MARTHA VANCISE

Writing for 21st Century Pilgrims

Leave It Alone

Leave It Alone

by | FebThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

So you don’t understand what happened to the dinosaurs. In your search for answers don’t pull out “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Yes, it takes faith to leave that thread alone. We cannot prove God created all things but “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” God as Creator of all is not a loose thread that can be tugged out and discarded. Pull on that thread and your faith will unravel and end up in a pile of jumbled and tangled ideology. Throughout the Word, God emphasizes his role of Creator. Confirmation that God was creator of heaven and earth, animals, birds, sea life and humans is found from the first verse of the Bible to the last book of the Bible.

Two millennia after Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, “The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth …” God said, “I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth — men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.” Centuries later, Abraham and the mysterious King Melchizedek met, and both spoke of the “God Most High Creator of heaven and earth.”

The Psalmists wrote about the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, and Our Maker. The prophets faithfully gave God’s message, “It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens….” The Apostle John spoke of the Word (Jesus) “being with God from the beginning. Through him all things were made: without him, nothing was made that has been made.” At the dawn of the Church Age, the Apostle Paul told a crowd at Lystra, “turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”

 Creation Is a Reference Mark On God’s Timeline. 

Jesus spoke of future events saying, “…those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world.” Jesus also spoke of his relationship to God before creation. “…you loved me before the creation of the world.” The Apostle Peter said that God’s plan for our salvation from sin was developed “before the creation of the world.” According to Revelation, the book of life was started at the creation of the world.

Thread Pullers

Paul spoke to Roman Thread Pullers. “For since the creation of the world God has made his eternal power and divine nature clear, and people have no excuse for unbelief.” Paul goes on to describe the chaos and debauchery that follows when people pull that thread and “begin to worship and serve created things rather than the Creator…” The Apostle Peter also warned about those who treat God’s promises lightly and “deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”

An End-Times Reminder – God Created …

The book of Revelation tells of elders falling before God and saying “you created all things.” In chapter ten we see an angel who “swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it …” A flying angel cries out “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.” From beginning to end, the Word confirms and emphasizes that God created the heavens and the earth and seas and all that was in them – including humans.

Go ahead.
Dig for the truth about dinosaurs and fossils and
strange-looking bones to your heart’s content.
Just don’t mess with the thread of God as Creator.

Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:2; Genesis 6:6-7; Genesis 14:19, 22; Psalm 95:6; 115:15; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 146:6; Isaiah 45:12; Mark 13:19; John 17:24b; I Peter 1:20; Romans 1:18-32; II Peter 3:5; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 17:8b; Rev. 14:7

Martha Hawn VanCise©

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perplexities … An Old Signpost

Perplexities … An Old Signpost

by | FebWed2015 | BLAZES

 

In perplexities –
when we cannot tell what to do,
when we cannot understand what is going on around us –
let us be calmed
and steadied
and made patient
by the thought that
what is hidden from us
is not hidden from Him.

Frances Ridley Havergal  (1836-1879)

Martha Hawn VanCise ©2021
Photo: Shutterstock
New Wardrobe

New Wardrobe

by | FebTue2015 | BLAZES

    I need a new wardrobe

From your Word I’ve feasted
on rich food that has
expanded my perception of
you, my world, and myself.

This developing Christ-life within
won’t fit into the old attitudes of
impatience, unkindness, and worry.

Clothe me with love, patience, kindness, and trust

Martha Hawn VanCise©

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones

by | JanThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

Those who knew my father knew that “fishing” ran a close second to “loving God.”  Yes, he loved his family, but we soon learned that spending time with Dad meant  “going  fishing.”  The only time I ever played hooky from school was the spring day that Dad told our family, “It’s too nice a day to go to school. We’re goin’ fishin’.” Anyone that ever went fishing with my dad also knew that he never stayed in one spot long. If he didn’t get a nibble on his line in ten minutes, he started walking along the creek bank looking for another  fishing hole.  If he had no luck on one side of the stream, he would cross to the other side.

When the creek was high from rains, he would cross by walking on a fallen log that spanned the water. When the water was low, he would find a shallow place and cross on rocks that protruded from either still or swift-flowing water. I balked at crossing on the logs but often followed him across the stream on the stepping stones. He would say, “Mart, step where I step.”  He selected stones that my short legs could reach, and I would finally make the last jump to the bank, proud that my feet were still dry.” Sometimes, though, as we neared the other bank, I would see a couple of other rocks that looked bigger and easier to leap to and I would choose those rocks rather than the ones he had chosen.  You can guess the rest of the story. I would either be stuck on a rock and wailing or end up with wet feet.

We often do that with God. He orders the steps of our lives in ways suited to our particular stride and ways that will enable us to safely reach a distant goal. Whether it be the completion of a work he has given us to do or the completion of our life,  he wants to show us the best way to go.  Instead of patiently following his steps, though, we rush to complete the work in our own way, or we take a path that seems a little easier and we find ourselves in a mess or stranded and wailing, “Help!”

God’s Word emphasizes the importance of following his steps.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21
LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Jeremiah 10:23
A person’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?  Proverbs 20:24
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.
Psalms 37:23

Martha Hawn VanCise©
Photo: Martha VanCise

Outer Fringes

Outer Fringes

by | JanTue2015 | SIGNPOSTS

Job spoke of the suspension of earth over nothing, the spread of the northern skies, waters bundled in clouds, and the powerful churning of the sea. He ended his observations by saying about God, “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

Millennia later, we see farther into  God’s creation and his works than Job could see. The Hubble and ever-larger telescopes reveal planets and galaxies considered to be billions of light-years away. A recent headline “Secret worlds ‘lurking’ in the outer fringes of the solar system,” reveals how little we still know. No matter what we discover with our telescopes, our electron microscopes that can make images to a resolution half the width of a hydrogen atom, we will still see only the outer fringe of God’s works. God’s paths are beyond tracing out.

How faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?
WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE!

Job 26:7-8, 12a, 14; Romans 11:33

Martha Hawn VanCise©
Photo: Hubble