The Heavens Declare — Part 5

Note: I debated about not posting this next part of this series today in light of the massacre in Colorado last night. But, as I reflected on it I thought that it is at times like these—at least for me, and maybe for others—that I actually need to be reminded of (and grounded in) how big God is. When the pain and horror and fear and evil that so many in the world are facing every day is brought more forcibly to our attention and closer to home—and when we face times of uncertainty, loss, and fear—it is then we most need to be reminded that God's love for us and our eternal life with Him as Christians is secure and bigger than the world's reach. It is at times like this that we must be reminded that God has defeated death and that nothing that happens to the body of a Christian can remove His eternal life. It is at times like this that we must be reminded that there is a hope for all men and women, and it resides in a God who spans the universe and who is not defeated by the presence of evil. It is at times like this that we must remember that God watched His Son die on the cross at the hands of evil and men, and He acutely knows the pain of loss and of watching loved ones suffer. If I misjudged and shouldn't have posted today, please forgive me. I was not trying to be insensitive.

Our Universe
There are an estimated hundreds of billions of GALAXIES (not just stars!) in the universe. One supercomputer estimates there might be 500 billion galaxies out there (all  diverse and unique)! The NASA web site says “Hubble observed a tiny patch of sky (one-tenth the diameter of the moon) . . . and found approximately 10,000 galaxies, of all sizes, shapes, and colors. From the ground, we see very little in this spot . . .” A large cD galaxy can be 10 times brighter than the Milky Way, and can have a diameter of 6 million light-years across—60 times larger than the Milky Way! (Remember from an earlier post that if our solar system was the size of a quarter the Milky Way would go from the east to west coast of the United States? Well, if I did the math right, a galaxy like this would wrap around the Earth about seven times using this same scale!)  IC 1101, the biggest galaxy we’ve found as of 2009, and is thought to have 100 trillion stars in it alone, and some astronomers are estimating there might be 300 sextillion stars in our universe (that’s a 3 with 23 zeroes after it)! Honestly, the numbers just keep getting bigger the better our telescopes get, which makes sense to me because since the Heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork, and God’s glory knows no end, it makes sense the heavens wouldn’t either! Astronomers don’t even know if our universe is finite (has an edge) or infinite, or if there are other universes, but one estimate puts our universe at 150 billion light-years in diameter—that’s 186,000 miles per second for 150 billion years to cross it!

God Thought #1: Hebrews 11:3 declares unequivocally that, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” By faith . . . not having seen it happen, we believe that God spoke and all the universe was. By faith, in times like these, we trust in His goodness, His power, His love, and His victory, though we don't always see it manifest around us—and at times it seems to be mocked by the world's circumstances. We also take heart that He did not require anything physical to make the universe from. His Word was all that was required. That means we don't need to see the physical building blocks for a solution to the problems we face. God can bring solutions forth from nothing!

God Thought #2: Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” The stars remind us how big God is, and the Bible reminds us He is mindful of each of us even with the universe measured by the spans of His hand. Even when it doesn't feel like it He is mindful of each of us, and there is great comfort in that!

Thank you, Lord, for your love shown on the cross and your power over darkness shown in the empty tomb. Thank you that you are far bigger than this world and Creation itself, and yet you love us and are mindful of us. Please comfort the hurting, heal the wounded, and turn hearts towards You and the gift of Your Son, Jesus, on the cross.

The Heavens Declare — Part 4

In this fourth part of this series, drawing from a handout I made for our fellowship, let's travel out from our solar system and take a quick look at our Milky Way Galaxy.

So, then how big is our Milky Way galaxy our solar system calls home? Well, take this approximately 1.5 mile walk you just took representing our solar system (see The Heavens Declare — Part 3), and condense it down to the size of a quarter—picture our whole solar system in that coin. If a quarter represents our solar system, then, according to some web sites I found, the next nearest star to our sun (and any stuff orbiting around that star) would be another quarter, about two soccer fields away . . . and the edges of our galaxy would be the east and west coasts of the United States! To travel across it? If you traveled at the speed of light it would take you 100,000 years to cross just our galaxy . . . which is estimated to have in it 200–400 billion stars alone!

God Thought: Isaiah 40:26 says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power not one is missing”—He who guards the stars, also guards you. He who makes sure one isn’t missing, seeks you when you are lost. Read the entire chapter of Luke 15 for an amazing assurance of how precious you are to Him.

The Heaven's Declare — Part 2

Here's the part of my handout dealing with our "local" space—Earth and our sun. In Part 3 we'll look at our solar system, and in posts after that our galaxy and then the universe. At the end of each will be a "God Thought". I encourage you to read and meditate on them. After all, knowledge for the sake of knowledge simply puffs us up and makes us arrogant—we then become people who spout all the right words and arguments, but have nothing of the love, humility, and gentle service of Christ. And, without love, we have nothing. The point of this knowledge is to glorify God, strengthen our faith, and equip us for the work of ministry. May God bless you as your read these. (Note: Please remember the statement in Part 1 that, though I state these things as fact, I obviously can't personally verify them through observation or my own measurement, and I can't even tell you where on the internet I got them all. Not to mention that the numbers probably change with every new discovery or better telescope. I can say I tried hard to use facts I found in multiple places, and to not exaggerate anything to make a point.)

Earth—one of eight (or nine?) planets orbiting our sun, making up our solar system. Mostly covered in water, it is almost 25,000 miles around at the equator. It rotates on its axis fully once per day, which means we are spinning at over 1,000 miles per hour at the equator. At the same time we are spinning at over 1,000 miles per hour, we are orbiting the sun (which is 93 million miles away from us) at almost 67,000 miles per hour, all on this shell of rock and land and water that contains inside it a core with temperatures estimated between 7,000–12,000°F (to compare, water boils at 212°F, and human skin is supposedly not comfortable above 140°F). And yet, we can balance on a balance beam, sip coffee without spilling, play catch, experience sun and snow, and sleep peacefully.

Our Sun—our nearest star, has a diameter 109 times bigger than the earth’s. We could fit 1.3 million earths inside our sun. The sun makes up 99.8% of the mass in our solar system, with Jupiter and Saturn taking up most of the other .2% (the earth really doesn’t even register on the scale). The center of the Sun is approximately 27,000,030°F, and the surface of the Sun is about 9,932°F.
    And yet, our sun is rather tiny in comparison to other stars out there. For example, Canis Majoris, the largest known star in volume (not mass) has a radius that is estimated to be 1,800–2,100 times larger than our sun’s radius, and to be around 500,000 times brighter than our sun. One site said that if you were to make a model, with our earth a sphere of a diameter of .39 inches (less than half an inch), then, to represent Canis Majoris you’d need a sphere with a diameter of 1.43 miles! And, R136A1, the largest know star by mass (not volume), is estimated to have surface temperatures exceeding 72,000°F—seven times hotter than our sun’s surface temperature!

God Thought: Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” If these stars were brought forth by the word of the Lord and the breath of His mouth, what is going on in your life that is too big for you to trust Him with it?

The Heaven's Declare — Part 1

In early June I taught at our Sunday service a prelude to a Pentecost teaching. In lead up to the wonder and awe that God would come to dwell in His children I felt led to showcase first the size and majesty and power of God that is a part of what makes such indwelling so incredible.

For me the heavens are the place I turn to bring things back to perspective when I am overwhelmed. To look up at night and to start to grasp a fraction of the size and beauty of what I am seeing is, for me, a way to remind myself how big the God is who loves me, lives in me, and never leaves me. So, I spent a Sunday teaching on the size of the universe. When I was done I had shared so many breathtaking facts and ways of seeing the size of it all that I ended up making it into a handout. My hope is to have a website in the near future when I can upload both the handout and the paper I am working on about why I became a Young Earth Creationist, and why I believe the issue really matters. Then, anyone interested can simply download either in a PDF format and either read them onscreen or print them.

Until that website is up, I have decided to print excerpts from the handout in the next few blog posts. Since it is already written the will probably come fairly frequently over the next week. I think that you will be blessed and encouraged by the facts as you reflect on your God. I wish I could credit all the facts and examples in the handout, but I drew them from so many sources I just lost track. I apologize in advance to anyone not credited, and I thank them all for their internet postings from which I drew the information. Following this series I may post some excerpts from the paper I am finishing on my journey to Young Earth Creationist, and some thoughts I why I believe this is a truly critical subject for individual Christians and society as a whole. Of course, I reserve the right to insert some blog posts in between all this as God might lead me, that have nothing to do with either (smile!).

To begin, this morning I will share the introduction to the handout. The next blog post will look at our earth and Sun, and then we'll just start moving farther out post by post. I encourage you to reflect on each one not just academically, but by asking yourself what it means to you to have a God so huge who loves you personally, and who dwells within you as a believer.

Introduction
These “facts” and illustrative examples came from various internet sources in May 2012 for a teaching I gave. I can’t verify them, and not everyone agrees with them. Because we have such a limited observation of the universe, so many are based on speculation and theories. But, even if they’re only close to reality, I am struck by the magnitude of what some scientist expect us to accept about how an “accident” with no Creator, designer, director, or agent of origin created these massive objects and sent them flying such inconceivable distances. As you reflect on this may God not be robbed of His glory, but may you be in awe as you get a sense of the heavens above and around us, and remember,“The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). Many times, when problems seem huge and hard, I look to the stars and reflect on some of the following facts, and find things coming back into perspective as I am reminded how big and how glorious my God is. May these things help you, too, be in wonder and awe and peace as you reflect on your Creator.

If, as you follow this series, you want to share it, there are buttons at the bottom of each post to share them on various platforms, as well as a "Print Friendly" button to make them easier to print without all the other blog sidebars, header, etc. If you are reading this and are not subscribed by email to this blog and you don't want to check back over and over you can subscribe to it by email on the sidebar. If you are reading this in an email format you'll need to click into the actual blog to use the features I described. May God bless you and His Spirit pour out on you a deep, deep awareness of His love, power, size, and presence.   —Erick