About two months ago, we had the hottest day ever recorded in the UK. On the 19th July this year, 41.3 degrees centigrade (106.34 Fahrenheit) was recorded in Lincolnshire. The following day was pretty much on a par with that until the weather started to normalise.
There are, of course, places across the world that have higher temperatures than that. We read on Wikipedia that “the current official highest registered air temperature on Earth is 56.7 °C (134.1 °F), recorded on 10 July 1913 at Furnace Creek Ranch, in Death Valley in the United States.”
Just as a flavour of the damage caused in the UK by this intense heat, Yahoo News wrote:
“Firefighters are unaware of the full extent of the damage caused by blazes which affected houses, schools and churches across London, with crews describing scenes as ‘absolute hell’.
“Residents were being evacuated from their homes and people were taken to hospital amid fires in the capital as temperatures soared to more than 40C on Tuesday afternoon.”
It just shows how just a few extra degrees can cause havoc in different parts of the world.
An ex-atheist – but one who came to understand that there is a great Creator God wrote these interesting observations:
“The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth’s position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
“And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents.”
Atheists would have you believe that the universe came about through a Big Bang or some primordial soup. But how could such a beginning with nothing guiding, directing or developing events finish up with what we have today? How could the precision of God just happen without Him being involved which has resulted in the earth being exactly the right distance away from the sun and moon? Creation demands that there be a Creator but man thinks otherwise and they turn logic on its head. Godly revelation in the Bible means nothing to so many as they wallow in their own “greatness”.
In Isaiah 40:21-26, we read a comparison between God’s great majesty and mankind which shows how small and insignificant we all are: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.
“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.”
God’s precision is seen in everything He has created and does. Man, in general, won’t even acknowledge that there is a God. Romans 1:18-22 sums it up perfectly: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
And fools they are, who fit into this category now, but they will have their opportunity, as will all people, and when they see the might, glory and the precision of all that God does, perhaps they may repent and be in the Family of God forever!
Let us hope and pray that that is the case!
