Psalm 19:1 (Amplified) “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse [of heaven] is declaring the work of His hands.”
Romans 1:20 (Amplified) “For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense.”
Proverbs 4:14-15 (Amplified) “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not go the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.”
We are blessed to have access to God's Word, and what a joy to be reading through the Bible this year as a church family.
But what about those who do not have access or who don't take the opportunity before them to find God through His word? He reaches out in other ways. One of my joys in life is finding lessons of God and his plan in secular sources.
Years ago, for a class assignment, I read Bram Stoker's "Dracula." One particular passage caught me by surprise.
Dracula could change his shape, and one of the forms he took was a fog. One night, as Count Dracula, he stood outside the window of Renfield, an institutionalized insane man. Renfield was crazy but also so incredibly lonely.
"Can I come in?" Dracula asked him. Renfield jumped at the chance. And Dracula turned into fog and entered through the barred window. At the end of their conversation, Dracula bit Renfield in the neck and drank some of his blood. The book makes clear it is the third bite that makes the victim become a vampire.
Dracula came a second time, and a horrified Renfield cowered but yielded to the count's magnetic powers.
A third time Dracula came.
"No! You can't come in!" Renfield yelled.
"It doesn't work that way," Dracula told him. "The first time, I have to be invited. After that, I come and go as I please."
This made me stop. How like temptation. Every time we succumb to it, it has a greater pull in our life. And the more we resist it, the stronger we become, especially if we turn away from the start.
Don't we have a wonderful God who reaches out to us in all of His creation, even in ways unexpected? He so longs to be found.