5-20-18 The Pillars of Creation!

2018 THEME BANNERS

  

Scripture  Genesis 1:14-19

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day.

NEBULA = (plural nebulae or nebulas) a cloud of gas and dust in outer space, visible in the night sky either as an indistinct bright patch or as a dark silhouette against other luminous matter.

(POC 1 SLIDE)  “Pillars of Creation” in this photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the (POC 2 SLIDE)  Eagle Nebula nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth.  NASA scientists named this nebula “Pillars of Creation”, (POC 3 SLIDE)  because the gas and dust are in the process of forming new stars.

The phrase “pillars of creation” originated in a sermon given by an English Christian minister Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) to describe the birth of Jesus Christ.

“And now wonder, you angels, the Infinite has become an infant; he, upon whose shoulders the universe hang s …he who created all things, and bears up the pillars of creation.”                                      SPURGEON’S SERMON

Oh, can you conceive the yet increasing wonder of the heavenly hosts when the deed was actually done, when they saw the crown taken off, when they saw him unbind his girdle of stars, and cast away his sandals of gold? Can you conceive it, when he said to them, “I do not disdain the womb of the virgin; I am going down to earth to become a man?” Can you picture the angels as they declared they would follow him! Yes, they followed him as near as the world would permit them. And when they came to earth they began to sing, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.” Nor would they go away till they had made the shepherds wonder, and till heaven had hung out a new star in honor of the new-born King.

[: And now wonder, you angels, the Infinite has become an infant; he, upon whose shoulders the universe does hang, hangs at his mothers breast; he who created all things, and bears up the pillars of creation, has now become so weak that he must be carried by a woman! And oh, wonder, you that knew him in his riches, while you admire his poverty! Where sleeps the new-born King? Had he the best room in Caesar’s palace? Had a cradle of gold been prepared for him, and down filled pillows, on which to rest his head? No, where the ox fed, in the dilapidated stable, in the manger, there the Saviour lies, swathed in the swaddling bands of the children of poverty! Nor there does he rest long; on a sudden his father and mother must carry him to Egypt; he goes there, and becomes a stranger in a strange land. When he comes back, see him that made the worlds handle the hammer and the nails, assisting his father in the trade of a carpenter!

Mark him who has put the stars on high, and made them glisten in the night; mark him without one star of glory upon his brow—a simple child, as other children.

Bible Reading: Genesis 1

For centuries man has been trying to discover the origins of the universe, only to find that it is bigger, more complex and more amazing than we can comprehend and that the more we learn, the more there is to learn ~ infinitely more. Words fail to describe the enormity of the universe where distance is measured in light-years which are insanely fast In one year, light travels approximately 186,000 miles per second OR 6 Trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000) per year. We live on a very small planet called Earth orbiting around a pretty small star that we call the sun.  We are in an area of the universe called The Milky Way galaxy which contains approximately 200 billion stars.  Andromeda, our neighbor galaxy, is 2 million light-years away from The Milky Way. Andromeda and The Milky Way along with about 54 other dwarf galaxies are called The Local Group!

Theories abound about how the universe started, but fail to answer the ultimate question, “What existed before there was something?  From where did the ‘something’ come?”

The first book in the Bible is called Genesis meaning “beginning.”  Genesis 1 answers the five W’s ~ who, what, when, where and why ~ about creation.

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning (WHEN) God (WHO) created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (WHERE) 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (WHAT) 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

WHY DID GOD CREATE?

Gen 1:26-27

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

King David asked essentially the same thing:

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers … what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).

Why did God make us?

First, it wasn't because he needed us: "The God who made the world and everything in it … is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything" (Acts 17:24-25).

And he didn't make us because he was lonely. Long before we were here, God already had "company" with his Son and the Holy Spirit, referred to in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our own image."

And he didn't make us because he needed his ego fed. It's not like God made us to satisfy some craving to be worshiped. God is totally secure in who he is—without us.

Second, despite not needing us, God chose to create us anyway, out of his great love: "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). Yes, God loved us before he even created us. It's impossible to get our heads around that idea, but it's true; that's what "everlasting" love means.

God is love (1 John 4:8), and because of that love and his wonderful creativity, he made us as the recipients of His creativity and love. (Finger print Unique)

[: Jesus, without one star of glory upon his brow—a simple child, as other children. Yet, leave for a while the scenes of his childhood and his earlier life; see him when he becomes a man, and now you may say, indeed, that for our sakes he did become poor. Look at his robe, it is woven from the top throughout, the garment of the poor! As for his food, he oftentimes did hunger; and always was dependent upon the charity of others for the relief of his wants! He who scattered the harvest over the broad acres of the world, had not sometimes wherewithal to stay the pangs of hunger? He who dug the springs of the ocean, sat upon a well and said to a Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink!” He rode in no chariot, he walked his weary way, foot sore, over the flint stones of Galilee! He had not where to lay his head. He looked upon the fox as it hurried to its burrow, and the fowl as it went to its resting-place, and he said, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but I, the Son of man, have not where to lay my head.” He who had once been waited on by angels, becomes the servant of servants, takes a towel, girds himself, and washes his disciples’ feet! He who was once honored with the hallelujahs of ages, is now spat upon and despised! He who was loved by his Father, and had abundance of the wealth of affection, could say, “He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.” Oh, for words to picture the humiliation of Christ! What leagues of distance between him that sat upon the throne, and him that died upon a dead tree! :]                  (POC 4 SLIDE)  

          Jesus, who brought into being the star making Pillars of Creation is crucified under a starless dark sky in the middle of the day so that we (you and I) can stand for all to see, as His new eternal Pillars of creation.