THE BOOK OF FAITH AND THE BOOK OF NATURE
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
Did you know that two hundred years ago boys and girls never went to school unless their parents were lords and ladies, and then they had teachers who were called governesses who lived with them. School and education were not considered necessary for most boys and girls because all they needed to know they learned from their parents. People lived very simple lives. They lived in villages or small towns surrounded by common lands and fields. They lived close to the woods and fields for that is where they found or grew food to eat and grazed animals like sheep, goats, cows and horses. They used horses to ride on and travel from place to place. They made everything by hand whether from wood, wool or copper, iron and tin. There was a village blacksmith who shod horses shoes and made wheels for carriages; an iron monger who sold nails, shovels and kettles, all made by hand; a milliners who made clothes and hats. Most everything else was not bought but made at home.
A cottage was a very busy and interesting place as were great houses but for different reasons. Boys learned how to chop wood, make fires, fish in lakes and streams, shoot rabbits and followed in their father’s footsteps, learning a trade or ploughing and sewing seeds in the fields. Girls did some of these things too but they also learned how to bake bread and cakes and good cooking. They would help to keep a cottage clean and learn to sew and knit like their mothers. They might also look after their aunts and uncles, grandmas and granddads who often lived with them.
Boys and girls had many brothers and sisters to play with because their mum might have as many as twenty children before she reached thirty years old. They would all eat and sleep together.
There were no motor cars or supermarkets, radios, electric lights or cameras in those days because they had not been invented. The village church was the place where they met each other. The churchyard was also the place where they buried their mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles.
WHY HAS THE WORLD CHANGED?
How different the world and the way we live now! Do you know why? Can you guess why we no longer go from place to place by horse and carriage? Why we wear clothes made in a factory and bought in a shop? Do you know why we can read books, watch T.V., listen to music on the Ipod and speak to someone who lives on the other side of the world?
Is it because we are more intelligent than those boys and girls who lived 200 years ago? No, that is not the reason. We are not more intelligent. Is it because our parents know more than their parents did? No, that is not the reason, either. The reason is this. God put everything in his creation, in the sun, moon and stars, the sea and land, the hills and fields, on the earth and in the earth. When we discover things like solar energy, electricity, and gas it is because God put these energies there for us to discover and use. God has given us the gift of reason to learn from nature and God’s wisdom. Of course we not only have to discover these things but learn how to use them and share them with others. He made everything to be what it is, good and useful. But by itself nature cannot teach us to use this power of reason and invention. That is why God has given us the book of faith to teach us how to share everything and care for each other.
GOD MADE EVERYTHING WITH A PURPOSE
The book of faith, the bible, is God’s textbook to teach us how to use power, knowledge and invention; to share the resources of nature to heal diseases by the healing properties of herbs that God has put in the earth; to use power to benefit all mankind and not just a few wealthy and powerful people. The bible is our guidebook to life, truth and what is real. The book of nature is also given to us because we are his children and because he loves us dearly. Out of these two books we learn how to make use of all God’s gifts and so create new ways of life, to discover new designs and new purposes.
DESIGN
For every design has a purpose. Nothing is made without a purpose. Does a clock maker make a clock to sit on the mantelpiece? No, he makes a clock to tell the time. Does an engineer build an aeroplane to sit on the ground? No, he makes an aeroplane to fly in the sky. Does a carpenter make a table to look at? No, he makes a table to eat off and play games on. Everything made and every design has a purpose. Nothing is made without a design or purpose. We know from the book of nature that God created the earth, the moon and the stars and all heaven with a purpose. We can tell that the heavens are God’s handiwork and he is their Maker for he made everything with a purpose. He made the earth in the heavens so that we on earth might have light and dark, day and night, seasons of the year and time, for time is in space and movement, He made everything good for us for what maker would make everything imperfect or faulty? No one. And so we read in the book of faith that God made everything good. (Genesis 1:12)
He made the earth to be a home for his children and all his creatures that swim in the sea or fly in the skies or live on the land. He made all the trees that grow apples and pears, food to keep us healthy and herbs to heal our diseases. He made vegetables and grain to give us strength and energy. He made animals and birds to be like each other but he made us to be like himself.
Boys and girls, mums and dads, God made you to be like himself. You are his children. And just as you trust your parents who love you so much, God wants you to trust him who made you and gave you a mind and soul to know and love him. The book of nature is like a textbook for in nature we can read God’s science and discover many new and unimaginable miracles of life and living. That is the reason we do not live like people lived 200 years ago. For we have discovered many new and amazing things like electricity, electric lights, telephones, aeroplanes that can fly and motor cars that can move on wheels, robots, radio, T.V. Computers, DVD’s, ipods, space ships, telescopes, microscopes, space stations, all these things and more from the book of nature. God’s school of nature is his gift of knowledge to make our lives better and more wonderful. The book of faith tells us that God has done this for everyone to discover, use and share so that we may be guided by love for each other; one nation for another; one family for another and one person for another. The book of faith is God Word. The first and greatest commandment God has given us in the book of faith is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your strength and all your soul and to love your neighbour as you love yourself, (Dueteronomy 11:13f) for love is never selfish or greedy, never tells lies but tells the truth, is never jealous of another person but is always content, for God will take care of you and wants you to be yourself, not someone else. He wants you to be kind and generous to those who are poor and have less than you have, care for your brothers and sisters and obey your parents.
Love is God’s ruling principle of live and freedom. God also sent his Son, Jesus, to show us how to live, to be a living example, Saviour and Lord, for we fall into sin because we are easily led by our own desires and not by God’s Word.
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
Did you know that two hundred years ago boys and girls never went to school unless their parents were lords and ladies, and then they had teachers who were called governesses who lived with them. School and education were not considered necessary for most boys and girls because all they needed to know they learned from their parents. People lived very simple lives. They lived in villages or small towns surrounded by common lands and fields. They lived close to the woods and fields for that is where they found or grew food to eat and grazed animals like sheep, goats, cows and horses. They used horses to ride on and travel from place to place. They made everything by hand whether from wood, wool or copper, iron and tin. There was a village blacksmith who shod horses shoes and made wheels for carriages; an iron monger who sold nails, shovels and kettles, all made by hand; a milliners who made clothes and hats. Most everything else was not bought but made at home.
A cottage was a very busy and interesting place as were great houses but for different reasons. Boys learned how to chop wood, make fires, fish in lakes and streams, shoot rabbits and followed in their father’s footsteps, learning a trade or ploughing and sewing seeds in the fields. Girls did some of these things too but they also learned how to bake bread and cakes and good cooking. They would help to keep a cottage clean and learn to sew and knit like their mothers. They might also look after their aunts and uncles, grandmas and granddads who often lived with them.
Boys and girls had many brothers and sisters to play with because their mum might have as many as twenty children before she reached thirty years old. They would all eat and sleep together.
There were no motor cars or supermarkets, radios, electric lights or cameras in those days because they had not been invented. The village church was the place where they met each other. The churchyard was also the place where they buried their mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles.
WHY HAS THE WORLD CHANGED?
How different the world and the way we live now! Do you know why? Can you guess why we no longer go from place to place by horse and carriage? Why we wear clothes made in a factory and bought in a shop? Do you know why we can read books, watch T.V., listen to music on the Ipod and speak to someone who lives on the other side of the world?
Is it because we are more intelligent than those boys and girls who lived 200 years ago? No, that is not the reason. We are not more intelligent. Is it because our parents know more than their parents did? No, that is not the reason, either. The reason is this. God put everything in his creation, in the sun, moon and stars, the sea and land, the hills and fields, on the earth and in the earth. When we discover things like solar energy, electricity, and gas it is because God put these energies there for us to discover and use. God has given us the gift of reason to learn from nature and God’s wisdom. Of course we not only have to discover these things but learn how to use them and share them with others. He made everything to be what it is, good and useful. But by itself nature cannot teach us to use this power of reason and invention. That is why God has given us the book of faith to teach us how to share everything and care for each other.
GOD MADE EVERYTHING WITH A PURPOSE
The book of faith, the bible, is God’s textbook to teach us how to use power, knowledge and invention; to share the resources of nature to heal diseases by the healing properties of herbs that God has put in the earth; to use power to benefit all mankind and not just a few wealthy and powerful people. The bible is our guidebook to life, truth and what is real. The book of nature is also given to us because we are his children and because he loves us dearly. Out of these two books we learn how to make use of all God’s gifts and so create new ways of life, to discover new designs and new purposes.
DESIGN
For every design has a purpose. Nothing is made without a purpose. Does a clock maker make a clock to sit on the mantelpiece? No, he makes a clock to tell the time. Does an engineer build an aeroplane to sit on the ground? No, he makes an aeroplane to fly in the sky. Does a carpenter make a table to look at? No, he makes a table to eat off and play games on. Everything made and every design has a purpose. Nothing is made without a design or purpose. We know from the book of nature that God created the earth, the moon and the stars and all heaven with a purpose. We can tell that the heavens are God’s handiwork and he is their Maker for he made everything with a purpose. He made the earth in the heavens so that we on earth might have light and dark, day and night, seasons of the year and time, for time is in space and movement, He made everything good for us for what maker would make everything imperfect or faulty? No one. And so we read in the book of faith that God made everything good. (Genesis 1:12)
He made the earth to be a home for his children and all his creatures that swim in the sea or fly in the skies or live on the land. He made all the trees that grow apples and pears, food to keep us healthy and herbs to heal our diseases. He made vegetables and grain to give us strength and energy. He made animals and birds to be like each other but he made us to be like himself.
Boys and girls, mums and dads, God made you to be like himself. You are his children. And just as you trust your parents who love you so much, God wants you to trust him who made you and gave you a mind and soul to know and love him. The book of nature is like a textbook for in nature we can read God’s science and discover many new and unimaginable miracles of life and living. That is the reason we do not live like people lived 200 years ago. For we have discovered many new and amazing things like electricity, electric lights, telephones, aeroplanes that can fly and motor cars that can move on wheels, robots, radio, T.V. Computers, DVD’s, ipods, space ships, telescopes, microscopes, space stations, all these things and more from the book of nature. God’s school of nature is his gift of knowledge to make our lives better and more wonderful. The book of faith tells us that God has done this for everyone to discover, use and share so that we may be guided by love for each other; one nation for another; one family for another and one person for another. The book of faith is God Word. The first and greatest commandment God has given us in the book of faith is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your strength and all your soul and to love your neighbour as you love yourself, (Dueteronomy 11:13f) for love is never selfish or greedy, never tells lies but tells the truth, is never jealous of another person but is always content, for God will take care of you and wants you to be yourself, not someone else. He wants you to be kind and generous to those who are poor and have less than you have, care for your brothers and sisters and obey your parents.
Love is God’s ruling principle of live and freedom. God also sent his Son, Jesus, to show us how to live, to be a living example, Saviour and Lord, for we fall into sin because we are easily led by our own desires and not by God’s Word.