This New Year
We may now be entering into the New Year of 2017 but let us not take it for granted. Rarely do we stop to recognise that every day, every hour, every moment of every year is made and given to us by God. Indeed every breath we take is numbered and given by Him. Jesus said that God numbers the very hairs on our heads! Psalm 139:16 tells us that every day granted to us is written in a book that God keeps in heaven.
Such precision is evident throughout all of creation. The fact that space travel is possible with mathematical precision is persuasive against “order from chaos” predicated by the “Big Bang” theory. Indeed, it is no more than a theory and breaks man’s own laws of thermodynamics.
If we would rocket out of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and look back to try and pick out our planet Earth, we would find it impossible; and we would soon appreciate the vastness of the universe and the greatness of God, the Creator. The Milky Way is estimated to contain as many as 400 billion stars of which our planet is just one; and our galaxy is just one of the two trillion galaxies that we are able to observe. There are infinitely more galaxies and planets that we can’t observe.
Psalm 147:4-5 says of God: He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit. Psalm 19:1 contradicts the random Big Bang theory in saying of God: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
One of the great hymns of all time is ‘How Great Thou Art’. The Holy Spirit would readily anoint George Beverly Shea’s singing of this hymn to convict Billy Graham’s crusade audiences of their need of salvation. The first verse says: O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made. . . I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. The third verse says: And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing; Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in; That on the Cross, my burdens gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Israel’s King David wrote in Psalm 8:3-4: When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them?
An earth year is, as we know, the time it takes for the earth to go round the sun. Let this be for you a year of orbiting the Son… Jesus, the Son of God. King David’s life’s orbit was around the Lord in intimate friendship, a man after God’s own heart. There’s nothing stopping you from deciding to do the same for 2017, especially since Christ has opened the way for all who will receive Him. And let us always remember that God does care for us. He loves us; and in His love, He sent His Son Jesus to make a way of salvation for us if we will simply accept, believe and trust Him.