“He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His direction. When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens: and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries” (Jeremiah 10:12).
God, the Master Designer and Architect
“…for You created all things and by Your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11).
God created all things, through Christ, with exquisite detail, order, and purpose (Gen. 1-2, Prov. 3:19-20, Col. 1:15-18, John 1:1-3). The most fundamental laws of nature exist only because God wills them to. They’re the logical, orderly way that the Lord upholds and sustains the universe that He’s created (Jer. 33:25). He not only set into motion the created beings, but He ordered them into a construct of time by preparing the ages (or dispensations) that they’re set in. “Through faith we understand that the ages were prepared by the word of God, so that things which are seen did not come into being of things which appear” (Heb. 11:3).
Just take a look around and you can see and understand God’s invisible attributes and ponder with your mind His supreme eternal power that sustains it all (Ps. 19:1, 111:2, Rom. 1:19-20, Col. 1:17). After Job considered the wondrous works of the Creator (Job 36-41), He replied to God, “I know that you can do every thing, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from you” (Job 42:2). God is more than worthy to receive glory, honor, and our worship, yet…
The foolishness of playing outside the limits and boundaries that God has set.
Since the beginning of time, the created aren’t content with honoring and worshipping their Creator. They desire to be their own gods and create their own things to worship (Rom. 1:18-31). There are consequences when one goes against the will and design of the Creator. Lucifer was brought low after he tried to esteem himself above God (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezek. 28:12-19). Adam and Eve fell when they succumbed to the lies of Satan, desiring to be their own gods, disobeying what God had ordered for their protection. This set the present world in a tailspin of sin and disorder contrary to the Designer’s plan (Gen. 3, Rom. 3:23, 5:12). The truth is fallen men and women’s hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) and yet they look to their finite, limited, corrupt, and foolish minds to direct themselves instead of the everlasting/eternal, merciful Creator’s pure, true, righteous, all-wise, and all-knowing guidance (Prov. 3:5-7, Ps. 139:7-12, Jer. 32:17, 1 Cor. 2:12, 1 Tim. 1:17).
“…they said, “That’s hopeless! So, we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12).
There are plenty of snares for those that conform to worldly direction—all lead to confusion, bondage, and destruction (James 3:14-16, Psalm 106:36, Prov. 22:5, 29:25, Phil. 3:18-19, 1 Tim. 6:9, 2 Tim. 2:26).
The Bible has recorded examples of men and women (and angels) who have toyed with playing outside the boundaries that God has set for them and the outcomes that follow.
Shortly after the fall, we see that it is Adam and Eve’s first son, Cain who decides to give God his own type of an offering, instead of what God has instructed him to give. He then murders his brother and becomes a fugitive and a vagabond (Gen. 4, Heb. 11:4, 1 John 3:12). Many others have ‘gone in the way of Cain’ since then (Jude 1:11). In Genesis 6, we come to (pretty much) the entire population whose thoughts were continually evil producing widespread violence and corruption. So much so that a world-wide flood was necessary to wipe everything out (thankfully Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord) (Gen. 6:1-8). In Genesis 11 we find men building a tower so that they can reach heaven and make a name for themselves. God confounds their one language into many and scatters them abroad over the face of the earth. There’s a running theme of God’s chosen people Israel continually turning away from Him to serve other nation’s inferior idols. Their disobedience always brings them into captivity. Even the mighty Nebuchadnezzar was brought low and learned that those who walk in pride God will humble (Daniel 4:33, 37).
Man has continued trying to play God and tinker around with His design.
No matter how many hormones taken or surgeries performed to alter male into female and female into male, only a female can carry eggs to receive the sperm that only males can produce to create a child. God designed male and female uniquely for His purposes (Gen. 1:27-28, 2:18, 21-24).
No matter how man tries to control the environment or the weather, only the Creator can uphold all things and cause the sun to rise and set (Gen. 1:17-18, Ps. 19:1-6, 104:19, 113:3, 136:8-9, Heb. 1:3). Men and women can’t add an hour to their day, but God can if He chooses (Josh. 10:12-13, Hab. 3:11).
No matter the vast array of technological devices men design to spy on each other and collect data, only God is ever present and knows the secrets and intents of the heart of men and women (Ps. 44:21, 139, Prov. 15:3, Luke16:15).
No matter how men try to control things with their sophisticated and brilliant creations of ’artificial intelligence’, they will always have glitches, malfunction, and fail in the end.
The created being will never become equal to the Creator and eventually the creature will realize that their deluded heart has made them the fool as they worshipped idols that turned to ash in the end (Rom. 1:19-32, Isaiah 44:9-20).
God frustrates the signs of the babblers (liars) and drives diviners (astrologists) mad. He turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness (Isaiah 44:24-25, 1 Cor. 1:25-29).
“There are many plans (devices, schemes) in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand” (Prov. 19:21). “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9).
The Creator’s plans will always prevail in the end (Isa. 14:26-27, 23:9, Job 5:12, Psalm 33:10-11). What God says or promises, He will do—He is faithful that promised (Lam. 2:17, Heb. 10:23). As God is infinite, man is finite—when a man or woman die, their spirits depart, they return to the earth; in that very day their plans perish (Ps. 49, 146:4).
Why do we still look to and depend on our own devices?
It’s crucial for many to wake up and come to terms that we live in a fallen, broken, dysfunctional world that’s laden with sin. Our sinful nature that we’ve inherited is bent on doing the wrong things—the things that go against God’s design, will, and purpose. As the apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans,
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing…For the good that I would I don’t do: but the evil which I don’t want to do, that I do…O wretched man that I am! …” (Rom. 7:18-24)
Now we come to the really amazing part in the next verse, “…who will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 25). He is the source of all grace and truth (John 1:14, 16-17, 2 Cor. 8:9). That our amazing Creator is also our loving and merciful Redeemer is staggering! His grace to us is so unmerited—while we were still sinners Christ died for us. So stunning is His grace that when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him to sit in heavenly places. So stupendous is His grace that in the ages to come He’ll display the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:8, Eph. 2:4-7).
Created On Purpose for His Purpose
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
As a new creation we receive a whole new program to run on (Eph. 4:23-24, Col. 3:10). This program not only ensures eternal salvation but it equips the user with an endless supply of grace that will aid them in conforming and operating in accordance with God’s will and ways (2 Cor. 9:8, Phil. 4:19, 2 Tim. 2:1). Optimal performance is powered through God’s glorious might and the user manual He’s provided us with is the resource needed to run the way He designed (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Heb. 4:12). This new program (or nature) requires a steady charge daily in order to be in sync with God’s plan (Rom. 12:2, Col. 1:9-11, Phil. 1:6, 2:12-13).
Thanks be to God that He’s provided a ‘help button’ that we can press 24/7 (Phil. 4:6).
The apostle Paul realized that he was nothing without God’s grace (1 Cor. 15:9-10). I can attest personally that there but for the grace of God go I (back to satisfying the lusts of my flesh) (Titus 3:3-7). Without God’s grace we can slip back into our old sinful nature. So don’t let pride or autonomy get in the way of pressing the ’help’ button’ to avoid suffering the consequences. God’s grace trumps our offences (Rom. 3:24, 5:2, 15-21). There’s literally nothing too big and bad or little and seemingly insignificant that we can’t ask for help from our loving, and merciful Creator and Redeemer (Rom. 8:38-39, Phil. 4:6-7, Heb. 4:16). His grace is sufficient for all things. When we are weak, we allow Him to be strong and become protected in His armor so He can fight for us against only the things He can see and know (1 Cor. 15:57, 2 Cor. 12:9-10, 10:3-5, Phil. 4:13, Eph. 1:19-20, 3:20-21, 6:10-18, 1 John 5:4).
Don’t Pass Up His Purpose
Don’t allow the god of this world to conform you to its lies and perversions of God’s design and purpose (2 Cor. 4:4, 10:3-5, 1 John 2:16-17). Join in with joyful confidence and praise to the Lord as the psalmist in Psalm 146.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual sayings, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him (Col. 3:16-17).
I’m so thankful to be included in God’s plan of redemption in Christ—a destiny that isn’t toward destruction or based on the passing things of the world, but rather in a glorious future with our Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t wait to wear the new designed body that will be conformed with Christ’s glorious one (Phil. 3:19-21). Hallelujah!
Laura