God's
First Great Gift
by:
Pastor Dan M. Appel
Whether or not you bothered to celebrate the fact, when you awoke this morning you began experiencing the first great gift that God gave to us here on planet earth.
In the first verse of the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible we read that God created everything. We see a picture of a God powerful enough to speak and when He speaks sub-atomic particles form into atomic mass, and atoms coalesce into molecules, and those molecules join together into the creation we see around us. Then, in this sacred book we discover God giving "life" to the plants and animals - even stooping to breathe "the breath of life" into mankind - his ultimate creation.
We are also told, in this ancient story, that God had an enemy. His name is Satan, the Adversary. As soon as God created life, Satan set out to take credit for it, and at the same time, to destroy it.
There was a time in the not too distant past when those who chose to believe this picture of the origin of life were in for more than a small amount of ridicule from the scientific community. Life, we were told, originated spontaneously. Somehow, in the primordial soup, the appropriate amino acid chains formed and when submitted to just the perfect conditions, voila!, life unbegotten, uncreated, underived, unbestowed, happened. Those who might believe otherwise were relegated to the ranks of the simple and unsophisticated - portrayed as uneducated, unthinking rubes gullible enough to believe a thousands of years old fable that had no scientific basis in fact.
Those days are now passing. More and more in the scientific community are admitting that science cannot account for the origin of life or matter. While there is much speculation about the origin of the universe as we know it, the laws of physics as we currently understand them cannot account for where it all came from in the beginning. All matter and energy in the universe may at one time have been compressed into one tiny point before the Big Bang, but where did the matter and energy itself originate?
Then there is the problem of life itself. Even though it is very uncomfortable to do so, most credible mathematicians have to admit that the chances of life spontaneously occurring in the time spaces allowed are infinitely small. You can translate that impossible. So, some prefer not to think about it. Others say that a God who could create life is out of the question. He is something that cannot be scientifically proven or disproved, therefore He cannot be. Still others, like the late physicist Carl Sagan, admit the problem, deny the existence of God, and speculate that life was seeded into our universe and eventually our planet by aliens from some other dimension. The questions of those with the temerity to ask where those aliens might have come from, and how belief in them is any more credible than belief in a loving God who created this world, are rebuffed as not worthy of serious consideration.
Now in the field of Biology it is becoming increasingly evident that certain biological processes could not have evolved. Those processes, and the organisms which depend on them, could only have been created in place. Intermediate steps could not have worked. Some of this isexplored in Michael Behe's delightful little book "Darwin's Black Box."
In the Bible, in the very first book we discover not only the origin of life, but also the birth of death. Satan, the Adversary, sets out to destroy the life God created on this earth. The whole of human history is the sad tale of Satan's attempts to eradicate this first of God's great gifts. That sad story is our subject in these messages. God, on the other hand, has done all He can do under very difficult circumstances on this earth to enhance our lives. In John 10:10 Jesus says that He came to offer us life more abundantly - Maximum Life. Life to the fullest!
So, what are you going to do with this gift which God gave and gives to you each day of your life? It is truly a gift. It came to you unearned and undeserved. It is yours to do with as you please.
Here are some choices I'd suggest:
1. Choose to enjoy each day to the fullest. Our choices determine our attitudes. We can slog through each day of our lives or we can live them with anticipation and a positive spirit. The choice is ours. King David in the Bible says: "This is a day God made. Let's enjoy and be glad as we live it." (Psalm 118:24 - quoted from the "Moose Hollow Paraphrase")
2. Choose to maximize each and every day. In other words, choose to use the hours of this day in a way that counts. Distill the most of life out of it. Live it to the fullest. If you are working, give it all you've got. If you're playing, do it whole-heartedly. If you're spending time with your wife or children give them your full attention. Decide what is most important and do it. Don't let the precious minutes of your life be frittered away with insignificance. Every one of us has a million more things that we could do every single day than we could possibly do. So, choose what is most important and maximize it!
3. Make first things first. Jesus, the creator God of our days said: "Make first things first. Get your priorities right. Make your spiritual life most important - God's kingdom and His life - and everything else will fall into place." (Luke 12:13 - The Moose Hollow Paraphrase) Stephen Covey recently wrote a very successful and powerfully thought through book titled "First Things First." In it he challenges us to make the most important things most important, the main thing the main thing in our lives. What could be more important than time spent with the one who created life and who knows best how to live it? And, I can tell you from personal experience, if you don't deliberately make it most important it will be crowded out of your life by all kinds of urgent, pressing, but not nearly as important, things.
4. Choose to balance each and every day. Let's face it. We're all a little unbalanced. In fact, some of us are really unbalanced. A balanced live is a satisfying life full of accomplishment. It is also a life that only occurs deliberately. You don't drift through life and live a balanced life. Some important things that need to be in the mix as we strive towards balance are quality and quantity time with family, God, and friends, adequate rest and relaxation, good sleep, a balanced diet, satisfying work, participation in the life of our community. All of these, and many more, are very important. The problem is when any of these begin to crowd out the rest. That is where choice and discipline come in - choosing what is best and disciplining ourselves to include them in balanced ways to the exclusion of other, less important things.
5. Consciously choose who is in the grandstand of your life. Every one of us has those people we look for in the stands each time we go around the track of life. We look up to see if we have their approval. We have the powerful privilege of deciding who we are going to allow up there into the stands. My choice is first of all to place God there on the front row. I find my life most satisfying and rewarding when I live my life first of all to glorify Him and to bring Him pleasure. On the second row is my family. And then, and only then others who I find pleasure in pleasing. Who I choose to let up into the stands of my life and their reactions directly influences the other choices I make in my life.
6. Choose to enhance the lives of others. There is a law in life that states that in giving we receive. As we seek to enhance others' lives, our own lives are enriched. Spend your life focused on serving yourself and you will be miserable, no matter how much money or how many things you amass. You may be the most famous man in the whole world, but you'll never be satisfied as long as you are serving yourself first. On the other hand, millions of people down through history, have discovered that working to enhance others existence has a reciprocal effect, and we are blessed with happiness and satisfaction as well.
7. Choose to protect the lives of others. As I said earlier, God's enemy is doing everything to destroy life, and if he cannot destroy it, at least to sap all of the meaning and value out of it. Why not dedicate your life to opposing him. My greatest pleasure in life is in introducing people to the life giving God who offers us maximum living at its most abundant. Every time that I do, my life is more satisfying and abundant. Every time I point out the things that God's enemy uses to suck the joy and meaning out of people's lives; every time I see them choosing to leave them behind and experience God's more abundant life; it adds meaning to my life. It will do the same for you.
Why not try that life that God offers you? We've taken a careful look at it and have discovered it is the best life possible. We've touched it, tasted it, tried it, and like it. We'd love to tell you about it if you will give us the chance. Why not drop us a note at our e-mail address, or better yet, drop in and let us tell you about it in person.
It's a great life!
© Dan M. Appel
