[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Friday, March 22, 2013

[Paul]

Well, once again the end of what is commonly called the workweek is slowly winding down, at least here in the Americas.  On the other hand, you in other parts of the world are in your Saturdays.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are all doing well or that your day went well.

The following article is quite elementary to most, if not all, of us.  However maybe you have some unsaved friends who wonder if there really is a God who cares for us individually.  The article today addresses this topic.  Entitled "Is There a God?" by Dr. J. Allen Blair and originally appearing in a publication of Good News Publishers, it is rendered as follows:

Have you ever looked up into the heavens at night or felt a tiny baby grip on your finger and been filled with wonder?

The world is filled with wonder everywhere we look.  Who made all of this? Did it just happen? Or is there really a God who, as the Bible says, "created the heaven and the earth?"

Can anyone really deny it? If you say there is no God, then all the wonders around you are just an accident.  The billions of stars in the sky just happened to make themselves and generate their own power to keep on course.  The land just happens to have topsoil without which nothing could grow.  The air we breathe, only 50 miles deep and exactly the right composition to support life, is just another accident in the laws of physics.

Can you believe these things just happened? Is it more reasonable to believe that a supreme mind is behind all of this and everything that exists? Take the deposits of coal, zinc, gold and uranium.  Did they get there by accident? And what prevents lakes from freezing solid, all the way down to the bottom, making it impossible for fish to survive?

Why does the earth spin at a given speed without slowing up so that we have day and night? Who tilts it so that we get seasons? No one really knows the why and how of the magnetic pulls.

Or think of the sun stoking a fire just warm enough to sustain us on earth, but not hot enough to fry us or cold enough to freeze us.  Who keeps the fire constant?

And what about the human body, an intricate combination of bones, muscles, nerves and blood vessels.  The human brain has far greater capacity than any computer ever imagined.  The kidneys contain approximately 280 miles of tiny tubes and, in the course of a day, filter 185 quarts of water from the blood.

And then there is the heart, an unbelievably rugged organ:  a four-chamber, four-valve pump that handles 5,000 gallons of blood a day, almost enough to fill a railroad tank car.  It supplies a circulatory system with 12,000 miles of vessels and, in the course of a lifetime, beats 2.5 billion times.  All the blood in your body is pumped through your heart every minute while your heart beats 100,800 times a day.

Before you say, "There is no God," think of these marvels.  All of creation gives evidence that there is a Creator.  But why do people still doubt God's existence? How can we know that He really does exist and He is interested in us?

The Bible says that we are by nature "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), that we are "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18).  Just as a body without physical life is declared physically dead, so anyone who is separated from God is described in the Bible as spiritually dead.  And as long as we remain spiritually dead, we can never really know God.

We all need a new life.  We need to be cleansed from sin and its penalty and restored to fellowship with God.  This is what Jesus Christ meant when He said we "must be born again" (John 3:7).

God sent Jesus Christ, His only Son, so that we might have new, everlasting life.  The Bible tells us, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

By His death and resurrection, Jesus paid for our salvation; He broke the power of sin and death, making it possible for us to have everlasting life.  Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).  Receiving the new life that Jesus offers is what being born again means.  And this new, everlasting life will be yours if you will acknowledge you are a sinner and receive Him as your Savior and Lord.

"This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and He that hath not the son of God hath not life" (John 5, 11, 12).

Is Jesus Christ your Savior? Have you ever been born again? You can be right now by praying and asking Christ to come into your life.

And there you have it for today.  Until tomorrow, the eve of Palm Sunday when another good night message will be presented, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul