How Great is Our God!

Second Sunday of Advent Readings: 

Isaiah 40:1-11 

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13  

2 Peter 3:8-15     

Mark 1:1-8     

Mapping the Invisible - Hubble Yields Clues to Galaxy Cluster Growth, a photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Vernon brought the message this week. He began by saying that at the time he gave his life to the Lord in 1976, he was doing research in genetics on the malaria mosquito, and when he was saved by Christ it was in the middle of a scientific establishment where Vernon was confronted every moment with the belief of evolution. He believed it himself at the time, but it didn't take him long to realize that there was a conflict between this theory and the Bible. During his first year as a Christian he was in a biochemistry class, and one day they were studying the Krebs cycle when he seemed to get a revelation from the Lord. He got so excited that he exclaimed, "Oh my God!" right in the midst of the class--then quickly slid down into his chair to avoid any further embarrassment. What Vernon realized was the enormous complexity of God's created universe. That revelation changed Vernon's life and that's what he shared with us. 


In the last few months Vernon has been studying the Bible from the perspective of a new Christian, someone who is "untainted" by men's words and only knows what he reads in the Bible and what the Spirit reveals. He discovered something in the temptations of Christ that opened his eyes as to why the church is so messed up: Satan's temptations are always the same, from Adam and Eve, to Christ, to us. The second Adam conquered the Devil as the first Adam didn't, and we can conquer in the same way. Christ's second temptation, located in Matthew 4:5-6, relates in a way to the wonders of God's creation. What is Satan's motive here? He is trying to plant doubt in Jesus' mind. This is the same doubt that he gave to Eve in the garden ("Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"). He was trying to sow distrust, but Jesus responded to this challenge, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." What exactly does the word "tempt" mean? We examined it using eSword, the electronic Greek Bible study tool.

The word for "tempt" is ἐκπειράζω, number 1598 in Strong's Concordance, and means to "test thoroughly", to "scrutinize", "question", "prove". It is derived from a word used in the accusative case. If you tempt God you are accusing Him. 


Have you ever doubted God? Perhaps you've questioned His goodness in your life or in the lives of your loved ones, or maybe you've given up on believing that He is working out His will in the world.These seeds of doubt are from Satan, and they directly contradict Jesus's spirit as laid out in the Bible ("Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven."). We must come to the place where we can say, "You are God. No matter what you do, it's good with me." Evolution has such a strong hold in our culture, and even in the church, because it is built on a foundation of doubt. Instead of accepting God's Word we have succumbed to the Devil's tricks and molded it to fit our preconceived ideas. Let's look at a few concepts that will hopefully help us to stop questioning God. 


At one time Vernon thought he had some conception of the cosmos, but this blew his mind. God's Yardstick: We measure things by feet and yards and miles, but God has His own set of measurements. Try to comprehend this: 

• Speed of light = 186 thousand miles/second
• 1 light year = 5.88 trillion miles
• If the earth was the size of a golf ball, the sun would be 15 feet in diameter 
• The super-giant Red Star Betelgeuse has a diameter equal to 15 Empire State buildings stacked on top of one another (18,750 feet)! Betelgeuse's diameter is 2x the diameter of the earth's orbit around our Sun.

At this point we watched a video about astronomy that illustrated some of the wonder, size, and complexity of God's magnificent universe. The enormity of it all is staggering.


We then switched gears to the microscopic world. It's fantastic that even something as puny as a single cell's flagellum can be broken down on a microscopic level into what looks like an entire galaxy. Looking at normal, everyday occurrences like the Krebs cycle (which happens in all oxygen-breathing organisms to break down starch, cellulose, etc. into useful energy) should convince you that nothing like this could have happened by random chance. Just watch this video to be amazed at the inner workings of a single cell (there could be anywhere from 50 to 75 trillion cells just in your body):

Last week we looked at Hebrews 10:12 and read that Jesus sat down. He sat down because His work was done, finished. When we're frustrated at politics, family problems, etc., we forget that it isn't a hopeless mess, God is in control! Everything is going toward its destiny. It is already completed, so we don't have to be frustrated, even when we don't understand the things that are going on around us. How great is our God! If He can create and control everything from the tiniest particle of an atom to the most ginormous cosmos, He can take control of our lives.