It all begins with God

Genesis, we have all heard the word.  Whether you are a Christ follower or not everyone knows it’s from the Bible.  What else do we know about the word Genesis?  It is from the Greek word gignesthai which translates into – to be born. According to the dictionary Genesis means - an origin, beginning, creation.  For those of us that grew up during the 80’s Genesis was a popular rock band.  If you Google the word you will come up with over 50 million results. What else is there?  What else can we learn or know?  As for the Book of the Bible, the true Genesis, I think you might be surprised how much there is to learn from that one word.

The plan: To spend the year of 2011 walking through the entire Bible.  My goal is to take you along this journey as we learn and explore all that God has in store for us together.   With all of that being said I, with the help, words, and guidance from my pastor Brother David Landrith, am going to take you for a walk through the Bible

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God…

Let’s start out with the basics.  It is believed that the book of Genesis was writing by God through Moses.  We will learn in more detail along our journey that there are two parts of Genesis.  The early history of mankind and the period of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) But what else is there within this one book of the Bible.

 

One of the first things we need to not only know but remember is that the Book of Genesis is foundational for our understanding the Bible as a whole.  If we cannot grasp this one book we will miss out on all the joy and blessings God has laid out for us. 

There are five things the Book of Genesis shows us.

1)      The Origin of God

2)      The Origin of Man

3)      The Origin of Family

4)      The Origin of Salvation

5)      The Origin of the doctrine of Justification by Faith

Once we understand these five aspects of Genesis we are on the path of understanding

The next thing we have to decide for ourselves is whether we should believe or not what the Bible says.  Was it really God inspired or God breathed.  The best way to answer these kinds of questions is by looking deeper into His word.  To find truth we must be willing to look deeper for the answer.  If we hear something that is spoken, as in God inspired doctrine, there must be scripture to back up the claim.  We need to keep in mind that:

1)      The Bible is the source of Truth

a.       “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for

  teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in

  righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16 

2)      The book of Genesis is affirmed in the rest of the Bible

a.       ⁵ who by his understanding made the heavens, 
            His love endures forever. 
⁶ who spread out the earth upon the waters, 
            His love endures forever. 
⁷ who made the great lights— 
            His love endures forever. 
⁸ the sun to govern the day, 
            His love endures forever. 
⁹ the moon and stars to govern the night; 
            His love endures forever. 

Psalm 136:5-9

3)      The Book of Genesis was affirmed by Jesus

a.       “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning

 the Creator ‘made them male and female,

Matthew 19:4

b.      because those will be days of distress unequaled

from the beginning, when God created the world,

until now—and never to be equaled again.

Mark 13:19

·         God is self-existent.  His name is mentioned 35 times in chapter one of the Book of Genesis.  He is in the beginning of the chapter and His name is in the end of the chapter.  He has always been there and He will always be there.

·         God is self-sufficient.  He doesn’t need us to accomplish the tasks He wants accomplished.  If we were not here He could have the rocks cry out for Him.  He desires us to be in fellowship with Him as his loving children.   

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

Ephesians 1:11

·         God is Eternal.  He has always been and will always been.  There is no beginning and no end to God.  He is all- knowing, all powerful, and will never change.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place 
throughout all generations. 
 Before the mountains were born 
or you brought forth the whole world, 
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:1-2

Quote for the day

Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted
here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the
next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing
us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will
certainly find what we so keenly long for.

      -- Elisabeth Elliot

Neat Trivia

33 miners were discovered on the 33 week of the year. It took 33 days to drill down to them. They were brought back up to the surface on 10-13-10 which equals 33. They say Jesus, who was crucified at the age of 33 was there with them the entire time. Very cool don't you think?

 

"History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid" Gen Dwright D Eisenhower IN GOD WE TRUST!! ---    I AM HONORED TO DO THIS!!  ACLU has filed a suit to end prayer from the military completely. They're making great progress. The Navy Chaplains can no longer mention Jesus' name in prayer thanks to the  ACLU and others. I'm not breaking this one.  If I get it a 1000 times, I'll forward it a 1000 times!  Let us pray...  Prayer chain for our Military... Don't break it!  Please send this on after a short prayer. Pray for our soldiers Don't break it!  Prayer:  'Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands Protect them as they protect us Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. in Jesus name, Amen.'  Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world.  There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever -  many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together.  This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other. After awhile they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive

Moral of the story:

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

Gods Power at Work

I received the following quote from an unknown author via email today:

If you want to see God's power at work, you must get out of the

church and into the world. Watch the extravagant lengths which

God will go to reveal Himself to people who don't know Him. Then

you will learn how truly awesome our God is.

     -- Author Unknown

It made me sit back and think for a moment.  How do non believers see the world?  Where do they think the trees and the flowers came from?  How about the birds and animals?  We won’t even get into the people that walk the earth, that’s a whole other can of worms for a later discussion.  After some time spent on Google, I have found a variety of thoughts on the subject.  Some were so non biblical it was scary, like this one from a blogger who posted on the answers.yahoo.com site.  He stated the following: 

There is a model called Grimes' triangle which is useful when considering this. It divides all plants into 3 groups. One of those groups is 'competitive'. Trees are in the competitive group. They are successful because they can grow taller than other plants and block out the light. In a stable environment they are the most effective at dominating the natural resources...

        This response was from a Botany student.  The second respondent from the same site was just as scary as the first.  She stated that:

They evolved from cells that were able to photosynthesis. Like animals there is a succession of plant groups, with newer ones being more dominant for periods of time ( eg carboniferous ear when coal was laid down was the age of fern)....we are currently in the age of angiosperms.  The first plants were mosses, liverworts and hornworts which do not have an internal vascular system so rely on water... So trees came about by slowly evolving over time from small plants to some pretty big mobsters of today with a better vascular system, development of wood and other little tricks to keep the plant stable ( when its tall).......

If we are not careful, we will lose an entire generation to the evolutionary teachers that are in our schools.  They are teaching our children that the world and its contents just appeared and we all came from some kind of primordial ooze.  There is no thought or mention to The Creator, or any tolerance of such “nonsense” as my daughter was told by her teacher during her science class in seventh grade.  At the time we lived in the Bay Area of California where God wasn’t allowed to be mentioned in any public venue, especially at a school.  Thankfully my daughter was already strong in her faith and in God the Creator. She also had the courage to stand up to her teacher and politely, yet firmly, tell him how mistaken he was.  Of course, I was then called and asked to come down to the school for a “meeting”.  During this “meeting” I was told of my daughter’s poor judgment and lack of insight as to how the world worked.  I was told that she would need to apologize in front of the teacher as well as the principle for the statements that she made to that teacher while I was there.  I could see where this was leading and could hardly wait to see how my daughter would respond.  Knowing in my heart God was totally orchestrating this “apology”.

The teacher was called into the office for her apology.  He waited all high and mighty for her to tell him he was right, and that she was sorry.  I can’t remember the exact words she used for this apology, but it boiled down to “I’m so sorry that you have been deceived by the world.  That you haven’t found the love of Jesus and are so lost that you are grasping at anything someone else has written or told you for answers.  I will pray for your salvation, and that God will ultimately be the Lord of your life and not the world.”  She then smiled and asked if she could return to her class.  The principal was so surprised by her apology she just nodded and my daughter went back to class.  I just smiled at both the principal and the teacher, and asked if they had any further questions.  Neither could think of anything to say and just shook their heads no.  I left the school that day feeling both at peace and extremely proud of my daughter.  God had won that debate.  He had instilled into my daughter His truth and the courage to stand up for that Truth.  

According to Romans 1:19-21 which says
“Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

God has been there from the beginning.  In fact, He is the beginning and the end.

Revelations 22:13
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

We need to be diligent in our walk so the world can see the Truth and the Love that God offers us everyday.  The beauty he makes for our pleasure, like the beautiful sunrises from the East and the glorious sunsets in the West.  I pray that next time you are out walking in this world you take time to appreciate the things of God, the things that He has made for our enjoyment.  Everything from the Redwood trees in Northern California to the smallest little bug that may cross your path.  God made them all.  He made everything.  He is the Creator of the Universe.

I Believe

If you have ever had any question as to the existence of God please watch this video.  Enjoy the majesty of God's creations.  He Is the Great I AM.  The creator of the Universe and what a fine job He has done.

http://www.andiesisle.com/creation/magnificent.html