We all have life and live for a brief duration upon this
earth. Some people also believe that an animal, be it a cat, dog, or other pet,
is no different to human life, but is just the same life in another form.
In fact, here in the western world, people will readily spend fortunes on their favourite animal, rather than help another human out of their poverty or physical distress.
A local church minister told me that he was taking
his raggedly mongrel dog to the dentist to get two fillings in its teeth. It
was going to cost him £800! I haven’t been able to afford a dentist in many
years and use superglue to fix my teeth when yet another one breaks!
Billions of pounds and dollars are spent every year on family pets, whilst half the world is starving and struggling to keep their families alive. I do understand, to some degree, but when a house-cat feeds on better and more expensive food than the homeless and hungry young man, I do wonder where humanity has gone.
However, let it be well noted that God cares for the life of all creatures, both great and small, and is even with the sparrow as it falls to the earth. (Matthew 10:29; but note also, Luke 12:7)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He
did it with his spoken word. He said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was
light. He spoke, and millions of trees, flora, fish and animals all came into
being at his word.
How do I know all this?
The Bible says so. Without faith it
is impossible to please God, and our faith is rested upon the foundation of the Scriptures. How do I know that God loves me? Because the Bible tells me (in
John 3:16) that he does. It is enough.
How do I know that the Bible is true?
Faith tells me that it is, and this faith only comes as a gift from God.
It does not need proof, for this faith is God-inspired and is of a supernatural nature. It is breathed by God into my heart. I cannot explain it, but it came without any effort on my part, and elevated me to a ‘knowing’ of God that I had never experienced.
This faith,
this ‘knowing’, will come to anyone who will call upon the name of the Lord God
in sincerity and truth.
People can put up all the arguments that they like, but
faith in God’s word flies higher. It is the rock upon which the true Believer’s
faith stands. Most people either dismiss or see the Bible as though it were
just a good book that has amazing stories in it. Even many church-goers simply
choose which bits they want to believe, and do not regard it from cover to
cover as holy, or God-inspired and God-preserved.
But when the real troubles come, they will find that their
faith (such as it may be) will not carry them through the storms of life and the
unexplainable turmoil that this world is rapidly approaching.
Only your knowledge of the Word will hold you steadfast in
the coming days. Your hope and assurance must be in what the Bible says, or you
will find yourself in sinking sand that drowns you in despair, as the normal
comforts of life disappear in front of you.
The animals have absolutely no knowledge of this, and have
no thought or concern for their future. Like the leaves of the trees, they
appear for a while, do what they do, and are then gone.
But man is different. He was created differently. God called
all things into existence by his word. He simply spoke, and things
happened. But for his crowning act in
creation, he stooped down to the earth, picked up a handful of dust, and made
man in his image. (Genesis chapters 1-2)
He then breathed into his nostrils ‘the breath of life’; and
it says, ‘man became a living soul’.
Here we see the height of God’s creation! This creature
called man, whom God named Adam (which simply means ‘dust’), was fashioned and
formed between the fingers of the Almighty. And then God stooped further to
breath eternity into the nostrils of this creation, and give man a ‘living soul’.
God, who is eternal, breathed eternal essence into man. He
was a creation above all the animals and all that was upon earth.
The so called ‘God Particle’, which the scientists all
search for, was the very soul of this brand-new human being. God imparted to him an
eternal existence with or without his body. He was more than all that the
animals were, and was the glory of God’s handiwork.
The Psalmist says, ‘What is man, that you, O Lord, are
mindful of him (that he should be on your mind)? What is the son of man, that
you should visit him (that you would search for him and talk with him)? For you made
him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him glory and honour
(excellence). You gave him dominion
(power) over everything, and put all things (all creatures on earth) under his
feet. (Psalm 8)
Oh, if only mankind could see who they are in the sight of God, and who they might be if they would just return to him! This great Creator set his love upon us, and we rejected him and chose to go our own way. With our small minds and crippled understanding, we chose to live without him. We even have the audacity to tell him that he does not exist.
We would rather believe
that we are the product of some slimy accident of nature that eventually grew
an eye, and then thought it might be a good idea to grow another one exactly the same.
So God left us to our own devices, and he looks down on this planet at the mess and destruction a wicked and rebellious race has done to his beautiful creation. The result of sin and rebellion is death, both physical and spiritual. That is why the populations on this planet toss and turn in a mass of corruption, sickness and disease, and uncontrollable violence.
Even nature itself complains at the evil of the human race.
But God still loves this world of sinners, and even now he is calling mankind to repent, to turn around, and to come back to him as the only hope of salvation.
He says that he is ready to save and deliver anyone who will
hear his voice and call upon his name, no matter how dark the day or how
dreadful their circumstances.
This good news must be proclaimed throughout every nation today at whatever cost. Yet sadly, I find so few willing to invest in the most urgent and needful enterprise the world has ever known.
You can store your treasures here in a failing economy and a dying planet, or you can lay up amazing treasures in heaven, and enjoy them for all eternity.
JGM 2022 Just telling it like it is
