Contemplating

Ever contemplate the sun?

 

Ever see what a marvelous wonder it is?

 

With images from the new telescope, pictures of this star are awe inspiring.

 

This is a huge ball of blazing gases floating in the vast Milky Way Galaxy that supports thousands of other stars. You can barely find it without a guide.

 

It has burned constantly and consistently for thousands (maybe eons) of years, providing heat, light, solar power and nutrients for all growing things - including us.

 

> Without it, life on earth would not exist.

> What suspends this blazing ball of flaming gas?

> Where do the gases come from to continually burn?

> What keeps them continually lit?

> What keeps the gases contained in an, almost, perfect sphere?

 

All Christians know the one answer to these questions.

Isn't He a marvelous wonder?

 

"Out of the north comes a golden glow, fearsome majesty surrounding God. Shaddai, whom we cannot find, whose power is immense . . . "

 

 

 

When God became fed up with Job's wining, He answered,

"Where were you when I founded the earth? . . . . Have you ever in your life called up the dawn and made the morning know its place . . .? Which way leads to where light has its home? and darkness, where does it dwell? . . . Can you tie up the chords of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? Can you lead out the constellations of the zodiac in their season or guide the Great Bear and its cubs? Do you know the laws of the sky? Can you determine how they affect the earth?" 

 Job 37:22 paraphrased thru 38:33

 

Let us all bow in humble adoration of our Creator, the one and only living God.

 

 

 

Signs of The Cross

 Thousands of years before Christ, God showed us the cross in the God ordered layout of the Hebrew encampment in the wilderness, and in the Cross nebula in the far reaches of the universe.

 

 

The Blood Covenant

 FOOD FOR THOUGHT: 

 

Most Christians understand that The Covenant between God and believers was sealed with the blood of Jesus on the cross.

Let's go a little deeper:

 

> The covenant is spoken of in the Old Testament. God made a covenant with Abraham to which the Hebrew people (who later became Israelites) are heirs in the spiritual kingdom. Where was the blood that sealed that one? Gen. 17:10 Circumcision would spill that blood on behalf of man. 

 

> Can we go back further? Was there a covenant with the first man? The first blood spilled in the Bible was God sacrificing animals to make clothes for sinful man and woman, Gen. 3:21. God uses animals to pay for man's sin. 

 

> God further demands human blood through child birth, Gen. 3:16. The physical blood required is not enough to kill. It actually contributes to human life. God is love.

 

> With Adam and Eve, God is showing us the need for blood - the first signs of His plan of salvation, through the cross. This is the blood covenant sealed by both man and God. 

 

> An agreement between two parties requires a payment of some sort from each party. God sacrificed a part of His creation (animals) throughout the entire Old Testament. Man and woman were also paying a price through circumcision and child birth (including a woman's menses, which makes birth possible); a blood covenant entered into by both parties. 

 

> Both man and woman needed to be included in the covenant agreement because each was created separately and each had sinned apart from the other. Genesis 2 and 3

 

> This may be why Abel understood the need for animal sacrifice, which was accepted over his brother's offering of crops; sweat of man's brow, his own effort (indicative of pride).

The practice of animal sacrifice continued throughout the Old Testament as did the blood sacrifices of man and woman.

 

 

 

> When Christ was born, human blood was spilled to bring Him into this world as a physical man and animal sacrifices continued in the temple. This began the second covenant for our eternal life. Christ paid the price 33 years later - adding His spiritual signature, in blood, to the bottom line of the covenant. 

 

> The blood of Christ was not human; His blood was completely divine - holy. The mother does not pass blood type to a fetus.  Animals cannot provide the pure blood required to pay for human sin. 

 

> Man continues to sin and so continues his/her part of the blood covenant through birth and circumcision. (Circumcision today is used as an aid to cleanliness. Although science proves this, we are loosing sight of the original purpose. God is using science to continue man's part of the covenant agreement. Ain't He clever?)

 

> So . . the First Covenant was with Adam. It was renewed with Abraham for the Hebrew Peoples. The Second Covenant was between Christ and all peoples who will believe in Him.

 

- Isn't this beautiful? God wants all to be saved to live forever. So well planned from the beginning of creation.

* Praise God for His all-encompassing love !