Biblically Speaking: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

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I CAN T IMAGINE a journey of a thousand miles beginning with a thousand-mile step. When you say a single step, it is a very small beginning compared to the length of a journey that Lao Tzu is trying to tell or impress in this quotation. Do great things start from humble beginnings? Biblically speaking, if that is what Lao Tzu is trying to express - that great things start from humble beginnings - I do not agree. If you open the Bible and read the first book, the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible, you can find something that is great. That is the introductory verse of the Holy Scriptures: In the Bible, this verse is introducing something that is great: the God who created the heavens and the earth. Although the earth may have a humble beginning, it is not humble, because everything began with God. Everything began or originated from God. Therefore, even though how humble the beginning of the earth maybe, it originated from something that is great; something unparalleled in greatness and majesty, and that is God. The Bible begins the verse, introducing the first character of the universe and that is God. That is God, the Supreme Being, the Divine Providence, the Creator of everything that exists. And God as a beginning is not humble. Perhaps Lao Tzu is being humbled now by the interpretation of the scholars that interpreted the quotation of Lao Tzu. I do not think that the interpretation fits the intent of the original person who gave that quotation. Maybe the scholars that interpreted it are misinformed, or these are people who do not think of what they say. If you base your analysis from the Scriptures or the Bible, the Holy Writ, you will find something great in every humble beginning. And if that means that great things come from humble beginnings, that is not Biblical. Anything humble, anything that exists started from God. And that is not a humble beginning. That is a great beginning! Maybe things may progress. Created things may progress. But they did not start from a humble beginning. They all started from the One who started it all. And that is God. Now, so that I may not sound philosophical, let us discover things from the Bible, from the very pages of the Bible if you read. According to our Lord Jesus Christ, in Revelations chapter 22, verses 11 up to 13— "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous-still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Jesus Christ, our Lord, said that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. How will you now say, if you are knowledgeable of the Bible, that things started from humble beginnings? Maybe it is humble in the eyes of men but it is not in the Bible because everything started from the Alpha and the Omega of the Scriptures; and that is our Lord Jesus Christ and His Father. The attributes of the Son are also attributes of the Father. There are attributes of the Father that are fit to the Son. The Father is introduced in the Bible as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Our Lord Jesus Christ is also introduced in the Bible as Alpha, and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Therefore,, if we trace it up, from the very beginning of everything that exists, everything existed and began with the beginning and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. That was the Alpha and the Omega. In the Greek alphabet, the first letter is Alpha and the last letter is Omega. The beginning and the end is our Lord Jesus Christ. The beginning and the end is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the beginning of everything is so great. It is with unparalleled greatness and majesty. I cannot accept from the Biblical point of view that anything starts from humble beginnings. The thing maybe humble but it did not originate from a humble beginning. But of course, if we tackle what the letters of that quotation say, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," of course, I agree. Even in the Bible, if you start a journey, of course you have to take the first step. But it is not called a single step. It is the first step. Of course, because there is a second step. If you just stop there at a single step, then you won t be able to reach a thousand-mile journey or to end a thousand-mile journey. If you are to begin a thousand-mile journey, of course, you have to take the first step. But it doesn t necessarily follow that you have to take more steps because you do not have to step or to walk now in our times. To complete the journey of a thousand-mile, you just have to board an airplane or ride a jeepney, a tricycle, or a taxi or an automobile to finish that thousand-mile journey. Of course it began with a step, and that is Biblical, if that is what is meant by Lao Tzu. I admit it is Biblical. With anything you start, you have to take the first step. For example, you want to marry a woman. You have to take the first step and that is to court the woman. The second step is dependent on the response of the woman. If you are wise enough to anticipate, it depends on the response of the woman. The woman will, maybe, not go verbal about accepting your proposal but by body language and by your prudence, you can see if you re going to take the next step. With anything that we do, there is a first step. "Let s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start... when you read, you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do-re-mi, do-re-mi, the first three notes just happen to be do-re-mi, do-re-mi-fa-so-la-si." I can imagine ... if I am in front of my computer and browsing the web of those old songs - songs which were popularized by artists even before I was born. I can imagine how vast the musical library of all the earth. And these all began with the first step: "Do-re-mi". Understanding "do-re-mi" is the key to this vast diary of musical collections. The greatest songs that I have heard contain the note "do-re-mi, the first three notes just happen to be: do-re-mi". And even how great a student or a teacher maybe, he started from ABC and that s ABC in English; its Alpha, and Beta in Greek In everything we must do, in everything we must achieve, there is a start and the end may conform to how they started. The start or the beginning maybe humble in the eyes of men, but great because they started from God. But there are also things that started great but have fallen into humility. Satan, for example, started great. He was a very intelligent, beautiful creation of God. In fact he is called in the Bible as the "morning star." He s a morning star. When you see or when you read in the bible the term "morning star," this means that this is a very bright star. For a star to be seen in the morning, it must be very bright. Some stars are seen only at night because they glow only in the dark. If you were a morning star, you could be seen in the morning. Just like morning dress, which must not be worn in the evening and the evening dress which must not be worn in the morning, if you are in your right senses. Satan is a morning star, and in fact called such in the Latin translation of the bible of the Catholic Church. He is called Lucifer, meaning light, in Isaiah. While our Lord Jesus Christ is called the bright morning star, satan, in the Bible is called, the "morning star." And the greatness and the brightness of that morning star Is great because he shines in the morning. Now, satan was great in his beginning; he was not humble in his beginning, but he will end in humility. He will be humbled in his last day according to the Scriptures. We can prove from the Bible that not all things start from humble beginnings, and may end into great finality or may end in an exalted manner. Also, not all things that started in a great beginning will end to a great finality. That is according to the Bible. I think there is no point of discussion in what Lao Tzu said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." That is very simple; that is very primary. Anything you do, you start it with the first step- not a single step, but a first step. May the followers of Lao Tzu forgive me, but I just wanted to correct that, from the Biblical point of view, of course. It is not a single step; it must be the first step. And it is not only a journey; it maybe a vocation, a career, a lifetime of achievement that starts with the first step— today! http://www.angdatingdaan.org/segments/seg_bs_5.htm