Ps 96

Devotion 1 of 1: Ps 96

V.1-4 say, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”
This is an amazing declaration that nature, the earth and even the whole universe is giving constant testimony of the glory, power and awesomeness of Creator God to the whole earth and even the entire cosmos! This is being done through various waves, like Electromagnetic (including light and radio), Infrared, Gamma, Microwaves, etc.
Recent highly advanced scientific instruments, such as telescopes, spectrographs, radio telescopes, space telescopes, etc., have captured stunning information from these waves that have greatly increased our knowledge of the universe and its Creator. Let’s take a look at some of them:
*Before 1917, our galaxy, the Milky Way, was thought to be the only galaxy in existence, and therefore was believed to be the whole universe. But in 1923, it was proven that the Andromeda Nebula was another galaxy 2.5 light years away.
*The universe was also thought to be infinitely old and unchanging, but in 1929, evidence was found that there were millions of other galaxies in the universe and that they were all expanding away from each other! This eventually led to the “Big Bang Theory,” that the universe had a beginning from a tiny central spot some 13.8 billion years ago, and it is constantly expanding, even today!
*Through the Hubble (1990) and Webb (2021) Space Telescopes, we have discovered there may be 2 trillion galaxies in the universe, each with perhaps 200 billion stars! Many galaxies are truly breath-taking in beauty, and some unbelievably huge in size! For instance, the Alcyoneus Galaxy is 16.3M light years wide, 160X wider than our Milky Way, and is 3B light years away!
*All this data attests to the majesty, wisdom, power and authority of our Creator God! Let’s never cease to praise Him!

JOHN 18: Free sharing!
This chapter describes the arrest and trial of Jesus before His crucifixion. The Jews brought Jesus to Pilate, hoping to get the death sentence for Him (v.29). Pilate questioned Christ but found no fault in Him (v.38), and so, he wanted to set Him free, but the crowd wanted Barabbas, a notorious criminal and robber, freed instead. Eventually, Barabbas was released, and Jesus was executed.
In Japan, there is a group called Mission Barabbas. They are 9 men, ex-yakuzas, now born-again and serving God in the ministry. They have anointed, powerful and moving testimonies of how they became yakuza gang members, what kind of crimes they got involved in, and finally how they became Christians. Many of them have very dramatic conversion experiences that show the great love and mercy of God.
In a unique way, these ex-yakuza members manifest a 21st century version of the Barabbas of the gospels. The same way that Barabbas, an undeserving criminal, was plucked out of his fate of imprisonment and execution, the Mission Barabbas gangsters were seized by the Holy Spirit and led into salvation!
Let’s pray that God will use these Japanese Barabbases to lead many people out of sin into eternal life!