From heavens to earth...

This is a collage painting that I finished recently

inspired by Ephesians 3:17.

I have 3 versions of the verse in the painting:

"Be rooted and grounded in love"

"I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love."

"Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love"

All 3 helped to complete the meaning for me.

This verse was included in my closing that I read at our Operation Space

Vacation Bible School program in June.

I have had several people ask for what I read

So I am posting here.

My resource for this information was

Beth Moore's DVD

"Measureless Love"

which can be found here:  http://www.lproof.org/Media/DVDPreview.htm

Here is what I read:

"We have been measuring every day this week.  BIG measurements.

We measured the length of the Apollo rockets that went to the moon.

We shrunk the solar system to make a model of the distance between orbits.

We "shrunk" the sun to the size of a ping-pong ball, and measured stars by using a roll of twine to measure the radius and then the kids walked the scaled circumference.  The largest, Deneb, a super giant had a scaled radius of 125 feet so we could not create the full circle in the church yard.

God figured out all of these measuremenmts so that every galaxy, star and planet was in the perfect place.  Why?  In Isaiah 45:18, it says, "He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited."

Why?

So that we would seek Him.

And as it says in Isaiah 45:19,

we will not seek Him in vain.

We learned some of the precise things that had to occur for there to be life on earth:

*the right kind of galaxy

*right place in the galaxy

*right kind and size of star to orbit

*right distance from the star/sun

*proper mass of planet

*proper spin

*proper tilt

*placement of the moon

*magnetic fields and gravitational pull

*atmosphere with proper oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange

*water

*plants

#The odds of surviving a free fall from an airplane without a parachute are 1/60,000.

The odds of all these (and more) conditions for the earth to be able to be inhabited with life: 

1/150,000 million million

Which looks like this:

1/150,000,000,000,000,000#

If any one of those billions and trillions of stars were in the wrong place, gravity would be altered which would affect the orbits of all the others stars, down to our solar system and earth's ability to sustain life.

There is NO other planet in the known universe that is able to sustain life.

God has perfectly measured the entire expanse of the universe and this is what His word says

He hopes that we know:

In Ephesians 3:17-20 Paul prays

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that

you will be rooted and grounded in love,

and therefore may be able to understand...

the width, the length, the depth and the height ...

of the love of Christ which is beyond our knowledge

(beyond the knowledge of our vast universe of 100 billion galaxies)

so that we may be filled to the fullness of God.

He measured all the stars and the galaxies, but His love for you

through receiving Christ as your Savior is

MEASURELESS.

We measured BIG numbers all week.

But His love for you through Christ cannot be measured.

And yet, Paul prayed that we would be able to understand that

even though it cannot be measured.

Psalm 19:1 ~ "The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies show the work of His hands."

Mixed Media Collage copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.

#Resource:  Measureless Love DVD by Beth Moore