The Sun is Running out of Energy

 

[1]

Psalm 102:25-27 Good News Translation

²⁵ long ago you created the earth,
    and with your own hands you made the heavens.
²⁶ They will disappear, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like clothes.
You will discard them like clothes,
    and they will vanish.
²⁷ But you are always the same,
    and your life never ends.

 

Since I was ten years old, I have been enamored by the universe. Some things have puzzled me, especially from a creationist world view. [Of course, from a big bang world view I was stymied from the git go—the Big Bang.] One puzzle is the size and apparent antiquity of the universe. Another is the temporary nature of everything. This also appears to be puzzling the psalmist

As we examine the sun, it appears to be a giant bonfire, consuming fuel (hydrogen) at a prodigious rate. Evidently the fuel will run out, whether or not there was ever sin in the universe. This has been disturbing to me. The Lord has designed obsolescence into our home, our planet, our solar system. The psalmist recognized this: “They will disappear, but you will remain. … You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish.” God does not plan that we will remain on the “third rock from the sun” forever! The psalmist concludes “But you are always the same, and your life never ends!” Besides God, the only constant in the universe is change.

In my more adventurous puzzling, I realize that God is definitely not part of our universe. He made the universe; therefore, he antecedes the universe. This is a most comforting concept. Since God is not in our universe, He is outside our universe. If He is outside our universe, then He can be as close to us as He wishes, but since He is outside it is impossible for us to detect Him. Of course, it also means He can interact with us in whatever way He pleases—such as healing, communicating, and adjusting events. It also means that when our sun starts running out of fuel, He can place us in orbit about a brand-new sun.

Thank You Lord that you are always the same especially in our universe where the only constant is change. We count on You for we know You are thinking of and preparing for every change.

 

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[1] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/solar-system-scramble/scramble-text.html

Just Where Is Heaven?

[i]

Ephesians 3:17-19

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁷ and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some have pointed out that Heaven is a spot on the other side of the Great Orion Nebula. Furthermore God’s administrative center must be hidden behind this magnificent nebula.

On the other hand we view that God is the creator or prime generator of not only our Solar System but of the entire vast universe we detect beyond it. Whether your concept of this creation stretches back in time to a monumental week some 6,000 years ago--or to an inconceivably huge big bang some fourteen billion years ago--or some point of the past in between, you probably have breathed the query, “What was God doing in the eternity before this universe?”

St. Augustine quoted someone who quipped in response to this question, “He was preparing hell for those who pry into mysteries.”[ii] From the context of this remark Augustine clearly regarded this answer as an ill-posed jest.

But seriously, since God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever;”[iii] He was undoubtedly creating other universes. Where might he place these other universes? Well, certainly not within our universe; they must indeed be “beyond” or “outside” our universe, which was not here before He created it.

It is not impossible that Paul was hinting at a possibly vaguely understood concept when he expressed a four-dimensional measuring “length and width, height and depth” of God’s love. This concept just might be vital for our understanding of the presence of God. If there is another spatial dimension besides the three in our universe, then God would not have to be in a heaven over 1344 light years away. He might be just a scant millimeter away in this fourth spatial dimension and yet be beyond our sensory perception of Him.

Writers of the newly reincarnated science fiction Star Trek series hint at a similar notion of a space “warp”. How can space be warped unless it is in a dimension outside of the space itself?

Thank You, Lord, for being ever close to our side at all time!

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[i] http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Portal-Vortex-Time-Travel-Wormhole-Warp-Space-2514312

[ii] Book XI, Chapter 12 of the Confessions of St Augustine

[iii] Hebrews 13:8 (HCSB)