January 10, 2015
""Your hands made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments."" (Psalm 119:73)
If a man, for whatever reason, fails to understand and believe Genesis or such verses as the Psalmist penned here, he is in serious trouble. He has lost (or never gained) the foundation for all true understanding.
""Your hands made me,"" the Psalmist plainly and gladly stated. If I am created by God then it follows that He is the Creator. This means I would not exist without Him and that everything I am and have comes from a solitary Source.
THE PATH TO HERESY
If I don't know and embrace this seminal thought, then I will move into all kinds of heresy. I can foolishly believe that...
But, if I truly understand that I am a created being with a finite mind that has come from an infinite mind, I will walk in humility and dependency. I will look to Him for understanding about myself, about Him, and about the world around me. I will realize that His ways are best. I will defer to His judgments and surrender to His will for my life. I will cry out with the Psalmist ""Give me understanding, that I may learn YOUR commandments.""
And I will live my life to serve Him.
THE FIGHT FOR RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
In this light, we may foolishly think that the battle for Creationism in our schools and thought is not important, a side issue. But worship and right living begins with this understanding. And this is why Paul describes the fall of any civilization or man in this way in Romans 1:20-22, 25:
""For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so (men who reject God) are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools...
""For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.""
God made us. He alone knows how we must operate. We run on HIM, as a car runs on gasoline and cannot run on anything else (as C.S. Lewis said). To forsake this thought is to darken the mind to all true thought.
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