By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. (Hebrews11:3)

We take a primitive view of things when we conceive of God at creation coming into physical contact with things, shaping and fitting and building like a carpenter. The Bible teaches otherwise: “For he spoke, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast.(Psalm 33:9). God is referring here not to His written Word to His speaking voice. His world-filling Voice is meant, that Voice which antedates the Bible by uncounted centuries, that Voice which has not been silent since the dawn of creation, it is sounding still throughout the full far reaches of the universe.

The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became something. Chaos heard it and became order, darkness heard it and became light. “And God said- and it was so.” These twin phrases, as cause and affect, occur throughout the Genesis story of the creation. The said accounts for the so. The so is the said put into the continuous present.

That God is here and that He is speaking- these truths are back of all other Bible truths, without them there could be no revelation at all. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years. God breathed on clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and they become clay. “Return, ye children of men” was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak. (Psalm 90:3) The sad procession of mankind across the face of the earth from birth to grave is proof that His original Word was enough.

A. W. Tozer

John opens his gospel with these words:

In the beginning [before all time] was the Word ( Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being. In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it]. And the Word (Christ) became flesh, and lived among us; and we [actually] saw His glory, glory as belongs to the [One and] only begotten Son of the Father, [the Son who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, who is] full of grace and truth (absolutely free of deception).

John 1:1-5,14

The other writers of the Gospel begin with the entrance of Christ in human form, but John begins by telling us that the Word was before all time and that this Word was with God and was God. He further tells us that nothing exists that was not created by this Word and that only in Him is life and light. Then John says that the Word was clothed in flesh in the One we call Jesus or Christ.

Our faith lies in our acceptance of God as the Creator of all things. We may not ever completely understand just how creation came about. We may not ever reconcile the facts of dinosaurs or angels or the flood or any of the things that we might question, but we must believe that it was and is God who created all things and sustains all things. Otherwise we have nothing on which to base our faith.

We read that God spoke to nothing for nothing existed before He spoke it into existence. We read that He first spoke and light became. Now this was not the sun or stars or moon for they were created later. He spoke and light became. I read an article a few years ago that I confess was somewhat over my head in the technical language but the gist of it was that when matter is broken down into its most elemental components at the very root of matter is light. Smaller than atoms and particles and the nanotubes is the element of light. The authors stated that this light was so sensitive that even when they touched it with instruments to read it that it changed form. You can research this for your self. When I read that article, my heart leaped and my soul was moved to worship of the incredible God we serve and the accuracy of the Bible we read.

God spoke and it was so. These are words of hope. We believe that God will speak again and that even if we are dead we will hear His voice and rise from the dead.

We know that it is God who speaks to us while we are still in our sins and calls us out of darkness into His light of salvation. We speak of those who work in the kingdom of God as being the “called” and to be called requires hearing the voice of God.

In this season of Christmas let us worship and as we worship let us listen to the voice of the Creator of the universe as He still speaks to His children. May God grant to each of us the faith to believe and the sensitivity to hear His voice amidst the clamor of the World.

Of Jesus it has been written:

He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.] He is also the head [the life-source and leader] of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will occupy the first place [He will stand supreme and be preeminent] in everything. For it pleased the Father for all the fullness [of deity—the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son), and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace [with believers] through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Colossians 1:15-20

Blessed and worthy of praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ, just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as [His own] children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will— to the praise of His glorious grace and favor, which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [His Son, Jesus Christ]. In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding [with practical insight] He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, with regard to the fulfillment of the times [that is, the end of history, the climax of the ages]—to bring all things together in Christ, [both] things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have received an inheritance [a destiny—we were claimed by God as His own], having been predestined (chosen, appointed beforehand) according to the purpose of Him who works everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ [who first put our confidence in Him as our Lord and Savior] would exist to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and [as a result] believed in Him, were stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit [the One promised by Christ] as owned and protected [by God]. The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14

Dr. John Thompson