The wonder of God – psalm 139

Recently I’ve been looking at a few psalms and stuff to look for good lyric content. Where better to get worship lyrics than the word of God?

The other day I was playing my guitar, and working out some chords to perhaps attempt to write a song, or at least figure out a melody to put some words to. Then something unexpected happened; one of the strings snapped. I was displeased at this as it lashed my finger. I took the broken string and threaded it through the hoop bit that goes through the back of the guitar. I don’t know why. Then i scrunched it up in my hand, and it came out in a heart shape as above! (minus a small stem on the bottom which I cropped off the photo). What are the chances? I wondered if the heart shape was a sort of sign or something.

Earlier on today, I opened the bible app that I use from time to time. It opened on this psalm – psalm 139. What a lovely psalm. I will share it with you.

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:1-24 NIV)

This psalm outlines just how awesome God is. He knows everything about us-how we think, what we do, everything! Before we speak, He knows the words on our tongue! Isn’t that amazing? It made me think – when we bring God praise, if He knows the words on our tongues and our thoughts and the desires of our hearts, is it in effect a sort of combo-worship session? I don’t know… It probably doesn’t work like that. Anyway, I digress.

Where can I go from God’s presence? Nowhere! He’s with us for the long haul! God is omnipotent and omnipresent, and he loves us! He created us! Before we were born, He set us apart – He made each and every one of us and His love for us knows no bounds. His love reaches everywhere from the highest of heights to the deepest depths, from the east to the west to the north to the south to the planets and across the universe. Absolutely everywhere. Theres nowhere that exists where His love cannot reach. He’s even conquered death! That’s how boundless His love is! Furthermore, He’s so awesome that darkness will not be dark to Him! I don’t know about you, but I think that’s flipping amazing!

I praise Him because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. We are intricately designed by the God of all – everything is! As a consequence, all creation reflects His beauty. And if you take a moment to pause and look out at creation, there is so much beauty there.

God is in creation; the works of His hands are spectacular and breathtaking, from the tulip fields to the snow leopard to the mountains to the coral reefs. Every part of it reflects the beauty and glory of God. Even us! We are blessed with being made in His image.

He has made me and He knows the days of my life – before I was born God was thinking about me! The same goes for you too! Isn’t that great? And He guides me in His holy ways. I feel so loved!

I do not deserve this in the slightest, but I’m so grateful to have such a loving God! His love for us is unending, unfailing and unfathomable. How wonderful is God? When I think of all He’s done… Wow. just Wow. Need I say more? WOW!

Hallelujah, chains are broken!

A piece of artwork from inside the cathedral in Berlin

I was just reading my Bible In One Year passages for today, when I came across something that I simply had to share with y’alls! Here it is:

Matthew 27

New International Version (NIV)

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵ From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,^[c]lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).^[d]

⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and^[e] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

We jump into history here – right at the point where Jesus is on the cross. He is being crucified here – He is taking the sins of the earth upon Himself – sin past, present and future. He put Himself in our place (because the wages of sin is death, but Christ paid the price for us so that we might be in relationship with Him). Note here, that as Jesus is being crucified, the whole place goes dark. Its like evil thinks it has won or something. Jesus cries out to His Father in heaven. But He knows that He must suffer this fate to save the world.

But of course, some people in the crowd hear this. Some silly people in the crowd. And they think Jesus is crying out to Elijah. WHAT? And so one of these guys obviously thinks at this monumental point in history ‘Perhaps Jesus could do with a drink… of vinegar”. WHAT? Perhaps that was all that was to hand, I don’t know. The other people in the crowd don’t like this, and would rather see how the whole Elijah thing turns out. They are about to be disappointed, because surprise surprise – Elijah wasn’t God.

And then it happens. Jesus is broken for the sins of the earth. Such love He shows for those who outwardly seem to hate Him! Yet He sacrifices Himself so that they might live! And with one final cry, He gives up His spirit. Evil thinks it has won. Evil needs to think again.

Because BOOM! At that moment, the curtain in the temple rips in two! And i’m not talking about some shabby drapes or anything – I’m talking about a curtain that is literally inches thick! It would take serious unhuman force to even rip into that bad boy! It is the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple/ world. This part of the temple was reserved for only the highest priests, and even they had to wear bells on their clothing. They did this so that if the presence of God in there was too strong for them and they died, people outside would know to pull their body out. The Holy of Holies was the place where God met people. And it appeared to be only a few people. But then, suddenly, Jesus gives Himself for the people! And the massive curtain rips clean in two! And suddenly, God is not confined by the Holy of Holies anymore – He dwells among the people! Suddenly, its not just the highest priests that can come to God – ANYONE can come to God for salvation and forgiveness and relationship. And its all because of Jesus’ love for us! Awesome!

At this point, the earth literally shakes and rocks begin to break open. The immense power of God is in the place. People reading this passage often overlook this bit too! So i’ll lay it all out for you: Tombs break open and the bodies of holy people were raised to life. I’ll say it a different way – through His death, people who believed in Jesus and put their faith in God; Holy people were raised from the dead! And after His resurrection, they appeared to many people in the Holy City. People seem to overlook the fact that even in His death, Jesus had the power to raise others to life! Pretty cool, huh?

And thats when it starts to click for some people around. The centurion and his buddies who were guarding Jesus suddenly realise just who He is. They suddenly realise that He was telling the truth the whole time – He really is the son of God. And they see the earthquake, and everything else thats happened and they are terrified. Thats right, a centurion – a fighter with many men in his command is instantly terrified at the sight of a bit of God’s power. And they say “surely He was the son of God!”. They’re right to say this. Why? Because He IS the son of God. He still is! And He didn’t just die for people in the past, He died for YOU too! He died so you might have life, so you might get into relationship with God, and so you might find salvation. He died to heal the rift between God and man that started in the garden of eden at the fall of man. He loves us so much, that He died for each and every one of us.

And after 3 days… HE CONQUERED DEATH! HE ROSE TO LIFE! AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER! HE SENT HIS HOLY SPIRIT TO LIVE WITHIN US ALWAYS! THROUGH HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION, WE ARE SAVED! WE JUST HAVE TO PUT OUR FAITH IN HIM!

He died for us. He rose again. Surely He IS and ALWAYS WILL BE the son of God! And guess what, He lives amongst us, and He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER!

Pondering over mocha

I’m sat here in a little cafe that could be described by one of my friends as “rather quaint”. I’m sipping on this delicious mocha. Having just signed up to the Christian union (and possibly an Israel Houghton-esque Pentecostal gospel choir haha), I’m feeling pretty happy with myself! Why is this you ask? Because I’m about to be meeting more of the family so to speak. I’m going to meet more of my brothers and sisters in Christ and I think that’s pretty darn awesome. Also, the CU stand gave me free baked beans! Beany beany goodness!

The notion of meeting more of an ever growing family is not an alien notion to us, but it is an intriguing notion nonetheless. You see, there’s so many people in this heavenly family that there’s no way I could possibly meet all of them here on earth! And when you think of how many christians there are and ever have been in the world, plus the amount of christians left to come, thats one flipping massive family! And to say we’re all related through Christ? MIND BLOWING! BOOM! there it goes.

(by the way, what is the opposite of mind blowing? Is it mind sucking? Is it brainwashing? Does it have something to do with Henry the Hoover?)

AAAANYWAYS, I am going to meet a few of them and I’m pretty excited. Some of these people could become lifelong friends, miscellaneous acquaintances or, erm… Placed in that category ‘people I’ve met’. (yeah that’ll do.) Yep, that’s right – I started that sentence and didn’t have an end. Don’t like it? Tough cookies!

It’s brilliant being a christian. Are you asking why? Good. I’ll tell you. Firstly, God created you. Secondly, after we turned from Him, Jesus came and died to save us from our sins, so that we can be in relationship with Him again. Thirdly, He sent the Holy Spirit to live inside you. Pretty neat, huh? That means anything is possible. Miracles, raising the dead, facing scary things – ANYTHING. This is because the power within us comes from God. And being as He made absolutely everything, nothing is impossible for Him. So, in turn, with Him in us, nothing is impossible. Additionally, God will never leave us nor forsake us. He’s with us for the long haul and if we have troubles or need to talk to Him, He’s always there for us. He is faithful. Furthermore, we don’t have to do things alone. There are other Christians we can meet up with and pray together and worship and breakdance and stuff!

Plus there’s the thing with eternal life, but I’ll get onto that in a different blog post.

The good thing with family is that we support one another. If you see the church of Jesus Christ as a body, when someone stamps on the foot, the mouth has a chance to cry out. (This is a metaphor for helping the persecuted church. Check out ‘open doors’. DO SOMETHING PEOPLE!) We’re also a team, or an army spreading God’s love to the masses – living to make the name of Jesus famous!

I thank God that He loves me so much. I thank Jesus that He died for me. I thank the Holy Spirit that He’s always with me. I’m thankful that I’m never alone, and that I have a large and ever growing family to be part of!

Universally magnificent

Today I watched Thor again. I’ve now seen it twice, and I’m sure I will watch it many more times! I think that it is an excellent film. One could say that it is a THORSOME film. Its got good graphics, a good storyline, great characters, tie ins with other movies in the Avengers series and one brilliant plot twist after the credits! I would easily put it in my top 5.

Part of the reason that I like Thor, and the Thor graphic novels, is because it is based partly on norse myth and legend. I like to see what other cultures think about and believe, and this does not fail to disappoint. (This is also partly why studying ancient Rome and ancient Greece interested me.) It is, however, a Marvel film and so may not be true to the original legends, but you get the overall gist of things from it.

The belief, as I gather from Thor, is that various realms are connected via this cosmic tree thingading. The people from Asgard are on the top, whereas the people from Hel are on the bottom. Earth is somewhere in between. Asgardians seem to rule the roost, and they even have a thing called the bifrost where they can reach other worlds. It seemed a bit fanciful to me, but it must be based on some sort of legend or some stories somewhere. It is not really the difference in belief that I want to talk about though – it is the vastness of the Thor world system.

There are many realms in Thor, and each one of them carries a certain beauty. Take for example, the Asgardian rainbow bridge and the sea below it. It is described as beautiful, and at the end it has a portal to the other worlds. These worlds are all apparently connected by the tree thing, but rarely meet other than through the bifrost, which is a sort of space cannon that shoots people around in bolts of lightning. The universe described in the Thor film and books is huge, vast and beautiful. It gets even bigger when meeting people like the fantastic 4, but I’ll not go into that right now. The creation of said universe is not depicted in the film, or the books I have read. It just appears big and pretty. As with most things in life, this got me to thinking. Moreover, it got me thinking about our universe.

Scientists say that our universe is millions of light-years wide and is ever expanding. However, tracing biblical timelines, we have not been around for millions of years so how would they know? How could technology built in fairly recent years have any way of measuring the size of the universe? It couldn’t. It breeds speculation. Its hype. They also claim that there are other universes out there. Again, how would they know? They haven’t reached the end of ours!

Many people have different views on how the universe was created. A lot of people seem to subscribe to the view that there was a large bang and then POOF! we appeared. I do not think this happened. I dropped a pan the other day and it made a banging sound and nothing was created! Also, look around you for a moment. How could a bang, an explosion, a loud noise create a whole universe? How could that possibly happen? Take humans for example – we are so intricately designed (made in God’s image) and each one of us is unique – how could a bang do that? I have heard some people say that when God created everything, there may have been a bang, you know, for flamboyance – but this didn’t create anything. And don’t get me started on evolution. (Just a quick outline – we were intricately designed. We were made for a purpose. My ancestor was not an ape. King Kong is not my grandpa! God made man and he made us different to the animals. And God gave different parts of creation different purposes and abilities.) Other people subscribe to the view that the world is on the back of a giant turtle. Another view is that the world was created by a giant noodle. Seriously? A noodle. A man-made delicious edible food substance. NOPE THATS NOT WHAT CREATED THE WORLD!!!!

Many people also speculate on the universe. Is Pluto a real planet? Or is it just a planet wannabe? Should we be telling it to hang out with the moon and all the other satellites, or is it not cool enough for them either? How big is the universe? We were taught in school that it is opening up like a balloon. WHAT? It’s not called a Ballooniverse guys! But is it expanding? Are we alone? Is there life beyond our planet? Will the apes rise like in the movies? What if one day I wake up and yoda wants me to be a jedi and he’s like “Darth vader’s a badman innit? Lets shank him” and I have to be all “KK LOL”? What happens at the end of the universe? Would you fall out?

So far, we’ve discovered the planets, comets, some satellites, many stars, constellations and some galaxies. Perhaps the rest is not for us to know right now. If you think about it though, even just our solar system – it is vast. Not just vast, but immensely vast. Unfathomably fast. And real purty too. The way the planets move through space is amazing! The way the sun helps to aid life is amazing! The beauty of it all is amazing! And have you seen the stars? The other year, I was at soul survivor festival, and there was a brilliantly clear sky. The night sky was like a dark canvas, on which God had painted a beautiful picture. The milky way was visible up above and it was truly beautiful. It was mind blowing. It was awesome! Seeing just a glimpse of the vast creation of God and the extent of His work just put things into perspective for me. In comparison to this vast and magnificent universe, lil’ old me was just an invisible dot (man) on an invisible dot (UK) on an invisible dot (Earth) in the universe. God, who made it all, was and still is prepared to talk to me – the invisible dot. GET THIS – God, who flung the stars into space and knows them by name; God, who knows the number of hairs on your head, and the amount of grains of sand on the earth; God, who in His infinite wisdom and with His unfathomable creativity, created the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars and the planets and everything else has time for me. Me. That invisible speck thats part of His creation. Not only does He have time for me, but He loves me. He loves us all. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t His love magnificent? I saw the milky way that night and was in awe of its beauty. However, as I stood there with my jaw on the floor, I was more in awe of its creator. I was silently thankful that the One who made something this beautiful made me too, and loves me. Even though in comparison I am small, God knows my name. He knows who I am and He cares for me. And for this, I am eternally grateful, and will be eternally in awe of Him.

One thing I have noticed about creation is this- God likes circular, cylindrical, spherical and swirly patterns. The planets are spherical; hurricanes are swirly; stars are circular; trees are cylindrical; many more things that I could list fall into these categories. It is interesting to note here, that when we were in the womb, we developed in the foetal position, which is like curling up into a ball.  In contrast, man likes square and cuboid and cube objects, like buildings, computers, iPods, furniture, etc.

If I think about creation and how varied it is, it blows my mind. God made so much, yet he put so much detail into everything, to give it individuality. From songbirds to supernovas, from constellations to canyons, from mountain ranges to men, God created them all and gave them variance. He created the universe and everything in it. I’m not sure if we’ll ever grasp how big it is, or just how much work has gone into it – It blows my mind every time I try! The universe is magnificent. Lets look at creation in the scriptures:

Genesis 1

New International Version (NIV)

Genesis 1

The Beginning

¹ In the beginning God 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.³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 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.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault 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 vault 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.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 2

¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

Wow. Just wow. God created everything. Everything was created by His divine design. All the worlds, all the planets, all the vegetation, all the animals, mankind – EVERYTHING. Light and dark, He created them. Water and dry land, He created them. The vastness and beauty of the universe, and everything in it… You guessed it, HE CREATED IT ALL! No bang, no noodle, no turtle – GOD created it all. And its so flipping big! We think the world is big, but its nothing compared to the size of all creation! Each part of creation carries its own individual beauty. It is truly amazing. And then there is heaven. We haven’t had the privilege of seeing that yet, but I bet its awesome. Universally magnificent! And unlike the stories of Thor and the graphic novels, this story and this universe is real. Our God is real, and He is true. And if you don’t know Him already, He’s waiting for you with open arms. It doesn’t matter how small we are, God is always there for us. Jesus came and died for us. He rose again and conquered death, so that we could be reconciled with God. The Holy Spirit is always with us, if we acknowledge and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. You can know God, and trust me, knowing Him; being in relationship with your creator is universally magnificent. Its brilliant. Its awesome. It blows the mind. Yet, it is possible! I heartily recommend it. Following Him is the best decision I ever made!

God made it all. He designed it all. He gave us life and a reason to live. He shows us the beauty of His unfathomably vast creation. He is universally magnificent. I cannot comprehend the vastness of creation, but because of it, I stand in awe of Him. I will worship my God, for He has done great things!