Hint: Marriage isn’t the solution to loneliness – Bible Study – Genesis 2: 4-20

Written by Dave Urbanski

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As we got deeper into chapter 2 of Genesis this past Sunday, we discovered that God’s creation of people says a lot about our individual relationships with each other, our individual relationships with God — and particularly the Lord’s answer to the problem of our loneliness.

And it should come as no surprise that it all started when God got personal.

One of cool things Pastor Scott pointed out is that the Hebrew name for God changed from chapter 1 to chapter 2 — and that change reflected the nature of his creative processes. In chapter 1, God’s name is “Elohim,” which means “God almighty.” And indeed chapter 1 showed us that God created the universe just by speaking it into existence. Sheer power. But in chapter 2, God’s personal name “Yahweh” is added — and not surprisingly it coincides with the Lord’s very personal process of creating us. You and me!

We also saw further evidence of the uniqueness of our creation in chapter 2. For instance, verse 7 says God “formed” us — and the verb used here is the same one used to describe the work of a potter. It’s an important visual: As we know, making pottery out of clay by hand on a wheel takes thought, imagination, creativity, and precision — and more than that, no pieces of pottery created in this way are exactly alike. And of course, in the same way, each one of us is unique because of the Lord’s careful work in each one of us!

Verse 7 also says that God “breathed into [the man’s] nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” If we take a quick look back at the Lord’s other creations in chapter 1, we won’t find such a description of animals and plants coming to life. Now, of course, they all were alive — but not in this special way. It’s the Hebrew idea of nephesh chayyah … that each one of us is a living soul. And let’s not forget what Jesus did for the disciples after his resurrection — he breathed on them, after which they received the Holy Spirit. God’s breath of life in us is yet another reason why we’re special to the Lord.

But there’s another side to our creation we must keep in mind, and it’s cause for humility. While we’re created in God’s image and are special and precious, the Lord created us from the dust on the ground. Yes, we are the crown of God’s creation — but we must also remember where our roots are!

And here’s another tidbit of truth before we get to God’s answer for loneliness: The next passage in chapter 2 tells us that God created work! Can you believe that? It’s true. Verse 15 tells us that “the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” So, no — work is not a consequence of the Fall. In fact, we already know that God also worked — for six days creating the universe — and showed us how wonderful and beautiful and satisfying work can be. Yes, the Lord gave work to us, both for our enjoyment and for its benefits to us. After all, doing work is how our character is developed, how we learn thoroughness, perseverance, cooperation. So many qualities that help us throughout our lives. Parents especially must emphasize this truth to young people — that duties like chores aren’t merely tools to get things done around the house!

OK, now for the key passage: After the Lord commanded the man to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he recognized that “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” God then brought all the animals to him to name — yet no helper for him could be found among them.

See what’s happening here? The man wasn’t “alone” — but he still didn’t have his helper. So, first off, we see there’s a huge difference between being physically alone and feeling lonely. Sometimes being physically alone is good and needed. Jesus often would purposely get alone so he could spend time in prayer; and sometimes we need to get alone, too, for the same or similar reasons.

But what about when we feel lonely? Well, the world has an “answer” for that — and often the solution is finding someone to hook up with sexually until the lonely feelings subside. Problem is, they rarely do. The temporary satisfaction that might be gained is just that: Temporary. Fleeting. And then we’re right back to square one, hoping to find someone — anyone — who will bring ultimate comfort. And if you think that loneliness is satisfied by marriage, that might mean you haven’t been married yet! It’s not only possible but quite typical that, particularly during seasons of difficulty, one can feel lonely while married. And sadly, sometimes married people — even Christians — attempt to cure that lonely feeling by having affairs or getting divorced. Loneliness is a condition of the heart. It’s not just something single people experience!

Another place many of us feel lonely nowadays is on social media. We hop on our accounts each day hoping to feel more connected by gaining more “friends” or “likes” or “retweets” or “follows.” But such things are just ways to feel artificially connected — then sadness can creep in that no one cares, and no one understands. Despair. Rejection.

Loneliness. Again.

So, what is the opposite of feeling lonely? The answer: Feeling loved! And as we’ll see this coming Sunday, marriage certainly was designed as part of the solution for feeling loved in this world. But again, when we get right down to it, spouses aren’t the be all and end all of love. No husband or wife will ever love perfectly, right when we need it. And again, sadly, when many people leave marriages, the reasons are that their spouses aren’t loving them enough or in the right way — but that’s an unfair expectation because that never was the job of spouses. That’s God’s job, and God’s job alone!

Our loneliness problem is aided most completely by a personal relationship with the Lord. Again, he’s provided marriage and family and the church to lessen feelings of loneliness, but none of those wonderful gifts will ever be enough. Not completely. Not 100 percent of the time. Only God himself is enough.

And what the Lord does is fill our empty cups to overflowing — so much that we, in turn, have the capacity to reach out and be that person placed in someone else’s life by God to provide comfort. But still it all starts and ends with God!

So, whether we’re single or married, an extrovert or an introvert, each one of us must have a plan and address the issue of loneliness in our hearts. Why? Well, besides comforting you in your loneliness, God wants to do some amazing things in you and through you in the process! So the next time you feel lonely, resolve to live by the truth only God can truly comfort you — and what you’ll discover as you draw closer to the Lord is that he’ll draw closer to you — and with love so big that it fills in all the cracks, holes, and empty spaces.

The answer to loneliness is God alone. Seek him … and you will find him.

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Why we don’t observe the Sabbath – or do we? Bible Study – Genesis 2:1-3

Written by Dave Urbanski

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What do we do with the Sabbath day?

As we continued in our study of the Book of Genesis this past Sunday, we read from chapter two, verses one through three, which describes what happened on the seventh day of creation — when God’s work was done:

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

First off, let’s remember that just because the Lord finished his work creating the universe, that doesn’t mean he stopped being creative. In fact, when people accept Jesus into their lives, those also are miracles of creation — for as the Bible says, with new Christians the old has passed away and the new has come. We are new creations in Christ!

But there’s quite a bit of meaning behind God’s decision to rest on the seventh day — and it’s important to remember that he set aside that day of rest for us. For our benefit.

One way we can think about a day of rest is that it’s an opportunity to pause and reflect on what God has done — to look around us and acknowledge, “Wow. God has made a beautiful world.” To pause and count all the blessings the Lord has given to us. To be thankful.

God also gave the Sabbath as one of the many signs of his relationship with his people. Ezekiel 20:12 reads, “Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” God provided other signs of his covenant with us — promises we can count on — from the Lord’s pledge to Abraham that his descendants will outnumber the stars in the sky and that through him all nations will be blessed to the sign of the rainbow so Noah will know that the Lord will never again destroy the earth by a flood.

Remembering and observing the Sabbath also has been a way for God to teach his people who he is — and for us to learn godly qualities such as humility, generosity, and righteousness. But here’s the other side of it — and for many it’s a tough truth to swallow … but oh so important to keep in mind: WE CAN’T DO IT! The reality of God’s laws and requirements for his people is that, in the end, they’re impossible for us to follow perfectly.

But as always, the Lord has a plan. The prophet Jeremiah notes the following:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

This promise of a new covenant points directly to Jesus. Instead of an endless cycle of animal sacrifices to cover our sins, Christ became the once and for all sacrifice on our behalf — and because of his work on the cross and resurrection from the tomb, by believing in him God deposits Jesus’ righteousness into our spiritual accounts. We are saved! And the Lord remembers our sin “no more.” No more shame. No more guilt. No more sorrow over the fact that we can’t keep our end of the bargain. When we surrender and hand it all over to Jesus, he welcomes us into God’s family forever.

But what of the Sabbath day when Jesus appears on the scene? What role does it play?

As we know from the Scriptures, when Jesus introduced the new covenant to us, it included some head-turning moments involving the Sabbath. In Luke 6, we see Jesus and his disciples breaking the Sabbath — and Jesus’ response to the Pharisees is that “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Wow! That was probably something very new for the Jewish leaders to hear. Jesus also inquired of them on another occasion, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” With that he healed a man, and the Pharisees were not happy — and they plotted to kill him.

But the larger truth Jesus teaches us is that he represents the new way of living. The law — including the Sabbath — is the old way of doing things. Those old ways are still important because they’re part of God’s story, and that story culminates with Jesus — but with Jesus, God has given us something new. Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the law; rather he came to fulfill it!

It used to be that Israel’s high priest would approach the holiest place in the temple to come before God — but now that Jesus is our high priest, we can come directly to God through him. When Jesus died on the cross, the tabernacle curtain in the temple was torn in two, representing the end of a barrier between us and the Lord. Just a few of the signs of God’s new covenant with us.

In the early church, keeping the law was a HUGE issue among Jewish believers. And understandably so. They built their lives around keeping the Old Testament law — but with Jesus bringing a new covenant, how are they supposed to live day by day? The Apostle Paul was especially attuned to this. In fact, Paul was a Pharisee and an expert in the details of the law. His answer in New Testament was helpful for his brethren and for us today: The old law — including the Sabbath — isn’t necessary to keep anymore. Jesus is the new law. We must follow him now.

And while Christians today generally don’t observe the Sabbath, it’s still important — particularly as the Sabbath, like the rest of the old law, has been fulfilled in Jesus. Christ, in fact, is our Sabbath. Jesus promises us rest if we follow him. He promises us peace as only he can give.

And at this moment in history, rest and peace have been hard to come by. We’re dealing with racial strife, a bitterly divided America, violence in the streets, controversy surrounding a possible new Supreme Court justice, a presidential election that may make the fraught contest of the year 2000 look like a walk in the park — to say nothing about a worldwide pandemic that has taken many lives, many people’s means of employment, and many people’s hope.

In the midst of all that, Jesus still wants to be our Sabbath rest. He still beckons, “Come to me.” And as we heed his call and rely on him, has there ever been a time you’ve experienced when Christ’s invitation may be welcomed by those who don’t yet know him? As you let Jesus be the rest for your soul today, also ask God for opportunities to point others to the rest and peace that only Christ can give.

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You are Somebody Important – Bible Study -Genesis 1: 20-30

Written by Dave Urbanski

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You are somebody important!

On Sunday we took a look at the sixth day of God’s creative process as described in the first chapter of Genesis — when the Lord made animals of the land, and when he created human beings.

We immediately see a stark difference in God’s handiwork when it comes to the “beasts of the earth” and us: Plainly spoken, we’re different than the animals. You and I were created in the image of God.

The Lord said in verse 26, “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.”

We are the climax of God’s creative process. His crowning achievement. And why is that? Since we’re made in God’s image, we share some of God’s attributes. We possess the ability to love, to exercise wisdom, to offer grace — just like God does. Of course, none of us puts these attributes into practice perfectly; we’re not God. But the very fact that we have these abilities immediately sets us apart from the animal kingdom. Thing about it. While a dolphin is a very intelligent creature, it doesn’t have the smarts or creative ability to write a book — but a human being does. A chimpanzee can’t wear business suit, strike deals, employ thousands, and build skyscrapers — but a human being can. And while we certainly have affection for our pets and derive pleasure from the affection they give us, we don’t approach our dogs and cats when we need love and care and counsel and grace and forgiveness — instead we go to people who can give those things to us, just as we go to the Lord.

You are somebody important because God has stamped his image upon you.

And when we become Christians, the idea of “image” becomes even more striking. As we’ve just seen, each human is automatically created in God’s image, with God’s attributes, regardless of whether or not that person decides to follow Jesus. But when we do come to know Christ, a radical change takes place — and we immediately are set on a path toward being conformed to the image of Jesus. It’s also a sign that God is still in the creation business — as the Bible tells us, our kinship with Christ and adoption in the family of God is part of us becoming new creations. God wants to be something powerful within each of our lives. He wants to heal our pain, he wants to redeem our pasts, he wants us to become whole.

And here’s another reason why you’re somebody important — and it’s practical and strategic: As the Lord is restoring us day by day in our journey toward becoming more like Christ, he allows his grace to pass through you to bless others! Isn’t that amazing? Perhaps you feel inadequate right now. Maybe you don’t feel worthy to be a blessing to those around you. But don’t believe it. You can be a vehicle through which grace passes — and be part of incredible change in yourself and in others. A lot of people are despairing right now and are looking for comfort, for relief, for answers. And you can be part of their solutions — if you only allow God to work through you.

And here’s something else that’s pretty cool about the first chapter of Genesis — and it appears to underscore how special and important we are to God. After the Lord’s various creative endeavors during the first five days of creation, we see the phrase “and it was good.” That was God’s standing evaluation of things … until the sixth day when he created human beings. After we came along, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” From “good” to “very good” — in a day. It’s just a difference of one word — but our presence seems to point to a new level of satisfaction within the heart of God.

The Lord created you in his image. He’s given you his attributes. As a believer in Jesus, you’re now being conformed into the image of Christ himself — and because his power is within you, you can be a vessel for incredible change, not just within yourself, but also for those around you. You are somebody important!

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Hold it Together – Bible Study – Genesis 1:6-20

Written by Dave Urbanski

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On our first Sunday looking at the first chapter of Genesis — the first day of creation — we discovered that the magnificence of creation itself cries out, “Worship me!” But who is me? Of course, we know “me” is our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of all creation — but still many people actually worship creation itself rather than the One who brought it all into existence. The bottom line: Every day we have a choice to make … will we worship creation or the Creator? Will we put “things” at the top of our lists … or the Person who made all those things possible?

This past Sunday we looked at the next few days recounted in Genesis 1 and learned more about God’s creative process — and his unfathomable power to hold together everything he’s created. And what should encourage all of is that if the Lord can bring the universe into existence and keep it all functioning, doesn’t it make sense that he has the ability to bring about amazing, wonderful things in each of our lives?

Verses 6 through 8 read: “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

Let’s look again at some science that underscores the detail God used in his creative process. When we consider what makes up our atmosphere, we probably first think of oxygen. True enough! But the fact is that it’s only 21 percent oxygen — the rest is mostly nitrogen. But if more oxygen took up our atmosphere, things on earth would tend to burn up or blow up — and catastrophic regularity. Not fun! And you know what else our atmosphere does? Working with gravity it presses down and keeps water upon our oceans, lakes, and streams. And who wants to live on a planet where we can’t access water because it can’t stay put? And furthermore, according to our human perspective the atmosphere is pretty huge — about 60 miles wide. That’s quite a vertical haul into the sky, especially considering most commercial planes only ascend about five miles up! But did you know that in the much larger, cosmic perspective, if the earth were the size of an apple, our atmosphere would only be the thickness of an apple skin — which is pretty thin! Yet that’s all that separates us from the uninhabitable environment beyond our atmosphere. OK, let’s review: God created our atmosphere — which in the cosmic perspective is just a tiny sliver of thickness — with just the right amount of oxygen and with just the right amount of size to press down and keep water on the planet for us.

God holds all things together.

And speaking of water, verses 9 and 10 say, “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” We can’t have life without oxygen, and we can’t have life without water, either. Besides the obvious — drinking water sustains us — the Lord also built some amazing properties into that water we drink. Did you know that because water freezes from the top down instead from the bottom up, ice forms over lakes and provides insulation so that fish can survive in the winter?

Continuing in verses 11 through 13: “And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

The Lord saw to it that his creation of vegetation — which is sustained because of God’s initial creation of our atmosphere and water and the nutrients in the earth’s soil — is strategic. Vegetation also has the ability to reproduce itself. (You see where this is headed, don’t you?) God has it all figured out and is putting all the pieces together as he’s painting his masterpiece.

Want some more hard facts? There’s a principle in mathematics called the Fibonacci Sequence. It’s a series of numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 — and on to infinity. The key is that each number is the sum of the previous two. But what’s really cool is how the Fibonacci Sequence is seen in nature. According to eniscuola.net, we can see the sequence in flower petals: “Most have three (like lilies and irises), five (parnassia, rose hips) or eight (cosmea), 13 (some daisies), 21 (chicory), 34, 55 or 89 (asteraceae).” And further, if we observe flowering plants, they tend to follow a spiraling pattern that’s related to the Fibonacci Sequence. It’s remarkable how much of the Lord’s creation has his very fingerprint on it.

God holds all things together.

Then the fourth day came — verses 14 through 19: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. And God made the two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night — and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

The moon is just the right size and just the right distance away from us to create the ocean tides. It’s our closest neighbor; at a bit over 300,000 miles away we can get to it with rockets in a few days. The sun, however, is quite a bit farther away: 93 million miles. Not that we’d ever want to travel anywhere close to it, but the sun sits in space at just the distance from our planet to provide us with the correct amount of heat and light so that we can survive. The stars God created are uncountable as far as our abilities go, and they’re far away. The closest star to us after the sun is four light years away, meaning that we’d have to travel at the speed of light — 80,000 miles per second — for four years straight to get to it. Unfathomable!

Oh, and another word about the Fibonacci Sequence: Not only can we can see its spiral pattern in something as tiny as a flower, but also we can observe it in something as huge as the Milky Way — and in other galaxies and celestial bodies. Again, God’s fingerprint.

And yet, God made it all in a day. With the wave of his hand, by the command of his voice, he brought it all into existence.

Our study together on Sunday concluded with verses 20 through 22: “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.’ So, God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’”

The first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians reminds us of Jesus’ creative power — and the grip he has on us: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

God holds all things together.

As we’ve seen from our study, it doesn’t matter how large or how small — God created all of it, and he holds it all together for us. And what that also means is that Jesus can do just as many miraculous things in our lives. He reminded us in the Gospels that God clothed the lilies of the fields with such splendor — and will do much more for us!

So, if you’re feeling weak today or under heavy burdens, give it all to Christ. He who created the microscopic, intricate patterns found in flowering plants and in the massive Milky Way and brought it all into existence can create new life in us — today. Cast your cares upon him. He loves you — and is already holding everything together for you!

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Energize Your Personal Worship Experience – Bible Study – Genesis 1: 1-5

Written by Dave Urbanski

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We began a new book of the Bible in our study together Sunday — and we went all the way back to the beginning. Back to our roots. The book of Genesis.

Studying the first book of the Bible is going to do a number of really valuable things for us. First, it will help us understand the whole of Scripture — for as we see the heart of the Lord at the very beginning of time, our understanding of the story he tells in the rest of the Bible will become clearer.

Second, the process of pondering the Lord’s words in Genesis will help us understand why worshiping him is so important. And worship can get confusing at times. Indeed, the message heard loud and clear in the face of creation is “worship me!” But who is me? If you look around at your environment today, you might find a lot of folks putting everything else first in their lives — except the One who created it all. In fact, a number of people, believe it or not, literally worship things in nature! Now, of course experiencing wonder at what the Lord made is an appropriate response to his infinite greatness — but let us never place the things God has created above him.

The third thing studying Genesis can do for us is — so long as we apply its words — is the enhancement of our personal worship experiences. As we grow to understand what worshiping the Lord is all about, the goal will be that our own personal worship will grow, increase, and be energized each day.

And if that weren’t enough, Genesis also will reveal God’s desire for an intimate relationship with each of us. And that’s the best news of all! So, if you don’t feel very close to God at the moment, hang on and don’t give up — because God has a plan … and the answers.

Let’s review the first five verses of chapter one:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

How powerful the first four words of the Bible are! “In the beginning, God …” Together they are an incredible comfort, really. Because in sum they say that at the start of all things was God — and he chose to put all things in motion. That includes each of our lives. Talk about power and might! Indeed, the word for “God” in verse 1 is “Elohim” — which means “strong one.” It certainly took the strongest One who ever was or ever will be to bring the universe into being — and at the same time as he’s putting things together on a cosmic scale we cannot fathom, he’s wants intimacy with each of us. Amazing.

And a few crucial notes before we continue in the passage:

First, if by chance you’re thinking that God stopped creating after the seven days he spent bringing the universe into being, think again. The Lord has been in the creation business every second ever since! We’re not talking about new stars or new planets — we’re talking about hearts in human beings. Remember what King David wrote in Psalm 51? “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” No matter how messed up you are on the inside — or how good you may think you look on the outside — God wants to create something new and special inside you! In the same way, the word “create” in Scripture is the same word used for “salvation.” In other words, we all become new creations when we become Christians! The Lord never exited the creation business. He still makes all things new today.

But a few words about the cosmic state of our planet: Consider the fragile, exacting position of the Earth as it sits in space: It orbits the sun in such a way that if it were any closer to our solar system’s star, we’d all burn up … and if it were any significant distance away from the sun, we’d freeze. But instead we sit in this amazing spot astronomers call the “Goldilocks Zone.” There’s no other place like it that we know of in the universe — and God in his power and wisdom knew it would take such a spot to sustain life on this planet!

Now as we continue on in our passage, verse 2 tells us that “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” In other words, God still had some work to do; he wasn’t finished creating yet. But check this out: Remember when we talked about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we studied Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians a few weeks ago? We learned that as the Spirit of the Lord enters our hearts, God becomes personally involved in our lives. And here’s the amazing thing: The Spirit of God who hovered over of the face of the waters when the universe came into being is the same Spirit who lives in each one of us! That’s the kind of power and love God has placed at our disposal and is prepared to unleash in all of our lives — if we only let him.

Finally verses 3 through 5 tell us, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

It’s important to keep in mind that at this point the Lord hadn’t yet created the sun, moon, or stars … which begs the question, “Where’s the light coming from?” The answer? The glory of the Lord is what lights up the heavens. And along with that, we all must understand and embrace the notion that when Jesus comes into our lives, he gives us that same light from the Lord that made things bright before there ever was a sun, moon, or stars.

As we reflect this week on what we’ve learned from looking at the first five verses of Genesis, let’s all keep in mind at least this one question: Every day we have a choice to make … will we worship creation or the Creator? Will we put “things” at the top of our lists … or the Person who made all those things possible? Let us all choose wisely — and experience the light of the Lord in our lives and the power of his Spirit that brought the universe into existence.

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