GOD,
AS CREATOR

“What is the object of my love?” I asked the earth and it said: “It is not I.” I asked all that is in it; they made the same confession … I asked the sea, the deeps, the living creatures that creep, and they responded: “We are not your God, look beyond us.” I asked the breezes which blow and the entire air with its inhabitants … heaven, sun, moon, and stars; they said: “Nor are we the God whom you seek.” And I said to all these things in my external environment: “Tell me of my God who you are not, tell me something about him.” And with a great voice they cried out: “He made us … We are not God.”

Augustine of Hippo

The world forgets you, its creator, and falls in love with what you have created instead of with you.

Augustine of Hippo

It is necessary to apply to Scripture in order to learn the sure marks which distinguish God, as the Creator of the world, from the whole herd of fictitious gods.

John Calvin

The difference between Creator and created is incomparable.

Cyril of Alexandria

The end of God’s creating the world was to prepare a kingdom for his Son.

Jonathan Edwards

The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.

Heidelberg Catechism

This is the creator:

by his love, our Father;

by his power, our Lord;

by his wisdom, our maker and designer.

Irenaeus

Out of him we have all come, in him we are all enfolded and towards him we are all journeying.

Julian of Norwich

I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making him set the world in motion with a flip of his thumb; after that he had no more use for God.

Blaise Pascal

No rain, no mushrooms. No God, no world.

African proverb

Everything is good when it leaves the Creator’s hands; everything degenerates in the hands of man.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We often praise the evening clouds,

And tints so gay and bold;

But seldom think upon our God,

Who tinged those clouds with gold.

Sir Walter Scott

God-Centeredness

1.      If you seek first to please God and are satisfied therein, you have but one to please instead of multitudes; and a multitude of masters are hardlier pleased than one.

2.      And it is one that putteth upon you nothing that is unreasonable, for quantity or quality.

3.      And one that is perfectly wise and good, not liable to misunderstand your case and actions.

4.      And one that is most holy, and is not pleased in iniquity or dishonesty.

5.      And he is one that is impartial and most just, and is no respecter of persons, Acts x. 34.

6.      And he is one that is a competent judge, that hath fitness and authority, and is acquainted with your hearts, and every circumstance and reason of your actions.

7.      And he is one that perfectly agreeth with himself, and putteth you not upon contradictions or impossibilities.

8.      And he is one that is constant and unchangeable; and is not pleased with one thing to-day, and another contrary to-morrow; nor with one person this year, whom he will be weary of the next.

9.      And he is one that is merciful, and requireth you not to hurt yourselves to please him: nay, he is pleased with nothing of thine but that which tendeth to thy happiness, and displeased with nothing but that which hurts thyself or others, as a father that is displeased with his children when they defile or hurt themselves.

10.      He is gentle, though just, in his censures of thee; judging truly, but not with unjust rigor, nor making your actions worse than they are.

11.      He is one that is not subject to the passions of men, which blind their minds, and carry them to injustice.

12.      He is one that will not be moved by tale-bearers, whisperers, or false accusers, nor can be perverted by any misinformation.

Richard Baxter

God was so precious to my soul that the world with all its enjoyments appeared vile. I had no more value for the favor of men than for pebbles.

David Brainerd

He loseth nothing that loseth not God.

George Herbert