Ensign: A Better Idea

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.            Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                                22 January 2018

“The earth cooled ... its surface scum hardened into continents ... oceans fell from the sky ... and if you believe most biology textbooks, life emerged from nutrient-rich puddles of ‘organic soup.’  There’s only one thing wrong with the organic-soup hypothesis: it's almost certainly false ... and most scientists know it.  But, in the absence of a better idea, they have held onto this one.”  (Larry Gonick, “The Cartoon History of the Universe”, volume 1, 1990) 

In the absence of a better idea … wow, that’s got to take a lot of faith.  Personally, how long the earth has existed – there are old Earth and young Earth proponents and this is no more a determinant of whether you’ll get into heaven that what color the church carpet is – doesn’t matter.  Whether you believe that life emerged … oh wait, life DID emerge.  Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  But let’s go back further than that: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” Genesis 1:1. 

God’s first line – Genesis 1:3 “Let there be light:” – shows that to create a world, an existence in which man and woman and animals can dwell in He has to start with creating … well, the world.  And evidently it’s hard for “most scientists” to accept something they can’t conceive making happen themselves.  “But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise;” so it’s expounded in 1 Corinthians 1:27.  I’d say those who think they are wise; how simple [not “dumb”, there’s a movement about to make those synonyms] is it to believe there is a Creator, and why don’t we want a simple life?  

“I do not mean to say that they are wrong.  But I hold that we know by far too little of this entire period to reconstruct that … with any degree (however humble) of accuracy.  And I would rather not state certain things than run the risk of stating certain things that were not so.”  (Hendrik Willem van Loon, “The Story of Mankind”, 1921)

Perhaps it’s not that we want a simple life so much as a simplified one.  To “be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” as Jesus originally sent His twelve disciples to be in Matthew 10:16 doesn’t necessitate being an idiot.  People often hear “simple” and equate that with “easy” or “dumb”, but even God’s harshest critics would be hard pressed to prove Peter, Andrew, James, John, and the rest were slow on the uptake in the world they lived in.  Impulsive, yes; skeptical, yes; but it’s these people willing to take a leap forward in faith who discover for themselves the Holy Spirit and through whom He works.  It’s the same thing with us today, when we believe.

It’s being willing to promulgate our ideas, what we want to believe, when evidence doesn’t prove or leaves very open to interpretation that leads us into circles.  For the sake of argument, let’s go with the organic-soup idea from the first paragraph.  That had to come from somewhere – something dead or life-lacking cannot suddenly become alive and life-promoting without some outside influence.  Whether the warmth and nourishment of a mother’s womb or the poetically rendered laying on of sinews and flesh and bones and breath per Ezekiel 37 or even being created from the dust of the earth in Genesis … all creation had to start with something.  I amend that, Someone.

Sincerely yours, 

David

   

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book and I hope to be an encourager too!  If you find that I’m not or you want me to get lost, just let me know, thank you! 

  

We praise You, Lord, for this beautiful day You have given us!  Please pray with me for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and for physical and spiritual communities around our world.  

  

Lord, we need Your strength to fight the natural disasters and human ills to ultimately treat the cause and not just the symptoms; until we who have power change, this world You have made us stewards of won’t either.  

  

Thank You, Lord, for all those in leadership and service here and abroad.  Thank You for the opportunities we have been given as well as the promise of new life through Your Son.  And may we all seek and have a blessed week!  Amen.