Verle Bell M.D.
[Originally published as Grand Design Suggests a Grand Designer]
One of the reasons brilliant fools say in their heart, “There is no designer,” is that, if there is a designer, his designed things must be used according to how he designed them or they will cause trouble and not work right.
If your car is designed to run on vegetable oil, then you may save money by using that fuel. If it is designed to run on gasoline and you insist on burning pure ethanol, you will have problems.
God designed absolutely everything! Therefore it behooves us to ask, “How should I interact with this, his designed creation, in such a way as to be blessed and not have problems? I need to ask the question, what is this for and how should it be used?
The list of created things is endless, including: food, sleep, money, work, worship, tools, books, (yes, even the things that man invents flow from the mind of God. Exodus 31:3–5) computers, televisions, cars, medicine, houses, clothes, etc.
Let’s Think Through a Few of These
Food
is for: nutrition, energy, fellowship, gratitude, enjoyment.
It is not an end in itself to be worshiped, used as an antidepressant, to prove our superior worth or income, etc.
- “Who’s god is their belly” (Philippians 3:19).
- “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Timothy 6:8).
- “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13).
Sleep
is for: restoring strength, problem solving, memory fixing of positive grateful things, cleaning out the debris of metabolism, repair daily brain damage, and learning to trust myself to God daily.
- “for so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalms 127:2).
It is not for: running away from life.
- “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 24:33).
Money
is for: ministering to the needy, to promote God’s kingdom, for basic needs.
Not for: security, control, establishing superiority, corrupting justice.
Work
is meant to provide for family and the needs of others, to decrease my tendency to sin, to let God’s ingenuity flow through me.
- “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it: (Psalm 90:17).
It is nott for: escaping responsibilities and dealing with problems at home, or for finding ways to control others. etc.
How Should We Then Live?
Lord forgive my resentment of the limitations you have designed into all that I do and to all that I interact with. Forgive me for being arrogant and not even asking you how you want me to interact with the things you have made. Help me to steward, nurture, savor, appreciate, husband and care for your creation and search out the wonders of the advice found in your user’s manual, The Word of God.
Everything causes damage if I don’t use it according to the specific guidelines found in the Word of God, which is Jesus himself. And he has designed everything to bless me when used properly.
How could every little thing be so crammed with millions of brilliant necessary interrelated ideas and predictable rules of usage if there were no idea-filled designer and if that designer were not Jesus Christ himself?
