Power Verses…… “We look as this Son (Jesus) and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at the  Son (Jesus) and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels, everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." (Philippians 4: 6 - 7 "The Message" version.)

Yet another week dawns, the headlines are filled with doom and gloom, boom and burst, wars and rumours of wars, floods, rising unemployment, pension funds collapsing, uncertain futures, property repossessions, the elderly unable to heat their homes……Stop! I hear you cry, is there no good news around today?
Perhaps we need to take stock, take a deep breath and take time to get some perspective in our lives.
Ever considered focusing on the God of the Bible, and discovering how BIG God really is?  In our times of bewilderment, fear and stress, God is there, not only in the big issues surrounding His creation, but in the issues, big and small that invade our daily lives today.

Just consider this…….

 

There are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Our sun is 150 trillion miles from the center of our galaxy. Our galaxy is just one of a cluster of thirty galaxies, and the closest galaxy to ours, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is 978 trillion miles away! Astronomers estimate there are more than 100 billion galaxies. And each galaxy has more than 100 billion stars! And each of those hundreds of billions of stars was personally hung in space by the Creator Who has not only numbered them all but knows each of them by name! The very first words of the first book of the Bible tell us, "In the beginning, God created the heavens……..”   

I cannot conceive of any activity much bigger than that!

 What big things are you currently facing?

A big decision about a career change…….. concern about a child’s schooling……….a marriage proposal?

 

Buying a new house or perhaps loosing the one you own……….beginning a new job or loosing the one you have?

A big responsibility such as caring for elderly parents whose health is failing……….rearing teenagers……. Or trying to make ends meet in your one parent family.

A big problem such as the disease that is claiming the life of your loved one……… or the broken relationship that is ruining your life……….. or in the current crisis the debts that are greater than your income?
God is in the habit of dealing with BIG issues.

But God also ". . . created the heavens and the earth."

 As Creator, He is active from the telescope to the microscope!

God created snowflakes, no two of which are alike. He created a sponge­like pad between the head of a woodpecker and its bill to absorb the shock when the bird strikes a tree.

He created small barbs along the feathers of each bird, as many as one million barbs per feather that act like zippers to lock the feathers together, not only waterproofing the bird but enabling it to catch air under its wings so that it can fly.

He created seventy-five thousand miles of blood vessels in the human body that carry blood to over sixty trillion cells! More than one million of these cells are white antibodies, each one designed to fight just one kind of germ or virus. He created nerve cells that connect the human body to the brain like tiny telephone wires, with messages traveling along them at up to three hundred miles  per hour! WOW!

God is active in small ways in the universe, on our planet, in our bodies, and in our lives! What do you think is so small that it’s too small for God to notice?

A small tear?

A small hurt feeling?

A small kindness?

A small insult?

A small sin?

A small lie?

A small need for love or encouragement?

A small bite of food or a sip of water?

A small word of praise?

A small worry that is robbing you of your joy?

Nothing is too small for our Creator God's attention and activity!

God as Creator is active in big and small ways. And God as Man (Jesus) was also active in big things like raising Lazarus from the dead, feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and calming a stormy sea.  He was active in small ways like noticing a widow giving her last coin at the temple or taking a child on His knee or heal a leper with His touch, or promise, in His dying moments, forgiveness and eternal life to a dying thief on a cross.

 

What is happening globally at present should act as a spiritual wake-up call. We need a “road map”. We have one, it's called the Bible.

 

The words of Jesus: Cast Iron Promises, Guaranteed for Life!

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

Has anyone by fussing in front of a mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch! And all the time and money wasted on fashion do you think it makes that much difference?  Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wild flowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever see colour and design quite like it? The best ten dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of which are never ever seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving……..Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiatives, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (The Message Translation Matthew 6: 25-34)