Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 45-47
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 17:20-21
Jesus: Because you have so little faith. I tell you this: if you had even a faint spark of faith, even faith as tiny as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and because of your faith, the mountain would move. If you had just a sliver of faith, you would find nothing impossible. But this kind is not realized except through much prayer and fasting.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
When I was a kid, on rainy Saturdays when it was too wet to go outside and play, I remember watching cartoons on television. Those were great cartoons. Mickey Mouse, Rocky and Bulwinkle, Atom Ant, Deputy Dawg, Felix the Cat. If you’re old enough to remember some of those old black and white cartoons, you’ll probably remember the public service announcement that came on with them every once in a while.
This big giant bear would show up in the middle of the forest wearing overalls and a park ranger hat. Of course, it was a cartoon forest and a cartoon bear, but Smokey Bear fit the bill. He’d come on and show us a news clip of a campfire that was left smoldering in the forest or a cigarette that was carelessly flicked out a car window onto the dry brush on the side of the road.
The next scene was that of acres of forest aflame and the forest animals running for their lives to flee the onslaught of the flames. The scene would shift to the devastation left because of the carelessness of one person with that campfire or that cigarette and Smokey Bear would come back into the picture. You probably remember his famous words. “Remember. Only you can prevent forest fires.” Of course, I learned as I grew older that most forest fires are actually caused by lightning strikes. But there are enough caused by man’s carelessness that the public service announcement was worth the cost with the cities encroaching on the forests around them. The safety of those living on the borders of those forests and the lives of the park rangers and firefighters were at stake.
Jesus’ words today reminded me of that commercial. Just one little spark, one smoldering ember can create acres and acres of forests to catch flame and destroy hundreds of years of forest growth. I don’t know if Jesus saw many forest fires in Judea. When I was in the middle east, I don’t remember seeing much that would create a wildfire. But we understand wildfires in this country and the devastation they can cause. Just a little spark and it seems like the whole world is on fire if you live in one of those wildfire prone areas.
Jesus tells us we only need that much faith, just a spark we could tell a mountain to move and it would move from one place to another. You might wonder how that is done. God could do it any number of ways you know. He could generate an earthquake that shifts the crust of the earth and makes on mountain disappear as the crust of the earth pushes above it and causes the crust to push up in another place. It has happened in the past and can happen again.
He might use a volcano to do the work for Him. Volcanologists talk a lot about how the geography of the west and midwest would change if the supervolcano under the Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park were to erupt. They tell us it’s past time and if it errupts with the explosive power they say it will, the terrain of the region will be forever changed. Mountains will move.
God could use water to crash through some natural barrier and forge new rivers through what was a mountain and reduce it to nothing. Think of what would happen to the terrain downstream if the Hoover Dam were to suddenly let loose its tons of water all at once. It’s not the only dam holding back a reserve of such mass that nothing, including a mountain, could hold it. What if God decided to shift an ocean? You think mountains might change?
Or God could decide to tell a thousand people to pick up a pick and shovel and get to work. With faith, the mountain could move from one place to another. All you need to do to see that truth is follow our highways across this country. How many hills and mountains have shifted by the hands of men and machines to make way for steel rails and asphalt roads so we could get commercial goods from one side of the country to another. Yep, a little faith can move mountains.
So why is it so hard for us to believe in God. We believe we can do incredible things, like make holes in mountains to drive through. Impossible feats. Yet we don’t believe in the Creator who put that rock there in the first place. We don’t believe it took a Master Designer to make these biological miracles we call life to actually take form and breath and move and live and die. Somehow we get the idea all this just happened. Hmmm.
If I didn’t think about the complexity of the world we lived in, you might convince me there is no God. But the more I think about the complexity of life. The more I see how intricate the support of each substance and each species of life on another. The more I examine the vastness of the universe we live in and the extreme improbability that life could even exist in this vast almost limitless space. The more convinced I become there is a God in heaven. And to think He knows each one of us personally and loves each one of us individually. What a God we serve. Have a little faith.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.