davidbowerkingwood

A Glorious Reason for Rejoicing Right Now!

This devotional came in this morning’s mail from Jeff Wells, a beloved brother in Christ who is pastor at WoodsEdge Community Church in the Woodlands. It brought me such joy and delight that I knew I had to share it with you.

“Jesus the Creator
November 12, 2018
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16

Ponder the immense size of our solar system … and then the size of our galaxy … and then the size of the universe. Here is a picture painted by Philip Yancey in Prayer:

If the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the entire continent of North America, our solar system would fit in a coffee cup. Even now two Voyager spacecrafts are hurtling toward the edge of the solar system at a rate of 100,000 miles per hour. For almost three decades they have been speeding away from earth, approaching a distance of nine billion miles. When engineers beam a command to the spacecraft at the speed of light, it takes thirteen hours to arrive. Yet this vast neighborhood of our sun – in truth the size of a coffee cup – fits along with several hundred billion other stars and their minions in the Milky Way, one of perhaps 100 billion such galaxies in the universe. To send a light-speed message to the edge of that universe would take 15 billion years.

The universe is so big! And to think that this stunningly vast universe was created by Christ, by his mere word. Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who was born of a Jewish teenager, Jesus who walked the dusty streets of Judea, Jesus who was executed as a common criminal, this Jesus created the galaxies.

Jesus was fully man but he was no mere man. He was so much more. He is the God who became man – without ceasing to be God.

Colossians 1:16 gives emphasis to Jesus as Creator by these three phrases: “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” Jesus created all things, including all angelic beings, in the universe.

And then, in case we have not fully grasped the point, Paul says again: “all things were created through him and for him.” Jesus Christ is both the cause of creation and the goal of creation. He is the starting point of creation and the end point of creation. We live in a Christ-centered universe. Such is the greatness and grandeur of the glory of Jesus Christ.

© 2018 WoodsEdge Community Church. All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced for any non-commercial use.”

I encourage you to let these thoughts be your joy and delight this week as well!

Your brother in Christ,

David