Only Creation Gives Meaning To Life

"Today's Devotion" For April 1, 2005

Read: Genesis 1:26-2:7; Psalm 139

ONLY CREATION GIVES MEANING TO LIFE

"I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Ps. 139:14)

Yesterday morning, Thursday, March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo, a 41-year old, brain- damaged, Florida woman, and the center of a growing controversy over how our nation and the world values human life, died at 9:05 am, Eastern Standard Time from dehydration and starvation. Her feeding tubes had been removed by court order and no challenges to that court order were given consideration, even in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Not even Congressional and Presidential intervention, a politically dangerous action, could stem the tide of death that surrounded this young woman. It was a sad day; it's a sad time; it's a dark day for a people who are, of late, voting for death rather than life.

Yet, such a state of mind and spirit ought not to be a surprise to us. It's become increasingly obvious that what passes as "modern scientific principle," understands life as being an act of random chance over billions of years. We live in an increasingly, spiritually hostile society which relegates God and any ideas about "God" to the "philosophical rubbish heap." If life is only a "chance" occurrence through evolutionary activity, then it stands to reason that ideas about the quality of life would take precedence over the very purpose and meaning of life itself, regardless of its "quality." If humanity doesn't have a Creator, then life is by random chance alone, and Man then is the final determiner what constitutes a life of value or a life of worthlessness. Without a Creator, by Whom human being were created perfect and holy, in the image and likeness of God (spiritual creatures capable of spiritual thought), an given the task of sharing in the stewardship of the created order, there can be no understanding of the devastation caused by the Fall into Sin in Eden, and, thus, no appreciation of the need for salvation purchased with the blood of Christ.

Only when we know and believe that we are God's special Creation, created by Him in His image and likeness, formed from the dust of the ground, can we truly appreciate the devastation that Sin has brought into the world and its effect upon God's creation. Only when we understand the devastation of Sin and its implications for eternal, permanent death--total separation from the Creator forever--can we truly appreciate and yearn for our salvation from Sin, Death, and Satan. By God's grace, we who are called Christians know and believe that we are God's creation, that Sin has separated us from His love, and that, in Christ, our sins are forgiven and we have hope and peace in God's assurance of forgiveness and our final home with Him in heaven. Our challenge is to bring the reality of God's creation of the world and mankind into the light of day for a world blinded by Sin and experiencing the full darkness of understanding that is Sin's legacy for us all.

That every human being is a special and unique creation of God is a message of profound importance for the salvation of the world. Our call from God is to share that truth with the world so that, by the power of His Word and Spirit, people might be lifted up out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ's love. Having been blessed by our Father in heaven with such knowledge and faith, we step forth boldly in love and faith to share His truth about the sanctity of life and the truth that life and death decisions belong to God, not to us. Only when people again turn toward God as the Creator can life truly have the depth of meaning as God intended.

Prayer: Father, it's a sad day in the world because one of Your children was sentenced to death by people who choose to ignore the truth that all life belongs to You. It's a sad day in the world because people have again shown that they're more concerned about their conception of reality, than Your truth about reality. Help me to be an instrument of Your grace in such a way that I may boldly stand up for the truth about life as You have declared it in Your Word. Send Your Holy Spirit upon the nations of the world that You might be acknowledged as God and the source of all life. Above all, Father, continue to strengthen my faith through Christ my Lord and Savior, that I may live in Your love, as Your true child, and be an effective and faithful witness to others so they might know You, believe in You, and receive Your redemption; in the name of Christ, my Savior and Lord I pray. Amen.
****************************

--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.