This week I have the honor of sharing with you the clear and powerful words that Costen J. Harrell of Nashville, Tenn., wrote a few years ago:

“Sometimes we meet people who think it is a sign of superior intelligence to question the reality of God. I have heard men boast of their skepticism.

“They say that religion is the invention of priests, that it is an ‘opiate of the people,’ that it is the wishful thinking of dreamers. The Bible speaks plainly and bluntly of all such persons: ‘The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.’ Psalm 14.1.”

4“Look upon the wonders of the world and all the marvels of the sky. Unfailing law controls all creation in every part, from tiny leaf to giant oak, from drop of water to ocean currents, from falling pebble to the movement of the stars. Can such order come by chance? That does not make sense.

When we see a watch or an automobile we know that someone planned and made it. And when we look upon the marvelous order of the universe every sensible man knows that a master Mind must plan and control it all. That master Mind is God.”

4“Look at the world within you. Can it be that your powers to think and achieve, the love that binds you to home and dear ones, the voice of conscience, the sense of honor, your hope of immortality — do all these gifts that every sensible man values more than life come from nothing? That does not make sense.

Gifts like these do not come by chance. They can come from none other than God. They are His gifts to us. Therefore we believe in His wisdom, and we trust His goodness.”

4“Almighty God, dispose our hearts to believe in Thee, that being fully persuaded in Thy faithfulness we may trust Thee to do for us more abundantly than we are able to ask or think; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Dan Rapp is pastor of Ohio Baptist Church and is a south Ironton resident.