By Brother Al Salay
“In the beginning . . .
God created the Heaven and the Earth.” (Gen 1:1) He created them, then rested from His work.(Gen 2:2) He created them to be very good.(Gen 1:31)
Then God gave Adam and Eve authority to subdue the Earth and have dominion over it. Man has used that power to do all manner of things aside from simply providing food for himself. Unfortunately, man is able to misuse some of what God created, converting good to evil. This is a power he has been allowed. He can be a user or an ab-user, a wrecker. Further, Satan, the enemy of man and the enemy of God is able to corrupt and even misrepresent the good things God did make.
Satan cannot create
As sly and as cruel as he is, Satan cannot create anything. He is a fallen angel and angels are not given the role or power to create. Through lies, distortions and manifestations he sometimes appears to create, but he does not have that power. He is the liar.
What if man could create?
If man was able to create, anything, he would be more powerful than Satan and his demons. But, what can man create? What can man add to the universe that did not exist already? All his inventions and great works make use of the materials God gave him.
In farming man uses the characteristics that God built into the plants He created. In chemistry man uses the atoms and molecules God ordained. In medicine man uses the healing capacity God designed into the living organism. With dams and great buildings man rearranges the resources of the Earth. Man moves and refines and reassembles, but he does not create these things. After a season, they return to the dust of which they were made and the fruit of man’s labors is lost.
Is there nothing man can create? Is there nothing that man can add to the universe? It seems there is nothing.
But wait!
There is one thing. No, there are several things. Yes. There ARE things that do not exist and cannot exist unless man creates them. And only man can create them. A tree or a cow or a fish or Satan himself cannot create them. They do not have the capacity.
Love
God is love. It is His very nature. God has given man the pattern, and He has invited him to copy it. It is so special that once it is created it can never be destroyed. An act of love may disappear into the past. It may be forgotten by men. But God will never forget it. It is as eternal as God Himself. God will never forget our acts of love.
“ For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” Heb 6:10
Once launched onto the sea of life, love can never be called back. It is LOVE. It is a manifestation of the character of God.
This love is not some generalized feeling of appreciation or respect. This love is about actions, specific deeds by a human being that convey love to another. Love is what you do, not what you feel. Acts of love occur at a point in time. They may be as simple as a smile. They may be as extensive as a sacrificed life. They are a gift at a moment of time and cannot ever be reversed. They are the creations of men, as they operate in the image of God. Man can create love. He can demonstrate love. Any act of love is eternal. It lives forever. It cannot be destroyed.
How can man love?
We are told in 1 John 4:19 that “We love Him because He first loved us.” BECAUSE. That is how man learned about love – by being loved. Our instant response should be to love Him in return. In 1 John 4:9-10 we read,
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Oh, it’s not that love was a new idea. It appears early in the scriptures: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deu. 6:5) But Jesus demonstrated it with such overwhelming power that a believer has no choice but to respond.
Respond – and . . .
But there is more than just responding. There is emulating. In 1 John 4:11 we are counseled, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” We are to love not only Jesus but one another.
Further, our love is not a private matter. John 13:35 tells us, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Yes, we can join with God and become creators too.
Praise too is a creative act. All of creation, the oceans and mountains and clouds in the sky honor God by obeying. Only humans can honor God by acts of praise, worship or thanksgiving. These are creations of men. They come from no other source and once sent forth they are never reversed.
Sometimes the Word refers to men as wheat. A wheat plant contributes nothing until it is mature. Only then does it bear it’s fruit, that head that becomes the bread of men, the staff of life. Likewise, a man contributes nothing to the economy of God until he bears fruit: love, praise, thanksgiving, worship. These are the savory bread of God on which He feasts with great delight. As we find reflected throughout that great 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, the greatest act, the greatest experience, is love. And we create it fresh each time.
CREATE !
Love, Praise, Worship, Give Thanks – Bless God
(04/18)
Presented by Bro. Al Salay, Blessed Man Ministries Inc.