Tag: genesis

God as Our Creator | Part 2

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

Leaves Changing

Chances are if you started a Bible reading program this New Year, the first verse you read was Genesis 1:1. Even if you have not, it is a familiar passage to us all.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

This succinct statement is packed with application both for us individually and our worldview. In my last post in this series, I looked at how God as Our Creator applies to our worldview. You can read that post here. In this post, I will reflect on how God as Our Creator applies to us individually.

What are the individual implications of God being our Creator?

(1) If God is our Creator, we should listen to what He says to us and keep His commandments.

As our Creator God has authority over our lives. The writer of Ecclesiastes comes to this conclusion in the final chapter of his book. There the writer tells us if we want to find meaning in life, we are to fear God and keep His commandments. The reason that can be his conclusion is because God is our Creator. He is the one who made us, and He is the One we are to submit to as Lord.

(2) If God is our Creator, He is also our Sustainer.

God is the One who upholds all things. The reason the earth spins, the laws of science do not change, why we have a never ending supply of oxygen, why our crops grow, why anything happens the way it does, is because God sustains the universe. Without God holding all things together, everything would fall apart. Hebrews 1:3-4 says,

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The writer of Hebrews makes is clear God upholds the world by the word of His power. Nothing more but His Word is needed to Sustain His own creation, which He also created by the Word of His mouth.

God as Sustainer means we fully depend on Him for everything in our life. To forget that means we will try to do things our own way. When we strike out on our own, leaving behind what we know about God, we act like a fool and repay God with sin instead of worship (Deut 32:4-7).

God as Sustainer also means that all creation depends on something outside of themselves. Self-help books and religious teaching that tells us to look inside ourselves to fix the problem has it wrong. Instead of looking inside ourselves, we must look outside ourselves to God. He is the only one who can provide an answer for the problems we face.

(3) If God is our Creator, True Worship begins when we see that we are but creatures and owe our Creator thanksgiving, praise, and obedience.

Worship is not solely what we do when we gather together on Sunday Morning. Rather True Worship is given with our entire lives every minute of every day. By living with the idea that God is our Creator who has authority over our lives and who is our Sustainer we set ourselves up to worship God because this understanding will lead to thankfulness, praise, and obedience. When these things characterize our daily lives, then we are truly worshipping God.

(4) If God is our Creator, He leaves us without excuse because He places His fingerprints all over creation.

Romans 1:18-32 tell us that God made Himself plain in Creation, but man did not submit to Him as God. Instead we worshipped the creation. As a result, God gave man over to the lusts of their heart, and because of our rejection of God we deserve to die.

The main thread that runs through these verses is that God has made Himself known to His creation. He has placed His fingerprint everywhere for man to see. Intelligent Design is evident in all creation, so man has no excuse for not searching out and worshipping God.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Can you think of any other ways God as our Creator applies to us individually?
  2. If God is our Creator and King, when we sin against Him, we are doing more than just breaking the rules. What are we doing?

God as Our Creator | Part 1

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments

Leaves Changing

Chances are if you started a Bible reading program this New Year, the first verse you read was Genesis 1:1. Even if you have not, it is a familiar passage to us all.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

This succinct statement is packed with application both for us individually and our worldview. Let’s start with worldview.

Worldview

The first thing that may come to your mind when you hear the word worldview is:

What is a worldview?

A worldview is a set of ideas and beliefs through which we interpret the world and interact with it.

For example, as Christians we believe life is sacred, which means we believe abortion and murder are wrong, should not be practiced, and those who commit such acts should be punished.

Our example shows us that our belief shapes the way we interpret and interact with the world. Since it is a set of beliefs that shape the way we interpret and interact with the world, every religion, philosophy, or way of thinking has worldview implications.

How do we know which one is right?

As Christians, we believe our worldview is right because our God is the Creator of the entire world. We read that in Genesis 1:1. As the Creator, He interacts with His creation through His Word, the Bible, which necessitates the Bible be correct.

How do we know Scripture is correct?

Scripture is correct because it has proven itself to be true through both internal and external evidence. I don’t have space to go into all the evidence, so let me briefly point out that part of that evidence has to do with answering questions that every worldview must answer. Those are:

(1) How did we get here?
(2) How did the world get the way it is?
(3) How is it going to be fixed?

Scripture answers these questions. It tells us that God created the World, sin is the reason the world is the way it is, and Jesus is the way everything will be set right.

If Scripture could not provide these answers, then we should not allow it to operate as our dominate worldview. Scripture, however, does answer these questions, which means we can trust the claim of Genesis 1:1 that God is our Creator. As such, we should allow Him, through His Word, to shape the way we view the world.

Looking forward

In the next post in this series, I will look at how God as our Creator applies to us individually.

Question for Reflection

  1. Can you think of a worldview that cannot answer one of the three questions above?

Our Story is Written by God

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals3 Comments

Out of these two statements, which one interests you the most:

(1) I am writing my own story.
(2) I am a character in a story.

Most of you were probably drawn to the first statement because we want to write our own story. As Americans, this is natural because we are constantly told we have to carve out our own path in life. We are told we have to do things for ourselves. No one else is going to make this happen for you, you have to make it happen for yourself. This mentality is written into the fabric of our culture. From tales of the Gold Rush, to the idea of Capitalism, to images of self-made millionaires, we are constantly told we are in control of our own destinies.

It is Not Our Story

Even though our culture tells us we are the one’s writing our own story, we have to understand that we are character’s in God’s story. God is the writer of the story, and we are the characters. His story starts at creation (Gen. 1:1). It ends with those in Christ living for all of eternity in a recreated world (Rev. 22). Everyone’s life on earth occurs somewhere in between those two events, and we are all apart of the overarching story of God.

I know that some of you may be thinking, why is that? Why am I apart of God’s story? Why am I not creating my own story? Let’s answer that question.

We are Apart of God’s Story Because We are Created in His Image

Look with me at Genesis 1:26-27:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

These verses tell us that God is the Creator and we are His creation. We were created by God in His image. As His creation, we are subject to Him, because He is our Creator. We are not gods. We do not forge our own path. Rather, we look to God, who is our Creator and the writer of the story, and we ask what path He would have us take.

Application

If God is the writer of our story, the place we are at right now is by design. It is apart of God’s sovereign plan for our life. In Psalm 139:13-16, we read:

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

So we see that where we are at right now is because God wants us there. It is apart of God’s sovereign plan that I live in Decatur, TX, pastor Sycamore Baptist Church, buy my groceries at Wal-Mart, along with everything else that occurs in my life because God is the writer of my story. He is the writer of your story as well.

If this is true, if God is the writer of the story, and we are characters in His story, we should be content where He has us, because He has us there for a reason.

In addition, if we are characters in God’s story, and His story is accessible to us in His Word, then we need to be a people of the Word, so we will know both the overall story, as well as our own purpose in God’s story, which I will discuss in my next post in this series.

Before I end, let me give you a few questions for reflection.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Are you attempting to write your own story, or find your place in God’s story?
  2. Do you believe where you are right now is apart of God’s plan for your life?
  3. Do you agree with the Psalmist’s statement that our days are written even before we were formed?
  4. Do you see your current situation as a way to glorify God, or do you see it as a hurdle to get you to the place you really want to be?

Resource

Bill Clem, Disciple: Finding your identity in Jesus, 11-35.