Wednesday, January 5, 2022

The artistic skill of human beings produces very beautiful workmanship, things that delight the eye, and these things reveal to us something of the thought of the designer; but the thing made is not the maker. It is not the work, but the workman, that is counted worthy of honor. So while nature is an expression of God’s thought, it is not nature, but the God of nature that is to be exalted....

 

The sun rising in the heavens is a representative of Him who is the life and light of all that He has made. All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens, speak of God.... All things tell of His tender, fatherly care, and of His desire to make His children happy. The mighty power that works through all nature and sustains all things is not, as some men of science represent, merely an all-pervading principle, an actuating energy. God is a Spirit; yet He is a personal Being; for so He has revealed Himself: 

The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: ... The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, Even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.” ... 

God’s handiwork in nature is not God Himself in nature. The things of nature are an expression of God’s character and power; but we are not to regard nature as God. The artistic skill of human beings produces very beautiful workmanship, things that delight the eye, and these things reveal to us something of the thought of the designer; but the thing made is not the maker. It is not the work, but the workman, that is counted worthy of honor. So while nature is an expression of God’s thought, it is not nature, but the God of nature that is to be exalted.... In the creation of the earth, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter.... All things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice, and were created for His own purpose.—The Ministry of Healing, 412-415. WGD 7

 

Christ took with Him to the heavenly courts His glorified humanity. To those who receive Him He gives power to become the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If during this life they are loyal to God, they will at last “see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” Revelation 22:4. And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father? MH 421 

 

 

For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. 1 Chronicles 16:26, KJV