YOUR ALL-KNOWING, ALL-LOVING GOD CARES FOR YOU. PSALM 139
Your God is omniscient; that is, all-knowing. David wrote, ‘O Lord you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up,’ which covers all activities of my spirit , soul and physical being. David directed Solomon his son in building the sanctuary, the house of the Lord, Who examines us intimately, illuminating every nook and cranny of our inmost being. ‘As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, he will cast you off for ever.’ 2 Chronicles 28:9 Our estimate of our beloved Lord deepens...
Jeremiah writes on this mighty theme, showing that ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked;’ then defiantly, ‘Who can know it?’ ‘I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of His doings'. 17:9,10 Nothing is hidden from His all-seeing eye promotes godliness. Oh, the relief when he brings hidden sin to his searching light, and we own up and repent, and abandon it, forgiven by our great and glorious God. Man’s high-tech equipment searches our intricate physical life, as in MRI , but our beloved Lord scrutinizes our inward person. And purifies.
A dear friend concluded years of medical testing when an MRI gave the daunting diagnosis. Oh, the relief, even though solemn. New birth here; eternal life in perpetuity.
Peter reminded the Lord of His all-knowledge, essential for this potential leader in the post-resurrection period. The potential preacher of Pentecost desperately needed assurance that the Lord knew not only all his past successes and failures, but that he foreknew all Peter’s undisclosed, secret potential. This grants us dignity in our service for our beloved Lord.
Simon Peter had dodged our Lord’s searching enquiry whether he loved HIM more than these non-essentials, such as fishing and his disciples’ fellowship. ‘More than these.’ Desperately, and in subdued anger, he responded, to the third question, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, Do you love ( phileo like a big brother )? Peter was grieved, because He said to him the third time. ‘Do you love ME?' Hot-headed Peter rejoined, ‘Lord You know all things; You know that I love you.’
Peter restated the Lord’s omniscience, knowing all. Then the eternal charge, ‘Feed My sheep.’
During a family reunion, we discussed the Lord’s leading of each member of our families, convinced of His all-knowledge in the unfolding and molding of our lives.
Our children have worked in divers countries, United States, Indonesia, Rwanda, Sudan, Ghana, Cotre de Voir, Northern Ireland, plus varying Australian states, Victoria, Tasmania New South Wales, South Australia. You too will be enriched reviewing God’s leading in family movements.
David declares how the Lord grasps all the secret of our mental and physical movement- that is, where I am for that special time. Our thoughts are not secret to the Lord. Rather they are known well to Him. Recognizing this, we should turn many of our thoughts into prayer, allowing the Lord access to broaden and intensify our innermost thoughts. ‘You know my sitting down and my rising up ; You understand my thought afar off.’ 139:2 Let’s keep an open account for our beloved Lord, who appreciates our searching concepts; not being intentionally secretive.
‘I know your dwelling-place. Your going out and your coming in, and (surprisingly) your rage against me. ’ Isaiah 37:28 Your trembling, quiverings or as the Message shows ’your tantrums'.
HE IS OMNI-PRESENT.
WE cannot grasp the omnipresence of our God , a surprising feature of His eternal Being. We humans are so limited, but we must not shrink our understanding of the Lord. Early in my hospital life in Egypt in WW11 we were stationed in the vast Sahara Desert. I enjoyed the presence of my eternal Friend and Saviour exactly there. ‘Lo I am with you always even to the end of the earth.' Or as the only Europeans among 2-3 million in East Java, yet Knowing and feeling the sweet presence of the Lord of glory. Our pride forbids our recognition of His pre-eminence. ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your Presence? No where! Don’t try! Nestle closer to your beloved Lord.
Jeremiah contributed to this great truth, ‘Am I a God near at hand', says the Lord. 'And not a God afar off.?’ He continued, ‘Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see Him? says the Lord. ‘ Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord.’ Majestic? Surely. Immense? Certainly. Ubiquitous! Vast? Our limited language cannot shrink our great, huge God.
Tell of apologist Pastor Boot, (www.Ezra.Institute.org ) who courageously contended for the vastness of our almighty One, as in Creation Ministries magazine. In possessing the all-sufficient Lord, John Boot fearlessly challenges the unbelieving atheist to debate the eternal verities of our God, who, unlike him, possess no supernatural advantages in their defiant stand.
‘Who has despised the day of small things?’ These seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then the extraordinary conclusion, ‘They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.’ Zechariah 4:10 An all-powerful God casts His all-seeing eye over His entire creation. No room for a micro-ruler or diminutive Lord. I recall traveling in South East Asia on a seldom used, isolated track, the sound of the motor attracting students who rushed outside, excitedly waving. I threw from the car hundreds of gospel tracts in their mother tongue. They responded in like manner weeks later, their faces dismayed that I could not repeat my former effort, for I had scattered all my life-giving booklets on the preceding visit.
Even with a rebel heart, Jonah recognized the all-presence of the living God. After the Lord singled out him for a unique evangelistic campaign in that populous city Nineveh, whose wickedness had risen against the Lord, he was free to obey. The word of the Lord continued, ‘ Cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ The ordained servant of the Lord arose to flee from the presence of the Lord. Unbelievable! He went down to Joppa, and deliberately, found a ship going to Tarshish ( Due west to Spain). Scripture repeats that richly-potential word, ‘presence’ for he defiantly paid the fare to go far, fleeing from the comforting companionship of the Lord. Jonah ’Arose, to flee to Tarshish ( wrong direction utterly) from the presence of the Lord. Unlimited co-existence with our Lord is an immense privilege, indescribable blessing and sheer delight.
I have been privileged to watch over my patients during their pregnancies, marveling at the orderly progression God decreed and over saw: with undeniable delight, the delivery concluded. And the baby rested in the arms of the mother - occasionally the father, still weeping. I have followed the election process in the United States, where many still treasure the security of the babe in the womb and are distressed and incensed that leaders devote the choice of destructive abortion to the mother, who has chosen possible pregnancy sexually. No two bites at a special cherry. And many ignored the God who gave life so generously. 50 million lives aborted in one nation over a generation. Oh, how angry is the Lord, Who would unspeakably endow such a people. Ecstatically, David wrote, For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works. ’ v13
LIFE BEFORE BIRTH ( Good News Publishers- used by permission)
Present the development of the babe.
18 days Heart is forming, eyes developing.
20 days Foundations of brain, spinal cord and nervous system are laid.
24 days Heart begins to beat.
28 days Muscles are developing, along the future spine. Arms and legs are budding.
30 days Child has grown 10,000 times to 6-7 mm long. Brain has human proportions
Blood flow in veins ( but remains separate from mother’s blood. )
35 days Pituitary gland in brain is forming. Mouth, ears and nose are taking shape.
40 days Heart’s energy output is 20 per cent of adult’s. incredible
42 days Skeleton is formed. Brain coordinates movement of muscles and organs.
Reflex responses have begun. Penis is formed in boys. Mother misses second period.
43 days Brain waves recorded. undeniable evidence of a new being.
45 days Spontaneous movements have begun, Buds of milk teeth have appeared.
7 weeks Lips are sensitive to touch. Ears may resemble family pattern.
8 weeks Child is well-proportioned, small-scale baby 3 cms; sitting up; a gram in weight.
Every organ present ( unchallengeable ) heart beats sturdily; Stomach produces digestive juices; Liver makes blood cells; Kidneys begin to function; Taste buds are forming. Baby’s finger prints are formed and will never change except for size.
If any person undermined the foundations of our home when they were laid, we would have sought civil protection for the construction of the dwelling. If any person sabotages by Abortion, mechanical or chemical, the embryonic foundation of a unique identifiable person, then God would cry out from heaven in grief. We are also repulsed.
The Spirit showed David He had established metabolic or food processes, meeting the Mother’s need and of the developing babe, that relaxed abdominal muscles accommodated the growth of the babe. We in medicine should recognize the progressive events in sheltering the developing life, while securing the mother. He could not cease from praising the ONE who had precisely engineered the whole process. We obscure the handiwork of our God in caring for the developing child by naming the process ‘perfectly natural’ or ‘embryological development’. David praised his God - so should we. Our capacity to worship a great-hearted Creator is sadly deficient. In David’s psalm, God the Rock of salvation, he wrote, ‘by you I have been upheld in my mother’s womb, my praise shall be continually of you.’ 71:6
God clearly is responsible for the controlled division of fertile cells, all flowing from the male cell conception of the female egg. The Hebrew ‘awsaw’ for made is to fashion or accomplish or make: while the word formed is ‘yatsar‘, meaning to create, individually conceive, or to shape as a potter.’ God is responsible for this masterpiece of launching a new life, even as shipbuilders thrill to launch a vessel, which the draughtsmen have assembled. Let no one glibly refer to the ’blob of tissue’ the result of abortive procedure, which is the delicate, handiwork of our Creator God. His heart grieves for every miracle life which is snuffed out while man appears oblivious to this immense crime.
Isaiah wrote, ‘thus says the Lord who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you: Fear not O Jacob my servant; and you Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.’ 44;2
Jeremiah deeply valued the living wisdom, which he expressed as the’ Word of the Lord came to me.’ Therefore, we should heed the following word, resulting in intra-uterine development or ‘being formed in the womb.’ The Lord initiated microscopic changes initially followed by subtle development for He ordained woman hood to undergo these special months before giving birth to a babe, the Lord’s special creation. Our Lord abhors mutilating interference with this process while the believer, who well understands the mind of his glorious Creator, deplores this.
Little wonder that the Lord disdains the nations that impudently demolish what the Lord has so intricately ordained. Our home nation Australia, and Unites States and other populous nations are guilty . USA and we have destroyed 50 and 3 million local lives respectively over recent decades. Jeremiah 1:5 ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’ Humanly we cannot believe that the Lord had such infinite knowledge of us prior to our conception. Furthermore, before you entered into the world, I set you apart for my glory. Human intrusion wrecks God’s plans for a life. Even later in life, Our Lord predestined Jeremiah to prophesy to the nations. God has highest hopes for what man disdains, by dismembering with surgical skill.
In a super mart, Gwenda and I met a young gynecologist from a Communist country, whose afternoon surgery was a series of abortive procedures. Department pressure perpetuated dismantling of bodies, fashioned by God. Her conscience ( she had no religious background, only atheistic culture), had been traumatized. Freed, she read the Word of God and trusted the Lord Jesus as her Savior and God. Joyfully she delivered a son, whom she brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
‘My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.’ vv15,16.
How exciting that the word book is ‘cipher‘; in Hebrew. Does this refer to the DNA, which God incorporated or built into the first humans, but was only discovered in our lifetime. Our son, John, excitedly received the news during his agricultural research, and confirmed, ‘Dad, the bible was true/’ with the discovery of the DNA molecule. The Hebrew word means, a letter of instruction, that our genetic information and chromosomes are perpetuated to succeeding generations. It also means ‘a written order’ where our Creator has embedded such instruction to our children; and is also our gynecological register. This demonstrates how the Word of God is scientifically precise, and its recognition depends on human, tardy, scientific discovery or grasp.
Incredible that our mighty Lord considered us individually, giving deliberate thought to each one. No wonder that the unbelieving, restricted atheist ( without God ) or antitheist ( opposes thought of a God ) defies this concept. Of course, it is beyond all human consideration. God is infinitely greater than our microscopic world. David describes God’s thoughts for us as precious, that is beyond diamonds in value. So should we! The Holy Spirit released this truth to the king, the former shepherd boy, for our astonishment. ‘How precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.’ v17 Consider the distance between the planets , reckoned in light years-; recalling that light travels at 186, 000 miles or 300,000 kms per second. I estimate that a light year is 10 kms to the twelve power. This unlimited One has thoughts for you as a person. Bewildering. Mystifying. Holy ground-God walked there.
Have you considered the number of the spermatozoa in each emission in sexual relationship between husband and wife, as God intended. Between 200 and 650 million are produced each emission: the lower figure may herald infertility. Remember that medical science cannot invent or create one spermatozoa. God alone does that profusely - each time relationship proceeds. When the media shows IVF or in vitro fertilization, grasp that all the unique articles are created in abundance by your God and man can not create one female cell or egg or the abundant male sperm. They do not recognize the Lord the heavenly Initiator of the process, which is borrowed from HIM without acknowledgment or worship for His excelling provision.
Stagger at the lavish abundance of our Lord: if sexual relationship of healthy husband and wife is fulfilled two or three times weekly, astronomical billions of created spermatozoa are perfectly formed: and released. The sole spermatic purpose was to glorify the Lord in fertilizing the egg cell and initiate the development of the living babe.
David did not inhibit his Worship: please God we shall not restrain our praise. .