God Expressing Himself

Transcription

1 God Expressing Himself If you want to express yourself (open your thoughts and feelings for others to know you) how do you do it? By writing? By speaking? By drawing or painting? By making a 3 dimensional object (sculpture)? By creating sounds (music)? These are all forms of art, and art is being creative. So when God decided to create everything on earth he was really being a great artist like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Beethoven, Bach, etc, but much, much better! Artists always tell us something about themselves when they create something. So, when we look at the world around us we learn something about God! Man Reflects God In Genesis 1:26-27 God said, "Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures." So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women. Human beings are like God; men in some way and women in another. God has given us humans the job of looking after what he has created. We re like curators of an art gallery! But we re also more than curators. Being like God we too are creative just as he told us to be: Genesis 1:28 God gave them his blessing and said: Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth. Having children means we are to create more humans in a similar way to God. The ruling over all creation involves building things and caring for the environment so that the whole world is cared for. This all involves a lot of creative activity on our part.

2 Nature Reflects God Man and woman were the last things to be created by God according to Genesis. As we find that humans are created like God we would also expect all of the others things he created to be like him too. The sun, moon and stars, the trees, flowers and fruit, the fish and animals, mountains, plains, rivers and lakes etc, all tell us something about God their maker. Let s see if this is true: Romans 1:20 God's eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made Psalm 19:1The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done. Psalm 8:1-3 Our LORD and Ruler, your name is wonderful everywhere on earth! You let your glory be seen in the heavens above... I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place. The Art of Words Words have a very powerful effect on those who hear them. We only need to think of speeches by great speakers and how they changed the world s history. Alexander the Great galvanised his army by a powerful speech to make them cross the Indus river. At his inauguration President John Kennedy raised the American people to new heights of patriotism by his words, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Martin Luther King Jr. caught the imagination of many with his powerful speech, I have a dream. When all seemed lost for Great Britain in the Second World War Sir Winston Churchill gave a new spirit to the people with his words, we shall

3 fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. Words have power! God created with words: John 1:3 And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Genesis 1:3 God said, "I command light to shine!" Genesis 1:11 God said, "I command the earth to produce all kinds of plants, including fruit trees and grain." Genesis 1:20 God said, "I command the ocean to be full of living creatures, and I command birds to fly above the earth." Genesis 1:24 God said, "I command the earth to give life to all kinds of tame animals, wild animals, and reptiles." Genesis 1:26 God said, "Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. God knows the art of using words and that words have power! God the Sculptor In creating the world and all forms of life God wasn t just an artist of words. He used his hands too, just like a great sculptor. This touch was felt especially when creating humans: Genesis 2:7 The LORD God took a handful of soil and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. Genesis 2:21-22 So the LORD God made him [Adam] fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man's ribs. Then after closing the man's side, the LORD made a woman [Eve] out of the rib. Sculpture is perhaps the most intimate art form and God used it to create us humans! Music Too! Many musicians have tried to copy the sounds we hear around us in nature; the sounds of a fast flowing river, waves crashing on a

4 shore, birds whistling and frogs croaking, the wind blowing in the trees, etc. Human music copies the music God created first! Our great human orchestras have 30 or 40 instruments and composing for such numbers is very complex. When we think of all the instruments God created (everything around us that makes noise) it s just awesome in its complexity and variety! Colour NOT Black and White Have you ever looked at leaves and counted how many shades of green there are? Take a walk around a garden in spring and summer and count the number of colours you find. Then look at the sky at different times of day, season and weather and see how it changes in colour and tone. What a variety! All this tells us that God is very imaginative and enjoys beauty. God just hates to be boring and he doesn t want us to be either, so he creates with a view of spicing up our lives colour! How Long? Genesis tells us that God created life on earth in 6 days. Of course humans were only there for the last day so we have to take God s word for what happened on the other 5. But you may have heard that evolutionists, since Darwin, say that it s taken millions of years to evolve. They come to that conclusion simply because they use the only scientific methods available to them to measure time and examine the evidence. Their human methods are just so primitive compared to the grandeur of God! If you re an evolutionist you would expect a piece of canvass, brushes and paints to turns themselves into a masterpiece of art with lots of time of course!

5 Wouldn t you prefer a master artist to take those same materials and craft a work that you are amazed and uplifted by? Creation is the work of an artist. It tells us who made it God.