What Has God Established In Us That Reflects His Image And Unifies Science And Scripture?

Good Morning Friends,

Maybe you remember watching it on T.V.  Star Trek: The Next Generation, it aired for 7 years and 8 months from 1987 to 1994. What is interesting to me today is that it incorporated the idea of a Holodeck on the Starship Enterprise into its science fiction plotline using the Holographic Universe theory as justification. Now the Holographic Universe Theory has been around for several decades but is getting a lot more attention lately because it helps answer some difficult questions about black holes and creation and possibly how to unify theories of the small and large. It suggests that our three-dimensional reality may be a projection from a deeper, unseen dimension- that what we perceive as solid and tangible is actually the manifestation of information stored in a fundamental realm. While this is a scientific concept that has supporters from physics as well as the neurosciences, what particularly interests me is that the theory also resonates beautifully with the Biblical truth that what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal ( 2 Corinthians 4:18) Jesus often spoke in ways that hinted at the reality beyond our senses. He said,”My kingdom is not of this world? ( John 18:36) and invited His followers to store treasures in heaven, not on earth ( Matthew 6:19-20) These teachings align with the idea that the physical world is not the ultimate reality, it is a shadow, a reflection, a temporary stage for an eternal story. And that should interest us because Scripture says we are made in God’s image. So today we look at how we might better understand what God has created and see the deeper reality in just about everything with amazement, even as we ask: What Has God Established In Us That Reflects His Image And Unifies Science And Scripture?

Scripture:You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

 1 Peter 1:18-23 (NRSV)

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.

 1 Peter 5:10 (NRSV)

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV)

Message: We see establishment dates on cities and businesses. Our calendars once upon a time reflected the establishment date of the Incarnation and the beginning of the reign of Christ’s Kingdom as a witness that God establishes leaders as well. People even used to set the establishment date of the earth with great specificity. But in truth our calendars have changed and that is ok for Christ’s reign and lineage began before the beginning of time. Make no mistake about it Christ’s reign began more on the timeless moment on the cross than at his birth or the creation of the world being spoken into existence. But let’s face it, there would be no Christmas celebration without the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course his lineage is important too. No blood is more important. No blood is more precious. No word more enduring than the Word made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. But Christ’s establishment date and our establishment date is not our birth either but perhaps more importantly the date of our death to sin. You see it is the day our sins die, where Jesus dies, where the curtain to the Holy of Holies is torn open making God accessible to each one of us so we might share a life of love and a faith that will last forever. That is the date we are established. That is the date God takes up residence in us. And science may have a hard time coming to grips with this connection but then electrons have a connection that is difficult to explain too.  Yes God has come and will come again but today let us not forget that He has established His kingdom and He lives in the world He has created through us. So let us imagine for a moment that Jesus is with us…let’s imagine what it would be like if we lived every moment as though God was all around us. Friends, what if we lived as though nothing could happen that God could not take care of? What if we lived as though heaven was all around us? What if we really lived as though our sins and failures were gone from the mind of God? What if we lived as though the power of the Holy Spirit lived in us? Friends, having been pardoned by faith, we have been paroled to enjoy peace…the fellowship, joy and hope of God’s glorious place of grace can be in our lives. Here we have hope. And I am all in for that reality. For I believe regardless of what science may tell us, that God has established love in us to continue the story and it does not so much matter how God did it but that God established in us a bit of the divine and that connects each of us one to another forever.

And So, before I close this devotional out we should circle back to where we began and I do so by sharing the theory of holography which involves the storage of information in interference patterns and suggests that memory is distributed across the brain, much like how a hologram stores an image in interference patterns. That the same mathematical process ( Fourier transforms) are used in our processing of our senses as in the construction of holograms leads me to believe that science might in time support a reality that our consciousness is more than electromagnetic impulses. When we understand that this world we see is not the full picture, we can live with what Scripture has always declared: that the visible is only a reflection of the invisible glory of God…that we and God’s purposes have been established not only in history here on earth but also flowing from God’s eternal realm, even now, where Jesus rules. Friends, what we believe and what we imagine makes a difference in our brains and more important in our souls. We are connected. Like a magnet and a hologram film cut in two, a copy is made. So believe paradise will be our true home even if, for the time being, it is largely unseen but more so when we pray. Let us be amazed by it. For God has established the heavens and placed us on a planet just so located in the galaxy and solar system for us to thrive and live. So too God has founded the church and has launched leaders and countries. God has even begun a work in each of us so that we might glorify God. The processes and plans of God are time-honored and proven reputable. So to build our faith on this foundation. Do not be ashamed of the Gospel. Sure it is ok to seek how science supports Biblical truths but do not make science your religion or religion your science. For there was a time when the people of the world thought the earth was flat and the center of the universe because people misinterpreted scripture in a literal way instead of realizing that the Bible is primarily not a book of science describing existence but a book of meaning that explains something even more important using metaphors.  Still we see in scripture that the science and astronomy perspective can align with the Biblical account more accurately than what we have been led to believe. And we should not be surprised at this. Earth’s shape in Job 26:7 corresponds to the scientific evidence of the Earth being spherical in shape well before science made this claim. The water cycle described in Ecclesiastes 1:7 and Job 36:27 mirrors scientific understanding of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Job 26:7 aligns with the scientific understanding of Earth’s position in space. There can be a harmony between faith and empirical evidence. Maybe science can learn from the Bible. Maybe God has established us in a way that we can connect and learn and experience Paradise because God has placed a bit of it in us in the person of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Pray the interference patterns of our senses make a way for us to experience God. Pray with thanks that the cleansing of our sins, the cost of our salvation, and the confidence is given so we might enter God’s presence. Pray the connection established on the cross that links heaven and earth, the conquest and victory over sin revealed in His character be in us as we claim the new covenant…a promise sealed in blood. Pray that we get right with the Lord. Pray that in times of difficulty we seek Him. Pray we persevere. Pray that we understand that God sees our life in its totality from science and religion. Pray that we realize that even though His plan is not the easiest, it is the best…Pray that in times of difficulty great things can be established that form the future…. a future that employs us for God’s cause and glory. Pray God establish Divine Authority in us for our protection, direction and development. Pray we not only let God establish us as members of His church but as members of the Kingdom. Pray we realize in the mystery that God’s Kingdom has come and will come again to establish something new. Pray that the Lord of all reality be the source for what my eyes cannot see. Pray we are thankful for Jesus reminding us that this world we see is not all there is and that God’s Kingdom is the truest reality. Pray God help us to live today with  a heart set on the eternal and that we see beyond the shadows and into the light of God’s truth. Pray that each of our lives reflect the beauty of the Paradise that feeds our souls until that day when we see God face to face. Pray we realize that our consciousness in prayer can affect us and what we believe affects us as well.

Blessings,

John Lawson