Old Testament

January 13, 2014

In the Beginning…

Genesis 1.1 – 2.3

As I reflected on this passage, I was struck by the disparity between what the world says about the origins of life and what God says, and the implications for the question of purpose. Whether it’s the Egyptians view of a battle between the gods, or the atheistic evolutionary view that we are a cosmic accident…the result of time and chance, the resulting impact on the way we view ourselves, each other and planet earth is the same…negligible, forgettable, expendable.

I shared a tweet this past week, “Genesis presents a better, higher view of the world we live in…a world that reflects the creative genius of its benevolent Creator.” Several years ago, there was a movie that came out called “Contact”. Jodie Foster is the main character. As a little girl, looking through her first telescope, she was blown away by the enormity of the universe and came to the conclusion that there must be other intelligent beings out there…with billions of stars, surely the conditions that allowed for the cosmic accident that is life on planet earth was repeated elsewhere, because if not, what a waste. Looking at planet earth from a non-biblical perspective can easily lead you to that conclusion. The earth is an average planet with an average sun in an average solar system within an average galaxy…but from a biblical perspective, as Moses tells God’s story, the sun moon and stars, the universe itself is created for the benefit of earth-dwellers. My God is a big God who does big things. He does nothing halfway. And though some might consider the earth ordinary, God delights to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. He brings order from chaos, life from death, where sin abounds, grace superabounds…

Paul says in Romans 1 that there is sufficient evidence of God’s existence. His fingerprints are all over His creation. But when we deny that He exists, when we ignore that evidence, then become fools and worship creation rather than the Creator. Whether that worship takes the form of idols carved from wood, animals or celestial beings, or our own intellect…taking the God out of the equation always leads to idolatry.

The Israelites were an average people…not the most numerous, or most powerful, or smartest, or best looking…but God would use them as a conduit of blessing for the world. Paul, writing to the Corinthians says, “God has chosen the weak things of the world to profound the strong…” He’s chosen us, called us, rescued us…for extraordinary purposes. My God is a big God who delights to do big things, to take the average, the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

But what about you? How do your beliefs about the origins of life, the creation of the world impact your worldview? How does it impact the way you view yourself? Others? The environment? The Israelites were a people submerged in a hostile culture that offered a competing worldview…a worldview that was diametrically opposed to a biblical worldview. And like them, we too are submerged in a hostile culture that offers a competing worldview that opposes a biblical worldview. And like the Israelites we have a choice to follow God or be overwhelmed, taken in and deceived by a culture whose conclusion about life is that it’s meaningless.

Take the time this week to look up at the stars…creation should point us to the Creator. The result is always worship…of one or the other. My prayer for us this week is that we would be absolutely blown away by the lavishness of God who spared no expense to have a relationship with us…from the extravagance of creation to the superabundance of His grace. And may we with the psalmist proclaim, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

G.K. Chesterton, “The most important thought you will think today will be your thought about God.”

Until next time…stay salty.

This week we started our new Genesis series. Listen online at: http://www.centralchristian.org, or follow us on twitter: @ccclancaster

January 11, 2014

January 11 – Weekend Passage

Genesis 1

The Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

 

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org)