Weekly Devotional 8-6-12 Imaginations
The human imagination is God given and great and wonderful creations have sprung from it. The airplane, the automobile, the printing press and the telephone are just a few examples of this. Reading from Genesis 1:26a we find that after God had finished creating He endowed man with certain attributes, among them the ability to envision and create. Consider, “26Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” For sure, that image has to do with authority and command as the rest of the verse clearly states, “let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,” but in that, this declaration follows right after He had finished creating, it does imply man was given the ability to envision and create. Such ability in man of course is limited. Only God can create from nothing. (Ex nihilo)
Certainly, the gifts of being able to envision and create are blessings, but when that imagination leads a person away from a right consideration and understanding of God, the blessings become a curse. For example, some have concluded that man evolved. Yet, Scripture clearly states that man was created separately and different from all other creations. We read from Genesis 1:20-26a, “20Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ 21So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ 23So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind’; and it was so. 25And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’”
Further, from 1st Corinthians 15:39 we read, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.”
Imagination has led some to conclude that there are forms of life on other planets not realizing that such speculations lose sight of man’s reason for being. Remember, no other creature that God created was created in God’s image, only man. Remember, sin entered (our) world when Satan thought to rise above God. Remember, in his hatred of God, Satan brought sin to man and man was separated from Holy God. Remember, God became man so that man by Him could be redeemed and restored to fellowship with Him, man’s creator. No place in Scripture is it stated that this was (or is) done anywhere else in the universe, only on earth. Remember, God’s judgment will be against mankind at the end of this age. He will destroy the heavens and the old earth. Consider Peter’s testimony, “10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2nd Peter 3:10). And, consider John’s testimony; “1Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:10).
Imagination is a good thing, a great thing, is God given, but in spiritual things when man imagines beyond that which is revealed in Scripture, the door is open to wild speculation and Satanic influences.
Lord, help us to focus on your revealed truth found only in your Word.
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