1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights!
2 Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts!
3 Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!
4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, And you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created.
We serve a great, Creator God who made heaven and earth, and is full of glory and majesty. But, He is not too far away for every human being to reach out to Him and develop a relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. Creation tells us that He exists, and the cross shows us that He establishes salvation for the person who believes on Him. We give God praise for all that He has done and what He wants to do in our lives - His power is great and we can trust in Him!
In Psalm 89, we read a passage of the faithfulness of God and how heavenly objects can remind us of that:
34 My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.
35 Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David:
36 His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me;
37 It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky."
Here's a significant number for you today: 221,519. That's the distance of the moon from earth earlier today, at the peak of the so-called "supermoon" phenomenon, when the moon was at its closest point to earth since January 1948, according to International Business Times.
The article quotes NASA, which said that the moon would appear 15 percent larger than the smallest moon of the year; also there won't another that big again until 2034. The moon will actually be closer to the earth then.
Now, this supermoon does arouse curiosity, and there are actually manifestations on earth. For instance, the article says: "A supermoon may bring the largest tides of the year, but the variation is not large enough to account for earthquakes, flooding or volcanoes — or for driving people insane."
A number of live streams have been made available, and can be linked through Space.com.
Interestingly enough, as the Sky and Telescope website points out, "The so-called Moon Illusion causes the Moon to appear bigger when viewed along the horizon and can fool people into believing" what it calls "the supermoon myth."
There are two theories: one is the Ponzo Illusion, which attempts to explain why the Moon appears larger near the horizon. This theory claims "that our brain perceives the distance to the sky directly overhead as closer than the distance to the horizon. We think the Moon must be bigger along the horizon because we perceive the distance to the horizon as farther away."
Our curiosity can cause us to develop a greater appreciation of God, His movements, and His systems - the laws of nature that result from God originating them. We can reflect on His greatness as Creator and sustainer. We can be more convinced that life as we know it and the grandeur of nature did not arise from randomness.
The fascination with space and discovery can teach us an important lesson about how we can get caught up with what you might call illusory thinking. I mentioned the illusions of the moon's size because I think we have to be careful with illusions that we allow our brain to craft. In the decisions we make, we need to stay grounded in Christ, and not be lured away by inaccuracies. For instance, we can easily make our choices based on selfishness or the pursuit of sinful pleasures. We might even be swayed by fear, which can distort our knowledge of the truth. That is why the Bible reminds us that God has given us sound-mindedness, perfect peace, the ability to renew our minds. He wants us to think rationally and Biblically.
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In Psalm 89, we read a passage of the faithfulness of God and how heavenly objects can remind us of that:
34 My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.
35 Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David:
36 His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me;
37 It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky."
Here's a significant number for you today: 221,519. That's the distance of the moon from earth earlier today, at the peak of the so-called "supermoon" phenomenon, when the moon was at its closest point to earth since January 1948, according to International Business Times.
The article quotes NASA, which said that the moon would appear 15 percent larger than the smallest moon of the year; also there won't another that big again until 2034. The moon will actually be closer to the earth then.
Now, this supermoon does arouse curiosity, and there are actually manifestations on earth. For instance, the article says: "A supermoon may bring the largest tides of the year, but the variation is not large enough to account for earthquakes, flooding or volcanoes — or for driving people insane."
A number of live streams have been made available, and can be linked through Space.com.
Interestingly enough, as the Sky and Telescope website points out, "The so-called Moon Illusion causes the Moon to appear bigger when viewed along the horizon and can fool people into believing" what it calls "the supermoon myth."
There are two theories: one is the Ponzo Illusion, which attempts to explain why the Moon appears larger near the horizon. This theory claims "that our brain perceives the distance to the sky directly overhead as closer than the distance to the horizon. We think the Moon must be bigger along the horizon because we perceive the distance to the horizon as farther away."
Then there's the Ebbinghaus Illusion, which says that we perceive an object's size based on the relative size of its surroundings. Psychologists suggest that "an overhead Moon looks smaller because it’s surrounded by empty space, while a Moon near the horizon appears larger juxtaposed against trees and buildings."
Not only is there a fascination with the supermoon today, but the National Geographic Channel launches its semi-documentary, Mars, tonight. A review of the first episode, by Michael Foust of the Christian Examiner website, states:
The project by executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard imagines an international effort that involves sending a multi-person crew aboard the fictional Daedalus spacecraft on a seven-month journey to Mars, where they will stay for the rest of their lives and help launch a human colony.The article describes the series as "part documentary, part scripted drama...," and relates:
A series of flashbacks are employed, switching the viewer from the 2033 mission to 2016 modern-day America, whereby leaders such as SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk look to the future and lay out their vision. Of course, the filmmakers know that not everyone cares that much about the scientific details, and so they use drama to keep us all hooked. In episode 1 – which I screened – the first manned mission to Mars in 2033 is forced to land some 70 kilometers from their supplies. (How will they survive? We'll have to watch the next episodes to find out.)Foust writes:
The only criticism I had of the first episode is that it is too human-centric. We are going to Mars, we are told, in order to guarantee the survival of the species. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that – and perhaps such a goal is necessary in order to get backing and funding – but what happened to exploring the wonders of the universe because the universe, is, well, wonderful? Not to mention created by an incredible God. When Apollo 8 was circling the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell opened a Bible and read the first few verse [sic] of Genesis 1 – the story of creation. And the entire planet listened.The website, HearItFirst.com, offers this quote from Louie Giglio's Indescribable DVD:
“We haven’t built a big enough telescope yet to see exactly what is out there that God has created, but every time we build a bigger telescope we’re ‘Wowed’ once again, that it’s (the universe) bigger than we thought. There’s more amazing stuff out there that we have never seen, and God is laughing all over again going ‘Yeah, congratulations. Is that all you’ve got? Go back and build a bigger one and I’ll show you something else that you haven’t seen yet."What is out there? We don't know, but God does - He created it all, and what we see is beyond comprehension. There is a fascination with what is going on in the heavens and we recognize that, as the Bible says, "the heavens declare the glory of God." And, think about how God has placed us here on this earth, just the right distance from the Sun, resulting, in part, in this planet being inhabitable.
Our curiosity can cause us to develop a greater appreciation of God, His movements, and His systems - the laws of nature that result from God originating them. We can reflect on His greatness as Creator and sustainer. We can be more convinced that life as we know it and the grandeur of nature did not arise from randomness.
The fascination with space and discovery can teach us an important lesson about how we can get caught up with what you might call illusory thinking. I mentioned the illusions of the moon's size because I think we have to be careful with illusions that we allow our brain to craft. In the decisions we make, we need to stay grounded in Christ, and not be lured away by inaccuracies. For instance, we can easily make our choices based on selfishness or the pursuit of sinful pleasures. We might even be swayed by fear, which can distort our knowledge of the truth. That is why the Bible reminds us that God has given us sound-mindedness, perfect peace, the ability to renew our minds. He wants us to think rationally and Biblically.
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