Many of you know that I pray through ‘The Believer’s Prayer’ (or The Our Father). It takes me a long time to get through the entire prayer as I pray for many things and many people. But, when I get to that last phrase, I get stuck – “For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever, Amen!”
At the end of my prayer time, I return to worship of the Lord with this phrase. I consider the galaxies of stars in the sky. An innumerable amount of brilliant burning globes stretched out so far in the heavens that man cannot even begin to see the end of them.
I consider our universe, which consists of one star – our sun. What is it? A burning globe of what? How big is it? What is it made of? It just burns and burns forever. The smallest ‘flare’ can cause incredible damage in our own world. God made the sun just so big and just so bright – His perfect order.
In our universe, the planets revolve around the sun. And God made our planet, Earth, just so far away from the sun that it is neither too hot, nor too cold to support life.
Then God turned the Earth on it’s axis just so many degrees and set it revolving in two ways – once in a circular motion around a 24 hour clock to give us night and day, and secondly the Earth revolves around the sun once per year to give us our seasons. Just so perfectly.
Then God set the moon to revolve around the earth as well as around itself – to give it just so much gravity so as to ‘pull’ up the ocean waters with each revolution and give us the ocean tides. The ocean tides create waves all across the world which cleanse the water. In addition to this, God made the ocean to contain just the right amount of salt to also act as a cleansing agent. Where does the salt come from?
I wish I knew more about astronomy and science than I do, because the knowledge of this fascinates me and ever more convinces me that God is a VERY intelligent Creator. If ANY of these factors, (the size and brightness of the sun, the distance of the Earth to the sun, the distance of the moon to the Earth, the degree or the axis of the Earth, the speed of the rotation of either the Earth or the moon, life would not be possible on the planet).
Then God made an ‘atmosphere’ around the Earth that is held there by just the right amount of gravity to keep it from flying into outer space. The atmosphere contains just the right amount and combination of gases and moisture to support animal and human life.
Then God made the mountains and the oceans. The rain falls from the atmosphere and cleans the air. This happens because the sun heats up the oceans and other large bodies of water to create clouds which get so heavy with water that it rains. It creates snow and streams and rivers and lakes and eventually flows into the ocean and the cycle begins all over again.
And God made all of the creatures of the sea. From the smallest, single cell plankton to the giant whales which feed on the plankton. Sharks, sailfish, swordfish, blowfish, stingrays, cod, flounder and all sorts of fish. All sorts of ‘weird’ sea creatures as well – octopus, jellyfish, sea clams, sea turtles, crabs, lobsters and on and on.
Then God made the creatures on the land – from the great bears like the grizzly or the polar bear to the tiny puppies like my little doggie Chloe. From the large cats like lions and tigers to small kitty cats like my Sister and Muff Muff. Elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and giraffe to rabbits, mice and prairie dogs.
Then God made the birds of the air – from the great eagle and hawks and owls to the tiny swallow and finches. From the stork and pelican to the bumble bee and hummingbird and bees that pollenate the earth.
What an amazing God!
Then God made man – in His image and likeness. Everything else was created so that man could live and know the glory of such a wonderful Creator – Our Father which art in Heaven.
And in man God made the blood. The Bible says that “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11) And God made ‘systems’ in man to cleanse and purify the blood like our kidneys and liver. He made systems within us to oxygenate the blood like our lungs, which pull from the air just the right amount of oxygen and release from the body the unneeded carbon dioxide and other gases. God made systems within us to energize the blood like the stomach and the intestines. He made arteries and veins and corpuscles and capillaries to deliver the blood to every single cell in our body.
Then God gave us a brain so that we could reason and think; so that we could choose right and wrong. He made the brain full of ‘memory circuits’ that could store an unlimited amount of information. He made the brain with ‘electrical’ power to send impulses and information to and from our nervous system. Our nervous system consists of a ‘stem’ which connects to the brain and then extends tiny nerve endings to every part of our body. Our brain says to our hand, “move” and it moves. It says to our foot, “step” and we take a step.
Within our being, probably in our brain somewhere, is our soul. This is our conscience. This is the part of our thought process which makes decisions, discerns right from wrong and feels emotions like love and anger.
But God created something more with mankind that is like no other creature on earth – a spirit nature. This is the part of man that is ‘like’ God. When God said in the Bible that He created man in His image and likeness, He wasn’t talking about the fact that we ‘look’ like God or He looks like us – heaven forbid!!!
Rather God made in man a ‘spirit’ nature that He tells us in His Word does not come ‘alive’ until we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Only then are we ‘born again’ – meaning that our spirit nature comes alive for the first time in our human existence. For whatever reason, God, in His infinite wisdom, has chosen to dwell in the human ‘heart’. That is – within our spirit nature.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, Whom you have from God and you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19)
After we are ‘born’ of the Spirit, if we continue to follow the Lord, we grow in our spirit nature just like a newborn baby grows in a natural human life. We learn more about God and His ways, why He does certain things or not, and who we really are within our spirit nature – our true nature. This is what separates man from all the animal and other living beings.
“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory – forever! Amen!!”
For some reason, an old hymn resounds in my mind,
Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hand hath made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
The guy who wrote this must have thought like me! Maybe some of you think like too. This is partly why it takes me so long to pray – but I love spending this time with God. Can you imagine what the rest of what God and I go through as I pray the earlier part of this wonderful prayer that Jesus gave us?
I hope this hasn’t bored you or taken some of your valuable time that you now regret. I just thought I would share with you some of what I go through every morning. I think and pray about you too.
You have all my love,
Pastor Tony
At the end of my prayer time, I return to worship of the Lord with this phrase. I consider the galaxies of stars in the sky. An innumerable amount of brilliant burning globes stretched out so far in the heavens that man cannot even begin to see the end of them.
I consider our universe, which consists of one star – our sun. What is it? A burning globe of what? How big is it? What is it made of? It just burns and burns forever. The smallest ‘flare’ can cause incredible damage in our own world. God made the sun just so big and just so bright – His perfect order.
In our universe, the planets revolve around the sun. And God made our planet, Earth, just so far away from the sun that it is neither too hot, nor too cold to support life.
Then God turned the Earth on it’s axis just so many degrees and set it revolving in two ways – once in a circular motion around a 24 hour clock to give us night and day, and secondly the Earth revolves around the sun once per year to give us our seasons. Just so perfectly.
Then God set the moon to revolve around the earth as well as around itself – to give it just so much gravity so as to ‘pull’ up the ocean waters with each revolution and give us the ocean tides. The ocean tides create waves all across the world which cleanse the water. In addition to this, God made the ocean to contain just the right amount of salt to also act as a cleansing agent. Where does the salt come from?
I wish I knew more about astronomy and science than I do, because the knowledge of this fascinates me and ever more convinces me that God is a VERY intelligent Creator. If ANY of these factors, (the size and brightness of the sun, the distance of the Earth to the sun, the distance of the moon to the Earth, the degree or the axis of the Earth, the speed of the rotation of either the Earth or the moon, life would not be possible on the planet).
Then God made an ‘atmosphere’ around the Earth that is held there by just the right amount of gravity to keep it from flying into outer space. The atmosphere contains just the right amount and combination of gases and moisture to support animal and human life.
Then God made the mountains and the oceans. The rain falls from the atmosphere and cleans the air. This happens because the sun heats up the oceans and other large bodies of water to create clouds which get so heavy with water that it rains. It creates snow and streams and rivers and lakes and eventually flows into the ocean and the cycle begins all over again.
And God made all of the creatures of the sea. From the smallest, single cell plankton to the giant whales which feed on the plankton. Sharks, sailfish, swordfish, blowfish, stingrays, cod, flounder and all sorts of fish. All sorts of ‘weird’ sea creatures as well – octopus, jellyfish, sea clams, sea turtles, crabs, lobsters and on and on.
Then God made the creatures on the land – from the great bears like the grizzly or the polar bear to the tiny puppies like my little doggie Chloe. From the large cats like lions and tigers to small kitty cats like my Sister and Muff Muff. Elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and giraffe to rabbits, mice and prairie dogs.
Then God made the birds of the air – from the great eagle and hawks and owls to the tiny swallow and finches. From the stork and pelican to the bumble bee and hummingbird and bees that pollenate the earth.
What an amazing God!
Then God made man – in His image and likeness. Everything else was created so that man could live and know the glory of such a wonderful Creator – Our Father which art in Heaven.
And in man God made the blood. The Bible says that “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11) And God made ‘systems’ in man to cleanse and purify the blood like our kidneys and liver. He made systems within us to oxygenate the blood like our lungs, which pull from the air just the right amount of oxygen and release from the body the unneeded carbon dioxide and other gases. God made systems within us to energize the blood like the stomach and the intestines. He made arteries and veins and corpuscles and capillaries to deliver the blood to every single cell in our body.
Then God gave us a brain so that we could reason and think; so that we could choose right and wrong. He made the brain full of ‘memory circuits’ that could store an unlimited amount of information. He made the brain with ‘electrical’ power to send impulses and information to and from our nervous system. Our nervous system consists of a ‘stem’ which connects to the brain and then extends tiny nerve endings to every part of our body. Our brain says to our hand, “move” and it moves. It says to our foot, “step” and we take a step.
Within our being, probably in our brain somewhere, is our soul. This is our conscience. This is the part of our thought process which makes decisions, discerns right from wrong and feels emotions like love and anger.
But God created something more with mankind that is like no other creature on earth – a spirit nature. This is the part of man that is ‘like’ God. When God said in the Bible that He created man in His image and likeness, He wasn’t talking about the fact that we ‘look’ like God or He looks like us – heaven forbid!!!
Rather God made in man a ‘spirit’ nature that He tells us in His Word does not come ‘alive’ until we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Only then are we ‘born again’ – meaning that our spirit nature comes alive for the first time in our human existence. For whatever reason, God, in His infinite wisdom, has chosen to dwell in the human ‘heart’. That is – within our spirit nature.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, Whom you have from God and you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19)
After we are ‘born’ of the Spirit, if we continue to follow the Lord, we grow in our spirit nature just like a newborn baby grows in a natural human life. We learn more about God and His ways, why He does certain things or not, and who we really are within our spirit nature – our true nature. This is what separates man from all the animal and other living beings.
“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory – forever! Amen!!”
For some reason, an old hymn resounds in my mind,
Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hand hath made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
The guy who wrote this must have thought like me! Maybe some of you think like too. This is partly why it takes me so long to pray – but I love spending this time with God. Can you imagine what the rest of what God and I go through as I pray the earlier part of this wonderful prayer that Jesus gave us?
I hope this hasn’t bored you or taken some of your valuable time that you now regret. I just thought I would share with you some of what I go through every morning. I think and pray about you too.
You have all my love,
Pastor Tony