Created on Purpose

It's a point we have been trying to emphasize with Ab and AA lately - the fact that God specifically designed them for a purpose. He created them to do something that no one else in His creation would be such a unique fit for.


I firmly believe the biblical account of the Creation. Others may see things differently as far as how long the creation took to bring about or how it all looked, and I'm okay with that. I just like the simple story that we learned as children in Sunday School. I even believe the six literal days with one day of rest - version.


As I look around and I see all the ways that western culture seems to chafe against a biblical worldview, most of them stem from an improper understanding of Creation.


Abortion and euthanasia are practices based in a need for convenience. It is not difficult to arrive at the conclusion that one of these solutions is viable, if you discount the biblical creation account. If one believes that we all arrived here just because some random atoms started linking up, it is easy to decided that nothing really matters much but "me" and the moment I am in right now.


On the other hand, when I recognize the obvious - that every minute detail of nature loudly declares the presence of an intelligent Designer - it becomes plain to me that there is a structure, a plan, a reason for every living thing.


Order. That's one of God's trademarks. The fact that planets don't go crashing into one another and we don't pluck baby kangaroos from apple trees shows me that Someone is in charge, keeping everything in it's proper place.


Take the man-made global warming bunch - it appears to me that this thinking that creatures like us can actually destroy this planet, is flawed because it ignores the fact that God created the world and He will decide when and how it will end.


I do think that humans have a responsibility of "taking care" of the place in which we have been given to live. I'm okay with a Teddy Roosevelt sort of view toward conservation; I am not okay with the apocalyptic-"chicken-Little"style-panic that we get today. It is clearly politically motivated with an aim toward limiting liberties and curtailing capitalism.


I was greatly influenced by a book I read a number of years ago called, "Trashing the Planet" written by the former Washington State Governor, Dixie Lee Ray (now deceased). I believe her statement was that the earth was "marvelously rejuvenative". In other words God created it and set processes and cycles in motion to correct problems.


So a lot of my political thinking stems from a belief in the biblical Creation account.


I think such a view also affects things like self-esteem and compassion.


It is why R. and I feel so strongly about having our children understand that they were created by God, and He had a specific purpose in mind. They are here for a reason.

This truth also reveals something about the nature of God - He is intentional.

Our pastor recently conducted a teaching series on "Worship". Having only recently begun wading into the Reformed Tradition, I have much to learn about it and I was captivated by the teaching. Everything about a worship service in the Reformed Tradition is intentional: every ceremony, song, symbol, liturgy - even the arrangement of the furniture - is all deliberate. It is all there to point to Christ and to proclaim the gospel.

That sense of order and meaning in worship seems right to me.

Incidentally, I like that my pastor is also very intentional in that he never wastes a single opportunity to create a teaching moment, "this is why we do this..." he says.

Finally, what does all the purpose mean to me?

It means that, like my pastor, God never wastes a teaching moment. Every event, every person, every thought that I encounter has been created and allowed to come my way at a particular time for a deliberate purpose. The triumphs, the failures, the pitfalls, the peaks, they are all placed in my path by a loving God Who longs to use them to teach me or to wear me down to the point that I become teachable.

"OW! that hurt! You did that on purpose!"

It is common to hear that phraseology among any set of youngsters... sometimes if you could hear the quiet inner voice of most struggling adults, you might hear the same exclamations:

"OW! God, that hurt!... You did that on purpose!" - His reply may very well be -

"Well... yeah... but its a good purpose!"