves you, just look around at His blessings—this beautiful life, this wonderful world to live in, this marvelous, beautiful creation that you see all around you. What more can He say? He didn’t have to make the world so beautiful. He did it just for you!—David Brandt Berg
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About 35 years ago, I was at a camp in the mountains. Alone in a room, I prayed, “God, if there is a God, I’m open. If you’re real, I want to know you’re real. And, Jesus Christ, if you can change my life, if there is a purpose for my life, I want to know it.”
You know what happened? I didn’t get goose bumps. I didn’t cry. No bright lights shone down. Nothing like that.
Yet, still, it was the turning point in my life—because I was no longer biasing myself against God. I wanted to know the truth, even if it was inconvenient.
Truth can be discovered, but first we have to have an attitude of openness that says, “I want the truth more than anything else.” Once you choose that attitude, you can discover the truth. How?
First, through creation. We learn a lot about God, a lot about truth, just by looking at nature. This is why science is so important. It helps us understand God and His universe.
For instance, by knowing that there are 60,000 varieties of beetles, we learn God likes variety. By seeing a volcano, a tidal wave, or an earthquake, we learn God is powerful. From the delicately balanced ecosystem, we can observe God is incredibly organized.
The Bible says, “The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.”6
God will also lead us to the truth through conscience, careful consideration, God’s commandments, and through Jesus Christ.—Rick Warren
Published on Anchor September 2016. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by John Listen.
1 Steve DeWitt, Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything (Credo House Pub., 2012).
2 Psalm 19:1–2 KJV.
3 Romans 1:20.
4 John 1:9.
5 Matthew 5:45.
6 Romans 1:19–20 MSG.
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