We're going to read the New Testament books on weekdays, and the Old Testament books on weekends. Today's reading in our daily plan is Genesis 1. Today we're going to try a new format with three simple questions to help us apply it better to our lives: Say What? So What? and Now What? Read, using the following notes and questions to help you.
SAY WHAT? (What is the passage saying?)
- The Bible begins with "In the beginning God..." God is the beginning, He is the end, and He fills up the middle. He is the point of it all. And we learn here that He is the Creator.
- Once God creates the earth, plants, and animals, He gets to the pinnacle of His creative genius when He creates people.
- We also read that God created human beings in his “image.” What does that mean?
SO WHAT? (What are the underlying principles?)
- We read that God was here before everything we know. If God is the beginning, and He is the end, and He fills up the middle then He is the point of it all.
- Think about this: God didn't need to create people. It's not like He was lonely. God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He had always existed in community. He didn't need to create people, He created us because He wanted to. He created us in love, and for love. The purpose of your life is to have a relationship with your creator.
- What does it mean that we were created in God’s image? We’re not completely sure but scholars believe that maybe it’s we are the only ones who have a soul; a part of us that lives on after our bodies are gone. Whatever it means, we know it means he created us unique above everything else he created. It shows that we’re special to God. He values us over everything else he made.
NOW WHAT? (How will you personally apply this passage?)
- If God is the point of it all then we would be wise to make Him the center priority in our lives.
- Maybe it's hard for you to believe that God is behind creation because you've always thought that the world exists due to luck, and bangs, and gases combining in just the right way. You need to know that there is a lot of science supporting the idea of an intelligent Creator is behind all that we see. If you'd like to do some reading on this, here are a few books I’d suggestion: (1)The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God, by Lee Strobel, (2 The Fingerprint of God: Recent Scientific Discoveries Reveal the Unmistakable Identity of the Creator, by Hugh Ross, (3) Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?, by C. John Collins.
- If God created us to have a relationship with us then the purpose of our life is to have a relationship with Him. If that’s true how would that change the way you look at life? Would it change your priorities?
- Think about this: God only created people in His image. You were made in the image of God! That means there is something amazing about you. We may have dirtied the image of God in our through bad decisions we’ve made but you still bear the image of God. But you can still become the person God made you to be, through Him working in you.
- This first chapter sets up the rest of the story of the Bible, and all of human history. We learn that there is a God, and we are not Him. There is someone who is the point of it all, and we are not it. God is the Creator, and He deserves our focused worship. Yet despite the fact that God is huge and self-sustaining He wanted us here and cares for us; and He invites us into relationship. That is the point of your existence.
- So question: How could your 2013 be changed by this knowledge? How could you best live out your 2013 in accordance with who God is and who you are, and with your true purpose?