And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. – Mark 5:14-20

Jeffrey Dahmer’s disgusting cannibalism is branded in the memory of my generation. I can distinctly remember sitting in the 3rd grade cafeteria making jokes about Jeffrey Dahmer. I wasn’t a Christian at that time. Neither was he. Dahmer’s atrocity is a reminder to us all of the human heart’s capacity for great evil. Thanks be to God, we are not as bad as we could be. And thanks be to God, Dahmer’s conversion reminds us of the greatness and the glory of our Christ on the cross, displaying the extent of sin’s ugliness and the greatness of God’s mercy.

Listen to Dahmer, clothed and in his right mind, explain his own interpretation of his murderous acts in light of his recent conversion to Christianity,

It is interesting to me that when Jesus healed the demon possessed man who could not be bound by chains that the people “began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.” For some, the idea that a murderer would go free is as evil a thought as the murder itself. Indeed it is – if the injustice of murder is never vindicated. But in Christianity, sinners go free and sins get punished. If Dahmer truly was converted to Christ, he will be in heaven because all of the punishment that he deserves was placed on Christ. On the cross, the infinite wrath of God against sin was poured out on Christ for those whose faith is in him.

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” – Isaiah 45:18

You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. – Nehemiah 9:6

“It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. – Jeremiah 51:15

The Old Testament prophets drew on heavenly imagery for a reason; God made the heavens and that means something for the confidence we ought to have in the sovereign goodness of his plans and his commands. According to Psalm 19, “the heavens declare the glory of God and the above proclaims his handiwork.” Well, if this is true – and it is – then some thousands of volunteers, called to sort through and categorize millions of galaxies, are in for a treat, whether they know exactly why or not.

From the Associated Press,

LONDON — Scientists want Internet users to help them sort through an unusual digital photo album: pictures of about 1 million galaxies.

In a Web statement Wednesday, astronomers asked for volunteers to help classify the galaxies, identifying them as either elliptical or spiral, and noting, where possible, in which direction they rotate.

It would the largest galactic census ever compiled, something scientists say would provide new insight into the structure of the universe.

• Click here to sign up to sort galaxies.

“We’re in the golden era of astronomy,” said Bob Nichol, an astronomer at the University of Portsmouth, in southern England, who helped develop the “Galaxy Zoo” Web site where the photographs are posted. “We have more data than we can assimilate, and we need help.”

Astronomers say computer programs have been unable to reliably classify the star systems.

Without volunteers, it would take researchers years to wade through the photographs, which were taken automatically by a massive digital camera mounted onto a telescope at the Apache Point Observatory near Sunspot, New Mexico, Nichol said.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com’s Space Center.

With 10,000 to 20,000 people working to classify the galaxies, the process could take as little as a month.

Volunteers would sign on to the Web site, complete a brief tutorial and pick through one galaxy after another.

The galaxies would be identified by several people to guard against errors, and scientists would rule on galaxies whose shape or spin was disputed by volunteers.

The catalog would help researchers understand how galaxies interacted and the way in which they formed, Nichol said, explaining that scientists still knew very little about galaxies beyond the fact that some were spiral-shaped while others were elliptical.

“It’s a bit of like knowing that there are men and women in the world, but not knowing where they come from or how they’re different,” he said.

If the volunteers’ data showed that galaxies close to each other spun in the same direction, for example, it would suggest that they were formed at the same time from a common source, a potential challenge to the current understanding of how galaxies — and the structure of the universe — came to be.

Thankfully, God didn’t leave his image bearing creatures to wait on such a project to learn about “the way in which galaxies are formed.” Of course, from a Christian vantage point, this is a worthy undertaking as it amounts to an exploration and enjoyment of the majesty of God on display in creation. The trick is, however, to see the Creator in this creation and not a Creation in his place. Matter is not ultimate, God is. God is before, bigger and better than a million galaxies sorted by thousands of web volunteers. And thanks to the Scriptures, we know not only where these stars came from, but for what purpose they were made; to provide a hospitable environment in which God’s image bearing creatures could explore and enjoy the greatness and the majesty of their Maker…and have a little light at night time as well.

A quote from Graeme Goldsworthy’s, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics,

Jesus says the whole Old Testament, not merely a few selected texts, is about him. Many Christians want to go immediately to consider how the text is about them rather than about Christ.

…we can say that all the texts of the Bible speak about either God, human beings, or the created order, or they speak about some combination of these. Since the fullest revelation of all these elements is to be found in Christ, we can sy that all Old Testament texts in some way foreshadow or typify the solid reality revealed in Christ. The key to comprehensive typological interpretation is not ingenuity or wild imagination, but the controlled analysis of the theological significance of the texts in the Old Testament, and the clarifying of their significance in the light of the corresponding theological function of Christ in the gospel. One important implication of this perspective is that it emphasizes that the primary application of all texts is in CHrist, not in us or something else. This is in keeping with the New Testament’s teaching that our salvation involves our being conformed to the image of Christ. Homiletic applications to us and our contemporaries must be arrived at via the person and work of Christ.

Pg. 252, 256