THE BEGINNING

Today’s Reading: Genesis 1-2

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

A couple sits watching the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea from under the remains of an ancient Roman aqueduct in the area of Caesarea, Israel.

Key Verse: Genesis 1:27

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

“In the beginning, God created,”…”Elohim bara” (Hebrew). This Name for God is always plural, yet in the Hebrew language it always takes a singular verb (Genesis 1:1). Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and at work to make something out of nothing. In the rest of the creation account the verb is “Asah,” which is what a carpenter does when he works with material already in existence. Chapter two is an expansion of what God did in chapter one. We are made in His Image. We are not just physical beings. We have a capacity for a life beyond, for communication with God, and God with us. Like God, we are intended to live forever! Because we are made in His image, we can come to know Him more as we daily read from the revelation He has chosen to give us, the Bible! We have a free will, the freedom to choose. We can ignore Him and even reject Him, or we can learn of Him, opening our hearts and minds to Him as our God, believing in the great Creator God!

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I’ve decided to believe in You. Thank You for enabling me to find this blog. Your Thoughts are expressed in Your Holy Word. Help me to maintain the committment of reading Your Word daily, getting to know what You think of me and of everything you have created. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I marvel at God’s creation. On land we once owned, according to someone who knows, there is a 300-year-old cherry tree. Amazing! Recently a large red fox decided to have a sleep on our driveway. Norma-Jean thought it was dead, but it jumped up and ran off, it’s long fluffy tail floating in the breeze. God must love variety. In meditating on creation, my heart and mind are lifted up to contemplate the Creator God, and Jesus Himself. John writes, “Without Him (Jesus) nothing was made that was made.” The mystery of it all astounds me. There are many things I do not understand. It would be the height of arrogance to claim to know it all. However, I can claim to know a great deal more than I did when I first heard Bible stories as a child. Almost every day, as I study the suggested reading, I’m learning more. I imagine reading Genesis 1 & 2 in eternity and asking Moses, “What have you learned here in Heaven from God about creation that you didn’t know when you wrote Genesis? When God spoke the cosmos into existence, was there a ‘big bang?’ Is that how it happened, Moses?” I expect to have a greatly increased intellectual capacity, even understanding quantum physics.

We’ve just completed reading the first book of the record of Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew’s Gospel, and we’re now beginning a book which Jesus would’ve read as a Boy in the Synagogue. Remember, at any time we or someone we know can begin this journey and in two years, with breakfast-sized readings, God’s thoughts expressed in Words will be ours, and the Spirit of God will bring to remembrance what we need to know (if we are consistent in our reading) when we need to remember for ourselves and for others.

Please feel free to post your comments, and I thank you for your input. Attend church this Sunday. Speak with a teacher there if possible, asking any questions you may have. Beware of false teachers. For a New Testament reading for today, I suggest the little book of Jude (only one chapter).

Yours for learning to think some of God’s thoughts,

David