{"id":42383,"date":"2014-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/strange-measurements-cant-help-us-measure-god\/"},"modified":"2014-03-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:00:00","slug":"strange-measurements-cant-help-us-measure-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/strange-measurements-cant-help-us-measure-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange Measurements Can&#8217;t Help Us Measure God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Humans have devised many scales of measurement. We measure height or length in terms of inches, yards, and meters. We weigh objects in pounds and ounces. We divide time from millennia all the way down to nanoseconds (one-billionth of a second). We measure temperature down to absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin or minus 459.7 degrees Fahrenheit)<\/p>\n\n<p>But you may not be aware of these strange measurements:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>\n<strong><em>The Smoot: <\/em><\/strong>As almost every MIT student knows, a smoot is a unit of length equal to five feet seven inches. In 1958, a 5 foot 7 inch tall fraternity pledge named Oliver Smoot agreed to be used to measure the Harvard Bridge which connects Boston and Cambridge. After repeatedly lying down on the bridge and having his position marked in chalk, it turned out that the bridge was 364.4 smoots (and an ear) long. Google now offers the option to measure anything in smoots.\n\t <\/li>\n\n\t<li>\n<strong><em>The &quot;Just a Moment&quot;: <\/em><\/strong>Whenever somebody asks you to do something and you reply &quot;just a moment,&quot; don&#39;t think you&#39;re being sneaky by not giving them a precise time. You&#39;re not. A moment was a measurement of time used during the medieval period that&#39;s roughly equal to one and a half minutes.\n\t <\/li>\n\n\t<li>\n<strong><em>The Scoville: <\/em><\/strong>The Scoville Scale is used to measure the amount of capsaicin in chilies, because it&#39;s important to know the exact temperature of the inferno that&#39;s raging in your mouth. For example, the Scolville rates a pimento (100-500), cayenne pepper (30,000-50,000), the Carolina reaper (1,000,000), and law enforcement pepper spray (5,000,000) on the scale.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: Certain things about God and our live in Christ are completely beyond our measurement instruments&mdash;God&#39;s power, God&#39;s grace, our inheritance, Christ&#39;s riches, the value of Christ&#39;s blood, God&#39;s infinity, eternal life.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3886,3888,4089,4099,4243,4400,4414,4510,4625,4671],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42383","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-eternity","tax_ctp_tags-grace-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-greatness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-infinite","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-majesty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-mystery","tax_ctp_tags-perfection-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Strange Measurements Can&#039;t Help Us Measure God - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/strange-measurements-cant-help-us-measure-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strange Measurements Can&#039;t Help Us Measure God - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Humans have devised many scales of measurement. 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