Good Friday morning, all!
This week has flown by! Today we look at the verses describing the crowning glory of God's Creation: man! Psalm 8 is a song of praise in awe of God's Creation, and verses 4-6 focus on the uniqueness of mankind: What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the work of your hands; you put everything under his feet.
God did not scratch His head after the creation of the world and the plants and animals and say, "Hmmm... I wonder what's missing..." The Bible tells us that even before the foundation of the world - before He made one little thing - He had us in His mind. Ephesians 1:4-6 tells us, For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Now that is one of the best run-on sentences ever written! God always had US in mind when He was creating this wonderful world! He desired to have a relationship with us and He created us with that in mind. Read that first chapter of Ephesians today just to see how very blessed you are!
So, when God created man and woman, He "blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.' " We certainly have been busy filling it! I heard on the news the other day that we are either at or very near 7 billion now! However, I also heard in that same story that the entire world's population could fit into the state of Texas standing side by side! :)
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day. (verse 31)
When He was finished with Creation, God saw that it wasn't just good, but VERY good! Of course!
Now, the one thing we haven't talked about here this week is how long it took God to do this. Does it matter? Well, what you believe about God affects the way you live. If you believe that God spoke and it was so, if you believe in a God who is all-powerful enough to create the world from NOTHING, then you will have no trouble believing that this same God could create the world in six actual days - as measured by evening and morning, just as this account tells us. And you will certainly have no trouble trusting this same God with the details of your own life. If we grasp that He did all this while thinking of US, then we also can understand that this same God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. So, when we believe God's Word about WHO God is and what He can do, we'll have no trouble believing what He says is true about us. Our pastor has been doing a series called "Transformed," in which he has been going through the New Testament verses that talk about who we are in Christ. He says, "The truest thing about you is what God says is true about you in His Word." And it all starts with the acknowledgement that the Bible is, indeed, the Word of God - the God-breathed writings of men that are the TRUTH. Do I think that God wasn't quite sure what He wanted, so he experimented and started with just a cell and watched it all unfold through natural selection? Absolutely not!
The Bible makes it clear that our God is a planner - a Creator with a purpose. We'll see in the next chapter how this plan is immediately clear. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is the story of His plan. He wanted us to know it - and He wanted us to live it out. That's why He gave us this book and the Living Word, Jesus.
Showing posts with label Genesis 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genesis 1. Show all posts
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Genesis 1:20-27
Good morning, all!
I debated about how to divide this chapter up, and I just decided that we'd tackle the rest of the act of Creation today and then do a more focused look at God's unique relationship with Man tomorrow. On the fifth day, God created the animals of the sea and the sky" "every living and moving thing... according to their kinds." As with everything He'd created to that point, "God saw that it was good." However, in this case, God also blessed His creation. Verse 22 says, God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."
On the sixth and final day of Creation, God created all of the land animals, including insects ("creatures that move along the ground"). God loves His animals! And He created such a variety! Whenever we visit the San Diego Zoo or when we recently visited the Long Beach Aquarium, I just marvel at the variety - the types, shapes, colors, and noises of His creatures is amazing - and often hysterical. They are proof that He has a sense of humor! And these creatures obey Him! They certainly are fruitful! And each of them serves a purpose! Even those blasted crows serve a purpose as scavengers! :) Now, just think of the insect world alone. I just googled "How many ants are there on earth?" and found that there are 2.3 x 10 to the eighteenth power!! No wonder we can't get rid of them!!! And there are more than 900,000 types of insects, with more being discovered all of the time!
Again, we are told, "And God saw that it was good." He had created an amazing world: a glorious universe, heavens filled with stars and planets, beautiful plants, and a wealth of animals. Yet, something was missing. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (verses 26 & 27) God is a God of relationship, even in the Trinity. He created man in triune form as well: we have a physical body, a soul (mind and emotions), and we have what no other creation has, a spirit, our eternal being that allows us to have a relationship with God. Emmy, when she was selling jewelry, used to joke that the difference between us and all the rest of the animal world is that we are the only ones that accessorize! :) Tomorrow we'll look at the actual difference, the uniqueness of our Creation.
Lots to ponder, and MUCH for which to be grateful! The English major in me just could not bear to leave a dangling preposition!! :)
I debated about how to divide this chapter up, and I just decided that we'd tackle the rest of the act of Creation today and then do a more focused look at God's unique relationship with Man tomorrow. On the fifth day, God created the animals of the sea and the sky" "every living and moving thing... according to their kinds." As with everything He'd created to that point, "God saw that it was good." However, in this case, God also blessed His creation. Verse 22 says, God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."
On the sixth and final day of Creation, God created all of the land animals, including insects ("creatures that move along the ground"). God loves His animals! And He created such a variety! Whenever we visit the San Diego Zoo or when we recently visited the Long Beach Aquarium, I just marvel at the variety - the types, shapes, colors, and noises of His creatures is amazing - and often hysterical. They are proof that He has a sense of humor! And these creatures obey Him! They certainly are fruitful! And each of them serves a purpose! Even those blasted crows serve a purpose as scavengers! :) Now, just think of the insect world alone. I just googled "How many ants are there on earth?" and found that there are 2.3 x 10 to the eighteenth power!! No wonder we can't get rid of them!!! And there are more than 900,000 types of insects, with more being discovered all of the time!
Again, we are told, "And God saw that it was good." He had created an amazing world: a glorious universe, heavens filled with stars and planets, beautiful plants, and a wealth of animals. Yet, something was missing. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (verses 26 & 27) God is a God of relationship, even in the Trinity. He created man in triune form as well: we have a physical body, a soul (mind and emotions), and we have what no other creation has, a spirit, our eternal being that allows us to have a relationship with God. Emmy, when she was selling jewelry, used to joke that the difference between us and all the rest of the animal world is that we are the only ones that accessorize! :) Tomorrow we'll look at the actual difference, the uniqueness of our Creation.
Lots to ponder, and MUCH for which to be grateful! The English major in me just could not bear to leave a dangling preposition!! :)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Genesis 1:6-19
Good morning, all!
In this next portion of the creation account, God separated the heavens from the earth, providing a protective atmospheric canopy over the earth that essentially made a greenhouse atmosphere on earth. As Jon Courson points out, that's why we find fossils of tropical vegetation in the Arctic Circle. This canopy protected the earth from intense UV rays, so that man was able to live longer, as well. The collapse of that canopy was the Flood of Noah's day, and that deluge caused cataclysmic changes on the earth and further physical decline to already fallen mankind.
On the third day of creation, we see the beginnings of life as God created vegetation and fruits. Already we see that our Creator God is indeed creative, as we are told He created plants of "various kinds," including the seed-bearing plants that produce fruit "according to their kinds." In other words, apple trees produce apples, not figs. Seriously, think about the impact of this wonderful gift from God to us! He could have produced just one kind of fruit: prunes! Instead, He gave us delicious strawberries, avocados, kiwis, plums, nectarines, pineapples, and prunes to boot! And those wonderful fruits have seeds within them in order to reproduce.
And on the fourth day, He created the sun, the moon, and the stars to separate day from night and to give us seasons. Again, God could have given us one long winter, or even one long summer - and either would have been unbearable. So, instead, He gave us four seasons that perfectly work together to give us all the weather we need for the growth of these great plants and to give us variety to our days. This is really the gift of time. These lights in the sky mark our days - allowing us to organize our lives into work and rest periods. Years ago Don and I took the girls to Washington, DC, and we visited the DAR Museum (one that you can easily overlook, but which is a great place to visit). Anyway, while we were touring one of the state displays (each state contributed a model room that depicts that state's early history), the guide pointed out that candles were used rarely in colonial days - usually only when someone in the house was sick. People went to bed when the sun went down and woke when it came up. It made me realize the impact of the lightbulb: because we CAN now have light 24/7, we feel the need to work through long hours. Just like all technology that followed the lightbulb, there were good and bad consequences to man's inventions. God designed our world to give us periods of rest, but we insist on working well into the night!
The last thing that we can note in these verses is that God created two main sources of light: the greater light, the sun, to rule the day, and the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night. It amazes me that the lesser light is a mere reflection of the greater light. The moon is not the source of the light - it reflects the sun's light. In the same we, we are to reflect the light of Jesus, the Light of the world. Courson points out that when the world gets between the sun and the moon, the moon's light diminishes (an eclipse). To the same degree that we allow the world to come between us and Jesus, our light diminishes. Are we reflecting Christ to the world or allowing the world to snuff out His light???
I'm thanking God today for the wonderful, warm sun, that we can finally see again, and for the beautiful moon that smiles down on us! And for all those wonderful fruits and the amazing variety of plants, including the ones that brighten my garden!
In this next portion of the creation account, God separated the heavens from the earth, providing a protective atmospheric canopy over the earth that essentially made a greenhouse atmosphere on earth. As Jon Courson points out, that's why we find fossils of tropical vegetation in the Arctic Circle. This canopy protected the earth from intense UV rays, so that man was able to live longer, as well. The collapse of that canopy was the Flood of Noah's day, and that deluge caused cataclysmic changes on the earth and further physical decline to already fallen mankind.
On the third day of creation, we see the beginnings of life as God created vegetation and fruits. Already we see that our Creator God is indeed creative, as we are told He created plants of "various kinds," including the seed-bearing plants that produce fruit "according to their kinds." In other words, apple trees produce apples, not figs. Seriously, think about the impact of this wonderful gift from God to us! He could have produced just one kind of fruit: prunes! Instead, He gave us delicious strawberries, avocados, kiwis, plums, nectarines, pineapples, and prunes to boot! And those wonderful fruits have seeds within them in order to reproduce.
And on the fourth day, He created the sun, the moon, and the stars to separate day from night and to give us seasons. Again, God could have given us one long winter, or even one long summer - and either would have been unbearable. So, instead, He gave us four seasons that perfectly work together to give us all the weather we need for the growth of these great plants and to give us variety to our days. This is really the gift of time. These lights in the sky mark our days - allowing us to organize our lives into work and rest periods. Years ago Don and I took the girls to Washington, DC, and we visited the DAR Museum (one that you can easily overlook, but which is a great place to visit). Anyway, while we were touring one of the state displays (each state contributed a model room that depicts that state's early history), the guide pointed out that candles were used rarely in colonial days - usually only when someone in the house was sick. People went to bed when the sun went down and woke when it came up. It made me realize the impact of the lightbulb: because we CAN now have light 24/7, we feel the need to work through long hours. Just like all technology that followed the lightbulb, there were good and bad consequences to man's inventions. God designed our world to give us periods of rest, but we insist on working well into the night!
The last thing that we can note in these verses is that God created two main sources of light: the greater light, the sun, to rule the day, and the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night. It amazes me that the lesser light is a mere reflection of the greater light. The moon is not the source of the light - it reflects the sun's light. In the same we, we are to reflect the light of Jesus, the Light of the world. Courson points out that when the world gets between the sun and the moon, the moon's light diminishes (an eclipse). To the same degree that we allow the world to come between us and Jesus, our light diminishes. Are we reflecting Christ to the world or allowing the world to snuff out His light???
I'm thanking God today for the wonderful, warm sun, that we can finally see again, and for the beautiful moon that smiles down on us! And for all those wonderful fruits and the amazing variety of plants, including the ones that brighten my garden!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Genesis 1:1-5
Good morning, all!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening and morning - the first day.
There is so much in just these first verses. First, according to Courson, the Hebrew phrase for "formless and empty" is tohuw va bohuw, a phrase used again in Isaiah 45:18 when Isaiah says that God created the heaven and the earth not in vain - not " tohuw va bohuw." So Courson says, "If Isaiah says God did not create the earth without form and void, but Genesis 1 says the earth was without form and void, what's going on?" Then he says that many commentators believe that an event took place between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 which is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekial 28: the time when Lucifer launched a rebellion against God and was kicked out of heaven along with one-third of the angels who fell with him. It was at this point that he became "the god of this world." (2 Cor 4:4). So, there was darkness over the earth and God said, "Let there be light." Courson says the Hebrew literally reads, "Light be! And light was."
Courson's point that he leads to here is that our lives were just like this before we encountered Christ: formless and empty. And even as the Spirit of God hovered over the earth, that same Holy Spirit began to do a work in your life and began to draw you to the light. You saw the light and the darkness in your life was dispelled! I like that analogy! Notice that it says in verse 5, "And there was evening and morning - the first day." Courson points out that even today Jewish people reckon their day from evening to morning - going from darkness to light!
Also note that the Trinity is completely present here at creation. It says that the Spirit was hovering, and in John 1:1 we are told, "In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Colossians 1:16, 17 says, "For in him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." And in Revelation 4:11 the 24 elders bow before Jesus and say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Jesus is not a created being, He is the Creator God.
So, even as the first act of creation involved bringing light into the darkness, this is the first thing God does with us when we are born again. We come out of the darkness into the light! And it IS good!!!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Genesis 1:1 - Beginnings
I heard someone on the radio several months ago saying that if you could not "buy" the first four words of the Bible, you could not "buy" the rest. "In the beginning God..." The Bible nowhere tries to rationally or scientifically explain God, although it is filled with amazing logic and accurate science. It is not a textbook, although it has the answers to every question we have. The Bible just assumes the existence of God - HE IS! So, if you start with that truth, the rest falls into place. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. If you want a relationship with God, it requires that you acknowledge His presence! And He promises that we will be rewarded for our diligence in seeking Him. What more could we ask for in 2011?
So, the words, "In the beginning God" tell us that we are going to learn about how and why God created this amazing world and Man. And almost since the beginning, Man has tried to take God out of this picture. For many, their life's work has been to try to explain away the Creator. I read an e-mail joke about a scientist arguing with God about creation. He was going to prove how he could "create" a world by just mixing together the right compounds. But as he reached to grab some soil, God said, "Get your own dirt!" I love that! The Bible is clear that God created it all from NOTHING. Every one of the approximately 100 natural elements on the periodic table that make up everything within the universe, were created by God from nothing! He merely spoke and they came into being! WOW! In just the first chapter of Genesis, the phrase, "And God said..." is followed by "And it was so," or its equivalent, at least eight times. When God speaks, it happens. And the amazing thing is that this all-powerful, Creator God, wants to have a relationship with us!!
My prayer for us in this new year, is that we will be excited and encouraged by the wonderful truths in this book, and that we will find very practical, life-changing applications to our own lives as we study the lives of the patriarchs in this book! Tomorrow we'll get into the creation details.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
