order

messy workbench

No Chaos Allowed Here

By / 2 minutes of reading /

My wife and I were talking about a family we know that seems to live in a state of chaos continually. Don’t ask any one of them how they’re doing because that person will take the next hour of your life, giving you a blow-by-blow account of just what has happened to the family that day! That’s an hour of your life that you’ll never get back.

The thing is, even while they’re telling you how bad things are, they seem to find comfort in their distress. It’s almost as if they are proud of their problems. If they would ever stop bemoaning their life, perhaps I or someone could tell them that chaos is contrary to the will of God.

No Chaos!

We find in Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV), “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” And in Hebrews 11:3 (ESV), “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.“

God took what was formless and void and created all that exists. He transformed chaos into order. He did this without the help of anyone, and even without the help of anything.

The only use God has for chaos is as a tool for judgment. We see this in Isaiah 34:11 (ESV), “Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.“

Glorify Almighty God

So when you start your work, as you enter your office, be that a room, a cube, a truck, or a warehouse, go ahead and take a few minutes to straighten your stapler, fix the arrangement of your tools, clean out your vehicle, even in these little things you are honoring Almighty God. As a child of Adam, God created you in His image. Your need to bring order out of chaos is a trait that comes from your Father.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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Order from Disorder

By / 3 minutes of reading / ,

I’m not sure how often I will post a devotional, but I will post when I am able.

My wife builds nests. It took me several years after we were married before I was able to articulate this idea that kept niggling at my brain. I had observed an unusual pattern of my wife abhorring unorganized things around her.

Finally, I understood that my wife had a strong need to create order around her. In our home (and we had many) she would find her spot in the house and then buy things that enabled her to surround herself with pens, printers, paper, and popcorn that quieted the roar of chaos into our surroundings. In truth, my wife always builds a nest wherever she’s at, even in a church pew.

Once I grasped her mindset, it got me thinking about human nature’s need to bring order out of disorder. And, as I began studying this in God’s Word, I became aware of a characteristic of God that seems rarely taught. And that is this: being created in the image of God we inherited His nature which includes the desire to bring order out of disorder in everything that works to glorify Him.

So I considered people, in general. Is this characteristic pervasive throughout the history of Adam’s descendants? I did a bit of searching and found this article:

Mount Precipice, also known as Mount Kedumim, is located just outside the southern edge of Nazareth, 2.0 km (1.2 miles) southwest of the modern city center.

It is believed by some to be the site of the Rejection of Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 4:29-30). According to the Bible, the people of Nazareth, not accepting Jesus as Messiah tried to push him from the mountain, but “he passed through the midst of them and went away.”

At this location archaeological excavations found pre-history human remains. The human skeletons were associated with red ochre which was found only alongside the bones, suggesting that the burials were symbolic in nature. There were order and structure within the burial site.

This need by the progeny of Adam for order is so ubiquitous that we rarely see it when, in fact, the Bible opens by telling us that bringing order from disorder has been present with God from the beginning time.

In the following brief excerpts, we find God transforming “formless and empty and darkness” into light and other orderly things (Gen. 1:1-4). We also find Adam naming all the livestock, birds, and wild creations which is the first documentation of Man acting in the image of God by bringing order from disorder (Gen. 2:20).

In the New Testament, we have an overt command “to do all things in a fitting and orderly way. (1 Cor. 14:40)” And, in nearly the last chapter of the last book in the Bible, we find the eye-witness account of the Apostle John which tells us about the old, worn out heaven and earth being retired and a new heaven and a new earth coming into being (Rev. 21:1-2).

All of these Scriptures testify to God’s intent to keep all things in a fitting and orderly way.

Our inherited trait of bringing order from disorder is from God. This is something we shouldn’t balk at but should embrace, for it testifies of God’s nature and will surely touch hearts that are hungry for salvation, compelling them to come to you to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, embrace this characteristic of your heavenly Father. Whether it’s in your profession, in your family relationships, or in your home, wade into those messes and, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, bring order. In this, you will glorify Christ Jesus.

Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash

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