Herald Of Faith, Inc.   www.heraldoffaith.com
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Faith And The Big Bang

Now is the first word of the Faith chapter, Hebrews 11. The King James Version has it there, and it is a reminder that faith is a today kind of a word. The faith of my childhood is nice, and the faith of my deathbed will hold me when I don't have any strength left. But Now Faith Is. I need it today, and I need more of it today. I know what the apostles meant when they came to Jesus and said, "Increase our faith!"

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Verse one gives a quick definition of faith. It has to do with the future--things we hope for. It has to do with the unseen. spirit world--things not seen. It is illustrated by our great forebears in the faith, starting all the way back with Abel. Each of them contributes faith genes that go into our own spiritual DNA. Their example is put into us by the preaching of the word of God, and in some way genetically alters the carnal man, turning him into a new creation in Christ Jesus. We'll look at some of the faith people in this chapter over the next few weeks, always with the cry of the disciples, "Increase our faith!"

The description starts with a general reference to the early heroes of faith, but it quickly moves to us in the here and now. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Not, by a thorough study of scientific creationism, but by faith. Not, because I am persuaded that the Big Bang theory is true, but by faith. Not because the local school board will permit attacks on Darwin's theory, but by faith. Inside me there is a sixth sense of faith that understands that it all started with God.

Faith is there in me, a gift from God. The rest of the chapter illustrates how that faith works in practical terms in life. It shows how great men and women put their trust in God into action.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Go with me now to the dawn of creation. 

I imagine that God was playing croquet with tiny ball bearings, smaller than the roller on this ball point pen. He knocked one through the last wicket, and thought, there is so much potential in that ball bearing! But it is closed in on itself. I will release it. He pointed his remote control device at it, pushed the power button, and said, "Let there be light!"

Suddenly Bang…, Big Bang! Light and energy filled the dark places and the explosion of the universe began. The morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy. The particles rushed toward the furthest reaches of space, dancing, creating, throwing out energy, colliding, exploding, imploding. They gave us the language of quantum physics, forming quasars, black holes, galaxies, interplanetary dust, novas, and supernovas. They organized into a marvelous chaos. Northern lights danced. Great Sunspots shot out from the stars.

The evening and the morning were the first day.

God looked at a gaseous mass surrounding a minor star. Let the waters above be separated from the waters beneath. Oceans were formed. Oxygen, Nitrogen, Ozone, and other gasses combined to form Atmosphere. Distinction came between gas and liquid. The elements mixed together into a primeval soup. The mix, full of life potential, sloshed around like a watering can as the planet spun on its axis.

The evening and the morning were the second day.

Let dry land appear! Great mountains rose out of the oceans. Volcanoes formed the Hawaiian islands. Winds and rains wore away at the rising land, and the outback of Australia came to be. Beautiful plains that would be very fruitful came to be around Timbuktu and the whole area of what is now the Sahara. Glaciers began their work of molding the land, creating ten thousand lakes in Minnesota. Rocks were crushed, forming fruitful soil. Rutabaga, broccoli, bananas, potatoes, and other hard to spell crops started producing. The Grand Canyon in North America and the Great Rift Valley in East Africa were created. The Himalayas rose up in Asia. Sediment created the fertile plains of the Red River of the North and the other Red River that divides Texas from Oklahoma.

The evening and the morning were the third day.

Let great lights appear. The large one to rule the day, and the lesser one to rule the night. God struck a match, and the Sun started burning. The Moon began to reflect its light. Photosynthesis began as plants used sunlight to make energy. Winter and Spring and Summer and Fall came in their turn as the earth circled the Sun. Tides washed the seashores as the Moon revolved around the earth. New forces made the waters mix differently. Great hurricanes moved into the Atlantic. Tornadoes swept across the midwest in an awesome display of power. Great floods swept over Bangladesh with regularity. 

The evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Birds and fish shall fill the firmament above and the firmament below. The air was prepared for the animals with wings, and the sea for those with fins and gills. They teemed with living things. Great whales sported and raced from the Arctic circle to the equator, from the surface to the bottom of the Pacific trench. Loons paired in the Mississippi headwaters, but, having better understanding than the Norwegians up there, determined to spend the cold winters off the coast of the Carolinas. Record walleyes lurked at the bottom of Mille Lac, waiting to break the lines and hearts of church-skipping sports fishermen who like to work both sides of the river. No, let's tell the truth about those fish. God put those walleyes there to test man's dominion over the creation. Great fishermen like Tom and Dean and Bob would trail a lindy rig along the sandy bottom at 28 feet and gain dominion over the fishes of the lakes. The walleye, tempted, bites the minnow and fights the line. Struggle against the invisible creature from the alien world above the surface of the water. When the fish comes to the boat they look at it, unhook it, and release it back into the deep. Go in peace! Multiply, multiply, multiply and replenish the lake with many more like yourself! Of course, if the fish is really big, they bring it over to Tom's taxidermy place, where he reconstructs the body from a lump of clay, stretches the skin over it, paints it carefully, scale by scale, and mounts it so that the world can see for the next thousand years that we have established dominion over the fish of the sea. A worthy occupation! And worthy of the national and international awards that Tom has won. The skill and patience of the fisherman and the self--control and delicate artistry of the taxidermist combine for the glory of God.

How did we ever get off on that? It must be summertime getting into me. In any event, the evening, a long summer twilight, and the morning were the fifth day.

Let animals appear. Amphioxus crawled up on land, dropped his fins and gill slits, developed lungs and grew hair. Two mosquitoes buzzed, mated, and had 50 million babies to plague us. A duck billed platypus waddled around, wondering what to eat, and a hound starting chasing a hare around the Garden of Eden. Zebras and armadillos, skinks and skunks. All took their assigned positions in creation and in the food cycle.

God saw that it was good.

Let us make man in our own image. Reproduce ourselves, creating our representative to have dominion over, and to care for the creation. A sacramental figure among the created things. Carefully, he formed man from the dust of the earth. First the skeleton. Then a digestive system, and a system to keep it clean and healthy. Fill him up with a Canadian gallon of blood. Lungs were formed. The heart started beating in excited anticipation. Beautiful eyes and face and ears. A mouth with a tongue that could form distinct words. A voice box with amazing range and control. A nervous system and a brain with both left and right hemispheres. Stand him on his two feet. Make his hands able to work with tools. Let his mind understand the concept of the day after tomorrow, so he can develop day-timers. Now, the moment that all creation waits for: Blow into him the breath of life! Man became a living soul, a being with the spirit of God.

None of the animals is his equal. He has more value than many sparrows, snail darters or great horned owls. He carries the Spirit of God in him. Is there an helpmeet suitable for him?

Adam looks at all the animals. Can't marry a tiger, a tarantula, or a turkey. They don't have the Spirit of the Lord in them. He can't be unequally yoked with something that doesn't have the Spirit of God. So God gave Adam the first nap in creation. He took a rib, and cloned a helpmate with slight differences in skeletal structure, reproductive organs, and a couple of glands. As the French say, Vive la difference! Thank heaven for her. Her name is Woman, because she was taken from Man. Soon she is called Eve, because she is the mother of the living.

The evening and the morning were the sixth day. God saw that it was very good!

What kind of day did Adam and Eve wake up to the next morning? A seventh day of creation, but a first full day for them. A day that God devoted to rest. He gave it to rest because he wanted time to relate to the man and woman in the Garden of Eden. They walked together in the cool of the day. Songs were born. Speech developed and they found new ways to say I love you. All around was the springtime of creation. Fecundity. Abundant, prolific, creation.

In their fellowship with God they understood their dominion and position as the highest created being, made in the image of God. They received freely His instruction; they heard His wisdom. Keep the garden. Prune the trees. Keep the non-tomato plants out of the tomato patch. Find a way to have enough strawberries for yourselves and for the birds too. Plant the lettuce a little at a time so you won't have to waste any when it's ready. Store apples for the winter. Your oranges will ripen from late November to January. Many, many details, now available in your guide to better gardening for only $21.95.

One more thing. There are two trees in the midst of the garden. Eat the tree of life all you want, but don't eat the tree of knowledge. You will surely die. Today is the seventh day, the Sabbath. This is what you were made for, to know God and enjoy and worship Him forever. He has named good and evil; don't go around redefining it to suit your own desires.

There we have it. Creation from day one to day seven. The universe is spiritual, created by the word of God. The moral and philosophical basis of the universe comes from God's edict, not from man's opinion. Creation by God. One God. Hence, one true religion.

It was good. Very good. Was it perfect? A child asked, "Couldn't He have made you better?" I suppose He could have, but he gave us the amazing gift of free will, a power to choose, even when the choice could harm us and our race.

Man was instructed to rule over creation and to subdue it. He is not creation's victim and he is not led merely by instinct. He stands in a unique, master relationship to creation. He is instructed to keep the garden. He is responsible for the environment.

You and I are called on to care for and make creation better, not merely to roll over and passively die. We address both creation and our personal circumstance with the word of God, who created it all in the first place. The word we obey doesn't conflict with the word He used to create the world. Rather, when we speak from His revelation, we fulfill the purpose of creation. Jesus said, in another context, "I come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." Our faith works the same way in relationship to creation. They fulfill its purpose.

He speaks and reveals His will. We believe and also speak, in our turn. "Mountain, be removed and cast into the midst of the sea." But God put the mountain there. I don't want to cause tidal waves and more floods in Bangladesh. Why does Jesus give such a radical example? Of course, it may not happen overnight. The mountain may not wash into the sea in my lifetime. But every day some of it washes down the rivers and into the sea. Maybe many tons of it, but the mountain is so big that I can't see that it has begun to move.

Speak, Jesus said. Communicate the message. Understand the revelation of God's will in your heart so you know what should be spoken. Exercise the power of decision to determine that you will indeed confront this mountain without doubt. Verbalize your intention directly. Speak to the mountain!

The word of faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It speaks to the world around you, restoring it and raising it in accordance with the will of God. Creation waits for that word. Romans says it groans, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. The mountain is just standing there, waiting for you to move it to the place where it belongs.

Let me move from the cosmic to the familiar. In 1977, I had been working for an insurance company for a few months, and we were dreaming about going to the Grand Canyon. In March, we didn't know if we could afford it, but thought it would be sensible to buy a Volkswagon van so we could have room for the family, and so camping would be a little easier. Could we afford it? If we bought the van, would we have to forgo the vacation? We announced to the kids that we were buying the van and we were going to the Grand Canyon at the end of June, just before the fiscal year ended for New York Life. 

On June 28, we left. I still wasn't sure I had met my goals. On June 30, I stopped at a telephone booth way out in the National Geographic scenery of Arizona and called the office. The business was in and paid for, and I had met my goals. I hung up, and we drove to the North Rim.

We hadn't made the Sun stand still, I admit. But we had conquered a mountain. We did show our kids that they were more important than my job or our fear of not being able to make the payments. We saw the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon and Mesa Verde. The Word that created those things came to us and gave us courage to take the family to see them. 

Faith is for now. It can be hard to speak the word of faith out loud when you don't feel dynamic in your bones. But that word, even if it is only whispered for now, will one day be shouted from the housetops.

I'm careful in this teaching. Some have stolen the word, misappropriated it, speaking apart from divine revelation. They have crashed, and crashed hard on the rock of the principles laid down in God's physical creation. But in spite of their experience, I still prefer daring faith to vacillating doubt.

God has made you and me to be keepers of creation. We keep it in order, in accordance with His will. We overrule, if you please, the second law of thermodynamics. That's the one that says things get messy. We put things where they belong by faith, even if it is a mountain that belongs in the sea.

What are you called to confront today? In your heart you feel the sixth sense of faith rising. Rising above your circumstance. It is time to speak to it in the name of the Lord. It is time to take the first great step of faith, to declare your faith in Christ publicly. Time to joint the church. Now is the moment to write your name on the check that gives to God.

Time to announce the vacation. The action seems to contradict your circumstance. But how else can you get to see the Grand Canyon? Didn't God put it there for you to see?

Time to accept the challenge of new responsibilities at work and in the church. Time to call about the new job.

Simple, profound statements of faith. Faith is for now. Faith confronts physical reality with divine reality. Faith confronts it with hope. Confronts it today.

As we sing the closing hymn, let your standing up be symbolic of standing up and speaking God's word to the situation that challenges you. God, whose word created the universe, has put a word of faith in your heart. Declare that word today!

God of creation:
We proclaim Your Glory with our lips today. In all of our lives, be glorified. We now listen for your word in our hearts, and we declare it boldly. You, who created the world by a word, have challenged us to declare a word of faith in the midst of our present day circumstances. We receive your word, and we declare it today. Amen.




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