Our world is aflame with hatred and violence and Christians are all too guilty of turning a deaf ear. Like everyone else, I have my soapboxes. After 21 1/2 years of leading women’s Bible studies, I can truly say that the most life-changing studies were on the Book of Genesis, particularly the first 11 chapters. These chapters form a foundation for the entire Bible. All of the basic tenets of our faith are set forth here. If we don’t get Creation and God’s love and purpose for mankind right, if we don’t form a worldview based on biblical principles, our faith and our ability to present Christianity to those we meet is seriously crippled. If I appear preachy, read what God has to say in the scriptures I have used. If you disagree, study these passages with the references I’ve provided. It may kindle a new fire under your faith!
2MefromHim Devotionals
Turning a Deaf Ear
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:15-16
Murder. God is surely weeping at the abhorrent, unconscionable crimes against children that have taken place in recent weeks. Our world is aflame with unspeakable violence against those who are least able to defend themselves.
A ten-year-old drugged, raped, murdered, and set on fire with the consent of her mother. The dean of the School of Medicine admitted that high school students dissected the brains of aborted babies—crimes that deserve a Sodom and Gomorrah-type judgment. There is public outcry against the murder of a ten-year-old, but near-silence reigns when it comes to the unborn children.
The Book of Leviticus warns against the community closing their eyes to atrocities perpetrated against children, saying God will set His face against them. In Romans 1, God warns those who approve of the people who commit detestable acts, saying they are also guilty.
How guilty are we as a society of turning a deaf ear to the unspeakable actions of depravity that fill the nightly newscasts? How often do we speak out and work to change the world we live in? People who commit such crimes have no respect for themselves or anyone else. They believe they are without worth, a product of some chemical reaction in a primordial slime that accidentally brought life about. They know God as a swear word, a name to be taken in vain, not as the loving Creator of mankind who loves them and has a wonderful plan for them.
Are the people who desecrate the bodies of children any less children of God than the little ones they injure? Jesus says, in Matthew 18:6, “‘If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’”
I admit to recommending death, castration, and other penalties for those who commit such acts. However, all people deserve the opportunity to understand what an exalted place God created them to fill at an early age. I look at such criminals as lesser beings, but God created them with the same potential as all people—in His image and likeness. What would our world look like if people understood that God has our name, everything about us, engraved on His hands and ever before Him?
Where our society, the church, and ourselves have failed is in studying, understanding, and promoting the teachings of Genesis—the story of the creation of man. Our educational institutions, science museums, national park displays, and television documentaries expound on the man-instituted idea of evolution. Few Christians know how to argue against it. In fact, many subscribe to it. I have lost women from Bible studies who failed to recognize the preeminence of scripture when it comes to understanding the world we live in from a biblical worldview.
Genesis, for the Christian, must be the lens through which we examine science—its precepts, the reference by which we judge all other teaching. Our world is aflame with hatred and violence because Christians do not know and understand God’s order set forth in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. We do not reach out to the world around us with biblical explanations for scientific studies and theories. We do not object or counteract the teaching of the world when it comes to the creation of man or the world we live in.
My challenge to my readers is to examine your beliefs, your understanding of creation in light of scripture. Where you have questions, seek out commentaries, seek out reputable Christian apologists and scientists and learn to explain the universe and man’s place in it from God’s point of view.
Romans 1:15-23 says, “ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” Worship the God of Creation, not creation itself.
Christians must no longer turn a deaf ear to the nightly news. We must speak to our children, our neighbors, our coworkers, our teachers, and our pastors to make certain they hear and expound on God’s message that all men have worth in Him. Only when people truly understand and believe who God created them to be and what they were created for, will they realize the ability to love their fellow man, rather than turning a deaf ear to his suffering.
Do we worship the God who spoke everything that exists into being ex nihilo (out of nothing), or do we take man’s word for how all things were created, accepting godless lies they are fed to us in the secular media? It should be a matter of conscience for every Christian to know and accept the word of God on every point of creation. It is my passion. I hope it will become yours.
© Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman, September 2, 2016.
Excellent places to look for information on biblical Creation are found at:
http://www.equip.org/hank-hanegraaff/
About the author:
Norma Gail is the author of the contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 40 years. They have two adult children.
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6 Comments
An excellent word and excellent challenge for us today Norma! Thank you!
Bless you, Marcie! It was difficult to write.
“To know and accept the Word of God on every point . . .” Well said.
I appreciate you taking time to comment and encourage, Sarah!
So rich and deep Norma! Good, nourishing, challenging stuff!
Thank you so much! I appreciate you stopping by!