The Never Ending Sermon The very universe declares the glory of the Lord. Read the inspired writings of David: the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language or their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. – Psalm 19:1 – 4, NIV Pause for a moment and ponder the boundless expanse of the universe. Do so and you will catch a fleeting glimpse of His unlimited glory! In the words of David, The universe declares it. Gods creation is not limited to the earth but encompasses even the unknown universe. He arranged the stars of the heavens with His fingers. (See Psalm 8:3.) For most of us, it is difficult to comprehend the vastness of the universe. Beside our sun, the nearest star is 4.3 light years away. So that this number does not remain just a figure, lets expound on it. Light travels at the speed of 186,282 mi./s – not per hour but per second. That is roughly 670,000,000 mph. Our airplanes fly approximately 500 mph. The moon orbits roughly 239,000 miles from the earth. If we traveled by plane to the moon, it would take 19 days. But light reaches there in 1.3 seconds! Lets continue. The sun is 93,000,000 miles from the earth. If you boarded a jumbo jet today and traveled to the sun, your journey would take over 21 years! Thats nonstop, too! Where were you 21 years ago? Thats a long time. Can you imagine flying that long without a moments break in order to reach the sun? For those who prefer driving… Well, it couldnt be done in a lifetime. It would take roughly 200 years, not including any gas or rest stops! Yet light travels this distance in a mere eight minutes and 20 seconds! Lets leave the sun and move on to the nearest star. We already know it is 4.3 light years from Earth. If we built a scale model of the earth, sun, and nearest star, it would be as follows. In proportion, the earth would reduce to the size of a peppercorn, and the sun would become the size of an 8 inch diameter ball. According to this size scale, the distance from the earth to the sun would be 26 yards which is only a quarter of the length of a football field. Yet remember, for a scale airplane to span that 26 yard distance, it would take more than 21 years. So if this is the earth and the suns ratio, can you guess how far the nearest star would be to our peppercorn earth? Would you think 1000 yards, 2000, or maybe a mile? Not even close. Our nearest star would be placed 4000 miles away from the Peppercorn! That means if you put the peppercorn earth in San Diego California, the nearest star on our scale model would be positioned past New York City and into the Atlantic Ocean 1000 miles out to sea! To reach this closest star by airplane would take approximately 51,000,000,000 years, nonstop! Thats 51 billion years! Yet light from this star travels to the earth and only 4.3 years! Lets expand further. The stars you see at night with the naked eye are 100 to 1000 light years away. However, there are few stars you can see with the naked eye that are 4000 light years away. I wouldnt even attempt to calculate the amount of time it would take for a plane to reach just one of the stars. But think of it; light travels at a rate of 186,282 mi./s, and it still takes 4000 years to reach the earth. That means the light of the stars was first released before Moses parted the Red Sea and has traveled a distance of 670,000,000 miles every hour without slowing down or ceasing since, and is just now reaching the earth! But these are only the stars in our galaxy. A galaxy is a vast gathering of usually billions of stars. The galaxy in which we live is called the Milky Way. So lets expound further. The closest galaxy to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy. Its distance from us is approximately 2.31 million light years away! Imagine, over 2 million light years away! Have we reached the limit of our understanding yet? Scientists estimate there are billions of galaxies, each of them loaded with billions of stars. Galaxies tend to group together. Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way are part of a cluster of at least 30 galaxies. Other clusters could contain as many as thousands of galaxies. The Guinness Book of World Records states that in June 1994 a new group of cocooned-shaped clusters of galaxies was discovered. The distance across this group of galaxies was calculated at 650 million light years! Can you imagine how long it would take to cross such a vast distance by airplane? The Guinness Book of World Records also states that the most remote object ever seen by man appears to be over 13.2 billion light years away. Our finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend distances this immense. We have yet to glimpse the ends of the galaxy clusters, let alone the end of the universe. And God can measure all this with a spanned of His hand! To top it off, the psalmist tells us, He (God) counts the number of the stars; He calls them by name. Great is our Lord, in mighty and power; his understanding is infinite (Psalms 147:4 – 5). Not only can He count the billions upon billions of stars, but He also knows the name of each one! No wonder the psalmist exclaimed, His understanding is infinite. Solomon said, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You (1 Kings 8:27). Are you getting a greater glimpse of his glory? Jeremiah 10:12 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom The Bible declares God can measure the universe with the span of His hand (Isaiah 40:12). Isaiah had a vision of the unsearchable glory of God. He saw the Lord in His throne room, high and lifted up, and His glory filled the room. Around Him stood massive Angels call seraphim, who, because of Gods great glory, covered their faces with their wings and cried out: Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of host; the whole earth is full of His glory! (Isaiah 6:3) This right here demonstrates the Power and Glory of the Lord God Almighty. If there is ever any question of the power of God, this alone should stand as a shining example of The Great I Am! As always my friends have faith in God, Know that Yahweh Loves You, and Yeshua Jesus is with you always. Ken
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 08:58:26 +0000
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