Hello friends, welcome to the second episode of the series. Let’s recap what we shared last week: the Lord God is the only One. He is the Creator and He is the infinite God. It is absolutely wrong to regard any created god as God.

How does the concept of “God, the Maker of heaven and earth” relate to man and the world about God?

Since God is the Origin and the Creator of all, He is the Master of all things – such an understanding is very important because it helps us to revere God and cherish all the things He has created, including mankind. We should not despise mankind; we should not destroy, litter, contaminate rivers, pollute the air and so on for these are displeasing God, who is good and the Most High. This is how we live out our knowledge of God.

What do you know about the aspects of the world? First, since the world is created, the ultimate meaning of the created world must look to God and receive its meaning from the Creator Lord. Therefore, mankind as created beings must be truly humble, not arrogant and think “I am the supreme, my existence is meaningful and I’m the ultimate purpose.” The created world cannot exist independently. Therefore, we cannot discover ultimate significance within ourselves.

If there is no God, the phenomena of birth, sickness and death are meaningless. Let’s look at world history and where wars continue to occur. After World War 1, many believed that mankind would have learnt their lesson and prevent another war from happening. Unfortunately, World War 2 broke out. People then again said that they would learn from the painful lessons and war would never happen again. However, the pain and misfortunes as a result of war continues to repeat to this day. Mankind never learns its lessons. Therefore, without the intervention of God, history shows us that humanity cannot ultimately discover meaning, and instead, suffers repeatedly.

Secondly, it is important to believe that God will never abandon the world He created. He will not discard what He has created because this is what He loves. Combining the theory of creationism with salvation, we come to the conclusion that there is hope because God loves the world and He treasures it. Thus, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to the world and die on the cross for our sins. He made the great work of salvation because He loves the world. And because of this, the combination of creationism and redemption theory prompts us to face the world optimistically rather than pessimistically. We have hope, because in Jesus Christ we see hope. The world is loved and cherished by God

How does the concept of “God, the Maker of heaven and earth”, relate to us?

Let us look at Acts 17:24-29: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 

God gives life, breath and all things to mankind

What are the three things that God, who created the universe and everything on earth, gave us as mentioned in the passage above? ① He rewards us with life (verse 25). What is life? Life is the most fundamental element that God instilled in us. We will not exist if we are not living. ② In addition to rewarding us life, He lets us breathe. Breath is an essential element of life. No one can live without breath. ③ He gives everything which is essential for life to sustain and continue to grow. With breath alone, our existence does not persist for we need to grow, and that requires other things on earth. According to the first chapter of Genesis, God created all things in the world as preparation before the creation of mankind. This shows God’s love for mankind. He is thoughtful.

“God, marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands”

Next in verse 26 it says, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” The meaning of “their appointed times” is that the length of time we will be on earth has been marked out.  “The boundaries of their lands” is the space we are living on this world. The former refers to time, while the latter refers to space; both time and space are determined by God. Sometimes we want to live in a certain area permanently but unexpectedly, God takes us to another country. That’s what the Bible says, that the time and space of mankind are marked out by God.

The First Emperor of Qin (秦始王) hoped to live forever unfortunately, he died at the age of 50. Such being the case, do Christians believe in fatalism? No, fatalism is different from what Christianity calls predestination. Fatalism is pessimistic, while predestination is for mankind to respond to grace. What is fatalism? For example, a man fell into the sea, and he cries out: “Help! Help!” If you say, “if he is destined to die, he would die even if I try my best to save him. But if he is destined to live, he will live even if I did not save him.” That’s fatalism. In fatalism, mankind has no responsibility.

Brothers and sisters, though God has marked out our appointed times, this does not mean we should live a life as we wish. For instance, if I am pre-destined to live until 90 years old, even if I drive a car recklessly and have a road accident, I will surely live till 90. But, is it worth to live the rest of a life bedridden until 90 years old? God has given us the gifts of wisdom, ability and rationality and we have the responsibility to live our lives carefully and with control. It is undeniable that we are unable to comprehend the mysteries nor grasp the number of our days and the boundaries which we live.

Nothing can be done without the Creator

The above passage further states that no one can do anything without the Creator. What does this mean? Paul quoted two psalmists. The first is the psalm of Epimenides the Cretan: “For in him we live and move and have our being.” The other part is: “For we are also His offspring.” This is quoted from the work of Aretus, Paul’s fellow-townsman in Cilicia. In other words, Paul wants to show us that our relationship with the Creator is inseparable - when a branch leaves the tree trunk, that’s the day it will die, and wither.

Jesus Christ is our True Vine, and we are His branches, consequently, if the branches leaves the vine, the branches will wither, die, and be discarded. Similarly, since our life originated from God, the sovereignty of sustaining life also lies in Him. Mankind cannot leave God. You will discover that your life is meaningful and valuable if you continue to be in God. Just like a river, the water rolling at the riverbank shows that it is connected to the source of the river. And like this, if mankind is separated from God, they are cut off from the source of life - life begins to wither, which leads to meaninglessness, worthlessness, and survival becomes undeniably helpless.

The Creator has sovereignty over our lives

Since God is our Creator, He has absolute sovereignty over us. He created us, He is our Lord, our lives belonged to Him, and we are to give our lives to Him. Romans 12:1 says that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. In other words, our whole being is to be fully dedicated to God, including our rational thinking, emotional life and ethical behaviour. According to the perspective of Paul, it is reasonable for us to respond to God in such a manner, rather than striving to break free from His sovereignty over our lives.

Some may think that after they believe in Jesus, they can no longer gamble, play mahjong, smoke and are forbidden to do many things. This is because they do not understand the relationship between themselves and God. A life given by God is indeed a life of freedom - I have the freedom not to smoke, not to gamble and not to be promiscuous – that is the real freedom. This is the freedom that God has given us because when God’s sovereignty is at work in our lives, we can control our emotions, mind, and behaviour. How wonderful is this!

Friends, let us give our lives completely to God; our studies, work, family, social, finances, direction in life, and so on. As for our lifespan and boundaries, we leave that to Him who marks it out for us. It is indeed good when we obey and are satisfied with  what He has marked out.

Finally, we are to worship God because He is the Creator. He reigns over our lives with sovereignty and love thus, it is reasonable that we respond to Him in this manner – willing to offer everything to Him and make Him our Lord. Such an attitude towards God is known as worship.

This has been Global Reachout and it has been a blessing to journey with you. Stay tuned, stay kind and have a great week!