The Beauty of Creation

So I'm sitting at my friend's apartment in Long Beach, where I came to hang out for the day.
His apartment is amazing. It's directly on the beach. By "directly" I mean that "when you walk down the stairs, you step off the stairs onto the sand directly." I'm surrounded by the amazing beauty of God's creation. As I sit at his computer typing this, I'm looking out the window at some snow covered mountains.

So here I sit, surrounded on both sides by two of the things I love most. The beach and the mountains (especially when they're show-covered). I'm so blessed to be able to live here in Southern California working alongside the people of Immanuel.

It reminds me of something from last night's sermon. God has revealed Himself in His creation. How you can look at the amazing beauty of the earth and not see the hand of a Creator I don't know. But as I pointed out last night, while creation distinctly points to God, it won't save us. We are saved not only because God chose us, but also because Jesus accomplished God's plan, and the Holy Spirit "applied" or "connected" what God set out to do and what Jesus did. I've been really emphasizing the necessity of studying the Bible in my sermons at SIX33 the past few weeks.

The more I read and study myself, the more I'm convinced of this. The Spirit always speaks through and with God's Word. Do you want to hear from God? Read and study His Word. Do you want to know God's will for your life? Read and study His Word. Do you want to be on His Path? Read and study His Word. I just can't get away from this. I don't know if I read it somewhere, or came up with it myself, or if it's a hybrid of the two, but here it is: If you're not consistently in God's Word, reading AND STUDYING it, you won't be growing as a Christian.

So there it is. Read and Study God's Word. Make sure you have the tools. A good study Bible is the starting point. There are three that I recommend: The MacArthur Study Bible (it simply has no equal), The ESV Study Bible was published a couple of months back and so far, I'm really liking it, and the Reformation Study Bible, edited by R.C. Sproul. All three are good. I use all three of them pretty regularly. If you don't have a good study Bible (I hate to say it but there are some that aren't so good), you need to make getting one a priority.

So on that note - I'm down to hop on my sweet new bike (Thanks for the great Christmas present Mom & Dad), ride down the beach to a coffee shop (There's an It's A Grind real close), grab some coffee, and do some reading.

Seeking Him,
Rob