This week’s devotions are based on the Week 2 “Explore God” – Is there a God? (WATCH HERE)
If God is real…
To be clear, I have no doubt that God is real. What the challenges of this week is being prepared to speak to the question with those that aren’t so convinced. A tactic used in a debate I watched a while back led the Christian in the debate to give up the use of the Bible to speak to the existence of God. That’s like disallowing a biography on a person to prove the existence of that person. (So hint, when you discuss this question, don’t give up a primary source on the existence of God!)
Here’s the logic.
If God is real as the BIble describes, I would expect to see evidence of what the Bible speaks of in the world around me or vice-versa. Recently our younger daughter had a pick a world leader from a long time ago. She picked Cyrus the Great of Persia. What was a “lightbulb” moment for her was realizing that this very king was referenced a few times in the Bible. If Cyrus was real, not only would he appear in secular recordings of history, but since he intersected with God, he would be referenced in the Bible. It would only make sense that the things the Bible claims of God would be noticed and seen in the world around us.
So what are those claims?
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The chapter then goes on to describe the six days of creation on which God spoke the world into existence and then formed and created mankind on day six.
So if God is real as the Bible assumes and claims and God’s first activity was the creation of all things, you would expect to see evidence of him in nature. So do we?
Last night our area experienced a strong thunderstorm, winds and hail over 2” in diameter (fortunately it was a short burst and quantity of the big hail…we have no noticeable damage but need to get the roof looked at.) Even though there are those who try to seed the clouds, claim that weather is man-directed, or put the onus on humanity to change the climate, one must acknowledge the power of something greater than ourselves. Some would explain it away, but the power seen in nature is evidence of a powerful God.
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
When I came into church yesterday, I noticed a structure built on the table in our kids church out of the magnetic connectors and steel marbles. It had order, pattern, and structure to it. My observational assumption was, “Someone made something out of the marbles and connectors. It’s pretty cool.” Our observational conclusion when we see design, order, and structure is that it was designed by someone. We DON’T assume the marbles and connectors just fell off the shelf and landed in the intricate pattern I saw. If God is real and is the creator of all things, we would expect to find order, structure and design in creation. One need not look any farther than the human body to discover an order, structure, and design. The multiple systems that make up our body are organized, structured and design in such an amazing way that they testify to a divine designer. When we see order in creation, it points to a divine Designer.
A third aspect of creation that speaks to the reality of God is complexity and information. The double helix design of our DNA contains a myriad of information to instruct each cell its formation and function. We know that the terabytes of information that can fit on a phone in your pocket is a complex design to store all that information. We recognize there were pretty smart people in the room to design the complexity of the hardware and then program the complexity of the information.
So it is with God, when we see evidence of complexity and a storehouse of information, we must assume there is a divine being with all wisdom.
If God is real, I would expect to see him in creation…I do…in his power, in his design, and in his wisdom!
Apply: What aspects of nature lead you to conclude that God is real?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving evidence of your existence in all the work of creation you did. The heavens truly do declare your glory and the earth the work of your hands! AMEN