Purchased some plants 🌼 "In the Beginning" Part I

Genesis 1: 1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

It’s often said that the best place to start is at the beginning.

Yet, many find it difficult to begin with Genesis.

They are thrown off believing it to be somewhat antiquated, especially if they are reading one of the older versions.

Others are discouraged because they bring to the study of this book preconceived ideas and certain concepts about God and the Bible which makes the book of Genesis seem dull or inconsequential.   

While others are biased and reject this book as unscientific or archaic in its concepts.

So, they read the book, particularly the first few chapters, with a sense of tradition or mythology.

They read it only to be informed about a book but are already prejudiced against it.

So, it is my desire and hope that we take a deeper look at Genesis chapter 1 and carefully note what is said here, and what is not said. . . 

The word Genesis means "beginning," so it is an appropriate title for this book.

And today we begin with verse 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Which is simple enough for a child to understand and yet, it’s profound to even inspire the greatest thinkers to ponder its ramifications.

Genesis 1:1 is certainly one of the most beloved and consequential sentences ever written.

Christians, will often pass over this text quickly, so accustomed to the fundamental idea of the Christian worldview — that God is the Creator and we are His creatures. While others roll their eyes in disbelief.

The first thing God tells us in Genesis 1: 1, is that there was a beginning.

Not a beginning to God, but a beginning to time and to the Earth and to the environment in which we live.

Now it’s at this point I want to make perfectly clear, a truth that is very important in our study.

And that is, we must first recognize that it is not the intention of the Bible to be a textbook on science. Although there is science revealed in parts of it. . . it was never intended to be a scientific textbook.

If it were, the book would be much thicker than it is.

Rather, the Bible is intended to be a book of redemption!

Its purpose is not to tell us how the heavens go. . . but how to go to heaven.

It declares the way out for a troubled, bemused, and cursed race, and it is the only book that speaks with authority in this area.

The Bible reveals truth on a higher level – on a spiritual level.

God gave us His WORD, The Bible. . . that we might understand what goes on in the human spirit, for this affects everything we do.

And God has deliberately made the physical to correspond to the spiritual to help illustrate to us what is going on within us.

When looking for info for this devotion I read of a man named: Dr. Filby, who, as the Senior Lecturer at an English technical college, said the following:

    "The material world is designed to produce parallels -- parables -- of the spiritual. There is indeed a spiritual law operating in the natural world, and God put us on a planet where light is separated from darkness for our spiritual education as well as for our physical needs. There is a spiritual, as well as a physical reason, for the pattern of creation and he who divorces science from true religion will never be able to come to a real understanding of the world."

Now, in my personal opinion, it seems evident that the physical heavens and earth are used to illustrate the fundamental difference that exists between human and divine life.

God operates very differently from mankind. However, it is His intention that mankind should share His life, and live as He lives.

Obviously, then, we must learn a different way of living. 

That is the ultimate subject of the Bible: how to live on a different level of life - the level on which God intended mankind to live.

This is declared very specifically in Isaiah 55:8-9, in which God says,

    "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

       neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

    For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

       so are my ways higher than your ways

       and my thoughts than your thoughts."

So, let’s begin where the Bible begins, at the only place to begin in order to understand the world in which we live.

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1: 1)

God bless and I hope you will want to continue in this journey through “In the Beginning!”