The Creator of the Ends of the Earth

Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

This passage his Isaiah speaks of God's sovereignty over the nations and all of creation.  He knows all and sees all.  His understanding and power are unrivaled and can never be overthrown.  His greatness is manifested in all He has made, sustains, and controls.  Therefore, it is incredulous that the question must be given, "Hast thou not known?"  He always has been and always will be faithful to His promises.  It is impossible for "the Creator of the ends of the earth" to faint or be weary in so small a task as protecting and providing for His own.  Truly, "there is no searching of His understanding."  The finite mind is unable to grasp His infinite wisdom and power.  Because God is so great and mighty, I can place absolute, unwavering confidence in Him.  Since He founded the ends of the earth, I can be certain that my needs are not hid from His eyes.  I can expect, since His thoughts and ways so excel my own (Isa. 55:89), that I will not always understand the reasons for His workings.  But, since He rules the universe, He knows what is best always.  The LORD is too wise to make a mistake.

~ ~ ~

The fear of the Lord is having a right concept of God. It is the understanding of Who and what God is. "The fear of the Lord is... the knowledge of the Holy," says Proverbs 9:10.

Listing fifty names of God and writing a short paragraph for each of them is one of my assignments this semester. The names of the LORD are His attributes, or things which He has revealed to be true of Himself. His character opens to us when we seek to know Him more fully, just as the true worth of a friend is made apparent to us as we visit and get to know him or her.  One of the ways of doing this is studying His names. There are so many! Finding a mere fifty is no great feat. Discovering and meditating upon the LORD's names has been such a blessing to me; I will be sharing some every now and then so that I will not be the only one to benefit from this study. Our God is so... [grasping for a worthy adjective]... infinite. He has revealed much of Himself to us in His Word, but yet how much more must there be of His holy person which we can never comprehend this side of Heaven? Things about Himself which not even the angels can know? Man has no higher purpose than to "fear God, and keep His commandments" (Ecc. 12:13). Solomon discovered this after wasting his life upon riches, worldly wisdom, and material gain. We would be wise to heed this instruction early.

81 Cents

Devotional by Mrs. Molly Audiss

(From Christian Womanhood's weekly evotions)

Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

My  oldest son recently turned seven, and he received money from several relatives. All together he had $65, which I made a big deal about as we headed to Toys R Us to choose a toy. He was mildly excited about the cash but was very excited about something else. You see, in his class at school, they are learning the names and values of different coins. Though not impressed with his paper money, he was thrilled with the change. "Mom, I have 81 cents!" Isn't it funny the way little kids think? But, I would not see it as funny in ten years if he still had that mentality; I would be alarmed. As much as I enjoy having small children, I look forward to the time when they get old enough to talk with me on a more adult level. I want to someday have a relationship with my sons that is on a more even level than that of an adult and a young child. I would be very sad if our relationship never progressed past what we have now.

Ladies, God created us to bring Him pleasure. He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to get to know Him more and more through the years as we fellowship with Him. When I get to Heaven and see spiritual things more clearly (I Corinthians 13:12), I cringe to think I may look at my life on earth, realizing that I never grew spiritually to maturity. All I ever gave Christ was the mentality of a young child. I don't want that! I want to grow in Christ, not mainly for my own sake but for His. Doesn't He deserve to fellowship with Christians on a more and more mature level as they grow in spiritual knowledge? I fear that too many of us aren't worried about our Christianity much after we get saved. Once we have "fire insurance," many of us don't worry about growing in the Lord. It goes without saying that, even if we have a billion years to grow in wisdom and knowledge, we will never get close to understanding our God. He is so far above us that we cannot even fathom all that He is, but shouldn't we try to gain the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), for His sake? If He created us to fellowship with Him, He must want us to learn about Him. The Christian life is a journey of discovering through God's Word how He thinks, what He likes, what He dislikes -- Who He is. I have been saved for nearly 30 years; surely God expects that I will commune with Him on the level of a 30-year-old spiritually.

That is the tragedy of backsliding and leaving God's will for a season. You get behind in spiritual maturity. Our Heavenly Father deserves to have children who grow steadily, always gaining more wisdom and knowledge in their level of fellowship with God.

To reach maturity spiritually, we must realize what things God thinks are important and what things He feels are less important. The Bible teaches us that, as an Eternal Being, the Lord is most interested in things that are eternal, and the Lord is very concerned about each and every person. This should be something that is high on our list of priorities.

Too often I think that God reminds us that we have $65, but we are more concerned about our 81 cents. Let me explain.

My family and I just moved last week to a new home (new to me). I am thrilled with our little corner of the world. Our house is a cottage-type home in the middle of a wooded acre with a pond. The property is completely bordered by trees, so when the trees have leaves, we have total privacy from the road and from other houses. It is just what I have always wanted. I love having a big stone fireplace and being a homemaker; my house is very important to me. But, on the grand scheme of things, I must remember that my house is just that -- a house, a wonderful gift from God. It is special but not eternal. I could easily close myself in and get lost in decorating and organizing my home and forget about the world around me. (That sounds perfect to me!) Regularly I need to remind myself that my home is a shiny quarter in my change jar, but it is not true riches. So today I met my soul-winning partner, and we went out knocking on doors, telling others about Christ. I must keep my priorities straight. Would I rather knock on doors or shop for items for my new home? Did you have to ask that? Honestly, I am just an average Christian. I would rather be at home, but I want to grow up spiritually and make what is important to God important to me.

Do you want to look back at your life on earth and see all the times when you got excited about your 81 cents, when your pockets were stuffed full of the riches of God? I want to grow up. Think about it, ladies. As Christians, a member of the Trinity lives inside our bodies! He is always with us, guiding us, comforting us, telling the Father what we need! That is true riches! We have a copy (or many copies) of the only eternal Book ever written, the very words of God. Our Bibles are true riches! Our loving God has given us the ability to bring an eternal life into the world, rear it, train it to love Him and serve Him -- our children are our eternal riches! Wives, the Lord ordained only one relationship on earth to "act out" the relationship that Christ has with the church. Wow -- our marriage is true riches!

Let's get a little less excited about our 81 cents. Our houses, our cars, our clothes, our jewelry, our titles and positions, our salary. These things are pretty, shiny pennies, that are fun to have and special to us. But they don't make us rich.

For the Lord's sake, let's grow up spiritually, so that we can reach the potential He has given us. Let's strive to be mature friends of God, fulfilling the reason He created us. I wrote a phrase on a piece of paper, and I put it on the wall by the head of my bunk bed in college. Each night before I went to sleep I looked at it and thought about it. Maybe you could write out this same question, and look at it each evening before you go to sleep:

Lord, was the way I acted today in accordance to the vision You had of what I would be when You created me to fulfill Your purpose?

Lord, Today I am Grateful for...

11. The rapturous sunset of Monday, February 22, the first my eyes beheld since November.

12. Delicate, feather-like ice crystals on the window, vividly aglow with the setting sun. For manifold beauties so intricate and diverse which I admire and appreciate.

13. Keeping the church vehicle running throughout the harsh Arctic winter! Praise God that we can continue to pick up folks for services!

Photographic Adventures in the Arctic

It was a brisk, clear day. The thermometer read -30 degrees F (-50 with windchill). The young lady scurried to bundle herself up, not bothering to remove her apron. "Weapon" in hand, she made her way across the street, then crouched and slowly crawled up a snowbank. "Aha!" she declared to herself. The caribou was in perfect range. Breathless, she raised her equipment, aimed carefully... and shot!