He Leaves His Tracks Everywhere!
We ended our last session with Hebrews 11:6:
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. We looked exhaustively at scriptures that tell us that God is hidden and that we cannot detect Him with any of our physical senses or define Him with any of our scientific formulas. This, however, is not to say that He has not imprinted His existence on every aspect of our universe. His tracks are everywhere. But, of course, we are not content to view His tracks. We want to see Him standing in His tracks. While hunting elk with my friends, we would often comment on the elk tracks that we had seen that day. Quite often one of my hunting buddies would reply that you can’t eat tracks.
But tracks are important. I want us to begin looking at the various tracks that God has and is leaving everywhere He interacts with our world. But you must understand that this will not help those who demand physical evidence. If no one had ever seen an elk, the tracks themselves would be unimportant. They would be nothing more than curious artifacts that could be explained by anything from aliens to frost patterns in the mud.
So, what are the tracks that God leaves in our world?
Rom. 1:19-20 . . . since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Essentially, Paul here explains that God has made Himself plainly known through His creation. We often look at this with a fairly narrow focus. Many of us only look at the beauty of nature when we read this passage. Let’s see if we can expand that during this session.
One Noble Prize winning scientist states that He does not believe in God because there is no evidence for His existence. He is both right and wrong. He is right when he talks about the inability to detect Him with any of our scientific tools and laws. He is wrong if he says that God does not leave His tracks. My response to his statement is that if you ignore the tracks, you’re not paying attention. If you learn what and who He is from His own revelation of Himself, you will see His tracks everywhere. So let’s list some of the attributes of God and see if we can find His tracks in our universe.
The inscrutability of God means that He cannot be explained or fully understood. So where do we see the tracks of His inscrutability in our world? Well, believe it or not, it’s all over our mathematics. In fact this truth has sometimes meant the martyrdom of mathematical pioneers, many whom were also theologians. How many of you are familiar with irrational numbers? One example is √2. The √2 was discovered by the ancients when constructing a right triangle with two equal sides of length one.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. We looked exhaustively at scriptures that tell us that God is hidden and that we cannot detect Him with any of our physical senses or define Him with any of our scientific formulas. This, however, is not to say that He has not imprinted His existence on every aspect of our universe. His tracks are everywhere. But, of course, we are not content to view His tracks. We want to see Him standing in His tracks. While hunting elk with my friends, we would often comment on the elk tracks that we had seen that day. Quite often one of my hunting buddies would reply that you can’t eat tracks.
But tracks are important. I want us to begin looking at the various tracks that God has and is leaving everywhere He interacts with our world. But you must understand that this will not help those who demand physical evidence. If no one had ever seen an elk, the tracks themselves would be unimportant. They would be nothing more than curious artifacts that could be explained by anything from aliens to frost patterns in the mud.
So, what are the tracks that God leaves in our world?
Rom. 1:19-20 . . . since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Essentially, Paul here explains that God has made Himself plainly known through His creation. We often look at this with a fairly narrow focus. Many of us only look at the beauty of nature when we read this passage. Let’s see if we can expand that during this session.
One Noble Prize winning scientist states that He does not believe in God because there is no evidence for His existence. He is both right and wrong. He is right when he talks about the inability to detect Him with any of our scientific tools and laws. He is wrong if he says that God does not leave His tracks. My response to his statement is that if you ignore the tracks, you’re not paying attention. If you learn what and who He is from His own revelation of Himself, you will see His tracks everywhere. So let’s list some of the attributes of God and see if we can find His tracks in our universe.
- Omniscience
- Omnipresence
- Immutable
- Inscrutable
- Omnipotent
- Light
- Love
- Sovereign
- Love of free will
- Absolutely good; hates evil
- Eternal – without beginning or end.
- His nature is redemptive
- He expresses unconditional love
The inscrutability of God means that He cannot be explained or fully understood. So where do we see the tracks of His inscrutability in our world? Well, believe it or not, it’s all over our mathematics. In fact this truth has sometimes meant the martyrdom of mathematical pioneers, many whom were also theologians. How many of you are familiar with irrational numbers? One example is √2. The √2 was discovered by the ancients when constructing a right triangle with two equal sides of length one.
In working with these geometric shapes we call right triangles, the ancients discovered that the side opposite the right angle was always equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the other two sides. For example consider a triangle like this:
Nobody had any trouble with this because 5 was a nice round number that everyone understood. But one day someone constructed the right triangle with two of the sides equal to each other and of length 1. This was not so good because the length of the side opposite the right angle was √2. When trying to figure out what this exact result was, they discovered that it was 1.4142135623730953488016887242096980785696718253769480731717667973799……… This is what we call an irrational number because the sequence of numbers never repeats and never resolves into a trail of consecutive zeros. If the number ever ended in consecutive zeros, then we have an exact rational number – like 5.00000 – an integer. To be precise, an irrational number is one that cannot be expressed as a fraction in the form of a/b, where a and b are integers (whole numbers). It was such an important discovery that the Greeks kept it a secret. Hippasus, according to legend, was murdered for divulging the secret.
So here we have a number used constantly in mathematics and all the physical sciences that cannot be defined – irrational -- yet we are quite comfortable with its use millions and billions of times a day in our physical world. The same scientists who are comfortable with irrational numbers have trouble with a being that cannot be adequately defined in a rational way. We are okay with an inscrutable number in the physical world, but so many are uncomfortable with an inscrutable God. We see that God has left His tracks in the mathematics of our physical world.
Another attribute of God is that He is absolutely good. Where do we see the tracks of His goodness in our world? I recently read the introductory page on the web site of a Satan worshipper. Knowing what we know about Satan, we would naturally assume that this Satan worshipper is doing all he can to be as evil as possible, right? Amazingly enough, he diligently attempted to argue that God is evil and that Satan is good! His theme was the goodness of His religion. No matter what God we worship, even if it is not God, i.e., ourselves, we all have an innate sense of right and wrong. It may be twisted and even upside down, but none of us purposely set out to do what is bad. And if we do, we do so because we think it is a good course of action at the time. If we desire to do something evil, we do so because we think it will be bad for us if we don’t .
This idea of good and evil has thoroughly permeated our world so that God’s tracks are seen everywhere! When we follow a high profile court case, why are we so emotionally involved in it? Because we want to see good prevail and evil defeated. For example, let’s revisit the O. J. Simpson trial so many years ago.
Why did so many people want to see him convicted? Because they believed he had brutally murdered his ex-wife and her boyfriend. This was an incredibly evil act in their eyes.
Why did so many other people want to see him exonerated? Because they thought he was falsely accused because of his race and they wanted to see good prevail.
Why did OJ’s lawyers want to see him declared not guilty? Even if they knew him to be guilty, they were defending the justice system in the United States, believing it to be the best in the world. And even if he was guilty, there are so many other people who are convicted who are not guilty. This would right some of those wrongs.
You see, the motivation behind all of these is to see right prevail and evil defeated.
What about the sovereignty of God? When we talk about God’s sovereignty we are referring to the fact that He has everything under control. Nothing happens without His approval and knowledge. In fact, even when something evil happens, He has the ability to turn the event inside out so that His purposes for good are moved forward. Can you think of any examples of this in your life?
All the years I was growing up, we learned over and over about the dangers of forest fires. We were taught to do everything in our power to prevent them. Fire watchtowers were found in forested areas to allow fire prevention agents to spot telltale signs of a fire so that crews could be dispatched quickly before it got out of hand. Years and years of this strategy ended up making forests more susceptible to massive fires that were devastating.
In 1988 a forest fire broke out in Yellowstone National Park that ended up burning 36% of the park forests. I remember seeing the smoke overhead for weeks. One sunset was remarkable. You could look directly at the sun and it didn’t hurt your eyes, even though there were no clouds in the sky. The reflection of the noonday sun on the chrome bumpers of cars was not a brilliant white, but instead produced an amber reflection. People viewed this fire as a monumental disaster. Very soon afterward the forest began rejuvenating itself. Pine cone seeds, long dormant, were activated by the heat of the fires and germinated.
This was about the time that scientists realized that we had made a mistake in extinguishing so many of the naturally occurring fires – those started by lightning. They discovered that even though the fires were disastrous for the moment, they actually helped to prevent fires in the future and contributed to a more healthy forest.
The point here is that what looked like disaster is already designed by God to be a good event in the long run. Although death and destruction do not emanate from God, He is not at all hampered by them and has no problems weaving them into His eternal plan, turning them upside down to bring life from death. He is sovereign! There is nothing we can do to derail the good He has in His plan. So we see that the tracks of God’s sovereignty are found everywhere in our world.
John Calvin and many other theologians looked at the events in their lives, especially with respect to God’s work in leading them to become believers. They saw the sovereignty of God so clearly and felt like it was irresistible. Armed with a good assortment of supporting scripture, they formed what we call Calvinism theology today. Essentially, Calvinism teaches that God’s grace is irresistible and, in addition, once you are a believer, you will always be a believer. This would be analogous to being born into a physical family. I will always be my father’s son no matter what I do. My actions have no impact on my origin.
God also loves choice and we can see these tracks all over the place. A little over a year ago we engaged in a study about God’s eternal plan – the one He had before He created the world, the same one He had before man sinned, the same one He intends to bring to completion. An integral part of this plan is God’s desire to be loved and desired. In our previous study we established that part of God’s plan from before the creation of the world was to find a bride for His Son. The magic and beauty of romantic love is that the man and woman willingly love each other and desire each other. It cannot be just one way. So God’s desire for a bride for His Son required the bride to be free to accept or reject God’s Son. Part of God’s nature is a love for free will. Real love is a non sequitur without free will. What examples of free will do you see in our world today?
Political systems all over the world have to struggle with man’s desire to make his own choices. Even the United States government, founded on the principles of a free society, serving as the benchmark for freedom around the world, has to constantly walk the tight rope of individual freedom versus controls designed to protect the general population.
In the Arab world we see the recent struggles to be free from hard-fisted dictators. There is a desire to be free to make one’s own choices about life, about one’s community, about the kind of government under which we will live.
The driving force behind healthy economics is the freedom of choice. The ugliness of the old fallen communist economies was the lack of choice. Competition is a double edged sword that both slays high-priced non-innovative businesses, and propels new products and businesses to success.
We see that God’s desire for free will, freedom of choice, is found in the tracks He has left in every aspect of our world.
I’ve mentioned only a few of God’s attributes that we can see from the tracks He has left behind in our world. Even though He is hidden, He has left clues for us everywhere. Are there other attributes of God for which you see His tracks in the world around us?
My point in this whole session is that those who decry the hiddenness of God are not paying attention.
Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The sovereignty of God tells us that God is pursuing us. God’s love of free will tells us that God also expects us to pursue Him.
So here we have a number used constantly in mathematics and all the physical sciences that cannot be defined – irrational -- yet we are quite comfortable with its use millions and billions of times a day in our physical world. The same scientists who are comfortable with irrational numbers have trouble with a being that cannot be adequately defined in a rational way. We are okay with an inscrutable number in the physical world, but so many are uncomfortable with an inscrutable God. We see that God has left His tracks in the mathematics of our physical world.
Another attribute of God is that He is absolutely good. Where do we see the tracks of His goodness in our world? I recently read the introductory page on the web site of a Satan worshipper. Knowing what we know about Satan, we would naturally assume that this Satan worshipper is doing all he can to be as evil as possible, right? Amazingly enough, he diligently attempted to argue that God is evil and that Satan is good! His theme was the goodness of His religion. No matter what God we worship, even if it is not God, i.e., ourselves, we all have an innate sense of right and wrong. It may be twisted and even upside down, but none of us purposely set out to do what is bad. And if we do, we do so because we think it is a good course of action at the time. If we desire to do something evil, we do so because we think it will be bad for us if we don’t .
This idea of good and evil has thoroughly permeated our world so that God’s tracks are seen everywhere! When we follow a high profile court case, why are we so emotionally involved in it? Because we want to see good prevail and evil defeated. For example, let’s revisit the O. J. Simpson trial so many years ago.
Why did so many people want to see him convicted? Because they believed he had brutally murdered his ex-wife and her boyfriend. This was an incredibly evil act in their eyes.
Why did so many other people want to see him exonerated? Because they thought he was falsely accused because of his race and they wanted to see good prevail.
Why did OJ’s lawyers want to see him declared not guilty? Even if they knew him to be guilty, they were defending the justice system in the United States, believing it to be the best in the world. And even if he was guilty, there are so many other people who are convicted who are not guilty. This would right some of those wrongs.
You see, the motivation behind all of these is to see right prevail and evil defeated.
What about the sovereignty of God? When we talk about God’s sovereignty we are referring to the fact that He has everything under control. Nothing happens without His approval and knowledge. In fact, even when something evil happens, He has the ability to turn the event inside out so that His purposes for good are moved forward. Can you think of any examples of this in your life?
All the years I was growing up, we learned over and over about the dangers of forest fires. We were taught to do everything in our power to prevent them. Fire watchtowers were found in forested areas to allow fire prevention agents to spot telltale signs of a fire so that crews could be dispatched quickly before it got out of hand. Years and years of this strategy ended up making forests more susceptible to massive fires that were devastating.
In 1988 a forest fire broke out in Yellowstone National Park that ended up burning 36% of the park forests. I remember seeing the smoke overhead for weeks. One sunset was remarkable. You could look directly at the sun and it didn’t hurt your eyes, even though there were no clouds in the sky. The reflection of the noonday sun on the chrome bumpers of cars was not a brilliant white, but instead produced an amber reflection. People viewed this fire as a monumental disaster. Very soon afterward the forest began rejuvenating itself. Pine cone seeds, long dormant, were activated by the heat of the fires and germinated.
This was about the time that scientists realized that we had made a mistake in extinguishing so many of the naturally occurring fires – those started by lightning. They discovered that even though the fires were disastrous for the moment, they actually helped to prevent fires in the future and contributed to a more healthy forest.
The point here is that what looked like disaster is already designed by God to be a good event in the long run. Although death and destruction do not emanate from God, He is not at all hampered by them and has no problems weaving them into His eternal plan, turning them upside down to bring life from death. He is sovereign! There is nothing we can do to derail the good He has in His plan. So we see that the tracks of God’s sovereignty are found everywhere in our world.
John Calvin and many other theologians looked at the events in their lives, especially with respect to God’s work in leading them to become believers. They saw the sovereignty of God so clearly and felt like it was irresistible. Armed with a good assortment of supporting scripture, they formed what we call Calvinism theology today. Essentially, Calvinism teaches that God’s grace is irresistible and, in addition, once you are a believer, you will always be a believer. This would be analogous to being born into a physical family. I will always be my father’s son no matter what I do. My actions have no impact on my origin.
God also loves choice and we can see these tracks all over the place. A little over a year ago we engaged in a study about God’s eternal plan – the one He had before He created the world, the same one He had before man sinned, the same one He intends to bring to completion. An integral part of this plan is God’s desire to be loved and desired. In our previous study we established that part of God’s plan from before the creation of the world was to find a bride for His Son. The magic and beauty of romantic love is that the man and woman willingly love each other and desire each other. It cannot be just one way. So God’s desire for a bride for His Son required the bride to be free to accept or reject God’s Son. Part of God’s nature is a love for free will. Real love is a non sequitur without free will. What examples of free will do you see in our world today?
Political systems all over the world have to struggle with man’s desire to make his own choices. Even the United States government, founded on the principles of a free society, serving as the benchmark for freedom around the world, has to constantly walk the tight rope of individual freedom versus controls designed to protect the general population.
In the Arab world we see the recent struggles to be free from hard-fisted dictators. There is a desire to be free to make one’s own choices about life, about one’s community, about the kind of government under which we will live.
The driving force behind healthy economics is the freedom of choice. The ugliness of the old fallen communist economies was the lack of choice. Competition is a double edged sword that both slays high-priced non-innovative businesses, and propels new products and businesses to success.
We see that God’s desire for free will, freedom of choice, is found in the tracks He has left in every aspect of our world.
I’ve mentioned only a few of God’s attributes that we can see from the tracks He has left behind in our world. Even though He is hidden, He has left clues for us everywhere. Are there other attributes of God for which you see His tracks in the world around us?
My point in this whole session is that those who decry the hiddenness of God are not paying attention.
Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The sovereignty of God tells us that God is pursuing us. God’s love of free will tells us that God also expects us to pursue Him.
