Recap:
The beauty perspective: Embracing God’s beauty, and his beautiful plan for our lives.
Delighting in the beauty of Jesus is essential to walking in victory, especially in this hour when fear, lust, offense, and violence are increasing.
Psalm 27:4
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
The ways to do that are:
Prayer, Proclaiming scripture, or Praise.
- Prayer
Talking to God. - Proclaiming scripture
Reading the Bible and speaking what we see in it about God’s beauty and character. Our delight of His beauty grows by speaking it. We are to speak to God the things we admire about Him. - Praise
Singing to him.
PART 2
In the scripture there is a clear call to commune with God, but who are we talking to and what is He like?
THE I AM
David exhorted us to look up to see God’s beauty in His heavenly art gallery
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.
THE BEAUTY ABOVE US
- You can see 5,000 stars with the naked eye, but in the Milky Way our Galaxy there are over 100 billion stars.
- Astronomers estimate that in the known universe there are over 100 billion galaxies, each having billions of stars.
- The diameter of the observable universe is over 15 billion light-years.
A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year, which is 6 trillion miles per year. (It moves at 186,000 miles per second.) - The galaxy closest to us is the Andromeda galaxy. It is over 2 million light years from earth (15 quintillion miles—15 with 18 zeros).
- After the sun, the nearest star to us is Proxima Centauri—it is over 4 light years from us which equals 24 trillion miles from earth.
- The largest star known so far is Betelgeuse, with a diameter of 800 million miles (about 1,000 times wider than our sun). Some stars are 50 million times the mass of the earth!
- Our Sun: It is 93 million miles from the earth and is over 800,000 miles in diameter. It would take one million earths to fill the space the sun occupies.
- On the surface of the sun the temperature is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the core of our sun the temperature reaches 30 million degrees.
- In our sun, billions of trillions (10 followed by 38 zeros) of nuclear fusion reactions occur every second producing energy comparable to 100 billion hydrogen bombs exploding every second.
Romans 1:19-21
19…that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
THE VAST COMPLEXITIES OF THE MID AND SUB-ATOMIC WORLD
There are approximately 100 trillion cells in the average adult body.
There are an estimated 100 trillion atoms in each cell.
Plants and animals: Scientists estimate that there are more than 10 million species of plants and animals, including 25,000+ species of orchids, 60 species of eagles, 50 kinds of kangaroos, 200 species of turtles, and 3 million species of insects. All the way to an elephant has more than 40,000 muscles in its trunk alone!
Psalm 147:5
Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is inexhaustible
Colossians. 1:16-17
16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers…all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
There is a Universe above us around us but also inside of us.
And ALL of it all exists to glorify and display God’s beauty and power.
The Lord makes things beautiful because he is beautiful
He makes things grand because he is grand
He makes things awesome because he is awesome.
Who are we to question his power or commitment?
Context:
- The prophecy was given by Isaiah about the sixth century before Christ. Somewhere in the 500 BC’s
- God’s people were defeated and in exile (kicked out of their land)
- They were exiled because they turned to idols and false Gods desiring earthly security and prosperity.
Isaiah 40:19-31
19
An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20
He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood[h] that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
HE IS GOD!
The maker of Heaven and earth and sea, and everything in them.
Who is Omnipotent and Omnipresent!
That radically changes our prayer life!
We get to talk to the God of Creation.
We get to praise the God of Creation
1 John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Further Study
God Is Infinite – He is Self-Existing, Without Origin
"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." - Colossians 1:17
God Is Immutable – He Never Changes
“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Malachi 3:6
God Is Self-Sufficient – He Has No Needs
“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” – John 5:26
God is Omnipotent – He Is All Powerful
“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” – Psalm 33:6
God Is Omniscient – He Is All-Knowing
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” - Isaiah 46:9-10
God Is Omnipresent – He Is Always Everywhere
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.” Psalm 139:7-10
God Is Wise – He Is Full of Perfect, Unchanging Wisdom
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” – Romans 11:33
God Is Faithful – He Is Infinitely, Unchangingly True
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13
God Is Good – He Is Infinitely, Unchangingly Kind and Full of Good Will
“O, taste and see that the Lord is good” – Psalm 34:8
God Is Just – He Is Infinitely, Unchangeably Right and Perfect in All He Does
"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” – Duet 32:4
God Is Merciful – He is Infinitely, Unchangeably Compassionate and Kind
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." - Romans 9:15-16
God Is Gracious – God Is Infinitely Inclined to Spare the Guilty
"The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness." – Psalm 145:8
God Is Loving – God Infinitely Loves Us
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” - 1 John 4:7-8
God Is Holy – He is Infinitely unchangingly Other than
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty” – Revelation 4:8
God Is Glorious – He is Infinitely Beautiful and Great
19 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1
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