Daily Devotional For Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Good morning and wishes to all you students returning to school today for traditional schools in our county. As Christians we believe that God is omnipotent, meaning all-powerful. We believe that God is omnipresent, meaning – present everywhere all the time. We believe that God is omniscient – all knowing of all things past, present and future. Genesis 1 :1 begins this way: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (NASB). When there was nothing, God brought something into nothing. When there was only darkness, God brought light.
The fancy term Bible scholars use for this is “creatio ex-nhilo” – creation out of nothing. How God did this is never explained, but why God did this is explained. Isaiah 45:7 says this: “I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things” (NLT). How God created everything in this vast universe is not explained other than, “Then God said, Let there be . . . and it was.” Our simple minds can never understand the mind of God nor grasp the power of God.
Today, AI, artificial intelligence, is appearing more like a god than ever before in the past. With apps such as ChatGPT, students can now tell this app to write a paper on a specific subject for class. This app does all the work, even giving footnotes and the student does nothing. In this case, students learn nothing than how to manipulate and misuse ChatGPT. Teachers and professors are at a loss as to whether the student did the research themselves and wrote the paper or if a computer App did. In some way, ChatGPT is like “creatio ex-nhilo.”
We live in a culture that wants all the benefits void of all the burdens to get them. We live in a culture where laziness is replacing labor. We live in a culture where hard work is being replaced with a weak workout. In the very beginning, God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26) and ever since, man has been attempting to make God in his own image.
New Testament scholar J.B. Philllips writes this:
“Many men and women today are living, often with inner dissatisfaction, without any faith in God at all. This is not because they are particularly wicked or selfish or, as the old-fashioned would say, “godless,” but because they have not found with their adult minds a God big enough to “account for” life, big enough to “fit in with” the new scientific age, big enough to command their highest admiration and respect, and consequently their willing cooperation” (Source: J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small, p. vi.).
As we grow from childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood with an ever expanding awareness of life, our knowledge and trust of God often remains juvenile – never maturing. When we remain in this state, we are often faced with a choice of trusting God or trusting ourselves or someone or something else. We live in fear that some new discovery might contradict and overturn our faith in some way. This is a defeated faith.
Isaiah prophesied the glory of the Lord to be revealed to the whole world (Isaiah 40:5). Isaiah prophesied that God was not returning just to repair and patch this fallen creation and world, but to create everything new (Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah 66:22), and ever since Jesus, God started that newness with us. God is in the business of making all things new (Isaiah 43:18-19, Ephesians 2:15, Ephesians 4:24, Hebrews 8:13 and Revelation 21:5. If we believe that God is sovereign, then we also believe that all of history, not just church history, but all history is in His plan. You have heard me say several times: History is “His-story.” This means all events have a great purpose that is leading us His people to one final victory. Thus, though we may try, we cannot box God in our own preconceived ideas and wishes. This means that when the impossible comes, we trust God with it.
Paraphrasing biblical scholar Kent Hughes: “Since Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, then the more difficult or bigger questions get simpler and the smaller questions get harder. Let me explain. The easier questions are: will I get cancer? Will my spouse leave me? Will my boyfriend/girlfriend break up with me? Will there be enough money in my retirement plan to see me through to my death? I know, I know, yes these are weighty questions by our definition. But these questions are smaller in comparison to questions like this: “Does my life have meaning, significance, and purpose? Are we alone in the universe? Does God really care?” (Source: Kent Hughes, Preach The Word Bible Commentary, “Isaiah,” p. 298).
So, back to Isaiah 45:17. Isaiah’ point is that God does not casually sit back and let our world unfold on its own. God does not just allow darkness, tragedy and evil and then blame someone else. Isaiah’s point is God allows this so that it fits into His greater redemptive purpose. This challenges us to depend on God knowing that nothing stops God’s plan and purpose. God did not create sin, we did. God does not sin nor causes sin, we do. God originally gave us perfection and we destroyed it. As a result, God has ever since been trying to redeem us from our sin that sometimes includes darkness and tragedy.
Assignment: Reflect on the questions you have of God – which ones are really the smaller ones and which ones are the weightier ones? Why do you think we get this backwards? This week, sit down with someone and discuss with them one of your weightier questions as defined by biblical scholar Kent Hughes. Get into God’s Word with it. What is God’s answer to you?
Scripture To Meditate On: Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what He has made crooked? (14) Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to remember that You allow both good and bad for a purpose. That purpose is to work on my character for me to learn how I handle the good – do I take credit for it – and how I handle adversity. Do I whine, grip and complain? Help me to be grateful for both and for You. In Jesus’ names, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly