Saturday, June 27, 2020

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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

13 thoughts on “Saturday, June 27, 2020”

  1. Such a great photo to go with the start of Genesis and the Holy Book of the Bible–God’s Word and love letter, to us. It sures makes the start to the day worthy of His praises. Amen? The benediction at the end of Jude is my favourite; one I often say at the end of prayer meetings. A stormy day here. Wishing all saints His blessings.

    I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Psalm 16:8 ESV

    You are God – Nathaniel Bassey ft Chigozie Achugo (Lyrics)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJMNagqzDVM

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  2. Read Jude yesterday with my wife Lorna on a journey, through the bible on two years. Began Jan31 2019 Joshua 19. Woll continue God willing to Joshua and through the 2 year journey again.

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  4. Even though I have read this many times, the reading of creation is still a wonder and amazing. Thanking God for the world he has made and the creation of human beings in His image.

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  5. And it was good. Only God can create something from nothing. But we can, and should, build on the good foundations that were laid down by Godly and prayerful people before us. Of course, God’s living Word is the surest foundation of all.
    Here is an example of someone urging us to build on good foundations:

    “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

    Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

    But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

    Abraham Lincoln
    November 19, 1863

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  7. It’s thrilling to embark on another exciting and always fresh 2-year journey through the Bible. How blessed I was to be aware of this blog when our precious mentor, David Mainse embarked on this plan. This has changed, enhanced, empowered, emboldened me to live my life with purpose and confidence and with the assurance that God Is! He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I am complete in Him! Imagine…complete in Him. This is now my fifth new journey. I’ve recommended this to many people, three of whom travel with me on Wednesdays, as we meet virtually now, to read, study, and pray together. Thank you dear Mainse family who keep this blog going. It’s a life-line for us. I am deeply grateful to you. Just remembering that my late husband and I had the privilege to tour Israel at about this time of the year 15 years ago! Blessed beyond words and on assignment for our dear Lord Jesus Christ!

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