A Mote of celestial dust

   A mote of celestial dust

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  

He was with God in the beginning. 

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  

In him was life, and that life was the light of men....

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. " John 1:1-4,14

         Above it a picture taken by the Voyager space craft from a distance of 6 billion Kilometres, (4 billion miles).

Carl Sagan said,

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." Carl Sagan.

What amazes me more than this is that God chose to set foot on that pail blue dot in the form of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ. And He did so to point mankind to Heaven.  Jesus speaking of Himself said,

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son". John 3:16-18.

Believe it or not.

Please think about it.

A thought for the New Year

A thought for the New Year

On February 14, 1990, NASA at a distance of 6 billion kilometres (3,7 billion miles) had the Voyager 1 space probe take a picture of the Solar system. It showed earth as a pail blue dot smaller than the head of a pin.
Looking at it we see just how small earth is in the universe. Within the vastness of the universe it seems insignificant. Yet it is everything to those of us who live on it.
That being said what amazes me is that the God who created the universe and everything in it did not think that pail blue dot insignificant at all. For he chose to bless mankind by stepping onto that dot in the form of His One and Only Son Jesus Christ and offering to all who would receive eternal life.
The gospel of John tells us,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  
He was with God in the beginning. 
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....  
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 11-14.
As fantastic as this seems it is true. As they say truth is quite often stranger than fiction.
What the apostle John writes here is the basis of Christian teaching and belief. God in the form of his One and Only Son Jesus Christ entered the world He created in order to call all men to himself. Offering them eternal life in Heaven.
I simply present it here for you to accept or reject. The choice is yours.
Please think about it. 

The Grandeur of the Universe

The grandeur of the Universe
The German poet Henrich Heine wrote,

“The grandeur of the Universe is always commensurate with the grandeur of the soul that surveys it.”  Henrich Heine.
How do you see the Universe?
I’m a photographer and the other night I took my camera into my back yard, attached a telephoto lense to it, and took a series of pictures of the moon. I did it purely for my own amusement.
To my delight the picture came out perfectly. Included in several of the pictures however was a fuzzy reddish dot. The planet Mars. Fuzzy and tiny because it was millions of miles further away than the moon.
Space and space exploration has always fascinated I remember watching the Apollo landings on the moon live when still a teenager.
I still follow the various exploration missions, the Mars rovers, Cassini-Huygens, Juno, New Horizons.
The one that fascinates me the most however has always been the Voyager space probes. To date have gone further than any other manmade object. One at this writing is now in interstellar space around 17,000,000,000, kilometres from earth.
Back on valentines day February 14th 1990 NASA had Voyager take a picture of Earth from approximately 7 billion kilometres away. The earth appeared in the picture a half pixel in size. It’s the picture at the top of this article
Carl Sagan the person responsible for having NASA take the picture called it a pail blue dot. He noted,
“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Carl Sagan.
Sagan was right. Earth may not seem like much in terms of the vastness of the Galaxy but it is precious to us.
Another scientist  Dr. Arno Penzias 1978 Nobel Prize winner in Physics noted.
“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with a very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life and one which has an underlying (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.”Dr. Arno Penzias.
The way I see it there is a “supernatural plan”. God’s plan. I believe God created the universe and everything in it.
I never debate whether God took six twenty-four hour days or billions of years. God is God and he could have done it any way he wished. How he created the universe does not affect by faith in God.
The fact is I do not believe that the universe came together randomly. I believe there was a plan. That it was created in such away that life as we know it exists.
I believe the Psalmist who wrote,

“The heavens declare the glory of God; 

the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

Day after day they pour forth speech; 

night after night they display knowledge. 

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.” 

                                                                     Psalm 19:1-3.

The Universe from the largest galaxy to the smallest subatomic particle works in such a way as to make life possible on this planet. I believe good science will one day prove this.
So when I look at the night sky in all its splendour, in all its grandeur, I see God’s handiwork. Not only that I read the apostle John’s gospel where he said,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  
He was with God in the beginning. 
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ” John 1:1-4,14.
This God who created the heavens and the earth. That “mote of dust of dust suspended in a sunbeam” as Sagan put it. Chose to take a portion of his infiniteness and enter human history to point mankind to Heaven.
It seems incredible I know but close to three billion Christians, three billion believers in Christ Jesus in the world today believe this.
Someone has said Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. I as a Christian believe this is one of those times.
What do you think?
Please think about it.