Praise God! (Psalm 8:6-9)

Today's scripture: Psalm 8:6-9

The psalmist continues his praise of God’s amazing love for His children. Everything in this world, everything we see, touch, hear, was created to please Him and delight us.

He gave humankind “dominion over” everything. We are more important to God than any animal, bird, or fish. We are the only of His creation made in His very image. He is our Father. Our Abba. Our Daddy. And like any loving Father, He made a wonderful environment for us to live in.

All for us.

So we can join in a heartfelt chorus: “O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!” Because, as amazing and wonderful this earth is, nothing is more amazing or wonderful than our Creator God. And we can speak His name with awe and joy and praise.

For His name is excellent, wonderful, worthy of praise. And worship. And honor. And glory.

Join in the chorus!

Consider the Heavens (Psalm 8:3-5)

Today's scripture: Psalm 8:3-5

When was the last time you sat and stared at a starlit sky? Marveled at its beauty? Considered the vastness of God’s creation?

It’s pretty humbling, isn’t it?

It’s time like this when the question of the psalmist becomes my question: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” In other words, “Why do You care about us? What’s so great about sinful, flawed us?”

The main reason? Because He loves us.

God, the Creator of all things, who set each star in its place, who created mountains and seas and deserts … He is mindful of me. He thinks of me. He loves me. Tiny-speck-of-a-person me. And He loves tiny-speck-of-a-person you, too. He has made us just lower than the flawless beings the Bible calls angels. And He honors us as His specially-created children.

Think about how much God loves you the next time you look at a starlit sky. Or an ocean. Or a mountain. Or a flower. Or even the reflection in your own mirror.

God's Creation (Psalm 111:2-4a)

Today's scripture: Psalm 111:2-4a

Yesterday as I was driving to do some errands, I was blessed by the sight of clearly-seen majestic mountains in the distance. Later, I glanced out into my backyard and had a splash of joy from lovely flowers blooming brightly.  Still later, I looked into the brown eyes of my two sweet labs, and my heart was touched.

I couldn’t help but be in awe of God’s creation. And I thought to myself, How can anyone truly deny the existence of—at the very least—an Intelligent Designer? To think that all of this came from some kind of big bang that led to plant life and animal life. To think that humanity developed from a single cell.

It makes no sense to me, and frankly takes a lot of faith.

What does make sense is that a loving, creative, glorious God created this world and all that’s in it. And so much of what He created, He did so for our pleasure.  Those flowers and mountains and precious pups … those things that bring us so much joy …

Just to make us smile …

I’m reminded of a line from a Point of Grace song, “God’s Green Earth”:

“On God’s Green Earth
If every color was the same
And every child had just one name
There’d be no beauty for each of us to claim …”

What an amazing, loving, creative God we serve!

The One and Only True God (Psalm 99:2-3)

Today's scripture: Psalm 99:2-3

One of the saddest commentaries of current culture is the idea that there are many gods—even that we can be gods ourselves.

There is only one God. Only one.

And one day, every person who ever lived or will live will recognize this truth. (See Philippians 2:9-11.)

Those of us who know Him and have committed our lives to Him will praise His great and awesome name. We will stand in His presence in reverent awe, rejoicing that we will spend eternity with Him.

But the millions who have denied His existence will stand before Him and experience His final judgment.  They will know—for certain—that He is the one and only God. And then they will be separated from their Creator forever.

I don’t know about you, but this makes it all the more urgent to gently and lovingly share Christ. We need to be Christ’s light to a dark world. We need to love as Christ loves—with patience and kindness and gentleness.

We need to help those who say “there may be a god” or “there is no god” see that there is. There is a God … the one and only God. The God who loves them. The God who wants to spend eternity with them (2 Peter 3:9).

The one great God.

Creator God (Psalm 95:4-5)

Today's scripture: Psalm 95:4-5

I’ve always said it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. Being an agnostic, I understand. To say “There may be a God, but I’m not sure” is one thing, but saying there’s no God is quite presumptuous.

If nothing else, seeing the scope of creation should make one at least consider the idea of a Creator, an Intelligent Designer. This world is so intricate, so detailed. And so amazingly grand. Living in Southern California, I can see the magnitude of the mountains, the vast expanse of the ocean, the immensity of the desert. All in one day, if I choose.

Sunsets. Flowers. Animals. Birds. Rainbows. People.

All point to a Maker. An intelligent, wondrously creative Maker.

And I believe with all that is in me that the Maker of this world and all what is in it, is the God of the Bible. He created heavens and earth. He created plant life and animals. He created man and woman.

This is the God I worship and praise. This is the God I choose to serve. What about you?

Our Creator God (Colossians 1:15-20)

Today's scripture: Colossians 1:15-20

The God of the Bible, the one True God is creator of all things. He is the owner of all things.

Nothing we have, nothing we are is of ourselves. Our houses. Our cars. Our clothes. Our "stuff." Our relationships. Our gifts. Our talents. Our money. None of these belongs to us. No, they are gifts to us from our loving Father. Because none of what we have is ours, we must carefully steward what He's placed in our care.

More than the "stuff" we've been given, however, is the most important gift: reconciliation. We are born into sin, and without our being reconciled to God, we are forever separated from Him. But God loves us so much that He offered His own Son, an actual part of Himself, to bridge the gap between Him and us (John 3:16). And it was His "good pleasure" to do so.

Through the shed blood of Christ, we are reconciled with God. We can live in peace knowing that He, the Creator of all things, is in control.

And we can look forward, with confidence, to the day when we meet Him face-to-face.

Amen!