“Jesus wept.”
‘Jesus was almost to the tomb of Lazarus and about to demonstrate his Divinity by raising His friend from the dead. But He was deeply moved in sympathetic sorrow by the distraught and weeping Mary and all those weeping around her. Here on the part of the Son of Man were tears of love, of sympathy, of compassion, and of deep emotion. The Bible says He was deeply moved. Jesus is not only perfectly divine, but perfectly human!
The verse from John 11:35, which is famously the shortest verse in the King James Bible, highlights the fact that tears demonstrate humanity – not only Christ’s identification with our humanity but humanity itself. In fact, they are an important part of our body, soul, and spirit!
Researchers say that human beings are distinct from animals because we can cry emotional tears. They also say that it can be a healthy thing to shed such tears. Tears can release hormones and other body chemistry which cleanse and renew us.
I remember I cried at the birth of each of our six children. I cried as I danced the father-daughter dance at her wedding reception. I’ve cried in worship experiences and other times in communion with the Lord, and at the passing of loved ones and other losses. I’ve also cried in repentance.
The human body is amazing and has many special distinctions from the animal kingdom. And we human beings are not only physical bodies, but are also made up of soul and spirit per the Bible (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 5:23). This means that the interactions between physicality, biochemistry, emotions, intellect, personality and things like repentance, forgiveness, and other interactions of a spiritual nature all overlap. Emotions can trigger release of biochemical hormones, and vice versa. Biochemical hormone release in the body can trigger emotions, as can drugs ingested into the body. And things like faith, fear, joy, and love can trigger biochemical hormones in the body. So it goes both ways across a continuum – the immaterial to the physical, and vice versa.
The human body is an amazing thing, interacting marvelously with mental and emotional focus. Baseball players can actually watch a baseball thrown toward them at 90 miles an hour by someone who doesn’t want them to succeed, and swing a bat around with their legs, hips, arms, and wrists all working together to hit the fast-moving spheroid into the field of play, and then run to first base. That the eyes, brain, and other body parts can work so well together – adjusting to fast balls, curve balls, sliders and other pitches over different parts of home plate – is really quite amazing. There is still no machine that can replace a baseball batter – yet, the human body is said to have evolved by chance and natural selection?!
The human eye can detect the faintest light possible – a single photon of light – and can also work with 10 billion photons of light. In the language of Optics, its “dynamic range”, that is the ability to capture “contrast”, is 10 billion to one! The best digital cameras can only reach half that. The human eye also has an enormous number of “pixels” (a very small area of illumination on a screen) especially compared to even the best HD TV screens – 130 million pixels versus 8.3 million for a 3840 x 2160, horizontal x vertical pixel HD TV. And those human eyes can also shed emotional tears.
Clearly, there is a God, the Biblical God, who designed and created all this! And clearly, human beings are unique in our intellectual, emotional and spiritual connection to Him and His marvelous creation! Once again, we are comprised of body, soul, and spirit – simultaneously!
Christians have understood this. Humanity is God’s special creation. And Christian movements over the years have declared, decreed, and organized their vision and mission around the Great Commission to redeem us to our Maker. Listen to the famous words of Pastor Robert Hunt on April 29, 1607 at the first landing on Cape Henry in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay during the founding of the Jamestown Colony. It was a special declaration that has been honored and proven true for over 400 years! – about the United States, and the gospel outreach that has flowed within and from “these shores”.
“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. … May those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work, that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but the entire world.” Then he read from Psalm 22:27, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.”
For many years, America has been organizing, spending and sending a bulk of the missions effort for worldwide gospel outreach. That continues to this day – in spite of all the evil influence of modern culture! It’s a wonderful legacy. Yet, we could do so much more. How is it that so many Christians can tip the server 15% at the restaurant but have a hard time giving 10% to gospel outreach?
For several years, Creation Moments has been responding to the Lord’s leading from Revelation 14:6-7 – to grow our efforts to expand the languages and worldwide broadcast reach for our pre-evangelism creation science and creation-evangelism programming. We have “heard the word” and “received the illumination” of God’s call to us about “the angel having the everlasting gospel” to “preach… to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” a message that hinges on the truth of creation! “Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7b). Here is the last use of the word “gospel” in the whole Bible. And it contains the most essential creationist messaging!’https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/august-2023-from-these-very-shores-the-gospel-shall-go-forth-not-only-to-this-new-world-but-the-entire-world/?mc_cid=d108c81508&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
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