Mr. Joe Average - By Ray Comfort
Joe Average doesn't think about creation, let alone the Creator. If you asked him if God had ever done anything for him, he probably couldn't think of one thing.
He gets out of bed early in the morning in his beachfront home, makes some toast, and without much thought spreads on some butter and honey. He then walks outside, takes a deep breath of the cool morning air, and breathes out slowly. He drinks a glass of milk as he looks at his rose garden, and listens to the birds chirping at the break of another day. He smiles, because as he looks towards the ocean he sees that rain is on its way. That means he won't have to water his garden. It's just another average day for Joe Average.
Not quite. There is nothing "average" about Joe or what he has done that morning. He's actually a miracle machine that no man-made mechanism could ever begin to even imitate.
Recently, brilliant Japanese scientists created an amazing robot. It was amazing because it was so human-like, and could even move like a human. There were a few obvious differences from Homo sapiens though. It wasn't alive, and it couldn't think, see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. Despite this, it was a marvel of human technology--the very best we can do at this moment in history.
There were a few other things the robot couldn't do. It couldn't run, walk, or even stand on its own two feet. Scientists had to hold it upright, because they didn't know how to create feet that balance an upright body of that size, let alone walk and run. Human feet are far too complex in design to imitate(1.). However, Joe had no problem standing upright and walking, because his extraordinary feet were designed and created by God.
The run-of-the-mill piece of toast he made wasn't ordinary either. It came from bread, and the bread came from wheat, which came from the soil. God created the soil, and the soil contained nutrients that fed the wheat-seed, and it formed itself into the wheat plant, which then produced more wheat seeds. When the seeds where harvested, they were ground into flour, and mixed with yeast to make bread, so that Joe would have something to eat to satisfy his God-given appetite, so that he would have energy for that day.
The butter that he spread on the toast came from milk that came from a cow that chewed grass that came from soil nutrients that God created.
The honey(2.) came from an insect that God created to collect nectar from flowers than grew from the soil that He had made.
As Joe gazed at his garden and took in a deep breath, he breathed in life-giving oxygen that had been breathed out by trees that God had made(3.). He then breathed out carbon dioxide so that the trees would have something to breathe in.
The reason he drank the milk(4.) was because God had created him with a reoccurring thirst that caused him to want to drink the liquid that came from the cow that chewed the grass that came from the dirt that God had made.
Joe looked at his yard using his amazing God-given eyes, with their millions of light sensitive cells and incredible self-focusing muscles, which sent the image to his brain. There, he saw his garden, filled with colorful flowers, waiting for the bees to come and get nectar to make honey for his toast.
With his astoundingly made ears, he listened to the variety of chirping birds, as they welcomed a new day and sung praises to Him who created all things.
As the rain began to drop, he didn't consider that each drop of rain was being miraculously held in its own form by its skin(5.). As it drops through the heavens, the sun shines through the transparent liquid and splays out into the seven colors of the rainbow. As the sun hits the water, its rays are traveling at 186,000 miles per second in a perfectly straight line, until they are refracted into a mired of different directions by that tiny fast-moving water drop.
When the little drop hits the vast ocean, it sends out tiny waves in a perfect circle, as the energy from it is absorbed into the great ocean.
The sea looks flat to Joe's unthinking eye, but over the horizon, the seemingly flat ocean curves to his left, to his right, as well as in front of him, and on the other side of the earth it turns upside down. Yet it doesn't spill into space because of the same law of gravity that God created that pulled the drop from the great cloud to water Mr. Average's garden. This is all happening as Joe stands on this huge ball of dirt we call "earth," that is spinning around, as well as moving through space at 67,000 mph.
As the Bible so rightly observes of the wonders of God's creation, "Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him?"(6.)
Do you believe God made all these things? If not, then you create a cow that can chew green grass and make white milk that turns into yellow butter. You make an eye, an ear, or a brain. Just make one . . . from nothing. Or make a living flower that can make nectar than can be collected by bees that you made, and have them whip it into honey. Or create one drop of water from nothing and cause the sun rays to split into seven colors.
If you can do these things, then sit back and expect the birds to sing your praises. You deserve it. Until that time, you had better do what I did many years ago when my blind eyes were opened to the works of Almighty God. Lay your hand upon your sinful mouth, humble yourself, and then bow your ungrateful heart in worship to the God that gave you life and lavished His goodness upon you. Then quickly obey His fearful voice, and make peace with Him through the blood of the cross.
From, The Atheist Delusion (Bridge Logos Publishers), Ray Comfort (soon to be published).
____________________1 The human ankle serves as foundation, shock absorber, and propulsion engine. The foot can sustain enormous pressure (several tons over the course of a one-mile run) and provides flexibility and resiliency. The foot and ankle contain 26 bones; 33 joints; more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments; and a network of blood vessels, nerves, skin, and soft tissue. These components work together to provide the body with support, balance, and mobility.
2 The composition of honey consists of varying proportions of fructose, glucose, water, oil and special enzymes produced by bees. With their tongues, they suck out the nectar and store it in sacs within their bodies. After filling their sacs with these sweet juices, they then fly back to their bee hive and regurgitate the stored nectar into the mouths of house bees. These bees are assigned the job of adding enzymes from their bodies to the nectar. The enzymes cause the water in the nectar to evaporate-thereby turning the nectar into honey. Lastly, the nectar is stored in a cell of a honeycomb. Overtime, the nectar ripens and becomes honey.
3 Trees are our breathing partners. You may not live in a forest, but you and I need trees in order to live. People and animals depend on trees and plants for oxygen. As you breathe in, your body uses oxygen. As you breathe out, it gives off carbon dioxide. Trees do just the opposite. They take in carbon dioxide and then release oxygen (which also helps clean the air). We use trees for the paper to make books, but there are actually more than 5,000 things made from trees--baseball bats, shoe polish, and even toothpaste that comes from tree extracts.
4 To get the nutrients from the grass the cow first has to swallow the grass, whole, into her first stomach. When it is full, the cow rests and regurgitates the grass back up, a mouthful at a time to chew it. The chewed grass gets swallowed into the cow's second stomach, which also catches all the strange things a cow might swallow when eating grass. The grass then goes into the cow's third stomach, which breaks it down even more. Then it goes into the Abomasum, which works like our stomach – it adds acid to the grass to break it down until the bits are small enough to be absorbed into our bloodstream. The cow's udder has mammary glands that collect the right mixture of ingredients from its blood and turn it into milk. Milk contains several hundreds of chemical components.
5 Water's surface tension is characterized by an elastic-type sheet on the edge of the liquid. In physics, this phenomenon is known as water's "skin," as the thin layer of skin allows certain insects, small metal objects and other minuscule things to seemingly walk on water.
6 Job 26:14