Gen 1:4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
Here is the first time anything is called good in the Bible. I think that most all human beings would agree with God that light is good. At least, we believe that light is better than the alternative, darkness. Physical light lets us recognize what is there around us at any moment. So, the light gives us the knowledge we would not have otherwise. The darkness does not give us any knowledge; in fact, darkness represents something frightening because it is unknown. Think about it. You don't see films that are supposed to be frightening have their scary scenes in well-lit rooms.
The light of God's creation is more than just physical light, however. It is also the light of wisdom, the light of knowledge, the light of love, and the light of life. It is most of all the light of His revelation to us. God reveals Himself to us through the light that is good.
God also separates light from darkness here as well. What is good cannot exist at the same time and in the same space as what is not good. It has been that way from this moment when God separated light from darkness. There can be light and darkness in a certain amount of space, but the two do not mix together.
It has been said, and I don't know if this is accurate, that a single lit candle in the darkness can be seen from over a mile away. If you have ever been in a dark place, lost and alone, then you know that time and space lose their meaning. Every second in the dark seems a lot longer than it really is. But if there is a light; if there is a light no matter how small, everything seems more hopeful.
I know that the world can sometimes seem like a very dark and unfriendly place. If you need some real light (and who of us doesn't?) remember that the New Testament book of 1 John, chapter 1 and verse 5 states that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is ready and able to push away the darkness of the world with His light, the light of Jesus who died for you. Come to the Light of the Lord. He's waiting for you.
Your joyfully loquacious believer
LEE
Monday, March 26, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Light in the Darkness
Genesis 1:3 - Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
We now venture into the part of the text that describes how God went about creating. The pattern which begins with this verse is a simple one. God spoke and it happened. More details of the process will be told to us in later verses, but each part of creation from here on begins with the Word of God speaking it into existence.
We should notice that light is also the first element of creation that comes in an order or a sequence. The word then tells us that light was created after the heavens and the earth were made. In verse one we are told that God made the heavens and the earth, but we are not told which was made first. We might assume the heavens were made first, but that is not what is written. In fact, time, as well as space and matter, all came into existence in verse one. It may very well have been that the heavens and the earth (space and matter) and time all came at once. The fact is, we don't know and God doesn't tell us.
However, with light we do know at least that it was made after the heavens and the earth, and this means that time must have been in place as well, otherwise the word then would have no meaning! Again, from here on out, there is an order of events that we need to pay attention to for reasons that we will see more clearly later on.
What is most interesting to me is that light is created here without any physical source. The light comes directly from God. He is the source of the first light! It is by the will of God that light came into being in the middle of the darkness and chaos of the creation. The reality of it all is that God has never stopped being the true source of light, whether that light is physical or the light that can shine in the darkness of our lives. God can bring the light we need into our darkest situations, if we will turn to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is called "the Light of the world," and the "light of life" in the New testament book of John, chapter 8, verse 12.
If you see darkness in your life, I urge you to look at the Creator of light for your light. Believe and trust that Jesus came and lived and died to bring you from darkness to light. Talk to God in prayer about this, and find someone who you know is a real follower of Jesus to help if you can. You don't need to know any fancy language, you just need to be honest with God and really give yourself to Him. He wants to speak 'light' into your life right now.
Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE
We now venture into the part of the text that describes how God went about creating. The pattern which begins with this verse is a simple one. God spoke and it happened. More details of the process will be told to us in later verses, but each part of creation from here on begins with the Word of God speaking it into existence.
We should notice that light is also the first element of creation that comes in an order or a sequence. The word then tells us that light was created after the heavens and the earth were made. In verse one we are told that God made the heavens and the earth, but we are not told which was made first. We might assume the heavens were made first, but that is not what is written. In fact, time, as well as space and matter, all came into existence in verse one. It may very well have been that the heavens and the earth (space and matter) and time all came at once. The fact is, we don't know and God doesn't tell us.
However, with light we do know at least that it was made after the heavens and the earth, and this means that time must have been in place as well, otherwise the word then would have no meaning! Again, from here on out, there is an order of events that we need to pay attention to for reasons that we will see more clearly later on.
What is most interesting to me is that light is created here without any physical source. The light comes directly from God. He is the source of the first light! It is by the will of God that light came into being in the middle of the darkness and chaos of the creation. The reality of it all is that God has never stopped being the true source of light, whether that light is physical or the light that can shine in the darkness of our lives. God can bring the light we need into our darkest situations, if we will turn to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is called "the Light of the world," and the "light of life" in the New testament book of John, chapter 8, verse 12.
If you see darkness in your life, I urge you to look at the Creator of light for your light. Believe and trust that Jesus came and lived and died to bring you from darkness to light. Talk to God in prayer about this, and find someone who you know is a real follower of Jesus to help if you can. You don't need to know any fancy language, you just need to be honest with God and really give yourself to Him. He wants to speak 'light' into your life right now.
Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE
Monday, March 12, 2007
"It was a dark and stormy night..."
Gen 1:2 - The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.
The second verse of the Bible is one shrouded in mystery. An earth exists, but it is an earth with which we are completely unfamiliar, and one that we could barely imagine. What we are told here paints a pretty bleak picture of darkness. I can tell you also that the water (which seems to be the only real matter of the earth at this point), can be described by the wording of the original language as a "surging mass of water." It was not a scene of calmness!
It was also an earth completely without life or light. The Spirit of God is described as "hovering" here, but other versions state that the Spirit was "moving" or "moving gently" over these stormy waters. The contrast is clear between a violent, dark, lifeless world and a serene and gently moving God.
If you have ever been in a violent storm, on land or especially at sea, you may recognize that it is very difficult to remain calm. One of the reasons this is true is because of the unpredictability of the power being unleashed. If you are on a boat that seems about to capsize because of a storm, you can't predict whether or not it will stay afloat, or if sinks whether you will survive, or if you do survive at first whether there will be any rescue, and so on.
It is the same when we are facing storms that come in life as well. A financial disaster; a loved one ill or hurt; the loss of a dream; or any number of dark and seemingly hopeless "storms" can come on any of us. It is also very hard to remain calm in those circumstances for mainly the same reasons of unpredictability. During life's storms, we rarely know how we will survive and what the future will bring if we do.
If, however, we know that God is not worried at all, and that, as in this verse, He is hovering around you and "moving gently" through your circumstances, we can face a dark and stormy time with assurance that the light is just ahead. Our God is the Creator King of the universe, and He is definitely in control during the darkest, bleakest, and stormiest parts of existence; the earth's and our own.
Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE
The second verse of the Bible is one shrouded in mystery. An earth exists, but it is an earth with which we are completely unfamiliar, and one that we could barely imagine. What we are told here paints a pretty bleak picture of darkness. I can tell you also that the water (which seems to be the only real matter of the earth at this point), can be described by the wording of the original language as a "surging mass of water." It was not a scene of calmness!
It was also an earth completely without life or light. The Spirit of God is described as "hovering" here, but other versions state that the Spirit was "moving" or "moving gently" over these stormy waters. The contrast is clear between a violent, dark, lifeless world and a serene and gently moving God.
If you have ever been in a violent storm, on land or especially at sea, you may recognize that it is very difficult to remain calm. One of the reasons this is true is because of the unpredictability of the power being unleashed. If you are on a boat that seems about to capsize because of a storm, you can't predict whether or not it will stay afloat, or if sinks whether you will survive, or if you do survive at first whether there will be any rescue, and so on.
It is the same when we are facing storms that come in life as well. A financial disaster; a loved one ill or hurt; the loss of a dream; or any number of dark and seemingly hopeless "storms" can come on any of us. It is also very hard to remain calm in those circumstances for mainly the same reasons of unpredictability. During life's storms, we rarely know how we will survive and what the future will bring if we do.
If, however, we know that God is not worried at all, and that, as in this verse, He is hovering around you and "moving gently" through your circumstances, we can face a dark and stormy time with assurance that the light is just ahead. Our God is the Creator King of the universe, and He is definitely in control during the darkest, bleakest, and stormiest parts of existence; the earth's and our own.
Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE
Monday, March 5, 2007
He Did It All!
It's time to look at the last half of the first verse of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 states "In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth." We have already checked out the "In the beginning, God" part (see below). Now we'll look at the claim that God "made the heavens and the earth."
Two separate claims are being made here. FIRST is the claim that God "made the heavens." This literally means that God made all of the universe except the earth. I know that the popular scientific "explanation" for the origin of the universe is the so-called "Big-Bang Theory." The theory could be stated non-scientifically, but accurately, like this - In the beginning was a very compressed ball of matter that exploded with so much force that it sent all kinds of 'stuff' flying outwards from the point of the explosion. Eventually, as the speed of this stuff slowed down enough, the stuff began to become organized into galaxies, solar systems, planets and moons, and the rest is history! Let's say, for the moment, that this claim is accurate. One of my first questions would be this, "Where did this ball of stuff come from?" The answer can really only be one of two things. Either this stuff was always there, or it just appeared out of nothing! If the stuff was always there, it means the universe is eternal, and the explosion just happened, or God caused the explosion to happen. Either way, we are facing the same problem I noted before. The "beginning" is not really the beginning at all. An eternal universe, whether in the current form or not, means that there can never be a real beginning!
If the stuff just appeared out of nothing, we are looking at magic without a magician again! That is, unless you say that there is a magician, God, who started it all by at least creating the ball of stuff. Some people believe this and say that is what the Bible means in Genesis 1:1 and the verses that follow. But, the Bible itself doesn't state that at all. As we will see in the later verses, the Big Bang theory is not what the bible describes here.
The SECOND claim is that God "made the earth." How God did this is explained later. I think it is easy to see if it is true that God made the heavens, it should be easy to believe that God made the earth as well.
What all of verse one means then, is that God did it all; He made all that there is and, as we will see, He did it for His grand purpose as a loving God.
Next time we will move to verse 2, finally ;), and begin to see what God's method of creation was according to the Bible.
Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE
Two separate claims are being made here. FIRST is the claim that God "made the heavens." This literally means that God made all of the universe except the earth. I know that the popular scientific "explanation" for the origin of the universe is the so-called "Big-Bang Theory." The theory could be stated non-scientifically, but accurately, like this - In the beginning was a very compressed ball of matter that exploded with so much force that it sent all kinds of 'stuff' flying outwards from the point of the explosion. Eventually, as the speed of this stuff slowed down enough, the stuff began to become organized into galaxies, solar systems, planets and moons, and the rest is history! Let's say, for the moment, that this claim is accurate. One of my first questions would be this, "Where did this ball of stuff come from?" The answer can really only be one of two things. Either this stuff was always there, or it just appeared out of nothing! If the stuff was always there, it means the universe is eternal, and the explosion just happened, or God caused the explosion to happen. Either way, we are facing the same problem I noted before. The "beginning" is not really the beginning at all. An eternal universe, whether in the current form or not, means that there can never be a real beginning!
If the stuff just appeared out of nothing, we are looking at magic without a magician again! That is, unless you say that there is a magician, God, who started it all by at least creating the ball of stuff. Some people believe this and say that is what the Bible means in Genesis 1:1 and the verses that follow. But, the Bible itself doesn't state that at all. As we will see in the later verses, the Big Bang theory is not what the bible describes here.
The SECOND claim is that God "made the earth." How God did this is explained later. I think it is easy to see if it is true that God made the heavens, it should be easy to believe that God made the earth as well.
What all of verse one means then, is that God did it all; He made all that there is and, as we will see, He did it for His grand purpose as a loving God.
Next time we will move to verse 2, finally ;), and begin to see what God's method of creation was according to the Bible.
Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE
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