Tag: Apostles Creed

With or Without God in the World? With or Without the Christ in the World? With or Without the Holy Spirit in the World Today? Psalm 49

1. Reflect: How does wealth tempt us to trust in it rather than God? What does it mean that God redeems his people from Sheol?

2. Remember: In this life, we often find ourselves struggling and suffering. We may look on the wealthy and envy them, hoping that we too could be wealthy and live an easier life. The temptation is great. But Psalm 49 reminds us that wealth is fleeting. Treasures on earth do not last, and they can never redeem a person from the grave (Sheol); even the wealthy go to the grave. On the other hand, it is God alone who has the power to ransom a person from death and to grant eternal life. Jesus Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection has ransomed his people from the power of the grave (Mark 10:45).

3. Rejoice: Trust in Christ alone for salvation. Faithfully trust in the fact that he died for you so that you may have eternal joy with him in the new creation. Rejoice that Jesus did what no mere person can—he has ransomed you from death itself so that you may live for him in gratitude with love.

Psalm 49 The Message

49 1-2 Listen, everyone, listen—
    earth-dwellers, don’t miss this.
All you haves
    and have-nots,
All together now: listen.

3-4 I set plainspoken wisdom before you,
    my heart-seasoned understandings of life.
I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise,
    I solve life’s riddle with the help of a harp.

5-6 So why should I fear in bad times,
    hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
    demeaned by the arrogant rich?

7-9 Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
    pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
    and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
    against the Black Hole.

10-11 Anyone can see that the brightest and best die,
    wiped out right along with fools and idiots.
They leave all their prowess behind,
    move into their new home, The Coffin,
The cemetery their permanent address.
    And to think they named counties after themselves!

12     We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

16-19 So don’t be impressed with those who get rich
    and pile up fame and fortune.
They can’t take it with them;
    fame and fortune all get left behind.
Just when they think they’ve arrived
    and folks praise them because they’ve made good,
They enter the family burial plot
    where they’ll never see sunshine again.

20     We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

With or Without God in the World?

For centuries, Western society has benefited from the widespread influence of the Christian faith.

While the history of our World is filled with too many soul chilling examples of human depravity, where there has been a consistent Christian presence it has, in many ways and at many times, with great struggles, stayed the hand of evil.

Most, but not all of us, have not had to experience the full weight of what a society looks like, when it completely and utterly rejects and forgets God.

The Scriptures, however, do give us a decidedly grim picture of what happens when people have convinced themselves and many others that there is no God.

It is a picture of a rejection of humility, where “the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul” and rejects God in pride (Psalm 10:3-4).

Humility is the first place where the knowledge and the wisdom of God begins; therefore, those who reject God in their life reject humility’s place in their life.

Psalm 10:3-4 The Message

3-4 The wicked are windbags,
    the swindlers have foul breath.
The wicked snub God,
    their noses stuck high in the air.
Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:
    “Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”

Not only do people reject God; they also revile Him, cursing, renouncing Him declaring God to be dead, buried in an unknown paupers grave (Psalm 10:3-4).

It is often prosperity that leads people to curse God and bury God in the woods.

Their lives are going so well, so perfectly, so perfectly hidden, that they believe nothing can, ever will touch them and they will give no account to their Maker.

Their prosperity gives them a false sense of security.

Psalm 10:10-11 The Message

10-11 The hapless fool is kicked to the ground,
    the unlucky victim is brutally axed.
He thinks God has dumped him,
    he’s sure that God is indifferent to his plight.

They think they can live as they like, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, He will never see it” (v 11), that there will be no repercussions for their behavior.

Psalm 10:7-9 The Message

7-8 They carry a mouthful of spells,
    their tongues spit venom like adders.
They hide behind ordinary people,
    then pounce on their victims.

9 They mark the luckless,
    then wait like a hunter in a blind;
When the poor wretch wanders too close,
    they stab him in the back.

With no accountability for how people live, there is no need for the powerful to serve or the strong to be gentle: we can treat others however we please, so the godless person can behave as if there’s no restraints placed upon their actions.

“tongues that spit venom like adders,” “hide behind ordinary people” “sits in ambush, he murders the innocent, he lurks that he may seize the poor” (v 7-9).

It is with good reason, then, that the psalmist says, “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 49:20

When we act and behave, reject and revile God, we foolishly think we are secure, which convinces us that it’s acceptable for us to freely mistreat, reject others.

It is tempting to think that passages like this one only describes other people.

But we should not be too quick to look away from ourselves.

Are there ways we have rejected humility, believing ourselves to be sufficient without God?

Have we let our alleged prosperity numb us to our neediness and accountability before God?

Has our “humble” treatment of those around us been marked by self-interest and arrogance instead of love and service?

We may confess to have faith in God, but perhaps there are areas of our lives that require an intensely rigorous and vigorous Psalm 51 brand of repentance.

The picture of man “in the fullness of his pomp yet without understanding” is indeed a grievously and tragically bleak one—both in this life and at its end.

So perhaps it is the perfect time to praise God that this is not the whole picture.

Psalm 49:13-15 The Message

13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

If you and I can reach a place of understanding that we have a Creator to whom we are valuable and accountable, and that that Creator has ransomed your soul and will receive you into eternal life (Psalm 49:15), then the pomp of this world will assume its proper place, and in Jesus Christ you and I will arrive at a place where we can enjoy a purpose, hope, forgiveness, and pleasures forevermore.

Depending on our own personal relationship with God, today’s Psalm 49 will either be the aroma of life, or the stench of death to you (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).

With or Without the Christ in the World?

Psalm 49:5-9 English Standard Version

5 Why should I fear in times of trouble,
    when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 Truly no man can ransom another,
    or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
    and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
    and never see the pit.

We will either read Psalm 49 and have our soul refreshed, comforted, and filled with joy and hope; or we will read this Psalm 49 and it will fully expose our pride our delusions and our illusions of self-sufficiency, which will cause our soul to become embittered, angry, and insulted – in which case we wont read Psalm 49.

For those of us who respond to God’s summons to repent of our sins and fully trust in Jesus for this life and the next, this Psalm 49 is another beautiful and comforting reminder of God’s love and faithfulness to us because of His Son.

Mark 10:35-45 English Standard Version

The Request of James and John

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39  And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[a] 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[b] of all. 45  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:5-11 English Standard Version

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Because I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who willingly disrobed Himself of His glory in Heaven where He was perfectly worshiped, honored, and obeyed;

That because Jesus came to earth in sackcloth and ashes (skin and bones);

to pay the high cost of the ransom for my soul drenched in sin, which I could not pay, nor hope to pray, by suffering the punishment I justly deserve from God Almighty, and dying the second death (spiritual) that my sins earned me,

yet because He alone is God, had the power to raise Himself from the dead,

so I would only die the first death (bodily), and in Him, would never die the second death, but have been freed, raised to live the resurrected life now and forevermore,

the entirety of this Psalm 49 becomes nothing but the truest and purest salve for my Christ upon the Cross, fully ransomed soul and a joy to my innermost being!

I pray it is the same for all who read this.

With or Without The Leading of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:12-14 The Message

12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

Where do you and I need leadership in our lives?

What challenge, decision, or circumstance is weighing on you and me?

Where do you and I need a timely word from God today?

We have available to us the most perfect guide to lead us throughout the twists, turns, and challenges of this adventurous life.

The Apostle Paul writes these words of wisdom to the followers in Romans 8:14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

As beloved children of the Most High God, we are each granted full access to the leadership of the Holy Spirit who richly makes His home in us, dwells within us.

No child of God is exempt from the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

We do not earn access by our own merit.

We do not gain more favor to receive more leadership.

God gave us all the gift of the Holy Spirit because God loves us (John 3:16-17).

God has filled us with His Holy Spirit because God longs to lead us into the abundant life He alone has planned for us from the beginning of time.

So, let’s start learning today how we might better explore, discover and follow this gift of leadership we’ve all been granted through Christ in the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-18 The Message

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

First, it’s crucial to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit and the word work perfectly together.

One does not contradict the other.

Both the Holy Spirit, the word He inspired are vital in living the Christian life.

And God’s Word says in Galatians 5:16-18,

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The leadership of the Spirit is in direct opposition to the lifestyle of the world.

His desire is always to lead us away from the weight of sin that entangles us in the perspectives and pressures of the world toward a lifestyle of peace, joy, and intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.

All of His leadership is directed, purposed, toward one and singular the goal of abundant life in God, of the fullness of satisfaction in God rather than the weak, fleeting, prideful, ultimately self defeating pleasures in the things of the world.

With or Without God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit

John 16:12-15 The Message

12-15 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’

John 16:13 says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

The Holy Spirit is indescribably excited to speak to you and me what He hears from the heavenly Father.

He longs to declare to you and me God’s plans to love you and me, provide for you and me, heal you and me, transform you and me, and deliver you and me.

He longs to lead you and me to the fullness of life available to you and me here.

Spend time getting to know the Holy Spirit in the secret place today.

As you and I pray today, let us ask God to reveal himself to you and me.

Spend time in prayer resting in the maximum presence of the God who dwells within you and me, who is nearer to us than the very ground beneath our feet.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s desire to lead you into abundant life.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” > Romans 8:14

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” > John 10:10

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to you. 

Spend time learning about who Holy Spirit is.

Ask Him to speak to you and to reveal the way His leadership feels.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” > John 16:13

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” Acts 13:2   

“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements.” Acts 15:28

3. Open up your life to the Holy Spirit. 

Ask Him to reveal to you things He wants to lead you away from.

Ask Him to show you the life He wants to lead you to.

And commit to following His leadership today.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” > Galatians 5:16-18

When you and I have opportunities to indulge in the flesh, choose life in the Spirit instead.

When you and I feel a desire to avenge ourselves, promote ourselves, slander ourselves or someone else, or engage in an obviously sinful activity, please do choose life in God, the Father, in God the Son and in God the Holy Spirit instead.

Choose to love God and others.

Live in step with the Spirit!

Explore and discover the amazing life He longs to guide us all into today.

Dear ABBA, my true Father, I come to you today asking for guidance. I feel lost and overwhelmed, and I need your help in finding my way. Please open my eyes and heart to the direction you want me to take. Help me to make wise decisions that will lead me closer to your path for my life. Give me the strength and courage to persevere when times are difficult. Lead me with your truth and love, so that I may live a life that brings glory to your name. Thank you for your guidance and protection. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Out Of The Darkness: “God Said” Let There Be Light, Let There Be Day One. Genesis 1:3-5

In the beginning, there was God.

And God spoke all of creation into being.

God created ex nihilo (God created out of nothing).

God spoke, and light appeared.

By the power of His Word, land, air, and sea were formed out of nothing.
There is power, wonder-working power in the wonderful Word of God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

He created all things and the Word was light.

He was the light that lightens every man that comes into the world.

There is light and life and power, wonder-working light and life and power in the wonderful Word of God.

Genesis 1:1-5 Amplified Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning God ([a]Elohim) [b]created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was [c]formless and void or a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [primeval ocean that covered the unformed earth]. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, [d]“Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and [e] He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness. 5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was [f]evening and there was [g] morning, one day.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

“I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,”

The first verse of Genesis begins with the greatest observable fact known to man: the existence of the universe, the heavens and the earth, (Genesis 1:1b); and it links to that the greatest fact made known by revelation:

“I Believe in the existence of a God who creates.”

There is thus brought together in this simple verse at the beginning of the Bible the recognition of the two great sources of human knowledge:

nature, which is discoverable by the five senses of our physical life; and revelation, which is discoverable only by a mind and heart illuminated and taught by the Spirit of God.

These things “are spiritually discerned,” says the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 2:14 Amplified).

14 But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters].

Both of these sources of knowledge are from God, and each of them is a means of knowing something about God.

The scientist who studies nature is searching ultimately for God.

One Christian scientist declared, “I am thinking the thoughts of God after him.”

That is an excellent way to describe what science basically is doing.

Also, those who seek to understand the Bible, to grasp its great themes and to understand the depths that are revealed there, are likewise in search of God.

Nature is designed to educate and teach humanity certain facts, truths, about God, but revelation is designed to lead us to the God about whom nature speaks.

So the two are ultimately complementary.

They are not contradictory in any sense, but definitively complete one another.

Genesis 1:3-5 – The First Day: “And God Said …”

Repeatedly throughout Genesis 1 we read those words, “God said,” followed by an act of creation.

God speaks and it is there.

God creates by speaking.

What does this mean?

In seeking an answer, we must be governed by what Scripture tells us.

Several passages come to mind.

One can think of Psalm 33:8 and 9. “By the word of the LORD, the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of His mouth … He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood forth” 

(compare also Psalm 148:5b, “…He commanded and they [His created works] were created”).

God created by His word.

What was involved with the creation by the Word is made clearer as we go to the New Testament.

As the reader of Scripture knows, “the Word” is a name for the Son who was involved in the work of creation! 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:1-3, 14; cf. 1 John 1:1-3; 5:1; Revelation 19:13).

The reference to the Word in creating is further also illuminated by 1 Corinthians 8:8, 

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 

One can also think of Colossians 1:17 and 18, “For in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (cf. Revelation 3:14).

If we read the words “and God said” in Genesis 1, in the light of Scripture, then what is not immediately obvious in Genesis 1, becomes more clear elsewhere.

God’s creating by the word involved the Son.

The word that God spoke was not without content.

It was a powerful and living word.

The word by which He called into being things from nothing was powerful for it was spoken in and through the Son. 

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

“‘Let there be Light’ and there was Light”

After God’s creation of heaven and earth, His first work of creation was light.

Light as we know it is part of creation. It was made. God spoke and it was there.

The importance of light is evident, not only from its place in God’s work of creation, but also from our own experience.

Who can imagine the possibility of life without light?

It is significant that light was created independently of the sun, moon, and stars which were created on the fourth day.

Although I hope to be coming back to this in a future devotion, suffice it for now to note that I would have thought there was a time when men said that this was a scientific error, but I guess men do not, would not, speak like that anymore.

Rather than my trying to ridicule or dismiss this order, or try to explain it, or put it on “social media” trial we should carefully try, consider the implications of this sequence of God’s first creating light and later the sun, moon and stars.

This order of God’s creation work reveals to us that all light comes from God.

God spoke into the prevailing darkness, light was revealed, the light – made it.

Light does not come in the first instance from the sun, the moon or the stars.

Light is a gift of God, not of the sun!

What a tremendous revelation!

What a tremendous gospel revelation this is for our naturalistic age in which people speak so freely and so scientifically of the sun, moon stars, as if alone, in the absence or dismissal or ridicule of their Creator, makes all of life possible.

For this reason people can even fret about the future horror of a spent sun.

For Israel this order of God’s creating activity was also of great comfort over against the host of pagan religions which regularly worshipped the sun.

It is not the sun, which is a part of creation, but the Creator, the Creator’s Son, who alone gives light, who alone is the Light (John 8:12) who is to be adored.

Jesus Is the Light of the World

12 Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “[a]I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

“And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4).

God’s work was pleasing in His eyes.

It was as He wanted it to be so that the light could serve the purpose for which it was made.

Notice that the phrase “God saw that… (it) was good” was not used with verse 2 where we read: 

“The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” 

God’s creation was not yet as He wanted it.

The earth was not yet suitable for the purpose for which God had summoned it away from the prevailing darkness of chaos, ultimately then called it into being.

The fact the created light was pleasing to God doesn’t mean an end to darkness.

No. God makes a separation between light and darkness.

Each gets its proper place in the Created order.

God had made both (Psalm 104:20 Amplified; Isaiah 45:7 Amplified).

20 
You [O Lord] make darkness and it becomes night,
In which prowls about every wild beast of the forest.

7 
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing peace and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.

Both are absolutely needed.

Both are absolutely required.

Think, for instance, of how darkness helps in sleeping!

What the place of light and darkness is, is clear from verse 5.

“God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night” (Genesis 1:5a).

It appears from this verse that the light which God had made functioned in a way similar to the sun; that is, it was not always going, required to be daytime.

Also nighttime was to have its regular place.

It has been suggested that this could point to a light source outside and beyond the world with the earth rotating.

In any case, the fact that God assigned names to the periods of light and periods of darkness is significant.

This reveals God’s power and sovereignty.

Think of Psalm 74:18a, “Thine is the day; Thine also the night.” 

God made the separation between light and darkness and God gave each their name and God made known to man of these names through His spoken Word.

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5b); that is nighttime and daytime making one day.

From Exodus 20:11 Amplified we know God created heaven and earth in six days.

11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].

We may therefore probably assume that the first day began in darkness with God’s work of creation in the beginning (vv. 1, 2).

This darkness was followed by the creation of light.

The first day ended with the coming of evening, which was counted with the following day (Genesis 1:8; similarly with the other days, vv. 13, 18, 23, 31).

In view of the way the first day was made, it is understandable the Bible reckons a day from evening to evening (e.g., Leviticus 23:32; Psalm 55:17; Luke 23:53-54).

32 It is to be to you a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall humble yourselves. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your Sabbath.” (Amplified)

17 
Evening and morning and at noon I will complain and murmur,
And He will hear my voice. (Amplified)

53 And [after receiving permission] he took it down and wrapped it in a linen [burial] cloth and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had yet been laid. 54 It was the day of preparation [for the Sabbath], and the Sabbath was dawning. (Amplified)

There was a Day When Everything Was New

Genesis 1:1-5 The Message
Heaven and Earth

1 1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

3-5 God spoke: “Light!”
    And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
    and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
    he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.

Once, the whole world was new.

Out of nothing, God spoke, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible describes the process of creation:

God spoke, and the world came into being.

And what God made was good.

It shone with delightful diversity, reflecting the richness of God’s character.

We do not always see the goodness and brilliance of God’s creation because sin and brokenness obscure our vision, bring decay to what was once brand-new.

Every day, our complete delight in the newness of God’s work just wears off.

So, daily, we need our attention called back to the character of the Creator.

Genesis tells us that God can and does bring goodness and light out of chaos, and in this way God blessedly assures us that the world is firmly in his control.

In all of the coming coming days and years ahead of us, we will all, without any exceptions, face times when the newness of our abundant blessings wears off, when the brokenness of our lives keeps us from receiving each day as a new gift.

When that happens, let’s remember that God spoke, God made all things good, and let’s just trust that He has the power to make all things new and good again.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Creator God,

As we are made in Your image, we give You thanks for the seed of creativity You planted within each person. We praise You for the clean lines of the sculpture, the complexity of the musical concerto, beauty, eloquence of the poet’s spoken words.

Grant us, we pray, the greater capacity to more fully appreciate creativity where we don’t always notice it: the perfectly clean and useful lines of a row of coat hangers with our wardrobes of praise hanging up neatly and orderly in our closets, say, or the complexity of a computer that brings the world to our doorsteps, crashes (some days) but most days does not, or the beauty in a text message carrying everyday news.

Forgive, us we pray, for those times when we have sadly squandered with aimless disregard our capacity to create, and for those times we have used our creativity as a force for destruction rather than reconciliation and reparation. Help us truly to live in deep appreciative awe of the creativity that you’ve already planted within each of us.

Give us the patience and courage to nourish that creativity, and the strength and truest persistence to express it, witness to it, everyday. In Your name we pray.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Pondering: “In The Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth.” Genesis 1:1-2

I love how the Bible never seeks to prove the existence of God.

It never tries to explain him or try to classify or try to categorize Him.

It isn’t a study on Him.

It is a revelation.

Simply, “In the beginning God.”

In what beginning?

Throughout the Bible we see God as the beginning and the end.

He is the Alpha and the Omega (He’s A through Z).

He is the first and the last.

We know that God is eternal.

We know that he has always been and always will be.

That is how he reveals himself to us.

So what does the Word of God for His Children mean when it says,

“In the beginning God?”

Genesis 1:1-5 Names of God Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth.

2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Ruach Elohim was hovering over the water.

3 Then Elohim said, “Let there be light!” So there was light. 4 Elohim saw the light was good. So Elohim separated the light from the darkness. 5 Elohim named the light day, and the darkness he named night. There was evening, then morning—the first day.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Each of us has exactly one thing in common, we all began life as a baby, and we were all unaware of what was going on around us or what the world was like.

But as we grew older, we started to take note of the world—the sky, the sea, the winds, the birds, the flowers, the animals, the trees, and all of life around us.

As we became aware of the world, we inevitably asked some questions about it.

Just a few weeks ago, our Pastor began a lengthy study on the Apostle’s Creed.

The first line of the Apostle’s Creed is;

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty …”

In my own short 20+ years of Christian experience, this is the very first time I actually sat down and considered the enormous brevity and depths of the Creed.

“All Christians believe more than is contained in the Apostles Creed, but no one can believe anything less.” writes the Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler the studies author.

“What is this all of this about?

“Who is it all about?”

“When did it all begin?”

“Where did it all begin?

“How did it all begin?

“Who started it all?”

“Who is all of this for?”

Those questions, undoubtedly more will come to mind, are the ones answered for us in the brief compass here in the opening verse of the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 1:1 Amplified Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning God ([a]Elohim) [b]created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

Again, what are the questions we are asking of this opening verse of the bible?

First, we ask ourselves, 

“What is all this?” 

Driven by an insatiable curiosity to know, humans have been attempting to answer that most basic of questions ever since they first appeared on earth.

Driven forward, they seek to push themselves into great, greater and greatest boundaries and limits, to explore the universe and the world in which they live.

Another question, we ask, “How did it begin?” 

This question is the emphasis of science.

Then we ask, “When did it all start?”

How long has ‘Creation’ been going on like this?”

How long has the world been going on like this? 

Finally, we come to the great philosophical question, “Who is behind it?”

“Who is back of these indescribably mysterious and remarkable processes?“

These questions are answered in the first verse, and thus it serves for us as a tremendous introduction to the great themes weaved in and through the Bible.

Take the first question,

the one most obvious to us—the wonder of the universe itself. 

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

Someone has said that this phrase is the beginning of true science, because a fundamental part of the task of science is to observe and classify all that can be observed in the makeup of the world of nature.

Here is an early and primitive attempt at classification.

What do you see around you?

You see two great classes of things—the heavens and the earth.

One of the marvels of the Bible is that it uses language that communicates with people of the most primitive and limited understanding, while at the same time it still has significance and inexhaustible meaning for the most erudite and too, learned scholars and addresses itself with equal ease to all classes of humanity.

That is the beauty of Bible language.

The Bible avoids the philosophies of some of the early myths about creation found in other religions.

It was the Bible that first said the number of the stars is beyond computation.

It declares that God stretched out the heavens (Isaiah 51:13) into limitless expanse that can never be measured and God filled it with stars that are as numerous as the uncountable grains of sand upon the seashore (Genesis 22:17).

15 The [a]Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “By Myself (on the basis of Who I Am) I have sworn [an oath], declares the Lord, that since you have done this thing and have not withheld [from Me] your son, your only son [of promise], 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies [as conquerors]. (Genesis 22:15-17)

Modern science has now established this to be true.

It is also the Bible that says the earth is suspended over nothing (Job 26:7).

7 “He stretches out his heavens[a] over empty space.
    He hangs the earth on nothing whatsoever.

In that eloquently poetic way it describes the mysterious force of gravity that no one even yet completely understands.

It was the Bible that said that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3 Amplified), thus predating by many centuries the discoveries of science that finally recognized that all matter is made up of invisible energy and that matter and energy are interchangeable.

3 By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, and wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (universe, ages) were framed and created [formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Why Ponder “In the Beginning, God” Today?

Matthew 1:1 English Standard Version
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Luke 3:23-38 New King James Version
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, 27 the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

The opening words of Mat­thew’s Gospel narrative presents us with a list of historical names in the family line of Jesus to the Patriarch Abraham.

Some readers skip over such lists, seeing them as boring or only filled with names that are hard to pronounce, and mostly not mentioned anywhere else.

The Gospel Narrative account of Dr. Luke has a long list of names like this too.

These lists are selective genealogies of Jesus—and in them, God is saying,

“See, I have kept my word; the promised Messiah and Savior has come through my chosen people.”

The list in Luke’s gospel includes many names different from those in Matthew, possibly because Luke lists the ancestors of Mary, the mother of Jesus and also goes back to Adam the first human – “The son of God.”

The list in Luke’s Gospel Narrative is also longer than the one in Matthew’s, going back all the way to the beginning, to connect Jesus with God himself.

This helps us see that the story of salvation—indeed, the story of the whole world—is really all about God.

God created a good, amazingly complex perfect world, only to have it scarred by sin because our very first human parents disobeyed God’s command (Genesis 3).

But God did not sit idly by.

In the beginning, from the beginning, God got personally, intimately involved.

He immediately set out to redeem and restore His Creation – including us!

From the beginning, God planned to renew us through his Son, Jesus. And when Jesus, the Savior, was born in Bethlehem, God’s plan took a major step forward.

So as we look ahead to pondering God and Jesus, let us join with the angels who announced Jesus’ birth, singing out, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14)!

In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let Us Pray,

Lord, I praise You as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. From the very beginning of time, You have not changed, and I am grateful to know You as the One who has made all things. Creator God, thank you for your true and everlasting faithfulness unto all future generations in sending your Son, our Savior, Christ the Lord! Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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