How Powerful is the Omnipotent One?

 While doing some research on the scientific basis for the existence of God, I came across a document originally written by Peter W. Stoner some time ago (Science Speaks, Online Edition), and has been revised since it's original publication. In the article, Stoner explains the mathematical likelihood of the 13 events of Creation being correctly recorded in the right order and explains the importance of this sequence being in the correct order, and how it confirms what scientists have since discovered. (I find the latter rather humorous) 

He then goes on to explain the power that is in the suns of the universe and it really stopped me dead in my tracks to reconsider my opinion of God, and ask- "Just HOW powerful is He?"

All believers probably say much the same thing that He is all powerful, knowing, present etc. He knows the stars by name (Psalm 147:4) and the hairs on my head are numbered (Matthew 10:30).  These are concepts that we are familiar with and are not hard to appreciate, that is, until you start to try to appreciate just what these passages imply. Have we actually thought about how much power there must be in our God? 

But now, let me share what Stoner wrote about the power of a sun:

    "The sun is a great power plant. If you were to mark off one square yard on the sun you would find it is giving off 70,000 horsepower of energy continuously. There are 10,000 times the square yards of the Earth on the sun. (For comparison's sake, the sun releases the equivalent of 2,700 Little Boy atomic bombs of 15 kt of TNT every second.)

This is a tremendous amount of energy, and "there is still enough energy for the sun to continue to burn for another 5 billion years." Is that power? Indeed, but consider now, there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Multiply our impression of God by 100 billion. But how many is 100 billion? "If you were to count 250 stars a minute, day and night, it would only take you 1,000 years to reach this number." Now that's power.

Lest we forget, the Milky Way is but one of many galaxies. How many? Perhaps a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) galaxies to consider. And there will be a host of planets in each of those solar systems represented by a star, each with mass and velocity, traveling through space at fantastic speeds. All this motion and mass contains kinetic energy which had to be created and set in motion somehow.

I think this properly, or at least minimally, begins to put into perspective the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18 ".. all power is given unto me."

Lessons From Rahab's Faith

Reading Joshua this morning I was struck by a thought about the story of Rahab hiding the spies in her home in Joshua 2 and began contemplating what significance might be here.

The Holy Spirit quickly revealed to me some thoughts I would like to share.

1. Rahab, a prostitute, realized the source of the Israelite's success in leaving Egypt and the conquest of neighboring kingdoms. So well known was their success to the inhabitants of Jericho that their hearts  "melted" in fear. Why is it a prostitute could figure this out and no one else? I immediately saw a correlation between this story and Noah's ark where a handful of people were saved because of their faith.

2. She lied to her king. While we know lying is a sinful act, see here a new believer who lied to protect the spies she was hiding. It might also have been out of fear to protect her family from the king's wrath given her new walk, but I feel comfortable giving her the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when we realize why God was pleased with her act in that it must have been her heart was about fulfilling God's will.

4. God uses us in His works for our benefit. I saw another reminder of how God uses us to further His Kingdom as Jesus did with the wedding miracle (John 2:1-12). I love this story because it is of no doubt that Jesus could easily have spoken the water to become wine but he used the servants in the miracle to further demonstrate his power and because of this the servants could share their story of the encounter. Coincidentally, that is what each of us is to do; share our story or testimony as a tool to witness to others.

3. The red cord placed in the window. The color red symbolizes a couple things in the Bible. First, scarlett represents sin ("The great harlot dressed in scarlet and purple (Revelation 17:1-6) and the need for atonement which of course is effected through a blood sacrifice. I was struck by the similarity of the scarlet cord in a window and the lamb's blood, also scarlet, spread over the door of the Jews' doors in Egypt to protect the occupants of the household therein from the angels' death touch. As in Genesis   we see Rahab's family protected by this simple act.

4. I saw a parallel between the angels sweeping down on the occupants of Egypt and the Israelites doing the same bringing death and destruction to those not in a protected household. Symbolic also of the coming judgment with the angels sounding the Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8 & 9)

5. I see our faith perfectly illustrated here: First, the promise of the spies to Rahab in that if she were to complete one simple act of faith they would honor their agreement. The second being the promise of salvation which they gave her. Third, we see the fulfillment of that promise at the appropriate time which was unknown to the woman and her family, just as God's promise to us we will not know the hour of His return.