God’s Imprint on Our Lives

God’s Imprint on Our Lives Fearfully & Wonderfully Made “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”Psalm 139:13-14 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:7 …we were made for God’s glory, pleasure & purpose

Review • God formed Man from the earth. (Yatser) • God fashioned Woman from the rib of Man. (Banah) • Man – “Purpose Fulfiller” • Woman – “Helper-Suitable” or “Help-Meet” • Equal, Mirrored, Complimenting, Completing . • Mutually Accountable to God. • Equally Responsible for Carrying Out God’s Assignments. • “Co-Warriors”. • God created “gender” differences with a purpose and a plan

Review • Iysh: אִישׁ– Man (Aleph Yod Shin) • Ishah: אִשָּׁה– Woman (Aleph Shin Hey) The Yod or י means hand of God, but also represents the masculine characteristics of God. While the Hey or ה, when used at the end of most Hebrew words, represents the female gender of the word. When our Heavenly Father created man and woman, they both are created with Alephor אand Shin orש. The Aleph, which represents God and His attributes, and Shin which represents the burning bush, tree of life or spirit. So both man and woman are created with the same God-like attributes and His spiritual qualities. Then He places the masculine characteristics into Man or the Yodin the middle of אישand the feminine characteristics in אשהfor Woman so that both share divine origins and attributes, but have distinct roles and differences so that together they can become one.

God: the Knitter & the Weaver! “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:13-18 (NIV) My frame was not hidden from you…Your eyes saw my unformed body

The Miracle of Life How many mom’s here? How many times have you given birth? Describe the pregnancy? Can you put into words the emotional impact and or the spiritual experience of birth? "My brand new baby girl, she's a miracle. I saw God today," sang George Strait in his 2008 hit song titled, "I Saw God Today." When I witnessed the birth of my two daughters, the word "miracle" naturally popped out to describe such a moment of awe.

From Conception to Birth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Ki2ywyo04 Click on the link to watch the video

God is the Giver of Life The child in the womb is given life from God. The Apostle Paul spoke to the Greeks while meeting with Athens's “learned” men on the “Areopagus” (or “Mars Hill” - the city court): “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.Acts 17: 22-23 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”Acts 17:24-25 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ [1] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ [2]Acts 17:28 [1] From the Cretan philosopher Epimenides [2] From the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus

David tells us that God is responsible for the development of the child in the womb. “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast coveredme in my mother’s womb”.Psalm 139:13-16 God Gives All Mankind Breath “In whose hand (God’s hand) is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind”.Job 12:10 The Hebrew word translated “reins” means the hidden innermost being of a person. It speaks of the seat of their deepest emotions and feelings, their desires and passions. The Hebrew word for “covered” means to inner weave, to weave, to knit together. God has put the child’s parts together, as one who weaves cloth or who makes a basket. God as the omnipotent creator has, therefore, divine rights to the person formed in the womb. As Creator, He is the possessor, the owner and the Lord of the person created.

Great Skill & Care 21-week-old Samuel Armas; Surgical procedure in the womb to close a spine lesion from spina bifida. David goes on to say, “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth”.Psalm 139:15 He is saying, “My body was not hid from you (God) when I was being formed in secret”. The words “curiously wrought”means that God has fashioned the child with great skill and care. IN OTHER WORDS, GOD SEE’S AND KNOWS A PERSON IN THE WOMB EVEN BEFORE THEIR BIRTH.

God’s Fore-Knowledge Fashioning David says, “Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect: and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them”.Psalm 139:16 The Psalmist says, God “see’s” the person in the womb even before their body is developed, while they are still an undeveloped fetus… because He is the one who is fashioning the child and has “fore-knowledge”.

The Miracle of Cell Reproduction Biology 101: Mitosis & Meiosis All cells have a nucleus The nucleus contain our genes (DNA) in the form of chromosomes Every cell contains 46 chromosomes(that contain a combination of genes from our mother and father) Cell Reproduction: • Mitosis: cells multiply & divide to “repair” and “grow” (all have 46 chromosomes) • Meiosis: cells multiply & divide to form “gametes”: sperm & eggs (these have 23 chromosomes each)

The Miracle of Cell Reproduction When you view this video, don’t get hung up on the terminology or the science…just look at it from the standpoint of seeing how amazing and detailed God is when He created us! He truly did make us “wonderfully”! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPMp0U0HOA Click on the link above to view the video

DNA & Life: a Random Happenstance or God’s Creative Power? Geneticists have determined that human DNA has 3 billion DNA base pairs, that include 20,000 protein-coding genes The number of atoms in the entire observable universe is estimated to be within the range of 1078 to 1082. Evolutionist Harold Morowitz of Yale estimated the probability of the formation of the smallest and simplest living organism (a single cell bacteria) to be one in 10340,000,000. The late, renowned evolutionist Carl Sagan made his own estimation of the chance that life could evolve on any given single planet: one in 102,000,000,000! “These probability estimations for the formation of life, made by the evolutionists themselves, are so far beyond the limit articulated for cosmic events.”

DNA & Life: a Random Happenstance or God’s Creative Power? The distinguished British astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle once said regarding evolution, “the chance that higher forms have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein” Consider the Rubik cube… lets consider the probability of a blind person solving the puzzle. Now imagine 1050 blind persons each with a scrambled Rubik cube, and try to conceive of the chance of them all simultaneously arriving at the solved form. This would be the same chance of arriving randomly at just one of the many biopolymers (i.e., DNA) on which life depends. The notion that not only biopolymers but the operating programme of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order!! 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

God’s invested a lot in our fashioning! How? If God is this involved in our fashioning to include the smallest aspects of gene “crossing over” & cell reproduction, do you think He has a plan & a purpose for us…that’s as unique & specific as our formation? Does the baby duckling recognize it’s mother? How do we “attach” with our mother or father? Imprinting:through smell, sight, sounds some animals establish a strong “connection” that helps them survive and grow and thrive. Bonding:something that happens in a parent; an emotional connection that influences the relationship with the child that will eventually emerge. Attachment:something that happens in the child as a consequence of repeated interactions with the parent blended with internal forces; a significant factor in healthy development

Do you know & follow your Creator? How do we “attach” to our Heavenly Father? • Prayer • Worship • Devotion/Meditation • Bible Study • Fellowship • Service/Giving What happens when we don’t “attach” to our Heavenly Father? Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”John 10:25-30

Blaise Pascal (1623 –1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. A God Shaped Hole or Vacuum “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself” - Blaise Pascal “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis

A God Shaped Hole or Vacuum The “God-shaped hole” concept states that every person has a void in his or her soul/spirit/life that can only be filled by God. The “God-shaped hole” is the innate longing of the human heart for something outside itself, something transcendent, something “other.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 refers to God's placing of "eternity in man’s heart." The problem, though, is that humanity ignores this hole or attempts to fill it with things other than God. What do we fill it with? “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”Romans 8:7

A God Shaped Hole or Vacuum

The Miracle of New Birth Jesus Teaches Nicodemus Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

I Saw God Today! By George Strait http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06AvQF5NOw Click on the link above and view the video.

I Saw God Today! By George Strait Just walked down the street to the coffee shop,Had to take a break,I've been by her side for eighteen hours straight,saw a flower growing in the middle of the sidewalk, pushing up through the concrete,Like it was planted right there for me to see,The flashing lights,The honking horns,All seem to fade away,but in the shadow of the hospital,at 508, I saw God today, I've been to church,I've read the book,I know He's there,But I don't look,near as often as I should, I've been to church,I've read the book,I know He's there,But I don't look,near as often as I should, His fingerprints are everywhere, I just look down & stop & stare,open my eye & man, I swear I saw God Today,Got my face pushed up against the nursery glass,she's sleeping like a rock,my name on her wrist,wearing tiny pink socks,she's got my nose,she's got her Mama's eyes,my bran new baby girl,she's a miracle,I Saw God Today His fingerprints are everywhere, I just look down & stop & stare, open my eyes & man, I swear I saw God Today,Saw a couple walking by,they were holding hands,and she had that glow,Yea, I couldn't help,but I noticed that she was starting to show,Stood there for a minute,taking in the sky,lost in that sunset,A splash of amber melted into shades of red

God’s Imprint on Our Lives