Thought for Today
Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (KJV)
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
1 John 3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
“What in your experience reminds you of God’s power and presence?” (These Days, August 11, 2025)
What a good question that author offered yesterday in that devotional! That is a question all Christians should ask ourselves often. Where . . .how . . . when do you encounter our Creator God? That author wrote about cycling through the California wine country and seeing the vineyards. I often mention the field south of our home. Many in our congregation speak about encountering the power and presence of God in the salt marshes along Boston’s North Shore communities.
Those sorts of experiences reference what theologians call General Revelation, “God’s self-disclosure and self-communication in the universe and created world (Ps. 19; Rom. 1:19ff)” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 240) I often find God’s power and presence in the Creation, in the physical world all around me.
Irrespective of whether you prefer the scientific theories, e.g., the Big Bang, or you prefer to accept Genesis 1-3 as literal, the world around us is a powerful statement of the power and presence of our Creator God. I spent the decades of my first career managing capital expansion projects in the energy industry. I participated in some very costly and complex projects. The financing and logistics were often expansive and expensive. Many manhours of planning, calculating and executing were involved. Yet none of those projects even began to rival the planning and detail revealed in a single flower! From the most minute sub-atomic particle to the most massive galaxy, God created all Creation merely by saying, “Let there be . . . “ For me, the power and presence of God infuses everything around me.
Theologians also speak and write about Special Revelation, “God’s particular self-revelation at specific times and places and to particular people, as in the events of Israel’s history and, for Christians, fully in Jesus Christ. The Bible as the record of God’s word and action is also considered a special revelation.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 240) Ministers and theologians study and learn about that Special Revelation in seminary. All Christians have the opportunity to study and learn about it in Sunday School, in Bible studies and in their own individual reading of the Bible. No matter what we might think, studying Special Revelation is never completed; it is a lifelong pursuit.
Whether we have a Road-to-Damascus experience like Paul or we come to our faith gradually through our life, our experience of coming to accept Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is in my opinion another form of experiencing the power and presence of God. This past Sunday we sang in worship To God Be the Glory. I love that hymn. “To God be the glory, great things He hath done, So love He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the Life-gate that all may go in.”
As I hear those words this morning and ponder that author’s question, I am reminded of the words of the psalmist, “8:1 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens . . . 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, . . . 9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Stay safe, encounter the power and presence of God, trust God,
Pastor Ray