“13 From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— 15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” (Psalm 33:13-15 NIV).
During the founding of this country, deism was the popular philosophical/religious thought of the day. Despite the claims of revisionist historians, the founding fathers were not deists. One cannot read what they wrote and believe that. Certainly they were influenced by this philosophy, but having been influenced by the philosophy and being a deist are two different things. Only after 1962 did this country start claiming that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others were not Christians but deists. It is interesting that this claim came hand in hand with the movement that removed prayer from the public classroom. John Dunphy, speaking on the role of the teacher in our educational system stated, “I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classrooms by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith; a religion of humanity . . . the classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.” The removal of prayer and Bible reading from our schools removed the final barrier to the “new faith” of humanism. Don’t think for one minute that our children are not learning religion in the public school classrooms, they are being indoctrinated in it every day.
Now, in the process of this shift, prayer and Bible reading had to be removed and nearly 200 years of history had to be rewritten. It was at this same time when our children began to be taught (following the philosophy of Dr. William James, one of the crafters of the new creed, that “Nothing is so absurd that if you repeat it long enough and loud enough people will believe”), that our founding fathers were not Christian but deists. Today that is assumed even by men who should no better. Dr. James was right and the mantra of our educators effective, we have come to believe an absurdity despite the clear indications of history!
All of this sets the stage for today’s devotional. Deism teaches that God is the cosmic watch-maker, who wound up the universe and has now stepped away and is uninvolved until the cosmic watch runs down, at which time He will step in and judge the world. A popular song caught the idea well a few years back, “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us, from a distance.” That is deism put to music.
Our text and the entire Bible teaches us that God is indeed watching us but contrary to the erroneous philosophy of deism, the Bible teaches us that He is intimately involved in His creation. Our text says, “He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” The Living Bible puts it, He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.” (Emphasis mine). He is not the “deus abscondetis” (absent God) of deism but the personal God of the Scriptures. He cares about you. This God who rules the universe, cares about every detail of your life! Do you question that? Let me ask you a question, what are the number of hairs on your head (including eyelashes and eyebrows for those who are follicually challenged)? Don’t know? God does (See Matthew 10:30). Even though this number changes daily, God cares about you so much that He keeps tab of even this, one of the smallest details, of our lives!
One final thought. This God who “watches closely everything (we) do.” One day is going to call us into account–every one of us. Christians sometimes forget this. We realize of course that there is coming a final judgment, but we think we are immune from it. In one sense of course we are, but let us not forget that the Bible says of believers, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV).
What is it that you do that you would not do if you knew someone was watching? Someone is. The Great Someone. The Ultimate Someone, before whom someday everything will be exposed, even the secret sins of our hearts. God is watching. We better live like it.
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