davidbowerkingwood

Deuteronomy 29:29 begins with these words, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” That thought is often with me as I study the Bible; I’m sure there are many of us who wished the Lord would have provided just a bit more information on this or that subject.

A case in point for me is the antediluvian world, the world before the flood as described in the first six chapters of the Old Testament. There are marvelous hints as to what it may have been like but not nearly so much information as I would like. Another is the nature of the eternal state, what does God have planned for our eternity, what will heaven really be like and what will we be doing?

Perhaps I’ll address my speculation on those two areas in later blogs but today I want to mention another part of Scripture that has caused me to ponder “the secret things of God.”

The part of Scripture to which I refer is the amazing statement made by Job in the 19th chapter, verses 25 – 27. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.”

This is an astounding statement; where did Job’s knowledge of the end times come from, where did he learn about the living redeemer that would be physically present in the latter day and the physical resurrection of his body that he might see his redeemer with his own eyes?

Nothing that I know of in the Old Testament, especially during the days of the patriarchs, suggests this level of understanding of end time events so where did Job learn this information? It’s also interesting how casually it’s mentioned, as if this was the sort of thing everybody knew.

I do not have an answer to those questions; this is in the category of God’s secret things. By God’s grace we now have more information on those end time events and know the name of Job’s redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We also know more about the resurrection of God’s saints and know that Job will be resurrected at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The accuracy of Job’s statement is impressive; at Job’s resurrection the Lord will have returned to earth whereas at our resurrection, the resurrection of the church, we shall meet the Lord in the air.

We can also be confident in our assurance that we too will see our redeemer for ourselves as will our loved ones in the Lord who have experienced physical death. What a glorious occasion that will be!

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:16-18

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

When we think of “the good news” we usually think of the good news for the unbeliever; there is salvation in Jesus Christ by accepting Him as one’s Savior. God, in His abundant grace, has provided even more good news for the believer after salvation; good news that welcomes you afresh to every day of your life and that is what Romans 8 is all about.

Paul has laid a solid foundation for Chapter 8 in the preceding Chapters 5 – 7 wherein he describes the source of mankind’s problem with sin; God’s final solution to the sin problem in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ; and the believer’s challenge of living a life of faith in Satan’s world; at war with a foe within and a foe without.

Chapter 8 starts with that glorious paen of praise and rejoicing; “There is therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

I love classical music and always think of Romans 7:15-25 when I hear the last part of the third movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. As you may recall this section of Romans is where Paul describes the tension and frustrations caused by the struggle between the two natures within him.

Near the end of that movement the music starts building a palpable tension that keeps on increasing until the dramatic release of the opening chords of the fourth movement which then remind me of Romans 8:1-2; it becomes a musical setting for those powerful verses.

On more than one occasion I have joyfully shouted out the words to Romans 8:1 as those dramatic chords which open the fourth movement flooded my den with glorious music.

The 8th chapter of Romans has been described as the towering spire on the cathedral of Christian doctrine. A careful study of those verses will only confirm the experiences enjoyed by others as they have rejoiced in the majesty, the glory, the grace and love of God as displayed by the truths contained in this chapter.

If I were to try and summarize the message of Chapter 8 it would be the absolute certainty of the believer’s place in God’s family as His children based on God’s faithfulness to us, not our faithfulness to God.

We can have complete assurance we have the victory in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ even though we must face the challenges presented by sin as described in Romans 5 – 7.

It is not our eternal destiny but our effectiveness as a soldier in the spiritual warfare and our quality of life as a Christian which is in question. God has graciously provided us all of the resources we need to wage this battle successfully.

To use an analogy we have the biggest, fastest, and strongest player on the field on our team, the Holy Spirit, so if we want to win we had best not send him to the bench.

How do we send the Holy Spirit to the bench you may ask; we send Him to the bench by unconfessed sin in our lives which automatically sends our sin nature in to play the Holy Spirit’s position. I think we can all readily agree this is a bad decision.

We can restore the Holy Spirit to the game by utilizing I John 1:9 where God promises to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness if we will confess our sins to Him. God has made it easy on us; we don’t have to crawl on our knees to church or whip ourselves on the back, just confess our sins before God.

 In Part 2 I will discuss the amazing gift of sonship, God’s plan for our lives, and the wondrous future in store for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is reputedly an old Chinese curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” The idea here is interesting times will be troubled times and a source of discomfort and concern. I doubt that I’ll get much argument when I say we are living in interesting times.

If one checks the news, one is inundated with reports of mayhem and disaster wherever one looks. Rioting, famine, war, death and numerous other types of terrible things seem to be happening all over the world.

How should we, as Christians, view all of this calamity? We have two clearly defined options; we can walk by sight or walk by faith. Walking by sight is life under the control of the sin nature; walking by faith is life under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Paul points out in the 14th chapter of Romans that “whatever is not of faith is sin.” If we are fearful or even apprehensive of events being described in the news then we are sinning and need to confess our sins and restore the control of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Spirit controlled life is described in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Notice particularly in the context of this article the inclusion of the quality of peace; although there is no peace in the world you can have peace within.

One of my favorite choruses is “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” The words of the refrain are, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

These words are always with me and serve as a constant reminder of where my priorities should be placed; I’ve found it impossible to rejoice in the Lord and worry about world events at the same time. We have the choice of looking at life from the divine viewpoint or the human viewpoint and I’ve found the divine viewpoint works much better.

I am convinced the return of the Lord for His church is imminent. If that is true the things of earth will never again be the same. Although Luke 21:28 specifically applies to the Second Advent, I believe the principle can be applied to the church today. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth near.”

“Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4 – If you’re rejoicing in the Lord, you won’t be worrying about the world.

Over the years I have often considered the will of God and why it is He does certain things certain ways. The Bible reveals some of those reasons but does not reveal others. If it had pleased God He could have taken a believer, at the point of salvation, immediately into His presence but He chose not to do that; He chose instead to leave the new believer on earth.

As I’ve mentioned before, living on this earth as a born-again Christian introduces some challenges; this is Satan’s world and at our salvation we become Satan’s enemies. At several points Paul describes the believer as being at war and engaging in warfare; he describes the offensive and defensive armor we should use and cautions us that this war is not carnal but spiritual.

In Ephesians 6:12 we are told: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are now part of a war that started before Adam was created and placed in the Garden.

Not only have we joined an ancient war, we have brought along a private war which is being waged within us, our own internal civil war.  

In Romans chapter 7 Paul described his internal war with sin; a war which all believers must wage. Let’s review the big picture; we, as believers, are engaged in an ancient spiritual war and we’ve got a member of the opposing army within us.

That sounds like a scenario in which we would require a lot of help; thankfully God has already provided all of the resources we need to be victorious, we must, however, claim and put on the resources God has made available to us.

Paul begins Romans 7 with an explanation of our relationship to the Mosaic Law; God knew that mankind would fail to obey the law and the purpose of the law was to show the absolute need for a savior, one who could deliver mankind from the penalty of death.

The law was never intended to be a path to righteousness and justification before God; its purpose was to show us we needed God’s help. Paul expresses this thought with great clarity in Galatians 2:16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

There’s that knowing word again; do you see how Paul keeps focusing on our knowledge and not our feelings? Keep in mind Paul had been a Pharisee, one whose dedication to the law was deep and personal and here he is saying by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. We can certainly agree the Holy Spirit had done a mighty work in the life of this man.

In Romans 7-14 Paul describes how the law had given him an awareness of his sinfulness. The Pharisees were expert at reinterpreting the law to a point where they could see themselves as obeying their version of the law. The problem came with the 10th commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” Even a reasonably honest Pharisee could see their failure when it came to coveting; they coveted many, many things as described by the Lord in His confrontations with the Pharisees.

In Romans 7:8 Paul writes, “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead.”

From verse 15 to the end of the chapter Paul describes the frustration he experiences in his internal battle with his sin nature; I take comfort from these verses. If someone of Paul’s stature in the faith had to fight this battle how then can I expect to avoid it? 

Chapter 7 is a touching revelation of the spiritual battle waged by a faithful man of God within himself. From this chapter we should find encouragement as we deal with our own civil war within.

The chapter ends with praise to God for His presence in this civil war within and provides the bridge to Romans 8. Romans 8 has been described as the grand cathedral of Christian doctrine and Romans 8:1 as the spire on the cathedral. In my next blog we will discuss this grand chapter of Christian hope and joy.

In Romans 6:6 Paul tells us some important information about our sin nature which he refers to as “our old man.” “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

A key, really important word used by Paul is the word knowing; nowhere in the 6th chapter does Paul refer to feeling. All is based on knowing; knowledge of the Bible’s revelation to us. Feelings are ephemeral, unpredictable and undependable; the knowledge of God’s word is unfailing and eternal. This alone is the truth that shall set us free.

Our old man, aka our sin nature, was crucified with Christ on the cross “Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” Romans 6:9-10

Since this is the case with Christ, it should also be the case with us: “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Romans 6:11. In this case the word reckon is used in an accounting sense as in calculate or compute, count or count over.

Paul goes on to urge us not to let sin rule us that we should obey it in its lusts and present our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but to present ourselves to God as instruments of His righteousness.

We now have that option; we can choose to serve sin and receive the consequences or serve God and reap the rewards as one alive from the dead. We have the freedom to choose, but we do not have the freedom to escape the consequences of our choices. Although from an eternal perspective all of our sins have been forgiven; from a temporal perspective the choices we make will have consequences which will inevitably play out in our lives.

Paul elaborated on the ongoing problem of the sin nature in Romans chapter 7 and described his feelings of frustration as he struggled with the power of sin. Although sin is still with us, it no longer has dominion over us because we are no longer under the law but under grace. Paul urges us to deliberately choose to serve God rather than sin.

It is this concept of crucifixion which Paul had in mind when he wrote Galatians 2:20 which starts with “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” If we would live the successful Christian life the daily starting point is to see ourselves as crucified and our living out the life of Christ. Christ is the driver, we are the passenger.

If we maintain this perspective everything else falls into place in the proper order; the world, the flesh, and the devil are relegated to their proper place and Christ becomes all things to us, the alpha and omega of our lives.

It is unlikely that anyone has avoided all of the hoopla about 2012. It has become a popular enough topic that even a movie was made on the subject. I must admit not only have I seen the movie I have a copy of it. Do I agree with its conclusions, emphatically not, it’s Hollywood hype.

Beyond the movie, which was simply opportunistic, there has been a great deal written about what, if anything, may happen in or around 2012. It has been speculated that this may be the end of the world or at least the end of life as we have known it.

As students of the Bible we know this is not the case; true enough the world as it is will be destroyed completely along with the entire universe but not in 2012. We are also told  things will get deadly during the Tribulation but God’s judgment will stop short of world destruction at that point.

Information provided in the Bible tells us there will be a minimum of 1007 years before this event takes place. The one incident that will start that clock ticking is the signing of the covenant between Israel and the Antichrist. Before that happens I believe it is clear in Scripture that the church will be called home by the Rapture and will not experience the terrible judgments of the Great Tribulation.

None of us knows when the Rapture will take place or how bad things will get before the church is called home; only time will tell us that information.

On the subject of 2012 there seems to be a mixture of a little science with a whole lot of urban legend type speculation. While it is true that sunspot activity will experience a cyclical solar maximum in or around 2012 the impact of that increased activity is not precisely known.

Let us consider the science behind the sunspot part of this equation. If one searches for 2012 sunspots one will find nestled among the urban legends some articles by NASA Science News. These articles have indicated the possibility of damaging sunspot activity in the 2012-2013 timeframe.

While NASA can estimate the possibility of a negative impact on our electronics and electrical grid, the impact of a more severe level of sunspot activity is unknown since there has not been a truly severe level of activity since we entered our present technological era.

The last moderately severe event took place in 1958 and the last truly intense event took place in 1859. The 1859 episode is called the Carrington Event and caused overloaded telegraph lines to cause fires in telegraph offices as well as the northern lights to be visible in the United States.

The National Academy of Sciences reported that a similar event today could cause between $1 to 2 trillion in damages to our highly developed electronic/electrical infrastructure and take between four to ten years to completely repair. Would you like to imagine being without electricity for even four years?

An event comparable to the 1958 event could cause damage to cell phone and other satellite dependent services and potentially damage some of the orbiting satellites along with some possible damage to our electrical infrastructure.

Since we have not had even a moderately disruptive event since technology achieved its present state of complexity no one really knows how bad it will be. By this time in 2013 we may have a much better understanding of the consequences of a sunspot event of some magnitude.

Now all we can do is to wait and see what the sun will do over the next few months; Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center is quoted as saying:”The sun is behaving in an unexpected and very interesting way.”

Those in the know seem to agree we could be in for some surprises and it seems to be generally understood that a storm is coming, a solar storm. In my last blog I mentioned a foundation that could withstand the storms which life will surely bring; it appears possible that one of those storms may be approaching in the not too distant future.

This of course leads my thinking to Luke 21:25 where the Lord refers to signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; although this verse has a specific reference to conditions at the close of the tribulation, I find it easy to believe we may see precursors of these signs taking place as a warning of what is coming.

I believe we who love the Lord can agree we’re thankful our times are in His hands and join together in saying even so, come Lord Jesus.

First let us address the question posed by the subject, who let the traitor in. The clearest answer to that question takes us to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 5 starting in verse 12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.

This is a reference to Adam’s sin described in Genesis 3:6b: “and he did eat.” God had told Adam specifically in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” That was a specific command and warning from God to Adam which Adam disobeyed when he ate of the fruit of that tree. When Adam ate, Adam, Eve, and all of their future progeny died spiritually; that most specifically included you and me as well as every other human being who has ever lived except the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual death was instantaneous although physical death came later.

Paul describes the results of Adams sin on his progeny in verses 13 and 14: “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”

What is Paul telling us here? After Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden there was no possibility that anyone could eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as the way to the Garden was sealed. No one in the Old Testament, before the Law was given, could have sinned as Adam did, against a direct command of God because no other commands had been given which required obedience or death.

Yet as we read the Old Testament before the giving of the Law of Moses we find death as the end result of every life. How could these people have been judged worthy of death when they could not have violated God’s only commandment given before the Law was given to Moses? They were, however, judged and did die.

God’s charge against all of them was they were progeny of Adam and were judged guilty of Adam’s sin; this is known as the “federal headship of Adam.” This is God’s primary charge against all of mankind; not the personal sins we commit.

When our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross He died for the sins of the world that all who believe in Him as their personal Savior “should not perish but have everlasting life.” The sin barrier has been removed by the death of Christ on the cross; the only issue now is the question of personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

This is clearly spelled out for us in John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Our perceptions of ourselves, others, and this entire world system must be based on the Bible; no other foundation can provide the support we need when the storms of life assail us as they surely will.

Being 78 years old brings advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is the wealth of opportunity the years have provided to learn, love and live. I have been blessed a countless number of times by the Lord’s faithfulness to me and I really do rejoice in that.

Time has provided the needed hours to absorb the Bible and use its limitless resources to build a foundation for my life that has withstood the testing’s and tumult the world brings to all believers. I’m also confident by faith that this foundation will hold steady regardless of what the future may bring.

Another advantage is each year brings me closer to the Lord; like most believers I too eagerly await the return of the Lord but age has provided me the assurance that I will not have to wait all that long. Statistically I’m already living on borrowed time; this is the Lord’s doing and I’m truly delighted that my times are in His hands.

One of the disadvantages is the steady process of wearing down; I’m watching as various parts of my body began to develop aches and pains and not function as well as they once did.

To me it is fascinating to watch the process of aging; this is something the Lord has programmed into each of us and it is amazing to behold. Not too long ago I discovered the existence of telomeres. These are found on the ends of chromosomes which are long strands of DNA.

As cells replicate the number of telomeres is reduced and after around 50 replications there are not enough telomeres left to permit the cell further replication and the cell enters a phase called cell senescence and can no longer replicate. This process produces the symptoms of aging.

This life of the cell was involved when the well known Dolly was cloned in 1996; the DNA used to clone Dolly was from a sheep that was 6 years old so Dolly was effectively 6 years old at birth. From what I’ve read the typical lifespan of a sheep is 10 – 12 years so sure enough Dolly lived 6 years and died. Her DNA had survived a normal lifespan of 12 years.

I find it totally fascinating to see how our Creator designed our lifespan into our very DNA; regardless of whatever else we do our life is limited by our own body.

Another thing time has taught me is to totally despise sin; first and foremost the sin within me, and secondly the sin that is in the world. Does this mean I have stopped sinning, sadly no, the sin nature within me has its moments. It may do well to mention the identity of sin; “for whatever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23b

Any sort of fear, fear of circumstances, fear of persons, fear of the economy, fear of job loss, fear of the future all represents walking by sight and not be faith. This is sin. There are of course countless other examples that might be given but this should get the idea across.

This is why I confess my sins to God many times a day; (I John 1:9) I’m a frail creature of dust and I need all the help I can get.

The bottom line on all of this is God has provided all we need to deal with all of these problems and to spend our days, however many may be left, rejoicing in Him and the day He hath made. I can say with complete sincerity that my normal disposition is one of joy and rejoicing in the Lord and I give Him all the glory.

In an earlier blog, “The Traitor Within” I discussed the reality of the traitor within and God’s provision for dealing with the traitor. Also mentioned was the importance of the Holy Spirit’s control in our lives if we wanted to live a life consistent with God’s standard for us and experience the blessings God intends for us to enjoy.

OK, so we’ve got a traitor within us; how did he get there? I’ve spoken with many Christians who were not really aware of the traitor within; their concept of sin involved demonic forces operating to tempt the believer and lead him astray. This is where the idea “the devil made me do it” came from and we were only victims of demonic or even Satanic temptation.

Although Satan and his demons are powerful, they are not omnipresent, only God is omnipresent. The Bible does not give us a precise number of demons but there is only a finite number; I have no idea what that number might be.

What I do know is that each and every human being has their own personal sin nature which will be with them until the rapture or physical death. We must cope with this enemy all of our mortal lives.

I mentioned part of God’s defensive plan for His children given in I John 1:8-10. Well there is more God has provided for our defense that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ when He was crucified.

In the next study we will consider what the Lord did to the traitor on our behalf. I believe Romans chapters 5 – 8 offer the most complete picture of the Christian life to be found in the Bible. I have heard it said one can determine the level of maturity of a believer by the amount of wear in their Bible at Romans 5.

All of this is directly related to your quality of life; it is all part of building a solid foundation for life that is based on the manufacturers instructions. The Bible is best compared to a food pantry filled with spiritually nutritious foods which will help you grow into a strong, mature Christian adult. As with any food it requires faithful eating and drinking to absorb the benefits.

Although the Bible can be used as a medicine cabinet from which first aid supplies are dispensed to deal with spiritual scratches etc. that is not its primary function. I’ve seen Bibles that have an index of ills with references to verses to deal with that specific ill; helpful perhaps on occasion but not the primary roll the Bible should play in the life of a believer.

“For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

You will get the answer to the question in “Who Let The Traitor In? Part II.” DV

The major news item recently has been the national debt and the threat of default. Accompanying that is the danger of downgrading our AAA credit rating to a lower one. Much has been written on the impact of a downgrade on the USA and the world.

I find it ironic that the same people who created the problem are the ones charged with finding a solution to the problem they created in the first place; that reminds me of the old saying about the fox guarding the hen house.

As our government haggles over a solution it appears that partisan polarity is keeping the two sides sufficiently far apart to avoid implementing a workable answer to the problem. I wish I could say this phenomenon is new to our political arena but I cannot.

Even a casual perusal of American history shows that this sort of thing has gone on since our very beginning as a nation. I believe I can safely say that we have succeeded as a nation in spite of our government, not because of it.

The Bible is very clear as it speaks regarding governments; in Daniel 4:17b “to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.”

Again in Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.” These verses among many others give conclusive evidence that governments are put in place by God for the accomplishment of His purposes.

In light of all of this I believe I can safely say that President Obama and all of the members of our government were ultimately placed there by God to accomplish His purposes; whether they realize it or not they are servants of the Most High God. That does not mean they are all born-again believers, just servants being used by God in the accomplishment of His will. This is what the Bible teaches.

I’ve heard many say that the secret to restoring the USA is a return to constitutional government as prescribed in the Constitution. I’ve heard the praises heaped upon the “Founding Fathers” as the reason for our national success.

I propose to you that we succeeded as a nation not because of our wisdom and cleverness but in spite of it. I propose to you that our success was strictly because of God’s hand of blessing on our nation.

The fourth verse of our National Anthem is far and away my favorite; it is rarely if ever sung. These are some of the words from the fourth verse: “Oh thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved homes and the war’s desolation, blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.”

These words identify the source of our success as a nation, Almighty God alone is the reason we have succeeded as a nation. The troubles we observe afflicting out nation are all symptoms of the basic problem; we have nationally turned our backs on God, the only one who has made and preserved us a nation.

Students of Bible prophecy have long wondered why the United States is not even hinted at in prophecy; I think we are seeing the reason take shape before our eyes.