The older I get the more I am amazed at how gullible some people are! P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” and he was right. There is just no limit to what some people will believe!
How often have you stood in line at the grocery store and had time to read over some of those air-headed tabloid captions? We all have, and hopefully, we just shook our heads, rolled our eyes and checked on out. Here are a few headings that are for sure “eye-rollers” – Mom On Diet of Only Chicken Lays Huge Egg – World War II Bomber Found on the Moon – Adam and Eve’s Bones Found in Asia: Eve Was a Space Alien. Pretty crazy stuff. It’s all harmless enough until false data affects real people in very real and profound ways.
Most of you reading this have probably heard of John Denver – he was one of the world’s best-known and beloved performers, his career spanned four decades. John was a true lover of God’s creation: he sang of mountains, eagles, rainbows, oceans, rain, dolphins, and sunshine. Unfortunately, John knew well the creation, but not its Creator!
It’s said that one day, in a frequent flyer room, a pastor had the opportunity to share Jesus with John. This pastor had known John’s father, Dutch, who before he died, had asked this pastor to share God with his son if he ever saw him. And here they were. They met for over two hours and John was given the opportunity to know The Creator of creation but, in the end, rejected Him. As the pastor put it, “There wasn’t a single verse of Scripture he did not understand — nor was there a single verse of Scripture that he would accept.” In the end, it’s always our choice! Tragically, John died in a plane crash in 1997.
Romans 1:25 has told us that, “They traded the truth about God for a lie. They gave their lives and devotion to the things God created rather than to the Creator Himself.” John Denver had such a gift from God – he was able to appreciate nature and the creation as few do, yet he failed to acknowledge the grand architect and designer of it all.
Many cultures focus on the life-giving aspects of nature and even worship what they call “Mother Earth.” Literally, they worship nature. Even the famous architect Frank Lloyd-Wright said, “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” I would hope our response to that would be, “We believe in nature, only we spell it God.” As Christians, we understand there must be a Creator to account for this remarkable and breathtaking creation!
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul made it abundantly clear that the truth about God has been revealed to us through His creation – His divine nature being understood through the things that He made. Therefore, Paul continues, “We have no excuse for not knowing God!” Unfortunately, many countless people are misled and fooled into believing the big lie – they are gullible enough to believe there is no God. But even Psalms, written thousands of years ago, tells us this in Psalm 100:3: “He is the One who made us; we have not made ourselves.” In other words, there is a God and neither we, nor nature, are Him!
Gullibility is a tendency to be easily manipulated into believing something is true when it isn’t. Forces of darkness will use whatever it can to convince humans that there is no God – science, creation, pride, space, human wisdom – whatever it takes; anything to get our eyes off of God and onto other things.
There’s an interesting narrative told about two travelers on a train. One was intently reading his Bible – the other noticed this and proceeded to taunt him – “Things are progressing and science has taken mankind to new heights,” he said. “Believing in Biblical truths is outdated.” He then added, “I’m a scientist, please come and meet with me, and I will explain science to you.” Our Bible-reader gave him a quiet nod and then handed him his card. It read: “Thomas Alva Edison.”
God is truly amazing and so is His extraordinary creation! Consider this astute quote by Jerry Taylor: “What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!”
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Bob and Susan Beckett pastor The Dwelling Place City Church at 27100 Girard Street in Hemet, CA. For more information, you can contact them at DPCityChurch.org.
Susan Beckett | The Dwelling Place City Church
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