FBC Daily Devotional – January 24, 2022

Well, good morning to you. I hope you've had a good weekend and were able to worship with God's people on this past Lord's Day. Hopefully in person with all of the COVID and stuff going around. That's not a given these days nevertheless I'd also hope that you are doing well physically health is staying up there and You're keeping free of the COVID crud or the the common cold or the flu or whatever is going around this time of year.

I also hope you're doing well spiritually that you are nourishing your soul through the reading of God's Word and ingesting it taking it in and digesting it and Perhaps you're reading in our Bible reading plan.

Creation Testifies to God's Invisible Attributes

So you read today in Romans chapter 1 verses 18 to 32 and one of the things that strike me in this passage is Something I notice often when I go out for walks. I like to walk in the woods like to walk along the Rock River not too far from where I live.

There's a path. It runs through the Sinisippi Park and it connects to a bigger path. That goes along the Hennepin Canal feeder trail. Hennepin feeder canal that takes you down to the Hennepin Canal Trail.

I mean you could go for a hundred plus miles on that trail if you wanted to. I haven't done that much of it, but I have walked quite a bit in that area and it fascinates me just. Just a casual observation at the hand of the Creator verse 20 of our reading says this for since the creation of the world is Invisible attributes God's invisible attributes are clearly seen.

Being understood by the things that are made that is by us. Even his eternal power and Godhead so a casual walk in the woods can speak to the human soul of the Existence and the power and the wisdom of God.

I think at this time of year when you you walk through those those those woods and. The trees are all bare and they look like they're lifeless and you you wonder man. Could anything survive this? The ground is frozen and hard.

And yet sure enough in a few weeks I'll walk that same path. The snow will be melting away. Some crocuses will be coming up through the ground and then a week or a couple of weeks after that some buds will break forth on the branches of the trees and the Cycle will continue once again the same cycle that we see year after year after year testifying to the to the wisdom of God's creation and his power.

The Vastness of Space and the Witness of Genesis 1

And.

Yet, I was watching the other night a little video documentary on the Andromeda Galaxy. Which is one of the closest. I think it's the closest galaxy to our own. But it's still I forget how many hundreds of thousands of light-years away.

That I mean you can actually you can actually see the galaxy for it with a naked eye. If this guy is clear enough and it's dark enough. If you and if you know what you're looking for. Yet, it is an immense Galaxy, and I was as I was watching this documentary.

I was just astounded.

By.

The immensity of it all and The the power that had to be involved in the creation of this of this galaxy, which is just one.

Among.

Thousands and thousands millions I think of galaxies and in that one galaxy I if I recall correctly They said there are over a trillion stars with a trillion stars in one galaxy. Interestingly, they've pointed out that Just even a couple hundred years ago it was thought that that galaxy wasn't a galaxy at all, but was just like a Nebula within the Milky Way galaxy and Astronomers thought that there was nothing beyond the Milky Way now.

We know far more.

That.

Space just seems to go on endlessly and Yet you read in Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So if you look up in the sky in the nighttime sky at the vastness of space you can see you can hear in your human soul the testimony of creation as it speaks and says God exists and he is powerful and he is wise.

Human Pride, Suppressed Truth, and Moral Collapse

And Yet this passage goes on To offer quite an indictment against the human heart because.

In verse.

Verses 20 through 23 it goes on to say that We are without excuse because of what God has created. Because he goes on to say although they knew God They did not glorify him as God neither were thankful But became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened professing to be wise they became fools.

I saw this on that video the other night.

Where.

The the narrator was talking about how at one time there was nothing there was nothing and then all of a sudden there was something there was this Big Bang and And the the stars in the galaxy were flung out from this Massive explosion that existed billions and billions and billions of years ago professing themselves to be so wise They became fools.

Was there at one time nothing. Yeah, absolutely in the beginning. But then God spoke. It wasn't a Big Bang God spoke. But in our great wisdom, we think we know so much better. But we changed the glory of the incorruptible God Into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

We've ended up worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. And it goes on to say that God therefore gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies and so on and so forth.

And why.

Why?

What happened here that we he did such a thing? Because Professing ourselves wise we became fools and we have suppressed the truth. We've suppressed the truth. You look on in the rest of this passage and you see all of the corruption of immorality the moral breakdown of the fabric of society and.

To what does the writer here Paul attribute this? He attributes it back to the denial of the Creator. We're seeing this lived out in technicolor in our own day in our own age on the on the the news if you care to watch it the the unbridled, you know rioting and looting and Mayhem and murder and all kinds of immoral stuff that is going on in our culture.

Abandoning the Creator and Distorting Human Dignity

Why what's happened? We have eradicated the Creator. If there is no Creator, we're not creatures of creation. We're just here because we happen to be here. I actually saw a video that goes right along with this theme to of a montage of videos of young people primarily going to food restaurants food establishments and so forth and Protesting against cruelty to animals that are raised for food and.

There can be something said for the humane treatment of animals and I think they should be humanely treated but here's where I'm going with this the argument of some of the protesters was that this cow is Being raped and having a child and is that child is is just being confined to a Prison existence.

And he went on and and the protesters went on to argue even the sense that this baby calf is Just as important as a human baby and yet we're slaughtering animals just so that we can eat them and what a terrible.

Gross.

Horrific injustice. This is because after all the cow is just as Important and vital and worthwhile as a human being. Hmm one would wonder why that argument isn't applied to abortion, wouldn't you? But nevertheless.

How do we get to that point? Where where a pig is a cow is a boy, you know, how do we get to that point? We have Abandoned the Creator. And if you get to the point where you see the the cow or the pig as equal to a boy or a child a young child a.

Human being.

Then.

You.

Again conclude that we're just all animals and Where does morality come from? Where does? Social Structure and the fabric of society and Order and law, where does it come from? Where does it come from?

How bad the plight is for human beings when we suppress the truth of the Creator's existence and his power and his wisdom. So you who know Christ you who have You who have ascribed by faith To the truth that there is a Creator God who has made us and made us after his own image.

Giving Thanks for Creation and Revelation

Give thanks to him because along with that goes a whole way of life that is is so much fuller and richer and more firmly rooted in eternal truth Than if you deny him Our Father and our God we do. Thank you today that You have not left yourself without witness that you have shown us in your creation as Well as through your revelation of you the revelation of your word that you exist that you are the all-powerful God.

May we trust you? May we believe you? May we submit to you? May we be your people. This we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right. Well, may your week get off to a great start. Have a good one. God bless.