GOD'S NATURE

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04600640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>BOOK OF JOB</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Content"><U>My Content</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Album"><U>Photo Album</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOHNS GOSPEL"><U>JOHN'S GOSPEL</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PSALMS"><U>PSALMS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EASTER"><U>EASTER</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SERMONS ON MARK"><U>SERMONS ON MARK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 2"><U>MARK 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 3"><U>MARK 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 4 THRU 6"><U>MARK 4 THRU 6</U></A>   |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U>BOOK OF JOB</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 7 THRU 12"><U>MARK 7 THRU 12</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 13 THRU 16"><U>MARK 13 THRU 16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF REVELATION"><U>BOOK OF REVELATION</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SONG OF SOLOMON"><U>SONG OF SOLOMON</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOPICAL SERMONS"><U>TOPICAL SERMONS</U></A>   |   <B>GOD'S NATURE</B>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAMES"><U>JAMES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IJOHN"><U>IJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIJOHN"><U>IIJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIIJOHN"><U>IIIJOHN</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>THE GLORY OF GOD based on Rev. 21:9-21</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> GOD IS LIFE</B></div> <div> <B>Based on John 11:17-44</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD IS LIGHT</B></div> <div> <B>Based on IJohn 1:5</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD IS OMNISCIENT   MATT. 11:20-24</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE PRESENCE OF GOD based on Rev. 21:15-27</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> PRACTICING THE PRESENCE Based on Acts 17:22-31</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD LOVES TO SING  Based on Zeph. 3:14-20</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>CHOOSING GOD'S DREAM</B></div> <div> <B>Based on IKings 3:1-15</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>FUN IS FUNDAMENTAL  ZECH. 8:1-19</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD'S AQUARIUM  PSALM 104:24-35</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE WONDER OF CLOUDS  Psalm 104:1-24</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>GOD'S NATURE</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE GLORY OF GOD based on Rev. 21:9-21</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      The heavens declare the glory of God, and that is why the study of astronomy is so fascinating. It is constantly confirming what God has revealed in His word. Many Christians look at God's revelation of the heavenly city and conclude that it must be symbolical and not literal.  A fourteen hundred square mile city of gold with the walls loaded with precious gems seems a little too extravagant even for God.  But then comes the March 1992 issue of  Science News, and it is revealed that scientists have found literal jewels in the heavens.  They have found, not just the glorious light of stars, galaxies, and supernovas, but actual diamonds in the sky.  </div> <div>      A NASA team in Hawaii, using an infrared telescope, found what they are convinced are real diamonds and three Milky Way clouds.  They knew there were diamonds out there somewhere already, for in 1987 diamonds were found in meteorites that fell to earth.  These researchers have concluded that the carbon dust that gives rise new stars is as much as ten percent in the form of diamonds.  They feel there is likely to be diamonds in every molecular cloud in the heavens.  </div> <div>      The point is, when we read this description of the heavenly city made of gold and precious stones, we do not have to back away from the literal interpretation, as if God does not have the know how or the power to produce such an abundance of precious stones.  If man could get at them he could fill the Grand Canyon with diamonds that God has already created in stellar spaces.  </div> <div>      The reason I take this picture literally is not just because of any scientific discovery, but because John tells us in verse 11 that the city shown with the glory of God and its brilliance was like a very precious jewel.  If this is not literal, then it has to be greater than the literal, for God's glory will never be less than the glory of the kings of the earth, who splendor will be brought into the city, as John says in verse 24.  I have seen pictures of the crown jewels of the royalty of the earth.  They are awesome in their glory.  It is a valid assumption that God, the king of the universe, will have a glory that is so superior to theirs, that it will take our entire vocabulary of words dealing with light and jewels to describe it.  Words like brilliant, magnificent, glorious, lustrous, regal, resplendent, dazzling, luminous, radiant, gleaming, glittering, glistening, and a host of others.  </div> <div>                     It's a city of gold and jewels, </div> <div>                     For it's God's glory that we share.</div> <div>                     Only the boldest of fools</div> <div>                     Would want to miss being there.</div> <div>      In America The Beautiful, we sing the last verse--</div> <div>                     O beautiful for patriot dream</div> <div>                     that sees beyond the years</div> <div>                     Thine alabaster cities gleam,</div> <div>                     Undimmed by human tears!</div> <div> And in the chorus we sing, "May God thy gold refine," and, "Crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea."  All these terms of gold, gleaming, and shining are ideals of man.  He wants his cities to shine with the glory of gold and brillant light.  That ideal will never be complete until God builds the city.  That is just what John saw in his vision of the golden city of heaven.  Man has done some impressive things in his cities, but only the city of heaven will shine with the very glory of God.  </div> <div>      Emerson said, "I always seem to suffer some loss of faith on entering cities."  They can look quite impressive as you approach and see the new buildings on the skyline.  The vast array of gleaming windows can be awesome, but when you get there you are hit by the reality that the beautiful city is filled with corruption.  Aristotle felt the government should prevent people from accumulating in cities, for they become hot beds of corruption.  We see the truth of his conviction in every large city.  Jesus wept over the largest city He ever entered, the Old Jerusalem, because of it's corruption and resistance to the will of God.  That city and it's leaders killed the very Son of God, and revealed just how corrupt the city could be, even when the most glorious works of man are all around.  The beautiful temple with it's treasure of gold and works of art did not prevent such corruption.  </div> <div>      Jesus loved all the beauty and glory of the temple, but he wept for the people, for they were rejecting the one all this beauty pointed to.  Hitler and the Gestapo leaders would feast in luxury with the world's finest art all about them.  Then they would enjoy the exquisite beauty of the best classical music.  Yet, from that setting of grandeur they could go forth to kill, in cold blood, millions of innocent people.  The glory of what man can create is impressive, but man cannot be changed by the glory of man.  Man can only be changed in any deep and permanent way by the glory of God.  </div> <div>      What is the glory of God?  It is basically those aspects of God's character and power that we can see.  Contrary to the idea that all we know of God we must take by faith, the Bible says there is much that we can see of God's glory.  The heavens declare it, that is, they reveal it to man.  The works of God in His visible creation are of such conspicuous glory that God holds man accountable for seeing it, and  praising Him for it. Those who refuse to see the Glory of God in creation are willfully blind, and they will be judged. Paul says in Rom. 1:19-20, " Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."  What a paradox! There is no excuse for not seeing the invisible nature of God.</div> <div>      The idea that non-Christians cannot see the glory of God in creation is a direct rejection of Paul's clear teaching. We should expect just the opposite according to Paul. We should expect non-Christians to be able to see and write about the glory of God. Christians do no have a monopoly on seeing the glory of God. We should be able to read the poetry of other religions and see that they too see the glory of God. Paul makes it clear in verse 21 that non-Christians have knowledge of God. He writes of the pagan world, "For although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him." Paul says they knew God. They blew it and lost sight of His glory. They went after idols instead, but the point is, they did know God.</div> <div>      The implications of this are astounding. For one thing, it means we do not need to be threatened by the wonderful things we can read about God in the religious literature of the world. We are to expect to find such things, even in pagan literature, for it is inexcusable blindness for men not to see the glory of God in what He has made. Sincere seeking pagans will discover a great deal of God's glory. This ought not to be a surprize, for it confirms what Paul says. The goal of life is to see the glory of God.</div> <div>      Moses said to God in Ex.33:18, "Show me Thy glory." Moses had seen the wonder of God's power in delivering the people of Israel from Egypt. He had seen more miracles than anybody in history, and yet he is not satisfied. He wanted to see the very glory of God's being. He saw the miraculous pillars of fire and smoke that led them by day and by night, but now he wanted the best. He wanted to see the ultimate glory. He wanted to see the very essence of God. He saw the burning bush and he talked with God, but now he wanted God to come out from hiding behind his symbolic miracles and show himself directly. He wanted a glimpse of  God in person.</div> <div>      God responded to this request by telling Moses is was a request for death. No person could look on God and live. He did, however, let Moses get in a cleft of the rock, for protection, and get a glimpse of God from the back. He got a glimpse of God's glory and that was the fulfillment of his greatest goal. That is the ultimate goal of man, and that is the point of the heavely city. It is the place where we get to finally see the glory of God in all its fullness. Like Moses, we only get a glimpse of that glory now, at best. We can see it everywhere in His creation, but then we will see it in His person.</div> <div>      Gwynn McLendon Day, in Gleams of Glory, writes, </div> <div>           As I stand in the glow of the rising sun and am drenched by</div> <div>           the other-world splendor of its golden flood, I see something</div> <div>           of the glory of God. As I gaze into the jeweled heavens at </div> <div>           midnight and wonder at their sparkling beauty and infinitude,</div> <div>           I experience something of his glory. The flaming sunset, the</div> <div>           flashing lightning, the silent snowstorm, the rolling thunder, and</div> <div>           the fragrant flowers are intimations of his majestic splendor. </div> <div>           Truly, "the whole earth is full of his glory." Tennyson phrased it:</div> <div>                The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the</div> <div>                     hills and the plains,--</div> <div>                Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him</div> <div>                     who reigns?</div> <div>           The manifestations of God in nature are just the outer fringes of </div> <div>           his garment. As splendid, as awe-inspiring, and as revealing as</div> <div>           they are, these do not satisfy the soul's yearning for God.</div> <div>      And so she prays, "Show us thy glory, O our Father! It is all about us, but we are bling and unobserving. Open the eyes of our souls that we may see thee and know thee in all the majestic fulness of thy revelation to men. In the name of thy glorious Son we pray. Amen."  This is the dream, the goal, the desire, and the aspiration of all of God's children. To see the glory of God in all its fulness is our final destiny. That is why glory is such a vast subject in the Bible.</div> <div>      The word glory is found 194 times in the Old Testament and 161 times in the New testament, for a total of 355 times. This does not even count the use of the word to glorify. Yet it is a greatly neglected subject. Charles Ryrie in his book, Transformed By His Glory, checked into 8 standard theology books, and he discovered that only 2 of them referred to the glory of God. Six of them had absolutely nothing to say about this vital subject, and one of them was his own book, and that is why he wrote a whole book on the subject, to offset his previous neglect. The subject is complex, but the essence of it is simple. Glory is a visual display of what is pleasing to the eye, and thus, awesome to the mind. Whatever, by its brilliance or beauty, stimulates admiration, has a glory.</div> <div>      If the fire works display is really good, it is glorious, for it is a visual treat.  If the model home you go through is full of bright pleasing colors, and all is so clean and fresh, you experience the glory of what man can produce. Glory is a visual term. It has to do with what you see. The present glimpses of the glory of God, which we see in His creation are to fill us with anticipation about what we will see in the glorious city of gold.  W. Seeker wrote, "When you survey the spacious firmament, and behold it hung with such resplendent bodies, think--if the suburbs be so beautiful, what must the city be!"  </div> <div>      Stained glass windows are often great works of art, and they are glorious to behold.  But from the outside they are not all that impressive.  They have to be seen from the inside with the sunlight coming through to be seen in the fullness of their glory.  That is why we will never see the fullness of God's glory until we see it from within that golden transparent city.  There the light of His glory will flood our eyes with color and beauty that is beyond anything we can imagine.  But the Bible often reminds us, what will be in it's fullness is already a part of the now.  Lois Blanchard has captured this idea in her poem There Are Some Shining Moments, </div> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When we can almost see</div> <div>                Across the gulf that separates</div> <div>                Us from eternity.</div> <div>                When all the clouds are lifted</div> <div>                And everything is bright,</div> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When our faith is almost sight.</div> <bR> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When va1ues seem so clear,</div> <div>                When things of earth are far away</div> <div>                And things of God are near.</div> <div>                There is no inner struggle</div> <div>                To go the way we should.</div> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When we know what things are good.</div> <bR> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When the cares of life recede</div> <div>                And all the things that trouble us</div> <div>                Seem trivial indeed.</div> <div>                And even deeper sorrows</div> <div>                Find solace in that hour.</div> <div>                There are some shining moments</div> <div>                When we know God's lifting power.</div> <bR> <div>                There are these shining moments.</div> <div>                They come not every day;</div> <div>                For we may walk through swirling clouds</div> <div>                Great portions of the way.</div> <div>                So tread the path they brighten</div> <div>                When these shining moments come;</div> <div>                For they are heaven's lanterns</div> <div>                To light the journey home. </div> <div>      God's glory lights even the earthly cities of time to some degree, and that degree gets greater as His children reflect His glory.  Paul tells us how we can practice being in heaven.  We don't have to wait to see the glory of God.  It is displayed in great measure in time, and we can begin now to taste of the things to come.  Whoever  heard of practicing to be in heaven?  Where do we see such instructions?  We see them in Phil.4:8, "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." This brings heaven to earth, for Paul goes on in the next verse and says, practice this and the God of peace will be with you.  Focus your life on the glorious and you will reflect the glorious.   </div> <div>      If Moses, who met with God for 40 days, became radiant with the glory of God, what will be the effect on those who dwell with God forever in the fullness of His glory?  The Bible tells us they will share in the glory of God.  This is the final and ulitimate gift of God to His people, but it was the first gift to His Son.  In John 17:24 Jesus prayed, "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world..  Glory is love made visible, Jesus is saying.  All gifts are some degree of glory.  They are often shining like jewelry, or gorgeous colors, like flowers.  But even if they are a dull pair of black or brown gloves they convey a glory, for they are visible objects that say to another I love you.  </div> <div>       Love and glory are linked together inseparably so that with any love you also have a glory.  This is illustrated by the old negro engine man who loved his job on the cargo boat on the great lakes.  When he was asked how he managed to keep his engine room so bright and shining, he replied, "Oh! I gotta glory!"  The poet put this practical theology in verse--</div> <div>                Oh! You gotta get a glory</div> <div>                In the work you do;</div> <div>                A Hallelujah chorus</div> <div>                In the heart of you.</div> <div>                Paint, or tell a story, </div> <div>                Sing, or shovel coal,</div> <div>                But you gotta get a glory</div> <div>                Or the job lacks soul.</div> <div>                </div> <div>                The great, whose shining labours</div> <div>                Make our pulses throb,</div> <div>                Were men who got a glory</div> <div>                In their daily job.</div> <div>                The battle might be gory</div> <div>                And the odds unfair</div> <div>                But the men who got a glory</div> <div>                Never knew despair.</div> <bR> <div>                Oh, Lord, give me a glory,</div> <div>                When all else is gone!</div> <div>                If you've only got a glory</div> <div>                You can still go on.</div> <div>      Anything you  love you will glorify, and this helps us grasp how we can glorify God.  We are to love Him with all our hearts, minds, and soul, and when we do we will share in His glory, and reflect it.  The diamond glorifies the sun by reflecting its glory.  We glorify the Son of heaven, the Lord Jesus, by reflecting His glory.  The whole idea of being the light of the world is glorify Jesus by reflecting the light of His love in this dark world.  This is the way God's people have always glorified Him.  God would turn His face toward them and shine on them like the sun.  They in turn would look to His face and become radiant.  Then they would reflect His grace in the world.  Psalm 34:5 says, "Those who look to Him are radiant."  The more men look at the glory of God the more they will radiate that glory.  Paul says it clearly in II Cor.3:18, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."  </div> <div>      Every Christian is becoming brighter or dimmer, depending on the exposure to the glory of God.  If you are just to busy to spend time beholding the glory of God in His Word or His works, you will cease to shine and lose the glow that reflects His glory.  </div> <div>                The light you are reflecting</div> <div>                Be it bright or be it dim,</div> <div>                Is shining in the measure</div> <div>                Of the time you spend with Him.</div> <div>      </div> <bR> <div>           </div> <div>      </div> <bR> <div> JOHN 11:17-44  <B> GOD IS LIFE</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      From out of the files of the great Michelangelo comes the story of the young artist who labored long and tedious hours on the statue of an angel.  When the time for its unvailing had finally come,  the young artist hid himself in an inconspicuous spot and waited breathlessly for the response of the great sculptor.  When Michelangelo arrived and carefully examined the statue, he turned to one of his collegues and said,"It lacks only one thing...."  </div> <div>      The expectant heart of the young artist was crushed, and without waiting to hear what that one thing was, he slipped away with tearful eyes to grieve.  One of his close friends, seeing his condition,  mustered up the courage to go to Michelangelo and ask what the statue lacked.  The great artist said,"The statue lacked only one thing-life.  With life it would be as perfect as God himself could have made it!"  </div> <div>  </div> <div>     The young artist grieved prematurely for he had done the best that man could do, for only God can give life.  God was the first sculptor, and Genesis 2 tells us he formed man from the dust of the ground.  Man was first a beautiful lifeless statue, like those we see of great men and women all through history from ancient Greece to our own great presidents.  But God could do something that no one has ever been able to do to a statue.  He breathed into that statue of Adam the breath of life, and man became a living being.  Out of darkness God said let there be light.  Out of dust God said let there be life.  The Bible says God is the origin of life, the author of life,  the creator of life, for God is life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Life is, because God is.  Life is eternal, because God is eternal.  Life is the foundation of all that is, for life was before all things.  In contrast to those who speculate that life must have developed, or been spontaneously generated out of non-life, the Bible says just the opposite is the case.  All non-life is a product of life, for God is life, and all that is, is because God as life, made it so.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is fascinating to study life from the point of view of how the creator of life has designed it.  There are marvels that make science a form of worship, as men probe into the mysteries of life.  Take, for example, the wonder that so many of the precious values of life that make modern living such a blessing are non-living products that exist because of life that was sacrificed.   Coal, oil, gas,  and diamonds, just to name some major ones.  These, and their numerous by-products, are all derived from life.  </div> <bR> <div>      God has so arranged the structure of physical reality that there is only one atom that can be the foundation for life, and that is the carbon atom.  All other atoms can form only small molecules of a dozen or less atoms.  Carbon, on the other hand, can form molecules of hundreds, thousands, and even millions of atoms.  Therefore, carbon is the only atom that can form molecules large enough, and complicated enough, to make life possible.  That is why it is called the element of life.  There is no life without carbon.  It has a tenacity to hold together like no other element.  It is the hardest of the elements to melt, and to pull apart.  Plants are full of carbon, and ten percent of the atoms in a human being are carbon.  Remove the carbon from this room, and not only are the plants gone, but so are we, for carbon is the chemical foundation of life.</div> <bR> <div>     When trees fall in a forest and lay there as dry wood, they are 50%carbon, but as they decay further and become peat, they become 60% carbon.  The peat becomes Lignite, which is 67 % carbon, and it becomes Bituminous coal, which is 88% carbon, and then the pressure finally produces Anthracite coal which is 95% carbon.  The ultimate comes when the carbon is pushed together as hard as it can be with all non-carbon squeezed out, and you have a diamond.  The diamond is related to coal, just as the black and white man have the same origin.  So the black coal and white diamond have the same origin.  The point of all this is, God has so made physcial life that even in death it is not defeated, but becomes a source of great physical blessings.  Almost all of the power that makes life a joy comes from coal, oil, and gas-all products of life.  All the sources of fire are from that which was once alive.  Fire is a flame produced by life.  Diamonds that beautify life, also have their source in life.  Nothing lovely ever dies completely, but passes into other loveliness.  This is the gospel of chemistry.  </div> <bR> <div>        The Conductor of the great Symphony of Life has so composed the music that there is a continuous interplay of life and death, with life always bursting forth from death.  Spring is one of the greatest movements in this symphony of creation.  Martin Luther said, "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime." </div> <div>  </div> <div>        The hope of life within us burns</div> <div>        As life bursts forth when spring returns.</div> <div>        The flowers with their colors bright,</div> <div>        The lilies clothed in robes of white,</div> <div>        They speak a silent message clear,</div> <div>        That robs death of its power and fear.</div> <bR> <div>      When we move into the higher sphere of life, we hear the advanced orchestra playing the same tunes of the interplay of life or death.  Sometimes the blues dominate, and we are compelled to be conscious of the reality of sin, tragedy, sorrow and death.   But then the music changes, and the tempo speeds up, and our hearts are lifted, for love, light, and life are the themes, and we are filled with praise and rejoicing.   We are moved by the variations to have different moods, and when the blues are playing we wonder how the symphony of life will end.  Will it be a solemn and somber dierge, ending with a wimper, or will it be a crashing creshendo of sound, climaxing in rejoicing and praise?  </div> <bR> <div>      Here in John 11, we see Jesus, the composer of life's symphony, giving us the answer by word and deed.  The setting is a time of sadness, and the blues have overwhelmed the sisters of Lazarus.  He was relatively young, and now he is decaying in the tomb.  Jesus did not try to comfort the sisters by saying something like this:  "Look at it this way-the carbon from your brothers body will be crushed beneath the earth, and some aeons hence may become part of a diamond that will grace the crown of some great king or queen."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus rose above this chemical gospel of creation to the higher level of the gospel of resurrection.  Diamonds for leaves is a good trade off, but diamonds for lives is not good enough.  Man does not want to be glorified by being petrified.  He wants to live.  Pilgrim setting out from the city of destruction cried out, "Life, life, more life."  This is the cry of all men on their journey through this world.  </div> <bR> <div>      Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the medical missionary, in his book, What Life Means To Me, wrote about life after death, and said, "I know little about it, but that is not of any great importance, because I want it, whatever it is."  This is how the majority of human beings feel.  They do not relish seeing their life end.  Life by its very nature loves to live, and so it longs to conquer death, and live on.  </div> <bR> <div>      In 1855 Louis Napoleon received a letter from his mother in Switzerland where she was dying.  He carried this letter with him the rest of his life.  She ended it by writing, "Have faith that we shall meet again.  It is too necessary not to be true."  This is the universal longing of the human heart.  Love is too precious a gem, even more valuable than diamonds, and the only way love can be eternal is if life is eternal, and so, man longs for eternal life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus responds to this universal longing, which was the specific longing of Mary and Martha, by making the boldest statement ever made on this planet.  He said in verses 25 and 26, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies:  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."  This is the ultimate statement on life.  It is the pinnicle, the peak, the summit.  </div> <bR> <div>      You don't go beyond this, for this is that beyond which there is no beyond.  This is the word of life itself, and life has the last word.  The symphony of life and death will end with life.  Death will die, and life will live.  But, meanwhile, there are problems to deal with.  Edgar Guest wrote this poem, Life Is A Problem.  </div> <div>                          </div> <div> Life is a mystery, all of man's history</div> <div> Tells us but little of how it began.</div> <div> All earth can show of it,</div> <div>                               All we can know of it</div> <div> Give scarce a hint of its purpose and plan.</div> <div> Life is not altered by what men have guessed of it,</div> <div> He is the wisest who just makes the best of it.</div> <bR> <div> What does it matter to tailor or hatter,</div> <div> Butcher or baker or truckmen who drive,</div> <div> How it all started ?</div> <div> Clear-eyed and warm-hearted</div> <div> Each is a person and each is alive!</div> <div> Life is a problem and this is the test of it,</div> <div> He is the wisest who just makes the best of it.</div> <bR> <div> Life has its sadness, its goodness and badness,</div> <div> Nor all of man's wisdom can alter that fact.</div> <div> To this should the living</div> <div> Their full thought be giving,</div> <div> How in its grief and its joy shall we act?</div> <div> Surely if happiness here be the quest of it,</div> <div> He is the wisest who just makes the best of it.</div> <bR> <div>      But the question is, how do we just make the best of it?  The answer is, you look to the Author of life, and the Authority on life, who alone has conquered death, and offers to those who believe in Him those qualities of life that every person longs for-the qualities of a powerful life, a purposeful life, and a perpetual life.   When you are in on these three qualities, which only Christ can give, then, and only then, are you making the best of life.  Lets look at each of them.  First, life in Christ, who is the life, is </div> <div> I.  A POWERFUL LIFE.  </div> <div>      The scene is sad, for the power of death seems to be superior to the power of life.  Mary and Martha are weeping and grieving, and Jesus himself wept, for death has the power to rob us of love.  This is a preview of the sorrow of the cross, where the forces of evil will do their worst, and death will plunge the world into darkness, as the light of the world, and the light of life is put out, and death will seem to be lord of all.  </div> <bR> <div>      The only way you can get a final answer to the question, which is the most powerful-life or death?-is to let death do its worst, and let life do its best, and see what the outcome is.  The cross is deaths worst, but the resurrection is lifes best, and the outcome is, life is proclaimed the winner, the champion, the gold medalist, the one more powerful than death.  Geogia Harkness wrote,</div> <div>                             On this glad day my heart is lifted high</div> <div>                             With gladsome praises to the Lord of life.</div> <div>                             The hallelujahs ring; the heavens are rife</div> <div>                              With song and story.  He who could defy</div> <div>                              The powers of death has risen again-is nigh</div> <div>                              To say, "Fear not...men, put away your strife,</div> <div>                               I am the resurrection and the life.</div> <bR> <div>      Jesus makes this claim before His own resurrection, and He proves it by raising Lazarus from the dead.  It is not enough that Jesus can raise Himself, for men want to know, can he raise me?  And Jesus says yes.  Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.  That is the kind of powerful life every  man longs for-life that will overcome the power of death.</div> <bR> <div>      Jesus, by raising Lazarus, gave us an historial confirmation of the power of life.  </div> <div> Paul longed to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, for this is the power of life that is needed in the daily battle with the forces of evil.  This is not just relevant at funerals, and once a year at Easter, it is the power for daily living.  Earnest Gordon in, Through The Valley Of The Kwai, tells the moving story of British prisoners of war during World War II.  Their Japanese captors forced them to build a railroad through the valley of the Kwai river.  For many it was life worse than death.  The starvation, exhaustion, and disease led to despair and death, and the men were losing their humanity.  Selfishness, fear, and hatred took over, and it was every man for himself for survival.  They treated each other worse than animals as they kicked, shoved, and faught over a scap of food.   </div> <bR> <div>      That camp became a scene just like that around the tomb of Lazarus.  Death was lord, and all looked sad and hopeless.  But one man brought forth life in the midst of death.  Angus McGillivray, a great strapping man, determined that his dying friend would not die, but live.  He gave him his own blanket to replace the one stolen from this friend.  He gave up his own rations so his friend could be nourished.  He used his own money to buy duck eggs and medicine for his friend.  Gradually this special care led the soldier to recover his health.  But Angus became exhausted, and he collapsed and died.  The doctor said he died of starvation and exhaustion.  He had laid down his life for his friend.</div> <bR> <div>      His death did something to that camp that gave life power over death, and love power over hate.  The story spread like wild-fire through the camp.  The officers came alive to their responsibility, and said, "We are in this together."  They voted to use part of their allowance to buy extra food for the sick.  The spirit of generosity became contagious, and soon men throughout the camp were buying duck eggs for the sick, and showing love for those in special need.  They put the law of the jungle behind them, and became human again, as they cared for one another.  Earnest Gordon almost died himself, but Dusty Miller, who was recovering from diptheria, volunteered to bathe him and wash his ulcerous legs, and nurse him back to health.  </div> <bR> <div>      There was a Presence in the camp he says-a Presence that motivated them to stop sinking to defeat, but to build a community of love.  Soon there were groups of volunteers who were scrounging in the woods for materials to make artificial limbs  for the amputees.  The educated ones organized a jungle university to teach the others.  Acts of love, compassion, and kindness transformed that camp to a place where men were living, and not just dying.  They had found that powerful life that conquers death on every level-life in Him, who is the resurrection and the life.   Secondly, life in Christ is-</div> <bR> <div> II.  A PURPOSEFUL LIFE.</div> <div>      There are many levels of living, but the highest level is Christlike living, which is purposeful living.  Paul wrote in I Cor. 15:45, "The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit."  Jesus said I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.  Jesus did not just have life, He was a life-bringer, and a life giver.</div> <bR> <div>      The purpose of life is the same for us as it was for Him.  It is to give life.  It is the very nature of life to expand, grow, and increase.  Jesus as creator gave life to all that is alive.  Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, came to give abundant life, and Jesus as the Soverign Saviour gives life eternal.  Jesus is the giver of all life.  That is what life is all about-more life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Why else would God create in the first place, except to increase life?  The only thing that makes history, and all that creating free-willed beings worthwhile, is the end result of more life-more intelligent God-honoring life in the universe.  The purpose of our lives, and the life of the church, is the same-more life, more names in the book of life, more people partaking of the tree of life, more people worshipping and praising the Lord of life forever.  The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  That is life, and purposeful  life is helping others achieve the same end.  The purpose of life is to live, and living is knowing and loving God.  Jesus said in John 17:3, "Now this is life eternal:  That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  </div> <bR> <div>      Purposeful living is doing what Jesus did with His life-so living it that others might come to know God, whom to know is life eternal.  Ellen Jones wrote, </div> <div>                                 Would you know life abundant, </div> <div>                                 Love doubled for all you give?</div> <div>                                 There is a means no surer</div> <div>                                 Than helping someone to live.</div> <div> Jesus gave people life now.  He raised Lazarus now.  He wiped away tears now.  He healed bodies now, He taught people now.  He gave light in darkness now.  He was not just a life promiser, He was a life giver.  </div> <bR> <div>      The reason Christianity grew so rapidly in Korea was because of the practical effect Christians had  in purposeful living. The needs were so great after the war and people were so poor. When they came to the mission for food and clothing, and came to know Christ as their Saviour, they were told to go and find someone in even greater need and share. This helped produce a nation of loving and caring people and the Christian faith grew like wild fire. Life was producing life. </div> <bR> <div> "Life is currently discribed in one of four ways:  As a journey, as a battle, as a pilgrimage, and as a race.  Select your own metaphor, but the finishing necessity is all the same.  For if life is a journey, it must be completed.  If life is a battle, it must be finished.  If life is a pilgrimage, it must be concluded.  If life is a race, it must be won."  Dr. J. Richard Sneed.   </div> <div>      Like Paul, we must all fight the good fight and finish the race, knowing that the prize Christ has for us is an even more purposeful life in eternity.</div> <div> Thirdly we see, life in Christ is-</div> <bR> <div> III.  A PERPETUAL LIFE.</div> <div>      Jesus not only says that those who believe in Him will live though they die, He says whoever lives and believes in Him will never die.  What a paradox!  They may die, but they will never die.  Even though death has the power to rob them of their bodies temporarily, it cannot touch the essence of their life.  They never cease to live, and so they never die, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and so life does not skip a moment.  Death may separate from the body, but not from the Lord.  </div> <bR> <div>      In Him we have life that is perpetual.  God intended life to be perpetual.  Biologist tell us that the cells of life have the potential of immortality.  If Adam had not fallen, it was Gods intent that he should live forever.  Death was a result of sin, and not inherent in life.  Jesus came to restore man to that life  which God intended.  </div> <div>                                I know no life divided</div> <div>                                O Lord of life, from thee;</div> <div>                                In thee is life provided</div> <div>                                For all mankind and me.</div> <div>                                I know no death, O Jesus</div> <div>                                Because I live in thee.</div> <div>                                Thy death it is which frees us</div> <div>                                From death eternally.</div> <bR> <div>      The story is told of a fox who came upon a cave where he saw many other foxes had entered.  He was about to go in when his cunning eye detected that all of the tracks pointed one way.  All were pointed in, and none pointed out, which indicated that none had never came back.  He wisely changed his mind and did not enter.  </div> <div>      So man comes to the cave of the grave, and sees the same thing.  All the tracks point in but none come out.  He has no choice, however.  He cannot refuse to enter, and so he does so without hope.  That is, unless he has put his trust in the life giver, the Lord Jesus.  Jesus had made clear foot prints coming out of the tomb, and those who follow Him can say, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus said in John 14:19, "Because I live you shall live also."  Jesus came not only to preach the gospel, but that there might be a gospel to preach-a gospel of light that conquers darkness, a gospel of love that conquers hate, a gospel of life that conquers death.  The bottom line is life.  Gods best for time and eternity is found in Jesus-the resurrection and the life.  Whatever our age, or health, or any other situation, we are expected to live for our Lord, for He is Life.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> I JOHN 1:5 <B>GOD IS LIGHT</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      The Emperor Trajan said to Rabbi Joshua, "You teach that your God is everywhere.  I should like to see Him."  The Rabbi replied, "God's presence is everywhere, but He cannot be seen.  No mortal eye can behold His glory."  The Emperor insisted, however, and so the Rabbi said, "Let us begin then by first looking at one of his servants.  The Emperor consented to this, and so followed the Rabbi out into the open.  "Now," said the Rabbi, "Gaze into the splendor of the sun."  "I cannot," said the Emperor, "The light dazzles me."  The Rabbi responded, "Thou art unable to endure the light of one of his servants, and canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator.  Would not such a light annihilate thee."  </div> <bR> <div>      The Jews had a higher concept of God than all ancient peoples, because God revealed  Himself to them as a God of glory, light, and splendor.  The Old Testament has many descriptions of God like that given in Hab. 3:3-4.  "His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth.  His splendor was like the sun rise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden."  It was because of this knowledge of the glory of God that the Jews were an optimistic people.  A man's character is determined largely by the character of the God he worships.  If one worships a god who is a tyrant, and unpredictable, and without mercy, but cruel, it is not likely he will be a man of flaming joy.  Luther lived for years with a false concept of God, and as a result, lived in fear and dread.  Most religions have had such a dark concept of God that the followers of these religions seldom knew what it was to be truly joyful and at peace.  </div> <bR> <div>      Many ancient peoples, and peoples yet today, whose God's are made in the image of man, and are only depraved supermen, cruel and immoral, are no more optimistic than the materialist who says, "I feel the universe is one huge, dead, immeasurable steam engine, rolling on, in its dead indifference, to grind us limb from limb."  You can't expect persons like that to be bursting with optimism, and bubbling with joy.  On the other hand, when people have the concept of God as He is revealed in Scripture, it leads to optimism and joy.  This was true in the Old Testament, even before God fully revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Jews began their day at sundown, rather than at sunup.  All their festivals and holidays begin at night, and their Sabbath also begins at night.  All of this was to symbolize their optimism and confidence in the God of light.  Anyone can have confidence in the day, and look forward to a bright day when the sun rises, but the Jews began their rejoicing as the sun sank to symbolize their confidence that even in the darkness light will prevail, and a new day will dawn.  Tomorrow always comes for the believer.  Even death cannot change that.  Such was the attitude of the Jews who had only a shadow of the full revelation yet to come.  How much greater ought our joy and optimism to be who stand in the full light?  Paul in II Cor. 4:6 writes, "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."</div> <bR> <div>      We have a message as superior to the Old Testament, as it was to the pagan darkness surrounding it.  That is why John, after stating that his purpose for writing this book was that the joy of believers might be full, immediately announces the truth on which all Christian joy is based, which is, the truth that God is light.  This morning we want to examine this primary message and its meaning.  First let's look at the message itself.</div> <bR> <div> I.  THE MESSAGE.  John has built us up to a point of expectation.  He has made great statements of his aim to share with us truths that will lead to fullness of fellowship, and fullness of joy.  We ought to be standing on our tiptoes breathlessly longing to see what it is he is going to declare.  In verse 5, after this stimulating introduction, John says, this is it!  Here it is!  This is the message that we have received, and now pass it on to you.  This is no matter of speculation and theory, this is the message we have heard from Christ Himself, and now declare to you, and that message is, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  We see a positive and negative side to this message.</div> <div>    </div> <div>      A.  Positive-God is light.  This is the strongest statement in the whole Bible about Gods nature as light.  Many text describe the splendor of God, and the light of His presence, and that He dwells in light unapproachable, and that He is the author of all light, but here alone do we find the statement that God is light.  Nothing stronger can be said.  This is as far as human language can go in relating God and light.  God is light.  Light is of the very essence of God's nature.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is important, however, that we recognize that this is not the whole truth about God's nature.  It is but one aspect of what He is.  John will tell us He is also Law, Life, and Love, and underneath all of these is the foundational fact that He is personal.  Light is impersonal, and if this was our main concept of God, we would have only a God who was a great impersonal source of all energy-a Divine Dynamo. </div> <div> We must ever keep in mind that light and love, and all other attributes of God are attributes of a Person.  This means, it is God who is light, and not light that is God.  </div> <div> This was the mistake of many people who began to worship the creation rather than the Creator.  They worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, for they reversed the truth and said, light is God.  This is false.  The light of the sun is not God, and the light of all other bodies is not God.  God as light is the ultimate source of all light, but He is not that light.  All physical light is from God, and is a symbol of what He is in Himself.  </div> <bR> <div>      All physical reality is what it is because God is what He is.  Science can tell us what the sun does, and how it is the source of all life on earth, but it is the Bible that tells us why this is so.  It is so because God is light.  His creation resembles His nature.  The universe is a symbol of what God is.  It is not God, but is made by God, and is separate from Him, but it is an expression of what He is.  This is why all life depends on light, for all life depends on God, and God is light.  This is why the earth revolves around the sun which is the source of all life, because only as men put God into the center of their lives, and revolve around Him, will they have light and life.  </div> <div> All of this is simply saying God has made the universe, and physical light, as a pattern of what is true in the spiritual realm.  God is in the spiritual realm what the sun is in the physical realm.  He is the source of all light and life.  As light is the absolute in science, so God is the absolute in the spiritual realm.  </div> <div>                                 </div> <div>                            Thou art, O God, the life and light</div> <div>                            Of all this wondrous world we see;</div> <div>                            Its glow by day, its smile by night,</div> <div>                            Are but reflections caught from  Thee;</div> <div>                            Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine,</div> <div>                            And all things fair and bright are Thine.</div> <bR> <div>      The very first thing that God called good was light.  In Gen. 1:4 God saw that the light was good.  It was His first stroke of the brush on the canvas of reality, and it was a masterpiece already.  God did not make anything in the dark.  He began His project of creation just as we usually begin ours, by turning on the light.  Light is the link between the Creator and creation.  Light is part of the nature of God, and it is the foundation of all that God has made.  When you study light, you are into both science and theology.  Many of the great scientists have known this.  They have seen that life is dependent on light, and that the Creator of life had to be a God of light.</div> <bR> <div>      Dr. Michael Pupin, the great inventor, philosopher, and teacher, got his start in scientific research by watching the stars as a shepherd boy in the Hungarian hills.  </div> <div> All his life, as he studied light, he was devoted to the God of light.  He wrote, </div> <div> "I found in the light of stars a heavenly language which proclaims the glory of God.  Each burning star is a focus of energy, of life-giving activity which it pours out lavishly into every direction; it pours out the life of its own heart, in order to beget new life.  What a vista that opens to our imagination!  What new beauties are disclosed in the words of Genesis:  'God...breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; </div> <div> and man became a living soul.'  The light of the stars is a part of the life-giving breath of God.  I never look now upon the starlit vault of  heaven without feeling this divine breath and its quickening action upon my soul.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div>      Kepler, after discovering the laws that govern the speeds of the planets, prayed, "Dear Lord, who hast guided us to the light of Thy glory by the light of nature, thanks be Thee.  Behold, I have complete the work to which Thou hast called me, and I rejoice in the creation whose wonder thou hast given me to reveal unto men.  Amen."  </div> <bR> <div>      The power of life is in light, and without light life cannot continue.  We could get into biology here, but man's new discovery of the power of light is more fascinating. </div> <div> Albert Einstein back in 1905 wrote a paper on light that won him the Nobel Prize.  In it he proved that light is both a wave and a particle, and so light is a paradox, and has the freedom to be different things in different experiments.  He predicted then that man would be able to some day use light in a very intense and focused ray. In 1960 Dr. Theodore Maiman made and used the first laser, and since this, many new lasers have been developed for doing what man could never do before.  Now, by the power of light, the life of man is being radically changed.  In our life-time  light has changed almost every facet of our lives.  </div> <bR> <div>      The books I checked out to study light were checked out by  means of a laser light.</div> <div> The groceries we purchase our read by a laser light.  Laser light can cut steel and even diamonds.  Lasers are used for eye surgery, so that those who once would be blind are now made to see. Miracles that Jesus did as the light of the world are now being done by light, which also has Him as its author and creator.   The military uses lasers in missals and other weapons.  The whole security systems of the world depend on lasers.  Laser optical discs can hold the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica on one side.  There seems to be no end to the power and blessings that man is finding in the power of light.   If God lets history go on into the 21st century, man will create a whole new world by the power of light.  And if God ends history soon, the result will be the same, for in eternity we will dwell with  God in that city filled with the light of His presence.  However the story of history goes, we can be optimists as Christians, for we are heading for the light.  Georgia Harkness wrote,</div> <bR> <div>                               Our light grows dim, the air is thick with gloom,</div> <div>                               And everywhere mens souls are crushed with fears.</div> <div>                               Yet high above the carnage and the gloom</div> <div>                               The call resounds across the teeming years,</div> <div>                               Lift high Christ's cross!  Serve God and trust His might!</div> <div>                               I do believe the world is swinging toward the light.</div> <bR> <div>       Light is not only the coming thing, because Jesus, the light, is coming, but He is already here, and says in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world:  He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  Gilchrist Lawson wrote, </div> <div>                               The one who made the earthly sun</div> <div>                               So full of power of warmth and might,</div> <div>                               Can cause the Sun of Righteousness</div> <div>                               To bathe the soul in floods of light.</div> <bR> <div>      The greatest changes in life are always based on what man does with his physical or spiritual light.  Jesus was the light that lightens every man said John.  He was and is the light of the world.  He was and is the source of life that is eternal, for all life needs light, and He is the only light that can never be put out, and so He is the only source of eternal life.</div> <bR> <div>      Light that we see is self revealing.  One does not need to light a match to see if his flashlight is on.  But all men are blind to most of the light God has made a part of reality.  We see only the six colors of the rainbow which is white light devided up into its six different wave lengths.  But this is a mere fraction of light.  There are cosmic rays, gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays, infrared rays, television, radar, short wave, standard and long radio waves, and long electric waves.  These ten different categories of light we cannot see.  But man has learned how to use these invisible sources of light to do wonders in life.  So the challenge of the Christian life is to recognize there is great power available in the realm of the invisible.  Paul says in II Cor. 4:18, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  There is power for life abundant in the light of Christ's unseen presence, and in the light of the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit.  We need to pray, </div> <div>                                Light  of the world, illumine this darkened earth of Thine,</div> <div>                                Till everything that's human be filled with the Divine.</div> <bR> <div>      There is no physical factor in all reality that can better be used as a symbol of the nature of God, than light, for as Alford, the Greek scholar said, "It unites in itself purity,and cleanness, and beauty, and glory, as no other material object does."  Light is the most spiritual of all the things we know in the realm of the physical.  The more we know about light and its blessings, the more we will understand the glory and splendor of God, who is light, and the source of all lights.  </div> <bR> <div>      Then John adds to his positive message a statement which is-</div> <div>      B.  Negative-in Him is no darkness at all.  The Greek here is very emphatic.  There is a double negative here, which is permitted in Greek, and would sound like this in English, "There is not none at all."  This is the concept that is the basis for a common bond among believers, and is the basis for much joy.  The positive without his strong negative would not distinguish Christianity from the Gnostics and many other false religions.  The Gnostics, like the ancient Persians, had a dualism in their concept of deity, in which, there was both light and darkness in God.  Many others have also had concepts of God which while recognizing Him to be glorious, also attributed to Him much evil.  The Christian revelation rises to the heights of a God who is absolutely pure, and is not the origin of any evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      This becomes the basis for our fullness of joy, for the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is light without darkness.  Even the sun has spots, but not our God, for He is perfect light, and the source of all good, but no evil.  Any idea of God that implies He is the source of evil is inconsistent with the New Testament revelation.  E.S. Jones tells the story of the little girl who was playing with a friend when a cloud came up and covered the Sun.  She looked  up and said, "That mean old God again, always spoiling our fun."  The mother heard it and that night she told the father.  He was shocked and did not understand where in the world she would get such a concept of God.  They punished her by making her say her prayers ten times.  Imagine, prayers being made as a punishment, and yet they wondered where she got her concept of a cruel God.  Parents may in many ways convey to their children concepts of God that include spots and shadows of darkness.   This message of John must be our guide.  God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.</div> <bR> <div>      We need the light of God to guide us so that we do not blot His image with the darkness of our own ignorance and faulty faith.  Let our prayer be  that of Constance Milman.  </div> <div>                                     Lord send thy light, </div> <div>                                     Not only in the darkest night,</div> <div>                                     But in the shadows, dim twilight,</div> <div>                                     Wherein my strained and aching sight</div> <div>                                     Can scarce distinguish wrong from right,</div> <div>                                     Then send thy light.</div> <bR> <div>      The light of God is known by the fact that in it is no darkness at all.  Satan himself can appear as an angel of light, and the world uses light to glorify all its evil, but we need not be seduced by these false lights if we keep this absolute negative in mind-no darkness at all.  Wordsworth put it, "But ne'er to a seductive lay, let faith be given.  Nor deem that light which leads astray, is light from heaven." This then, is the message that is essential to making our fellowship unique and joy complete.  Now, let us consider some further meanings contained in this message.</div> <bR> <div> II.  THE MEANINGS.  A message like this is filled with more meaning than we can begin to comprehend.  To say that God is light sheds more light on His nature than we have eyes to see, but what we can see is important to look at.  The first thing we want to look at is-</div> <div>      A.  The Ethical Meaning.</div> <div>            This is really the primary meaning that John is conveying in this context.  God is absolutely pure.  God is righteousness, and in Him is no sin at all.  That is why John goes on to say, "If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness we are liars," for God cannot fellowship with men who walk in darkness.  He is light, and light has nothing in common with darkness, and, therefore, fellowship is impossible.  A man living in sin can no more walk with God than fire and gasoline can have fellowship together.  God is absolutely ethically pure, and that is why Christians must constantly confess their sins and be cleansed by the blood of Christ, for it is the only way we can truly have fellowship with God.</div> <bR> <div>      In this context John makes clear there are two ways of thinking that are false, and lead to false living.  One is to imply that there is any sin in God, and two is to deny that there is sin in man.  The Christian must be clear on both points.  God is light, and is pure, with no darkness at all, but no man, except he who was God incarnate, and the light of the world,  is totally pure, and without some degree of darkness due to sin.  Christian ethical thinking must be based on these two truths.  </div> <div> The Gnostics denied them, and the result was all kinds of unethical and immoral conduct.  </div> <bR> <div>      Let this principle be a guide.  God is far more than we can think, but He is never less than what we can think.  This means, if you can think of a higher concept of God than the one you now have, the one you now have is a false concept.  God can never be less than the highest you can conceive.  Whenever men talk about God, you can know if they speak of the true God, or one of their own making, by simply asking, is the God they speak of the highest and purest that man can conceive.  If the God they speak of cannot measure up to this standard, he is not the God who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all.  </div> <bR> <div>      B.  The Intellectual Meaning.  </div> <div>            When we say a person has seen the light, we mean the truth has been grasped by the mind.  Light and truth are often synonymous.  This could be paraphrased, God is truth and in Him is no error at all.  It means, not only that God is absolutely pure, but He is also absolutely wise.  This is again a basis for great joy for the believer.  He has a resource like no other.  Jesus said the Holy Spirit would lead His disciples into all truth.  He can do this, for as light, He knows all truth.  </div> <div>        </div> <div>                              All  our knowledge, sense, and sight</div> <div>                              Lie in deepest darkness shrouded.</div> <div>                              Til Thy Spirit brakes our night,</div> <div>                              With the beams of truth unclouded.</div> <div>        </div> <div>      There is much more meaning in this message-the theological, biological, emotional, but we can't cover them all.  What we have looked at, however, ought to make it clear how great a message this is, and how a deeper understanding of it will lead to a greater fellowship and joy in the believers life.  Praise God for who He is for God is light.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>GOD IS OMNISCIENT   MATT. 11:20-24</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Dr. Harold Bryson tells of the two boys who went to their pastor to request his advice on what they could do to help people.  The pastor told them of a blind man who would love to have someone come and read the Bible to him.  The man was delighted when the boys came and told him of their plan.  "Where do you want us to begin," they asked?  "Well," he said, "Since you will be coming back each week, let's start with Matthew, and read through the New Testament."  So the boys began their reading, and as you recall, they first chapter of Matthew is full of begats.  "Let's skip this list of names," the boys suggested.  "No, read them all," the blind man urged.  It was an effort, but they ploughed through the list the best they could.  When they finished they noticed tears coming down the blind mans cheeks.  "What is so emotional about a list of names"? one of the boys asked.  The blind man said, "God knew everyone of those fellows, and he knew them by name.  Boys, that makes me feel important to know that God knows me, and He knows my name."</div> <bR> <div>      You don't have to make a name for yourself to be known by name to  God, for God knows the least as well as the greatest by name.  In fact, God not only knows all persons by name, He has even assigned names to His inanimate creation.  Ps. 147:4 says, "He has determined the number of the stars and calls them each by name."   The implications of this are amazing, for if God even gives names to the billions and trillions of stars, then you can be assured there has never been a nameless person ever conceived.  The unknown soldiers of the world are known to God.  The John and Jane Does of the world have a name to God.  All of the unknown and unnamed of history are known and named in the mind of God, for God is omniscient, which means, He is all-knowing. </div> <bR> <div>      Even the human mind can be amazing in what it can know.  One night just before the orchestra was to play, the bassoon player rushed over to the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini and said his instrument would not play E-flat.  Toscanini held his head in his hands a moment and said, "It will be all right-the note E-flat does not appear in your music tonight."  He was a genius, and knew every detail of his music.  </div> <bR> <div>      This is impressive, but it cannot compare to Gods knowing the number of hairs on our heads.  This is not very stable information, and it changes with every combing, yet it is not impossible for an omniscient God to be aware of this constant variation.  </div> <div> It makes even our best computers primitive by comparison.  But our text takes us to that which is beyond the borders of comprehension.  Jesus takes us into the realm of God's omniscience that is so mind-boggling and incomprehensible that many theologian reject it as impossible.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus goes beyond saying God knows everything that has ever been, that is, and that will ever be.  That sounds like a sufficient body of knowledge to qualify God for being omniscient.  But Jesus goes one step further into a realm of knowing that man cannot follow.  Jesus says God can even know what might have been.  God can actually know the answer to all of the what if questions of life.  What if Jesus would have come into history centuries earlier, and done His miracles in Tyre and Sidon, or even the notorious Sodom?  Jesus says not only does God know what would have been, and how these wicked cities would have responded, but He says His judgment of these people will be modified by this knowing of what might have been.  They will be less severely judged because God knows that they would have repented had they gotten the same chance as Bethsaida and Capernaum.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus takes Gods omniscience into a realm that is so beyond the mind of man that as far as I can determine it is an embarrassment to many theologians.  You sometimes have to choose between the God of the theologians and the God of Jesus, and here is a case in point.  Many theologians lock God into only being able to know what He has foreordained or predestined.  In other words, they say the reason God knows all is because He has decreed to be.  Even the great Jonathan Edwards said, "Without decree foreknowledge could not exist."  In other words, all God can know is what He has decreed to be.  But Jesus says God not only can know what He would do in all possible situations, but He can know what men would do in all possible situations.  It was not determined that Sodom would receive Christ's miracles and repent.  Just the opposite was the case, but God knew they would have repented had they received those miracles.  This is hard to grasp-more like impossible, so the theologians back off from this text.  We need to thank God for tough passages like this, for they set God free from the bondage of man's schemes.  </div> <bR> <div>      The omniscience level to which Jesus exalts God is necessary, for without it theologians would think they had gone beyond Paul, and were not limited to seeing in part, and seeing through a glass darkly.  They would limit God to a system that is very human so that we could comprehend God.  The very goal of such a scheme, however, is contrary to the Bible.  Paul says in Rom. 11:33-34, "How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.  Who has known the mind of the Lord."  </div> <bR> <div>      It is an important part of our knowledge of God that we know we cannot know Him as He knows us.  He knows us completely, but we can only know Him partially.  This means God is by His very nature incomprehensible.  This means whatever we know about God is not the ultimate in what is knowable about God.  God knows much more about Himself than what He could reveal to us because it is beyond our capacity to comprehend.  The experience of the honest theologian is like that of the poet who wrote-</div> <div>                               I have ridden the wind, I have ridden the stars,</div> <div>                               I have ridden the force that flies,</div> <div>                               With far intent through the firmament,</div> <div>                               As each to each allies; </div> <div>                               And everywhere that a thought may dare</div> <div>                               To gallop, mine has trod--</div> <div>                               Only to stand at last on the strand</div> <div>                               Where  just beyond lies God.</div> <bR> <div>      God is always beyond us, or He would not be God.  A God we could fully comprehend would be unworthy of our worship and adoration.  We would worship our own minds if they had such a capacity as to comprehend God.  I like the way one theologian put it-"We are not presumptuous Lilliputians, running out with verbal stakes and threads, to pin down the tall, majestic Gulliver of the Eternal and dance in theological exaltation round our captive."  </div> <bR> <div>      The wise theologian and laymen alike recognize that God is not bound by our grasp of him.  Job 11:7-8 is a series of questions that speak to this issue.  "Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the almighty?  They are higher than the heavens-what can you do?  They are deeper than the depths of the grave-what can you know?"  There is no basis for pride in theology, for what we know of God, He has either made clear by His creation in His world, or by His revelation in His word.  There is much basis, however, for humility as we consider how much we do not know, and cannot know, because as God says in Isaiah 55:9, </div> <div> "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  How much higher are the heavens than the earth?  Even this is beyond our measure, for we have not yet comprehended the creation of God, and this is but the work of His fingers.  </div> <bR> <div>      God created us to love Him, and not to comprehend Him.  We have to know much about Him to love Him, but to ever think that we fully grasp Him is to begin to lose Him, for in pride we are setting up our knowledge as a mental idol of the true God, who is vastly superior to knowledge of Him.  Only the humble theologian is truly Biblical theologian, for He will not pretend to have God boxed up with no loose ends, but will say with Alexander Pope-</div> <div>                                 Thou Great First Cause, least understood,</div> <div>                                 Who all my sense confin'd,</div> <div>                                 To know but this, that thou art God,</div> <div>                                 And that myself am blind.</div> <bR> <div>      Thank God He makes the blind to see and by His grace He has given light abundant, and we know all we need to know about God to be saved, and to fulfill His purpose.  But let us never forget He is always more than we know.  When David considered the omniscience of God in his own life, and of how God knew when he rose or sat, went in or out, and knew the thoughts of his mind, and the words he would speak before he spoke them, he says in Ps. 139:6, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."  </div> <bR> <div>      Wise theologian know how little they can know of God's all-knowing.  The old Puritans like Richard Baxter could say, "You may know God but not comprehend Him."  Richard Sibbes, "You shall apprehend God but not comprehend Him."  Stephen Charnock, "It is visible that God is, it is invisible what He is."  </div> <bR> <div>      What this means is, we can know how God knows much, but we cannot know how He knows all.  Some people can do two or three things at once, and some have such powers of concentration they can remember hundreds of things at the same time, but this is all amateur night compared to God.  God specializes in everything, and attends to all things that exist at once.  Some of this is comprehensible.  God naturally knows all that He has predetermined.  I can do this.  I can know that tomorrow I will go to the store, read John 1, take out the garbage, and change oil in my car.  If I have determined this is what I will do, it is no big deal to know that I will do this.  I can have foreknowledge of these, and of who I will talk to if I intend to contact them.  I can relate to this kind of knowing and foreknowing, for I can have this myself.  The difference is that God can be sure He can do what He plans, and I may not be able to carry out my plans.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus does not limit God to knowing only what He has foreordained.  God did not foreordain that His son would be known in the days of Sodom.  In fact, He ordained that He would not be born then.  Nevertheless Jesus says God can know what might have been had He chosen a different course of history.  It is no wonder theologians shy away from this passage.  It is so mind-boggling that nobody can grasp it.  It makes God so free and unbound in His knowledge that He cannot be made to fit into any system of theology that man has devised.  </div> <bR> <div>      All agree this is the hardest of the attributes of God to grasp.  We can grasp how God can know all He has ordained, for that is fairly easy.  We can see how it is possible for God to know what is happening anywhere in the universe.  His omnipresence makes this inevitable.  If God is everywhere present He will know everything that is a part of reality.  Prov. 15:3 says, "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere keeping watch on the wicked and the good."  Heb. 4:13 says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."  The eye has been a symbol of God all through history.  The ancient Egyptians used it,  and the seal on our dollar bills has the eye of God over the pyramid, symbolizing His watchful providence over the land.  </div> <bR> <div>      Knowing what is determined is not impressive knowledge.  Astronomers can predict when Haley's Comet will return, for it is already determined.  Knowing what is happening in your presence is also not all that profound.  We can know what is happening in our presence.  But when we move into the realm of God knowing the free acts of men before they make them, this gets more complicated and makes theologians struggle for answers.  Two of the easy ways out are to deny foreknowledge, or to deny there are any free acts.  Many go both ways, but they are copouts from the Biblical view that says both are real.</div> <bR> <div>      If you deny that men are free to receive or reject God's will, then you will be hard pressed to figure out why Jesus is so angry at these cities of Israel.  He is angry and threatens them with severe judgment, for they had great evidence of the Messiah in all the miracles of Jesus.  In fact, many of the major miracles Jesus performed took place in or around Capernaum.  No other place had such evidence, and to whom much is given much shall be required.  </div> <bR> <div>      Ignorance is an excuse, for you cannot be as accountable for what you don't know as for what is made clear.  They had clear evidence, and God will hold them accountable in the day of judgment for this evidence.  They will be worse off then those in Sodom, who never saw a miracle in their life.  Those in Sodom were more wicked, but they were so because of their darkness.   God does not hold them responsible for the light they did not have.  But He does hold those responsible who had the light.  Because men are judged according to the light they have, all agree there will be different degrees of punishment of the lost.  Jesus is saying these sophisticated and religious Jews will suffer greater judgment than those awful Gentiles who were so terrible God had to wipe them off the face of the earth.  </div> <bR> <div>      Alexander Maclaren, the great English preacher, points out that we today are walking in light far greater even than that of Capernaum.  They did not have the cross, resurrection, ascension, and promise of the second coming.  We have the full gospel plus two thousand years of its impact on history.  They had a flood light compared to Sodom's candle, but we have the noon day sun.  How much greater will be the judgment on the modern world if they reject the salvation and teachings of Christ?  </div> <bR> <div>      The apathy of those Jesus condemned was their greatest sin.  They did nothing in the face of overwhelming evidence to do everything.  They could have been the highest, but they will be the lowest, for they did nothing with their light.  "The measure of light is the measure of responibility."  America has a higher obligation to be Christian than does Libya, Russia, Syria, Iran, etc. They do not have the light that we do.  Guilt is relative to knowledge.  If I tell my son not to take my car because something is wrong with it and I need to get it fixed before it is driven, and he takes it anyway, my judgment is going to be more severe than if I forgot to tell him of the problem.  It is deliberate disobedience when you go against knowledge.  The same damage maybe done in ignorance, but the person is not as responsible when they do it in ignorance.  </div> <bR> <div>      The people of Capernaum would regard the people of Sodom with abhorrence, yet they were more guilty, and will suffer greater judgment than the wicked people of Sodom, because they sinned against light, and Sodom sinned in darkness.  </div> <div> All people of all time and all places will be treated equal by God, for they will be judged on how they responded to what they knew, and how they might have responded had they had the same light that others had.  You cannot beat this for fair and square justice for all.  </div> <bR> <div>      God's omniscience makes Him the only completely and absolutely fair judge that has ever been or could ever be.  No other judge can know all of the facts, and all of the knowledge to make an absolutely perfect judgment.  Only God can have the knowledge adequate to be the final judge of men, for He alone can know what might have been had the guilty been given the same opportunities as the innocent.  </div> <bR> <div>      He also knows the opposite-what would the innocent have done had they been confronted with the same temptations as the guilty.  "There but for the grace of God go I," is a famous statement we all must say, for had we been raised in the same environment, and had the same circumstances to face as those now in prison, would we be there now as well?  God only knows, but because He knows, He also knows where those prisoners would be if they had the blessings, love, and support we have had.  They may be far more thankful and responsive to the grace of God than we have been.  We can conceive of Jesus saying, "If the population of the Stillwater prison would have had the spiritual resources you have had, they would have done ten times with it what you have done.  So they will be better off in the day of judgment than you, for you have returned little on the vast investment God has made in you."  </div> <bR> <div>      When you get into God's omniscience on this level, it can be a powerful motivator.  It makes you think about how His all-knowing will have an effect on all of our lives in judgment.  </div> <bR> <div>      If this was the only place in the Bible that this idea of God knowing what might have been, but never happened, then we would have the right to be cautious, even though these are the words of our Lord.  It is not that we should ever doubt Him, but it is right to question a rare idea, especially if it is based on one text alone.  But the idea of God's knowing what might have been is illustrated for us elsewhere in God's word.  In I Sam. 23 Saul is persuing David, and he hears that David has gone to the town of Keilah.  When David learned that Saul knew his whereabouts, he prayed to God for guidance and said, "O Lord God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me.  Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him?  Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?  O Lord, God of Israel, tell your servant.  And the Lord said He will.  Again David asked, will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?  And the Lord said, they will."  </div> <bR> <div>      Now, if we stop here, we have God giving a direct positive yes to these questions, and so it should be assumed that what God has said will be, will be, for He said yes, Saul will come to Keilah, and yes, the citizens of Keilah will turn you over to Saul.  It is all cut and dried.  God knows the future, and He tells David what it will be.  But the surprise is in the next verse which says, "So David and his men, about 600 in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place.  When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there."  </div> <bR> <div>      The very things that God said would be did not happen at all.  Saul did not come to Keilah, and the people did not surrender David, for David used the knowledge of the future to change the future so that the future that God foresaw did not take place.  </div> <div> The point is, God could know what would have been for sure had David stayed there.  It never became a part of history, but it might have, and God knew what would have been, but never was.  </div> <bR> <div>      God also said in forty days Ninevah will be destroyed.  It was a sure thing, yet it never happened because what God foresaw was changed by their repentance.  Had they not repented history would have been just as he saw it.  This is so fascinating that it makes Bible study the most fun you can have in life.  God's knowing of something does not mean that it will certainly be, for by prayer we can gain insight that can change what is going to be.  God sees all the possibilities.  God may see that I will go off the road and get injured.  The fatalist says if God sees that, than its all over, nothing can be done to change it.  What is to be will be.  But the Bible led believer says, I will pray for God's guidance before I make this trip, and I will be sensitive to the leading of His spirit.  This can enable me to use precaution, and take actions that will prevent what God sees from being the actual story.  God saw what would be if David had not prayed, and had stayed.  But David did pray and did not stay, and this changed so that what God saw was to be, never came to be.  </div> <bR> <div>      If this was not the case, all prayer would be meaningless.  If all is locked in, and whatever will be will be, then asking God for anything is a waste of time, for regardless of your prayer whatever will be will be.  The Bible says prayer changes things-even the things God knows will be if things are not changed.  God knew Saul would come to Keilah, but David prayed and changed his plans, and Saul didn't come to Keilah.  Prayer can even change what God knows will be.  God has made man not a mere puppet, but a co-writer of the play of history.  We can change the scene and the lines, and have an enormous role in determining the course of history.  </div> <div> This is why we need to pray without ceasing, for every action we take, and every attitude we express, is deciding our future.  </div> <bR> <div>      God can see the future when we do His will, and He can see the future where we do not do His will.  He can see the future where His name is honored through us, and the one where it is not.  He can see the future where we are delivered from temptation, and the one where we are not.  The point of prayer is to help us tap into the all-knowing mind of God, and get the feed back we need to make the choices that will produce the positive history rather than the negative one of what might be.  Prayer is so vital to our not doing foolish, stupid, and sinful things.  The brightness of our future depends upon our being in a prayerful state of mind.  </div> <bR> <div>      We cannot comprehend the omniscience of God, but like many other realities of life that are beyond us, such as light, electricity, gravity, etc.  We can use it for making our lives more than they can ever be without it.  Let us never cease to pray, and seek for more light in God's word, for by these resources we write daily a better story of our own history, for by these means we plug into the mind of our God who is omniscient.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE PRESENCE OF GOD based on Rev. 21:15-27</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Paul Harvey in For What Its Worth, tells of the woman in her Mercedes who was waiting for a parking place to open in a crowded mall in Hershey, Pa.  A man came to his car, put his packages in his trunk, got in, and backed out.  But before she could drive into the space, a young man in a shining new Corvette zipped right around her, and pulled into the spot.  As he got out she shouted out her window, "Hey! I've been waiting for that parking place!"  The young man responded, "Sorry lady, that's how it is when your young and quick."  She instantly put her Mercedes into gear and hit the gas.  She crashed into his flashy new Corvette smashing the right rear fender.  The young man was jumping up and down, and shouting, "You can't do that!"  The lady just smiled and said, "That's how it is when your old and rich."  </div> <div>      There is nothing to recommend in the behavior of either of these opponents, but as I read that story I thought of how the redeemed in heaven will have the characteristics of both of them.  They will be young and quick, for they will be like Jesus, who is forever in his 33 year old resurrected body.  They will be quick, for travel in eternity will be at the speed of thought.  But they will also be old in wisdom, and no longer will any be mere babes in Christ.  They will be rich with wealth that is beyond measure.  In eternity the saints will have it all, except for one thing, they will no longer have a temple.  </div> <div>      John says in verse 22, the one thing he did not see in the New Jerusalem is a temple.  It was unheard of in the ancient world to have a city with no temple, but here is the ultimate city, the city built by God Himself, and there is no church; no place to go to worship, praise, and receive instruction.  For some this may sound heavenly, that in heaven you never need to go to church, because there is no church to go to.  </div> <div>      The case of the missing temple is solved in the same sentence that the problem is presented.  John says, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  So there is a temple after all, but it is not a place to go to, it is the Persons that we worship and praise.  There is no need to go anywhere, for wherever you are in heaven, you are always in the presence of God.  Just as fish in the ocean do not have to go anywhere for a swim, so the saints in heaven do  not have to go anywhere to worship.  They can worship anywhere, for everywhere they are, they are in the temple.  </div> <div>      In the Old Testament the temple was the center of worship.  It was a place of great beauty and wealth.  People could come there and be made aware of the presence of God.  This was ordained by God, and He gave the instructions by which it was to be built.  But it was a beginners level of worship.  When Jesus came he taught a higher level.  The temple was no longer the key to worship.  Jesus taught that God is a Spirit, and that He seeks for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  So the where was no longer the key,  but it was the who that mattered.  Worship was not place oriented, but person oriented.  That is why the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D.  Jesus said they would kill Him, but in three days He would raise the temple up again.  He spoke of His body as the new temple.  Not a place, but a person was to be the temple of God's people.  </div> <div>      We no longer need to go to a place to be in the presence of God.  Where 2 or 3 are gathered in the name of Jesus, He is there.  There are hundreds of thousands of churches scattered all over the world, and Jesus is there in each of them, being worshipped.  There is no central place where anybody has to go to be in His presence.  But the church is not yet quite heavenly, for the church is still a place where people go to worship.  In heaven there will be no such place.  Worship will be a way of life, for in a real sense, we will always be in church, for church is everywhere.  The entire universe will a temple, and worship of God will be a part of living, like breathing and eating are now.  </div> <div>      God is omnipresent now, but we do not always sense it.  In heaven we will always be in the conscious presence of God.  The distinction between the sacred and the secular will no longer exist.  We will finally be able to eat and drink, and do all that we do for the glory of God, for all activity, labor, and enjoyment will be forms of worship.  This is not the case in time, for we make clear distinctions between the sacred and secular.  We go to a place to worship God, and then say adios until we meet again.  We then go and live our secular life with little awareness of the presence of God.  This leads even Christian people to be quite ungodly in their secular life.  Christians need to be heavenly minded, that is more aware of the presence of God in daily life.  This is the only way they can live with eternity's values in view, and begin to taste of heaven in time.  </div> <div>      Christians need to see God's presence in His people, and not just in a place.  Paul stressed that the people of God are the temple in which He dwells.  He is not confined to a place, but is alive in His people, who are scattered everywhere.  In I Cor.3:16 he writes, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you."  Here is the living temple--not bricks and boards, and stained glass windows, but people.  Those who let Christ dwell in them become the temple of God, and thus, the temple becomes universal.  Where His people are, God is present.  Paul wrote to the Gentiles at Ephesus and explained how they have become a part of the temple of God.  In Eph.3:19-22 he writes, </div> <div>                   "....You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow</div> <div>                         citizens with God's people and members of God's house-</div> <div>           hold, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,</div> <div>           with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.  In Him</div> <div>           the whole building is joined together and rises to become</div> <div>           a holy temple in the Lord, and in Him you too are being</div> <div>           built together to become a dwelling in which God lives</div> <div>           by His Spirit.  </div> <div>     When persons became the temple of God, the place of the temple was no longer needed, and so God destroyed the temple.  God follows the principle that the good is only good until the better comes.  When the better comes the good is no longer good.  It becomes a negative thing, for it hinders people from the best.  The Jews were judged severely for clinging to what was once good, after God gave them something better.  Christians are to recognize that they are to make the presence of God known in the world. A.M.Watts wrote,</div> <div>                Not in temples mde with hands,</div> <div>                   In shrine or altar there,</div> <div>                God hath chosen to abide</div> <div>                   The Scriptures plain declare.</div> <bR> <div>                In the hearts of men who love</div> <div>                   Their neighbors, He abides.</div> <div>                In His Spirit's fullness here,</div> <div>                   Richly Christ resides.</div> <bR> <div>                Let our hearts, O loving God,</div> <div>                   Thy living temples be.</div> <div>                May our neighbors in our love</div> <div>                   Thy presence ever see.</div> <div>      God's plan follows the progressive stages of the good, the better, and the best.  Thus, you have the law which was good, but it was replaced by grace, which was far better.  The reason we have a Bible with an Old Testament and a New Testament is because of progressive revelation from the good to the better.  The best is yet to come, and that is why God gives us revelation about heaven.  This revelation keeps us ever aware that the best is yet to be.  A good city is one where a temple is present.  A better city is one where God's people give a sense of God's presence everywhere.  The best city is where there are no churches and no temple, because everywhere one is, God is present.  </div> <div>      All to often, we as Christians are content with the good.  The good is good, and nobody can be anti-good, but the good is not the best.  It is not even the better.  Jesus made a major issue of the difference between the good and the best.  In Matt.5:46-48 Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Jesus  is making clear what we all know is real.  There are non-Christian people who are good.  They are good in character and they do good, and this is great, for the world would be intolerable if all non-Christians were as bad as they could be.  Jesus is saying the Christian is to be better than good, and be always aiming for the best, which is perfection.  </div> <div>      For a Christian to be content with the lowest level of positive living, which is being good, is to be content with the level that can be achieved by natural man without God.  He can do it because God made man in His image, and gave him the potential to be good, and this was not all lost in the fall of man.  But this is not a level that pleases God, when His children live on that level.  A Christian who is not better than good is sub-Christian.  The result is, he is no better tool for God to use than the good non-Christian.  History is filled with examples of God using non-believers to acheive His purposes, because there were no believers to be used.  </div> <div>            Non-Christians fought for the end of slavery,</div> <div>           Non-Christians fought for our nations liberty.</div> <div>           Non-Christians fought for civil rights for all.</div> <div>           Non-Christians fought for women's equality.</div> <div>           Non-Christians fought for every right and freedom we have.</div> <div>      Thank God for good non-Christians.  But no thanks is due Christians who are not better than good non-Christians.  If the love of God, and the gift of the Holy Spiirit, and the hope of heaven do not propel a Christian to a higher level of living, they will lose great reward.  They will be saved, but have no reward, for their life could have been lived by a non-Christian.  The only way a Christian is going to be better than a good non-Christian is by ever aiming for the best.  That is why we need to set our affections on things above.  That is why God has told us what He has, about heaven.  As the mind is captured by the ideals of heaven, the Christian will rise to the level of the better in this life.  </div> <div>      C. S. Lewis says that it was Christians who had a great vision of heaven who changed this world.  But, he writes, "It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.  Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither." A solid hope in heaven is the source of power to be the Christian God wants us to be. Paul says our faith and our love spring from our hope of heaven. In Col.1:5 he writes, "..the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven." Take the heavenly hope out of life, and you rob the Christian of the motivation to be as faithful and loving as they can be with that hope. The late W.H. Griffith Thomas wrote, "The consideration of heaven is no mere spiritual luxury, no mere intellectual dissipation, no imaginative revelry, but is really and definitely practical and suitable for the robust thinker and worker as well as for the contemplative mystic, and has a real bearing on our daily life."</div> <div>      On the cross Jesus tore the veil in the temple and made it possible for man to have access to God at all times. But in heaven the whole temple is gone, not just the veil. We do not have to  come to God, for God is everywhere present to our consciousness. This ideal is to have an effect on our  lives in time. It is to cause us to grow in our awareness of God's presence in all of life. This will lead us from the better to the best.</div> <div>      Paul said to pray without ceasing. How can we do this? By becoming aware that all we do, we do in the presence of God. All of life can be a prayer to God, if we are aware of God as we do it. We often get so busy that we go for hours and never give God a thought. We are still too temple oriented, and we need to go to a sacred place to become aware of God's presence. This is not bad, but it is far from the best. We need to work at being more aware of God's presence in all of life if we are going to have a better sense of what heaven will be like. </div> <div>      We may not be as limited in our concept of God as the little four year old who prayed after being to church one Wednesday night--"Dear Lord, we had a good time at church tonight. I wish you could have been there." Even an amateur theologian could quickly set the child straight, and point out the reality of things unseen. Numerous Scriptures could be quoted about God's presence everywhere, and about the promise of Christ to be with us always. Saints, like Madam Guyon, who sat in prison, could be quoted who wrote,</div> <div>                My Lord, how full of sweet content,</div> <div>                     I pass my years of banishment.</div> <div>                Where'er I dwell, I dwell with Thee,</div> <div>                     In heaven, in earth, or on the sea.</div> <div>      But the child is longing for the visible presence of God, and is not easily persuaded by the spititual unseen presence.  The fact is the child's desire is really the desire for the best, for that is what God intends to provide for man--a visible and tangible presence which will be everywhere. The ideal is not spititual, but physical presence to the senses. The most spiritual sense of God's presence now is not the best. The best will be when we, like John, see God and the Lamb on the throne, and when the Great Shepherd will lead us to the eternal living spring to quench our thirst. The visible presence of God is the ideal and the best that will be a part of heaven forever.</div> <div>      In the garden of Eden God walked with Adam, and He talked with Him. God was visible in a form and audible in a voice. Enoch walked with God after the fall of man. As late as Abraham's time, God appeared in the form of a man. We have so trained ourselves to the spiritual way of thinking that we think the idea of the physical presence of God is primitive and childish. But the fact is, this is the most advanced concept of the presence of God. This will be the kind of presence we will have in heaven. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." This will be literally fulfilled.  It is good to have a place to go to sense  God's presence; it is better to be able to sense God's presence in His people and in all of life, but it is to be the best when we will live in that templeless city where we will dwell with, and always be in, the visible presence of God.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> ACTS 17:22-31 <B> PRACTICING THE PRESENCE</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      An atheist and a Christian were debating the value of prayer, and the atheist said, "I never pray."  The Christian said, "But you must have prayed at sometime in your life."  "Yes," he admitted.  "I did pray once.  I was on a hunting trip in the Yukon and got separated from my party.  A blizzard came up, and I became snow blind as I wondered about, and then I was also straving and cold.  I finally fell on my knees and asked God for help."  "Well," said the Christian, "it looks like you got it."  </div> <div> "Got it nothing" he responded, "if an Indian guide hadn't come along just then I would have died."  </div> <bR> <div>      Here was  a man who was experiencing the absence of God in the very presence of God's grace and loving kindness.  Unfortunately, this is an experience not limited to atheist and unbelievers.  Even God's own people can have all kinds of misconceptions that blind them to the presence of God.  The Jewish leaders had  their own ideas about what the Messiah would be like, and so, even in the presense of the Messiah they experienced His absence, and they rejected Him.  Christ was objectively there in their presence, but they were not subjectively aware of His presence.  </div> <bR> <div>      How often does Christ come unto His own, and His own receive Him not?  Multiplied millions of times, I am sure.  Theologically Jesus is always present with us, but practically we experience His absence because we are not aware of that presence.  He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us, but we need to become aware of His being ever present.  This is what Paul was doing on Mars Hill as he tried to make the Athenians aware of the presence of God.  They worshipped an unknown god.  A god that seemed far away, and they  only had an obscure awareness of this absent god.  Paul's message was to help them become aware that God is not far away at all, but very near, and that in fact, they lived and moved and had their being in Him.  </div> <bR> <div>      We are not unlike these Athenians, and part of our problem is that we need to be up a tree and out on a limb like Zaccheaus before we become aware of the presence of Christ.  We get conditioned by dramatic stories to think that the only time to seek Christ's presence is in a crisis.  We read of Daniel in the lion's den; the three friends in the firy furnace, and Paul and Silis in the dungeon, all experiencing the presence of Christ in great power, and we think this will come in handy if I ever get stuck in a hopeless situation.  But what we really need is an awareness of His presence in the common place every day events of life.  The crisis is rare, and if we only want to be aware of Christ in a crisis we put Him in the same catagory as an insurance policy.  We only need to think of Him when something goes radically wrong.  This is a very superficial concept of who Jesus is as Saviour and Lord, and it eliminates Him altogether from the role of companion, guide, and friend.</div> <bR> <div>      Paul is seeking to convince the Athenians that the God who sent His Son into the world is the God of the commonplace.  He is the God of the every day, the marketplace, and the home, as well as the God of the Temple.  This unknown God does not need to remain unknown, for it is His desire that men know Him and experience His presence.   In verses 27 and 28 Paul makes two things clear:  There is an objective and subjective presence of God.  In otherwords, there is the Actuality Of God's Presence, and the awareness of God's presence.  There is the fact of God's presence, but only the feeling of God's presence makes the fact a vital part of every day life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Paul says God wants us to seek for Him.  He wants man to reach out and touch someone, and he wants that someone to be Him.  He is not far from each one of us, but we can miss Him completely if we do not strive to reach Him.  Fact and feeling must become one; the actuality and the awareness must be united.  Let's look first at-</div> <div> I.  THE ACTUALITY OF GOD'S PRESENCE.</div> <div>      The Bible makes it clear that God is everywhere because of the very nature of His being.  Matter cannot be at two places at the same time, but this law does not apply to spirit.  Spirit does not have the limitations of matter, and since God is spirit He has no limit of place.  Our bodies are stuck to being in one place at a time, but our minds can be in many places at the same time.  My mind is just as aware of the clock in the back as it is of the pulpit in the front, and of the windows on the side.  My mind is present everywhere in this room even though my body is present only in one spot.  My body is in the front, but my mind is everywhere in the room.  If I had a mind that transcended the limits of these walls I could be aware of more yet.  God has a mind that is universal, and thus, He is aware of all that is a part of His creation, and thus, He is everywhere present in His universe, just I can with my mind be everywhere present in this room.  </div> <bR> <div>      There is no where to go to be out of the presence of God.  This is David's point in Ps. 139 where he writes, "Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where I can 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 settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me."  You can't go where God is not, anymore than you can go to another pew and be out of my awareness.  As long as you are in the sphere of my awareness you are in my presence.  God's awareness takes in all the universe, and therefore, there is no place to go out of His presence.  </div> <bR> <div>      God does not have to work at being present everywhere anymore than we have to work at being aware of how many fingers we have, or of how many people are sitting at the table with us.  We can all easily be aware of what is part of our immediate enviroment.  So God, because He is everywhere present, is easily aware of all that is.  As President Lundquist of Bethel once said, "God knows the number of hairs on our heads, not because He makes a count each time I comb it, but because He is present at every point.  He knows that number as easily as we know the number of people riding in a car with us. </div> <bR> <div>       The implications of God's omnipresence are enormous.  One of them is that He is always available whether we are aware of Him or not.  Tennyson wrote, </div> <div>                                 Speak to Him for He hears,</div> <div>                                 And Spirit with spirit can meet</div> <div>                                 Closer is He than breathing,</div> <div>                                 And nearer than hands and feet.</div> <bR> <div> The actuality of God's presence is a theological truth, but to experience this reality we need to move on to the second point which is-</div> <bR> <div> II.  THE AWARENESS OF GOD'S PRESENCE.</div> <div>      We need to understand that much that is real, true, and actual does not have an impact on our lives until we become aware of it.  Candid Camera is a great example. </div> <div> People do things they would never do if they were aware they were on camera.  When they become aware they immediately cease to do the foolish things they were doing. </div> <bR> <div>      We do the same thing everyday in our homes.  We do things that hurt and hinder rather than help and heal.  They are foolish things we do and say to those we love for any number of reasons, but primarily because we let the circumstances of life control us.  We let the frustrations of life outside the home affect how we treat those inside the home.  Just imagine how becoming aware that the Candid Camera crew had set up your home to film how you treat your family after a miserable day at work.  You would by the power of that awareness surpress all anger and unkind cutting remarks, and you would be curious and thoughtful and reasonable in all your requests.  You would be a model of love.  </div> <bR> <div>      But since you know the chances are several billion to one that your reactions to life behind your own doors is going on tape, you feel free to be sub-Christian without the fear of discovery.  Our awareness that our behavior would be exposed to the public would greatly modify our behavior.  We can only justify sub-Christian behavior because we are unaware of the presence of Christ.  We practice the absence of Christ because it is the only way we can be comfortable on a sub-Christian level.  </div> <bR> <div>      It would be extremely embarrassing to come rushing into your living room screaming at your mate or children, and discover Jesus sitting on the couch visiting with the one you are blasting verbally.  You'd give anything to have the chance to go back and come in dealing with the issue in a civil and polite manner.  The point is, if we could be aware of the presence of Christ we could control all of  the sub-Christian impulses that all of us feel at times.  </div> <bR> <div>      Teilhard de Chardin said something that could change our lives if we would take it seriously.  He said, "Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God."  If we were aware of the presence of God and of Jesus in our lives, we would have a taste of heaven, and joy would be a dominent characteristic of our lives.  Only in heaven will all  tears be wiped away and so there will always be tears in this life, but an awareness of the presence of Christ will enable us to handle the negatives of life in a more positive way.  </div> <bR> <div>      Angela Morgan may seem too ivory towered in her poem, but the fact is, the more we can reach out to the level of her awareness, the more we can experience the glory of the commonplace.  She writes,</div> <div>                                  I am aware</div> <div>                                  As I go commonly sweeping the stair,</div> <div>                                  Doing my part of the everyday care,</div> <div>                                  Human and simple my lot and share-</div> <div>                                  I am aware of a marvelous thing.</div> <div>                                  Voices that murmur and ethers that ring</div> <div>                                  In the far stellar spaces where cherubim sing.</div> <div>                                  I am aware of a passion that pours,</div> <div>                                  Down the channels of fire through Infinity's doors,</div> <div>                                  Forces terrific with melody shod,</div> <div>                                  Music that makes with the pulses of God.</div> <div>                                  I am aware of the glory that runs</div> <div>                                  Bound to the stars by invisible chains,</div> <div>                                 Blaze of eternity now in my veins,</div> <div>                                 Seeing the rush of ethereal rains,</div> <div>                                 Hear in the midst of every day air,</div> <div>                                      I am aware.</div> <bR> <div>      Here the the theological and practical made one.  The actuality of God's universal presence is mingled with the awareness of His special presence in her everyday duties-even that of sweeping the stairs.  This sounds like Brother Laurence who became famous for his classic little book called, THE PRACTIC OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.  He developed such an awareness of the presence of Christ in his life that it made no difference to him if he was in the prayer room or in the clutter and clatter of the kitchen.  The result was his work was the same as worship, for it was done in Christ's presence, and for His glory, with equal joy.  Imagine being able to eat or drink, or do whatever you do, to the glory of God.  Every activity or chore becomes a project you do to please Christ, as you are aware he observes  you.  Brother Laurence could wash pots and pans for the glory of Christ because he had learned that all of his secular life, as well as his religious life, was lived in the presence of Christ.  </div> <bR> <div>      This does not mean that Christ does not work in our lives if we are not aware of Him.  He does.  He entered the home of the two on the road to Emmaus, and he talked with them, ate with them, and they enjoyed his fellowship even though they thought he was a stranger.  Jesus can be present blessing us in many ways regardless of our awareness, but the awareness increases our openness to His leading, and to a sense of joy and gratitude for His presence.  God will not cease to work His will if we remain unaware of Him, but we miss out on the joy of His presence. </div> <bR> <div>      In Is. 45:5 God says of Cyrus the Persian King he used to change the course of history:  "I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.  I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,..."  Here was a man who was greatly used of God, but he did not even know it, and was not aware of the presence of God.  God did not lose anything, but Cyrus did.  So with us, we are losers by not being aware of the presence of Christ.</div> <div>  </div> <div>      C.S. Lewis felt that we need to be aware of our unawareness of God.  He wrote, </div> <div> "If we cannot practice the presence of God, it is something to practice the absence of God, to become increasingly aware of our unwareness till we feel like men who should stand by a cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a story who looks into a mirror and finds no face there..."   Lewis is saying we need to become aware of just how unaware of God we are.  This is necessary if we are to be motivated to do what God wants us to do-reach out and seek for His presence.  The prodigal did not long for his fathers presence until he felt deeply the sense of his absence.  We do not invite Christ into many situations of life, because we are unaware of our unawareness.  </div> <bR> <div>      Leslie Weatherhead, the great English preacher said, "I believe we can live in a world where His presence is the very atmosphere that we breathe and where almost everything we touch reminds us of Him."  This is possible to the degree that we become aware of God's presence in all of life. If we could just become aware that in Him we live and move and have our being, we could say with the poet,</div> <div>                                           The Presence of the Living Christ</div> <div>                                                 Seems sweeter every day.</div> <div>                                            The overwhelming love of God</div> <div>                                                   Is felt on life's highway.</div> <bR> <div>  David S. Lampel wrote,</div> <div> " To imagine that one meets God only during weekly, corporate worship is a little like imagining that one is only bound by one's marriage vows once a year</div> <div> during the anniversary celebration; the rest of the year one is free to</div> <div> disregard the commitment to, or even the presence of, the marital</div> <div> partner. Ridiculous? Precisely."</div> <bR> <div>                                           </div> <div>       Keith Miller, in his book A SECOND TOUCH, tells about the problems he had with his family when he got up early for his devotions.  Each morning his children would follow him, climb on his lap, and ask him questions.  He finally became irratated and said to them, "Be quiet and get out, because daddy is busy."  One of his girls asked her mother what was wrong with daddy, and she said, "Oh, he's learning how to be a good Christian so he could love the people downtown."   When Keith heard this, he realized he had to handle this situation differently.  When his daughter came in the next time, he put his arm around her and told her he was learning about Jesus.  He showed his love to her, and she wanted to join him every morning for a time of reading and prayer.  He came close to being one of those who was working like the devil for the Lord.  Christians can become so zealous in some legitimate goal, but become sub-Christian in their behavior, because they forget the presence of the Lord.  </div> <bR> <div>      Asking Christ into your life is more than just an event.  You do not just say, "Lord, come in and make yourself at home," and it is done.  It is a process of developing a habit.  You have to work at some systematic method whereby you call  yourself to awareness of Christ in your life.  You will forget and fail to be aware all the time, but with conscious and continuing effort you can develop a pattern that will increase your awareness, and give  you daily victories.  </div> <bR> <div>      Bible reading and prayer could be more easily linked as one could we develop the awareness that the Bible is the only book in the world whose author is present when it is read.  This can make prayer more meaningful, and Bible reading more of a listening side of prayer.  </div> <bR> <div>      Love is characterized by a longing for the presence of the one who is loved.  This is true in all relationships.  You love to be near and with those whom you love.  Their presence adds to your joy, and their absence subtracts from your joy.  The reason courtship is so exciting is because of the high quality of the experience of presence.  You are really with each other, and talk to each other.  You are so dominated by each others presence that all the rest of reality takes a back seat and becomes obsure in comparison.  When you get married and raise a family there are many demands that divide your attention.  You no longer give each other one hundred per cent of your presence.  You let your presence be obsorbed by many other people and tasks.  The number one battle in marriage is to keep on giving your mate a high percentage of your presence.  When this gets to be a minimal part of your relationship, you have slipped into what is called a nominal marriage.  That is, your married in name only, but not in experience.  It is like the nominal Christian.  He or she says, "I believe in Christ," but they do not seek His presence or His guidance.  They do not love to learn of Christ and grow in their awareness of His being and His will.   </div> <bR> <div>      There are nominal parents too.  They have the label of parents because they have produced children.  But they do not love to be with their children, and give them their presence.  They are too busy with other things that demand their presence.  The children then become an irratation because they also demand their presence.  Presence is to a child a primary meaning of love.  You can provide all that life offers to a child, but if you deny them your presence you deny them your love.  Love's best gift is always your presence.  During the Nazi bombing of London that began in 1939 many English children were exvacuated from dangerous areas.  Amazingly it was found that these children suffered greater emotional upset from being separated from their parents than they had suffered from being exposed from physical danger.  </div> <bR> <div>      We all need the presence of someone we know who loves us to feel secure in life. You are never so lonely as when you feel a lack of the presence of someone who cares. Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us, and so we are never alone, but we still feel alone at times because we cannot sense His presence. </div> <bR> <div>       We need to practice the presence of Christ by recognizing that His invisible nature is able to be seen in what He has made. This is what Paul wrote to the Roman Christians- For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his</div> <div>     eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being</div> <div>     understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.</div> <div>     Romans 1:20</div> <bR> <div> We are without excuse, but we still miss His presence because we do not pursue it in our minds. If we just look at creation and tell our mind to think of its Creator we could sense His presence. We need to remember what we sing in church when we are out of church seeing the creation of God.</div> <bR> <div>                   This is my Father's world,</div> <div>                         And to my listening ears</div> <div>                   All nature sings and round me rings</div> <div>                        The music of the spheres.</div> <div>                        This is my Father's world:</div> <div>                         I rest me in the thought</div> <div>                  Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--</div> <div>                      His hand the wonders wrought.</div> <bR> <div>                        This is my Father's world,</div> <div>                      The birds their carols raise,</div> <div>                    The morning light, the lily white,</div> <div>                      Declare their Maker's praise.</div> <div>                        This is my Father's world:</div> <div>                      He shines in all that's fair;</div> <div>                  In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,</div> <div>                       He speaks to me everywhere.</div> <bR> <div>                        This is my Father's world,</div> <div>                          O let me ne'er forget</div> <div>                That though the wrong seems oft so strong,</div> <div>                          God is the Ruler yet.</div> <div>                        This is my Father's world:</div> <div>                         The battle is not done;</div> <div>                    Jesus who died shall be satisfied,</div> <div>                     And earth and heaven be one.</div> <bR> <bR> <div>                 All Thy works with joy surround Thee,</div> <div>                    Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,</div> <div>                    Stars and angels sing around Thee,</div> <div>                        Center of unbroken praise:</div> <div>                   Field and forest, vale and mountain,</div> <div>                      Blooming meadow, flashing sea,</div> <div>                   Chanting bird and flowing fountain,</div> <div>                       Call us to rejoice in Thee.</div> <bR> <div> A.W. TOZER  wrote,  "God is indeed there. He is there as He is here and everywhere,</div> <div>          not confined to a tree or stone, but free in the universe, near</div> <div>          to everything, next to everyone, and through Jesus Christ</div> <div>          immediately accessible to every loving heart. This truth is to</div> <div>          the convinced Christian a source of deep comfort in sorrow and</div> <div>          of steadfast assurance in all the varied experiences of his</div> <div>          life."</div> <bR> <div> May God help us to practice His presence, and thereby gain more of what He desires us to experience in life.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>GOD LOVES TO SING  Based on Zeph. 3:14-20</B></div> <div> <B>By Pastor Glenn Pease</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Knowing the Bible is the best education life has to offer, for not only is it the light by which we come to see our Savior and enter into His salvation, it is by its light that we get insights into all areas of life that other books cannot give us.  If you do research on the origin of music,  you will be taken back to the ancient world and told of instuments on Egyptian hiroglyphics and in caves.  Gen. 4:21 will be quoted about Jubal, the father of all who play the harp and flute.  All of the books will assume that music had its source in man.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Even so scholarly a book as The Guinness Book of Music will tell  you that the earliest surviving hymn text goes back to the 8th century B.C. to a poet in Corinth.  All authorities stop far short of the Biblical record that tells us that music is eternal because it is a part of the nature of God.  It did not have its origin in man, but in the God who made man, and made him to love music and singing, for God has enjoyed it for all eternity.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Music and song are as timeless as the nature of God.  If you consider God's singing as sacred music, then sacred music has no beginning, for it is just as eternal as God is.  It was a surprise to me when I first discovered this text in Zeph. 3:17 which tells us clearly that God delights and rejoices over His people with singing.  I guess I never thought about it before.  Man made in God's image could hardly live without music.  It is so basic to His joy and happiness.  But I never considered whether or not God has delight in singing.  When I found this text and gave it some thought, it seemed a very logical thing to assume that God would love music.  He is the source of all music, for He created man with the gift of creating it, enjoying it, and using it to praise Him.  If He did not enjoy music, it would be a strange thing to want it used in the worship of His people.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      We should know that God loves music, and that He has been singing for all eternity, even if this text was not in the Bible.  But I am delighted it is here, for it opens up some exciting windows into the nature of our Lord, whom we praise in song.  This text about God singing led me to search the Bible to see if there is any other evidence that God enjoys the same things that we do.  What I discovered is that all three persons of the Godhead are very happy persons, and they delight in singing, and in all that is joyful.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     We have a terrible misconception about Jesus because of the great suffering He had to endure to atone for our sin.  He was called the man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief.  This label stuck to Jesus, and most of the artists of the ages pictured Jesus in His agony, and this has been the image people have had of Him.  The larger portrait of the Bible has been ignored, which is the portrait of Jesus as the happiest man whoever lived.  The Lord of laughter; the life of the party, and the lover of singing.  Joy was the dominent emotion of His life, and it was the joy of eternity that kept Him going to the cross.  Jesus was spirit-filled, and joy is a fruit of the Spirit, which He displayed constantly.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     We are blinded to the bright side of His joyful life by a focus on His tears and blood, which is truly a vital focus.  We can never forget the blood He sweat in Gethsemane, and that which He shed on Calvary.  Our salvation depends on that shed blood.  But let's not lose the life He died to give us-the life of joy and abundant living-the life He lived Himself.  The book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus was histories happinest man.  Heb. 1:9 says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."  Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy, and was set above all others by this unique anointing.  In plain language, Jesus was the most joy filled person to ever walk this planet.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      Spurgeon said, "I suppose there never lived a happier man than the Lord Jesus.  He was rightly called the man of sorrows, but He might with unimpeachable truth, have been called the man of joys."  It would seem to follow, that if singing is one of the key ways by which joy is expressed, that Jesus would, like His heavenly Father, be a singer.  And sure enough, the book of Hebrews reveals Jesus to be just that; like Father, like Son.  Just as God rejoiced over His temple in the Old Testament, and sang songs of joy, so Jesus in the New Testament sings the praises of His heavenly Father to His bride the church.  We see this revealed in Heb. 2:11-12.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  He says, "I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises."  Just before Jesus went into the garden of Gethesmane He sang a song with His disciples, but this text tells us He sang the praises of God on a regular basis.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     James makes an interesting distinction between praying and praising.  Praying tends to be for the negatives of life, and praising for the positives of life.  Listen to James 5:13-14.  "Is anyone of you in trouble?  He should pray.  Is anyone happy?  Let him sing songs of praise."  Singing songs of praise is a sign of a happy heart, and thus, we know God the Father and God the Son are happy, for they both sing songs of praise.  But what about the Holy Spirit?  There is no question about the joy of the Holy Spirit, for He is the spirit of joy, and the one who produces the fruit of joy in our lives.  He is the one who inspired all the joyful songs of praise in the Bible, and to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with joy.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Paul wrote in I Thess. 1:6, "You welcome the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."  In Rom. 14:17 he wrote,  for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."  Joy is actually another name for the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 13:52 we read, "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."  All the songs of praise and joy through history are songs inspired by the Holy Spirit.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus was a man of joy because He was filled with the Spirit.  In Isa. 61 we see the passage Jesus quoted and fulfilled in His life when the Spirit of God came upon Him to preach good news to the poor; to bind up the broken hearted, and to set the captives free.  Then it says in verse 3 what He came to do for those who grieve:  "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of morning, and a garment of praise instead of despair."  The work of the Holy Spirit was to, through Jesus, eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive, that God's people might be clothed in a garment of praise.   The Trinity is a trio of praise singers.  All three persons of the Godhead are happy, delighted, and joyous singers.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This explains why the Bible is so full of praise.  Praise is God's signiture.  No wonder the Psalms have the entire creation singing praises.  Everything God made was made to praise.  When anything or anyone ceases to praise God, it is no longer what God made it to be.  It is broken and not functioning for the purpose for which it was created.  When man ceases to praise God, He is broken and doesn't work.  Being saved is to repair that brokenness and renew the ability to praise.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There is no praise in hell, for hell is the junk yard where all go whose praise compacity is broken beyond repair, because they did not call upon the only one who could repair it-the Lord Jesus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit the praise compacity is restored so that men can again be praisers of God.  Men are never more like God wants them to be then when they are praising Him.  The goal of this life is to get into God's choir which will sing praises forever.  The only way to qualify is to let the Holy Spirit into your life by opening the door to Jesus Christ.  He will give you a song that will never end.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Joy is the emotion that leads to singing, and this is an emotion that we see in Jesus who was filled with the spirit of joy.  When the 72 came back to Jesus all excited about their power in His name to cast out demons, Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven," but He urged them not to rejoice that the demons submitted  to their power, but that their names were written in heaven.  Then Luke 10:21 follows immediately: "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.'"  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     We get a picture here of the disciples here like little children finding a room full of new toys.  They are so excited and full of joy at the victory of good over evil, and Jesus is feeling like you and I feel when we see our children tickled with delight when they receive the gift of new games.  Jesus knows the joy of the parent and grandparent, and He praised God for that joy.  Jesus is a joyful praiser of God.  When you have the joy of Jesus you have the ultimate joy.  All other joy is partial, but His is complete.  Jesus said in John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."  There can be no joy higher than that of Jesus, for He was the joyest man whoever lived.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      The Shepherd who finds the lost sheep calls his friends and neighbors and says, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep."  Jesus said there is rejoicing in heaven over every sinner who repents, but He was doing plenty of rejoicing on earth as well.  It is the same story with the woman who finds her lost coin and is rejoicing.  The Prodigal's father threw a great party with a feast, music, and dancing because he was so full of joy that his son was restored.  Jesus is joyful beyond words over every person who is saved and restored to fellowship with God, and this happens hundreds of times everyday.  This means Jesus is in almost perpetual praise inspite of a fallen world.  But we must get back to the first person of the Trinity-the Father.  Our text tells us He is also full of joy, and in that joy He sings over His people.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This is the basis for the great love song called the Song of Songs.  The heart of God is full of love songs for His bride.  There is no escaping the reality that all of life, as we know it, is one great romance.  God is the hero and man is the damsel in distress.  Satan is the villian that seeks to spoil the relationship of God and man.  It is a long hard struggle, but the story ends with the wedding feast of the Lamb.  God wins His bride, and the feasting, celebration, and the songs go on forever.  Every story has three parts:  a setting; the setting is upset; and the setting is reset, either successfully, and then there is a happy ending, or unsuccessfully and there is a sad ending.  God's story has a happy ending with love and singing that lasts forever.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There is so much unfaithfulness on the part of the bride, and thus, so much judgment that we tend to miss all the joyful scenes of God's delight in His people.  God is a happy God.  He is a God in love, and He sings as a lover, and He rejoices in His bride.  I studied all the words for happy and joyful emotions in the Old Testament, and I discovered that all of them apply to God.  God has a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment as He interacts with people and His creation.  It can be a lot of fun being God.  Listen to some of the evidence.  God is always promising Israel He will make them prosper if they obey Him, and in Duet. 30:9 He says, "The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous just as He delighted in your fathers."  The Hebrew word for delight is the same word for rejoicing, being glad, making mirth, and being joyful.  It is used again in Isa. 62:5, "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."  God has the same emotion as the groom who feels he has the girl of his dreams for his own.  The word is used again in Isa. 65:19, "I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There are others, but we want to look at just one more that gives us an insight into the emotions of our Maker.  In Psa, 104:31 we read, "The Lord shall rejoice in His works."  God said, after He made the universe, "It is very good."  He was happy with His works just like an artist who gazes on His finished painting and says, "That is good.  It is the best I can do."  God was happy, and no wonder all the angels sang at creation.  God was no doubt leading them, for God sings when He is delighted, and He was delighted in His works.  He will also be delighted in the final heaven when the story of salvation is complete.  So the point is, we will hear God's singing forever, and we will sing with Him forever.  Song will be a part of our eternal life.  Music is forever, for it is a part of God's very being.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Music beautifies sound, and singing beautifies language, and the purpose of music and singing is to do just that:  add beauty to life.  It enables us to say on a higher plain what we cannot communicate in words alone.  Poetry is a step above pros, and poetry to music is a step above that.  There is no higher step of communicating love, joy, and all the emotions, for when we reach the level of song we are on the highest level, where even God is not revealed to go any higher.  The Song of Songs is saying by its very title, you cannot go higher than a song to communicate love.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     It is also Godlike to rejoice over our works.  For all we know God whistled while He worked, or hummed a tune as He said, "Let there be light."  He enjoyed what He was doing, and when you enjoy your work you have the potential of singing over your work.  The work itself can be a song we offer to God as a sacrifice of praise.  Galen, the famous second century physician, said of his professional life that he regarded it "As a religious hymn in honor of the Creator."  Life is on the highest level when we can do all we do for the glory of God.  When we do, all of life is a song of praise to God, and this is what leads God to sing over us.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Maclaren, the great English preacher, wrote in his Expositions of Holy Scripture, "Zion is called to rejoice in God because God rejoices in her.  She is to shout for joy and sing because God's joy too has a voice, and breaks out into singing.  For every throb of joy in man's heart, there is a wave of gladness in God's."  God loves to sing, and we give Him reason to do so when we sing and make our life a cause for praise.  The Living Bible makes this text come alive.  "Is that a joyous choir I hear?  No, it is the Lord Himself exalting over you in happy song."  The questions this raises are many, and we will have to wait till heaven to have our answers.</B></div> <div> <B>1. Does God write His own songs?</B></div> <div> <B>2. Does He sing solo, or always as a trio of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?</B></div> <div> <B>3. Does He have the angels sing backup?</B></div> <div> <B>4. Is it recorded so we will be able to listen to God's love songs for His bride?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     It is so hard to imagine God singing that most never try for they never see this text in Zeph. and never explore the joy of God in His people. Spurgeon, however,  usually discovers the gems of the Bible that others pass by.  Listen to his excited comments on this text.  "Think of the great Jehovah singins!  Can you imagine it?  Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into song:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit together singing over the redeemed?  God is so happy in the love which He bears to His people that He breaks the eternal silence, and the sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy."  </B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B>     It is interesting that Spurgeon would say the sun, moon and stars hear God's song.  The Bible and hymnology are full of this idea that the whole universe listens to God's song, as if all of its orderly and beauty of movement is its dance to God's tune.  Psa. 148 says the whole universe praises God, and other Psalms have the trees clapping and the mountains skipping to God's tune.  Jesus even said on Palm Sunday, if the people had not praised Him, the very rocks would have cried out.  That would have really been Christian rock music had the literal rocks broken into songs of praise for their Creator.  We sing at Christmas, "Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o'er the plains, and the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains."  Do the mountains really sing back in reply to this heavenly song?  D.L. Moody, the great evangelist, took it literally, and he preached a sermon on praise in which he said, "Did you ever stop to think that the heart of man is the only thing that does not praise the Lord?  The heavens declared His glory, the sun praises Him, the moon and stars praise Him; as rain falls from heaven it praises God; all nature praises God-the ver dumb creature gives Him praise, and it is only the heart of man that won't praise Him."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Now I know what it means when God says He looks not on the externals but on the heart.  God is looking inside man to see if their is a song of praise there.  That is what matters to God, for if there is praise in a man's heart, he is alive to God and has great potential.  When Samuel went to chose a son of Jesse as the new king of Israel, he thought for sure the oldest son would be God's choice.  He was big and handsome and seemed a great follow-up to Saul, who was head and shoulders above most all men.  God however rejected all of the older sons and chose the youngest, which was David.  He was just a mere shepherd boy, but God saw in David what no one else could see.  Everyone saw a mere lad, but God saw a king; a king who would be the greatest leader of God's people in praise.  He wrote most of the songs God's people sang all through the Old Testament, and all threw the history of the church up to the last couple of centuries.  Many of the popular songs today are going back to the Psalms, and many Christians have never ceased to sing the songs of David.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The words of David have gone up in praise to God from all over the world.  God saw the heart of praise in David.  He was a man after God's own heart, for there was a song in his heart.  That is what God looks for in all His children.  That is why Paul, who could sing a song even while in stocks in a dungeon, wrote to the Ephesians and said in Eph. 5:19, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      God has a musical heart, and He loves to see a song in the heart of all His children.  He intends to sing with His family of the redeemed forever, and so one of the best ways to prepare for the heavenly culture is to fill your heart with songs of praise.  That is what God saw in David.  Others saw a shepherd boy, but God saw a king.  Don Mcminh, in his book Entering His Presence writes, "God sings!  What a delightful thought!  When God thinks about His love for us, it impels Him to sing.  When God wants to rejoice, when He wants to praise, He choses music to express Himself.  Music is a part of the eternal existence of God; how wonderful that He has given us the joy of music as a tool to express godliness in our lives."  One of the major questions we need to ask of ourselves is, Does God see a song in my heart?  God loves to see a song there because He is ever looking for partners to sing, for God loves to sing.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>CHOOSING GOD'S DREAM</B></div> <div> BY GLENN PEASE  </div> <div> BASED ON I KINGS 3:1-15</div> <bR> <div>      Very few people have heard of Caedman, the first great poet of the English language.  He was a illiterate lay worker in the monastery at Whitly, England.  In the seventh century.  After dinner they would all take turns singing at the  harp to entertain each other.  Caedman would slip out before it came to his turn because he had no songs to share.  One night when he slipped away he went to the stable and fell asleep.  He had a  dream that a man came to him and said, "Caedman, sing me something."  Caedman answered that if he could sing he would have stayed with his friends.  The man said, "sing anyway."  So Caedman tried and sure enough poetry came from his mouth.  </div> <div>      When he woke up he remembered the dream and even the song he had sung.  He told the leader of the monastery and he gathered the monks to hear the story  and his song.  All agreed God had given Caedman a gift.  They began to give him Biblical themes and he would compose poems for them.  He put the entire book of Genesis into poetry.  Then he did the same with the major stories and teachings of the Bible.  By means of a dream God made a illiterate the first great English poet.  </div> <div>      God does some spectacular things through the power of dreams and Solomon is a great example.  He was confronted by God in a dream and the choices he made in that dream determined that he would be the wisest King in history.  The first thing we learn from Solomon's dreams is-</div> <div>      I.  GOD'S DREAMS ARE NOT JUST FOR PERFECT PEOPLE.  </div> <div>      You would think God would limit his coming to people in dreams to those like Mary and Joseph, of whom we have no record of sin.  It makes sense for God to give special revelation to people like Enoch, who walked with Him and was fully righteous.  But it is far more encouraging when we read that God came even to a sinner like Solomon in a dream.  </div> <bR> <div>      Solomon was a politician and as you know, it has never been easy to be a politician and not be corrupted by the culture.  Our text tells us that Solomon did love the Lord and lived according to the statutes of his godly father David.  But the fact remains, he was still sacrificing on the high places.  This very popular practice led Israel time and time again into idolatry.  Solomon was a good man but he was still conforming to the world in this area.  </div> <div>      But God did not say-no dream for you Solomon until you get rid of every sin and worldly contamination.  God does not wait for us to get perfect before he seeks to use us for His purpose.  If you wait to dream again of what God might do through you until you have conquered all your sin, you will not be doing anymore dreaming in this life.  God loves perfection but He is a realist and He uses the imperfect until the perfect is available.  That means He is willing to use any and all of us if we will be willing to dream of being so used.  </div> <div>      If you read the biographies of the people God has most used in history you discover they had their sins and weaknesses.  D.L. Moody was a man God used to change the world and his influence lives to this day.  But he often murdered the English language.  He was also often harsh and irritable.  He was criticized for this by a group of Christian leaders and this was his response, "I know you men are way beyond me in the sweetness and peace of your daily lives and I wish I were more like you."  He did not, however, let his defects stop him from dreaming of being used of God.  His famous side-kick Sankey, who sang at all his crusades, became ill and Moody had to get others to sing.  When Sankey came back he was irritated and refused to take second place.  His pride was making life awkward for all involved.  But inspite of this defect, God used Sankey to touch millions for Christ.  </div> <div>      Dale Evans Rogers in her book, Let Us Love, confesses to her own pride  in seeking recognition.  She writes-"I speak from experience.  Having been a show business </div> <bR> <div> performer, B.C.{before Christ in my life}, I am still tempted occasionally by the driving urge to press for my own recognition.  In all honesty, many times I give into that temptation, and I'm completely miserable afterward.  Believe me, peace goes flying out the door when ego comes in.  Then there are times, happily, that though the power of the Holy Spirit I am able to say, "Down, Dale!"  And when that happens, I am at peace, and now then I am allowed to enjoy something even better than what I was contenting for.  It is during these moments that I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that I am nothing and that I have nothing except as the Lord has given it to me.  My function is to be available for His use."  </div> <div>       She has been available and God has used her to touch millions of Americans for Christ.  God does not use people because they are without defects but rather because they are willing in spite of their defects to dream of being so used.  God's dreams are not just for perfect people.</div> <div>      II. DREAMS SOLVE PROBLEMS THAT WE STRUGGLE WITH WHEN WE ARE AWAKE.</div> <div>      Solomon took over as the King of Israel from his father David.  Everything was different now.  Under David, the king had to be a great warrior and lead his people to victory over enemies.  That day of violence and bloodshed was over.  Solomon, however, is never once seen in a fight.  It is an age of peace and tranquility and knowing how to wield a sword is no big deal,  A leader now needs wisdom to lead the nation.  Life is more complex than just raising an army to go out and defeat a foe.  There are now endless international treaties and trade agreements.  Solomon had to be a world thinker and form alliances like no king before him.  </div> <div>      Solomon felt like a little child, he tells God in verse 7.  He felt totally inadequate for the duties that face him.  And so he asked God to give him the wisdom he needed to govern his people.  God is pleased with his choice and he gave him the wisdom to </div> <bR> <div> become the greatest peace time king in the history of Israel.  He lead Israel into its golden age.  Life was a dream come true for the people of God.  </div> <div>      History is loaded with examples of how men have gotten the wisdom they needed to solve problems in their dreams.  Not all dreams are of help and not all dreams are of God.  But the fact is, if you long for God to give you guidance on a problem, there are many illustrations of how he has done so by means of dreams.  </div> <div>      Auto Loewi had a theory for seventeen years that nerves triggered a chemical reaction to act on muscles.  One night, just before Easter Sunday in 1920, he had a dream.  He woke and jotted down some notes.  But when he got up in the morning he could not decipher them.  On Easter Sunday he woke again, having had the same dream.  This time he took no chances.  He got up and performed his dream experiment right then on a frogs heart.  He proved his theory and in 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for his discovery.  </div> <div>      Friedrick Kekule, the German professor of chemistry, dreamed in 1865 and what he saw in his dream helped him see the structure of the molecule.  His dream discovery is called by some the cornerstone of modern science.  He told his amazing dream to his colleagues and urged them to learn to dream to find solutions to the mysteries of God's creation.  </div> <div>      Even everyday things have come to us by means of dreams.  Elias Howe dreamed he was being attacked by tribal warriors he noticed the spears he was using had holes near their points.  When he awoke he realized this was the key to his invention of the sewing machine-holes in the needles near their points.  </div> <div>      Solomon was not the only one to have this dream experience.  There are many examples and therefore we need to be alert to the possibly that God could give us guidance through our dreams.  I have never had such a dream and maybe I never will, but I am persuaded by the Scripture and history that I should ever be open to that possibility.  </div> <div>      </div> <bR> <div>      John Chapman, in 15th century England, had a dream that he met a man on London Bridge.  The man told him about a fortune to be found.  The next day he went to the bridge and met a man who told him he dreamed for meeting a man there who had a great deal of money buried in his garden.  John went home and dug up his garden and sure enough, there he found a fortune.  With it he built a church in Suffolk, England and had this story of his dream craved on one wall to testify that God built that church with dream money.</div> <div>      There is buried treasure all over the world that only God knows about and we never know when he will reveal to someone where it is.  There are also buried treasures in each of our lives-gifts and potential resources that we are not using for God.  We need to pray that he will guide us by dreams or by some other means to discover, develop, and dedicate them to His service.  </div> <div>      God was pleased with Solomon because he did not just dream of having self-centered goals such as long life, wealth, and power to destroy his enemies.  He longed for wisdom to be a blessing for other people.  He wanted the wisdom to choose what was right for all people and not just himself.  God is pleased when any of His children have this as their dream-the dream of being a blessing to others.  </div> <div>      Wisdom is not just having a lot of knowledge, it  is being able to love the things that God loves.  The poet captures Solomon's experience in these words-</div> <div>                                  Now if the Lord should say to me,</div> <div>                                  "What gifts shall I bestow on thee?"</div> <div>                                   Should I like Solomon reply, </div> <div>                                   " O give me wisdom from on high!"</div> <div>                                   </div> <div>                                   Yet wisdom is the only thing</div> <div>                                    That real happiness can bring.</div> <bR> <div>                                    And restless must my heart remain.</div> <div>                                    Until this wisdom I obtain.</div> <bR> <div>                                     It would not make my truly wise</div> <div>                                     To know the stars that fill the skies,</div> <div>                                      Or all the fishes in the seas,</div> <div>                                      Or beasts and birds, or flowers and trees.</div> <bR> <div>                                       Wisdom to love the thing that's right,</div> <div>                                        O this would give my heart delight.</div> <div>                                        This wisdom, then, O grant to me,</div> <div>                                        That I may ever live with thee.</div> <div>      God is most pleased with us when we want what he dreams for us to have.  The question of God to Solomon is His question to all of us.  What do you want?  What is your dream?  </div> <div>      God gives us choices because His goal is not to force His children to do what he wants, but to get them to want what he wants.  The law says do this or else.  Many Christians live under the law and thus live by the ought principle-I ought to do this and I ought to do that for this and that is what a Christian ought to do.  The ought mode leads to obedience that is dead and also to burnout.  </div> <div>      The want mode, however, leads to enthusiasm.  I do this not because I have to but because I want to.  I want to serve God and meet the needs of others.  I don't teach because I have to-I want to.  I don't give because I have to-I want to.  I don't study the Bible because I have to-I want to.  I don't look for new ways to be a more effective Christian because I have to-I want to.  What do you want is what God asks of all of us because it is what we want that is our real dream.  Even if Solomon had not been given </div> <bR> <div> unusual wisdom he still would have been pleasing to God because that is what he wanted             .    Do you want your life to be a blessing to others?  Do you want your gifts to be used to serve the people of God?   Do you want to an asset of the church?  If you really want these things, you will be praying for the wisdom to fulfill these dreams, for pray is the language of desire.  What you really want and desire is that for which you pray.  </div> <div>      Because we are all imperfect it is easy to stop short of God's dream for us and get caught up in lesser dreams that come to us because of our culture.  Jamie Buckingham in his book, Power for Living, tells of boarding a plane in New York to fly home to Melbourne, Florida.  The plane had to make one brief stop in Tampa before going to Melbourne.  They were running behind schedule so the stewardess told all the Melbourne passengers to remain on the plane for this brief stop.  Buckingham was reading and paid not attention to what was happening.  But then he began to realize something was wrong for they were on the ground for a long time.  He asked the flight attendant what was going on and she explained they had lost two of their Melbourne passengers.  They had gotten off in Tampa and they could not find them.  But then two elderly women came rushing into the plane.  They were obviously flustered and speaking in rapid Italian to each other.  </div> <div>      The story was, these two women from Italy spoke no English.  This was their first trip to the United States.  They were visiting family in Melbourne who were waiting for them.  They did not realized the stop in Tampa was not Melbourne.  They saw the palm trees waving in the sun and they assumed they were at their destination. That is why they hurried off the plane to look for their loved ones.  It was a dream of a lifetime and they were so excited, but no one was there to greet them.  When the flight attendant finally found them wandering in the terminal they refused to get back on the plane fearing they were being sent back to Italy.  An Italian baggage handler was found who convinced them they were not yet to their final destination and so they got back on the plane.  </div> <div>           </div> <div>      Buckingham says Christians do this all the time in life.  They get off at the wrong destination.  They equate money, security or prestige with success and thus stop short of the dream God has for them.  Even Jesus was tempted to stop short of God's dream and choose power and popularity, but He did not yield.  He went all the way to the cross, the final destination in God's dream for him.  He served all mankind by His sacrifice for their sins.  As we remember His sacrifice with grateful hearts let us pray that we too can be successful in choosing God's dream for us.  </div> <div>                </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>FUN IS FUNDAMENTAL  ZECH. 8:1-19</B></div> <div> by Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div> Introduction:</div> <div>      Geography students after traveling around the world by books were asked to list what they considered the seven wonders of the world. It was a hard decision but such things as Egypts Great Pyramids, The Taj Mahal, The Grand Canyon, and The Great Wall of China, were getting a lot of votes.</div> <div>      The teacher noticed that one of her students, a quiet girl, had not entered into the discussion. " Are you having trouble," she asked, and the girl said, "I couldn't make up my mind because there are so many." "Well tell us what you have," the teacher urged. She stood to her feet and read from her paper-"I think the seven wonders of the world are to touch and to taste, to see and to hear, and then to run and to laugh and to love."</div> <div>      This little girl was tuned into a different channel and she was sharing wonders that are indeed greater marvels than any of the so-called 7 wonders of the world. None of them would be anything without those gifts of God that enable us to wonder at them and enjoy them. She was listing wonders not limited to one place in the geography of the world, but to those wonders that God has given to those made in His image all over the world.</div> <div>      Her seven wonders are more wonderful because they are not just in one place, but in every place.  I don't know what her teachers response was to her answer, but our text tells us that God's response is a hearty, heavenly amen!  </div> <div>      </div> <div>      This  chapter of Zechariah is God's description of the ideal life for His people.  It is a picture of just how good it can be when he blesses His people.  We want to focus on just a few of the details.  </div> <div>      Notice in verse 5, God says His ideal of the perfect city is one where the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.  Then in verse 19 He says the fasts will be changed to festivals and become glad and joyful occasions.</div> <div>      There is something about this chapter that gives you the sneaking suspicion that God loves fun, and He loves His people to have fun.  This may seem a little too light hearted, but I intend to show that fun is fundamental to God's nature, and His plan for man.  </div> <div>      </div> <div>       This subject is so vast in Scripture that my hardest task was to figure out how to limit it. The entire message could be devoted to just quoting Bible verses on gladness, delight, joy, and feasting.  I was so overwhelmed with the number of texts dealing with the feelings of having fun that I couldn't get a handle on it until I discovered the word play,  which is a synonym for fun.  It is the Hebrew word for the children playing in the streets, and it is the ideal word for study because it is used only a few times in the Bible in referring to the feeling of playfulness.  Let me share with you the context of these few verses on play.</div> <div>   </div> <div>      God seems to be in a playful mood as He responds to Job, and asks Him all kinds  of questions about His creation.  In Job 40:20 God is speaking of one of His largest creatures, either the Hippopotamus or Elephant, and He says, "The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby."  A few verses later God is really getting into the fun of making Job see his physical insignificance compared to His great creature called the leviathan, and in 41:5 He asked Job, "Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?"  This same Hebrew word for play is used there for "make a pet of him."  Jehovah is joking with Job just as we do when we see a creature like Godzilla, or some other monster, and say, " wouldn't he make a great pet?"  </div> <bR> <div>      What we have here is God's acknowledgment that the playfulness we see in the animal kingdom is not an accident, nor is it a part of the fall.  The playfulness of creatures that makes us enjoy the zoo, and nature films, and pets, is built into the animal kingdom by God.  It is part of His plan that man should enjoy the playfulness of animals and have them as pets, and enter into the fun of play with them.  We don't have time to persue this-we are just taking a peak.  But this peak tells us why we enjoy our pets.  It is because God made them to be playful.</div> <bR> <div>      In Psalm 104:26 the psalmist is describing God's vast creation, and then He comes to the sea, teaming with creatures, and He says, "There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there."  Frolic is the same Hebrew word for play.  We went to Sea World in Florida and saw how man can build great buildings and bodies of water for the sea creatures to frolic in and give people enjoyable entertainment.  The Bible says the oceans are God's playground for these same creatures.  The only reason they can be trained to play games and do tricks for our entertainment is because God made them with this capacity to have fun and to play.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Jewish rabinical tradition says that God made leviathan as a play thing.  God delights in His creatures, and some of them may have no other purpose than to delight the creator.   God has fun with His creation, and the reason we are to respect and to conserve it is because it is God's toybox with delights to give pleasure to God and man. </div> <bR> <div>      Even if we did not have verses to say so, it would be a logical supposition that if God enjoys the playfulness of the animal kingdom, He must also enjoy the playfulness of man.  But we do have text that illustrate this reality.  In Isa. 11 we get another of God's descriptions of an ideal earthly environment.  Note how the child will be able to play with the animal kingdom, and not just our present day domestic pets, but the animals that now are dangerous.  Verses 6-9 say, "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.  The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.   The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."</div> <bR> <div>      In other words, where God is fully known there is play without pain.  It is all joy and pleasure, and all that God has made works together in harmony, and evil is absent completely.  All of the childhood fantasies of playing with the animal kingdom, and leading them like a Tarzan will be fulfilled.  These fantasies that led Walt Disney to produce his movies are not a part of the fall, but are a part of that playful image of God in which man was originally made.  God anticipates this future ideal with the same pleasure you anticipate an adventure of fun with your children.  You want your children to have fun, and God wants the same for His children.  </div> <bR> <div>      Playfulness is a part of Godliness, but we seldom see the Biblical picture of it.  </div> <div> Because we lack this Biblical foundation we sometimes feel guilty when we engage in play.  This is not all bad, for we need to keep in mind we are dealing with a paradox.  There is another side to play that is dangerous and destructive.  Like any other value, when it becomes an idol, it becomes a curse.  We need to keep a balance so that we do not lose Gods best because we abuse playfulness.  But on the other hand some Christians go the other way and quote Paul, "Set your affections on things above and not on the things of the earth", and use this as a basis for rejecting the enjoyment of earthly play.  In reality, when we set our affection on things above, we see clearly the nature of God which enables us to wisely choose what is consistent with that nature.  </div> <div>                             When you set your affections on things above,</div> <div>                              You will come to know</div> <div>                              That he who is light and life and love</div> <div>                              Also has affections for things below.</div> <bR> <div>      God delights in the same things we do-the playfulness of animals, the fun of children, and the festivities of adults.  Celebrating is one of the ways that men praise God.  In II Sam 6:5 the Hebrew word for play is again used.  "David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tamborines, sistrums, and cymbals."  The ark of God had been returned and they were celebrating.  When the prodigal son returned there was also a celebration with song, dance, and feasting.  Even the angels of heaven get into the mood and rejoice when the sinner repents.  </div> <bR> <div>      The point is, there is fun in victory.  There is the feeling we ought to celebrate and sing, and have pleasure when God blesses, and God delights in our feeling this way.  Fun is a part of the total worship experience, and because this is so,  we need not fear that heaven will ever be boring, for with eternal worship there will also be eternal fun.  </div> <bR> <div>      Prov. 8:30-31 is the last text on positive play that we want to look at.  It is again in the context of God's creating the wonders of the world.  Wisdom is present and wisdom says in the Hexapla translation of the O.T. "Then I was at His side as a small child; then I was all delight, daily playing before Him the whole time, playing on His earth, taking my delight in the children of men."  The picture is one we too seldom consider.  God had fun creating the world.  The Son and the angels and wisdom all enjoyed it as well.  It was like a great celebration-a day of play as all heaven entered into the delight of watching God set up the largest playground ever.  It is the picture of children watching with delight as the circus is set up, and all the preparations are made for a great time of fun.</div> <div>  </div> <div>      God did not lose his delight in play because of the fall.  His goal is to overcome the effects of the fall and get back to a world of fun without sin.  On the day of Pentecost Peter preached his great message that won 3,000 to Christ and he quoted David as referring to Christ and His resurrection.  He says in verses 26-28, "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body will also live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy with your presence."  The word for joy here is used only two times in all the N.T.  It is the word from which we get our English word euphoria.  It covers all the emotions we refer to by gladness, cheerfulness, happiness, delight and joy.  </div> <bR> <div>      This text tells us that God's plan was for Jesus to experience these emotions forever in His presence.  Jesus knew how to enjoy life and to enjoy children playing.  He could have pleasure at the parties he attended, and He could add to the delight of others as He did at the wedding of Cana.  The only other place that same Greek work is used is in Acts 14.  Paul and Barnabas healed a crippled man at Lystra.  The people there thought for sure they were gods who had come down, and the priests of the temple of Zeus came to offer sacrifices to them. </div> <div>       Paul was shocked, and pleaded with them to see that they were only human too.  Then he shared the good news of the living God who loved them and who had been blessing them in so many ways.  In verse 17 he says God has not left himself without a witness-"He has shown kindness by giving rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."  Joy is the same word used for the joy of Jesus.  Keep in mind, these are pagan people, and Paul is saying their joy, or euphoria, has been the gift of God.  </div> <bR> <div>      This text makes it clear that God made man the same way He made the creatures of  the field and the sea.  He made them with the capacity for fun and play so they could enjoy the good things of life.  It is a universal feeling-this feeling of well-being called euphoria.  It is God's gift to all men, and this needs to be recognized, for Paul used it as a tool of evangelism.  We do too, but we do not recognize the Biblical basis of what we are doing.  All evangelism efforts use fun as fundamental.  </div> <bR> <div>      I do not know of a camp ministry that would survive a season if it was not for fun.  Take away swimming, boating, ball games, ping pong, bikes, and other sports; take away all the fun and see how people will stay away in droves.  You couldn't pay kids to come to a camp where fun is not fundamental.  Every youth group and organization in the world knows this.   If there is no plan for fun you can forget  planning anything else.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is not just kids who need it, but adults do as well.  The reason we enjoy musical groups is because it  is fun.  It is fun to be uplifted.  It is fun to be aided in praising God.  Music is a recognized form of play.  The same word we have been studying for play in the Bible is most often used for playing instruments.  Music is played and enjoying it is playing.  That is why every great evangelist has music.  It is fun to hear good music, and so the fun of music is a key element in attracting people to Christ.  </div> <bR> <div>      If Christianity is not fun it is not pleasing to God nor man.  We too often think fun and play is a secular side of life.  It is good for a break until we get back to the important and serious stuff of life.  This concept is too bad for it leads Christians to not take fun seriously.  They do not see it as a vital part of their spirituality, and a key value for which they can praise God.  We need to see that fun is fundamental in all the relationships of life; with animals, friends, family groups of all kinds, and even God.  </div> <bR> <div>      Why did Jesus say we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven?  We usually hear it is because the child is so innocent, and so full of simple faith.  This is no doubt part of it, but what about a child's playfulness?  That is what childhood is, the time of life when they learn to play.  Did Jesus ever play?  Francis Thompson asks, </div> <div>                          Hadst thou ever any toys</div> <div>                          Like us little girls and boys?</div> <div>                          And didst thou play in heaven with all</div> <div>                          The angels that were not too tall,</div> <div>                          With stars for marbles.  Did the things</div> <div>                          Play can you see me?  Though their wings?</div> <div>                         </div> <div>      We could quote hours of poetry dealing with the childhood of Jesus, but all we know for sure is that He was a growing boy who had fun.  It is inconceivable that Jesus did not play and have fun as a child on earth.  When He was left behind in the temple, Mary and Joseph assumed He was with some of their relatives, giving us the clear hint that Jesus must have often been off playing with other children.  We are told today that how a child learns to play is vital to developing their identity.  If they do not learn to enjoy play they will become too serious as adults.  Some do skip childhood and never learn to play.   This leads to an adult who does not know how to enjoy life.  </div> <bR> <div>      On the other hand if they do nothing but play, and are never taught that life is more than a game, they tend to become irresponsible playboys or playgirls.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but all play and no work makes him a jerk.  Any psychiatrist will tell  you that one of their most common clients is the person who has nothing to do but play.  They lack the pleasure of work and achieving goals and they eventually become depressed for the lack of meaning in life.  Play must always  be balanced with  a purpose pleasing to God or it becomes a burden rather than a blessing.  </div> <bR> <div>      In the childhood of man when God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, there was balance.  They had the delight of enjoying all the pleasures of play and eating, but God also gave them the work of keeping the garden.  Extremes of being workaholics or playboys are both contrary to God's will.  Work and play in balance is the key to a happy life.  Dwight D. Eisenhower said to students at Columbia University, where he became president in 1948, "Have fun.  I mean it.  The day that goes by without your having  had some fun-the day you don't enjoy life-is not only unnecessary but unchristian!"  </div> <bR> <div>      In the light of our study, we can say his statement was Biblically accurate for the Bible clearly teaches that we can never be all that God made us to be without fun, for fun is fundamental. But keep in mind that it is fun to be a child of God. It is fun to be saved and to be forgiven. It is fun to be sanctified and growing in the knowledge of God. It is fun to be in Christian service. There is joy in serving Jesus. Fun is a broad concept that takes in many aspects of life that are pleasing to God. God is a fun-loving God and we need to take fun seriously and make it a vital part of our Christian life, and be praising God for it continually, for fun is fundamental.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>GOD'S AQUARIUM  PSALM 104:24-35</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Off the coast of the Italian Riviera a large bronze statue of Christ has been installed down in the depths of the sea as a symbol that Christ is Lord of the deep.</div> <div> Jesus is the only man in history who demonstrated He was also God by controlling this great force in creation-the sea.  The disciples were amazed that He could say, </div> <div> "Peace be still," and the raging waves were calmed.  He controlled the fish so that when He told the disciples to cast their nets on the other side, they were filled to over-flowing.  He sent Peter to catch a fish, and in it was found a coin by which to pay the temple tax.  Jesus could even walk on the top the water demonstrating again that He was Lord of the sea.  Not Neptune, not Poisidon, the Greek and Roman gods</div> <div> of the sea, but the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of all, including the sea.</div> <bR> <div>      God made a big deal of Lordship over the sea when He spoke to Job.  In Job 38:8-11 God makes it clear He had to set limits to this great force, and say to the sea, "This far you may come and no further."  We cannot imagine the awesome power involved in establishing the seas of the world, but we have the testimony of one who was there as an eye witness.  Wisdom is personified in Prov. 8 and says in verse 24, </div> <div> "When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water."  Then in verse 29 she adds, "When He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not over step His command and when He marked out the foundations of the earth."  </div> <bR> <div>      What must it have been like to be there watching God hand-crafting the world as we know it?  Maybe God videoed the whole thing and one of the wonders of heaven will be to watch this marvel of marvels.  But wisdom was there, and she tells us her reaction as she labored at God's side in creation.  In verses 30-31, she says, " Then I was the craftsman at His side.  I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind."  </div> <bR> <div>      Here is the Biblical basis for enjoying all that God has made.  Wisdom was there when God made it, and she emphasizes that her primary emotion was that of rejoicing and delight.  The Bible would support the judgment that something is spiritually wrong with the person who cannot see in God's works that which leads to joy and the worship of God as Creator.  Not only does wisdom rejoice in all that God created, but all God created rejoices in God as its Creator.   Psalm 96:11-12 makes it all inclusive.  "Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.  Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them, then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy."  In Psalm 98:7-8 we read, "Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy."   Does the sea really sing, and does everything in it join the song?</div> <bR> <div>      Obviously we are into poetic language here, and we cannot take it literally that the seas sing or that rivers have hands to clap, or that mountains form a choir.  Yet we must not dismiss poetry as if it has no relationship to reality.  Every child has held a sea shell to its ear to hear the song of the sea.  The sounds of the sea have inspired a lot of music.  Anton Rubenstein called his second symphony, "The Ocean."  An English composer wrote a series, "Sea Slumber Song" "Sabbath Morning At Sea" "Where Corals Lie" "The Swimmer."  Ralph Vaughn's "Sea Symphony" first performed in 1910.  But the most famous of all is "La Mer" by Claude Debussy, who spent three years writing it.  He grew up with deep impressions of the Mediterranean, and in his music you could hear the crash of the waves and the gurgling of the backwash.  Jacqus Cousteau wrote that it "is surely the greatest calling forth of nature in a work for orchestra." </div> <bR> <div>      The fact is,  the sea does sing and everything in it.  We may prefer the songs of birds, but God loves to be praised with any voice.  Marie Poland Fish is appropriately named, for she is the director of the world's largest under water bioacustic library.  In other words, she is the world's authority on the sounds of fish.</div> <div> The U.S. Navy requested that she keep a file of biological sounds.  Since 1954 she has accumulated hundreds of miles of audio tape of sounds from all over the world.  Her conclusion is, every fish makes a noise.  With hydrophones in the sea they pick up clicks,  moans, squeaks, whistles, hissing, grunts, and other sounds from the sea.  One fish makes a sound like running fingers along the teeth of a comb.  Mrs. Fish is convinced that fish talk.  If they talk, then they may also sing, and thus, literally join the universal praise to the Creator.  Is is only poetry, or was Emerson seeing reality when he wrote, </div> <div>                               Tis not in the high stars alone,</div> <div>                               Nor in cups of budding flowers,</div> <div>                               Nor in the redbreasts mellow tone,                            </div> <div>                               Nor in the bow that smiles in showers.</div> <div>                               But in the mud and scum of things</div> <div>                               There always, always, something sings.</div> <bR> <div>      According to Mrs. Fish, the shrimp and the crabs also make sounds.  The point is, science does support the poetic and spiritual view of nature.  There is more truth to it than we realize when we sing, "This is my father's world and to my listening ears all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres."  There is music everywhere in God's creation if we listen.  The Psalmist did listen, and that is why he commits himself to be a part of the universal choir and says in verse 33, "I will sing to the Lord all my life, I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."  This song is a part of heavenly music, for we read in Rev. 5:13, "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing:  To Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"  </div> <bR> <div>      The Mediterranean sea gave us the great drama of Jonah and the whale, and all of the adventures of Paul and the sea, including his great shipwreck on the way to Rome.  When the Psalmist in verse 25 raves about the sea being so vast and spacious, teeming with life, he was likely referring to this sea, and did not know that his words would be even more meaningful to those of us who live between the Atlantic and Pacific. </div> <bR> <div>       All of the oceans are connected, and so in a sense it is all one vast body of water that covers almost three fourths of the earth surface.  No wonder some call this the ocean planet.  If the Psalmist was amazed at the vastness of what he saw, how much more should we praise God for the massive work He has done with water? The Pacific is almost twice the size of the Atlantic, and has almost half the water of the world in it.  It covers 63 million square miles, and goes from one pole to the other, and is larger than all the land of the world combined.  It has the deepest place on earth.  It goes down almost seven miles in the Mariana trench near the Philippines.  This is one mile deeper than the tallest mountain, Mt. Everest is high.  </div> <bR> <div>      The ocean is a wonder of the world that is to lead us to worship, for as the Psalmist says in verse 25, it is teeming with creatures both large and small.  And the point is, these creatures, by their very being witness to a Creator that deserves our praise.  Every cubic foot of sea water has twenty thousand plants and one hundred and twenty animals.  I don't know how many of these creatures the Psalmist saw, but he says they are without number, and modern man is still saying this. </div> <bR> <div>       The creatures of the sea are uncountable, and some that man has counted out are still there.  The Coelacauth is a fish about five foot long with two tails, and the experts said it has been extinct for 70 million years.  That was until 1938 when two fishermen off South Africa caught a live one.  It is embarrassing trying to be an expert on the infinite works of God.  Your chances of being wrong are excellent.  The Neopilina snail was said to be extinct for 300 million years, but in 1958 four were found three miles down off of Peru.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Psalmist is impressed both by the large and small creatures of the sea.  He was, no doubt, thinking of the whale in the large category, for the blue whale is the largest living thing God ever made to live on this planet.  All of the estimates of the largest dinosaurs that ever existed are around 50 tons.   But the blue whale makes this a light weight contender, for they weigh in at 150 tons.  The sea is the biggest place in the world, and is the home of the biggest creatures of the world.  These biggest whales only eat small creatures like krill, for they have small throats, but they eat a ton at a time.  They have tongues that weigh 4 ton, and one thousand pound hearts that pump eight tons of blood through their vast system.  This whale could not swallow Jonah, but other types of whales could easily do so.  Jonah would have only been an appetizer for the whale caught in the Azores that had a giant squid in its stomach that measured 35 feet five inches long.  Jonah could have taken Goliath along for the ride in this kind of whale and had room left over.  </div> <bR> <div>      But you may say, why horse around with all this whale blubber.  Who cares about whales?  Why don't we get more spiritual and deal with what is relevent to the Christian life?  The answer is in verse 26 which is a surprising revelation that makes whales one of the marvels of life, and very relevent to our understanding of God's nature.  The Psalmist says the ships go to and fro on the sea, but also that leviathan goes there, which God formed to frolic there.  The Bible teaches here that God made whales for the fun of it.  He made them just to play in the ocean.  The idea of having a gold fish, or some other pet, just to watch them play and have fun in their environment is not mans idea.  It was God's idea in creation.  God enjoys the largest living creatures as they leap and splash and frolic in the depths of the sea.  The Hebrew word for frolic is the same word used in Zech. 8:5 for boys and girls playing in the streets.  </div> <bR> <div>      Do you realize what this verse is saying?  It is telling us that God is a pet lover, and that the worlds largest living creature is God's pet, created just to add some fun to creation.  God enjoys the animal kingdom for the same reasons we do.  We go to zoos and enjoy the antics of the monkeys, or look out our window and enjoy the squirrels as they chase each other and play.  Do they really play?  God confirms that they do by telling Job in Job 40:20, "and all the wild animals play near by."  God uses the same Hebrew word for the whale frolicking in the sea.  The Bible gives us a picture of a Creator who can set back and enjoy the entertainment of the animal kingdom in all its playfulness. </div> <bR> <div>      Earnest Hemmingway has the old man of the sea say as he watched two porpoises frolicking, "They are good.  They play and make jokes and love one another."  The Porpoise is one of the whale family, and they are the entertainers of the sea.  Sailors marvel at the shows that they put on as they play follow the leader, and leap in unison, and race the ships.  They can only swim at the speed of 11 knots, yet they can keep up with a destroyer going 20 knots because they have the ability to use the waves coming off the ship and hitchhike like a kid on roller skates holding on the bumper of a truck.  They are a lot of fun, and they are also very smart.  They can learn some things as fast as humans.  The higher the form of life the more efficient any creature is in getting food, and thus, they have more time for fun.  Lesser creatures spend most of their life just finding enough to eat.  Porpoises spend most of their life in play.  </div> <bR> <div>      Oceanographers call porpoises mans best friend.  They are the equivalent of St, Bernard's in the Alps to men in the sea.  They rescue men who are lost at sea, and they keep the sharks away.  They can even kill sharks with their nose as a ram rod.  </div> <div> They are even used to carry messages and tools for those who labor under the sea. </div> <div> If any man has a problem they have a signal that calls for the porpoise, and it will come immediately with a life line.  They have saved many lives.  Man also trains them to play water polo, basket ball, and even bowling.  But they have their own favorite game.  They are called the cowboys of the sea because they go out as a group</div> <div> and round up a school of fish.  Then they surround it and one by one they leave the circle and dash in to get a fish, and then get back in formation while the next one goes.  We could go on for hours about this amazing creature of the sea, but the point is this:  The vast ocean is like God's aquarium, and He gets enjoyment out of the whales, and other creatures, as they frolic there.  </div> <bR> <div>      In Job 41, God goes on and on for  34 verses describing one of His sea creatures,</div> <div> which is likely the whale.  If you think it is a waste of time to study the details of sea creatures, you will have to take your complaint to God, for He loves nature and rejoices in every detail of His works and expects man to do the same, for it leads to worship.  The study of every form of life is to lead us to worship its Creator.  When it does, the study of any aspect of nature becomes a spiritual exercise.  The study of nature is a part of human playfulness as we enjoy what God has made.  Jesus said we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of God.  Children love to play.  Could it be that at least part of what Jesus is saying is that we must enter into the enjoyment of God's creation, and learn to enjoy its playfulness to really know God?  </div> <bR> <div>      Can you really be one with a man who loves nature if you hate it?  Can you really be close to a woman who loves her pets if you can't stand them?  So also, can we really be as close to God as we want to be, and as He wants us to be, if we do not have the same attitude about His creation as He does?  This does  not mean we have to enjoy all that God enjoys.  God has an infinite capacity for enjoyment, and he does not have our fears and limitations.  But the fact is, we need to be lovers of nature, and we need to enjoy some aspects of nature to be one with our Creator.  </div> <bR> <div>       Everything that man learns about the mystery of the sea keeps confirming the wisdom of God as Creator.  For decades man has concluded that life could not exist on the bottom of the ocean.  The darkness could not support life, and the cold and the pressure would make life impossible.  Then in 1960 Jacques Piccard sank to the bottom of the deepest trench in the world-seven miles down in the Pacific.  It took four hours just to drop.  When he looked out on the deepest spot on the earth, where man nor light had ever been, the first thing he saw was a one foot long flat fish, and six foot above the bottom was a shrimp and a jellyfish. The facts wiped out all the theories, and men were forced to wonder how anything could survive at that depth. God had made the sea a playground, not just for whales, but for man as well, for some of the most fun man has on this planet is in exploring the wonders of the sea. </div> <bR> <div>      In verse 26 we read, "There the ships go to and fro."  Because it has ever been</div> <div> so, the sea is not only the best place to study the creativity of God, but also of man.</div> <div> Dr. George F. Boss, and underwater archaeologist from the University of Penn. has written, "Vitually everything made by man, from tiny obsidian blades to huge temple columns, was carried at one time or another in ships, and much was lost at sea."  Whole cities have been found under the sea, making it a fascinating place to study the civilization of man. But nothing can compare with the wonders of God that are found in the sea. </div> <bR> <div>      The Psalmist is impressed with both the large and the small creatures that God has made. We have referred to the blue whale, the largest of them all, but there are other hugh creatures. The whale-shark can weigh up to 26,600 lbs., and a number of other sea creatures can weigh between 2 and 5 thousand lbs. But in contrast there are the smallest creatures. The goby fish near the Philippines are only a quarter to a  half an inch long. They are the smallest vertebrate on the planet. The ocean has the largest and the smallest creatures on earth. The sea also has the creature that makes the greatest change from birth to adulthood. The ocean sunfish starts at one tenth of an inch long and grows to 8 foot, and weighs 1200 lbs.</div> <bR> <div>    The largest and most stupendous structure created by living creatures is the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. It is 1,242 miles long and 93 miles wide. It is 8 million times greater than the Great Pyramid, and 100,000 times greater than the Great Wall of China. All the sea is a wonderland, but here God pulled out all the stops. The tiny polyps no bigger than a pin head have united by the countless trillions to create this wonder of the sea.  Everything about it is beautiful and immense.  There are great varieties of coral with heart tugging beauty, and everything is on a massive scale.  Sea creatures that are small elsewhere are large here.  Star fish are a foot across and clams are five to six feet long.  Even butterflies have wings that span eight inches, and fire flies are several inches long. </div> <bR> <div>       The Reef itself is a living, growing thing of beauty, and all of it calls out to man to worship the Creator of such a marvel.   Many people go to see this exotic extravaganza and drift over the coral garden in a glass bottom boat.  Most of us will never see this handiwork of God, just as the Psalmist did not see all that he was aware of in his day.  But he knew the world and sea were filled with creatures both large and small who were a part of the universal choir that rejoiced in their Creator.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Psalmist says that God is the one who organized the whole process by which the teaming masses of the sea are fed.  Jacque Cousteu has made films about this wonder.  It is beyond our comprehension how so many multiplied billions of creatures can be fed daily, but God does it, and the story of  how He does it is one wonder after another.  Eighty per cent of the world's animal life is in the sea, and everyday God feeds them all, and the Psalmist is impressed.  Then, on top of that, man takes millions of tons of creatures out of the sea to feed himself.  The sea is a source of life and blessings beyond description.  God loves the sea and all the creatures of the sea, and in some way they all obey the words of Psalm 148:7 which says, "Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depth."</div> <bR> <div>      The value of studying any part of God's creation is that it will lead you to  appreciate His wisdom and join the rest of creation in praising the Creator.  Let me conclude with the testimony of two famous men.  Jonathan Edwards is considered by many to be the greatest mind America has ever produced.  He was the preacher that started The Great Awakening, one of America's greatest revivals.  He is most famous for his sermon, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God.  He could be quite severe, but he was also one of history's greatest nature lovers.  </div> <bR> <div>       He said, "Immediately after my conversion God's excellency began to appear to me in everything:  In the sun, in the moon, in the stars, in the waters, and in all nature.  The Son of God created this world for this very end, to communicate to us through it a certain image of his own excellency, so that when we are delighted with flowery meadows, and gentle breezes, we may see in all that only the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ.  When we behold the fragrant rose and the snow-white lily, we are to see His love and His purity, even so the green trees, and the song of birds, what are they but the emanation of His infinite joy and benignity? </div> <bR> <div>       The crystal rivers, and the murmuring streams, what are they but the foot steps of His favor and grace and beauty.  When we behold the brightness of the sun, and the golden edges of the evening cloud, and beauteous rainbow spanning the whole heaven, we but behold some adumbration of His goodness and His glory.  And without any doubt this is the reason that Christ is called the Son Of Righteousness, The Morning Star, The Rose Of Sharon, The Lily Of The Valley, The Appletree Among The Trees Of The Wood, A Bundle Of Myrrh, A Doe, and a Young Hart."</div> <bR> <div>      Nathaniel Hawthorn felt nature spoke of immortality.  He wrote, "I recline upon the still unwithered grass, and whisper to myself: -oh, beneficent God!  And it is the promise of a blessed eternity; for our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, </div> <div> unless we were meant to be immortal."  </div> <bR> <div>      We haven't begun to study all that the Bible says about nature, but what we have studied should make it clear, God expects His people to love what He has made and join the voices of all creatures in praise to Him as Creator.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE WONDER OF CLOUDS  Psalm 104:1-24</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>       Jean Baptiste Lamarch, the distinguished French naturalist, came from a military family and, at the age of 17 and in keeping with his family's tradition, enlisted in the army.  At 21, however, his health failed and he went to Paris for a year of treatment.  It was the bleakest time he had ever known.  Poor and alone, he lived in a small attic room where he spent days on end, flat on his back.</div> <div>      There were no windows in the room.  There was only a small sky-light, through which he could watch the clouds drifting overhead.  As time passed, though, Lamarch became more and more intrigued by the different cloud formations.  Each type, he noticed, was associated with a particular kind of weather.  There was the nimbus which heralds a storm, the cumulus which comes at the end of a fine summer afternoon, the cirres which, says that good weather is on its way.  When the year was over, Lamarch was an expert on clouds.  Military life, he decided, had lost its appeal.  He switched to science and fundless though he was at first, went on to become one of the outstanding scientists of his generation.</div> <bR> <div>      Most of us do not have our lives changed by watching clouds, but the fact is most of us have had times when watching clouds has had some effect on us. My granddaughter Jenny and I just this past summer were sitting out on the front lawn finding different animals in the clouds as they changed formations, and I watched clouds enough so that everytime I see a pretty cloud now I praise the Lord. It has become a habit because I spent enough time dwelling on clouds to make a deep impression on my mind. I can identify with the poet who wrote-</div> <bR> <div>                                     Oh, it is pleasant, with a heart of ease,</div> <div> Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,</div> <div> To make the shifting clouds be what you please,</div> <div> Or let the easily-persuaded eyes</div> <div> Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould</div> <div> Of a friend's fancy, or with head bent low</div> <div> And clear as light, see rivers flow of gold</div> <div> "Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go</div> <div> From mount to mount through cloud and gorgeous land.</div> <bR> <div>      Probably the most impressive clouds I have ever experienced was when I was a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol and was taken up in a small plane. When the pilot got above the clouds I could not believe the brightness as the sun reflected off the masses of billowing clouds. It was the brightest experience I have ever had. Miles and miles of brilliant shining clouds. It was awesome, and again enables me to identify with HIGH FLIGHT</div> <div>   by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.</div> <bR> <div>                                     Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth</div> <div> And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;</div> <div> Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung</div> <div> High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,</div> <div>                                     I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung </div> <div> My eager craft through footless halls of air.</div> <div> Up, up the long, delirious burning blue </div> <div> I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace</div> <div> Where never lark, or even eagle flew.</div> <div> And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod</div> <div> The high untresspassed sanctity of space,  </div> <div>  Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.</div> <div>  </div> <div>      I have had some marvelous experiences with clouds, but not until recently did I ever realize how important a place clouds play in the Bible, and in the plan  of God. They play a major role in life on this planet, for without clouds there would be no life. They also play a major role in the weather. Man has spent millions of dollars and hours trying to learn all he can about clouds for he knows they hold the secrets to much of what he wants to know. The Bible says much about the role of clouds in weather and this is important to understand, but today we are going to focus on the spiritual values in clouds. Let me just share this one paragraph on the scientific nature of clouds.</div> <bR> <div>      What are clouds?</div> <div> Clouds are water. Either small liquid water drops or tiny pieces of ice. Meteorologists rank clouds according to their height and whether or not they are flat or puffy.  How are clouds formed?</div> <div> Clouds form when the air rises. As a blob of air rises it expands and gets colder, the colder air cannot hold as much water as warmer air. As the temperature and air pressure </div> <div> continue to drop, tiny water droplets group together into clumps called cloud droplets. At this point, the blob of air becomes a visible cloud. If the cloud keeps going up, the cloud droplets will clump together and form water droplets. These water droplets are too heavy to float in the air and they fall from the sky as either rain or snow.</div> <bR> <div> There are 148 verses in the Bible dealing with clouds, and so it would take most of our time, if not all of it, just to read what the Bible says about them. But I do want to give you a powerful impression of their role, and so I will read a number of verses where clouds are directly connected with God.</div> <bR> <div>  GOD'S PRESENCE IN A CLOUD</div> <bR> <div> Nu 11:25   And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.</div> <div> Nu 12:5   And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.</div> <div> De 31:15   And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.</div> <div> Mt 17:5   While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.</div> <div> Mr 9:7   And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.</div> <div> Lu 9:34   While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.</div> <div> Lu 9:35   And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.</div> <div>  THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST IN THE CLOUDS</div> <bR> <div> Lu 21:27   And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.</div> <div> Mt 24:30   And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.</div> <div> Mt 26:64   Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.</div> <div> Mr 13:26   And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.</div> <div> Mr 14:62   And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.</div> <div> 1Th 4:17   Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.</div> <div> Re 1:7   Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.</div> <bR> <div>  CHRIST SETTING ON THE CLOUD AS HIS THRONE</div> <bR> <div> Re 14:14   And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.</div> <div> Re 14:15   And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.</div> <div> Re 14:16   And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.</div> <div> THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE CLOUDS]</div> <div> Ex 16:10   And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.</div> <div>      God used the cloud as a means of conveying His glory. The clouds still do that, for when they are awesome in their beauty and grandeur you cannot help but think of God. Their gigantic size and the beauty of their whiteness convey a glory that is Godlike. Their are many texts that convey this idea.</div> <bR> <div> Ex 40:34   Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.</div> <div> Ex 40:35   And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.</div> <div> Nu 16:42   And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.</div> <div> 1Ki 8:11   So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.</div> <div> 2Ch 5:14   So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.</div> <div> Eze 10:4   Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD'S glory.</div> <bR> <div>      That was 24 of the 148, but those  are enough to give you an impression of the key role clouds play in the Word of God. Then there is the fascinating text we read in Ps.104 about the clouds being God's chariot. Ps 104:3  "Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind." This is not the only place this idea is conveyed. In Isa. 19:1 we read, "Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."   The ancient Hebrews could look at a beautiful swiftly moving cloud and see it as God's chariot. It was a heavenly chariot, and was more like a space ship to them. They saw God's presence in nature more than we do, and they could see more than just animal shapes in the clouds, they could see God. If you look at a great billowing cloud sometimes you can see huge faces form, and no doubt, they sometimes felt they were looking at the face of God in the clouds.</div> <bR> <div>      The Jews of the Old Testament days saw more in clouds than we ever do in our culture.In Jewish legend clouds hovered around Adam and Eve until they sinned and then the clouds left and they were naked. In Job 38:8-11 we see the clouds are the clothing of the sea. "As the child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so the sea was wrapped in the clouds." In so many ways they saw the presence of God in nature in clouds. They are heavenly things, and so it makes sense that they would associate the clouds with God.</div> <bR> <div> In the Cyclopadiea Of Theological Literature we read, "As in such climates clouds refreshing veil the oppressive glories of the sun, clouds often symbolize the Divine presence, as indicating the splendor, insupportable to man, of that glory which they wholly or partially conceal.... the shelter given,  the refreshment of rain promised by clouds, give them their peculiar prominence in Oriental imagery, and the individual cloud in that ordinarily cloudless region becomes well defined, and is dwelt upon like the individual tree in the bare landscape."  "Being the least substantial of visible forms, undefined in shape, and unrestrained in position, it is the one among material things which most easily suggests spiritual being."</div> <bR> <div>    Randall Otto in his book, Coming In the Clouds writes, "The very nature of a cloud makes it an almost ideal vehicle for the introduction of the super natural appearances or as a veil between things spiritual and invisible and things physical and visible, a symbol of the Divine presence itself.  He says, " Among the Jews the Messiah was known as "the cloudy one" or "the son of a cloud." </div> <bR> <div>      Otto's whole book is to show that God used the clouds to both reveal Himself, and to conceal Himself. No one could ever see God and live, and so God made His presence known, and His invisibility visible, by means of clouds. If God ever came into our human presence without being clothed in clouds we would be burnt to a crisp instantly, as if we were thrust into the immediate presence of the sun. Clouds then are the clothing God wears so as to keep men from being destroyed by His presence. He writes, " Jesus became the tabernacle of God. God came down to dwell with men and in him was the Shekinah glory of God veiled in flesh. The body of Jesus was what the cloud was in the O.T. It covered the glory of God in Jesus so men could look on him and live. The fullness of God was in him and if it was seen it would destroy all who saw it. Otto's whole theme is no man has ever seen the glory of God unveiled and never can for it is too intense for man to see and live. Even in Jesus it had to be covered by flesh or a cloud when he ascended."</div> <bR> <bR> <div> SECOND COMING</div> <bR> <div>      One of the last things we will see on earth will be the coming of our Lord in the glory of the clouds. They will be the most brilliant and glorious clouds we have ever seen. The hymnwriter wrote,</div> <bR> <div> LO! He comes with clouds descending,   Once for favoured sinners slain;</div> <div> Thousand thousand saints attending,Swell the triumph of his train:  </div> <div>  Hallelujah!God appears on earth to reign.  </div> <div>  </div> <div>  Every eye shall now behold himRobed in dreadful majesty;</div> <div> Those who set at nought and sold him,Pierced and nailed him to the tree,</div> <div> Deeply wailing,Shall the true Messiah see.  </div> <div>  </div> <div>  The dear tokens of his passionStill his dazzling body bears;</div> <div> Cause of endless exultationTo his ransomed worshippers;  </div> <div>  With what raptureGaze we on those glorious scars!</div> <div>  </div> <div> Yea, Amen! let all adore thee,High on thy eternal throne;</div> <div> Saviour, take the power and glory,Claim the kingdom for thine own;</div> <div>  Jehovah,Everlasting God, come down!  </div> <bR> <div>      Those who have been to Israel and seen the clouds there get a better idea of what the Biblical references to clouds signify. For example, Ps. 139 begins, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn," and  James Neil comments on this phrase, "This figure to a Western is not a little obscure.  For my part, I cannot doubt that we are to understand certain beautiful light clouds as thus poetically described.  I have observed invariably, that in the late spring-time,  in summer, and yet more especially in the autumn, white clouds are to be seen in Palestine.  They only occur at the earliest hours of morning, just previously to and at the time of sunrise.  It is the total absence of clouds at all other parts of the day, except during the short period of winter rains, that lends such striking solemnity and force to those discriptions of the Second Advent where our Lord is represented as coming in the clouds.  This feature of His majesty loses all its meaning in lands like ours, in which clouds are of such common occurrence that they are rarely absent from the sky.  The morning clouds of summer and autumn are always of a brilliant silvery white, save at such times as they are dyed with the delicate opal tints of dawn.  They hang low upon the mountains of Juda, and produce effects of indescribable beauty, as they float far down in the valley's, or to rise to wrap themselves around the summit of the hills.  In almost every instance, by about seven o' clock the heat has dissipated these fleecy clouds, and to the vivid Eastern imagination morn has folded her outstretched wings."</div> <bR> <div>      Another gives testimony of how the clouds give her aid and comfort in the present. She writes, "From the breezy heights of beulah Hill we command a lovely and uninterrupted view, not of the fair earth merely, but of the fairer firmament above it; our windows are observatories whence many a longing, loving glance is cast heavenwards, and one of the chief pleasures of restful or contemplative hours is found in silently watching the ever changing aspect of the sky, and noting the manifold glories of that wonderful cloud-land which divides our earthly home from the promised inheritance on high.  I never tire of gazing on the beautiful mysteries of the clouds.  I love to watch the grand and  solemn rolling of black and rugged masses, when storms are abroad, and the wind is marshaling them to a dread convention of brooding tempests; and equally well I love to see them when, in summer days, the cloudlets float like flakes of driven snow across the deep blue ether, and lose themselves at the feet of mountains that rival the Alpine peaks in beauty and sublimity.  Sometimes the watcher will see a cloud of such celestial beauty that to his enamored fancy it looks</div> <div>                                                   'As though an angel, in his upward flight,</div> <div>                                                    Had left his mantle floating in mid-air.</div> <div> Or anon, with pensive pleasure, he may mark</div> <div>                                      'Clouds on the western side</div> <div>                                Grow grey and greyer, hiding the warm sun.'</div> <div> But under all aspects they are enchanting and suggestive; their very movements are restful to my spirit; they always speak to me of the Lord's great power and love, and many a time have burdens of care been lifted from my heart, and carried away, by these celestial chariots, 'as far as the east is from the west.' "</div> <bR> <div>      In other words, there can be practical spiritual value in watching clouds if we see what the Bible writers saw in them, the very presence of God, and the visible means of conveying his invisible power and majesty. Every cloud would indeed have a silver lining if we could see the presence of God in it. When I can most see this is when the clouds have large spaces between them and the sun's rays are streaming down through them. The sight makes me feel the presence of God on His throne and I praise Him for His glory and majesty. The silver lining is conspicuous then. But the poet writes, </div> <div>                                            The inner side of every cloud</div> <div>   Is bright and shining;</div> <div>      I therefore turn my clouds about,</div> <div>      And always wear them inside out,</div> <div>      To show the lining.</div> <bR> <div> The fact is above the clouds the sun is always shining and so no matter how dark the clouds look from the earth, they are bright on the highest level. The value of studying clouds is that it gives you another way to be made aware of the presence of God in everyday life. As I go about my business, I suddenly look up and see a beautiful cloud and I praise God for His presence, love, and guidance. I never did this until I studied clouds and saw their importance to God and His plan both for the secular world and the sacred goal of eternal life. It may not have this effect on you just hearing a sermon on clouds, but I pray it does, for it adds a positive dimension to your life. I was waiting at Como park this summer for the grandkids to come out of the Conservatory and as I sat looking up into the clouds I decided to pull out a piece of paper and write down my feelings about them. It is not great poetry, but it is great to have poetry in you about clouds because the represent God's presence. I wrote,</div> <div>  OH CLOUDS SO WHITE</div> <div> REFLECTING LIGHT</div> <div> FROM SUN SO BRIGHT</div> <div> OH WHAT A SIGHT!</div> <bR> <div> YOU CHANGE SO FAST</div> <div> NEW IMAGES CAST</div> <div> OF PRESENT AND PAST,</div> <div> BUT NONE CAN LAST.  </div> <bR> <div> YOU COME AND GO</div> <div> SWIFT AS SPRING TIME SNOW,</div> <div> BUT WHAT A SHOW</div> <div> AS YOU SO QUICKLY FLOW.</div> <bR> <div> YOU PAINT THE SKY</div> <div> AS THROUGH IT YOU FLY,</div> <div> SOME LOW, SOME HIGH</div> <div> WHICH MAKES ME CRY!</div> <bR> <div> SOFT AS A DOVE</div> <div> MY HEART YOU SHOVE</div> <div> TO PRAISE GOD ABOVE</div> <div> FOR CLOUDS TO LOVE.</div> <bR> <div> I trust you will come to love clouds too, and be able to see in them the visible symbols of the invisible presence of God, for then you will enter into the wonder of the clouds.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>                </div> <bR> <div>                     </div> <div>  </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>