Created for a purpose
The Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines cosmos as “an orderly harmonious systematic universe.”
We live in a powerfully ordered world. An article in Scientific America (Sept, 1971) reads, “As we look into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.”
As we look at nature, there is no doubt an amazing Designer has been at work. And men & women are at the pinnacle of His creation. When God comes to His chief creation, when He forms Adam, His acclamation is no longer, this is good but this is very good (read Gen.1.31).
We have been put together in an incredible way. Just consider our complex genetic code. Five proteins called histones are involved in ordering our DNA; histones are thought to be involved in some way in governing the activity of the genes. The chance of forming even the simplest of these histones is said to be one in 20, to the power of 100 – a number larger than the total of all the atoms in all stars and galaxies visible to the telescopic eye.
All this is very well but I sometimes feel scientists, indeed people in general, can be overly concerned with looking into the “how” of creation, while God yearns to tell us the “why” of creation.
Sadly, some have taken the hard existential road, hoping to find significance through sex, drugs, hard rock, investments, reaching the top of the corporate ladder but they come up empty. The writer of Ecclesiastes did the same (read Eccl.2.1-11).
The Westminster Confession says it differently “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
If I am the pinnacle of God’s creation, I am His masterpiece.
I am designer-made. I am loved. I am made in the image of God. I have dignity.
So what happened?
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, men and women could no longer operate at their optimum creative best.
People turned away from the guide book and chaos, suffering, violence and abuse entered our lives. But I can’t just stand outside of this picture, I must recognise I am part of the picture and part of the problem.
In love and mercy God carved the way to come back into a place of order, happiness, peace, and respect. My self-centredness created chaos out of God’s order. Through the death of Jesus, God brings order into my chaos. As He did in the very beginning, God once again brings light into the world – but this time it’s into our darkness.
It is true that God asks us to live a life of active kindness toward others, but some people get the cart before the horse. In Ephesians 2.8,9 Paul tells us we cannot work up our salvation, it is a gift from God. He pursued us with His grace. Then we became poiema, a word in the Greek which can be translated poem. Imagine! It has also been variously translated masterpiece, or work of art.
Paul continues on to say we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, prepared beforehand…” God has a blueprint for my life. One that will match my passions, my nature, my abilities. A “divine fit.” So we are created for a purpose!
It's as if I am, as Rick Warren puts it, a 747 waiting on the runway, engine humming, ready for takeoff. Are you ready to take off fully and completely in to His purpose for you?
Why not ask Him now to do what He does best? Remember the first four words of the Bible ‘In the beginning God…”. He waits to delight you, so why not ask God to come close to you just as he did at the very first moments of Creation.
He still offers new beginnings!
Wayne Martin
Southgate Teacher
We live in a powerfully ordered world. An article in Scientific America (Sept, 1971) reads, “As we look into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.”
As we look at nature, there is no doubt an amazing Designer has been at work. And men & women are at the pinnacle of His creation. When God comes to His chief creation, when He forms Adam, His acclamation is no longer, this is good but this is very good (read Gen.1.31).
We have been put together in an incredible way. Just consider our complex genetic code. Five proteins called histones are involved in ordering our DNA; histones are thought to be involved in some way in governing the activity of the genes. The chance of forming even the simplest of these histones is said to be one in 20, to the power of 100 – a number larger than the total of all the atoms in all stars and galaxies visible to the telescopic eye.
All this is very well but I sometimes feel scientists, indeed people in general, can be overly concerned with looking into the “how” of creation, while God yearns to tell us the “why” of creation.
Sadly, some have taken the hard existential road, hoping to find significance through sex, drugs, hard rock, investments, reaching the top of the corporate ladder but they come up empty. The writer of Ecclesiastes did the same (read Eccl.2.1-11).
The Westminster Confession says it differently “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
If I am the pinnacle of God’s creation, I am His masterpiece.
I am designer-made. I am loved. I am made in the image of God. I have dignity.
So what happened?
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, men and women could no longer operate at their optimum creative best.
People turned away from the guide book and chaos, suffering, violence and abuse entered our lives. But I can’t just stand outside of this picture, I must recognise I am part of the picture and part of the problem.
In love and mercy God carved the way to come back into a place of order, happiness, peace, and respect. My self-centredness created chaos out of God’s order. Through the death of Jesus, God brings order into my chaos. As He did in the very beginning, God once again brings light into the world – but this time it’s into our darkness.
It is true that God asks us to live a life of active kindness toward others, but some people get the cart before the horse. In Ephesians 2.8,9 Paul tells us we cannot work up our salvation, it is a gift from God. He pursued us with His grace. Then we became poiema, a word in the Greek which can be translated poem. Imagine! It has also been variously translated masterpiece, or work of art.
Paul continues on to say we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, prepared beforehand…” God has a blueprint for my life. One that will match my passions, my nature, my abilities. A “divine fit.” So we are created for a purpose!
It's as if I am, as Rick Warren puts it, a 747 waiting on the runway, engine humming, ready for takeoff. Are you ready to take off fully and completely in to His purpose for you?
Why not ask Him now to do what He does best? Remember the first four words of the Bible ‘In the beginning God…”. He waits to delight you, so why not ask God to come close to you just as he did at the very first moments of Creation.
He still offers new beginnings!
Wayne Martin
Southgate Teacher