A God of Wonders

"But as for me, I would seek God,

And I would place my cause before God;

Who does great and unsearchable things,

Wonders without number.

He gives rain on the earth,

And sends water on the fields.

Job 5:8-10

In his book, "Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in all of Life," John Piper drew my attention to something I had missed in my previous readings of this verse in Job. Eliphaz, the writer of this passage, lifts up God, describing Him as one who does great and unsearchable things..."wonders without number." Do you consider it odd that his first example is something that we all not only all experience often, but also frequently complain about? ... rain? Did you ever think of rain as a great and unsearchable wonder? I try to be grateful for the rain, having lived through times of drought, and come to realize it as a gift of God, but I never thought of rain as "a wonder." John Piper shared some facts about rain that have totally changed my understanding of this "wonder" of the LORD's creation. For Job and his friends to have experienced this wonder, water would have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea several hundred miles away and then poured out on fields from the sky. How does this happen? It would not just be for the uneducated mind to wonder at this phenomena. The more one knows about the process, the more amazing it truly is! John Piper says, "...if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17,377,536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water." That is just the amount of water on one square mile!! I learned about evaporation and condensation in school, but I never really think about how incredible this process truly is. How does it work? John Piper described the process, "water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide...the salt is taken out. So the sky picks up millions of pounds of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water) on the farm. If it just dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so from the sky without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks." It does this through coalescence, which means that "specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall." It really is one of God's wonders, isn't it? Our God truly does all things well!!

Longing for Spring

The first snow of the season is falling tonight. Already the world is transformed from shades of brown and red, to that of white and silver. I find my heart already sighing, longing for the first signs of spring! Those of us who live in the Midwest complain and whine about the cold, snow and ice, longing for this season to be over. We herald the return of the robins and the firt signs of spring. Yet as passionately as we long for spring, how much more should we long for the return of our King. In asmuch as the earth lies under the curse of winter, so this world lies under the curse of separation for our Lord Jesus. Like Narnia, it is always winter, never spring! The early Church prayed frequently: Maranatha! LORD!! Maranatha!! This prayer proclaimed the longing of their hearts, "Lord, come quickly!" May the Church be sick with love for her LORD and not rest content until we are united with Him!! Maranatha!!

Longing for Morning

"My soul waits for the LORD, more than those who watch for the morning!" Ps. 130:6

Andrew Murray said, "When there is a shipwreck at midnight, with what longing the sailors look for the morning! How often the sigh goes up, "When will the day break?" Similarly, the Christian must wait on God and rest patiently until His light shines upon him."

Andrew Murray calls his readers to begin each day with prayers, especially asking the LORD to make His face to shine upon His servant (Ps. 31:16, Ps. 80:3). He says, "Do not rest until you know the light of His countenance and His blessing is resting upon you."

And Iron Entered His Soul

I have been meditating a lot on the life of Joseph. He is one who early on in life had a sense of God's calling him to a high purpose in life. He had dreams. He had a position of favor in his family. I wonder how many times Joseph asked himself, "What happened?" ...Why did his family turn on him and reject him? How could he end up in a dungeon when he had tried so serve and walked in integrity, even in captivity? How had his life spun so wildly out of control? I can identify so much with Joseph and the questions that undoubtedly entered into his mind in those dark days of imprisonment. Yet, we've read Joseph's story from beginning to end and we know that those days were part of God's plan. God never lost control and He never made a mistake in moving Joseph into exactly the place He wanted him to be for His purposes. Psalm 105:17-19 has an interesting insight regarding this time that Joseph spent in prison. It says that this was a testing time for Joseph. F.B. Meyer notes that where it says, "His soul entered into iron," we also might translate this into our language as saying, "Iron entered into his soul." I often think of God's testing as one in which He seeks to find our weaknesses, but in fact, a study of God's testing reveals that in these times, as we yield to Him, He creates in us strength. It is when we go through a trial that God is able to forge His strength in the place of our weaknesses. Without the times of trial and testing we would happily go along on our own strength, never realizing we are ill-prepared for the next phase of our lives.

Cosmic Battle in the Heavenlies

Click on this picture to see full size version!

This amazing picture is not from a science fiction movie, it was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on August 25, 2003. This picture is of several generations of stars amid curtains of clouds in a region called W5, about 6,500 light-years away. I am fascinated with photographs of microscopic or the telescopic that reveal a universe to us that is beyond our own ability to see! We cannot see this with our naked eye, but that does not mean that it does not exist. Until recently we did not have a way to even imagine such a picture! But, it also reminds me of a cosmic battle in the heavenlies, described in the Bible, which is also beyond our ability to see or even really comprehend. The Bible reveals times in which a certain person's eyes were opened to see the angelic hosts, but we are told that there is a place in the heavenlies where the armies of the LORD battle with the hosts of darkness. Seeing this picture makes one realize that we can never discount what our eyes cannot see!

A Little Bit of Whimsy

Moose are God's Creatures, too

 

Moose have always fascinated me!!  Do you ever wonder what God was thinking when He created the moose?  He is such a contrast to the elegant and so symmetrical cousin, the deer!!  One has to wonder how those who believe in evolution can explain how two such different and yet similar species emerged from the same glob of goo!!  The moose, with his hind legs shorter than his front, and his oddly shaped face, little eyes and big nose and antlers that look like a science experiment gone awry, all point to a God who is incredibly diverse in His creation and a God who has a sense of humor!!  He does all things well, and in the moose we see that He created an animal that is powerfully strong, massive in size and with a neck built to hold up those fierce antlers.  It amazes me that those antlers can span 6 feet across and that he grows a new pair every year!!  The male moose  stands six feet tall at the shoulders and can weigh up to 1600 pounds!!  Isn't that incredible? 

 

A moose can be very dangerous, and my sister, Peggy, who lives in Alaska has had several close run-ins with a moose.  But they do have their tender side, too.  I love this video, and could not figure out how to embed it in this blog, so just click on the link, and enjoy. 

 

http://www.maniacworld.com/twin-baby-moose-in-sprinkler.html