The Ohio Independent Baptist, August 1963

'' e reatness o ', 0 The greatness of His wisdom and power Having begun this eries of devo– tional articles on the greatness of God' ame and Words, we turn naturally to his works to consider the greatness of His wisdom and power. We will consider the two together for the simple reason that the Bible often links them together as twin attributes that cannot be under tood apart from each other. This is true in the 40th chapter of Isa iah, where God' power is extolled in the 12th verse, and hi wi dom in verses 13 and 14. 'Who hath measi,red the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted oitt heaven with the span, and co,n– prehended the dust of the earth in a 1neasi1re, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?'' It takes power to balance even one hill in a scale, but wisdom as well as power: "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath tai£ght him? "With who,n took he counsel, and who instructed lzitn , and taught hini in the path of judg,nen t, and taught hini knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?" Man Versus God Modern man feels tremendou ly wise and strong when he can orbit a man in space and keep him circling the globe for five days. A this is being written, the Russian boa t that they can figure things out so accur– ately that they can get two astronauts, a man and a woman within seven n1iJes of each other, and prc\umably can soon join two together as a pair. We boast we will soon be able to send up a capsule so large that two men car1 explore space together, and with– in a few year la11d 011 tl1e moon. We forget that od's wisdom de- vi ed the atcllite sy tern lo11g ago and uggested it to tis. We did not leach hin1, but he taugl1t us. All of Lis are riding 011 a sale) li tc arot1ncl tl1e t1111, 1r~1,,elling 0111 578,000,000 11liles a ,ear through space. I e11jo)' that fr ri(le 011 a l,eal1tift1l pac sl1i1), \\1 l1er I J1rive 1,le11t)' of ro 111 for • 1 ci , and gladl)' leave tl1 c, psulc The OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST By Ralph T. Nordlund to others. With Psalm 115: 16 in my Bible, I much doubt that man can ever reach the moon alive and return to earth anyway, and am dead ure he will never get to Mar . I am not discussing that pha e of it now, but only want to remind you that we got our idea of orbiting the earth from God's moon. I aac Newton suggested some 250 years ago that we could orbit a man– made moon if we could only find a fuel powerful enough to get ,it up there. According to his theory of gravitation, the moon travels exactly where the centrifugal force of it weight and speed i conterbalanced by the gravitational force of the earth. Therefore, if we could shoot a rocket fa t enough, it would al o orbit where its weight and peed counterbalanced the pull of the earth. About all we have actually accompli hed ,to date with all our expenditure of billion i to prove that Newton' theory of planetary travel i correct. He learned it from the Lord. Far from vaunting our elve , we ought to feel very mall and ignorant when we view God' creation. David ~a id , .. W lien I c·o11~icler t/1e /1e<1ve11s, tl1e work of 1/1y f 111gers, tl1e 111cJc>11 a11<I tl1e st<rrs w/1ic·/1 tl1c>tt l1<1st c>r<lc1i11e<I , wll tll IS 11'1011 tll(I/ tll(JLI {ll 1 111111(1/11/ c>/ /11111 , <111<1 tl1e jUll of 111a11 tl1c1t tl1<Jtt Vljifet /1 /1i111? 11 Jf we know n1ore than David aboltt the ~1,c of tl1c ~tar~ and l1ow far they are flt1ng Otll in space, the 111orc l1un1blc we ought to bt. great t111i – vcrsc argt1es a great 10ll. 0111e }'ear ag I l1ad tl1 OI)l)l)I' - • • • lll11ll~ 1 to 1111J)f s a ' Ollllg tllHll Ill \\1~ t irgi11i, ,vitl1 1l1at 1rt1tl1. J\s is 0111111oi1 1l1c:rt, ,,•e ,v re l1ol(li11g n • A devotional message from the word revival in a country church during wheat harve t. We had uch crowd many of the men and boy could not get in the tabernacle that wa built along a hill ide and o they would it on the high side and hear through the open windows. Mo t of those who did not come in were inner or back– sliders glad for an excu e not to come too clo e to the preacher and o dur– ing invitation I would go out and urge them to come in and accept Chri t. One young man sa id he would like to be a Chri tian but feared he could not hold out. I pointed to the full moon over his houlder and a ked him who kept it in it cour e. When he aid it was the Lord, I a ked him if he did not think the One who could hold the moon in cour e could keep him from falling. He had to admit that God could indeed keep him but ad– ly did not turn hi belief into faith. God and history If we ee the wi dom and power of God in nature we ee it even n1ore in the hi tory of mankind. God' greate t creation i man. not an in1- men e tar. H e ha made tt in hi own in1age, and o like hin1 we are creative and by in tinct \Vant to tan1e all anin1al , conquer every difficult). and even hope t reach the tar~. \ an in tinct it help u. to under tand fellow hip \\-ith 1od - pro, tLicd \\e do not u e it to join atan 1n rchc:lli n ( I a. l-4: 13). We ha, even leilrncll how to t1nlock the secret · of the ,1to111. oc.t' · bt11lLl1ng block in the crcat1or1 f tl1c \\. orltl ~ ht1t the ·aLl trt1th •~ tll,lt \\. e have 11ot done it to lc,\rn n1t1rc l.lt ot1r I ak.er . bl1t ratl1er '\Ll tl1a1 \\'\! r11ight the better c tcr111111atc ltr fcl – lo\.\ n1cn. O\.\' tht \\'Otl t~1 ot 1l ll 's \\ 1,llL)l11 ~i11 l l10\.\ ct is ,ce11 111 the \\' '\ ht~ hds t,ccn able to turr1 tl1 ~ \\ra tl1 t)f r - llcl11 tis n1ar1 to hi " \\'tl plll'l.,l'S s fltl I le,tJ ll, 11tl1r , b , t 11tt1r 1 n :. \r r t > tl1\! ti111e ,vl1 r1 tl1 K i11gcl >c11 f ht ,,~n r11lt s )\'c:r «.:: lrll1 ! a t a 11i f r l:: S " 111 ll> )t1tr l C\ ' c r) ti ~pa rt111cnt f l1t1111·:111 a tivit ' , l ttt lllll' gr at J h )\ "111- J t: l l (Continued on page 7) Page 3, AUGUST 1903