The Fowler's Interview

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:02

Hi, if you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock-solid truth for life and living from the God of the Bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibeltruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:45

Remember going through, uh, Isaiah 6:9, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 9, anyway, whatever it is, where he goes before the Lord And it says he sees the Lord lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple, and seraphim around the Lord. Each has 6 wings.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:07

2—

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:07

with 2 he covered his face, with 2 he covered his feet, with 2 he flew. And then one calls out to another, holy, holy, holy. And it says, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. And he says, the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of your glory. So it's Yahweh of hosts, the whole earth is full of your glory. And I thought, the whole earth is full of your glory.

Speaker C [: 00:01:31

Yeah.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:31

I don't know if you have thought about that. What does that mean? I didn't even know what that means. The whole earth is full of your glory.

Speaker C [: 00:01:37

I thought—

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:38

I think I just thought about that for a number of years. What does that mean, the whole earth is full of your glory? So I'm trying to remember that, and we were walking the dog, and I thought, if you look There's— how many different variations of dogs are there? Do you have any ideas? There's tons. There's lots. Not tons, but there's lots. How many variations of trees are there? Of bugs? Of, you know, you think about his handiwork is in everything. That's what he means. The whole earth is full of your glory. Look everywhere.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:09

Just look everywhere. And I thought inherently I pay attention to what man has made when it's surrounded by, by what God has made.

Speaker C [: 00:02:19

Yes.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:19

Isn't that interesting? And we make square things, boxes and stuff, you know. The Lord makes clouds and light, and, you know, he made light. He, he formed light. How do you form light? And he created darkness. So it's a reminder to me, the whole earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his glory that we need to see from time to time. And Dr. John Piper, the pastor, would say when he was at seminary, the one professor said, so this is, this is the nature of sin.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:58

You go somewhere amazing, you go to the Alps, you go to the Grand Canyon, you go somewhere in the first day or 2, it's amazing, right? And then by day 3, you're carping. You know, you're getting up, you're moaning, right? Moaning, moaning, moaning. And I still remember when we went to the Grand Canyon many years ago and we hiked down inside of it. You can see it from the sky kind of when you, you know, when you fly in, you can look at it from the, you know, the rim, South Rim, North Rim. You can see it down in there. When you walk down inside of it, it just explodes. In its amazing sense. One of our top coaching members at age 50 decided he would, he would trek the whole canyon.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:45

I don't know what it took him, 10 hours or something like that, but he literally had another guy and he trekked and he just said, besides just trying to stay alive, just, you know, being amazed at what's in the canyon and you kind of see So we've been going through videos from Truth Matters, which was John MacArthur's conference in 2022. He's since in, in the presence of the Lord, and, uh, uh, truth still matters. So today we're going to hear half of a presentation by one of the chief architects and designers of the space station. And so I put a little bit about him on there. You see Jeff Williams. He's a retired Army officer and NASA astronaut. He played a key role in design, construction, and operation of the International Space Station. 2-time station commander.

Scott Keffer [: 00:04:38

We can see he spent 534 cumulative days in space on 4 different trips. Nearly 32 hours outside of the laboratory on 5 spacewalks. And so, he's now, I guess, teaching at the Masters University, which is, uh, John MacArthur's university. And he's going to share not only pictures but insights that, that he has about, um, what he saw. And he said, you know, we spent a whole, whole bunch of effort to get off the planet, and then when we get up there, we spend all of our attention looking at the planet. So he's going to share about that really Really cool insights. Don't touch anything.

Speaker C [: 00:05:24

We don't have time for Q&A today, so let me start out with 2 of your questions I know that are on your mind. The first one is— the first answer is yes, we did go to the moon. And the answer to the second question is the Earth is not flat. I'd like you to turn to Psalm 111, please, Psalm 111, one of my favorite Psalms in Scripture.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:00

It's at the top of your page.

Speaker C [: 00:06:02

It speaks of the work of His hands. It's a very short Psalm. It's a worldview Psalm. I've been asked to come here today to show you a worldview. It speaks of the work of creation. What I really want to impress upon you today is the amazing work of provision in that creation, given the creation of man who bear His image and the abilities that He's given us bearing His image. And we even need to consider His works of providence as history unfolds. And we can only do that through eyes that have been given, sight that has been given by His work of redemption.

Speaker C [: 00:07:01

So this entire talk, like this entire conference, assumes the work of redemption in the hearts among those That are gathered here, and it's only in that way by the help of the Spirit that we can comprehend the Word of God and bring understanding to those other works of God. I'm going to— I want to lay 2 things side by side in the beginning here on our minds, and then we're going to try to bring them together. And it won't be obvious how we're going to do that initially, but Hopefully by the end of the hour it becomes a little bit more apparent to you how we can bring them together, weave together, looking through the lens of Scripture in what we call a biblical worldview. The first thing I want to have in our minds is Psalm 111, and then the second one is going to be a short video clip. So join me in reading Psalm 111. Praise Yah. I will give thanks to Yahweh with my heart. In the council of the upright and in the congregation, great are the works of Yahweh.

Speaker C [: 00:08:09

They are sought, or we could say studied, by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness stands forever. He has made His wondrous deeds to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has declared to His people the power of His works in giving them an inheritance of the nations. The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are faithful.

Speaker C [: 00:08:48

They are upheld forever and ever; they are done in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people, He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and fearsome is His name. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. Good insight belongs to all those who do His commandments. His praise stands, or endures, forever. Here's the second thing I want to put on our minds now, and then we'll work through trying to reconcile the two together. How do they do that? How do they take all those components of metal, strap some fluid systems on there, electrical systems, data systems, put a few computers in there, program the computers, put it on a launch pad, load it up with fuel, it weighs 4 million pounds, and then light the fire? It produces 7.5 million pounds of force, and in less than 9 minutes you're in orbit going 17,500 miles an hour on a perfect trajectory to later then rendezvous and dock with the space station orbiting the earth at that same speed.

Speaker C [: 00:10:41

And the 2 contact one another at about 0.1 feet per second, plus or minus an inch. How is that possible? I've spent a lot of time in Russia, especially during the 2000s, but I've probably been there 60 times, accumulating 6 years of time over there, spending a lot of time training on the Russian part of the space station as well as the Soyuz operation. I had to learn Russian to support that training, and I lived and worked in a place called Star City right outside of Moscow, about an hour east. And there was a regional train, and on weekends I would take the train off and into Moscow to spend some time in the city. And the platform there was called the Tsiolkovsky platform, Tsiolkovsky, named after Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He's considered the father of the Russian space program. He wrote this, From the rocket, we shall see the huge sphere of the planet Earth like phases of the moon. We shall see how the sphere rotates and how within a few hours it shows all its sides successively.

Speaker C [: 00:11:54

And we shall observe various points on the surface of the earth for several minutes and from very— from different sides very closely. This picture is so majestic, attractive, and infinitely varied that I wish with all my soul that that you and I could see it. He wrote that in 1911. He was a theorist. He was a scientist. And he had put together in his studies this concept of doing exactly what we've been doing now for several decades. In 1945, a name more familiar to you, Arthur C. Clarke, wrote this: 1945.

Speaker C [: 00:12:43

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a space station in orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories, and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. Exactly describing in a nutshell my experience and the experience of many other astronauts and cosmonauts. How can that be? How can we understand that through a biblical worldview? Well, I want to take you to a vantage point, a unique vantage point of orbit around this planet that we call home, the Earth, and we're going to go to the International Space Station. As I said, it orbits the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. We started building it in 1998. It took until 2011 to complete the assembly. We put it up one piece at a time, mostly with the space shuttle, but also Russian rocket launches.

Speaker C [: 00:13:45

It orbits the Earth about 250 miles above the Earth. If you can imagine the sphere of the Earth, and you got the equator here, the plane of the orbit is inclined to the equator 51.6 degrees. So that means we cross the equator, go up 51.6 degrees north latitude, cross the equator again, 51.6 south latitude. When you come around after one orbit, the Earth has rotated about so you cross about 1,500 miles to the west of the previous orbit. So it's an amazing platform vantage point to, over the days and weeks and months and seasons, to study the Earth. You can see the entire Earth over time in different lighting conditions, day and night, except of course for the North Pole. And South Pole. So it's an amazing vantage point, and it's still a pretty amazing accomplishment of mankind.

Speaker C [: 00:14:39

Hopefully, I always prayed it's not a Tower of Babel, but it is an amazing accomplishment and tribute to what man bearing the image of God is capable of doing and the provision that God placed in His creation to enable man to do it.

Scott Keffer [: 00:14:56

Amen.

Speaker C [: 00:14:58

And by the way, to give us the dominion mandate to subdue His creation, right? It's all part of that. That's how we explain it. So this is our vantage point. This is where I spent the cumulative time of about a year and a half of my life. Spent about a year and a half, Anna Marie, with me off the planet, as she likes to say. She's the real hero in the room in that respect, and I want to thank her for that publicly, for the sacrifices that she put through.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:25

Thank you.

Speaker C [: 00:15:32

But this is our vantage point. If we look out the window during the daytime, you can see structures of the space station. You see the Earth. It's, as I stated in the video before lunch, it's just absolutely amazing, especially to view the Earth. It's ironic that we spend so much time and effort to get off the planet. But then the planet ends up being our primary focus when we're off the planet. At nighttime, it's just— it's spectacular. Look at that night sky.

Speaker C [: 00:16:02

Look at the star field. Look at the globe of the earth. You can see the yellow arc there is the atmosphere of the earth, the life support that God has put in His creation to sustain life. Of course, the star field is just absolutely amazing. And you see sights like this. Orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, you can see a sunrise and sunset many times a day. We orbit 16 times a day. And every one is unique, and every one is beautiful, and every one invokes a sense of awe and wonder.

Speaker C [: 00:16:43

By the way, the concept of wonder demands God as its explanation. You know that, right? That's part of our worldview perspective. If we take a closer-up look, a bigger lens at a sunset just after the sun had gone over the horizon, the layers of the atmosphere become very clear and they're beautiful. They're absolutely beautiful in color. in harmony, in symmetry. In the lower parts where you see the bright oranges and the blacks, the blacks are actually weather systems that shadow the sun over the horizon. And then you go up above the weather and you see the different layers of the atmosphere that we all learned in school above the weather, but the different layers, the different densities of the atmosphere as we go up.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:33

Amen.

Speaker C [: 00:17:33

and eventually end up in space. This is a very unique phenomenon, one of many. These are called noctilucent clouds. And this is one of the better pictures I was able to capture. We don't see them very often. We would typically see them in the polar regions during that polar summer season. So over the North Pole, for example, in June and July, over the South Pole in the wintertime, December, January. Nobody really understands exactly what forms this.

Speaker C [: 00:18:06

The theory is, of course, and I would say it's a feasible theory, is that somehow the currents, the air currents and the jet streams take ice crystals up very high into the atmosphere. And these are on the order of 80 kilometers in the atmosphere, so above the weather systems. And then those air currents, those jet streams, as they mingle, they form this beautiful pattern. And we see this pattern when the Sun is just over the pole and we're flying on the dark side of the Earth, but the Sun is illuminating these, this formation, this formation of presumably ice crystals in the upper parts of the atmosphere over the poles. I'm going to talk later about order. This is a clear demonstration of a mathematical order, and we see it everywhere, or it's in front of us everywhere every day. Oftentimes we don't see it, but order is a critical component to understand the wisdom and the majesty in God's creative work in creation. One of my favorite pictures, and the object of this picture is— the primary object is the fact that we have nighttime and daytime in the picture.

Speaker C [: 00:19:28

We call it the terminator in our program. We cross the terminator just like we orbit once, and from daytime to nighttime, we cross the terminator twice, just like we have a sunrise and sunset on each orbit. We cross the terminator twice. In Job 26, I'll go there just very quickly. Job 26, he speaks to this. Before I get to that verse, I'll pull out a couple of verses in Job 26. The first one, He hangs the earth on nothing, and it's speaking of the majesty of God's creative work. He hangs the earth on nothing.

Speaker C [: 00:20:11

That's Job 26, verse 7. If we go down to verse 10, The author writes, He has marked a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness. We call it the terminator. That's a description of this. It's a description of what ends up being on the planet's surface that you can only see when you're off the planet. So it's a direct testimony. Both those passages are direct testimony to the inspiration of Scripture.

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:40

Amen.

Speaker C [: 00:20:40

This is God's perspective as He takes pleasure in pondering His work, specifically His work of giving habitation and provision to the crown of His creation, mankind. I can't leave Job 26 without pointing out the last verse where he says, behold, these things that he's considered, these— this work of God's creation, he says, behold, These are the fringes of His ways, and how only with a whisper of a word do we hear of Him, but His mighty thunder who can understand? This is but a glimpse of who God is, right? He is so much more than this, but yet we see sights like this. We're impacted by this, and we just see just an incredible— sometimes we imagine it as as containing an infinite amount of awe and wonder and splendor and majesty, reflecting the majesty and the splendor of the One who created all. But yet it's just a glimpse. It's just a whisper. Let's go on and take a look at a few other things we can see from our vantage point. A glacier. This is in northern Pakistan, just a beautiful glacier.

Speaker C [: 00:22:03

And I tried to take collections of photographs while I was up there in different categories. Glaciers were one of those categories. I just loved the beauty of a glacier. You can— you don't see it from up there, but you know and you imagine what the dynamic is, the geography on the ground, the symmetry and the colors and whatnot. It's just beautiful to our sight. Or this glacier in the southern part of South America. in the Patagonia region, the most beautiful glaciers in the world from off the planet. Or another example, a river delta.

Speaker C [: 00:22:42

This one's on the island of Madagascar. I would contend this is the most photographed river delta in the world because it stands out to every astronaut with the naked eye, and it stands out because of its unique patterns of tributaries as well as its color. And this is the actual color of it. It's obviously from the soils that are upstream being washed down, but just an example of the beauty on the Earth's surface. One that's a little more familiar to many of you, and perhaps all of us, is the Grand Canyon. So this is an oblique view of the— as we pass over, I think we were passing over the southern part of Arizona, so— Looking north, it looks like this gouge in the surface, but just another example of the beauty on the surface of the planet. Or Mount St. Helens.

Speaker C [: 00:23:39

We live just 40 miles from Mount St. Helens right now, so it's— we moved up there a year and a half ago. Just an incredible example of not only the beauty of nature and the beauty of God's creation, but also the power that's in creation. And it gives us great scientific substance to study since the eruption happened in 1980, and there's so many dynamic phenomena that occurred immediately at the time and then afterwards that can be studied that actually support the worldwide flood. And young age of the earth. So it's wonderful to be living close by there, but it's a great example also that illustrates the worldview that we've been reviewing this week. Another example of a dynamic activity on the earth's surface, obviously a volcano eruption. Now I will get slapped if I don't go to a personal story, and some of you know this because I've already heard from a couple of you, be sure to tell the volcano story.

Speaker C [: 00:24:50

So I will. This is a personal story. I mentioned in the beginning I'm going to try to focus on God's provision, His works of provision, but I also mentioned His works of providence. So this occurred in May of 2006. It was my first long flight. It was during the time the space shuttle was grounded after we had lost the crew of the space shuttle Columbia. We grounded it so that we could try to address the issue and fix the problem before resuming flying again. So we went down to a crew of 2.

Speaker C [: 00:25:20

It was my Russian crewmate, Pavel Vinogradov, and I. His English was not that strong. My Russian was not that strong. So we were limited, although we had a great, great relationship, continue to, to this day. We were 6 weeks into our 6-month stay. 6 weeks had been a long time, and we all have experiences in life where we just have a kind of a bad day, down day, maybe extra tired, things haven't gone your way, or you're just— just drudgery of mundane things. I can't really say this was mundane up there, but I was still having kind of a down day. And I'd gone back in the other end of the space station where Pavel was working.

Speaker C [: 00:26:02

As was our custom, we'd gather together about 10 o'clock in the morning to have a tea. We don't drink out of a cup. We draw it out of a straw. But I went back there for tea time with Pavel, and we chit-chatted a little bit, and I was going to head back up to the other end to continue my work, and I passed over a window, saw that we were going over the Aleutian Islands. And as was my habit, I had some time, so I grabbed the camera, got in the window, and started taking pictures, first one island, then the next island, then the next island. Something in the back of my head said, hey, that last one didn't look right. I went back and reframed it. And there was this volcano erupting.

Speaker C [: 00:26:41

I had an opportunity to snap off just 2 or 3 pictures before it was out of view. But I got all excited because you can see in the picture the eruption had just started. You could see the entire plume in view. So I was all excited. It's a remote part of the world. It's a dynamic activity. It's happening now. I went up and I called Houston Mission Control, told them about it.

Speaker C [: 00:27:06

I said, got some pictures. I'm going to put them on the file to downlink, so come get the pictures. We orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, so I set the alarm on my watch to be back in the window to take some more pictures in the next orbit because we were going to pass back over it. In the meantime, the CAPCOM in Houston was an astronaut by the name of Steve Bowen. He got on the internet. He found the Alaskan Volcano Observatory. on the internet. He called them up, said, hey, this is Steve Bowen calling from Mission Control down in Houston.

Speaker C [: 00:27:37

We just got a report from the International Space Station that one of your volcanoes is erupting. He had the scientist on the other end of the phone. He could tell he was having a hard time convincing her this was legitimate. Certainly this was a prank somebody was playing on her, so— but they had the conversation. He tried to assure her that it was legit. Anyway, he got her name and phone number to me, so I called her up and said, hey, this is Jeff Williams on the space station. I heard you got the report of your erupting volcano. Did you get my pictures yet? Well, no, I haven't got the pictures.

Speaker C [: 00:28:17

Okay, give me your email address. I'll send them to you. So I sent her the pictures. I could still tell that she thought this was a prank. Certainly, this couldn't happen. I mean, we can all imagine that, right? Well, we got done with the call, and I was back in the window 90 minutes later to take pictures of the volcano, and here it was, not even a puff coming out of it.

Scott Keffer [: 00:28:42

Wow.

Speaker C [: 00:28:43

The cloud that you saw in the previous picture had detached and was way downwind. You see the fresh lava flowing down the the mountain. This is Cleveland, an island, or a volcano rather, called Cleveland. You can look it up. It's easy to find. This eruption happened, as I said, in May of 2006. They didn't know about it because they have sensors out there, but they don't have real-time, at least in those days, they didn't have real-time data transmission back to know that the eruption was occurring. So They would get that data, pick it up maybe once a day or some frequency.

Speaker C [: 00:29:21

So they were completely unaware of it. So my report was their first awareness of it. The backstory is Anna Marie and I had talked early that morning, like was our habit. We talked at least twice every day. She knew I was having a bad day. And she had prayed to the Lord to bring something into my day specifically to lift me out of my slump. We never dreamed it would be a volcano eruption. But to this day, I'm the only one that I know of on or off the planet that saw that particular eruption.

Speaker C [: 00:30:02

And I tell that story not because of the story of the volcano and all of that. I tell the story Because it's important for us to grow, as we grow in our faith, to comprehend the details in the providence of God and the provision that He gives each of us each and every day, even in the little things.

Scott Keffer [: 00:30:24

Amen.

Speaker C [: 00:30:25

Although this was relatively trivial, even in the hard times, in the suffering times, He gives provision.

Scott Keffer [: 00:30:34

Amen.

Speaker C [: 00:30:34

And we are to grow in our trust in that, and we are to grow in our acknowledgment of that, to acknowledge Him as the giver and to grow in gratitude and give thanks. And then pretty soon the trials of life just become light, momentary fluff, right? Because we gain and grow in a perspective of the eternal weight of glory, trusting as Phil talked about, and being— having the assurance of the content, the substance of our faith in Jesus Christ. Well, let's move on. Other examples of beauty of the earth, coral reefs. Got another whole collection of coral, beautiful. Many of you have seen coral on the surface, I'm sure. To orient you in this picture, in the center of the picture, upper part of the picture, you can see the Florida Peninsula with the Florida Keys sweeping out to the left. The island in the foreground is Cuba.

Speaker C [: 00:31:36

The Bermuda and the Bahamas are over to the right half of the screen, just gorgeous in color and pattern and beauty. Here's a— looking straight down at the Florida Keys. Many of you, I'm sure, have been there. Or a close-up of the the major reef structure in the Bahamas just east of Florida, or a close-up at my favorite reef in all the world. It doesn't look real. It doesn't look real when you see it out the window. It doesn't look real in the pictures. It looks like a watercolor painting you might see hanging in a museum.

Scott Keffer [: 00:32:14

Pretty cool, eh?

Speaker C [: 00:32:15

Yeah.

Scott Keffer [: 00:32:19

You know, in that picture of the space station with the Earth behind it, how many— I don't know about you, I thought, how did they build that? That thing's amazing. It's just amazing. I'm looking at the spaceships and that is so amazing. Whoa, they did it in space. Meanwhile, behind it is the information, you know, which the Lord spoke into being with a word. With a word. It's just our nature, right? We, we we glory in our own, in the accomplishments of man more than we do than that, that God's power. But I just thought that, that was a stunning picture to me of— I thought, ah, this thing is really cool.

Scott Keffer [: 00:33:00

Who else? And even if you think of the atmosphere, our ability to see the stars, the Lord created the ability to see the stars. It protects us from the sun's rays and all of that, but we can still See his glory in creation. The fringes of his ways. Isn't that cool? And I always said, you know, that it's— to me, the Lord, the, the, the door to his glory is just cracked, and there's just a little bit of his glory shining through, and we're amazed at the crack of his glory. Imagine if you opened the door, right? If you opened the door, it would be— it would just be consuming.

Scott Keffer [: 00:33:47

Yeah.

Scott Keffer [: 00:33:48

And that in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we see him, we'll be made like him. And unless that happened, there's no way we can see or even experience his full glory, because his glory would consume us. His, his light, his power, and just his nature would consume us. But as a result of that, we can not only stand before him, but we can have fellowship with him because we're going to be made like him. And my sense is, if these pictures are pretty cool, that just his glory is going to be overwhelming. Glory is going to be overwhelming. Who else? Del Tackett, the Truth Project, uh, top of the Truth Project. He said music is the proof of God.

Scott Keffer [: 00:34:39

In a random world, how could you have— in a random world, right, not just beauty, random would never come together to produce, right?

Speaker C [: 00:34:49

Where—

Scott Keffer [: 00:34:49

how many times has your garage formed itself into a system? How about your office? How about your closet, right? Where, where Where does the natural force ever come together to form system and order, right? I'm still waiting for that. Yeah, I'm still waiting. But think about music, which is beauty in sound, but it's mathematically based. How can you— right, how can you have math inside of— in a random world, how can you even have math? I've always said, if, if it were pure deduction, every mathematician would be a Christian. Because the mere probability that you could have the systems and the order and the function of creation, there's no way you can look at its probability and say this is even— there's an infinitesimal probability that 2 or 3 or 4 systems would exist, but there's so many systems in creation. But again, it's spiritually discerned. by the grace of Almighty God. So a little bit of his creation, but a reminder to us daily.

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:05

The whole earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his glory, and his mercies in little things. To think, just think about this for a second, that the Lord sent a volcano to encourage Jeff Wilson.

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:21

Yes.

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:22

like blew off a volcano to encourage him.

Speaker C [: 00:36:24

Wow.

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:26

And that he was there in time to see it, to photograph it.

Speaker C [: 00:36:30

Huh.

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:31

It's almost like— nah, I mean, nah, that's the Lord.

Speaker C [: 00:36:39

He's—

Scott Keffer [: 00:36:40

his hand on all things. He's sovereign, but he's providential. Providential is his care, his care, his sovereignty, but his care through the details and the provision of life. I love, I love that somebody like that, well studied, who's— he's not just speaking out of theory.

Scott Keffer [: 00:37:05

Yes.

Scott Keffer [: 00:37:05

He's seen and experienced the glory of God. So hopefully it has raised your sense of the glory of God. So, Heavenly Father, we stand in awe of you. We stand in awe of your creation. We're reminded that you spoke. You said, let all the earth fear the Lord, that all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it was done. You spoke and this was done. And you, Lord Jesus, you— all things were created through you and for you, and in you all things hold together.

Scott Keffer [: 00:37:42

You hold it all together by the word of your power. And then daily, through your creation, you show forth your great mercies, your loving kindness, your tenderness, your favor to us. So give us eyes to see, Lord. We just give us eyes to see and experience and be grateful for your glory. And the days that you've given us, and the— just the capability to see your glory in all of its fullness. And a reminder that one day we're going to see your full glory when we are made like you. So may the Lord bless you and keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you, his face to shine upon you.

Scott Keffer [: 00:38:28

May he lift up his countenance and grant you his peace, his shalom, deep into your soul, as you know that he sits above the throne of the earth and that your days are in his hands and your ways are in his hands. And he is gracious and kind and merciful and good. May he bless you and keep you always. Amen. Amen.

Scott Keffer [: 00:38:58

Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you His peace, His shalom, in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.