Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

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Short Summary
The speaker reflects on the intricate design and wisdom evident in creation, emphasizing the complexity of the human body, the precision of natural forces, and the genius behind elements like water. They highlight the divine origin and care in all things, citing Scripture to illustrate God’s intimate knowledge and purposeful creation of humanity. The message concludes with a call to recognize our special place in God’s plan, embrace humility under His guidance, and offer praise for His marvelous works and loving care.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Vesper Message: “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”

Introduction and Setting:
– The speaker thanks the brethren for their participation and humorously “volunteers” them as the choir for the Bible Students General Convention 2025.
– Opening hymn performed well, setting a harmonious tone for the evening.

Reflection on Healthcare and Creation:
– The speaker shares personal privilege of a healthcare career and the accompanying scientific study of physiology.
– Awe and wonder expressed at the complexity and interrelatedness of the human body and all life.
– Rejects the idea that such complexity arose by random chance, citing the astronomical improbability (more atoms than in the universe) of life forming by accident.
– Quote: “We are fearfully and wonderfully made” (referring to Psalm 139:14).

Thought Experiment: The Origin of the Universe and Atomic Structure:
– Imagines absolute nothingness existing before creation—no space, no matter.
– Describes the “divine wisdom” releasing an infinitely dense, hot particle (Big Bang analogy) that expands into the universe.
– Emphasizes the precise balance of nuclear and magnetic forces necessary for atomic existence, comparing it to throwing a dart across the universe and hitting a bullseye.
– Explains how simple atoms like hydrogen combine to form complex molecules, enabling life, color, and joy.
– Highlights the brilliance of water’s molecular structure: one oxygen atom bonded to two hydrogens, forming a substance crucial to life.
– Notes water’s unique properties, such as ice floating due to expansion on freezing, preventing Earth’s oceans from freezing solid and allowing life to persist.
– Mentions the “Cloud Appreciation Society” as a testimony to the beauty and wonder of water cycles.

Miracle of Human Life and Birth:
– Expresses amazement at the process of human conception and fetal development.
– Shares experience teaching fetal cardiac and pulmonary development as a near-religious experience.
– Emphasizes the importance of the first breaths of life—the force needed to inflate newborn lungs is immense.
– Reinforces the theme: “We are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

The Evidence of God’s Existence in Creation and Human Conscience:
– Notes ongoing scientific research reveals ever more complexity and mystery.
– Affirms that creation’s design and harmony point to a Creator’s genius.
– Cites the innate moral law written on human hearts as evidence of God’s law and existence.
– References Apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans about the law being written on hearts, making humans responsible.
– Universal moral principles: do not kill, steal, commit adultery; worship God—found across cultures and religions.

Scriptural Focus: Job 38 and God’s Challenge to Job:
– Job’s suffering and unanswered questions lead to God’s majestic response from the whirlwind.
– God questions Job about foundational acts of creation: laying earth’s foundations, measuring it, controlling seas, commanding dawn, revealing mysteries of light and darkness, snow, hail, and thunder.
– Highlights the ocean’s depths as a “last frontier” largely unknown to man but fully known to God.
– Emphasizes God’s wisdom and control over natural phenomena and cosmic order.
– Cites Job 38 verses illustrating God’s sovereign power and knowledge.

Meditation on Human Wisdom and God’s Sovereignty:
– Questions “Who has put wisdom in the mind?” reflecting on the human brain’s complexity.
– Quotes Albert Einstein: “My universe is my mind.”
– God’s wisdom surpasses all human understanding.

Praise and Hymns of Worship:
– Encourages singing hymns praising God’s glory, creation, and mercy.
– Hymns include “There is a God” and “All Creatures of Our God and King,” expressing universal praise for God’s works.
– Use of “Alleluia” as praise to Jehovah.

Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2: The Dignity of Man and Christ’s Role:
– Psalm 8 praises God’s excellent name and mankind’s special place in creation.
– Hebrews 2 expands on this: mankind made “a little lower than the angels” and crowned with glory and honor.
– Jesus made “a little lower than the angels” to suffer death and through grace taste death for all.
– Emphasizes the “ransom for all” doctrine: Christ died for everyone; all will benefit.
– Mentions the “special high calling” — the “mystery hid from ages” now revealed in Christ.
– Jesus as “captain of salvation,” perfected through sufferings, bringing many sons to glory.
– Believers are sanctified by the same Father and called brethren of Christ.

Christian Identity and Transformation:
– Christians are “new creatures” or a “new creation,” members of Christ’s body.
– The human body is masterful, but the body of Christ is a masterpiece.
– God molds believers like clay, shaping them through daily interactions, prayer, and trials.
– Cites Isaiah 29:16 — the potter and the clay — affirming God’s sovereignty over believers’ lives.
– Encourages surrender: “Have thine own way, Lord.”

Psalm 139: God’s Omniscience and Care:
– Quotes Psalm 139 extensively, emphasizing God’s intimate knowledge of each individual from conception.
– God’s presence is everywhere—no escape from His spirit even in death.
– Affirms that God has “written the days” of each person before they existed.
– Praises God’s thoughts and works as “too wonderful” to comprehend.

Final Hymn and Closing Praise:
– Ends with “Holy, Holy, Holy,” praising God’s holiness, mercy, might, and majesty.
– Calls all creation and saints to bless God’s name.
– Thanks participants for joining in prayer and worship.

Main Biblical References Cited:
– Psalm 139:14 — “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
– Job 38 — God’s interrogation of Job about creation’s mysteries.
– Psalm 8 — God’s majesty and mankind’s honored place.
– Hebrews 2 — Christ’s incarnation, suffering, and believers’ calling.
– Romans (implied) — Law written on hearts.
– Isaiah 29:16 — Potter and clay analogy.
– Romans 8:31-39 (paraphrased) — Assurance of God’s love and justification.

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Key Themes and Takeaways:

– The intricate design of the universe and human life reveals a wise and loving Creator.
– Scientific understanding deepens appreciation for God’s creative power and precision.
– Water and natural phenomena demonstrate God’s genius sustaining life.
– The human moral conscience is evidence of God’s law written in hearts.
– God’s response to Job reminds us of His sovereignty over creation’s mysteries.
– Jesus’ sacrifice is central to God’s plan for humanity’s redemption.
– Believers are called to a high, transformative calling, molded by God’s hand.
– God’s intimate knowledge and care for every individual is profound and comforting.
– Worship and praise flow naturally from the recognition of God’s greatness.
– The hope of eternal life and restoration is assured through Christ.

This Vesper message beautifully combines scientific awe, biblical teaching, personal testimony, and worship to uplift and inspire faith in God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

Transcript

And thank you, brethren, for volunteering to help me tonight. You’re saying I didn’t volunteer for anything, but I’m gracious and I’m volunteering you for the task at hand, and your task tonight is to become the Bible students General Convention 2025 ob Albert Memorial Choir.

You’ve already had your audition. Our opening hymn. You sounded very well, and we’re looking forward to singing some hymns together with you this evening.

It’s been my privilege to have a career in healthcare, and as part of that, of course, is much study about science and physiology, and as I study the human body, I am just staggered. I am awed at the wisdom of our Creator. The deeper we go into the workings of the human body, the deeper we go into the workings of all life on this planet, the more complex it seems, the more interrelated all things are.

How could that be? How could it be that these things randomly came into this world? Of course, you know my thought, it’s impossible. If we take the mathematics of all these things coming together and compare them exponentially with each other, the number comes to something like more atoms than exist in the universe. Literally.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, I’ve tried thought experiments from up here, and we’re going to try it again this evening. I would like for you to imagine. Absolutely.

They were intimidated by the question. Are they okay? Okay.

No blood. Good.

So I want you to imagine nothing.

And when I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. Nothing exists. Not even empty space. Space doesn’t exist as yet.

But at some point in time, some divine wisdom released an infinitely dense and infinitely hot particle, a particle smaller than you could see with your own eye, and it expanded and exploded and became the core of the universe, and it continued to spread, continued to enlarge.

And in that process, some force actively intervened to create the atomic structure. Now, if you’ve had physics in school, and my physics are very rusty, but not too rusty, don’t try me.

There are weak nuclear forces, there are strong nuclear forces. There are magnetic forces. They have to be in such perfect balance for them to continue to exist that literally the precision involved would be if I stood at one end of the universe and threw a dart at a dartboard, and it went entirely across the known universe, and I got a bullseye. That’s the level of precision beyond behind all creation. Isn’t that remarkable?

And so, not only that, not only in inventing atomic structure, you know, we have some very simple atoms. I think with hydrogen, we have one proton and one electron, and then it just keeps building from there, and then those atoms can come together and create molecules, and the molecules create other substances that bring life, that bring color, that bring joy. I’m amazed at the genius of water.

And we’ll read some scriptures about water shortly. It’s pure genius. Where did this idea come from? We take one oxygen atom and we bind to it two hydrogen atoms, and that becomes a water molecule, and that water molecule is able to combine in community with other water molecules and create oceans and rivers, to create glaciers, to create steam, to create clouds.

And part of the brilliance of that, you know, none of this existed. Remember that? Nothing existed, and the. The one behind it all had this perfect understanding, knowing that with water, this new molecule, this atomic structure, he would make a substance that when it gets really cold and it freezes instead of contracting, it expands and it floats.

And if it didn’t, our oceans would be frozen over, the Earth would be an ice ball, and life couldn’t exist there. I think that’s absolute genius, and another thing that fascinates me about water, our clouds. Did you know that there’s an official Cloud Appreciation Society? There is.

It’s a real thing. If, If I’m not a member, but if you want me to point out the URL, if you want to sign up Cloud Appreciation Society, you can, and they just. They love clouds. But as we look at these beautiful, white, fluffy things floating peacefully across the sky, we realize that there are millions of tons of water just floating beautifully over our heads effortlessly.

And then the water in those sometimes will fall as rain, more often here in Johnstown than anywhere else, I think, on the planet.

And it waters the Earth and it provides moisture for vegetation to grow and birds to drink and the Earth to flourish. Are you getting a sense of how much appreciation I have for water and the genius behind it? We’ll read scriptures later that ask who was God’s instructor? I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t me.

Okay, so I’ve talked about that, and now I have to talk about this thing. What do I do to advance slides?

Left click, right click.

Eureka. Okay, here’s another miracle, and it’s one thing that I’ve been watching here at the convention, and the miracle is the little babies that we see.

My goodness. There was not a person at one point, and then a couple in love brings together two cells and poof. Well, maybe not poof.

A human being is born. A brand new human being with a functioning, complex nervous system, and fingers and toes and cute little cheeks. You just want to kiss right. A person didn’t exist and then they do.

And I think that that’s a miracle, and I am in awe of the process. It was my privilege to teach fetal development of the cardiac and pulmonary systems to our respiratory care students, and as I do it, it’s almost a religious experience, and some of my students have asked as to my religious persuasion because they just sense my reverence for this process.

And let me tell you, it’s incredible.

You know, the most important breaths that you ever took and that I ever took and that any baby ever took are literally the first three breaths of life, and they have to generate enough force vacuum.

That force is enough to lift more than two gallons jugs of water. They have to do that to inflate their lungs and begin the process of enjoying breath of life, operating their body. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

As we look out into the universe, as we look at the structure of things in this planet, we realize that the brightest minds that we know have been doing research in these areas for centuries.

Today, with ever more increased technology, looking deeper and deeper and deeper, and the deeper they look, they realize how much they don’t know. The brightest minds among us, and we respect their work.

Equations are written, models are created, mathematical models, attempts to understand what we are. How is it that we exist? And so, brethren, the point is we are fearfully and wonderfully made and convinced, if we just take the time to think about these things, convinced that the genius of God and that he does in fact exist. Please join me in singing. There is a God, Sister Amelia.

When the first beams of running ice, the rising sun serenely bright of the white worlds Extended fame in striking characters of light his mighty makeless glorious name. He curious finds Glo and trace creation’s wonders for confess the footsteps of your God and fall before in the name of God.

Yes, the psalmist in an ecstatic state realize that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Everywhere we look, the word design just seems to be screaming in our ears. The harmony of creation is marvelous.

And yet we don’t have to look too far, we don’t have to search the heavens continually. There’s a lot of evidence there. But right here, right here on the planet are the evidences of the existence of God, and I think one of those marvelous evidences is the innate law of God that is written in the heart of man.

And the apostle Paul wrote about that in the book of Romans. He said, though they were never given the law they have that law in their heart given to them by God, and their. They are therefore responsible for that, and so the basics.

Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery. Worship God. These are such universal things in every human being’s heart, whether they call God Yahweh or Jehovah or Lord or Allah or whatever. It’s that innate desire in the human heart to worship a God.

You know, Job went through some terrible experiences, and we thank God for the book of Job. That’s a gift to us, and a study of the book of Job is always rewarding. Plenty of meditative experiences there.

But Job and his comforters had been searching for answers as to why this calamity came upon Job, and they’re all speaking, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, and yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, and yah, yah, yah, yah, and to no avail. Nobody’s got it figured out.

And then Job makes various declarations about why he feels God has done this, and here is one of my favorite sections of scripture coming up. I’ll share it with you. It’s Job, chapter 38. Finally, God has heard enough.

Or maybe God has allowed them to probe the issues enough for themselves and for us, and God answers out of the whirlwind and speaks to Job and says, who is this? Who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you, and you shall answer me.

I’d be pretty intimidated. How about you? I mean the mind of God questioning me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? You know, the is just the right size to create just the right amount of gravity, to put just the right amount of stress on the human body to keep its bones strong. It’s perfectly adjusted. So God is measuring how much mass should the earth contain?

How big should its foundations be? Back to Job. Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the seas with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bend, when I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, When I said, this far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop. He created the seas and the dry land, and it was perfect.

Have you commanded the morning since your days began? And Caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked would be shaken, shaken out of it. It takes on form like clay under a seal, and it stands out like a garment from the wicked. Their light is withheld and the upraised arm is broken. Have you entered the springs of the sea?

You know, there’s so much money being spent on researching the depths of the ocean. It’s like the last frontier. We know more apparently about space and our solar system than we know about the oceans on our own planet. But the Lord apparently, does know. He knows all the secrets of the oceans.

Have you entered Job? Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? And I love that question.

Death is not permanent. Otherwise why would there be a gate?

Have you seen the doors of the shadow of Death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the Earth? Tell me, tell me, if you know all this, where is the way to the dwelling of light? Where does light come from? And darkness?

Where is its place that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the paths to its home? Do you know it because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great? Have you entered the treasury of the snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? By what way is light diffused? These are really intense questions, aren’t they?

And it just seems the Lord relentless, keeps putting them before Job, and Job apparently has nothing to say. He’s speechless, as I would be. Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man, to satisfy the desolate waste and cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass.

Has the rain a father? I think the question is rhetorical. The rain does have a father, and that’s the Heavenly Father who designed rain, who brought it into being, who has begotten the drops of dew, another genius aspect of water. That the dew forms on the grass in the morning to water the grass and the spiders and the ants and keep the creation just happy from whose womb comes the ice and the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters hardened like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades? Oh, let’s make it really difficult now. Or loose the belt of Orion, can you bring out Maseroth in its season? Or can you guide the great bear with its cubs?

Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the Earth? Possibly the gravitational pull of the planetary system that helps keep the Earth balance and habitable? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are.

Who has put wisdom in the mind?

The human brain is the most complex computer on the planet.

Just think of the incredible, incredible function and nature of your brain. Mostly water, but oh, the memories of a lifetime accrue there, and memories link with other memories and pathways get associated with other pathways that let us reason more deeply. Our sense of awareness is greater and greater. Albert Einstein said, my universe is my mind, and I think that’s true for each of us where the sum total of our mind, memories, experiences, places we’ve been, people we’ve known, ice cream we’ve eaten.

Seriously, who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven when the dust hardens in clumps and the clouds cling together? Who?

Answer me if you can.

Great is our God, lovely as the planet he has created. We are fearfully and wonderfully made brethren, let’s raise our voices together in singing our hymn the glory of the Lord they hate faithless falls and head divide thy way to trees, and while right in the shining bells before stream the earthly d All the presence of my body sing. But the world of light and display like man designs his pan Arise, behold my word. Remain in perest times in Christ and loving God shall be replaced with my high praises.

My peace receive my glory. Now it rains and rain forest.

There’s the expression, words fail me. How can we speak thy praise aright? You know, sometimes when I want to express an idea about my impressions of the Lord to someone, I can’t do it. I get choked up. It’s almost beyond my human capacity to express the wonder of the Divine Being.

Our gracious Father in Heaven.

He created this planet and he created it with purpose. I love Psalm 8, about the majestic name of the Lord who created this planet. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth who have set your glory above the heavens, out in the mouths of babes and nursing infants. You have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.

If we could but open the eyes of those who oppose. If we could open the understanding of those who willfully resist the evidences of creation and the genius of God, it would bring them to silence.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him?

One of the most interesting videos I have seen on YouTube, on the Internet. Not a big YouTube fan, not a big social media fan.

I guess I’m trying to excuse myself from judgment. Don’t judge me. But you could write this down. It’s a video called Riding Light. No space between the two words, riding light.

And it’s computer generated animation, and the whole premise is this. It starts on the surface of the sun and begins to travel from the sun to all the planets in the solar system at the speed of light.

So 186,000 miles per second and you’re traveling, and it is amazing to see how long it takes that light to get to the planet Earth. More amazing to me is after it passes the planet Earth, you know, this great big planet that we live on, you know, we drive across continents and just seems like so expansive and it would never end. Plenty of space. But as it moves on from the planet Earth and the moon and heads toward Mars and out to the end of the solar system, the Earth increasingly becomes a tinier and tinier and tinier speck against a velvet black backdrop.

And you just realize what a rare thing life is, what a beautiful planet we have.

And then, tragically, at least to me, it strikes me how insane it is that we go to war with each other, that we hate each other. We don’t like this one because of their nationality. We don’t like this one because of their politics, don’t like this one because of their. Their religion. We don’t like this one just because we don’t like them, right?

And yet here is this precious, precious, precious little planet, and here we are.

So why does the Lord consider us? Well, I guess to him we’re a pretty big deal. I think he did a fantastic job making the place, and we remember that after he created man on the planet, he said, very good. At least it was for a while.

When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you visit him for, you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over all the works of your hands, you have put all things on his feet. All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. All these things were placed under man’s control. Control, or responsibility is still stewards.

That’s why we, like so many of the discussions at the convention, the destruction of deceit and disobedience, the discussion today about what will the earthly kingdom be like, and just to see the change in society that will be effected by the binding up of evil, by the bringing forth of the truth of God’s light, by our Lord Jesus, making himself manifest to mankind as their king, and ruling with a rod of iron not to beat and punish, but to enforce, to guide and direct. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.

Brethren, it’s time to sing again. Join with me in this hymn, All Creatures of our God and King. It’s not in our hymnal, but it’s one that has a melody that should be familiar to you. Sister Amelia will help us by playing distinctly and clearly, and let’s do this.

All creatures of our God and King O creatures of our God and King Lift up with us your voice and sing Alleluia, Alleluia. A burning sun with fallen name Thou silver not with softer gleam O praise him. O praise him. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah O rushing wind at heart so strong he loves that sail in everyone oh, praise Him. Hallelujah.

Rising morning Praise, Rejoice, daylighting Find a voice O praise him. O praise him. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

The flowing water pure and breath make music what I want to hear Alleluia, alleluia.

Thou far so masterful and bright Lovest men both warmth and light O praise give O praise him. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Man of tender heart forgiving others Take your heart O sing me hold on pain and sorrow there Praise fallen on him Cast your care O praise Him. O praise him. Hallelujah. Alleluia, Alleluia.

Let all things that Creator bless and worship him in the wholeness O praise Him. Hallelujah. Praise Praise the Father, Praise the Son and praise the Spirit makes us one O praise Him. O praise Him. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Holy alleluia means praise God, Praise Jehovah. Praise him for the wonders of the earth. Praise him for the creation of the human family. But wait, there’s more.

There’s Much more. Let’s take a look, shall we?

The apostle picks up on Psalm 8 in Hebrews chapter 2, and he expands on it. He sees the logic of it, and he sees the implications of Christ’s sacrifice. In it he observes, God has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to. To angels, but testified in a certain place. Psalm 8 saying, what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of man, that you take care of him?

You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

What has the word of God failed if he said, we do not see all things put under him? Well, that wouldn’t really give it a time. But he says, not yet, and that’s the key word yet.

But we do see Jesus. Ah, there’s the key. Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, as was Father Adam, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

That’s what we believe. I think that’s a central doctrine of our movement. The ransom for all. The ransom for all. He died for everyone, and therefore everyone will accrue the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice.

Everyone, no one left behind.

The earthly restitution will be magnificent. But there’s another thing going on there, a special high calling.

This is the mystery hid from ages and generations. But now it’s made manifest to the saints. Christ in you the hope of glory that God would call out from mankind a special people for his name, a divine family, a special high calling.

In that regard, we have further information from Hebrews 2. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Ah. Not only Jesus was brought to glory, but he’s going to bring many sons to glory.

The captain of their salvation was made perfect through his sufferings, mature through his sufferings, complete through his sufferings, and so it is with those who are his followers. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one Father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Have you thought about that? Our Lord Jesus, looking down at you, maybe talking to the angels.

Oh, yeah. Brother Dan. He’s my brother, right? Sister Joy. She’s my sister.

And he’s not ashamed to call them brethren. Even me.

You know, we are all acutely aware of the fact that we’re broken, we are sinful, and that we need the grace of God in Christ Jesus us to be able to be acceptable in God’s sight, to give us the energy, the courage to keep going in this narrow way, and I think it’s wonderful that he’s not embarrassed to call us brethren because he knows our afflictions and he’s filled with compassion for each one of us, and we so ought to be filled with compassion for one another, shouldn’t we? If it’s good enough for him and good enough for us. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

It seems almost unbelievable, doesn’t it? It’s audacious to say, yes, I’m a child of God. My aspiration is to sit with Jesus on a throne in heaven and rule over the earth. Some might say that’s delusional. Right.

You’re a delusional narcissist. I plan to rule the world, but that is our prospect. But we would do it with the wise instruction of God and in full and perfect accordance with his will.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer, and in that context, we’re referred to as new creatures or a new creation, and here I digress just a bit. I told you about the incredible physiology of the human body, that it is one of the most masterful creations ever. But God is making a new creation.

He is making the Christ Jesus and His body members.

And if the human body is a masterwork, the body of Christ is a masterpiece.

And I think that the Lord’s nuanced interactions with each of us each day, in our interactions with each other, our interactions with the world, our meditations upon him in our prayer life, all these nuances bring us under his influence and control, and it’s almost as though we’re that lump of clay that he’s molding and shaping to be what he wants it to be.

If you are Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise Galatians 3:29 and the promises we all know in you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. Oh, can’t wait. But I guess I have to.

We are called to a higher calling. Let’s raise our voices in praise to the Lord for this. For we are heirs with Christ all they are of mine. O children of a king Let all eternal life divine and hope for joy they see why do they then oppress on me when why so much despise because of death which loves unseen the world is full of Christ.

What wanky day that narrow road that can it be real or is it just a dream?

I think the scriptures spell it out clearly. This is no dream. We see the black and white reality of Scripture and here we are a manifestation of God’s everlasting love. I don’t have pictures on this because I think the beauty is in the words of Scripture here.

What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us?

Yeah.

Think of how invested God is in this plan. If the Bible is true, he didn’t spare his own son. He took the son of his love and gave him sacrificially for us that we might have life. Think of how irrational it would be for him to say, oh yeah, I gave my son, you know, I gave him up to death for mankind. But I really don’t care much about mankind.

What? And essentially, that’s what many religions professing to be representative of Christ are saying, that hundreds of millions of people will be eternally lost. I reject that.

He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It’s God that justifies. So who’s going to step and say, well, no, you’ve justified them, but I have no, they will be speechless. It is God who has justified. Who is he that condemns?

Well, remember, it is Christ who died for us and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Probably did that a few times for me today, no doubt.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation. Well, I know many of you have been through tribulations and you’re still here. Distress. Ditto. Persecutions.

Famine, Nakedness. Peril. Sword. As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors. We’re not Squeaker getter buyers. Is that really a word? Squeaker getter buyers.

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s the black and white of it. That’s the truth of it right there.

As I said, we are being molded by the hand of God. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, and so we say to the Lord, do what you will with me. Do what you will. I’m not going to tell you what to do.

I’m not going to rebel against you. I’m not going to be like that hard pebble that you found in the clay that never quite blends in, no matter how much pressure and squeezing with your thumb you do. So you pick the pebble out and you toss it off to the side. We are clay in his hands and he is making us what he wants us to be.

Isaiah identifies this thought process and he says, surely you have things turned around. You’ve got it all wrong. He’s saying, you’ve got it all wrong. Listen to this. Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay?

For shall the thing made say of him who made it? He didn’t make me. We cannot deny that we have been shaped by the hand of God. Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it? He has no understanding.

In other words, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Really. He does know what he’s doing.

Surely. We are clay in his hands and we say, have thine own way with me, Lord. Have thine own way. Let’s sing this hymn together. Sister Amelia.

I am the clean mo While I am waiting he led him still Am I no rain, Lord? Am I no rain? Search me and join me, Master today Pointer this fall, Lord, wash me just now Bless had my presence Humbly I found have mine own name, Lord have mine own way Wounded and weary Help me like pray Power, O power Joy is mine Touch and fill me sa divine have thy own way, Lord have thine own way O Lord my being absolute swing Filled with thy spirit Thou shalt say Christ only living in me I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

David said that in Psalm 139. I think it’s worth reading. It shows the magnificent care of God over each of us. His incredible attention to every detail in our lives. O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

And I often say the Lord knew exactly what he was getting when he got me. There were no surprises. He knew exactly what I was, and he knew what he needed to do with me. You know, my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off, you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue.

But behold, Lord, you know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Well, if you have something behind you protecting you and something before you protecting you, and you have the hand of God over you, that’s pretty well protected, isn’t it?

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, and sometimes we just find it difficult to keep it vibrant and alive and present in our minds.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I can’t attain it. I can’t quite get my head around it. It’s more than I can comprehend.

Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. I want to stop for just a moment.

That scripture is very powerfully comforting to me. If I make my bed in hell, if I die, behold, you are there with me, and in death. To think there’s God holding my hand, sitting right there next to me, waiting for that time when the voice of the Son of Man will call me forth. That’s powerful, isn’t it?

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. You know the sea. The thought that went on forever and ever and ever. Unless you went over the edge of the world and fell off. So you couldn’t go any further than to go to the edge of the sea.

If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you. But the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.

And in your book they were all written the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.

Holy, holy, holy Our God is holy all powerful divine wisdom. So perhaps, brethren, we can bring this evening to a close with the use of holy, holy, holy and sing praises to our great Creator Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty God in the highest blessed majesty Holy, holy, holy all the saints adore thee Casting of the gallant crowns around the blessed cherubim Knowing the lay for the evermore shall be Holy, holy, holy all the darkness find me all the stand upon my glory May not see Holy love holy There is one face finding perfect in power in love and purity Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty All I work shall bless my name in earth and sigh and see Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty I let my name thank you for praying that prayer with me this evening.

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