Eternity

Have you ever heard of a glass sponge? 

I hadn't, but recently I was curious to know what animal lives the longest!  You can google it yourself - the info about glass sponges is interesting.  I can't believe I never heard of them before.  The numbers about them being extinct and then found in 1987 use crazy numbers , but what the scientists do agree on is that they can live 15,000 years!  Do you know what that means? That means that the sponges found today were supernaturally created on the fifth day as recorded in Genesis 1. These animals don't have a brain, nor do they have eyes, but they are living, breathing animals.  

I think one  of the hardest concepts to grasp is eternity. Our finite minds can't understand an infinite concept.

But God desires that we understand as much of Him as we can so He has revealed Himself in creation - something we can see and grasp with our little minds, and apply what we see to what we cannot see.

Even 'forever'.

Below is an image of a man-made device that has what is called perpetual motion.

What is it? The marbles in the wheel fall in such a way that they cause the wheel to keep on turning , indefinitely ,forever., for an eternity!  If man can devise something that turns forever all on its own, it should not take much faith to believe God can do so much more - like create bodies that last forever. If Methusalah could live almost a thousand years, what's a few thousand plus more!!??

God also reveals His eternal attribute in space.

I remember an argument I had as a child with my girl friend. We were walking home from school and admiring the clouds in the sky. I don't remember my comment but I clearly remember her response. She informed me quite emphatically that the clouds  bumped up against the sky which was a solid ceiling. I knew enough to know that wasn't true and I argued that the clouds were hanging IN the sky and we could go to the other side. She was not about to admit she was wrong and I finally gave up. I hope she has heard  a more scientific answer since!

We know today that science has not found that solid ceiling, nor the end of space....the farther they can see with ever more powerful telescopes the more there is to see.

IF there WAS a ceiling that still could not be the end because there would have to be SOMETHING on the other side of the ceiling - even if it was empty space.

So if you believe what scientists can see, then can you not believe what you cannot see, if God says it is so? An eternally existing God of all creation has put 'eternity' in space.

Human beings have a sense of eternal life. If they chose not to believe in God, then they look for other explanations, such as reincarnation, or ghosts being departed people,  or some cosmic energy that we are all part of and will be absorbed back into.

Ecc.3:11 says that God "has set eternity in men's' hearts."

God has given us more than enough 'helps' to be able to understand Him and His ways.
He wants us to know that this earth is only temporary, eternity and perfection is yet to come when we will forever live with Him on a perfect newly created earth! 

We truly have been given  everlasting  life so we will live forever with an eternal God!

John 11:25,26 "I am the resurrection and the life.He who believes in Me, though he die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. do you believe this???"
Do we?  Do we believe that? What a hope it is! 

 The Memory of Scent

 It is spring.  and one of the things we all enjoy are the wonderful scents of spring -  flowers, freshly mown grass, fresh rain. 
Have you stopped lately to consider how important smell is to us?  Both pleasant and unpleasant , it is our delight, or our disgust -- it draws us to what is desirable and repels us from what is not!  

While we do not 'smell' God's presence with our physical sense, if we could , would it not be the most incredible scent of all scents?   

I pray that each of you will sense the fragrance and delight of God's very real presence around you... because we know that is His promise.  he is as near to us as our breath!  

I always love when science 'catches up' with the Bible. After multiples tries and many discarded, amended, adjusted attempts at understanding  the world we live in and defining how things work, science does sometimes confirm the truth.

In Gen. 9:2 God says this .. "and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air , on all that move on the earth.... "   

I used to wonder how this could be since God originally created animals to be Adam's 'friends', yet something changed when God told Noah after the flood that, from then on, animals would fear man So how is it that today animals still  fear man, unless with patient retraining they are 'tamed'?
What happened that permanently changed the animals' instinctive trust of man to an instinctive fear of man?

Seems science has found the answer.

Using foot shocks lab mice were trained to fear a fragrance resembling orange blossoms.  To the surprise of the scientists somehow there was a transfer of information regarding the 'danger' of this fragrance into the sperm of the trained mice.
This ensured that the 'fear'  response to that particular scent  was passed on to their young.   The other surprising result was that the successive generations had an even greater fear response to the 'smell' and needed a smaller amount of fragrance to trigger the response.

Interesting to note, isn't it, that  next time a wild animal flees from you in fear you can know that it is still displaying something learned by its ancestors that lived in Noah's time. It  is literally the 'smell' of man that triggers the fear of man in animals, just as the mice in the quoted experiment were trained by a 'smell'.

God's word is true, and it is always true, no matter how long it takes science to figure something out!!

I was wondering ....
God says in Duet. 5:9 that the iniquity of the fathers is passed down to the children, to the third and fourth generations.  BUT those who love God and keep His commandments experience God's mercy.
We have indication in our language usage  that people are aware of this 'passing down' - from parent to child - of characteristics , behavior patterns, addictions etc.
Familiar phrases are .. "Like father, like son..."  or "he's a chip off the old block" , or "that's a family trait".

From the initial brainstorming work of two scientists, Moshe Szyf, a moecular biologist and geneticist at McGill University in Montreal, and Michael Meaney, a McGill neurobiologist,  there spawned a whole new field, behavioral epigenetics.   This study has shown that our DNA is permanently changed by what we experience in our childhoods - negative or positive -  be it abuse or deprivation or loving affirmation.  

While God meant it for our good -- that our DNA would carry in it the pattern of the good example our parents modeled before us, so that it would be easier for us to 'do and live right' -- it also works against us if less than a good example is lived out by our childhood caregivers. Then our DNA is changed to follow a negative pattern, and we follow our parents'  tendency toward depression, or violence or anxiety. 
   
But isn't it reassuring, and comforting to know that all negative patterns that affected us in our growing up years  can be overturned by God's grace? 
 If we look to Him as our Savior, we are given a new start, we are a new creation, and are given a new example to follow.   Jesus  showed us the way,  He expressed God's love toward us, and when we come to Him in our brokenness,  He heals our hearts minds and spirits.
He gives us a new identity and  writes HIS DNA on our hearts.  

"I will give you a new name..."

 Isa_62:2 

 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;

 I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." 

Eze_36:26 

And there is more -- our 'scent' changes.  Look at I Cor. 2:14, It says that the knowledge of God has a scent -- as we recognize and embrace the truth of His Word, a fragrance is diffused through us!   And this scent is responded to.
To God it is the very fragrance of Christ, but to the world it is the smell of death.  Have you ever wondered how we 'instantly' sometimes know whether someone we just met is a believer or not?  Unconsciously, we recognize the 'scent' of Jesus whose fragrance they are wearing.
This world lost in a dark winter needs a 'spring' where the fragrance of Christ is everywhere !  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This article , that I read some time ago, is what triggered my devotional thoughts here ... https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/fear-can-be-inherited-through-sperm-1.2448914  

Identity

 

Proving My Identity

The Lord always gives me something I can share  in a devotional, but not always something I would choose.

This last week I had my credit cards stolen. It was where they were stolen that made it more upsetting. It was on Good Friday in church. I left my purse by my seat when I went up to one of the communion stations. It was the only time in the last week that I had left my purse unattended.

My current credit was expiring at the end of the month and the new one I had already received. Both cards were stolen.

When I needed my card to update some online accounts I was confused when it was not in my purse card pockets.i knew I hadn't used it for a while and always kept it in the same place. I searched my purse over and over thinking I was simply not seeing it...Then I searched the house, hoping I was just suffering a memory block. But both cards had disappeared.

Finally, I called the credit card company, and yes there was a purchase I had not made. At the time my card was used  I was in a care home visiting a  family member.

The agent was very kind and everything is made right...cards cancelled, fraud purchase refunded and a new card sent out.

It was not the first time I was robbed while in church.

Many years ago I left my purse in a Sunday School classroom hidden under my coat, while I slipped across the hall into an adjoining SS room. When I came back I noticed nothing amiss until I picked up my purse to go home and immediately knew it was too light! 

Yes...my wallet/pocketbook was gone. Stolen. In it were my driver's license , bank card, cheque book, birth certificate etc. Along with a cash gift I had received from my mother-in-law. It was all gone.

When I tried to have  my ID replaced I found I was in trouble.They needed one piece of ID to get another...or this one to get that one. I had none of them and so all my requests were denied. There was nothing they could do if I could not prove who I was.

I never felt so invalidated, so stripped of my identity. I could not prove I was who I was. I was a nobody!

Finally, one agent asked if I had a marriage certificate. YES!! that I had and with it I was able to work my way through replacing my other ID one by one.

I will never forget that feeling of being  so helplessly unable to prove who I was and therefore I no longer had any rights or privileges. 

I thought about that feeling of not being recognized for who I was and I wondered if it would be like standing in front of God's throne for judgment.

When we step out of this life we are stripped of everything we have. We take nothing  with us. Our earthly ID ,even if we did have it, is invalid in God's courtroom. We stand before Him completely alone. There is no one to speak on our behalf, no one who can vouch for us.

But then God speaks. He asks the question, "Do you have a marriage certificate? " Our heart leaps! YES, we have that! We are the bride of Christ. We have the seal of His Holy Spirit. God the Father looks at Jesus standing nearby. Jesus smiles and declares, " Yes, I know that one, they are mine.!" 
 Isaiah 43:1 says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine!" What incredibly reassuring words! 

All is well, our heavenly  citizenship 'card'  is stamped 'approved', and we are known for who we are in Jesus.

What a joy that will be, when we hear these words spoken to us, "well done  good and faithful servant....enter the joy of your Lord." Matt. 25:23 

"Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb."

Rev. 19:9

Our identity is secure in Jesus. I love the passage in  Romans 8:14-17

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bandage again to fear , but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children , then heirs - heirs if God and joint  heirs with Christ, that we may also be glorified together!"