Dear BPCWA worshipper, Almost every day, God gives to all believers and unbelievers a reminder and a lesson about Himself. While it declares to the unbelievers the existence of an Almighty God, it declares a lot more to Christians who ought to be more observant about Him. Through His Word, we must learn even more of this wondrous sight. What should we learn and how should we respond?

1) Remember that we are utterly unworthy before Him. As I looked out on the sunset and marvelled at our wondrous Creator, it made me realise that we are not worthy to even stand in the presence of such an infinitely glorious and powerful Maker. Truly, what is there in us that makes us even have the slightest worth to be found before such a wondrous Creator? Yet, this God who creates all these incomparable wonders came to take my place to die for our sins! Ultimately, when we see this vast creation, it must stir us to realise that it is this Almighty Creator who came to be our substitute. As we look at Jesus Christ who came to live among men and was crucified, it is this very same God who keeps the very world moving and operating every second. When we superimpose the greatness of His power against what Christ did for us, we get a greater glimpse of His great love and sacrifice and how utterly unworthy we are of it.

2) Remember that we are so privileged to serve Him. My heart was strengthened to know that the God who controls this and all other sunsets is the very God that we are allowed to serve. The fact that we are allowed to serve such a great God is an unspeakable honour He graciously bestows. When we look at His marvellous and incomparable works, it tells us that He does not need you and I who, even given a billion years, can never do anything remotely close to His works. We cannot even begin to fathom His infinite power and His greatness. Just as the disciples of old exclaimed “What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.” (Lk 8:25). His inanimate creation responds to the voice of their Creator. If the clouds, the winds, and even the sun obey Him, what does He need me for? The God who holds all this power can summon at His will all the resources that He needs to do His work. The very fact that He would choose to use any man must be viewed as a treasured opportunity to be of some service to this Great God. Knowing the greatness of God and the power of His love must therefore constrain us even when we face discouragements, difficulties, and tiredness for He graciously extends that privilege to serve Him to mere men.  Being humbled to do something for Him cannot even begin to describe how we must feel when we serve Him. This is the sense of what John the baptiser proclaimed, “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose” (Mk 1:7). Even when we stoop low down in highest reverence, we are still not worthy to do the meanest task for Him!

3) Remember that we can trust Him as we live for Him. If His designs are so varied and so intricately beautiful for sunsets, which only last but for a short moment, how much more must His designs for the eternal souls of those for whom He came to die! His designs are far beyond our finding out, in depths that our minds cannot even begin to understand. The power that can control the beauty of each sunset and even hold all the heavens together so perfectly is the One that we worship and serve as our God. If even inanimate things obey Him, we must remember that He is always in control of every event on earth and in life.  There is nothing that He cannot do. As we do His work in His will, He will plan, provide, and enable us, and is always faithful to His purposes. There is never a gap in His plans and if there is an apparent gap, it is how He intended it to be, and so it is better that way. We just need to always follow His commands, trust and obey, and He will grant us His all- sufficient enabling grace and bring His purposes to pass. When we see the golden rims of the sun around the dark clouds, we must be reminded of Rom 8:28, “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Whatever difficulties come our way, as we toil through the pathway of life, it always has God’s stamp that it has been designed with good promised behind the trials. It must spur us to keep going on because while we can’t, this all glorious and powerful God effortlessly can. And He promised to help us. Each sunset must remind us of this fact!  

4) Remember the eternal consequences of our response now. We must know that at the end of our earthly sojourn, this will be the Almighty God and Glorious Creator that we will see face to face. To behold His wonders, to marvel at His love, to adore Him for His sacrifice into eternity. Dearly beloved brethren, let us take heart – we serve a living God and Glorious Master. All our labour and trials will be worth it all when we see Him because He is truly God. What will it be like when we meet our Saviour at the end of our journey? A saved soul but a wasted life?

As we see every sunrise and every sunset, we, who know and understand His special revelation, behold the general revelation of His creation, must sit up and take note of the God behind all these. He is the One whom we call our LORD, bound together in an everlasting covenant. What a wonderful daily reminder God gives to help remind us each day to prepare ourselves to meet Him – the infinitely powerful God, the glorious Creator, and our gracious Saviour!

Ps 19:14   Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor